Music to my ears

The other day on my way to ballet, I had the car radio tuned to the local classical music station when out comes this piano music floating out of the speakers. I sat in my car in the parking lot for a long time, mesmerized.

I’m not usually a fan of piano solos (I like full symphonies and violin concertos), but this song was just so gorgeous and poignant that I stopped, breathless, in my car until the music ended. It was Widmung, composed by Schumann and arranged for the piano by Liszt. Schumann wrote the song as a wedding gift to his new bride, and I can see why – it has a deeply romantic melody.

The first thought in my head when I heard it was that this is exactly how the lullaby Edward composed for Bella would sound like. Throughout the books, there are references to Edward humming Bella to sleep with her lullaby and playing it on the piano to welcome her home.

Like I said, deeply romantic.

I downloaded Widmung on iTunes, and I get an ache in my chest every time I listen.

Speechless

Wow, wow, wow.

That was wonderful.

The plot of the last book in the saga was really clever, even though it took the story to an unexpected direction that I was unsure of at first. And the build up to the tension and the action, all the while maintaining the highly romantic and poignant tone of Bella and Edward's love story, was very well done.

And now that I am at the end and can see the whole story arc from the other side of the bridge, I have to say that the whole saga was just plain great - everything, from Books 1 through 4. The little things that were driving me crazy before had a purpose when you see everything in its entirety, most importantly the love triangle that was explained and resolved in such a way that left me very satisfied.

And I take it back - Jacob Black, you ain't half bad after all. Sorry I wanted you dead before.


[SPOILER ALERT]


And the best part of Book 4? When Bella finally becomes a vampire. Her character improved a million times after her transformation - it's like she grew up overnight, as she quit her whining, became a strong, kickass heroine, and was finally worthy and deserving of Edward's regard - an equal to him in every way. They were partners in every sense. I loved that she turned into a vampire. After Edward's deliciousness, Bella turning into a vampire was the second best part of the series and the build up to it was worth it.

I did wish we saw more of Edward fighting like during the climax of Book 3 (perhaps my most favorite part of Book 3). Edward in battle was a sight to behold - he was like an unstoppable commando warrior force. So hot.

So all these thoughts are swirling in my head now as I try to process everything I've read in the past few weeks, which is why I must sound a bit incoherent to you right now. And as I'm still loathe to leave this pretty magical Twilight world, I have more to say about all of this in coming posts. So stay tuned as I get my thoughts in order...

My friends know me so well

I'm taking a break from my Twilight marathon/obsession to post this picture of the awesome gift my friend Stephanie gave me.

My friends know I have the sense of humor of a 7 year old boy. I just about peed my pants when I opened the package.

Thanks, Steph. I love it!

The most annoying character

DIE, Jacob Black, DIE!

And Bella, honey? If you claim to love Edward so much, stop making him suffer!

#@^&!*&$*!!!!!!!

My hand is itching to smack both Jacob and Bella. Badly.

Meyer was obviously basing the stupid Bella-Edward-Jacob love triangle on Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I don't know if Edward is supposed to be Heathcliff or if he's supposed to be Edgar Linton, but there are passages in the book that make me think Meyer is identifying some of Edward into Heathcliff's point of view, even though Edgar was better for Catherine, as Edward is likewise a whole of a hell lot better for Bella.

But, aside from all that, what I remember now about Wuthering Heights is how much I hated Catherine Earnshaw. She was quite possibly one of the most annoying heroines ever (until Bella), and the love triangle between Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar was teeth-grindingly irritating and ridiculously overwrought. Until Bella and Jacob came along, that is. Really - can we have the Twilight saga just be about Edward? He is the most compelling, the most noble, the best character. If it weren't for him, I would have stopped reading at page 300 of Book 1. He redeems these books - without him, Bella and Jacob and all the rest would be nothing.

Bella doesn't deserve Edward.

And Jacob Black needs to die a slow, painful death.

Useless

Deep in the throes of Book 3 of the Twilight series, I am pretty much useless to everyone right now. No new jewelry will be made, almost no dinner cooked (sorry, Mr Hazel!), no laundry washed and no kitties petted until I finish these books. Tonight I went to Borders to buy Book 4 (Breaking Dawn) so that I'll be ready to go as soon as I finish reading the very last page of Eclipse.

I'm amazed I even managed to surface long enough to blog.

Book Two

I finished this in less than 24 hours.

I don't know what happened, but again, it's like book 2 was written by an author different from whoever wrote the first half of Twilight. This was an extremely poignant and bittersweet story, and I didn't notice any of the stuff that was driving me crazy last time...there was a lot more showing and less telling, smoother prose, lyrical descriptions, wonderful turns of phrase. The worldbuilding during the Italy scenes was also very clever.

The writing is like night and day.

My only complaint (I have to complain about something) is that, like in the last book, the climax sprang out of nowhere.

But you know about those female readers who fell in love with Edward? Count me in as being one of them. He is absolutely dreamy. There's no other word for it. And I don't say that about just any of my heroes.

Er...

OK, OK, so in the interests of full literary disclosure (plus I did say I would be the first to admit if I ended up liking the book), this is what happened.

Right around page 100, I couldn't stand the drivel that was Twilight anymore and resolved to chuck this godawful book. But, my rampant curiosity still annoyingly unsatisfied, I flipped to the last page to read the ending...and it made me even more curious, wanting to find out how that ending came about. So I flipped back.

And up until page 200, it truly was awful. All about how Bella would wake up, look at the rain, brush her teeth, go to school, stare at Edward, come home, go to bed. It was like the most mundane episode of "24" I could think of. But then...but then...! After page 300, things got really good. Really good. The book did a total 180 degrees on me - action, adventure, tension, chases, adrenaline, heart-stopping chapters - all exploded out of the pages. It was like a whole different writer all of a sudden (or a whole different, better editor, more like). And was it some kind of sign that the climactic scene occurred inside a ballet studio?

In short, I was hooked. I was so hooked, in fact, that as soon as I finished Twilight 0n Sunday, I rushed to Borders in a frenzy to buy book 2 (New Moon).

So if you can manage to slog through the first painful 200 pages (why did no one warn me about that!?), the payoff is awesome. Still a few things wrong with it, and Bella still whiny and annoying sometimes, but...

I'm converted. Completely.