Charmi Mehta added a quote:
"A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent." — William Blake

Charmi Mehta added a quote:
"It takes two people to make a lie work: the person who tells it, and the one who believes it." — Jodi Picoult

Charmi Mehta added a quote:
"Albert Einstein's Rules of Work:

1) Out of clutter, find simplicity.
2) From discord, find harmony.
3) In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." — Albert Einstein

Charmi Mehta read and liked Nicole's review of Shantaram:

"Gripping story. Beautiful descriptions of India and its people. Rhetorical dialogue provides provocative one-line philosophical nuggets:

"Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit."
...more Gripping story. Beautiful descriptions of India and its people. Rhetorical dialogue provides provocative one-line philosophical nuggets:

"Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit."

"The worst thing about corruption as a system of government is that it works so well."

"A lot of bad stuff in the world wasn't really that bad until someone tried to change it."

"The truth is a bully that everyone pretends to like."

"A dream is where a wish and a fear meet. A nightmare is when the wish and fear are the same exact thing."

"Poverty and pride are devoted blood brothers until one, always and inevitably, kills the other."

"Fear and guilt are the dark angels that haunt rich men."

"There's no meanness too spiteful or too cruel when we hate someone for all the wrong reasons."

"There is no act of faith more beautiful than the generosity of the very poor."

"Justice is a judgment that is both fair and forgiving... Justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them."

"The burden of happiness can only be relieved by the balm of suffering."

"Some men like you less the more they owe you. Some men only really begin to like you when they find themselves in your debt."

"A politician is someone who promises a bridge even when there's no water."

"Trouble is the only property that poor people like us are allowed to own."

"I don't know what scares me more, the madness that smashes people down or their ability to endure it."

"The world is run by one million evil men, ten million stupid men, and one hundred million cowards."

"The best qualities [of people] called up quickly in a crisis are very often the hardest to find in a prosperous calm."

"If babies had wings, he's be the kind [of person] to pull them off."

"Despotism despises nothing so much as righteousness in its victims."

"When greed meets control, you get a black market."

"It isn't a secret unless keeping it hurts."

"If you make your heart a weapon, you always end up using it on yourself."

"Fate puts us together with all the people, one by one, who show us what we could and shouldn't let ourselves become."

"It is possible to do the wrong thing for the right reasons."

"Men reveal what they think when they look away, and what they feel when they hesitate. With women, it's the other way around."

"Happiness is a myth. It was invented to make us buy things."

"The most precious gift you can bring your lover is your suffering."

"Cruel laughter is the way cowards cry when they're not alone, and causing pain is how they grieve."

"There's nothing so depressing as good advice."

"Depression only happens to people who don't know how to be sad."

"Love cannot be tested. ...love is born in that part of us that does not die."

"If we all learned what we should learn, we wouldn't need love at all."

"If we envy someone for the right reasons, we're halfway to wisdom."

"You are not a man until you give your love, truly and freely, to a child. And you are not a good man until you earn the love, truly and freely, of a child in return."

"A king is a bad enemy, a worse friend, and a fatal family relation."

"I sometimes think that the size of our happiness is inversely proportional to the size of our house."

"What characterizes the human race more? Cruelty or the capacity to feel shame for it?"

"We live on because we can love, and love because we can forgive."

"I smoked [cigarettes] in those days because, like everyone else in the world who smokes, I wanted to die at least as much as I wanted to live."(less) "

Charmi Mehta read and liked Karene's review of Breaking Dawn (Twilight, #4):

"If you loved Breaking Dawn and don’t want to see it criticized, I’ll warn you now not to read my review. That being said, let me begin by saying that when I first read Twilight, I was hooked. I read New Moon in one sitting. I awaited the release...more If you loved Breaking Dawn and don’t want to see it criticized, I’ll warn you now not to read my review. That being said, let me begin by saying that when I first read Twilight, I was hooked. I read New Moon in one sitting. I awaited the release of Eclipse with great anticipation. Sadly, Eclipse was the beginning of the end. It left me disappointed enough not to have high expectations for Breaking Dawn. Even at that, Breaking Dawn shattered my lowest expectations. I am stunned at the depths to which this once-revered author has plunged! From this point on I will refer to Breaking Dawn as B.D., aka “Bitter Disappointment,” or, if you prefer, “Boring Depravity,” “Bloody Drama,” “Brain Drain,” or my husband’s personal favorite, “Bloody Diapers”.

