Midnight Book Blog

I finished “Dead and Gone,” by Charlaine Harris, even read it twice, and found myself still hungry for more supernatural reading material.  I went to Charlaine Harris’ website and discovered part of the forum there discusses other authors.   It was there that I found a discussion about Kim Harrison’s books.  I wandered over to Kim Harrison’s website and began to browse and found “The Hallows” books were listed in order and decided to try one out at Audible.com.  (Audible has all her unabridged books and the narrator, Marguerite Gavin, is incredible!.  I started out reading “Dead Witch Walking” and downloaded them one after another until I finally finished with the “White Witch, Black Curse,” and totally enjoyed every minute of them.

I really like the world Kim Harrison created for these characters.  It seems virus occurred in genetically-engineered tomatoes and the human population was almost killed off.  However, the supernatural beings were immune to this virus and this exposed just how many of them were already living among the human population.  An alterative version of the City of  Cincinnati is the location, and most of the supernatural population lives in the Hallows, which is a section of  the city.  The main characters are Rachel Morgan, a white witch; Ivy, a vampire; and Jenks, a pixie.   All three worked for the I.S., a kind of enforcement agency that enforces the law amongst the supernatural population, and all three left the I.S. to branch out on their own as partners.   Another recurring important character is Trent Kalamack,  a wealthy, respected city councilman, who happens to be heavily involved in biodrugs and brimstone (an illegal drug in the supernatural community).  The series also abounds with witches (white and black), vampires, pixies, fairies, werewolves, demons and loads of magic.  The books are fast-paced, sexy, humorous, and just plain fun to read.

I’m so glad I stumbled on this author (Kim Harrison) and she has a new fan.  I can’t wait for the next book in the Hallows series!

Our condolences and prayers to the Jackson family.

Thank you, Michael, for sharing your talent with the world.

You will be missed and your message will be remembered.

“We Are The World” is a very moving message, written by Michael Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones,  from 1985.  I was 39 when this was written.  It moved me then and still moves me today.

Solo appearances in order:

• Lionel Ritchie
• Stevie Wonder
• Paul Simon
• Kenny Rogers
• James Ingram
• Tina Turner
• Billy Joel
• Michael Jackson
• Diana Ross
• Dionne Warwick
• Willie Nelson
• Al Jarreau
• Bruce Springsteen
• Kenny Loggins
• Steve Perry
• Daryl Hall
• Huey Lewis
• Cyndi Lauper
• Kim Carnes
• Bob Dylan
• Ray Charles

Well, I’ve now read (listened to) Dead and Gone twice, by Charlaine Harris, and loved where the author took Sookie in her latest installment.   (This is the 9th installment.)  This definitely is a darker novel than the previous ones.  However, considering the supernatural beings Sookie is related to and has chosen to associate with, some of the darker things that happen in this novel are kind of just par for the course of life in Sookie’s world.  Some were hard to read, some were sad, many questions were answered and, in the end, Sookie appeared to be stronger in character than ever before.

I really don’t want to go into much detail here, as there may be some who stumble upon this page who haven’t read the book and want to.  For those who haven’t read any of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries, I say to treat yourself and start with the first one, Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris.  For me, they were kind of hard to put down and kept reading one after another.  I only wish Charlaine Harris could write them as fast as her fans can read them!

CONGRATS CHARLAINE!!!

Order Dead and Gone here!

I went over to Audible.com early this morning just to see if Charlaine Harris’ new book, Dead and Gone, was available and it was sitting right there!!!!  I’d been saving my credits from last month just waiting for this book and I downloaded it right away.

The “Do Not Disturb” sign is up till I finish listening!  Today is certainly a glorious day.

Okay, I admit it, I’m a Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries junkie.  Needless to say, I’m also totally addicted to HBO’s True Blood series.

In honor of tomorrow’s release of “Dead and Gone,” by Charlaine Harris, I created a new look for the blog.  The new look is also in anticipation of the second season of “True Blood,” on HBO, premiering Sunday, June 14, 2009.

Below is the New Season Trailer for True Blood from HBO!

I just downloaded the new David Baldacci novel from Audible.com. and I’ve been waiting impatiently for this book to be published.  I just love David Baldacci’s books and this one is narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Ron McLarty!   Listening to Ron McLarty is like visiting and old friend for me.  I love his voice.

