Book #69 week #50, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

 I loved The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. After reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen I was excited to read another circus themed book but make no mistake these are two vastly different books! I tried to pace myself but still the story just flew by.

Le Cirque des Rêves is an unusual circus. It arrives seemingly out of the blue, opens only at night and is entirely black and white with shades of gray. But lets start at the beginning, before the circus.

Celia is the daughter of a famous illusionist. Little do people know real magic is at work here not purely illusions. When Celia is six she is bound to a game being played out between her father and a mysterious man in grey. This man sets out to find a pawn of his own in an orphan named Marco. Both children are bound by magical rings to play out the game until a winner comes forth.

The children grow up with no knowledge of each other except that their competitor is out there somewhere. Marco begins working as an assistant for an extravagant man who has plans for a new type of circus. This circus becomes the arena for the game. Celia auditions for the part of "illusionist" and it is then that Marco realizes who his competitor is. Since he cannot travel with the circus Marco implores his girlfriend, the fortune teller, to keep tabs on Celia for him.  Overtime Celia finally finds out who her opponent is. Even though they are fighting against each other, the two soon fall in love. 

Both Marco and Celia work to find ways out of the binds of the game. Celia learns that winning means the loser will die and because of this she tries in vain to distance herself from Marco.

Now I really don't want to give away the ending of this book. I already feel I have said too much. The Night Circus is an excellent read with tons of whimsy and mystery I urge you to read it if you haven't already done so!

Quotes:
“I am tired of trying to hold things together that cannot be held. Trying to control what cannot be controlled. I am tired of denying myself what I want for fear of breaking things I cannot fix. They will break no matter what we do.” 

“Celia, wait,” Marco says, standing but not moving closer to her. “You are breaking my heart. You told me once that I reminded you of your father. That you never wanted to suffer the way your mother did for him, but you are doing exactly that to me. You keep leaving me. You leave me longing for you again and again when I would give anything for you to stay, and it is killing me.”
“It has to kill one of us,” Celia says quietly.” 

Book #64 week #46, Origin by Jessica Khoury

Origin by Jessica Khoury is another book that was given to me and has just been sitting on the shelf so I decided to give it a go. This book reminded me a lot of State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Both are set in the amazon with scientist researching anti-aging anti-death drugs.

Pia is seventeen. Born in the scientist camp and has never stepped foot outside the electric fence surrounding it. Oh and she is immortal. The goal of the camp is to make more immortal humans. Pia was made that way through five generations of experimentation. She is content with her life. Pia is being set up through a series of mental tests to take over for the head researcher when the time comes. She is brilliant in science and math but knows nothing of the outside world.

Everything is going smoothly until the night of Pia's birthday. While sitting in her glass room she notices an upturned tree has cause a hole in the electric fence. Suddenly Pia finds herself going through the hole and running through the jungle. While on her escaped she runs into a boy quite literally! I should say man he is eighteen after all.  Eio is a member of the nearby indigenous tribe but he does not look like the typical tribe member. He confesses to Pia that his father is one of the scientist from the camp. It doesn't take much to make the sheltered Pia highly intrigued by this new world.

Soon Pia finds herself drawn to Eio and questioning the only life shes ever known and the very people she trusts so dearly. Just days after her first venture outside the gate two representatives of the company funding the immortal project show up to see how things are coming along. The representatives are not pleased with the slow pace of the project and force the head researcher to give Pia her last test forcing her to take over as head of the compound. Finally Pia will know what the catalyst to immortal life is and it is a shocker....

Being the debut novel from Jessica Khoury I was really surprised how much I liked Origin. The writing is good and the story really flows nicely. The character were very interesting with surprising ghosts in their closets and interesting back stories. I found the pace of this book worked really well, there are enough little shockers sprinkled throughout the book that I did not find myself waiting impatiently for the big bombshell to be reveled. If you liked Ann Patchett's State of Wonder you might enjoy Origin as well.

Quote:
“Now, when he touches me, I feel nothing but Eio, pure and whole and constant. Now, when I look into his eyes, I don't see death- but eternity. For the first time in my life, I am looking into someone's gaze and realizing that not only do I understand what's in his eyes... he understands whats in mine.”

Book #63 week #45, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The other day I was at the book store when I saw this one on the shelf. I remembered I had a copy at home that was given to me and I needed a new book to read so in typical me fashion I jumped right in without reading the cover.

The Fault in Our Stars takes place in Indiana and is the story of sixteen-year-old cancer patient Hazel. She is terminal but doesn't have a timeline set in place for her. Due to a new experiment drug (completely fictional just FYI) her tumors are shrinking but her lungs are compromised. She needs to be on oxygen 24/7 just to live.

Hazel graduated high school early and is taking some college courses but her mom worries about her not being social enough. It is because of this Hazel reluctantly agrees to start going to her cancer kid support group again. It is there, through a friend named Issac (who is losing his last good eye in his fight with cancer), she meets seventeen-year-old Augustus. After losing a leg several years earlier Augustus is now in remission.

Hazel and Augustus are both sarcastic, knowledgeable and wise beyond their years. It is not surprising that they soon fall in love however Hazel is cautious. She doesn't want to get close to Augustus because she knows she will leave him someday and she doesn't want him to deal with that kind of pain. During their first meeting Hazel shares with Augustus her favorite book. It is about a girl with cancer but the book ends abruptly in mid sentence and Hazel is frustrated not knowing what happened to the rest of the characters after the apparent death of the narrator. Since it had been ten years since the book was published and no sequel written, Hazel has tried numerous times to contact the author with no luck.  Somehow Augustus finds a way though and soon he is planning on using his Wish (think Make a Wish Foundation type of wish) to take Hazel to Amsterdam to meet the author in person.

Soon they are off, with Hazel's mother of course, but the meeting does not go as planned. The author is a rude drunk who refuses to answer their questions. Hazel is irritated, the author is mean and his assistant is so appalled by his behavior that she quits! After the meeting she takes Hazel and Gus out to the Anne Frank museum. Hazel finally decides to open up to Gus and kisses him at the museum, soon they find themselves back in his hotel room. Before leaving Amsterdam Augustus confesses to Hazel that he has recently learned his cancer is back and it is everywhere. There is no hope.

Gus is deteriorating fast and holds a mock funeral with Hazel and Issac so he can hear their eulogies for him. Eight days later he is gone. Issac tells Hazel that Gus was working on the ending of the book for her but in her search of his house she cannot find it. Gus' mom tells Hazel some pages are missing from a notebook and Hazel contacts the author's assistant hoping Gus sent the pages to him. The assistant finds the envelope and scans the pages to email them to Hazel. Apparently Gus was hoping the author had something to add to this writing because of his way with words, he adds nothing though. Surprisingly enough what Augustus has written is not the end of the story but his beautiful and touching eulogy for Hazel.


Even though I cried horribly and am crying again now just thinking about it I absolutely loved this book. I can't even begin to explain all the emotions I felt reading this. First you have the doomed star crossed lovers, the doting parents that just want a bit more time, the distant friends who try to relate but can't and add in a quirky, mean author who as it turns out knows a little more about this situation than he originally let on. My review does not do this book justice it is just simply wonderful and a must read in my opinion.



