June does go into a downward spiral but the book really begins as she’s starting to get on with her life by deciding to complete Marissa’s list of twenty things that she wanted to do before her next birthday.  A list which June found and took from Marissa’s purse the night of the accident.  Some of the things are seemingly silly, like go braless for a day or kiss a total stranger and others are more difficult like change somebody’s life and show your brother how grateful you are him.

The Next Thing On My List is June’s journey as she attempts to complete each item.  Along the way she finds romance, career fulfillment and how to live again.  It’s a fun, quick read that while it has a great message – live your life instead of watching somebody else live theirs – doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I did find some of the book unbelievable.  Like June’s relationship with Marissa’s brother, mother and grandmother.  I would think that it would be very awkward to be friendly with the person who killed their family member despite that it was an accident.  In the aftermath of the accident, they don’t take the time to find out more about each other or details about the accident, which I found odd.  When June comes back into their life with this list of Marissa’s they are curious of course but act as more casual bystanders.  I think something needed to be done slightly differently with that aspect of the book but what that solution is I honestly don’t know.

Overall, a quick read that doesn’t leave me feeling heavy afterwards.  And with some of the heavy hitting issues that I like to read about it’s nice every once in a while to read something that doesn’t get me down. It’s not a book that I’m running out and telling everybody that they HAVE to read it because it’s SO good but I enjoyed my time with it.

And of course, one can’t help thinking about their own life lists.  I’m a list maker.  My husband’s a list maker.  Making lists are just plain fun.   My lists would be different if I were to put time limits on them like one year, 5 years, 20 years or a lifetime.  So I came up with something that seemed reasonable for the next 10-15 years. And from the looks of it I need to also come by a cash load somehow as my list involves spending a lot of money!

• Go on a cruise.
• Vacation in Thailand.
• Take the Advanced Master Gardener class (a four year program).
• Read all the Newbery books.
• Remember every Birthday for a year.
• Decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees as a family.
• Take out my large 4×5 camera and start shooting again.
• Vacation with the family to Yellowstone, Redwoods, Southern Utah.
• Go to Disneyland and stay in a nice hotel instead of cheapest we can find.
• In fact, don’t let the cheapest always be the deciding factor.  Allow myself to treat myself well without feeling guilty about it.
• Buy a bed.
• Take family to Hawaii to visit the family.
• Have another baby (or two).
• Snorkel but be brave enough to go more than twenty feet out from the shore.
• Digitize all of my negatives.
• Get a massage.
• Go on an African safari.
• Do volunteer work in Africa.
• Get involved with helping refugees here.
• Go skinny dipping (yikes my parents & in-laws read my blog!)
• Book a flight last minute and just go!
• Take my boys fishing.
• Learn sign language.
• Cook a turkey.

Now, it’s your turn!  What are five things that you would like to do in the next ten years?  Spill it!

Links of interest:  Jill Smolinksi website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Fiction, Chick-lit
Publisher: Three Rivers Press.  March 25, 2008
Paperback , 304 pages. ISBN 0307351297
The Next Thing On My List is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Kabul Beauty School is the memoir of Deborah Rodriguez, a hairdresser, who shortly after 9/11 joined a humanitarian organization which ultimately took her to  Kabul, Afghanistan.  Leaving her two young sons with her mother (which was a huge discussion point in our book club – how does one just pick up and leave their family), and putting distance between herself and an abusive husband, Debbie soon found herself in a home with other humanitarian workers but unsure of exactly what role she was supposed to play.

After playing hairdresser to Westerners and a trip back to the U.S., Debbie sought sponsorship from beauty companies to start her own beauty training school for Afghan women.  In a country where women are undervalued, at the mercy of their husbands, rarely hold jobs, have little to no income, going to beauty school to train and open their own salons opens up opportunities and freedom previously unknown to them.  Debbie recounts the many girls and women that she became friends with and their heartbreaking stories.  She also shows how the beauty school was a much needed refuge and safe haven for the women where they could feel free to be themselves and free their inhibitions.  

To tell you the truth, I’m totally shocked that Debbie didn’t get herself killed while she was there.  She has a very loud, abrasive personality which in a country where women are not to draw attention to themselves, she was like a bull in a china shop.  I was surprised at what should have been a very tense political situation and a dangerous time in the country that she seemed to have very little fear or concern for her personal safety.  I’m sure she really did but it didnt feel that way in the writing.  She often yelled at the men, taunted her neighbors, and even once gave a ride to her arrested neighbor to the police station.  And she was the one pressing charges!  I couldn’t believe some of the things that she did.

