Hi book lovers! Ashley here! I’ve been a sort of NyQuil haze as I caught some weird viral bug. My local pho shop knows me very well now and I sit there with my soup and read! I just finished The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls as I know the movie is supposed to be released soon. I still need some more additions for my summer reading list so let me know what you got!
This week all we seemed to see on social media was the frenzy around Harry Potter’s 20th Anniversary. Harry 
Potter and his magical world was my refuge growing up as a child who desperately needed an escape. As I’ve grown older and become more aware and #woke, I can see that the world Rowling created does have many faults and the characters weren’t always heroes or heroines (but Hermoine was great). Rowling deservedly faced heavy criticism for her depiction of Native Americans and her use of their legends on her site Pottermore, you can read about it here. I guess what I can do is look at back at this saga with nostalgia and gratitude for what it did give me, but it certainly isn’t perfect.
Speaking of childhood classics, growing up I also loved The Golden Compass series and author Philip Pullman made headlines when he chose to name a character is his new book after a teenager believed to be dead in the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The girl, Nur Huda el-Wahabi’s teacher sparked the cause when he put in a bid for a charity author auction in her name. The auction currently sits at 150,000 pounds pledged, around 32,000 raised by Pullman himself. The author himself was a former teacher and hopes to create a character in her name, someone she would have liked to get to know. You can read more about it here.
Growing up, I used to have Paddington the Bear blankets and pajamas. So my heart broke a little the author, Michael Bond died. Granted he was 91 and hopefully had a great, long life, but still! Paddington was also a refugee from Peru when he arrived in London. Perhaps we could all reread the books and learn something from the beloved series. You can read more about the author and his inspiration for Paddington here.