Quote:
“Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but a Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all of this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you look at the person who loves you and smile.”

Apologies

My many apologies.... I have many reviews to write and have been slacking off quite awesomely. I am working on them and I might write and post them in random order but I will make sure they appear in the correct order when all is said and done.

Needless to say a few of these reviews are for Sookie Stackhouse books (True Blood series) and although I love reading them, can't put them down really, I am having a hard time keeping up with writing about them. But they will be done! Eventually : )

Book #57 week #41, The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

After reading The Lovely Bones I was looking forward to reading something else by Alice Sebold. I had no clue what The Almost Moon was about (seems to be a running theme with me) when I dove into it. I should really stop doing that! At first I thought the book would be painful, forty-nine year old Helen kills her eighty-eight year old dementia stricken mother right off the bat. My own mother passed away this May at fifty-nine and she had slight dementia. But over all this book was just blah.

Helen kills her mother without an explanation as to why. Then in the period of 24 hours she; sleeps with her best friend's adult son, calls her ex-husband to confess about the killing, goes to work (as a live nude model), is questioned by the police, picks up her youngest daughter at the airport, leaves her at a bar when she finds out the police are searching her house,  calls the friend's son to pick her up, sleeps with him again, convinces him to loan her a car, steals his gun and ends up at the recently empty house near her mother's house and plans to kill herself. However she decides she cannot go through with it because her own father committed suicide and she didn't want to put her daughters through that on top of everything that has happened. That is pretty much the main plot in a nutshell. The in between moments are where we learn of Helen's past. Both of her parents had some sort of mental illness that screwed her up pretty well. In the end I feel Helen killed her mother to save her from having to live in a convalescent home because she was extremely agoraphobic and leaving her home would have been very difficult for her.

Honestly though I just didn't care. I looked up the reviews of The Almost Moon on goodreads.com after the fact and they were not good! I didn't feel disturbed like a lot of the commentators did but even though the writing was good, some of the characters were amusing and the history was interesting something was seriously lacking for me. I couldn't feel for Helen or her mother. I was hoping their history lesson would change that but it didn't.

I can't say I loved or even liked this book but I can't say I hated it either. It had a lot of potential however when I finished the book I really felt nothing at all. It did not stay with me in either a positive or negative way.

Quote:
“To take the tops off all the houses and mingle our miseries was too simple a solution, I knew. Houses had windows with shades. Yards had gates and fences. There were carefully planned out sidewalks and roads, and these were the paths that, if you chose to go into someone else's reality, you had to be willing to walk. There were no shortcuts.”

Book #56 week #41, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child is another book that has been on my "to-read" list that I forgot what it was about by the time I got around to it. In the beginning I wasn't sure if I would like this book but I was pleasantly surprised! 

It is the 1920's. Jack and Mable, a married couple in their forties, move to untamed, wild Alaska. Their first year is rough. Not only are they adjusting to a new way of life they are also adjusting to each other. For years the couple struggled to have a child but it was not to be.

Mabel is feeling pretty good on the night of the first snow fall and she convinces Jack to make a snowman with her. They turn their snowman into a snowgirl complete with hat, scarf and mittens. The next morning Jack sees a little girl in the forest. The snowgirl is no more. Her accessories are gone and all that is left in her place is a small pile of snow and small footprints leading away into the forest. Mable sees the girl too and eventually the girl warms up to them and starts visiting the couple.

Mabel is convinced the girl is magic and has her sister send her a book their father use to read to her as a little girl. The book is in Russian but it has illustrations and her sister's letter explains the snowgirl's folklore. There are many versions but in all an old childless couple create a snowgirl who comes to life and as winter ends somehow or another so does the snowgirl. However Jack is not convinced. After all in secret he helped the little girl bury the frozen body of her father and he has seen her man made home built in the mountainside. 

For years the girl arrives with the first snow fall and leaves for higher mountains by winter's end. She grows and Jack and Mabel consider her as their own child. But no one else has seen the girl until she is sixteen or so and is at the homestead when Jack and Mabel's close friends come by for a surprise visit with their nineteen year old son Garrett. The boy finds a reason to stay in the barn for the winter and soon he starts spending all his time with the girl, Faina. They fall in love and Faina gets pregnant. The new couple gets married and Faina stays for the summer for the first time. She grows lean and tan.

Right before winter the baby, a little boy, is born. Faina is very happy but two weeks later it is snowing and she falls ill. Mabel takes her out into the snow to cool her fever. Sitting on a chair wrapped in blankets, Mabel falls asleep. When she is awoken Faina is gone and all that is left of her is the pile of her clothes. It was all so heartbreaking! For Jack and Mabel, Garrett and the baby too. I really don't understand why she fell ill in the winter and not in the summer. Even though the end is sad there is a little epilogue that takes place a few years later and gives a glimpse into their lives without Faina.

I loved this book. It is so beautifully written and gives a real idea about what it would have been like to live in rural Alaska. I loved how whenever Faina spoke there were no quotation marks giving her an air of mystery. I always read her parts in my mind as a whisper. I loved how Jack accepted Faina for who she was and didn't try to change her. Which in turn droves me nuts about Mabel. For someone who believed Faina was magical and could melt at any moment she sure did try hard to push her into a conventional life. Mabel seemed to worry so much about Faina melting that I was surprised she had no issues with her staying through the summer. Well maybe she did have issues with that but I just interpreted it as issues with losing Faina to Garrett.

Quote:
“We never know what is going to happen, do we? Life is always throwing us this way and that. That’s where the adventure is. Not knowing where you’ll end up or how you’ll fare. It’s all a mystery, and when we say any different, we’re just lying to ourselves. Tell me, when have you felt most alive?”

Book #55 week #40, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Now here is a book I felt compelled to read because EVERYONE has read it. A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the intertwining lives of two women in Afghanistan over 30 years or so. Ugh it was so depressing at times but I still liked it a lot.

I honestly don't know if I can write a review for this book just yet. It was too sad and I am not ready to feel that sad again. Plus I have more posts written and waiting on this to go up first so this is it for now. I hope to come back to this soon though. 

Quotes:
“A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed. It won't stretch to make room for you.” 

“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.”

Book #54 week #40, All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

So what happens in All Together Dead you say? Well I'll tell ya! There is a meeting at Fangtasia. Mr. Andre is there asking for financial help to fix the Queen's home which suffered serious damage in hurricane Katrina. It is reveled that only Sookie witnessed the death of the King and this could be a problem. Later Sookie attends Haleigh's (Andy's fiance) bridal shower and then she goes home. Quinn shows up and the two FINALLY have sex. Soon after Jason calls with news about his girlfriend Crystal's new pregnancy and they have decided to get married right away.

Seriously right away. Sookie gets ready and takes Quinn and Amelia with her to the unusual wedding where she promises to be held responsible if Jason messes up in his marriage. Quinn and Sookie head home while Amelia stays behind at the party. In fact Amelia does not return home that night which makes Bob the cat very unhappy. The next night at work Selah (Bill's new girlfriend) comes in alone and accuses Sookie of attending the vampire summit with hopes of stealing back Bill for herself. Claudine, Tara and Sam all express to Sookie at different times that they do not want her to go to the summit.

