Chaos Is A Friend of Mine

Book Review: Comfort Food

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Comfort Food centers around Martha Stewart-type TV chef Gus Simpson, a fifty year old widow with two grown daughters. Her cooking show ratings have been declining and The Cooking Channel wants her to team with sexy Latina cook, Carmen Vega. There are also several subplots going on: Gus's youngest daughter is afraid of commitment and has been engaged three times; her neighbor Hannah has a big secret that only Gus knows; and Gus and her daughters are still mourning the loss of Gus's husband just to name a few.

I listened to the audio version of this book which I think added to my enjoyment of it. The narrator did a great job for creating a unique voice for each character in the large supporting cast. I have a feeling that if I had just read this book, it would have gotten three stars because it was a fairly fluffy, formulaic story with some pretty cheesy romantic bits. It was entertaining and funny though and I think would be a quick read. View all my reviews >>

Book Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This review contains spoilers for both this book and the movie Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

This novella expands the story of Bree Tanner, one of the newborn vampires mentioned in Eclipse. This book seemed pretty pointless to me. My theory of why it was written is that the makers of the movie Eclipse called Stephenie Meyer and said, "We want to have the Volturi know what Victoria is up to before the fight." and Stephenie said, "Okay, let me dash off a quick novella that will include that so the fans don't get mad at you for changing the story."

It irritates me that Stephenie is writing pointless novellas when she could be using her time to finish Midnight Sun. Quit fooling around and finish Midnight Sun Stephenie! View all my reviews >>

Movie Review - The Twilight Sage: Eclipse

They just keep getting better and better! I thought Eclipse was the best Twilight Saga movie yet. I think both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson must have taken acting lessons since New Moon. Kristen Stewart's performance especially was markedly improved. I didn't find her annoying at all which I didn't think would ever be possible after how annoying she was in Twilight.

This movie finally lets Edward have the sense of humor that he has in all the books. Robert Pattinson is even hotter when he's allowed to lighten up and smile a bit instead of being so gloomy all the time.

I thought Melissa Rosenberg did a great job of leaving out and condensing a lot of the controlling behavior in the first part of the book that makes Edward look like an ass and a lot of other parts that were repetitive in the book. I think the movie was more focused and faster-paced (in a good way) than the book. Now I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Breaking Dawn movie (or movies) turns out!

Book Review: Eclipse

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review after second reading: The first time I read this book, I read it really fast because I couldn't wait to find out what happened. In this second reading I slowed down and noticed how Edward is kind of a jerk in the first part of the book. (Blasphemy, I know!) His controlling attitude over Bella is not cute. And Jacob was not really as annoying as I remembered him being upon the first reading. Maybe because I now picture Taylor Lautner in my head and his hotness dampens the annoyingness. I found myself actually considering switching teams for a moment! But I couldn't go through with it - my heart belongs to Edward.