19 posts tagged “books”

So much for using The Host to bridge the interminable gap between now and the time Breaking Dawn, the fourth -- and final, sob! -- in the Twilight saga, is released in August.

As is so often the case, I couldn't pace myself.

I can't say that I liked The Host better than any of the Twilight books, especially Twilight, which is my clear favorite, but it is at least as good.

It's hard to aptly describe the plot without giving too much away or being too confusing, but I think my BSG correlation is pretty accurate. Battlestar Galactica with a smidge of a not-cheesy, more-hopeful Red Dawn thrown in for good measure. (If that's not a unique description, I don't know what is.)

At several points throughout the story, I found myself thinking about BSG, though, and how I immediately started sympathizing with Sharon, and especially Helo, the human in love with a "toaster," moreso than anyone else, even though the series is told from the human perspective and therefore we are supposed to hate the Cylons. Sharon remains my favorite character. (Which reminds me -- I really need to catch up on last season.)

Stephenie Meyer does a superb job with the first-person narrative. I liked Wanderer better than Melanie, and really, better than all of the humans, just as I liked Bella better than any of the characters in the Twilight series and get really, really annoyed at all the Bella bashing that seems to take place in the rabid fandom. (I know I posted last year sometime as to why I loathe, despise and abominate fandoms.)

Jared is no Edward Cullen, that's for sure, and really, he doesn't play nearly the all-consuming role Edward does. Stephenie mused that if a movie is made, she sees Jared as being very Matt Damon-esque, and that fits. Although if the movie is made -- and I can't see why it won't be, especially given the projected success that the Twilight franchise is supposed to achieve -- I don't think even Damon can play 26.

But yeah. Give The Host a chance. It's fantastically entertaining and has equal parts action, adventure, suspense, romance, reflection and angst. Stephenie does an excellent job at weaving in pertinent themes like individuals vs. community, prejudice vs. acceptance, love, sacrifice, honor, and probably half a dozen others.

I knew it would begin with the end, and the end would look like death to these eyes. I had been warned.

Not these eyes. My eyes. Mine. This was me now.

Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host, dropped Tuesday. I put myself on the waiting list at the library a few weeks ago, and I was perfectly okay with being 11th. I mean, I admit, I wasn't all that enthused to read it. After all, this was wholly separate from the Twilight series. No Edward. No Bella. No impossibly, epically, gut-twistingly angsty romance. No life-and-death situations whereupon death would be more welcome than spending eternity without the one your heart yearns for...

Wait...where was I again?

Oh, yeah. The Host. So anyway, even though I'd heard really good things about it, I still was leery. I mean, it's being described as sci-fi-ish. I'm always leery of the sci-fi genre, even though I have discovered jewels like Battlestar Galactica and Firefly amidst the weird puppet-y Farscape stuff.

And then I got to work, sat down to count drawers and compile the morning deposit, switching on Glenn Beck as I always do. Five minutes after I did this, he starts raving about Stephenie Meyer. His daughters love Twilight, and so he's become quite familiar with the series as well, and then he proceeds to read the first few paragraphs of Chapter One of The Host, including the above excerpt, and I stopped everything I was doing to listen.

And then instead of going to the bank, the other store, and back to the main store to continue about my day, I made a quick detour to Barnes and Noble to pick up my own copy.

I am hooked. So yeah. There will be no vacation recap, no pictures -- I probably won't even unpack (!!) until I'm done.

I'm only on Chapter 2 and although I already know it won't top Twilight -- I'm not sure anything ever will -- it's going to come dang close.

"Oh, come on," I said dubiously. You have to know the effect you have on people."
He tilted his head to one side, and his eyes were curious. "I dazzle people?"
"You haven't noticed? Do you think everyone gets their way so easily?"
He ignored my questions. "Do I dazzle you?"
"Frequently," I admitted.

I'm pretty sure that Kevin convinced his mom to take him to Target to buy Twilight after we were done with Keenan's game today. He once told me that if I read Cirque du Freak, he'd read Twilight, and when I told him that I had the first book ready for pick-up at the library, he turned to his mom and told her she had to buy him Twilight.

This will be the longest book he's ever tackled. And I think the first one whose protagonist is a girl. But he's psyched to read it and already thinks Edward is cool.

I can't say I blame him. Edward Cullen, fictitious or not, pretty much dazzles me, too.

So I've been tagged by Slow Learner to do the following book meme. (It circulated through a while ago, too, but I never did do it.)

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Well, it should come as no surprise to any of you (and especially since I confessed to my weakness on the blog) that I'm reading Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. (Again.) Because of that, I can't post only three sentences.

Context: a conversation between protagonist Bella Swan (one of my favorite fake people ever) and new friend Jacob Black about the heretofore mysterious Cullen family.

