#5 - New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

I'm so behind on my blog posts, but don't worry I have several new books to report on.

I just finished New Moon, the second installment in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight book series. I was on a waiting list of 64 people at the library for this book but luckily I got it about two weeks after I signed up. Maybe the list went so quickly because it's one of those can't-put-it-down books.

While I agree with my little sister (who's probably in more of the target-Twilight audience at 16) that it's not as good as the first book, I still loved it so much that I will probably have to add a copy to my permanent collection once I decide to start spending money on books again.

The story starts off immediately where Twilight left off. Bella is happy in love with Edward, her vampire boyfriend. Then he has to leave town and Bella is devastated. She starts doing reckless things because it's only then that she feels close to him. When I read that this book was going to involve werewolves I kind of rolled my eyes, but it actually works.

I know a lot of screaming teens aren't as jazzed for the second Twilight movie (I still have yet to see the first) because it doesn't feature too much of the hunky vampire star. From a literary perspective, I kind of liked lonely Bella more than OMG-so-in-love-with-my-vampire Bella. There's only so much I want to read about teen romance these days. And I really liked the werewolves and hope they will pop up in the later books of the series.

Running to the library to drop off New Moon and sign up for Eclipse. Thank you Stephanie Meyer, I'm hooked on another series!

Read: 608 pages

Saved: $10.99

#4 - Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons

$17 bucks I didn't throw in the garbage by buying "Off Season" by Anne Rivers Siddons. Quite seriously the worst book I have read in a long time and part of the reason why I'm doing so poorly at my 109 books in 2009 challenge thus far. Kept putting this one down but finally finished it out of lack of other new reading material and curiosity about how it ended. Which it did with a real stupid "twist" at the end which I'm sure left many readers saying "ohmigod" but left me with just a WTF feeling.

The reason why I picked it was the book jacket made it seem like the book was about a woman who loses her husband and then travels literally and figuratively back to the place where she spent her idyllic summers of her youth where she experienced an earlier tragedy. Kind of true. Except throw in her mother's long drawn out cancer death that we don't actually feel too bad about because she was apparently a useless slut, her brother abandoning the family which is seemingly important for one chapter and then never mentioned again, a very creepy father/daughter relationship.

By the time we meet the husband he's dead two pages later and I really could care less. The last fifty pages were excruciatingly dull with old lady talking to her cat and dead husband. Yawn. I will be more careful with my next selection!

Read: 368 pages
Saved: $16.49 (on sale)

#3 - One True Thing by Anna Quindlen

I've had One True Thing by Anna Quindlen on my bookshelf for a while after picking it up at a used book sale. People have suggested I read Anna Quindlen for years now, especially when I was an aspiring journalist in high school. As a graduation gift I recieved a copy of her autobiography Thinking Out Loud. At the time, the gift was partially a joke, a reference to my inability to censor my thoughts at time, so I don't remember if I ever finished reading the collection of essays. Also, I can't really stand feminists.

That being said, Quindlen is a good writer and I have frequently read her columns and thought about the two books sitting absently on my bookshelf written by her. As luck would have it, I kept leaving my new library book at work and decided to grab One True Thing as I departed for a plane ride.

The book is the story of a recent college graduate (Harvard of course) who abadons her important-to-her life in NYC to care for her dying mother. All the while her father is a self-important college professor who doesn't seem to care what is happening in his home and her boyfriend is a sex-obsessed jerk who just doesn't seem to care at all. What I liked most about this story is that the daughter admits to not being close to her mother at all for the first 24 years of her life and gets to know and respect her in her final days.

One of the best lines in the book was something like "the last person to understand a marriage is the children involved." And I think that's true. Children often see their parents relationship through rose colored glasses or a perspective they've been fed to believe. Watching the main character grow up and realize that the things she assumed were true abour her mother, her father and herself were false was a lesson I took very seriously.

All in all, One True Thing was an exciting read with a little mystery thrown in. I'm glad I picked it up after all these years.

Read: 320 pages
Saved: $11.16 new at Amazon

#2 - Light on Snow by Anita Shreve

I set out at the library intending to get Anita Shreve's Testimony since I was in the mood for something a little controversial and she's an author I remember liking. I have a very unscientific method of selecting books based on reviews I read, titles that stick out in the library's New Fiction section, or Amazon recommendations. The library didn't have Testimony (a new release) so instead I settled on the slightly older Light on Snow. I enjoyed this book but next time I decide to pick up an indulgent read such as this to while away a snowy weekend, I should at least pick one set in a more tropical climate.

Shreve is a very good storyteller and her plots sound so interesting on the book jacket that I've gone through several over the years, such as A Wedding in December and Body Surfing. And the plot was indeed interesting - a 12 year old girl and her father living in New Hampshire come across an abandoned newborn in the woods...drama ensues. I read it in one sitting so I remained on edge to see how the situation would be resolved - even if you could kind of guess how it would be.

The story was seen through the eyes of the twelve year old girl, which is of course limiting. Shreve does a good job of building tension - I mean I rarely put the book down for several hours. But when it was over, it almost felt as if I watched the story on the Lifetime channel. I could see Treat Williams playing the grieving hermit father faced with raising a daughter on his own, etc. etc.

As far as supermarket paperbacks go, this was a pretty good one. I give it three stars. But the next book I pick I hope will be more of an intellectual feat.

Read: 288 pages
Saved: $7.99

#1 - American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sorry it's taken so long for my first review to be posted. I've been under the weather and frankly the author didn't make it too easy for me to finish the book in the first place.

Let me start off by saying I was totally excited to read this book. I'm a political biography junky and also really liked Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. So when I heard about this book initially I knew I wanted to read it. And I liked it. I could almost say I really liked it if it were not for the last third of the book (snore).

