Review: Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) by Charlaine Harris (September Sequels Challenge #5)

Well, it looks like I read the book right before this in the series last year during my September Sequel Challenge.  So seems appropriate that this one is now.  Don't know if I'll wait till next year to read the 13th and final book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.  I'll probably pick it up next summer when I'll be wishing there was one more season of True Blood.  

What I love about these books is that I may have forgotten a little about what happened in the last book that I read a year ago, but I am easily pulled back into Sookie's life and the small town of Bon Temps.  Something I realized as I read this is that Sookie is really just like those detective characters in what you'd call a cozy mystery.  And I know the author does write mystery books as well. 

In this next to last story, Sookie and Eric's relationship is a bit strained.  Partly because the King Felipe has come to see them, and is asking about his man Victor.  Yes, Sookie and Eric are responsible for Victor and his men's deaths, and yes Felipe wanted that, but they cannot let there be any proof of it, because the King will have to do something about it.  The story starts out with several problems, first when Sookie goes to visit Eric while he is entertaining the King, she walks in to find him in a room feeding on some random woman.  The woman is part were, and also may have drunk or injected herself with fairy blood to make herself irresistible to Eric.  When she is made to leave, not long after she is found dead on the lawn, something the vampires are unable to hide because the police are called before they can make the problem disappear.  Also, Sam's girlfriend Jannalyn seems to have it out for Sookie.  So she is dealing with that.  Then there are problems with the fairies that have been left behind when her great grandfather Niall closed the door to their homeland.  They want to go home, and some, the elves, need to feed to relieve their stress.  All of it will end up being tied together at the end, very neatly this time, unlike some of the books in the series that I remember. 

There are also good things happening, Sookie's brother Jason proposes to his girlfriend, Tara has her twins, and those are just a few good things.  I have to admit that I do see the actors from the tv show when I read the book, and I hear Sookie talk in Anna Paquin's voice.  So while I am going to miss the show, since it was so different from the books by this season, it is okay.  Another good read.  Now I'm anxious to read the last book, even with all the things I've heard from people who were unhappy about things in it.

Review: The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone By Graphic Novel by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore

I ordered this book into the high school library where I work because I figured we needed more graphic novels, and surely this would be popular.  Of course we didn't get it until the end of the school year, so I'm hoping to see it get more use next year.  I have watched the show from the very beginning and love it.  And I'm not really much of a comic or graphic novel person.  I mean, I love all the novels that go with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but wasn't able to keep going with the Season 8 comics.  However, I decided to check The Walking Dead out over the summer and read it for myself.  It was a quick read, and so I asked my friend who owns the first Compendium if I could borrow that next, so I'll be reading that too.

I won't talk a lot about the plot, because if you've seen the show you know it.  But I guess the comics/graphic novels basically follow Rick, the sheriff.  So of course there will be many characters either left out, or changed from the tv show.  As I've been informed, sadly, one of my favorite characters on the show, Daryl, is one not in the book.  But the story is pretty much the same to start.  Rick gets shot, then wakes up in a hospital all alone.  He finds the zombies, but doesn't have any idea what is going on, as he was in a coma for quite a while it seems.  He goes home, and finds his wife and son are gone, but then gets hit on the head.  When he wakes up again, he is with a man and his son, who tell him about what is going on.  Soon he decides he must go find his wife and son.  There are many scenes that are the same from the show.  Rick riding into Atlanta on a horse.  Walking with Glen through Atlanta with zombie body parts draped all over themselves as a disguise to be able to walk through the zombies and get supplies that are needed back in town.  But, and big SPOILER ALERT, Shane, Rick's co-police officer, dies at the end of this.  Whereas in the show he stayed around much longer.  But I'm totally okay with it, as I wasn't a huge fan of Shane.

I can't wait to read on, and see what else is the same and what is different.  From what I've heard, they've stayed a lot closer on plot and such compared to another tv show I like that is based on books, True Blood.  So I'm sure reading on I'll eventually get to where I recognize things that are coming up.  Like people did with the Governor, as well as now with Terminus. 

I definitely recommend these graphic novels and will be stocking up on them for my school library, and for the students to enjoy.

Stacking the Shelves - August 4th, 2013

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected. Kind of a slow week, but that's okay, it means less money spent!  In fact, no money spent!  On books anyway.  

E-galleys from Netgalley:

First is Witch Hunt by Tabitha Morrow, which sounds like a really good book about the Salem witches.  Second is the 3rd book in the Alone series by James Phelan, Quarantine.  Now I haven't read the 2nd book in the series yet, so I'll be looking to find that from my library I hope.  The third book is another 3rd in a series, it is Storm (Swipe #3).  However I have read the other two and actually posted this one as a Waiting on Wednesday post one week I think.

