My sister, Jenny, and I are spending the summer revisiting the Harry Potter series, some of the most read and most anticipated books of our childhood. You can catch up with our thoughts on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (we read the British version) or just jump in with the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Kim: I was surprised, again, at how much I forgot about this book. I knew that the villain was going to be a version of Voldemort through the diary and that Fawkes and the Sorting Hat would help Harry defeat the big snake. But I forgot entirely about framing Hagrid (and Hagrid’s disgrace at Hogwarts), a lot of the goofiness of Gilderoy Lockhart, and how devious Lucius Malfoy was… that dude is evil to the core. What were your first impressions of this book?

Jenny: I actually remember this one pretty well. The only thing that was not how I remembered it was when Hermione was turned into that cat [when taking the Polyjuice Potion]. I thought she turned back I forgot she had to go to the hospital. I thought the story in this one was more dynamic because the relationships were already developed. I enjoyed it more than book one. What was your favorite scene or chapter and why?

Kim: There are a lot of really good ones in this book. I loved the section in the beginning where Harry and the Weasleys are de-gnoming (I think) the garden at the Burrow. The bit battle in the Chamber of Secrets is also awesome, but I almost liked the scene afterwards in Dumbledore’s office better — it’s nice to see when Harry realizes he doesn’t have to carry everything himself and he can trust some adults, and how some of the bigger stories are going to develop.

Speaking of bigger stories, how do you think this one fits into the whole series and mythology? I read once that Rowling planted clues in some of the early books about how the story was going to play out, so I was reading this book looking for them. And I found one about Horcruxes that was exciting!

Jenny: Yeah I caught onto that clue too. I think that they will get more and more obvious and more clear as we move forward in the books. I also believe that you can see clues about other characters as well and how their roles will play out moving forward. We are giving hints and clues about character traits of people that will prove vital to the storytelling moving forward. You see how evil Lucius Malfoy is, so his being a Death Eater is less shocking. You are seeing how the friends Harry is making would risk their lives for him and to protect him even before he has a huge role to play, like with the Weasley’s in the Quidditch match.

One of the characters that I find will change the most in the books to come is Ginny. She is shy, scared, lonely, and awkward in this book. By the end of the series she is brave, smart, and powerful in her own right. Neville goes through a similar character arc. Are their any other characters that you see as being portrayed in different ways between books. Either getting better or worse?

Kim: Well, Sirius Black is an obvious one (especially since we’re starting Prisoner of Azkaban next). He’s one of the more complicated characters, to me, since he starts out as a villain, then a father figure, and eventually more of a friend (sort of evil, good, mixed). I agree with you about Ginny though, she really evolves during the series to become a competent, powerful wizard in her own right. It’s kind of interesting that neither of us has thought to mention Ron or Hermoine though — I’ll be curious to watch the way they change in the coming books.

And with that, we’re off to Azkaban! We’re spreading this book out over a couple of weeks, so we won’t have a post on it until sometime in July, I expect. Stay tuned!

It’s been a bit of a crazy week, so I’m behind on some of the reviews I want to write. But life happens and you just have to go with the flow. Luckily, I have a stash of mini-reviews in draft form waiting for just such a week. Today I’ve got mini-reviews of two recent-ish novels that I liked but didn’t totally adore. Still, I can recommend both The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer and Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon to the right readers.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.

While I was not as entirely enamored with The Interestings as I know many people have been, I still really enjoyed reading it. I loved Wolitzer’s twisting plot, which shifts back and forth in time and perspective in a lovely way. And I loved the way that Wolitzer wrote about the particular jealousy of friends. She perfectly captured that sense of rooting for the people you love while simultaneously wondering and feeling insecure about how your own life is working out. This one was great.

Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon

As the summer of 2004 draws to a close, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe are still hanging in there—longtime friends, bandmates, and co-regents of Brokeland Records, a kingdom of used vinyl located in the borderlands of Berkeley and Oakland. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, are the Berkeley Birth Partners, two semi-legendary midwives who have welcomed more than a thousand newly minted citizens into the dented utopia at whose heart—half tavern, half temple—stands Brokeland.

When ex–NFL quarterback Gibson Goode, the fifth-richest black man in America, announces plans to build his latest Dogpile megastore on a nearby stretch of Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their vulnerable little enterprise. Meanwhile, Aviva and Gwen also find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence, one that tests the limits of their friendship. Adding another layer of complication to the couples’ already tangled lives is the surprise appearance of Titus Joyner, the teenage son Archy has never acknowledged and the love of fifteen-year-old Julius Jaffe’s life.

