{weekend words}

"Let’s all step back and take a deep breath," I said, though I was the only person in the room who was breathing.

Charlaine Harris (2009)

Dead And Gone 

(Sookie Stackhouse 9)

{not so much review as quick thought-gathering}

What have I been reading lately? 

Well... I've completely fallen behind with all my (on the whole, pretty tenuous and crazily laid-back) reading 'plans' and have about 30 things on my 'active' list that I am either reading or about to read or started to read so long ago that I really should just start them again as Heaven knows what they were about. There is no question that I am prey to complete book sluttiness and a lack of impulse control. I also seem to have been neglecting non-fiction of late and I think this is because I am meant (er... overdue) to be reviewing some classical studies books for a journal and the non-fiction bit of my mind is occupied there. 

That said... Danielle (whose enticing blog A Work in Progress offers me far too many distractions!) asked what non-fiction books we've been enjoying and I have to say that Caitlin Moran's How to Be a Woman is my Personal Non-Fiction Book of The Year. Brilliantly funny. I don't often laugh aloud when reading (except when reading E. F. Benson), but she is hysterical. And there are important and very sensible messages for women who are feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to embrace, e.g., Brazilian waxes and dodgy undies. Loved this book.

Because I find it difficult to begin a series and just read one book, I derailed my reading plans on Charlaine Harris' 'Sookie Stackhouse' series. The first couple were good fun {REVIEW}, then there was a slumpy decline in the middle (one book in particular not only omitted a big chunk of background which was essential for the book - it had appeared somewhere in a short story, apparently - but suffered from dodgy editing which had failed to correct continuity problems) but the last couple sort of picked up the pace again, though I had lost my enthusiasm by then. I don't think I really like the supernatural that much, but Southern food sounds great. I've got one more to go; not sure I'll bother. 

I was reading Kerrie's post at Mysteries in Paradise (a local, Adelaide blog which I really enjoy) on whether one can view series vs. stand-alone-book in terms of a dichotomy between character development (series) and plot (stand-alone). Certainly in the Sookie Stackhouse series it is clear that the reader can have both but as the series progresses there is the problem of bringing the reader up to speed on the characters. This is tricky: how much background is sufficient?

And then there's the interesting case of an author who has gone backwards in a much-loved series and provided her readers with another take on an earlier book. This would count as a fleshing-out of the characters, as the plot has already appeared. Laurie R. King's Beekeeping for Beginners is a short story (available only, I think, as an e-book) which  takes the reader back to the meeting between Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes in The Beekeeper's Apprentice. This time around, the meeting and subsequent events are presented from Holmes' perspective. I thought this was an interesting idea and one which had a lot to offer fans of the series. It made me - as I presume was intended - want to go back and read all of the Mary Russell series again (I am only up to The Language of Bees, so I should still be going forward, not backwards).   

   

 

Another Mary: one wonderful discovery for me - courtesy of mentions on so many other blogs - is Mary Stewart. I cannot imagine why I haven't read these before as they magically combine a fistful of ingredients that I find terribly appealing in a book (crime, mystery, romance, plucky heroines, nice frocks, wonderful scenery, travel, etc.). I have now read three set in Greece (I thought I'd start with familiar territory) - This Rough Magic [Corfu], My Brother Michael [Delphi], and The Moonspinners [Crete]. Wonderful. I can see that reading the rest of her enormous oeuvre is going to stuff up all my plans for the next few months, esp. given their reissue (ghastly covers, as above). This is a thought which fills me with complete contentment.

One last thought: every book above was read on my Kindle. It has taken over my life. It has solved my book storage problems. I can eat with two hands now when I read at dinner. I am an addict.

{one book, two books...}

I'm getting plenty of inspiration for my reading from this mini quiz - a great idea from Stuck In A Book.

1. The book I'm currently reading:

The Ghost Map 

by Steven Johnson.

I am completely enthralled by Johnson's exploration of how the terrifying cholera epidemic in Soho, London in 1854 was traced to the Broad Street Pump. This book is a really accessible introduction to the history of epidemiology. There's a great companion web site too here.

