Dead to the World

WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES, ERIC!?

Sookie's just not having a good time lately. Her boyfriend cheats on her, she gets beat up, and now her brother's missing. On top of all that, she finds her ex's boss, Eric, running through the woods buck naked with no memory of who he is or what's going on. Will Bill, the ex, in Peru, Sookie's gotta deal with this all on her own, and she's discovering that a memoryless Eric is a lot more interesting than the real one.

I did like this book, though I had a nasty habit of skim reading again so I could hear what the characters were saying to each other. D:
I'm terrible, I know, I just can't help it. I love the way Harris creates personalities by the way her characters speak. It's so entertaining.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the Eric/Sookie pairing at first, but it did start to grow on me toward the end, and I was so disappointed when it was over. Part of me still hopes that Sookie and Bill end up together. I don't know why, as he is obviously a douche for leaving her for that Lorena vampire in the first place, but they just fit so well together that I hate to see it die!

And there's the fact that the real Eric makes me want to punch a kitten.
I hate egotists they drive me crazy.

All in all, Harris has amused me once again with a creative plot line and fascinating character development. I find myself able to connect with Sookie more in this book than any of the previous ones and I appreciate the fact that it can still make me laugh 4 books in.

ALSO, I'M CUCKOO FOR FAERIES. THANK YOU, CHARLAINE. Thank you! :3

4/5 stars.

Heavy In Your Arms.

"Heavy In Your Arms" by Florence + The Machine has stolen my heart. I have a special obsession growing for this band, which began with my purchase of their album "Lungs" way back when. Florence Welsh has a lovely voice. She's incredibly talented when it comes to writing lyrics and to be honest, her songs seem more like poetry than music, it's so beautiful.

Now, this single is not available for single-track downloads, and you must purchase the entire Eclipse soundtrack to get. Boo. I don't like any of the other songs and I am itching to get my hands on this one. Just this one. Not the other ones. But that is impossible. So I shall rape the repeat button on YouTube until I can get my greedy hands on this song.

Roswell.

Roswell - housing sexy aliens since 1947.

Roswell, New Mexico, is famous for their claim of an alien spacecraft crashing into the desert in 1947. They cash in on the event in any way possible, they even have a cafe dedicated to the critters. Liz Parker,  a simple waitress, is serving coffee one day when a shooter somehow manages to screw up and hit her right in the abdomen. Max Evans places his hand over the wound and viola! It is healed. Unfortunately, this leads Liz to realize that Max is not human and his sister, Isabel, and their friend Micheal Guerin are not either. Max is an alien. Isabel is an alien. Micheal is definitely an alien. And so begins a strange journey to discover what exactly they are, where they're from, and why they're here.

Netflix has served me well, I made a deal with a friend that if he watches all the seasons of Grey's Anatomy, I will watch all the seasons of Roswell. Which I thought would be hell because I don't believe in aliens, but I do enjoy this show very much. Though some of the first season is slow moving, after you get past it your reach the fast-paced, action-packed fun that is serious alien ass-kicking.

My favorite character is Liz, for reals. She's so terribly normal and inexperienced with everything. And such a goody-goody. Maybe I just like her because she reminds me of myself. Oh well. I love you Liz, and I hope you continue to stumble through the series with that wonderfully bewildered look you always have on!

All in all, I rate the first season 4 out of 5 stars.

The Virgin Suicides.

1 dead, 2 dead, 3 dead, 4, 5 dead. 5 DEAD SISTERS. MUHAHAHA.

Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon have 5 beautiful, thriving teenage daughters. Cecilia, Mary, Therese, Bonnie and Lux are unknowingly the talk of the town with their homemade baggy clothes and unavailable nature. But when Cecilia inexplicably commits suicide, the obsession rises. A group of men try to piece together the pieces of the puzzle to discover the reasons behind their love for the Lisbon girls, Cecilia's self-destruction, and the events leading up to the the suicides of all 4 remaining sisters on the same night.

The suburbs in the 70's are a messy place. It's not a secret that Cecilia kills herself, the books begins with one suicide attempt, which is thwarted by the ambulance. In the first few pages, it's evident that Eugenides is some kind of master at dark humor. My favorite part? When the doctor is talking to Cecilia after she is rescued. 