I was also shocked when she agreed to be married in an arranged marriage to an Afghan whom she couldn’t even talk to because they spoke a different language.  And he already had another wife.  She was shocked that this other wife became pregnant with his child while she was married to him.  Somebody at our book club mentioned that one reason she left the country was because her husband was going to kidnap her son for and hold him for ransom (more details).  At this point, I’d definitely think that the different culture thing didn’t work out for them.  Can you just imagine sitting down to lunch with this author?  The stories she could tell!

Kabul Beauty School could have been edited better.  It felt as though she just sat down and began a rambling of her experience in Afghanistan, breaking off here and there to tell different stories or backgrounds.  But luckily, those stories were fascinating.  I particularly liked hearing about the women she taught and would like to have heard their voices even more.  From the woman whom Debbie helped fake her virginity, to the 12 year-old used to pay off her families debt, her crazy housekeeper who seemed to be on drugs half the time, to the woman who continued her training despite the beatings from her Taliban husband; these are the stories that I wanted to read about.   From what I understand, many of these girls are now in danger because of this book.  You can read more about that in this NPR article and you can watch Rodriguez talk about her book as well.

Overall, I liked this memoir.  It’s not the best that I’ve read but it is fascinating to learn about the Afghan women and the steps that they are taking to gain back their personal freedoms.

The reason that I was initially holding off on reading The Hunger Games was because of the brief synopsis:  a girl fights for her life while on a reality TV show.  Yeah, I don’t think so.  Not my type of book.  Reading about reality TV?  Not my thing.  And it’s considered science fiction?  Another strike.  But it simply could not be ignored.

Briefly stated, The Hunger Games takes place in an undetermined time in the future.  America as we know it has been completely destroyed and in its place is the capital and twelve districts.  There used to be thirteen districts and during an uprising, the thirteenth was destroyed.  Each year, as a reminder to its tributes of the power and will of the capital, two tributes, one boy and one girl, are chosen from each districts and forced to participate in The Hunger Games, a televised event in an outdoor arena where only one tribute can bring home honor to his or her district.  To win means killing all of your opponents.  To lose means that you’re dead.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss’s younger sister is chosen as tribute and in a moment of bravery Katniss volunteers to go in her stead.  Her district hasn’t won the game in decades and she knows that she has little chance of winning.  But that’s not going to stop her from using her bow and arrow skill to have her coming out on top.  But things get complicated when the other tribute in her district is Peeta, the bakers son whom she knows from school and once gave her starving family an act of kindness by giving them bread.  Not only must Katniss and Peeta kill and stay alive from the other 23 tributes, they must square off against each other, not easy to do when they have such mixed feelings for each other.

The Hunger Games book trailer:

Really exciting stuff.  Seriously.  Like stay up until three in the morning exciting.  You can’t stop thinking about it.  AND it’s going to be made into a movie!  AND Suzanne Collins is writing the screenplay.  I can not wait for both the movie and the sequel, Catching Fire, which comes out in September.  Reviewers are going to be scrambling for ARC’s for this one.  *cough,I want, I want, I want, cough*

Hunger Games totally lives up to the hype.  It’s fun, it’s different.  Just make sure you have plenty of time to read it because you’ll want to read it in one or two sittings.

Suzanne Collins website.

Meanwhile, Ellie, a Philadelphia defense attorney, finds herself unhappy with her career and love relationship.  She escapes to the quiet town of Paradise, Pennsylvania to visit her aunt to sort it all out.  Her peace doesn’t last long as she finds herself not only defending Katie, but also acting as her guardian by living with her 24/7 on the family dairy farm.

Taking on this case is a challenge.  Ellie finds herself defending a client who doesn’t want to be be defended.  The Amish ways of justice are very different and Katie and Ellie have a rough go of it.  Katie can’t remember what happened and whenever she does, it’s just incriminating.  Ellie finds that preparing a court case on a dairy farm isn’t easy especially when she is without electricity, laptop or a phone.

