In
this her 12th novel in the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire
Series, our favorite telepathic is still hosting her fairie cousins and dating
Eric the vampire with a few enemies always lurking around the corner, not to
mention a few men who carry a torch for the young north Louisiana girl. When a
dead woman shows up in Eric’s front lawn while the vampire King of Louisiana is
visiting, a girl Eric has had his teeth into only minutes before, Sookie’s
world becomes even more complicated.
If
this sounds involved, you’re dead on, pun intended. After a dozen books in the
series Harris has her work cut out for her to bring readers up to date,
particularly for those picking up No. 12 as their first book. But the
supernatural world of Sookie Stackhouse with all its interlocking storylines
and fascinating characters pulls you in and keeps you guessing until the very
last page.
It
will be interesting to see how the series concludes next year, and who, if any,
Sookie picks as her love interest.
For
those of you wishing to read Harris’s series, I suggest beginning with book
one. It’s a fun series but so much more satisfying when read in order.
LSU releases
LSU
Press has published several new books in the past few months. Here are a few of
note.
A
lengthy examination of Newcomb College of New Orleans in essays has been compiled
and edited by Susan Tucker and Beth Willinger as “Newcomb College 1886-2006:
Higher Education for Women in New Orleans.” The college originated as H. Sophie
Newcomb Memorial College in honor of the daughter of founder Josephine Louise
Newcomb. The school was the country’s first degree-granting coordinate college
for women, became known for its pottery and art curriculum and educated
thousands of women. The book concludes with the merging of Newcomb into Tulane
University in 2006.
“Illegal
Sex in Antebellum New Orleans: Brothels, Depravity and Abandoned Women” by
Judith Kelleher Schafer of New Orleans explores cases of prostitution before
the Civil War with information derived from the city’s First District Court and
newspaper accounts.
Claude
F. Oubre’s “Forty Acres and a Mule: The Freedmen’s Bureau and Black Land
Ownership” has been reissued with a new foreword by Katherine C. Mooney. First
published in 1978, the book details American Reconstruction and the struggles
of black families to acquire land and how the Freeman’s Bureau both helped and
worked against them. Oubre was a professor of history at LSU-Eunice and the
coauthor of “Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country.”
Clayton
E. Jewett edits “The Battlefield and Beyond: Essays on the American Civil War.”
Topics include race and warfare, Confederacy leadership, despotism and
Confederate defeat, Reconstruction and the New South and memory and the
American Civil War.
New releases
Chad
Guidry and Yvette Naquin have published “Louisiana Through My Lens,” a
hardbound coffee table photographic journey through the swamps, bayous and
lakes of South Louisiana. The self-published book sells for $35 plus shipping
and handling. Visit http://www.facebook.com/lathroughmylens.
Sandra
Hill began her Cajun-inspired romances in 1999 with “The Love Potion,” a lusty
love story between a woman who creates a love potion and the bad boy Cajun who
accidentally swallows it. The book has been reissued by Avon and will be
available Tuesday in paperback.
Book events
The
Writer's Guild of Acadiana will host the 2012 Lafayette Louisiana National
Poetry Slam Team at 7 pm Tuesday at Barnes & Noble Bookstore Lafayette.
This is a fundraiser as the team heads to the 23rd Annual National Poetry Slam.
Cheré Coen is the author
of “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of
“Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She
teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at
chere@louisianabooknews.com.
Love Sookie. Can't wait to read Deadlocked. Thanks for the review.
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