Club Dead

I am completely hooked with Charlaine Harris's novels about Sookie Stackhouse. Having recently finished Dead Until Dark, and Living Dead in Dallas, I started reading Club Dead. It is the third in the Sookie series, also called the Southern Vampire Mysteries.

This book introduces us to many new characters, and takes place in Mississipi. Bill, Sookie's vampire boyfriend, is kidnapped, and Eric demands for her to go to Mississipi to learn what she can about his disappearance. Eric arranges for a local werewolf to accompany her, named Alcede, who helps her circumnavigate the supernatural underworld to help find Bill and save his life. As Sookie investigates Bill's wherabouts, she learns that he had left of his own free will, and she realizes there is more to Bill and his history than she knew about, and she learns new things about him that shake their relationship to it's foundation.

I really love the Sookie books, if it isn't obvious with how quickly I'm reading the series. I am almost done with the fourth, Dead to the World. As I said with Living Dead in Dallas, Harris doesn't waste copy giving more backstory than what's needed, and only fills you in on the past stories enough to follow along with the new information. The characters are starting to become more and more involved, and people are starting to show their true colors.

I give this book a 5/5. Once I'm done with the series I'll give an overall score.

Living Dead in Dallas

The second book I finished this week was the sequel to Charliane Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series, Living Dead in Dallas. I had read the first book, Dead Until Dark, a few books past and really fell in love with the series. I managed to pick up the rest of the books at Barnes & Noble, so I have a feeling I will be sweeping through the series before reading anything else.

Living Dead in Dallas tells the story of Sookie's travel to Dallas, after she is loaned out by Eric the vampire. Sookie is supposed to use her telepathy to find a vampire, Farrel, who has gone missing.

I really enjoyed the lengthened character development of Living Dead in Dallas. Eric is much more involved in the second story, and there is an interesting and complex love trial forming between Eric, Sookie and Bill. Harris also doesn't waste half the book explaining things from the previous novel, and only does gentle reminders.

I give this book a 5 out of 5. I am very excited to read the next in the series, Club Dead.

Dead Until Dark

I was a big fan of the HBO show True Blood, and I knew they were based on a series by Charlaine Harris. I picked the first book up on a whim, and I am really glad I did. The first in the series is Dead Until Dark.

Dead Until Dark follows the story of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress in Louisiana. The vampires in the world have recently "come out of the coffin" and are starting to mainstream into society. Sookie meets Bill, one of the mainstreaming vampires, and after finding her vampire, strange things start happening. There are multiple murders in the town of Bon Temps, and Sookie needs to find out who is behind it so she can clear Bill's name, and the name of her brother Jason. Jason, a local lethario, is implicated because of his relationships with most of the murdered women.

I really enjoyed reading Dead Until Dark. I had watched the season of True Blood before reading it, and I was unsure as to how they'd be translated. The show is so close to the book, down to the dialogue. The biggest discrepency is the addition of a character in the show that is not in the book, but that's not a big issue for me.

I know there are a few other books in this series, and I'm very tempted to pick the rest of them up. I enjoyed Harris' storytelling, and her character development is amazing.

I give this book a 5 out of 5.

The Third Angel

I followed up the disappointment that was Handle With Care with a new book by my other favorite author, Alice Hoffman, which I had borrowed from a good friend who also loves this author. This book, called The Third Angel, does not take place in her usual setting (New Hampshire or Connecticut) but instead in London. More specifically at the Lion Park hotel.

The story centers on the inhabitants of the Lion Park hotel during three different periods of time; modern day, 1952 and 1966. As the stories unfold, you realize that everyone from the modern day story are involved in the hotel in some way, and their lives entwine in the most intricate of ways. There is also the story of the ghost of the Lion Park hotel, and how he touches each and every life of the characters in The Third Angel. Hoffman's writing is so intricate and precise, and you never feel that the connections between the characters are forced.

The name comes from the idea that when a doctor visits a patient, there are three angels in the car with him. One is the angel of life, and one is the angel of death. Then there is the third angel, and he is the one that is harder to spot. He could be anywhere, from the people you see on your way to the suffering, or the person suffering themselves. The idea of the third angel is interwoven with all the characters of the novel.

After finishing Handle With Care and being so disappointed, I am really glad that I read The Third Angel. I think if I would have read just anything I probably would have put it down and stopped reading for a while. Instead I started The Third Angel and finished it in just days.

I give The Third Angel a 5 out of 5, for a rich complex story line that isn't forced, and restoring my faith in prolific writers.

Second Glance

I took a detour from what I called the "let's re-read all the novels in your library" spree to read book 7, The Commitment. After I finished the book, I immediately started the spree back up again! I was organizing my bookshelves, and had put my Picoult books in order. As I was doing so, I realized that after The Tenth Circle, Second Glance was my next favorite.

Second Glance tells the story of a number of characters, so it is hard to summarize. The story is about love that is timeless, about ghosts who are so tied to the world that they cannot leave, and the sacrifices that everyone makes for the people that they are tied to. It also spans across decades, taking place in the 1930's, and the current days of the 2000's. There is romance, there is death, there is life, and there is hope. On top of that, there is an unsolved mystery of a murder, a missing baby, the sordid history of eugenics, and the study of the paranormal. I know it sounds like she's grasping at plot-straws and trying too hard, but it all works and comes together.

