2011 Meeting Dates Refresher

This post is quick refresher for everyone recovering from the Holiday excess.

Return to Sookie
11am on Saturday January 22, 2011 ~ Sookie Stackhouse, by Charlaine Harris, books 5-6
Hope you like apple fritters!
Scotty's Cafe
1645 Tennessee St
Vallejo, CA 94590
RSVP on FB

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Dish over Brunch at Nicole's place
1pm on February 13
Oakland, CA
RSVP on FB and we'll email you the address

Stay warm and hydrated and we'll see you soon!

Octowieny Is the Wiener! At-Attention Lemons!

In December, our new found friend and possible (she has to pass our lengthy application process) honorary club member, Amy Sedaris, taught us the following about throwing a good party:
• Send crystal-clear invitations: mostly everyone understood when and where so I’m calling this category a success.
• Have a theme: ours was 70’s Housewife Potluck and we made it look sexy.
• Make a profit: I made $2.50 from the indoor garage sale (where we also sold 'lil porno bunny and a crusty clam!) Garage sale was suggested on page 33 of I Like You. Call me crazy but I’m spending the whole $2.50 on our next book club meeting.
• Feed your guests: we all did this, together, Potluck Style!
• Keep the conversation (and alcohol) flowing: we definitely had tons of laughs and great chemistry.

Potluck Dinner included:

What's Your Beef, Stew? pg 254, modified and made delicious by Gloria

Tasty Greek Beans pg 238 by Jenny

Lil' Smokey Cheese Ball pg 181 by Gina
Vegans-Need-Love-Too Stuffed Peppers by Kim

and the featured dishes of the evening:
The Real-Deal Tater-tot Casserole by Alice

Dick-tot Casserole by Jen W., and I challenge club members to post the puns for this dish on V-Town's FB page.

This hostess fell a bit short of her paparazzi duties and missed excellent photo opportunities of the awards and award ceremony, the complete potluck layout, the 70’s wear, the shoe plant with the trellis. So if you have photos post those on V-Town's FB page too! Well, I'm not one to dwell on excuses, time to reach into the Fuck it! Bucket and forge ahead.

After enjoying our bountiful potluck booty we held our first annual White Elephant Craft and Crap Exchange.

Crafts

Not only did we have Fuck it! Buckets, (thank you Jenny and Dalila!) we also held a White Elephant gift exchange of these featured items:

The Totem Pole (me)
Mrs. Ragsdale (Jenny)

Felt Discs (Nicole)

Lemon Nipples for that hard nipple look (Gina).

Not pictured is Ivy's plant in a sturdy pleather shoe that included a trellis! I'm still kicking myself for not keeping that one in the family. Mrs. Ragsdale and the Felt Discs have a new home nestled safely on my bookshelf.

Award Ceremony

After the Craft and Crap Exchange we presented awards for the Best Pot Luck Dish and the Best 70's Wear. *Drumroll* And the Wiener Is....! Dick-Tot Casserole winning for the ingenious use of hot dogs and for being one of the main centerpieces of attention for the entire evening. The other center of attention and winner of the prize for Best 70's Wear was Nicole in her cock print 70's short-shorts, frock and matching earrings.

In true potluck fashion there were so many winners from the Greek Beans, to The Real-Deal Tater Tot Casserole, the Vegans-Need-Love-Too Stuffed Peppers, the Forget-Me-Not Cosmos with the perfect amount of vodka and the Kick-Ass Pomegranate Sangria with the tasty pops of pomegranate and the one-two punch of Triple Sec. I was the real winner, not only because of my garage sale earnings but because I opened my fridge the next day I found that I was well stocked with tasty leftovers, cosmo mixer and a huge bottle of sangria!

Next year the Award Ceremony will have a category for inspirational culinary art because after this party my culinary art world expanded beyond Hello Kitty bento boxes and into hot dog octopuses and lemon nipples. The lemon nipples even inspired the favorite quote of the evening, "I've already been warped in my perception of zucchinis, bananas, and cucumbers but now I will never look at lemons the same...”

