Review of Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

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Breaking Dawn

by Stephenie Meyer

Megan Tingley Books (Little, Brown), 2008.  756 pages.

Starred Review

I admit it:  There is no need for a review of Breaking Dawn.  You should NOT read it unless you have read the three books that come before it:  Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse.  Once you’ve read Twilight, you will know if you want to keep reading.  If you do, then nothing I can say will stop you!

However, I can’t resist the opportunity to offer my opinion.

I liked Breaking Dawn.  I loved the way she pulled off a happy ending, almost too happy, but still leaving me smiling.

Okay, she threw in a completely bizarre plot twist.  But I did like the way so many vampires came together, and I like the way this time Bella provided an important contribution to the final conflict.

There were a couple of places where I laughed aloud.  The first was her description of Edward’s eyes on his wedding day.  It was even more over the top than a spoof I had read before the book came out:  “His eyes were a buttery, burning gold.”

Come on, buttery?!!

When I read the resolution of the love triangle, though, I laughed so loudly, I woke up my son, who was asleep on the other bed in the hotel room.  Still, it did resolve things….

I’d better not say any more!

These books may not be great literature, but they are absorbing reading, escapist romance, and a whole lot of fun.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/breaking_dawn.html

Review of Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer

Fantasy, Romance, Teen Fiction Review 0

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Eclipse

by Stephenie Meyer

Megan Tingley Books (Little, Brown), 2007.  629 pages.

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

http://www.lb-teens.com/

This was my favorite book of the Twilight quartet, which is phenomenally popular now with teenage girls.  I read it at the same time as a co-worker, just in time to read the fourth book of the series, and we had a lot of fun discussing it.

If you haven’t read any books of the series, you definitely need to start with Twilight.  Once you’ve read that one, you will know if you want to keep reading or not.

Yes, they are vampire novels.  But these are not typical vampire books at all.  These books are for lovers of romance who don’t mind a little over-the-top plot situations.

Edward is not the typical vampire, dark and evil.  He and his “family” do not drink human blood, instead hunting large game animals.  (Having read Barbara Kingsolver, I think that they would run out of wildlife on the top of the food chain in a very short time.  But let’s not bring quibbles about reality into the story….)  These vampires stay out of sunshine not because it would harm them but because they are too dazzlingly beautiful for sunlight.  They are also super strong and super fast.  With this group not drinking human blood, where’s the drawback?

Eclipse explores more of the backstory of the vampires.  We learn more about their history and motivations.  Bella and Edward actually share some thoughts instead of just restrained passion.  We learn why Bella doesn’t want to be a teen bride and why Edward is reluctant to let Bella become a vampire.

They also explore more of Bella’s relationship with Jacob, her friend the werewolf.  I like the way the way the werewolves and the vampires end up needing to work together.

Here’s another fast-moving plot with plenty of tension, romantic and otherwise.  This story was more unified than the other books.  Instead of a crisis tacked on at the end, this one has a unified theme.  Some young vampires are terrorizing Seattle, and it appears that, as usual, Bella is in danger.  The entire book builds up to dealing with that danger, in a satisfying way.

I still believe that a lot of the intense romance of these books is built into the restraint.  Bella and Edward’s relationship is chaste, since to consummate it might kill her, but loaded with tension.  I hope teen girls don’t read this and think there are boys out there who’d be able to sleep with them every night and have Edward’s self-control.  But what a romantic dream — a strong, incredibly handsome, self-controlled, powerful protector whose love is for Bella alone.  Throw in vampires and werewolves, and you’ve got a tremendous hit!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/eclipse.html

Review of New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer

Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

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New Moon

by Stephenie Meyer

Megan Tingley Books (Little, Brown and Company), New York, 2006.  563 pages.

Starred Review.

Oh, these books are so bad to read if you’re planning to get any sleep!  I was good the first night, and stopped after about a hundred pages.  But the second night, I kept reading and reading, and by the time I’d finished the book, it was not so early in the morning.  And I had to go to work, too!  Yikes!

Stephenie Meyer is good with feelings.  Mind you, she’s got a nice complicated situation — Bella’s in love with a vampire who has an especially powerful thirst for her blood, but resists that urge because he loves her.  In New Moon, Edward faces the “reality” that he is not good for Bella, and Bella is not good for him.  So he leaves her.

Stephenie Meyer captures well how it feels to be left by the love of your life.  The unbelievable shock of seeing hard coldness on his face when he says he’s leaving.  The utter numbness that follows, wondering how to go on, how to face ordinary, day-to-day life.

