more vampires
April 14, 2008
Even though I didn’t like I Am Legend with its vampires I read Stephanie Meyer’s vampire triology next. My first exposure to the triology came this summer past. My sister, who is fifteen years younger than I, came to stay at my house for a week while she visited the university and applied to school there. One evening we visited a book store and she pounced on Eclipse (2008) which had not been out long at all. We returned home and after visiting with me about fifteen or twenty minutes she retired to her bedroom for good. Ian came home from work around 4 a.m. and told me later that morning that her light was still on. She stayed up to read the whole book through.
I cannot blame her, for Meyer’s writing is simple and seductive and so easy to sink into. Her storytelling is fabulous and no doubt, that is the greatest appeal of her books. Her characters are complex, too. But, it is high school, after all. So high school. Isabella Swan is the protagonist. She moves to Washington to live with her father, the sheriff, of a small, gloomy but green, town. Her mother remarried a baseball player who travels frequently and Isabella felt as though her living with her mother placed a hardship upon her since she couldn’t tag along on new hubby’s travels.
Basically the first book, Twilight, is about Isabella getting used to her new town, school, and friends. Her father is mostly absent, but she cooks dinner for them each evening. She makes new friends easily and eventually befriends a passel of vampires who belong to the same family. She falls in love with Edward, and he feels the same for her. But it’s tough dating a vampire. He’s so cold. And has to control his blood lust around her. And some of the vampires have special powers. Like Alice, Edward’s sister, can see the future. The excitement comes near the end of the first novel when they encounter three other vampires. Almost forgot: These vampires are vegetarians, of sorts. They don’t prey upon humans. They only drink blood from large animals like bears, cougars, etc. The three other vampires the family and Isabella encounter do drink human blood. And they all want Isabella. Throughout the entire trilogy (and there’s a fourth book coming out this summer, so what does that make it?) Isabella struggles with her desire to become a vampire. Sometimes she is conflicted, but for the most part, she is sure that a vampire’s life is for her.
In the next book, New Moon, Edward decides that Isabella cannot live a normal life with him in it. And so he leaves. His whole family leaves Washington for greener pastures. Isabella falls into a deep depression and only goes through the motions of life. Finally, there’s a break in her depression and she spends more and more time with Jacob. They’ve known one another for years. He’s a few years younger than she, and an American Indian who lives on the local rez. She has him repair two motorcycles that she bought with the hope of living on the edge. Mostly, she’s suicidal at this point because she cannot live without Edward. So high school. But then Jacob starts acting weird and won’t take her calls. He avoids her. Readers can put two and two together quite easily if they remember the story Jacob told Isabella in the first book about werewolves and vampires. Eventually Isabella guesses that he’s a werewolf. The problem, of course, is that werewolves and vampires are mortal enemies. So how will Isabella juggle her friendship with Jacob and her feelings for Edward? Oh, Edward returns to her life. The story takes a dramatic turn when Edward thinks that Isabella is dead and he goes to Italy to have the uber vampires kill him, put him out of his misery, for he cannot live without Isabella.
Somehow, I’ve forgotten the third book entirely. Eclipse is filled with Isabella’s woes about finishing high school and moving on to college. She disdains normal human experiences and aches to join Edward and the Cullen family as her own vampire self. One of her major problems is that she’s aging. She turns 18 in this book and doesn’t want to get older than Edward. Edward wants her to go to college and have all those experiences that he missed out on when he was human. Then there are tons of murders happening in Seattle that have Isabella’s father and the Cullen’s out of sorts. The Cullens suspect it’s a pack of newborn vampires going through the city’s population. They prepare for an attack, for they are certain, given Alice’s special powers, that the pack will soon descend upon their town. There’s a bit of negotiating between Isabella and Edward regarding her becoming a vampire. She wants it done soon. He wants to wait. Then he extracts a promise from her that they will marry before she becomes a bloodsucker. Naturally there is a huge fight between vampires when the newborn pack reaches Forks, but surprisingly, the werewolves agree to fight alongside the vegetarian vampires. They fight. Some die, some don’t.
