Obsession: Twilight
I LOVE the Japanese covers for Twilight! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for New Moon!! EEEE!
If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s my Prince? by Melissa Kantor
Title: If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s My Prince?
Author: Melissa Kantor
Published: September 1, 2005
Plot: Lucy Norton’s life becomes strikingly similar to Cinderella’s after she is uprooted from her hometown of San Fran to Long Island, NJ to live with her (Benny) stepmother and bratty twin stepsisters. Things take a turn for the better when the hottest guy in school suddenly takes an interest but when things continue to get worse at home, Lucy wonders if she will ever live happily ever after.
Review: Regardless of the obvious turn the book takes at the end (yeah Sam!), this book was easy to relate to. For those of you who hate fantasy (my sister, Deb), this book is for you! If you enjoyed Prom by L. H. Anderson… pick this one up.
Grade 8 and up
The Night Dance
Title: The Night Dance
Author: Suzanne Weyn
Published: November 2005
This is a review of the advance reader copy of the book.
Tags: fiction, Camelot, fairy tales, Avalon, princesses, dance, fantasy, knights of the round table
Plot: This is a reimaging of the classic fairy tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Weyn weaves Arthurian legend into one of my favorite childhood stories to explain the mysterious circumstances surrounding twelve princesses who receive a new pair of shoes each evening and, despite being locked in their bedrooms at night, awake with tattered shoes.
Review: Its been a while since I read the tale but this story took a very interesting turn when Bedivere is introduced and all of a sudden, we are in Arthurian England and I’m reading the YA version of the Mists of Avalon! I really enjoyed this book and if you enjoy fantasy at all, I think you will too! It is part of the “Once Upon a Time” series that reworks popular fairy tales. I plan to pick up another.
Grade 7 to 10
NYPL: Bookfest
I just registered for Bookfest 2007 at the New York Public Library February 3! I am in the Young Adult Group II, Nothing Short of Astonishing, with LuAnn Tooth (leader) discussing The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing – M.T. Anderson, Saint Iggy – K.L. Going, Firestorm – David Klass, Undine – Penni Russon, and The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl – Barry Lyga. Who else is going?
Rusty Tries DDR
My cousin Rusty Politi tries Dance Dance Revolution for the first time!
Teach Me by R. A. Nelson
Title: Teach Me
*This post is based on a reading of an Advance Reader Copy.
Author: R. A. Nelson
Tags: fiction, high school, affair, science, NASA, love, breakup
Plot: Nine, a straight-A high school senior and virgin, has a short, intense affair with the school’s new poetry teacher. She is the daughter of a NASA scientist, brilliant, funny, and focused. When Mr. Mann, her teacher, suddenly breaks off the affair, Nine will stop for no one to learn why.
Review: It is a day after finishing this book (and I read it in two sittings) and I have the overwhelming urge to weep for Nine. She is a strong character. She expresses her passion with such a blend of the physical and emotional that I was swept up from the beginning – and not because it was a “forbidden” love (social taboo)… after all, they are both legally adults (and maybe my years in college — seeing so many grad students marry their older professors — has made me sympathetic to their situation) – but because I’ve know men like Mr. Mann. I know how they seemingly swoop in one day like a meteor and shatter everything you’ve ever known, only to disappear mid-sentence. I know what drives a man like him. His fear. His cowardice. His false belief that he is doing the “right thing.” A man too deeply subscribed to the structure of Man to understand the chaos of Nature. Nine’s pain becomes the reader’s. And I want to weep for her.
Nicole in Kanji
Nicole = ni kou ru
ni translates to Benevolence
kou translates to Fragrance
ru translates to Flow
Together, it means “Benevolence flows from you like a fine fragrance, beautiful princess.” Now, isn’t that lovelyl? And accurate! Have your name translated and learn more about the Japanese language at Japanese Name Translation! There is also a good blog about an American living and learning the Japanese way: Here and There Japan. A blog of snapshots of life in Japan. Written especially for kids.
The Truth Movement
One-third of Americans think the government either carried out the 9/11 attacks or intentionally allowed them to happen in order to provide a pretext for war in the Middle East.
Critics like The New Yorker’s Nicholas Lemann might lament the resurgence of the “paranoid style,” but the seeds of paranoia have taken root partly because of the complete lack of appropriate skepticism by the establishment press, a complementary impulse to the paranoid style that might be called the “credulous style.”
The antidote, ultimately, to the Truth Movement is a press that refuses to allow the government to continue to lie. CBS
American Blackout: A look at the career of U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney from Georgia and the historical suppression of black voters in the United States.
First Heavy Metal Concert
One pink polo shirt sticking out among a sea of black Tees… heads bobbing while I smiled… lots of facial hair and covered heads… 10 boys for every girl!
Laguna Coil was the hands down favorite, though I won’t be in a rush to see them again soon. I think I’ll enjoy their CD from the comfort and warmth of my study.
The most exciting development: Rusted Root is coming to NJ’s Starland Ballroom on Feb. 25th. You know I’ll be there!
Second Read: Twilight
December 12, 2006 at 2:51 pm (Commentary)
Twilight was the second pick on the Teens Top Ten List so I picked it up for a second read. Wow. The book actually improves, if possible, the second time through! And I could see Meyer laying out the follow up books. Reminds me of Rowling’s writing… But I’m enjoying Meyer even more. The story is tighter. Her world more clearly defined. The best is picturing Daniel Cudmore as Emmett. I can’t wait for the newly formed People Against Reality book discussion group at the library to get to it.
Sadly, there will be no ARCs for Meyer’s next book, Eclipse. I will simply have to wait until October. (Damn those publishers! I want it now. She’s done writing!)
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