Still reading Twilight :-p Not too much new to comment on for this one, other than a further observation on what's appealing about the books: the series is essentially a fanfiction of itself. (I feel like the term incestuous applies here, but in the interests of making this a quick post, won't try too hard to work it in)
This volume in particular seems to be extremely indulgent with its readers; every scene you want to see, every exchange between the romantic rivals, every vindictive, humorous, and romantic element is fully drawn out, sometimes painfully so, in a way that's usually only found when fans run wild with their favorite characters. Maybe that's common in the modern romance novel? Or is it unique to this series? Do I care enough to do the research myself? No. :-p
I don't know if I've ever read a Dickens novel that I didn't like, and Nicholas Nickleby is no exception. It's Dicken's third novel and has a much more continuous, cohesive story than Pickwick Papers, but it isn't quite as funny or light-hearted. If you're trying Dickens for the first time, I'd say this isn't a bad place to start.
I'd love to write more, but my backlog of reviews is growing, so these next few are going to be pretty short :-/
Continuing with the Twilight series, I'd say this second book is a actually a tiny bit better than the first, but still continues the original's fine traditions of melodrama and the tone of a dime-store romance novel. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that the advantage is due to Edward's disappearance for about 75% of the book, a happy coincidence that is unlikely to occur again in the series. To be fair, Edward himself isn't quite that bad, but Bella's constant gushing and mooning is.
So, if all I'm going to do is complain about how bad these books are, why do I bother reading them at all? That's the frustrating part: despite the horrible writing and painful romance scenes, I found myself looking forward to this book, and once started, it was hard to put down. That in itself leads a secondary motive for continuing--trying to figure out what causes this effect. I feel like I'm watching both myself and the books under a microscope the whole time, trying to dissect the magic that's made them so popular.
I have noticed a few things. For starters, the non-romantic dialogue can be quite amusing from time to time, not just the so-bad-its-funny stuff. Also, Meyer really knows how to build up a scene: you'll know what's going to happen, and you'll be looking forward to it (or dreading it, sometimes), but she plays the anticipation game, drawing it out and putting you on the edge of your seat. The werewolf/vampire contrast makes things kind of interesting too, and several of the characters tend to grow on you after awhile.
Lookit me, I finally said some nice things about the series!
This book was another one that I picked up used because it was a title I'd never heard from a famous author. I loved Kipling's stories while I was growing up, and although The Light that Failed is very different from his adventure stories, Kipling's captivating storytelling and compelling voice comes through in full force.
The story is a romance between a young war correspondent who returns to England to find that the artwork he'd been sending home for the last few years has received moderate fame, and his childhood sweetheart who is herself an aspiring artist.
I made the mistake of looking the novel up on Wikipedia before I'd finished it, and reading the plot synopsis of an old movie adaptation. The ending described by the article was even more depressing than the book's title had lead me to expect, so I picked up the novel to finish with a heavy heart. Luckily, however, the book's ending was, although similar to the movie, much less depressing and more uplifting, so that'll teach me to wander around Wikipedia with more caution.
Overall, a very enjoyable little novel that I'd recommend to anyone with a fondness for Kipling.
Finally finished! Its kind of sad when that's the first impression I have of finishing a series. But that's honestly about right. By the fifth book the beauty and novelty of the setting has begun to lose its effect, and as I discovered awhile ago, the story isn't particularly interesting and the characters tend heavily towards annoying.
Although I appreciate that Lian Hearn gives her Hero the full classical/archetypal treatment, I think I've realized why Takeo in particular is such an annoying character. He's basically a perfect 21st century man, with social, mental, and moral outlooks and attitudes that are extremely modern. He'd be a paragon of politically correct virtue in any book set in the 21st century, but is jarringly out of place in feudal Japan, even fantasy feudal 'not-really-Japan-at-all-we-promise'.