Also, there is a book plate signing event at David Baldacci’s website that will be going on until May 22, 2009.  Visit his site here to get the details.

Click here to purchase and download First Family from Audible.com.

Update: I finished listening to First Family a day later.  I couldn’t put it down!  It’s the best Sean King and Michelle Maxwell novel yet!  Don’t miss this one!   Thanks, David, for another most excellent adventure! 

I love my Kindle and I have the Kindle 1 that Dale gave me for Christmas.  I really love my audio books best from Audible.com, but so many are not yet available that I want to read. Yes, I can purchase books on  CDs (or sometimes only tape is available), but it’s such a pain in the ass to convert the CDs in iTunes  (or any program) into something I can download into my iPod, Kindle or other MP3 player.  Thus, I need my Kindle to read what is not yet available for audio download, as I can easily enlarge the  font size for my comfort.  It’s really too much of a pain to try to find books I want to read in large print at the library……….so, my Kindle is one of my most prized possessions.  I’ve been looking over the new Kindle 2 and what it has to offer and it sure looks sleek compared to the Kindle 1 I have now.

In looking over what the Kindle 2 has to offer, I noticed it now has text-to-speech technology and you can listen to a computer voice read your book to you.  I guess this would come in handy for the sight impaired, as this is certainly less expensive than buying CDs or even purchasing an audio download.  However, as a lover of audio books for the past several years, I have my favorite narrators and I can’t even imagine listening to my novels told to me by a computer-generated voice!

The thought of listening to my favorite David Baldacci novels without Ron McLarty, or listening to the Dune novels without Scott Brick and/or Simon Vance, just does not compute.  How could a computer-generated voice deliver all those wonderful character voices and accents Jim Dale and Stephen Fry deliver in the Harry Potter series?   The thought of listening to The Hobbit and/or the Lord of the Rings without Rob Inglis telling the 55-hour story makes me cringe!  Listening to the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries, without hearing Johanna Parker’s marvelous voice, would be just awful!

Regardless of the issue of digital management rights, IMHO the audio book listener (for the most part) will continue to have their favorite narrators, consider them in their purchases, and choose not to listen to a computer-generated voice.  Listening to a favorite book, with the voice of a favorite narrator in my ear, is like putting on that favorite pair of comfortable shoes, visiting with a beloved old friend, and a computer-generated voice just won’t cut the mustard.

Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, by Frank Herbert, are now available for download at Audible.com. This means that all 6 of the classic Dune novels are now available for audio download!

Dune lovers…enjoy!!

After listening toTwilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) from Audible. com.,I decided to read books 2, 3 and 4 rather than listen to them.  I noticed they were all narrated by the same narrator, who sounded to me like a young 11-year-old, so I opted for reading instead.  This narrator may have worked for some, but not for me. (See my previous post on Book 1 here.)

At any rate, I’m not sure why I decided to go ahead and finish the saga except that I was curious to see what finally happens to Bella and Edward.  I do have to say one thing here, there were many times while reading these books I found myself skimming along to get to the point.  I found myself wishing the author had a better command of the English language so that she could have said what needed to be said using fewer words.  No, I personally don’t have that talent but I can recognize it.  With that being said, I’ll just move on to the individual books…..

New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2)…..

Okay, I have to admit this book had me screaming “Get to the point already!”  From the beginning, the reader knows Edward is going to come back sometime in the course of the novel; however, first we have to wallow through pages and pages of Bella’s angst.  I was very thankful I was reading this book instead of listening to it and was thus able to skim though a lot of the repetitiveness.  Again, I didn’t feel like I was reading about a high school senior but possibly a 12 or 13-year-old and I found this rather irritating.

Regarding Jacob, I found I was disliking him more and more as the book and whole saga went on.   Finally, when we get to the “werewolf” story (or “shape shifter” story as we find the Quileute tribe are not real “werewolves” but are really shape shifters later in the saga), Jacob’s story began to get interesting for me.  I wish I could have found him more likable, as he becomes a major character in the saga, but I didn’t.

All in all, the basic story interested me when I could finally weed it out.  I felt like I had to wade through a sea of unnecessary words to finally get to the point of the whole book.

