I've had Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows since its release date, but I've been putting off reading it. Why? I was intimidated by its sheer heft, for one. It's 759 pages long, and a part of me just wanted to skip straight to the end (like my mom did) and get all the answers. That was really only a small part of me, though, because I never read the endings of books first. Anyway, the biggest reason I've been procrastinating is that I know it will be the last new Harry Potter book ever. I'm grieving. So, I vowed to read it slowly and savor the story, but...yeah, that didn't happen. I found myself racing through it like a madwoman, desperate to see what happened to Harry and his friends (and foes).

Before you read on, I should warn you that there may be plot spoilers ahead. I won't intentionally spoil the whole story, but I may inadvertently mention a few of its surprises, so consider yourself forewarned...

The story opens with a sinister first chapter affirming what we all know from the last book: Lord Voldemort has gained power and is planning to take over not only the Ministry of Magic, but also the entire wizarding world. Harry Potter is his only real obstacle, and of course Voldemort has plans to kill the young wizard. Knowing that, Harry's supporters have gathered at number four, Privet Drive, to whisk he and the Dursleys to safety. Unfortunately, the plan goes a bit awry and Harry finds himself trapped at Ron's house, under the constant, watchful eye of Mrs. Weasley. When Harry, Ron and Hermione can sneak away, they spend their stolen moments hatching their plans to continue the mission left for them by Professor Dumbledore: they must find Voldemort's 5 horcruxes and destroy them. Their search proves much harder than any of them imagined, pitting them against Death Eaters, goblins, possessed bodies and an enormous dragon among the more mundane problems of hunger, thirst, flared tempers and finding safety in an increasingly dangerous world. As if Harry doesn't have enough on his mind, he also has to face the fact that Dumbledore may not have been who Harry thought he was. Disturbing details in Rita Skeeter's new bestseller - a scathing tell-all about the Professor - seem to confirm Harry's biggest fears about his beloved mentor. Was it true the Professor was involved in the Dark Arts as a youth? What happened to his sister, Ariana? Was Dumbledore really responsible for her death? And, why, did he trust Severus Snape, a confirmed Death Eater? If Dumbledore can't be trusted, then what of the perilous quest Harry and his friends have undertaken? Somehow, Harry can't bring himself to abandon it, no matter how much danger he and his supporters are in. And they are indeed in grave danger: war has broken out in the wizarding world, and Voldemort seems intent on killing anyone who stands in his way. The final showdown happens - appropriately - at Hogwarts, with the good wizards fighting the bad. In the end, it comes down to Harry v. Voldemort, in the ultimate duel between good and evil.

What can I say? The ending was inevitable and predictable, but it was an awesome ride. The book was simply impossible to put down, and I enjoyed every word. I wasn't at all surprised by the ending, but I was (mostly) satisfied by it. My main beef was actually with the Epilogue, which was dull and not at all informative. I've still got questions: What happened to the Dursleys? They aren't mentioned after Chapter 2. I'm also wondering how Neville Longbottom ended up with Gryffindor's sword in the end? Maybe I missed something, but I thought Griphook took it...Anyway, I would have preferred a better wrap-up, but all in all, the book was breathtaking.

I'm sad that Harry Potter mania is over, but I'm glad to have been a part of it. Farewell, Harry, the world won't be the same without you!

Samantha "Sammy" Joyce has it all - her own apartment, a loyal pet fish and a respectable job on Capitol Hill. Okay, so she lacks poise and confidence - especially when it comes to interactions with the opposite sex - but she has a darn good life, altogether. She loves working for Robert Gary, junior senator from Ohio and bona fide man of the people. As an analyst, Sammy is a minion, but she feels "like I had a chance to make a positive difference in the world every day." (3) She is so happy with her job, in fact, that she feels guilty when gorgeous Aaron Driver comes on the scene. Aaron works as a speechwriter for Senior Senator John Bramen, a man Sammy classifies as "a jerk by most accounts, but a very successful one." (30) Bramen is, in fact, working exhaustively to win a nomination for the Presidency. Aaron admires his scheming, self-absorbed boss, a fact Sammy is willing to put aside for the moment...at least until she and Aaron are happily married. Surely, she can win him over from the Dark Side after that. When the Gary and Bramen teams form a tentative alliance, Sammy's friends and co-workers warn her not to trust anyone on Bramen's staff. Sammy refuses to listen, insisting that unlike Bramen and the rest of his staff, Aaron can be trusted. As the relationship progresses, however, Sammy begins to have her own doubts. Unfortunately, she can't fully examine them because work is keeping her busier than ever. She's already got a mountain of problems to contend with: An anonymous source from Bramen's camp has been bad-mouthing Gary's people; a reporter is hounding her about a Blackberry message accidentally sent to the wrong people; and Aaron is getting more and more distant. When an unpleasant surprise forces Sammy to see Aaron in a whole new light, her problems go from bad to worse. As she makes herself pick up the pieces of her shattered life, she must face the tough questions: Can she keep up with her increasingly important, but completely overwhelming, job? And will she ever find a man she can trust or is she destined to spend her life alone?

