Paperbacks from Hell; Caroline: Little House, Revisited

"Paperbacks from Hell" by Grady Hendrix was a lot of fun. He took a look back at the golden era of horror and the craziness that was being published back then (but crazy in a super fun way). His summaries of some of the stories had me laughing out loud, and a lot of the cover art was so excellent and over the top. I think I added about 1,000 books to my "to read" list (the last thing I needed, right?) but some of those books are really hard to get a hold of, since they were only in print for a short period of time and not meant to be classics that stayed in libraries forever. I see a lot of Ebay in my future :)

"Caroline: Little House, Revisited" by Sarah Miller was "Little House on the Prairie", told from Ma's (Caroline Ingalls) point of view. It was excellent, great to get an adult perspective on the events that happened. Caroline has just discovered she is pregnant with their third child when Charles asks if they can move to Kansas. She reluctantly agrees, and off they go in the wagon. I can't even begin to imagine how awful that must have been: first of all, traveling that far in a wagon and being newly pregnant to boot? No thanks. They get to Kansas and pick a spot to make their new home. While Charles is looking for good land Caroline is naturally worried about who will come to help her when it's time for the baby to be born. After living in Kansas for about a year, the farmer who bought their home in Wisconsin reneges on the deal and the Ingalls family has to pack up and move back (they don't stay long, but that's another story). It makes me want to go back and reread all the Little House books, even though I really shouldn't.

World of Ice and Fire

Whew, what a behemoth of a book! It was beautifully illustrated though, and interesting. Martin quickly breezes through the history of the Seven Kingdoms in a sort of Cliffs Notes style. A page or two on each Targaryen king (it's hard to keep all those Aegons straight...), some information about each of the major houses and their castles and lands, which was fun. He also included information about areas beyond Westeros: Slavers' Bay, etc. If you're still dying for more information about the people who inhabit Martin's world of Ice and Fire after reading the five books he's published so far (seriously, when is book six going to be out?! I'm dying over here) this was a good "tide you over" book.

Dead Ever After

The last Sookie Stackhouse book. Sigh. Not sure what I'm going to read now. I suppose I might actually have to start in on the pile of library books I have checked out!
Eric "divorces" Sookie so he can marry the Queen of Oklahoma. While I was sad about it, it only made sense. Sookie knew, deep down, that her relationship with Eric had a time limit, since she had no desire to become a vampire. Sookie is arrested for Arlene's murder, and Sam goes to Eric to ask for help bailing her out. Eric does, but on the condition that Sam not be with her, and Sam agrees, although it doesn't take long for him to break that promise. I think we all knew from book one that Sam and Sookie would end up in a relationship at some point, and I thought Charlaine Harris did a nice job once they finally did get together. Witch Amelia's dad, Copley Carmichael, made a pact with a devil in order to get his business back and destroy Sookie, so she had all kinds of people after her in this book. In the end, Claude returns from Faery and teams up with Steve Newlin and Johan Glassport (who was Queen Sophie-Anne's lawyer a million books ago) to kidnap Sookie and torture and kill her. Their plan is thwarted by the good people dancing at Stompin' Sally's (which sounds like an excellent place to visit, btw). It had as much of a happy ending as one of Sookie's books can. Harris did write a quick and dirty book called "After Dead", which basically just had a one or two page summary of each of the characters in the book and how their lives ended up.

Deadlocked

Sookie uses some of the money her fairy godmother, Claudine, left her to help Sam out of a tight spot at Merlotte's, and in return Sam makes her part owner of the bar. Which is good for Sookie, it gives her more responsibilities. Eric is in a real tight spot of his own: he doesn't feel like he can turn down the Queen of Oklahoma's marriage proposal, even though he wants to stay with Sookie. He knows Sookie is in possession of a magical fairy artifact known as a cluviel dor. Her fairy grandfather, Fintan, gave it to her grandmother. It's powerful magic, a one use only type of thing that can be used on Sookie or someone she loves. Eric hints that he wants her to use it to get him out of his bind, and Sookie does think about it, but she really wants Eric to man up and get out of it on his own. A dead girl shows up on Eric's front lawn after Eric drank from her, and Sookie and Bill team up to figure out who killed the part Were girl. In the end, Sookie ends up using the cluviel dor to save Sam's life, which irritates Eric. I'm not a fan of Eric in this book, he's acting like an indecisive brat. Which isn't normal for him. Since when does the blond Viking god need a mere human woman to help him out of a bind? Never, is the correct answer.

