Disturbed and Confused

I am usually the person raving about the newest book I have just read and encouraging others to read it. However, this one time I am going to save you some heartache and tell you NOT to read The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. Stop reading now if you don't won't to be spoiled...I'll give you some space before I continue...



I was so excited to see another book by this author as I had loved her earlier work The Lovely Bones. I should have saved my excitement. The first chapter finds the protagonist, Helen, smothering her elderly, mentally ill mother with a towel after the the mother has soiled herself. After years of caring for her mother (who we will learn in flashbacks was an agoraphobic, yet very vain woman) Helen finally snaps. The rest of the book plays out over a 24 hour period that shows Helen dragging her mother's body throughout the house - washing it in the kitchen, sitting with it on the porch, and finally stuffing it in the basement freezer and cutting off the woman's braid as a memento. She calls her ex-husband and admits what she did and he tells her not to leave the house that he will catch the next plane and be there in the morning to help her. Obviously this means that she will drive away in her car to her best friend's house and have sex with the friend's son. Because that is what you do after killing your mother and stuffing her in a freezer.

How does the book end? I don't know. Did I finish the book? No. May I have found out that it redeemed itself if I had? No, I highly doubt that as well.

So basically in summary, this book is just bad. Don't read it!

Men With Fangs

Almost everywhere you look lately, someone is reading the book series "Twilight". If you are not aware of this phenomenon, let me explain...The Twilight series is a set of four books about a young, clumsy girl named Bella who falls in love with a vampire who sparkles. Yes, that's right - sparkles! Girls (and grown women!) across the nation have fallen in love with the sparkly Edward Cullen and are actually a little depressed that their boyfriends and husbands don't glow in the sun.

Now, I confess, I read the books and enjoyed them for what they were. Although, I'm solidly on Team Jacob - the werewolf who pines after Bella's heart and completes the love triangle that every good teen romance should have. I even have Jacob "flair" on my FaceBook page. However, I prefer my vampires a little darker, a little sexier, a little more dangerous. That got me to thinking... I actually "have" a vampire preference?? Yes, indeedy I do! Call it the bad boy mystique that good girls tend to gravitate towards but I would pick Spike over Angel any day!

Alas, dawn broke on the Twilight saga. No more Bella and Edward (at least until November when the movie releases). What will I do? Where I will find another dark, brooding man of the undead variety just waiting to emerge from the shadows?

He can be found in Bon Temps, LA! My current obsession is the HBO series "True Blood". Decidedly more adult in nature than "Twilight" (and I DO mean "adult". No child under 18 - possibly 25 - should in the room when the show is on) it definitely has its bad boys.

Will Sookie find herself in a love triangle between Bill and Eric? Someone completely different? Having read the books, I know the answer to that question. I won't spoil it for those who are just now finding this story, but I can tell you that Mr. Bill Compton is a bad, bad boy. Whether or not that is a good thing - I leave you to decide.