You may remember that I read Telegraph Avenue as a readalong with Florinda (The 3R’s Blog), which was wonderful since it is the kind of book you want to spend time talking about to figure it out. The impression I was left with was that the book felt more ambitious than it needed to be. I loved parts and was frustrated by parts, but I always had a little nagging feeling like it was sprawling too much and that it would have been able to say more if Chabon had tried to do a little less. That said, the writing was just gorgeous — visceral and raw and evocative and all those good adjectives. Chabon a pleasure to read, even when the story isn’t going where you want or expect it to go.

Disclosure: I borrowed a copy of The Interestings from my local library and brought home a copy of Telegraph Avenue from Book Expo America in 2012.

Photo Credit: albertogp123 via Flickr

Time // 8:50 a.m.

Place // My sister’s kitchen table in Minneapolis

Eating // Cherries (I cannot get enough of them this time of year)

Drinking // Water

Reading // I had a pretty quiet reading week. I didn’t finish any books, mostly because I spent a lot of my evenings at meetings. The weather was also beautiful, so I tried to get outside as much as possible. The one book I did spend time reading was Duel With the Devil by Paul Collins which is really great so far. I’m not sure what reading I will get done today either — we are celebrating Father’s Day this afternoon and then I have to drive home, not condusive to reading much.

Listening // After a string of “meh” audiobooks, I checked out Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness from the library to try and break the streak. It’s pretty good so far, although I want to move past the Elizabethan intrigue and into some magical learning as soon as possible.

Loving// It seems like summer has finally arrived in Minnesota! It’s been in the 70s most of the week, with lots of sunshine and warm evenings. I hate to get too excited about it since if we’ve learned anything this year it’s that weather can change in an instant, but for now I’ll take it.

Avoiding// Yesterday was my sister’s birthday party, so we had several people over to her apartment after mini-golf for pizza and games. We have to clean up the place today, which I’m not especially excited about!

Picturing // Since I don’t think I explained the photos up top, they are the giant ferns next to my house (encroaching on my favorite purse), the view at the end of a weeknight run, and my siblings and I (the three on the right) with family friends who are practically siblings after mini-golf yesterday.

Looks like it’s going to be a short post today. The dishes (and the sunshine) are calling my name. Happy Sunday, everyone! What are you reading today?

This post originally appeared on Book Riot.

If you were following Book Riot on Instagram two weeks ago, you know that many of the contributors were in New York for Book Expo America, the publishing industries big shindig for the year. I didn’t get to go this year, but one of the things that interested me last year was thinking about books from the business side and learning about what those business decisions are.

To ease my BEA envy and get me ready for next year, I found five books (existing and out soon) on the business of books that I am looking forward to reading.

Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century by John B. Thompson — This is the book that sent me down the rabbit hole in the first place after an author friend recommended it. In the book, Thompson looks at the entire publishing chain, from retail stores to agents to publishing companies to ebooks. Although it was written in 2010, it still looks like a useful primer on publishing.

Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Bookstores Represent Everything You Want to Fight for from Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communities by Andrew Laties — A look into the world of books wouldn’t be complete without reading about independent bookstores. Laties, a bookseller, looks at the growth and fall of bookstore chains, the impact of online bookselling, and the swell of support for local indies. Laties also tells the story of his rise as a bookseller and some of his best suggestions for the survival of small stores.

Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers by James W. Hall — Hall, a creative writing professor and thriller writer, takes a look at what makes books becoming blockbusters including common traits like glimpses into secret societies or representations of the American dream. I’ve got this one on my shelf right now and I can’t wait to dig in.

Burning the Page: The eBook Revolution and the Future of Reading by Jason Merkoski (Aug. 6) — Merkoski, a digital pioneer who helped launch the Kindle, takes a look at the ways electronic reading is changing how books are produced and discovered. Although the phrase “Reading 2.0” in the book description has me a little suspicious, I can’t help think this will be a must read for anyone interested in ebooks.

Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus and Giroux by Boris Kachka (Aug. 6) — Even though Hothouse isn’t out until August, I’ve seen some early positive rumblings on this book, a look at the history of a publishing company responsible for authors like T. S. Eliot, Susan Sontag, Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, Jonathan Franzen. This one looks gossipy and wonderful.