Book #14 – Living Dead in Dallas



Name of the Book (Name of the Series): Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse Novels #2)
Name of the Author: Charlaine Harris
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance (‘Romantasy’)
Pages: 291
Date: 22.12.2012 – 24. 12. 2012
Short description: (Taken from the book) Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is on a streak of bad luck. First, her coworker is murdered and no one seems to care. Then she’s face-to-face with a beastly creature that gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn’t enjoy it). Point is, they saved her life. So when one of the blood-suckers asks for a favor, she complies (...) and one small mistake turns things deadly...

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Next to review: Pygmalion

Rating: 3/7
(1 – Horrible; 2 – Bad; 3 – Disappointing; 4 – Average / Fine; 5 – Good; 6 – Very Good; 7 – Excellent)
 

#20 Umberto Eco: On Ugliness
I liked it less than 'On beauty'. Partly because I found it (perhaps naturally) repetitive. Partly because I felt that a lot was missing and the discourse was somehow limited.

#21 Jennifer Donnelly: The Tea Rose
A girl and a boy from the London docks dream of having a live together and their own little shop one day. And then everything goes wrong.
I've enjoyed the book. The story was a bit different from the usual 'girl inadvertently gets herself pregnant and ruins everything' plus there was Jack the Ripper. Some turns did seem contrived, but it still made for a nice story. This is supposed to be the first book of the three, and I am planning to try the second one.

#22 Dan Brown: Inferno
Somebody said that reading Dan Brown is like watching a movie. I guess it is true because he describes every detail of the environment, every scene. This time I found it irritating, because the book occasionally read like a tourist city guide for Florence etc. I also understand, that he wants everybody to be on board and that's why there are explanations of things like 'eugenics' and a short biography of St. Lucia there, but occasionally I felt it was just too much. Surely if somebody has never heard of eugenics they may look it up.
Having said that, I still found the book fast-paced and entertaining. A familiar device of telling a story from different points of view, so that the reader keeps guessing who is who, and a couple of surprises in the end.

Book 95: Smokin' Seventeen (Stephanie Plum #17).
Author: Janet Evanovich , 2011.
Genre: Chick Lit Crime Fiction. Comedy/Drama.
Other Details: Unabridged Audio (Length: 6 hrs, 22 min) Read by Lorelei King.

Dead bodies planted in shallow graves are turning up on the empty construction site of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. Meanwhile Stephanie, Connie, Lula and Vinnie are conducting business wherever they can. Meanwhile Stephanie is under pressure from family and friends to make a choice between long time on/off boyfriend Joe Morelli and security expert Ranger. However, her mother is encouraging her to start dating Dave Brewer, a former High School football star who has just returned to town. Lula is urging her to have a boudoir 'bake-off'. Added to this mix are the usual FTAs including a man with a dancing bear and a senior citizen who thinks he's a vampire.

After a few novels where the focus and main threat was not on Stephanie here she makes up for it as there are three different folk threatening her life for various reasons. All the usual supporting characters are present including the return of Bella, Joe's grandmother, who places one of her infamous Old World curses upon poor Stephanie. The climax of the novel was pure genius.

This was fun and I did see that a few reviewers on Goodreads took exception to the nature of Stephanie's love life. Why can't a single thirty-something woman have more than one lover? I certainly did in those circumstances so why not a fictional character? I suspect it is more to do with the Team Morelli/Team Ranger allegiance for certain fans that demands their favourite wins Stephanie's affections.

I also note with some sadness that I am almost caught up with the series with only two more to go.

Originally posted by audrey_e at Book 14: The Buddha in the Attic

Book 93: The Terracotta Dog (Inspector Montalbano #2).
Author: Andrea Camilleri, 1996. Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli, 2004.
Genre: Mystery. Thriller. Police Procedural.
Other Details: Paperback. 343 pages.

