Amy

I am continuing to find that the Harry Potter works are extremely well written and enjoyable stories, but I am not yet finding reason to be as utterly obsessed with them as much of the rest of the world seems to be. The lasting thought at the end of this book for me was, all of this could have been avoided if you had just told a trusted adult when strange things started happening. This was particularly true for me when Dumbledore directly asked Harry if he had anything to tell him, and Harry just said no. Tell Dumbledore! I realize this is the trope in a lot of children's and young adult books, and there wouldn't have been a book without it, but I personally find that frustrating. I also really found the unpleasantness in the book to be unpleasant, such as the overall existence of the Dursley family and Professor Lockhart. My favorite aspects are the friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione and particularly the humor that comes through Ron.

As I continue my introductory journey through Harry Potter, I continue to be appreciative of the compelling writing and excellent characters. It is also very revealing to me of what interests me most in books, which is character development and relationships, much more than plot, so I am not very excited by the constant peril of the books. I also find, so far at least, that the plots follow a pretty consistent formula: Harry's miserable summer with the Dursleys, adventures in Daigon Alley, adventures getting to Hogwarts, introduction to this year's classes, struggles with teachers, a few Quidditch matches, and then DANGER, with a wink-wink from Dumbledore, who always seems to actually know what's going on but leaves it to Harry and his friends to take care of it.

On that note, I think it's interesting to examine Dumbledore from the perspective of an educator. As an adult reading these books, it has sort of bothered me that Dumbledore leaves his students to take on these potentially deadly situations, especially when it seems like he knows what's going on. But when I think about it more, I know that as an educator myself, I'm often trying to give my students the space to try things out and learn for themselves without my always stepping in to fix things. That's a perspective I want to keep in mind as I continue with the series.

I've read and loved the rest of the books in the Thursday Next series, but somehow in my earlier readings of the series, I never made it all the way to this one. And starting out, I really didn't think I was going to like it – I thought that Fforde had jumped the shark a bit. But as usual, the further along I made it into the book and the more absorbed into the Nextian universe, the more I enjoyed it. I wouldn't say this is my favorite in the series, but I ended up liking it much more than expected.

However, one of my favorite things about this series is the world-building that Fforde has done, and there were a number of inconsistencies from previous books that threw me off. For example, in First Among Sequels, a major plot point is that Friday wants to prevent the invention of time travel. Then in this book, the dis-invention of time travel is presented as more of a mistake from another time traveler. It's almost as if Fforde regretted that he wrote out the ChronoGuard, so he reinvented his own book's history to make up for it. In addition, my favorite of the Thursday Next books are the ones that involve both the Outland and the BookWorld, so I also was missing the BookWorld in this one.

Whenever I start a Charles Dickens book, I get bogged down in the first few chapters. But I always slog my way through, because I end up immersed in the book and thoroughly enjoying it. This was again the case with Little Dorrit. Many characters were introduced early in the book, and I did not understand what role they would play. Each one ended up being critical to the overarching plot of the story. Little Dorrit and Arthur Clennam are lovely central characters, good-hearted and mostly hopeful among the clueless, callous, and downright cruel others who surround their lives.

I was certainly drawn to this book by its title. And even the premise, of a girl who can taste people's emotions in the food they prepare. The book is beautifully written and engrossing. But it is a strange to the point of confusing and a bit disturbing to me. And although the plot was unique, I didn't connect much with the characters. Interesting, but not my cup of tea (or slice of cake).