"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb."

So maybe some people would feel I count a book twice in a single year, or even if the book was a reread, for that matter. I disagree. I have no problem rereading books and counting those as ones I read, and ordinarily, I don't reread a book until at least a year has passed since my last read. This is the exception because I needed key information from this series in order to include it in my literary graveyard for Halloween.

#25 Stephenie Meyer: 'Twilight:' Twilight (October 2007)

Once again, loved it! It was different reading it this time than last time. More later. I don't have the time to properly write this post now, so I'll edit later.

~Edited to add on 11/08/07 from this point on~

Twilight is absolutely lovely. Bella is an amazingly positive character to read about, nevermind her bits of anger that she has at times. It's always being expressed how she has tried to take care of her mother, which reminds me a bit of my own mom. Bella quickly adjusts to caring for her absentee father. One might think the two would have issues, but there are seemingly none, or very little of the kind I had in mind when I first began reading this book. Edward, Edward is amazing. Period. But of course it's not simply for his being a charming character. The vamp's a vegetarian, after all - he could easily be chewing at human's necks. Edward and his family chose a better path, and each and every Cullen, friendly toward Bella or otherwise, are in for it for eternity. The days that are filled with questions from Edward's curiousity of Bella's human life, and Bella of Edward's life as a vampire, may seem dull to some, but not to me. This part of the book was just as interesting to read the second time around as it was with the first read. And as I gave away in this post's title, the lion fell in love with the lamb... As one of my sisters would say (and she'd be happy to see me using her words), "Awww, they're in love!"

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.

"The Princess Bride"

I was reading this book for a while but put it down. I'm not giving up on it, but I was simply reading it much too slowly to be drawn in to the book. I'm going to read a few other books and come back to it later, after having watched the movie. For now, I'm reading a nonfiction book that I'm hoping to finish by Monday. After that, I have some reading to do as preparation for the literary graveyard I make for Halloween.

Promises

I was introduced to Charles de Lint's books during the summer of 2002 when my mother pushed his books on me. She bought me perhaps five books from his Newford series over one weekend while she tried to find out more about The Onion Girl, a book she had seen many people reading and for which was the cause for her to get me to read de Lint's books in the first place. Little did she know The Onion Girl would take nearly a year for me to get a copy of, but it was a good wait as I was able to fill myself with other books in the series first. And how I did love that one! I happily dove into it's sequel, Widdershins, three years later. That said, I would have been utterly disappointed had I not been able to get my hands on this one.

#23 Charles de Lint: Newford: Promises to Keep (September 2007)

This book may not mean much to those who are new to the series and have not come to love Jilly, the heroin of this particular book and also favorite character of the author himself. For me, though, it was treasure. I got from it exactly what I wanted, and the only thing that could possibly have been missing that the other Newford books didn't give beyond the clues of. I'm a well satisfied de Lint reader.

This book explains a bit more about Jilly herself, and her past between her life in Tyson and her life as a college graduate. You see a part of Jilly that is not her 'we'll their a$$' self, but rather her journey on the way to becoming such. Besides the obvious, it had me thinking of Memory and Dream, the first book I read by de Lint and the second, if not first, book in the series. I'm thinking a rereading, if not of the complete series, then of part of it, is due soon.

Thursday Next Adventure Continues

I can't believe I missed this one when I was doing updates. Jasper Fforde has been one of my favorite authors for the last four years maybe. I had meant to read his first book, The Eyre Affair, much sooner than that, but didn't get around to it. It all worked out for the best, though, or I would not have read Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre before reading it.

#14 Thursday Next in First Among Sequels (August 2007)

I was so happy that this series would continue! I had thought it would end with Something Rotten. I enjoyed this book immensley, though feel it's not quite like the author's other books in this series. I found myself disappointed that the Cat did not make an appearance, nor did Thursday's father. I also missed the intensity of the main book being used within First Among Sequels, as Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorite books, wasn't there much at all. Better luck next time, Mr. Fforde!

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)