Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Dead Reckoning is the 11th entry in the Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series.  From the beginning Sookie finds herself in a sea of violence, beginning with the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works.  Shortly thereafter she learns she will have to face an enemy from her past once again.  Then there's the problem of Victor, the vampire who is causing much misery for Eric, Pam and by extension, Sookie.

Though it isn't the most exciting entry in the series I still enjoyed it and still have faith in Sookie and Charlaine.  What I like most about this series is Sookie.  She's complicated and full of contradictions - just like a real woman.  She's conflicted about the violence around her, even though she recognizes the deaths of certain others means she and her loved ones will likely be safer in the long wrong.  She loves Eric but realizes they aren't completely on the same page when it comes to their relationship.  Notwithstanding the vampires, the wereanimals and faeries, Sookie still has to deal with human problems like planning a friend's baby shower and dealing with the jealous girlfriend of a male friend.  It's all this that keeps me interested in the Sookie universe.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Sarah Addison Allen writes what some refer to as magical realism, though in The Peach Keeper there is only a hint of magic.  It centers around two women: Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood.  Willa's family use to be one of the wealthiest families in Walls of Water, but the family lost its money and the family home, known as the Blue Ridge Madam, two generations earlier. As a teenager Willa was something of a wild child.  At age 30 she's a small business, living a quiet life and seemingly afraid to take any risks ever again.  Paxton Osgood hails from another wealthy family.  In high school she was the princess.  At age 30 she is a socialite living in her parents' pool house, still trying to play the role of the perfect princess.  As the book opens Paxton has bought and restored the Blue Ridge Madam to its former glory, and in the process unearths a few skeletons, figuratively and literally.  There's romance and a bit of a mystery, but The Peach Keeper transcends both of those generes.  It is about friendship and accepting who you are.  Both Willa and Paxton are stuck, unable to move forward in their lives until a combination of events gives them a jolt, and overtime they learn a lot about themselves.

This is the fourth novel of Ms. Allen's that I've read.  She also wrote Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen (my favorite of Allen's novels), and The Girl Who Chased the Moon.  She has become an author whose work I look for, and I am eagerly awaiting her next novel which I hear will be out in 2013.

The Departed by Shiloh Walker

The Departed is a paranormal romance about a woman (Dez) with a physic gift that allows her to communicate with the dead, and a man (Taylor) who is an FBI agent.  Taylor heads a team of "gifted" people.  Dez was once part of Taylor's team, but through a fit and left.  Together Dez and Taylor solve crimes and along the way start sleeping together.
 
One the back cover of my copy of The Departed there's a quote describing it as a "great romantic suspence." That's what attracted me to the book, but unfortunately I was disappointed.  There wasn't enough substance.  The main characters were a little thin which made the the romance not entirely believable and there was no real mystery.  That being said, sometimes a quick, light read is just what one needs and this did serve that purpose.

The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn

Author Edward St. Aubyn has chronicled the life of Patrick Melrose in a series of novels culminating in At Last, which was published earlier this year.  Coinciding with the release of the final installment of the series, the first four, Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope and Mother's Milk were republished in a single volume, collectively titled The Patrick Melrose Novels. 

In Never Mind Patrick is a five-year-old boy caught between an abusive father and a neglectful mother, who is also a victim of Patrick's father David.  The events unfold over the course of the day as guests and hosts prepare and attend a dinner party.  David's abusive tactics are on full display and the reader gets to see the effects not only on his wife and son, but on his friends.  Patrick's story picks up several years later in Bad News when he is 22 and addicted to heroin.  He flies to New York to pick up his father ashes and spends most of his time in America buying drugs, doing drugs, and thinking about drugs.  As the title implies, Some Hope offers the possibility of hope as Patrick is now 30 and sober, but still fragile.  He casually reveals to a friend what his father did to him in Never Mind.  The revelation takes place over the course of a paragraph or two and almost seems like it is unimportant, when clearly it had a huge impact on Patrick's life.  In Mother's Milk Patrick is married and a father to two young sons, and is struggling with sobriety, marriage, infidelity, parenthood, and his mother's continued abandonment. 

I am not sure how I feel about these novels.  The first two were depressing but engaging.  The mood improved in Some Hope but not by much.  My biggest complaint is that the books did not really make me think or feel much, perhaps largely because I did not feel that I ever really got to know the character of Patrick, even though much of the stories are from Patrick's point of view.  It is no surprise that the abused five-year-old grows up to be a drug addict, and it is wonderful to find him sober in the third novel, but the reader never gets to see the journey between points A, B and C.  He just suddenly is all these things.  I wish some of the gaps had been filled in.  That being said (or written), I liked the books.  It is a glimpse of a certain segment of wealthy, British society, and there are some funny lines.  I was never bored.

This also happen to be my experience reading on my Nook.  Reading using the device proved to be easy on the eye, which was what I was most worried about.  It felt almost like reading text on a piece of paper.  I did at times miss having a physical book.  For one, it was annoying to have to worry about keeping the Nook charged.  When I was about forty pages from the end I found that it needed to be charged before I could continue, which was exceedingly annoying.  I also missed being able to flip between pages (without knowing the exact page number).  Though I will continue to use the Nook for some books, I am still dedicated to paper.

Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton

This one is for fans only, fans of Wil Wheaton that is, star of Stand by Me, Toy Soldiers and Star Trek The Next Generation, and more recently of Leverage (on occasion).  Wheaton's story reminded me of how we focus on our mistakes and think everyone else is to, but of course they're not because they all have their own crap to think about.  In Wheaton's eyes his big mistake was quitting Star Trek and he spent much of his post-Star Trek years trying to "Prove to Everyone that Quitting Star Trek Wasn't a Mistake." Eventually he gets past this but it takes awhile, a long while.  It's a good read, but again, for fans only.

How Roots Influenced Reading Rainbow from Oprah

I never saw Roots but I loved, absolutely loved Reading Rainbow!  My favorite part of the show was when kids got to talk about and recommend a book they liked.  It was educational, interactive in a way and so much fun.

The Joy of Books

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