Sometimes the route a book takes to my TBR list is like an expressway. At the first sight or review it's added. This usually happens when it's a familiar author or review from a trusted person.
Other times it's more of an adventure through a series of detours and side roads that gets a book added to my TBR list. The book I'm currently reading is this second type.
Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
Genre: Mystery / Vampire / Romance
Series: #9 in the Sookie Stackhouse series
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 289
Challenges: Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge #9
Source: Purchased New
The Short Version:
When the Weres go public it causes a wide range of reactions among the humans who are still dealing with the Vampires going public and becoming part of society and at the same time Sookie finds herself in the middle of a Fairy war.
Why I Read It:
It’s the next in a series that I’m having fun with and I was determined to get through book 9 by the end of June in order to complete the challenge.
The Book
With any series it’s difficult to discuss plot without giving spoilers to the earlier books so if you haven’t read the others yet, skip down to My Thoughts.
When the Weres go public it results in a variety of reactions among the humans who didn’t know of their existence. Some take it in stride because with the Vampires now public, another type of supernatural creature is less of a shock. For others it’s a deep betrayal when they find out that friends and possibly family members have been hiding their true natures for years. Still others see it as yet another species of creatures that humans must destroy.
While Sookie is happy that the true nature of some of her friends is now public, she also has her hands full when Sam’s stepfather isn’t too thrilled to find out his wife is a shapeshifter and shoots her. With Sam out of town dealing with family issues, Sookie is temporarily in charge of the bar and still fending off the feds who seem to be trying to figure out what it is about her that’s different and can they use it?
When the body of a were-panther Sookie knows is found in front of Merlotte’s, the local cops and the feds are on the case, but that doesn’t stop Sookie from asking her own questions.
At the same time she finds herself caught up in the middle of a long standing conflict among the fairies that’s close to becoming an all out war.
My Thoughts:
This one felt like a return to the fun I expect from this series after the letdown of the previous book. While From Dead to Worse felt like three or four mixed up short stories, this one just simply has a whole lot going on. Lots of storylines, lots of death and torture, lots of supernatural creatures, lots of vampire, Were, fairy and human political maneuverings. Bon Temps appears to have very few truly human inhabitants.
But Bubba is still around – yay!
I normally don’t read series books this close together and that’s probably affecting my reactions to these past few in the series. They’re still a ton of fun and I don’t plan to abandon the series, but now that I’ve completed the challenge, I’m going to let the series rest a while before picking up the recently released tenth book.
Rating 3/5
At the City's Edge by Marcus Sakey
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 341
Challenges: none
Source: Purchased used
The Short Version:
Iraq war veteran Jason Palmer and Chicago cop Elena Cruz try to solve the murder of Jason’s brother and keep his young son safe.
Why I Read It:
I thoroughly enjoyed Sakey’s first book (The Blade Itself) as did The Hubster so continuing with his next book was an easy choice.
The Book:
Jason Palmer is home from Iraq via a less than honorable discharge. He’s not really ready to move on with his life but when his community activist brother is murdered, Jason suddenly finds himself responsible for his 8 year old nephew who witnessed the crime and back in the role of soldier trying to keep them both alive.
Elena Cruz is a Chicago cop who is trying to earn her way back into her job and the respect of her fellow officers after making the mistake of letting her personal and professional lives get too mixed up. She knew and respected Michael Palmer and as one of the first responders on the scene is eager to solve his murder.
The Chicago neighborhood is struggling to survive despite becoming more and more of a gang war zone. Jason and Elena struggle to trust each other long enough to find out who is really responsible for Michael’s murder. There are rival gangs as well as corrupt politicians, cops and activists and they’re running out of people to trust besides each other.
Can Jason and Elena keep themselves alive long enough to protect his nephew and find out who is really behind Michael’s murder and why?
My Thoughts:
This one is a little bit of crime fiction, mystery and suspense all rolled into one. Neither Jason nor Elena is fully sympathetic as a hero, but their mutual goal of protecting the innocent child makes it easy for the reader to cheer them on.
The story moves along with plenty of twists, turns and surprise betrayals, and by the time the final third of the book comes along it’s a like a long accelerating downhill on the rollercoaster to the final confrontations.
Jason’s battle with his own demons while caught up in the immediacy of his own and his nephew’s survival makes the gritty Chicago setting feel almost parallel to his flashbacks to his time in Iraq. The difference is that this time it’s his nephew he needs to protect and he’ll do anything to avoid repeating the mistakes of his past.
Elena is also a strong character and while the predictable romantic tension between she and Jason is there, it’s not all that distracting to the overall pace of the story.
While I may have liked The Blade Itself just a tad better, this is still an entertaining and fast paced book. I’ll be passing this one along to The Hubster and have already added Marcus Sakey’s next book to my shopping list.
Rating 3.5/5
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Genre: Memoir
Publication Date: 1996
Pages: 362
Challenges: None
Source: Loan from my Sister-in-law
The Short Version:
A sad story of a miserable childhood is told by a man who clearly managed to persevere and even succeed despite his early years.
