Category: News/Current Issues

Jul 28

Meyer still dominates best seller list

So tonight I decided to look over the best sellers list to see what was big right now.  I used to do this fairly often but haven’t in months.  I can’t help but be impressed by how well Stephanie Meyer is still doing on varies list.  Even books related to the Twilight saga are doing well.

USA Today Best Sellers  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100722/ap_on_en_ot/us_best_sellers_books_usatoday

#6 The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
#11 Breaking Dawn
#12 Eclipse
#23 Twilight
#28 New Moon
#50 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Mark Cotta Vaz

 

New York Times Best Sellers
www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller

#25 (Trade fiction) The Host
#1 (Series Books) Twilight Saga (also note this is it’s 154 week on the list.  The Percy Jackson books however have been on the list of 158)
#4 (Graphic Novels Hardback) Twilight: The Graphic Novel Vol 1

 

Amazon.com Best Sellers
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books

#20 Breaking Dawn (Pre-order for Paperback)
#23 The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
#64 Breaking Dawn (Hardback)

Barnes and Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Bestseller-Books/379001057/?start=21&cds2Pid=17351

#25 Breaking Dawn (preorder for paperback)
#26 The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

 

I really find it interesting that a presale of a book that has already been out for years is a topseller. It is insane how well the books are still doing.  Honestly, I think it is cool.  Kudos to Meyer for doing so well.  Being on the best sellers list is a huge thing for an author.  Seeing anyone do that well is very cool.

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May 14

Charlaine Harris @ The Bagdad Theatre

******Contains a small spoiler from Season Three of True Blood*******
*****Contains some spoilers from All Together Dead**********

I was very excited that this week I got to go see a Q and A with one of my favorite authors, Charlaine Harris.  As you might already know, she is the author of the Sookie Stackhouse books (along with many other books) that the HBO show True Blood was based on.  Her most recent book, Dead in the Family, just became a best seller as well.

Alright, so what were people asking….

I asked her about advice to writers.  A couple other people did as well and each time she said write a great book.  Kind of a given so not the best advice ever.  She did talk about her writing processes a little though.  I found it interesting that the first book was not written thinking it would be a series.  She said that when she is stuck she thinks about who will show up at Sookie’s door than goes from there.  Interesting advice.  I could definately see that as being a good writing exerise.

She got asked many questions about True Blood.  I liked that she agrees with the show writers decision to deviate from the books so that even if you read the books, the show is a surprise.  She said this season she is looking most forward to see what they do with the Fae.  Yes, they are showing up in season three! I’m excited for Alcide. 

Harris said her favorite scene from the show was the pie scene after Sookie’s grandmother passed away.  Lots of people at the q&a asked food related questions.  Harris laughed that the meaning of the show was pie.  She didn’t know the secrets of Lost but the secret of True Blood was pie. 

She also said that she wishes she would have written a character like Jessica.  She loved that character.  Jessica is the vampire that Bill was forced to change on the show. 

As for favorite books, Harris said she enjoyed writing Altogether Dead a lot.   That was the one in which Sookie goes to the vampire summit with the Queen.  Harris said it was fun to get to come up with a way to blow up a building. 

A few people asking questions and a few in line said that Dead to the World was their favorite.  That is mine so far as well.  I think it is because I’m Team Eric all the way.  It seemed liked most the crowd was as well.  In the series, Bill definetely turns into a bad-ish guy or at least kind of a jerk.  Eric has his romantic moments which I love. 

Of course, someone asked her about Stephanie Meyer and Twilight.  I think she had a very good opinion on the subject.  Obviously, vampire books are going to have things in common.  She wrote her first Sookie novel five years before Twilight so obviously she didn’t rip it off.  Harris said that she was proud to see any female making a living in writing and being sucessful.  I completely agree with her on that.  Again, I find it interesting how people are so negative on Twilight.  In line I overheard a girl complaining about how awful of a writing Stephanie Meyer was.  She pointed out she was no Virginia Wolfe.  Of course she isn’t!  She never tired to be.  She wrote a fantasy book for teens.  There is no comparing the two.  Plus the girl in line also mention how she read the entire Twilight series twice.  If the books were so awful, why read them twice and see the movies to compare?  If a book makes you want to read it twice, it is a good book.  At least that is what I think.

