The first thing it said was of course saying that she was the author of Twilight.  I had no problem with that because obviously it is true.  Plus I know that I read The Host because I enjoyed Meyers writing.

The part that bothered me was they described the book as “A truly unexpected love story.”   I would never describe the book that way.   There was a slight love story involved but it was in no way a focus of the story.   It would be like saying Twilight is a fight movie because there is some fight scenes. 

What they should have said was “A truly unexpected story of humanity.”   That is what the book was about.  The basic premise was that an alien race has taken over to make the world peaceful but there is still some rogue humans.  When Melanie, a human, is taken over by Wanderer, she refuse to give in.  I guess there is some love involved because Melanie’s memories of the man she loves set the story in motion but it becomes such a minor storyline.

I absolutely loved this book.   It is by far one of my favorite books of all time.  It told such a beautiful and powerful story of how amazing humans can be.  I actually started crying at the end because it was so powerful.  It was a unique story line.  It had elements of sci-fi that were very interesting.  The space stuff I loved because in case anyone didn’t already know this, I’m obsessed with everything star and space related. 

I would highly recommend this book to everyone, male or female.

First off, I find it very interesting that PC and Kirstin are a mother/daughter writing team.  Is there any other writing teams like that?  It was disappointing to read that PC did the entire first draft then Kirstin was more of just an editor.  Every interview I’ve read, that is how they say their writing process goes.  When they are here, I want to try to remember to ask how much say Kirstin has in where the series goes.  I get that she puts a youthful spin on things, but has she also changed the plot or made suggestions to her mom before PC writes out the first draft?

As for the series itself, I’m not completely sold on it right now.  It is weird because I do want to read more.  I find it interesting and I want to know what happens with the characters. I think I’m not into it yet because I haven’t found a favorite character.  There is characters I like, Aphrodite for example, but I have yet to really relate to one.  With Vampire Diaries, I love Damian.  In the Sookie Stackhouse novels, I love Sookies, and Eric, and Pam, and Sam, and Alcide…okay kind of everyone except Bill.  In the Twilight saga I loved most the Cullens. Edward was the exception to that.  In the Vegas Vampire book by Erin McCarthy, I loved every character.  Gwenna was my favorite because she reminded me of myself.  But with the House of Night novels, I just can’t find a character I’m really into.  I hope as I write books, people will love my characters.  I know I really love to the two main characters in the book I have finish and am editing.

One thing I like a lot about the House of Night novels is the way they pull together their own mythology about vampires and real Native American beliefs in general.  The prayers and nature ties are interesting.  I think it is a really cool spin on fantasy novels.  I just started reading Moon Called by Patricia Briggs and realized almost immediately, it is going to be a similar meeting of made of supernatural myths and real life Native ones.  Oh and why  did no one tell me sooner that all the Mercy Thompson books took place in Finley, Washington?  I have actually driven past there many times. 

Overall, I did enjoy reading Marked and Betrayed.  I’m sure in the next month or so I will get completely caught up with the series.  I’ll try to write a blog about seeing PC and Kirstin in a few days  and then another one when I’m done with the series.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is spot on.  That is the best way I can think to describe this novel.  That exact phrase entered my head as I finished the last sentence.  Everything about it, from the writing styles to the characters to the theme, is done exactly right.  To be overly cliche, I thought this book was done perfectly.

The writing style is very interesting because obviously there is two authors.  Rather then write together, they each took on a Will Grayson and told the story for their perspective.  Green’s intellectual but still young style of writing is what made me fall in love with his books so I was happy to see his section having that same style.  Having not read anything by Levithan, I’m not sure if he using the same style all the time or not but honestly, at first it threw me off.  There is a huge lack of capitalization, grammar, and dialog is done in a play fashion.  After a chapter or so, I got used to it though and ended up really liking it.  Because his character was supposed to have depression problem, I guess it kind of made sense to me that his thought process would be completely different so how he narrates should be as well.  Plus, the two styles made it very easy not to get lost between the two characters.

Speaking of characters, the interesting this about this novel is that even though the two Will Grayson are the narrators, the main character, to a point is Tiny.  All three characters go through personal challenges.  Furthermore, this is probably one of the first books I have read that the main character (or in this case two of the three main characters) are homosexual.  For the tags I had seen on websites about the book, I knew that this was going to be the case.  It was interesting to have one character be completely open and the other go through coming out.  Plus it is cool to see authors pushing the boundary on coming up with characters.  I think that a lot of authors, even if they have characters that are completely different, end up always having them in similar relationships.  Like when someone writes boy meets girls, they kind of stick to that in most their books.  Variety is good.  Plus, in today’s society of same sex rights still not existing in some places, it is awesome to see popular authors pushing the bounds.  Hopefully it opens some people’s eyes.