Free e-book from Amazon:

I saw this as a free e-book, so I went ahead and ordered it for my Kindle app that I have on my Nook.  I love True Blood, or I did when it first started.  It's gotten kind of silly now, and strayed too far from the books in my opinion, but for free, this should be a fun book!

So nothing to stack on an actual shelf this week, but still 4 pretty good books I'd say!  How about you, what did you add to your shelves this past week?

Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11) by Charlaine Harris

This was almost my 8th book in my September is for Sequels Challenge, but due to a horrible headache Sunday night, I just wasn't able to get as much read and get finished like I'd hoped.  So, therefore, it is just a regular old review.  :-)  Although, it is the 11th book in my TBR Pile Reading Challenge.
I bought this book last May when it came out in paperback.  I make myself wait until they come out in paperback because all the ones I own are that way since I started the series late, due to not getting into it until True Blood started.  This way I know that I have a new book to read next year and get to stay in Sookie's world a little longer.  Plus, it's definitely like I don't have tons of books to read anyway.
Well, I actually will have to say that I did like this one.  It had some really heartbreaking moments with Eric, and it was good to learn more about the fairies and Sookie's family.  Or maybe I just enjoyed it because it is what the story is really supposed to be, instead of this craziness of direction that the tv show has veered off to.
I love that Sookie is talking about how she's worried about gaining a little weight, makes her seem so normal.  And I love all the "normal" down to earth things as part of her life that the author puts in the stories.  Painting her nails, getting a tan, etc.  This story starts off with a firebomb being thrown into Merlotte's.  No idea who did it, while it is thought that maybe it is because Sam has come out now as being a Shifter, and people are now protesting them, Sookie seems to think that she saw someone who was two-natured like Sam running away from the scene.  Not only that, Eric is still having to deal with the person who is now in charge, Victor, who doesn't like Eric.  Victor is doing all kinds of things to hurt Eric, opening a bar not far from Fangtasia, and it even seems he's opened another bar not far from Merlotte's as well, hurting Sam as well.  And Pam wants so badly to finally create a child, but Victor will not allow her, and she has limited time to do it, as her lover is dying.
Eric also has found out that his maker made a mate for him, and if this goes through, Eric and Sookie will not be able to keep up their "marriage".  But Sookie is sure she loves Eric, and is very upset about this.  Plus, the fairies, Claude and Dermot are living with Sookie.  So she's learning even more about her fairy kin and how they've really been such a part of her life.  We learn why Sookie can read minds, and we even have a character from the past that we find is a much bigger part of Sookie's past than she knew.  Plus, there is are other creatures we've not seen before.
I really liked the story.  I'm left hanging not knowing what is going to happen with Sookie and Eric, which makes me sad, because I do love Eric.  Or maybe that's just because I love how hot he is on True Blood.

My Favorite Books to Movies/Television Shows

Today I'm going to talk about the books that I love that have been turned into movies and what I thought of them.  So there are going to be some good ones, and some bad ones here.

1.  I loved the Twilight series.  The books I mean.  Loved, loved, loved them!  I know many people out there do not, and that only bothers me when they have to insult me because I do.  There are books I don't like, but I don't insult the people who like them.  I figure to each his own, and that is why there are so many different books out there to read!  Which is a good thing!!!  Okay, off my little soap box about this.  The movies, especially the first one, were okay.  Not great.  The actors didn't match what I had pictured in my head really.  But there are some good things.  I could still enjoy the first one I think because I had read the book, and so the things left out, like why or how did Bella and Edward fall in love, so not shown in the movie, I already knew how it happened from reading the book.  And the first movie got my sister to finally read and fall in love with them like I did.  And I feel the movies have been getting better and better.

2.  I was a late starter in the Harry Potter series.  I started after the first four books were already out I believe.  I am often not interested in joining into the latest bandwagon, often figuring I'll be disappointed, (case in point, 50 Shades, 'nuff said).  But I had recently started working at the B.Dalton store in our local mall, and another employee gave me a stripped cover copy of the first one to try it out.  And of course, I was hooked.  I sped through the first 4, and then was eager for the 5th one to be released.  I think the movies, especially the early ones, were really good.  I know that I was disappointed though as they left sooooo much out of the Goblet of Fire, and then The Order of the Phoenix, I was so mad that they left out the parts about Ron and Hermione being prefects, and Ron playing Quidditch!  I believe the movies then got better for the last 2 books (3 movies).