I know there was lots of other questions that Harris answered but those were a few that stood out to me.  I can’t wait to start reading Dead in the Family.  I’m almost done with Burned by PC and Kirstin Cast so I’ll start it after I finish that one.

Here are a few pictures I got of Charlaine Harris.  Sorry they didn’t turn out very well.

 

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May 05

PC and Kirstin Cast @ Powells

Sorry this post is up so late.

This last week I got to go see PC and Kirstin Cast, authors of the House of Night series at Powells in Portland.  First off, they are so funny.  It is awesome seeing a mother and daughter work together.  PC writes the story first then Kirstin edits.  PC had obviously been an author for some time but Kirstin is also starting to do some stuff on her own as well as working as an editor.

Okay, I’ll admit, I couldn’t help but ask about how many cats they had adopted from the shelter Street Cats that they talk about in the book.  I love the fact that they include both the shelter and a cat they got from there, Nala, in the book.  When I publish a book, I’m definately going to continue to give money to the West Columbia Gorge Humane Society, where I adopted by cat Temperance.

Most of the people there ask questions about the plot but there was some about writing and publishing.  A few people asked questions about why certain characters died or had other things happen to her.  PC kept saying that she cried and cried when certain characters died and some of them she just couldn’t part with so had to come up with new plots.  Some people acted confused about this answer but it made perfect sense to me.  When I write, I’m just conveying what I see and hear in my head.  I tried writing stories that I planned out the entire  thing first but it didn’t work.  I just have to write as it comes into my head and then edit later.  PC said it is like writing out a movie in her head.

Since I’m big into House of Night right now, I’ll have a few more post going up soon.  Watch for those.  Thanks everyone that reads my blog.  Love you guys!

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Apr 27

The Host say what?

So I’m watching Kendra on E! Network and just a minute ago there was a commercial for the book The Host by Stephanie Meyer.  Has anyone else every seen a book commercial?  I can’t remember ever seeing one before.  Like it was cool that they are advertising it because it just came out on paperback but the way they advertised it bugged me.

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.

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Posted in Book Reviews, News/Current Issues

Apr 20

Lights+Books=Two of my favorite things

I was so excited today to see one of my very favorite musicians, Lights, did an interview with MTV about books.  I liked that her twitter post said that it was one of her life goals to be part of a book club. 

http://blog.mtvmusic.com/2010/04/20/mtv-music-book-club-lights-on-the-oath/

The books Lights talks about is The Oath by Frank Peretti.  I was not familiar with him.  According to Lights, the book fits under the fantasy/horror genre.  It is about a cult that has to do with a dragon.  She talks some about the themes behind it. 

I certainly want to read this book after seeing her talk about.  I was into fantasy books as a teen then kind of fell out of them for a while.  In the last few months, I have picked up more and more.  I think that pretty much any vampire books fall under this and if you look at my list of books I’ve read this year, you will see that is my main source of enjoyment these days.  Plus I’ve picked up a few Dan Koontz books which are probably along that horror/thiller type novel.  Oh and I’ve decided that I want to read the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.

The part of the interview that made me think the most was the last question about if a song or album can tell a whole story.  Lights answer not quite.  I would agree with her almost completely but there are some exceptions to that.  If you are looking at the whole album, there is some concept albums that tell an entire story.  A perfect example of this is What to do When You Are Dead by Armor for Sleep.   The album tells the entire story of a person that commits suicide for the one they love, goes into life as a ghost, then ends with moving on.  There is main characters, there is a plot, and there is emotions.  It definitely tells a complete story.

On the other hand, there is concept albums like Volcano by Gatsbys American Dream.  The songs are based on Lord of the Flies by William Golding.  Some songs are emotion driven, other are more story.  Overall, you get a feel of the novel but the album doesn’t tell the whole story.

