Amazon.com
Amazon Significant Seven Spotlight Title, September 2007: It’s been 11 years since Junot Díaz’s critically acclaimed story collection, Drown, landed on bookshelves and from page one of his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, any worries of a sophomore jinx disappear. The titular Oscar is a 300-pound-plus “lovesick ghetto nerd” with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is also the story of a multi-generational family curse that courses through the book, leaving troubles and tragedy in its wake. This was the most dynamic, entertaining, and achingly heartfelt novel I’ve read in a long time. My head is still buzzing with the memory of dozens of killer passages that I dog-eared throughout the book. The rope-a-dope narrative is funny, hip, tragic, soulful, and bursting with desire. Make some room for Oscar Wao on your bookshelf–you won’t be disappointed. –Brad Thomas Parsons

From Publishers Weekly
SignatureReviewed by Matthew SharpeAreader might at first be surprised by how many chapters of a book entitled The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are devoted not to its sci fi–and–fantasy-gobbling nerd-hero but to his sister, his mother and his grandfather. However, Junot Diaz’s dark and exuberant first novel makes a compelling case for the multiperspectival view of a life, wherein an individual cannot be known or understood in isolation from the history of his family and his nation.Oscar being a first-generation Dominican-American, the nation in question is really two nations. And Dominicans in this novel being explicitly of mixed Taíno, African and Spanish descent, the very ideas of nationhood and nationality are thoughtfully, subtly complicated. The various nationalities and generations are subtended by the recurring motif of fukú, the Curse and Doom of the New World, whose midwife and… victim was a historical personage Diaz will only call the Admiral, in deference to the belief that uttering his name brings bad luck (hint: he arrived in the New World in 1492 and his initials are CC). By the prologue’s end, it’s clear that this story of one poor guy’s cursed life will also be the story of how 500 years of historical and familial bad luck shape the destiny of its fat, sad, smart, lovable and short-lived protagonist. The book’s pervasive sense of doom is offset by a rich and playful prose that embodies its theme of multiple nations, cultures and languages, often shifting in a single sentence from English to Spanish, from Victorian formality to Negropolitan vernacular, from Homeric epithet to dirty bilingual insult. Even the presumed reader shape-shifts in the estimation of its in-your-face narrator, who addresses us variously as folks, you folks, conspiracy-minded-fools, Negro, Nigger and plataneros. So while Diaz assumes in his reader the same considerable degree of multicultural erudition he himself possesses—offering no gloss on his many un-italicized Spanish words and expressions (thus beautifully dramatizing how linguistic borders, like national ones, are porous), or on his plethora of genre and canonical literary allusions—he does helpfully footnote aspects of Dominican history, especially those concerning the bloody 30-year reign of President Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. The later Oscar chapters lack the linguistic brio of the others, and there are exposition-clogged passages that read like summaries of a longer narrative, but mostly this fierce, funny, tragic book is just what a reader would have hoped for in a novel by Junot Diaz.Matthew Sharpe is the author of the novels Jamestown and The Sleeping Father. He teaches at Wesleyan University.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post’s Book World/washingtonpost.com
Reviewed by Jabari Asim

Nowadays, there may be Hmong in Madison and Somalis in St. Paul, but some of us still have trouble keeping up with all the intense cultural mixing and melting going on amid our purple-mountained majesty. For example, mention the Dominicans among us to the average Tom, Dick or Andy Rooney, and he’s liable to speak of a mythical Shortstop Island from which wing-footed infielders plot their takeover of America’s pastime. As for the Dominican Republic’s history, imports, exports, that sort of thing? Well, its national baseball team is one of the best in the world, right? Or is that Venezuela?

Junot Díaz has the cure for such woeful myopia. The Dominican Republic he portrays in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a wild, beautiful, dangerous and contradictory place, both hopelessly impoverished and impossibly rich. Not so different, perhaps, from anyone else’s ancestral homeland, but Díaz’s weirdly wonderful novel illustrates the island’s uniquely powerful hold on Dominicans wherever they may wander — a borderless anxiety zone that James Baldwin would describe as “the anguished diaspora.”

Thus, that nation’s bloody history, often detailed in Díaz’s irreverent footnotes, intrudes periodically in Oscar Wao, as if to remind Dominicans that tragedy is never far from one’s doorstep. Or maybe it emerges simply to instruct the rest of us, because Díaz’s characters are already painfully certain that they are destined for misfortune. Or, more precisely, cursed.