'The Terracotta Dog' opens with a mysterious tête-à-tête with a Mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket heist, and some dying words that lead Inspector Montalbano to a secret grotto in a mountain cave where two young lovers dead fifty years and still embracing are watched over by a life-size terracotta dog. Montalbano’s passion to solve this old crime takes him, heedless of personal danger, on a journey through the island’s past and into a family’s dark heart amid the horrors of World War II. - synopsis from UK publisher's website.

I finally got around to picking up the second in this popular series of police procedurals based in Sciliy and enough time has passed between my viewing of its its TV adaptation for me to be a little fuzzy on the details of the plot. Also, as often happens there was more detail here than in its 2 hour TV film.

Again this proved a warm and quirky adventure for Inspector Montalbano and his associates that was a delight to read from start to finish. I've already ordered Book 3.

Book 94: An Unhallowed Grave (Welsey Peterson #3).
Author: Kate Ellis, 1999.
Genre: Crime Fiction. Police Procedural. Archaeology.
Other Details: Paperback. 240 pages.

When the body of Pauline Brent is found hanging from a yew tree in a local graveyard, DS Wesley Peterson immediately suspects foul play. Then history provides him with a clue. Wesley's archaeologist friend, Neil Watson, has excavated a corpse at his nearby dig - a young woman who, local legend has it, had been publicly hanged from the very same tree before being buried on unhallowed ground five centuries ago. Wesley is forced to consider the possibility that the killer knows the tree's dark history. Has Pauline also been 'executed' rather than murdered - and, if so, for what crime? To catch a dangerous killer Wesley has to discover as much as he can about the victim. But Pauline appears to have been a woman with few friends, no relatives and a past she has carefully tried to hide... - synopsis from UK publisher's website.

Certainly a novel that I'd class as a solid police procedural with the added twist of having the historical case that is being excavated reflecting events of the current day. It's a winning formula though I don't know if it will seem so if the series continues in the same vein. I mean after all how many digs can Wesley's friend Neil undertake locally that just happen to reflect elements of a modern murder case? We shall see as I am quite addicted now.

I think also I'm less bothered if I read these in order as apart from a little movement in Wesley's rather fraught relationship with his wife Pam there isn't that much that might spoil if I jump ahead a book due to its unavailability in the library system as Ellis doesn't tend to make references to the outcome of earlier cases.

Book 92: In Search of Lost Time Vol 2: Within a Budding Grove.
Author: Marcel Proust, 1918. Translated by Scott Moncrieff & Terence Kilmartin; revised by D J Enright, 1992.
Genre: Modern Classic. Literary. Comedy of Manners. Coming of Age.
Other Details: 2005 Vintage Proust Edition. Paperback. 640 pages.

'Within a Budding Grove' describes the first shoots of an astonishing love affair. When Proust's adolescent narrator travels from Paris to the sunny seaside town of Balbec he meets an intriguing set of new acquaintances who provide him with both friendship and entertainment. Most significantly of all he meets a dark-haired girl with sparkling eyes and a tiny beauty spot on her chin: the mysterious Albertine, who will become the great love of his life. - synopsis from Vintage UK website.

The first section of the novel titled Madame Swann at Home takes place in Paris as the adolescent narrator continues his pursuit of Gilberte, the daughter of Charles and Odette Swann. In the final section of Swann's Way he had encountered Gilberte when they both were playing in the Champs-Élysées. Here he manages to gain an invitation to the Swann's residence to join Gilberte and other of her friends for tea. He soon becomes a regular visitor. Eventually though he becomes determined to free himself from this unrequited love. He and Gilberte quarrel and he decides to never see her again though this proves a difficult process.

The second section Place Names - The Place takes place two year later and this is where the narrator is on holiday with his grandmother in Balbec. Aside from becoming friends with Albertine he also makes friends with Robert de Saint-Loup, who is part of the aristocratic Guermantes family.

Proust's prose is exquisite and after reading Swann's Way I have become familiar with his ornate descriptions and musings about life, art and literature. The novel is like sipping a fine wine and I have found over the weeks that I do need to be in the right frame of mind to read it. That time usually seems to be on Sunday afternoons when there is nothing to do except immerse myself in Proust's sparkling world.

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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