BOOK BLOGGER HOP {2}, FEATURE & FOLLOW {2}, TGIF {2}

Book Blogger Hop

Book Blogger Hop is an awesome weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books that gives book bloggers the chance to discover, support, and connect with fellow book bloggers and book lovers.

“What are you most looking forward to this fall/autumn season – A particular book release? Halloween? The leaves changing color? Cooler temperatures? A vacation? (If your next season is other than fall/autumn, tell us about it and what you are most looking forward to in your part of the world!)”

Fall in NC is always very pretty. Plus, Fall means October and October means my birthday and Halloween...both days I quite enjoy. There's something so magical and fun about Halloween...plus its the one day where you're pretty much obligated to eat candy!As for books, I'm super excited about The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan. I've been eagerly awaiting this book release all year!

FEATURE AND FOLLOW FRIDAY
Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop, hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, that allows book bloggers to discover and connect with other book bloggers.






TODAY'S FEATURED BLOGS

Q. If you could change the ending of any book (or series), which book would you choose? Why and to what?

Ok, so I know A LOT of people have already chosen Breaking Dawn, but I just have to go with this book too. So beware, cause they're be spoilers and much hatin' below........

Let me start out by saying yes, I read all four books in the series, and no, I would not consider myself a big fan. I didn't loathe the first book, I actually thought it had real potential...but then came New Moon (it was ok, the wolfpack made it bearable) and then came Eclipse (ugh, so disappointing) and by the time Breaking Dawn Fail came along I honestly had no real hope for a good ending. I could spend paragraphs talking about my issues with Meyer's writing...but I won't. I'll just answer the question at hand. How would I have changed the ending of the series? Well, I wouldn't have turned Bella into a vampire, nor would I have had her marry Edward or give birth to the world's creepiest baby. I'll admit that I've always been Team Jacob, but I wouldn't have ended the series with Bella choosing Jacob either. I think I would have had Bella choose herself and to simply choose to live. 

I think my biggest issue with this series is that I honestly gave Meyer too much credit when I first read Twilight. I thought that the series would explore Bella's struggle with wanting to be with Edward but in the end choosing to remain human. In my mind, I created this notion that Meyer was going to explore the complexities of our human nature and was going to make a statement about the sanctity of life and how immortality was unnatural and totally disregarded the whole point of life...the point of life being that if we're lucky we get a 100 years to live, years that we make meaningful by loving, being loved, doing good and then we die and move on to the next great adventure...but in reality, by the end of the series, Meyer had written about a world where vampires sparkle, no one good ever dies, teenage boys fall in love with babies, and selfish girls get everything they want. 

So yeah, you can see why the ending irks me so. I could seriously go on about this for a long time, dissecting and analyzing every aspect of these books (characters, themes, cliches, metaphors, etc) but I doubt anyone would really be interested in that, so I shan't bore you any longer. 

TGIFTGIF is a weekly meme hosted by GReads to re-cap the week's posts & to propose a question for followers. 

This Friday's Question: Making a Difference: Which book(s) would you put in the hands of today's teenagers in hopes of making a difference in their lives?

There are so many great books out there that I would love to put in the hands of teenagers, but I think I'd have to say just about any novel by Lauren Myracle. I sing Myracle's praises a lot on here, but her books have honestly made a huge impact in my life and I have literally placed them in the hands of my 15 year old sister and said "Read this! It will change everything for you".
Her Winnie Years series is a wonderfully funny series that explores that very fragile, intense stage of adolescence between the ages of 11-14, the middle school years. These were extremely tough years for me and I wish I had "known" Winnie when I was that age. Myracle's Kissing Kate was one of the first YA novels that I think explored homosexuality and bisexuality in a very honest, intimate way. And of course, Myracle's Shine is an extremely powerful novel about finding oneself and overcoming our personal pain and struggles. I would and do recommend these books to teens all the time.