Fukú americanus, Díaz explains, is “generally a curse or a doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and the Doom of the New World.” It seems especially contagious and deadly in the Dominican Republic, where “it is believed that the arrival of Europeans on Hispaniola unleashed the fukú on the world.” How exotic. How ominous-sounding. How very similar to the pet profanity of New Yorkers from Staten Island to the Bronx. But the tale begins in Santo Domingo, where “a story is not a story unless it casts a supernatural shadow.” It revolves around several generations of one Dominican family, of which young Oscar de León, a depressed, overweight substitute teacher, is among the youngest descendants. The clan’s patriarch, a brilliant doctor named Abelard Luis Cabral, came down with an ultimately fatal case of fukú back in 1946, having run afoul of the malady’s high priest.

That would be Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, the tyrannical sadist who bedeviled his fellow Dominicans for more than three blood-drenched decades. Naturally, his terror-mongering casts a large, threatening shadow over much of the novel’s action.

Abelard’s fukú apparently becomes part of his family’s DNA, traveling through time and blood cells to infect his grandson. (“Oscar Wao” is how one of the tormentors of his college years charmingly mutilated “Oscar Wilde,” a derisive nickname young de Leon accepted without protest). In no rush to spill the details of his hero’s short, star-crossed adventures, Díaz maneuvers his plot through various time shifts, settings and narrators. From Santo Domingo to Washington Heights, N.Y., to Paterson, N.J., various generations of de Leons wrestle with fate and lose. Along the way, Díaz liberally sprinkles his pages with allusions to authors, books and especially stories from the science-fiction and fantasy genres to which Oscar is devoted. So don’t be surprised when a discussion of Caesar and Ovid morphs into the Fantastic Four versus Galactus, and Mario Vargas Llosa gets short shrift compared to Jack Kirby, the late, lamented genius of Marvel Comics’s glory years.

Adding to our reading pleasure, Díaz excels at making fun of despots. At the mercy of the author’s machete-sharp wit, Trujillo becomes the Failed Cattle Thief, the Dictatingest Dictator who ever Dictated, the man who was Mobutu before Mobutu was Mobutu. Of Joaquín Balaguer, Trujillo’s successor, he writes, “Like most homunculi he did not marry and left no heirs.” And it’s hard to resist his clever nickname for François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, the madman whose pillaging made a wreck of Haiti: P. Daddy. Clearly a believer that membership has its privileges, Díaz makes cracks about Dominicans that the average Andy Rooney could never get away with. Reflecting on the ebony skin that keeps bubbling up in the de Leon bloodline, Díaz writes, “That’s the kind of culture I belong to: people took their child’s black complexion as an ill omen.” Another character observes, “That’s white people for you. They lose a cat and it’s an all-points bulletin, but we Dominicans, we lose a daughter and we might not even cancel our appointment at the salon.” There’s also the distressing but all-too-credible spectacle of so many dark-skinned Dominicans spitting the word “nigger” more often than Timbaland at a freestyle battle or Harriett Beecher Stowe at her abolitionist best. “No one, alas, more oppressive than the oppressed,” Díaz explains.

But enough about that. As Yunior (one of Díaz’s narrators and a welcome holdover from Drown, his acclaimed story collection) reminds us, “This is supposed to be a true account of the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.”

Obese and socially awkward, Oscar is obsessed with food, girls, role-playing games, girls, anime, girls — you get the picture. Trouble is, female companions remain tantalizingly beyond his grasp, as do all other kinds of companions, who eventually abandon him to his habitual depression. Oscar couldn’t find a pal on the Island of Lost Toys. “You really want to know what being an X-Man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary U.S. ghetto,” Díaz writes. “Mamma mia! Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest.” Does Oscar ever overcome his ungainliness and find romance or a sense of belonging? The brevity of his tale prevents me from telling you much. Although I found the big guy totally sympathetic, he’s often way too stubborn for his own good. In addition, it’s not his fault that nearly every other character holds our interest just as easily — more of a reflection of Díaz’s broad palette than Oscar’s lack of dimension. But Oscar clearly is not intended to function as a hero in the classical sense. Is he meant primarily to symbolize the tangled significance of desire, exile and homecoming? Or is he a 307-lb. warning that only slim guys get the girls? Are we to wring from his ample flesh more of that anguished diaspora stuff? Could be, but I find sufficient meaning in the sheer joy of absorbing Díaz’s sentences, each rolled out with all the nerdy, wordy flair of an audacious imagination and a vocabulary to match. It’s easy to imagine Díaz smiling as he uncorked a description of a woman with “breasts like sunsets trapped beneath her skin” or writing of Trujillo, “Homeboy dominated Santo Domingo like it was his very own private Mordor.”

