Due South

Last night I was watching TrueBlood, the television offshoot of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels I have blogged about recently. TrueBlood is set in steamy Bon Temps, Louisiana. As I was watching a scene where the townspeople drink lemonade on a front lawn while watching the coroner carry a body out of a duplex, I started to wonder what makes the deep south such an appealing setting for legal thrillers, crime stories, and supernatural fiction.

I realized that many, many of the books I consider my "literary crack" (mostly paperback legal thrillers and the aforementioned vampire novels) are set in Mississippi, Alabama, or Louisiana. I have never visited any of these places. The closest I have been is Tennessee, and then I was in Nashville - great for music history but not exactly a hotbed of incestuous small-town criminal activity.

As an ode to the territory of the country I have oft read of but never visited, here are my top picks for literary crack deep south novels:

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
The sixth Sookie Stackhouse novel features an inbred community of werepanthers, a New Orleans party barn fit for a vampire queen, and an action-filled chase through a Bayou swamp. Now that's what I call atmosphere. Really, the whole series is worth the read, but four, five and six are my favorites so far...

The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client by John Grisham
I can not pick just one of John Grisham's novels from what I call his glory period (anything from A Time to Kill to The Rainmaker), but I can pick three. These are great books. Once again, skip the movies - although they are actually pretty well cast, the scripts are terrible. Every time I think The Firm is my favorite (love those Cayman Islands scenes where they drug Avery Tolar) I remember how cool Darby from The Pelican Brief is (holding hands with an internationally wanted assassin right before he is shot!) Just when I think PB is my favorite, I remember the digging-up-the-body-in-the-middle-of-suburbia scene from The Client. It is simply impossible for me to pick a favorite Grisham novel, or even narrow it down to two.

The Quiet Game and Turning Angel by Greg Isles
If Greg Isles would write more Penn Cage novels, we would have a John Grisham situation on our hands. Isles is sort of my new Grisham (since Grisham's gotten lame), except he's naturally a little darker and edgier. And Penn Cage makes my list of fictional characters that I'm sort of in love with - he's like a modern-day less goody-two-shoes Atticus Finch (not that I don't love Atticus.) Seriously, try these out if you're looking for a good legal thriller. Technically The Quiet Game comes first, but you don't need to read them in chronological order.


Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
This one technically shouldn't qualify for the list, as it is non-fiction and while as readable as the literary crack, is actually critically acclaimed with a journalistic bend. But it is one of my all-time favorite books and in a weird way, makes me like that fictional stuff even more because it sort of convinces me that the south actually is THAT weird.

What about you? What's your literary crack? And on the off chance that any of the eight people who regularly read this are from the south, do you ever read any books about us weirdos in the northeast or midwest?

Five Tings I Love This Week

5. Yul Brynner

I watched The King and I on TCM last night and was reminded of how much I adore Yul Brynner, although I really have only paid attention to two of his movies: the aforementioned Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (he originated the role of the King of Siam on Broadway as well) and The Ten Commandments, one of only two videos that my poor Catholic elementary school owned and therefore I watched at least twice a year between first and sixth grade.

Yul as either the Pharaoh or the king is a commanding presence. As the Pharaoh he is scary; as the King he is hilarious. I'm sorry Deborah Kerr, but I hardly pay attention to you when you're sharing songs and scenes with Yul (my favorite of which is the "Shall We Dance" scene - "We do it again!")

(Also, while we're talking about The King and I, can I just throw out there how much I love, love, love that Uncle Tom's Cabin dance sequence?)

4. Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Novels

As if Twilight wasn't bad enough, the Trifecta has become enamored with a new vampire series...well, actually it is an older vampire series. Charlaine Harris started writing her southern vampire detective series in 2001 and is currently on the eighth installment. We became aware of it when HBO developed it into a show staring Anna Paquin called TrueBlood. Naturally, we started reading the novels.

Well, now I am on the fourth book and let me tell you, these things are pretty damn addicting. This is not intellectual or thought-provoking reading. And these books definitely have more of an...um, adult bend than the Twilight books. But if you like mystery or suspense (or even trashy romance novels - heavier on the "trash" than the "romance") you might find these an enjoyable light read. Start with Dead Until Dark - it's the first one in the series. The show isn't half-bad, either.

One major complaint: Bill is a stupid name for a vampire.

3. CoffeeMate Italian Sweet Cream coffee creamer

Normally I am not one for flavored creamers. I am strictly a plain half-and-half kind of girl. If it's iced, most of the time I'll drink it black. But when Stop & Shop started carrying these new flavors of CoffeeMate, I could not resist picking up the Italian Sweet Cream flavor.

It is the most delicious substance I have ever put in a cup of coffee - including Bailey's.

Just a hint of sweetness and rich creaminess combine for the perfect antidote to a dreary cup of coffee. It even masks the slight bitterness of work coffee, a miracle in itself. It might be slightly overbearing if you make your coffee on the watery side. But as long as Stop & Shop keeps carrying it, I will never go back to regular half-and-half again.

