My Favorite New Song...

I love this song. It is so mellow and it puts me on a beach with my love. There are a ton of great songs out right now. Believe me...the money spent to update my iPod this past weekend was nothing small. But this song can elevate my mood no matter how sad I am and no matter how happy I already am. It feels like a soul cleanse to me when I hear it. It is perfect! I hope you enjoy it!

She Did It...

This pains me to say. It is like giving a doctor permission to cut off your infected leg. So, I will rip this band aid off as quickly as I can.

I now move Dean Koontz down a notch on my top favorite authors list. He takes the number 2 spot and is being replaced by Stephenie Meyer. I am sorry Mr. Koontz. You know I love you and always will but, Stephenie has captured something in my heart that is so lasting that it transcends all else...even my un-dying devotion to you!

I finished The Host last week...it seems so long ago that I can't even remember which day it was. If I believed in spells, I would think that she managed to cast a spell on all of her writing so that, as a person read her words, they would suddenly find themselves spell-bound. That is the only way I can explain how I feel about all that Stephenie Meyer has written. As much as I have a hard time letting go of the characters in her books, and moving on to read about someone else in another book whose adventures are sure to grip me, I struggle to even put Stephenie Meyer's books in my bookshelf. And, I mean that literally. After each of her 4 books that I finished reading, I couldn't force myself, before I was ready, to pick the book back up and put it in my bookshelf in my library. I wanted it around me. I was sad when those books were done. And, to have them around me seemed to comfort me somehow. So, each one would sit for about 5 or 6 days after I finished reading them, on my couch, next to where I like to park it for the evening. The characters in Stephenie Meyer's books feel like relatives or lovers to me. They feel like people that I depend on, who depend on me. I depend on them to get through their dangers unscathed, and they depend of me to get them through their dangers in a timely fashion.

The Host was just another example of Stephenie Meyer's genius! She has such a gift for weaving romance and danger into a perfect marriage that keeps me glued to her every word. I cried and laughed. I mourned and grew elated! There is no one that has gripped me so intensely through their writing. I can usually just move on. The characters in the books that I have read in the past have brought about emotion, devotion and concern but, not like the characters Stephenie Meyer writes to life. They stick in my head and in my heart and I think of them throughout my days. I hope for more from The Host. I don't see how Stephenie could carry that story further but, I would love to see how, should she decide that she can't let those characters go any better than I can.

She is truly a gem as far as authors go. He writing is beautiful, shiny, eye-catching, polished and priceless.

The Hotness!!!!!

I love this song! I love the video! They are still one with the hotness and, like a fine wine, they have only gotten tastier!

Separation Anxiety

Wow! So, here I am about 5 or 6 days done with the 3rd book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, Eclipse and I am still missing Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. I know! I am such a weirdo! I don't understand it but, I am so smitten with their story! Breaking Dawn, the 4th and final book in the Twilight series as told from Bella Swan's perspective is due in bookstores August 2nd and, I can't wait. It seems like forever from now. I really am experiencing separation anxiety.

But, enough of that! Let me tell you some of my thoughts on Eclipse. It is, thus far, my favorite of the Twilight series. It was compelling, as usual. Dramatic! Exciting! Blood pumping! Maddening! Romantic! Sad! And funny! You all know by now that my two criteria for a good book are laughter and tears. If the author can both make me laugh and cry inside of the pages of one book, it will automatically rest in my mind as a great read. Stephenie Meyer surpassed that. She not only made me laugh and cry, she did it a lot in Eclipse! There was a part in the book where she had me giggling, chuckling and actually stopping to laugh out loud before I could resume reading, for a few pages in a row. This was pretty impressive because, this book is not a comedy. But, she managed to add brevity to it in such an admirable way! Just when you are feeling the full weight of the danger and heart of this story, Stephenie Meyer gives you a much needed break and lets you breath a little freely, before she tears and plucks at your anxieties and at your heart strings all over again. And, a few chapters later, she had me in tears! She made me gleeful and outraged! If I could have slapped Bella at one point, I would have. But, in a few pages, I forgave Bella for her stupidity as easily as Edward did, and I fell harder for Edward than I had already fallen for him in the previous pages and chapters of this series.