Now I await for the release of the fourth book this summer to see how things turn out. I feel that Isabella won’t become a vampire. Frankly, Jacob, the werewolf seems a better match for Isabella, and one of the struggles she faces in the third book is the realization that she loves Jacob more than in a “just friends” way. The vampires are glamorous and lovely and drive sports cars, but otherwise, they’re boring. Go werewolf, go!
movie beats book twice
April 3, 2008
Usually it’s not the case that I enjoy a movie better than a book. But strangely enough, the past two books-into-movies I read defied the norm. Though Becoming Jane Austen (2003) was filled with biographical information about Austen and her family, it seemed tedious and dry at times, yet was incredibly well-written. The movie focuses on Austen’s relationship with the mysterious Tom LeFroy and the book focuses on Austen’s entire life but Jon Spence traces LeFroy’s influence throughout all of Austen’s novels.
Then last night I read I Am Legend (1954). Frankly, I was bored. Vampires. They’re vampires. And the novella? short story? is set in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, not in Manhattan/Long Island in the twenty-first century like in the Will Smith movie. Matheson’s novel was bare bones and the Neville character was focused on vampires and their mythology. The 2007 movie is loosely based on the novel and takes Matheson’s theme further into the future than perhaps he could have envisioned it. Neville visits the Los Angeles Public Library to research biology and hemoglobin in his quest to understand and cure all the vampires in the world. So there was that library bit that perked up the slightest bit.
great and terrible beauty
September 6, 2007
Swept through A Great and Terrible Beauty (2003) the other day. Checked it out. Read a few pages one day, and then really got into one night and stayed up until 2 a.m. on a work night to complete it.
Per annum I may read one or two young adult novels. A Great and Terrible Beauty is that. We got a copy at my academic library since it was an award winning book and we have a young adult/children’s collection in our library due to our strong School of Education. Really, it was the cover that appealed to me. Young woman wearing a corset. But tasteful.
It was a quick read. An easy read. There aren’t any complex passages to bog the reader down. Very smooth reading all the way through. Interesting characters. Plucky, of course, the way I like them.
Sweet sixteen year old Gemma is a British subject living in India at the end of the nineteenth century. She yearns to come home to London but her mother raised her in India. After her mother’s untimely murder at the hands of something supernatural, Gemma is sent to Spence, a boarding school outside London.
Her roommate Ann, is a scholarship student, and plain. There are more exciting, wealthy girls at the school and soon Gemma enters into cautious friendship with them. Their art teacher takes them to caves that feature primitive drawings and from there Gemma and her gang decide to re-create the Order, which has some similarities to a coven.
Poor Gemma has a connection to the supernatural already. Her visions are mostly disturbing. Like the one she had of her mother’s death. Her friends enjoy their trips to the Realms; Gemma is the portal and her energy is what propels them all into this other world that is akin to a dreamworld where magic exists.
Gemma’s interest in the Realms lies in her ability to visit with her dead mother. Her mother instructs Gemma in the use of her magical skills and warns her against laying her hands on runes that will allow her to bring magic back into the regular world. Doing so will loose an evil force upon the “real” world.
There’s a bit of death and destruction near the end. But all in all, it’s a good read for that YA demographic. And, there’s a sequel, and a third book in the set, possibly a trilogy, set for publication. Probably a great set of books that appeal to young women who might enjoy the whole Harry Potter bit, but with a very feminine emphasis and sensibility.
women’s review of books
June 8, 2006
The May/June 2006 issues of Women’s Review of Books came in the mail earlier this week. It was folded in thirds. Postal carriers are not supposed to do that. But they do. I know this because I had to complain about photographs being bent by my postal carrier. Maybe this problem will be solved.
