Dead in the Family

This is one of my favorite collection of books--The Southern Vampire Series--which has recently been made into a TV series.  I've checked it out, and it catches interest, but I'd much rather read the books, so I haven't really watched anymore than two episodes.

I first picked up one of these books because of the cover art.  It was unique and not embarrassing to hold onto in public (like those other vampire series that I've read...aka Vampire Academy, House of Night, Blue Blood and of course Twilight ...ok the Twilight series had good cover art...it was just the adolescent stigma attached to the whole vampire fad going on).  Trust me, its embarrassing to be in college and running to the youth sci-fi section at Borders (secretly really really excited to find out what happens next).

Charlaine Harris has opted to turn this into a 13 book series, a bit stretched out if you ask me, but you gotta juice it when its good, right?  This particular novel didn't have as much going on as the other ones, but it was much better than the last two shes written.  The previous seven books were great though.  Heres the series below.  Cute and unique, right?  I hate it when they change the cover art to a contemporary motion pictures screen shot...they should always keep the original.

The Wrong Mother

Just finished reading The Wrong Mother by Sophie Hannah.  It felt good to go back to my detective story reading years.  When I was younger, I distinctly remember reading all the Alfred Hitchcock books in the elementary school library...or at least I think it was Hitchcock...I also loved the Box Cart Children series.  I really tried to get into the Babysitters Club because all of my girlfriends read them, and even tried a hand at Nancy Drew, but I was a bit of a tom boy at that age and anything with pink repelled me.  Therefore, Alfred it was.  This book was pretty good, but there was a lot of unfinished business that I would have liked resolved.  The romance between two of the characters was enjoyably left hanging, but the more serious issues concerning the protagonist, Sally Thorning, were muted and left to be forgotten.  I would have chosen a different title also...

A quick set up--About a year before the setting, Sally Thorning had an affair with a man named Mark Bretherick for a week at a hotel resort.  Now, sitting in her living room she watches the news report of a different man named Mark Bretherick coping with his grievances of the loss of his daughter Lucy and wife Geraldine, both of which the Mark from the hotel had mentioned.  And it didn't help that the late Geraldine was the spitting image of Sally.  Dun dun dun...

Its a fun quick read if you're bored.  You can borrow my copy if yah likes.