Live and Let Di

Love You, Mean It

 I know...I haven't even written much about my trip to Florida. But since I finished this book on the plane TO Florida, I feel compelled to write about it first.

I've had Love You, Mean It: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Friendship by Patricia Carrington, Julia Collins, Claudia Gerbasi and Ann Haynes on my TBR list for quite some time. One of the things that put it there, besides the topic, was the fact that Ann (formerly Renzi) Haynes was in my graduating class at St. Lawrence. I knew her only slightly, but since Amy and I were co-writing the Class Notes, we were notified about the book and it immediately made that which was still at a distance, very real.

September 11, 2001 shook us, as a nation, to the core. As individuals, we cried for the anonymous victims and their families. But, it turned out that Ann Haynes, someone from our little community of 1984 SLU Alumni, lost her husband that day when he didn't make it out of his office in the World Trade Center until it collapsed. Suddenly the empathy became more focused, the terror more real. It really could have happened to one of us.

The four women who co-authored the book were living diverse lives in and around New York City. Initially, their only connection was that they were widows of men murdered on September 11. Two came together as nervous phone calls were exchanged in the immediate aftermath because they both knew their husbands worked together. As time went on, connections were made until almost a year later, there were four who decided to meet for cocktails. Four women. Newlywed, suburban working Mom, Manhattanite, glamourous, affluent, world traveler, gregarious, articulate...all of these could be applied to one or more of the widows. But in an instant, all of that meant nothing because of the loves of their lives had been lost....no, murdered...on September 11.

Their bond grew as the months went by. They went away together after the first anniversary of the attacks to help each other heal, allow each other to grieve and just be with people who understood. Their shared tragedy brought an interdependence that helped each one gain the strength and independence that she needed to move on with life.

Please believe me when I tell you that this is by no means a depressing book. The women's connection allowed them to continue to talk about and honor "the Boys" while figuring out where this put them in the world and where they were going from there. As I read, I thought of seeing a foursome of fabulous women sipping cocktails in a trendy bar and assuming it was a Sex-and-the-City-esque girls' night out. I shed my assumptions and probably some jealousy of those who were living in "the City" and spending weekends in the Hamptons and having the "secret number" that would get them into the best restaurant.

Besides each dealing with her own situation, each was dealing with the reactions and expectations of her and her husband's family and friends. Each would see the pity in the eyes of people who didn't understand why she hadn't yet washed the last t-shirt he was wearing or changed the message on the answering machine or taken his name off the checkbook. Within the Widows Club, they could talk about all these things openly, share their deepest fears and even laugh together, sometimes at things that outsiders might see as inappropriate.

This is not a book about tragedy. It is a book about friendship. It is about how people come together through shared experience and find that their connection is so much more than the reason they came together in the first place. You will read this and think of your own circle of friends and how you came together and how lucky you are to have each other. You will think about your own relationships and how precious each moment can be. 

I had some misgivings about Love You, Mean It before I started it. Written from four perspectives in alternating paragraphs and chapters, I thought (incisive reviewer that I want to see myself as), "Oh...that's not going to turn out well. Even in the most talented hands, the multiple perspective style has ended up horribly." (Huge exceptions, of course, most notably The Poisonwood Bible.) I was wrong. There is an honesty that would be lost if The Widows had turned their stories over to a single writer. It would have created a distance from the actuality of their stories and somehow made it less real.

Upon finishing the book on the airplane, on the way to see one of my best friends, I thought about friendship. I thought about my admiration for four women I have never met. And I thought about hope.

Still Alice

 Still reeling...from reading this incredible novel...or rather gulping it down in two days. And for a moment there, I couldn't think of the word "reeling" and it freaked me out just a little.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova is the fictional story of Alice Howland, a Harvard professor of Linguistics who finds out, at the age of 50, that she has early-onset Alzheimers.

