A Historian Thought Amid Potter Talk

Yes, I know, I'm still stuck in Drac-land. I'm determined to finish this book. While reading last night I about hit myself over the head with a discussion point that we didn't even bring up during the meeting. Do you think Vlad was one of the good guys, despite his tortorous ways, for defending his country and people no matter what the cost or was he a very bad dude that deserved to be beheaded and undead.

As you can see to the right of the blog I have added a poll for you to vote. It's pretty nifty. So I'm curious: Good guy? Bad man? The verdict is out for me. What I don't understand is: why the vampires would go after someone who was in their bloodline (Helen) and why isn't Dracula going after Turks instead of poor innocent folk? Or is he just a tormented soul that wants to take out everybody because he's pissed at the world. I guess I better get back to reading.

Harry inspired love

Caleb and I were in Spokane on Saturday and we went to Hastings first thing in the morning to pick up our copy. I was a little panicked when we were in the store, as there were displays of all of the 6 prior books, Harry Potter calendars, notebooks, etc, but no signs of the actual Deathly Hallows anywhere. After a little heavy breathing and Caleb telling me over and over to "just ask, Mom!" we discovered you had to ask for a copy at the checkout counter. We made it home to Moscow, but I swear, I was tempted to read as I drove down highway 95!
I made it through the book by Monday afternoon, after Persephone Williams was so kind to come over and distract Caleb for a few hours and Eli luckily took a three hour nap. I loved it! The ending was just plain satisfying on all accounts, and I think JK is planning on writing a new series with Harry and Ginny's kids. You can see all the elements in the epilogue. And even if she doesn't , she has to be the most compassionate author to know that her readers needed that last few pages to make sure everything turned out ok.
My husband came home on Monday and asked me if I'd actually read the whole thing. He picked up the book and said, "geeze, do you even remember what you read? How could you just read all day? I can't do that. I just can't read that much so fast." Then, as I was making dinner, he picked it up and began reading. (We've had debates about how we each thought #7 would end.) Dinner was ready, and he came to the table, but then read from 6:30 - 10:00, and repeated the same patter for the next three days. He has only 100 pages to go, and I can't get him to put it down. This is why I love him. Harry has reinforced our bond in matrimony. I can't wait to see what fight this ignites!

I loved it!

What a great book! Harry Potter has inspired me to post my first ever blog entry.

I was up at the lake for the weekend so I missed the party at Book People. The picture is my organized sister-in-law who ordered the book off Amazon and had it delivered to the dock on Saturday morning via the summer marine mail route at lake Coeur d'Alene. She started the book right away, of course, and I was jealous. My Dad suggested that maybe she would lend it to me during the weekend so I had to explain there is no sharing of Harry Potter the first couple of days it is out. Steve picked up the book for me during the weekend and then kept trying to read me sections over the phone. I might have threatened to divorce him if he gave away the ending. I returned home Monday and finished the book by Tuesday evening.

I can't wait to discuss it with all of you. What was your favorite part?

Mary

A Very Harry Summer (long post with a spoiler)

Harry Potter has taken over my life.

It's my own fault. I let him in, him and his wizarding friends. I read the first book nine years ago while I was pregnant with Travis. At the time, I worked in a book store and The Chamber of Secrets was just being released. I had never heard of Harry Potter, not too many people had, but someone at the book store recommended it, saying there was a lot of buzz about the series. Our bookstore had a lending system for employees, meaning we could "check out" books to read, so I read the first two back to back and found them a pleasant diversion. A year or so later, when the third book came out I borrowed it from someone and it was at that point that I became hooked. The Prisoner of Azkaban brought Harry out of that "kid's book" drawer and placed him into the realm of what I deem intriguing fiction. I went out and bought the first three books and have been buying them since. I think I know more adults (mostly moms) who are fans than I do kids, including my dear fellow Gabbers. We've all been gleefully riding the Harry wave, greedily awaiting each new book and now the ride's almost over and I don't know how I'll manage without him.

