Catherine Hardwicke: Twilight Director's Notebook

The full title of this book is Twilight Director's Notebook: The Story of How We Made the Movie Based on the Novel by Stephenie Meyer. This is a book I had walked by those days or even weeks before the Twilight dvd release without much thought of getting it. What really sparked my interest in it was hearing about The Twilight Director's Notebook from, yes, a thirteen-year-old Twilight fan. I listened to them rave about their copy of this book and thought about the extra possibly two week wait I would face to receive my copy of the Borders exclusive Twilight dvd. I decided this would be how I would keep sane the night of the midnight dvd release: I would read this book in my empty house while stores everywhere would be flooded with teens and some not-really-teens-but-fans-all-the-same of the ever popular Twilight series. My very sister was one of those people, and 101 Things to Do in WalMart sheet in her hands, I bidded her well and secretly hoped she would be up to not much trouble.

A first thought on opening this book was of the battered shape the Twilight movie director's paperback copy of Twilight was in. I spent a while thinking about how her copy, which seemed to have even fallen apart in places, wasn't in bad or horrible shape at all. It was well digested. It had to have been read more times in places than any Twilight fan could claim to have read themselves, for the author of this book (and director of the Twilight movie) needed to have gone over many parts thinking of exactly how she would interpret scenes for the movie. Originally horrified, I admired the condition of Hardwicke's copy of Twilight before turning past the page she had a photo of her copy on.

I enjoyed reading the layout page titled "What's in her bag?" I also admired the paintings featured that were done by Hardwicke's sister. There was many a story board in this book and I really loved getting to see them. The artists as well as Hardwicke did amazing jobs. Best of all was of course learning those behind-the-scenes kind of thing that we couldn't really learn about until at least watching that part of the Twilight dvd. In fact, there was even much which this book taught me that sitting through all the special features and such did not teach me. Reading this book made the Twilight movie new to me in the sense that I was looking for all the things I hadn't known before that I had missed seeing the movie the one time I went to see it in theaters. It shows readers just how much went into the movie and leaves them further impressed.

Anonymous: Go Ask Alice

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The little research I did about this book before reading it left me unable to tell if it was fictional or nonfiction. I can say this for it, however. The editors have left a note instead. This book is based on a real diary kept by a teenage girl. If you're unfamiliar with the book it is about a teenage girl's struggle as a drug user. The last sentence on the back cover of my copy is very true. Alice is unforgettable.

There are few words that come to mind to describe how I feel about Go Ask Alice after reading it. Utterly stunned, perhaps. This story was unbelievable, not in the sense of my not seeing truth to it but for it being so very intense. I've never read anything like it. I can see that it would be a very good book to read for some people and why it's so well recommended.

There is a peaceful activity some teachers have their students volunteer to take part in. I don't have a name for it but what they say is something like this.

"Whoever (fill-in-the-blank), cross the line and step across the room. Look around you. Forgive yourself and all the others around you. Feel the peace and forgiveness you have for yourself and for each other. Cross the line once more."

I remember a couple of my teachers saying something to that effect when I was in eight and eleventh grade. I won't bother to go into the details of the second time. As an eight grader when my teacher said to do this for who knew where to find drugs on campus, I was the only student who did not cross the room. I was the only one who did not know. I've stayed in that bubble and net of safety all my life, too.

What is my point? As someone who has been from the complete other end of the rope, this book truly shocked me. As an afterthought I have thankfulness for being in my own naive world which protected me from what Alice went through. There isn't an Alice in real life to hug but for every person who relates to Alice, I wish to offer a hug. Go Ask Alice is two diaries worth of sorrow for her.

Vicki Myron: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

I first saw Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World when LibrayThing announced the Early Reviewer books that were available a few months ago. It immediately appealed to me and I requested it but was chosen for a different book instead. I saw it in stores while shopping with my mother before I'd known I wouldn't be receiving it and had to tell her about it right away. Cat lover that she is as well, she took it home that day.

Those of you who've seen the cover know Dewey is an orange tabby and so it sat for a while before either of us would read it. We lost our own sweet blond tabby, Aloof, in March and so each of us had a desire for reading and yet not reading this book. We knew it would come with heart ache.

