Eclipse

So after reading and watching New Moon, you'd think I wouldn't have wanted to move on to the next book in the Twilight series, Eclipse.

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 But I did. I was curious to see how things turned out. While I was in the lunch room at work a few weeks ago, I overheard two girls talking about New Moon. I had just finished reading and watching it, so I told them that I was so disappointed in it after liking Twilight so much. They assured me that Eclipse was so much better and that the fourth book was their favorite. And you know what?

They were right! The Edward/Bella connection was back on with Jacob thrown into the mix. The drama was there. The action was there. I finished the book in about 3 days. This time, Edward feels horrible for leaving Bella and promises to never do it again. Jacob, though he knows that Bella's true love is for Edward, still cares for her and finally professes his love for her, knowing that she will never feel as strongly. While in the midst of an impending vampire attack, Jacob guilt-trips Bella into kissing him and she does. She then realizes that she's "in love" with him, too, but still not as much as she is in love with Edward. Bella finally agrees to marry Edward, but there's no wedding in this book. I guess that's in Breaking Dawn. The good thing about this book is that the storyline about Victoria (a vampire who's mate is killed by Edward in Twilight) wanting to destroy Bella is finally addressed. Overall, this book was just so much more well-written than New Moon.The romance is back and I seriously can't wait until I read Breaking Dawn!

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New Moon

I finally read New Moon. And I watched the movie. And I was disappointed in both. Let's start with the book.

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Where do I even begin? When I read Twilight, I was amazed at how much I actually liked the book. I thought it would be kind of young and teenager-y, but it was a quick and interesting read. I couldn't put the book down. New Moon was also a quick read, but it wasn't all that interesting. Let me just summarize the entire book in bullets:

• Bella and Edward are in love, but Edward wants to keep Bella safe so he leaves her alone and leaves town along with the entire Cullen clan.
• Bella then does stupid things like riding motorcycles and cliff-diving so she can hear Edward's voice in her crazy head.
• Bella plays with poor Jacob's emotions by spending time with him and leading him on.
• Oh dear, Jacob is a werewolf. How do these things happen?
• Edward things Bella died, so now he has to go off himself. Nevermind the fact that he doesn't really try to find out the truth himself.
• Bella saves the day and is promised that someday she will become a vampire.
• Edward asks Bella to marry him.

That's about it folks. There's not a whole lot of content to read in that book. Lame, lame, lame. Edward is absent throughout most of the book. Bella comes off as whiney and weak which is highly annoying. The rest of the Cullen clan is also noticeably absent from the storyline and Victoria makes an appearance. What's annoying is that while Victoria is mentioned, there's nothing more to the story than just that. At the end, Jacob is left hanging and Edward promises to never leave Bella again. Frickin' bite her already dude! Geez, this is getting drawn out.

So after reading the book, I decided I would spend a whole dollar at Redbox to rent New Moon. Knowing that the book was pretty lame, I didn't expect much from the movie and I wasn't disappointed. The pluses to this movie are:

• The make-up was much better this time. No overly pasty white vampires. 

Oh wait. That's the only plus because the storyline was LAME. This won't stop me from finishing the series, though. I keep hearing that the last two books are better, so I guess I'll put a hold on them in the library. We'll see. Does reviewing the Twilight series make me sound like a reminiscent teenager? I sure don't want to go back to those days..........

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Book Review: Freakonomics

So, I'm a little late to the game in reading this book, but I finally read Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

 

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Now, don't stop reading. I know that this book sounds remarkably like that evil class in college, Economics. And yes, this book is written by - *shudder* - an economist! However, this book was far from boring and really.....far from economics. It's about a lot of random situations in America and the things that caused them to happen. Does this sound interesting? No? Well, you are missing out. I don't necessarily agree with everything the authors write, but I do find their viewpoints very interesting. They look at situations, such as the falling crime rate in America, then talk about possible reasons for the outcome. The reasons are not really what you would expect and will probably surprise you! It's kind of similar to the whole butterfly wings can cause a hurricane theory. The point of the book is not to change your beliefs, but rather to look at things from a different perspective. It's a fast, easy read and I highly recommend it!

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Book Review!

I'm way behind on my book reviews. I've read several good books recently. The first is The Chronicles of Narnia.

