Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group

This month (and next) we're discussing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows so please head on over and add your tuppence or two cents' worth - that's assuming you're not already all talked-out about this one...

The Edge of the Forest Volume II - Summer issue

The summer issue of The Edge of the Forest is finally up. It has many exciting features for you, as well as interviews, reviews, and much, much more. In short, here's what's in store this month:

• An interview with Linda Buckley-Archer, by um, me.


• Pam Coughlan interviews herself about the 48 Hour Book Challenge.


• Allie (Little Willow) discusses Brotherhood 2.0 in Nerd Fighters, Unite! and profiles illustrator Peter Reynolds.


• Kim Winters talks to Brenda Ferber and her blogging children, Faith and Sammy, in our rare Blogging Writer 2 column, and talks to Sammy and Faith about books and reading and What's in their Backpacks?


• Kelly Fineman interviews Greg Fishbone in our Blogging Writer 1 feature.


• Reviews in all categories—from Picture book to Young Adult. This month there are tons of reviews.


• Don't forget to subscribe to The Edge of the Forest with our Subscribe feature. Just enter your name and e-mail address and you'll receive notification when each new issue is published.


• We've added an interview archive for your convenience.
  

The Edge of the Forest will return September 10.

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Just before ye hasten away to read it, don't forget the very spoilerific discussion of Harry Potter 7 will start tomorrow over on the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone - everyone's welcome to join in, so see you there...

Now ye may hasten away to The Edge of the Forest !

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J K Rowling

No, this is not a review - I'm saving that for the forthcoming HP7 discussion over on the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone in early August.

I have finished it though. It took me around seven hours in total - and I'm actually relieved to say I enjoyed it. I wasn't sure I would as I'd been resenting the prospect of reading it so much since rading it would be taking me out of the Whoniverse for several hours - the longest period I've spent *out* of the Whoniverse since I became immersed in it back in January. But once I started reading, the story tugged me along...

It was interesting reading this book from a fiction writer's point of view. This is the first HP book I've read since I began writing fiction myself and it was intriguing. I think I've mentioned here before that I have the facility to read on more than one level at the same time: I read as a child - wanting to get to the end of the story, hoping for a good ending, and I also read as a "critic" - looking at the structure, themes, language style, etc. And since I took up writing fiction I've been reading books at the level of someone who's also producing fiction - it's given me an extra awareness that I didn't possess when reading as a critic - sometimes that merely means thinking "Hmm, not sure I'd have written/structured that like that..." Sometimes it means a flare of admiring envy at the way something has been expressed and the desire to have that kind of mastery myself.

What it means for my reading of Harry Potter is that I've an extra appreciation of how bloody hard it is to tie up all the loose ends of a seven book series in a satisfying way that also gives readers at least a half-way decent story. And I think Rowling achieved that in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Oh and I don't totally hate the children's cover any longer - I still prefer the adult one, though ! But seeing it on book it seemed a little less morbid than in the photos (go figure !) And now that I know to what the UK cover relates, I'm impressed that it actually *fits* the story so well !

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - cover art revealed

The Times has today revealed the cover art for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - children's edition and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - adult edition from Bloomsbury. I have to say, I prefer the adult one this time around. I don't know who's drawn the children's cover (the article doesn't say) but I find it unappealing. However, since I have all the other books in the children's editions I will buy this one not the adult one, which features the rather nice Slytherin locket that's believed to be a Horcrux. I'm also slightly alarmed by the black borders on the children's cover - that doesn't bode well - and yes, I know we knew there'd be deaths, but...