" 'What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets. ' 

'Obviously, doctor...you've never been a thirteen-year-old girl.' " 

Some of my other favorites moments are when the boys are reading through Cecilia's diary and begin to feel like teenage girls themselves. Ahaha. Excellent. 

What I do find somewhat odd is the obsession the boys had with the Lisbon girls in the first place. I think it might have something to do with their unavailability. They obviously wanted to interact with the opposite sex, but their parental units made it impossible. Strict rules were set in place to avoid such a thing from happened. And when they were finally allowed out to a dance, Lux pretty much screwed them over by missing curfew. That's when Mrs. Lisbon decided to lock them all up like hermits. Good parenting on their part. The isolation is what really killed the Lisbon girls. 

What I particularly enjoyed about this book is also something that got tiring. It was plump full of character descriptions, which are my favorite thing in the entire world. I love knowing exactly what the characters look like and the individual characteristics that make them unique. But Eugenides took it a step farther than most and explained every character, even the most minor of them. I don't need to know what Mrs. What's-Her-Face ate for breakfast that morning, thanks. 

All in all, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Thumb's up.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

The Great Battle.

I have a problem, folks. See, I do love me a great chatroom, but I hate to actually have to download the chat onto my computer (this is why I dislike Skype so much). My alternative? Meebo.com has always been there for me when it counts. With their fabulous design and interface, you can combine all you favorites chats (Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, FaceBook, AIM, etc.) in once place and log onto all of them at once. You also have a Meebo name, which allows you to chat with fellow members and (up until recently) join chatrooms. Meebo is also very easy on the eyes. You can change the background color/image and even the color of the pop-up windows to make your own scheme. Your font is also highly customizable, with several font choices and colors to choose from. But, sadly, Meebo has purged itself of all that is wonderful by destroying their chatroom option. You may no longer pop into any chat you want and instead must be invited to one by a fellow member.

Meebo's pretty design just can't make up for the absence of chatrooms.

In my desperation to talk to random strangers, I stumbled upon Teenspot.com, a site dedicated to all things teenagers love most. Chatrooms and flirting. I'll be the first to admit that Teenspot is not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as Meebo, but it does have its perks. You profile page is customizable, with the ability to add pictures and change the background and colors. The problem is that the chat itself might possibly be the ugliest thing I have seen in a long time. Though you can change the color of your font and the backdrop color, you can't change the font itself. This creates an environment that is much too uniform for my taste. There are many different chatrooms to choose from and the people are easy to get along with. Be careful though, many of the chats are dedicated to flirting. I don't do that over the internet, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

That's one ugly chat, Teenspot. But at least you have chats.

For me, the choice was easy. I had to have my chatroom fix. I still log onto Meebo, and even have an App for it on my iPod, but Meebo will just never be the same.

The Lovely Bones.

The Lovely Boner...I mean, Bones.

Susie Salmon was 14 years on December 6, 1973, her last day on earth. While walking home in the cold, her neighbor Mr. Harvey tricks her into a fateful mistake. Susie is raped and killed, her body mutilated and stuffed inside a safe. While her life has ended, she has not lost the love for her family and friends and though she is trapped in the confines of her own little heaven, she watches them diligently as they struggle to continue their lives.

The book grabbed my interest, but I admit to being very unnerved by the first-person perspective and found it extremely difficult to read the graphic rape seen at the beginning. Her description of watching her body made me flinch several times and I was forced to put down the book about halfway through so I could take a break.

I believe that the first half of the book is very well written, though it is very intense and that the last half dragged, which was disappointing. In all honesty, I thought from the first page that this would be a four star review at least, maybe even five, yet I only gave it three.

Here's why: the ending frustrated me so much that I wanted to throw the book across the room. WHY, ALICE SEBOLD? WHY? I wish I could express my anger fully, but I'd love for anyone reading this to read it for yourselves and decide. Was the ending complete crap? Or was it genius? I lean towards the latter.

It's the big glaring flaw in an otherwise solid novel.
3 out of 5 stars.