Díaz pulls it off with the same kind of eggheaded urban eloquence found in the work of Paul Beatty (The White Boy Shuffle), Victor LaValle (Slapboxing with Jesus), Mat Johnson (Drop) and his very own Drown. Geek swagger, baby. Get used to it. Notwithstanding his neological dazzle, he’s anything but longwinded. And he’s patient — maddeningly so. Díaz made us wait 11 years for this first novel and boom! — it’s over just like that. It’s not a bad gambit, to always leave your audience wanting more. So brief and wondrous, this life of Oscar. Wow.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Reviewers agree that Junot D’az’s first novel was well worth the 11-year wait. D’az established his reputation with Drown (1996), a collection of short stories that drew widespread praise. With The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, D’az has cemented his place in the literary stratosphere. He garners admiration for the “slangy and kinetic energy of his prose” (New York Times), as well as for the way he hop scotches between high- and lowbrow culture and ties together Dominican and American history (and the problems therein). Some critics cite a distracting (mysterious) narrator, too many digressions, and a difficult narrative structure. Despite these minor flaws, fans of literary fiction should dive right in.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Díaz’s gutsy short story collection Drown (1996) made the young Dominican American a literary star. Readers who have had to wait a decade for his first novel are now spectacularly rewarded. Paralleling his own experiences growing up in the Dominican Republic and New Jersey, he has choreographed a family saga at once sanguinary and sexy that confronts the horrific brutality at loose during the reign of the dictator Trujillo. Díaz’s besieged characters look to the supernatural for explanations and hope, from fukú, the curse unleashed when Europeans arrived on Hispaniola, to the forces dramatized in the works of science fiction and fantasy so beloved by the chubby ghetto nerd Oscar Wao, the brilliantly realized boy of conscience at the center of this whirlwind tale. Writing in a combustible mix of slang and lyricism, Díaz loops back and forth in time and place, generating sly and lascivious humor in counterpoint to tyranny and sorrow. And his characters—Oscar, the hopeless romantic; Lola, his no-nonsense sister; their heartbroken mother; and the irresistible homeboy narrator—cling to life with the magical strength of superheroes, yet how vibrantly human they are. Propelled by compassion, Díaz’s novel is intrepid and radiant. Seaman, Donna

Review
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a book that speaks in tongues. This long-awaited novel by Junot D’az is a masterpiece about our New World, its myths, curses, and bewitching women. Set in America’s navel, New Jersey, and haunted by the vision of Trujillo’s brutal reign over the Dominican Republic, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is radiant with the hard lives of those who leave and also those who stay behind-it is a rousing hymn about the struggle to defy bone-cracking history with ordinary, and extraordinary, love. (Walter Mosley, author of Devil in a Blue Dress and Cinammon Kiss)

“Funny, street-smart and keenly observed…. An extraordinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose…. A book that decisively establishes [D’az] as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.”
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Terrific… Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references – to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music – as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread.”
-Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly

“Astoundingly great…. You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn’t really be fair. It’s an immigrant-family saga for people who don’t read immigrant-family sagas.”
-Lev Grossman, Time

“Now that D’az’s second book, a novel called The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, has finally arrived, younger writers will find that the bar. And some older writers – we know who we are – might want to think about stepping up their game. Oscar Wao shows a novelist engaged with the culture, high and low, and its polyglot language.”
-David Gates, Newsweek

“In the imagination of many writers it is the untold stories that propel-those vibrant, colorful, magical, historical swirls of humanity that make up our knowing. Junot D’az’s wondrous first novel offers that and more, enchanting us with energetic poetry and offering us a splendid portrait of ordinary folks set against the extraordinary cruel history of the Dominican Republic in the 20th century. Those of us who have for years known and marveled at Mr. D’az’s stories will not be disappointed.”
-Edward P. Jones

Book Description
This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today.

Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ-the curse that has haunted the Oscar’s family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

D’az immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot D’az as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.

About the Author
Junot D’az’s fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The Best American Short Stories. His debut story collection, Drown, was a publishing sensation of unprecedented acclaim, became a national bestseller, won numerous awards, and is now a landmark of contemporary literature. He was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and now lives in New York City and Boston, where he teaches at MIT.

Amazon.com
Readers beware. The brilliant, breathtaking conclusion to J.K. Rowling’s spellbinding series is not for the faint of heart–such revelations, battles, and betrayals await in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that no fan will make it to the end unscathed. Luckily, Rowling has prepped loyal readers for the end of her series by doling out increasingly dark and dangerous tales of magic and mystery, shot through with lessons about honor and contempt, love and loss, and right and wrong. Fear not, you will find no spoilers in our review–to tell the plot would ruin the journey, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is an odyssey the likes of which Rowling’s fans have not yet seen, and are not likely to forget. But we would be remiss if we did not offer one small suggestion before you embark on your final adventure with Harry–bring plenty of tissues.

