In Defense of “Breaking Dawn”

It is hard to ignore all of the kerfluffle fans are having about the fourth book in the Twilight Saga. I am actually getting pretty sick of hearing about it myself. I had some issues with the second and third books, so I was fully prepared to despise this one, but come on people, it is AWESOME!!!!

For those of you who haven’t finished it yet, please stop reading now, but for everyone else, get ready to hear why I love it…….

…

…

1. Bella rocks!!!! I have spent a lot of time recently complaining about how much I hate Bella. Now I know why she was such a wimpy human character………she was born to be a vampire! I love how she is now the most intimidating member of the Cullen family. Way to go girl!

2. Charlie was allowed to stay part of Bella’s family. This was the thing that I was most worried about, the main reason that I did not want Bella to turn into a vampire…so when Ms. Meyer came up with a way to solve this problem I knew I was going to love this book. And of course, it was Jacob who came up with the ingenious solution, because Bella and Edward were too wrapped up in each other to realize how simple the answer was.

3. Seth Clearwater!!!!

4. The action revolved around so many different characters instead of just Bella and Edward. I loved all of the interactions with the Cullens and the werewolves and also the introduction of so many new vampires (Garrett anyone??).

5. Jacob got his own section!!! How can you not love this guy with all of those amusing chapter headings.

6. Jacob ended up happy. I was worried that in order for Edward and Bella to be truly happy together, Jacob would have to be eliminated, but thank goodness that was not the case. Even though it was a little icky at first, I loved the idea of Jacob and Nessie. Now they can all be a happy family together!!

7. The relationship between Jacob and Edward was classic. I love that these two finally became friends. When Edward called Jacob “my son” at the end, that was when I really sobbed.

8. No big fight at the end. I am so sick of the big end-of-the-world battle to end a series. I really am a pacifist and was happy that no one died (except of course that one chick, but I didn’t really care).

9. The bed frame and the pillows………ah wonderful.

All in all a very enjoyable book that has given me a whole new appreciation of the entire series. After seeing Stephenie Meyer in Chicago at the Breaking Dawn Concert Series, I know that she is a kind, funny, adorable woman who doesn’t deserve all of this flack just because some people are upset Jacob didn’t die.

Jen

Stephenie Meyer’s “The Host”

Even though I was pretty far down on the holds list, apparently everybody is reading this book super fast because I was already able to pick it up at the library on Thursday. I was really intimidated by just how HUGE this book is. Maybe I am just so used to reading children’s books made for tiny hands, but I was actually worried I would injure myself while trying to hold this book and read. Not only is it over 600 pages, but it is also extremely TALL. Needless to say I finished it on Sunday night and I am going to be placing an order at the library today to get my own copy (if that says anything about how much I liked it).

For those of you who don’t know, this is Stephenie Meyer’s first book outside the “Twilight” universe and also her first book for adults. Aliens have invaded the earth and pretty much taken over the entire human population. They are silvery centipede like things that hook onto human brains and soak up all their memories. The invasion has been relatively peaceful except for a few human resistors. Melanie is one of those resistors who is finally captured. Wanderer is the “Soul” that is placed in Melanie’s body, but instead of just fading away, Melanie refuses to leave her body. Some of the best parts of the book are the ‘conversations’ that take place between Wanderer and Melanie as they try to figure out what to do with their situation. Through Melanie’s memories, Wanderer begins to love Mel’s brother Jamie and her boyfriend Jared. They decide to go and try to find out if Jamie and Jared are still alive and still human.

Even though this book is really long, it flies by so fast because you can’t put it down. I really enjoyed the characters in this book a lot. Especially Jeb, Jamie, Doc, and Ian. The story has lots of classic Stephenie Meyer elements: love triangles (or more like quadrangles), lots of good social/family interactions, and lots of cool alien lore (as opposed to vampires and werewolfs).

I did have one major problem with the book that bugged me the whole time I was reading it. Apparently Stephenie Meyer has a really hardcore “damsel in distress” complex where women must be physically or emotionally jerked around by guys. I did not appreciate the fact that Melanie/Wanderer gets beaten up by the men in her life on numerous occasions and then makes excuses for them. Granted, I know that it is because she’s an alien, but come on……….I just don’t like to read about the main character getting knocked around for the fifth time in sixty pages.

But aside from that, I did really love this book. I think I might have even liked it better than the Twlight books. Gasp! I know, I know….maybe not the first book, but definitely better than New Moon and Eclipse. So everybody who liked any of her previous books has to get their hands on this one because it is a fascinating read. Lindsay, this means you!!!! I don’t want to hear any excuses about a wedding.

I thought I would include this video because I loved the song before I read the book, but now it totally reminds me of “The Host.”

Jen

We are totally turning this into a Twilight blog.

I am obsessed. I cannot help it. I’m going to have to go get the audio books from the library and put them on my computer so I can do to them what I do to Harry Potter. Have you seen pictures of the cast for the movie? Here’s one of Edward.

And one of Edward and Bella.

Let me just say that every day I become more pleased with the choices for Edward and Bella.  Robert Patterson looks perfect for Edward….I totally want to be all over him (HWSNBNITB, I hope you are not reading this, and if you are, don’t worry, I would not be all over him, it is just because of my over active imagination that has been fueled by Stephenie Meyer).  I’m also really pleased with Kristen Stewart as Bella.  She’s pretty but not so pretty that you look at her and get super jealous because of her looks ( I will get super jealous because 1- she is playing Bella, 2-she gets to be all over Robert Patterson aka Edward Cullen).  Sighs.

