join now| sign in| help
Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:

Request Friendship
Send Request Cancel

missjulie

missjulie

I'm a graphic designer in Michigan, I got my degree from Wayne State University. I got married in April 2008 and never looked back ;D

When I'm not reading (which is rarely) I'm usually on the computer or knitting. But thats a lie, because when I knit I listen to audio books. My public library has a vast store of them!... more »
  • MI, USA
  • member since June 24 2008

Reviews

  • Sort by:
 
  • 1984
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Keep in mind the context of the books release (1948) and it makes more sense. Very intriguing but also a total and gross rip off of Ayn Rand's 'Anthem'. Its for sure an important read however. ”

    missjulie wrote this review Thursday, August 21 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • Breaking Dawn
    • Rated 3 stars

    “As grossly anticipated as this book was I am downright disappointed in Twilight fans. It seems their unyielding faith is limited to the first three books in the series. In their defense, this fourth and final volume was like being blindsided by a semi-truck. But a semi-truck full of sweet, succulent candy and the cutest, most adorable puppies you’ve ever seen.

    First I’ll start off by saying what I can without ruining the book for stragglers who haven’t finished it yet. (BTW: It took me an agonizing 14 hours to read. My damn eyes just would not stay open at around 5AM, so I had to call it a morning and take a nap. That’s right, I stood in line for the book at 12:01 AM EST on August 2nd.)

    Back to the book… Breaking Dawn was not like the other three books. But at the same time it was exactly the same. Fans of the series have to remember that Stephenie Meyer wrote Twilight for herself. She didn’t write it with thousands of screaming fans in mind. So with that said, she didn’t write Breaking Dawn with those fans in mind either. I am grateful that she didn’t write to appease the masses as it would have sorely dampened the books integrity. At the same time there were things I knew she couldn’t allow to happen, only because she’s just as much in love with Edward and Bella as the rest of us.

    Breaking Dawn is probably Stephenie Meyer’s best book so far. You can tell she has developed as an author overall considering she’s had no “formal” training. Some people look down their noses at that fact but I find it refreshingly revolutionary. Meyer has told us from the beginning that she wrote Chapter 13 of Twilight, then filled in the first and last halves of the book later. She has shed new light into the dark, dark corner called the world of being a writer.

    Its an insightful way to write a book–from the inside out. Meyer lets the words flow out of her, rather than forcing them onto the page. She still keeps us turning the pages awaiting the next rather than just plowing through it to reach the end. Although I think she might be in need of a different editor who isn’t quite so attached to the characters. 756 pages is a lot for any book. Just because JK Rowling did it doesn’t mean you have to do it too.

    Onto the more interesting half of the review.[/a] If you want to be shocked and surprised with Breaking Dawn stop now and finish reading it.

    http://shinyshiny.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/breaking-dawn-review/#more-49”

    missjulie wrote this review Thursday, August 14 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • Twilight
    • Rated 4 stars

    “Maybe you’ve heard of this? The Twilight Saga? A series of vampire/romance/comedy/drama books from the small publisher Little, Brown Books? If you haven’t heard of Stephenie Meyer’s new chart topping series you probably live under a rock. A moldy rock.

    After the seventh and final Harry Potter book broke the shelves of bookstores worldwide (literally, the thing weighs at least 3lbs.) I wondered if there would ever be another set of books that could hold my attention like J.K. Rowling had managed. I was pleasantly surprised when a friend recommended the book, saying that it was pretty good for a young adult vampire romance. I had my doubts, plenty of them. I’d read a lot of trashy books, so I expected this to be just as bad. Plus there was a movie coming out in December. The last time I saw a book made into a movie was Eragon. I’ll go no further with that story, because if you’ve seen it you know. And if you haven’t seen it, don’t waste your time.

    I was convinced this would be a terrible book, Stephenie Meyer had never seen an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel, had only read the most basic and classic of vampire novels and was so unfamiliar with vampire movies it made a fourth grader look more knowledgeable. I’m using such insulting comments because I want you to understand my full meaning when I say that this book drowned out every single doubt I had by page 50. I distinctly remember turning to my husband with a wide grin saying, “This is going to be good…” Two days later I was done, eager for more. I finished all three books in a record 6 days.