But I digress. The Summer of Harry started like this: with all the hype earlier this summer about the fifth Harry Potter movie coming out, Travis said he wanted to read the book first. I knew that, though he's a really good reader, he would never get it finished in time, as long as that book is and with soccer, baseball and swimming lessons, I knew it would just never happen. I wanted to re-read it myself so I offered to read it to him. I started reading a chapter out loud before bedtime. We read in the living room and Val, who likes to sit in his chair and draw in the evenings, was soon sucked in. He had seen all of the movies and liked them but had never read one of the books. We finished, finally, one night when I read the last four chapters, with me taking a little break to get myself together after choking up at Sirius's death (it still gets me), while Travis punched the couch and buried his face in a pillow for a while. We got through it, though, and they immediately demanded more so we started the sixth book a few weeks ago. I had misgivings because of the ending but kept going. My goal was to finish before Saturday the 21st so that I could dive right into book seven but of course that didn't happen. As it happened, it all culminated this weekend, in what Travis called a "Harry Potter Marathon". On Friday, Trav and I attended the party at Bookpeople, Travis in costume (he made the cover of Saturday's Lewiston Tribune!). With book in hand, I made it home that night, utterly exhausted, swearing I wouldn't start reading until the next morning. But I couldn't help myself. I read the first two and a half chapters in bed. I started reading the next day as soon as I could, taking time out in the afternoon so that Val, Travis and I could go and see Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. That night, I read more of book 6 to the family and, four chapters from the end, made a decision not to read any more of book 7 until we were finished with the Half Blood Prince. I could foresee questions and theories cropping up in the discussion that would follow the conclusion of that book and I wanted to be able to participate without knowing myself what the outcome would be. I have a lousy poker face and knew that if Val or Travis made a guess about how the whole thing ends they would be able to read the answer from my expression. So I put Harry away three quarters of the way through. Four more chapters of Half Blood Prince, I thought. Two chapters a night, two more nights. Then I can finish this and find out what happens. I sat down to read and of course, I should have known, they weren't going to let me stop after two chapters. I ended up finishing the book for them that night, reading nearly 100 pages out loud, my voice thrashed, all of us emotionally spent.

Yesterday was the day. I would finally find out what happened to Harry. Of course, life being what it is and kids being what they are, I was interrupted often. Travis occupied himself with a video game, more game time that I usually allow, but this was a special circumstance. I let him rot his brain for my own, selfish gain. Riley was more of a problem. After pulling out all the tricks--puzzles, paints, books, etc., and with only three chapters left, I finally felt too guilty to continue. I gave in to her pleas to go visit the new play structures at the park next door. We went and so did Harry. I pushed Ri on the swings for a while and then let her go explore the place while I settled down with my book. I sat in my lawn chair, my daughter comfortably within my line of sight and prepared to finish the book. It was not to be. Three older boys, twelve or thirteen, showed up, troublemakers from the looks of it. I swear to you: there were two big boys, heavy set and dark haired and one skinnier, smaller kid with blonde hair. God, I thought, it's Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy! I kept reading but was keeping an eye out for them too. making sure they weren't pushing the little ones around. They were moving uncomfortably close to my lawn chair. Eventually, one of them noticed what I was reading.
"My stepfather just tread the new Harry Potter book," he said to his friends. In this group, Goyle was the ringleader and Malfoy was one of the stooges.
The other kids showed very little interest in this statement but the Goyle kid went on.
"Yeah. Harry Potter dies in it." What a miserable little shit, I thought. This kid probably doesn't read if he can help it and probably thinks it would be funny to ruin the ending for someone else.
"Really?" Brilliant conversationalists, these kids. They were, for some reason, gathered around my chair now.
"Yeah. Little Harry Potter dies," he said in a mocking voice. "Hey," he said to me and I looked up. "Harry Potter dies in this one." Now, just prior to leaving the house, I had finished the chapter where Harry "dies". At this point, I was on about the 3rd page of the next chapter and knew that he had somehow survived, though I hadn't yet read how.
"No he doesn't," I said, taking a shot and hoping that I was right and it wasn't some sort of weird wizarding afterlife I was reading about.
"Yeah he does. My stepfather said so!"
"He's wrong," I said. "Go ask him." And with that, I nonchalantly returned to my book. There was silence from above.
"Who is that?" Malfoy asked his cronies, obviously meaning me. "Do you know who she is?"
"Excuse me," I said to them. "You're bothering me. Please go away." They looked at each other and shrugged. They moved a few feet away and contented themselves with chucking large dirt clods onto the new cedar mulch of the playground. I eventually packed up my daughter and went home to finish the book.

