Can't Wait Wednesday: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Illustrated Edition

I'm switching over from Waiting on Wednesday's to Can't Wait Wednesday, a meme hosted by Wishful Endings. The idea is basically the same, but it looks like the official hosts of Breaking the Spine have shut down the meme so it's time to move on. Description and cover image taken from Goodreads.

An essential companion to the Harry Potter novels, now fully illustrated!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander's classic compendium of magical creatures, has delighted generations of wizarding readers. With this beautiful, large-scale new edition illustrated in full color, Muggles too will have the chance to discover where the Runespoor lives, what the Puffskein eats, and why shiny objects should always be kept away from the Niffler.

Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Comic Relief and J.K. Rowling's international charity, Lumos, which will do magic beyond the powers of any wizard. If you feel that this is insufficient reason to part with your money, one can only hope that passing wizards feel more charitable if they see you being attacked by a Manticore.

Why I'm Waiting

I mean how can I not be excited for this? Really words defy me at the moment. Yes, I will be collecting both editions of this book because they're both equally stunning.

The illustrated edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them releases November 7, 2017

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Harry Potter, #8)

Author: JK Rowling

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John Tiffany

Jack Thorne

Edition: Hardcover

Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository

Goodreads

Rating: 3 Stars

We waited and we waited and we hoped and then we waited some more and then we got it. Another Harry Potter story! In a very unconventional form.

The Cursed Child is about Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, the children of Harry and Draco respectively, and their first few years at Hogwarts dealing with their lineages.  It is also about and adult Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron as they deal with their lives as parents.  This book really focuses on the relationship between parent and child, and what it means to be a good father or son.

First of all, this really isn't another Harry Potter book.  It lacks the magic that the original seven had, but that's not that surprising upon reflection since this is a play and Rowling isn't the main author.  It's her story, yes, but Jack Thorne is a playwright, so really, it's his writing.  And since it's his writing, and intended for the stage, it just doesn't come off the page like I was hoping.  Rather than being relaunched into the favorite world of my childhood it was like reading poor fan fiction.

Beyond getting the voices of the characters pretty much completely wrong, a bunch of unnecessary cameos, a storyline that made only the littlest of sense, and a strange (and disliked) turn of events at the very end, this wasn't a horrible book.  It just let me (and I'm sure quite a few others) down.

I don't want to spoil anything so I'm not going to go into what I really disliked about the book here.  If you want to rant, though, hit me up on twitter and I'll share all my in-detail problems with their full spoiler glory. (shameless twitter promotion: @tsundokusam)

Here's what I did like: the new characters.  Albus and Scorpius are gems!  Scorpius in particular will now always have a special place in my heart because he's absolutely adorable and just precious.  I liked the beginning of the book and what happens when Albus gets to school.  I also really liked Rose, though I wish we could have spent more time with her character.  The relationship between Ron and Hermione was pretty cute, too, and Ginny and Harry are really given the opportunity to show us why they fell in love.

Returning to the Wizarding World has been great, but it seems that it missed out a lot of what we wanted.  Here's to hoping Fantastic Beasts does a much better job.

Mini 5 Star Reread Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)

Author: JK Rowling

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Edition: Paperback

Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository

Goodreads Link

Related Links: Sorcerer's Stone

Rating: 5 Stars

And so I continue with my reread of this wonderful series! Normally, this is one of my least favorite books in the series because very little happens, but that doesn't discount it as a good book, it's just competing against other really good books. Just be warned, there are some spoilers below if you haven't read the book yet (but, seriously, why are you reading this when you could be reading the Harry Potter books?).

In Chamber of Secrets the story picks up near the end of the summer when Harry is visited by a House Elf named Dobby who warns him not to return to Hogwarts and then gets Harry in so much trouble he worries he won't be able to even if he wants to.

My favorite part of this book is either Gilderoy Lockhart, who is a gem of a character and ridiculous in every way. I do wish he had popped back up in one of the later books, if even for a moment. He's too good to waste, really.  The other best part is the information we get on both Hagrid and Tom Riddle.  I don't think Hagrid gets much more fleshing out, history-wise, as the series progresses, which is a major shame since he's a rather interesting character. Though Riddle does get a much more extensive look at his backstory, this is, for me, where things really begin and get serious.

Other memorable moments: Ginny actually being a major character (yay for Hinny shippers! is that even the name of the ship, though???); Fawkes the Phoenix being badass and awesome and making everyone want a pet phoenix; the sword! because who doesn't love swords?

I'm looking forward to continuing on with my reread, particularly because the next book features so many of my favorite characters (*cough cough* Sirius and Lupin *cough cough* Buckbeak).

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Mini 5 Star Reread Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- Illustrated Edition (Harry Potter, #1)

Author: JK Rowling

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Edition: Hardcover

Buy Links: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository

Goodreads

Rating: 5 Stars

I received the Illustrated Edition for Christmas and wanted to read it right away, but forced myself to hold off until summer when I could properly enjoy it and also get the chance to reread the rest of the series.  I have a vague plan to reread them all before Cursed Child, but I'm not going to force myself to read them quickly because I want to sit back and enjoy every minute of returning to this world.

The first half of this book was a slog.  I don't remember it being that boring.  And maybe it's not, maybe that was just me not being the mood to read this book.  But the second half- when Harry arrives at Hogwarts (so, really, much more than half) flew by so quickly!  And I loved every second of it.  There wasn't very much I had forgotten, and that might have something to do with the fact that the movie is so similar.  The scene with the centaurs, though, was one that I needed a refresher for and was happy to have.

As for the art, it's absolutely gorgeous!  The depiction of diagon ally?  Amazing!  I ran around my house showing everyone because they all just had to see!  I'm so glad they decided to do this with these books, it's lent itself to them so well and has added another level of amazing to this already astounding world.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Authors I've Read the Most Books From

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.  Click here to join in on the fun.

This was a really fun one to do, because I was able to actually figure out who I've read the most from.  I was sorta surprised by what I discovered.