2. The last book I finished:

Living Dead in Dallas 

by Charlaine Harris.

Eek! A vampire book... I loved the first one in the series (Dead Until Dark - {REVIEW}) and am now completely hooked on the lively, witty and well-written adventures of Sookie Stackhouse, telepath and waitress.

3. The next book I want to read:

This is tricky as I already have far too many books on the go at once, but I think I will probably bury myself in the excellent Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation 1940-1944 by Charles Glass.

4. The last book I bought:

On my Kindle: 

The Serbian Dane 

by Leif Davidsen. 

I've wanted to read this for EVER but it has been out of print or too expensive. And then it popped up for the Kindle (and for Australia, which is the really tricky part) and finally it is mine.

5. The last book I was given:

This is a funny one: a good friend of mine from the UK was on sabbatical in the US and went on a trip to Tennessee. She knows that I love awful local cookbooks and sent me a wonderful addition to my collection: Recipes and Memories from Mama Cash's Kitchen (1989). Mama Cash is Johnny Cash's mum mom. My favourite recipe involves 3 cups of hash brown potato mix and a can of asparagus soup. Needless to say, I won't be making it anytime soon. {It's a lousy photo from Amazon, sorry}

{review} dead until dark

Charlaine Harris Dead Until Dark (2001)

This was pretty exotic stuff for a telepathic barmaid from northern Louisiana.

For someone who claims not to read (i.e. enjoy) works of the fantasy genre, I seem to be catching myself out with illicit pleasures of late. Case in point: I've no idea why I decided to download Charlaine Harris' first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I think it was an Amazon suggestion. I've heard good things about the True Blood series on TV (based on the books), but I've not seen the show. 

Anyway: loved this book. I thought, from the cover - TV tie-in - that it might be a load of old cobblers, but it is witty and well-written and driven by a strong detective/crime novel plot. The heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is hugely likeable and manages that admirable feat of not being a ditsy bimbo who requires saving by her man. Harris has also developed a 'fantastic' world with many interesting trimmings against which she sets her human, vampire and other supernaturally endowed cast.

When I woke up, I was still in the woods, still lying on the ground. Someone was stretched out beside me; it was the vampire. I could see his glow. I could feel his tongue moving on my head. He was licking my head wound. I could hardly begrudge him.

The heroine, Sookie, is a human with the gift of telepathy. She can see into people's minds. This causes her some problems: it's like having a constant stream of noise - mixed with unwanted imagery - in her head. Her 'disability' makes her lead a quite reclusive life apart from her job as - of all things - a waitress in a diner in a small Louisiana town. Into her life comes Bill, her first vampire customer, and, lo and behold, it turns out that she can't read vampires' thoughts and her mind is finally free of the constant stream of garbage and personal revelations which deny her peace. But into her peace also comes a string of vicious serial killings which the locals would like to pin on the new vampire in town. Vampires only 'came out of the coffin' two years before events open, and they are a feared minority because of their great strength and their habit of drinking human blood. Those who 'mainstream' - who try to live like humans - benefit from advances in artifical blood production, but human blood remains a very basic longing. Oh, and they're sexually voracious too, which has both its pluses (for Sookie and the "fang-bangers") and its minuses (for the haters). Harris' imagination is quite extraordinary, as demonstrated by her range well-drawn, eccentric characters - human and vampire ("He was wearing blue jeans and Grateful Dead T-shirt"). I also enjoyed the sly humour in her young human - old vampire relationship:

Bill held my car door open as I got in, a carefully calculated series of maneuvers to keep as much of me as possible in the dress. He shut the door and got in on the driver’s side. I wondered who had taught him to drive a car. Henry Ford, probably.

Rating: 8/10.

If you liked this... I've now read the second in the series too - Living Dead in Dallas (I find both the titles and the covers completely off-puttingly corny; they in no way do justice to Harris' excellent writing) and while I did not think it was as strong as the first in the series, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read and extended the supernatural world in all sorts of interesting directions. I'm thinking about the third now (Club Dead). Or I might read The Radleys by Matt Haig (I enjoyed this review at shelf love).