Why I Read It:
My sister-in-law loaned me her copy because she loved the book and thought I would too.
The Book
Although he was born in Brooklyn, Frank McCourt’s parents returned to Ireland when he was young after the death of his younger sister. Incredibly poor and with an alcoholic father who could rarely keep a job for more than three weeks, the family struggled on the edge of starvation and homelessness.
The family lived in miserable conditions, but as told from the viewpoint of Frank as a child, there are moments of humor, beauty, joy and love interspersed with the sadness, tragedy and poverty.
My Thoughts:
This is a book that is difficult for me to explain my thoughts. I know lots of people love this book, but I’m not one of them
I think this is one of those books that I’ll probably like better the longer it’s been since I read it. I struggled with this one. I have a history of not being much of a memoir fan and this book didn’t do a lot to change my mind. It took me nearly a month to read it because I had to set it aside about halfway through just to get a change of pace. It was never a book that I looked forward to picking up again once I set it down; I finally had to just decide to get through it and push on to the end.
Despite the fact that I didn’t enjoy the actual reading of this book, I also thought it was good. The writing is wonderful and there were countless moments of a phrase, sentence or paragraph that I would just savor. McCourt did a great job of telling the story through his own childhood viewpoint.
I will probably look back on this book and say I liked it, but I also have to admit that I had to make myself finish reading it.
Rating 3/5
A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 192
Challenges: Support Your Local Library #25
Source: Library
The Short Version:
A handful of Sookie Stackhouse short stories originally published in a variety of places and formats collected into a quick and fun book.
Why I Read It:
I went looking for a particular one of these short stories after I read Definitely Dead (the 6th in the series). At the beginning of that book I felt like I’d missed an important development and found out later that the story of Sookie’s cousin Hadley and her death was in the story “One Word Answer”. I wanted to go back and catch up on that missing piece and the rest of the stories.
The Book:
There are 5 short stories included in the book. Most of them are fairly independent of the novels with the exception of the one mentioned above.
Fairy Dust introduces Caludine the Fairy’s brother Claude and the third of the triplets, Claudette. Claudette is dead and Claudine needs Sookie’s telepathic assistance to find out the truth about her death.
Dracula Night is the story of an annual party at Eric’s bar Fangtasia. It’s a celebration in honor of Count Dracula and it’s fun to see Eric all atwitter about the possibility of a celebrity appearance at his party.
One Word Answer really should be read before Definitely Dead as it introduces Mr. Cataliades and explains the death of Sookie’s cousin Hadley. It also includes an appearance by Bubba (possibly my favorite recurring character).
Lucky happens after the events in All Together Dead as Sookie and her housemate Amelia discover that perhaps luck is a finite commodity and taking more than your share has consequences.
Gift Wrap takes place after From Dead to Worse as Sookie prepares herself for a lonely Christmas that turns out to be otherwise.
My Thoughts:
These were all fun and entertaining additions to the Sookie Stackhouse novels. The only one that really has storyline implications for the novels is “One Word Answer”. It was good to read that and round out some things I’d clearly missed before reading Definitely Dead.
It’s a quick read and a fun extension to the sometimes heavier elements of the novels. If you’ve stuck with the series I’d recommend taking a look at this collection of related short stories.
Rating 3/5
From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
Genre: Mystery / Vampire / Romance
Series: #8 in the Sookie Stackhouse series
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 303
Challenges: Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge #8
Source: Purchased New
The Short Version:
Sookie once again gets caught up in conflicts among both werewolves and vampires and also redefines her family before it’s all over with.
Why I Read It:
It’s the next in a series that I’m having fun with and trying to finish through book 9 by the end of June for the challenge.
The Book
With any series it’s difficult to discuss plot without giving spoilers to the earlier books so if you haven’t read the others yet, skip down to My Thoughts.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is still a huge part of life in Louisiana. Among the vampires it’s compounded by the aftermath of the disaster at the Vampire Summit. With so many of their leaders dead or injured the political maneuvering is starting even as the wounds are healing.
The Werewolves are also in for some major political maneuvering as they decide whether to reveal their existence to the human population as the Vampires have done. Again, the disaster in New Orleans leads to an attempt at a coup among the local Werewolf packs and of course Sookie gets stuck in the middle of it as does her shapeshifer boss, Sam.
On the home front, her brother Jason’s marriage to a werepanther is in trouble, she hasn’t heard from her boyfriend Quinn, she goes from bartender to instant stand-in bridesmaid at a wedding, meets a relative she never knew she had and gets yet another housemate as her friend Amelia gets help from her mentor because she still hasn’t figured out how to turn Bob the cat back into a human.
My Thoughts:
While I’m still enjoying this series, the one was a letdown from All Together Dead. I liked the political intrigue and thriller pace and this one didn’t have that flow. To me, this felt like there were several storylines that Harris wanted to get on the table, but none of them were enough for the main storyline of a full book and she mashed them all together in one.
