I picked up the first of this four book series 3 days ago, and within those 3 days I drank up those 498 pages like you had just offered me a bottle of water after I had been trudging through the hot desert for months.  Stephenie Meyer has written an irresistible tale about two teenagers, one human, one vampire, and their love.  

The way Edward Cullen, the main vamp, protects Bella, the main human hits all those female parts hard. Meyer paints their love, trust, and acceptance of each other into a beautiful journey that floats off the page and into your mind so smoothly it cant be a book.  The story is equally exciting as it is mushy love stuff, from page one this story will have its grip on you.

Three years after Publishers Weekly claimed Stephenie Meyer the ” most promising author of 2005″ Stephenie has a best selling four book series, and a movie grossing over 70 million dollars in its first weekend in theaters.  The books are as big as the hype around them, pick up Twilight and see for yourself.

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Tags: 2005, books, Literature, movie, publishers weekly, reading, stephanie meyer, twilight

Joan Didion is an American essayist, journalist, and novelist whose writing career spans well over 40 years. Her style is consistent with many commas and quotations, ramblings and interrupting thoughts.  The Last Thing He Wanted, Didion’s 1996 novel serves as no opposition to the rule.  The story revolves around Elena McMahon, a reporter who quits her job after the death of her mother and ventures to be with her father who is in need of much care.  Somewhere in the process of doing a favor for her father, Elena becomes entangled in the position of an arm’s dealer for the United States government and finds herself in Central America unable to get herself back home.  

Although not one of her more praise-worthy novels, The Last Thing He Wanted is a fast paced and suspenseful read where conspiracy and paranoia lurk around every page.

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Tags: 1996, Arms Dealer, books, Fiction, Joan Didion, Literature, novel, reading, Suspense, The Last Thing He Wanted, U.S. Governement

6,557 miles, two and a half weeks, 600 CDs and one man make Killing Yourself to Live one of the best books about death I have ever read.  That might not be saying much, as I have read maybe 5 books about death, but trust me Killing Yourself to Live is good.  

Chuck Klosterman takes the reader along as his traveling companion as he embarks on a curious roadtrip about rock-n-roll and death.  His mission:  to understand why one of the best career moves a rockstar can make is to die.  ”Somewhere at some point, somehow, somebody decided that death equals credibility.”

The reader suddenly becomes Chuck’s confidante as he reveals his partying, love life issues, family stories and rock-n-roll legends who have met their demise.  Published in 2005, Killing Yourself to Live is, in my opinion, a masterful piece of witty nonfiction, pop-culture literature.

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Tags: 2005, books, CDs, chuck klosterman, death, killing yourself to live, Literature, love life, miles, mission, nonfiction, nyc, pop culture, reading, road trip, rock, rock n roll, traveling, weeks

Malachy McCourt was born in Brooklyn, raised in Limerick, Ireland and returned to NYC in his early twenties (and who can blame him?).  The memoir, A Monk Swimming, is full of amusing accounts of McCourt’s life.  After a few years back in the great metropolis, Malachy McCourt had begun to make a name for himself with both appearances on common soap operas and gigs telling stories on late night TV.  An Irish pub opened on 3rd avenue named purposely after Malachy.  It was there that he became a celebrated bartender. He recalls the women who, in the 1950′s, had only recently been permitted to sit at the bar and how they consistently called him “cute”, this being a lingual adjustment, as “cute” means sly and cunning in Ireland.

It is said by the Irish that, “to eat is an accomplishment, to get drunk is a victory.” Malachy’s anecdotes reveal that he took this earthen proverb seriously and through his attachment to the mug a broken relationship between father and son is exposed.

I loved it.  Malachy tells a story like none other.  He is captivating in narrative, which makes it almost torturous to put down.

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Tags: 1950's, A Monk Swimming, alcohol, book, brooklyn, earthen proverb, Ireland, irish, Irish Pub, Limerick, Literature, Malachy McCourt, memoir, nyc, reading

A Man Without A Country is a smart and satisfying collection of short essays by the ever loved and revered Kurt Vonnegut.  Known for his works of satire and black comedy, Vonnegut never disappoints.  In this 2005 compilation, subjects vary from art to war and back to art again saying, “the arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable… it’s a way to make your soul grow… you’ll get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”  This creation was intended by Vonnegut to be his final work, and until after his death in April 2007, when a number of his unpublished works were assembled into Armageddon in Retrospect, it was. Kurt Vonnegut wished for the world that, “100 years from now people are still laughing.”  With your works, Mr. Vonnegut, they just might be.

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Tags: A Man Without A Country, Armageddon in Retrospect, Art, black comedy, books, essays, Kurt Vonnegut, life, Literature, reading, satire, short essays, war, world

Mention Eat, Pray, Love and everyone nods their head in recognition.  Introspectively, the journey of a woman is told who, after a divorce at age thirty-one, sojourns first to Rome for pleasure, then Mumbai for spirituality, and last to Bali in hopes to acquire a balance of both. The odyssey is honest and interacts with the reader in a meaningful, relating fashion.  I was left inspired with an urgent need to find a guru of my own.

Aside from Elizabeth Gilbert’s spiritually prompting memoir, she has produced a handful of noteworthy pieces. Published in GQ magazine, her 1997 article “The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon” speaks of a dive bar in Manhattan’s East Village where she worked as a bartender.  It is also the basis for the movie Coyote Ugly.  Gilbert’s collection of short stories, under the title Pilgrims, received the Pushcart Prize in 1997, followed by the novel Stern Men, chosen as a “notable book” by The New York Times. 

Two years have past since the Eat, Pray, Love sensation hit the shelves and it continues to stir up attention. Paramount pictures is now on board, casting Julia Roberts to play Elizabeth Gilbert’s role.

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Tags: bali, books, Coyote Ugly, divorce, east village, Eat, Elizabeth Gilbert, GQ, Julia Roberts, Literature, love, memoir, mumbai, notable book, odyssey, Paramount Pictures, Pray, pushcart prize, reading, rome, spiritual, The New York Times

The collapse of the Zimbawean government, an indepth look at the regime of Robert Mugabe, a fathers death, and a country struggling to survive are all depicted in vivid details throughout this memoir.  It is a gripping tail of persistance, survival, and a nations turmoil.  This true story truly left me breathless and was, in my opinion, a terrific book.

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Tags: Africa, books, memoir, nonfiction, Peter Godwin, reading