1-11-12 Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - THIS is the second book. I was finally able to get to the library when it was open. I really enjoyed this volume in the series because Sookie gets to travel to Dallas and stays in a vampire hotel where she finds some interesting humans. She also gets to meet the king of Texas and, as per her agreement with Eric, offers her assistance with her special skills. A wild ride.

1-9-12 Club Dead by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - OK, so I'm re-reading them out of order. This is actually the third book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I don't have the second one on my bookshelf. You can read them out of order a little, but you will feel lost. If I hadn't already read this series a couple times, I would not have read this book next. But it is a fun addition to the series taking Sookie to Jackson, Mississippi where she works with a werewolf to find the missing Bill. Fun reads!

1-6-12 Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - I do love the Sookie Stackhouse series. Thank goodness it's one of the items on my bookshelf so when I ran out of books I could pick this up again. Harris gives the reader such a great introduction to the alternate reality she has created where vampires have "come out of the coffin" so to speak and live openly among humans. Sookie's telepathy adds a different dimension to the stories too and makes her her own unique character. If you love the True Blood TV series, you should definitely try the books.

1-2-12 Jack & Jill by James Patterson - Fiction

3 - The Alex Cross books I've read are all good but some are better than others. This was good, but not quite riveting enough for me. Cross is after two serial killers that are focusing on the rich, famous, and powerful in D.C. and another killer who is murdering small children at his son's school in one of the not so wealthy areas of D.C. A good story overall and a few twists and turns, but not one of my favorite thrillers.

12-27-11 Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - Fiction

5 - Still love this book. Yes, over the holidays I didn't have time to get to the library on the days it was open so I had to go through my meager bookshelf and start reading from it. But I still enjoy this book and with all the press about the movie I was itching to re-read it anyway. If you don't know the story of this series by now you must live under a rock so I'm not going to rehash it for you. But I am among the ones who loved this final book in the Twilight series.

12-26-11 Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman - Non-Fiction

2 - You know, I have to give this a 2 because even though I only read this about three weeks ago, I can't remember a thing about it except it had some funny parts and I didn't hate it. Even looking it up on www.bn.com and reading the reviews does not jar anything. So I would say read this if you've run out of stuff or just need to take up time. You won't remember anything about it anyway.

12-25-11 Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - Harper Connelly unwittingly inserts herself into another missing person/murder mystery in Harris' second book of the series. As she is being "tested" by an unbelieving professor for his class, she discovers a second body in a grave. That second body is of a little girl she failed to find the year before. And so begins the new mystery of how the child ended up in a different state from where she was missing and who is trying to disrupt the investigation and get Harper accused of murder herself. These are well written murder mysteries. If you don't normally read paranormal themed stories, I suggest you try these anyway. The paranormal is almost second to the great mystery plot.

12-23-11 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson - Fiction

5 - Holy Crap! These books involve business, government conspiracy, international intelligence, defecting spies, lunatic asylums, and newspapers. And they are tied all together so neatly that at the end you go, "Wow. I have no more questions except what is Lisbeth going to do now?" It's such a shame that Larsson died without continuing the series because that is a true loss for book lovers everywhere. Seriously, I know I've said it before, read these books!

12-14-11 The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks - Fiction

2 - Sappy, but what do you expect from Sparks? I saw the twist, bittersweet ending coming and, yeah, I was right. This is a standard boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls in love with girl from a good family and they are kept apart but then come back together years later. Honestly, read The Notebook instead. Much better.

12-9-11 Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green - Fiction

4 - I love the quirky world of the Nightside. This is the first in the Nightside series and Green does a wonderful job of introducing the weirdness and debauchery that is the Nightside as well as giving a great sampling of the characters to be found in such a place while writing in a noir style. The Nightside is a part of London that isn't, a place where it's always 3 am, a place where your every dream, fantasy, and nightmare can and will come true. Fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

12-1-11 The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson - Fiction

5 - This trilogy really is incredible! The first book was enthralling and the second book is just amazing as it takes you on a whole new adventure that opens up the characters even more. Lisbeth Salander is the antiheroine in these books and, as weird and unusual as she is, she makes you root for her every step of the way. This book goes deeper into who she is and how she ended up being the way she is and the story continues to surprise and shock. Seriously, read these books!

11-16-11 Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris - Fiction

4 - This is a different series by Charlaine Harris and something I think she started before the Sookie Stackhouse books. And I like it. Harper Connelly was struck by lightening when she was a young girl and ever since then she can find dead bodies and tell the cause of death. She travels with her brother and they are the people families call when they are desperate. Harris starts to flesh out the characters very well and combines the unusualness of their occupation with a very good murder mystery. I'm definitely continuing this series.

11-12-11 The Natural Laws of Good Luck by Ellen Graf - Non-Fiction

3 - This was a cute story about a woman, Ellen, who marries a Chinese man, Zhong-hua, who moves to upstate New York to live with her and her teenage daughter. The culture clash is extreme considering they each only speak a few words of each other's languages. But the most interesting part of the book is hearing the recollections of the husband's time living in China during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Those stories make this book worthwhile and add so much to letting the reader in on the character of Zhong-hua and the understanding and non-judgement of his new wife.