Week 33: Dead As A Doornail - Charlaine Harris (295 pages)

There is something about the vampire genre, it should be studied by scholars to understand just what appeals to the modern American woman and why. Truly, it is totally ridiculous that I and hundreds of thousands of others not only bought this book but have made the entire series into best sellers and are riveted by the HBO series. I heard an interview with the series creator who said something along the lines of: they're about the conjunction of sex and death, of course everyone's obsessed with them. 

The book is fine.The plot is crazy (someone is shooting shape shifters, Sookie is saved again by her fairy godmother, her ex-boyfriend(s) are still after her, and there is a battle to the death for pack mastership). The characters are the same ones you saw before. Sometimes you laugh out loud (Sookie wonders if her hot boss's shirt really needs all those buttons). Sometimes you cringe (Sookie matched her nail polish to her coat in one scene and her lipstick to her earrings in another). And sometimes you wish the author would keep her opinions to herself (no, Ms. Harris, staking a vampire should not be used as an analogy for lynching; the first is cartoon-ish, the second a deep and painful American tragedy that should never be made light of by anyone who doesn't understand it). 

This is not the best book I have ever read. It's not even the best in the series. But it's funny and engaging and not terribly insulting and I am not going to feel embarrassed about reading it. 

Week 32: Dead To The World - Charlaine Harris (291 pages)

So this is the fourth Sookie Stackhouse book that I have read and this is the best of the series so far...in my opinion. Sookie finds herself in the position of protecting Area Five Sheriff (vampire) Eric Northman as he has somehow lost his memory and forgotten that he is generally an ass. He is being hidden at Sookie's for a fee (negotiated by her wily brother, Jason) and they become close.

At the end of book three, Sookie was so upset with the vampires and their issues that she had banished her then boyfriend Bill and Eric from her home. But finding Eric by the side of the road brings out the compassion in Sookie. This book is interesting in that some of what goes on in this book is happening currently in the TV Series, but other - more compelling stories have not been told and may not ever be told.

Jason's story is an attention-grabber and looks as if it may lead to new and different complications for him and the residents of Bon Temps. These stories are relatively well-written and are fun to read in the summer months. Next week I will be reading number five in the series - not because I want to read back to back vampire stories, but because the way this one ended...I can't wait to see what happens. These books are like the best potato chips - though less fattening!

Week 29: Bite Me (Love Story #3) - Christopher Moore (309 pages)

Don't moan, this is yet another vampire story. I think I mentioned a few books back that I really have been interested in the genre for quite some time. This was a very interesting book with a lot of kooky characters. This is the third book in the series, a series that I have never read, but was still able to get into.


The basic premise of this book is that the city of San Francisco is being terrorized by vampire cats! I was intrigued and a little scared. Though this was a funnier vampire book, it also had more elements that creeped me out and slipped into my dreams. Compared to the Twilight (2 on a 1-10 fear scale) and the Sookie Stackhouse (6 on the same scale) series of books, this one book rates about an 8. This is also a much more "modern" book. The main character, Abby Normal, is a typical teenager that speaks in text speech (OMG, TTYL, and more explicit varietals) and is blatantly disrespectful of authority figures (mom and police specifically). 


Abby is the narrator for most of the story and I will say that it took a little bit of time to get into the story because I had to adjust my reading voice to that of Abby's. So much slang, so much chatter - sometimes, so much distraction. Once I was able to get into the rhythm of her speech, I was able to enjoy the book.


Having not read the two books preceding this one, I did not feel at all out of the loop. Moore does a handy job at giving a bit of background without re-telling the previous story. I liked this book enough that I will likely pick up another of Moore's novels. He has an irreverent point of view that I find intriguing. 


This is not a book for everyone - but if you enjoy a bit of gore and some raucous sexual humor, this may be the book for you. 

Week 27: Club Dead - Charlaine Harris (320 pages)

Vampires, vampires, vampires...our culture is and has been intrigued with vampires for some time, now. I count myself as one of the many fans. I read Bram Stoker's Dracula when I was about 14 or 15 years old and I have been taken with the genre ever since. I devoured Ann Rice's vampire series in record time and when Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series came out - I was on that train as well. So - for one so intrigued with vampires, I have no idea how I missed the existence of this entire series. So far Charlaine Harris has written 10 Sookie Stackhouse novels and is scheduled to write at least 3 more. It seems that I have some catching up to do - but I have 25 more books to read in this project and if the author's writing continues to be this engaging, it will be hard for me to pass up an opportunity to continue on.