I’ll close this recap with a new Book Club tradition, our cocktail-of-the-month club recipe:

Gloria’s It's-Not-Punch but It-Will-Punch-You Pomegranate Sangria aka Kick-Ass Pomegranate Sangria:

1 bottle red wine (TJ Cabernet)

1 cup Triple Sec

1 cup grapefruit soda

sliced apple

fresh pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup sugar (optional)

leave @ room temperature overnight then refrigerate
Never add ice, ever, you will die.

~Party transmuted into post by Angela~

Potluck Recipe for Luscious 70’s Housewife Dish

V-Town Book Club Potluck
Friday, December 10th
Angela’s House, Vallejo
7:30pm

Favorite question of the week:
Is this a cocktail-of-the-month club?

Our V-Town Book Club Potluck is next week! We are so excited to see everyone and it appears that almost all book club members will attend! Make sure you wear your favorite 70’s housewife outfit to match the theme for the party. If you need inspiration, check out Amy Sedaris’ book “I Like You: Hospitality under the Influence”.

Our discussion topic is David Sedaris’ book “Holidays on Ice”.

We’ll update this potluck list as members RSVP:
Kim – Quinoa stuffed peppers
Angela – Vodka, spanokopita, apple pie
Dalila – Stabrous' Tzatziki Sauce with Pita Scoops (p. 50) and Mediterranean potatoes
Jen W. – Fruit punch (drink it straight or mix with vodka)
Gina – Smokey Cheese Ball
Nicole – Snowy Balls (and maybe some ambrosia salad)
Gloria - Beef stew and sangria
Jenny - Greek Beans (or Coleslaw of the Dunes)
Melissa - Veggie Tray

BYOB if you prefer wine, beer, or soda.
You may leave a note on the Facebook wall for this event or email Angela.

Holidays on Ice

Imagine the boy from A Christmas Story. Now imagine he was born as queer as a three dollar bill in early 1960’s South Carolina as an alcoholic chain-smoking victim of the Feminine Mystique mother and a Greek engineer father who is so detached he is emotionally frigid. Add many siblings, and stir. That’s Holidays on Ice.

If you’ve never read any of David Sedaris’ other essays, or heard him on NPR’s This American Life, I recommend that you prepare a quiet place and an eggnog cocktail heavily laced with brandy before embarking on this reading adventure. I prefer to read it in the tub while enjoying a glass of wine as I find it difficult to refrain from unexpected fits of bursting out laughter, snorting and the inevitable spray of spittle on things around me that comes with enjoying these dark comic vignettes.

This book should be consumed as the perfect antidote to the endless list of mundane chores that seemingly become ‘....The Holidays’. On the surface, these stories fit in with traditional holiday themes such as department store Santa’s, family ‘Christmas Greetings!’ form letters, and school winter pageants. However, Sedaris has a knack for recasting each bit of overdone holiday pomp as the absurdly hellish experiences of life that they so often are. It will be impossible for you not to spend the rest of the holiday season having secret chuckles to yourself as you remember some delicious episode of completely inappropriate holiday humor.

See you at Angela's house on December 10th to reminisce about Sookie and laugh over Sedaris.
Leave a comment on this blog or on FB to RSVP.

This blog post was wrapped and delivered by Jen W.

VTown Book Club Cocktail Recipes

Here is the cocktail recipe recap of our November book club meeting:

1 part David Sedaris
1 part Amy Sedaris
2 parts Sookie infused simple syrup
Splash of Vampire
Splash of Werewolf

Shake ingredients together. Strain over ice, serve straight up, add a splash of Sprite on top.

Our November meeting started out gangbusters with everyone arriving right at 6:30. After introductions and we were seated we started out on a confessional, always a good sign, with one member shyly admitting that they have not read the books or the blog and felt weird about showing up to the meeting. Then a cascade of confessions poured in as many members disclosed that they have not read the books and/or the blog. With that information we were apprehensive about how to proceed with the meeting but also glad everyone showed up willing to try to participate in the discussion.

Luckily, another member arrived armed with knowledge through Book 4 and bearing copies of questions from the blog. A quick survey was conducted and we found that we were all game to apply the limited knowledge we each had to attempt to answer the questions.

