Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #11) by Charlaine Harris

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover, Eric Northman, and his "child" Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot-which is much more complicated than she knows...

My thoughts:
My second book of the year is another Sookie Stackhouse novel.  I am working towards my goal of finishing the series and finding out what happens to wrap things up in this small town!  The firebombing of Merlotte's sets off the grim circumstances our characters are finding themselves in.  Business has already been bad at the bar due to the opening of a new restaurant nearby along with t eh protesters from a church who have been coming out against the two natured members of society.  Fangtasia, Eric's club, is also feeling a decline in patronage due to the opening of a Vampire club in the area as well.

Firebombing, well meaning friends, jealousy in the nearby Were pack, complicated blood bonds and new and old enemies pop into play.  Sookie really wonders how much of the love she feels for Eric is real and how much has to do with them being bonded by blood.  She also knows he is keeping something from her, something Pam wants him to share, but he is unwilling to let her in making her feel less like his Vampire wife than he would like.

In cleaning out her attic, with the help of her fairy "cousin" and great uncle, Sookie discovers something her grandmother left for her that sheds a light on the past and opens up some new questions.  I think it gives Sookie a bit of closure on how her grandmother could have been unfaithful to her husband with a fae to begin with and helps her to see her grandmother as the loving, yet flawed person, she was prior to her death.

I'm not sure anyone is going to be the same after the way things go down in this book.  Relationships that seem strong and promising are dealt some blows, and some of the more questionable ones may not last.  Again, I know Harris must be building up to something, but I am still not sure where this will all lead.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9781937007355
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Publication date: 3/27/2012
• Series: Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series , #11
• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Pages: 368

Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #10) by Charlaine Harris

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

After enduring torture and the loss of loved ones during the brief but deadly Fae War, Sookie Stackhouse is hurt and she's mad. Just about the only bright spot in her life is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman. But he's under scrutiny by the new vampire king. And as the political implications of the shifters' coming-out are beginning to be felt, Sookie's connection to one particular Were draws her into the dangerous debate. Also, though the doors to Faery have been closed, there are still some fae on the human side-and one of them is angry at Sookie...very, very angry...

My thoughts:
Shelia at Book Journey hosted a collection of readers first books of the new year with the suggestion that we each pick a book for a reason.  She has strong associations for her first read of the year.  I don't usually assign all that much meaning to what I select to read, but I thought about her challenge and decided that I really would like to finish out the Sookie Stackhouse series.  Each summer I pick up some of the books, read and enjoy, then find that I don't have the next book and jump on to something else.  So my goal for 2014 is to allow myself a chance to read these books, in order, to the conclusion of the series.

Sookie and Eric have a lot going against them.  Due to the Fae War Sookie is dealing with  PTSD from being tortured by the two water fairies, Bill  has silver poisoning , Amelia is moving back to New Orleans after the death of her boyfriend in the war, and most of the fae have gone.  Dead bodies show up, Weres are changing their chain of command, the blood bond between Eric and Sookie has it's pros and cons, and someone from Eric's past shows up.

I enjoyed seeing more of the history and abilities of the fairies.  Claude, Sookie's cousin, moves in with her and he is a full fairy who owns a strip club in a nearby town.  This selfish and vain man has an agenda, but at the same time having someone in the house with her is a bit of a comfort as it seems as though her life is in danger once again.  I do wonder how this will all resolve in the end.  I know the series ends in a few more books, but after seeing Sookie in danger book after book how will Harris deal with it?  How will she end things for all these characters?

I can feel it all heading somewhere, but I am a bit unclear as to exactly where it will all end up, which I consider a plus!

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780441020157
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Publication date: 3/29/2011
• Series: Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series , #10
• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Pages: 368

First book of the year!

Sheila at Book Journey is hosting a post for readers first read of the new year.  I decided to read Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris.  Every summer I read two to four of the books in this series while at the beach.  Then I come home and put the series down again for one reason or another.  I'd like to finish the series and see how Sookie resolves things in her life.  I actually already finished this book and will probably post a review tomorrow.  I started the next book as well.  With the book I just started, Dead Reckoning, I have three books left to reach the end of the full length novels.  I still wish the titles somehow included the numbers.  It is easy to get confused as to whether I've read the books yet and what order they go in especially as they have been rereleased with new covers.

Hatchet by Gary Paulson

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

ALONE

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present — and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent's divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self pity, or despair — it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.

For twenty years Gary Paulsen's award-winning contemporary classic has been the survival story with which all others are compared. This new edition, with a reading group guide, will introduce a new generation of readers to this page-turning, heart-stopping adventure.

After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.

My thoughts:
My son's teacher read this book to the class and he really seemed to enjoy it.  Since this was not a book I had read before I decided to listen to it.  I wanted to read it partially because I was curious and also to show my son that I listen to his reading suggestions.  I suggest books to my children regulary and take them to the library to make their own selections, so I wanted him to see that I was willing to take their suggestions for books to read as well.

I can see why this book appealed to my son and I liked that Brian's survival was not smooth.  He found out that it was diffiuclt and he was not prepared to live alone in the widerness.  He learned important lessons and had to rely on himself.  He reached the point over and over again where he wanted to quit and felt sorry for himself and he had to move through it and try again.  The option to quit was removed if he wanted to survive. 

This book was a lesson not only of self reliance and persistence, but also in what it would really be like to be alone.  How would a child or even an adult adjust to having no one to rely on and not much in the way of tools to use to make a way through the days?


Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9781416936473
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
• Publication date: 1/23/2007
• Series: Brian's Saga Series , #1
• Edition description: Reissue
• Pages: 192

Meet the Author

More by this Author

• Harris and Me
• Brian's Winter (Brian's Saga Series #3)
• The River (Brian's Saga Series #2)
• Brian's Return (Brian's Saga Series #4)

Gary Paulsen is one of the most honored writers of contemporary literature for young readers. He has written more than one hundred book for adults and young readers, and is the author of three Newbery Honor titles: Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room. He divides his time among Alaska, New Mexico, Minnesota, and the Pacific.

It's Monday, What are you reading?

Not a whole lot of reading going on this week, which seems to be a bit of a sad trend lately, but I did finish one print book and one audio book.  The print book is a review book that will be posted in January once I find out my assigned date and the audio book should have a short write up this week at some point.

Here is what I read:
The Headmistress of Rosemere by Sarah Ladd
Hatchet by Gary Paulson

This is hosted by Shelia at BookJourney.  Check out her list of other blogs participating this week!

Free Book!

Synopsis: 

Emily's life has reached an impasse so large that she has decided that she needs to make some big changes. When she makes her decision, she dives in with her whole being to make changes so that she stops disappearing from her own life. Will all the miles help or hurt her? Will things be different in a new place or will she bring all her emotional baggage with her? Can she be independent and learn to trust again?

 

Free for four more days for Kindle!  Click here. 

 

Saturday Snapshot- Snow play!

 Earlier this month we got enough snow that the children from the neighborhood were able to spend a good part of the day outside creating and playing.  The first thing they made was a snowman/person.  They used teamwork and rolled the snow all over the yards to create it.

Then they knocked it over and made lots of large snow boulders rolling them all over the yards until there were bare patches of snow with grass showing through and dirty snow boulders full of leaves.  We were convinced that the large balls of snow were going to around until spring, but last weekend it got so warm that they actually melted away, which allowed us to find the gloves and hat the snowman had been wearing, but that had been rolled into some of the new creations.