The good news is I think this will make a marvelous movie!  The special effects should be stunning! The angst Bella experiences about Edward leaving her will come across better on screen (I think).   One picture is worth a thousand words they always say….and this will probably  hold true for the new movie coming out in November 2009.

Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)…..

I did like this book much better than New Moon.  However, this Bella-Edward and Bella-Jacob thing started to get very old for me.  I found the exchanges between Jacob and Edward rather juvenile and they got on my nerves while reading the book.  Again, I found myself skimming a lot to get to the point of the story, but not nearly as much as in New Moon.

This book is much darker than the previous two books in the saga.  Victoria and her newborn vampires move closer to Forks and ultimately to Bella.  Victoria wants to kill Bella  and she is in danger.  However, I couldn’t believe how long it took the Forks vampires to figure out Bella’s clothes were stolen from her room to get her scent.  First, we already knew Victoria wanted to kill Bella as Laurent told her that before he tried to kill her in the previous book.  (Fortunately for Bella, the werewolves took care of Laurent in the meadow.)  Second, it was suspected the killings in Seattle were due to newborn vampires and someone had to be creating them.  (Hint…like maybe Victoria.)   Why it took so long during the course of the novel for the Forks vampires and Bella to put two and two together is beyond me.  I found this part of the story really frustrating.

Okay, now there is one thing in this book that really creeped me out…imprinting.  Sam imprinting with Emily was fine as they were adults and they really loved each other.   Quil imprinting with a 2-year-old was just dam creepy.  I know it’s explained that the “werewolves” don’t age and he will wait till she grows up, etc., etc.,…….but still, when it comes to imprinting with children, it’s just plain creepy.  What was Stephanie Meyer thinking??!!

There is also a terrific fight scene at the end…the vampires and werewolves versus Victoria and her band of newborn vampires.  Yes, the vamps and werewolves join forces and work together.  I became very fond of Seth here and if you’ve read the book, you’ll know why.

At any rate, all ends well and those Bella loves are safe at the end.  I did like the ending with Jacob finally taking to heart that it is Edward that Bella wants to spend forever with and takes off to live as a wolf.  I’m still not fond of Jacob and I really liked that hopefully he was getting out of Bella’s life.

This is another book that I think will make a great movie.  There are so many scenes that will use special effects and these can be spectacular.  Generally speaking, I liked this book much better than New Moon.

Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)….

I don’t know where to start with this one.  So much was left out that I wanted to read about, especially Bella and Edward’s wedding, which was just glossed over.  As we got on to the honeymoon, I began to wonder what in heaven’s name was the author thinking when she wrote this book?

The consummation of Bella and Edward’s marriage began as a sweet read and then quickly moved on to the ridiculous.  I almost stopped reading when Bella was thinking about staying human longer  just to have more sex.  Bella’s begging for sex nauseated me.  Then, just when the book started to take a turn for the better, Bella finds she is pregnant…..from a vampire yet!  The details of this pregnancy border on the insane.

Bella does finally become a vampire, but it isn’t pretty.  She just about dies, vomiting blood, as this baby needs to be delivered it eats it’s way out of her, and Edward saves her by injecting his venom into her heart.  Jacob, who has returned in the meantime, had to do CPR on Bella.  Quite a scene.  Now, I’m a child of the 60s…I was at Woodstock the summer of 1969…and I thought this would have been a great read while sitting in the fields of Max Yasgur’s farm, August, 1969, while Jimmy Hendrix played “Purple Haze,” and I was stoned.

And……Jacob imprinted with Bella’s baby girl, Renesmee and this really disturbed me.  I found this adult-infant imprinting  a really creepy concept.

As the book moved on, Bella just became too dam perfect.  Her baby girl is perfect and everyone loves her.  Bella never went through the trials of being a newborn vampire, she had special gifts, and in the end she got everything she wanted.  There was no sacrifice, no loss….everything just perfect with Jacob ending up a son-in-law someday when Renesmee grows up (which we find should be in 7 years with her accelerated growth rate).  So, in the end, Bella even ends up with Jacob too in a round about way.

There’s a lot more in the book that I won’t get into here.  This last book in the saga  just didn’t work at all for me.  As far a movie goes….I’m not sure and frankly it’s not something I would want to see on the big screen.  Too bad…this book could have been a great ending to a good story.  I wish it had worked for me.