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?

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