Eclipse (The Twilight Saga)

Eclipse (The Twilight Saga)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The legions of readers who are hooked on the romantic struggles of Bella and the vampire Edward will ecstatically devour this third installment of the story begun in Twilight, but it's unlikely to win over any newcomers. Jake, the werewolf met in New Moon, pursues Bella with renewed vigilance. However, when repercussions from an episode in Twilight place Bella in the mortal danger that series fans have come to expect, Jake and Edward forge an uneasy alliance. The plot patterns have begun to show here, but Meyer's other strengths remain intact. The supernatural elements accentuate the ordinary human dramas of growing up. Jake and Edward's competition for Bella feels particularly authentic, especially in their apparent desire to best each other as much as to win Bella. Once again the author presents teenage love as an almost inhuman force: "[He] would have been my soul mate still," says Bella, "if his claim had not been overshadowed by something stronger, something so strong that it could not exist in a rational world." According to Meyer, the fourth book should tie up at least the Edward story, if not the whole shebang. Ages 12-up. (Aug.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The third episode of Meyer’s vampire-romance series finds heroine Bella Swan anxious to become a vampire and live forever with handsome vampire Edward. Obstacles arise when Edward demands marriage and werewolf Jacob declares his love for Bella. Eventually, the Cullen vampires and the Quileute werewolves unite to face off against a pack of uncontrollable vampires seeking revenge on Bella. Kadushin portrays kindly Edward in soft, warm tones and voices teenager Jacob in more brash, edgy speech patterns. She captures Bella’s uncertainty as she wavers between her love for Edward and her intrigue with Jacob. Kadushin’s performance is particularly stellar in passages where Bella is cold and her words come out in a chattering fashion or when she is upset, causing her to sob and hiccup. Matt Weathers reads the epilogue, which indicates a follow-up title is likely, news that should please fans of the popular series. Grades 9-12. --Pam Spencer Holley --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Storm Prey by John Sandford

Storm Prey

From Booklist

It was an inside job, and it should have been easy. Rob the pharmacy at
Minneapolis’ largest hospital: in, out, wait till things cool down, and then sell the drugs for a half million or so.
But the old man had to be a hero. Who knew he’d be on blood thinners and die after he was kicked? A robbery turned murder means Lucas Davenport and his Bureau of Criminal Apprehension team are called in to assist the investigation. There’s another element to the case for Davenport: his wife, Weather, a surgeon at the hospital, may be able to identify one of the killers. The case starts to escalate. An attempt is made on Weather’s life. The bodies of two motorcycle gang members are found in a rural area. Davenport guesses the gang is imploding from the pressure and murdering its members. Weather, under 24-hour guard, is part of a surgical team working to separate conjoined twins in a procedure that’s captured the attention of the world’s media. Meanwhile, Davenport and his team keep finding bodies of likely robbers but can’t seem to isolate either the brains behind the theft or the hospital insider who pointed them at the pharmacy. The twenty-second Prey novel includes most of the elements readers expect: sharp plot, snappy dialogue, and believable action, but the background playfulness and gallows humor that usually fill in the gaps are in short supply. But hey, that’s nitpicking. On balance, this is another fine entry in a wildly popular series. --Wes Lukowsky

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut [Hardcover]

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut

Review

"A handful of rock writers can explain what they think about music' and lots of rock writers can explain what they feel about music.What makes Rob Sheffield different is that he understands how those feelings are generated. He can turn those abstract emotions into concrete thoughts. It doesn,t happen often, but sometimes the smartest guy in  the room is also the funniest guy in the room....and the nicest guy...and the tallest guy...and the most vocal Chaka Khan fan.Read Talking to Girls Duran Duran and enter that room."


- Chuck Klosterman, New York Times bestselling author of Eating the Dinosaur and Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs

"Humorous, heartbreaking, and herotic."
-Entertainment Weekly on Love Is a Mix Tape



find out why Duran Duran always keep coming up in conversation in the introduction, and remember what's so great about The Go-Go's, David Bowie, and Ray Parker Jr. in these chapter excerpts (pdf)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Kindle Edition) by Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , as it is know in America, is part one of a series of films based off a best-selling trilogy of books by Stieg Larsson.
You can find a story synopsis at wikipedia

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The book is a reminder of Larsson's strengths and a few weaknesses. Blomkvist's vanity is trying, as every women he meets falls for him, and the reliance on violence as a solution to loose ends is uncomfortable.The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is not really a standalone read like the earlier novels, but the completion of the trilogy confirms

Larsson as one of the great talents of contemporary crime fiction.

At the heart  of the book  is  a high-level  conspiracy  that  brings  together two of  Larsson's abiding  concerns: hatred  of women, and the threat  to  Swedish  democracy  posed  by  right-wing  elements  in the security  service. It  solves the  mysteries  set up in the  first two Millennium  novels  and explains  how  Salander  became  what  she is: a grown-up  and  horribly  abused  version  of the popular  Swedish  children's  heroin, Pippi  Longscoking. That is sufficient to  compensate  for  the  longueurs  of the first  100 pages, which  involve  a lot of business left over from  the second  volume; new charaters are  introduced  with bewildering  speed  to  explain the  conspiracy  against  Salander, and  is only then  that  the novel really takes off.