Here are a few of the questions/responses we got from the meeting:

• If vampires cry bloody tears then why don't they have permanent pink eye? "Because pink eye is a virus/bacteria." Ok snarkety-snarks. The blog posters are now on alert and will attempt to be extra careful about editing (after this post). We even have an untapped editor in the club!
• What song would you choose for Tara and Sookie to dance to at the Supe club? Without question, "Tainted Love".
• El.....er Bubba sparked some great conversation about Elvis sightings and the dangers of bringing back the dead. We got a new question from our discussion about Elvis’ role in the series: "If you were a vampire and had a chance to bring back your favorite celebrity from the dead, would you do it?"
• Why is Sookie mad at Bill for not financially supporting her? One member had a compelling answer, she believes that Sookie is only mad because Bill is supporting the Bellefleurs, Sookie would not feel this way if the Bellefleurs were not involved.
• Out of six members we had two for Team Alcide, two for Team Eric and two for Team Bill.
• What cocktail represents Sookie? While it did not surprise us that Sookie liked a champagne cocktail, we all agreed that it was not her signature drink. We came to consensus on the Sunkissed Martini because it's sweet, a little frothy on top, not high end and packs a punch, here's the recipe:
  1 part Mandarin Vodka
  1 part Red Bull
  2 parts Peach Schnapps
  Splash of Orange Juice
  Shaken, strained over ice, served straight up.

A few members watched True Blood on HBO through Season 3 but have not read the books and were surprised and appalled at the lack of Tara and Lafayette in the book series. Those of us that have read the books released a bit of a spoiler that Lafayette died in Book 1. There were many declarations of disbelief at the news of Lafayette’s demise and everyone agreed that it was difficult to read the books without the significant storylines of Tara and Lafayette.

After dinner we continued our conversation under the night sky, gathering around the beautiful 40’ tall outdoor stone fireplace in the Suisun courtyard. Framed by firelight, one member happily noted that we met for over two hours without touching on the topics of kids, husbands, boyfriends, jobs or real estate. Although those topics are important and central to our everyday lives it was wonderful to be out with a group of women talking about books, history, parties and food while enjoying each other’s company and basking in a welcome night off from our everyday concerns.

We found time to preview Amy Sedaris’ book, I Like You: Hospitality under the Influence and discussed the recipes and décor that will be fun to share at the next meeting in December. We also found that we have a great mix of talents to contribute and share with one another; each member adding complimentary flavors of knowledge, skills and experience to the book club cocktail. The December potluck meeting is already taking shape, we are excited by all the possible threads of conversation and we can't wait to finally get everyone together.


Recipe for this post was provided by Angela:
1 part Ketel One
2 parts Tonic
Shaken, strained over ice, lime garnish.

Supe of the Day

It's a new year in Bon Temps and Sookie makes a resolution: "I just hope to not be beaten up...I don't want to go to the hospital. I don't want to see a doctor...so my resolution is to stay out of trouble." Good thing New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken because trouble is to be had along with a tall drink of our favorite Viking vampire, Eric Northman.

A storm of supernatural activity crackles and spins out of control in Dead to the World. Witches’, weres’, shifters’ and vampires’ chest-bumping pride and bank accounts get everyone sucked into the tornado. Who knew vampires could have a curse laid on them? Did it surprise you that a feline culture became inbred? We are presented with so much activity in this book we probably need some vampire blood to stay on course.

Bon Temps Cocktail Hour ~ November Meeting

Greetings Fangbangers and Tourists and others innocently sucked into Sookie's world of Supes,

Here is the information about our November meeting:

6:30pm on Friday November 12, 2010~ Sookie Stackhouse, by Charlaine Harris, books 3-4
Cast Iron Grill & Bar
700 Main Street, Suite 104
Suisun, CA
http://castirongrillandbar.com/

At this meeting we will:

• discuss the Sookie Series
• plan the December meeting/potluck using Amy Sedaris as our guide
• exchange books and ideas for future meetings
• decide on the signature cocktails for each of the following characters: Sookie, Bill, Eric, Pam, and Alcide

Please use FB or email Angela to RSVP because we will need to make reservations for this meeting. If you get there early reservations will be made under the name "Sookie Stackhouse", use Bill's inflection when you say "Sookie".

