It’s at least my 2nd favorite of the Twilights and possibly my favorite. I like getting the backstories of the background characters, especially Rosalie and Jasper. I love Jasper training everyone to fight. I love the scene where Edward gives Bella his mom’s ring. I hate the Quileute legend part–booooooorrrrrrrring–and I hate how Bella decides to be a martyr. I like my martyrs to be less emo, thanks. Blaze of glory and all that. I hate that Stephenie gave Victoria a ridiculous Minnie Mouse voice, and I’m glad the movies didn’t follow that part of the book. I despise Jacob in Eclipse. Whiny, manipulative dog. And this is when I truly started to hate Bella (I’m too forgiving, I know).

I hope this is self-parody. Please let it be self-parody.

This one vexed me. What a waste. First, I didn’t realize it was a short story until a few pages in when I noticed I was already at 12%. Second, it had the makings of a good story, and I was drawn in, waiting for the conclusion. Then it just ended. Like. Um. That’s the whole point of the story? Girl steals a gun? Nothing happened. It was stupid. Glad it was a free Kindle download, not glad I took advantage of the freebie.

Y’all know I’m a huge fan of Amazon. Frank and I each get an allowance, and we both spend most of our allowance at Amazon. We buy Kindle books, real books, music, movies, TV shows on DVD, gluten-free groceries, coconut oil, Christmas gifts (toys, etc), jewelry, housewares, etc. If it can be bought on Amazon, we buy it on Amazon. We welcome Amazon gift certificates, because those suckers are like cash. We’re prime members–we pay $79 a year to get free 2-day shipping and cheap 1-day shipping. And UPS is at our house at least once a week with our Amazon purchases.

When the iPad [worst product name EVER] came out last week, I kept chiding people to stop comparing it to Kindle and Nook as a superior e-reader, because the iPad doesn’t have the e-ink display, which I think is the best thing about the Kindle. I don’t care if the iPad makes it easier to flip pages or buy books. Clicking a button is NOT harder than swiping your finger across a screen, especially when you rest your thumb on the “next page” button like I do. And buying books through Amazon for my Kindle is plenty easy. With the Whispernet and 3G wireless, I can download a book most anywhere within a minute. Or I can browse the store online, buy books there, and download them next time I turn on my Kindle wireless. And don’t forget the text-to-speech, which allows me to “read” when I’m cleaning or jogging–I would never spend the money on an audiobook, so that feature means I buy more books than I would normally. The iPad may be prettier, but in my world it doesn’t compare as an e-reader.

But we (Frank and I) both have a big problem with the hissy fit Amazon’s throwing over book publishers who want a better deal on Kindle books. We noticed it before we ever read anything about it, because we went to buy some Joseph Finder books in paperback as a gift yesterday, and neither of us could find any of his books available new and with Prime shipping. Then I looked in the Kindle store, and none of his books are available for Kindle anymore either. I have 3 of his books on my Kindle.

So not only is Amazon pulling Macmillan’s books from its Kindle store because Macmillan wants Amazon to pay more per book (meaning charge customers more per book, sell fewer Kindles because this would do away with the $9.99 new release price) because they’re able to get a much better deal from Apple for e-books sold through their store, but they’ve also pulled all physical Macmillan-published books. These books are now only available from outside sellers, without Prime shipping and in most cases used.

Joseph Finder tweeted this morning:

Amazon is bullying authors/publishers to accept lower prices on e-bks so they can sell more Kindles.

Yep, seems that way.

(Go here for John Sargent’s, Macmillan’s CEO, response and here for John Scalzi’s take.)

You know who does have the books I’m looking for? Barnes & Noble. So they will get my business for the above-mentioned purchase. No doubt this move hurts Macmillan, but it isn’t helping Amazon either.

And for the first time ever, I’m considering ditching the Kindle for the Nook. I’ll wait and see how this whole war with publishers plays out, but as fewer Kindle titles and paper books become available from Amazon, I’ll go with the e-ink e-reader that gives me the biggest selection of titles.

This is what I sent to Amazon this afternoon:

I’m very upset about your decision to ban Macmillan from Amazon–I understand if you don’t accept the e-book pay structure they want, but you’re only angering customers and sending us to Barnes & Noble by pulling paperbacks as well. I was going to order books as a gift today, but I’m a Prime member, so I should be able to buy NEW books with FREE shipping. Forget the used books, I’m hitting the bookstore. I’m also considering buying a Nook now, since your hissy fit will keep me from buying e-books by some of my favorite authors. I really hope you get over yourselves soon.

I’m cranky. Haven’t had lunch. Anyway, maybe they’ll listen if they hear from enough people. My history with Amazon is that they really want to keep their customers happy and go out of their way to do so. I get that they’re trying to keep their customers happy by pulling this negotiating stunt, but if it means I have to go somewhere less convenient to buy my books when I need them (today), they’re having the opposite effect of what they intended.

UPDATE: Amazon caves. Good for them, even if they get all “they’re a monopoly, so they’re bad!” in their statement. (Oh, and LOL at that, Amazon. As if you don’t have a monopoly on the online superstore biz.) And since this all happened over the weekend, people who aren’t online all weekend don’t have to get all upset over the inconvenience.

And yes, if you’re wondering, I take full credit for Amazon’s capitulation.

UPDATE 2: Amazon’s response to my email:

We are working with the publisher to make their titles available as soon as possible and at the lowest possible prices for our customers. We will e-mail you when these titles are available, which we hope will be soon.

Also, I have passed your message to the concerned department. We’ll consider your feedback as we plan further improvements.

Customer feedback like yours really helps us continue to improve our store and provide better service to our customers. Thanks for taking time to offer us your thoughts.

We hope to see you again soon.

This is my least favorite of the Twilight novels. Edward’s a total jerk, Bella’s even more emo than in the first one (I know, hard to believe), and the novel drags on and on while Edward’s gone. After Alice comes back, though, I love it. Team Edward.

Now this is the kind of free Kindle download I like. The kind where you discover a new author you’d never read before, he tells a good story, keeps you hooked, and makes you want to read all of his other books when you’re done. It was also nice to find that he tweets and interacts with his followers. And for buying his latest, Vanished, in pre-sale, he sent me an autographed paperback (I haven’t read it yet) in which he wrote (per my request, of course), “Thanks for being my favorite Twitter follower.” I was so pleased when he actually did it! He also sent me an unsolicited Christmas card. The dude knows how to create reader loyalty. Great writer, great guy, love him. Re: the book. Very twisty, fun read. I did figure out the big twist before it was revealed, but I didn’t mind. If you like thrillers, I recommend this book.