The Twilight Saga

I have been doing a lot of reading recently. It helps to have a library a couple of blocks away and lots of time. (Well, I mostly read after the girls are asleep.) Anyway, when I was back in Yuma a good friend of mine recommended a book series to me. She told me it was a young adult series about vampires. Well, I'm not into vampires, so I listened but didn't think much about it again, until I got my winter BYU alumni magazine and read about a BYU English alum who was having wonderful success with her vampire series. I decided that I was going to read the books after I read a bit about the author. Stephenie Meyer was born a year after me, got a degree in English from BYU (I was an English major there for a while--okay, for a semester, but I wondered if we may have ever crossed paths), and we graduated from BYU the same year. Oh, and she lives in Arizona (Phoenix).

Well, I started reading the first book (Twilight) and I was hooked. You know, the most I've ever gotten into in regards to vampires is the movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and even then it was really only for the one-liners. Anyway, I was surprised at how good the book was. It's about an average 17 year old girl who moves from Arizona to a small town in Washington and falls in love with a vampire. I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone, but I was impressed with the story and the writing. Where many authors give into the ways of the world, Stephenie Meyer holds quite well to morals and standards. Well, the next two books in the series (New Moon and Eclipse) are just as good. She creates incredibly likable characters with lots of dimension.

Anyway, if you are up for a good long read (each book is at or over 500 pages) I recommend this series. Forget all of your preconceived ideas about vampires, because this isn't your typical Hollywood style vampire novel. A fourth book will be released in August (I think) and the Twilight movie will come out in December (or thereabouts). If any of you give it a read, let me know what you think. And if you are interested in finding out more about the author, click here.

Happy reading!

The Spiderwick Chronicles

I have been such a blog slacker. Sorry to those of you who have checked regularly only to find nothing. I apologize, and I shall do better.

Today we went to see "The Spiderwick Chronicles". Pretty good movie, I must say. I was surprised, however, at the amount of "creature violence" for being just PG. I only mention it because Mia was sitting on Chris's lap for most of the movie and was apparently shaking for most of it. But she wouldn't look away. For once, she sat through a movie completely captivated. I think she's gonna be a scary movie sort of girl. Nothing else seems to hold her interest. Hailey did well during the movie, but she did close her eyes during the final scene with the bad ogre. Overall it was a good flick. Good acting (I like Freddie Highmore), good story, good effects. Of course, I may curse the movie tomorrow if I have to go in tonight to soothe girls with bad dreams.