I wouldn’t give this to a teenager going through a rough break up!  For that matter, it’s a bit hard on a woman in her 40’s going through a divorce!  But the author does capture the emotions involved, and you do feel with Bella and understand her.

Bella does find a friend who can help her escape her numbness and face life again.  His feelings for Bella are going beyond friendship, but he means a lot to her, so maybe that’s okay?  Now, there’s an added complication:  Back in the first book he’s the one who told Bella about legends of vampires, along with the legend that his tribe had a way of dealing with them, that his tribe and vampires are mortal enemies, who had worked out a temporary truce.

Bella’s not good at “moving on,” but how do you “move on” from the love of your life?

This passage gives you the feel of what Bella has to deal with in New Moon:

I thought about Juliet some more.

I wondered what she would have done if Romeo had left her, not because he was banished, but because he lost interest?  What if Rosalind had given him the time of day, and he’d changed his mind?  What if, instead of marrying Juliet, he’d just disappeared?

I thought I knew how Juliet would feel.

She wouldn’t go back to her old life, not really.  She wouldn’t ever have moved on, I was sure of that.  Even if she’d lived until she was old and gray, every time she closed her eyes, it would have been Romeo’s face she saw behind her lids.  She would have accepted that, eventually.

I wondered if she would have married Paris in the end, just to please her parents, to keep the peace.  No, probably not, I decided.  But then, the story didn’t say much about Paris.  He was just a stick figure — a placeholder, a threat, a deadline to force her hand.

What if there were more to Paris?

What if Paris had been Juliet’s friend?  Her very best friend?  What if he was the only one she could confide in about the whole devastating thing with Romeo?  The one person who really understood her and made her feel halfway human again?  What if he was patient and kind?  What if he took care of her?  What if Juliet knew she couldn’t survive without him?  What if he really loved her, and wanted her to be happy?

And . . . what if she loved Paris?  Not like Romeo.  Nothing like that, of course.  But enough that she wanted him to be happy, too? . . .

If Romeo was really gone, never coming back, would it have mattered whether or not Juliet had taken Paris up on his offer?  Maybe she should have tried to settle into the leftover scraps of life that were left behind.  Maybe that would have been as close to happiness as she could get.

I sighed, and then groaned when the sigh scraped my throat.  I was reading too much into the story.  Romeo wouldn’t change his mind.  That’s why people still remembered his name, always twined with hers:  Romeo and Juliet.  That’s why it was a good story.  “Juliet gets dumped and ends up with Paris” would have never been a hit.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/new_moon.html

Review of Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

Fantasy, Romance, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

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Twilight

by Stephenie Meyer

Megan Tingley Books (Little, Brown), New York, 2005.  498 pages.

Starred Review.

Sonderbooks Stand-out 2008:  #4, Fantasy Teen Fiction.

I took a Resources for Young Adults class last quarter.  As part of the class, I signed up for a Listserv on which librarians serving teens discuss good books.  That’s where I heard about Twilight, as well as some of my classmates mentioning it as the best vampire novel they’d ever read.  I read an extensive article about the author, Stephenie Meyer, and I was intrigued.  She’s a Mormon, and promised that she would not include graphic sex in her novels.  It sounds like her values are similar to mine.  I was intrigued, so I put myself on the wait list for Twilight.

I have to say that the only thing I didn’t like about Twilight was how late it kept me reading!  I thought I’d read one chapter before going to sleep–and finally managed to close the book hours later.  But I have to admit, I like it when a book engages me that thoroughly.

Bella, the heroine, is everygirl.  She was easy to identify with, and I felt sympathy with her from the start.  Stephenie Meyer keeps you reading by not answering every question.  We wonder, along with Bella, why that handsome Edward seems so angry with her, after meeting her eyes once, that he stays away from school for a week, and she can’t help but feel it’s to avoid her.  Then, how does he move with superhuman speed, but deny it?  Why does he say he’s bad for her? 

I’m not giving anything away by saying this is a vampire novel, since it’s on the cover of the book and in any reviews.  But even knowing that, Stephenie Meyer manages to keep you guessing as to how Bella will find out and what, exactly, that means. 

I’ve never been a big vampire novel fan, but this book doesn’t have the usual feel of a vampire book.  Instead, it’s a powerful, sensual love story.  Since Edward has to be careful not to get to close to Bella, so as not to be tempted to taste her blood, the tension between them is extreme.  Today’s TV writers would do well to learn a lesson from this book.  Sometimes less is more when it comes to describing romance.  This is good clean fiction that packs a punch.

Twilight is hugely popular with teen girls, and I can see why.  43-year-old abandoned housewives find it wonderful, too!

