The newest Sookie Stackhouse is out. Just in time for season two of True Blood.
I enjoyed Dead and Gone more than the last Stackhouse novel, which I thought had too much crammed in there. There's still plenty going on but it felt more manageable. I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers - the shifters including werewolves come out and no shock, not everyone's happy. Sookie is also drawn into a growing conflict involving her grandfather.
There's intrigue, mystery, danger and a little bit of romance. All the things I look for in a Sookie Stackhouse novel.
Speaking of drama -- True Blood season two is on HBO. I've been taping it but am reluctant to watch. I fear I may be disappointed. I thought last season veered too much of the book. I'm understand wanting to add subplots, but I felt the characters that they fleshed out were made too one dimensional. I'll just say it, Tara annoyed me.
I'm not usually big into mysteries. I have a bad habit of being impatient and flipping to the back of the book mid-way in. However, I recently picked up the Spellman Files on a whim after reading about how it's being made into a movie.
And with that became totally hooked. I just finished the third book -- Revenge of the Spellmans and don't know if I can wait until March 2010 for next book!
The Spellman books center around Isabel Spellman, a wise cracking private investigator who works for her parents' detective agency. The Spellmans don't understand the concept of boundaries -- in this family blackmailing, eaves dropping and convert surveillance are the norm.
The mysteries are almost secondary to Izzy's jokes and pratfalls. But the mysyteries are also engrossing and the answers have also completely surprised me.
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Another installment in Book vs. Movie ... although technically, today's entry was a tv series. I recently watched The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on HBO. I really enjoyed the series, so when I saw the first book in the series I snapped up.
Typically, I dislike watching something and then reading the book, because I hate picturing the characters as they are on tv or in the film. The book and series centers around Precious Ramotswe, who opens a detective agency after inheriting any money. She tackles crimes small and big from a missing dog to looking for a child who disappeared.
Overall, I thought the series really captured the book very well. It seems that the series included some mysteries/ plot developments that might be in later books. If you have HBO on demand, I would definitely recommend watching the series
I enjoyed a relaxing week in southwest Florida last month and was able to read several books. Overall, I was happy with my choices.
Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda-- I read about this book on ShelfTalk (http://shelftalk.spl.org/). It centers around a group of misfits who end up sharing an apartment and forming unlikely friendships. This book felt like a rich meal. I had the crazy impression that I should be reading it while having a picnic with a crusty baguette, cheese and tiny pastries. Overall, an absorbing read.
Away by Amy Bloom & The World to Come by Dara Horn -- Both of these had superficial similarities. The World to Come starts off with Benjamin Ziskind stealing a Chagall picture during a singles event at a museum. He believes that his family, who used to own the painting, were swindled out of it. The book flashes back and forth between Benjamin and his grandfather, who met Chagall when he was at an orphanage in Russia and a writer who also taught at the orphanage with Chagall. I found the Yiddish folktales that were interspersed in the novel interesting. I was a little put off by the ending. I felt like I was left wanting to know what was going to happen next. In Away, Lillian Leyb flees Russia after witnessing the slaughter of her family. When she finds out her daughter is still alive, she travels across the country to try to find her. It was a quick read and I found the description of times and the characters engrossing.
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penny - Takes place in Canada during the 1860s. The novel focuses on the murder of a trapper. When her son disappears at the same time as the murder, Mrs. Ross sets out to find him and clear his name. I enjoyed it but did think it had a few bumps along the way. I liked the characters but sometimes felt that I was missing something because of the way things were just implied or hard to understand.
Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch -- the plot centers on Sarah Walters - a southern debutante. I thought this was a quick read, but wasn't really blown away. I felt like it was unconnected short stories/ vignettes versus a cohesive novel. For some reason, I found Sarah also irritating and since she narrated most of the book that was problematic. I didn't think she was particularly sympathetic or likable.
If you've ever come across BBC's list of 100 books, you've probably spotted A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. A Town Like Alice centers around Jean Paget, who was a prisoner of war during World War II in Malaya, and the man she met and fell in love with.
This book starts off incredibly slow, I would recommend really giving it a chance. It opens with a lengthy description of the will preparations for one of Jean's relatives (the book is narrated by Jean's lawyer). The beginning is very dry and technical. This is the second time that I've tried reading A Town Like Alice -- I couldn't get through it the first time. There is also some outdated language as well.
During the war, Jean and fellow women prisoners walked for thousands of miles while their captors look for a camp in which to keep them. She meets an Australian soldier, whose also a POW and risks his life to help Jean and her fellow prisoners.
I may have been ::er:: lax with the blogging as of late, but I have been doing fairly well on the reading front. Recent reads include Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos. Belong to Me follows the intertwined lives of Cornelia, Piper, Lake and her son Dev.
I didn't pick up on the fact that Belong to Me is a continuation of Love Walked In. One of the main characters -- Cornelia -- was also in Love Walked In. Cornelia and her husband, Teo, have moved to the suburbs. Their neighbor, Piper, is caring for her terminally ill family and Dev -- Lake's gifted child -- struggles with understanding why his mother has uprooted them while finally feeling at home at school.
Like Love Walked In, Belong to Me alternates between the characters with Piper, Cornelia and Piper narrating chapters. I typically don't like that that type of narration, but in this instance I liked the voices of each of the characters.
A few pet peeves: I still find Cornelia and the overall writing style a little too precious. The main plot twist or revelation towards the end also annoyed me. It felt too forced and stretched credulity to a certain extent. I enjoyed reading about the friendships like Piper's relationship with her sick friend, Elizabeth -- and how our connections with people can cause sadness, but also joy and comfort.
I was very excited when I saw this news via Feministing. There are plans in the works to make a graphic novel of Kindred.
According to Racialicious, Beacon is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Kindred with a proposal to create a graphic novel of Kindred. If done correctly, this could be really awesome.
For those unfamiliar, Kindred is about a woman who time travels between the 1970s and the south when slavery was at its height. She finds herself pulled back in time every time her ancestor (a white son of a slaveholder who had her ancestor with a slave) is in danger.
