What I've Been Reading - The Old Book Pile

I'm back into the old book pile and I'm still super surprised at how little I remember some of these books I've been rereading. I'm almost wondering if I read them at all. Which is strange because I'm usually pretty good on read-recall. I'm not going to name names, though. Mostly because the books in question of the last couple of weeks have been both out-of-print and (embarrassingly) god-awful romance novels that I've been hanging on to for I can't remember how long.

For some of these books, I don't even know why I've been holding on to them. Even though I love a well written book, several of these are not. And like an earlier complaint of mine the relationships kind of suck. I don't see the attraction between our protagonists at all and/or some of these people are just plain ridiculous.

It doesn't help that some of the plot lines seem to go along the lines of this:

Actually, that may have been why I saved them all these years. It would have been lovely, right? ;) I've had most of these for about that long. I'm still weeding through them, mostly because I figure I need to decide if I'll ever read this popcorn again. Especially since I have books that I've read both more recently and had for a really long time that inspire me to feel like this:

I suppose I just can't figure out why I can't remember these books as well as some others. (Including that high fantasy book I disliked in high school that got me banned from a friend's house because I gave it to him and warned him that there were some parts his parents wouldn't like and I wasn't particularly interested in having just lying around my house -- not that I recommended the book at all, just that if he wanted it, it was all his. I'm just glad my sisters and brother never read it -- there's just something about a woman getting flayed alive, leaving nothing but her face recognizable and vividly described that just struck me as something I didn't want my sibs to get their hands on.....)

Maybe it's because they're fast reading? I don't know. I'd get rid of the lot, except that I know there must be some reason I've been hanging on to some of them forever.

I dunno. Does anyone else have the same issue?

What I'm Reading: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

This summer marked the end of an era: specifically, the end of the Sookie Stackhouse era. (By which I mean t  I’ve lived with these books and these characters for a long time, and I felt the need to write a review.

he books. The television series, as far as I know, won’t be stopping anytime soon).

[Warning: Tharrr be spoilers below.]

I’m a romance reader at heart. And with a series like this, I always look for the romance thread and latch on—because that’s what thrills me the most. To be honest, I’ve had a bit of a bone to pick with this series ever since Bill and Sookie didn’t work out. Bill was a passionate Southern gentleman (in a good way)—genteel, smouldering, and exactly perfect for Sookie in so many ways. The other guys in her life—including Alcide, Quinn, and even Eric—just didn’t make as much sense to me.

I’ve never been a big fan of the Eric / Sookie pairing, to be honest. From the sneaky way Eric married her without her knowledge to the equally sneaky way he dissolved that marriage in this last book, he never truly seemed to have Sookie’s best interests at heart—as far as I could tell, he was always just out for himself. And as he grew more distant in the last few books, their relationship started looking increasingly one-sided.

But I started to realize that this isn’t a series about love. It’s a series about survival. Sookie has been tortured, beaten, almost killed, and almost raped as a result of her involvement in various supernatural communities—and as a direct result of her love for supernatural men.

And she’s had to seriously compromise her values. The men she’s loved throughout the series have put her in positions where she’s had to do terrible things to other people, including murder. Vampires in particular seem to be particularly unhealthy to human lovers. And as romantic and passionate and seemingly perfect for her as Bill was, he was no exception.

Despite her bloody past, Sookie seems to want stability, love, and family—and to revel in the happy glow of these things from the more stable lives of her friends and family. But she’s like the troubled girlfriend we all have (okay, some of us have been that person) who keeps saying she wants stability, and keeps going for the unstable relationships. The more bad dating choices she made, the farther away she seemed to get from the warm glow of that love.  

I was happy to see her move toward a more stable relationship in this book. But I wasn’t sold on the idea that her one true love has been Sam this whole time. Sam has been a good, stable friend for the most part. But maybe I just missed the spark between them. Sure, Sam might have had feelings for Sookie at one point—but she’s always been quite firm about putting him in the friend zone. So this ending was bittersweet for me: was she really suddenly into Sam, or was she just settling in favor of finding that stability she’s always wanted?

I think I would have felt more comfortable with an ending that left Sookie alone, but feeling good and happy and empowered—and excited about what life would bring her next. After all, we don’t all need to be in a relationship to be happy. And given the bloody and dangerous nature of her past relationships, I feel like I would have wanted to see Sookie find that stability and happiness within herself—before moving on to a new man.