3.  The Lightning Thief series by Rick Riordan also is a favorite book series.  I started reading them the first year I went to my state librarians' association conference, and the author was one of the speakers.  I LOVED them!  And then I began reading them to my students, and they loved them!  One of my favorite memories as a teacher is having the parent of one of those students come and say how thankful they were to me because now their son was loving the books, and at one point he got so into reading, that they bought him a Nook e-reader!  I even took one of his copies of the books down to get autographed when I saw the author.  Now, onto the movie.  It was horrible!  Percy was too old, he was supposed to be a middle schooler!  So much was wrong!  And I loved having my students that I had read the book with come back and complain to me about it!  Students that hadn't read it loved it.  If I had continued teaching that book, I would have shown the movie just to see the kids have the same reaction.  And now I hear they're making the sequel?  I want to know how?  They ended the movie in a way that didn't leave it open for the sequel!  Will I go see it?  Maybe, in the hopes that maybe they can fix what they messed up and be able to make them all into movies.

4.  The Hunger Games is another series I started because of the library association book awards.  I read it a couple years ago when they were deciding whether to nominate it for that years possible award list.  And of course, was immediately hooked.  The movie, well, I have two differing opinions on it.  When I went to the midnight show to see it, this was a book I had been teaching in my classroom for about 2 years, and I knew it inside and out from discussing characters and plots and settings, etc.  So seeing it the first time I was a little disappointed.  Some major things I didn't like about it, people and details I felt were important and shouldn't have been left out.  But then, I went back and saw it again, without thinking about those things, and I thought they did a really good job.  It was a great movie.  Although again, I had students I'd read it with that were a little disappointed like me.  (Is it wrong that secretly makes me happy?  Or maybe not so secretly?)

5.  Now, off of YA books, to one of the BEST movies made from a book EVER!  The Green Mile by Stephen King.  This was originally published in little mini-books, about a month apart for each of the 6 parts. I really liked this book/series, and I am a huge Stephen King fan, and I can name so many of his books they ruined in movies, such as Cujo.  But this movie, at the beginning, when they're leading Michael Clarke Duncan's character down the "green mile", before the movie even tells what has happened, I was already in tears, because it totally made me remember the book, and what happens.  They did an awesome job.

6.  I am also a huge Dean Koontz fan, and one of my favorite of all his books is Watchers.  And at the time, one of my favorite movie stars was Corey Haim, but he was not the right person for this movie.  Especially since the Travis character was supposed to be a grown man.  Changing the main characters to teens, and man, changing so much more of the story, the movie was horrible.  I can only hope that one day someone will decide to do a remake and do it right.

7.  I hadn't read the books when the True Blood series started.  I decided to wait and read each book after each season.  And that worked well, at first.  The first couple seasons were pretty good, even with some of the changes.  But then, I couldn't wait anymore and had to read on in the series, and so as seasons would start, so NOT where the next book was supposed to go, it made it harder to watch.  And while I still watch the show, it is hard not to be irritated at a lot of the changes.  I don't mind some of the outside stories that get added, what I hate is when they change things about the main characters and their stories.

8.  The Vampire Diaries.  I was so excited to hear about this show!  And then, I watched the very first episode and the things that were changed, well I was already OUT!  The color of Elena's hair, wrong.  Her aunt she lived with, was supposed to be an elderly woman from the way I read the book.  So just, no.  Also, I really loved the Secret Circle series by this same author, I used to read it over and over.  So when I heard the CW was going to do a series on it, I knew there was no way I would even give it a chance.

9.  Now this is a kind of backwards entry, Buffy the Vampire Series, the tv show with many novelizations.  A lot of time novelizations are cheesy, don't really capture the essence of the show.  But not in this case!  There are some awesome books, ones that aren't just a written version of a specific episode.  One of the authors that did this best was Nancy Holder, and I've recently reviewed her Teen Wolf series novel, and she's done it again!

10.  Hmm, I'm debating between 2 books for this one, either Shopaholic, or 20 Times a Lady.  I'll quickly brief both.  Shopaholic, love the books, the movie, also good, but I think didn't quite do justice to what could have been done.  20  Times a Lady, or What's Your Number for the movie title, I haven't read in a while.  But I loved the movie, thought it was funny, so guess it was okay!  Plus it has Chris Evans, who, HOT!!!





What about you?  Are there any movies from books that you hated?  Or ones that you thought were perfectly done?  I'd love to hear about it!

