#31: Reading

I just realized I haven't updated for the past three books I've read! Well, I've updated goodreads, but I want to be sure and make a note for posterity here, too.

Just before/during/and after our early August vacation to Boston, I finished the Twilight series. The third book, Eclipse, was my favorite of the series, I think. Actually, it may have been my favorite book because I was looking for answers to a lot of questions the second book raised, and the book answered them in a satisfying way. Of course, all of the books are now kindof blending together in my head, so I might be wrong about which is which, but I liked learning all the werewolf lore and the rest of the background stories about characters that didn't seem fully developed previously. Of course, there's the cliffhanger of who Bella will choose, but luckily I didn't start the series until the last book was about to be released, so I didn't have long to wait to find out.

Coming home from Boston, I started Breaking Dawn. And that is one long book! Luckily (I guess) we ended up with a bunch of flight delays, so I had plenty of book to keep me from getting bored and annoying the bejeezus out of K. True confession: I got teary during more than one part of the book. That's at least as embarrasing as getting teary at the end of Harry Potter, right?? I'll blame stress from flight issues and ummm, lack of sleep due to vacation. Okay, okay, so the wedding was dreamy! And then the honeymoon was a little weird. The story took a direction I did not expect, or particularly enjoy, although I think the final outcome was good. Bella gets everything she wants, after all. I can appreciate a happy ending. I would like to read more about the Cullens, though, or even Jacob and his adventures with Nessie. Surely Stephanie Meyer isn't ready to let the Twilight characters (or the revenue they generate for her) go, yet?

I probably should've taken my book club book for August on vacation, but who wants to read about people dying from tuberculosis when teen vampire angst is available? ;o) I finally FINALLY finished Mountains Beyond Mountains, though not in time for my book club meeting. I was about half-way through for the discussion. I'm glad we read this book, although it was a bit much for our book club right after Three Cups of Tea. This book was definitely an eye-opener about global problems I didn't realize still existed. It was also interesting to compare and contrast Dr. Farmer and Greg Mortenson, both to see the similarities and differences between two men who have taken on such huge problems and their approach to solving them. Honestly, I like Dr. Farmer best. However, I realize that may be due to how each man was presented. Mortenson tells his co-author that he should ask people for the good, bad, and ugly about working with him, and I think that came out in the book. Kidder definitely presents Dr. Farmer in a glowing light, but I fell for it. My only complaint about this group is that the core people in the book have kindof a short hand with each other than includes a lot of abbreviations. I had trouble keeping track of those. Portions of the book were a little bit dry because of the medical or political aspects of the story, and I found those slow but necessary.

Our next book club book is Listening is an Act of Love, and I've just started it. So far, I'm enjoying reading a few stories each night. But I'll be back to fiction soon!