The fun thing about this book is that it mirrors the current season of True Blood, the television series based on the books. This third book finds Sookie's vampire boyfriend, Bill, missing. Thus starts the adventure of the search. The regulars: Eric and Pam and Chow (vampires) and Sam (shape-shifter) are here and some new characters are introduced as well...werewolves. 


The journey to find Bill takes Sookie to Jackson, Mississippi with a companion that also happens to be a werewolf! Alcide is strong and handsome and oh so tempting to Miss Sookie. Book three turns out to be an engrossing tale and once I truly got into the story, I found it pretty hard to put down.


There will be no spoilers here, but try to read it if you are a fan of the show, and if you are not a fan of the show - check out this series of books.  

Week 23: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella - Stephenie Meyer (178 pages)

It is highly likely that if you enjoyed the TWILIGHT series, then you will enjoy this book. In this novella, Meyer does something that I can't recall very many authors doing - she decides to tell the story of a very minor character from this series of books. 


Bree Tanner appears near the end of Chapter 25 in ECLIPSE in a brief but moving scene. She is a mere blip on the radar, we recognize her and she moves the story along, but once we turn the page she is almost instantly erased from memory - at least she was erased from mine. Meyer had a tougher time shaking this character from her mind. She decided to write this short story to give the reader a background and motivation for Bree and some of the other vampires in her coven. 


The TWILIGHT books focus mostly on "good" vampires, we are told that there are other 'bad" vampires around but since the TWILIGHT series is essentially BELLA SWAN's love story - we are blind to elements other than those that don't directly affect her world. What we get in this book is the tale of a young girl turned into a vampire and the subsequent manipulation of that girl. There are flashes of happiness for Bree, when she seems more like a 15-year-old girl - a crush on a boy vampire...but for the most part, MEYER lays it out in the title, it is to be a short life for Bree. 


The story is intense and it captures you right away. I found, as with most of MEYER's books, it was hard to put down. As a stand alone book - it wouldn't work, but it is a well-written companion piece about a character I didn't know I would care about.

Week 19: Living Dead In Dallas - Charlaine Harris (320 pages)

This is the second in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I find that these books are easy and fun vampire tales that will be nice to read in the spring and summer nights. This is by no means a literary marvel, but not everything we read has to be. Reading is fundamental, but reading should also be fun!


This second novel finds Sookie and Bill being sent to Dallas to use Sookie's telepathic talent to find out what happened to a missing vampire. Not as well-written as the first novel, but it was a clever read. I cannot say that it was predictable either, the book managed to surprise me a few times. 


If you are a fan of the paranormal - this is a great series. But if you enjoyed the relative "chastity" of the Twilight series, this is not the series for you. Charlaine Harris delves deeply into sexuality between vampires and other paranormal entities! Proceed with caution if you are particularly sensitive.

Week 9 – Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris (336 pages)

I am a fan of a vampire story and I have been for as long as I can remember. My earliest attempt at vampire literature was “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” when I was about 12 years old. This book scared the wits out of me, but I was hooked.  In my 20s I got into the Anne Rice “Vampire Chronicles” and fell in love with Lestat! A couple of summers ago, I found myself caught up with grown women and tweens alike when I fell in love with Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” series of books.  So – when a friend suggested that I read this book for my project, I was all about it. I have never been afraid to suspend my disbelief – and suspend it I did so that I could immerse myself into this novel.

This is the first in a series of books also known as the “Sookie Stackhouse” series. There is a very popular TV show on HBO that is based on these books as well, “True Blood”. I will admit that I did not jump on the band wagon when the show debuted and I still am not a viewer. If there is source material in the form of a book out in the world, I really try to check it out before I get another impression from a different medium.  This book follows Sookie, a waitress/bar maid in the small town of Bon Temps, LA. Vampires have been “accepted” as part of society in these United States and it seems that quite a few of them are bound and determined to fit into mainstream society. Sookie makes the acquaintance of one such vampire, Bill Compton. Bill is nearly 140 years old and has been “dead” since 5 years after the Civil War. These two strike up an unlikely romance in this very prejudiced Southern town.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the fact that it was just a tween romance that you could get swept up in. This book touched on how whites treated blacks, how vampires were vilified even after the government gave them rights to be an active part of society, it was a murder mystery and there were some great laugh out loud moments as when Sookie obtains a bodyguard called Bubba who it turns out is Elvis Presley (though the author never says his name – that would make Bubba upset)!

Stronger language and violence than the Twilight series (this precedes those books by 7 years or so) it is a captivating read and similar to Lays Potato Chips – it is going to be hard to “eat” just one.