One thing that I found particularly clever about this book is how the play and it’s theme parrallels the theme of the book.  At the same time Tiny’s realizes he has to change the focal point of the play, I realized that this book is about more than the characters.  Green and Levithan were not trying to tell the story of Tiny or the story of the two Will Graysons.  They were using them to tell a greater story.

Again, I have to say this book is spot on.  It lived up to all the great reviews I have heard about it so far and I have no doubt they will keep coming.  I have a feeling Green and Levithan have lots of awards coming their way soon.  They deserve every one of them.

+++++++Contains a some spoilers for the Sookies Stackhouse novels+++++++++

****Seriously, I’m not trying to ruin anything.  Read the books before reading this****

          I’ve always been the kind of person that once I start a series of books I like, I tend to read them straight through.  The Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith certainly has me hooked right now.  Insert cheesy vampire reference about biting in to the series here.

          In the first book, The Awakening, we are introduced to the love story between the vampire Stefan and the high spirited Elena.  The Struggle introduces the third part of the love triangle, Stefan’s brother Damon.  In The Fury an unknown threat looms over the city.

          The fourth book, Dark Reunion stands out against the other three for me.  The main storyline is that yet again, there is an unknown treat looming over the city.  The huge different between the other books and this one is that the main character completely shifts.  In the first three, Elena is the center of the story even though it is an omniscient third person point of view.  Dark Reunion shifts to being focused on Bonnie who is one of Elena’s best friends.

         The shift is natural when you read in within the series.  The Fury ends with Bonnie writing in Elena’s journal which sets up for her to take over in the fourth book.  Since we are still gettings lots of different people’s view, the story is still told similar to the others. 

          I found this shift is the center character interesting because I really can’t think of another series that did the same thing.  If anyone else knows of one, let me know.  Harry Potter books all centered around Harry.  The Twilight Saga centered around Bella although I guess the last book did have a huge shift in perspective.  Hmmm.  Maybe that idea came from The Vampire Diaries since they were written almost 20 years ago.  I’m not being serious about that last one.  I think that lots of idea in books overlap and a lot of times, it isn’t intentional.  I know that when I wrote 60 or so pages about a girl and Greek gods, I had absolutely no clue that Percy Jackson was out there with the exact same concept.

          Sorry, I’m getting off point.  Sometimes a series is all told from different people, like the Vegas Vampire books by Erin McCarthy are each centered around a different person even though the same characters are present.  Wasn’t the Babysitters Club books written that way too? 

          Like I already said, in the series, this shift worked.  LJ Smith was taking a risk getting rid of the character she had attached her readers to but it definitely worked.  This made me think though, how will that work for the tv show?  I still haven’t watched it.  I fully intend to buy the dvd when it comes out so when that happens, I’ll blog again with comparisons.  I don’t know how close the book and the show are but I have a feeling that even if they are close now, they will not follow the story line of moving Elena out of the way.  It just wouldn’t work as well on tv. At least I don’t think it would.  It is kind of like how New Moon the movie had to find a way to put more Robert Pattinson in because fans are so obsessed with him.

          Guess we will have to wait and see if Vampire Diaries makes it that far on tv.  Kind of like we have to wait and see what True Blood does with Bill.  After the first few books Bill fades out to a minor character and Eric becomes more prominent.  I hope so much that True Blood sticks with the books.  Eric’s character is so much more interesting and funny and charming.  So far on the tv show they have showed a little of that but I want more.  Plus this season I am excited to see Alcide. 

         Hmm, maybe I see why people always associate me with being vampire obsessed, lol. I hate when people say that but I guess it is kind of true.  I think I’ve always loved supernatural books.  Then of course I got hooked on Buffy and Angel.  Oh Angel.  And Spike.  Okay, I’m going to stop typing now since I’m going off on too many tangents.

Alright, now that I’ve said that, I was so excited this week to actually see Chelsea live.  Guy Branum opened and he was just as funny as on tv.  I would have liked to hear more Twilight jokes but that is okay. His hipsters ones cracked me up.

Of course the highlight of the night was Chelsea’s set.  Do you call them sets in comedy? I don’t know.  Anyways, from start to finish I was cracking up.  My favorite parts were when she talked about her dog Chuck.   I was a little scared she was going to do a bunch of stories from the book so I would already know them all but she only did a couple.  Her saying that the reason she broke up with her boyfriend was that he said he was going to give Chuck Alpo dog food was so funny.  Yes, she talked about the Alpo in this book too but her phrasing it so it sounded like she was a mother deciding to take her child out of an abusive relationship was hilarious. 