The heart of Book 7 is a hero’s mission–not just in Harry’s quest for the Horcruxes, but in his journey from boy to man–and Harry faces more danger than that found in all six books combined, from the direct threat of the Death Eaters and you-know-who, to the subtle perils of losing faith in himself. Attentive readers would do well to remember Dumbledore’s warning about making the choice between “what is right and what is easy,” and know that Rowling applies the same difficult principle to the conclusion of her series. While fans will find the answers to hotly speculated questions about Dumbledore, Snape, and you-know-who, it is a testament to Rowling’s skill as a storyteller that even the most astute and careful reader will be taken by surprise.

A spectacular finish to a phenomenal series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a bittersweet read for fans. The journey is hard, filled with events both tragic and triumphant, the battlefield littered with the bodies of the dearest and despised, but the final chapter is as brilliant and blinding as a phoenix’s flame, and fans and skeptics alike will emerge from the confines of the story with full but heavy hearts, giddy and grateful for the experience. –Daphne Durham

Begin at the Beginning

Why We Love Harry
Favorite Moments from the Series
There are plenty of reasons to love Rowling’s wildly popular series–no doubt you have several dozen of your own. Our list features favorite moments, characters, and artifacts from the first five books. Keep in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive (what we love about Harry could fill ten books!) and does not include any of the spectacular revelatory moments that would spoil the books for those (few) who have not read them. Enjoy.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

* Harry’s first trip to the zoo with the Dursleys, when a boa constrictor winks at him. * When the Dursleys’ house is suddenly besieged by letters for Harry from Hogwarts. Readers learn how much the Dursleys have been keeping from Harry. Rowling does a wonderful job in displaying the lengths to which Uncle Vernon will go to deny that magic exists. * Harry’s first visit to Diagon Alley with Hagrid. Full of curiosities and rich with magic and marvel, Harry’s first trip includes a trip to Gringotts and Ollivanders, where Harry gets his wand (holly and phoenix feather) and discovers yet another connection to He-Who-Must-No-Be-Named. This moment is the reader’s first full introduction to Rowling’s world of witchcraft and wizards. * Harry’s experience with the Sorting Hat.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

* The de-gnoming of the Weasleys’ garden. Harry discovers that even wizards have chores–gnomes must be grabbed (ignoring angry protests “Gerroff me! Gerroff me!”), swung about (to make them too dizzy to come back), and tossed out of the garden–this delightful scene highlights Rowling’s clever and witty genius. * Harry’s first experience with a Howler, sent to Ron by his mother. * The Dueling Club battle between Harry and Malfoy. Gilderoy Lockhart starts the Dueling Club to help students practice spells on each other, but he is not prepared for the intensity of the animosity between Harry and Draco. Since they are still young, their minibattle is innocent enough, including tickling and dancing charms.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

* Ron’s attempt to use a telephone to call Harry at the Dursleys’. * Harry’s first encounter with a Dementor on the train (and just about any other encounter with Dementors). Harry’s brush with the Dementors is terrifying and prepares Potter fans for a darker, scarier book. * Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s behavior in Professor Trelawney’s Divination class. Some of the best moments in Rowling’s books occur when she reminds us that the wizards-in-training at Hogwarts are, after all, just children. Clearly, even at a school of witchcraft and wizardry, classes can be boring and seem pointless to children. * The Boggart lesson in Professor Lupin’s classroom. * Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s knock-down confrontation with Snape.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

* Hermione’s disgust at the reception for the veela (Bulgarian National Team Mascots) at the Quidditch World Cup. Rowling’s fourth book addresses issues about growing up–the dynamic between the boys and girls at Hogwarts starts to change. Nowhere is this more plain than the hilarious scene in which magical cheerleaders nearly convince Harry and Ron to jump from the stands to impress them. * Viktor Krum’s crush on Hermione–and Ron’s objection to it. * Malfoy’s “Potter Stinks” badge. * Hermione’s creation of S.P.E.W., the intolerant bigotry of the Death Eaters, and the danger of the Triwizard Tournament. Add in the changing dynamics between girls and boys at Hogwarts, and suddenly Rowling’s fourth book has a weight and seriousness not as present in early books in the series. Candy and tickle spells are left behind as the students tackle darker, more serious issues and take on larger responsibilities, including the knowledge of illegal curses.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

