Author |
Message |
Beth4freedom
Member
10-24-2003
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 1:07 pm
Thanks for sharing, Rissa. You asked: "Is anything stressfull happening in your real life Beth?" Well, on July 15th, my 92-yr-old father blacked out for unknown reasons and lay on the garage floor for 20 hours before being found. I am primary caregiver, and am trying to figure out how to (1) get him to wear an alert necklace and (harder still, #2) get him not to drive anymore (I don't think I am going to win this one; he lives in a rural setting and is "Mr. Independence".) He is slated to go to the heart specialist next week; I definitely see a downward "shift" toward the end of his life in this latest episode, although probably not right away. In the meantime, my brother ended up in the hospital for emergency heart surgery and the rest of my blood family went away on vacation! Very unsupported in a fragile situation. I have "bagged" the book (put in in an opaque wrapper....it's amazing how we can be drawn to what isn't good for us. I had so looked forward to this as a great escape, but it sure isn't working. So, I have 2 questions for people, one of which I will move elsewhere when I find the energy: 1.) Any recommendations from anyone for a book that might work a lot better for me at this time? 2.) This is the one I will move: Has anyone here had experience with the emergency alert necklaces and reluctant relatives who should wear them? Thanks, Happy Pottering to all...
|
Rissa
Member
03-20-2006
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 1:20 pm
I am so sorry Beth!! My dad wears a medical information bracelet but refuses the alert option as well. I guess all you can do is try to look at it from his side and he sees it as a quality of life issue. How is your brother doing?It certainly explains why the book is affecting you as it is. Will try to think of some light-hearted reading for you.
|
Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 2:46 pm
I'm sorry to hear that you are having such a rough time Beth. As you know we have many areas of the board where people talk and help each other with these sorts of issues. You might want to try posting your question about Emergency Alert Necklaces in the CAREGIVERS RESPITE ROOM - Parenting Our Aging Parents... thread in the Caring Place Section of the board. For recommendations for books you might want to try the Recommendation thread in The Library Section (the section we are in).
CAREGIVERS RESPITE ROOM - Parenting Our Aging Parents...
The Library: Recommendations That way you may be able to find more people that can help you with your questions, rather than just us Harry Potter fans. Just to get back on topic, as far as Harry Potter goes, this book is dark but I don't think it is hugely darker than the previous two books.
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 3:33 pm
Who was hoping for an encyclopedia????? HP Encyclopedia! Warning if by some chance those here haven't finished the book and don't want spoilers...the article does have some!
|
Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 3:35 pm
Oh, let me add, she says she won't be writing it tomorrow. She does talk about the character who was supposed to die but didn't.
|
Scotchbright
Member
10-05-2006
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 3:53 pm
Thank you Wargod! Just reading the article gave me goosebumps! I'm glad she cleared up the character who got the reprieve - and I agree that the scene where Harry and his parents, Sirius and Lupin walk in the forest gave me chills! I'm glad she'll write something more to flesh out more details someday - hurray!
|
Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 4:15 pm
Great article Wargod! Thanks so much for posting the link to it. There is so much fun stuff out there. I love to read but I never imagined that I would ever see so many people (and young people as well) having so much fun out of a book! Fantaastic!
|
Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 4:34 pm
Beth -- get thee to a library and check out ANY book by Laurie Notaro. She is hysterically funny, and the books are basically compilations of her newspaper columns, so they can be picked up/put down anywhere along the way. Her books include: The Idiot Girl's Action Adventure Club, Autobiography of a Fat Bride, I Love Everyone (and Other Atrocious Lies), We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive, Theres a (Slight) Change You Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble, and An Idiot Girl's Christmas: True Tales from the Top of the Naughty List. These are my "stress buster" books when I don't want to think and desperately need to smile. 
|
Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 5:22 pm
NEW YORK - The numbers are new, the story old: No book has sold like “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Bloomsbury PLC, the British publisher of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series, announced Monday that the seventh and final volume sold a record 2.65 million copies in the United Kingdom in the first 24 hours. The previous high was for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which sold 2 million in its first day of release, in 2005. In the United States, Barnes & Noble, Inc. also reported all-time sales, saying Monday that 1.8 million copies were purchased in the first two days, including 560,000 in the first hour, a rate of more than 150 copies per second. The audiobook is a record breaker, too: 225,000 copies in the first two days, according to Random House Audio’s Listening Library ..... Link
|
Iheartkaysar
Member
08-16-2005
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 9:33 pm
Re: why pure-bloods would follow Voldemort despite his not being pure-blood-- why did so many support Hitler and his belief in an Aryan race when he did not even fit his own definition of perfection? I'm not being sarcastic, just philosophical. People support power; it's not always logical. I loved that in the end, Narcissa Malfoy protected her son, giving her more in common with muggle-born Lily Evans than with Voldemort.
