Sometimes, just out of the blue, I’ll hear another person book talk a recent read to their friend(s). Obviously, being a librarian, my ears are tuned to just this sort of conversation, and have a tendency to lean-in close to hear more. Alright, I’m rude, but it’s a great way to find word-of-mouth books that may not be on the New York Times bestseller list.
Imagine my excitement, when I caught a student raving about an author to other students. She was doing an excellent job, too. The boy and girl that accompanied her actually checked out a book each by this author. She then began to sell me on the author’s series and how it compares to others in the same genre.
What a smart girl! Now, I was dying to read the series, but the books were checked out. I then headed to the local library, where another well-informed librarian told me more, and loaded my arms with five books.
Folks, we have a local author who is about to take her Southern Vampire series to new heights. Tunica native, Charlaine Harris, signed a deal with HBO to bring her Sookie Stackhouse to the paid-for-cable television screen. For the past two years director Alan Ball worked with actors Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer to produce the “True Blood” pilot set for release this fall.
Harris is no stranger to the mystery series having written two: Aurora Teagarden and Shakespeare. Her first book in the Southern Vampire series, Dead until Dark, won an Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original in 2001. In this series she creates a fresh genre by mixing mystery, romance, and fantasy with her own off-the-wall humor. Heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is barmaid extraordinaire at the subdued, Louisiana bar Merlotte’s. While serving nightly rounds to light-headed patrons, she solves murders with the help of her vampire-boyfriend Bill Compton. Vampires are known entities in Harris’s world. They even have synthetic blood produced by major soft drink companies.
What makes Sookie extraordinary at her job is the fact she can read minds. Can you imagine the power of knowing drink orders before customers announce them? Otherwise, she is a normal human being, among other beings such as vampires, shape-shifters and werewolves.
Do pick up one of these fun books before the series airs. You’ll be singing the praises of a fellow Mississippian Charlaine Harris, for sure.
Note: Number 1 Read Club Dead for RIP II Reading Challenge
17 comments:
Loving this series already! Except...my TBR list is soooo long. Aah...who cares? It sounds like a perfect Halloween read!
I've been wanting to try these out since reading about them a few weeks back on someone else's blog. Didn't realize it was a Mississippi author though, or of course, I would have immediately thought of you!
Tiffany - I'm way behind on my fun stuff so I thought it was time to take a laugh break. :D
Debi - Her sister used to be the Tunica librarian, which is in the system I used to work for. She lives in Arkansas now, but she was lucky enough to be born in Tunica. I read Club Dead and really liked it. :)
Are the characters nice?
I didn't like the Anne Rice Vampire people.
Too self-centered!
WW100 - These are totally different from Anne Rice's vamps. Harris has an Elvis vampire, known by characters as Bubba, who isn't all there after the drug overdose. I would say the books are on the funny side of superbatural, not the scary side; although, Harris can gross you out. :P
I read both her Shakespeare (cozy) series & her Southern Vampire (paranormal) mysteries - I gotta say that this is one of my favorites (you gotta luv Bubba!)
Definately good reads!
(Oh...BTW Maggie, I got my pecans today, and Wow! Thank you Soo much!)
UR welcome, Mo! :)
My first introduction to Harris a few years ago was through this series, and it's one of my favorites. This is one of the series that I rush out and buy the hardback version the minute it comes out.
And, I really love the covers, too! :)
I have never liked vampire books, ever...but I just have recently read and been HOOKED on the "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer. It's a young adult book. SO, maybe I'd like this too.
What is in those Southern waters? The authors far south of the Mason-Dixon line consistently churn out the most plausible and entertaining vampire series to date. (Save Stephenie Meyer, who hails from Connecticut.)
Thanks for the new suggestions.
Tunica! I love Tunica and this sounds like a series I am going to love too. I am definately putting these books on my list. I am a vampire fanatic. Actually I think someone told me I might have to consider mine a fetish!
TXMommy - This was my first entry into vampirehood, and I must say, what fun! :D I thought I would read these for the RIP II challenge, plus Meyer's books. I, too, have heard they are extremely good.
Thanks for stopping by Sarah. I think it's in the water, Mississippi River water, that is! :D
Deana - These are pure D fun! :D Oh, for some reason, I think there is a vamp in this series that has a foot fetish.
I've been a fan of Charlaine Harris for a while! Really fun, with the right amount of chills for a good jolt of danger. Sookie hangs out with just about every supernatural creature you can think of - vampires, "weres," shifters, fairies. Love Harris' Harper Connelly books too. Harper can locate bodies and knows how they became, well, dead bodies. I've already placed my hold at the library for the newest book in the series (#3) - An Ice Cold Grave.
I read the first in Harris' series a few years back and, though I enjoyed it, I never returned to read the rest. At the time, I was reading Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, and I'd decided that I had enough paranormal characters on my hands. Harris was a nice departure from Hamilton, though, who is decidedly less cheerful and funny (in fact, I can't recall ever laughing during the Blake series).
I've since jumped off the Anita bandwagon (the more Anita changed, the more I disliked her), and I gotta say, I'm excited about Stackhouse series on HBO. Perhaps I'll get over my Hamilton trauma, and give Harris another go.
Vidalia, where have I been? Asleep at the circulation desk! ;) Thanks for telling me more.
Well, the same Harris patron fan let me know how Hamilton wasn't as good as her earlier stuff. Thanks JS for the insight.
I love this series!
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