    "That's Sam -- he's nineteen," he informed me.
    "What was that he was saying about the doctor's family?" I asked innocently.
    "The Cullens? Oh, they're not supposed to come onto the reservation." He looked away, out toward James Island, as he confirmed what I'd thought I'd heard in Sam's voice.
    "Why not?"
    He glanced back at me, biting his lip. "Oops. I'm not supposed to say anything about that."
    "Oh, I won't tell anyone, I'm just curious." I tried to make my smile alluring, wondering if I was laying it on too thick.
    He smiled back, though, looking allured. Then he lifted one eyebrow and his voice was even huskier than before.
    "Do you like scary stories?" he asked ominously.

As for tagging, hmm, I can't remember which of you already did this! I'll go with Erin, Steph, Eli's Dad, Steve Betz, and Kelly S.

I started Twilight again last night.

I couldn't help it.

I'm weak.

9) Atonement, Ian McEwan: Fabulous. Yes, it took me a really, really long time to read, considering it's only a 300 page novel. This is one of those rare instances where I like both the book and movie equally. The guy who adapted the book into the screenplay did a really fantastic job.

Anyway, I think what I find most ludicrous surprising is that a large amount of people seem to think Briony Tallis is a horrible human being, and that she irrevocably interfered with Robbie and Cecilia and ultimately ruined their lives on purpose, whether from childish, petty jealousy, or, even worse, sheer boredom. Really? I mean, seriously? Briony was the "surprise" child, considerably younger than her brother and sister, and whose parents were conspicuously absent. Her father was away most of the time due to "business" endeavors, and her mother was stricken with frequent migraines and spent most of her days locked inside her darkened bedroom. Briony was largely left alone, to escape inside her imagination. One day she witnesses a scene from afar that she doesn't understand -- from her vantage point, it looks as though Robbie, the gardener, is ordering the older sister she idolizes to take her clothes off in broad daylight and dive into the fountain. She has no idea about the actual circumstances, and that scene will emerge again in her mind to color the series of tragic events waiting to unfurl. She delivers a note from Robbie to Cecilia, a note that was mistakenly given to her -- Robbie had picked up the wrong one -- and being 13 and insatiably curious, as most 13-year-old girls are, she read it. She didn't understand the language, although she recognized it as sexual and, in her mind, predatory. She confides in her older (manipulative) cousin, who convinces Briony that Robbie is a monster and a sex addict who would only end up hurting Cecilia.

Later, she encounters Robbie and Cecilia in the library. She knows nothing about sex. Again, from her vantage point, it looks as though Robbie is hurting her sister, and she's traumatized. She has to protect Cecilia, and she has no idea how to go about doing so -- until she happens upon her cousin with her brother's friend in the darkened woods. At the time, she doesn't know it's her brother's friend, but the events she'd witnessed earlier that day, as well as her cousin's manipulative prompting, leads her to conclude that it was Robbie, the predatory monster, and she leaps at her chance to take action. To protect her family.

And so she lies to the police. That scene in the movie, with the tiny, innocent-looking Briony, with her white dress and big blue eyes, solemnly assuring the chief of police in a clipped, assured voice that yes, she'd seen him, she'd seen him with her own eyes, was chilling, but it was also so incredibly tragic. I felt so much sorrier for Briony than for Cecilia and Robbie. Yes, it's tragic to have your life ruined by an outside source -- to wrestle with external conflict -- but for Briony, it must've been infinitely more excrutiating as she grew older and realized her grave errors in judgment. She faced an internal conflict that gnawed at her day in and day out. She thought she'd been saving her sister, and she ended up damning her -- and Robbie -- to a life they didn't choose and would never escape.

One of the comments at which I was most incredulous was from a certain reviewer at Amazon.com who stated that Briony's desire to control everything and everyone around her was evident in the fact that she changed the events and ending when she later, at the dusk of her life, published her book. I laughed at that, because he must've fallen asleep during the waning moments of the movie. She clearly stated that changing those events -- by making it so that Robbie and Cecilia had a happy ending -- was the only way she knew of making amends. Selfish? Controlling? I think not.

10) Twilight, Stephenie Meyer: By now I have certainly written enough about this and its sequels, so I won't babble on any more except to say that this has quickly become one of my very favorite books.

11) New Moon, Stephenie Meyer: See Twilight.

12) Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer: See Twilight.

13) Remember Me?, Sophie Kinsella: I love Sophie Kinsella's stuff, and I was looking forward to getting the email from the library telling me I could come by and pick it up. I read it in one day. It was pretty standard Kinsella fare -- funny, engaging, witty protagonist who finds herself in a perplexing, overwhelming predicatment. The plot was very 13 Going on 30 meets Samantha, Who? Since I loved the movie and find the TV show funny and charming, I liked the book. I didn't like it quite as much as Can You Keep a Secret? and The Undomestic Goddess, but I liked it as much as the Shopaholic books. I'd give it a solid three stars. Er, Cherry Chapsticks.

