Star Struck

I don't get starstruck by "celebrities" -- I once saw Kristi Yamaguchi in an elevator and got her autograph (I was a figure skater as a kid) but was totally cool, and I saw somebody famous at Metro once and didn't even care enough to remember who it was, and I saw that guy from American Pie at a Baha Fresh in Cali. But I mean, they're just people, right? So no need to go all ga-ga for them. I am fully confident that if I met Brad Pitt, I'd ask how Angelina and the kids are and we'd have a nice little chat.

But AUTHORS? I mean, that's a whole different story. Because "celebrities," well, I can kindof do that. I mean, I act okay and with lots of money for coaching and primping and clothes and trainers and plastic surgery, I feel like I'd be comparable at LEAST to Jennifer Love Hewitt. And musicians? I mean, seriously, with sound editing you could make me sound like Brittney Spears or Barry White.

But AUTHORS? I know they have editors, and agents, and publishers, and book jacket designers (bring it Chip Kidd) but even with all of those it still amazes me what they can do... that they can create these whole worlds into which we enter... that they can turn words into a character we want to befriend (or behead)... that they can make our heart race or make us cry. It's amazing. I rarely cry at movies (damn you, Up) but books, even books I've read 10 times, will bring me to tears. From the moment Percy steps through the portrait hole in Book Seven, I vary in stages from weeping to sobbing (damn you, Fred).

So when amazing bf set up amazing trip to Ann Arbor Book Festival, I was uber star struck as I met T.A. Barron. I waited until everyone else had talked to him because I didn't want to talk to him in front of other people, and even then, I swear Andrew had to say something along the lines of, "Sir, my friend would like to meet you," as he pushed me up to Mr. Barron and I sheepishly extended my AABF poster for him to sign. I mean, the guy's an icon! A pillar of YA fantasy! And I TOTALLY met him. I might have touched him... not inappropriately or anything, but I'm sure our hands brushed when he signed my poster, or something... And now, in his honor, I'm reading The Great Tree of Avalon: The Child of the Dark Prophecy. I'm almost done, so review to come (sneak preview, it's good).

I have always loved books, but I've never wanted to write one. So it is with utter amazement and respect that I read them. And it's with that same amazement and respect that I look upon authors. If I ever meet J.K. Rowling you can fully expect I will be unable to function. I might even pee a little, but for a signed copy of HP 7, well, that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Party like a Wi-Rock star...

I am currently listening to a cappella music. Sung by Moaning Myrtle. And, as amazing as that might even be, she's not even my favorite. No, I think my favorite is RiddleTM. Although I am particularly enamoured with Peeved's lyric, "Let's take some polyjuice potion babe, and have a little fun. It's not cheating it's just role play..."

WTF am I talking about? Why, Wizard Rock, of course.

I'm SO not kidding. There is a whole genre of music dedicated to Harry Potter. And it is amazing. Honestly, some of it is really good quality music (see RiddleTM).

Story: my faboo bf Andrew planned an outing for us and a couple of our equally faboo YA geek fan friends Dan and Jess to the Ann Arbor Book Festival at which we were blissfully exposed to Tonks and the Aurors, a Wizard Rock band whose pink pixie haired lead singer enthusiastically proclaims, "Charlie Weasly doesn't really love me, he only loves his dragons!" Naturally we bought t-shirts and chatted her up afterward and were promptly exposed to the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club. Damn, Gina.

http://www.wizardrockclub.com/

You get Wizard Rock every month, and Dan used his fancy iPhone to subscribe and has been generous enough to lend me all of his CDs once he puts the music on his fancy iPod. And it's amazing. Seriously, check some of these Wi-Rock stars out:

http://www.myspace.com/riddletmmusic

http://www.myspace.com/theremuslupins

http://www.myspace.com/tonksandtheaurors

http://www.myspace.com/peevedmusic

As MC Kreacher would say, "I'm a house... elf... for life."