To be fair, his rather unique upbringing gives him good reason to hold views that do not match his time, but it just seems all too convenient and contrived. * shrug * Maybe that was the whole point of the book, and I'd be more forgiving if those coincidentally modern morals aligned more closely with my own. Any dissenting opinions are welcome :-p
Yep, I did it. I finally gave in and read the latest fangirl craze that's spawning all the vampire-themed novels, movies and TV shows. Despite the tepid to horrified reviews I'd heard, despite the fact that I've always considered vampire stuff to be rather silly, and despite the creep-out factor I get every time Robert Pattinson shows up on posters and magazine covers, I gave it a try.
Somewhat to my surprise, therefore, Twilight wasn't quite as painful as I expected. Granted, that was partially because it was often so bad that it broke through to hilarious. But not completely.
The story itself isn't bad at all, good enough to have me looking forward to the next book. It's cliched, of course, but stories become cliche for a reason. The secondary characters are well done, and I might even like the two main characters if they weren't so cursed annoying.
Unfortunately, the core of an engaging world and a decent story is destroyed by terrible, horrible, no-good prose and narrative voice. I blame a very large part of this on the first-person point of view. First of all, the main effect of a brooding Byronic hero is destroyed when you only see him from his lover's point of view--Bella only see the good in Edward, which is as it should be. The reader is supposed to see the torment, angst and eventual triumph of good over evil or whatever, but because we only see through Bella's eyes, there's no real development of the duality. Second, you can tell us that Edward is a very good looking guy the first time we meet him, and then maybe once more as the relationship really gets going, but after that we'll remember, I promise. You don't have to remind us in every single paragraph for the remainder of the book. And finally, if you're going to build up to a dramatic rescue and crazy vampire fight as the climax of the book, don't make your only POV character unconscious for the vast majority of it. That was a big disappointment >_<
I could go on, but as I mentioned earlier I liked the book enough to continue the series, so there's really no point in picking it apart bit by bit. One more thing I'd like to share though--one of those so-bad-it's-funny moments:
Ever since these books have hit it big, I've been seeing derrogatory references to "sparkly" vampires--often comparing the Twilight variety to the real bad-boys of modern vampire lore. I just assumed that it was just a way of saying that the Twilight brand were wussy little vampires, too pretty and sweet to deserve the name. Nope, silly me :-p Meyer's vampires quite literally sparkle in the sunlight, as if they had crystalline skin o_O
Really? Sparkles?
So, the full title is Cesar's Way: The Natural, Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Correcting All Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan, Melissa Jo Peltier and John H. Mayer, but that wouldn't all fit in the title line.
We recently adopted a new puppy to be a playmate for our first dog, and I figured that with so many furry bodies around, it wouldn't be a bad idea to read up on them.
Gratuitous puppy pictures! For those of you who haven't seen Cesar's show Dog Whisperer on TV (and I've only seen a few episodes myself), Cesar is very, very good at working with dogs, fixing their "issues" and retraining the humans that gave them those issues in the first place. His life story, which takes up the first few chapters, is a good enough read in the first place--grew up on his grandfather's farm, watching and learning from the working dogs there. And we're not talking well trained, expensive purebred sheep dogs here, we're talking mongrel mutts that learned how to coexist and be useful in order to earn their spot on the farm.
Cesar's way is not easy, but it's well-reasoned and sensible. The main claim is that a happy dog knows his position in the pack, and that the only proper position is that of follower--the human must be a pack leader at all times and in all situations. His prescription for a balanced dog is excercise, discipline and affection, in that order. So that's lots and lots of excersise, a good heap of discipline, and affection only at the proper times. He recommends, at a minimum, 1.5 hours of walking every day, 1 hour in the morning and at least half an hour in the evening. You're only allowed to show affection at certain times, and must refrain from showing it at the wrong times. This amounts to a tall order! Fortunately, I'm lucky enough to have two wonderful dogs that are fairly laid back and submissive to start with, so hopefully half an hour most days is enough. (sorry puppies!)
However, the importance of regularly walking your dog and the ability to claim the pack leader position are two lessons I walked away with, and I'm fairly confident that all dog owners would benefit from reading Cesar's insights, even if they can't go all the way.
