My sister is sending me Harry Potter observations from work.  I would very much like to reread Order of the Phoenix.  I think it is my favorite of the series, because it has such chapters as "Career Advice" (which I think we both consider to be the best of the series).  And Professor McGonagall is just awesome. 

It drives me insane when someone on a message board says, "I love the Twilight series and Stephenie Meyer.  What are other YA books that you enjoy?" and all the recommendations are for equally bad series (or worse!  The House of Night series is definitely worse).   Where are the recommendations for good YA?

In other news:
We moved in Saturday.  I hate unpacking, so there are still boxes everywhere.  We missed trash day (yesterday) so this stuff has to stay here for another week.

I got my library card today!  Checked out two books (the closest library branch is tiny but very cute) and requested a bunch more.

I like walking, but yesterday was colder than the day before.  Today was warm again, but I may have slightly overdressed.

I'm not catching up on LJ in general tonight.  But I'm extremely excited that Barack Obama is our president-elect.

And while I'm not the biggest fan of Grey's Anatomy, I'm pissed that Brooke Smith was abruptly fired from the show in an attempt by Disney to keep lesbian couples from television.  Apparently she just goes to her car and drives away.

I can't believe I just had this conversation with my sister.And while I'm on the topic: can anyone recommend some presidential fiction for me?  I forgot how obsessed about fictional presidents I can be.  I know about Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife.  Is there anything else?

Also, also, all I've wanted to do the past few days, other than read, has been to watch The West Wing.  Specifically the beginning of season two, and maybe the good season seven Josh/Donna episodes (especially the first part of "Election Day" -- the entire episode except for the sad part at the end).  Maybe I'll eventually find time to watch some.  Or I could bring down my sister's laptop and watch some while I study...

Since I was in the Downtown Crossing Filene's Basement exactly one time, and it was during its "we're closing!" sale, I want to compare the second paragraph at the beginning of chapter three (actually, due to a minor change in a paragrap break, it's the third paragraph in 2008).

1984:
(There's actually a Filene's Basement store not too far from here.  It's across the street from the train we take if we want to get to BWI and avoid some of the driving.)

Currently reading: As Seen on TV by Lucy Grealy, The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White. (Yes, I've invested more than 60 pages into all of them -- the latter two are both really good, but I think I'll be finishing Long May She Reign first because it's a library book.  I have 21 things checked out from the library, including two copies of The President's Daughter.)

I'm rereading The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White.  White wrote a fourth book for this series (which I haven't read yet) and updated the first three for the modern audience in the process (since now we have cell phones, the Internet, and Hill Street Blues is no longer on TV).

The premise of the book is pretty obvious: Meg's mother runs for president, wins, and Meg's life completely changes in the process.  The update I find most intriguing occurs in chapter 3.  White emphasizes that Meg and her friend Beth are not shopping in the Filene's Basement in Downtown Crossing, because Filene's Basement no longer has a store in Downtown Crossing (her mother misses the Filene's Basement in Downtown Crossing).  So the scene must have originally taken place in Filene's Basement, right?  I'm borrowing the original from the library to compare.  Also, Meg reads up on Iraq because she doesn't think she knows enough about the subject, so I want to see what other minor adjustments were made.

The President's Daughter is still a compelling read, even with the new-generational updates, and I'd reread White House Autumn and Long Live the Queen in a second if the library system owned the new versions.  (They don't have White House Autumn at all, and I got rid of my copy last summer.)  I will be reading the new addition to the series, Long May She Reign, very soon.

Oh, and the press secretary went to Smith.

Other books read: Are We There Yet by David Levithan (two brothers are tricked into a trip to Italy by their parents; short, yet very sweet); High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (yes, I've seen the movie but not recently enough that I remembered the plot.  I really enjoyed this, and I'm quickly becoming a fan of Hornby); The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (I was never quite sure of where anyone's loyalties lied -- I guessed, sometimes correctly, but it was still shocking to see the outcome.  I will be reading its sequel, The Queen of Attolia, soon)

I also started reading Gossip Girl the other day.  I'm only two chapters in, but so far I like the TV show better.  Blair has become my fashion inspiration and if I think of her in the morning I wear a headband.

(I was just looking at the spreadsheet I use to keep track of the books I've read--it started as a piece of paper in 2002 but after a few months I digitized it--and there was a point in time where I was clearly rereading the Song of the Lioness books by Tamora Pierce, and I read the first three and then stopped.  I still haven't reread the fourth. Yes, I get into moods.  Oh, and Alanna recently turned 25.)

I've been reading a bunch of vampire-themed YA books recently, and, though not literature in the "will be a classic" sense, they are all much better than the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.  Oh, and they all have human/vampire romance in them.  No one sparkles, and there are actually RULES in these societies!!

This weekend, for example, I read the third and fourth books in the Morganville Vampire series by Rachel Caine.  This series is about a town in Texas that is overrun with vamps -- because they all moved there in an attempt to save their species.  Humans live here, too -- most have Protection, meaning they've sold a bit of their free will to the vamps in order to not be killed in Morganville.  Morganville also has a bottom-tier university, which is how protaganist Claire moves to town.    

Then yesterday I started Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.  This one has new rules -- there are two types of vampires: the Moroi, who breed like humans, and are "good"; and the Strogoi, who are "evil" and can originate as Moroi, human, or Dhampir.  (A Dhampir is a person who is half-Moroi, half-human.)  The Moroi are weak, and have guardian protection to protect themselves from the Strogoi, and both types of vampire need human blood.  Rose (a Dhampir, training to be a guardian) and her best friend Lissa (a Moroi princess) are forced to return to Vampire Academy after running away two years before.  They return to classes, but someone keeps leaving dead animals (ew!) for Lissa, and Rose must Save The Day.

The Morganville Vampires is slightly more chaste than the Vampire Academy series.  In Morganville, there is implied sex between two supporting characters, and it's a bit more explicit at the Academy.  But both series are a lot of fun, even if not Literature. 

And this is the entry I'm giving you instead of telling you how disappointed I was in Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley.  (I have Chalice out from the library right now, and I'm hoping its much better, but I have to finish a new Gail Carson Levine set in the same world as Ella Enchanted called Fairest, and then the second Vampire Academy book.)

Copied from a post I made elsewhere

I've been reading Breaking Dawn reviews all day, and most of them are not very favorable.  I kind of can't wait for it to come in for me at the library because it sounds like it'll be so bad that it's funny.