An oldie but goodie?

I read "Evermore" by Alyson Noel. Meh. I mean, it was fine. Light, entertaining, screamed of themes popular in other books (romance, "what is he" intrigue, hottest guy in school wants outcast girl for inexplicable reasons) but decent light reading. I wished I'd picked it up earlier this summer... would have been a great early summer beach read. Definitely not a re-reader for me (which is, of course, my mark of a truly phenomenal book) but I'll likely dig into the sequel, "Blue Moon," some time when I'm bored or don't want to think too much.

In short: I didn't love it but it wasn't a complete waste of my time.

What I have found very interesting over the last couple of weeks has been listening to the iconic Jim Dale recite for me all the words of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

I love books on CD. I find them a great way to stay up-to-date on books and make long car rides tolerable. Even when I'm just running errands, be-bopping between meetings and driving to and from work it astonishes me how quickly I go through a book on CD (and frankly how much time I spend in my car). The Capital Area District Library has a rockin' selection of YA fantasy books on CD, and though there's often a hearty wait for new releases, catching up on classics is a breeze.

So, I was listening to HP 1 -- the original -- and was surprised by a number of things:
1. It's wild how much the Harry Potter books have "grown up" as Harry has... I read HP 6 right before the release of the movie in July, so to now go back to HP 1, the contrast is striking. I remember reading interviews with JK Rowling saying the books were meant to be progressively more complex, dark and were meant to "grow" with the readers, but I think a bit of that is hooey and fact is she simply grew as a writer. I definitely prefer the complexity of the latter books!
2. It's wild how much scarier Voldie got! In book one, Quirrel actually calls him, "Lord Voldemort." I don't know why I noticed this or why it struck me so much, but seriously?! All the he-who stuff aside, in all the later books I'm fairly certain the Death Eaters only refer to him as The Dark Lord and not even Lucius Malfoy or Snape call him Lord Voldemort, do they? Or maybe it was just how casually he shows up on the back of P-p-p-rofessor Quirrel's head, but it's just like, "Hey-ooooo, heeeeere's VOLDEMORT!" as opposed to the sheer terror of him in HP 6, when even with Voldie as a kid the creepy factor is way high.
3. Jim Dale may have been lovely on "Pushing Daisies" and all-in-all I enjoyed him as a narrator, but he made Hermione sound like a twit. It hurt me on the inside. Nails... chalkboard... me hurting on the inside.

I read all the Harry Potter's in order when Book Seven (heretoforwardto always to be capitalized) came out, and it was an epic experience. Reverse order, though, not so much. Whether it was intentional or a product of circumstances, I say enjoy Harry in the order it was written and let your HP affection grow just as much as the writing does.

Alright Already...

I want to lay it all out on the table -- my passion for/obsession with young adult fantasy novels is totally geeky. But as it's grown, I've found more and more closet geeks. People who quietly ask me for book suggestions. Women who hide Twilight in their purses, and those who are brazenly open about preferring Harry Potter to Hamlet. This blog's for you... so I can share my old favorites, and new favorite finds, and hopefully get some suggestions in return.

It really did start with Harry Potter for me, as it did for so many. Our love affair began when I was a junior in college working at a little independent book store. There was a huge buzz and not a small amount of controversy when the third book was released, so I decided to read them. I picked up my copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and took it with me to a seedy diner as a break from finals studying. Needless to say, I didn't get much studying done, but found myself engaged in these books in a way I'd never experienced before. Up until this point, I loved books... physical books... but was a casual reader. Harry Potter? I truly couldn't put them down. And so it began...

During the Potter years, in the long stretches between books, I would re-read frequently and eventually branched out to try the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. I had trouble getting into "The Golden Compass" for about the first 100 pages, but pushed through. By "The Subtle Knife" I was hooked, and for the first time since reading "Where the Red Fern Grows" when I was seven, I sobbed at the last pages of "The Amber Spyglass" which for me, is kind of a big deal.