|
Nickovtyme
Member
07-29-2004
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 10:36 pm
I finished it tonight. I couldn't put it down...so much going on in the last few chapters. I loved how an Army of regular people, who were tired of the way things were going, showed up to fight in the battle...awesome.
|
Beth4freedom
Member
10-24-2003
| Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 11:01 pm
Just a quick thank you to Jimmer for providing the personal links above for me...made it much easier. Strangely, although I can't seem to handle the book right now, I still actually like reading all the spoilers. I can get the information without the emotional intensity.
|
Weinermr
Member
08-18-2001
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 12:37 am
Great great book. I'm sorry it's over. Though some might have wanted the length trimmed, I kept wanting more, as I got ever closer to the last pages. We all have our own things that touch us emotionally and put us over the edge. The part that did it for me was finding out that Snape was in love with Lily, and spent the rest of his life, in fact sacrificed his life for Lily's son. Wow. I never saw that one coming. Maybe others did. I was hoping that Snape would turn out to be good in the end, but I always assumed it was because of some kind of allegiance or debt to Dumbledore. Of all the things that touched me in the 7 books, this is the part that will stay with me forever. The book isn't perfect. Nothing is. But Joanne Rowling is a genius.
|
Dlkuhn4
Member
07-14-2002
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 12:40 am
I loved it but I to want more. The scene that made me cry like a baby was when Harry was going in the forest and he was talking to with his Mom.
|
Dolphinschild
Member
06-22-2006
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 1:04 am
My reading is slow going, but I finally reached chapter 17 tonight. WOW how they fly by. I thought I was only on Chapter 11, then I looked and it was Seventeen! I want to stay up and keep reading, but I need to get some sleep. Body is not appreciating the neglect this last week. *sigh* I enjoy reading everyones posts and I am EXCITED about the Pending Ensyclopedia! Whoo hoo. Beth it is totally understandable the need to avoid emotional things right now. I wear my heart on my sleeve so I cry easily. I always found reading the garfield books to help me when I felt the need to read and a good laugh. I don't know if your into stuff like that. Best wishes to you and your family! HUGS... Good night all... Til the next.
|
Spygirl
Board Administrator
04-23-2001
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 3:23 am
I finally finished the book last night! I have avoided radio, television, and the Internet almost entirely until I finished so I would not be spoiled. I hadn't even read one shred of speculation about this book beforehand. That made reading it absolutely exciting and nerve-wrecking!! I tend not to display much foresight when reading and instead let the story unfold before me. That is helpful because I am always surprised and enthralled with the events as they come. At the same time, the really emotional storylines are much more gripping. Even still, I was convinced less than 1/2 way through that Harry was going to die and I tried to prepare myself...especially after I spent an hour crying over the loss of Hedwig. And Dobby's death. That was a wee more than an hour. That's the point when I realized just how different Harry was from the other wizards. He is truly a representation of good and self-lessness in the face of the worst kind of evil. Snape. His love for Lily was one of the most magical parts of the book. His Patronus was even a doe! He sacrificed his entire life for Harry out of his love for his mother. Learning that he chose to endure and witness such horrible things (like the murder of the professor in the beginning) to reach the overall goal is even more a testament to his goodness. It might seem wrong that he did not intervene, but acting on behalf of 1 person would have cost the lives of everyone. Again, the phrase of "for the overall good" applies. Anything related to babies was almost too painful for me to read this time since I have an infant son. Imagining him having to grow up without ever knowing me...having to sleep under someone's stairs and worry about having any food...which brings me to my only complaint. Tonks acted in the most selfish way by charging into the battle, determined to find Remus, while leaving Teddy alone. One parent should have stayed behind for him, whether they liked it or not. Her death was unnecessary and a frivolous loss - at her own hands. Teddy needed one of his parents. Pulling that back to Rowlings and the Potter story, I get that she wanted Harry to be a godfather. I just thing it was rather inconsistent, character-wise, to have Tonks act with such disregard and selfishness in order to make that happen. That's all I've got for now. My little guy is back to sleep so I am heading there, too.