* Harry’s outburst to his friends at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. A combination of frustration over being kept in the dark and fear that he will be expelled fuels much of Harry’s anger, and it all comes out at once, directly aimed at Ron and Hermione. Rowling perfectly portrays Harry’s frustration at being too old to shirk responsibility, but too young to be accepted as part of the fight that he knows is coming. * Harry’s detention with Professor Umbridge. Rowling shows her darker side, leading readers to believe that Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven for young wizards. Dolores represents a bureaucratic tyrant capable of real evil, and Harry is forced to endure their private battle of wills alone. * Harry and Cho’s painfully awkward interactions. Rowling clearly remembers what it was like to be a teenager. * Harry’s Occlumency lessons with Snape. * Dumbledore’s confession to Harry.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

* The introduction of the Horcrux. * Molly Weasley asking Arthur Weasley about his “dearest ambition.” Rowling has always been great at revealing little intriguing bits about her characters at a time, and Arthur’s answer “to find out how airplanes stay up” reminds us about his obsession with Muggles. * Harry’s private lessons with Dumbledore, and more time spent with the fascinating and dangerous pensieve, arguably one of Rowling’s most ingenious inventions. * Fred and George Weasley’s Joke Shop, and the slogan: “Why Are You Worrying About You-Know-Who? You Should Be Worrying About U-NO-POO–the Constipation Sensation That’s Gripping the Nation!” * Luna’s Quidditch commentary. Rowling created scores of Luna Lovegood fans with hilarious and bizarre commentary from the most unlikely Quidditch commentator. * The effects of Felix Felicis.

Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem: A Conversation with J.K. Rowling

“I am an extraordinarily lucky person, doing what I love best in the world. I’m sure that I will always be a writer. It was wonderful enough just to be published. The greatest reward is the enthusiasm of the readers.” –J.K. Rowling

Find out more about Harry’s creator in our exclusive interview with J.K. Rowling.

Did You Know?

The Little White Horse was J.K. Rowling’s favorite book as a child.

Jane Austen is Rowling’s favorite author.

Roddy Doyle is Rowling’s favorite living writer.

A Few Words from Mary GrandPré

“When I illustrate a cover or a book, I draw upon what the author tells me; that’s how I see my responsibility as an illustrator. J.K. Rowling is very descriptive in her writing–she gives an illustrator a lot to work with. Each story is packed full of rich visual descriptions of the atmosphere, the mood, the setting, and all the different creatures and people. She makes it easy for me. The images just develop as I sketch and retrace until it feels right and matches her vision.” Check out more Harry Potter art from illustrator Mary GrandPré.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Potter fans, relax—this review packs no spoilers. Instead, we’re taking advantage of our public platform to praise Rowling for the excellence of her plotting. We can’t think of anyone else who has sustained such an intricate, endlessly inventive plot over seven thick volumes and so constantly surprised us with twists, well-laid traps and Purloined Letter-style tricks. Hallows continues the tradition, both with sly feats of legerdemain and with several altogether new, unexpected elements. Perhaps some of the surprises in Hallows don’t have quite the punch as those of earlier books, but that may be because of the thoroughness and consistency with which Rowling has created her magical universe, and because we’ve so raptly absorbed its rules.