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

I'm not going to do a big long blog on this one. As it is number what in the series? Not sure. But I will say that I did really enjoy it. It took only a few pages to get sucked right back into the world of Sookie Stackhouse and company. And yes, I love the show True Blood, it is what finally got me to read the book, but as always, the books are better. It was so nice when I started reading them and there were like 10 out, I got to just read right through them and stay in that world for so long. I'm now waiting every year for a new one. I will wait till next year to read the one that comes out in May because I am going to buy them all in paperback since that is how I started.

Just a quick synopsis of the story: We join Sookie right after the Fae War has ended. Her grandfather and most all of the Fairies have gone back into their world. Eric's maker shows up with Eric's younger brother. There are issues between Eric and the new vampire king, as well as issues within the Were community. And now that the Weres have come out, they are not quite receiving the same welcome as the vampires did.

Good quick read. I've also decided that another possible name whenever I may get another puppy is Sookie. :-)

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

The latest in paperback in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I have decided that since I own all of the books so far in paperback I will wait until each new one comes out in paperback to buy it, and wait for it, to read it. That way I know that I have something to look forward to at all times, and with the diminishing number of hours I get at the bookstore, I can barely afford to buy anything anymore. And since they seem to be released about once a year, I shouldn't ever get behind where the tv series is at this rate.

But once I picked it up, I was sucked right back into Sookie's world. I do love her back with Eric, and there was lots of good stuff in this book, although in a way, it did pull back in some things that reminded me of the Church in the beginning books. But all in all, it didn't disappoint, and I'm excited for next year when the one that just came out will be in paperback and I can read it.

I've got two more reviews to do tonight, things have been crazy busy lately. So later tonight I'll be back with some more reviews. I've always got time to read, just not always time to blog.

Book Review 12: The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler

Now, let me start off by saying that this was a good enough book. Whenever I picked it up, it was hard to put down, but it did have some issues, or at least it did for me.

First, the cover, the main character is supposed to be only 12 years old, but the girl on the cover looks older to me, so that was a bit misleading. But I guess to sell it to teens, the section it is in our bookstore at, you probably have to do that. The main character is Fern, she has a twin brother named Sam, and an older brother named Eddie. They call their mother the Commander. Well, Fern has some special powers. She talks to the dog, and hears him talk back. She can predict the weather, and hear people from far away, when they're talking about her anyway. And she comes to find out that she is a vampire, or as they call themselves now, otherworldlies.

This book brings in Greek mythology in this. It is in a way that makes me wonder if they read the Lightning Thief before writing this. Another similarity is how the vampires/otherworldlies want to come out to "normals" or humans and live side by side. I've now read about this in the Suck it Up by Brian Meehl I read earlier from this list, as well as it is a big part of the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series. Not that it's a bad thing, just very familiar to me right now.

There's a big deal about good and bad vampires and not knowing for sure who is good, and the good guys aren't always out for keeping Fern and her family safe, and not knowing who to trust, but in the end Fern does good and everyone is safe. I also see that it is left open for a sequel, so who knows when we might see another in a series. Why not, it's what everyone else is doing.

Tonight I started My Father's Son by Terri Fields. Should be done with it by tomorrow.

Book Review 5: Suck it Up by Brian Meehl

I knew this was about vampires, and while I'm really into that since Buffy, Twilight, and True Blood now, I'm very skeptical of all the other vampire books there are. I especially am not a big fan of all the "special schools" for vampires. I liked how Buffy and Twilight and True Blood all have vampires out with normal, the first two keeping vampires in secret. Suck it Up is kind of similar to True Blood, in that most of the vampires are called "Leagers". They don't drink human blood, only animal blood, and they want to come out and live among "Lifers" or humans. The main character, Morning, was an orphan until a vampire killed his foster parents and turned him. He was found shortly after and taken to the school where he learned to be a Leager. He's never drunk human blood, not even animal blood, until this story, he'd only had a soy substitute. As his class graduates, one of the teachers, Mr. Birnam asks him to do a special favor, and be "the" first vampire to come out to the public. Birnam hires a PR woman, Penny, and Morning goes and lives with her and her daughter Portia. We learn about Morning's past, and some people in it who have more to do with the whole story than we knew at first. Morning's coming out is of course fraught with mistakes and craziness, and turns out there is another group of vampires, called loners, who don't want to change their ways of drinking human blood. And one of them, is really against Morning doing this, and so decides he will kill, him. But due to some of the original vampire laws, he is unable to do it himself, and so must hire someone else.

Good book, not as good as the others I've read, but still a good read. I can see that they left it open for a sequel, but I think it ended just fine. Of course there is a bit of flirtation between Portia and Morning, the problem being that Morning is stuck as a gawky 16 year old forever, and she is human.