Sittenfeld writes very rich characters, particularly women. A couple of years ago I picked up Prep while visiting a friend and could hardly put it down. Yet, despite devouring the book and truly getting into the character I was left feeling like despite the fact that I totally felt strongly about the main character - a misfit turned boarding school student - that I couldn't really identify with her at all. And I was a bit of a misfit myself in high school! Later on, my sister told me that her entire book club made the same observation; namely: how could you identify with a girl who finds herself at odds with her preppy peers yet falls over backwards to please them at every step - cutting boys' hair and bedding the popular boy who doesn't acknowledge her in public?

And I know you're not supposed to identify with every character you read about but frankly, who wants to read about a heroine who doesn't make any sort of personal progress throughout the course of 448 pages? Also, don't take this the wrong way Ms. Sittenfeld, but I took one look at the book jacket and thought this tale must have been autobiographical. That being said, Prep is an excellent book. Sure, we've all read about boarding school life ad nausea (see Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace). But this book modernizes the tale without the moral dilemma your English teacher wanted to discuss and puts it in a women's perspective. So read Prep if you want a good indulgence but read I Am Charlotte Simmons if you want something a little edgier where the characters actually mature.

Sorry to get off track here - this review is supposed to be about American Wife. Yet it is an important introduction to my analysis of the book as it's another fish-out-of-water tale by Curtis Sittenfeld. And I can safely say that I was hooked for the book's first 300+ pages where the author tells the story of a young Midwestern girl, Alice Lindgren, who faces tragedy at an early age and grows into a bookish independent young woman. It is a fictionalized account of Laura Bush's life allegedly and it was fascinating to read about how she comes to meet Charlie Blackwell, the future president, when he's still in his drinking over-privileged brat stage. And against all odds, they fall in love.

If the book ended there, hurray, it was totally moving and made me really understand how someone like Laura (err Alice) would fall for someone like George Bush (err Charlie Blackwell). I especially liked the part where she is introduced to the entire extended family at a Kennebunkport-like compound. And the part about him finding God and giving up drinking was pretty interesting too. At the end when he becomes president and she finds herself at odds with his administration, however, it was just plain bad.

First of all, and I get that you may be a total Pinky Commo Ms. Sittenfeld, but did you stop for a minute and think that maybe Laura Bush (err Alice Lindgren) may believe in her husband and not just tolerating his administration because she loves him? Give her a little more credit, jeez! And really, having her face off with him about abortion (abortion!) of all things is just insulting to women all around. Does the world think this is the only issue that matters to women? If it's a fictional tale then why not throw something exciting conflict in there towards the end? A hostage situation? A charming French ambassador? Instead the end was a total yawnfest.

But, and I feel bad having trashed the end for a book that I genuinely enjoyed for several days of my life, I really like Sittenfeld's characters (in this book especially the crazy grandmother) and will probably read more of her work. So I give it three out of four stars.

Read: 576 pages

Saved: $15.60 new on Amazon.

My Challenge: 109 Books in 2009!

New Year, New Blog, New Challenges. I plan to read 109 books in 2009. A few minutes ago at the public library I announced this plan to my friend the librarian. He thought I was crazy but it's really not so bad - about 2 books a week. Besides, I love to read and want to enrich my mind as much as possible this year. I also need a new challenge!

But I'm not alone. Over at J. Kaye's Book Blog, over 240 people have signed up for the 100+ books in 2009 challenge. I'm glad to have some company on this adventure. The rules for the contest are all books count as long as they were read in 2009, but I may want to make my task even harder, which means:

1. No rereading Harry Potter. Come on now, I love Harry but I think these books shouldn't count towards the challenge because I've read them so often I think I could write them myself at this point.
2. Please no more Nicholas Sparks. I love to hate this author and really need to expand my literary horizons.

Not to say I'm going to stick to the classics. There will be plenty of chick lit and best sellers in my list of 109. Not all fiction either, since I love historical biographies. And definitely not all American authors because I love reading about other cultures.

First up is American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, a book I was excited to find in the library after waiting patiently since its release.

I Resolve to Read For Free!

Hello, I'm Reading Diva and I love to read. I was a bit of an antisocial child who was more comfortable with her nose in a book than on the monkey bars. I found a kindred spirit in Roald Dahl's Matilda (even though I didn't actually learn to read until late in the First Grade). My love of reading was enriched by my mother, an English teacher, even though she always told me I would strain my eyes from reading in bed so much (and now I have the world's worst vision, sigh).

I went to college and took a whole lot of English courses. Ultimately I decided to major in Political Science instead (sigh) partly because I didn't want to take a course on Milton (ironic, eh?). I later went to law school, thus delaying my plan to write "the great American novel."

All the while I've continued to read as many books as I can get my hands on. This was a hobby I spent a great deal of money on as I happen to be a very quick reader. During a year in which I commuted through Grand Central Terminal every day, I stopped at Posman Books at least once a week to buy a new book (ca-ching). A new job had me working on Wall Street, devilishly close to the iconic Strand, where I discovered the joy of used books (I could buy more!). I spent so much time in that underground cavern that regular messages were left by my family on my cell phone saying "you're not answering so you're probably at Strand."

Several years ago, owing to my student status, I finally got a library card and stopped buying books all together. Since then there's been no turning back. The only books I now add to my collection have been given to me. I used to write a blog where, among other things, I reviewed books I had read. It was so long ago that the word "blog" wasn't even in the Internet lexicon yet - it was a live journal. I've decided now is a good time to start up that type of writing again, with an important proviso:

I will not spend any money on acquiring new books.

Every book I review will be borrowed - from the public library, a friend, of from Freecycle. I may even look into Paperback Swap and Internet downloads as well. One of my New Year's Resolution is to read more books and share my opinions on them with others. Here we go!