We’re also seizing the occasion to wish out loud that her editors had done their jobs more actively. It’s hard to escape the notion that the first three volumes were more carefully edited than the last four. Hallows doesn’t contain the extraneous scenes found in, say, Goblet of Fire, but the momentum is uneven. Rowling is much better at comedy than at fight scenes, and no reader of the sixth book will be startled to hear that Hallows has little humor or that its characters engage in more than a few fights. Surely her editors could have helped her find other methods of building suspense besides the use of ellipses and dashes? And craft fight dialogue that sounds a bit less like it belongs in a comic book? Okay, we’re quibbling. We know these minor nuisances won’t dent readers’ enjoyment, at least not this generation of readers; we couldn’t put Hallows down ourselves. But we believe Rowling, and future readers, deserved even better. Ages 9-12. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up—In this concluding volume, Rowling brings together the themes and characters familiar to her readers, providing thrills both expected and unexpected. Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out on the mission left to Harry by Albus Dumbledore, to search for the remaining Horcruxes, the hidden pieces of Voldemort’s soul that must be destroyed to ensure his final defeat. Harry and his friends find themselves fugitives, but help comes from unexpected quarters and old friends. Harry is also searching for the truth about Dumbledore’s life, as he tries to reconcile rumors about the man’s past with the heroic headmaster he thought he knew. The legend of the Deathly Hallows, three magical objects that have the power to overcome death, proves to be related to Dumbledore’s past as well as the present conflict. While the plot wanders somewhat on its way there, the final battle with Voldemort, involving a full range of friends and foes, is Rowling at her finest. The headstrong plot involves clues and characters from all of the volumes, building on details and tying up loose ends. An underlying message about the power of truth and redemption is reflected in a range of characters, combining with mythic allusions to give depth to the series as a whole. Hallows continues the darker tone of Half-Blood Prince, and there’s no Quidditch to be found here, though there are comic moments. Fans of the series will devour this lengthy tome and will be left hoping for more tales from this fully fleshed out fantastic world.—Beth L. Meister, Pleasant View Elementary School, Franklin, WI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Theres only one word that can describe Jim Dales work on HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS–magical. Few audiobook narrators can stretch the medium like Dale as he interprets more than 200 characters, giving each a distinctive voice. Giants, wizards, elves, witches, centaurs, and muggles have singular voices that are instantly recognizable. Its hard to imagine anyone else doing justice to J.K. Rowlings brilliant finale to the story of the boy wizard as he conquers fear and turns into a man. Dale has raised the bar on audiobook interpretation so high its hard to imagine any narrator vaulting over it. If anyone were going to make a case that listening to an audiobook is superior to reading it, this book would be the best evidence. Bravo. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, AudioFile Best Audiobook of 2007, 2008 Grammy Nominee © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* The cloak of inevitability hangs on the final installment of the Harry Potter series. One must die, one will live. Friends will be distinguished from foes. All will be revealed. To Rowling’s great credit, she manages this finale with the flair and respect for her audience that have permeated the previous six novels, though the mood here is quite different. The story has a certain flatness that extends through much of the book. Rowling can no longer rely on diversions like Quidditch matches and trips to Hogsmead for relief; Harry has made the decision not to return to Hogwarts. Aided by Hermione and Ron, he will instead search for the remaining Horcruxes that hide pieces of Voldemorte’s soul. Danger and death are in the air, but Rowling skillfully deals both out in tightly controlled bursts that are juxtaposed against periods of indecision, false leads, and even boredom as the trio try to divine their next moves. Most startling are the new elements, including the not-altogether-successful introduction of the Deathly Hallows. These magical artifacts unnecessarily up the total of things that Harry is looking for by three, and the ownership of one of the Hallows, a wand, may lead to confusion for readers at a climactic moment. More successful additions, adding depth and weight, are the multilayered revelation of Dumbledore’s family history and the brilliantly handled answer to the question of Severus Snape’s allegiance. Throughout, Rowling returns to and embellishes the hallmark themes of the series: the importance of parental influences, the redemptive power of sacrifice, and the strength found in love. These truths are the underpinnings of a finale that is worthy of fans’ hopes and expectations. Cooper, Ilene

Starred Review. If a virulent virus—or even the Rapture—depopulated Earth overnight, how long before all trace of humankind vanished? That’s the provocative, and occasionally puckish, question posed by Weisman (An Echo in My Blood) in this imaginative hybrid of solid science reporting and morbid speculation. Days after our disappearance, pumps keeping Manhattan’s subways dry would fail, tunnels would flood, soil under streets would sluice away and the foundations of towering skyscrapers built to last for centuries would start to crumble. At the other end of the chronological spectrum, anything made of bronze might survive in recognizable form for millions of years—along with one billion pounds of degraded but almost indestructible plastics manufactured since the mid-20th century. Meanwhile, land freed from mankind’s environmentally poisonous footprint would quickly reconstitute itself, as in Chernobyl, where animal life has returned after 1986’s deadly radiation leak, and in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, a refuge since 1953 for the almost-extinct goral mountain goat and Amur leopard. From a patch of primeval forest in Poland to monumental underground villages in Turkey, Weisman’s enthralling tour of the world of tomorrow explores what little will remain of ancient times while anticipating, often poetically, what a planet without us would be like. (July)
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From The New Yorker
Teasing out the consequences of a simple thought experiment—what would happen if the human species were suddenly extinguished—Weisman has written a sort of pop-science ghost story, in which the whole earth is the haunted house. Among the highlights: with pumps not working, the New York City subways would fill with water within days, while weeds and then trees would retake the buckled streets and wild predators would ravage the domesticated dogs. Texas’s unattended petrochemical complexes might ignite, scattering hydrogen cyanide to the winds—a “mini chemical nuclear winter.” After thousands of years, the Chunnel, rubber tires, and more than a billion tons of plastic might remain, but eventually a polymer-eating microbe could evolve, and, with the spectacular return of fish and bird populations, the earth might revert to Eden.
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From The Washington Post’s Book World/washingtonpost.com
Reviewed by Michael Grunwald

If human beings vanished from the Earth, our ceramic pottery and bronze statues would last much longer than our wood-frame houses. New York’s subways would be flooded within days; Lexington Avenue would be a river within decades. Head lice would go extinct, and predators would make short work of our doggies, but a lot of endangered fish and birds and trees would flourish in our absence. We endangered them, after all.

