As a teenager, I think I would have LOVED these books. All fate and destiny and romance and ever burning passion and undying love. Isn’t that always the dream of a 17-year-old romantic. To be declaring “I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER.”

As an adult, they were still very entertaining, although there are many facile aspects to them. They look big but the print is HUGE and the margins are WIDE and really you can just whip right through these on a crazy emotional rollercoaster.

Which is my way of saying, yes, I then read the follow-ups New Moon and Eclipse to round out that weekend.

Stephanie and I had a long chat about these. She’s right, there are so many things wrong with the 2nd and 3rd installments, including BAD BAD messages to send to teens and what is likely a bowing to the weight of the author’s fellow mormons’ critiques.

On the other hand, if you just give in and go with Bella’s emotions, they seem to “make sense” emotionally, if that sentence itself makes any sense. Basically: the things they do WRONG didn’t make them unreadable to me.

As a child, I was often obsessed with books that my mom just did NOT like the overall messages underneath the themes that were what pulled me in. (Elsie Dinsmore, case in point. Talk about a restrictive horrible view of religion. Not that I want anything to do with even the nonrestrictive kind but that’s another story. I also had an obsession with books about cults and books about people being “debriefed” after they had been rescued from a cult. Too funny, to me now.) But I think she got comfortable with the fact that I was able to really feel the emotional pull of something without necessarily having it change my rational mind.

However, again, Steph is right, you can’t count on a young reader necessarily being able to do that. I found these entertaining in a whirlwind romance, vampire love, perfect soulmate kind of way. But they weren’t great literature. They were an escape.

It kinda cracks me up how every “new” installment to vampire lore needs to put their own tweak on the legends. Oh no, no, it’s not that we burn up and die in the sun, it’s that when we’re in the sun, we’re just SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL. Oh, OK. Sure. 🙂

The story of a Mennonite family in the midst of falling apart. Nomi was a great narrator, brave and bold and honest, questioning not just for the sake of the questions. Not a long book, not a hard read. Very emotionally engaging.

With his new book getting reviewed all over the place and Bookslut wholeheartedly recommending him, thought it was time I checked out Auslander.
Really funny, sarcastic, biting religious humor. Some of the stories were really really hilarious, particularly if you know anything about Judaism. If you don’t, some of the specifics might just go over your head. Some weren’t quite as funny, or perhaps it’s better read not all in a row as it’s a little one-note. If you’re not into mocking religion, then you wouldn’t be interested.

As I may have mentioned, a somewhat philosophical story about a girlhood friendship gone wrong. Cameron is extremely guarded and close with her secrets; she’s also honest and heartbroken and afraid it will happen again. Sonia is exactly the kind of best friend who drives you nuts and makes you crazy while also making you treasure her. As with so many relationships, things get tangled up in insecurities and secrets and lies.
Really inviting tone, easy to get emotionally involved here. I wouldn’t call it chick lit, and I was surprised to see one reviewer on Amazon say “Teens will appreciate…” Teens? I don’t see Teens being interested in this kind of brutal honesty about how things fall apart (it would have hurt too much to read then and think ‘oh no this might happen to my friendship with x or x’), or understand the little lies going on here that turn out to not matter so much in the end. This is a book for adults, if you ask me.

Picked this up based on Marrije’s recommendation. Completely agree with her review. It’s charming and fun and has its racy moments (hello romance novel), but insightful and thoughtful and, more than anything else, it’s a story of a little girl gradually becoming in a woman, in a most unusual way. Really enjoyable, I’m definitely going to seek out more of her stuff!

Really touching, slowly moving story. Told by a great-aunt, recording memories into a tape recorder, centered around pictures of relevant events. A really strong sense of time and place. A story about family and generations and what a child takes with them, even if unwillingly, from their parents. A story of cousins, become friends, and then estranged. A story of loves and jealousies and anguish and (some) joy. Really lovely.

This is a re-read from 2004 as I’ve got the two follow-up books on my To Be Read shelves and wanted a refresher…

’60s mob scene in London. Swanky mobsters. Truly evocative, full of noir. Similar in setup to, say, a David Mitchell book, each section is narrated by a different character, all of whom are somewhere on the outskirts of Harry Swank’s life, a gay gangster, unusual particularly for his time, who always has a boy-toy hanger-on, is obsessed with Liza Minnelli and other cabaret style singers, and seeks legitimacy in odd ways.

Really still enjoyed it, second time around, although I found the last chapter a bit wearing, didn’t care for that narrator as much as the others.

A love story about an academic, sort of a shoo-in to my book pile, don’t you think. The narrator has a very similar tone and feel to the narrator of Love Walked In, but a few years older, wiser, and more jaded. It’s literate and witty, and the compare-and-contrast overlap between problems with the boy and problems with work colleagues is done really well.

Nice friendship moments, nice relationship moments, good realizations.

I didn’t like some of the choices at the end, however. Doesn’t stop me from thinking it was very well-written and worth reading. But I’m a little irked with at least one character. Shows you how involving it was, eh? 😉