My inner geek was still relatively under wraps, however. Sure, I loved Harry Potter, but so did a ton of people, and my affinity for the His Dark Materials books could hardly be called an obsession. Until Rowling's fated Book Seven. I felt like there had been a death in the family. I honestly went into a sort of mourning. I had enjoyed these books for so many years, and there would never be another. I had escaped to Hogwarts when things got tough time and time again. I had looked forward to and celebrated their releases, and there would never be another party. I was lost.

At one of the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" release parties, I won a copy of "Twilight" in a trivia contest (naturally). I'd seen it on the shelf many times, but frankly, vampires? Kinda creepy. And Forks? Well, it was no Hogwarts. In a weak moment of boredom and desperation I started reading. If Harry Potter was my short sleeve dress shirt, and His Dark Materials were my horned rim glasses, Twilight was my pocket protector. There was no stopping the inner geek now. In the years that have followed there have been favorite finds and total duds -- characters that have become like old friends -- and suprises and suspenses that have kept me up all night. My geeky books have become more than just something to do... they have become a passion and I'm not afraid to admit it.

So to start us off, here are those books or series you simply must read:
1. The Harry Potter Books -- It's like Mecca for young adult fantasy geeks. The alpha and the omega. JK's masterpiece taught a new generation to read and brought all generations back to books. You gotta love 'em.

2. The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner -- These three are actually my favorite books of all time. Subtle and sophisticated, the twists are completely unexpected and complex, but so well orchestrated you can't help but admire Turner. It's only in re-reading them, however, that you realize she's woven the "suprises" into the books from the very beggining to create a series and protagonist, Gen, I come back to again and again.

3. The His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) -- Oh sure, they're controversial in their subject matter (a church with an oppressive iron rule and a rebellion against The Authority aka God), but they also feature loveable characters (Iorek Byrnison, Lee Scorsby), vivid imagery of new worlds and a beautiful tale of friendship, support and love.

4. The Twilight Trilogy by Stephenie Meyer -- Trilogy, you say? Yes, trilogy. Because, frankly, Breaking Dawn doesn't count. Oh sure, you have to read it to see how it all ends, but then just sock it away on your shelf and forget it ever happened. Or as one of my gay friends always says, "Pretend Bella dies and Jacob and Edward run away together to raise the baby... who they re-name." (I may have thrown that last part in there on my own). Books one through three, though, are magic. Addictive, even, and remind us all what it feels like to fall in love.

5. The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins -- Catching Fire just came out this week, and wow, it did not disappoint. I have rotated The Hunger Games into my very short list of excellent books to gift to my favorite people. I won't say much about it because I know many people probably haven't read it yet, but this post-apocolypitic book is remarkable. Written in the rare first-person present tense (I walk, I talk, I see) the tone matches the pace of the book with characters you respect, villains you loathe and an unexpected and surprising plot. Book two is the perfect mix of foreshadowing and predictability to allow you to be punched in the gut when Collins delivers the twist you never see coming.

6. Graceling by Kristin Cashore -- This standalone book (the only on the list) will soon have a partner (Fire is slated for an October 5 release) and I hope Cashore's sophomore attempt doesn't disappoint. Featuring a strong female protagonist and her heartwarming and mischevious male counterpart, I'm excited for my re-read of Graceling before Fire's release.

7. The Looking Glass Wars and Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor -- Another re-read is in my future with this duo as Beddor will add Arch Enemy to his collection on October 15. This creative duo, a re-telling of Alice in Wonderland, is full of high-tech political intrigue, murder, rebellion and one of my favorite literary characters ever... Dodge Anders. I love him I love him I love him.

Certainly there are more, and I'll revisit old favorites in the down time between new books, but with lots of pending new releases, so much growth in this genre, and some real gems coming out of the masses, our inner geeks are certain to be satisfied with literary fodder for years to come.