A diligent and intelligent science writer named Alan Weisman discovered all this while investigating what would happen to this planet if people suddenly disappeared. Now he has converted his thought experiment for Discover magazine into a deeply reported book called The World Without Us, and it’s full of interesting facts. For example: The European starling spread like avian kudzu after some Shakespeare buff introduced every bird mentioned by the Bard into Central Park. The demilitarized (and therefore depopulated) zones of Korea and Cyprus have become undeclared wildlife sanctuaries; so have Chernobyl and abandoned forests in New England and Belarus. Almost every ounce of plastic that’s ever been manufactured still lurks somewhere in our environment. And radio waves are forever, so extraterrestrials at the edge of the universe might be able to watch “I Love Lucy” reruns billions of years after we’re gone. Who knew?

Also: Who cares?

Ultimately, The World Without Us is trivia masquerading as wisdom. By journeying around the world to interview biologists and paleontologists, engineers and curators, Zápara elders and Masai ecoguides, Weisman has done a remarkably thorough job of answering a question that doesn’t particularly matter. Imagining the human footprint on a post-human planet might be fun for dormitory potheads who have already settled the questions of God’s existence and Fergie’s hotness, but it’s not clear why the rest of us need this level of documentary evidence. It’s nice to know that domesticated plants (like wheat) and animals (like horses) would be out-competed by their wild counterparts post-us, but it’s not inherently important to know. If the larger point is that our domesticated plants and animals are not really natural, well, that we already know.

When Weisman does make larger points, they are achingly familiar. Yes, man is doing foolishly destructive things — like warming the climate with carbon and tearing the peaks off mountains and littering the oceans with plastics — that will have long-term consequences for the Earth. This no longer qualifies as news. And yes, nature and the Earth are resilient, while man and his works — with exceptions such as Mount Rushmore, the caves of Cappadocia, and Styrofoam — are fleeting. Ozymandias could have told us that. And while Weisman is an admirable reporter, his prose — always lucid, sometimes elegant — has an irritating look-ma-I’m-writing quality. This is how he describes one guy he meets: “His olive features bespeak Sicily; his voice is pure urban New Jersey.” I think he’s bespeaking of an “Italian-American.” It’s not an exotic species around Jersey.

For all its existential ruminations, this is basically an environmental book, an imaginative effort to make us think about our impact on the Earth. It reminds us: This is a nice Earth! It’s going to be around for millions of years, and we’re not, so let’s stop littering it with nuclear reactors and plastic bags that will leave toxic messes long after we’re gone! But as Weisman demonstrates, the Earth will do just fine without us. It’s an excellent healer, and time — especially geologic time — is an even better one.

Actually, there’s a much more compelling reason for us to stop despoiling the Earth and depleting its resources: If we don’t, we might create that world without us. As Jared Diamond has shown, unsustainable civilizations tend to collapse; as countless environmental writers have shown, our gas-guzzling, water-wasting, plastic-producing civilization is not sustainable. This is an issue of policy and morality, not just theory.

Weisman knows this, but he believes that people don’t like to hear about environmental destruction in those apocalyptic terms. It’s too scary. He describes his ruminations as a non-threatening effort to change hearts and minds through indirection. If we imagine the world without us — even though Weisman makes it sound as if the world could be better off without us — we might start taking care of it. But just in case this philosophical bank shot proves insufficient, Weisman does offer one modest proposal in his final chapter, his single policy solution to all the planet’s problems. And it’s preposterous: “limit every human female on Earth capable of bearing children to one.” Sure, right after we ration air, outlaw war and limit teenage masturbation to once a week.

Even as a thought experiment, a one-child policy is a terrible idea, a draconian one-size-fits-all solution to a variety of complex problems. (In America, for starters, our problem is overconsumption, not overpopulation.) It’s also exactly the kind of nature-first idea that makes environmentalism so threatening to so many people. Humanity’s goal should be to limit our impact on the Earth, not to limit our presence on Earth. We don’t have to do it for the Earth’s sake; we should do it for our own sake. It’s our home.