Not to make light of it, but as I was sitting on the couch writing my review, I decided I needed the book in front of me. So I went into my bedroom to get it where I left it on my nightstand when I finished it last night. The bed wasn't made, so I pulled the covers up and fluffed the pillows. Then I remembered I needed to put moisturizer on. I was walking out of the room when I suddenly stopped in the doorway and said to myself, "Wait a minute...why did I come in here? Oh, yeah. The book." That kind of stuff happens all the time. But imagine the terror if, in that scenario, you really couldn't remember. And as you made the bed, you wondered whose bed it was that you were making. And you put hair gel on your face instead of moisturizer. And when you sat back down with your computer, wondered who was writing the review of this book.

This is the kind of terror that eventually pervades Alice's life. It started with little things. She tried to attribute them to menopause, stress and too much multi-tasking. But one day she was running the regular route she had run for years around Harvard and suddenly found herself not knowing where she was, where her home was or where her office was. There were other incidents, like standing up to deliver a lecture she had been delivering to classes for years and not knowing what she was going to be talking about and meeting a colleague's wife and introducing herself to her five minutes later.

Alice's husband is a cancer researcher at Harvard. She has three adult children, Anna, Lydia and Tom. Alice's personal experiences, as well as the resulting family dynamics, are brilliantly told mostly from Alice's perspective. How long should she wait before seeing a doctor? Telling her husband? Telling her children? What about genetic testing? Would her children, especially Anna who is trying to conceive her first child, want to know if they had the gene? If their children might inherit it?

Alice's rapid decline, juxtaposed with her brilliant career in science, are at once painful and inspiring to read about. I found myself thinking about myself, my parents and my children, not in a macabre way, but in a practical way. I wonder if I would have the strength Alice had and the forethought to take some of the steps she did. I wonder if my mother would hide it from my father and us. I wonder if my children would want to know if they carried the gene.

As science continues to study this insidious and fatal disease, it's important that my generation reads books like this. It is certain that Alzheimer's is going to touch our lives in some way at some time...whether in ourselves, a parent, a relative or a friend's parent. How do we respond to the eventual breakdown of the very essence of someone's being?

Still Alice, which I think Amy recommended to me years ago, is a haunting, yet beautiful story that will touch you, hold onto you and stay with you.

Di

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

Since other obligations like writing my Triangle Mom2Mom blog, earning the occasional dollars for my work and sometimes acting like a wife and mom impede my blogularity (that's regular blogging...cute, huh), I've decided to post the occasional rerun. Since my husband and I recently saw (and loved) the movie and bought each other two of the associated books for Christmas, I thought this would be a good one! This was originally posted on August 29, 2006 when this blog was very new and a certain storm called Ernesto was trying to decide whether or not to become a hurricane!

 It is kind of strange...I really am a fiction reader. Geek that I am, I can tell you that since I started keeping track in 1997 fully 75.83% of my reading has been fiction. I don't know what this plunge into reality of late is all about. Please comment if you think you have an answer.

  In any case, as I was contemplating Ernesto who may not really be a hurricane,  I finished the last pages of Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. As Julie struggled to finish those last recipes as the 365th day of "the project" approached, I struggled to decide whether to stay in Boca or flee north to Merritt Island. While Julie's loyal fans were urging her and encouraging her, my husband was packing to fly to Minneapolis for a business trip leaving me, Ernesto, two children and a dog. Finished the book...hadn't made my decision yet.
 

Julie Powell , a self-described "government drone" dreading the impending "big 3-0", counting the ticks of her biological clock and contemplating the deep ennui of her job, decides to embark on the project of preparing every one of the 524 recipes included in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 in an ambitious 365 days. [ed. note: this is the book I got my husband for Christmas...he got me Julia Child's My Life in France which is incorporated into the movie, but not so much in this book.] Child's book revolutionized cooking for untold millions of American housewives (you really MUST click on that link, it's brilliant!) long before the advent of low fat, fusion, Pam, bread machines or mango chutney. Her "Year of Cooking Dangerously" becomes a hilarious combination of frustrating failures and surprising successes and was detailed on a daily blog that attracted a loyal following of "bleaders" (blog readers).

