So after I decided to start re-reading Harry Potter my other reading came to a screeching halt. I can’t help it – Harry Potter is the best series ever. I was right in the middle of 3 books – The Magicians, Pug Hill, and 1Q84.
I finished the first two last night! 1Q84…yeah….I am on page 600/937 of this long freakin’ book that is great – but is no Harry Potter.
The Magicians
By Lev Grossman
This book was deemed the grown up book for Harry Potter lovers or those who miss reading the HP.
I am not a huge fan of cuss words in a book. This has it.
It was extremely fast paced. It is a story about a kid who gets an invitation to join this Magic College that is hidden from the world. He goes there – has fun – finds a girl – and graduates all in about 200 pages.
The last 100 pages is where they entered this fantasy world that they thought was only in a book (like if we were transported to Hogwarts) and it is not as amazing as they thought – it is hell on earth. He gets through it and gets back to the real world and then the book ends.
I enjoyed the book and wish they wrote more about the college (like they did in HP - always referencing!) Sometimes things got a little too weird for me to follow. But if you want to read an odd book - go for it! I will probably read The Magician King (after all my re-reading of HP) to see what the heck they will talk about in the second book.
Amazon review:
Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn't real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery. But magic doesn't bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would. After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin's yearning. But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they'd imagined. Psychologically piercing and dazzlingly inventive, The Magicians is an enthralling coming-of-age tale about magic practiced in the real world-where good and evil aren't black and white, and power comes at a terrible price.
There is a second one – I will read it once I am completely done with HP…I have a feeling that reading this book made me go back to HP. Made me miss it.
Pug Hill
By Alison Pace
Pug Hill is a fun and light read. I really enjoyed reading this book. It is about this girl named Hope who works at the MET in NYC. She de-stresses by going to this dog park that is called Pug Hill – a place where pugs roam (She likes the black ones the most!). This is a novel just about her everyday adventures and struggles. I loved it! It wasn’t a dystopian (although I do love) or mystery…just a book to clear my mind!
From Amazon
For Hope McNeill, pugs are love, happiness, freedom-and everything else she finds lacking in her own life. With no time or apartment space for a pug of her own, Pug Hill in Central Park is her one refuge from her mismatched boyfriend, her hopeless coworker crush, and the biggest crisis of all-a speech for her parents' fortieth wedding anniversary that will require her to overcome her huge fear of public speaking.
ON TO reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and The Book Thief...while working over 40 hours and taking 3 graduate level classes....and moving in a house - I am nuts!
