Dead and Gone
I am returning to my earlier haiku format reviews:
Things aren't going
well for Sookie, but at least
she is getting some.
(Should "aren't" get counted as one or two syllables?)
reviewdate:
Nov 4 2009
isn:
978-0-441-01715-7
Tagged with werewolves
From Dead to Worse
With every man in her life attracted to her, why is it that Sookie can't find a decent boyfriend she can stick with? Which one would you choose?--the current contenders being, alphabetically, Bill, Eric, Quinn, and Sam. You can also consider Alcide, Calvin, or anyone else who has expressed having the hots for the telepath. I think there is one woman in there somewhere, too.
reviewdate:
Oct 24 2009
isn:
978-0-441-01701-0
author gender:
book type:
medium:
All Together Dead
It was nice to be back in the vampire book saddle again, especially after putting down the last two books I started because I couldn't get into them.
reviewdate:
Oct 17 2009
isn:
978-0-441-01494-1
author gender:
book type:
medium:
recommendation:
Definitely Dead
If you're paying attention--and I don't blame you if you're not--in my last Sookie Stackhouse novel review, I complained about "every unrelated heterosexual man in Sookie's life being totally hot for her." Well, that question is answered in book six of the series.
reviewdate:
Aug 30 2009
isn:
978-0-441-01491-0
author gender:
book type:
medium:
Dead as a Doornail
Regarding the last vampire book I read, my cousin asked me, "Isn't that trash?" I don't think that particular book, a graphic novel, is trash, even though I didn't like it very much. I did like Dead as a Doornail pretty well, but I do more or less regard it as trash. But I also don't say trash in an entirely pejorative way. I guess what I mean is that it isn't literature. It goes down quickly and leaves you feeling sated, even if hungry for more. I don't think that's a bad thing, although I do prefer to balance paranormal series like these with materials that are edifying. If I had a better diet, I'd probably make analogies to protein and carbohydrates. If I had a worse diet, I might compare genre fiction to fast food, but since I haven't been inside a McDonald's since the turn of the century, I can't bring myself to liken tasty paranormal tales to something that in addition to having bad politics makes you feel sick when you're done consuming it.
reviewdate:
Aug 13 2009
isn:
0441013333
author gender:
book type:
medium:
Dead to the World
Four books into the Sookie Stackhouse series, I'm finally willing to admit I'm getting hooked. That's not entirely stubbornness or snobbery talking; only with this one and it's predecessor, Club Dead did I read the books in a hurry. Plus, I liked that Harris thanked a librarian, Doris Ann Norris, in her acknowledgments page.
reviewdate:
May 31 2009
isn:
978-0-441-01218-3
author gender:
book type:
medium:
recommendation:
Kitty Raises Hell
For once I was less psyched to read a paranormal fiction series novel. I think I'm getting a little burnt out on them. I didn't enjoy this any less, but instead of a yummy snack on my usual menu of healthy enriching brain foods, it's becoming too much of the norm. Part of the problem feeding my carb-like genre fiction is that I privilege books I borrow from NYPL over Barnard/Columbia books because their due dates are more compelling. The rare books that I acquire in other ways (usually that are given to me) wait months or even years to get read. And what do I check out from NYPL vs. my academic library?--science and popular fiction, comic books and young adult literature. But what am I to do, I'm the English and American literature selector, so I have to read the reviews in Library Journal. Lately I've taken to saving appealing titles in RefWorks to read later, but it's not always possible to wait!
reviewdate:
Apr 26 2009
isn:
978-0-446-19954-4
author gender:
book type:
medium:
recommendation:
White Witch, Black Curse
The latest in Harrison's Hollows series finds witch Rachel Morgan still mourning her dead vampire boyfriend and trying to regain her memory of his double murder. (Vampires die twice in this reality--first to become undead and then dead dead.)
Quotations:
I had to pick up my brother at the airport, but I might be able to squeeze in a stop at the university library as well as a charm shop for Jenks before that. A locator charm was devilishly hard. I honestly didn't know if I could pull it off. The library would be the only place I could find the recipe. Well, besides the Internet, but that was asking for trouble. p. 93
reviewdate:
Mar 29 2009
isn:
978-0-06-113801-0
author gender:
book type:
medium:
recommendation:
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand
I wasn't going to read another paranormal fiction book so soon after the last two, but I really like the Kitty series and had been waiting a while for this installment to appear in my public library catalog. When it finally did, I place a hold, and when my hold arrived, I of course, in the name of being a good library patron, snapped it up. But I wonder what's taking them so long to get the next installment listed as on order in LEO. (ZOMG, I love that the link from Carrie Vaughn's website takes you to her local independent bookstore, the Tattered Cover! I believe TC was the driver of the independent bookstores lawsuit against Barnes and Noble.)
reviewdate:
Mar 2 2009
isn:
978-0-446-19953-7
author gender:
book type:
medium:
recommendation:
Stolen, Women of the Otherworld: Book II
I liked this second installment to Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series more than the first, which is kind of unusual for me, but I don't think for this type of series. I think a lot of them get stronger as the basics are laid out and the characters have time to develop. Like the first, this novel is narrated by werewolf Elena Michaels, the only female of her kind in existence.
reviewdate:
Feb 15 2009
isn:
0-452-28593-3