Read this week (3)

Not so much reading happening this week... lots of movie-watching though. Tons of knitting and crocheting too. And a little too much shopping. But I'm okay with that. I visited my family this weekend, so I was busy busy busy. Anyway.



Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith
I liked this book better than I liked the companion novel Tantalize. But that's not saying much. I had a hard time accepting the fact that a person could adjust so well to being a blood-thirsty vampire, to forget all about what it was like to be human and to want to feast on any old hot-blooded being in the room. And to accept this new lifestyle without so much as a complaint or thought to why this is happening. Beh. I wasn't convinced. And I certainly didn't enjoy the angel falling in love with the vampire. I'm not religious in any way, but even this seemed awkward and just wrong to me. I suppose I prefer the benevolent, vegetarian vampires. I really don't like the violence or disregard for human life. But that's just me.

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale
This was the last of Shannon Hale's books that I had yet to read. This graphic novel is co-written by her husband and illustrated by Nathan Hale, who is not related to the couple in any way, which is a neat little coincidence. It is the revised story of Rapunzel with a Wild West twist - I'm not a fan of the Western, but this book was great. The mother who locks her in a tower is sufficiently evil, and the world is magical yet familiar. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of fairy tales, original and retold, adventure stories, and hero stories. And to any girl 9+ who needs a few more girl power stories in her life. I think it also has a wide appeal in age range and gender - I'd go as young as third grade and know a few high school students who would enjoy it as well. Oh! And I love the fact that it's larger than a normal book or graphic novel at that, almost a foot tall, I would say. I liked having more of the story on one page - which I never really thought about before. The colors are also vibrant, and the pages sleek and shiny, another preference of mine.


So, I'm hoping to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and The Forest of Hands and Teeth this week since I have to return them to their libraries (yes, I go to more than one library) by Wednesday. I've got another busy weekend ahead of me, so that might be all I get to read, unfortunately. I wish I could get back into audiobooks, but I've been loving lots of new music lately, so it wins. The summer's going by too fast - I have loads more reading to do! And sometime soon before I forget, I'd like to blog about library representation and stereotypes in books because I've read quite a few recently that touch on this topic. And I need to start blogging earlier on Sunday because I'm just about brain dead. The zombies got me.