Book Review | Book Chatter

This is a list of the books read in 2009. Click on the link to read my review.

Under the Dome by Stephen King
The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child
Accidental Lessons by David W. Berner
When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge
The Complete Stories of Truman Capote by Truman Capote
In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke
Forgetting English by Midge Raymond
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Saving Sammy by Beth Maloney
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Local Bounty by Devra Gartenstein
The Art of Meaningful Living by Christopher F. Brown
A Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football by Mark Oristano
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
The Return by Victoria Hislop
Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Goldengrove by Francine Prose
The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
Besty-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace
Secrets of a Christmas Box by Steven Hornby
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy M. Buchanan
The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay
Historic Photos of the Chinese in California by Hannah Clayborn (text and captions)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Game On Diet by Krista Vernoff and Az Ferguson
Ugly Man by Dennis Cooper
The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Netherland by Joseph O’Neil
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
Boneman’s Daughters by Ted Dekker (Audio)
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
Sunnyside Blues by Mary Carter
Foreign Tongue by Vanina Marsot
Prayers For Bobby by Leroy Aarons
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe by Jennie Shortridge
Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shaffer and Barrows
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
The Prudent Mariner by Leslie Walker Williams
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Drood by Dan Simmons
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney
The Laws of Harmony by Judith R. Hendricks
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende
Things I Want My Daughters To Know by Elizabeth Noble
Let’s Get Fancy Together! by Jane O’Connor
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth
True Notebooks by Mark Salzman

I don’t think there is a living, breathing person on the planet that does not know what Twilight is about so I am going to spare you the synopsis and just gush over what I loved about it.

1. Stephanie Meyer did an excellent job of taking me back to the days of girlhood. All those awkward moments. The clumsiness. The teen crushes that you swore would make your heart break into two. It all came rushing back to me while reading about Bella and Edward’s romance.

2. I loved the dangerous quality of it all. Edward has that naughtiness that you know you need to stay away from, but can’t. Bella has that “forbidden fruit” thing going on. It’s an impossible relationship that you want to see work.

3. I loved the setting. The rainy, gloomy town of Forks. An ideal place for a family of vampires to live. They are isolated but sort of not, with Seattle just a stone’s throw away.

4. Edward has got to be the most charming vampire ever known. I mean, who would even care if they were bitten by someone like that? Not me.

5. I also loved the innocence of Bella. Fragile, beautiful and somewhat naive. I usually do not like femme fatales but for some reason, I didn’t mind her being saved all the time. She truly seemed to need it.

6. I enjoyed the family dynamic. Both Bella’s family and Edward’s. Two very different families for sure, but ones that I cared about.

I held out for a long time before picking the book up. I have this thing about reading blockbuster books when everyone else is reading them. I like to take my time… ease into it a bit. I’m also glad I haven’t seen the movie yet. I really wanted to read the book first so I could picture the characters in my mind without the movie influencing me.

As for it being geared towards young adults, I found the storyline to be appealing and I am forty-years-old! My son is ten, and although Bella and Edward’s relationship is mostly innuendos, I do feel that it might be a bit much for a ten-year-old, unless that ten-year-old is more on the mature side.

Overall, it was thoroughly enjoyable and I cannot wait to read New Moon.

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