~

Book 3 ~ Club Dead / Man Buffet in Mississippi

Team Bill vs. Team Alcide? Or Team Eric? Sookie's got choices to make. Oh, if only we were in her shoes! Who would you choose?

• Do you like the promise of sunshine kisses and domestic bliss of Team Alcide?
• Or the sexy Corvette danger and political power plays of Team Eric?
• Or is Team Bill more your thing with the promise of passionate sex and two quaint homes that book-end a cemetery?

For anyone reluctantly succumbing to peer pressure to read book 1, then trudging through book 2, we promise that Club Dead is the light at the end of the tunnel. Charlaine Harris' writing style is finally making sense, her characters are 'fleshing' out, we have fully bought into Sookie. We understand Sookie and the conflict that her heart and mind are playing out: one side of her craves domestic bliss then the next moment she takes every risk to protect those she loves/those that she feels deserve to be loved.

After reading the first few chapters of Club Dead do you feel Bill deserves to be loved? In Chapter 1, did your heart break a little for Sookie when she expectantly went over to Bill's house for some frolicking good times and instead found Bill focused on the computer and drinking a bottle of synthetic blood type B? What is behind Sookie's motivation to help Eric find Bill? Is she driven by revenge, curiosity, love, or hoping for a second chance at love?

Here are some questions that popped up during Club Dead:

1. What did you think of El... er... Bubba's vampire role?
2. Do you trust Eric?
3. In books 1 & 2 Sookie consistently asserted her independence to Bill, taking offense when he offered to open an account for her at Tara Tog's. In Club Dead she is now getting mad at Bill for not offering financial support to fix her gravel driveway ? Why do you think Sookie is inconsistent in her expectations of Bill?
4. One of the connections between Sookie and Alcide, besides physical attraction, is that they have recently experienced being left for another. Sookie seems to need the truth. Alcide seems to still need his Ex. Have you ever been left for someone else? Did either characters’ actions or emotions ring more true to your experiences?
5. To have sex with Alcide or not to have sex with Alcide? After being dumped by Bill, if you were sharing an apartment for the weekend with Alcide what choice would you make?
6. How did you feel when Sookie ordered her first champagne cocktail at the Supe bar? Did you think that she was about to find her signature cocktail or do you think another cocktail represents her more?

Tara!
• How did you feel about Tara and Sookie in this book?
• Were you relieved that Tara showed up?
• Did you get embarrassed by the “Love is a Battlefield” dance? Or did you think, Hmmm, I would have chosen them to dance to __________.
• Do you think Harris chose “Love is a Battlefield” to symbolize the theme of Club Dead?
• Have you ever had a few to many and danced ridiculously at a bar? Maybe reliving your very own version of Coyote Ugly?

Sookie is developing a worldliness about her through her many Supe associations. She is discovering a new moral compass; the right and wrong parts of her personality appear to be bending and bowing towards selfishness. For example, in book 1, she saves Bill in the parking lot because he shouldn’t be wronged. In book 3, she’s hiding a body. Those two actions would not be next to each other on Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. Question~ Was Sookie prevented from truly identifying her beliefs when she tried to blend into her community?

One thing that is fantastic about vampire stories is that each author or screen writer gets to make up their own rules. Examples:

• Twilight’s vampires don’t sleep, Sookie Stackhouse’s need rest
• Anne Rice’s & True Blood’s vampires have sex with each other, but the Stackhouse books say that vampire/vampire coupling is frowned upon. Who knew vampires frowned upon any sex?
• What do you make of Harris’ vamp sexual impasse?

And some general points to ponder as we recall Club Dead:

• Have you ever experienced a situation where you were not thinking for yourself and were surprised by your actions?
• If vampires cry bloody tears then why don't they have permanent pink eye?
• If you are fan of the HBO series True Blood…are you enjoying Pam in the books?
• How many bottles of Tru Blood did you see on Halloween weekend? Who tried it?

