"You're a Third, turd. You have no rights."

Hi everyone, I'm Alissa and I lack both a catchy intro and an awesome blog to refer to. I once had a blog where you could have gotten to know my former angsty teenage self, but that was destroyed eons ago (the blog that is, sometimes I still get flashbacks of the teenage angst). So you'll just have to settle for this intro post.

I'm a big reader, and always have been. I purposely carry large purses so I can always stash a book. My general taste is that of the absolute truth or the absolute unbelievable. Which breaks down into memoirs and fantasy/sci fi. But when it comes down to it, I'll read just about anything.

Currently reading: I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. This book falls neither into the memoir or fantasy/sci fi genres and it's also something my bookclub picked out. I'm halfway through, so the review will have to wait.

Favorite book: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It contains the line of dialogue that serves as the title of this post.

Last read: The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon

Next to Read: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Have to Defend: Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. Twilight and Eclipse were my favorites of the four books. Twilight because it introduced the world. Eclipse because Bella started to grow up and there was actually a thrill of action from start to finish. And while I recognized the immaturity of Jacob, I appreciated his insistence of Bella making her own (informed) decisions. Plus Jacob rode a motorcycle, which is a pretty good reason for me not to hate him. As for Edward, I was not crazy about his controlling nature, which was painted as "protective." I was much happier with the Edward once he let up on Bella. Oh and then once RPattz was cast in the role. That didn't hurt.

Karmela's In the Hizzouse!

Okay, Karmela here reporting for book review duty. I actually haven't finished the book I want to review (Michelle Maddox's Countdown), but I just had to post SOMETHING just to get the obnoxious multi-cover jpg images of the *coughvomit* Twilight saga off the top of this blog. Since I haven't finished the book yet, I figured I could introduce myself which is a totally legit order of business.

Let's see...this is my fourth blog. I'm also here, here and here. In the real world I'm a marketing exec in the beleaguered mortgage finance industry, but in the Matrix I'm a writer of kickass novels and a dancer of uncommon virtuosity.

The books I will be reviewing will be totally different than the vomitous selection of my co-bloggers, which will mainly focus on genre novels with tons of sex and violence and shit blowing up. There might be a time when I actually review the exact same book as my co-bloggers will, but only to violently disagree with them. You, dear reader(s), are of course free to weigh in on your opinion. But I promise I won't be reviewing any self-important literary works of fiction, any Oprah book club selections, any books with an unhappy ending, any stories with a wimpy heroine who gets saved by the übermasculine hero, or anything with pedophilia (e.g., see previous Twilight entries) unless of course the pedophiliac is the bad guy who will die a horrific death via a million nasty little cuts with a razor blade. Yes, I watch Law & Order: SVU.

Twilight, revisited

Of course the start of a new book review blog wouldn't feel complete without me revisiting my current obsession, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga. My thoughts on these books sound more like stream of consciousness and less like a traditional review, but I wanted to link to them as they describe my thoughts about the books at the time that I was reading them.

You can find my Twilight review here (initial thoughts), here and here (final verdict).

Review of New Moon is here.

My thoughts on Eclipse is a bit on the passionate and emotional side, found here.

And the review for Breaking Dawn is here.

And because I still don't feel like I've said everything I needed to say on this topic, I will say more.

It's hard to tell, even now, which of these four books is my favorite. After a rough start, Twilight turned out to be an extremely exciting book. As I re-read it, and then re-read it again a few more times, I can now appreciate the poignancy, sweetness, and dream-like quality of the first half of the book, which I wasn't keen on at first.

I loved New Moon precisely because I found it to be extremely bittersweet and poignant, even though I hated the fact that Edward was not in a pretty big chunk of the story. The last half - the reunion in Italy, especially - contained several of my favorite scenes in the whole series.

I can say that Eclipse is perhaps my least favorite of the four, because I hated the stupid love triangle. It was driving me insane. Jacob Black's behavior was offensive and annoying, especially in sharp contrast against Edward's nobility, grace, and goodness. However, this book does make up for my annoyances with the scenes of Edward in battle - that was breathtaking; Edward was absolutely breathtaking.

And finally, I loved Breaking Dawn (I hear I am in the minority on this). The wedding and honeymoon scenes were extraordinarily romantic, and I didn't even mind the middle part where Jacob is narrating as much as I thought I would. Jacob's character gradually improves here. But my absolute favorite was the last third of the book when Bella finally awakens to the start of her new vampire life. It was like her personality underwent the same degree of radical change that her physical body went through. She came on her own and stood strong, confident, and an equal to Edward in every way.

And, of course, through it all, the one character that shone above everyone else: Edward Cullen. Clearly I was and still am enthralled by the magic that Meyer created with Edward, and he will go down in literary history as one of the most compelling heroes to ever grace the pages of books. I know he will definitely live on in my imagination for a long, long time.

In the beginning...

And then there were books.

Welcome to Paperback Musings, site of all things books! The name is a bit misleading because I don't discriminate between paperbacks or hardbacks, it's just that most of the time, given a choice, I prefer paperbacks as they're cheaper and more portable. Unless, of course, it's a book so anticipated that I am unwilling to wait for the paperback. And there have been many of those.

My name is Hazel, and along with my sister Karmela and my sister-in-law Alissa, we'll be reviewing any and all books that interest us. For me, this includes mysteries, romance (I especially love the historical romances), police procedurals, fantasy, paranormal, YA, and the occasional thriller or two.

The three of us will alternate posting reviews as we finish our books.

I hope you find something here that interests you, to induce you to put up your feet and stay awhile.

Happy reading!