Too Much Perfection?

A cool friend of mine passed me an article that her equally cool DH showed her and I thought it was a fabulously interesting article about those that can (and cannot) read and understand the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre.

I have to admit that I'm fairly new to the SF types of novels. By new, I mean in the last 8 years or so. I still don't have the patience for Harry Potter and I still loathe Lord of the Rings, but my enjoyment of SF has long extended past romantic vampires and I'm now exploring a wider rang of SF and I find myself enjoying it.

Here is the article:
SF reading protocols

One of my Christmas presents this year was a pre-ordered Nook from Barnes & Noble. It arrived via my wonderful UPS dude yesterday afternoon. I pried open the packaging eagerly to reveal what looked like a massive clear plastic iPod case. Gorgeous.

Then I opened it, pulled it out, and plugged it in. Patience. These things have to charge, you know.


So finally today, the sucker was all charged up and I was at work - a location that actually gets great cell service for downloads - and I turned that sucker on and registered it. Simple and quick. Nice.

I downloaded my first book. It cost me a whopping $3.99.

I had a doctor's appointment today so I tossed the Nook into my purse and carried it with me. In the waiting room, I finally turned it on and turned the 'page' to read my new Nook book.

Let me tell you. I think I had a technorgasm.

I love it. It is so easy to read from. No eye strain. No heavy book to carry around. No pages to dog ear. Mmmm... I'm in love.

I went to see New Moon this afternoon. I loved it. It depicted the novel pretty much exactly as I saw it in my head as I read the book. This book was my least favorite of the four, but I enjoyed the movie better than I did the novel. I thought it was so much better than Twilight, the movie. Definitely give it a chance. Even if you haven't read the novels!

And now, a friend of mine is offering a contest, giving away Twilight swag.

Check out her cool stuff:

This week I have been reading Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study and Magic Study. I enjoyed both novels. They were easy reads, each one took me a day to read it. I find myself enjoying the Fantasy genre now more than I have previously. It makes for a nice escape and these two novels definitely provided that.

I had quite a difficult time finding the third novel in the trilogy, but finally I located Fire Study and it is as delightful as the first two novels thus far.

I recommend all three.

I was tagged to do this Meme by Lisa, the cool One-Hip-Mom.

Here's what you do...

Grab the book nearest to you, find page 56. Go to the fifth line. Type it, and the few following. Of course, tell us the name and author of the book. Let us know if it's a good read, because we all need good reads!!

Here's mine:

"A fitting attendant for Mara. Noreis!" Raising her voice, she beckoned to a tailor. No adept, he hastened to obey. "Will you see to it? Something elegant, not this seasons's forsaken nonsense." "Of course." He bowed his head. Genuis rules in Eglantine House. If Favrielle was unfit to serve Naamah, she clearly reigned over the fitting room.

And that is from Kushiel's Chosen, the second in the Kushiel's Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey. This series is one of my all time favorites. It is an addicting read about love, heroism, and beautifully fantasy. I'm not normally a scifi or fantasy reader, but these novels are amazing. I've recommended them before, but I do so again!


Tagging my fellow readers:

Stephanie
Athenley
Shannon


And anyone else who would like to play!

Alright, so I redid the look of my blog for Thanksgiving. It's really not me, but it is festive enough so I'll go with it for a few days. I'm having fun finding new backgrounds and playing with them, therefore you'll just have to bear with me until I find something that sticks.

A bit of belated, but great, news is that Summit gave the green light for the second installment of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, which I keep babbling about. I am so glad that New Moon will be made. I am looking forward to it already.

Hopefully, dear readers (both of you!), this will be the last Twilight post for awhile. But in honor of the success of Twilight, I thought I'd post some great merchandise from CafePress!

Twilight Merchandise!




Happy shopping!

So yesterday I went to see Twilight, as I said in my previous post. I really enjoyed the movie. Moreso than I had originally thought I would. I thought that for a low budget type film, they did very well. The scenes were beautiful as was the scenery. All in all, I was very pleased.

However, I would have loved to seen a few scenes from the books used in the movie. I know that they couldn't include everything, but some fundemental things were missing. Also, if a person had not read the books, s/he very easily could have gotten lost throughout the movie as there wasn't enough backstory or filling in of the blanks, I thought.