All these questions are making us antsy for another meeting! Our-cocktails-in-Suisun meeting is quickly approaching, hope to see you there!

This post was coagulated by Kim and Angela

Bill, Eric & Sam Donuts!

*Here is Kim's blog post about our meeting!

Fang-tastic! Our meeting was cozy and delicious on all fronts!

Two areas that remained cloudy...
What is going on with the vampire virus theory?
The book states that vampires push the story that they have a virus that screws up their metabolism and makes them allergic to sun, silver and garlic.
Are they saying that they are alive with a virus?
If they are dead, who cares that they have a virus and why would they want to be perceived as "sick"?
Are they trying to get sympathy from humans?
Ms. Harris brings up HIV/AIDS and race/creature relations a few times. Is she asking us to confront what we think of as US or OTHER? Or is she weaving little pieces of storylines into an eventual vampire-human war?

While we have found out that vampires 'come' during sex...we still do not know if they ejaculate. If they do ejaculate, will it be blood like their tears?

Since it didn't seem humanly possible to talk about the books without talking about True Blood...here is what we think they each do better:

The series fleshes (heehee) out more characters. God Bless Alan Ball for bringing Tara and Lafayette into high relief. Who didn't cringe at the end of Season 1 when you see that painted toenail of a dead person and assume Lafayette was out of your life forever?
All good Northern Californians dread religious oppression...and the Series brings it on like a front of Southern humidity. Tara's Mom and the Fellowship of the Sun promote Jesus, conformity and close the avenues of happiness to anything that doesn't walk us down the aisle. Good story telling!
We also LOVE the series for going into the makings of Bill and Eric. It brings in more texture and torture.

What does Ms. Harris do better? Her Sookie is a better guide. She is more mentally penetrating, philosophical, and not such an erratic air-head. We understand how dismissed she has been by her entire community and can cheer her on as she finds her strength as a telepath and stops letting others' view of her affect her happiness. Book Sookie is also a lot more sexual and pounces around openly in her sexual fantasies.

Question ~ If Bill, Eric and Sam were donuts what would they be?
Bill ~ Creme filled Maple Bar
Eric ~ Jelly Donut with a pair of hand-cuffs
Sam ~ Strawberry Sprinkle Cake
Right?

Anti-spoiler ALERT! Do not pick up book 5 and read the back! I just did this yesterday at Borders and now have information I have to hold in for months. Agony!

Just began Book 4 last night...can't wait for our next meeting!!!!

Vampires & Apple Fritters!

Our first Book Club meeting was met with rain but we could not have picked a better fall day to sip coffee and discuss Vampire books. Because of the rain we met at Scotty's in Vallejo where your coffee cup never goes empty and the donuts are always warm.


We had so much to talk about and it was not hard to get started. Our conversation touched on everything from Maslow to our love of vampire porn!


We talked about our disappointment with the fact that Ms. Harris' vampires aren't tinkerers, great inventors, or genius mathematicians. They haven't even invented a vampire Epipen to help them with that life threatening silver allergy.

In fact, vampires seem to only need to meet a few tiers on Maslow's hierarchy of needs: the Belonging, Safety & Physiological tiers. After those needs are met there does not seem to be much motivation to strive for more. In the Sookie chronicles for example, we have not met vampire engineers, vampire doctors, or vampire Nobel prize winners. If vampires were known for great achievements, those achievements were usually done while they were still human.



We also discussed how Ms. Harris' vampires seem to be stuck in their first and second chakra's. The first chakra, the Foundation chakra, is associated with survival, security and the ability to take care of ourselves. The second chakra, the Emotion chakra, is associated with feelings, sexuality and the ability to experience pleasure.

As much as we tried we could not stop associating the books to the HBO series True Blood! How much do we miss Tara and Lafayette? !

We love the gratifying sexual encounters that Sookie experiences. The sex was seriously lacking in Twilight and in Anne Rice's vampire series, in those books we felt that we were all teased up with no release. But Ms. Harris gives us sex in spades in her stories. The only bad part about her sex scenes is that they are too short. We want a few pages of lust, not just one or two paragraphs!