So yeah, I had a great time.  I suggest anyone else that gets a chance, go see her.  Hopefully one day I will go to the actual show.  Do I hear a Cali trip coming?  I miss Long Beach. Oops, getting off subject.  If you haven’t read Chelsea Handler’s books, I highly suggest checking them out.

   Well finally I caved and decided to read The Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith.  I used a date a guy that made fun of me so bad saying that I would love the show.  Note, I never watched it.  I forget what it ran the same time as but I had something else I loved to watch.  Plus I didn’t want him to be right.  He did admit to watching and liking it though.  Anyways, the book caught my attention the other day and honestly, once I started, I couldn’t put it down.

          As stories go, it wasn’t anything groundbreaking.  Vampire love triangle.  Hmm, seen that in lots of books.  Personally, I was a fan of the Eric, Bill, Sookie one (team Eric).  The flashback’s in Smith’s book are an interesting way of setting up the story. 

          So far I have only read The Awakening.  It was basically a lot of set up for the other stories from what I can tell.  We get some story on all the main characters and it sets up some town drama.  It got me hooked so I can’t wait to start the next part of the series.

          The Awakening reminded me of The Immortal Series by Alyson Noel.  You’ve got the new kid that is dark, mysterious a from Italy.  Someone like him followed him.  Actually come to think about it, in the third Immortal book, Shadowland, a sort of brother like character shows up and trys to steal the girl.  The main character is a girl that is super pretty.  Popular in one case but not in another.  Noel’s series is more original though in my opinion.  I absolutely love her books and can’t wait for Dark Flame.

          As for the tv series, I am currently trying to find the episodes online.  If someone knows where to find them, let me know.  I only see the latest four.  If I’m going to watch them, I want to start from the beginning.  Once I watch, I’ll try to do some comparing stuff. 

          So, what is your favorite vampire book? 

          First, I would like to start by saying Niffenegger is an absolutely talented writer.  If you have read either books (I unfortunately have only read The Time Traveler’s Wife as this point but the other book is in my to read soon pile) you can easily see that fact.  With TTTW I was very fascinated with her ability to give the perspective of two completely different characters and to weave them together.  Beyond that, the concept of the story is very unique.  I enjoyed that she took something straight out of a science fiction novel and turned it into a completely different genre.

          After the reading a lot of people asked questions about her writing process and getting published.  Those were the two things I was most curious about as well.  As a writer, a lot of  her answers gave me more confidence in my own work.  For example, someone asked her about if she will ever write sequels.  Her answer, which cracked me up, was that if you see her writing The Time Traveler’s Daughter it means she made very bad investments.  She also went on to say when she is writing novels, the characters are constantly in her head.  They are talking, interacting, so on.  When the story is done they just go away.  My characters are for sure in my head all the time.  Especially during the first draft, I would hear things happening with them and could not wait to sit down and write it out.  Now they have faded out a lot since I’m refining things but they are still there.  Guess I’m not going crazy.

          The other very interesting thing she talked about was the process of actually getting published.  She basically sent letters out to everyone possible, got rejected a lot, then had one publisher and one agent respond.  First off, the fact that a book as amazing as TTTW got rejected so much will be something to help keep my head high if I get rejected a lot too.  It happens.  It takes time to get the perfect fit for your book.   The other thing it helped me understand was that it was okay to go about things your own way.  I have always been an against the grain type of person.  When someone told me I couldn’t play a hard song on guitar without learning chords, I did it just fine.  When I go to concerts where everyone is in black tees and jeans it seems like, I rock a pink dress. That is just who I am.  Thinking about getting published makes me nervous because if you read online or in books, it makes it sound like you have to do everything perfectly and by the book or it isn’t going to happen.  Well Niffenegger proved that wrong.  I’m not saying that I will follow what she did (although I’m also not saying I wouldn’t) but it is good to know that I can do it my way and that might work out.

          Overall, I am extremely happy that I went to see Niffenegger talk.  In person, she is brillant but in a quirky way that made me really look up to her.  I look forward to see what is coming next from her.

          At first I thought, who on earth would do that?  Sure, some people do but how could it me that many.  I started to think that I was one of the 10% then actually realized that wasn’t true.  Let me confess, here and now, I often copied other people’s math homework right before class.

          Shameful, I know.

