Living Dead in Dallas; Vile Village

Okay, more rereads! But wait, you might say. Don't you have hundreds of books you've bought and never read? And don't you have stacks of unread library books as well? Why are you rereading books? Yes, yes, I do, you are absolutely correct. I don't know what compels me to reread books, but I do. I just can't get into anything new right now. So, Sookie it is!
Eric has loaned Sookie out to a nest of vampires in Dallas who are missing a vampire. Bill goes along with her to keep her safe and fails miserably. Nice job, Bill. Sookie ends up trapped in the basement of the Fellowship of the Sun church, which preaches against vampires. They kidnapped Farrell, the missing Dallas vampire, with the help of Godfrey, a vampire who wants to "meet the sun" and die. The Fellowship is planning on murdering Farrell and Sookie together with Godfrey, but luckily Sookie is able to escape with the help of a shapeshifter (Bill arrives minutes too late, or so he claims). There were some good Eric scenes in this one (spoiler alert: Eric is my favorite) so I enjoyed it.

The poor Baudelaires are shipped off to a village called V.F.D. to be raised by the entire community, since no one wants to be personally responsible for them. The town is unique in that it is covered in crows, and ruled by a council of elders who have a whole lot of stupid rules, like no mechanical devices or books. The town handyman, Hector, takes them home with him to eat and sleep. Hector is a decent enough guy, but he's terrified of the council and refuses to speak up for the kids. Violet, Sunny, and Klaus find couplets they suspect are written by Isadora Quagmire, their missing friend, and hope that she and her brother Duncan are being held by Count Olaf nearby. The town arrests an innocent man, claiming he's Olaf, and the real Count Olaf shows up disguised as a detective. When the fake Olaf is found dead before the townspeople can burn him at the stake, the orphans are accused of his murder and locked up. They manage to escape, and free Duncan and Isadora at the same time, but as a result they become fugitives from the law and now have really nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Ah :( Poor kids.

Ersatz Elevator; Dead Until Dark

Book six of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" finds the Baudelaire orphans living with new guardians, Jerome and Esme, in a penthouse in a fancy building. Apparently Jerome knew the Baudelaire parents and wanted to take the children in right off the bat, but Esme wouldn't let him because orphans weren't "in" at the time. Esme is obsessed with whatever is currently "in" fashion, and now that orphans are "in", she allows Jerome to take them in. The kids seems safe enough, until Gunther, the auctioneer, shows up. Of course--Count Olaf in disguise. They find their kidnapped friends, Isadora and Duncan, but sadly, before they can rescue them, Olaf and Esme, who was a student of his, whisk them away. The Baudelaires are determined to save their friends, even though the adults in their lives are fairly useless to help.

And now we can guess what I'm going to be rereading for the next several weeks! I started rewatching "True Blood" the other day, and so naturally now I have to read the books all over again (for the third time). "Dead Until Dark" introduces us to Sookie Stackhouse, the telepathic waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie has led a solitary existence, since her telepathy means she has a hard time being friends with or dating people. Then she meets Vampire Bill Compton. Vampires have recently "come out of the coffin", as they call it, with the invention of a synthetic blood means they no longer have to feast on humans in order to survive (but of course they all prefer it). Sookie is drawn to Bill right away, because she can't read his mind, and it's so peaceful after a lifetime of chatter in her head. Their relationship is rocky, of course, seeing how Bill is a vampire and most of Sookie's acquaintances strongly disapprove, including her brother Jason. And of course there's the added problem of women being murdered, and everyone suspects it's a vampire. 

The Last Tudor; The Austere Academy

Finally, something new! I always (well, almost always) enjoy Philippa Gregory's novels, and I enjoyed this one. It was written in the three points of view of the Grey sisters: first, poor doomed Jane, who was crowned Queen against her will, married off to Guildford Dudley, then imprisoned and executed by Queen Mary for treason. It then switched to Katherine Grey, her younger sister, and that was the longest (and saddest) part of the book. Katherine falls in love with Ned Seymour, and they marry in secret. Katherine and Ned are both imprisoned in the Tower when Queen Elizabeth finds out, and Katherine ends up bearing two sons for Ned, who should, by all rights, have been heirs to the throne. Elizabeth's jealousy gets in the way, and she ruthlessly separates the family. Katherine ends up wasting away, dying of a broken heart, no doubt. And finally, little Mary Grey, the last sister, a dwarf. She actually finds love, marrying (again, without the Queen's permission) a guard named Thomas Keyes. Elizabeth, of course, has them both arrested when she finds out and imprisoned, and Thomas ends up dying before little Mary is freed. It really painted Elizabeth in a paranoid, tyrannical light.