The next night Pam drops by the bar to talk to Sookie and her and Eric's relationship and about Sookie and Quinn. Pam is concerned and wants her old boss back since Eric has developed feelings for Sookie and is not acting like himself. Sookie is confused by this conversation because Eric has been avoiding her and not acting like he cares for her at all. If it were me I would have ran all the way over there and threw myself at him! Amelia comes into the bar and hits it off with Pam.

Pam and Sookie go outside and talk about Bill and Eric. Pam and Eric did not know Bill was assigned to Sookie. Pam tells her the story about how Eric made her into a vampire. Eric shows up, kisses Sookie and asks her about her relationship with Quinn. He leaves soon after wondering aloud why he was headed to her house after he'd been cursed with amnesia. The next day Amelia drops Sookie off at the airport for the vampire summit. She rides on a private jet with Mr. Cataliades, his niece Diantha and a human vampire lawyer named Johan Glassport and the coffins of their vampire party. Johan questions Sookie about the King's death.

At the hotel Barry the bellboy from book two is there. Sookie and Barry wander off together to test their telepathic gifts when Sookie is confronted by Jennifer Carter (of the dead King of Arkansas group). We learn Quinn is hiding something. Back in the Queen's room, the Queen arranges by phone a meeting with Jennifer but when they arrive at her room a short time later, Jennifer and two other vampires in it are dead. An investigation is under way and Sookie suggest to the Queen that she marry Andre and make him the King of Arkansas. Turns out Eric is a priest! (shocking I know!) and offers his services if need be. The King of Mississippi marries the King of Indiana. And finally the newly made vampire/were Jake tells Sookie Quinn's secret. He has a younger sister, Frannie, he is extremely protective of. Frannie is the result of an awful rape of his mother that Quinn witnessed and sequentially killed all of the men involved.

Andre corners Sookie with the brilliant idea to exchange blood with her so she will be tied to him and therefore the Queen as well. Sookie freaks out and Eric comes to the rescue. He offers to take Andre's place as that is the only feasible option and luckily Andre excepts. Sookie sucks the blood from a cut Eric makes in his chest. He gets very turned on in this moment right in time for them to be interrupted by Quinn. Needless to say Quinn isn't sure what is going on and he is not happy. Later there is a call to the Queen's room about an unclaimed suitcase. Sookie retrieves the bag and brings it to the room. On her way back to the room she notices a weird soda can. Turns out it is a bomb and hotel security come to help. The situation is taken care of and Sookie is interviews. She had sensed Eric coming to help her and he tells her Bill would have come too but he forbade him from coming. Eric is shocked that he even offered to take the bomb from her since he is known for looking out for himself first. Turns out the Queen did not know of Andre's blood exchange plan.

Quinn sleeps in Sookie's bed that night be he is very jealous because of Eric. The next night Sookie gets all dressed up for the ball but gets called to the Queen's trail instead as a witness in the killing of the King. The Queen is found innocent and a witness set to speak out against her is killed by an arrow. Quinn gets hit by a second arrow trying to protect Sookie. The assassin is killed while the arrow is pulled from Quinn's shoulder. In a new turn of events Eric's mere presence seems to comfort Sookie. Eric asks Sookie is she loves Quinn and if she loves him. Besides being affected by Eric's presence, drinking his blood for the third time seems to have opened her up to being able to read vampire's minds as well as human's. Sookie gets word that the Fellowship of the Sun is planning some sort of attack.

Barry and Sookie investigate local archery places to find out more about the assassin at the trail. They find the right one and are asked to return later. Sookie leaves the Queen a message stating this and when they return later the employees are dead. Barry gets upset with Sookie for tripping the silent alarm instead of sticking around to help the police. Jake shows an unusual interest in making sure Sookie gets out of the hotel the next day, he suggest she goes shopping or sightseeing. Sookie speaks to Bill and even he starts asking her if she is in love with Eric or Quinn or even JB!

The next morning at 10am, Sookie is awaken by Barry "calling" to her telepathically. She finds Jake knocked out from the sun by her door and she kicks him when she realizes what he has done. The unclaimed suitcases and coffins are bombs planted by the Fellowship and Jake. Sookie manages to wake up Eric enough to get him and Pam out of the hotel. Barry and Sookie uses their gifts to help find survivors and then leave to a motel together when they are too tired to help anymore. At the motel Mr. Cataliades stops by to update them. Queen Sophie-Anne lost both her legs. The hotel owner Christian Baruch planted the soda can bomb. He wanted to impress the Queen with hopes of marrying her and opening a vampire hotel in New Orleans. The Queen is behind the deaths of the accuser at the trail, the assassin (which lead to the deaths of the archery range employee's which Sookie feels guilty for) and the Arkansas vampires. Barry goes to the airport to return home while Sookie visits Quinn in the hospital. Frannie is there and lets Sookie use her car to get home since she needed to drive Quinn's car.

Once home Amelia starts to spill the beans that Sookie's friends got married. She thinks she missed Andy's and Portia's double wedding when a car pulls up. It is Tara, she has come to tell Sookie that her and JB got married! At the end Sookie remembers seeing Quinn crawl over to Andre and stake him in the commotion of the bombing at the hotel.

Book #53 week #39, Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

In Definitely Dead Andy and his sister Portia are planning a double wedding (not to each other of course) and Portia makes it clear to Sookie that she is only invited as a server and not a guest however Andy’s fiancé rectifies the situation. Sookie is now dating the weretiger Quinn. While out one night the couple is attacked by newly bitten teenage werewolves. Because this is witnessed by humans, the teens are arrested and murdered in jail. Sookie is recovering at home when Mr. Cataliades, the queen’s demon secretary, comes to take Sookie to New Orleans to settle her cousin Hadley’s estate. Hadley was a relatively new vampire and the Queen’s lover; she was murdered by a jealous vampire named Waldo. Mr. Cataliades is surprised Sookie is not ready to leave and it is discovered his niece, working as a messenger for the Queen, was murdered on Sookie’s own property before she could deliver the message that Mr. Cataliades would be arriving. Bill goes with them to New Orleans.

Hadley's apartment is locked under the spell of the landlord, a young witch named Amelia Broadway. Amelia removes the spell and they discover the body of a shapeshifter in a closet. But it is not a body after all, it is a newly turned vampire and he attacks the two women. The police break up the attack (vampire police) and Sookie and Amelia are taken to the hospital. While there Eric and Bill visit and Eric forces Bill to drop a bombshell on Sookie. Bill tells her the Queen forced him to return to Bon Temps to procure Sookie’s talent for the Queen’s use. He is to do this in any way possible even using seduction if necessary. I was pretty pissed at this revelation. Sookie came under the Queen’s radar due to Hadley. She told the Queen all about Sookie’s unusually gift. Sookie sends Bill away and walks her badly injured self back to Hadley’s apartment.