As for songs, Lights definitely has a point that maybe a ten minute country ballad can but most songs just give a peak.  In the case of Meg and Dia, they write a lot of their songs based on novels.  They usually are about the emotions you feel after reading the books though.  Like in the song Indiana, based on the novel of the same title by George Sands, as a reader, you definitely notice the sad injustices going on.  That is exactly what the girls wrote about in the song.

The only example I can think of that is a relatively short song that captures a whole story is Bob and Bonnie by Houston Calls.  It tells the story of a couple that meets, falls in love, and lives happily ever after.  I can’t think of any songs that capture a whole novel though.  I do think that would be nearly impossible.

Man, I love when music and books combine! Nothing makes me happier.

PS, make sure to check out The Listening by Lights! It is amazing.  My favorite song is Pretend [Reprise].  Close behind it is The Last Thing on Your Mind which I actually plan to have a line from tattooed on me.

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Posted in News/Current Issues, Related to music

Apr 06

iPad Takes on Ebook Market

Well at least, publishers are hoping that it does.  The ‘game changing’ device hit the market this last week and with it, another way for consumers to get their hands on ebooks, as well as electronic magazines and newspapers. 

Here is one article I found from Yahoo talking about publishers outlook on the iPad.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100402/media_nm/us_apple_ipad_media

The part of this article that I found most interesting was that it points out that early ebook models have failed.  Everyone keeps hoping that they will become this great devices but it just has not happened yet. 

My question, is it the market/sales model that is holding ebooks back or is it that physical books have a value beyond that?  I tend to think the latter.  Is there not a value in curling up with a book on a sunny day?  Can you get that value from the iPad?  I certainly don’t think so. 

Even though I still don’t think Ebooks and Ereaders are going to take over, I do understand why publishers are continuing to try.  It is another way of getting your product out there.  And I would imagine, it is a low cost way to do so.  I could be completely wrong on that but I would imagine it is cheaper to have an electronic version of a book formatted then to go through the entire product of a physical book. 

It will be interesting to see how much the iPad focuses on apps that have to do with books.  I work in a store that sells a device with an ebook app and it is something that we tell customers about but don’t always push.  In my experience, it has not been a selling point yet.  Will this change as more devices enter the market?

Did anyone actually pick up the iPad?  Have you tried reading a book on it?  It seems a bit too big to make reading comfortable to me but I would love to hear what other people think.

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Apr 05

Save Life Unexpected!

          Yet again, Life Unexpected was amazing this week.  Next week is already the finale which is sad.  I want more.

          Which gets me to my point, I want another season! Well, lots of other seasons but that starts with getting a season two.  E! is doing their annual Save One Show campaign.  Life Unexpected has made it into the top five.  The voting has started again so please go to their site and vote for LUX!

I also changed my twitter icon to the ’save the foster child, save the world’ I’ve seen around.  If you have twitter you should change yours as well.  Let’s get people voting and watching!  Here is my link to copy the photo from.

http://twitter.com/heatherfinley

And here is the E! link

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b174881_save_one_show_vote_now_final_five.html?sid=twitterfeed_kristin&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=twitterfeed_kristin

 

PS, I’m not sure, but I think you can vote more than once.  I just went their again to get the link and it appears to have let me vote again.  So yeah, vote for LUX as much as possible!

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Posted in News/Current Issues, Thoughts on tv

Mar 31

Gimme more Twilight!

          In case you haven’t heard, a fifth book to go with the series is being released on June 5th.   The book is titled The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.  Here is a link to Stephanie Meyers website in which she explains more about the story.

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/breetanner.html

          First off, I think it is awesome that Meyers is letting more of her work involved with Twilight be seen.  I find it very interesting that she had all these left over stories going as she wrote the series.  It makes sense though.  I haven’t read Midnight Sun but I love the idea of seeing what happened during Edward’s time away.  It didn’t have a place in Twilight but it is something that adds to the overall story.  Bree Tanner is the same situation.  We don’t know what was going on from the other side and now we will. 

