Bookcrossing - live to share, share to live

I just transferred my Kindle account from amazon.com to amazon.de. I noticed the German mirror site a few days ago, not sure how long it's been there. I hope I won't regret it. There seems to be a lot of content in English. All my settings moved as well, I just lost my Kindle wishlist. But I didn't have too many books on it, so it was a quick job to find those books again and create a new ebook wishlist. So far, so good.

I just pre-ordered Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris. Delivery date 3rd of May. I hope I can get it straight away at midnight... The price finally dropped from an outrageous 23 dollars something to slightly over 16 dollars. In the German Kindle shop I save a few cents, but that'll probably vary with the exchange rate. The ebook is 1 Euro more than the paperback. I can live with that!


Finally finished last night, just in time for Sookie:

Sovereign by C.J. Sansom

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Mysterious things are afoot in the town of York. A conspiracy of major proportions is tucked away somewhere.

As usual with Sansom, the story is alive with the sounds and smells of Tudor England. Descriptions are excellent. It's easy to get immersed into his world, you can almost feel, taste and especially smell it.

Page 122: "We walked to Stonegate as the sun rose up and the city came to life, keeping under the eaves as people opened their windows and threw the night's piss into the streets."

There is a surprising amount of swearing going on for historical novels.

When I read his books, it always makes me sad to contemplate how many beautiful things Henry VIII destroyed with his dissolution.

I keep jumping back to the computer to read up on historic events and characters mentioned in the books, it's always a very educational experience for me.

The whole question of succession regarding Richard III, the princes in the tower and the War of the Roses has always confused me a lot and now I get something else confusing thrown into the mix.

Some further reading that contains spoilers -- I suggest not looking at this until you have read the book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV_o...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_%...
http://www.york.ac.uk/ipup/projects/york...

The last 200 pages dragged on a bit for me. At times Sansom's books seem to be a little too cosy, until the next twist hits you and the plot moves back to nail biting suspense.


Gave up:

A Taste of Crimson by Marjorie M. Liu

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Giving up on this one. I made it to page 80 with several stops and starts.

I do not like the vague SF setting. It bothered me already in the first book -- it's hinted at, but not really explored and somehow it feels confined and claustrophobic to me. I know, sounds stupid, but I don't know how else to explain it.

And that the two main characters suddenly decide that they are soul mates and in love with each other after they have just met and barely exchanged any words -- it could work and it has in other books I've read -- here it just feels silly.

Not for me. Perhaps it would have grown on me after another 100 pages, but I'd rather read something I enjoy from the start...

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse #11--or #10, if you don't count Touch of Dead...)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The last one hundred pages or so were pretty good. Turns and twists and suspense. The two hundred-odd pages before that were meh. Not good, not bad, they flowed along pleasantly. Not much of a plot, really. Could Sookie have run her course? I guess the next book will show.

I have been watching reruns of the first two seasons of the show in the past few weeks and it's messing with my internal landscape. Fact that differ from book to TV adaptation make me go "Huh?" I wonder how Charlaine Harris deals with that? Do they have to ask her if it's ok to change something, does she have to sign off on it?

Reading next:

Sovereign by C.J. Sansom (Shardlake #3)

I just weighed this monster... 760 grams and it's huge. If this isn't an argument for switching to eReaders, I don't know what is.

From Dead to Worse (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire #8) by Charlaine Harris.

Finished another Sookie Stackhouse novel. Number eight, I think... Not as good as the last one. It somehow felt like a go-between. It wrapped up some loose ends from the last novel and started some new storylines. Felt as if Charlaine Harris just used this to connect the dots. It was still entertaining, but felt a bit scattered.

I just pre-ordered the next one, Dead and Gone, via Amazon. Delivery in May 2010... Kitty's House of Horrors and Mercy Thompson #5 should be delivered in February 2010... Amazon Prime will be my downfall!

Charlaine Harris, All together dead
(#7 in the Southern Vampires / Sookie Stackhouse series)

From Amazon, because I am too lazy to write it up myself:
"Bestseller Harris mixes humorous Southern-fried fantasy with biting satirical commentary in her seventh novel to feature Sookie Stackhouse, the bubbly telepathic barmaid from Bon Temps, La. (after 2006's Definitely Dead). Sookie attends an all-important central U.S. vamp summit on the shores of Lake Michigan as a "human geiger counter" for Sophie-Anne Leclerq, vampire queen of a Louisiana weakened by Katrina and who will be tried during the event for murdering her king. Sookie knows the queen is innocent, but she's hardly prepared for other shocking murders, not to mention protests by the Fellowship of the Sun, a right-wing antivampire movement. Her sleuthing skills, along with those of her new telepath friend, Barry the Bellboy, are put to the extreme test. Harris juggles a large cast, including several romantic contenders for Sookie's heart, with effortless exuberance."

I started this one on Friday night. I did not read on the plane, opting to watch three movies instead. I eventually finished the book Monday. I took quite a long hiatus from Sookie Stackhouse, but after watching those two True Blood marathons at the hotel in China, I got all excited again about this series. I enjoyed it a lot, it was fun to get re-aqainted with all the characters, it was like meeting some old friends. This still hasn't gotten old or tired after seven books. The two novels following this one are on my wishlist already. But I have some other stuff in between, including two bookrings that are planned to go to morgaine77 afterwards...