Kristin Gore (yep, she's Al Gore's daughter) tells Sammy's story with just the right amount of wit in her debut novel, Sammy's Hill. Her style is readable and often laugh-out-loud funny. Its setting makes the book a little meatier than your average chick-lit fare (although I'm so politically unaware that any book on the subject seems brainy). Seriously, though, I liked the political bent and thought it added an interesting dimension to the story. I also came to like Sammy Joyce, although I found her character so weird at first that I considered ditching Sammy's Hill completely. By the end of the first chapter, I decided to accept her with all of her neuroses and simply enjoy reading about her crazy, improbable life. She's kind of a female version of Dr. Dorian (Zach Braff's character) on the tv show Scrubs - loveable, but prone to bizarre daydreams and odd trains of thought. Her weird compulsions actually lessen toward the end of the story, which apparently prove her maturation as a character.

The book is really a lot of fun, although somewhat predictable. I have to say, though, that the happy ending seemed fitting and right. I also thought that Gore tried so hard to create a unique, but loveable heroine that she went way over the top, making Sammy Joyce just a little bit too crazy to be real. After all, who would seriously keep a sling around the house so she could practice performing household tasks just in case one of her arms happened to be swallowed by a lion? Like I said, she's a little nuts.

For those of you looking for a "clean read," I'm not sure what to say about this one. It does have love scenes, but they are really not graphic at all. There is plenty of innuendo, and plenty of outright sexual references, although they would probably only garner a PG-13 rating if Sammy's Hill was turned into a movie. As for profanity, there's a little, but not much (the F-word is used once). All in all, it's not that bad, so you'll have to use your own judgment. Despite these flaws, I enjoyed the story immensely.

I've been writing my little book blog for awhile now, but it's only lately that I've discovered other people's book blogs. I happened upon Amanda's fun site, A Patchwork of Books, and I'm addicted to following all her links. The sites I've found are amazing - I love reading everyone's opinions and recommendations. One thing I've noticed is that lots of other book bloggers participate in book "challenges." I think this is an awesome idea. Amanda mentioned the "Unread Authors Challenge" and I thought, "This is my chance!" So, I'm going for it. I had been thinking about creating my own personal challenge to read the books on my bookshelf before buying any new ones - this way, I can kill two birds with one stone. Without further ado (sorry for all the ado, I'm a little wordy today), here's my list:

1. The March by E.L. Doctorow
2. The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman
3. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
4. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman
5. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
6. The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

Alternates/Extra Credit:

1. 1776 by David McCullough
2. The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald
3. Boys and Girls Learn Differently by Michael Gurian
4. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
5. A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning Or, Orphans by Lemony Snicket
6. Middlemarch by George Eliot

Wish me luck!

I just returned from a 2 1/2 week, 4,678-mile trip through 7 states and I am exhausted! Unfortunately, I can't read in the car without getting nauseous, so I only managed to finish 2 books while on vacation. One of those was not Harry Potter, but I did have HP mailed to my mom's house, so I could get it on its release day! I haven't read it yet, but it's definitely on my list. I may have to read Eclipse first, so we'll see...

