Oh Sookie!

So , this week is Reader’s Choice for blogging. In looking at the list of favorite reads, and what we have already blogged about on the guilty indulgence site, it occurred to me that we had not blogged about one of my favorite, favorite all time paranormal series, the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. It is sometimes hard to read a book series after it has been picked up as a t.v. series because you think you know too much about what has already happened or it feels trite, but I would still encourage you to take the plunge and jump into Bon Temps, Louisana’s world. I guarantee you will not be sorry. The series begins with Dead Until Dark whose heroine is Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid at Merlotte’s in the small southern town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie is a sassy, yet naive, working-class girl who just happens to be able to read other people’s thoughts. It is very interesting to read a book where half of the dialogue is never spoken aloud. In fact, the dialogue is one of the things I liked best about the books. There were many times I just laughed out loud at the fitting, yet funny dialogue. Of course, it helps when you have a self deprecating heroine who does not take herself or her supernatural situation too seriously. The first book does have a suspenseful mystery about someone who is killing local women, and it also lays a great foundation for the later books both in terms of characters and facts about Sookie’s interesting and gifted family. While Dead Until Dark was not my favorite of the nine in the series, it got me hooked and led me to the even better later books in the series. Harris finds a way to intrigue and develop sexual tension and relationships without quite the graphic depiction of the HBO series, at least until later on in the books. This series is an excellent entre into the world and politics of vampires, shapeshifters, fairies and witches. The series has many wonderful secondary characters that appear and sometimes reappear throughout the series. It is a gift that keeps on giving, although the most recent book did not have the strength of the earlier ones. While the tweens and teens have Team Jacob and Team Edward, we more “mature” ladies have Team Bill and Team Eric. In fact, I think Jenn and Tee will have a seizure if the first scene on the new season does not show Eric running naked down the road. If you hurry you can catch up and know why they are anxiously awaiting the summer!

Cat Devon