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| List Price: $22.99
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Release Date: 2008-08-02
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| So frustrating!I am an avid and, for the most part, uncritical, reader. I enjoy books for what they are. I decided to read Twilight knowing that it was a teen vampire romance novel. (I am a high school history teacher and I kept confiscating so many of the books during class that I figured they must be pretty good.) So although I found Bella rather whiney and annoying (I'm personally not much of a romantic either, so that factored in), some of the other characters extremely flat - I mean, yes, I get it that Charlie is a small-town sheriff who can't possibly understand Bella's angst, but does he really just watch "the game" every night? - and the writing sophomoric, the story itself was compelling and I was really interested in what happened next.
Then came New Moon. OH MY LORD! I don't know how many times I had to restrain myself from throwing the book across the room! Just shut up about the "pain" - if I never see that word in print again it will be too soon! I managed to plow through it and get to Eclipse. By that time I was almost completely disgusted with the anti-feminist nature of the book and virtually every, single female character. I read it the way people drive by car wrecks - I didn't want to but I couldn't help it. And then I got to Breaking Dawn.......
During a screening of Gone With the Wind - my all time favorite book and movie - a Civil War historian said that Scarlett's costumes were so awful that the Paris designers should retire to a cave for prayer and fasting. That is exactly what poor, poor J.K. Rowling should do until people stop comparing the utter drivel that makes up these four books to her Harry Potter series. I won't bother to restate all the awful things that other reviews have discussed here - breaking her own canon, the awful writing, the insane plot that where nothing really happens anyway (which is so bizarre). It is just so frustrating to me that a series which started with such a compelling story - and could have been fascinating - turned into a a vampire version of the Stepford wives. I have three real problems with the books.
1. Every single female character in this book is completely defined by her relationships with men and/or her children. Not one of them has any other motivating factor for anything they do. (Maybe Alice and Bella's friendship - but that's it) Esme commits suicide because her baby dies, Rosealie's desire in life is to be the perfect hostess and mother in her perfect McMansion, Alice is placed in an institution (hers could have been the most interesting story but we never hear why), Bella moved to Forks so her mom can run off to be with her ball playing husband, Jessica wants to date Mike, even Victoria is motivated by revenge for the killing of her mate James. Good Lord! And don't even let me get started on the "wolf girls" and the whole imprinting concept. Or the fact that Bella's dad all but congratulates Jacob for forcing her to kiss him. Ick!! Ick!! Ick!! Don't any of these women have any kind of outside interests at all? What are they interested in? What do they do all day? I overlooked Bella's lack of interests or interesting qualities in the first book because I assumed (wrongly, obviously) that she would develop more as the series progressed.
2. Ms. Meyer never truly shows us just WHY Edward and Bella love each other so deeply. Yes, we all know that he is BEAUTIFUL and that she is adorably klutzy and smells amazing. So..., um, is that it? I mean, really? What do they like about each other? The only thing they ever talk about is their undying, everlasting, immortal love. Damn! You all are IMMORTAL - I'd find another topic of conversation or it's going to be a looooong millineum.
3. The writing is really not very good. In fact, it's trite and melodramatic. Again, I overlooked it in the first book - especially as this was a story of "no one understands us and our love" teen angst - assuming that it would improve as the series went on. IT GOT WORSE! Seriously - someone should create a drinking game based on these books. Every time someone growls, groans, cringes, makes a noise in the back of their throats, glares, dazzles, sparkles, everyone has to take a shot. Everyone at the party will be passed out in the floor before the end of the first chapter. Double shots everytime Bella falls down, mentions Edward's eyes, or how cold and smooth (but always BEAUTIFUL) his skin is.
This whole series is a waste of a great opening story/idea. I wish Ms. Meyer would give the whole thing to an author who can really write and see what happens then!!
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Similar Products:Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)
New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2)
Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
The Host: A Novel
Twilight Soundtrack
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Release Date: 2008-11-18
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
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| Success = Fortunate Circumstances + Elbow GreaseEveryone is interested in the recipe for success. So it's no wonder that the public is so enthralled by a book claiming that anyone with an IQ of 120 can become a nobel prize winner or industry titan as long as he is born at the right time and place and is willing to devote 10,000 hours of practice to refine his skills. Genius, it seems, is vastly overated, as evidenced by the inability of the world's smartest man to succeed in a material sense.
Gladwell selects some interesting anecdotes to support his thesis, including the Bill Gates story and the similar background of many founding partners in New York law firms, but some of his anecdotal evidence (like the relationship between ancestors working in rice paddies and success in mathematics) seems stretched beyond the plausible, falling prey to the very confirmation bias that he cautions against. Still, this book's ringing endorsement of the value of hard work and persistence is a much-needed clarion call for a country like ours, whose citizens often have an unrealistic sense of entitlement without the requisite sacrifice and hard work.
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