          I love the fact that Meyer let the actors playing Victoria and her band of vampires read the story first.  It sounds like Eclipse is going to let the viewers see what happened, at least to some extent, so it is nice that Meyer’s came up with a story verses the film writer doing it all.  Giving the actors more information to add depth to their roles is awesome too.  While on the subject, is anyone else pretty excited to see Bryce Dallas Howard step in as Victoria? I’ve enjoyed her acting in the past so I think she will be a good fit.  I didn’t have anything again Rachelle Lefevre but I am a big fan of Howard so I love seeing her in stuff.

          My favorite part about Meyer’s releasing this novella is that she made it a point to have it available both free and in print form.  Personally, I will buy the book.  I have a huge book collection and can’t wait to add it.  But for those who don’t want the physical book, it is awesome that she is making it available to them.  For anyone with e-readers, that will be a huge plus.  I’m assuming it will be able to be uploaded to them.  It is cool that some of the proceeds are going to the red cross too.  If (hopefully it is more of a when then an if) I become published, once I get to a stable point money wise, I want to donate money or whatever I can to help end world suck.  Nerdfighter reference there but honestly, it is true.  I want the world to be a better place.  I try to donate to charities, especially pet charities, whenever I can.  I don’t have a lot of money but I like to try to help.  There would be no better feeling in the world then to get to a point where I could donate my entire portion of my book to charity.

          So who else is excited for The Short Life of Bree Tanner?

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Mar 23

Man on Bond Action?

         Let me preface this post by saying two things.  One, I know this is old news but I only heard about it the other day and still wanted to comment.  Two, I am in no way against male on male, female on female or any kind of relationship in movies, on tv, in books, in real life, or anywhere else.  Human rights like who you can love and get married to should be the same for everyone.

           Okay, with all that said, I just heard about Daniel Craig saying that he wanted James Bond to have a same sex scene.  http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/craig-wants-gay-bond-scene_1014906

         The fundamental problem I have with this is that James Bond is a very specific character.  Ian Fleming introduced him in his 1953 novel Casino Royale as a sauve ladies man.  The films have lead even more into this image by putting an ephasis on the Bond Girls.  This is a character that has existed for over sixty years.  Why would you change that?  I bet Fleming was rolling over in his grave when Craig said that.

          I’m not against movies or televisions shows changing characters if there really is a reason to.  The only example I can think of off the top of my head is hearing that the writers of Glee changed the character of Curt after meeting the actor and falling in love with him.  His character fits perfectly and it doesn’t fell like the show is just doing that to push the envelope.  That is when it bothers me.  Why do we have to force something? 

           Changing James Bond character isn’t going to do anything for supporting human rights.  It is just going to feel like they are trying too hard.  I mean, add in all the male on male and female on female stuff you want but leave Bond alone please.  I mean the two basic parts of him are that he is a spy and he is a ladies man.  Why not give him a new job while you are at it?

          I  guess this kind of comes down to how much a movie or book can deviate it’s characters from the books before it becomes a big deal.   My feelings are pretty mixed on the issue.  I bet I’m not making much sense as I type because I’m going back and forth.  I think if you are going to change the character, have it make sense.  If any of the people on Gossip Girl have same sex relationships that they didn’t have the in book series, fine.  It could fit in with the story.  If some of the vampires on True Blood go same sex, well they better anyways because that is definately in the books.  If Harry Potter has a scene making out with a boy, I don’t feel like that would make any sense. I don’t know, what does everyone else think about this?  Where is the line for changing a book character?

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Posted in Blah blah blah, News/Current Issues

Mar 20

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang Tour

Before I even talk about the tour, I want to say congradulations to Chelsea Handler for completely taking over the Times Best Seller list this week.  Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang hit number one for Non Fiction Hardback.  Are you there Vodka, It’s me Chelsea comes in second on Non Fiction paperback and My Horizonal Life is third in the same category.  That is amazing.  She deserves it.  Her books are so funny and great to read.  Job well done girl! Can’t wait to see what is next!

 

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.

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Posted in Blah blah blah, Book Reviews, News/Current Issues

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