My Summer Reading List
Hello! So, as I stated in my first blog entry, I love to read! It’s a passion, and obsession, and it usually ends up being a distraction. :) However, finally my semester is over and I can read for fun. It is not that I do not enjoy the books that I read for school, because usually I do, but I love to read for fun and if I try to during the semester then I get caught up in it and tend to ignore all else. So, now that the semester is over I am going to read as much as I can. As I mentioned before, for me, reading is totally an obsession. When I read I get lost in worlds of fantasy, adventure, reality, make believe, and nothing else is important. I’m one of those people who will always have a book with them just in case there is an opportunity to read it. I’ve actually been known to read at red lights in my car when I’m really into a book. :) As I said it’s a sickness. :) So why the heck am I rambling on about my reading obsession? Well I have decided to post a blog about every book I read this summer to try and keep track of them all. Hopefully I will keep up with myself as I have already read four since I made the decision. (As I said I get really caught up and I read really fast). If you decide to be one of the few people that read my blog :) then you will be going on a tour of literature (and other genres) over the summer. So to start the journey I begin with a book I already said a little bit about.
Book #1: Twilight By: Stephenie Meyer
Alright so in my first blog I described how much I enjoy the twilight books. At that point it was the very end of my semester and I was supposed to be reading school books. Both of which ended up being very good, I may read the one books sequel for fun. But getting back to Twilight, I won’t overly discuss the first one since I started to already. I totally suggest checking out Stephenie Meyer’s website at http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ also check out http://www.twilightnovel.com/
Hello! So, as I stated in my first blog entry, I love to read! It’s a passion, and obsession, and it usually ends up being a distraction. :) However, finally my semester is over and I can read for fun. It is not that I do not enjoy the books that I read for school, because usually I do, but I love to read for fun and if I try to during the semester then I get caught up in it and tend to ignore all else. So, now that the semester is over I am going to read as much as I can. As I mentioned before, for me, reading is totally an obsession. When I read I get lost in worlds of fantasy, adventure, reality, make believe, and nothing else is important. I’m one of those people who will always have a book with them just in case there is an opportunity to read it. I’ve actually been known to read at red lights in my car when I’m really into a book. :) As I said it’s a sickness. :) So why the heck am I rambling on about my reading obsession? Well I have decided to post a blog about every book I read this summer to try and keep track of them all. Hopefully I will keep up with myself as I have already read four since I made the decision. (As I said I get really caught up and I read really fast). If you decide to be one of the few people that read my blog :) then you will be going on a tour of literature (and other genres) over the summer. So to start the journey I begin with a book I already said a little bit about.
Book #1: Twilight By: Stephenie Meyer
Alright so in my first blog I described how much I enjoy the twilight books. At that point it was the very end of my semester and I was supposed to be reading school books. Both of which ended up being very good, I may read the one books sequel for fun. But getting back to Twilight, I won’t overly discuss the first one since I started to already. I totally suggest checking out Stephenie Meyer’s website at http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ also check out http://www.twilightnovel.com/
First I would like to share a couple of my favorite quotes from the book:
“Do I dazzle you?” ~Edward
(Chapter 8, p. 168)
About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him— and I didn’t know how potent that part might be—that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him. ~Bella
(Chapter 9, p.195)
Edward in the sunlight was shocking…His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday’s hunting trip, literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface. ~Bella
(Chapter 13, p. 260)
“Bella, I couldn’t live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don’t know how it’s tortured me. The thought of you, still, white, cold…to never see you blush scarlet again, to never see that flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my pretenses...it would be unendurable.” ~Edward
(Chapter 13, p. 273)
“I’m betting on Alice.” ~Bella
(Chapter 24, p. 480)
Ok, so enough quotes, that just gives you a taste of the book. As I’ve said previously the Twilight books are about a girl named Bella and a vampire named Edward. I love what Stephenie Meyer does with the story and how she changes all previous notions on vampires, but again check out my first blog to read further into those thoughts. Alright moving on…
Book 2: New Moon By: Stephenie Meyer
As you probably guessed this is the second book in the twilight series. New moon introduces us to some new characters and takes a few minor characters and brings them front and center. He opening of the novel has Bella dreading her birthday. She turns eighteen and hat makes her a year older then Edward. Her worst fear is that she will grow old and decrepit while he remains young and beautiful. The Cullen family throws her a birthday party almost entirely designed by Alice, Edward’s “sister.” However, well meaning the party was meant to be it ends with Bella being hurt and Jasper, Edward’s “brother,” wanting to kill Bella.