Well, I’m really going to have to start doing stuff - I was just informed that on top of my lab reports, I now have a new baby boy, William, to visit!

<3, lindsayd.

Good evening from Iowa City and Happy Easter!

What can I say? It’s good to be back in Iowa. I left last Friday for Nashville, which was fun because I got to hang out with my future hubby and his friends, tour a brewery (and taste some not so icky beer), read a lot and hang out on the Vandy campus a bit. Then from Nashville I headed over to Las Vegas to meet up with my parents and sisters. That was pretty fun too - got to see Cirque Du Soleil (did I spell that right?), in particular I got to see Love (the Beatles show). While I thoroughly enjoyed Love, I think that I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more of their history. I’ll have to go to Amber for this. I also got to see Spamalot (lovingly ripped off from The Quest for the Holy Grail) which was funny. I also got to lay by the pool and get burned in all the weird places that I somehow missed when I put on my sunscreen (3 times in 2 hours). Oh, and if any of you watch the travel channel, you might be able to glimpse me and my family on June 12th - we were at the restaurant that Samantha Brown (I don’t know exactly what she does for the channel (http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Samantha_Brown), but she hosts some show…my parents watch her pretty religiously) was at - don’t believe me? We totally got a picture despite the fact that my mom and my youngest sister were totally freaking out (they were shaking, it was HILARIOUS!). Despite the nicer weather down south and out west, I’m just glad to be back in Iowa, even if it is like 30 degrees outside. I was going to write an entry from Las Vegas, but The Mirage (hotel we were in) was going to charge the room $30. What!? Yeah, I know right!? I would have just taken my laptop down to some cafe or something that had free internet service, but my battery only lasts for like 2 minutes (that’s with it fully charged…yeah, I need a new battery). So all of my witty thoughts have left me - I totally should have written the blog entry in a word document and then pasted it in when I got back. But whatever.

Ooooh, I totally got Enchanted, and I have already watched it - sooooo cute! I totally want to be Amy Adams - I adore her big eyes and ability to be sincere in everything she does. I have also read Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer, author of Twilight and New Moon, of which I have already talked about. I think it may kill me to wait for the 4th book to come out (August 2nd, eek!). The good thing about this - I will have to get it in Nashville, and I’m pretty sure the sales tax is less there…I could look this up, but why would I strain myself?

I’ll leave you with the following clips.

….is that Niles Crane from Frasier????  It sure looks like him.  Oh, and I must mention that King Arthur in the show I saw last night was none other than Mr. John O’Hurley…why does this name sound familiar?  Maybe because he’s just so awesome, or maybe because he was totally J. Peterman from Seinfeld. …probably the latter.

<3, lindsayd.

P.S.  I totally came and edited this a few minutes after posting and added some links because I got curious.

Howdy from Nashville, y’all!

Howdy folks,

This is lindsayd. tuning in from the country music capital of the world, Nashville, TN.  It’s strange to thing that in ~2 months I’ll be living here!  Crazy huh?  I’m just bumming out here on Andrew’s (or as I will start referring to him from here on out, HWSNBNITB) couch while he’s at class.  I just finished New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.  Why did I not pick this series up earlier????????????  Good gravy, I have been using just about every ounce of will power I can muster not to sit like a zombie (hehehehe) reading!  I read the first book in the saga, Twilight almost completely on my way down to TN, and then I bought New Moon the next day, but had to interrupt my reading for silly things like eating and sleeping, and then some not so silly things like spending quality time with HWSNBNITB and adding things to our registry at Bed Bath and Beyond.  Speaking of shopping - there are so many malls down here!  I’ll never be able to complain about a scanty selection while I live here.  But back to Twilight.  So then I of course had to look at the cast list for the movie they’re shooting right now.  Robert Patterson (mmmm Cedric Diggory!) is playing Edward.  Soooooo dreamy!  I’m a little bit scared though that the movie isn’t going to live up to my expectations.  But, I think it’ll be ok because by the time the movie comes out, I’ll have forgotten all the little details, so as long as they get the outline right, I think I’ll be ok.  But seriously, have you read these books???  I need to go buy Eclipse today - there’s a Border’s less than a mile from HWSNBNITB’s apartment.  I think I might take a walk there and then go on to the Vandy campus to find HWSNBTITB.  I am so glad that I have finally gotten into this series - I also need to read the 3rd book in the Libba Bray series, A Great and Terrible Beauty - also very good books.  I have to admit thought - Twilight has sucked (hahahahhahahahahahahahaha) me in to the story way more than A Great and Terrible Beauty.  Oooooh Edward and Bella.  I seriously want to name my first daughter Bella right now - I probably would if like 50,000 other girls weren’t thinking the same exact thing right now.  I’ll stick with Eloise.  Speaking of children - I got to have a web chat with my future niece, Emma and future brother in law, Tony.  Emma was adorable!  She’s 2 and a half and kept putting her hand over Tony’s mouth so that she would be the only one who got to talk.  And they’re about to get a new addition to the family - so exciting!  I can’t believe it - the baby was supposed to be born in late April, but they keep moving the due date up - they’re fully expecting a baby to be born within a few days most likely.  I can’t wait!  HWSNBNITB and I are going to get some pretty cute baby stuff as soon as we know if the baby’s a boy or girl.

That’s all from Nashville - y’all come back y’hear?  Read Twilight if you haven’t!  (And then thank Jen because she’s the one who’s been touting it from the start)

Toodles!

lindsayd.