Plain Truth is a love story, psychological drama, and courtroom suspense.  This being the fourth Jodi Picoult book that I’ve read in the last year further solidifies my thoughts that Picoult has found a formula that obviously works well for her.  I did feel as though everything that happened in Plain Truth has happened before.  We have the troubled teenager, crime, courtroom drama, medical mystery, woman lawyer, her love interest.  I felt any character could have easily been any character from another book.  I did pick up on the twist ending, as there was one sentence about two thirds of the way through the book where I realized “whodunit.”

As a mother, Plain Truth wasn’t fun to read.  We are talking about somebody who smothers a newborn.  But I was engrossed and kept turning the pages for more.  I was never at a loss for interest.  I enjoyed exploring the Amish culture and the questions that she raised about forgiveness, peace, and justice.  Everybody at my neighborhood book club did enjoy it a lot more than I did however.  I think if I hadn’t read any of her other books I would have enjoyed it more.  Does that make sense?

I still want to read My Sister’s Keeper, which I understand is a must read.  And it sits here staring at me from my bookshelf right now.   Other books I’ve reviewed are Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, and Tenth Circle.  Jodi Picoult’s next book Handle With Care will be released on March 3rd.  I hope to attend a book signing at Kings English Bookshop on March 25th to hear her give a reading.  Visit Jodi Picoult’s website to see if she’s on tour near you.

I have a few Nicholas Spark books on my bookshelf and I think that the only one I’ve actually read is The Notebook, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it.  Even though it’s really popular I don’t think I could give you the basic plot.  I thought the other book I had read was Suzanne’s Diary but I was told that’s written by James Patterson not Nicholas Sparks.  Obviously, I am not well read in either author.

In The Lucky One, Logan Tibault, a retired marine, credits his lucky survival in several tours of Iraq to a photo that he carries in his pocket.  The photo features a beautiful women whom he’s never met.  In fact, it’s just a photo that he found on the ground.  He doesn’t have a clue who she is.  After carrying the photo around for years, a friend convinces Logan to find her.  Using clues found in the background he deduces a couple of places of where it was taken.  So he travels across the country from Colorado to North Carolina to find her.  Does he hop a plane?  Take a train?  No.  He walks.  Literally walks across the country.  And he actually finds her!

Elizabeth, is a school teacher and mother to a little boy.  Her ex-husband is one of the cops in town and his family controls everything, including her love life, but this she’s ignorant on.  Does Logan tell her about the photo?  Of course, he doesn’t.  Because where would be the story in that?  Instead, he takes on a job at the kennel run by Elizabeth’s grandmother.  Elizabeth is very apprehensive about Logan.  And for good reason.  Who walks across the country and then suddenly decides to stop.  And how come her ex-husband knows who Logan is?  Despite, these misgivings, love does ensue, but when she learns the truth will she be able to accept it?

Somebody told me that in any Nicholas Sparks novel somebody always dies.  Knowing this pulled me along and I was interested in the story enough to see who would be the “unlucky” one.  I could see the ending coming from a mile away, I just wasn’t sure which character was going to get the axe.  I was also a little confused because each character called each character by a different name.  This was true of Keith Clayton, Elizabeth’s (or Beth’s) ex-husband.  I thought he was Keith and then he started being referred to as Clayton.  And I literally had to go back to see who this character was.  Although, he’s the character I was introduced to on page one!

The Lucky One was okay.  Nothing to rave about but nothing terrible about it either.

Carolyn Jessop grew up in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a radical offshoot of the Mormon church that has settled on the Arizona-Utah border and more recently in Texas.  Her own father had two wives and she believed that their sect was God’s chosen elite.  She fully believed all that they were taught.

Carolyn had hopes of going to college but education was of no value in the church, so she was secretly hoping that she would not be married for a while.  But those dreams were dashed at the age of eighteen when she was told that she was to marry a man that she had never met, thirty-two years her senior within the week.  Believing that the only way she could reach heaven was through her husband and plural marriage she married Merril Jessop.  That’s the same man who took over as leader of the FLDS church after the recent high profile arrest of Warren Jeff’s.  She was his fourth wife out of what would become 14.  He fathered at least a hundred children.

From the time that Carolyn’s story begins to when she left the church, the FLDS were becoming more and more radical.   As Warren Jeff’s came to power, things became more restrictive and their rights diminished even more.  Women were completely subservient to their husbands, children were beaten by their teachers at the church run schools, families spied on each other, money earned by women was turned over to their husbands, wives and children were constantly beat at home, neglect was common, clothing and hairstyles became more radical.  Even if somebody wanted to escape, all the local law enforcement were local polygamist’s who turned them right back around to their husbands.  The simple point of the matter is that abuse, physical and emotional, was normal.  A part of the lifestyle.  If this was happening to the family next door, wouldn’t you be concerned?