2. The Wii Fit

Noe bought me the Wii Fit for my birthday. He tried to get it for me awhile ago but it was sold out, no doubt due to legions of overweight people hoping to transform their lives with a video game.

If that sounds too good to be true, well, that's because it is. The Wii Fit is not going to help anyone lose mass amounts of weight. What I wanted it for was the strength training and yoga programs. I never lift weights or do strength training at the gym because I feel stupid and I am impatient, and yoga classes are WAY expensive. So I asked Noe to get me the Wii Fit to sort of inspire myself to do this stuff at home.

This thing is seriously cool. The balance board and some data you input calculate your BMI and you can chart progress and set goals. Some of the exercises are really good, and I love the yoga segments. The aerobic segments, while not incredibly tough or calorie-burning, are definitely enough to get your heart rate going between strength or yoga segments. Plus, the hula hooping looks so stupid that you will burn extra calories watching yourself or someone else attempt it (go on YouTube and search it and you'll see what I mean).

1. Fall

I realize that I am probably in the minority here, but I do not love summer. As much as I do love things like flip flops and dry rose, which are definitely summer things, I'd take fall any day.

I like the crispness in the air, the cool nights, campfires, and wearing long sleeves. We've finally started to have some fall-like weather, which has made me extremely happy. You can still do a number of summer things - ride your bike, go on walks, have campfires and cookouts - in the fall, and I think those things are even better when it's not gross and humid and you're not covered in sweat. Plus, fall brings one of the most fun holidays - Halloween, for dressing up - and one of the best eating holidays - Thanksgiving (though granted, that comes so late it is more like winter). I even like cooking more in the fall. Although I love the grilled foods we eat all summer, soups, stews, chili, and hearty pastas are my favorite dishes to make. I can't wait to make a batch of hot cider and throw our pumpkin-carving party this year...

Interview with a vampire novel-reading maniac

I was sitting in bed on Sunday morning, drinking a cup of coffee and catching up on a stack of Time magazines when I came across an article about a young adult author named Stephenie Meyer.

Meyer, a Brigham Young graduate, mom of three young children and well-behaved Mormon, writes vampire novels - pretty sexy vampire novels, according to the article.

"Hmm," I thought. "Sexy young-adult vampire novels? I may have to check this out."

Later that day at Borders, I remembered the article and searched out Meyer's books. I didn't have to search far - they were displayed on their own table at the very front of the store, and I realized I had seen the striking covers (black backgrounds with one central contrasting image) before.

I picked up Twilight, the first book in the series (three have been published so far; the fourth and final is due in bookstores August 22) and the only one so far to have been released in paperback. It was $9.99 and I had a 30% off coupon (thanks, Borders rewards!) so I figured even if I didn't like it that much it wasn't too high a price to satisfy my curiosity.

What I was NOT expecting was to devour it much like I did volumes five, six and seven of Harry Potter (coincidentally, it was Eclipse - the third book in the series - that knocked the seventh Harry Potter out of the number-one spot on the best-seller list).

I haven't read something that I literally could not stop reading since I read Water for Elephants last August. I could not put it down. Noe had to tear it out of my hands and force me into the car to go to the driving range.

This book is insanely readable. Yes, it's about high school students, and yes, it is also about vampires, but shallow it's not. And it is sexy, but not in a gratuitous, Anne Rice-way (which is really more erotica than sexiness).

Basically, what you've got is Bella, a 17-year old outcast from Phoenix who moves to the tiny town of Forks, WA to live with her father. Forks is one of the rainiest, dreariest places in the United States. On her first day of school, she notices the Cullen family, a group of freakishly good-looking (if somewhat pale) siblings who seem to keep to themselves. When Edward Cullen is assigned as her lab partner in biology, things start to get a little weird. The first day they meet, he won't even look in her direction. He sits completely tense at the edge of his chair with his hands gripping the lab table. By the end of the week, he wants to know everything about her.

It is slowly revealed that Edward is a vampire. However, Edward and his family have made the (unusual) decision to go "vegetarian" - they live off animals rather than humans. Because of this, they are able to mingle somewhat normally with the townfolk. A few caveats, however: 1) They can't go in the sunlight without drawing immense amounts of attention to themselves (they sparkle), which is why they live in Forks; 2)They have to go "camping" every other weekend or so to hunt big game and quench their thirst; and 3) They are the sworn enemies of the local Indian tribe (for reasons revealed slowly over the first two books).

There's one other problem: although Edward is immensely attracted to Bella, the smell of her blood drives him insane. Like, wants-to-drink-it insane. It's really quite the paradox.

I realize how cheesy and stupid this sounds as I type it out, but I am telling you, these books are weirdly and incredibly readable. I blew through all three in a weekend, which now means I am stuck waiting until August 22 to find out how things turn out. I may even be a real geek and pre-order it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go read some Ayn Rand so I can feel like an intelligent and well-read 26 year old again.