lower east side librarian

What if Red Riding Hood's wolf was actually a werewolf who vowed revenge against the bad doggie who ate her grandma? That's more or less the story Ms. Pearce tells, except that Red Riding Hood is actually sisters, one a fighter and one a lover.

I am returning to my earlier haiku format reviews:

Things aren't going
well for Sookie, but at least
she is getting some.

(Should "aren't" get counted as one or two syllables?)

With every man in her life attracted to her, why is it that Sookie can't find a decent boyfriend she can stick with? Which one would you choose?--the current contenders being, alphabetically, Bill, Eric, Quinn, and Sam. You can also consider Alcide, Calvin, or anyone else who has expressed having the hots for the telepath. I think there is one woman in there somewhere, too.

It was nice to be back in the vampire book saddle again, especially after putting down the last two books I started because I couldn't get into them.

If you're paying attention--and I don't blame you if you're not--in my last Sookie Stackhouse novel review, I complained about "every unrelated heterosexual man in Sookie's life being totally hot for her." Well, that question is answered in book six of the series.

Regarding the last vampire book I read, my cousin asked me, "Isn't that trash?" I don't think that particular book, a graphic novel, is trash, even though I didn't like it very much. I did like Dead as a Doornail pretty well, but I do more or less regard it as trash. But I also don't say trash in an entirely pejorative way. I guess what I mean is that it isn't literature. It goes down quickly and leaves you feeling sated, even if hungry for more. I don't think that's a bad thing, although I do prefer to balance paranormal series like these with materials that are edifying. If I had a better diet, I'd probably make analogies to protein and carbohydrates. If I had a worse diet, I might compare genre fiction to fast food, but since I haven't been inside a McDonald's since the turn of the century, I can't bring myself to liken tasty paranormal tales to something that in addition to having bad politics makes you feel sick when you're done consuming it.

Four books into the Sookie Stackhouse series, I'm finally willing to admit I'm getting hooked. That's not entirely stubbornness or snobbery talking; only with this one and it's predecessor, Club Dead did I read the books in a hurry. Plus, I liked that Harris thanked a librarian, Doris Ann Norris, in her acknowledgments page.

For once I was less psyched to read a paranormal fiction series novel. I think I'm getting a little burnt out on them. I didn't enjoy this any less, but instead of a yummy snack on my usual menu of healthy enriching brain foods, it's becoming too much of the norm. Part of the problem feeding my carb-like genre fiction is that I privilege books I borrow from NYPL over Barnard/Columbia books because their due dates are more compelling. The rare books that I acquire in other ways (usually that are given to me) wait months or even years to get read. And what do I check out from NYPL vs. my academic library?--science and popular fiction, comic books and young adult literature. But what am I to do, I'm the English and American literature selector, so I have to read the reviews in Library Journal. Lately I've taken to saving appealing titles in RefWorks to read later, but it's not always possible to wait!

The latest in Harrison's Hollows series finds witch Rachel Morgan still mourning her dead vampire boyfriend and trying to regain her memory of his double murder. (Vampires die twice in this reality--first to become undead and then dead dead.)

I wasn't going to read another paranormal fiction book so soon after the last two, but I really like the Kitty series and had been waiting a while for this installment to appear in my public library catalog. When it finally did, I place a hold, and when my hold arrived, I of course, in the name of being a good library patron, snapped it up. But I wonder what's taking them so long to get the next installment listed as on order in LEO. (ZOMG, I love that the link from Carrie Vaughn's website takes you to her local independent bookstore, the Tattered Cover! I believe TC was the driver of the independent bookstores lawsuit against Barnes and Noble.)