I don't know why those kids bothered me so much. They were just ignorant and mean-spirited. I found out later from Travis that they hang around the playground and pick on little kids, nothing serious, just taunting and name calling, but I detest bullies. I was burning for a long time afterward, but I contented myself with the thought that they could go around telling anyone who would listen that Harry dies at the end, thinking that they were spoiling the ending, not knowing that the joke was on them.

Harry doesn't die. Harry lives and grows up and has babies with Ginny.

So there.

Harry's in the House

The day has come and I imagine that 2/3 of the GAB has already finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I did my part by skipping to the last few pages and reading a few paragraphs. Anita was not amused.

Let me back up. We were in McCall this weekend with the Thorsteinson, Wallace and Odberg families and Anita had a few margaritas in her. It was approaching midnight, McCall time, and I threw out that we should see if there were any Harry Potter books going on sale at 12:01. Anita was the only one who bit so the two of us loaded up in her minivan and we cruised the streets of McCall in search of Harry, much to the chagrin of the rest of the people in our party.

Well, we found Mr. Potter and the rest of Hogwarts at McCall Drug. We were second to last in a long line and finally picked up our copies (paying full list price no less, I guess this is what having a few too many does to a guy - I only had one small beverage prior and was not inebriated by any means) at 12:30 am.

We excitedly brought our books back to the Odberg cabin and that's where I thought I'd get Anita's goat by skipping to the last chapter.

I'm hoping she posts her pictures from that night in front of the Drugstore holding our copies of the book. It was a fun adventure. I sent my copy to my mom as I am still slogging through Year 5. Enjoy the book. Although I am not as much of a Pottermaniac as some of you I am still sad at the conclusion of this great series.

Dear GAB

To my dear friends at the GAB book club,

My heartfelt apologies for missing your glorious meeting tonight. I wish I could've been there, but another commitment had me pinned down. I tried to free myself, but it was quite difficult (and rather painful, I might add). I'm currently spear-heading a new secret project. It really has kept me very busy. And, I am sad to report, it is also very distressing. All my co-workers do is howl at me, and many times I feel I've been stabbed in the back, because of their behavior. The barbarians (no, I think they are actually Carpathian... oh well, it doesn't matter), they are ruthless. All they do is poke fun at me all day long. I hate their little jabs. My heart bleeds every night after a day of their piercing screams. Ah, the stress of it all! I'm not sure it's even worth it anymore. Any way you slice it, it's miserable work. Maybe I should just cut ties and be done with it. But, alas, I will just use different communciation techniques to drive my point into their little heads. Perhaps then, they will get what I'm trying to accomplish. Well, I best be going. My boss has just arrived and he gets quite grumpy when we're not working to stake our claims to this project. Again, my apologies. I'm looking forward to reading the next book.
Your friend,
Chocolate Mike

The Historian Meeting

The meeting for the Historian was a lot of fun. We ate, drank and were merry. The majority enjoyed the book and there were several of us that felt the story drug on. Only a few had actually finished the book. Feel free to comment on your thoughts for the book. I obviously am drawing a big fat blank here.

Next month's selection is: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . We'd talked about going on a camping trip to discuss the book but realized that the GAB has several definitions of the word 'camping'. Half were all for tents and vault toilets and the other half were thinking Motel 6. The meeting is a tentative August 8 in the Arboretum.

Harry Potter will be discussed in-depth on the blog. Those of us who haven't read the full series were OK with spoilers. If you are worried about spoilers. Uh.................

September's pick is The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar . Kristen brought this choice along with Life of Pi and The #1 Ladies Detective Agency.

Food and Drink Inspired by The Historian

The Zebra Room was in full swing. On the drink menu was red and white wine, the Vampire, Vampire Juice, Sloe Death Fizz, Vampire Guardian, and Vampire Blood. It was all good.

Appetizers for the meeting were: Garlic and Tomato Brushetta and Peanut Butter Chicken Skewers .


OK, I'm sick and twisted. Dessert was cupcakes with Polly Pocket impaled on wooden bamboo skewers. It's alright though. Polly was just reenacting. She's off the poles now and is resting safely in her Polly Pocket wonderland.

Music Inspired by The Historian

I said I wasn't going to do it.....but I did. The Historian soundtrack is now out there and if you weren't able to pick up your copy during the meeting I will be sure to get them out to you later.