Right when I thought Carolyn couldn’t shock us any more, I’d turn the page and be shocked some more.  Within fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children.  Many of those pregnancies were life threatening and when she had to undergo a emergency hysterectomy to save her life, her husband and his other wives told her that she was a heathen and that she had ruined any chance of salvation.  Whenever she had to leave her children at home, they were beaten and had to fend for themselves.  It was every person for themselves.

Carolyn wanted out but knew it was risky.  No woman had ever managed to escape and take her children with her.  Timing was everything and once she made her dangerous escape, Merril hunted her down fully intending to take his children back.  Carolyn was the first woman to ever gain custody of all of her children from the FLDS.

I find it hard to believe that women live like Carolyn Jessop did.  I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I read her account.  And then I found out that she lives in West Jordan, which is where I live.  My neighbors have since told me that she actually lived just one neighborhood over.  It makes you think that just looking at somebody it’s hard to believe what their story is.  Everybody has a back story and Carolyn’s was unbelievable.

Escape gives us a hard look at inside of the most secretive sects in the country.  It’s one of those eye-opening experiences that makes you feel so much sympathy and anger.  And what’s sad is that thousands of women and children are involved in this practice.   If you haven’t read this one, I’d highly recommend it.  It’s one of the best books I’ve read all year.

Let me state this:  I’m a almost thirty something mom of two boys and I stay at home.  I think that this influences what I thought of Breaking Dawn.  Of course, I’ve read the first three books (but haven’t reviewed them here).  While I didn’t LOVE them, I didn’t HATE them either.  I think of the series as nice escapism literature.  They weren’t exactly the best written thing I’ve ever come across, but the story certainly holds you and has you invested in the characters.  I think they are entertaining.  I am really pleased with the popularity that Stephenie Meyer has gained.  It’s nice to see an author reach celebrity status.  Anything to get kids reading is a plus in my book.  I think the excitement around a popular author is well, for a lack of a better word, exciting.  I’m not ashamed to say that I am caught up in this excitement.

While beginning Breaking Dawn, I had no preconceived notions about where the story was going to go.  I read no book reviews about it before I began.  After finishing, my husband asked me how I liked it and I said it was different then the other three, had a story that moved along, and I thought she was pretty creative but there were things that I definitely thought were weird.

After I finished I hopped on the net to see what others thought about Breaking Dawn.  I was really surprised.  This is what I found out, people either LOVED it such loyalty or HATED it with such a fury that they cried, stomped, and have lost all faith in Stephenie Meyer.  Right now Amazon has 469 customer reviews, of those 145 are five star reviews and 155 are one star reviews.  So you can see how evenly split it is.  And the message boards.  Wow, I don’t even want to go there.  People are saying some crazy things.

So what did I think?  Well, like I told my husband, I thought it had it’s flaws but in general I enjoyed reading it.  I don’t LOVE it but I don’t HATE it either.  How’s that for taking the middle road?

Breaking Dawn felt so different from the first three books.  It is broken up into three books.  The first one is Bella’s, the second Jacob’s, the third Bella’s again.  Each one even had it’s own preface and table of contents.  I’ve never seen this before, to have a new book and table of contents 500 pages in.  But what really threw me for a loop was that the second book was told from Jacob’s point of view.  Can she do this?  After three books told from Bella’s view, throw in a good three hundred pages or so told from Jacob’s point of view?  It didn’t seem to match, but honestly, I didn’t mind.

People seem to think that the Twilight series is exclusively about Edwards and Bella’s love.  Where did they get that idea?  Jacob has been there since day one and Stephenie has written him in just as much as the other characters.  So guess what?  Breaking Dawn is just as much Jacob’s and Bella’s story as it is Edward’s and Bella’s story.  Things did get weird in a weird love triangle sort of way though.

I do think that the characters lost their voice and personality.  I wish that Stephenie Meyer would have taken another six months to really work out the details on this one.  I do think that she was quite brave for taking the story where she did.  I know a lot of people didn’t like it but I think it did move the story from one of infatuated love (well, Bella is still infatuated) to a story of family love.  I think this was the right direction to go (more on this in the spoilers).