Somehow I doubt it. I wish for the good old days when Clara was my mail carrier. She retired. Since then, my magazines come creased in half to my house. It doesn’t help that I’m so anal about that. And many of my magazines are chewed all to hell by something. Or, I get them impossibly late, which makes me think that my postal carrier takes them home with him and reclines in his easy chair and wades through all my stuff.
book rate
May 31, 2006
A few weeks ago, maybe even a few months ago (okay, it was April), Marly Youmans offered copies of her book The Curse of the Raven Mocker (2003) for $5 each. Naturally I jumped at that. The books arrived today. One is inscribed to me in her delightful penmanship and the other is simply signed. I love her adult books, but haven’t read her children and young adult titles yet.
My copies were sent book rate and nestled snugly in a stout cardboard box. Finding the box in my mail receptacle was the delight of my day. And then opening the box? Even more better. I love mail. I love packages. I love books. I would share that lovely sight here, except that I’m unable to create a directory for my uploads just yet. Soon, that will be worked out.
mercury, bestsellers, and salmon of doubt
July 23, 2002
I read a really fabulous book by a Tennessee author over the weekend. Mercury is by Cary Holladay who lives in Memphis. She’s creative writing faculty at University of Memphis. At first I wasn’t sure I would like it because the main character, gee, what’s her name? I’ve already forgotten. Kaylynn, or something. Anyway, she’s recovering from the effects of mercury poisoning that she suffered after a juvenile prank she pulled with 2 friends. By the end of the book it’s easier to be sympathetic toward her, although she’s a poor little rich girl who lives in a glass house overlooking a lake. Actually I really liked several other characters much better. Jerry & Dora were really great, but I didn’t learn much about them. It was quite satisfying though.
Then, I read Michael Korda’s Making the list: a cultural history of the American bestseller, 1900-1999. I guess the fact that the text was double-spaced should have tipped me off that it was a marginal effort. The “study” was very basic. In the introduction her writes that he’s not making presumptions about what he’ll find, but then there is no conclusion, so I wonder if he had any ideas about what he would and then did discover. Very poorly done. Who WAS his editor? The chapters were all pretty basic, and included each year’s list of the top ten best-selling books. I think I could have written a better treatment of the subject. He also discusses “women’s novels” but doesn’t define what he’s talking about. The book was poor especially because he didn’t attempt to analyze the gender implications of “men’s novels” and “women’s novels”. Very disappointing. Poor show, Korda!
I began Douglas Adams’s Salmon of doubt, but have only read the prologue thus far. I read his Hitchhiker’s guide… books when I was 15 or 16 and I suppose that’s where my love of science fiction began. But, I did read Madeline L’Engle when I was very young, so perhaps that’s truly how that preference started. I have a few other books already set to read, library books, that is, and I bought Ash Wednesday and hope to read it by the weekend. Must be prepared!
steadily reading along
July 9, 2002
Over my much-needed “break” I did read three books. Not bad, but not terribly good either. I fell prey to the hypnotic and mind-dulling lure of the telly. Yuck. Luckily that’s not an everyday addiction for me like reading is. Whew, relief! First, I read the Nanny Diaries, which was pretty good, but really quite frustrating because Nanny so needed to get away from the family she was working for. It was well-written though, I practically devoured the book whole.
Next I read The Eyre Affair which takes place in an alternate universe that holds literature and reading to be one of the highest forms of culture in their society. Quite clever and imaginative. A fun and absorbing book to read. Main character is a literary detective named Thursday Next. She tracks down stolen manuscripts and reveals forgeries. Everything goes awry when the evil man Hades kidnaps Jane Eyre from the original manuscript. Scholars watch as the pages of the novel go blank, and ultimately the story is rewritten with another ending. One of the top things I’ve read this year, for sure.
Lastly, I indulged in my interest for forensic sciences by reading Dead reckoning. It was a bit dull. Perhaps it was the writing, because Baden had several fascinating stories to relate, and I read all about schooling at various blood & bug workshops. It somehow left me with nothing. Actually this is not the first forensic “memoir” that I’ve read that’s left me cold. Perhaps it’s a problem with the genre. Oh well.
