Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Sookie Stackhouse and a Witty Harper Lee

I love Harper Lee, and I sincerely wish I'd have had the chance to meet her, I imagine we'd have gotten along like a house on fire:

Quotation of the Day

Harper Lee: 'Problem Is One of Illiteracy, Not Marxism'


"Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that To Kill a
Mockingbird spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code
of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of
all Southerners. To hear that the novel is 'immoral' has made me count
the years between now and 1984, for I have yet to come across a better
example of doublethink.

"I feel, however, that the problem is one of illiteracy, not Marxism.
Therefore I enclose a small contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund that
I hope will be used to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any
first grade of its choice."

--Harper Lee, in a 1966 letter

to the Richmond, Va., News Leader in response to the Hanover County
School Board's decision to remove her novel from school libraries,
alleging that its contents were "immoral."


My book group is reading "The Graveyard Book" in October, and I am hoping they'll enjoy it as much as I did.  From Shelf Awareness:

Disney "made a high six-figure deal" for Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard
Book
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz13302603,
the ghoulish riff on Kipling's Jungle Book, according to Deadline.com.
Henry Selick (Coraline) will direct the project, which is "a priority
for the studio."

Yum! Bacon and books, two of my favorite things!

Cool Carnivorous Idea of the Day: Bacon in a Bookstore

How about some bacon brownies, chocolate coconut bacon or white
chocolate bacon pretzel rods? Books of Wonder
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz13339056
children's bookstore in New York City
"is playing host to the Baconery
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz13339057,
a previously online-only outfit that specializes in bacon-themed
sweets," Page Views reported.

Jonathan Drucker, the bookshop's marketing manager, said the partnership
will allow Baconery proprietor Wesley Klein full use of shop's
café kitchen. Drucker hopes this will become a "permanent
arrangement," though he admits the bacon production does cause a "rather
unctuous" smell in parts of the store, Page Views noted.

Finally, I just finished Charlaine Harris' "Deadlocked" the 12th Sookie Stackhouse novel in her body of work. I was a huge fan of Sookie books until that dreadful "True Blood" series came to HBO, starring Anna Paquin, who isn't even buxom or really pretty enough to be Sookie, and some other actors inappropriately cast in what is just an excuse to get paranormal pornography onto TV. Ever since True Blood, Harris' books have read like screenplays just waiting for a scriptwriter to condense them for TV. Sookie isn't as smart as she used to be, and the other characters seem more one-dimensional as well. Still, I keep reading the books because I keep hoping that Harris will quit phoning it in and get back to making Sookie the charming young woman we've come to know, instead of a gore-spattered, back-woods nymphette.
I gather that the next book will be the last in the Sookie series, and I suppose that is why this book tied up a lot of loose ends in previous plots. We learn that Eric isn't really a good match for Sookie because he's loves power and ambition more than he loves her (I could have told you that several books ago) and that the Fairies are duplicitous and cunning, while Sookie's boss, Sam, is a wonderful shapeshifter who has terrible taste in mates (something else I could have told you several books ago). I hope that, now with the Fae situation sorted, that Sookie will end up with Bill Compton, because of all the men she's been involved with, he's been the one who cared for her the most. At any rate, Deadlocked was a fast and fun read, though somewhat dumbed down, and I recommend it to all Sookie fans who want to know what really motivates the 'supes' in Sookie's life.

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