I think the Twilight series was so successful because of the sexual tension between Edward and Bella.  People loved this tension.   It got them all hot and steamy.  While Breaking Dawn has it’s fill of sex, it does not have that tension like before.  Kind of like the forbidden fruit.  Now that sex is not forbidden, it’s not as fun anymore.  Although I think that Stephenie Meyer could still get you all hot and steamy.  If your thirteen year old is reading it, you might want to read it first to see if you think it’s appropriate.  And well, if your older, like me, remember what I said about escapism literature?  Enough said.

Here is something else for you.  I recently read somewhere about these really weird contractions that are popping up in new books.  I had never seen one.  But there it was on page 287:  I’d've.  Is this a word?  Yeah, pretty trivial in the whole scheme of things, but really?  I was really bothered.

Okay, so before I get on to the spoilers, let me wrap up for you non-spoiler people.  If you like the Twilight series for simply being what they are:  a nice story with interesting characters but you don’t live and breath Twilight and think about Edward every second of the day, then you’ll find yourself sitting back and enjoying the story line because that’s what it is:  a story.  If you do live and breathe Twilight, I think you’ll probably sit down and cry when you realize where the story is going because you can’t stand to think of your beloved characters in their new situations.  That’s why I said earlier that I’m an almost thirty something stay at home mom.  I think my opinion will be very different from that of a sixteen year old.  This is the type of book that will be viewed differently depending upon who you are and what your attitude about the series is in the first place.

If you don’t want SPOILERS then you should STOP right now.

Seriously.

****SPOILERS****

Okay, here’s where I can really talk.  I seriously can’t talk about the book without the storyline involved.

• The book immediately begins with Bella’s and Edward’s fairy tale wedding.  I really thought that Stephenie Meyer would drag this one on a bit, but was surprised that she got right down to business. I was disappointed that Bella never looked in a mirror, so we never got a good description of what she looked like, her wedding dress, etc. I like that type of stuff, but guess we had to imagine it.  Which maybe was the point.
• Edward and Bella take off on a private island getaway honeymoon.  I know Bella doesn’t really care about money, but not once is she happy that she just married into a very wealthy family. If I were her, I would have been a bit more excited about my private island honeymoon.

• Yep, vampires and humans can have sex pretty easily, with a few broken headboards along the way.

• And then we find out, not only can vampires and humans have sex but apparently it’s pretty easy to impregnate a human because Bella soon discovers that she’s going to be having a honeymoon BABY! Woaah! Having a baby actually never crossed my mind and I was really surprised that she’d take it in that direction. I know a lot of people got really, really upset when a baby came into the picture.  From the reviews I’ve read, people think that the story should only be about Edward’s and Bella’s love for each other.  There is no way that their love should be divided.  Many people were also upset with how maternal Bella is and can’t believe that she actually wants a baby.  Wasn’t she was willing to give that up to become a vampire?  So why would it be so important to her now?Now this is the thirty something mom in me talking.  I was married for five years before I conceived my first child.  Honestly, looking back, life didn’t even seem to have begun before my first child was brought into this world.  Sure, my husband and I loved each other, but that love feels more complete and unified now that we have created another extension of ourselves.

  Having a baby together is the natural and ultimate expression of two people’s love for each other.  This is something that I think Stephenie Meyer believes and I applaud her for being brave enough to go with such a natural storyline.  Life throws you for loopholes, pregnancy may be something you don’t plan on, but once it’s there you immediately fall in love with the unborn child.   And in today’s society, where getting pregnant so young and so early in marriage is not only frowned upon but discouraged I think Stephenie Meyer was quite daring.

  The having a baby storyline certainly is different from the other books and gives a whole new depth not found in the other books.  I think it also carried the book into a more adult realm, almost like how Harry Potter, got more adult-ish with each book.

• Like I stated before, Bella is really excited about the baby and is determined to carry it although it might kill her. Her new family, gives Bella everything that she wants and has resorted to watching her die.  I do think she was a bit immature though about her attitude in her ability to carry the baby.  I would have been a bit more scared and concerned about what I was doing.  Edward immediately wants to abort the baby, but once he’s able to hear the baby’s thoughts, he falls in love as well.

• But not only is she going to have the baby she’s going to have one really, really soon. The baby is growing at an unprecedented rate and about a month later we find Edward using his vampire teeth ripping his way through the uterus in an attempt to perform a emergency c-section. Ewwww! I was totally grossed out. And this is coming from somebody who has actually had two c-sections.  And the sheer amount of blood didn’t seem to bother the vampires either.