There has never been an author that has invoked so much adoration, dedication and love for one character as Stephenie Meyer has brought out of me for Edward. I have never, at the same time, felt with my heart for another character like I feel for Bella. She can make me hurt for her as much as she can make me want to ring her stupid little neck!

And, Stephenie Meyer brings out the same feelings for Jacob. How can she make me mourn for him, feel broken hearted for him, be giddy with delight and despise him at the same exact time? And, I do mean at the same time! When he got what he had been wanting from Bella for so long, I was happy for him, sad for Edward and infuriated at both him and Bella for letting it happen. And, I wanted to slam that door shut and pretend like it had never been opened! And now, as I wait for the final chapter of their story in Breaking Dawn to come out in 54 days, I worry for Edward and what this new open door might do to his relationship with Bella. I hate the anticipation! I hate the anxiety I feel for what could happen and hope for what should happen. And, that is why I titled this post Separation Anxiety. I feel like I lost my best friends. And, I know that the story is not over yet. I know that we are under 2 months from the release of Breaking Dawn but, not reading about Bella, Edward and, yes...even Jacob, has me missing them like I would miss my hubby were he gone for 2 months.

But, to brighten my gloomy feeling of isolation, I found out some very exciting news! The first bit is that Stephenie Meyer has been slowly working on Midnight Sun which is Edward Cullen's version of Twilight. All of the series, thus far, has been written through Bella's perspective. Stephenie Meyer has been working on showing us this epic story through Edward's perspective and I can't wait! I know that it is likely very far from finished but, the thought that it will happen keeps me content!

And, the next best thing is that Twilight the movie will be released in theaters nationwide, if not worldwide, December 12, 2008! Magnificent! I always try to imagine what a book would look like in the theater and, my imagination will become reality...well, not mine so much as whomever produced the movie...in December!

This Would Not Have Been Acceptable...

when I was a kid! There would have been no way that I would have been allowed to argue with my parents like this and I would never have gotten away with slapping my Mom. Not that they were tyrants! But, I knew my place and I had the fear of God and I respected my parents enough to know better than to act like this! She exercised surprising restraint! That kid would have been begging for his life if he were mine!

2 for 1

I am going to do something I rarely do. I am going to critique two books in one blog entry. They are 2 of a 3 and soon to be 4 book series by Stephenie Meyer. It is the first time I've read anything written by her and, I am a fan!

The books are Twilight and New Moon and they are fantastic. I am reading them like I drink my coffee in the morning...quickly and thirstily. I can't get enough of them. The main characters are Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. Edward is a vampire and Bella is his unlikely desire. As much as he thirsts for her, he loves her more and fights the urge to unleash his nature on her. Her blood is his "brand" which makes it harder than normal to fight his urges to feast on her but, given that he has spent his entire life not feasting on humans and hunting for wild animals in an effort to live his life, or undeath, as good as he can, he has had some practice with refraining from unleashing his natural instincts on humanity.

Bella is a dangerous girl. She is clumsy and seems to attract trouble. But, she means well and Edward can't resist her.

Stephenie Meyer has a way of drawing one into her characters so well that it leaves you smitten with Edward. And, I do mean smitten. I find myself missing Edward when he isn't around Bella. I get anxious and excited when they get close. I never wanted two characters in a book to kiss one another as bad as I wanted Bella and Edward to kiss. And, each miss drove me nearly bonkers! The tension between Bella and Edward is so thick that even the best, strongest and sharpest Santoku knives are neither sharp nor strong enough to cut that tension.

While Twilight had me remembering what it was like to first fall for someone, New Moon had me racing through it waiting until Bella and Edward would see one another again. I grew frustrated with my inability to read faster at the penultimate moment!

So, having finished those first two, I have begun the 3rd book in the series titled Eclipse and, it already has me worried and anxious for what trouble lies ahead for Bella and Edward. They are a modern day Romeo & Juliet and you never know from page one to page 629 whether Bella and Edward can make it through the trials and tribulations of a Vampire meets Human relationship.

The 4th book in the the series, which I mentioned earlier, is Breaking Dawn and it is set for release August 2nd. I almost want to slow down and read Eclipse as slowly as possible so that I won't have to wait so long, or it won't seem so long, until Breaking Dawn is released. But, knowing how captivation Stephenie Meyer makes these two characters, I will, no doubt, fail at my attempt to savor instead of devour Eclipse.