Songs included:
1. Romanian Song and Dance— Zoltan and His Gypsy Ensemble - a long drawn out instrumental that reminded me of the Overtures played at the beginning of old movies
2. Dracula—Gorillaz
3. Letters—Stroke 9
4. Train—4 Non Blondes
5. Somebody’s Watching Me
6. Papa Don’t Preach—Madonna - when I read Helen's mom's ordeal with Bartholomew Rossi this song just had to be included
7. Dracula’s Castle—New Order
8. Dracula’s Tango—Total Coelo
9. Have a Drink with the Good King Vlad—The Meteors - classic rock-a-billy number about Vlad, can it get any better?
10. Turkish Delight—Kalman Magyar
11. Paul and Helen’s Trip to Bulgaria
12. Istanbul - They Might Be Giants - love this song
13. Dracula’s Wedding—Outkast
14. Byzantine Chant –Divna
15. Ain’t No Grave—Odetta
16. Hungarian—Bond

Other songs I'd thought about but didn't include were:
Ottoman Empire - it was a horrible heavy metal piece that I knew everyone would be racing to the fast forward button
Vlad the Impaler - kind of a punk-ish song that was not very good
Love Bites - Def Leppard
Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Great White - both of these song titles were great but other than that had nothing to do with the story

I also didn't finish the book so I imagine there were some other great songs I missed. Which ones were they? Comments, please?

Molly's Now an ED Expert

Older men who are horny and can't get it up watch the History Channel. How do I know this? Jackie called last night and said the History Channel was airing a few specials on 'Vlad the Impaler'. Intrigued and hoping I could learn more from the History Channel than from The Historian I tuned in.

During the presentation I was treated to three erectile dysfunction commercials by three different pharmacuetical companies in a 30 minute period. Levitra, Cialis, Viagra. Did you know with Levitra you have 30 minute to 36 hours to do your thing? Does this mean you can control it or is it involuntary? The poor bastard in the commercial was ready to 'get it on' while heading home with his honey when they ran into a group of friends who asked them to join them for drinks. "Shit!" thought the poor bastard. "Phew" thought the honey.

These commercials were followed by an ad featuring a blonde 18 year old tart in a cheerleading outfit or was it a Fredirick's of Hollywood version of the football uniform? telling those horny old men to text message (do 60 year olds text?) so they could win a plasma TV. Whatever.

I was pretty humored and was making a long drawn out comment to my husband. He replied with a long drawn out snore. Did you know that horny men who can't get it up watch the History Channel? Not that they'd see these commercials for E-D drugs. They're fast asleep in their Lazy Boys so the wives watch the commercials and make the call to the doctor for them.

On a side note: I learned more about Vlad in the one hour program last night than I have in the past 4 weeks reading the Historian. I'm a visual learner. The show airs again on the 14th.

So, yeah...History's boring.

No offense, Mary, or any other former history majors. Actually, I loved history classes in college and took them just for fun. Of course, I don't seem to have retained much. And you all know my shortcomings when it comes to geography. Recently, I had an opportunity to screw them both up simultaneously: I have been slogging through "The Historian" going, "The Carpathians? Who were they? Did they come before or after the Ottomans?" I finally looked it up on Wikipedia and, oh my. It seems The Carpathians are a mountain range. Whoops. I guess that's why I majored in english. Anyway, if nothing else, this book has prompted me to do a little brushing up on my European history. Not that I will remember any of it...

The thing that's been frustrating me about this book has been the short little bursts of intrigue interspersed between pages and pages of boring narrative where nothing happens. It was getting frustrating and I found myself skipping those parts and paging forward to the "good bits". But you know what? I went through the first, oh, 150 pages or so, wanting to give it up and then... it started getting better. I'm in over 230 pages and things are starting to happen. I have hope for the future and can see myself actually finishing this. My plan for today is to spend at least part of the day in the back yard in a lawn chair reading. Molly said something about her mother saying that this was a good book to read in the dark days of fall or winter and I agree. It seems sort of incongruous to be reading it on a warm, bright summer day but maybe it's a good thing for me. I have been reading "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and now, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" out loud to Travis and Val in the evenings and then reading "The Historian" the rest of the time. If it weren't for the bright weather, I would probably feel kind of dark and moody right now.

Anyway, stick with it--it looks promising.

Here is yet another forum for us to communicate to each other. Our other website will still be up and running but this way we can write something and make comments rather than sending out a bazillion e-mails to each other when a funny topic should arise. We can also use this to discuss the book we're reading or add anything that may be happening in each other's lives.

Hope it gets used. If not....no big deal.