I started Breaking clean by Judy Blunt a few nights ago. Have read 3 or 4 chapters. It’s memoir as well. The writer grew up in Montana, so that’s why I found it appealing. The writing is good, but there are parts that I skim because I’m more interested in her life, not so much the physical descriptions of other things. Am still waiting for the meaty parts, if they exist. Oh, apparently they’re essays. Hmmmm, they read more like memoir though.
my goodness! sex, books, and dentatas?
June 24, 2002
I bought Strip city: a strippers farewell journey across America several months ago when it first came out, but finally got the urge to read it sometime last week, or maybe it was 2 weeks ago by now. Lily Burana writes a great account of her life as a stripper. Her style is relaxed and easy to read. For the most part I really enjoyed the content of the book, especially when she goes into the history of stripping and visits oh this special museum that I’ve since forgotten the name of. A few parts are kind of tedious though. She makes all these lists several times. She runs through the gamut of stripper’s names, names of strip clubs, and there’s something else, but I’ve since forgotten what. It wasn’t quite as meaty as I would have liked. I’m not talking about illicit sex or anything, that part was adequate. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was more academic. It’s very accessible, no doubt, but I’m sure it will be more of a popular work than…well, let’s just say that if my public library was “that kinda library” they would have a copy of it before my academic library would. It appeals to the masses, or can, might, could, should.
Anyway…. Along that vein, I decided to take Brothel: Mustang Ranch and its women off my shelf as well. I bought it months ago after it first came out, but again wasn’t chomping at the bit to read it. This is one of the books that I took to ALA. I sat reading it in the lobby of the Marriot Marquis. Also read it while I tended the SRRT booth. It shed light onto legalized prostitution in Nevada. I learned a lot. Not a lot I didn’t already know or imagine, but it was still quite informative. Alexa Albert paints the characters in a sympathetic light. More about the book. An interview with Albert complete with photos of one of the suites at the Mustang Ranch.
Of course, it was ALA, so I took a handy dandy paperback that would be easy to carry around. What is life if you’re bookless? I mean who has time to just sit around and stare aimlessly or eavesdrop on others when you could be reading?! The likeliest candidate for this mission was Snow crash, described as a cyberpunk thriller,which I enjoyed immensely. Yes, I was surprised that I liked it so well. The plot is excellent, the characters are not as developed as they could be, but the technology was truly fascinating. I had never read Neal Stephenson, though I did check out Cryptonomicon, but didn’t read more than the first two or three pages. So the main character Hiro Protagonist is way cool, and there’s his “sidekick” “Y.T.” who has a dentata to protect her from forcible rape. She mentions it several times in the course of events, but only toward the end do we learn how it’s wielded. Cool….
I finished Unless last night, and I must say that it was truly excellent. There were so many points that really hit home with me. It’s very much an inner life type of novel. You learn so much about what’s going on in the protagonist’s mind. Okay so I had to read it because I enjoy Carol Shields, and also I read about it in last month’s issue of Book. Ok I swear that’s where I read it, but it’s not listed in the table of contents.
A few of Shields’ jewels: from page 41,
Not surprisingly, she, always looking a little derisoire, believes that women have been enslaved by their possessions. Acquiring and then tending–these eat up a woman’s creativity, anyone’s creativity.
from page 55, Don’t hide your dark side fomr yourself, she said to me once, it’s what keeps us going forward, that pushing away from the blinding brilliance. She said that, of course, in the tough early days of feminism, and no one expected her to struggle free to merriment.
from page 70, She believes that Norah has simply succumbed to the traditional refuge of women without power: she has accepted in its stead complete powerlessness, total passivity, a kind of impotent piety. In doing nothing, she has claimed everything.
from page 148, Novels help us turn down the volume of our own interior “discourse,” but unless they can provide an alternative, hopeful course, they’re just so much narrative crumble. Unless, unless.
And then there was a long passage from one of the many letters that Reta writes in her head but never mails, but I don’t want to type the whole thing out. Just for reference though, it’s on page 164-65.
I started Elizabeth Berg’s new novel True to form last night. There aren’t any reviews of it online just yet. Unless, you want to read the ones at amazon.
