Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling

This is a re-read. I am in the process of reading them with Joshua. He has heard them all on cd a bunch of times but now we are sitting together with print copies and reading to each other. It is such a joy to share them with him and see books that I love so much through my 8 year old's eyes. He loves pointing out things he finds interesting and I love hearing his perspective. He points out differences between the books and the movies. Sometimes he is ok with the differences and sometimes he outraged.

Together we loved Dobby, found Lucius Malfoy even worse than his git of a son, discovered the origin of Lord Voldemort's name, cheered on Fawkes, flew with Harry & Ron in a car, got creeped out my spiders and spent some really great hours together. We are now on to book three.


(finished April 10, 2014)

The Twentieth Wife (Taj Mahal Trilogy, #1) by Indu Sundaresan

Indu Sundaresan uses words in a lovely way to being to life the images of India from the late 1500's into the early 1600's. I enjoy fictionalized versions of real people and historical events and that is what The Twentieth Wife is. I wish those two facts combined to make me love this book but I just didn't feel sucked in to the point where I couldn't put the book down. At times felt I had to force myself to continue. It was made worse I think because about halfway through I realized I wasn't enjoying the book enough to read the rest of the trilogy and so felt even less motivated to finish.

The story follows Mehrunnisa from her birth to her place as the 20th wife of Emperor Jahangir at the age of 34. In between she is married to someone else against her wishes but goes along because she loves her father so much. She spends the years learning at the feet of an Empress, yearning for a child and being a good and devoted daughter. 

I truly didn't hate this book, I actually liked it, I just didn't love it.

(finished April 27, 2014)

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

I was so surprised by reviews I read of this book that complained about the writing style. There were criticisms that said it was to dry, to matter of face, and lacking emotion. Well forgive the immaturity of this but duh! The man is Autistic and as I read this I just got it. And if you have someone in your life who has an ASD then you will recognize the style and find it makes perfect sense. The glimpse into the mind of Daniel was for me a chance to understand more my own child and how his mind works. Of course it isn't exactly the same, different people, those with an ASD and those without are individuals, but there are some common traits.

I was moved and encouraged by the way Daniel was able to embrace his abilities and make a life for himself that was full and wonderful even when it was difficult and challenging.

If you don't know anyone with an ASD I would hope that rather than complain about the writing you try to understand that this is what it would be like to speak to someone like Daniel and to some degree is very typical. There is a lot of fact and information, the language can be formal and lack contractions, and emotion isn't going to be a large part of the exchange, it might even feel cold and detached. But that doesn't mean there are no feelings, just different feeling than you are used to.

I was moved by Daniel. I was incredibly fascinated by the way he sees numbers and colors and patterns. I appreciated the insight.

(finished April 3, 2014)