When my girlfriend first told me about the new series on HBO called True Blood, she described it as Twilight for adults. The show is the story of Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin), a 25 year old waitress in Bon Temps, a small town in Louisiana. Sookie is a nice girl, but keeps to herself mostly due to her unusual gift (or disability as she tends to think of it). Sookie is telepathic, which makes dating and forming meaningful relationships kind of hard. When the handsome vampire Bill Compton walks into her life, Sookie is attracted to him right away, mostly because unlike everyone else, she can’t read his mind.

Bill, who grew up in Louisiana and was a soldier in the Civil War, has been wandering the earth for over a hundred years. Since vampires have now “come out of the coffin” Bill has decided that he would like to mainstream back into the human world and comes to Bon Temps to do just that. But people are still leary around vampires and when a bunch of murders start taking place in this small town, things become difficult for Bill and Sookie.

The HBO series is pretty interesting. I especially like the interaction and storyline of Sookie and the easy on the eyes Bill (Stephen Moyer). What I don’t really care for is the extreme violence throughout each episode. I suppose that since HBO produces the show, they can do most anything they want. I just don’t feel like it’s really needed. A show like this could have been successful on a national TV station without being so gratuitous. I’m no prude, but it just gets a big overdone after a few episodes. Having said that, I feel like one of those bugs drawn to those bright bug whackers people used to hang in their backyard. Even though I want to look away, I just can’t.

Since I do enjoy the Bill/Sookie storyline, I figured I would pick up the vampire mystery novel that True Blood is based on, Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris. Even though the book and series differ in some of their storylines, the basic mystery of who is killing off people in Bon Temps and the Bill/Sookie romance is basically the same. While there is plenty of vampire violence and steamy scenes in the book, it’s not over the top. It’s a quick read and ultimately entertaining although in some instances the writing is a a bit dull and overdone. As an example:

The shower felt wonderful. The hot water seemed to steam out some of my misery, and I shampooed my hair and scrubbed every inch of my skin, shaving my legs and armpits. After I climbed out, I plucked my eyebrows and put on skin lotion and deodorant and a spray to untangle my hair and anything else I could lay my hands on. With my hair trailing down my back in a cascade of wet snarls, I pulled on my nightshirt, a white one with Tweety Bird on the front, and I got my comb. I’d sit in front of the television to have something to watch while I got my hair combed out, always a tedious process.

I’ll tell you whats tedious – paragraphs like the one above. A little too descriptive, right? Who needs all those details anyway? The book has more than it’s fair share of run-on paragraphs and I found myself mentally skipping over some of those parts, just to speed things up a bit. I still liked the book, but don’t really need to know every. single. move. a. character. makes.

Just saying.

In the end, the HBO series is a good show, if you have a strong stomach, but the novel is better, if you can get over a few minor writing issues.

I tend to be drawn to two different kinds of movies – period pieces and romantic comedies. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good drama once in a while (The Shawshank Redemption and The Hunt for Red October being two of my favorite movies), but for the most part I love a good comedy or a remake of a classic tale. So when I picked up Austenland by Shannon Hale I was in for a pleasant surprise. 

Jane Hayes is over thirty, has a long string of ex-boyfriends and is obsessed with all things Jane Austen (especially Colin Firth’s portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice). After deciding to quit men entirely and be content as a single woman, her great Aunt dies and leaves her a non-refundable trip to an English resort where she gets to play dress up for three weeks and becomes part of an “Austen experience.” Shortly after arriving in Austenland, the lines between reality and play acting blur and soon Jane isn’t sure what she wants anymore. Is it the Darcy-esque Mr. Nobley, the fun basketball loving gardener or is she done with this sort of fantasy forever?

For any of us who have a secret crush on all of Jane Austen’s fictitious men or who enjoy all those movie version of Austen’s various novels (my favorite being Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility), Austenland is right up your alley. The book is a sweet, funny and endearing romantic tale. Hale has a great sense of humor which is apparent in her writing and the protagonist is thoroughly likable and funny.

There were a few passages that gave me the giggles:

They wore the high-collared vests, cravates, buttoned coats with long tails, and tight little breeches that had driven Jane’s imagination mad on many an uneventful Tuesday night.

and

All around her were yellow walls, gaudy Georgian finery, the deliciously historic smell of furniture wax and kerosene. She looked down at herself, dressed in foreign fabric, cleavage encased in rust-colored satin, slippered feet resting on an Oriental rug. She was completely ridiculous. At the same time, she wanted to stomp the ground and squeal like a teenager just asked to the prom. She was here!

I borrowed Austenland from my local library, but can see myself reading it again one day. Since I’m a trade paperback kind of girl, I’m going to have to hit the bookstore on May 27th to pick up the paperback copy of this book. In the meantime, I picked up Hale’s book, The Goose Girlwhich I plan to read for Carl’s upcoming challenge.

Speaking of playing dress up, this book reminded me quite a bit of one of my most favorite PBS documentaries, Frontier House. I am not a reality tv fan, but there was something about this mini-series (and also the more recent Texas House) that was so appealing. Three families put their “real” lives on hold to take part in an experiment to live, for five months, like Pioneers of the late 1800’s. Their goal, along with living the life exactly like actual people from that time period, is to prepare for the upcoming winter. Frontier House is an interesting concept and the people who volunteered for this experiment make for enthralling tv. At the end of the five months, the families are judged by a panel of historical experts to see whether or not the family would have survived the harsh winter months. Frontier House is available for rent through Netflix and I would highly recommend it.