• Bella is about to die on the operating table so Edward has no choice but to insert his venom into her and hope that by turning her into a vampire, he will save her life. I wasn’t surprised that she’d become a vampire in a  life-saving heroic. It was hinted at so many times earlier throughout the book as many other members of the Cullen clan became vampires that way.

• Having built up what the first year of a newborns life would be like, I was disappointed that Bella takes to vampire life like a fish takes to water.  It was way to easy.  All that build up about the first year acting crazy as a “newborn?”  We basically skip all of that because it simply doesn’t happen.  I would have liked to see not only an internal struggle but a physical one as well.  Losing one’s humanity was much to easy.  Becoming a vampire was one of no regrets.  But Bella loves it.  She was born to be a vampire.  Plus, Edward doesn’t feel all cold and hard as a stone anymore.  That would make for a more pleasurable experience all around.
• The wolves are not very happy about the new baby and are determined that it needs to be destroyed.  Sam and his gang are all set out to kill the baby and any of the vampires who get in their way.  Jacob, who’s returned from his “time alone” doesn’t want to go along with their plan.  He breaks off from their group and warns the Cullen’s of the imminent attack.  Seth and his sister also follow him.  From here on out, Jacob pretty much lives at the Cullen’s house for the rest of the story.
• Why is Jacob living at their house?  He IMPRINTS on the baby.  You would think that I would have saw this one coming from a mile away, but I didn’t.  Now that Jacob is completely in love with Renesmee, he pretty much is a member of the Cullen family.  Yep, he used to hate vampires, now he’s going to marry one (when she’s older of course).  Jacob and Edward get along really well in this book. Too well, actually.  I missed their anamosity.  In fact, at one point Edward calls Jacob “his son.”  Scary.
• Renesmee or Nessie for short (yes, like the Loch Ness monster),  is a very unusual baby.  She grows super fast.  She says her first words at just a week old and is walking not long after.  By the time she is seven years old she’ll be full grown and immortal.  She has the gift of being able to “speak” to people simply by showing them the images that she’s thinking of.  She also prefers blood in her bottle than formula.  There is a lot of blood drinking (apparently you can buy human blood at the blood bank) in this book.
• Since Jacob has thwarted the wolves plan to kill the baby, Bella and Edward are happy in every way.  Perfect bliss.  But we don’t stay trouble free for very long and they soon find out that the Volturi are going to mount a full scale attack on the clan because they think that the baby is a baby turned vampire (which they can’t control) rather than a half-breed.
• All of the Cullen’s vampire friends from around the world gather at their home to stand as a witness to the Volturi and to help them fight if needs be.  Bella makes arrangements for Bella and Jacob to run away together if they all end of being killed.  There were some times that I got irked with Bella’s foolish notion that if Edward died she would die as well.  She couldn’t live without him.  Now that she had a child, I thought she was pretty immature to think this way.  Sometimes I think she forgot that she had a bigger responsibility in life than to just love Edward.
• Bella’s special gift is that not only can she can stay in control of her emotions but she’s able to use a special force field to protect her loved ones.  I was really hoping that Stephenie Meyer would end the series with a nice big fight.  But everything works out well with some peace talks and everybody goes home to live happily ever after.
• Oh, and Charlie finds out that Jacob is a wolf and Bella is part of some supernatural world.  But he takes it all in stride and is on a need to know basis.  So Bella doesn’t lose him as well.  Basically, she loses nothing and gains everything by becoming a vampire.

Did I forget anything major?  So basically in just a sentence or two, Bella and Eward get married, have a baby, thwart those who want to kill them, Jacob imprints on the baby, and everybody’s happy.  Whew!

****END SPOILERS****

The writing is just as sappy as the other three books, so if you don’t like hearing how perfect Edward is or how perfect he kisses a million times, then this might not be the book for you.  But if that’s why you liked it in the first place, well, now you’ve got more.  I think that Stephenie Meyer is a creative author with some brilliant ideas but not extraordinary in her writing.

