I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Harry Potter fan. I love fantasy books as well as thrillers and mysteries. And I still hold a soft place in my heart for the young adult genre, which kept me company during those lonely nights as an awkward and socially inept teenager.

So when Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight Saga, was released last month to much acclaim and publicity, I knew that I had to check out the series. And so I picked up a copy of Twilight, the book that started it all.

As a bona fide bookworm, I consider myself well-read. And although preferences can definitely come into play when reviewing a book, I like to think that I can usually distinguish good books from the bad. My personal criteria for a good book is simple:

1. Style of writing. Imaginative, original copy that paints vivid and memorable pictures in my mind.
2. Plot. I know plenty of authors whom I wouldn’t consider to be good writers; however, they are great story tellers.

Not all of my favorite authors or books fall into both categories. However, it is only when both criteria are met that I stamp a book with Jenny’s gold star of approval.

With that being said, I’m sorry to report that Twilight embodies neither good writing nor good plot.

The characters are bland and one-dimensional. The narration left much to be desired. The dialogue was unrealistic and uninteresting.

How did this become a #1 seller?

Needless to say, I will not be picking up books 2-4.

Despite the fact that I love to babble on and on in my writing, I’m a pretty reserved person in real life. I am hardly the one to wear my heart on a sleeve…heck even my voice is pretty monotone!

But lately I’ve been a emotional wreck.

Everything ticks me off.

Sappy commercial? Eyes well up in tears. Touching YouTube video? Repeat views. A sad movie or a great book? Open the floodgates, people!

And a few nights ago, J woke to his wife shaking and sobbing on the bed next to him.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s this…stupid…book…”

As he rolled his eyes and recommenced snoring, I managed to muster up enough willpower to finish the book, because I knew the ending would make me cry even more.

That book was The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

I had seen Dr Pausch’s Last Lecture and heard about the book before it was released. Dr Pausch was a very active member of the association for which I work, having received various awards, citations, and distinctions. I unfortunately never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I did do a bit of marketing work for his now-famous lecture when it was first delivered.

The book was released in early April, but I didn’t read it until now. I think a part of me knew that it would turn me into a sobbing little girl…and so I had tried to hold it off for as long as possible.

Dr Pausch has lived an incredible life. He never made it to the NFL, but he experienced zero gravity at a NASA facility. He has inspired and mentored countless students, helping them find and achieve their dreams (such as the one student who aspired to work on the next Star Wars film at a time when no one could predict if or when episodes 1-3 would be made). He has worked with Adobe, Google, EA, and Disney. He created Alice, and co-pioneered ETC.

Dr Pausch is also dying of pancreatic cancer.

Some of the advice given by Pausch are the type that we’ve heard all our lives. “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

Others hit me hard. One such advice, which he gives to his eighteen-month old daughter (as well as to his sons) for future reference is, “When it comes to men who are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do.” How true! How many times have I waited by the phone, lost sleep, and shed tears over some smooth-talking jerk who’s all talk and no walk? I only wish someone had told me this sooner.

I smiled as I read the chapter devoted to meeting his wife. I wondered if anyone will ever write me with such love.

I laughed as I read him pouring an entire can of soda all over the backseat of his new car in an effort to ease his niece and nephew’s nervousness.

I bawled as he described the things he would say to his kids, had they been old enough to understand what he said.

I won’t reveal any more. All I can say is that this is a lesson-learning, life-evaluating, life-LOVING book.

Last week, my company hosted its annual awards banquet, where Dr Pausch was among the list of honorees. He was not able to make it to San Francisco, and a representative from Carnegie Mellon accepted the award on his behalf.

I immediately googled Dr Pausch’s prognosis. As of June 26th, he is in slow recovery mode. You can find is blog and health report here.

I’d written before that science and mathematics were never my forte in school.

Which is unfortunate, because I love learning the facts and figures behind our amazing world.

This is precisely why I get overly excited when I watch a program (hello, Discovery, History, and the National Geographic channels!) or read a book that can explain things to me in straight, matter-of-fact, and entertaining ways that do not make me want to gouge out my eyes.

A few years ago I picked up a book called Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Roach takes a macabre and often shushed topic to investigate the science and industry surrounding death…in a highly entertaining and hilarious manner. I loved it.

So when her new book, Bonk: The Curious Couping of Science and Sex, was released, I grabbed a copy right away.

The book did not disappoint.

Roach’s study of sexual physiology takes the reader through history, sociology, and of course, biology to answer the whats, whys, and hows behind sex. She visits smelly animal breeding facilities, attends sex workshops, takes a tour of a sex toy company, and even participates in scientific studies in order to get the facts.

