Ah, I have been slacking on the blog but not on the reading. I have been reading a lot for school, and I don't know why, but whenever someone forces me to read something I immediatly lose all interest in reading it. No matter how cool the book is, I just don't want to read it. So I've been supplimenting my school reads with light and fluffy ones. So, for example, we have Native American history with a side of The End of the World. A little bit of East Asian history with a side of vampire. It works! Wastelands is an anthology of EOTW stories from some of my fave authors including Stephen King and Jonathon Lethem. Normally, I hate short stories as I hate to commit to a character and setting just to let them go in thirty pages, but anthologies like Wastelands are a great way to find new authors. Some of the stories were funny, most powerfully sad, and every single on of them was inventive. Each story was its own little universe, and they all take place at the end of the world as we know it. Imagine a world run by the IT guys (and gals) from your office. Imagine being a scientist who was sent to Mars, only to return and find you have missed the second coming and there is no sign of whether or not Jesus is coming back for you. If you wanted it to be Wastelands could be very thought provoking. I needed it to be escapist fiction and it delivered.
Then I finished Twilight, which my Teen Reading Group had been twisting my arm to read for months now. I had feared it would just be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it wasn't. I also did not find it to be the great romance I had expected it to be. I find Bella to be very disappointing. I get why Edward is so great-I get it. I just don't see what is so wonderful about Bella. Her character seems to have no interests outside of Edward and falling down. I wish she had more of a personality. The book is not awful, and I found the climax satisfying. Actually, I thought the book really picked up in the end, so I have great faith that the second and third books are much better. I also plan to read Meyer's "adult" novel The Host when it comes out. This may be a case of a great writer who just has not hit her groove yet. If anything it is worth reading so I can keep up with my Teens. I don't count YA reads or manga toward my yearly total, so you won't see them on my finished list. I have debated this with many at work, and I cannot definitively say why I don't count the YA reads. My gut just wont let me count them.
I also finished Janice Erlbaum's latest. I do want to point out that the new one is better appreciated if you read Girlbomb first. Knowing Janice's story sets up the MO behind the second book. Without understanding what Janice went through, it is harder to understand why she would be so drawn to Samantha.
Then I finished Twilight, which my Teen Reading Group had been twisting my arm to read for months now. I had feared it would just be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it wasn't. I also did not find it to be the great romance I had expected it to be. I find Bella to be very disappointing. I get why Edward is so great-I get it. I just don't see what is so wonderful about Bella. Her character seems to have no interests outside of Edward and falling down. I wish she had more of a personality. The book is not awful, and I found the climax satisfying. Actually, I thought the book really picked up in the end, so I have great faith that the second and third books are much better. I also plan to read Meyer's "adult" novel The Host when it comes out. This may be a case of a great writer who just has not hit her groove yet. If anything it is worth reading so I can keep up with my Teens. I don't count YA reads or manga toward my yearly total, so you won't see them on my finished list. I have debated this with many at work, and I cannot definitively say why I don't count the YA reads. My gut just wont let me count them.
I also finished Janice Erlbaum's latest. I do want to point out that the new one is better appreciated if you read Girlbomb first. Knowing Janice's story sets up the MO behind the second book. Without understanding what Janice went through, it is harder to understand why she would be so drawn to Samantha.
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