          To defend myself a little, the ironic part was I always did well on the test.  The person who I cheated off of for homework, cheated off me for test.  Plus, I never cheated in college.  That degree is one hundred percent mine.  I think that was maybe the big difference for me.  High school was something that you absolutely had to do.  College was a choice I made so I felt a drive to do it well. 

          Another thing this book has made me think about so far is where I fitted in on the Overachiever vs Slacker scale while I was in school.  My high school was definately very different than the one described in the book.  The first school I went to consisted of a large numbr of kids that knew they would go to college at BYU, go on a mission, or get married right away.  As a freshman, I took AP classes but the stress of high grades didn’t come through yet.

          The last three years I attended a fairly small high school.  I think there was maybe 200 people tops in my graduating class.  Because the school was small, there was not a huge range of classes.  There was only a handful of AP classes.  I think I took the only science one available and all the english ones.  Grade wise I got mostly A’s.  A few B’s and gasp, a C in advance math which I dropped the following semester.  On my SATs I got 1280 (I have no clue how I actually remember that since I never actually needed it since I transfered into college).  I was editor of the school news paper and on dance team.  I also had a part time job.  Wow, I honestly never realized how much I did until I wrote it down just now.  I definately felt like I floated through school.  Looking back, I guess I was an overachiever.

          College I think I was an overahiever in some places but not in others.  I got nearly straight As.  My GPA would have been better if there wasn’t a huge problem with being in the wrong math class.  Two seperate advisors put me in a particular class. I strugged to no end.  I ended up failing once and dropping out half way a second time.  The third time I talked to someone I found out that all along I was in a class meant for engineering majors, not english.  I was extremely mad but at least aced the real class I needed.  Spanish was the other class I slipped down to a B a few semesters. Besides that I worked my ass off to me the top of all my classes. 

          Were you an overachiever in school?  Did you ever cheat?

          So I’ll admit, the first few Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris did not really catch my attention.  The first two books I thought were okay but they did not stand out to me.  I found them entertaining but I thought the television series was doing a better job at really filling out the story.  Obviously, the show varied a lot from the books but it did it in a way that stayed true to them.  Does that make sense? Anyways, I ended up deciding to pick up Club Dead as a fast read.  I am now completely hooked on the series!

          Club Dead really picked up for me because there was more than here is Sookie and Bill and here is a problem happening.  It made it, here is Sookie and Bill is gone but Eric is there and another guy and Sookie has tons of stuff to deal with.  I absolutely love what a strong character she become in this book.  She basically kicks ass.  Plus I think Harris really caught on to Sookie’s voice in this novel.  It came alive more than the previous books in my mind.

          The next book, Dead to the World was actually my favorite in the series so far.  Hate to spoil this to all the Bill fans out there, but he’s out and Eric is in (at least for this book) and I absolutely love it.  Pam also starts to have more personality in this book.  This book was funny, sexy, and a story that I could barely rip myself away from.  Now I’m only two books (plus the short stories) away from being completely up to day.  I’m actually quite sad about that.  I want more!

          Besides the books,  I can’t wait for more True Blood. I liked both seasons so far (yes even the crazy Greek stuff in season two) so am interested to see if it will follow the book.  If so, I think the book is going to get better and better.  Before I wrote this, I decide to see if I could figure out where season three was going.  Let’s just say, big question mark at this point.

          I tried not to read too much since I don’t want to spoil the season for myself.  I have never been one to read television spoilers.  The anticipation of watching it each week is better.  I found two sites that said a little bit and interestingly enough, the said complete opposite things.  First was IMDB.  It has episode one listed as “Pack of Wolves”.  There is two other titles for episodes listed two but it has no details on any of them.  This makes me super exicited because Club Dead introduces us to the super sexy werewolf Alcide.  He sticks around for more of the books too.  Plus, who doesn’t love a werewolf/vampire/girl with weird mind power love triangle?  Sorry, I had to referred to Twilight at least a little.  I bet you anything that people will say True Blood is copying Twilight even though Club Dead was out years before Twilight.  

          Personally, I really hope this is the way that the story goes.  It makes sense with the ending of last season, if I remember right.  Could Bill have suddenly disappeared because of A) vamps trying to get his computer disk, B) Lorena calling him, or C) the Queen showed up?   All of these (well minus A, since we don’t know about his computer stuff yet) would fit with the last season plus the book.  Plus didn’t I hear rumors about Evan Rachel Woods showing up more in season three.  Sidenote to anyone that has read the books, how perfect is she for that role?