Sookie visits Queen Sophie-Anne. Although she is grieving for her lost love, Hadley, the Queen has married the King of Arkansas, Peter Threadgill. It is a marriage of convenience. In a jealous fit Hadley stole a bracelet of the Queen’s that was a gift from her new husband. The Queen needs this back or else the King will have grounds to divorce her and take her kingdom. Sookie agrees to look for it in exchange for financial help (to buy witchcraft supplies) to learn about the new vampire in Hadley’s apartment. The Queen agrees and comes to the apartment with her entourage to watch Amelia and her friends cast a spell that will recreate the events that took place that night.

The group watches as the man, Jake Purifoy, is killed but can’t see who did it. Then they see Hadley change him into a vampire to save his life and she puts him in the closet. Hadley is killed the next night. While Sookie cleans and packs up the apartment, Quinn arrives. Turns out Jake was an employee of his that had went missing. Quinn and Sookie share a pretty damn steamy encounter (if I can say so myself, who knew keeping clothes on could be so much fun!) in the kitchen which ends just in time for the pair to be attacked and kidnapped by some weres.  

Quinn manages to call the queen, asking for help. Sookie and Quinn are beaten up but they manage to escape from the van and flee into a swamp. The pair find a cabin and inside are the Pelt family (remember Debbie Pelt?). Eric shows up to help overtake the cabin. Sookie finally tells them the truth. The Pelts sadly accept the outcome and agree not to harm Sookie if she keeps this event secret from the pack who will punish the Pelt’s severely if this plot was ever found out.

Before going home to Bon Temps, Sookie and Quinn attend the ball of the newly married King and Queen. She found the bracelet and gave it to the Queen in secret. The King did not expect to see the bracelet. He was planning on it being missing so he could take over the Queen’s kingdom. Since this did not go as envisioned Peter starts an all-out attack on the New Orleans’ vampires. Sookie almost dies... again and is saved by Bill.. again. She escapes the building through the Queen’s bedroom where she sees Sophie-Anne, her bodyguard Andre and Peter fighting. Andre kills King Peter.

Sookie takes Quinn who is wounded back to the apartment and puts him to bed. Bill stops by to confesses he truly fell in love Sookie and still loves her but she tells him to leave and never come back. The next day after accidentally turning her lover Bob into a cat, Amelia asks Sookie if she can stay with her in Bon Temps. She needs to hide out from her coven while she figures out how to fix Bob. Sookie accepts and the two new friends head home.

Quote:
"Here I was, lying on a sidewalk in historical New Orleans, with my boobs hanging out of my dress, my hair coming down, my sandals on my arm, and a large tiger licking my face."

Goal reached!

After just 39 weeks I have managed to reach my goal of reading 52 books this year! I thought reading one book a week would be a challenge but turns out when I get involved with a series I just cannot put them down.

This is the whole reason I started this blog. Not to get a ton of readers I really just wanted a place to keep track of what I read and what I thought about it. This is also why I am changing my format from summarizing books to laying it all on the line and talking about what happened and how I felt about it. You could read a summary or a synopsis anywhere and where is the fun in that?

If you have stumbled in here though I would love to hear opinions about some of the books I read or some recommendations of your own (check out the "book list" tab at the top to see what I've read so far this year). I don't know a whole lot of avid readers in my personal life so I really look forward to hearing other people's thoughts on books or book to screen adaptations.

Book #52 week #39, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I had to read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I've heard a lot of good things about it and it was recommended to me quite a bit. So I joined the waiting list at the library and was number 1230! Never been that high before, guess it is pretty popular. Lucky me though its been about a month and I am number 702 on the list I found a copy on the new books shelf so I promptly checked it out. So lets get to it:

Holy mind blow! For once I am okay with a book having an abrupt, unresolved ending. Truthfully I just wanted to be done with it. Gone Girl is about the disappearance of Nick Dunne's wife, Amy, on their fifth wedding anniversary. All signs point to foul play, maybe even murder.

**Warning Major Spoilers!**
The first part of the book is told from Nick's perspective with some of Amy's diary entries sprinkled in between. I wasn't sure what to think of Nick. He lies to the cops, why? He can't believe the things people say about his wife, she has a best friend? She has been nice to the neighbors? He portrays Amy as distant, cold and resentful. On the flip side Any's diary entries show the opposite. Nick is secretive, unappreciative, angry and even scary.

Part two starts off with a bombshell.. Amy is alive! She is hiding out in a little motel. Turns out she is framing Nick as a way of punishing him for his ongoing affair with a younger woman. Now the tables have turned. Amy is psychotic and Nick is simply a man who fell in love with the wrong woman under false pretenses. By this time my heart is hurting for Nick and I am worried about how he will prove he is being framed.

Once Nick figures this out he takes action. He does interviews admitting he did wrong by having an affair and that he loves Amy so much and wants her to come home. He promises he can be the man she needs him to be if only she would let him try. Amy falls for it. She makes her way home but kills a man (Desi a childhood sweetheart that is a bit obsessed with Amy) in the process all to make her story of kidnapping all the more believable. Amy convinces Desi to help her hoping for money but winds up trapped in his lake house until she kills him and escapes.

I was routing for Nick. Although the police have closed the case, with the help of one detective and his twin sister the truth has to come out. Right, right? Well Nick gives up when Amy surprises him with a pregnancy (she used his frozen sperm without his knowledge).

I have mixed feelings about this book. Towards the end it affected my own mood until I finished the book and I didn't like that. Everything sort of crashed for me when it turns out Nick has his own issues and is reluctant to get rid of Amy after everything she put him through. And it was a bit unbelievable that Amy had every single detail covered. Well except for two things. She covered herself in case Jeff and the girl (can't remember her name) from the motel came forward (Desi kept her in a room somewhere but she doesn't remember where) but what about the owner? Surely she is credible enough to be believed if she came forward and say she saw Amy on her own everyday. And what about Desi's mom? I was under the impression that they lived together, couldn't she testify that Desi didn't start spending all his free time at the lake house until weeks after Amy's disappearance?

This book just bugged me. There was no light at the end of the tunnel and that is fine, I don't just read happy books but there was no hope at all. Any loose end you could think of that might help Nick out was covered by Amy so completely it really was unbelievable.

Quote:
“We were the first human beings who would never see see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can't recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show. A commercial. You know the awful singsong of blase: Seeeen it. I've literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality really can't anymore. I don't know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved one dies, we know the words to say. If we want to play the stud or the smart-ass or the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same dog-eared scripted. It's a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless automat of characters. And if all of us are play-acting, there can be no such thing as a soul mate, because we don't have genuine souls.”

Book #51 week #39, Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Dead as a Doornail opens on the first full moon since Jason was bitten by a werepanther. The bites were effective and Jason does change into a half man, half panther. Instead of being frightened by this Jason is excited. In the meantime, while standing outside talking to Sookie, Sam is shot in the leg. Since obviously Sam will be unable to tend bar for awhile Sookie asks Eric if he can spare anyone to help out. Eric agrees to let the bar borrow his new employee Charles Twining. Charles is a charming, one-eyed, pirate vampire and after a night or two staying with Sam, Sookie reluctantly agrees to let Charles stay with her.