You may remember that I'd stated in prior posts that I'd started Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. I've since stopped, and I took it back to the library yesterday. I find Sebold's writing style a bit disconcerting, and I just couldn't get into the story. I'm sure I'll pick it up again, but for now, I am perfectly content to wait for the movie.

I'm breaking up my fiction to read one of David Limbaugh's books that I picked up from the library yesterday: Persecution: How Liberals are Waging War Against Christianity. I've been wanting to read this for a while because it's so plainly evident. After that, I'll probably read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, another of Limbaugh's books on the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the Democratic Party, then House of Sand and Fog, and then, knowing me, I'll start Twilight again.

Logan: I thought our story was epic, you and me...spanning years and continents. Lives ruined and blood shed. Epic...

Veronica: Come on. Ruined lives? Bloodshed? You really think a relationship should be that hard?

Logan: No one writes songs about the ones that come easy.

It was one of my favorite quotes -- and one of my favorite scenes -- in all three seasons of Veronica Mars, and it kept running along the bottom of my mind, like a news ticker, throughout my consumption of Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse.

Before I continue, let me issue this disclaimer, in case it wasn't clear in past posts: I love Harry Potter. I have loved that series since I first discovered it on a plane to Chicago in September of 1999. I waited with eager anticipation for each volume thereafter, and inhaled each one in one day. I have seen each of the movies the day it premiered -- in fact, it's become quite a fun little tradition for myself, Kevin, and Mia. I have taken them to see every one, even when they didn't weigh enough to hold down their seats in the theater for ...and the Sorceror's Stone. I continue to anticipate the releases of ...and the Half-Blood Prince and ...and the Deathly Hallows. I never thought another series would be able to come along and have the same impact.

Until Twilight.

I've been trying to determine exactly why Bella, Edward and Alice have trumped Harry, Ron and Hermione in just three books' time. While I feel Stephenie Meyer is overall a better writer than JK Rowling, especially when it comes to evoking emotion and creating very complete, very layered, very realistic characters (seriously, when Bella was curled up on the forest floor, numb and practically catatonic, I was there right along with her -- I've been there), I think it ultimately comes down to what I've mentioned in earlier posts: Meyer's world is more realistic than Rowling's. And also? The epic, rip-your-heart-out romance between Edward and Bella.

Now, when I say the word "realistic," I am not implying in any way that I believe vampires and werewolves are any more realistic than witches, wizards, and trolls. However, when I suspend disbelief enough to make those worlds realistic, it is far easier for me to insert myself into Forks, Washington, than Hogwarts. It is easier for me to identify with Bella (and Alice, and Edward, etc.) than Harry.

Like Joss Whedon did when creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Meyer writes about characters who just happen to be vampires. Yes, their vampire status defines their world and creates a number of conflicts and complications, but -- again, like Whedon -- Meyer's creations are very human. They strive to retain their humanity. They want to fit in with society.

Harry Potter exists in a separate, secret reality, where nobody can know about them, and there's this underlying, catastrophic battle always lingering on the horizon. On its own, the series is quite exciting and interesting. But at the end of the day, I can't see myself in that world the way I can in the Twilight books. That is how I determine what books (and movies, and TV, etc.) with which I fall in love -- if I can imagine myself inserted into those particular settings and scenarios.

I finished Eclipse last night (about five minutes before I passed out -- the meds my doc prescribed to help me sleep worked far more quickly than I anticipated) and it was all I could do to pick up The Lovely Bones on my way to work rather than grabbing Twilight to begin the, well, epic experience all over again. (Yes, I have since purchased all three books. I can't not have them in my collection.)

Edward Cullen has ruined me for, you know, non-fictional men. Steph (who I am happy to say is addicted right along with Erin and me, yay!) said she was trying to remember if there had ever been another relationship quite like Bella and Edward's, and I have to say, I don't think so. Sigh. Romance and love like that does not exist outside of fiction.

And it sucks.

Pun not really intended.

(ETA: I laughed when I heard Hillary had won Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island tonight. Glad my vote could count for something since I knew Senator McCain would indeed clinch the Republican nomination.)

Got an email from the library at 4:30 that New Moon, the second book in Stephenie Meyer's acclaimed Twilight series, had (finally) arrived.

By 6 p.m., I was reading it. I took a break to watch American Idol, the Gosselins' skiing special, and to talk to Erin for a while, but it is 2:44 a.m. and I am done.

Which would mean I read it faster than I read Twilight.

(And, at 562 pages, it's 64 pages longer than Twilight, too.)

What a seriously fantastic series. I am so completely addicted. Like Erin, I didn't love the second one quite as much as the first one, but it was still really, really fabulous. Bella has quickly become one of my favorite literary characters, and so much of the time what she's thinking or feeling is so familiar. I relate to her a great deal.