Talking about sex, while we think Eric is gorgeous and we believe that Sam would give a great boyfriend experience, our hearts really want Bill and Sookie to work things out. We think they have great sexual chemistry and we love how Sookie is able to let down her guard around Bill, so much so that she's able to turn her previous disability of telepathy into her greatest asset.

All in all we had a great first meeting. The apple fritters were fresh, the waitresses were salty, and the rain provided a wonderful backdrop for some terrific conversation. If we missed you at this meeting we hope to see you at the next one in Suisun!

Pretty Is As Pretty Does

We are all wrapping up Living Dead in Dallas and gearing up for our first Book Club meeting in Napa this Sunday. Post on FB what you plan to bring to the potluck, otherwise we'll just hope we end up with 8 wedges of brie! Yum!

We felt some disappointment that our favorite characters from True Blood were not in Living Dead in Dallas. Because of that, we found it difficult to read book 2... but not impossible.

In Living Dead in Dallas we find Sookie gaining confidence with her disability and learning to use it as her secret weapon. Sookie's relationship with Bill is evolving and we're not quite sure if these two are anything more than sexually compatible with one another. However, the main theme of book 2 is race and how the races interact. Humans, vampires, maenads, and shapeshifters all have their own ideas of government, leadership and ethics.

S&M seems to be a recurring theme as well, with humans more than willing to play the part of masochist. A shining example was the arrogant human attorney Hugo, he was so thoroughly enthralled by the vampire Isabel that he allowed himself to be emasculated in order to serve her, even volunteered himself to the service. Are Sookie and Bill following in their footsteps? Sookie always asserts her independence however how many times has she been severely beaten since she's met Bill? And while in the employment of vampires? Sookie keeps going back for more.

During a human attack on the Dallas vampire nest Eric shields Sookie with his body so she is not harmed by gunshots, after the smoke clears she discovers Bill took the opportunity to hunt. She begins to question her entire relationship with Bill. She wonders if she sees him as he is: clearly, truly. This hit home with us. Have you ever come to the sudden realization that the person you thought you were with is not that person at all?

Are all those lusty nights sipping blood with her vampire lover (and Eric!) causing Sookie to turn? In Living Dead in Dallas Sookie discovers she's able to pick up on some vampire thoughts, she exhibits super fast reflexes, she kicks some major Gabe ass, and she discovers she glows with the same luminosity as Bill.

And finally, what would you rather be: human, telepath, shapeshifter, maenad or vampire?

This book seemed to be heavier in theme and content than book 1, or maybe we were in heavier moods? We still can't wait to pick up Club Dead and Dead to the World.

We are excited to see y'all on Sunday!!! We'll get more discussion topics, exchange our favorite books, eat some food, take some photos and just plain hang-out!

Leif Erikson Day

How coincidental is it that we are reading Living Dead in Dallas at the same time we are celebrating Leif Erikson Day?

When our favorite 1000 year old Norwegian vampire, Eric Northman, was introduced to us by the Dallas vampires as Leif a light bulb lit up over our heads and we exclaimed "oh! It's Leif Erikson, the guy that 'discovered' America 500 years before Christopher Columbus!"

If Eric is adventurous enough to wear a pink tank top and lycra leggings to an orgy then he sure as hell is adventurous enough to discover America! Here's a toast of mead to you Eric Northman, we found out that you are not only legendary but sexy as well!

Now we ask the question: what the hell is Leif Erikson/ Eric Northman, doing in Bon Temps, Louisiana? It seems that Eric was not the only famous former human drawn to the area. Maenads, shapeshifters, vampires, telepaths, and Elvis... Maybe the mystery of the Sookie Stackhouse series is Bon Temps?

