DWD's Reviews

  Originally published in 2007. Audiobook re-mastered and re-published in 2015 by Pottermore Publishing. Read by Jim Dale. Duration 21 hours, 37 minutes. Unabridged. Ten months ago I started to listen to the Harry Potter books. I had never read them before and only watched the first movie so I came to the party quite late. But, now I have finished the series. What did I think? The series is quite good. There are plenty of great themes and memorable themes throughout. It is well worth the time to read (or listen, like I did). The last book is an up and down affair. It certainly drags in the middle of the book. This was the part I heard my oldest daughter complaining about years ago when she said it was just three people sitting in the middle of a field talking for way too long. I agree. But, the book does bring the series to a satisfying conclusion with plenty of surprises (that I will not reveal).  So, in the interest of not providing any spoilers, I will just say that I rate this book

  Originally published in 2009. Published by Pottermore Publishing in 2015. Read by Jim Dale. Duration: 18 hours, 32 minutes. Unabridged. The Half-Blood Prince is the book that one of my daughters complained about several years ago when she read it. She said it was too much talking and not enough action. Certainly when compared to the previous two books, there is a lot less action and a whole lot more talking. Rowlings changed up the narrative and tells the back story of the villain of the series, Lord Voldemort, by way of an investigation by Dumbledore and Harry. The pace is certainly slower, but the information was valuable. Perhaps it might have been delivered differently, but I was glad to have it.  The last two hours of the audiobook were full of nothing but action and consequential moments.  Jim Dale continued to do a great job with the book, with the exception of the voice of Hermione.  This is my favorite cover of the entire series. Once you get done with the book you can see

  Originally published in 2003. Published by Pottermore Publishing. Read by Jim Dale. Duration: 26 hours, 29 minutes. Unabridged. Harry Potter has verified that the Lord Voldemort has returned - but the Ministry of Magic (the UK government for the Wizarding World) officially denies it. A team of wizards and witches have secretly formed a group called The Order of the Phoenix featuring a mixture of characters from the other books. Their purpose is to protect Harry Potter and try to figure out what Voldemort intends to do next.  At Hogwarts, things are going poorly. The Ministry of Magic has created a new position (the High Inquisitor) and her job is to root out anyone who disagrees with the official Ministry of Magic position on Lord Voldemort (meaning that he has not returned) and end the independent nature of the Hogwarts teaching staff.  The reader, Jim Dale Jim Dale's reading is always a mixed bag for me because his characterization of Hermione Granger comes off as whiny and ann

  Originally published in 2000. Read by Jim Dale. Duration: 20 hours, 37 minutes. Unabridged. Jim Dale I am continuing my first time read (technically a listen) of the Harry Potter series 20 years after the fact. Rather than go through the plot of the book, I am going to skip to my review. The fourth installment of this book is best so far. A slow start builds up to a tremendous ending. I have been pretty critical of Jim Dale's performance in this series up until now. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire  Jim Dale nails it. As it goes along he gets better and better. His reading of the scene where Harry looks into Dumbledore's pensieve is absolutely riveting. This is the book where the Harry Potter series makes a turn from being a bunch of cute kid's books. For example, grown-up topics like racism are dealt with. Racism is actually dealt with in 3 different ways - with the House Elves, Giants and the topic of pure blood wizards. I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It

Originally Published in 1999. This audio edition published by Pottermore in 2015. Read by Jim Dale Duration: 11 hours, 49 minutes. Unabridged I am 21 years late to the Harry Potter party. I had seen the first movie and some of the second one but I knew nothing of this novel so I was able to come to it without having already formed any sort of impression. The first part of this book disappointed me. The tried and true plot points of the first two novels were brought back (Harry and his horrible muggle family, yet another shopping trip for school supplies, a new super-fast broom was being sold, and a focus on the strange candy.  The monster books that were actually monsters themselves probably delight children (and it is a children's book so that it is appropriate), but this middle-aged teacher kept wondering what is wrong with the administration at Hogwarts when they let a teacher order a book like that! A little past the halfway point, the novel takes a darker turn. This was a w

This book was originally published on paper in 1998. Re-mastered audiobook version published in 2015 by Pottermore Publishing. Read by Jim Dale. Duration: 9 hours, 3 minutes. Unabridged. Harry Potter returns for his second year at Hogwarts. Volume 2 follows a similar pattern as the first one in that we begin with Harry enduring a summer with his horrible muggle (non-magical) family, going off to Diagon Alley to shop for back-to-school shopping and then having an eventful trip to school with his supplies. We hear about his classes, quidditch, his teachers, his friends and some foul goings on at the school that threaten everything. But, there are plenty of differences and that make this book much more enjoyable than the first book. There is much less macro "world building" going on because the general parameters have already been set. Instead, interesting details are fleshed out. For me, as an adult first-time reader, the relationship between those who can do magic and

Originally published on paper in 1997 by Scholastic. Originally published as an audiobook in 1999. Published in 2015 by Pottermore. Read by Jim Dale. Duration: 8 hours, 18 minutes. Unabridged. Truth time. This was my first time with the book form of Harry Potter. I'd seen the first movie and maybe the second, but never actually read or listened to any of them. This is a big deal for me because I am generally a fan of the wonderful world of nerd stuff.  I will dispense with the plot stuff since just about everybody, even me, knew the bare outline - orphaned wizard boy with no friends and hated by his relatives that took him in, special magic school, Quidditch, and a creepy bad guy that killed the boy's parents. So, what did I think? This book is so adored and so talked up that it couldn't possibly live up to the hype. But, I liked it. I am looking forward to the other books. It is my understanding that they get more complicated and I certainly don't know the plots