My mother wasn't half way through reading Dewey when she announced that she wasn't going to allow me to read it because she said it would hurt me too much. She said Dewey shared many of the same characteristics as Loofy. This is a woman who seven months ago held her tears for him away and cried alone to keep me from her pain because she knew mine was great with him being extraordinarily special to me as well. She didn't tell me much from the book at all as she read but eventually announced (SPOILER) that Dewey would die and that it was the biggest reason for her keeping it from me. (END spoiler.)

I waited but as the holidays drew nearer and this was to be the first Christmas without Loofy, I asked for the book one night. I didn't begin reading it until the morning during a free half hour before work. All I got through was one chapter before turning up at work blurry-eyed after clearing away tears.

Dewey remained a very touchy and emotional book for me but many of the tears weren't just for my sadness but for reminders of happy memories of my own sweet tabby. I cried for the little kitten who was abandoned early on (Dewey and Loofy), the cat who had to have the Dewey-Carry (Dewey and Loofy), and the cat who had to be right there in the middle of everything (Dewey and Loofy). Part of my avoiding writing about this book (yes, I avoided it) was as one might guess because of Loofy. I want to read this book again some day and yet it is one of those books that need only be read once because of how it touched me.

(SPOILER.) Like Vicki Myron, I knew my baby's time was limited as the life of all things must be. She knew Dewey's day would come and prepared for it while I was never able to. I could not see a life without Loofy. It seemed the clock should have stopped with his failing heart. I was almost hit by a car the morning after he died on the way to work feeling at the time that I didn't care if it would or not. (END spoiler.) While our dear furry friends are our pets, sometimes they are a great deal more than any non-animal lover could imagine. They are our companions, our children, and our greatest friends. (SPOILER.) I am sorry Dewey's last day was reached but am happy he lived his long and full, something my sweetie did not.

(SPOILER continued.) I can understand why this book was written. It was to share Dewey's story to those who knew part or all of Dewey's life already. It was also to share it with those who never had the pleasure and opportunity of meeting or knowing about him. Further still, it was so Dewey would always have a place on a bookshelf as he did before, not in one but now in many libraries. It also placed him as always before in the lap of a reading human, where he so often slept in the small town library of Spencer, Iowa. (END spoiler.)

I recommend this book not simply to cat lovers, but those of small towns, those fond of books and libraries, and those who are perhaps looking for the beauty of a very special connection between not two beings but between many. Dewey is a book to be cherished not simply about the love for an amazing cat by a small community but for the love of the world at large for him and his own great love for the world.


From the last few photo shots of Loofy taken in February of 2008 while we were on LibraryThing. "Get off the computer and pay more attention to me!"

The Enneagram Made Easy: Discover the 9 Types of People

A few months ago while online, I stumbled on something that divides people into nine different types of people. It has a few questions and then proceeds to tell you a little about yourself. Some of the things were obvious, but some were interesting things that we may not know about ourselves. What I found more interesting however was the matter of applying it to others to learn more about them. I had been going through a few arguments and lots of times of being misunderstood so I thought it would be a good way to learn to communicate better with others. It mentioned a link to the book this was based from, and I requested it once it was available on PaperBackSwap.

Renee Baron and Elizabeth Wagele's The Enneagram Made Easy starts out by explaining basic information about the enneagram and goes on to talk about each type of person with a full chapter for each type. There are twenty questions at the start of each chapter describing the different types of people. It explains many things for each type:

How to get along better with them,

their strengths and weaknesses,

how they are as children, in relationships, and as parents,

about careers they're most successful at as well as how they spend their free time,

compliments people usually give them,

each types' negative and positive side as they move around the enneagram and about the types they draw from as their wings,

and has positive suggestions and exercises for each type.

