Harry Potter VII: Round 2

This was my second time reading the final Harry Potter book, and I enjoyed it and appreciated it so much more. The first time I read it (the first few days it was released), it felt like they were camping in the forest for forever and that a lot of what happened in the book were random adventures to fill space. I now realize that I only felt that way because I was trying to read it as fast as I could so I could find out what happened at the end, and that was the reason I found the book frustrating the first time.

I have to take this opportunity to give a shout-out. Somewhere in the world is a person who put a "Believe Snape" bumper sticker on their car BEFORE the seventh book came out. As they drove past me one day in downtown Seattle, I started yelling inside about how I HATED Snape (after reading the sixth book) and how could they have that bumper sticker? Well, I was wrong, and I wish I could find that bumper sticker for myself!

What Rowling does with Snape in this book (and thus in all the others--which is cool) is AMAZING. My only question is why doesn't he have a portrait in the headmaster's office at the end? Dumbledore's appeared like immediately after he died. I missed Snape in that last scene.

P.S. Wondering why I have no comments about the Harry Potter movies? I liked the first two a lot, but after #4 I gave up watching them. The end.

Recent Read: Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddox

Okay, I will admit that fairytale spin-offs are one of my little quirky reading pleasures, but I really like this one. The whole idea is what would happen if Cinderella really didn't want to marry the prince after all? I think rewritten fairy tales are so much fun!

I love how Haddox just picks a good stopping point and ends the book. We know they're going to live happily ever after--why drag it out? It's really fun how she starts and ends this novel in the middle of things, which keeps a retelling very lively.