A few months back I started rereading the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, and I got to book four ("The Miserable Mill") before my reading adventures took me elsewhere. After finishing "The Last Tudor", I didn't feel like reading any of the other books I have checked out from work, so I returned to these. Book Five, "The Austere Academy", finds the three Baudelaire orphans in a horrid boarding school. They do meet some new friends: Isadora and Duncan, who also lost their parents and their triplet brother in a fire and are heirs to a fortune. Count Olaf shows up, disguised as a gym teacher, and spends his nights running the Baudelaires ragged so they don't get any sleep and flunk their classes. Guess who has generously offered to take the orphans in if they get expelled from school? The night before their big tests, Isadora and Duncan offer to take the Baudelaires place and run so they can rest and study for their exams. Count Olaf ends up kidnapping them instead and the poor Baudelaires are once again homeless, only now they are worried for their friends.

Dance with Dragons

I finished the fifth Song of Ice and Fire book yesterday. I'd forgotten how different it is from the TV show. (Spoilers ahead...). Griff is actually Jon Connington, Prince Rhaegar's good friend, who had young Griff with him, whom he claims is Prince Aegon, the one the Mountain supposedly killed. Now since he didn't make it on the show, the internet (always a great source of trustworthy information, I know) is claiming he's a fake. I'm not sure, I guess we'll have to see how it pans out when (if??) Winds of Winter comes out. Tyrion still hasn't meant Daenerys, he's signed on with the Second Sons, along with Ser Jorah (who never got grayscale) and another dwarf named Penny. Jon Snow is stabbed by the men of the Night's Watch for letting the wildlings through the wall, as he's on his way down to Winterfell to see about King Stannis after getting a raven from Ramsay claiming he killed him. Ramsay supposedly married Arya, but it's not really her (we didn't see Sansa at all in this book). I loved how Melisandre kept looking into her fire and begging the Red God to show her the Prince that was promised, hoping to see Stannis, and it keeps showing her Jon and she's like seriously, fire, why are you being so difficult? Hahaha.

Deadfall; Feast for Crows

Linda Fairstein's latest Alex Cooper mystery picks up where the previous one, "Killer Look", left off. Alex's boss, DA Paul Battaglia, has been murdered, right in Alex's arms. Alex and Mike and Mercer start trying to untangle the twisted web around his death, which involved animal poaching and drug smuggling. It was really good, I enjoyed it.

I reread book four of the Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, "A Feast for Crows". Not a big fan of this one, since he broke it up geographically because he had to (so he claims, I think he could have done it differently), so as a result there's no Daenerys, no Jon, no Tyrion. My response? ZZZZZ. Lots of Cersei (blarg), Jaime, Brienne, Arya (Arya's okay, I like her), and Sansa. Sansa is stuck in the Eyrie with Littlefinger, pretending to be his bastard daughter and an impostor posing as Arya Stark is married to Ramsay Bolton. Cersei had the brilliant idea of arming the Sparrows, which is going to come back to bite her in spectacular fashion (I love that part). Brienne meets Gendry and realizes right away he's a Baratheon. Instead of going to Dorne, like he did on the show, Jaime is at Riverrun, dealing with the siege there, and the Blackfish escapes.

Storm of Swords

I finished rereading book 3 of the Song of Ice and Fire series (does anyone else keep calling it "Fire and Ice"? Or is it just me?) by George R. R. Martin. I *did* however get in about 5 really great new books at work, so books 4 & 5 might have to wait. I do so enjoy this one. I'd forgotten how long the Night's Watch battled the Wildlings, since it's just one episode of the show, it goes on for ages in the book, and by the end of it, when Stannis finally shows up, I think I was almost as exhausted as Jon. Some great moments too with Tyrion (he's always my favorite in the books, and one of my favorites on the show. Peter Dinklage is such a treasure).