Some thoughts on Sookie Stackhouse

I'm back from a week in London, where I went with work for WorldSkills 2011, which is actually a really cool event, basically like the Olympics but for skills. Everything went and well and I got to see three shows in the evenings (hmmm, maybe I should do a separat post on how fabulous they were?), as well as catch up with friends, so I feel like I got the most I could out of the week.

Now it's time for more catching up... I wish I was better at keeping up with reviews and updating this blog and reading all your blogs, but life is hectic. What can I say?

A large chunk of my reading time over the past months has been spent with the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. There were books that I enjoyed more than others, but in general I'm liking this series a lot. Sookie is sassy, witty, intelligent and oh-so-real, I'd like to know her in real life, I think. Although if she comes with all the monsters attached then I might change my mind! Since the last book in the series that I talked about here, Living Dead in Dallas, Sookie has had about a million adventures. Lots of things around her have changed, people (and un-people) have come and gone, but she has remained the same old Sookie. She evolves and grows, but stays true to herself.

In Club Dead, Sookie has trouble with steady vampire boyfriend Bill -can he be trusted or should she dump him?

In Dead to the World, Sookie finds herself helping Eric, the powerful vampire she never really had time for. Thing is that he's lost his memory after some particularly powerful witches appeared on the scene and he really does need help. This was my favorite of the series so far... I loved the Eric/Sookie dynamic and I loved the introduction of witches and magic. It gets more and more like Buffy with each book! ;-)

In Dead as a Doornail, Sookie's focus is on her brother Jason, a new were-panther who seems to be a target for someone deadly. We get more insights into the were community in this book, makes for very interesting reading!

In Definitely Dead, Sookie goes off to New Orleans to clean out her cousin Hadley's appartment. Hadley had been a vampire and had been murdered. She had also been close to the local vampire queen so now Sookie has to deal with her too. And with more witches as well.

I don't want to give details not to spoil anyone's fun... But the stories are engaging and the characters are fun, I'm enjoying the books. I want to watch the TV series too, but was told that it doesn't follow the chronology of the books so I prefer to read them first!

Mini-reviews - the only way to catch up!

It's time for some mini-reviews again, since I'm so far behind that it's getting embarassing!

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Loved it! :-) I really enjoy entertaining chick lit and this fit the bill. It had the extra plus of being very realistic - even though most of us would never admit it, the story could happen to us all. Rachel is a 30-something with a job she hates, no boyfriend and a best friend who seems to get whatever she wants and catch all the breaks. Until Rachel accidentally kisses her best friend's fiancee at a party. Where can they all go from there? I understand there's a movie of this out now, but from what I hear the book is a thousand times better!

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
I listed to this one on audio and thought it was ok. It's been described as a children's or YA The Time Traveller's Wife, but as a huge Audrey Niffenegger fan, I must say that I don't think they're in the same league. I liked the puzzle structure and I liked the story, but I wasn't 'wowed'. It was a quiet, interesting read for me. Maybe I'm just disappointed because I wanted to be 'wowed', I can't really put my finger on what in the book didn't work for me.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
Lived it! Stephanie Plum is such a likeable character, no wonder this series is so popular! This is the first book of eight or nine now, I think, and so the one where we meet Stephanie and are told of her family background and assorted issues. The heroine is sassy, the writing is fun and often laugh-out-loud funny, what's not to like?

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison
Disappointing. I liked the premise - the main character, Anna, is one of the children evacuated from London during World War II - but I didn't really care for the execution. I found the characters flat and their motivations lacking. And to be honest, I thought that some of the attachments made in the story were rather creepy... I won't mention details of course, I don't do spoilers. :-) All in all, pretty much forgettable.

My search for bread

Since going gluten-free, many of my Saturdays are spent trying out bread recipes, in search for a bread that somehow resembles what I can no longer have.

So far, no joy.

I have tried this simple bread from Elana's Pantry, but it was really more like a nutty cake so, although tasty, not what I was looking for. Elana has since developed other bread recipes, including this one, which I will certainly be trying, but plans for more baking doesn't ease the disappointment of not having nice bread on a Sunday morning.

Yesterday, I made this bread, since I needed to use up some brown rice flour. It's decent, but too moist for me, wet really, and has a rice taste that just doesn't resemble bread. So it's a no, both on the texture and on the taste front.

I'll keep looking. Maybe one of these will be my bread salvation?



- one of these lovely sounding recipes from the Gluten-Free Girl
- or one of these from the Gluten-Free Goddess
- any others you'd like to point me to?

This post is linked to the September edition of Whip up Something New! (don't know what I'm talking about? - see here) and to Weekend Cooking over at Beth Fish Reads.