This is Picoult at her finest. There are so many characters in this story that I worried, the first time I read it, that I would get certain people lost with others, or that there wouldn't be enough character development. Within just a few pages I knew that I had been wrong, and that the story needs all of these characters, and Picoult does not let one of them fall through the cracks and get lost. By the end of the book, you know exactly why each and every character was there, and what their lives and actions mean to all the other characters.

I give this book a 5 out of 5.

The Pact

It seems I've started a pattern of reading a new book or two, then going back to a re-read. This re-read was Jodi Picoult's The Pact. It was the first book I read of hers, and it was the book that got me hooked on her as an author. I gobbled up her books in quick succession when I start to read her, I think two years ago. Regardless, I came back to this book and I have a distinct feeling that I will go through the rest of her books before starting anything new. Not that it's a complaint.

The Pact chronicles the lives of the Hartes and the Golds, and their children. Emily Gold, and Chris Harte, grow up together in a small town in New Hampshire. They are so close they seem like family, and eventually become lovers. Suddenly, Emily is found dead and Chris is at the scene. What first seems like an interupted suicide pact between teenagers quickly becomes something more, as you're taken through the drama of Chris's murder trial.

As I said before, this is a book that prompted a quick and obsessive love for a particular author. Picoult's chapters are short, which I personally love in a novel, and her characters are deep and intense. Even though I had read it before, I could not recall all the minute twists and turns and character details, and the twist at the end was as fresh to me as when I had first read it. This book takes place in a locale she uses often, and introduces us to a character who shows up in a few more of her novels, lawyer Jordan McAfee and his family.

This book is rich in detail and while it jumps through time, you never feel like you're lost in memories. Emily is as real a character as Chris, even though she is dead by the first page. Her story, and their love, become so real to you that you are sure you knew them.

I give this book a 4 out of 5. The only reason I didn't give it a higher rating was because I am often weary of court books written by someone who has no court experience. Picoult has done a mountain's worth of research, however, and the scenes are all believable, regardless of my trepidation.

Atonement

After much longer time than I anticipated, I have finished my 4th book 0f 2009. I feel like this book has been a labor for me to finish, but in actuality, it wasn't a book that I was unhappy to read. I think the problem is that edition I purchased used a small font, and had small header/footer space, and compared to The Reader, it was rich in detail and nuance. All this lead to a read that seemed long and intense, but never boring.

I had watched the film version of Atonement a year ago, and was immediately struck by the story and the twist ending (which I won't ruin in case someone is not familiar with the story). I knew it was based on a book, but had not read it. My mother told me that the book and movie are identical, which is important for me. I hate books and movies that are two separate entities... When I read Atonement this month I was pleasantly surprised. They are exactly the same, and the movie images do not compete or challenge the ones drawn up by my mind's eye.

The beautiful thing about this book is that you completely understand the main characters involved, and while you may hate their choices and know how it will all fall apart, you still know that it had to be done. I loved the characters of Cecilia and Robbie, and the telling of their romance in particular. The descriptions where great, even if they were a bit overwhelming when I read at a late hour or with noise in the background.

Overall, though, I was very happy that I finally read this book. I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

The Reader

I started 2009 thinking that I would spend the first part of it re-reading books that meant something to me. I re-read book 2, The Time Traveler's Wife, with this in mind. After, something happens that always does when I re-read that book; I had to find something totally different to follow it. Nothing I had read already would suffice, I had to start fresh. So, I picked up The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink. It was exactly what I needed.

The story reads like a memoir, but isn't. It follows the life of Michael Berg, and his romance with Hanna, which starts when Michael is 15 and Hanna is more than twice his age. Their romance is short-lived and tumultuous. They separate, for reasons unknown to Michael, only to meet later when Hanna is being tried for war crimes, although that is not her worst secret. All takes place after WWII, in Germany.

Overall, I liked the story very much. You feel for Hanna, which is unusual in books about people who were involved in WWII. She is not painted as a monster, in Michael's eyes, but she is in other's. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down, and finished the book quickly. At first I attributed that to the largish type and low page count (218), but in all actuality it was the story that kept me riveted and would not let go. The book has been made into a movie, starring Kate Winslett, released the 9th of January.

I give this book a 4.5 out of 5.

The Time Traveler's Wife

The second book I read this year is one I've read a million times... I think I read this book at least once a year. It is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's a book recommended to me by my brother a few years past, and I fell in love with the story. The book chronicles Henry, who involuntarily time-travels, and his romance with Clare. Clare's live is dotted with Henry's appearances, and she grows up knowing him before he has ever really met her. They meet in real-time, though, and theirs is a love story that time has no control over.

Like I mentioned, this is a book I've read a million times before. Every time someone asks me for a book request, this is the first thing I tell them to read. I have two copies of this book, even, a trade-paper back and a special edition hard-back with cover art by Niffenegger.

A movie version of this book, starring Rachael McAdams and Eric Bana. I have mixed feelings about this, since I am worried they will totally screw this up. The movie will be out this year, so I'm holding my breath...

I give this book a 5 out of 5.