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I read this series as a kid once before and loved it. It is a Christian-themed book although I never realized the parallels as a child. I remember loving to read about the Talking Animals and the adventures that the children would have spontaneously. Each book is an easy read for an adult and I breezed through them. Of course, I breeze through books anyway since I can never find a stopping point. I haven't seen the newest movies on these, so I can't tell you how accurate they may be. When I was a kid and we didn't have cable (can you imagine such a thing?), I used to watch Narnia on PBS. I may just like these stories because they put me right back in third of fourth grade when I read them. Worth the read!

The next book I read was Eragon.

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I saw Eragon the movie a couple years ago and surprisingly, really liked it. I didn't even know it was a book first until recently. I had been waiting for a sequel to come out (which will probably never happen) anxiously! This book is about a boy and a dragon egg he found. He learns how to be a dragon Rider and fight for things he believes in. This book was really LONG! Like, somewhere between 700-800 pages long! And it was written by a 19-year-old. Can you believe that? The book was a little hard for me to get into, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. It's very much a mythical fantasy-type book which I normally wouldn't read, but it was good. Be prepared to read an immense amount of detail, making eveyrting the writer talks about easy to picture.

The next book I read was Shopaholic Takes Manhattan.

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I read the first Shopaholic book a few months ago. You can read that review here. When I first started to read this book, I was highly irritated by the silly and flighty ways of lead character Rebecca Bloomwood. I think this was because I had just finished reading two "heavier" books so the switch to a "lighter" read was a bit more difficult. After I eased up and read further in, I became less irritated but still never truly loved the story. It's a typical girl has boy, girl misreads boy, fights with boy and wins boy back. Blah blah blah. It wasn't a bad book, but I definitely wasn't in the mood to read it. I'm not sure I'll keep following this series. But if you like light reads, do give it a try!

The next book in line was The Other Boleyn Girl.

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I LOVED this book. Completely LOVED it. I've haven't read many historical-based books, but this one is a must-read. Never saw the movie, so again, I can't tell you how well it follows, but it can't be as good as the book. It was a nice, long novel that gave insight on how the conversations must have gone between Anne Boleyn, her sister Mary and her brother, George as Anne makes her rise to the throne of King Henry VIII. I couldn't put this book down and even Jason was trying to sneak a read off of my shoulder. The basic history stays true as the author did much research while writing. I highly recommend this book!

The last book I have to talk about is Hide.

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This was another great can't-put-it-down-until-I-finish-book. It's about a girl who's been hiding and running from them her whole life but doesn't know who they are or why she has to hide. This book grips you as soon as you begin the first page and you won't want to put it down until you've read the entire story. I highly recommend this book as well!

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Book Review!

I have finally given in to the Twilight series. I read the first book after some prodding from a friend (or 10). I was against reading it for two reasons:

1. I don't like vampires. I don't like to watch them or read about them. I can't stand that piercing sound that happens when they bite and I can't stand the sucking. Ugh. Flame me if you wish, but I just couldn't enjoy watching Interview With A Vampire even though Brad Pitt was in it.
2. It's a tween book that has waaaaay too much hype. I don't like to buy into this and I was afraid that if I read a tween book, I'd be plagued by images of girls worrying about pimples, proms and what other girls/boys think about them. These are things I don't wish to relive!

However, after my friend reassured me that the vampires weren't too "vampire-y" and that it was really more of a relationship book, I reluctantly took it home.

And I read it in two days. It probably would've been one day, but I was forced to go to bed by Jason. I almost hate to admit it, but this book was awesome! I was hooked from the first chapter and I couldn't peel my eyes away. When I had to put the book down, I would think about Bella & Edward and what would happen next. I couldn't believe how I was sucked into the black hole of this book, but I didn't want to be pulled out. I was actually sad the book ended. Now, I have to wait to borrow the next book. I will have to plan a day of nothing to read that one. Definitely pick this book up!!!!


After this book, I read Seizure, by Robin Cook.

If you aren't familiar with Robin Cook, he's a medical mystery writer. His books often have complicated scientific terms in them, so if you're not into that, you might as well skip this book. I've read several of his books and I usually like them. This one took me a little longer to get into, but that might have been caused by just coming off of a Twilight high.

