Before getting too far into the awesomeness that is the second movie installment in the Twilight Saga, I want to explain that I love THE STORY (period). Even Stephenie Meyer herself admits that the writing and the story arcs in her series could use some work. But the story itself – borrowing from such classics as Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet and paying homage to Jane Austen throughout and giving them all a fantasy/emo twist – has really gripped me and hasn’t let me go. The simplicity (hey it *is* Y.A.) makes it a quick read, and the parts that really bother me are easy enough to gloss over, so I have read all of the books at least twice – something I have only ever done before (outside of required revisits of classics for college courses) with The Great Gatsby, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

While I loved the first Twilight movie (who wouldn’t love seeing their fictional vampire boyfriend brought to life?), until the movie gets past the meadow scene I find myself uncomfortably laughing and cringing in my seat. The first movie was truly a case where the director and screenwriter were obviously torn – they tried to stay “true to the book” at the expense of the movie and it ended up almost killing the thing – plus the special effects blew, and Edward’s turmoil came across less as emotional and more as gastrointestinal inner conflict. But seeing vampires fighting and seeing Edward relax and become charming – I could watch those parts of the movie over and over (and most certainly have).

Now onto New Moon… Of all four books this one was my least favorite. I sped through it dying to know when Edward would come back – I mean, he had to, right? I wasn’t too keen on Jacob – he went from being child-like to just plain mean in my opinion – and werewolves in general have zero in the way of sex appeal, even less when pitted against vampires. I could never understand all those Team Jacob-ites, but last night changed all of that for me. Movie Jacob was much, much better than Book Jacob for a million reasons, but I think the fact that his character really is someone you would want to have as your best friend (and in the movie, even after the were-transformation) is probably key for me. I left the theater all smiles and totally making peace with all the Team Jacob chics of the world, and, like Bella, maybe over time I would have become one if Edward hadn’t come back. But the fictional fact of the matter is Edward did come back, and  boy did he apologize (again, better than the book)!

Having watched an evolution of the CGI with the wolfpack via trailers I can say they definitely worked to improve the effects, but they still leave something to be desired. And there are definitely a few places where someone should have called makeup in for Edward. But aside from that, New Moon is a vast improvement over the first installment both in terms of cinematography/special effects and the acting/directing – and that comes across almost immediately. The story was also adapted much better. But if you are going to compare it to other stories hitting the big screen right now, putting a trailer for the upcoming film Avatar kinda makes you realize what you are missing. Then again we are talking James Cameron and 20th Century Fox versus Chris Weitz and Summit Entertainment, so I don’t know how fair that is.

After waiting for a year, and in the meantime clinging to every snippet of information about the movie that I could find, you would think it would be really hard for my expectations to be met, right? While I probably would have loved it anyway – I am just that big of a Twerd – but New Moon truly did exceed my expectations. So, after walking out of the theater at 2:20am this morning sighing “Oh My Edward,” I can’t wait to go see it again tonight at 7pm, and probably a few more times before it leaves the big screen.

Melody is the Managing Editor and resident Gadget Geek for Girls Guide. She is a freelance writer for blogs and such, and her primary focus is Girls Guide. You can email her at melody [at] girlsguidetothegalaxy [dot] com, and you can follow her on Twitter- @cosmosgirl.

The collection that is about to consume my home contains stacks of everything, from the complete dime-store science fiction adventure series of Miss Sookie Stackhouse and the Twilight sorchers to a library of baby raising manuals that were recently acquired when I found out that there is another human being living in the belly pooch formerly dedicated to beer festivals and pizza binges. By the way, whoever said kids don’t come with manuals has not seen the stack of books that has taken over my kitchen table.  How can those books not be considered just that: operating manuals on everything from sleep to names to the grotesqueness that is pregnancy. And every time something big happens the library grows. I wouldn’t say I am a book hoarder and there isn’t a reason to get me in touch with a self-help television host; well at least in regards to my book problem. I just don’t know what to do with all of them.

For about a month I tried nipping the book buying problem in the bud. I went and got myself a bona-fide, laminated library card and tried renting books instead of buying books. In theory it was an excellent plan; I would be saving money and saving space, right? Wrong… well, sorta. The library didn’t carry 99.9% of the books I wanted to read, and if they did there was no way I would get them finished in time for the due date! Two weeks is not enough time to make your way through War and Peace, or even White Noise for that matter, and really understand and process what you are reading.  Library fail.

I tried giving my books away, you know to people who actually were interested in reading the books I didn’t feel were good enough to keep. That right there explains the problem with that scenario… if the books aren’t good enough to keep then why would sister Suzy want to read them? Well, she didn’t. And when I saw them sitting on the table exactly where I had left them I got all tossed-off (for no really good, rational reason mind you). Book giveaway fail.