My only complaint is that the vampires are a little too perfect.  They are more beautiful than ordinary mortals, have superhuman speed and strength, don’t have to sleep or breathe, and live forever.  Edward’s group has found a way to get around drinking human blood.  So what’s not to like?  I don’t see any compelling reason why Bella shouldn’t just become a vampire, too.  Sure, it would be tough explaining it to her parents at first….

I can’t wait to read the next two books!  In fact, I liked this book so much, instead of getting on the library’s hold list, I ordered the next two books from Amazon.  I have a feeling I’m going to be reading these books more than once.

Buy from Amazon.com

Review of Princess Ben, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Light Reading, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

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Princess Ben

Being a Wholly Truthful Account of Her Various Discoveries and Misadventures, Recounted to the Best of Her Recollection, in Four Parts

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2008.  344 pages.

Starred Review.

I dearly loved Princess Ben!  This is exactly my favorite sort of book — an original fairy tale, with princes and princesses and magic and danger and enchantments and adventure and romance.

Princess Ben is no damsel in distress who waits around to be saved by the prince!  (In fact, there’s a delightful fairy tale reversal toward the end.  I dare say no more!)

At the start, Princess Benevolence’s parents meet a dreadful fate, with circumstances pointing to assassination at the order of the neighboring, or rather surrounding kingdom of Drachensbett.  As in so many other princess tales, Ben must now learn to be a proper princess, under the stern direction of her aunt the Queen.

Naturally, there are also plans to marry Ben off in the service of diplomacy.  However, matters get complicated when Ben discovers a secret passageway to a magic room and a book of magic.  She begins learning how to perform magic and use it to serve her own purposes, like get some decent food.

But as in any fairy tale, before the end the fate of the kingdom lies in Princess Ben’s hands.  The reader can’t help but root for things to end Happily Ever After.

Ben’s a delightful character, a princess with spunk and a weight problem.  The plot is nicely twisted to keep things interesting.  Utterly charming and a whole lot of fun.  Not a book that’s easy to stop reading.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/princess_ben.html

Review of Mozart’s Ghost, by Julia Cameron

Fiction Review, Light Reading, Romance, Starred Review 0

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Mozart’s Ghost

by Julia Cameron

Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2008.  278 pages.

Starred Review.

http://www.theartistsway.com/

http://www.thomasdunnebooks.com/

http://www.stmartins.com/

When a writer has written fabulous books about writing (The Right to Write is one of Julia Cameron’s that I’ve read.), one always hopes that their own fiction is something you’d want to emulate.  Can they practice what they preach?

Julia Cameron can.  Mozart’s Ghost is a light and delightful love story, with quirky characters you enjoy spending your time with.

All her life, Anna has seen and talked to ghosts.  Now, as a single adult, she lives in New York City and makes her living — well, supplements her substitute teaching income — as a medium.  She lets people know what their loved ones who have gone before want to say to them.

But now a classical pianist named Edward has moved into Anna’s building.  In the first place, his constant practicing is tremendously distracting.  She can’t properly hear the ghosts.  In the second place, there’s a ghost hanging around him, trying to reach the musician through Anna.  This ghost thinks himself tremendously important and wants to help Edward so that his own music will be properly appreciated.  Anna is not impressed.

But Edward finds a place in her heart despite all her resistance.  However, she has no intention of telling him her real job, since she finds most men can’t handle dating a medium.

The course of their romance is comically beset with obstacles, like Anna’s complete lack of appreciation for Edward’s playing, her twin brother’s interference, and even the ghost’s interference.  We feel for Anna and her desire to live a normal life, which simply doesn’t seem to be in the cards for her.

This novel is tremendous fun, and peopled with quirky characters who seem like people you might just meet if you happened to knock on an apartment door in New York City.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/mozarts_ghost.html

Review of The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men

Delightfully Silly, Humorous, Light Reading, Musings, Nonfiction Review, Relationships, Romance 0

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The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men:  Every Man I Love Is Either Married, Gay, or Dead, by Jill Conner Browne

Well, this book is very irreverent and, how shall I say this?  Not very respectful toward men.  But oh my goodness, it is funny! 

As the author says herownself:  “The reader should not infer any degree of fairness intended by these descriptions; they are used purely for the sake of conversation and, we hope, for laughs.  It is not in my job description to be fair to men or to even seem fair to them.  It’s a little late in the history of the entire world to introduce an element of fairness, and beyond even my considerable powers to bring it to bear, anyway.”

