Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
I just finished this book, and I just wrote a review for it on goodreads, so I figured it was a good time to post here with my review. BTW- if you are not on goodreads, you should join I have found it a great way of getting new titles for my TBR pile (which is huge now).
I picked up this book because I kept reading such rave reviews of it by everyone. (seriously I have yet read a bad review) Given that this is a “young adult” book, and the subject matter, vampires, I really wanted to not like this book. Don’t get me wrong I read Anne Rice back in my early adulthood and I enjoyed them. But I like to think I am now “beyond” that and into more serious fiction. Well, I do do read more serious fiction now, but come on who doesn’t enjoy some good…more I picked up this book because I kept reading such rave reviews of it by everyone. (seriously I have yet read a bad review) Given that this is a “young adult” book, and the subject matter, vampires, I really wanted to not like this book. Don’t get me wrong I read Anne Rice back in my early adulthood and I enjoyed them. But I like to think I am now “beyond” that and into more serious fiction.LOL! Well, I do read more serious fiction now, but come on who doesn’t enjoy some good mind candy every now and then.
I REALLY liked, bordering on loved, this book. I was immediately drawn in from the first sentence. I could not put this book down and anxiously waited until the next time I could pick it up every time I did put it down. Meyer has a very different take on the world of vampires than I have every read before. You can;t help but like her “nice” brood of vampires. You also can’t help but fall in love with the heroine, sweet innocent Bella who has a knack for finding herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. I do recommend this book. I rushed out tonight to pick up the 2nd and 3rd books in the series. I bought them NEW and I do not buy new books, so that should tell you something.
I have actually read several books simc my last book update. Unfortunately I did not write a review on goodreads or here about them. I am so bad about remembering what I have to say about books, except whether I liked it or not, after it has been a while since reading them. So, I will post the books and whehter or not I liked them. Sorry, that will have to be enough. I am going to have to be better about sitting down to blog about a books as soon as finish with them.
Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
This book was chosen by my book club for our next meeting. I really enjoyed this book. I honestly did not know much about the Mormons (other than they like to wake me up early by knocking on my door 🙂 ), let alone the FLDS. This book really was an eye-opener. I am really looking forward to our book club discussion.
From Publishers Weekly
Using as a focal point the chilling story of offshoot Mormon fundamentalist brothers Dan and Ron Lafferty, who in 1984 brutally butchered their sister-in-law and 15-month-old niece in the name of a divine revelation, Krakauer explores what he sees as the nature of radical Mormon sects with Svengali-like leaders. Using mostly secondary historical texts and some contemporary primary sources, Krakauer compellingly details the history of the Mormon church from its early 19th-century creation by Joseph Smith (whom Krakauer describes as a convicted con man) to its violent journey from upstate New York to the Midwest and finally Utah, where, after the 1890 renunciation of the church’s holy doctrine sanctioning multiple marriages, it transformed itself into one of the world’s fastest-growing religions. Through interviews with family members and an unremorseful Dan Lafferty (who is currently serving a life sentence), Krakauer chronologically tracks what led to the double murder, from the brothers’ theological misgivings about the Mormon church to starting their own fundamentalist sect that relies on their direct communications with God to guide their actions. According to Dan’s chilling step-by-step account, when their new religion led to Ron’s divorce and both men’s excommunication from the Mormon church, the brothers followed divine revelations and sought to kill, starting with their sister-in-law, those who stood in the way of their new beliefs. Relying on his strong journalistic and storytelling skills, Krakauer peppers the book with an array of disturbing firsthand accounts and news stories (such as the recent kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart) of physical and sexual brutality, which he sees as an outgrowth of some fundamentalists’ belief in polygamy and the notion that every male speaks to God and can do God’s bidding. While Krakauer demonstrates that most nonfundamentalist Mormons are community oriented, industrious and law-abiding, he poses some striking questions about the closed-minded, closed-door policies of the religion-and many religions in general.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
I enjoyed this book. I knew the story was about a hermaphrodite, but really did not know what to expect. It was recommended to me by some friends on the Nest so I decided to take a chance. It reads a lot like a memoir, but it is not. I kept having to remind myself that it was fiction. It is definitely an interesting book and kept me entertained.
From Publishers Weekly
As the Age of the Genome begins to dawn, we will, perhaps, expect our fictional protagonists to know as much about the chemical details of their ancestry as Victorian heroes knew about their estates. If so, Eugenides (The Virgin Suicides) is ahead of the game. His beautifully written novel begins: “Specialized readers may have come across me in Dr. Peter Luce’s study, ‘Gender Identity in 5-Alpha-Reductase Pseudohermaphrodites.’ ” The “me” of that sentence, “Cal” Stephanides, narrates his story of sexual shifts with exemplary tact, beginning with his immigrant grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty. On board the ship taking them from war-torn Turkey to America, they married-but they were brother and sister. Eugenides spends the book’s first half recreating, with a fine-grained density, the Detroit of the 1920s and ’30s where the immigrants settled: Ford car factories and the tiny, incipient sect of Black Muslims. Then comes Cal’s story, which is necessarily interwoven with his parents’ upward social trajectory. Milton, his father, takes an insurance windfall and parlays it into a fast-food hotdog empire. Meanwhile, Tessie, his wife, gives birth to a son and then a daughter-or at least, what seems to be a female baby. Genetics meets medical incompetence meets history, and Callie is left to think of her “crocus” as simply unusually long-until she reaches the age of 14. Eugenides, like Rick Moody, has an extraordinary sensitivity to the mores of our leafier suburbs, and Cal’s gender confusion is blended with the story of her first love, Milton’s growing political resentments and the general shedding of ethnic habits. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about this book is Eugenides’s ability to feel his way into the girl, Callie, and the man, Cal. It’s difficult to imagine any serious male writer of earlier eras so effortlessly transcending the stereotypes of gender. This is one determinedly literary novel that should also appeal to a large, general audience.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to the Paperback edition.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
This was my book club’s last selection. I had originally thought/heard that even though it was non-fiction it read like fiction. Well, this is so not true, or at least not IMO. I did enjoy this book, but it was my no means a page turner. It was a very slow read. I did find the history of the first world’s fair held in the US fascinating at times, like the origin of things like the Ferris Wheel, and Cracker Jacks. But, I was disappointed in the “mystery” in the book. I would still recommend it, especially if you enjoy historical books, but do not pick it up thinking it will be a fast paced thriller or you will more than likely be disappointed.
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