Someone once tried to drunkenly argue the merits of the Kindle. I am not sure if it was by benefit of the person’s excessive Jameson consumption or if it is more closely related to a nasty little book snob that hates trees living deep inside of me, but either way I see the Kindle as the meal’s equivalent of a diet shake. Dinner just isn’t the same unless you have chewed and swallowed it; reading just isn’t the same if you can’t smell the ink and paper while turning the pages. I think the Kindle might just be one of those technologies that will have to be forced upon me if it takes off, kind of like how old people and iPods. Uber Nerd Note: I also become irrationally torked when someone dog ears a page, and when someone pops the spine on a first-edition…

Where does that leave me? Swimming in a sea of characters and plots that are doing nothing more than collection dust. Jumping across piles of books that tell me how to build a birdhouse underwater. And wadding through the dense collection of bubblegum reads and blazing vampire hotties (yum!). Halp! What should I do with all these books? What do you do with yours?

My Twilight problem extends well beyond the books (having read them all I am working my way through a second time), the movie (which I am approaching my third viewing of soon), and the music (which I have downloaded all of the play lists for each book from the author’s website). I am a proud Twerd and have started a secret group on Facebook for local ladies (over 21) who are afflicted with the same love for Edward Cullen as I am and I have joined TwilightMoms (no this doesn’t mean I have any special news, it just means that I am not a teenager, I am married, and I am in love with the series).

Obviously, I am Team Edward all the way. Still don’t quite get why there would even be a Team Jacob, but anyway I am in love with a fictional vampire, haha! I know there are a lot of you out there too, and there are a ton of dudes reading this series as well. You don’t have to out yourselves on this here blog if you don’t want to, but as long as you are here you can enjoy this (caution contains spoilers!!!):

If you haven’t disowned me yet, thank you! If this means I am getting taken off of your feed reader immediately – I will miss you!  Now that I have that off my chest…

This afternoon I returned from lunch to find a funnel cloud had been spotted a few miles from my office.  My heart was racing and I opened every online weather source I could think of to track the tornado and weather shifts.  I was so excited, running to the windows to see the clouds and try to spot the rotation the county sirens spoke of.  I watched as my Twitter friends chatted about what they could see, what they knew, and how close they were to impending disaster.  But I didn’t just watch it - I relished in it.  I think I have found my connection with nature, but it is not a bond forged through camping or fishing.  I stand amazed at the shear power nature has to upend a day or a city.  And that, my friends, is why I will never be a world renowned poet, but I can tell you when severe weather is lurking and which radar sites are the best for tracking it.  Doppler radar (truly a modern marvel) has helped me find both nature and the Romantics.  It has been years since I turned in my last critical paper on that literary movement, and I doubt my new found ”connection” would help my reading, but it might be fun to pick up some old Nortons just to see if it has.

I have heard and read a lot of discussions about reasonable accommodations lately.  Last night, I was driving home listening to a discussion on talk radio (I think it was The Dave Glover Show) about prisoners requesting Kosher meals, and in early December, Stanley Fish blogged about legal precedent and reasonable accommodations.  Reasonable accommodations for voters, employees, and citizens in general are required by law, and reasonability comes down to perspective. 

Fish argues that law trumps religious accommodations. The example he gives is of a person whose religion requires human sacrifice.  They could not possibly be reasonably accommodated from the perspective of most Americans because human sacrifice, for any reason, is considered murder and illegal.  But, in another part of the world, if the majority religion requires such sacrifice, it would not be considered murder, hence not illegal.  Possibly a dramatic example, but it really speaks to the core of the impact of perspective based and world views.  Murderers are evil people in the eyes of many, but the nature of evil is based on your perspective, hence your ability to accommodate others is really based on the way you see the world at that moment in time.  Kind of like when women weren’t allowed to vote, world view shifted - with the help of lots of advocacy work- and then women’s suffrage occurred.

Back to Dorothy.  In Wicked, she was merely a pawn in a political game being played long before she dropped from the sky, but in the movie she is a hero, overcoming evil.  To those who cared about the Wicked Witch of the West, she was a murderer.  Pretty interesting and thought provoking though, especially for a musical.  Perspective is the thing that our political beliefs rely on, the support for decisions about rearing our children, motivation for the food choices we make, it even effects the decisions we make about the clothing we leave the house in.  Perspective, especially current world perspective, is really that grey area that the law and common citizens are currently trying to maneuver under the title of reasonable accommodation.

Let us start with genre.  Nice girls read romance novels; they do not read crime novels, this rule especially applies to true-crime.  Which brings me to the second nice girl genre rule: Nice girls read fiction, they do not read non-fiction. Since nice girls are not supposed to be political, it is verboten that a nice girl read non-fiction as it might inspire an interest in current events.  The only valid appeals to this rule are memoirs that are described by critics as “touching” or a “story of triumph”, if they are related to an animal in some way, or if they are about child psychology or childbearing.  But now we are talking subject matter.

As noted, mandates can be are repealed or reinforced by an overriding rule of theme.  Children and animals are already on the list so let’s expand.  Nice girls read stories about women overcoming horrific diseases, forgotten housewives gone wild and hot shot women who rule the world.  Though they would never dream about being any of these women they like to hear stories about it, as long as they aren’t too risqué.

I would also like to add, nice girls generally avoid anything philosophical, metaphorical or classical as the imagery may be dense and it might hurt their heads as they read before bed.  Who needs to stay up all night contemplating how earth shattering it would be if the Devil is really painted as the classic hero in Paradise Lost?

And in closing, the Presidential quote of the week: “I am the decider” – George W. Bush. Sums things up nicely doesn’t it?

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