Dazed and disoriented, I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm—into the fevered eyes of the six suddenly ravenous vampires. ~Bella
(Chapter 1, p. 29)
So, everything works itself out for Bella being safe and whole, b the incident leaves Edward once again worried for her life. He decides that it would be better for her if he leaves and so he does just that. He has to lie to Bella and tell her he doesn’t love her, and because she always felt inferior she believes him. When he leaves it is like a part of Bella dies. For four months she is like the walking dead. She is an empty shell. When her father, Charlie calls her lifeless she decides to appease him to go out with a friends. They go to a zombie movie and while watching it she realizes that she resembles the zombie, a lifeless shell. This is when she starts taking notice of the things around her. She realizes how much she is missing and how people have given up on her. She starts to take notice of new people and observes how others act like she isn’t there. When she is at lunch and she makes a comment, her whole table is stunned into silence for a few seconds because she hasn’t spoken in so long.
What really brings Bella out of her depression? Jacob Black. Jacob was in the first book as a minor character. He is from the Quillette tribe and he is Billy Black’s son. In the first book Jacob had a bit of a crush on Bella. His father Billy is one of the tribe elders and believes all the legends of the “cold ones.” Up till now Jacob though all the legends were just stories and ridiculous. The reason that Jacob becomes a huge player in this novel begins with a simple choice by Bella. She wants to do something reckless and dangerous and so she picks up two broken down motorcycles. She knows Jacob works on cars and decides to take the bikes to him. To make a long story short Jacob works on the bikes and him and Bella hang out all the time. Jacob’s happiness and general qualities bring out a new side to Bella. The whole in her heart still aches and she still has times where she can’t breathe from the pain, but when she is with Jacob she can be close to happy. Of course this is Bella we’re talking about so there has to be a twist. The twist is that Jacob turns into a werewolf. As with many of the young men in the tribe Jacob becomes a werewolf. It is then that he finds out all the legends are true. The werewolf is the naturally enemy of the vampire and so there are many problems with this new found identity of his that prove to be problems later on.
Moving on to a bit farther in the book, Bella is still hoping for recklessness and so she goes cliff diving. She almost dies, but then is saved by Jacob. However, Alice Cullen so in one of her visions Bella jumping from the cliff. She then saw Bella’s future disappear, which of course is disconcerting. Later on we find out this is because Alice cannot see the future of the werewolves. So, why is this such a big deal? Alice saw Bella jump and possibly die so of course she comes to check on her. In the mean time Rosalie tracks down Edward and tells him that Bella has killed herself. At this point Edward decides to go to Italy to Voltera to ask the century old Volturi vampires to kill him. This is another aspect of the story I enjoy because of course there have to be bad evil vampires. And to have a whole city of the “royalty” of their kind is jut another ingenious aspect I enjoy. But moving on Bella and Alice fly to Italy to try to save Edward.
So they do in fact find him and after many other problems in Voltera (I don’t want to give away the whole book after all) they had back to Forks. When they go back and Edward explains all to Bella and expains that he was dying without her and would have come back soon enough. She at first does not believe him but finally the realization that he does truly love her hits.
I thought I’d explained it clearly before. Bella, I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist. ~Edward
(Chapter 23, p. 509)
How can I put this so you’ll believe me? You’re not asleep and you’re not dead. I’m here, and I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you. I was thinking of you, seeing your face in my mind, every second that I was away. When I told you that I didn’t want you, it was the very blackest kind of blasphemy. ~Edward
(Chapter 23, p. 510)
Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars—points of light and reason…And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for everything. ~Edward
(Chapter 23, p. 514)
Ok, so yes it might just be a female thing, but I am definitely a sucker for love stories. I don’t know how you can’t be even if reality proves to us that real life is not a fairy tale and there aren’t always happy endings, I think you still have to have hope. So of course the idea of soul mates and there being only one person to complete you out there is appealing to read.
As I’m sitting here typing it occurs to me that I forgot a few interesting points on Edward’s family. Carlisle, his “father,” has an interesting outlook on the world and the life he has been dealt. Interestingly he is actually about 363 years old, as he was born in the 1640’s in London, but of course still looks eternally 23. But anyway Carlisle’s father was an Anglican pastor in a vicarage. So Carlisle was raised in a rather religious background. (This background is in the first book, woven into the story). The point of that short amount of detail into Carlisle’s history leads to my point that Carlisle still believes in a heaven and a hell and that they have souls. Edward’s huge problem with changing Bella is that he does not believe they have a soul. But what I had forgot to mention was that when Edward thought Bella had died and he thought he was being killed as well he said, “Amazing, Carlisle was right” (Chapter 20, p. 452) He says this because he believes that he has died and Bella is dead and therefore they are both in heaven. This whole thing later comes to the point that Bella tells him that he must have hope in him because of what he said. Ok those are my last thoughts on the second book. Finally on to book three.
