Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

It just gets better and better. We start out with Harry fighting off 2 dementors and getting into trouble for practicing magic outside of school. Dumbledore is removed for his office as Hogwarts headmaster and replaced by Umbridge. Harry discovers he can feel what Voldemort is feeling. The Daily Prophet has the wizarding community divided as to whether or not he's crazy. We find that Neville Longbottom may be the chosen one as well. And the lost prophecy says that Voldemort and Harry cannot both live. One must kill the other. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND EXCITING STORY. Cannot wait for year 6.

A note on folks who try to ban these books....wow. It's just a fairy tale. It is not teaching children magic. It is giving them a wonderful, imaginative world in which to escape. How terrible and boring my childhood would have been if I had not experienced CInderella or Snow white. How wonderful my life is now while I am able to escape into the world of Harry Potter.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Wow. The story of Harry's 4th year at Hogwarts and he is thrust into a tournament he is not old enough to enter. At the end, Voldemort kidnaps him and steals his blood to become whole again. We find out for certain that Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater as well as a few others. Cedric Diggory is killed. Naturally I was hungry for the 5th year. What an incredible writer JK Rowling is!! Kudos!!

Memoirs of a Geisha

Strangely enthralling. I went into the book thinking it was a true story. I kept rooting for Sayuri to get her man, in this case, become the mistress of the object of her affections. When it appeared that everything was working out the way I had expected it to, I became suspicious. Never the less, I loved the story of this girl's life. What a difficult life it was! Being a geisha is not the glamorous life I had imagined. Quite to the contrary, I found that most of the girls live in near slavery conditions until it is determined they become geisha. Or not. I found I had a difficult time imagining Kyoto as being a lovely town/area/district. I kept imagining clapboard houses and dark tea houses.

Most of the war was skipped by. Sayuri was sent to live outside Kyoto for a time and became nearly unrecognizable. When she returned, naturally nothing was as it had been. It was a beautiful story, one that has left a mark on me. A book I may not be able or inclined to give up.