Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

- contributed by Kay Hogan
I'm a bit new to the vampire genre. -I've read the entire Twilight series multiple times but that is the limit of my experience with vampire novels. Now I've discovered Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. This is a much darker vampire tale. Vampires are not the stuff of myth and legend in this book. They have recently "come out of the closet" and many are part of normal society. This threw me for a loop - no more protecting the Big Secret.

Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress in small rural town in Louisiana. She can read minds and it drives her crazy. In fact many people in town think she is crazy anyway. She meets Bill Compton who is a vampire whose mind is silent for her. She is immediately attracted to him. The author presents a bizarre underworld of humans who enjoy drinking vampire blood at the same time offering their blood to vampires. Who would've guessed? Now Sookie could be the next victim of a killer who thinks vampires and humans should not mix. Bill is not the romantic hero of a fairy tale. He is by nature a killer but tries to "mainstream" to fit into normal society. Their relationship is very complicated but it works on some level. This book wasn't at all what I was expecting but I will try to get my hands on the second book in this series. This series is not at the NFCC Library.

Article on Stephenie Meyer

http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/2009_March_Stephenie_Meyer/

If you are interested in the Twilight Series (see previous post from August below) check out the link above.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory

-contributed by Kay Hogan
This book is a fictionalized account of the life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, and her sister Mary. Mary is the "Other Boleyn girl" who had an affair with Henry VIII before her sister Anne came on the scene. This story shows how little women were valued in the sixteenth century. These women were used to advance their family's fortune at any cost. The scheming that takes place in the novel is absolutely unbelievable. It is a riveting novel that has several twists and turns. One feels sympathy for the characters even though their actions are sometimes inexcusable.