Thursday, April 24, 2008

Currently Reading - Audience Participation!

It's been a while since I've done a Currently Reading post, so here we go!!!

I just finished Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I LOVED it!!! It is my favorite book of the series so far, and I can't WAIT until the fourth installment (Breaking Dawn) comes out in August (just in time for my birthday, just in case you needed any ideas...)

I've now started The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I have heard amazing things about it from so many people - most of whom were shocked that I hadn't read it yet. I'm not terribly far into it, but so far I am enjoying it!!!

Here are the reviews for Eclipse and the Time Traveler's Wife.


From Publishers Weekly
The legions of readers who are hooked on the romantic struggles of Bella and the vampire Edward will ecstatically devour this third installment of the story begun in Twilight, but it's unlikely to win over any newcomers. Jake, the werewolf met in New Moon, pursues Bella with renewed vigilance. However, when repercussions from an episode in Twilight place Bella in the mortal danger that series fans have come to expect, Jake and Edward forge an uneasy alliance. The plot patterns have begun to show here, but Meyer's other strengths remain intact. The supernatural elements accentuate the ordinary human dramas of growing up. Jake and Edward's competition for Bella feels particularly authentic, especially in their apparent desire to best each other as much as to win Bella. Once again the author presents teenage love as an almost inhuman force: "[He] would have been my soul mate still," says Bella, "if his claim had not been overshadowed by something stronger, something so strong that it could not exist in a rational world." According to Meyer, the fourth book should tie up at least the Edward story, if not the whole shebang.


From Publishers Weekly
This clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with "Chrono Displacement" disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From his point of view, he first met his wife, Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she'd known him all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time travelling to Clare's childhood and meeting her as a 6-year-old. The book alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view, and so does the narration. Reed ably expresses the longing of the one always left behind, the frustrations of their unusual lifestyle, and above all, her overriding love for Henry. Likewise, Burns evokes the fear of a man who never knows where or when he'll turn up, and his gratitude at having Clare, whose love is his anchor.

So, what are YOU reading? Leave me a comment and let me know!!

5 comments:

Amanda said...

I am currently reading:

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

"Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in the honor of a powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening--until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage."

Alleigh said...

Passage to India by E.M. Forester

"Despite their countrymen's disapproval, Miss Quested, Mrs. Moore, and Mr. Fielding are all eager to meet Indians, and in Dr. Aziz they find a perfect companion: educated, westernized, and open-minded. Slowly, the friendships ripen, especially between Aziz and Fielding. Having created the possibility of esteem based on trust and mutual affection, Forster then subjects it to the crucible of racial hatred: during a visit to the famed Marabar caves, Miss Quested accuses Dr. Aziz of sexually assaulting her, then later recants during the frenzied trial that follows. Under such circumstances, affection proves to be a very fragile commodity indeed.

Arguably Forster's greatest novel, A Passage to India limns a troubling portrait of colonialism at its worst, and is remarkable for the complexity of its characters. Here the personal becomes the political and in the breach between Aziz and his English "friends," Forster foreshadows the eventual end of the Raj. "

E. McGrew said...

Just finishing The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst.

It's a spy novel/love story set in pre-WWII France and Germany. Really good quick read.

Carrie said...

Okay, I will admit to just starting Twilight. My little goth princess daughter loved it years ago, but it wasn't until all my other friends read it recently and started insisting that I read it that I finally picked it up. Am enjoying it so far, but the irony of my life is that I tend to only have time to read the first book in any given series. I am a middle school librarian - I cannot possibly keep up with all of the series and still read 'real' adult books too!

Rhonda said...

The Next Thing on My List....since you've already read it I won't include the brief summary.