Anyway, back to the two books I have finished...First up is Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth, the first novel in the Pennsylvania Dutch Murder Mysteries series by Tamar Myers. This murder mystery with recipes features Magdalena Yoder, a Mennonite with an attitude, who runs the PennDutch Inn in Hernia, Pennsylvania. Thanks to a positive newspaper review, the Inn has become a haven for the rich and famous, who are only too happy to pay for the "Amish Lifestyle Plan Option," which means they clean their own rooms and Magdalena saves on overhead. According to her, "You'd be surprised how much people will pay for abuse, provided they can view it as a cultural experience." (p. 11) Anyway, when Magdalena's new crop of guests shows up, she realizes that she may have a problem on her hands. Included on the guest list are 3 members of an animal rights group, 1 animal-rights saboteur in disguise, 1 Congressman, 1 wife of a Congressman, 1 aide to a Congressman and 1 reporter. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad any other time of the year, but it just happens to be the opening day of deer-hunting season. An explosive situation indeed. To make things even more complicated for Magdalena and her temperamental cook, the guests all seem to have different dietary demands, and have barely gotten settled before they start complaining. When Magdalena discovers a dead body in her inn, things quickly go from bad to worse. Good police investigators are hard to find in Hernia, so Magdalena takes it upon herself to solve the crime, all the while trying to placate her grumbling lodgers. The discovery of another body at the PennDutch certainly doesn't help things. Suddenly, Magdalena finds herself in a dangerous race against time to find a killer that has chosen her as his next victim.

My favorite part of this book is the way it deals with the Amish/Mennonite experience. I've read my fair share of books about this culture, and this is the first time I've seen an author deal with it in such an honest, lighthearted way. Myers is able to laugh at her own people without devaluing their religion or way of life. Through Magdalena Yoder, the reader discovers a realistic Mennonite woman (not that I know any Mennonites, but still...) who is a little greedy, a little lazy and needs a big attitude adjustment. I thought she was a hilarious character, although I didn't think she reacted very realistically to finding dead bodies in her inn. My least favorite part of the book was the plot, which was sloppy and predictable. My rule of thumb for mysteries is that the person you least suspect is always the killer, and Too Many Crooks followed this formula to a T. I also didn't think the clues pointed conclusively to the ending, which they should in a well-crafted mystery.

Needless to say, I'm still trying to find a solid series in the mystery-with-recipes genre. I place Tamar Myers only one wrung higher than Joanne Fluke, whose Hannah Swenson series is redeemable only because it is fun and the recipes look good. Otherwise, these cozy mysteries seem to lack solid plotting and tight writing. I'm looking for a well-written, fun murder mystery with delicious recipes - is that too much to ask??

Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to ramble on about that one. I was just hoping to like it more, which leads me to my next read: When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin. I had heard so much about Martin that I guess I was just expecting more from this book.

The story concerns Reese, a man with a past, who is most content quietly restoring old boats or rowing in Lake Burton. Although he actively avoids other people, Reese finds himself in town one day buying parts for his boats. He is drawn to a little girl in a yellow dress, who is raking in the dough at her lemonade stand. When he gets closer to her, he realizes why - the child has a deep scar in her chest, signifying heart problems. It dawns on him then that the money has nothing to do with lemonade and everything to do with getting the child a new heart. Something in Reese's own heart responds, unleashing painful memories of Emma, his childhood sweetheart who died waiting for a healthy heart. He is haunted by her memory, scarred by his own inability to save her. Yet, he is drawn to this girl, 7-year-old Annie, who remains hopeful despite her damaged heart. When a bread truck careens around the corner heading straight for Annie's lemonade stand, Reese's heroics kick him out of anonymity and straight into the very situation he never wanted to be in again. But, here he is, caring about another girl with an irreparable heart. As Annie waits desperately for a new organ, Reese becomes her biggest cheerleader. Still, he can't quite bring himself to reveal all of his secrets to Annie and her caretaker aunt (who is becoming disturbingly important to him) even if it means saving the little girl's life. As Annie's life drains away, Reese must face his past and make the decision that could change all their lives forever.

Although I enjoyed Martin's writing style and appreciated the inspiration he was trying to impart, there were several things that really bugged me about this book. One was the character of Reese. I thought he was realistic, except when he did things that were totally out of character, which happened constantly in the book. For instance, why would a man intent on hiding his identity stop at a stranger's lemonade stand and have a prolonged conversation with her? Or why, after causing a scene which would reveal the identity he has tried so hard to conceal, does he continue to visit with Annie and her aunt? Wouldn't it be more in character for Reese to run and hide, shaking with fear? I also think it's out of character for a man like that to purposely reach out to a troubled teenager (Termite), who seems to only be in the book so that he can rescue Reese in a later chapter. In short, I found Reese confusing and inconsistent, and not in a realistic way. My other problem with the book is its complete and utter predictability. Nothing in the plot surprised me. Make no mistake, I like a happy ending, but I think it should be achieved only after some good plot twists which make it seem absolutely unattainable.

Despite my issues with the plot and characters, this is a book I plan to keep on my shelf, if only because it's a clean story about faith and love. I also plan to give Martin another chance - I just hope it's worth it.