|
Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 7:33 am
I'm reading while in training class and yesterday I got to the part about Doby. Omg it took all of my will not to start bawling at my desk. I was blinking so much it's a wonder no one asked if something was wrong.
|
Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 7:47 am
I finished the book about 25 minutes after midnight today. Cannot say how much I cried.
|
Scout
Member
01-20-2005
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 10:16 am
I finished up the book this morning. I'd been able to successfully avoid the spoilers, too, and was really glad. Best book I've read in a long time. It was great the way she gave answers to questions from throughout the entire story - it's amazing how even little hints of things way back in book one (which a lot of you caught but I totally missed) turned out to be important in the end. So often when I read something with a mystery to it, the answers aren't really all that satisfactory, or there's always a "yeah, but what about.." and something that makes the answer not quite work. I didn't find that to be the case with this ending at all. I think she's a truly gifted writer. I thought the parallels between the systematic round-up of the mudbloods to the Holocaust to be really, really powerful. Rowlings captured that terror very well, the paranoia and fear, going into hiding, etc. Also, the progression of thought of all the characters towards the elves and goblins as they began to see them as equals and fight for their rights and freedom as well. I loved Harry's willingness to sacrifice his own life. He interpreted the meaning of the "for the greater good" so much better than the way it was used before. I thought when the three went to Dumbledore's office at the end and asked the gargoyle if they could go up and he said, "feel free" that there was a lot to those two words. I loved Neville. I loved how hard it was for him at the beginning, how clumsy and awkward and dark-cloud-over-the-head he was, to the sword-wielding hero he became.
|
Prisonerno6
Member
08-31-2002
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 6:45 pm
Enjoyed it. Was it the best book I ever read? No, wasn't even the best in the series in my opinion. I think in the last two books, Rowling relied too much on "tell me" instead of "show me" with the use of the pensieve sort of thing.
|
Nickovtyme
Member
07-29-2004
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 8:38 pm
Here's a couple of things that my wife and I were discussing.... There was always speculation that Nevile may have had his memory altered. There were many moments throughout the series that Neville was protrayed as less than brilliant and perhaps a bit slow. I had hoped that this last book would cover that once and for all...but there was no mention of it at all. I've decided that Neville's memory had never been altered to hide the awful memories of his parents being tortured (as was the basis for the theory)...he just needed some confidence and in the last few books Neville gained the confidence he needed. In fact he became a hero. I loved the scene of the House elves coming to the battle with Kreacher as their leader. I was more sad that Dobby died than for Tonks, Remus or even the Twin.
|
Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 9:37 pm
I just finished it and am still blotting the tears. I think they are tears for this being the end of the series. It's brought me such enjoyment. Tears for all the characters whose lives were lost. Tears for the way they all banded together. Tear for Snape, who I always knew was working for the good of Harry. I'm glad that I wasn't let down.
|
Terolyn
Member
05-06-2004
| Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 6:26 am
Saw an interview this am with JK. A bunch of kids were asking her questions. 2 of them were: a) Is Snape good? No, He is truly a mean spiteful man - if it were not for his love of Lily, he wouldn't have cared what happened to Harry. b) What did Harry, Ron and Hermione end up doing for a living? Ron and Harry totally revamped the Auror ministry and Hermione she believes would be very high up in the regulation of magic dept.
|
Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 7:09 am
Boo boo bee boooo bop bop boo I had to hold back tears again for Fred and when Harry used the stone and his family appeared. I loved that the house elves joined in the fight too. They would be a very powerful ally with their magic. Great series.
|
Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 7:42 am
Just a spoiler line to start. I think there is good and bad in most people. Snape is an interesting character in that respect. He obviously had a very frustrating life. He actually reminds me of a friend of mine. Anyway, although Snape had a lot of frustration and rage within him and acted it out in various negative ways, Snape also had the capacity to feel love and continue to feel it without asking anything in return and ultimately respond positively to that love. (By the way, I am not arguing with JKR's interpretation of the character, which would be rather silly. I don't think what I am suggesting conflicts with what she said.)
|