What's on the shelf? Sookie Stackhouse!

For the last few weeks, I've been reading The Southern Vampires series by Charlaine Harris. It was recommended to me by a friend from another blog when I put out a desperate request for somebody to recommend a new series for me to start.

I wandered over to my local Chapters (Danger! Danger!) and bought the shiney new box set that came out in April. It comes with the first 7 books:

• Dead Until Dark
• Living Dead in Dallas
• Club Dead
• Dead to the World
• Dead as a Doornail
• Definately Dead
• Altogether Dead

These books are appetizer size, at about 292 pages each, so they are quick reads, but don't pick them up if you are looking for intellectual reading material. They're pretty fluffy.

The series follows Sookie Stackhouse living in a time when vampires have come into the mainstream world. Synthetic blood has been invented by the Japanese so that the vampires do not have to hunt humans to live. Sookie is a telepath, who lost her parents when she was young in a flash flood. She lives with her grandmother in Bon Temps, Louisiana.

Sookie's life changes when one night at Merlotte's (this is the pub she works at) a vampire comes in. From then on, she finds herself wrapped in situations filled with things that she doesn't understand. Turns out that vampires aren't the only supernatural beings out there...

Seriously though, I have enjoyed the series even for all it's fluffiness, and it's been made into the television show, True Blood, which is airing on HBO Canada and stars Anna Pacquin. I bought season 1 of True Blood, since I don't get HBO Canada, and it's not exactly sticking to the books, but meh, who cares?! It's pretty entertaining. Just take it at face level for what it is.