I just wish that someone like Edward would feel the same way about me. Sigh. Mostly I'm okay with the fact that that won't be happening in my lifetime, but there are some moments...

Anyway. I've had the third novel, Eclipse, on my shelf for a while, and so I'll start it tomorrow. Er, well, in a few hours.

The wait for the fourth book, due out in August, and the movie version of Twilight, due in December, will be impossibly and interminably torturous.

I'm sure I'll be rereading the series in the mean time. I have to say, I like these books better than the Harry Potter series, mainly because it's a little easier to suspend disbelief, and also it's easier to identify with the protagonist. (Plus Meyer really is a tremendous writer.)

Going to grab a couple hours of sleep before work.

Wouldn't you know that of the two books that arrived at the library for me today, neither one was New Moon? I have a sneaking suspicion the librarians are hiding it from me because they want to see me actually die of impatience.

I decided to shelf Atonement for a while (I only have 150 pages left, and it's mine, so no due dates) and start The Lovely Bones, since it was from my first wave of library books and is due back on the 18th.

I read 15 pages and feel like throwing up, or curling up into a fetal position, or both.

I hope the movie's not very graphic, because I really don't know that I can see such a horrifying scene happen to the absolutely adorable little girl from Atonement, who, in interviews, reminds me so much of Ashley.

I am hoping that the "hope born of grief" part of the story comes quickly.

ETA: Eight hours, 45 minutes, and 498 pages later, I'm done. So. Amazing. And now I'm irritated that I've got to wait for the next one, especially when the third one is already sitting on my shelf...sigh...

So a few months ago, Erin recommended a particular book series to me. I remember thinking it sounded really interesting, but I always have a pile of books that I'm in the middle of reading, or need to read, or whatever, so I kind of filed her recommendation away in the back of my mind for a later date.

Then came my recent reintroduction to the public library. I was looking for titles to put holds on -- I love using the internet to hold books and then run in and out in five minutes to pick the books up off the hold shelves and check them out myself -- and I remembered Erin's suggestions.

The first book of the series, Twilight, arrived at my local branch yesterday and I picked it up this afternoon. Originally, I wasn't going to read it. I was going to merely tuck it away on my library book shelf, along with The Lovely Bones and Nineteen Minutes and House of Sand and Fog, while I finish Atonement. (WHY is it taking me so long to finish? Ian McEwan is a fantastic author, and Briony Tallis has quickly become one of my favorite protagonists this side of Scout Finch. And yet, it's taken me two weeks and I'm only halfway through. Sigh.)

But Erin's veiled (okay, not-so-veiled) hints at how awesome Stephenie Meyer's series is, coupled with my discovery that the movie version of Twilight, starring one of my favorite actors, Kristen Stewart, is due out this December, prompted me to preempt Atonement.

I meant to read a couple chapters while I ate dinner and then move on to other tasks. Namely, cleaning my apartment, packing up some more of my belongings into Chick-fil-A Waffle Fries boxes, and oh yeah -- watching "The Constant," the newest LOST episode.

And yet, until five minutes ago, I was still reading Twilight.

I am completely besotted with this novel. I admit -- I heard "Young Adult" and "vampire" and thought that, while it sounded interesting, it couldn't be all that masterful. And yet it is. I love Bella, the main character. She is written so well, and even if I hadn't already known Stewart had been tapped to play her in the movie, I would've probably imagined her anyway. It is so the type of role at which she excels. I am also a bit in love with Edward. You know, the fictional -- and immortal -- male protagonist. (He's being played by Robert Pattinson, the (hot) guy who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.) Holy crap. I think my breath actually quickens when I read the scenes of the two of them together. It reminds me a great deal of Season 1-2 Buffy-Angel interactions. So incredibly, incredibly -- and epically -- romantic.

I am afraid, though, that people my age -- you know, "grown-ups" -- will be disenchanted, or just plain turned off, by the notion that this is technically a Young Adult series, and that there are characters who just happen to be vampires. (And, I think, werewolves -- I haven't gotten that far yet.) It's kind of the same prejudice that caused people to miss out on the brilliance of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I am willing to read anything, whether it's intended for high schoolers or adults, as long as it's well-written and involves compelling plots and engaging, relateable characters. Meyer delivers in spades.

She really is an excellent, very descriptive writer capable of evoking a great deal of emotion. She's a better writer than JK Rowling, I must admit, and while I will always be enamored with Harry Potter...well, I can't wait to read the entire Twilight series. According to an interview I read, KS said there would be a fourth book coming out soon, and that she's hoping they shoot all four (or however many there are ultimately) and that she's excited to be involved in all of them.

I'm only 160 pages in, and I'm already willing to go out on a limb and highly, highly -- and unequivocally -- recommend this series.