Where do I begin? How about with my least favorite character, Bella? She began the series with a lot of promise. Sure, some people said that she wasn’t well defined in the first book, but I never had a problem with her. Throughout New Moon and Eclipse, her character starts to decline. In B.D., Bella becomes intolerable. This girl is unbelievably selfish. She begins the book whining about the beautiful, expensive car Edward bought her. She whines about the wedding preparations, the dress, the ring. Poor thing has to *gasp* marry the man of her dreams! The injustice! She is far more concerned about nameless, faceless people mocking her for getting married young than she is about the happiness of the man she claims to love more than life itself. And her treatment of Jacob! Where to begin? This is a good kid had the misfortune to fall in love with her and though I had issues with his manipulation of her emotions at the end of Eclipse, still, he’s a teenage guy and you have to cut him some slack. But come on, Bella! Once she realizes she loves him, but that she loves Edward more, she chooses Edward. Fine. So let the poor guy go! Let him move on with his life! But no, she has to have her cake and eat it too. She hurts both Edward, the one she has chosen, and Jacob, the one she has rejected, by refusing to cut ties with him. She claims to hate herself for hurting him, says at one point that it’s “criminal” to injure him as much as she does, but will she love him enough to let him let go and move on? Nope. She wouldn’t “feel whole” without him, so she continues to cling to him. Even after she’s married. The culmination of this extreme selfish lack of consideration for anyone’s feelings but her own is when she slips and refers to the unborn baby as “EJ”. Did she even think to consider whether Edward would be happy about having his child named after his rival? No, she just did what she darn well wanted to do, and gave no thought to what Edward would want. Bella has become a tyrant. What Queen Bella wants, Queen Bella must have.

Now, a little bit about Edward. He was what made Twilight so magical. He was mysterious, romantic, beautiful, all the many things that the hero of a good book should be. Edward stole the hearts of most of the female readers of this series. Yet, by the time you finish B.D., you find yourself either feeling terribly sorry for him because he chose such a lame heroine, or just contemptuous of him for becoming a doormat, a slave to Bella’s whims. I thought I’d scream if I had to hear him say “If it makes her happy, I’ll do it, even if it’s not what’s best for her” one more time. In B.D., the author sends the message through Edward that love and blind devotion are the same thing. They aren’t. Truly loving someone isn’t giving them free reign to stomp all over you and everything in their path, just because they think it will make them happy. Real love encompasses the occasional appropriate guidance of the loved one away from self-destructive desires toward a better way. But here, we are taught that if you love someone, you let them have what they want, all the time, without exception.

As for the story development, my greatest frustration is that the author created a very intricate world, complete with detailed descriptions of what could and could not happen in it. Then she decided not to play by these rules. Yes, I am referring to the sudden and inexplicable ability of a vampire to father a child. This felt very contrived and unbelievable, and introduced such a bizarre, nightmarish chain of events that I could hardly believe I was reading the story that began as Twilight. This baby feeds on the blood of its mother and slowly sucks her life away? Bella has to drink human blood, while she’s still human, to save her life and the life of her child? And she LIKES IT? This is the same, human Bella that turned green and almost passed out while doing blood typing in Biology class, right? Okay, I could see that her aversion to blood was going to go away after becoming a vampire. But while she was still human? Really? I felt sick the whole time I read about her drinking gallons of blood a day to sustain the child. Bleh. I still don’t get the whole scene where Edward asks Jacob to offer to make babies with Bella. What?!? Again, is this the author’s attempt at showing us the extent of true love? It was twisted and disturbing.