I felt like I was reading 3 or 4 shorter stories that got shuffled together without creating any smooth flow between or among them and as a result it just felt a little choppy.
Nevertheless, it was still a ton of fun. I feel like there was some plots tied off a bit if even temporarily and others put into more of a set up for the next book or two. So even though it felt like a less than cohesive installment in the series, it was still a fun read. It clearly set up some plots for future books and kept me interested in continuing the series
Rating 3/5
The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens
Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 353
Challenges: Support Your Local Library #24
Source: Library
The Short Version:
When Mary Gooch’s husband of 25 years leaves, she sets out on a journey to find him and ends up finding herself.
Why I Read It:
I thought Lori Lansens previous novel about conjoined twins (“The Girls”) was absolutely wonderful so when I started seeing positive reviews of this one it was a quick addition to my TBR list and a long wait on the library hold list.
The Book:
On the day of their 25th anniversary, Mary Gooch waits for her husband Jimmy to come home from work. By the next morning it’s clear that Jimmy has left. Initially this sends Mary into a tailspin and eventually she sets out in search of Jimmy. That she would even do that is huge because for many years Mary has not ventured much farther than from her bed to the refrigerator. At over 300 pounds, Mary has spent years hiding within herself and her own small world of home, work at the local drugstore, and the few social interactions she could manage if she had clothes that still fit.
Mary, on her own for the first time ever is forced to cope with things others find easy such as figuring out how to work her cell phone and manage her bank account. That she manages to get on a plane to California where Jimmy’s mother lives in an LA suburb is nothing short of astounding. What she discovers there is ultimately a Mary that she didn’t know existed and perhaps has been hiding beneath the layers of flesh and behind the boundaries of her own making.
My Thoughts:
Mary is a character who is both frustrating and sympathetic. Much of her pain is self imposed, but Lansens portrays a woman whose eating habits and obesity are rooted in emotional pain. The book is not about Mary’s weight so much as it is about the Mary beneath that weight.
As she tries to make sense of her husband’s leaving her and to try to figure out what to do, the reader goes along on her journey. Interspersed with Mary’s current story are flashbacks to her childhood, courtship, marriage and life with Jimmy in their small hometown in Canada. I loved that there was a casual mention of the Darlen twins from The Girls which took place in the same small town.
I can get past the occasional remarkable coincidence and encounters with kinder than one would ever expect strangers, because making this physical and emotional journey along with Mary was a very satisfying read.
The story is gently told and even a bit slow in places, but it’s a story that has pain, love, anger and happiness woven through it.
Rating 4/5
Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich (Audio)
Genre: Mystery/Humor
Series: #12 in the Stephanie Plum series
Publication Date: 2006
Read by: Lorelei King
Challenges: Support Your Local Library #23
Source: Library
The Short Version:
Stephanie’s madcap adventures take a bit of a dark turn when a little girl is kidnapped, but there’s still enough craziness for plenty of laugh out loud moments.
Why I Read It:
It was Road Trip to Ashland Weekend. We make a couple of trips a year (for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and winery visits) and at least one trip each year includes listening to the next Stephanie Plum book on our list.
The Book:
It’s the typical Stephanie Plum stuff. She chases down people for her cousin’s bail bond agency. Sometimes this happens more successfully than others and usually with something crazy happening along the way. She continues to go back and forth between Ranger and Morelli with never a resolution to that triangle. She drives her mother crazy and her grandmother to the latest viewing at the Funeral Home.
This time around there is a bit of a dark side to the zaniness. Ranger’s 10 year old daughter has been kidnapped and the police and FBI suspect Ranger. Stephanie helps Ranger and of course ends up in danger herself. Oh and along the way there’s a point where Stephanie, Ranger and Joe are all staying at Stephanie’s apartment.
My Thoughts:
This series makes great road trip books for us. The Hubster enjoys listening to lighter stuff with plenty of humor when he’s driving and the length of the Stephanie Plum books generally work well for the timing of our drive to Ashland and back home. I’ve read the books through #13 so the audios have been re-reads for me and he finds them entertaining. After #13, I’ve stopped reading the books and will just continue with the audio versions because I do enjoy Lorelei King’s reading.
The thing I enjoyed about this one is that some of the ever growing cast of regulars is absent or only briefly mentioned. They’re all fun characters, but they don’t need to all be in every book. A bit of a break from Stephanie’s sister and her family was nice.
Nevertheless, some of the regulars are there and as usual most of the laughs come via Lula and Grandma Mazur.
The series is losing a bit of it’s luster for me and I no longer anticipate and get on the library waiting list for the next release, but it still makes for fun long boring drive listening and is something that keeps me (and The Hubster) entertained.
Rating 3/5
SuziQoregon
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No stars – I couldn’t even finish it
1 star – I didn’t like it but I managed to finish it.
2 stars – It was OK. Not good, but seriously just OK. 3 stars - I liked it. I didn’t think it was great, but I thought it was good entertainment. 4 stars – I really liked it. I really think you might like it too.
5 stars – It was amazing. I’d recommend this to just about anyone.
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