So did I hate it?  No.  Did I like it?  Sure.  Why?  Because I didn’t have any preconceived notions about how the story should end up, I wasn’t completely invested in the characters to begin with (meaning I’m not a die hard twilighter), I didn’t mind where the storyline took me, I was taken by surprise in some parts, and I didn’t really get bored in the day that it took me to read it.  Yes, it had it’s flaws, but apparently I wasn’t as bothered by this as some other passionate readers out there.  It’s not going to be one of my all time favorite books, but then again, neither were any of her other books.  But I own them all and tell everybody who will listen that they should definitely read them.  All in all, a very enjoyable series.  Way to go Stephenie!

Have you finished Breaking Dawn yet?  If you have, what did you think?  If you haven’t read it yet, are you going to?

Let’s hear what you think!  Feel free to express yourself as much as you want.

Warning: if you don’t want to hear any spoilers I suggest you don’t subscribe to follow up comments.  I’m guessing most comments will contain spoilers, so take care while browsing.

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But alas, if you’re not LDS, why would you be reading this one? But if you are, this is a quick fast read that serves us up some great reminders. So let me pass on some of my thoughts about this book in my meager attempt to share some of the things I learned.

Jane Clayson Johnson is former co-host of The Early Show on CBS and a network correspondent for The CBS Evening News and 48 Hours. In addition, she covered national and international stories for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and Good Morning America. In other words, Jane Clayson Johnson was very a high profile journalist when she decided to leave it all behind. Why? For what? For a better paying job? For a more high profile job? For wealth? For prestige? No. Jane Clayson Johnson decided to embark on another career path. That of a mother. Now, it’s spit up, diaper changes, messes, temper tantrums, food on the floor, and more. And if you’re a mom, you can add another thousand things to that “more.”

In this review, I’m mostly going to share with you some great quotes from I Am a Mother.

Jane describes a dinner that she attended where women stood up and introduced themselves as “Oh, I’m just a mom,” and “I don’t have any credentials; I’m just raising our six children,” or “My life’s not very exciting right now; I’m just a stay -at-home mom,” and “I don’t have much to offer here. I’m just a mother.”

She goes on to say,

We hears some variation of the phrase ‘I’m just a mother’ repeated, almost apologetically, over and over again.

Their words surprised me. I had recently given birth to my first child, and I was on top of the world . . . I wanted to shout from the rooftops, ‘I am a mother! I am a mother!’

She says that when she left her television career many of her colleagues said that she would be finished, she could never back her way back, and that without her job there is no meaning to life, and “why don’t you just get a nanny?”

Jane Clayson Johnson then goes to say,

What I have since learned is that God’s definition of motherhood and the world’s definition are vastly different. And sometimes – probably all too often – the challenges, daily physical and emotional exhaustion, and occasional self-doubt that come along with being a mother cause many of us to buy into an inaccurate and destructive understanding of our role. There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of joy – or fulfillment – associated with the world’s interpretation of motherhood.

Maria Shriver, the wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger also said,

How do we get women to stop saying, ‘I’m just a mother.’ Or, ‘I used to be such and such, but now I’m just a mother?’

Even Oprah Winfrey (I know, I know, don’t leave me comments saying Oprah’s not a mom, I know) has said,

In our society, we give motherhood plenty of lip service. We pat moms on the head, bring them flowers on Mother’s Day, and honor them before crowds. But at the end of the day, we don’t extend them the same respect we would a professor, a dentist, an accountant, or a judge . . . to play down mothering as small is to crack the very foundation on which greatness stands. . . We should no longer allow a mother to be defined as ‘just a mom.’ It is on her back that great nations are built.

Jane Clayson Johnson says about the menial tasks of motherhood:

The sanctity of motherhood can be hard to appreciate when you spend endless hours making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, singing along with Elmo, helping crate elaborate science projects, or enforcing late-night curfews. Many in the world will shout that motherhood is full of small, mundane tasks. And certainly, if you look only on the surface, this is true. But underneath all of the secondary things mothers do – cook, clean, read, chauffeur, nurse and so on – is a mothers real occupation and I believe, the defintion of true success.

Webster defines occupation as ‘the principal business of one’s life.’ The principle business of a mother’s life is loving and nurturing her children; it is teaching them, by example, how to pass on that love and thereby strengthening the world around them.

I appreciated all of the messages that were shared in this book. I loved my job, but when I discovered that I was expecting my first child, I decided that I wanted to stay at home and take care of my children. It was a hard transition. I literally worked up to the day that I delivered (I’m just glad my water broke while at home that evening and not at work earlier that day).