Along with Sam being shot so are other shape shifters and weres. Some are killed and some are injured, like Calvin Norris who has to stay in the hospital for while after being shot in the chest. Although he wasn't shot, the head of the Shreveport werewolves is also killed. Leading Alcide to invite Sookie to his funeral. A strange event which will also determine who will run for the new lead of the pack. Alicide's father will be running for the spot against a man named Patrick Furnam. On a less serious note, Bill is now dating! The woman's name is Selah Pumphrey and she is quite high and mighty and bitchy. Bill keeps bring her on dates at Sam's bar, trying to make Sookie jealous I suppose, how lame is that!

One night while sleeping, Sookie's house catches on fire. Claudine, Sookie's fairy godmother, saves her while Charles is outside having killed the suspect. It is discovered that the guy is just a regular human passing through town and he has a Fellowship of the Sun card in his wallet. Sookie's kitchen and car are destroyed in the fire. Sookie takes Sam up on his offer to stay at his empty apartment rental while her house is repaired. Tara loans her old car to Sookie even though their relationship is strained due to Tara's new boyfriend; the weird and scary vampire Mickey.

While returning to her new home one afternoon Sookie is shot in the shoulder. The bullet matches the bullets from the other shootings except for Sam's. So Sookie and Sam (in his collie form) head out to look for the killer. And they find her! It is Sweetie Des Arts, the new cook at the bar who is angry she was bitten and is now a shifter so she has made it her mission to kill shifters. Sookie was targeted because she smells like a shifter from hanging out with them however Sweetie never did realize Sam is a shifter himself. Detective Andy sees the commotion, steps in to help and ends up killing Sweetie himself.

Back at the bar the phone keeps ringing. Charles is answering it and telling Sookie it is just prank calls. Bubba shows up at the back door with an urgent message for Sookie. The message is from Eric (he was the one calling) after digging in Charles past he discovers Charles is a hitman sent by Hot Rain. The intent is to avenge Long Shadow's killing way back in book one Dead Until Dark by killing someone Eric cares deeply about. Turns out Charles staged the fire at Sookie's house and murdered an innocent man in the process trying to cover his tracks. As soon as Bubba leaves Sookie is attacked by Charles but he didn't count on the humans in the bar coming to Sookie's aide. The local men manage to overpower and kill Charles. I was really shocked. I really didn't think these guys would try to take on a vampire.

Due to her concern over Tara's welfare, Sookie contacts Eric for help. Even though he was nice to Tara and showered her with expensive gifts, her old boyfriend Franklin Mott from Club Dead gives Tara to Mickey to settle a debt. Mickey is not treating Tara well and Eric agrees to remove Mickey from the picture in exchange for the truth of what really happened between him and Sookie while he had amnesia. Eric contacts Mickey's maker and asks her to call Mickey home. Before that happens though Mickey attacks Sookie and Eric. Eric gets knocked out and Mickey tricks Sookie into inviting him in the house or else he will kill Tara. Once inside he attacks her and she rescinds his invitation before she is hurt too badly. Mickey ends up leaving town due to the call of his maker. Before I get to Sookie telling Eric what happened between them let me talk about the weres first.

Sookie attends the werewolf competition for the new leader. Alcide wants Sookie there to try and pick some brains and see if the competition is fair. It is not, Sookie discovers Patrick is cheating and she speaks out about it. As punishment the last part of the three part competition will be a fight to the death instead of just until too injured to go on. Patrick overpowers Alcide's father and he is killed. This ruins the relationship between Alcide and Sookie! Aww I was so sad. I really likes Alcide. While there Sookie meets the emcee Quinn and for no reason at all the first image in my mind when reading his description is this guy:

It has been hard for me to shake this image! In my favorite part Sookie tells Eric what happened when he was cursed. The had lots of sex, which surprised Eric but not as much as the revelation that he offered to leave everything to be with Sookie. Not even the knowledge that Sookie killed Debbie and he hid the evidence shocked him as much. Bill shows up to help patch the window Mickey broke and Sookie lets it slip that Eric now knows what happened. Bill knew Sookie slept with Eric because he could smell Eric all over her and now Eric knows as well. And Bill knows that Eric knows which makes for an awkward and awesome for me moment. I am still very much on an anti-Bill kick.

Quote:
“Did we have sex?" he asked directly. For about two minutes, this might actually be fun. 

"Eric," I said, "we had sex in every position I could imagine, and some I couldn’t. We had sex in every room in my house, and we had sex outdoors. You told me it was the best you’d ever had." (At the time he couldn’t recall all the sex he’d ever had. But he’d paid me a compliment.) "Too bad you can’t remember it," I concluded with a modest smile.
 
Eric looked like I’d hit him in the forehead with a mallet. For all of thirty seconds his reaction was completely gratifying.”

Book #50 week #39, Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

I am really loving the Sookie Stackhouse series!

Dead to the World starts off on New Year's Eve. Even though they are still broken up Bill informs Sookie that he is going to Peru to work on his vampire database. On her way home from a very long night at the bar, Sookie passes a very tall, very blond, very naked somebody running down the road. It is Eric and he is scared and confused. Turns out he has amnesia forced upon him for refusing the demands of some powerful werewolf witches. After talking to Pam and Chow, Sookie agrees to hide Eric at her home until this whole mess is sorted out. Meanwhile Jason goes missing.

As the time passed Sookie begins to fall for the new kinder gentler Eric and soon they begin having a sexual relationship. Which I have to say is pretty damn hot. I know the show has a lot of sex but surprisingly the books do not. It is more sprinkled here and there rather than being heavily saturated with sex. I like Eric a lot so this turn of events made me really happy. Eric even starts calling Sookie "lover" and offers to leave his whole life and business to stay with her and take care of her forever.

Eventually the vampires team up with the Shreveport werewolf pack (Alcide and even Debbie are there) and some local Wiccans to fight the witch coven that cursed Eric. Before setting out to battle, Bill shows up and sees Debbie. He informs Alcide that he knows Debbie because she was present and even participated in Bill's torture in the last book Club Dead. Upon hearing this Alcide abjures Debbie (meaning he officially servers all ties to her) in front of everyone  The coven is defeated and Eric returns home with Sookie while Pam works on Hallow (the head of the coven) to reverse the spell on Eric. Debbie is waiting for Sookie when she returns home and shoots at her but Eric jumps in the way. This gives Sookie a chance to grab Jason's shotgun and kill Debbie. Eric then disposes of Debbie's body and car.

By the time Eric awakes the next evening, the curse has been lifted and Eric has no memory of the events of the past few days. Sookie is a bit sad, I would be too! But now she is able to focus on finding Jason. Turns out he is being held in a storage shed out in Hotshot by a werepanther named Felton. Felton is in love with Crystal who is dating Jason. He feels she is only dating Jason because he is not a were and their specific gene pool is all muddled up due to years of inbreeding. This is also why Crystal's uncle Calvin has propositioned Sookie to marry him and help diversify their gene pool. Anyway Felton has been biting Jason with the hopes of turning him into a werepanther so Crystal will be uninterested in him. Calvin agrees to handle Felton's punishment if Sookie agrees not to involve the police. She agrees and it is implied that Felton is killed for his actions against Jason.

