Skip to content

February 2021

Sookie Stackhouse

  • by

A friend convinced me to revisit the Sookie Stackhouse series recently. I was going to read them all, but after discovering the audiobooks and really enjoying Johanna Parker’s portrayal of Sookie, I decided to listen to them. I’ve been a fan of Charlaine Harris for years, discovering her Sookie Stackhouse series when True Blood was being filmed then going back and reading her other series. I don’t think it’s any secret that the endings of most of her series are weak, but the stories themselves are still enjoyable. This series is no exception.

When True Blood was airing in 2008, I wanted to read the books before watching the show. I read the first one, then immediately went out and bought the box set of the first 7 books. I was hooked but didn’t read beyond the seventh book. Looking back, maybe that was the right call, minus the inconclusive ending. Around the ninth book the series begins to taper off and just drags along until the anticlimactic ending in book thirteen. You can tell when Harris suddenly lost interest in the series.

This is a stereotypical paranormal romance series: unremarkable girl is the paramour for multiple supernatural folks (vampires, a variety of were-creatures, fairies), gets herself in boatloads of trouble and needs the dashing supernaturals to rescue her. They’re fun, have minor romance scenes that don’t get terribly descriptive until about halfway through the series, lots of action, and a variety of supernatural characters. They’re cohesive within the series which I prefer over having each book able to be read individually. Perfect for the beach or if you don’t want something too involved.

I was coming off reading the Anita Blake series when I found Sookie Stackhouse; Sookie being quite tame by comparison. At the time, I thought they were quite similar; I was over the graphic descriptions in the later Anita books and wanted another bad ass human woman dealing with supernaturals. Looking back on these two series, that wasn’t the case. There’s really nothing bad ass about Sookie. She’s gentle, mild-mannered, polite, virginal, everything Anita is not, and I think in any other setting she wouldn’t stick out in the least. I often see these series listed together, but they are so different.

I found the men to be quite intriguing. Eric has quite a history that I would have loved to delve further into. Bill clings to his humanity more ardently than most vampires in literature. Sam is sweet despite his wild nature, and predictable to everyone except Sookie.

Also worth noting is the way Harris throws in nods to her other series. The characters are minor in the Sookie Stackhouse books, but it was fun seeing Lily Bard from the Shakespeare series again and revisiting Barry Bellboy who also makes an appearance in her Midnight, Texas and namedrops Sookie.

If you can get past the milquetoast protagonist and enjoy the supernatural element and action, this can be a really enjoyable series. And, hey, at least the vampires don’t sparkle.

Leave a Comment →

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

Legendborn

  • by

I’m going to preface this review by stating that I don’t think Legendborn was a bad read and I do understand why it’s quite popular; however, a combination of things contributed to me feeling a little shorted by what this book could have been.

In Legendborn, Bree attends an early college program hoping to escape her feelings of loss at home after her mother’s death. Her first night on campus, she witnesses something she shouldn’t and is thrown headfirst into a campus organization straight out of Arthurian legend. She soon learns the organization may have had a hand in her mother’s death and infiltrates the group, hoping to find out what really happened. As she’s initiated, a mystical war is brewing in which she’ll have to pick a side – will she fight for the Legendborn or take them down to discover the truth?

Firstly, I love all the inclusion! Here we have a wonderfully fantastical storyline led by a black female protagonist who is joined by LGBTQ+ characters. Tracy Deonn didn’t gloss over black history and I truly appreciated the way she put us in Bree’s head as she encountered racially charged situations. Though we’ve seen other black protagonists, I have yet to read one that even comes close to touching on how this affects their day-to-day life. I would love to see this become more of a trend in literature; it can be uncomfortable, but it also helps us grow, particularly readers like me who haven’t experienced those situations first-hand. As for the LGBTQ+ characters, they had important relationships with Bree and were central to the story, so we saw they quite a bit, but nothing felt forced. They were real people who weren’t solely included for the sake of having a token LGBTQ+ character. Their genders and sexualities are part of the character development, but they aren’t questioned or explained in full, they just exist as they are which was really beautiful to see.

Speaking of character development, the characters central to the story were well-fleshed out. It was easy to understand their motivations and personalities and I loved seeing all their backstories unfold. Development is good; it’s just unfortunate they were all a bit annoying. I think the only people I didn’t find annoying were Greer and William. Bree was immature, which I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on seeing as she’s only 16, but she felt like a strange mixture of adult sexuality but childlike immaturity. Alice was selfish and, despite her intelligence, it took her ages to realize it’s ok for people to change but she still seemed to only be ok with it if they changed to suit her expectations. Sel was the stereotypical moody, bad boy with the complicated familial history. And Nick, oh Nick, willing to completely alter his life after knowing Bree for all of an hour, always having to be the knight when I would have loved to see her save herself. Greer on the other hand was mature, had a sense of humor, was honest about their situation and experiences while finding ways to combat prejudice against them.

I think a strong portion of my disappointment with Legendborn was all the hype surrounding it online. It’s very highly rated on GoodReads and I couldn’t go a day without seeing multiple posts raving about it on bookstagram. I don’t know that it’s one I would have normally gravitated towards if it weren’t for all the hype, but at no point did I feel like it lived up to it. The action sequences were solid, but they were split by long, drawn out sections of info dumping.

I love Arthurian lore, so seeing a retelling led by a BIPOC protagonist was so exciting! I’m hoping some of the hiccups were solely because Legendborn was a debut novel and will be sorted out in future books in the series because I think this storyline has amazing potential!