At one of those depressingly apocalyptic environmental conferences, I recently heard a speaker give the best argument I’ve ever heard for saving the Earth: “It’s the only planet we know of that has chocolate.” There probably wouldn’t be chocolate in a world without us. And even if there were, it wouldn’t do us much good.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Perhaps operating on the assumption that he won’t be around, Alan Weisman gets a head start on measuring the global human footprint. Although he doesn’t intend The World Without Us to be an explicitly environmental work, the specter of global warming hangs over the book like a heavy toxic cloud. Some reviewers wonder whether all the doom and gloom is necessary: Why investigate a question that skirts the underlying cause of the problem? That said, Weisman, a professor at the University of Arizona, has done his research and collected a wide range of data to support his findings, which he delivers in graceful, entertaining prose. We think Michael Grunwald’s review in the Washington Post sums it up nicely: sure the book’s trivia. Quite a few of us like that.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
Its almost disturbing that this book is so interesting. Weisman examines what the Earth would be like if there were no more humans. Assuming some sort of apocalypse that wipes us from the menu of mammals, he takes the long view, describing how our remnants would crumble and fade away over time–in some cases a very long time. Narrator Adam Grupper enhances this fascinating perspective through his impeccable reading, which is both sincere and balanced. Never veering into sensationalism, always objective and phlegmatic, Grupper takes what could be a depressing topic and makes it a book you just cant stop listening to. This combination of science, history, and futurology teaches us much about who we are and what we will leave behind. K.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, AudioFile Best Audiobook of 2007 © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine — Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Given the burgeoning human population and the phenomenal reach of our technologies, humankind has literally become a force of nature. We are inadvertently changing the climate; altering, polluting, and eradicating ecosystems; and driving evolution as other organisms struggle to adapt to a new human-made world. So what would happen if humankind suddenly vanished? Journalist Weisman, author of Echo in My Blood (1999), traveled the world to consult with experts and visit key sites, and his findings are arresting to say the least. He learned that without constant vigilance, New York’s subways would immediately flood, and Houston’s complex “petroscape” would spectacularly self-destruct. Weisman visits an abandoned resort on the coast of Cyprus and marvels over nature’s ready reclamation. Marine biologists share sobering information about the staggering amount of plastic particles in ocean waters as well as vast floating islands of trash. Weisman is a thoroughly engaging and clarion writer fueled by curiosity and determined to cast light rather than spread despair. His superbly well researched and skillfully crafted stop-you-in-your-tracks report stresses the underappreciated fact that humankind’s actions create a ripple effect across the web of life. As for the question of what would endure in our absence, Weisman lists a “redesigned atmosphere,” astronomical amounts of plastic and automobile tires, nuclear waste and other inorganic poisons, and, eerily, the radio waves that will carry our television broadcasts through the universe for all time. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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About the Author

Product Description
Take a first look at the next generation of Windows Server with insights direct from the popular author and Microsoft MVP Mitch Tulloch and the Microsoft Windows Server team. With this insider s introduction, you will get to preview and evaluate Windows Server code name Longhorn. You will learn how to use new features that help you improve security, performance, reliability, and operational efficiency, as well as how to automate deployment and administration. Examine Windows Hypervisor virtualization, Windows Deployment Services, Internet Information Services 7.0, Windows PowerShellTM, Network Access Protection, and other security features. Take a guided preview from the experts and get ready to plan for deployment and perform your first upgrades and migrations to Windows Server code name Longhorn.

Delivers advance insights from those who know the technology best a Microsoft MVP and the Microsoft Windows Server team

Provides a preview of the features that IT professionals can use to help improve security, reliability, and operational efficiency, and deliver the next generation of Web services and applications.

Examines the new features that help IT professionals deploy Windows Server Longhorn, test application compatibility, upgrade and migrate servers, and configure server roles

From the Publisher
Key Book Benefits:

- Delivers advance insights from those who know the technology best–a Microsoft MVP and the Microsoft Windows Server team

– Provides a preview of the features that IT professionals can use to help improve security, reliability, and operational efficiency, and deliver the next generation of Web services and applications.

– Examines the new features that help IT professionals deploy Windows Server “Longhorn,” test application compatibility, upgrade and migrate servers, and configure server roles

About the Author
Mitch Tulloch is President of MTIT Enterprises. Before starting his company in 1998, Mitch worked as a Microsoft Certified Trainer for Productivity Point International. Mitch is a widely recognized expert onWindows® administration, networking, and security, and he has been awarded MVP status by Microsoft for his outstanding contributions in supporting users who deploy Microsoft platforms, products, and solutions. Mitch is also currently a professor at Jones International University where he teaches graduate-level courses in information security management for their MBA program. Mitch has contributed more than one hundred articles to various IT Web sites and magazines, and he has written more than a dozen books, including the Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking, the Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security, Windows Server Hacks, and IIS 6 Administration.