Overall, I was pleased with the actors that portrayed my beloved characters. I thought Alice was perfect. As was Bella. Emmett was perfectly depicted, too, much like I'd imagined him. Jasper was a riot. Carlisle was good, but I wish they hadn't lightened his hair. I wasn't convinced that Rosalie was the most beautiful girl in the world, though. And I didn't think Esme was beautiful either, but I can see that choice made for a motherly type, I suppose. That brings us to Edward: he still was not MY Edward and I would have liked to have seen more from him other than a brooding, beautiful vamp, but overall I think he pulled it off.

The rest of the actors included in the movie did very well. I can't say I was disappointed in the choices made. I thought I really would have been, but I wasn't.

As I said, I was very pleased. So much so that I hope to return to the theater to see it again. I'll definitely be purchasing the DVD for the extras, too!

The movie Twilight opens in theaters around here at midnight tonight! I won't be attending because I'm much too old to be out till 3am, but I am very very excited about this movie. I know it is supposed to be lowkey with poor special effects, but I don't care. The books were the best, and I am looking forward to seeing the on-screen interpretation of the novels.



If you haven't read the Twilight Saga yet, please read at least Twilight before going to the movie. Please!

Now that we can stop talking politics for awhile, I thought I'd post a few novels that I highly recommend.

Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey
1. Kushiel's Dart
2. Kushiel's Chosen
3. Kushiel's Avatar
4. Kushiel's Scion
5. Kushiel's Justice
6. Kushiel's Mercy

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
1. Twilight
2. New Moon
3. Eclipse
4. Breaking Dawn

The Host also by Stephenie Meyer

The Attorney Conspiracy by C. Terry Cline

Kane and Abel and The Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer.

On the way down to St. George Island for vacation, I stopped by Books-A-Million and purchased a copy of Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. Twilight was recommended by another blogger. I devoured the first book of the four book series. Then I immediately moved onto the second novel. After I read the second one, my family was quite pleased because that was all I had purchased. Now I could actually spend time with everyone.

Wrong!

I found a small bookstore on the mainland and I purchased the third book, Eclipse.

I did take some time to jetski, as you've previously read. I also enjoyed time at the pool and sprawled out on the beach. But the entire time I was plotting when I could get back and flip more pages from each novel. I was obsessed.

On the way home I stopped by Books-A-Million again and purchased the final novel in the series - Breaking Dawn. It took me a day to finish. Yep. A day.

Then I found the first 264 pages of Midnight Sun on Stephenie's webpage. This fraction of the newest book is told from Edward's perspective from the first book.

After that I moved through the outtakes on her website. I'm all finished now and I'm left wanting more.

More more more.

Did I mention I was a tad obsessed? I haven't been this obsessed since Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy novels., which you should definitely take time to read as well! They are still my favorite novels, but the Twilight Saga is definitely the new runner up!

When I was pregnant with the wutz, I purchased all of the baby books I could get my hands on. You probably know the ones: Baby Whisperer, What to Expect When You are Expecting. Ect, etc. Anyways, I devoured them. It felt good to have some sense of control in a situation that I knew I could not control. It calmed me, even as my parents others rolled their eyes and warned I couldn’t learn about childbirth from a book.

Fast forward to two years later, I have found myself in the midst of the terrible twos. I’ve heard from a friend that it is called that not because it occurs in two year olds, but because it lasts from age 2 and ends somewhere at age 4. That wasn’t very helpful.

So today I marched myself down to the local library. I hadn’t darkened those doors since college. It had been so long, I actually had to sheepishly fill out a request for a new library card. Once the card was in hand, I marched myself over to the computer and pretended to know what in the hell I was doing. After a few tries, I managed to find the parenting section in the aisles. Unfortunately, the book suggested to me, 1-2-3 Magic, was already checked out, but I did manage to find The Happiest Toddler on the Block and some other random parenting book that looked mildly helpful. I checked them out and headed on my merry way.

I feel better now. I feel like I have something productive I can do that might possibly improve my parenting skills. I know that many might snicker behind their hands, but parenting a two-year-old tornado is no easy task. I am hoping to find a way to make it as painless as possible. For both of us.

Armed with the new literature, it is my goal to establish a routine and expectations that will allow the wutz and I to better understand each other when we are in a situation where verbal communication fails us.

Speaking of communication, it is late and I am quite certain this rambling is incoherent. I’m going to leave this till tomorrow…

G’night!