"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.

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.