Fangtasia vs. Merlotte's

Greetings Fangbangers and Tourists,

We hope most of you are well into Dead Until Dark and about to start Living Dead in Dallas. We'll try not to post any spoilers here, although if you are watching True Blood then the story is definitely spoiled. Here are the discussion topics of the week:

1. Where would you rather hang out, Fangtasia or Merlotte's?

2. Do you believe that the Sookie series is a way for the author, Charlaine Harris, to write about diversity and how people deal with differences in the South? Vampires "came out of the coffin" and are now "legally recognized undead". Many people in her story either hate vampires and want to see them die or they love them and want to have sex with them. Many others awkwardly tolerate their presence. Vampires can contract Sino-AIDS from drinking from infected victims and some intentionally try to infect vampires.

3. We noticed that Ms. Harris referenced Anne Rice on the first page of Dead Until Dark. Did the reference allow your brain to disengage from making Anne Rice comparisons throughout the rest of the novel?

4. We loved how Sookie asked questions along the same lines that we asked before we started reading this series. She didn't get too many answers but she did ask the following:

• How do vampires do laundry?
• Do they go into their coffin naked?
• Do they need to drive or can they just float wherever they want to go?
• And yes, if a vampire was made a vampire with a beard or a bad haircut then the vampire is stuck with that beard and haircut for the rest of his days.

5. Anyone else a bit envious of Gran's simple country life and her involvement in the Descendants of the Glorious Dead and the Bon Temps Gardening Society?

6. We love a hot vampire story but is it weird that vampires want to have sex with their food source? Is it strange that they aren't bored with sex after centuries of doing it?

7. Remove yourself from the HBO series for this question: after reading Sookie's description of each, if you were Sookie would you rather have sex with Sam, Bill or Eric?

8. What do you think was the main theme of Dead Until Dark: Sookie learning to come to terms with her disability, vampires and their diversity issues, or Rene and his feelings about vampires?

You may comment here or... V-Town has a Facebook page! Please Like the FB page and post any additional discussion topics on the wall or under the Discussions tab.

A Pumpkin Patch…?

Greetings Blood Nymphets!

Our first meeting is rapidly approaching, the meeting location may seem questionable to you but once you arrive at the destination you will be glad you made the trip. The journey to the meeting will take you along gentle, wine country roads and you will see the grape leaves turning the fog-kissed hillsides from deep green to fiery orange.

You may even see a few belties along the way!

The meeting location is a beautiful pumpkin patch next to a wine country market/café (Marketplace) and a small farmers market. The picnic area is located right next to Marketplace. Bring some wine-country snacks to share and a camera! This is a photogenic location with big sunflowers and all varieties of pumpkins.

11:00am on Sunday October 17, 2010

~ Sookie Stackhouse, by Charlaine Harris, books 1-2
Meeting will be a potluck picnic brunch at Stanly Lane Pumpkin Patch at the wooden picnic tables next to the Marketplace.
3100 Golden Gate Drive
Napa, CA 94558-6191
Leave a comment to RSVP

We are still searching for a November location... Any suggestions?

Vampires, sex and books...oh my!

Feedback from everyone this week is that we are all willing to descend into the dark, sexy, improbable world of Sookie’s vampire chronicles.

Thank you for topics this week. We are pleased that V-Town Book Club is quickly becoming a fun yet debased coterie.

Because most of us are waiting for our books to arrive, here are some discussion topics based on HBO’s True Blood (no spoilers please, some of us haven't seen season 3):

True Blood title is a play on the word “Blood”:

• About vampires drinking blood, humans drinking V
• About vampires being the only True Blood, which Godric questions and tries to atone
• About lineage, in the series vampires (Bill) honor or (Jessica!) despise their human lineage (bloodline) and also their vampire lineage: Makers & Kings & Queens
• Ray Bradbury often spoke about how most of his novels resulted from a habit of playing an early morning game of word association while he was still freshly connected to his dreams. Is the evolution of the vampire myth a result of significant word associations to “blood”?

And now some topics that descend into pure, bloody debauchery:

• If a vampire gets a hair cut could they ever grow it out? Or do they need to cut their hair every day? Erik gets a hair cut on the show but his hair doesn’t seem to grow back the next day. However Jessica's hymen keeps growing back…
• Season 1 was excellent because of the massive sexual tension of wanting to live vicariously through True Blood and fuck a vampire who doesn't want to kill us, which is a different sexual tension than wanting to have sex with a vampire who does want to kill us.
• And more importantly, can a male vampire ejaculate?