Book #3: Eclipse By: Stephenie Meyer
Yea my final book for this installment. I think I’m going to have to make an effort to limit myself to one or maybe two books per post. I was actually going to make this post on four books but since typing have changed my mind :) Alright so when this book begins Bella is very upset from having to choose between her best friend (Jacob) and the love of her life (Edward). At first Edward does not want her to go anywhere with Jacob because after all Jacob is a young werewolf and therefore not in full control of himself and dangerous. This is of course amusing because to Edward Bella is safer at his house, a home full of vampires. :) After a time though Edward realizes that he does not want to make Bella choose and it hurts her to do so. Therefore he tells her that she can go to see Jacob. The only thing that he does want is for her to allow him to drive her to the border of La Push and Jacob picks her up there. Bella agrees to this, but says she feels like a child being passed off between divorced parents. There is also trouble brewing in this book, of course. The trouble is that it appears a newborn vampire is rampaging through Seattle. As time goes on the death toll in Seattle gets higher and higher. Finally the Cullens realize that if they do not want the Volturi coming in they will have to do something. They also realize that it is not just one vampire but what appears to be an army of newborn vampires. It as at this point that we learn a little bit about Jasper’s history. Jasper was in the army in the south in the early 1900s and he was changed for the sole purpose of the vampire wars. He was made by a female named Maria and together they made armies to fight for territory in the south. Because of Jasper’s ability to control emotions their army is able to fight together like no army has before. However, after time the emotions are getting to Jasper and he becomes depressed. While he can control the emotions of others he also feels emotions all the time. Therefore he is always in a constant state of emotional upheaval. Eventually he leaves the south and that is when Alice finds him and together they find the Cullens. After learning about Jasper’s history Bella better understands him. The threat of a vampire army doesn’t entirely make sense until they realize it is connected to Victoria. Victoria is the mate of a vampire that tried to kill Bella in the first book. In that book Edward kills the vampire, and of course a lot else happens, but you should read it to find out! Victoria has decided to kill Bella, “a mate for a mate.” So she has made the army to fight the Cullens and to get to Bella. Anyway the vampires and werewolves ban together to fight and lots of things happen. I don’t want to go into all of it so I’m only going to speak on two more things.
The first is that Bella decides to marry Edward. Bella wants to spend eternity with Edward and to so she wants to become a vampire. Carlisle agrees to do it for her after graduation, but really Bella wants Edward to be the one to change her. Edwards tells her he will if she marries him first. This is difficult for Bella because marriage has always been a bad thing for her. Her mother’s relationships have made her feel this way. She tells Edward that she is not that girl that gets knocked up and married right out of high school. But of course Edward is that boy that would have proposed and had a big wedding because he was born in the early 1900s. Anyway long story short Bella agrees to marry him. Its not that she has any bad feelings of being with him for eternity, because that’s what she wants. He is the other half of her soul and she can’t live without him. But the idea of marriage is what she’s against.
The final thing that happens is that Bella has a request for Edward before she becomes a vampire. Something she says she wants to experience as a human. She wants to be with Edward even though he tells her it is too dangerous. (Another part of the novels I like is that since they are meant for teenagers, it’s a good example, no one ever does more then kiss, a lot.) Edward agrees to try but he does not wish to try until after they are married :) This is an interesting part as well.
Ok if I type anymore I am going to go cross eyed. I will simply state once again that I love this series and I can’t wait for the fourth one to come out in August!
“Do I dazzle you?” ~Edward
(Chapter 8, p. 168)
About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him— and I didn’t know how potent that part might be—that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him. ~Bella
(Chapter 9, p.195)
Edward in the sunlight was shocking…His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday’s hunting trip, literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface. ~Bella
(Chapter 13, p. 260)
“Bella, I couldn’t live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don’t know how it’s tortured me. The thought of you, still, white, cold…to never see you blush scarlet again, to never see that flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my pretenses...it would be unendurable.” ~Edward
(Chapter 13, p. 273)
“I’m betting on Alice.” ~Bella
(Chapter 24, p. 480)
Ok, so enough quotes, that just gives you a taste of the book. As I’ve said previously the Twilight books are about a girl named Bella and a vampire named Edward. I love what Stephenie Meyer does with the story and how she changes all previous notions on vampires, but again check out my first blog to read further into those thoughts. Alright moving on…
Book 2: New Moon By: Stephenie Meyer
As you probably guessed this is the second book in the twilight series. New moon introduces us to some new characters and takes a few minor characters and brings them front and center. He opening of the novel has Bella dreading her birthday. She turns eighteen and hat makes her a year older then Edward. Her worst fear is that she will grow old and decrepit while he remains young and beautiful. The Cullen family throws her a birthday party almost entirely designed by Alice, Edward’s “sister.” However, well meaning the party was meant to be it ends with Bella being hurt and Jasper, Edward’s “brother,” wanting to kill Bella.
