The James Potter Series by G. Norman Lippert

It is with a heavy heart thay i read the link on www.jamespotterseries.com where Lippert says that he will be putting the writing of thr fourth book of the lovely James Potter series James Potter and the Morrigan Web on hold so that he may be taken seriously as a writer and not merely a fan fiction writer.

It seems to me that he has proved his mettle with the three James Potter books and it’s sad that he would have to take a break from writing the interesting James Potter series just to prove that he is a serious writer.

Isn’t the mark of a serious writer the passion to tell wonderful stories as evidenced by having millions of readers? And he definitely has a wide readership and a following as he has taken the known HP world a step further.

I just recently finished reading the third book and would be purchasing Lippert’s other books Ruins of Camelot (www.ruinsofcamelot.com) and The Riverhouse (www.riverhousebook.com) to support him in continuing and being able to enthrall us with the James Potter series. Both these books are available on Amazon Kindle.

It’s a pity that his Girl on the Dock (www.girlonthedock.com) book is not available on Amazon Kindle because I’d definitely purchase it too to support a promising writer.

If you are an avid Harry Potter fan and have suffered the post-Potter depression as I have, no doubt the James Potter series (www.jamespotterseries.com) would cheer you up and transport you from the mundane Muggle world back to Hogwarts and the Wizarding World.

(c) Niconica 2012

Hoping for James Potter Book 4 (JP4)

I’m hoping that G. Norman Lippert continue to write books in the James Potter series. Is book four in the works?

I’m currently reading the kindle edition of the third book as downloaded from www.jamespotterseries.com and enjoying it.

I have not finished reading the whole book yet but I’m enjoying it immensely, more than the first two James Potter books.

Lippert is in his element in James Potter and the Vault of Destinies with the setting being in America and has managed to create a compelling American wizarding universe and background and a relatively complex and solid plot.

I look forward to reviewing JP3 when I’ve finished reading it.

(c) Niconica 2012

Bookmarks

 

I started reading at a very early age but I’ve always underestimated the usefulness of bookmarks since I’ve always managed to find some sort of makeshift bookmark–a stray piece of cardboard or some spare receipt that I can insert to keep my place when I put a current book down either to do something else to to shift to another book which has another scrap piece of paper inserted to make the place where I left off the previous time.

It is now, a couple of decades into being a bookworm that I start appreciating that proper bookmarks do have their uses and sometimes a piece of scrap paper just doesn’t give the same satisfaction. So I guess it means that in the near future, when I visit my favorite bookshops or novelty stores, aside from perusing the bookshelves, I shall be looking at investing in proper bookmarks… and alas, whole new world opens up to me–the bona-fide bookworm.

(c) Niconica 2011*

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Book Shopping Therapy

Popular literature and culture promote shopping as a therapy–perhaps as a joke but perhaps because it’s also true in a sense that when we are stressed–shopping does make us feel better.

I am stressed but my shopping therapy did not include any clothes or shoes or any fashion items–it included a lot of books. I scoured three Book Sale branches here in the Metro to look for precious finds.

The first branch I visited yielded only one book, but the second and the third proved to be much better in terms of good finds.  The third branch of Book Sale most especially gave me a feeling of satisfaction which I can’t explain.

After all, it doesn’t mean that purchasing these books causes the issues which I have to deal with to go away, but somehow it served as both a welcome distraction and an exciting adventure which only an unread but interesting book provides.

(c) Niconica 2011*

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A Double Book Treat :)

Finally, an inkling of a ray of light… Dolores Cannon’s The Convoluted Universe Part Four is now available and I couldn’t resist–I purchased the Kindle edition immediately. I’ve been checking Amazon.com religiously to find out if there are any updates as to when it would be available.

It was originally slated to come out in November, but then it was moved to Christmas Day… and to my disappointment there was an announcement that it might be available at an unspecified date post Christmas.  I’m psyched that as of today it is now available!

So today, despite all my grousing, I got a double treat since I just received this awesome Christmas baking book from a very good friend– “Bake Me I’m Yours…Christmas”

This is my first Christmas baking book, and despite my rudimentary baking skills which I make up for enthusiasm, I hope that aside from flipping through the pages and appreciating the delectable delights, I do find time to try out the recipes here in the book. Yay!

(c) Niconica 2011*

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Coming of Age

One of the hardest things about being in high school aside from the emotional instability brought upon by raging hormones and going through unfamiliar territory in discovering who we are is finding a sense of belonging.

It’s definitely not a good sign when one feel likes one belongs in a fictional world as opposed to the real world and in a sense, that’s what what books have been to me–and in particular the Sweet Valley series–a safe haven during the tumultuous coming-of-age period.

Now that we look back, we can easily categorize movies, TV series, or books into genres such as the coming-of-age novel or film which appeals to our sense of nostalgia, sentimentality, or escapism. Watching a coming-of-age novel is a vicarious thrill since it has all the excitement and the pain at a safe distance, without having to go through “all that” all over again.

If we were to be honest (and if we are one of those popular golden people in high school) coming of age is often a bittersweet experience and tends towards more bitterness than sweetness and we would not wish to go through all of that fear, uncertainty, and chaos once again–unless of course, we were one of the so-called ‘In’ crowd.

For remarkably average people like ourselves who did not have everything that we encounter turn into gold during our teenage years, the awkwardness and the confusion would be too much to go through again and there is some solace in being an adult safely a decade or more away from those gawky years.

If we think about it, we all just wanted to fit in, to be accepted, and to belong way back then but then again, as we can say now from a safe distance, ‘Kids can be so cruel.’ Hardly anyone leaves high school unscarred–except for the top 2% who probably inflicted all the scarring and the other 1% who are just plain lucky.