And the delivery of the baby…that was just plain disgusting. Bella vomiting gallons of blood, her bones snapping right and left, blood vessels popping in her eyes, Edward biting into her womb to get the baby out, and the tender moment when mommy sees baby for the first time is marred by said baby taking a bite out of her mommy. Ick! And I’ll just join the legions of people who are saying, “RENESMEE?!?” You’ve got to be kidding. This from the author who tastefully chose names like Edward, Bella, Carlisle, Alice…why didn’t she just name her “Brangelina” or “TomKat”? Or “Bedward?” I will also join the protests against Jacob imprinting on Bella and Edward’s daughter. I could see when the concept of imprinting was introduced that it would be the author’s way of making a happy ending for Jacob at the end of the story, and that was fine. I like a happy ending, and of course I wanted to see Jacob happy. But are we so inflexible that we can’t be happy with Jacob imprinting on a nice, new girl to the story? No, Bella must have her way. She can’t be happy without Jacob as a part of her life. And we’re supposed to feel happy and satisfied that she gets her way in the form of Jacob as her son-in-law? How is that a happy ending?

At the top of my list of grievances is the destruction of the message that was communicated so clearly in the first three books. Once Bella falls in love with Edward, she is confronted with some very difficult choices. If she wants to be with Edward, she must choose to leave human life behind her and become a vampire. The value of Eclipse was that it forced Bella to look long and hard at what she was choosing if she decided to become a vampire. She would have to cut ties with her human life…her mother, father, and everyone human that mattered to her. She could never have children of her own. She would have to deal with the bloodlust of being a newborn vampire. She would spend a significant amount of time developing the self-control and restraint that the rest of the Cullens had achieved. One of the most compelling elements of the first three books is Edward’s angst, his agonizing about the state of his soul as a vampire. He grieves what he sees as the loss of his soul. This is at the heart of his great reluctance to change Bella, the reason for his disappearance in New Moon. All the vampires who have chosen not to feed on humans hate what they have become. They are conflicted about who they are. None of them who remember life as a human can say with conviction that they wouldn’t go back if they could. Bella has to confront all of this and choose to sacrifice the value of her humanity for the love she feels for Edward. All of this is well and good and presents a very thought-provoking storyline. Then, in B.D., every one of these issues is neatly sidestepped in order to create an obstacle-free path to a happily-ever after ending for Queen Bella. First of all, from the moment she opens her eyes as a newborn vampire, everything is better. The world shimmers. She experiences everything so much more intensely, things are more beautiful, more colorful, more wonderful. What’s not to love about being a vampire? Within minutes, she is exhibiting the self-control that everyone else took decades to achieve. And how about the whole I-have-to-have-sex-before-I-become-a-vampire-because-all-
my-human-emotions-will-be-gone-for-awhile? Nope! Not only does she still experience all the emotions and passions she had as a human, but they are intensified! By the time we’re finished reading about Bella’s new life as a vampire, we have to wonder why anyone wouldn’t want to be a vampire. All the build-up for Bella to grow and mature through sacrifice and self-denial, wiped away. So much better for her not to have to suffer through that stuff, right? And she manages to get immortality and a baby, to boot. We have to wonder if everyone who claimed that becoming a vampire was a serious, heavy choice was just delusional. The nobility of the message is sacrificed in order to create a neat, happy ending for everyone.

I haven’t seen much, if any, speculation on what the cover of the book is trying to communicate to the reader, so here’s my take. The big white queen is, you guessed it, Queen Bella, the white vampire. The red pawn is you (or I), the blood-red reader, about to be sucked dry in the wake of the Queen’s destruction. Beware!

I wish Stephenie Meyer had ended with Twilight or at least an extended version of New Moon. I think I’ll be hauling my copies of the last three to the local library as a donation and trying to just enjoy Twilight for what it was before the rest of this mess came into play.(less) "

Charmi Mehta read and liked liz's review of Twilight (Twilight, #1):

"I got a pre-emptive notice regarding this book from my older sister-in-law. I thought it was too funny not to share:

"I read this book because (13 year-old) had been told it was such a GOOD book. She read it and really liked it. So th...more I got a pre-emptive notice regarding this book from my older sister-in-law. I thought it was too funny not to share:

"I read this book because (13 year-old) had been told it was such a GOOD book. She read it and really liked it. So then I read it and the rest of the ones in the series. As a mother I had a couple of "issues" with this book. It is very romantic and they talk a lot about being SO in love. I had to explain to her that men do not talk like that. Second of all, he should NOT be spending the night with her - even if nothing happened. Third of all, just because he is trapped in a 17 year old body, he is still 80+ years old. Why would he be so attracted to her? I enjoyed the book, but as a mature 40+ year old, I can see it for what it is - a fun, good read. I worry about all the young teen girls who read this and think this is what and how love is. I hope they have someone to help bring them down to earth. It would be nice if love were really that great and men expressed them selves so freely, and you could always feel that pitter-pat in your heart, but from my years of experience it's just not like that. Sorry to dash your hopes - maybe it's like that for you. Enjoy the book and the others that follow. It was a quick fun read, though."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I found that these books speak to that teenage heart hiding deep within my "tainted by the real world" exterior and I get great enjoyment out of going back to that part of me that I miss a great deal.

I relate to the main character in the story "Bella" she is an awkward teenager who doesn't always see herself as others see her and has a hard time seeing why "Edward" the drop dead gorgeous vampire would want anything to do with her. True, the boy I loved in high school wasn't a drop dead gorgeous vampire, but he was beautiful to me and took my silly teenage heart for granted and walked all over it, but that's enough about him for now.

So here I go on my views and a few things I would like to address:

~*~*~

“It is very romantic and they talk a lot about being SO in love. I had to explain to her that men do not talk like that.”

About this book being very romantic and all the talk about being SO in love - well - It hasn't been too long since I was a teenager myself .....

As a young teen girl that is "what and how love is". Saying "that's not love" is one thing, but to a teenager that is IT. I have volumes of poetry and stories that I have written on this exact topic. Go to any teenager and they probably have the same.

As a teenager I believe that we feel/felt things more deeply and experienced more in those few short lived years of our life the I think we ever will again. I loved more deeply/lustfully/openly/truly/vibrantly in my 3 years of high school then I have any day since then, and before anyone gets all offended I will clarify that REAL love, ETERNAL love and the SECURITY of love shared with a spouse or family or friends is completely different, but no less true or electric.

No, in real life men don't talk like that, but sometimes the men in our heads do. Who hasn't had a conversation with a man in their head and every word that came out of his mouth was sweet and romantic and full of feeling and truth? I'm sure most women have. Just because the men we are with on a daily basis don't talk like that it doesn't mean we don't want them to. :)

“Second of all, he should NOT be spending the night with her - even if nothing happened.”

The ways of LDS youth are not always the ways of the world, and just because the book was written by a former BYU student doesn't mean that the pages need to be dripping with gospel doctrine and perfect morals. That's Jack Weyland's job. She was writing a book for large publication where in a lot of places and to a lot of people this morality is the norm.

When I was 17 I spent the night with a boy - nothing happened, we shared a twin-sized bed at a sleep over where one of the only reasons I went was because it was his sister, at his house. Was it right? probably not. Did anything happen? he kissed me. Did my parents know? they do now. Do I feel guilty about it? no. Am I the only LDS girl who has ever done this? Absolutely not. Does that make a difference? no. Does this make me a bad person? No. Face it. Teenagers do things because we can and because we want to, not because our parents tell us to.

“Third of all, just because he is trapped in a 17 year old body, he is still 80+ years old. Why would he be so attracted to her?”

Yes, he's a vampire. Yes, he's 80 + years older then her, but is it more appropriate for that said vampire to date a 17 year old or should he bee looking to the older women in the 40 + still looking like a 17 year old? Just because he'll live forever doesn't make him any less needy then the rest of us and perhaps his body and his feelings are stuck in that perpetual 17 year old state. (why am I defending a fictional character?!)

"It would be nice if love were really that great and men expressed themselves so freely, and you could always feel that pitter-pat in your heart, but from my years of experience it's just not like that."

Eventually we all grow up. Even though this book gives the illusion of "what love is" and that teenage girls will believe it ... Eventually we all grow up. What is the harm in believing that maybe somewhere this kind of love is possible and that the person you choose to spend eternity with will love you deeply and electrically and unconditionally? Shouldn't that be how life is? That's how I love my soul mate, it's not always perfect, but it is deep and true and I hope it stays that way.

(less) "