I really liked this book. Seeing Sookie and Eric together was awesome. Even after he is back to normal he sends Sookie a new coat to replace her damaged one. Not knowing what happened while he had amnesia is driving Eric crazy and I kind of enjoy that. I also enjoy the fact that Bill seems to know something was up between Eric and Sookie.

Quote:
“We could go back," he said. In the dome light of the car, his face looked hard as stone. "We could go back to your house. I can stay with you always. We can know each others bodies in every way, night after night. I could love you." His nostrils flared, and he looked suddenly proud. "I could work. You would not be poor. I would help you."
 
"Sounds like a marriage," I said, trying to lighten the atmosphere. But my voice was too shaky.
 
"Yes," he said.”

Book #49 week #38, Divergent by Veronica Roth

Now here is a book I was really looking forward to! Apparently there is a movie deal in the works. As with my new format expect spoilers read on at your own risk!

Divergent is the story of sixteen year old Beatrice (Tris). In what use to be Chicago, the citizens are divided into factions. Tris belongs to the Abnegation faction which means selfless, they are the people that always put others first. At sixteen each person is given a mental test to see what faction is right for them and the following day they can choose to stay with their faction or leave their families and move to a different faction.  Tris' test results are inconclusive and she is unofficially labeled as Divergent and told by her instructor to tell no one. She chooses to convert to the Dauntless faction (bravery).

Once in her new faction all pledges, if you will, are required to compete against each other for a spot in the Dauntless community. Needless to say Tris makes the cut but not without threats to her life from the other pledges. During the competition stage Tris and her instructor Four fall in love with each other. After the competition it becomes apparent that the knowledge faction is working in conjunction with the leaders of the Dauntless faction to declare war on the Abnegation faction (they control the government). They are doing this by way of injecting the Dauntless citizens with a serum that allows the person to be mind controlled.  This is where the Divergent come in, something is different in their brains that does not allow the mind control to take place.

I loved this book! I loved that Tris is sensitive, selfless and selfish, brave and scared. I really love Four, he is very smart and brave of course but also mysterious with good reason to be. I thought the story flowed very well and for a YA book the author wasn't afraid to kill off characters and didn't gloss over the violence. It was so sad when Al died and also Tris' parents. Overall I felt this book was about discovering oneself. Who we really are and what we are capable of.  I can't wait to get my hands on book two; Insurgent.

Quote:
“Somewhere inside me is a merciful, forgiving person. Somewhere there is a girl who tries to understand what people are going through, who accepts that people do evil things and that desperation leads them to darker places than they ever imagined. I swear she exists, and she hurts for the repentant boy I see in front of me.

But if I saw her, I wouldn't recognize her.”

Book #48 week #38, Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

I really didn't read anything this week until Friday night. It is just my luck that my library carries several copies of Club Dead, I even saw two last time I was there, but when I need it they are all checked out! So I had to wait to have a copy transferred. It came in on Friday along with another book I've been dying to read and lets just say I didn't accomplish much other than reading this weekend!

I am trying something different this post. I am getting kind of bored just writing synopsis of books, if you wanted that you could just read the cover of the book! So I am going to talk about how I really feel and that means spoilers. So not only will I recap book #2 Living Dead in Dallas I am going to recap book #3 Club Dead as well. So spoiler alert! : )

In Living Dead in Dallas Lafayette is murdered right off the bat and his body found in detective Andy's car. After some probing around it is reveled that Lafayette has been talking to multiple people about his involvement in a secret sex club. Meanwhile Sookie and Bill are fighting and his car breaks down so Sookie storms off. While walking she encounters a strange naked woman, a maenad, who attacks Sookie and cuts her back with her claws. The maenad tells Sookie this is a message for Eric.

Bill takes Sookie to Eric who explains what the woman is and tells Sookie she has been poisoned. The vampires with the help of a strange doctor set her right again and Eric tells Bill and Sookie he has a job for them to do. The pair head to Dallas to investigate a vampire disappearance. Long story short a new cult called "The Fellowship of the Sun" is behind the kidnapping. They want to eradicate vampires. Sookie gets herself kidnapped and almost raped and killed. The missing vampire is set free and all return to the vampire mansion to celebrate. Eric is there undercover and the group is ambushed by the cult members who fire into the house from outside. Sookie is able to "hear" them and shout a warning over the music only the vampires are able to hear, this means the human companions are the ones mowed down. Eric throws himself on top of Sookie and takes a bullet in the process. Nevertheless he enjoys this situation too much while Bill on the other hand is overcome by his vampire nature and goes after the attackers without so much of a thought of Sookie's well being.

Back at home Sookie and Bill break up for a few weeks. Since Bill is out of town Sookie commissions Eric to accompany her to a sex party. Even though she asks him to pretend to be gay, Eric is all to happy to oblige and takes every liberty he can with Sookie while there. Although she is not happy to be there, Sookie's friend, Tara is at the party with her fiance Eggs. Sookie soon learns that three other members of the party are responsible for the murder of Lafayette. Before anything to graphic happens the party is interuppted. Bill, Andy, Sam in his collie form and the maenad are all outside. The maenad kills all the humans at the party except for Eggs and Tara who Eric glamors to forget the events of the evening.

Club Dead
Bill and Sookie's relationship is strained as Bill is spending all his awake time working on a secret project for the (Vampire) Queen of Louisiana. Bill informs Sookie that he must travel alone to Seattle and he should be back in eight weeks or so. Eight weeks! While he is gone Sookie gets attacked by a biker (werewolf) while at work but she is saved by Bubba who has been sent by Eric to protect her. Eric informs Sookie that Bill has disappeared. He was last known to be in Mississippi not Seattle with the woman who changed him, Lorena. Lorena has summoned Bill and then turned on him. Eric goes on to tell Sookie that Bill was going to break off their relationship after making sure she is taken care of financially. Eric then convinces Sookie to go to Mississippi and try to find Bill using her gift. I am really pissed off at Bill at this point!

Eric sets Sookie up with a werewolf named Alcide to accompany her on her trip under the pretense that they are dating so she can get into an exclusive supes only club. Of course there is physical tension between Alcide and Sookie but she manages to keep it in her pants so to speak. One night at the club they have an altercation with Alcide's ex Debbie who is there celebrating her engagement to another man. The second night Sookie ends up getting staked in the side while intervening in a murder attempt. The (vampire) King of Mississippi takes Sookie back to his mansion so she can be healed. Eric is with her by this time, undercover, and he gives her his blood to heal her. He also starts to show her a good time if you catch my drift but they get interrupted by Bubba who has found Bill being tortured in the pool house. The next morning Sookie frees Bill and kills Lorena in the process. She puts Bill in the trunk of a car and drives back to Alcide's apartment. While checking on Bill, Debbie pushes Sookie into the trunk with him and when Bill wakes up he is in desperate need for blood due to the torture. Bill ends up biting Sookie pretty badly and begins raping her before he wakes fully and realizes what he is doing.