Thank you Kim and Dalila! We will talk about the complexities of vampire intercourse and vampire anatomy during a book club meeting where the wine will be flowing!

Sucking on another topic, this economy is draining many of us dry right now. If you would like to participate in Book Club but can’t justify the price of this series send an email and we’ll arrange a book-share program.

Excellent topics so far showing that discussion boundaries extend far and wide.

***Thank you for the blog title Gina!!!

2011 Meeting Dates / Books

Return to Sookie
11am on Saturday January 22, 2011 ~ Sookie Stackhouse, by Charlaine Harris, books 5-6
Hope you like apple fritters!
Scotty's Cafe
1645 Tennessee St
Vallejo, CA 94590

1pm on Saturday February 13, 2011
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Dish over Brunch at Nicole's place
Oakland, CA
RSVP on FB and we'll email you the address

6pm on Saturday March 19, 2011 Maguire's Pub
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Anne Rice
145 Kentucky Street
Petaluma, CA
http://www.maguirespub.net/about.html

April 2011 ~ meeting place to be determined, Book to be determined

May 2011
To honor the math-heads, business nerds and baseball nuts in our group the month of May will be:

Moneyball: the art of winning an unfair game by Michael Lewis

As an added bonus the movie about this book will also be released in 2011, hopefully in time for our book club discussion!

We will hold our discussion meeting at a Sacramento River Cats baseball game at Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats are a minor league team and the Triple A affiliate of the Oakland A's (the subject of Moneyball). Raley Field has all the usual baseball food (garlic fries!) and fireworks after Saturday night home games.

http://www.raleyfield.com/directions/

This will be a Book Club family event so prepare to bring the significant others, siblings, good buddies and the kiddies!

11am on June 18, 2011 ~ Book to be determined.
Vallejo Pirate Festival
Marina Green
Vallejo, CA 94590
Scheduled early so we can find parking and claim our booty before the place is overrun by pirates. Sexy wench attire required.
Pirate Festival

July 2011 - Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn
Evening potluck picnic, day to be determined
Sonoma Plaza (Sonoma Square)
1 The Plz
Sonoma, CA 95476

August 2011, day to be determined, book to be determined
Meeting Place
Sonoma County Fairgrounds
Wine Country Horse Racing Track

2010 Meeting Dates / Books

Greetings!

11:00am on Sunday October 17, 2010 ~ Sookie Stackhouse, by Charlaine Harris, books 1-2
Meeting will be a potluck picnic brunch at Stanly Lane Pumpkin Patch at the wooden picnic tables next to the Marketplace.
3100 Golden Gate Drive
Napa, CA 94558-6191
Leave a comment to RSVP

6:30pm on Friday November 12, 2010~ Sookie Stackhouse, by Charlaine Harris, books 3-4
Cast Iron Grill & Bar
700 Main Street, Suite 104
Suisun, CA
http://castirongrillandbar.com/

Sookie Break
7:00pm on Friday December 10, 2010 ~ Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris
Meeting will be a holiday party at Angela's house in Vallejo
Inspiration for the theme is I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, by Amy Sedaris
Potluck food and decor to be provided by Club Members
Leave a comment to RSVP

Sookie!

Because we love True Blood on HBO we are reading the Sookie Stackhouse 8-copy Boxed Set.

Hopefully this doesn't kill our appetite for Season 3 (still waiting for the release on Netflix)!

Seems like a fast read, so we are proposing to read 2 books each for each Sookie meeting.

Order the boxed set here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0441018238/?tag=befast-20

Email discussion questions that you would like to post to this blog.

Here are some suggested questions for works of fiction, we realize they are a bit generic and hope to hone them down to more relevant questions as we read through the series:

• What specific themes did the author emphasize throughout the novel? What do you think he or she is trying to get across to the reader?
• Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?
• How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?
• Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way?
• Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?

Here's to bloodthirsty and vampy reading this fall!