Leave a Comment →

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

Age of Republic: Heroes and Villains

  • by

The Age of Republic graphic novel duo is a great place to start in Star Wars canon if you have little idea who any of the main players are or what drives them. If you’re even moderately versed in Star Wars lore, you can skip these two volumes and not miss anything.

The Heroes volume introduces us to Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala, Mace Windu, Jar Jar Binks, and Captain Rex.  While I enjoyed getting a sampling of each of the main heroes, I was a little bored with the content and the illustrations didn’t wow me as they have in other Star Wars graphic novels. I did not learn anything new from this volume, but I did appreciate the articles between issues. These had interesting tidbits from the head of George Lucas, input from the actors, and examples of how roles carried over between different types of media.

I got a bit more out of the Villains volume and therefore enjoyed it a bit more as it wasn’t all information I already knew. In the Villains volume, we’re introduced to Darth Maul, Jango Fett, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Asajj Ventress. I was introduced to villains I was only vaguely aware of, and it had the same types of articles between issues that go further into the depth of each character.

These volumes only covered the main characters of both the heroes and the villains and one or two supporting characters from each side, but it would be interesting to see another volume focused exclusively on other supporting characters that wouldn’t necessarily be considered part of the main cast but appear in several pieces of canon media.

Leave a Comment →

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

Atomic Habits

  • by

If you’ve unsuccessfully tried incorporating new habits or breaking old habits, this book is for you. If you’ve successfully incorporated new habits or broken old habits, this book is for you too! Atomic Habits is going on the short list of books I recommend to everyone regardless of their reading preferences or lifestyle. Anyone can get something out of this book if they’re willing to put in the work, whether their goal is physical, financial, psychological, or any other category you could think of.

James Clear breaks down habit development (and habit breaking) into four easy laws; for habit development, make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying. For breaking undesirable habits, simply inverse the laws: make it invisible, make it unattractive, make it difficult, make it unsatisfying. Each law has its own section in which Clear breaks down the law into small, easy-to-understand chunks, provides examples of people who have successfully used the law to develop a habit, and advice for overcoming common excuses. 

He talks about the importance of developing a good system, rather than a good goal. Though the goals are important, the system we use to achieve them is what determines whether we fail or succeed. He also emphasizes that once goals are reached it’s not uncommon for people to return to their previous behavior rather than striving to further improve their system or set a more advanced goal.

I could hear the excuses play out in my head as I was reading, excuses I’ve made so many times when I was tired or feeling particularly lazy, but it was like Clear was in my head. As soon as the excuses started popping up, I came to a part in the book discussing these same exact excuses and how to overcome them. Clear uses examples of real people who have utilized these laws to overcome their own excuses, making the book much more relatable. He uses professional sports teams as examples, but he also uses friends, office workers, artists, etc. There isn’t a lifestyle that these steps won’t be able to fit into because they’re so versatile.

Many of the resources Clear mentions are easily accessible and printable, allowing readers to develop their own habit trackers and systems. He recommends other reading materials that helped him develop Atomic Habits, as well books that correspond with certain steps or delve deeper into different types of systems people have developed.

I don’t currently have a list of annual readings because there are so few books I reread, and the ones I do reread aren’t read annually. However, I’m starting a list this year and Atomic Habits is at the top. There were so many great lessons and steps I could put into practice immediately, but I can see how that motivation could slip or I would overlook certain steps I no longer deem necessary after a year. Hopefully that will keep the information and motivation fresh in my head as I start each new year.

Leave a Comment →

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

Interior Chinatown

  • by

Interior Chinatown follows Willis Wu, a resident of Chinatown, as he tries to reach the highest role he believes an Asian man can achieve, Kung Fu Guy. We get snippets of Wu’s childhood and see him form relationships, become a father, become the child of aged parents, and develop as a human who is held back both by society and himself.

This was my first experience with Charles Yu’s writing, and I think it’s safe to say it won’t be my last. It’s my understanding that Yu likes to push boundaries with his books and experiment with different styles of presentation. This is quite evident in Interior Chinatown. Yu shows us Wu’s life as though it is a TV show rather than a man’s life. Though I greatly appreciate Yu’s innovation, there were times this pulled me out of the story to question whether what was happening was actually happening to Wu or was part of the show Wu works on. I think this was intentional, but it was also slightly distracting. By no means does the unorthodox writing style discredit the book. I thought it was well written and could be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers.

I don’t know that my reaction to Interior Chinatown was typical. I say this for two reasons. One, I’m not sure it was intended to be as emotional a read as I got out of it. Two, I don’t usually have as emotional a reaction to books as I did with Interior Chinatown. Right from the start as Wu is describing his relationships with his parents, I was tearing up, and this melancholy stuck with me throughout the rest of the book.

Charles Yu addresses heavy themes all the way through Interior Chinatown including aging parents, budding relationships, parenthood, racism, and classism. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most conversations about people of color and racism often do not include Asian nationalities or others who are white passing. Yu tackles this in every chapter as Wu is faced with restrictions society puts on him because of his race as well as restrictions he puts on himself because he doesn’t feel his struggles are as significant as those of other races. 

As a white person, I try to be the best ally I can. It is something I am constantly learning to do better and expand my knowledge. Yu raised several points where I realize I have been lacking, emphasizing how vital it is to be a reader in today’s world. There are important lessons to be learned in all types of literature. One of the most important takeaways from Interior Chinatown for me personally was that I need to do a better job amplifying voices of color equally across the spectrum regardless of how white passing a person of color is. This seems obvious in writing, but I know I get bogged down supporting one person or one group and miss cues where I could be a better ally for others.

Leave a Comment →

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.