What other book involves boning a duck, excessive vodka gimlets, The Joy of Sex, more aspic than most humans consume in a lifetime, the preparation and consumption of every possible internal organ of various mammals, marital discord, parental disapproval, mice fed to live snakes and disgusting plumbing disasters? I know, you can hardly wait to go out and buy this one! Julie makes it fun, makes you take the plunge with her, brings you to the brink of culinary disaster and makes you almost taste every bite. From the moment her first aspic fails to gel to the first one-handed crepe flip, Julie has you rooting for her success, encouraging her to soldier on and biting your nails that she might not make it.

The best part is that her book-ization of her blog has transformed her from government drone to pajama-wearing writer.  So go fix yourself a vodka gimlet and toast Julie while fantasizing about the tantalizing taste of her next writing effort!

And the movie? Julie and Julia? It's out on Netflix and well worth watching, as everything starring Meryl Streep (directed by Norah Ephron, no less) is. But seriously...even my husband liked it!

Desperate Characters

I promised I would start reviewing books again...I didn't commit to a timetable! And no, the desperate characters are neither my children nor my friends. (Thanks Mom, for pointing out my grammar gaffe!)

My friend Amy suggested reading this book if only for the title. It looked intriguing enough, so I added it to my shelf. This book was first published in 1970 and the culture of that time is definitely reflected in the story, but not so much as to make it distract from its plots and themes.

Otto and Sophie are a childless upper-middle class couple living in New York. Their seemingly perfect life is initially perturbed by something as simple as Sophie getting bit by a stray cat she is feeding. As the story unfolds, you dig deeper and deeper into Sophie's life and see that underneath the seeming perfection are typical aspects of most marriages and friendships. Otto and Sophie seem to struggle, perhaps more than "normal" people, to accept imperfections and dissatisfactions. And all the while, the cat bit grows more swollen and potentially dangerous.

The cat bite becomes a metaphor woven into the story...but not in a way that makes you want to shake the author and say, "I get it already! Stop with the cat bite thing!"

What made this especially interesting for me was that over the weekend I watched Revolutionary Road. Although the movie takes place in 1955, the themes of upper-middle class angst and relationships are probed in ways that left me reeling with questions and thoughts and the strong desire to talk about the movie with lots of people.

While I would not give my coveted 10 stars to Desperate Characters, it weighed in at a solid 7, which makes it worth reading!

Resilience

Did anyone miss me? Is anyone still reading? I've been thinking about coming full circle and refocusing my blog on books. If anyone is still out there...let me know what you think. Regardless of what anyone thinks, here is my first review! (This review is also posted on Triangle Mom2Mom.)

Sometimes a word so perfectly captures a moment, a characteristic or a way of life, that you hang on to it, your brain pushing it out at the exact moment that you need it. It’s never a word you stumble over or search for. “Resilience” was never really that word for me. My word is more likely “Resourceful.” I pride myself on my resourcefulness. My friends seek me out when they need help because I am resourceful. I praise my children when I see them being resourceful and admonish them when they act like being resourceful is too much of a bother.

Elizabeth Edwards, in her most recent book entitled (you’ll never guess) Resilience, has pushed “Resilience” into one of those hallowed (or hollow?) parts of my brain. It is a characteristic that I now understand more thoroughly and something I will more consciously strive for. Edwards’ book is subtitled, “Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities.” But if you are looking for a how-to book on getting over it or moving beyond it, this isn’t the book for you. And as Edwards herself points out, if you are looking for titillating or salacious insight into John Edwards’ highly publicized affair, this is not the book for you.

