Bayou Bytes Blog

Courtesy of goodreads.com I will admit, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire  is the third best book in the series.  It also gives me the most anxiety.  I tear through the other books, not being able to put them down until I triumphantly finish and then throw it aside to militantly start the next book; this one usually takes me about two weeks to read.  I obsessively read through the beginning and then trickle down to a couple of chapters a day, and then, at the end, I am putting the book down every few pages to reel from the shock (the shock which never gets old.)  By the time I am finished with the book, I am stunned all over again. Why?  Goblet of Fire  is perhaps the most critical book in the series. It not only signals a shift in the narrative, but also a shift in Rowling's writing style. The narrative is darker, most complex, with more twists and turns. Rowling's writing is more mature, more detailed, and her crafted plot twists and characte...

Courtesy of goodreads.com There is a character in every successful series that pulls at your heartstrings in a way that no other character does.  That character will have the love, admiration, and adoration of the readers.  There are several of these characters in the Harry Potter  series, but none quite wooed the audience like Sirius Black.  A bad boy with a heart of gold, a dog with unending loyalty, and the fortitude to stand up for what's right no matter the consequences to himself; this is Sirius Black and readers met him for the first time in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.   The third book in the series, Prisoner  is, without a doubt, one of the two best books in the series (the other being Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which we will be reading about soon!)   Prisoner  introduces us to new characters, new magic, new places, and begins to crack open the larger story line arc of the series.  It gives us a history ...

Courtesy of goodreads.com By the time Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets  arrived on the scene in 1998, the formerly unsure readers were ready.  The book skyrocketed to the top spot in bestsellers in both the UK and the USA; Rowling became the first author to win the British Book Awards Best Children's Book of the Year two years in a row ( Philosopher's Stone  winning her first award); and Harry Potter fever was officially here to stay.  Movie rumors were being confirmed and, arguably the sign of a great book, people were challenging the series, due to witchcraft.  However, no amount of protests could slow the rampant Harry Potter craze. The beginning of  Chamber of Secrets  finds Harry miserable and lonely with his Muggle relations.  A series of mishaps later (a flying car! a mysterious elf! a tree that fights back!), Harry, along with his friends, are back off to Hogwarts.  They endure tougher classes, dive deeper into the hist...

A good book is an escape.  It is a teacher.  It is a gateway to the corners of our imaginations that we never knew even existed.  A good book twists our mind, reshapes it, imprinting itself on us in ways that we would have never been open to otherwise.  A good book makes you want more.  Very very rarely do you get six more.  And yet, that is what British author, J.K. Rowling did for us.  She wrote not just one good book, but seven.  Literature and lives were changed.  The seven book journey of a boy and the fight between good and evil resonated with everyone.  That's why, during the month of July, Harry Potter's birthday month, I will be reviewing all seven books, the good, the bad, and the magical.  Rowling ushered my generation into a world of imagination and magic, during a time where we were awkward (preteen years are NO fun) and life seemed to be getting more stressful by the minute.  The Harry Potter  books mean so m...

There is something to be said for reading books that are not the most currently published.  You pick up a book, read it, LOVE it, and then wonder 'Where was I when this came out?!'  You then start to wonder what else you're missing out on: next thing you know, you have spent hours looking for books by that author and then checking out others that are similar to that book.  You have embarked on a whole new literary journey.   Death: A Life  is that book.  I was laughing until tears ran down my face, was fascinated by the underlying facts throughout the book, and was overall delighted. Courtesy of goodreads.com Published in 2008 to apparently no fanfare, Death: A Life is everything you could possibly want from a satirical novel.  It is simply the autobiography of Death.  Born to neglectful parents, Satan and Sin, Death has a sub par childhood in his home, Hell.  His family eventually emigrates to Earth, where they proceed to help usher...

Author Neil Gaiman, courtesy of The New Yorker “Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds... Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.” It is hard to describe English author, Neil Gaiman. He knew he would be an author when he was a child; he fanboys over Ray Bradbury; he is a beekeeper.  He is also is an award winning author (I lost count after 75) and has had several books conquer the bestseller list.  Gaiman cannot be pigeonholed into a single genre; he has written fantasy ( Stardust ), comedy ( Good Omens , with late author, Terry Pratchett), graphic novels, collections of short stories ( Trigger Warnings is his newest book, published February 2015), children's books (some of the books lovingly referred to as "Kid Goth" ), sc...

Courtesy of goodreads.com Literary critics are always looking for the next big novel; they're looking for the next Scarlet Letter , the next Great Expectations,  the next To Kill a Mockingbird , even the next Harry Potter series.  Yet, it appears that critics are missing the point of literature.  They look for the weird factor, the shock factor in your face, the factor that makes a novel seem edgy and hip.  However, edgy is not always what a novel needs.  A classic is supposed to capture the feeling of the moment, to reveal to an audience a timeless concept, to resemble life and human error and triumph.  A masterpiece novel is supposed to make you think, to make you feel, to stay with you long after you have put the book down.  A reader will learn something without even realizing it; you will be slightly uncomfortable, but the pull of finishing the story is too great to ignore.   The Art of Fielding  (2011) will make you slightly uncomfor...