We did not have mobile phones, laptops, or internet back then, but it would be safe to say that coming of age does not get any easier in this era of Facebook, Twitter, SMS and Instant messaging.  Suffice to say, it probably makes it more complicated.

Coming of age is probably one of the most universally difficult experiences which transcend culture and country.

At the core of it is the need for a sense of community and we can only hope that with all the cutting edge technologies invented by science, that there would be some way to be able to–at the most basic level–enhance and aid the fragile and unstable psyches of our adolescents if only to make the transition from being a child to a “grown-up” (whatever that means) easier…

In doing so, we can eventually be a step closer to making the world a better place.

(c) Niconica 2011*

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Can’t Wait for The Convoluted Universe Part Four

So there’s one book that I can’t wait to purchase it (in Kindle edition no doubt) as soon as it’s available. It’s Dolores Cannon’s latest book “The Convoluted Universe Part Four” and it’s coming out in December. I thought it was supposed to come out this month but upon checking Amazon, it says that it’ll come out next month on Christmas Day nonetheless, so it’s something to look forward to. I like the spiral artwork on the book cover too.  Can’t wait! I’m practically bobbing up and down here in anticipation.

I’ve enjoyed reading many of Cannon’s books and it’s something which I feel is quite fascinating. Hypnosis and past life regression are quite interesting and really broadens the mind with what could be possible.  Reincarnation is another subject which sparks my interest and along those lines, I enjoy reading books by Dr. Brian Weiss and Sylvia Browne too, among others.

(c) Niconica 2011*

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An Addiction to Books

Oh, joy! Finally, one of the books I had been long wanting to read is now available in Kindle edition.  There’s something about the immediacy of being able to “Buy with 1-click” so to speak on Amazon.com which makes it more preferable to ordering online and waiting for the books be sent from the US to the Philippines.

I used to think that I would prefer books on paper so much that were the costs of sending or acquiring the books comparable that I would go for the traditional books and patiently wait for the books to get to Manila.

The only way that the shipping of the books would be comparable though would be that the freight option be to send it over surface mail or to ask someone to bring it home to Manila–and this is when we know friends or relatives whom who would want to trouble with carrying what could be bulky purchases to add-on to their baggage weight when they either come back to Manila or visit Manila.  (This would still be an option for the books which are not available in Kindle edition or books which are filled with images/technical texts which would lend themselves better to the traditional ink and paper book format.)

Considering all these options, it seems that the convenience of purchasing a Kindle edition with one-click and being able to read it within seconds without the extra hassle of waiting and/or arranging for sending the books to Manila wins out especially when the book is more obscure in terms of topic and would likely not be available in local bookstores–besides the fact that purchasing with 1-click appeals to impulse purchases.

For a book addict like myself, impulse purchases do happen more often than not.  I have to admit that I’m acclimatizing to the Kindle revolution so to speak and enjoying the benefits of having many–but not all, yet–of the books at Amazon possibly available at my fingertips should I choose to purchase them.

In saying that, I am still hoping that more books would be available in Kindle edition–and if any publishers are reading this, I hope that they do take note of it.  It would an added bonus and appreciated of there would be an option where discounts or bargain rates would apply to heavy readers/book addicts since the impulse buys do creep up to a certain amount.

I’m sure that there are a lot of us kindred spirits all over the world who love, adore, and are addicted to books who would appreciate a wider selection of books available to whet our appetites and/or addictions.

(c) Niconica 2011*

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For The Love of Vampires

There’s so much stories about vampire love nowadays that it has become mainstream. Now that the vampires are exceedingly popular, they are fast losing their dark, brooding, and mysterious appeal.

Gone are the classic vampires of old in the tradition of Anne Rice‘s Interview with the Vampire.  They used to be ageless, timeless, and elusive.  Now they are being portrayed to be as everyday as the corner Starbucks.

There was something interesting about the idea of vampires being accessible, but with the rampant TV shows and literature about vampires among us, they are now in the danger of becoming mundane.

One can’t help but wish that the mystique and rarity of vampires that we grew up with back in the 80s would have been preserved.  There’s something about the vampires who have that unreachable quality which really draws the imagination to a new level.

However, this is probably also the reason why many artists, writers, and creative people have gone to this new level and taken the next step and created worlds were vampires were more among us than they had been before.

(c) Niconica 2011*

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Difficult Conversations: An Essential Read

There’s something remarkable about the book selections in Hong Kong.  I happened by this book Difficult Conversations while browsing through one of the Page One stores at the international airport.

It was sitting amidst several books about negotiation but as I quickly skimmed through several of them… I came to realize that Difficult Conversations is an amazing find.

I am pleased to find that this book has a holistic approach in the sense that it does not echo other negotiation books which solely apply to business, but in fact takes difficult conversations as a whole as it applies to different facets of our lives–business and personal as they apply with colleagues, friends, family, siblings, relatives, partners, ex-partners, etc.

It does not mean that we know how to properly communicate just because we know how to talk.  It’s often taken for granted that thoughts are meant to be communicated in whichever way they come out of our mouths, but more often than not, in order to avoid more misunderstandings, due consideration should be taken before speaking.

It cannot be said enough that we should think before we speak and Difficult Conversations takes our hand and guides us through a specific, sensible, and effective thought process of which matters and topics to consider when we navigate the precarious waters of conflict resolution and sifting through misunderstandings, and encourages us to sail towards a harmonious outcome, or at least to a certain level which does not escalate the conflict further.

Another must-read! Two thumbs-up!

(c) Niconica 2011*

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