I met Elizabeth Edwards a few years back at a book-signing at Quail Ridge Books, where she was promoting her book, Saving Graces (the link is to my review of the book on my personal blog). Whatever minimal lingering doubts I had about her sincerity or celebrity were dashed when she walked in wearing brown pants and a kind of frumpy sweater (Mrs. Edwards…if you are reading this, I say “frumpy” in the most loving way!). She didn’t look like the perfectly coiffed and scripted political wife that we have come to expect. She looked like the neighbor with whom you might share books, have a glass of wine, confess the venial sins of motherhood or unabashedly brag about your amazing kids.

Elizabeth Edwards is a woman who has battled, and is still battling, cancer, who has suffered the unfathomable pain of the death of a child and whose personal agony over her husband’s affair was magnified by the fact that millions of people knew about it. Yet, she is not here to tell us what a saint she is. She does not describe herself as heroic. She does not pontificate about how to handle any one of the adversities she has faced. For me, I found her story to be a reassurance that it’s OK not to have all the answers. It’s realistic to handle the same situation with laughter, tears or anger at any given time depending on the situation.

Her resilience is borne of a combination of her own inner-strength and the strength that she has garnered from her family, her friends, innumerable strangers who have reached out to her because of her cancer and even an anonymous on-line support group for parents who have had to bury a child. She is candid about her struggles with faith in the face of a God who would allow her son to die before having a chance to live the full, promising life that lay before him. She is neither perfect nor preachy. She is one of us.

As Moms, our resilience is tested at every stage of the game, including:

•    struggling to conceive;
•    dealing with the aches and pains of pregnancy;
•    counting back to our last good night’s sleep in terms of months;
•    going back to work…or not going back to work;
•    how to discipline;
•    how to keep our marriages a priority while attending to our roles as mothers;
•    how to talk to our kids about subjects that make us uncomfortable; and
•    how to say goodbye to our kids whether it is the first time they ride the bus to Kindergarten, the first time they go off to camp, the first time they drive out of the driveway without you in the car or when they head off to college.

Elizabeth Edwards did not make me feel diminished because some of her particular adversities have been monumental compared to mine. She made me feel like it is the sharing and caring (whether you are on the giving or receiving end) in the face of adversity that is what makes us resilient. Resilience is not something that we either possess or don’t. It’s something that we cultivate and nurture and encourage in one another when we feel it so that we can draw on it when we don’t.

So this Mom gives Elizabeth Edwards’ “Resilience” a big five-star thumbs-up and Elizabeth herself a huge virtual hug of appreciation, support, respect and prayer. You keep going Elizabeth…your battle is our battle and we are right there with you!

The Ten-Year Nap

This is not about my afternoon sleeping habits...and my naps rarely reach the length where they are measured in years! The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer is the best book I've read in, well, years! Or maybe it just seemed like that since I wolfed it down over the course of two rainy, gloomy days this past weekend.

The Ten-Year Nap delves into the lives of some very different women living in and around New York City who are contemplating their lives after ten years of motherhood. I say "some" women because, although the description says four women, there are many women whose lives are touched on throughout the book and Meg Wolitzer crafts her book so beautifully that you never feel like, "Oh, this is Karen's chapter." Their lives weave in and out of one another's seamlessly. Every time you think something has the chance to devolving into cliche, it doesn't.

None of the women is a cookie-cutter stereotype of the "I left my career and regret it" or "I am the earth mother who needs nothing more than my children to complete me" roles that we often see in books focused on mothers. There are so many situations that will make you think, make you look at your own feelings about motherhood and make you think about the judgments you make about others.

Wolitzer even manages to weave in the past, interspersing the experiences of women of previous generations. What happened to the feminists and their consciousness-raising groups of the 60s? What bearing does that have on today's women? What happens to a woman who left her dream behind because marriage and family was expected?

Part of what made this book so compelling was that I read it following a typical Friday night with my friends who are also a diverse group of women. And strangely, I wrote this post about the value of diversity of friends on Saturday morning, before I became engrossed in The Ten-Year Nap. Wolitzer captures this sentiment and the messy overlaps of and distances between our perspectives.