This book is based on a special procedure a scientist came up with that is based on stem cell and research cloning. The procedure had been tested on rats and was found to cure certain ailments in them. However, funding & keeping the research legal was an issue. The scientist and his girlfriend/business partner are convinced to do this procedure illegally in another country by a high-powered, low-profiled politician. I'll leave the rest for you to read!

If you enjoy medical mysteries, then I'd pick this one up. It's not the best one I've ever read, but it was still pretty good. I'm currently reading Eragon and I will let you guys know how that went when I finish!

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Book Reviews!

I've been reading quite a bit lately. I tend to go in cycles where I'll read a bunch, then stop completely for a few weeks. But once I pick up a book, I normally have a hard time putting it down. I'm behind on the books I've read, so I have 3 books to tell you about!

The first is "Firefly Lane" by Kristin Hannah.

This book is about a 30 year friendship between two women, starting when they are about 14. The book starts in the 70s and goes into the 2000s. I literally both laughed and cried while reading this book. I think the most funny parts in the book are when the trends of the decades are so nonchalantly mentioned in the book. For example, when the girls are in college, one of them gets dressed and to impress someone at an interview, she puts her hair in a BANANA CLIP!!! This is one of those books that you won't be able to put down once you start reading it. The friendship goes through many ups and downs and has an informative ending. Buy it!

The next book on my list was "Confessions of a Shopaholic" by Sophie Kinsella.

This book was just plain cute! This is a book that you will pick up and blaze through quickly, smiling. I stumbled over the British slang, but overall, it's pretty easy to read. I have heard that movie got so-so reviews and has been put down because of the "shopaholic ways" in today's crumbling economy. I don't know how well the movie follows the book since I haven't seen it, but the book is hilarious! The humor lies in that Becky Bloomwood (main character) is a Financial Journalist, yet she's deep into debt through her shopping habit. She has to put on a front that she is financially knowledgeable even though creditors are practically knocking down her door. Pick up this book for an easy - and fun - read!

My last book is my "responsible" book. It's "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.

"The Total Money Makeover" was recommended to me by a friend. Truth be told, I read the introduction before I ever started the previous two books. I just forgot to pick this one back up. A few days ago I was sitting in my chair watching TV and saw this book laying on the floor. I told myself that I should probably read this book, so I finally turned off the TV and started in. "The Total Money Makeover" provides layman's terms advice on how to get out of debt as fast as possible and become rich. He tells you to keep money on hand for emergencies and keep building it up. Dave gives great advice when it comes to fighting off creditors and figuring out how to pay off debt little by little, starting with your smallest debt and going up to your mortgage.

Most of the advice didn't apply to Jason & I because we don't have a lot of debt. We have no car loans and our credit card is paid off every month. We have enough in savings to pay our bills for about a year if Jason ever lost his job. I do have $50,000 in student loans on top of our mortgage. Even though Dave says to pay off the student loans before you tackle your mortgage, I disagree. My mortgage will cost me much more money than my student loans in the end, so I am choosing to tackle the mortgage first. But I agree with everything else Dave preaches. He even gives great advice on saving for your children's college fund and goes a little bit into investing. It was a little humorous to read this book when today's mutual funds are losing money, but since I am still so young, I have plenty of time to wait for my returns.

What I have taken from this book is that I need to buckle down on our monthly spending to pay off our long-term debt faster. In the end, we will save ourselves a TON of money and be able to live a better life faster. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has any type of debt.

Thanks for reading through all of this! If book reviews are horribly boring, let me know & I'll quit posting them. Or, if you have reading suggestions, comment away!

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Book Review!

My friend Shana gave me Chelsea Handler's new book, "Are You There Vodka, It's Me Chelsea" for Christmas. I love it! If you love watching her show, Chelsea Lately, then you'll love this book!

Be forewarned, Chelsea's humor isn't for everyone. She's crass and rude and exaggerates a lot.

In other words, right up my alley.

If you haven't seen her show, then please don't read this book. You've got to hear how she speaks and tells stories in order to get her humor. The book tells stories out of her life from childhood to adulthood. Now I'm dying to read her first book. Hooray for happy books!

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