          I also found a site that listed news about a girl being cast as Crystal.  This makes me super hopeful for the show following the books.  She doesn’t actually show up until Dead to the World but she is definately a big(ish) character. She is a character that is meant to be disliked but not exacted hated. I think seeing her on screen will be funny.  Maybe the show is going to roll two books into one season. I’d be okay with that because I can’t wait for more Eric! Plus that would make Quinn show up sooner too. He is going to be someone super hot, obviously.         

          Another site I found that I can’t remember the name of listed episode one as “Mine”.  It then gave really long details on every little thing that happens in this episode.  I scanned through it (again, not wanting to ruin it for myself) and found that it was giving a completely different story than Club Dead.  There was something about other vamps trying to take Sookie and Bill saying “She mine.” There was a lot of stuff on Layfette and Tara.  Layfette is not in the books at all so it would seem if they are focusing on him that they are getting even further from the books. 

          Only time will tell I guess.  What do you think will happen in season three?  Have you read the books?

          This book caught my attention when it first came out and one of my best friends, who had just joined a sorority bought it. She said I could read it after her but I completely forgot to ever ask her about it. Years later I found it at Powell’s while looking for something else and of course got it. Over the course of three days I could barely tear myself away from the story of four sorority girls interlaced with facts on the history of the greek societies.

          The way Robbin’s composed this book was completely brillant. The facts are very interesting but a book with only facts would not have been all that interesting. To bring everything to life, she followed the lives of four girls on a particular campus. The chapters trade off between the girls, each with interesting lives and views on the sorority that keep the reading turning the page to see what happens next. The girls reveal so much of themselves. As Robbin’s clearly stated in the novel, she choose four girls that would fall under the category of completely normal. These are girls that are extremely easy to relate to and you end up caring about each one.

          Robbin’s also delieves the facts in a way that does not really show an opinion. Robbin’s journalism roots definately show. Not only are there facts, but there are also examples from more real people so we get a better looks at things from those closest to the issues. Some of these girls reappear in many chapters, making them interesting to the reader as well.

          Towards the very end, Robbin’s does make her own opinion on sororities by offering ways that she thinks they can be improved. Even though I didn’t agree with everything she said, it was clever to end that way because it forced me to think about my own opinion. It made me want to have other people read it and see what they took from the novel.

          Since I don’t have anyone to discuss it with in real life, here it is internet. I do not think sororities are in the wrong for being exclusive. It isn’t intended to be a club that anyone can join. Is it fair that some people are excluded based on superficial things. Yes. Is everything else in life perfect fair? It’s cliche but no. More than that, what right to outsiders have to say how they select their people, or when, or anything to do with it.

          I do agree with Robbin’s that hazing practices need to be definated better and rules changed and enforced. Forcing girls to do horrible and sometimes illigal or dangerous is not right. The book did a really great job at showing exactly how the current rules are effecting the schools. Currently hazing is defined as any action that is different for the pledges verses the sorority members. If you don’t know anything about sororities you might think that makes sense but it really doesn’t. One of the sororities that three of the girls in the book were in followed this perfectly which meant not doing there traditions of bringing the pledges out for meals or giving them gifts like they did in the past. This just made the pledges feel disconnected from the group itself. Would doing those things have hurt the girls at all? Is buying a girl say a necklace with the sorority letters on it so wrong? Obviously these do need to change.

          Personally, being in a sorority was never something that crossed my mind. I had to work basically full time to cover the cost of school. My parents were completely awesome and let me stay at home, paid for my insurance and all those kind of bills, plus eventually gave me the car I had been using in exchange for me paying my way through school. It worked out perfectly and I ended school with no debt. Being in a sorority would have ruined all that. I most likely would have been forced to live in a house which would have meant paying much more than I had to living at home. In general, I went to a school that was not big into the greek system. I graduated at Portland State University for those of you wondering. I vaguely remember a frat once having signs up for pledges but that was it.

          However, I think my photography job later on did teach me a lot about being part of the cool club. To fit in, you have to have the look and that means spending a lot of money. Did I have to do that? No. Do most of these girls have to join sororites? No. Yet I did and so did they. Being part of something means a lot to the vast majority of people. That was an important point that came across in this book. Sororities are meant to bring together a group of people irregardless of if that ends up being a positive thing on the individual.

          Overall, I completely loved this book. The way it was written was spot on and it really did teach me about an interesting world that I would not have known that much about otherwise. Currently I am reading Secrets of the Tomb by Robbin’s as well. This one isn’t starting out quite as interesting as Pledged but I’m still looking forward to find out secrets about the Skulls and Bones.