Dazed and disoriented, I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm—into the fevered eyes of the six suddenly ravenous vampires. ~Bella
(Chapter 1, p. 29)
So, everything works itself out for Bella being safe and whole, b the incident leaves Edward once again worried for her life. He decides that it would be better for her if he leaves and so he does just that. He has to lie to Bella and tell her he doesn’t love her, and because she always felt inferior she believes him. When he leaves it is like a part of Bella dies. For four months she is like the walking dead. She is an empty shell. When her father, Charlie calls her lifeless she decides to appease him to go out with a friends. They go to a zombie movie and while watching it she realizes that she resembles the zombie, a lifeless shell. This is when she starts taking notice of the things around her. She realizes how much she is missing and how people have given up on her. She starts to take notice of new people and observes how others act like she isn’t there. When she is at lunch and she makes a comment, her whole table is stunned into silence for a few seconds because she hasn’t spoken in so long.
What really brings Bella out of her depression? Jacob Black. Jacob was in the first book as a minor character. He is from the Quillette tribe and he is Billy Black’s son. In the first book Jacob had a bit of a crush on Bella. His father Billy is one of the tribe elders and believes all the legends of the “cold ones.” Up till now Jacob though all the legends were just stories and ridiculous. The reason that Jacob becomes a huge player in this novel begins with a simple choice by Bella. She wants to do something reckless and dangerous and so she picks up two broken down motorcycles. She knows Jacob works on cars and decides to take the bikes to him. To make a long story short Jacob works on the bikes and him and Bella hang out all the time. Jacob’s happiness and general qualities bring out a new side to Bella. The whole in her heart still aches and she still has times where she can’t breathe from the pain, but when she is with Jacob she can be close to happy. Of course this is Bella we’re talking about so there has to be a twist. The twist is that Jacob turns into a werewolf. As with many of the young men in the tribe Jacob becomes a werewolf. It is then that he finds out all the legends are true. The werewolf is the naturally enemy of the vampire and so there are many problems with this new found identity of his that prove to be problems later on.
Moving on to a bit farther in the book, Bella is still hoping for recklessness and so she goes cliff diving. She almost dies, but then is saved by Jacob. However, Alice Cullen so in one of her visions Bella jumping from the cliff. She then saw Bella’s future disappear, which of course is disconcerting. Later on we find out this is because Alice cannot see the future of the werewolves. So, why is this such a big deal? Alice saw Bella jump and possibly die so of course she comes to check on her. In the mean time Rosalie tracks down Edward and tells him that Bella has killed herself. At this point Edward decides to go to Italy to Voltera to ask the century old Volturi vampires to kill him. This is another aspect of the story I enjoy because of course there have to be bad evil vampires. And to have a whole city of the “royalty” of their kind is jut another ingenious aspect I enjoy. But moving on Bella and Alice fly to Italy to try to save Edward.
So they do in fact find him and after many other problems in Voltera (I don’t want to give away the whole book after all) they had back to Forks. When they go back and Edward explains all to Bella and expains that he was dying without her and would have come back soon enough. She at first does not believe him but finally the realization that he does truly love her hits.
I thought I’d explained it clearly before. Bella, I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist. ~Edward
(Chapter 23, p. 509)
How can I put this so you’ll believe me? You’re not asleep and you’re not dead. I’m here, and I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you. I was thinking of you, seeing your face in my mind, every second that I was away. When I told you that I didn’t want you, it was the very blackest kind of blasphemy. ~Edward
(Chapter 23, p. 510)
Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars—points of light and reason…And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for everything. ~Edward
(Chapter 23, p. 514)
Ok, so yes it might just be a female thing, but I am definitely a sucker for love stories. I don’t know how you can’t be even if reality proves to us that real life is not a fairy tale and there aren’t always happy endings, I think you still have to have hope. So of course the idea of soul mates and there being only one person to complete you out there is appealing to read.