Sookie is naturally pissed at Bill and asks Eric to take her home leaving Bill in Mississippi. Eric is happy to help (isn't he always : ) but they get attacked by bikers on the way home and then ambushed at Sookie's house. Miraculously Bill shows up on time to help Eric, who has been shot several times, kill the 6 or 7 attackers. In the end Sookie breaks things off with Bill and rescinds both Eric and Bill's invitation into her home. In a very sweet move Eric does arrange and pay for Sookie's driveway to be re-graveled.

At this point in time I think I am switching to team Eric or maybe even team Alcide. I like Bill and I know he cannot do anything about his vampire commands but I feel he isn't that into his relationship with Sookie. Even though she is a fictional character I cannot help but be jealous of Sookie! Having all these hot men want you all the time must be really difficult ; )

Quote:
“How grateful are you?" he whispered, his mouth hovering over mine. His eyes were very alert now, and his gaze was boring into mine.

"That kind of ruins it, when you say something like that," I said, trying to keep my voice gentle. "You shouldn't want me to have sex with you just because I owe you."

"I don't really care why you have sex with me, as long as you do it," he said, equally gently.”

True Blood Show vs. The Books

Coming off of a marathon session of the first season of True Blood (thanks library for renting a whole season for only 2 days) I sat down today all excited to write a comparison of True Blood season one versus Dead Until Dark (the first volume in the Sookie Stackhouse series) but alas there is no point. When talking to a friend about the differences between book vs. show I learned that this is the only season that followed the book at all! Boo that sucks.

Well I can't help myself so I will post a little about how I feel about the show. I expected the show to be cheesy and I was not disappointed. I love Anna Paquin but it took sometime to get use to her playing a blond haired, respectful southern belle complete with accent to match. It is just so unlike her.

Don't get me wrong here I know in TV or movie adaptations changes are to be expected. The producers have to keep the material interesting and exciting and sometimes what is in the book doesn't translate well into screen form. Most of the main plot of season one is on par with the book with minor changes here and there. So not a huge deal overall. I did not like the adding of new characters or giving very minor characters, at best, big roles. Mostly however I did not like the character changes.

Aggh so frustrating! A lot of the characters are pretty true to the book; Sookie, Bill, Sam, grandma. But others were not. Take Sookie's brother Jason for instance, in the book he is handsome, slightly dumb and a ladies man. He is all those things in the show as well but also addicted to vampire blood and ends up joining the Fellowship of the Sun, what??? Oh and Lafayette... in the book he is a funny and flamboyant man. In the show? Still flamboyant and a little funny but also a hardass wannabe.

Then there is Eric. Where to start. I normally cut actors some slack because they will never live up to everyone's version of the perfect _______ whatever. But to me Alex Skarsgård looks more like a sad puppy than a burly, mean viking (don't hate me! I just don't like him, maybe he will grow on me). Then there is his personality. In the book Eric is tough and mean but also inappropriately funny. In the show he just comes off as indifferent all the time and so far all the sexual tension between Sookie and Eric is no where to be found. 

I hate feeling so torn. Especially since I can't stop once I started something so I will probably continue the TV series and just cross my fingers that it isn't too bad. Maybe I will post updates on character development because I don't think I will be able to compare books vs. show at this point.

Anyone else feel torn like me? I think if I hadn't started reading the books the show would appeal to me more.

Book #47 week #37, The Leftovers by Tom Perrota

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta has been on my reading list for sometime now and I have finally gotten around to it.

This novel follows the lives of quite a few people living in a smallish town. The planet has experienced a "Sudden Departure" or the Rapture if you will. The event has been named the Sudden Departure due to the fact that the people taken seem to be randomly chosen. Christians, Buddhist, atheist, good, bad, young and old were taken, while some obvious candidates for a rapture were left behind. Now it is three years later and people are finally trying to move on and piece their lives back together. But it is difficult, insanely difficult.

I liked The Leftovers, it is well written, the characters are interesting, some I wanted to shake and say "what the hell are you doing?!!". It flows very nicely and it is easy to jump around from character to character. The book is very thought provoking. It made me think about what I would do in these people shoes or heck what would I do if this really happened. But in the end I literally said "aggghh" out loud. The one question that was always on my mind, that keep me flipping the pages is never answered. Why? Why did this happen? Why were some people taken and not others? Why damn it, why?!

Quote:

“Meg was going to have to learn for herself what Laurie had figured out over the summer — that it was better to leave well enough alone, to avoid unnecessary encounters with people you’d left behind, to not keep poking at that sore tooth with the tip of your tongue. Not because you didn’t love them anymore, but because you did, and because that love was useless now, just another dull ache in your phantom limb.” 

Book #46 week #36, Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

It didn't take me long to move on to Sookie Stachouse #2 (aka The Southern Vampire Mysteries) Living Dead in Dallas. That is my problem with series.. I need to know and I need to know NOW! I like to start posts about sequels with a recap of the book before the one I am posting about so if you haven't read book #1 you might want to stop reading now.

**Warning Spoilers for book #1**
Dead Until Dark- Sookie Stackhouse is a telepathic who lives with her grandmother. Her parents died when she was young in an accident leaving grandma to care for Sookie and her brother Jason. Working at a bar in a small town is pretty boring until Sookie meets the vampire Bill. Vampires are now members of mainstream society. She is relived to find she cannot read vampires minds and it is a welcome break for her. Pretty soon people start turning up murdered by strangulation but with fang marks on their bodies. Sookie asks Bill to help her investigate at a well know vampire club. While there Sookie meets Eric, an older and stronger vampire than Bill. Basically Bill has to answer to Eric. Sookie is able to use her powers to find out who is stealing from Eric, a move that almost costs her her life. Now Eric is very interested in her and has contracted Bill to use Sookie's powers whenever he needs to. Being wary of Eric, Bill decides to become a vampire investigator that way Eric will be his boss and owes Bill his protection, this protection extends to anything belonging to Bill and that means Sookie is protected from any unwanted advances from Eric.

Getting back to the murders it doesn't take long until Jason is considered a suspect and their grandmother is among the victims. It is clear that Sookie was the intended target. In the end it is a friend of Jason's who is killing women who have been known to fraternize with vampires and he almost does kill Sookie as well but she is able to overpower him due to the vampire blood she has been ingesting. And on a side note we discover that Sam (Sookie's boss) not only has a thing for her but he is a shape-shifter as well!

Living Dead in Dallas takes our new twosome to, well you guessed it, Dallas. Eric has contracted Sookie out to the vampires of Dallas in order to help them locate a missing vampire. Naturally she needs an escort and that would be Bill. But first a coworker has been murdered and the body left in a police officer's car outside of the bar and Sookie gets attacked by a crazy woman beast in the forest as a message to Eric. The attack almost kills her yet again.