She goes on to describe, with great hilarity, many types of men you’ll find out there:  The Bud Spud, the Dud Spud, the Crud Spud, the Fuddy-Dud Spud, the Pud Spud, the Blood Spud (also known as the Man Who May Need Killing), the Scud Spud, and finally every woman’s dream, the Spud Stud.

And so it goes.  I should mention that Jill Conner Browne does not confine herself to mocking men, but also gives plenty of hearty laughter toward those of us who love them — and the things we’ll go through to try to attract them.

I’m afraid, in my present Being-Divorced state, the chapter I found most utterly hilarious was “Surviving the Wang Wars” about all the delightful ways women have gotten revenge on men who didn’t treat them as well as they deserved.

“Alas and alack, love does occasionally derail, and when it does, it usually wipes out entire neighborhoods, releases a massive cloud of terminally toxic gas, and the cleanup can take years.  And while it may be true that it is not always their fault when things go awry, it is no less true that we certainly believe that it’s always their fault and we want 100 percent of all the blame to be laid not so much at their feet but rather on top of their bodies, making it impossible for them to breathe and continue living in any real sense of the word.  What would really make us just oh so happy is to be allowed to murder them ten different times in ten different ways and then finally feed the remains to the wood chipper.  But hardly anybody ever really gets to do that.  And so, barring that ultimate satisfaction, a number of Queens have demonstrated characteristic Queenly Resourcefulness in their dealings with errant mates in ways that are not likely to land the perpetrator in the slammer, and that’s a Good Thing.  I share them with you as food for thought — fodder for your consideration as alternative strategies should you find yourself currently in possession of a man who is just beggin’ to be killed.”

Now, I should mention that the Sweet Potato Queens do not advocate criminal activity.   Jill Conner Browne says, “Even in Louisiana they will sometimes put you in jail if you kill one.  We’ve stated repeatedly that we are unequivocally against killin’ ’em, even when they practically beg for it by their every word and deed.  If you do, you will miss quite a few St. Paddy’s parades in Jackson while running from the law, and you’ll be a Yam on the Lam.”

if you’re feeling tempted to commit violence, The Sweet Potato Queens will get you laughing so hard about it, you won’t need to any longer.

With lots of silly but all too true insights, I think the uplifting message of the book is summarized in this paragraph:

“Throughout this book, I’ve been carrying on about men and finding them and getting them and keeping them and deciding whether or not to kill them, and if so, how, and so on.  And that’s all funny and mostly true and all that, but the real truth is you are enough — just the way you are, just who you are.  You are a complete entity, a whole person, right there in the skin you’re in.  You don’t need to have a guy to be happy.  Admit it:  You have more fun with a gang of girlfriends than you’ve had on the absolute best date of your entire life.  If somebody comes along who treats you right and makes you happy and you can do the same for him, well, that’s just dandy.  But I’m telling you, the only way that I know to get and keep a happy, healthy relationship is first to create a happy and healthy life for yourself without one.  This is your life to live.”

Preach it, Sister!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/spq_field_guide_to_men.html

Review of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, by Alexander McCall Smith

Contemporary, Fiction Review, General, Humorous, Mystery, Romance, Stand-outs 0

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The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, by Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon Books, New York, 2007.  213 pages.

Sonderbooks Stand-out 2008.  #5 Fiction: Romance

This book, the eighth in the series about The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency, is extra special, because my copy is signed by the author.  I got to hear Alexander McCall Smith speak at George Mason University.  His talk was every bit as funny and delightful as his books.  I was completely enchanted.  Of course, that didn’t surprise me at all, since his books never fail to delight me.

I continue to strongly recommend this series to library patrons.  I do urge you to begin at the beginning, with The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  I think you will probably want to read the rest, and eagerly read each next installment.

In The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, will Mma Makutsi really leave the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency?  The pleasant ups and downs of day to day life, as usual, are peppered with interesting cases.  Another delightful book.

I will give a taste of the pleasant wisdom found in these books by listing some quotations I highlighted:

“If there’s bad behaviour, the quickest way of stopping it is to give more love.  That always works, you know.  People say that we must punish when there is wrongdoing, but if you punish you’re only punishing yourself.  And what’s the point of that?”

“And that stopped the stealing.  Trust did it.  We trusted him, and he knew it.  So he stopped stealing.”

” ‘What we are trying to do with these children,’ said Mma Potokwane suddenly, ‘is to give them good things to remember.  We want to make so many good memories for them that the bad ones are pushed into a corner and forgotten.'”

“There was no point in telling somebody not to cry, she had always thought; indeed there were times when you should do exactly the opposite, when you should urge people to cry, to start the healing that sometimes only tears can bring.”