    The plot is plain enough, a girl falls in love with a vampire. Sounds almost too easy right? Its not the plot that sets Meyer’s epic saga above the rest of the literary world, its her writing. She herself has said her writing method isn’t really a method, she simply lets the characters tell their story. Meyer’s novel isn’t about vampires, its about looking for love and being human, of all things. Though one of the main characters, Edward, is indeed a vampire, there’s not much to suggest he’s anything but human at heart (pun intended). The book speaks to our most basic principles of humanity, the fear of getting old, the fear of being alone and the exhilaration of first love, the excitement of being chaste.

    Wait, excitement of being chaste? Yep. Meyer manages to keep these books more PG than Harry Potter, but at the same time there is more sex in the Twilight series than Harry Potter too. She never once crosses that line. But she gets our hearts racing all the same. She spares no white space either, when she can write an entire page about one kiss, she will. And she does it really well.

    Its hard to believe this stay-at-home mom had never written anything before Twilight. Hard to believe she had this much inside her for so long. Its no wonder she burst out three novels in as many years for the Twilight Saga. In addition to another adult science fiction novel ‘The Host’ earlier this year, the fourth and final book of the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, is due to take bookstores by storm August 2nd. Her ability to pump out books puts J. K. Rowling to shame, who took an arduous two years to spit out the last book of Harry Potter, and it wasn’t that good. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the series as much as I love Twilight. I read Deathly Hallows in 36 hours, but I set the book down and went “Hm. Well… that was nice.”

    To further my point, when Eclipse, the third book in the series, was released two and a half short weeks after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows it knocked Harry off the top spot in the New York Times Bestsellers list. The books combined have spent an amazing 143 weeks on the Best Sellers list, and the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, is already #2 on Amazon’s best selling list, and it’s not even out yet. [At time of review]

    You shouldn’t read the book because of this, because it’s one of the most popular books on the market, but because it almost screams to be read. You will be hooked by the third chapter, I guarantee it.

    Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse are already on shelves. Breaking Dawn will be released on August 2nd, to a much anticipating crowd. The movie, Twilight, is due in theaters December 12.”

    missjulie wrote this review Thursday, August 7 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • Peeps
    • Rated 4 stars

    ““I lost my virginity to the apocalypse!”

    Scott Westerfeld’s Peeps is another great off the wall vampire novel. A far cry from Anne Rice’s sultry, albeit long, stories about vampires, Westerfeld takes the classic vampire and pretty much rips it apart. In Peeps vampires are more like people with a nasty case of syphilis than sexy indestructible gods. Being a vampire means being infected with a parasite that craves circulation above all else. Drinking blood is kind of a… side effect of the parasite. The parasites main goal is to spread, through biting, sex or any other exchange of bodily fluids.

    Aside from being about vampires and STDs, Peeps is first and foremost about parasites. Every other chapter gives us some disgusting insight into a different real world parasite like toxoplasma gondi, of which every cat owner on the planet probably has. Its the reason pregnant women can’t clean out the litter box. Cats play an important role in the book too, but so do rats, so that’s not saying much.

    Don’t worry, the parasitic chapters don’t read like a text book or Wiki entry, Westerfeld makes it feel like the main character is just telling us about the parasite, conversationally. Like we’re hanging out on the subway chatting about lice and screwflies. They aren’t just there for shock value either, these parasite chapters are more important than you might think. They give us some insight into the main plot of the book, which is essentially about the parasites. Some are good, some are bad, some fight with each other inside your colon.

    In the beginning it seems like it really is just another vampire novel, but after a few odd chapters about different parasites that live on your body (or in it) you start to realize there’s something else going on here. The parasite chapters are almost more insightful than the actual story. Each time he talks about a new parasite a new characteristic of the vampire parasite is revealed, until finally, we actually get what the hell is going on.

    Westerfeld makes reading about parasites interesting, and hey, any author who can accomplish that is good enough in my book. The book is fairly short and reads quickly too. Even if vampires aren’t your thing, you might learn something new about a menacing parasite that can set up shop in your leg, where Crohn’s disease comes from and how wasps saved an entire populace.”

    missjulie wrote this review Thursday, August 7 2008. ( reply | permalink )

Missing a review?



© 2006-2009 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close