AUGUST 11, 2008

Book Review: Twilight
Twilight is the first installment in the series of the same name that has generated an upcoming motion picture, as well as borderline hysteria in the hearts of mostly female teens and adults alike. After watching two or three friends get sucked into the madness (and only one of them a fan of teen fiction), an investigation seemed called for. The movie trailer looked decent; the fantasy of hot-vampire-falls-for-ordinary-girl was not totally unappealing.

And no, Twilight is certainly not. Meyer's writing is nothing literary fans will deign to read, but, much like Harry Potter, the story and characters, and certainly her uncanny abilities with suspense, will suck your average reader right in. From the very first page of narrator Bella's dismal, klutzy existence, the book is intriguing, thankfully, since this means the only attraction is not the hot vampire himself. Bella is a lead character who is, yes, unrealistically self-sacrificing, but also inadvertently funny, hopelessly uncoordinated and disaster-prone, stubborn, quick-tempered and often the only real adult in either of her separated parents' homes. She moves from her sunny home in Phoenix to the tiny (now quite touristy, thanks to Twilight) town of Forks, WA, to stay with her dull police chief dad, in a characteristically selfless move to give her mother more time to travel with her minor league athlete husband. Her comical doom-and-gloom in the face of constant cold and rain, and as an embarrassing source of curiosity as the big city girl in a tiny high school, are entertaining enough, but the story does get a sharp kick forward when she discovers the Cullens, a group of mysterious, adopted teens who keep to themselves.
Naturally, the Cullens are vampires, trained by their adoptive father, the ultimate good vampire, to hunt only animals, and live among humans in peace. And the one who falls for Bella is Edward, impossibly attractive (all vampire legends make it so), impossibly strong, fast, intelligent, and he can even read minds. Except not Bella's, which leads to some adorable conversations where he is frustrated by her silence and bombards her with questions. The issue, of course, is that Bella is attractive to Edward on two levels - one as a fascinating, intense love, and the other as, well, an actual snack, with an irresistible scent he can smell from across the school.

Sound perverse? It is. But it's also sexy, and we as readers get to enjoy Edward's excruciating attempts to control his animal side, just to be able to stand near Bella, while the latter stubbornly resists any natural fear or sense of self-preservation, because, well, he's perfect. (And not perfect in a sappy way either - Edward Cullen may be willing to die for love, but he's also a bit of a show-off, patronizing, impatient and easily frustrated.) He starts popping up everywhere, with his inhuman speed, fascinated by Bella but unable to touch her until he is absolutely positive he can control himself.

In short, as things progress, this becomes the only book in the world where, die-hard romantic or no, the reader will find themselves thinking wildly, "Oh my god...he touched her cheek!!"

(Which is perhaps due to the fact that author Stephenie Meyer is Mormon, and probably why parents and teachers are more than cool with Twilight as a teen hit.) But seriously, that is quite an accomplishment. And apparently, she keeps it up for two more books. (There is obviously a fourth now but I've heard the story changes quite a bit.)

The story builds up the timid romance for the first half, and then of course, the real world breaks into their pretty little bubble. A small group of non-friendly vampires arrive in Forks, bringing with them a vengeful hunter who bridles at Bella's peaceful existence with the Cullens. Then the action begins, and it's non-stop till the end, which it appears the movie will play up a whole lot more. The trailer reveals quite a few

Hiya all, I am going to add a list of authors here that members have asked albums to be created about, As I add an album I am going to delete that author from the list, what I would like you all to do is is add any author's you would like to see that I have missed out (if they don't already have an album), it will make it easier for me to kep track of what I still have to do lol

Also any of our members that are author's themselves let us know and we can add your album to the list xxxxx

Thanks in advance xxxxxx

Elizabeth Gage, Diane Setterfield, Jane Austin, Steve Martin, Mauve Binchey, Fern Michaels, Luanne Rice, Janet Evanovich, Sandra Brown, Jodi Picoult, Meg Cabot, Audrey Howard, Catherine Cookson, Elizabeth Chadwick, stan nichols, David Gemmel, Kristen Britain, Nina Bruhns, Tracy Anne Warren, Catherine Coulter, Kay Hooper, Elizabeth Peters, Jo Beverly, Sophia Nash, Nora Roberts, Mark Chadbourn, Dean Koontz, Shirely McClaine, Emile Bronte, Richard Laymonn, Cecilia Ahearn, Deirdre Purcell, Patrica Scanlan, Joespheine Cox, Meg Hutchinson, Elizabeth George, Jack Kerley, Mark billingham, Carol O'Connell, sophie kinsella, Janet Mansel, Alexander Potter.

o.k. guys and gals! After google-ing through a whole bunch of junk...we NEED YOUR HELP! Please take/find creative fabulous pictures of your stacks of books waiting to be read, books at wonderful old bookstores and people reading!!! We would LOVE pics of YOU reading! Add them to our photostream. We would love to use some on the profile pic and oooh and ahhhh at your creativity!!