3 1/2 Gables, 6 Chapters, & 4 1/2 Hours

The House of Seven Gables. Ugh. I went to visit the house in Salem, Massachusetts about five or six years ago and thought that I wanted to read the book.

I started the book about three times and could never get further than 10 pages. So the handy librarians in Spring Branch offered me a playaway. This is a book pre-loaded on an MP3 player.

On the drive back from Uvalde I listened to six chapters of the book. I didn't realize it is 11 hours of book and my drive was only 4 1/2. Nathaniel Hawthorne was so round about I wanted to just scream "get to the point" while I was driving down the road.

I don't think I'm ever going to get to the "great ending."

Gotta Love Sookie

Over the Easter weekend, I've finished these Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris.

• Club Dead (book 3)
• Dead to the World (book 4)
• Dead as a Doornail (book 5)
• Definitely Dead (book 6)
• All Together Dead (book 7)

This is a great series. Sookie is quirky and fun and spends time with shapeshifters, weres (according to Harris, there is a difference between those two), vampires, and fairies. There was even a goblin thrown in there. Oh and a demon.

OMGs Behaving Badly!

Aphrodite is a phone sex operator; her son Eros (Cupid) continually asks "what would Jesus do?" how fun is this?

Gods Behaving Badly

I started Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips last night. So far I am entertained. I didn't think that they were going to be this bad, but it is funny.

In the first chapter, Artemis is walking some dogs in the park in London and comes upon a new species of tree. This makes her suspicious, so she begins to talk to the tree and finds that this new eucalyptus used to be a nice Australian mortal. That is until Apollo got a look at her walking down the street. When this handsome stranger said hello and told her that she looks like she would be good at oral sex, the mortal decided it would be a good idea to get away from him.

Apollo in his ire and disappointment, turned her into a tree.

So far, this is right up my alley.

A "Grave" Reflection

I completed Grave Sight last night and the more I reflect on the relationship between Harper and her "brother" Tolliver, the more I am creeped out. OK - they aren't actually brother and sister and there is no "dating" between them, but she is just so dependent upon him that it seems unhealthy. (Yes, I know that they are fictional characters.)

Tolliver is her step brother. They met when they were teenagers and now they travel looking for dead bodies. Harper finds the bodies and Tolliver is her manager who takes the jobs and manages the business end of things.

I'm feeling a little creeped at the conclusion of these two books and it isn't because of the dead bodies. I don't think I'd have as much of a problem with it if she just introduced him as "Tolliver" as opposed to "this is my brother Tolliver" and my brother this, my brother that... "I need my brother!"

Get a backbone woman. You find bodies for a living. Stand on your own two feet!

Another Barnes and Noble Run

This is what I purchased last Saturday (for $128.04). They are now on my "to be read" bookshelf...

• Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
  
• My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Charlaine Harris, L.A. Banks, and Jim Butcher
  
• My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon by Kelley Armstrong, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, P.N. Elrod, Caitlin Kittredge, Marjorie M. Liu, Katie MacAlister, Lilith Saintcrow, and Ronda Thompson
  
• Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko
• Club Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries Book 3) by Charlaine Harris
• Dead to the World (Southern Vampire Mysteries Book 4) by Charlaine Harris
• Dead as a Doornail (Southern Vampire Mysteries Book 5) by Charlaine Harris
  
• Definitely Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries Book 6) by Charlaine Harris
  
• Grave Sight (Harper Connelly Mysteries Book 1) by Charlaine Harris
  
• Grave Surprise (Harper Connelly Mysteries Book 2) by Charlaine Harris
  
• Shakespeare' Landlord (Lily Bard Mysteries Book 1) by Charlaine Harris
  
• Shakespeare's Champion (Lily Bard Mysteries Book 2) by Charlaine Harris
  
• Bone to Pick (An Aurora Teagarden Mysteries Book 2) by Charlaine Harris
  
• Dark Lover:  A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (Book 1) by J.R. Ward
  

A "Grave" Series

I just found Charlaine Harris and I really, really like her. She has several series that have 7 or 8 books, and they are just interesting reads. I've read the "Dead" books, the Southern Vampire Series, the first of her librarian series, Aurora Teagarden, and now one and a half in her "Grave" series. I also purchased books in her Shakespeare series, but I haven't cracked them yet.

