I Wanna Do Bad Things With You

I'm a huge fan of HBO's vampire series, True Blood. The television series is based on the novels written by Charlaine Harris. The series is called The Southern Vampire Mysteries, or is also referred to as The Sookie Stackhouse novels. Sookie Stackhouse is the main character, a waitress from the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie is just an ordinary southern girl, who happens to be able to read minds. She always has longed to meet a vampire since they became legal citizens and began mainstreaming into society (don't worry, Japan created a synthetic blood to prevent vampires from feeding on human beings). She meets Bill, and the two fall in love. But falling in love with a vampire sure does create a lot of relationship problems. The first novel in Harris's series, Dead Until Dark, focuses on that relationship and all of the heartache and trouble that comes along with loving a vampire.


Vampires have made a super sexy comeback. First, Twilight emerged into the teenage market. Then HBO picked up Harris's novels and transformed them into a television series. Both have a sexy, brooding lead male vampire with plenty of other vampire eye candy (Emmett Cullen of Twilight or Eric of True Blood). Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse is absolutely perfect also. I think that the television show is almost a little bit better than the books, which is shocking to me. The secondary characters in the show are so much more developed. And Bill is much more swoon-worthy on the show. However, immediately after reading the first book, I ran to my library and snagged the second one and have begun pouring over it.

These are fast reads and are really great to take on a weekend trip. Or if you're looking for something light and are into vampires, I would definitely recommend the Sookie Stackhouse books.

Heroine of Heroines

Well, no real surprise here! Your favorite Jane Austen heroine is none other, than Miss Elizabeth Bennet. She beat out the Dashwood sisters, Fanny, Emma, Anne, and Catherine. Elizabeth is the second child of the five in the Bennet family, all sisters. She's described as her father's favorite, and undoubtedly ours. She's sensible, intelligent, and quick-witted. She also wins the love of one of literature's greatest heroes, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Pride and Prejudice has an enormous follwing and has inspired countless unofficial sequels and reinterpretations. Here's a short list of a few that may be worth checking out for a little light reading:

*Mr. Darcy's Diary - Amanda Grange
*The Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series - Pamela Aidan
*Darcy & Elizabeth - Linda Berdoll
*Mr. Darcy's Daughters - Elizabeth Aston
*Pemberley - Emma Tennant

Those are just a few to get you started. Amazon has great lists outlining more, if you are looking for P&P sequels or retellings. Here are the poll results about your favorite heroine. Please check out my new poll and vote for your favorite historical fiction writer!

Poll Results:
1. Elizabeth Bennet........................27%
2. Marianne Dashwood..................23%
3. Anne Elliot...............................18%
4. Emma Woodhouse.....................14%
5. Elinor Dashwood........................9%
6. Catherine Morland....................5%
7. Fanny Price...............................5%

I Got An Award!

Thank you to Amy over at http://passagestothepast.blogspot.com for sending me this award! I'm a loyal reader of her's and definitely love her blog. Thanks, Amy!

Things have been super busy getting started with a new session of classes. But I am currently working on a challenge that you all should do for fun! It's the 999 Challenge. Here are the rules:

1. All books you choose must be read between January 1, 2009-December 31, 2009.
2. Choose 9 different categories of your choice and read 9 books that fit into each one. (Categories can range from a certain author, a genre, rereads, etc.)
3. You cannot double dip. That is if you read Pride & Prejudice in 2009, you cannot count it under both "Women Authors" and "Classics" or something along those lines.

I thought it'd be fun! Enjoy!

A Post About The Host

The Host is considered to be Stephenie Meyer's first adult novel. An alien species, called Souls, invades Earth and takes uses human bodies as their host bodies. One soul, called Wanderer, inhabits a girl named Melanie's body. But Melanie is not so willing to just hand herself over to her new host. The two despise each other immediately. However, Melanie gives Wanderer access to her memories about her true love, Jared. Soon, Wanderer finds herself falling in love with the memory of Jared. Together, Melanie and Wanderer make the dangerous journey to find him. Once she does, will Jared believe her that Melanie still lives on within her? Will he still love her? Or will he want to kill her since Wanderer is technically the alien enemy? The Host is an emotional and exciting story and deserves the classification of "Sci-Fi Lite."

I got this as a Christmas gift this year and I must say that I really loved this. I was hesitant about reading it because I thought there was no way that Stephenie Meyer would write a better story than Twilight storyline. And while I think Bella and Edward's story is better, this was still very good. It begins a little slowly with explaining the alien's ways of life, but begins to pick up once her and Melanie have a common goal. I found myself flipping page after page for hours without even looking up. I really enjoyed the story. If you liked Stephenie Meyer's writing style in the Twilight books, then this is definitely worth reading. Warning: do not read this immediately after reading any of the Twilight books. Give yourself a break first and then dive into this. She seems to have the outlook that true love is a physical need that is controlled only by fate. The Bella/Edward fate is played out much better than the Melanie/Jared fate. Hence the reason I suggest a break between reading the two. I found that her secondary male character, Ian, was much more lust-worthy.

I don't usually think about books being turned into movies while I am reading them. But this time, I just couldn't stop thinking about how much I would love to see the events played out on the big screen. As far as who I think should play who, I have no idea. I just really think this would make a wonderful movie. Come on, Steph, make it happen!