Night Circus

Beautifully written and easy to get into, night circus has a level of fascination comparable to the Harry Potter series. Although I was not able to read enough to find out what happens with the weird circus challenge, but the story made me totally engulfed in the magic and the mystery only 100 pages in. A the vivid imagery that the author creates puts me right in the room, in the shoes of the characters, apart of the scene, hidden like a fly on the wall. Magic is a fascination of mine, one similar to that of spirits, something I want to believe in but haven't had the opportunity or event happen that would convince me 100%. To hear a different side of the "wizarding world", one us normal folk are used to seeing, is an interesting twist on the old stories and shows.

The Hobbit

What an unfortunate adventure, again and again narrowly defeated by monsters, captured multiple times by different creatures, luck is not with this group of goblins and the hobbit.

I have heard many stories about the hobbit, and The Lord of the rings, never reading any of the books. References are made all of the time to the characters, their instruments of choice and the adventures they embark in, but they of course never made any sense to me until now. I have to say I'm not sure if I'm impressed, I guess "fantasy" is not necessarily my favorite. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of fantasy, after all I want to be a makeup artist and creature creator, which is technically a fantasy occupation (confusing I know.).

Out of the hobbit, I found many references to society, the different world-views of the characters, and even the growth of the protagonist from common content hobbit to the adventurous strong hobbit.

In terms of the book itself, it was easy to understand ( difficult to keep up with all of the names) and fluid in writing. It is a book I probably should have read in middle school when everyone else did, but I guess I was more of a Harry potter middle schooler.

Black Maria

So I'm confused.

I have read about 50 pages in (regrettably not the whole book, although I would love to finish all of the books you have suggested. ) and I have not yet found the purpose of the novel. From here I can guess it is about a ghost and the weird occurrences of this small town. Everything is very calm, too perfect almost. The reading is simple, very easy to understand and a fast story to get sucked into. The book has a long intro and explanation that takes a while to get into what the books story is really about.

After review with my peers, the book would probably begin to make sense if I had only read a few more pages. I had no idea this book was all about witches until the topic came up in class, but that does explain the weird occurrences and weird atmosphere.

Unfortunately I need to finish the book to give a better review, so there will be a follow up posting with my updated understanding.