Not only did I leave my job (which I loved) but we also moved at the same time, leaving me with no friends and no support. It was hard. I missed the adult interaction, it was also winter and I hated being indoors all day long. It would have been easy to say to myself, “What in the world am I doing?” But would I trade it for anything else? No. I feel honored to be at home with my children.

Now, don’t take me wrong. I’m not “judging” anybody here and the choices that we all make. It’s the very last thing that I would want to do. Each of us has our own set of circumstances, wants, needs, and desires. We are all unique individuals, whether we are single, married, no children, ten children, stay at home mom, working mom, etc, we are all trying to make our way through life the best way we know how.

As women, we are all mothers in one way or another to all of those around us!

But it is my hope that for those of us who consider ourselves stay-at-home mom’s, we will stop saying “I’m just a mom” as if it’s something shameful. When did we get into the habit of saying, “just?” There is nothing “just” about this job.

Shortly after reading this book, I had a opportunity of my own to share my sentiments. While at the Stephenie Meyer book signing, I was chatting with one of Stephenie’s people. He asked me, “So what do you do?” I instantly thought about this book and it’s message. I looked him in the eye, and confidently said, “I’m a Mom!” And guess what? Did he say, “oh” and then leave me because I had nothing else interesting to say? Absolutely not. He could tell by my mannersims that I felt good about my choice.

And I am. I’m a Mom!

In this perfect society, everything is very orderly. At age one, each child is assigned to a family unit (born from a woman whose occupation is that of birth mother). Two children to a family, one male and one female.  At age eight, each child’s “comfort object” is recycled and they receive a bicycle. And it’s age 12 that each child is given their occupational assignment in which they will serve until it’s time to live at the “home of the old.” There they live until it’s time to be “released.” And as a mother, I was very affected by the release of babies and infants. Especially, when Gabe, a one year old, is selected to be released because he didn’t sleep through the night yet. Can you imagine?!!

Jonas is about to turn twelve and attend the Ceremony of Twelve and receive his assignment. He is unsure of what position he will receive because he doesn’t seem to have any interests towards a particular job. He is shocked (well, as shocked as one can be to someone who’s emotions are suppressed) to learn that he is given the highest position in his society, that of Receiver of Memory.

From The Giver he receives special training and it is upon his shoulders alone that he holds all the memories, feelings, and history of his society. He learns of snow, cold, heat, red, blue, green, war, death, pain, grandparents, Christmas and love. As he receives the truth there is no turning back. Does he have the power to change his world to convince people of the truth?

An excellent book that I highly recommend to those who haven’t read it, but I believe that wouldn’t be very many of you. Visit Lois Lowry’s website here. Read my review of Number the Stars by Lois Lowry here.

Briefly stated, Fablehaven is about two children, Kendra and her brother Seth, who are off to spend two boring weeks with grandparents they hardly know. Things start off simply enough, but they soon find out that their grandparents are caretakers for a secret magical preserve where all type of creatures (fairies, witches, imps, trolls, satyrs – you get the picture) live. Things get out of hand, evil forces are unleashed, lives are threatened, and Kendra and her brother must save not only the Fablehaven preserve but their family as well.

I felt that Kendra and Seth were emotionally unbelievable. There emotions never seemed to match their situations. It all seemed a bit flat to me. There were plenty of twists and turns but they weren’t anticipated, they just happened out of the blue. The cover art for Fablehaven is beautiful, so I was really disappointed when I came across the first illustration in the book. Not only was it very poorly reproduced and so dark you could hardly make it out, but it was boring and dull. All the illustrations that followed were similar. My husband pointed out that he disliked how the illustration (of a house) on the chapter headers never changed. It would have been fun to see a different illustration for each chapter, otherwise why even have it?

Oh, Brandon, I’m feeling so guilty! I had to keep saying to myself while reading it: I am a twelve year old boy, I am a twelve year old boy, I am a twelve year old boy! So maybe if I was a boy and I was twelve, I probably would like this book. Don’t get me wrong, it was certainly creative and fun, but as an almost 30-something woman, Fablehaven just didn’t do anything for me. I think I wasn’t exactly his target audience. I may be willing to try the next two books, Fablehaven and the Rise of the Evening Star and Fablehaven and the Grip of the Shadow Plague (due out soon). Do they get better?

Visit Brandon Mull’s website.

And I thought I would mention that Brandon and his wife just celebrated the arrival of a new baby girl. Congrats to them!