My thanks (and my husband's irritation for me being AWOL a good part of the weekend) go to Caitlin Price at FSB Associates for sending me a copy to review.

Top Books of 2008

So what have you been reading?

Because I’m kind of geeky, I started an Excel spreadsheet in 1997 listing the books that I read, keeping track of date read, who recommended it and a 1-10 rating. At the end of the year, I enjoyed sorting through what I had read and doing a top 10 list. When I started my blog in 2006, it became an annual staple. 12 years later, I have a spreadsheet listing over 800 books that I have read…so rest assured that if you need a book recommendation, I’m a good one to ask!

This year it seemed like writing and building a house and actually working (albeit temporarily) kept me from reading at my usual frenetic pace, but I still read enough to have some good books for my list. So, here are my top 5 fiction books and top 6 non-fiction books  (sorry, I just couldn’t narrow it down!) that I read in 2008. I hope you find something that will inspire you to pick up a book you might not otherwise have read. (The links provided are to my reviews of the books.)

TOP 5 FICTION
PLEASE LINK THE URLS TO THE BOOK TITLES…THANKS!

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (thanks to my sister Linda for the recommendation)

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski (thanks to Stephen King for the recommendation)

In the Woods by Tana French (thanks to FSB Associates for sending me a free copy to review)

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (thanks to my BF Amy for recommending)

Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward

TOP 6 NON-FICTION

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (thanks to Andrea who tried to recommend it, but I never called her back and eventually found it myself being the Carrie Fisher-stalking loving person I am )

Comfort by Ann Hood (not sure, but if I had to guess I'd say Amy)

Comeback by Claire & Mia Fontaine (Andrea again! Andrea, if you are reading this, please leave a comment with your last 5 book recommendations....Andrea was off her feet for 6 weeks after surgery and probably read a ton! I'm sure with your 2008 track record, my readers want to know.)

In an Instant by Bob & Lee Woodruff (thanks to FSB Associates again. Book bloggers, if you are getting books from publishers, my opinion is that FSB Associates has the best record of sending books that you actually might like.)

Escape by Carolyn Jessop (Vicky...who recommended this ages ago, I bought it well over a year before I read it...and I loved it)

Strong at the Broken Places by Richard Cohen (I didn't mark down who recommended this, but Richard Cohen is Meredith Vieira's husband who has suffered with MS and colon cancer.)

I would LOVE to see your comments about what great books YOU read in 2008. It might give me books to add to my 2009 list! So far, the two books I've read in 2009 have scored an 8 and a 10...and the one I'm reading looks promising!

Di

American Wife

I called Amy (my best friend since college who reads even more than I and should have her own blog) a few weeks ago to tell her that somehow technology and my focus on writing have combined to thwart my reading habit. Reading was not a habit that I wanted to kick. I told her that I needed a book to give me a jump-start. I wanted a book that would pick me up, throw me onto the couch and force me to read, kind of like Fieldwork did last year.

Among some other books, Amy recommended American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld (who is female, by the way), so it was off to Quail Ridge Books where I bought it and three or four others which I snuck into the house while my husband was caught up on a conference call and put on my bookshelves like they had been there forever. (To those who are new to Live and Let Di, Quail Ridge Books is the best independent bookstore ever, located in Raleigh, and worth every mile that you drive past every big-box bookstore in the area. At Quail Ridge, you will find employees who are well-read and an owner, Nancy, who might just wander the stacks with you to help you find the perfect book. If you are not local, I strongly recommend subscribing to QRB's newsletter which comes weekly and combines reader recommendations with store events, making you want to read more and more and more.)

It's no secret that American Wife's main character, Alice Lindgren from small town Wisconsin, is slightly more than loosely based on Laura Bush. When I started reading the book, I wanted to know what parts were "true" and what parts were fictionalized. After just a few chapters, I didn't care. Alice grew up in a traditional midwestern small town, living with her parents and her paternal grandmother. She was a typical, bookish teenager whose life was ruled by the manners, respect and discipline that were expected at the time. Her life lies before her, mapped out with the expectations of a career in teaching, marriage and children. Her aspirations go no further.