Last night I completed Grave Surprise and then found out it was book 2 in the series when I opened up Grave Sight. (I've almost finished this one, just a few chapters to go.) These books are in first person from Harper Connelly's point of view. Harper was hit by lightning when she was a teenager, and now she can sense dead bodies. Even better, she can tell you the cause of death on each dead body she finds.

It is an odd career, but Harper and her step-brother, Tolliver, travel from hotel room to hotel room in town to town finding dead bodies. Mostly for hostile people who really don't believe in her. Even after she finds some "freebies" around town.

Cute series with some mystery thrown in with the fantasy. I found a new author!

Biography of Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel

Patricia was one of the Manson girls. I came upon this by accident online. I realized that it was a 72 page biography after I had spend a good chunk of my day reading it. It has information on each of her psychiatric evaluations and her parole hearings. She should be coming up for parole any day now. She was scheduled for a hearing in January of 2008, but she has a new lawyer who asked for a postponement.

She has been in jail since the year I was born. I've never really known anything about the Manson case except that Manson led young women in a killing spree and that somehow they were associated with one of the Beach Boys. It was interesting reading. You can find it here.

Now I need to go back and re-read the CNN article that made me curious in the first place. This article says that they think they have found more bodies that they believe the Manson family is responsible for murdering.

Naughty Neighbor

I love Janet Evanovich, but Naughty Neighbor wasn't up to her normal standards. I know that this is one of her early romances re-released, but the story kind of meandered about and it seemed that there were a good 20 pages after the book ended that really didn't say anything. I think the "mystery" was explained, but by the time it was, I didn't care.

This is an old re-print that should have stayed out of print.

Dead in Dallas

Living Dead in Dallas was the second book in the Southern Vampire Series. Sookie Stackhouse is back and now "on loan" to the vampires in Dallas. In order to keep her safe from the vampire power structure, her boyfriend, Vampire Bill, gets elected as an investigative officer.

Sookie is loaned out to Dallas to assist the vampires there with finding a missing vampire. Craziness ensues. Cute series. I'm becoming a great fan of Charlaine Harris.

Another Vampire Series

Either there are more vampire series out there, or I'm just now finding them. Today I finished Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark. This is the first in a long series called the "Southern Vampire Series." It has mind-reading, vampires, a shape-shifter, a murderer, and Elvis.

I liked it! I already own the next book in the series, Living Dead in Dallas, and will probably start it soon.

Start of a New Series...

I found Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost to be an excellent read. The main character is a woman who was born half vampire and half human. As such, she has resistance against many of the Vampire's strengths and has her own strengths as well.

I won't give away the end of the book, but circumstances are going to take this woman and make her the leader of a vampire assault group. I can't wait! The next book is One Foot in the Grave and comes out in April.

35

And what is this number? This is the number of books that I have read since I began this blog.

Dallas. Eve Dallas.

Love the J.D. Robb books. J. D. Robb is actually a pseudonym for Nora Roberts who is so prolific she has something for me to read every few months or so. This weekend I read "Strangers in Death". This is the most recent of her Eve Dallas series.

Eve Dallas is the "main bitch-cop" of New York. She is Lt. Dallas and nobody better mess with this homicide cop. The series (this is the 26th! book in the series) is set in the future- about 2060 or so- and has Eve trying to find out who killed a prominent businessman and set up the kill to appear to be an accident.

She is a character with very strong motivations and after all this time is still trying to adjust to the wealth of her husband, Roarke. Roarke owns most of the city and many off-world locations as well. He is basically the richest man in the solar system (literally) and Eve doesn't have lunch money because she's used a good chunk of her cop salary for snitches and won't take money from her husband.

This is a very complex character and even though this is the 26th book, it never gets dull. I love every word, every page. Nora Roberts rocks!