Here are just some of the things I learned:

• The pig’s penis, like their tails, is shaped like a corkscrew.
• The male pig is the only animal aside from the human male to fondle breasts during sexual encounters.
• Amputees often suffer from the “phantom limb” syndrome. This can, in fact, occur with penis amputees as well. Consider the “phantom erection,” where the sensation was so vivid that the sufferer would bend over and check for its presence.
• A 1990 issue of Sports Medicine published an article called ”The Sexual Response as Exercise.” The author’s name? Dorcus Butt. (Imagine the playground teasings this psychologist must have received as a child! And to answer your question, no, sex does not make for a good workout.)
• A 2003 issue of Seizure reported a Taiwanese woman who, once or twice a week, would have an orgasm (followed by a mild seizure) when she brushed her teeth. And yes, this was proven via EEG.
• Roach’s favorite sentence from Alfred Kinsey’s famous Sexual Behavior in the Human Female is, “Cheese crumbs spread in front of a copulating pair of rats may distract the female, but not the male.”
• Contrary to stereotype, men are more selective in their preferences for visual stimulus. Women, both gay and straight, respond physically to sexually erotic images regardless of who is engaging in it or doing what. Men only tend to respond to stimulus that fits their sexual orientation and interests.

As always, the book is filled with lengthy footnotes containing anecdotal evidence and humorous FYI’s. My favorite?

Nominations for a Nobel Prize, I found out when I contacted the Nobel Foundation to try to verify Shafik’s, remain secret for fifty years. You make the claim, and nobody can prove otherwise until after you’re dead. Add one to your resume today!

All in all, a highly informative and entertaining book. I highly recommend it for information junkies with short attention spans such as myself.

(I have been posting more book reviews lately for a good reason: I will be moving soon and am currently going through my mountains of books in an effort to divide them into “keep” and “donate” piles. Obviously, there are certain titles that hold dear places in my heart, and I cannot help but re-read them and share them with you.)

In light of Easter, I decided to write about a popular piece of Christian literature: Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus.

I first discovered the field of Christian apologetics, which, according to this Wikipedia article, is “the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of Christianity,” in my early teenage years and it has always been a topic which interested me. So much so, in fact, that I even considered entering seminary to delve even deeper into the world of proving the merits and facts behind Christianity through history, science, and philosophy.

While there are tons of literature out there in the world of Christian apologetics, The Case for Christ is one of the most popular, mainstream books on the topic and it’s a book I have read over and over again.

The basis for the book is simple. Lee Strobel, a former journalist for the Chicago Tribune, interviews a dozen experts to determine if there’s credible evidence of Christ’s existence and divinity.

Each of the fourteen chapters attempts to answer a different question. Some examples of the questions include:

Do the Biographies of Jesus Stand Up to Scrutiny?

Is the Jesus of History the Same As the Jesus of Faith?

Was Jesus Crazy When He Claimed to Be the Son of God?

Did Jesus – and Jesus Alone – Match the Identity of the Messiah?

Was Jesus’ Death a Sham and His Resurrection a Hoax?

Are There Any Supporting Facts That Point to the Resurrection?

I have to admit that I love this stuff. My insides boil with excitement and my fingers cannot turn the pages fast enough as I read all the evidence presented in this book.

For example, did you know that no other document from antiquity can compare to the New Testament in terms of the sheer number of existing documents? There are more than 5,000 New Testament manuscripts are in existence today…compare that to the runner-up, which is The Iliad, at 650.

My only problem with this book is that all the experts interviewed for this book, while experts and leaders in their respective fields, seem pre-disposed to offer supporting evidence for Christ. Though a former investigative journalist with a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School, Strobel fails to produce any critics of Christian apologetics. How about a debate between both sides of the argument?

All in all, Stobel manages to take some thick, sometimes tedious information and presents it in an entertaining and fast-paced manner. This is a great book for someone like myself who is a practicing Christian and would like to find additional sources of confirmation. Or if you’re still on the fence and having some doubts. However, I’m not sure that this book would convince someone who does not believe, especially in this day and age when information is so readily available at your fingertips.

Strobel has written a counterpart this this book, called The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity. I have this book as well and although it is a good read, it just isn’t as compelling as The Case for Christ. The reason is obvious: it is a lot more difficult to prove faith than the existence and attributes of a person.

My sister read this book when it first released and upon finishing it, she exclaimed that I had to read it. “You know that the dog is going to die and you prepare and brace yourself for the inevitable…and then you end up crying at the end anyway.”

(image from Harper Collins)

I was intrigued, but I didn’t bite. Don’t get me wrong – I love dogs. I love animals and I’ve spoiled all the pets I’ve had over the years. However, the thought of reading about falling in love with a dog only to lose him (which I’ve been through twice) made me queasy and uncomfortable.

Months passed, and I continued to see the book everywhere. On subways. On the train ride home. In book store displays. I even read that the book was being adapted into a movie starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston.

So, per my usual fashion, I googled the book and found the website devoted to Marley http://www.marleyandme.com/. As I went through the photos and the user-submitted stories and testimonials, my heart melted. Here’s an excerpt from the “About the Book” section of the website:

The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life.

John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.

The next time I was at Borders (which is pretty often considering there’s one downstairs from my office and I lov books) I picked up a copy and began reading on my long commute home.

I was smitten.

I won’t write any more about the plot or the specifics of the book, because John Grogan does such a wonderful job of communicating every sweet detail of his family’s life with Marley…I just wouldn’t be able to compare.

I finished the book a few days later on the train home. At this point I started crying like a little bitch and I couldn’t stop. I apologize to the poor commuters who were within earshot of the sobbing little Asian girl that night.

Anyone who has half a heart would love this book. Anyone who has had a pet, especially a dog, needs to read this book.