A tragic turn of events turns her life upside-down when she inadvertently runs a stop sign while predictably, carefully driving the speed limit, and kills a boy on whom she had a crush who happened to be driving the opposite way in the intersection at that time. This is based on a true event in Laura Bush's life. In the wake of this life-changing event, Alice reacts in unexpected ways while still maintaining her focus on family and community expectations and her natural desire to make others feel comfortable.

Alice is the most non-confrontational, frustratingly compliant protagonist you will ever love. Her story is told in a narrative that unfolds based on her address at various points in her life. To some she embodies the caricature of the spinster librarian. But eventually, the meekish librarian (who is, incidentally, a Democrat) meets Charlie Blackwell, the privileged son of a wealthy, politically ambitious family. Charlie is a party guy. He'd rather play golf and tennis than show up at the family business to do his job. He's the life of the inevitable cocktail parties and family gatherings that pepper their lives.

They marry and their lives move them eventually to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Throughout their marriage, Alice is mostly accommodating to Charlie, his habits and underachieving. But she surreptitiously continues to indulge her compassion and liberal leanings through her actions and contributions.

Amy told me, before I read the book, that when she read it she WANTED Laura Bush to BE Alice. And who knows, maybe she is. Maybe the more Mamie than Hillary First Lady has a rebellious side that remained hidden in deference to the office her husband held. Maybe as she waved getting on that helicopter, she was joyously planning her life as a private citizen and mentally shaking off the shackles of her role. Time will tell.

If you want to read a book review of American Wife that puts mine to shame, click here. The New York Times has a habit of having famous writers do book reviews. This one is by Joyce Carol Oates, a favorite author of mine, and is terrific. This is not always a good thing as this review by Jay McInerney, proves. It's nothing more than a plot summary of The Garden of Last Days and McInerney's status as a published author does not make it worth the columns of newsprint it wasted.

Di
***If the New York Times links don't work, I apologize. I have an on-line subscription, so I'm not sure they will work if you don't have that.***

Wishful Drinking

Finally, as promised, the book review for Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking. Ever since Postcards from the Edge hit the bookshelves in 1987, I have been a Carrie Fisher fan. I was not a fan in the Princess Leia era, although I do have a healthy regard for the original Star Wars since it was such a breakthrough movie at the time and I never would have seen it if I hadn't gone with my cousin, famous artist, Mark Bode. And I loved her in When Harry Met Sally.

Although there are autobiographical references in Fisher's previous books, Wishful Drinking is her first foray into the memoir genre. And if you think her fiction is funny, check out her real life. Imagine being born to the uber-Hollywood-couple of the time, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. And then imagine that Eddie Fisher divorces your mother to marry Elizabeth Taylor. Think Jen, Brad and Angelina in the 1950s. Tabloid fodder from birth!!!

She describes her childhood with an ironic, self-deprecating perspective. She drops names, not to impress anyone, but because those names are the people she was surrounded by. She got advice from Cary Grant. She smoked pot with Harrison Ford. She listened to the explanation of why she couldn't wear a bra in space as Princess Leia from George Lucas.

She is honest about her missteps in life. Kind of like everyone's life, only with more press coverage. She has suffered from depression and even underwent ECT (aka Electroshock Therapy), just like me!

Wishful Drinking was the only thing I wanted for Christmas. So my husband, liking the price point better than the other things I might want, like landscaping, got it for me. It's a brief volume, a mere 176 pages. I wanted to both consume it all in one big gulp and savor it. So I forced myself to read it in pieces over the course of three days.

Carrie Fisher is a celebrity you can imagine hanging out with. She doesn't have a distorted view of her importance in the world based on her celebrity status. And she is laugh-out-loud funny. Get the book.

