It’s Monday, 1 July – What Are You Reading?

TheIt’s time for Book Journey’s fabulous weekly posting “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?”

Summer is in full swing – it’s already July! Lazy days of summer it is not here, between work, my projects, running and prepping for my first marathon and of course reading and blogging. I like staying active, but I do enjoy a few hours at the pool with a beach read.

This past week I finished up two books – Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris, the final in the Sookie series, and not a moment too soon, I used to find those books fun, but I really lost interest and will not miss the series now that it’s gone. The second book was The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. I will post a full review in the near future, but I must say that it is my favorite book to date this year.

With the holiday, I am not sure if I will get a lot of reading done, or if I will not read all that much, spending time being out and about enjoying the summer. When I do read, on the docket is Daphne Kalotay’s Sight Reading and The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Here’s my last week in review:

Books Finished:
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Reviews Posted:
The Lullaby of Polish Girls

How about you? How was your week last week and what are you going to be reading this week? Do you have summer beach reading plans?

As an aside, summertime is the time for beaches, pools, fireflies and ice cream – so here is a photo of my Morkie Sonny with his ice cream cone. Happy July 4th!

It’s Monday, 17 June – What Are You Reading?

It’s time for Book Journey’s fabulous weekly posting “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?”

June is half-way over, how did this happen? Reading and posting is getting better – and I hope to keep it up and increase postings throughout the summer. I have to up my reading too – according to my Goodreads tracker, I am 7 books behind in reading 50 books this year. That’s a lot of catch-up, but I hope to get there this summer.

Last week was a good reading week, I started and finished The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Dominczyk (which I  got as an ARC from LibraryThing Early Readers), started up Alison Sweeney’s The Star Attraction and also, in honor of True Blood’s return to HBO, started Dead Ever After, the final book in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series. I didn’t like the previous one and had planned to swear off them, but this one is the end of the series, so I figured I could read one more to see how it all ends.

This week I plan to finish up Sookie and start Daphne Kalotay’s Sight Reading (which I received as an ARC), and also hopefully finish up The Star Attraction, which is really what I want to spend all my free reading time reading – it is definitely a fun, quintessential  summer read!

Here’s my last week in review:

Books Finished:
The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Dominczyk

Reviews Posted:
Beautiful Ruins

How about you? How was your week last week and what are you going to be reading this week?

When It’s Time to Break Up With a Series

As I mentioned in my last post, I was just finishing up with my friend Sookie. I started reading the “True Blood” series when I was blogging a few years ago – there were some challenges and lots of talk in the book blogging community, so I took the plunge. Over the years I have read all of the books in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, and I have (for the most part) really enjoyed them. Am I reading them as high cultural literature, no, but these fun characters have made for some light, enjoyable reading. I got to a point where I didn’t even bother to read the back cover (Wait — Can I still call it that even when I am referring to the Amazon description since I usually get these books in e-form now?! I guess it’s like still calling the music I get an album, even though I am just ordering a bunch of digital files assembled in a collection … I digress, sorry). I would see there is a new Sookie book coming out and I would buy it.

But I just finished Deadlocked, Book #12 in the series, and even though it has been a fun ride, and a dependable easy read, I think it is time that Sookie and I parted ways. Why now? I am not really sure. It has been so long since I read the first ones that I devoured, but now I feel that Sookie has lost her charm for me. I know she’s getting older and so am I, but now after all this time, maybe the magic is gone.

This is not to say I am totally giving up Sookie, I love the HBO series, and in many ways I enjoy where the TV writers have taken and developed the characters even more than Harris’ books. So maybe that’s it – I want the Sookie, Tara, Lafayette, et. al. that I hang out with each Sunday.

Sookie is not the first series I have parted ways with before the series ended. My most memorable break-up was with V.C. Andrews (albeit long after Ms. Andrews had died). But it was really like I had to steel myself when I saw a new V.C. Andrews book out, because old, comfortable habits are hard to break. So we’ll see what I am saying when Book #13 comes out. I may be too compelled to know what the paper (or e-) version Sookie is doing, that I will have to read it.

But for now, Sookie: I do really think that we had a good thing going, but we’ve just grown apart. You know, it’s not you … it’s me.

How about you? Have you even broken up with a series? If so, which one, and why?