” ‘That engine I’ve been working on will run so sweetly,’ he remarked as he poured his tea.

‘Like life,’ she said.”

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/good_husband.html

Review of Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Romance 0
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Enchantment
by Orson Scott Card

Reviewed January 10, 2008.
Del Rey Books (Random House), New York, 1999. 419 pages.
Starred Review.
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2008: #1, Fantasy Fiction

I didn’t have to consider for a second how highly to rate this book. Enchantment was the best book I had read in a very long time.

What if Sleeping Beauty woke up today? Orson Scott Card gives a possible answer to that question. He weaves in Russian fairy tales, a Russian Jewish family coming to America, and ancient local gods of Russia. In the process, he crafts a beautiful love story which is at once thought-provoking, suspenseful, and utterly captivating.

The book opens when Ivan Smetski’s parents tell him that he is really a Jew named Itzak Shlomo. The time is right for the family to declare who they are and leave Russia. Before they leave, Ivan discovers a strange place in the woods. He thinks he sees the face of a beautiful woman, asleep, covered with leaves. Then something moves in the leaves near her and comes straight toward him. He runs in terror.

As an adult, Ivan goes back to Russia. He thinks that memory must have just been his vivid imagination. Nonetheless, he feels compelled to visit the place. When the monster moves in the leaves, this time he stands his ground.

The story that follows is as beautiful as the fairy tales it calls to mind, but gives us more details. He shows us that it’s not so easy to deal with a Princess when you’re only a common young man. He comes up against such formidable figures as Baba Yaga and the Bear god of Russia. I especially enjoy learning the reason why Baba Yaga has a house on chicken legs that can move around the country.

One reason I love this story is that I once tried to write a book based on the same idea—Sleeping Beauty waking up today. The idea seemed good, but the logistics bogged me down. How would she get papers to deal with the modern world? How would she cope with the sheer weight of all her family and friends being dead? How would she deal with modern life? How would she handle the language?

Orson Scott Card takes care of every obstacle I found and makes it look easy. Ivan is uniquely prepared to deal with a girl from old Russia. Like his father, he is a student of ancient Russian languages. Instead of treating this like a coincidence, we feel that Ivan was specially chosen for this task.

I won’t give away the other ways the author turns obstacles into features of the story. His love story is also wonderful. The two don’t like each other at first, but we can see their attitudes gradually changing, as each discovers the other’s true worth.

This is the sort of book I will want to read again every few years. A real treasure.

This review is posted on the main site at

www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/enchantment.html

Review of Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale

Fantasy, Romance, Stand-outs, Teen Fiction Review 0
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Book of a Thousand Days
by Shannon Hale

Reviewed January 8, 2008.
Bloomsbury, New York, 2007. 306 pages.
Starred Review.
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2008: #1, Teen Fiction

I picked up many Advanced Reading Copies of books at the ALA Conference last June, but the one I was by far the most excited about was Shannon Hale’s new book, Book of a Thousand Days.

Mucker maid Dashti lost everything when her mother died, so she went to the city to learn to be a lady’s maid. When she comes to the palace, the princess needs a maid–because her father is sealing her into a tower for a thousand days because she has refused to marry the powerful ruler of the neighboring land.

Dashti is willing to be shut up in the tower with the princess and food for a thousand days. But when rival suitors show up outside the tower, events don’t turn out as expected. Can Dashti help her lady survive?

In many ways, Book of a Thousand Days reminds me of The Goose Girl, the book that made me fall in love with Shannon’s writing. Both books are lovely retellings of Grimm fairy tales. Both are phenomenal–wonderfully romantic, with a touch of politics and intrigue. In both, the fantasy is done with a light touch.

Both books also involve a servant passing herself off as her Princess mistress. However, the two situations are complete opposites. In The Goose Girl, the lady-in-waiting usurps her mistress’s place. In Book of a Thousand Days, the humble servant only carries out the deception because of the orders of the fear-filled princess.

In both books, we see character growth that rings true, and beautifully blossoming love, along with the forming of deep friendships during adversity.

I’m afraid I’m starting to get skeptical about the romantic heroes in Shannon’s books. They are too wonderful! I’m starting to think they are a woman’s idea of the perfect man (They certainly fit my idea of the perfect man!), and a real living breathing man could never come close.

But so what?! The magic in the book is done with a light touch, so it doesn’t hurt a bit to add another element of fantasy!

This story is simple, and so beautifully told. Why does it strike me as one of the best books I’ve ever read? I don’t think I can put my finger on the external ingredients that make it so. All I know is that it touches my heart.

This review is posted on the main site at www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/book_of_a_thousand_days.html