You could answer the one hundred and eighty questions to search for the type that best describes you or someone else, but it's useful to remember that the nine types have three categories: heart, head, and gut instinct. Most enneagram tests I viewed online did not discuss these. The heart is made up of types 2, 3, and 4; the head of types 5, 6, and 7; and gut instincts of types 1, 8, and 9. These are the types of people, taking in consideration some of the different titles some references give the types of people:

1 The Perfectionist/Reformer

2 The Helper/Giver

3 The Achiever/Motivator

4 The Romantic/Individualist/Artist

5 The Observer/Investigator/Thinker

6 The Questioner/Loyalist/Skeptic

7 The Adventurer/Enthusiast/Generalist

8 The Asserter/Challenger/Leader

9 The Peacemaker

When answering the questions, my book says it's best to answer as you would when you were under twenty-five years old. I'm one week shy of reaching my twenty-fifth birthday so I answered as I would currently, trying to answer for the past as well. However, I suspect some of my answers to the questions would have been very different even one or two years ago. It was really hard to determine some of my types because a few of my results were so close together. Also, our results will vary by what mood we are in. This is how to better get along with my top two types:

Heart: Type 2
"Take your share of the responsibility so I don't end up with all the work. Acknowledge my achievements. I'm hard on myself - reassure me that I'm fine the way I am. Tell me that you value my advice. Be fair and considerate, as I am. Apologize if you have been unthoughtful - It will help me to forgive you. Gently encourage me to lighten up and to laugh at myself when I get uptight, but hear my worries first."

Head: Type 6
"Be direct and clear. Listen to me carefully. Don't judge me for my anxiety. Work things through with me. Reassure me that everything is okay between us. Laugh and make jokes with me. Gently push me toward new experiences. Try not to overreact to my overreacting."

The link above is to the best enneagram test I can find that matches with questions from my book. If you would like to take it and feel open about sharing your results, feel free to leave a comment.

56 / 70 books. 80% done!

Sickened

#35 Julie Gregory: Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood (December 2007)

Nonfiction

I don't usually read non-fiction. Normally, I can't much even stand it. But I read this.

#24 Marya Hornbacher: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (October 2007)

I had despised this book greatly without ever having given it a chance to speak. Someone had been trying to get me to read it. At the time, I had wanted nothing to do with the book. She kept handing it to me, and I kept sneaking it back with her other books, unread. This went on for years. I had known nothing about eating disorders, and thought the book sounded uninteresting and stupid. Why would someone eat if they were just going to throw the food up, I thought, they're wasting food. I grew up amazingly poor at times, so I knew all about not wasting food. Now I think back on those thoughts and want to smack my younger self. I was ignorant. I can see a great importance in a bulimic eating now of course. A bulimic does not always keep their food, but that doesn't mean they never hope, want to or don't try. And an anorexic, I thought had to be stick thin, but knew before I read this book that that's not the case at all - a person's weight doesn't matter in the concern over whether he or she has a serious case or not. It simply means some people may be more healthy, and perhaps, I think, have a better chance at survival. We'll never understand as outsiders why a bulimic or an anorexic feels the need to be thin when they are perfection, the image of pure beauty in their heart already.

I knew before getting into this book that I would not read a story in which the girl lived happily ever after. She has life-lasting conditions that will always be a part of her. "There is no 'cure.' A pill will not fix it, though it may help. Ditto therapy, ditto food, ditto endless support from family and friends. You fix it yourself," (Hornbacher 284). This bit of news can be truly sad for a person watching someone they love and care about as they go through the routines of having anorexia or bulimia, knowing all the while there is nothing they can do but be there for their friend or loved one and hope one day it will end. But it doesn't end. So you can only hope their life will be different. Better. Happier.

This book was difficult to read at times. It taught me some things I didn't know, while confirming things I thought but had not known for sure. It can scare you. All of a sudden you are provided with someone's secrets and feel the desperate need to check on people you know and listen as they assure you they are 'okay,' they are 'fine.' It pulls your mind and plays games even on you, where you close the book and remind yourself who you are.

This book is filled with quotes at the start of chapters, especially from Lewis Carrol's well-known Alice. This is one of them (though not from Alice, I apologize). "Oh there is no use in loving the dying. / I have tried. / I have tried but you can't, / you just can't guard the dead. / You are the watchman and you / can't keep the gate shut." -Anne Sexton, "Letter to Dr. Y," 1964 (pg 181). I cannot do a single thing. I am helpless as ever I have possibly been and then some. But I disagree here. There is use, and I won't stop loving them even if it takes them first.

Salem

I read this one for a U.S. Women's history class.

#22 Lawrence Gain and Juliet H. Mofford: Cry "Witch!" The Salem Witchcraft Trials (September 2007)