The next only thing I want (but really, honey, we need landscaping) is to see Carrie Fisher perform her one-woman show, Wishful Drinking.

Di

Twilight - the book

Remember when I started my blog as Di's Book Blog? My high-falutin' objective was to do a book review every day or so. As I progressed, I found out that publishers actually search out such blogs and send the blogger books to review. This was kind of cool, but I would have to say that about 90% were not worth reading. (I guess THIS blogger won't be getting too many more books from publishers!)

Pretty soon I had to add "etc." to my blog title because I kept going off track. Then I had to change the title completely because it was the rare post that mentioned a book, let alone reviewed one. Now I'm trying to get back to my roots. I'm not making any promises like, I'll review one a week, or anything like that because I know I won't stick to it and then I'll feel guilty.

It seems that a certain Stephenie Meyer is this year's answer to Harry Potter for the tween-/teen-aged girl set. My Mom mentioned the Twilight books to me in late October and asked if Haley was interested in them. I said no and that I hadn't even heard of them. By the next week, Haley had read all four and her friends were circling around Haley and each other to be the next one to read one of the four books.

Despite Amy's protestations (Di, don't do it. It's horribly written. You'll never get those hours back again!), I took Twilight to Mexico with me and started reading it. I actually only scanned the last quarter of the book because the day before Thanksgiving we spontaneously decided to go to the movie and I wanted to finish the book first.

You aren't going to read this much in my blog, but, THE MOVIE WAS BETTER THAN THE BOOK! You can relax now, there will be no more shocking revelations...in this post anyway!

I can understand the attraction between teenage girls and Twilight (along with the subsequent three books.) The basic plot is that a clumsy, somewhat self-conscious girl (Bella) moves to live with her Dad in a town in Washington where the sun shines about once a year. She makes friends quickly, but still can't seem to stop looking at and wondering about the four Cullen kids with their pale skin and unusual eyes. There's no spoiler here since everyone knows Twilight involves Vampires. Bella learns more and more about them through her friendship with Edward (the incredibly cute one, of course.)

I call this kind of book a "glorified movie treatment." It's all plot with little character development or visualization. My daughter was getting mad at me when I was reading and criticizing the mundane, repetitive and redundant writing. I'll just give you one example. A woman was described as "tall and statuesque." Well, the definition of statuesque is "attractively tall and dignified." So, word geek that I am, I found the use of the word "tall" to be not only redundant, but slightly condescending. Does she think her readers wouldn't know such a big word or have the initiative to look it up if they didn't?

The book could have also used a good editor. One example was when Bella was apparently "relieved," but was written as "relived." I wish that I could say that this book is so smart and internally witty that it was a play on words with the whole vampire thing, but that was not the case.

I read the book mostly to see what all the fuss was about. But, unlike the Harry Potter books, I didn't feel compelled to immediately devour the second book, New Moon.

The important thing to note is that my daughter and all of her friends, many of whom are not natural readers, DID feel compelled to consume all four books in short order. So, despite my pretentious book reviewing, I cannot find anything wrong with any book that gets teenagers excited about reading. Today they read Stephenie Meyer and maybe tomorrow they will read Daphne DuMaurier (although I admit I've only seen the movie of Rebecca). Searching for the next book, because their appetites are now whetted for books, they may find themselves at the library or bookstore or in Miss Di's study looking for the next great book. Di will restrain herself from handing them The Pillars of the Earth or A Fine Balance, which, while two of the best books ever, are voluminous and can make adults cringe. She will casually toss out some YA books that Haley has read that somehow landed on her hallowed shelves. She will restrain herself from handing over The Grapes of Wrath and instead suggest Marley and Me or The Lovely Bones.

Regardless of my take on this book, buy it (from your LOCAL bookseller, of course) or borrow it for your favorite teens and let them revel in the love of reading. They'll get to Steinbeck eventually!

Di