Dead Reckoning

Well, I'm almost done with Sookie, and that makes me sad. Merlotte's is fire bombed, but luckily everyone is okay. Sandra Pelt, Debbie's psychotic sister, is still after her, and Victor is still causing lots of trouble for Eric. Sookie comes up with a plan to get rid of Victor, but Eric has another problem: before his maker died, he was in negotiations for Eric to marry the Queen of Oklahoma, and Eric feels duty bound to honor his last wish, even though he's dead. He doesn't want to leave Sookie, but he honestly doesn't know what choice he has. Sookie is irritated at their lack of communication, among other relationship problems (you'd think after 1,000 years Eric would have it figured out by now, but I guess not. Men). Sookie has a falling out with her witch friend Amelia, and her fairy kin are still causing problems in her life. Plus she doesn't like Sam's new girlfriend, and is pretty sure she's out to do her harm.

Dead in the Family; It Takes Two

Sookie was pretty badly beaten at the end of the last book, so she's slowly recovering, with Eric's help. Eric's maker, Appius, shows up with his latest child in tow: Alexi Romanov. Yes, that Romanov. Alexi is a bit nuts, and Appius is having a hard time controlling him, yet he doesn't want him to meet the true death. Appius was hoping Eric could help him, and so Eric is spending all his free time trying to rein in his brother and not piss off Victor, the King's regent in Louisiana. Victor has it out for Eric: he's tried to kill Sookie and Pam. Sookie's fairy cousin Claude comes to live with her. Since Naill has closed the portal between the human world and the Fae, Claude is lonely and says being around Sookie's trace of fairy blood helps them both. When Dermot shows up, Sookie is worried he's going to try to harm her, but it turns out Dermot was cursed (kind of like Eric back in book four) and he's actually really nice. Coleman, who was the father of Claudine's baby, is the bad fairy looking to kill Sookie, to get revenge since Claudine (and their unborn baby) died defending her. The battle in the end takes care of a lot of problems at once.

Something new! I only read it because it was pretty short and had lots of pictures, so it didn't take long. I don't really watch any of their shows anymore, I got tired of the same old formula (I'm feeling that way about a lot of reality shows I used to enjoy watching). For those of you who don't know, Jonathan and Drew Scott are twins who help clients buy fixer uppers and rehab them. They also have another show where they help clients fix up their homes to sell in order to buy newly renovated ones. And they have a third show where they compete against each other: they each buy a fixer upper and rehab it and whoever makes the most profit selling it wins. These two are pretty much on HGTV 24/7, and as a result I think they've spread themselves too thin. Maybe it's just me, they still seem pretty popular, although I expected this book to have a long waiting list at work but it didn't. It was pretty bland: they just recounted their childhoods, how they got started working early (age 7) and their big dreams of making it big: Jonathan in magic and Drew in basketball and acting, before ending up where they are now. Good for them, I guess, but reading about other people's success stories can be a drain, especially when your own life seems so shitty.

Dead and Gone

Since the vampires coming out was so successful(ish) the Weres and shapeshifters decide to come out too. The people of Bon Temps take it pretty well, but it doesn't work out for some, like Sam's mom, who is shot by her second husband (on accident, he claims, then files for divorce, so...). Sam has to leave town to go see to his mom, and while he's gone Sookie steps in to run the bar. Someone kills Jason's wife, werepanther Crystal Norris, and leaves her on a cross in the parking lot at Merlotte's, which was a little more than Sookie bargained for. She's in real danger from a fairy who is challenging her great-grandfather for rule of the Fae. Eric tricks her into marrying him (great trick!) in order to better protect her in the upcoming supernatural/vampire/fairy war. There was a lot going on in this book, and even though Sookie ends up back with Eric like a smart girl, the ending was still sad.