Now they are in Dallas. While investigating the vampire's disappearance Sookie discovers a new anti-vampire organization called "The Fellowship of the Sun". Seemingly a little nutty but basically harmless at first. Their main mission is to help vampires see the light, quite literally as in "meet the sun", but they should not be underestimated.

Quote:
  
I looked up into Eric's eyes. Incredibly, he was excited. He smiled at me. "I knew I'd get on top of you somehow," he said.
"Are you trying to make me mad so I'll forget how scared I am?"
"No, I'm just opportunistic."
I wiggled, trying to get out from under him, and he said, "Oh, do that again. It felt great.”

Book #45 week #36, Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

This series, the Sookie Stackhouse series, was recommended to me. It is the series the TV show True Blood was based on (which I have yet to watch but will check out from the library, we'll see how the show matches up).  I like vampires so what the heck. "Like" might be an understatement here I've been obsessed with vampires as long as I can remember.

Dead Until Dark is about Sookie Stackhouse, a twenty-five-year -old waitress in a bar in a small town in northern Louisiana. Her life is pretty uneventful and she has been waiting to meet a vampire. Vampires have recently come out in mainstream society and are no longer hiding. Finally one day while at work in walks a vampire.

Sookie is frustrated. Frustrated with her "disability" (she can read minds) and frustrated sexually. She is still a virgin at twenty-five because her mind reading intensifies with physical contact. Turns out she cannot read vampire's minds so there just maybe some hope for her yet! Everything is going well until people start turning up dead and naturally the new vampire in town is under suspicion.

I really liked this book more than I thought I would. The cheesy cover really through me off. Before I saw the cover I was expecting a more serious book. Dead Until Dark has its serious moments (and sexy moments) but it is also fun and funny. Though not as funny as the cover led me to believe, talk about "Don't judge a book by its cover!'. I'm glad I gave it a shot. Really short book though, I tend to like my books a bit longer luckily it is a long series!

Quote:

“Eric appeared to be counting my eyelashes. I tried to keep my gaze on my hands, to indicate modesty. I felt power tweaks kind of flow over me and had an uneasy feeling Eric was trying to influence me. I risked a quick peek, and sure enough he was looking at me expectantly. Was I supposed to pull off my dress? Bark like a dog? Kick Bill in the shins? Shit.”

Book #44 week #35, A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama

After reading The Street of a Thousand Blossoms and The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama I am hooked! So naturally I had to pick up her latest book A Hundred Flowers.

This novel is set in 1957 China under the rule of Chairman Mao. Tensions are rising as the people are not happy with their new life under the rule of a communist party. Chairman Mao has decided to open the government up to criticism and suggestions from the people, many intellectuals fear this is a trick aimed at locating any resistors to the new government power. 

In walk our new characters. There is Kai Ying (a herbalist), her husband Sheng (a teacher) and their six-year-old son, Tao. The family lives with Sheng's father, Wei, a retired college professor. Although Sheng has promised Kai Ying he will not do anything to harm his family a letter is written to Chairman Mao criticizing the communist party. Sheng is then arrested and sent to be "reeducated" for an indefinite period of time. 

A Hundred Flowers follows the journey of this torn family trying to survive after the head male of the household is suddenly ripped away from them. Kai Ying must focus on her work and patients in order to keep money flowing in. Wei is struggling with a heavy secret that is tearing him apart. Tao is trying to find a way to connect with his absent father. Once again Gail Tsukiyama has shown her knack for making a scene come alive. She has such a great way with words. Although I did enjoy this novel it is my least favorite of the three books I have read by Tsukiyama. Good story but easy to put down and pick up again at a later time.

Quote:

“Wei cleared his throat and said, “Have you heard the saying `The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher’? It seems I’ve been the pitcher most of my life. I’ve forgotten how to be fluid. It feels as if I’m finally learning now,” he said.”

Book #43 week #34, Red Leaves by Paullina Simons

One of my favorite love stories of all time is The Bronze Horseman series by Paullina Simons. Seriously I recommend it to everyone. So I figure it is about time I give some of her other works a shot. Luckily I found a copy of Red Leaves I was a bit surprised to have found it though the library system since it is from 1996 I believe. Once again I dove right in without even reading the synopsis and boy was I shocked! This is no love story, well sort of.

It is 1994 and Kristina Kim is a senior at Dartmoth College. She has a longtime boyfriend, Jim Shaw, and their best friends Conni Tobias and Albert Maplethorpe are also a couple. Right away you know something is wrong between Kristina and Jim, and Kristina and Conni but what? Kristina is very secretive. No one seems to know much about her past except that her father died after disowning her and she is estranged from her mother who is sick. Also Kristina is meeting a man named Howard for lunch, turns out she is seeking a divorce!

Later that same day Kristina meets Spencer. He is a detective and is instantly smitten with Kristina and she seems to be excited by him too. Little do we know that Kristina is also sleeping with someone who is not Jim. Between her boyfriend, soon-to-be exhusband, lover and the new guy Spencer something is bound to go wrong. Very wrong in fact, Kristina turns up dead. In uncovering the layers of Kristina's mysterious life we hope to unveil the killer and it is quite the journey!

All in all I liked Red Leaves. I usually like to be able to identify with the female lead in a book or see myself in her shoes and well murder really kills that for me (no pun intended!) but it is okay to stray from the usual once in awhile right? So in hoping for another The Bronze Horseman I did not get what I was looking for but like with other books by other authors it does make me curious of what Paullina Simon's other books are about so I might just have to check them out!

Book #42 week #33, The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

While waiting for a copy of Gail Tsukiyama's new book A Hundred Flowers to become available at the library I decided to have a copy of the original book of hers that was recommended to me; The Samurai's Garden. I couldn't find it at that time so I read The Street of a Thousand Blossoms instead, which I loved but it was very, very sad.

The Samurai's Garden takes place in the same time period the 1930's. However instead of being solely about Japan, our main character is actually from China. Twenty-year-old Stephen is sick with tuberculosis and the hot, humid air of Hong Kong is proving to be unhelpful for his condition. His father is a successful business man who spends most of his time in Japan. With heavy hearts Stephen's family decides to sent him to the family summer home in a quaint coastal Japanese village. This would not have been such a big deal if Japan was not currently invading China. 

While in Japan Stephen is cared for by Matsu, the long time caretaker of the summer home. Matsu is an older man who spends his days working in his beautiful garden and visiting his long time friend in a nearby mountaintop village, a woman affected by leprosy. During his year long stay not only does Stephen begin to feel better but he also gets close to and learns the secrets of the mysterious people around him. Suddenly Stephen finds himself filling a void he didn't know even existed and he is heart brokenly torn between the two worlds that he has grown to love. 

Although not as sad as The Street of a Thousand Blossoms, this book has its share of tragedy and heartache. The characters are amazing; full of surprises, depth, beauty and love. Where others might have given up these characters look for the beauty and purpose in all situations. I honesty did not want this book to end. I think Gail Tsukiyama has made a lifelong fan out of me and here is to hoping the next book is as great as the ones I have read so far.

Quote:
“It is not an act of bravery to try to save your own village. It is an instinct to protect what you possess. Bravery is when you step in to help when you have nothing to lose.”