And because I know everyone has been wondering...

I finished Breaking Dawn. My thoughts? Meh. I'm actually somewhat disappointed, but I don't think for the same reason as the thousands of screaming teen fans. (And by the way, I am going to try to do this without spoilers, so if you haven't read the book, it will probably make no sense.) Halfway through, I was IN LOVE. Meyer threw in a twist that I had not seen coming, but I felt like it was taking the book in a fantastic direction. I felt like the tension was going to build into something amazing. And then - it was done. It just felt so.....anticlimactic. I realize she wrote pages and pages of the great confrontation scene, but it just seemed so EASY for the result.

Okay, maybe spoiler here..................................

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Seriously, Bella has a power, and she can perfect it in two weeks, and that will save everyone? And maybe it makes me morbid, but I felt like someone needed to die. Not necessarily a main character, but how can they be faced with the biggest evil vampire horde in the entire universe and come away with NOT EVEN A SCRATCH?? I realize this is part of my own personal bias, but all the great fantasy novels that have really moved me have included a death, and I think that is part of what makes them great. Fantasy is such an amazing venue to explore emotions, and I think the really good stuff explores ALL emotion, not just the happy parts. I know this is written for a YA audience, but come on - it just ended so incredibly happily-ever-after-ish. And I really felt like Meyer had the potential in the middle of the novel to do something that would blow my mind. Instead, it was just okay. Don't get me wrong - I was entertained. I was just hoping for more than I found.

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I am still, however, firmly on Team Jacob, and would love a spin-off series featuring him! *grin*

Tuesday Thingers

And now it's time for Tuesday Thingers, hosted by The Boston Bibliophile.
Today's question: Favorite bookstores. What's your favorite bookstore? Is it an online store or a bricks-and-mortar store? How often do you go book shopping? Is your favorite bookstore (or bookstores) listed as a favorite in LT? Do you attend events at local bookstores? Do you use LT to find events?


What bookstore isn't my favorite? *grin* The one I visit the most is Half-Price Books. It's a great chain, with a pretty eclectic selection of used books and remainders. The staff at the one in my town is fun, too, so it makes for a good shopping experience. And based on the conversations I've had with them, they are serious readers like me, so I feel very comfortable each time I leave with a gigantic sack full of books. Also, they have recently started offering reusable shopping bags to purchase for $0.99, which I love, because then I don't have to figure out what to do with more of those darn plastic things. I also do quite a bit of shopping online, with Amazon and Barnes & Noble being me two favorite locations of choice. I really haven't had much luck with the LT local feature, so I don't pay a whole lot of attention to it - apparently there aren't enough of us in Des Moines yet to make it worthwhile.

Teaser Tuesday

It's Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Should be Reading. Here's the idea:

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

So here's my teaser, taken from How Far is the Ocean from Here by Amy Sheern.

"The truth of it was that he had asked his parents about his biological mother - you had to say biological, not real - when he'd been a teenager, when he was told what he'd always suspected....If he and Kit were to adopt a child, raise it as their own, like a little foundling, knowing all along that the kid would someday ask about its real parents, to whom it would have some deep, mostly imagined bond - well, it was precisely why they had gone to such great measures to have one themselves." (page 128)