As I’m sitting here typing it occurs to me that I forgot a few interesting points on Edward’s family. Carlisle, his “father,” has an interesting outlook on the world and the life he has been dealt. Interestingly he is actually about 363 years old, as he was born in the 1640’s in London, but of course still looks eternally 23. But anyway Carlisle’s father was an Anglican pastor in a vicarage. So Carlisle was raised in a rather religious background. (This background is in the first book, woven into the story). The point of that short amount of detail into Carlisle’s history leads to my point that Carlisle still believes in a heaven and a hell and that they have souls. Edward’s huge problem with changing Bella is that he does not believe they have a soul. But what I had forgot to mention was that when Edward thought Bella had died and he thought he was being killed as well he said, “Amazing, Carlisle was right” (Chapter 20, p. 452) He says this because he believes that he has died and Bella is dead and therefore they are both in heaven. This whole thing later comes to the point that Bella tells him that he must have hope in him because of what he said. Ok those are my last thoughts on the second book. Finally on to book three.
Book #3: Eclipse By: Stephenie Meyer
Yea my final book for this installment. I think I’m going to have to make an effort to limit myself to one or maybe two books per post. I was actually going to make this post on four books but since typing have changed my mind :) Alright so when this book begins Bella is very upset from having to choose between her best friend (Jacob) and the love of her life (Edward). At first Edward does not want her to go anywhere with Jacob because after all Jacob is a young werewolf and therefore not in full control of himself and dangerous. This is of course amusing because to Edward Bella is safer at his house, a home full of vampires. :) After a time though Edward realizes that he does not want to make Bella choose and it hurts her to do so. Therefore he tells her that she can go to see Jacob. The only thing that he does want is for her to allow him to drive her to the border of La Push and Jacob picks her up there. Bella agrees to this, but says she feels like a child being passed off between divorced parents. There is also trouble brewing in this book, of course. The trouble is that it appears a newborn vampire is rampaging through Seattle. As time goes on the death toll in Seattle gets higher and higher. Finally the Cullens realize that if they do not want the Volturi coming in they will have to do something. They also realize that it is not just one vampire but what appears to be an army of newborn vampires. It as at this point that we learn a little bit about Jasper’s history. Jasper was in the army in the south in the early 1900s and he was changed for the sole purpose of the vampire wars. He was made by a female named Maria and together they made armies to fight for territory in the south. Because of Jasper’s ability to control emotions their army is able to fight together like no army has before. However, after time the emotions are getting to Jasper and he becomes depressed. While he can control the emotions of others he also feels emotions all the time. Therefore he is always in a constant state of emotional upheaval. Eventually he leaves the south and that is when Alice finds him and together they find the Cullens. After learning about Jasper’s history Bella better understands him. The threat of a vampire army doesn’t entirely make sense until they realize it is connected to Victoria. Victoria is the mate of a vampire that tried to kill Bella in the first book. In that book Edward kills the vampire, and of course a lot else happens, but you should read it to find out! Victoria has decided to kill Bella, “a mate for a mate.” So she has made the army to fight the Cullens and to get to Bella. Anyway the vampires and werewolves ban together to fight and lots of things happen. I don’t want to go into all of it so I’m only going to speak on two more things.
The first is that Bella decides to marry Edward. Bella wants to spend eternity with Edward and to so she wants to become a vampire. Carlisle agrees to do it for her after graduation, but really Bella wants Edward to be the one to change her. Edwards tells her he will if she marries him first. This is difficult for Bella because marriage has always been a bad thing for her. Her mother’s relationships have made her feel this way. She tells Edward that she is not that girl that gets knocked up and married right out of high school. But of course Edward is that boy that would have proposed and had a big wedding because he was born in the early 1900s. Anyway long story short Bella agrees to marry him. Its not that she has any bad feelings of being with him for eternity, because that’s what she wants. He is the other half of her soul and she can’t live without him. But the idea of marriage is what she’s against.
The final thing that happens is that Bella has a request for Edward before she becomes a vampire. Something she says she wants to experience as a human. She wants to be with Edward even though he tells her it is too dangerous. (Another part of the novels I like is that since they are meant for teenagers, it’s a good example, no one ever does more then kiss, a lot.) Edward agrees to try but he does not wish to try until after they are married :) This is an interesting part as well.
Ok if I type anymore I am going to go cross eyed. I will simply state once again that I love this series and I can’t wait for the fourth one to come out in August!
1 comment:
I've never understood where the traditional rivalry between werewolves and vampires comes from. But I did love the movie Underworld.
AJ
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