Megazines And Book Education

My husband is not a pet person. In fact, over the years, I’ve been secretly waiting for THE ULTIMATIUM: “Either the dog (insert cat) goes, or I do”. Luckily for me, I’ve not been forced to make that choice. (Who knows how it would have come out if I had!)

However, it was my husband’s dislike of pets which actually introduced me to David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. My hubby is a big New York Times bestseller list book reader. Although he bought the book with all good intentions of reading it, he found out it was about dogs and even the New York Times bestseller list couldn’t trump his dislike of pets. Big mistake on his part and great gift for me.

I found The Story of Edgar Sawtelle tossed into a corner. I, unlike my husband, am not a New York Times bestseller list reader. I tend to read fantasy or self-improvement books (how’s that for a dichotomy!) as my escape. However, the book had a nice feel with deckle edge paper and the simple cover had appeal. I was not reading anything at the time and had several hours that I wanted to sit and “veg”. So I started the book. Two days and 550 pages later I had finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle having been swept up into a fascinating, suspenseful and beautifully written first novel by David Wroblewski.

My husband was right-the story is about dogs. But these “Sawtelle” dogs were the framework of the story, not the subject. The story, with shades of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is more about the land of rural Wisconsin and a family, spanning several generations of Sawtelles and related human and canine characters. You find out about humans and dogs through letters and meticulous notes kept by the Sawtelles as they raise a new “reasoning” dog breed. But it seems for ever step forward for the dogs, is a step backwards for the human characters.

The story is engaging but it is the writing which captures your attention. Wroblewski is a brilliant story teller which holds your attention and flows from paragraph to paragraph as the story unfolds. (Everything that had happened to him since he’d left made him think of her. Others dreamed of finding a person in the world whose soul was made in their mirror image, but she and Edgar had been conceived nearly together, grown up together, and however strange it may be, she was his other.) It is this magic in his words that keeps you wanting more and being disappointed when the last page is turned. The story may be a tragedy, and one which you will dream about for the next few weeks, but the writing transcends the story.

So, I will try to convince my husband to take another look (or an initial look as the case may be) at The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. He, like me, loves great writing. He is an English teacher after all. Lets see if a wife’s recommendation and great writing trumps a dislike of pets.

Candace Davenport is a retired attorney and published author whose love of writing led to co-founding a small independent publishing company, Our Little Books. Our Little Books (http://www.ourlittlebooks.com) is dedicated to publishing inspirational, educational and fun little books for pocket or purse. Candace encourages all people to find their inner muse and become published authors with their own little book, either for pleasure or for their business.

Stephanie Meyer and The Twilight Saga

Unless you have been living under a rock or in a ridiculously remote location, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you will have heard of Stephanie Meyer – or more specifically her creation, The Twilight Saga. For those who haven’t, Stephanie Meyer is an American author and The Twilight Saga, comprised of four books (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn), in summary, is a story about a girl, Bella Swan, the two boys in her life – Edward Cullen, a vampire and Jacob Black, a werewolf – and Bella’s conflicting emotions surrounding the two.

Vampires Vs. Werewolves

To most, The Twilight Saga is about choosing sides. You either love it or you hate it and in turn, you either side with the vampires or with the werewolves. I’ll say right now that I have never read the books, I listened to them in audio form. Whether or not this made a difference to how I reacted to the material, I am not sure, however – I, like millions of people, fell in love with the characters, the setting and the message being conveyed. When it really comes down to it, Stephanie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga is a story about eternal love.

But vampires don’t sparkle!

Stephanie Meyer went with her own interpretation of the characteristics of vampires and as such went against what is considered to be the norm of ‘vampire lore’ and in turn created somewhat of an uproar. Many of the people who joined the ‘I hate Twilight’ bandwagon claimed that the fact the vampires sparkled had a lot to do with it. “How ridiculous! Vampires don’t sparkle – they can’t even go out in the sun. It’s one of the fundamental rules about vampires!” What these people forget however is that vampires do not exist. Sure, there are old stories about beings who drink blood, but when you think about it, vampires are as real as werewolves, mermaids, zombies and unicorns.

An Eternal Love Story

The love it/hate it debate aside, The Twilight Saga is about true and irrevocable love without question. It is about spending the rest of your life with someone and about being connected to another person so utterly and completely. It is about doing everything you can for the one you love, regardless of how it makes you feel. The introduction of time unending only amplifies the emotions portrayed. An immortal being falling in love with a mortal girl. The truth is, left as she is, one day the girl will die. The Twilight Saga is about love that never ceases to exist. After all.. “If you could live forever, what would you live for?”

For more information, or to purchase the books, visit the Stephanie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga lens on Squidoo!

After reading the last Lucas Davenport “Prey” novel by John Sanford, I swore I’d never read another of his books. What can I say? I’m weak – and desperate. There just isn’t that much good reading out there, so when I saw “Rough County” I decided to take a chance. It’s good!

I believe Sanford made the right decision when he spun Virgil Flowers off from the crew in the Davenport books. Lucas Davenport has become domesticated and, well, boring. Virgil, on the other hand, is young, smart, surfer-boy cute and a good cop. He drives a truck with his aluminum boat hooked onto the back, just in case he decides to go fishing, and frequently misplaces his gun. He’s a babe-magnate which makes this story really fun. It’s about a murder that occurs at an all woman lodge in northern Minnesota, and many of the woman are Lesbians.

Poor Virgil is on vacation out fishing with his buddy, Johnson Johnson (really!) when Davenport calls and asks him to cut his vacation short to investigate a murder at Eagle’s Nest. A woman was out paddling around the lake and someone shot her in the head. Virgil starts investigating and runs into more than one suspect. The dead woman, Erica, had a brief dalliance with Wendy, the lead singer in an all girl band. Berni, aka Raven, Wendy’s main girlfriend wasn’t too happy to hear that bit of news. Virgil puts her on the list of suspects. Then there’s Ruth, Erica’s life partner. Did she know about the hanky-panky at the lodge? The list of suspects grows long and interesting.

The beginning of the book is fast-paced and very funny. Sanford has a knack for creating colorful, but believable characters. By the middle, I knew who the killer was and was pretty sure of the big plot twist. Toward the end, the pace slowed down – way down until by page 350, I was skimming. Too much detail, obvious filler. I know the book would have been a better, tighter book with fewer pages. I do have one other picky. One of the key characters was Wendy’s father who’s name is Slibe. Now, I have no clue how to pronounce this name – one word SLIBE or two SLI-BE? Therefore, every time I came upon this name, and it was frequent, I stopped to try and figure out the pronunciation! As an author you do NOT want to do that because every time you stop a reader, there’s a possibility he/she won’t start again!

All in all, I enjoyed the book partly because I grew up in Minnesota and am a little familiar with the territory and characters. “Rough Country” is a fast read in spite of its length and I do recommend it.

Carlene Rae Dater has been a writer of both fiction and non-fiction for over 25 years and has been published in a variety of genres. So far she has published five novels and one non-fiction book and has two novels coming out in 2010: one a paranormal romantic suspense and the other a humorous mystery. She’s a writing teacher and who loves to share her craft with others.

Visit her blog at http://www.carlenedater.com with comments and questions. She also has an active mystery blog where she reviews books, movies, television shows and anything related to mystery! Check it out at: http://www.themysterystartshere.com.