Sookie Stackhouse

I am OBSESSED with Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels, aka the TrueBlood books.

So far she's written ten books, but I'm almost done with the last one, Dead in the Family. What am I going to do when I finish? I've flown through them so fast.

Vampires! Shape-shifters! Witches! Fairies!

It's all so exciting!

Season 3 of TrueBlood started this month, and since I'm currently sailing with Royal Caribbean, I'm missing it. But, I've heard it good.

I'll have to catch up when I return to the Continental US.

But until then I had my books. Now what?

Charlaine ... please, please, PLEASE ... release a new one soon! I'm dying to find out what happens to Sookie next!

(Although, I guess I can't complain. Dead in the Family was just released in May. It'll probably be another year before a new one comes out. Boo-hoo!)

Narnia

I super-duper love CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. I always have. Read them over and over and over throughout my life-time.

I thought both movie adaptions (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian) were extremely well executed, faithful to the books and entertaining.

However, I was under the impression that the second movie had underperformed and that neither movies became the behemoth phenomenon the studio was expecting hoping. Thus, no more Narnia movies.

So it was with great excitement that I have just discovered the third movie adaptation: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It looks just as good as the previous movies!

Release date is December 10, 2010. Can't wait!

NOTE TO THE STUDIO HEADS: Please film the final movie now so the Pevensie kids don't grow up before you get there.

(For those of you who haven't read the series ... the intervening books don't include the same children.)

I Heart Seth Rudetsky

I'm absolutely obSESSed with Seth Rudetsky. He wrote Broadway Nights and The Q Guide to Broadway which (I'm ashamed to admit) I haven't yet gotten around to reading ... but I WILL! I promise, Seth!!!

He does these funny deconstructions of singers where he breaks down certain things about how a singer forms vowels or riffs or changes their vibrato. Check them out on YouTube if you're interested in music. And more specifically ... musical theater.

His Playbill.com blogs are HI-larious. He discusses his New York experiences with auditions, benefits, interviews, and such and is very self-deprecating. I love him ... cubed.

His website is here.

But ... what ... is ... this ... ?

My bestie Patrick met Seth at an Only Make Believe benefit and asked him to say hi to me. So I had to post it for you. Enjoy:

Book Review: Jeffrey Overstreet

It's been a while since I last discussed my reading thoughts ... so today, I thought I would recommend the excellent Jeffrey Overstreet's Auralia Thread series.

The series begins with Auralia's Colors where the Four Houses of the Expanse are gifted with the presence of a unique and mysterious girl who brings color and light wherever she goes and threatens the kingdom with an unimaginable revolution.

Auralia's Colors, in my opinion, struggles somewhat with focus. The land is inhabited by many, many people and Overstreet has too many chapters jumping from one character to the next, never to return. As a reader, it's difficult to keep track and sympathize with anyone. However, the story definitely kept me turning the pages.

But, it is Overstreet's second novel Cyndere's Midnight that truly captivated this reader. Taking the themes and characters from the first novel and greatly expanding them, I was drawn into a delightfully imaginative and wondrous world on par with Tolkien's Fellowship series or C.S. Lewis's Narnia series.

Thankfully, someone decided to include a character breakdown at the back of the second and third books, so it was much easier for me to figure out who-was-who.

Then there's Raven's Ladder, the third book. This one felt like a bridge to me; both a continuation and an explanation of things to come, it nevertheless captivated me and made me hungry for the conclusion.

By now the Four Houses are in various states of disarray, the Seers are more maniacal than I would have originally dreamed, and the people are ready to fight.

What will happen to the Expanse? What of House Jenta? What will the Seers do? And I'm dying to learn more of The Keeper.

I've been told that Overstreet is hard at work writing the fourth (and final?) book in the series. I don't know, but I'm anxiously awaiting to see how he brings all the different plot threads together and concludes the story.

If you enjoy fantasy with a side of ethical and moral themes, try Overstreet's Auralia Series. The prose is quite beautiful; the characters intriguing; and the plot unusual.

Perfect for some not-so-light summer reading.

Sad

The iPhone is not coming to Verizon this year, it seems.

Guess that means I'll be getting and Android when my contract runs out.

*sigh*

We Need the FairTax!

This video is a concise explanation of what the FairTax is about. With the US still struggling economically, I think this could be an excellent solution to our money woes:

More Next to Normal fun!

Love love love these videos:

How did we let this happen?

The BP Oil Catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is absolutely heart-breaking on so many levels. We must work to develop cleaner energy sources.

Here is a pictorial story on the horrific results of this disaster. Please take a moment to look at the pictures and remember ... this was in May. It will only get worse until the oil flow is stopped.

Spider-Man The Musical. Oh, how I love you.

I didn't realize the Julie-Taymor/Bono saga is currently estimated to cost $22 million more to produce than The Lord of the Rings musical flop.

Reports now say rehearsals for Spidey will begin this summer with previews in October and an opening in November.

Will it happen? Oh, yes, my friends. Spider Man will open, and I have no doubt it'll be stunning.

But will it be a good musical? That remains to be seen.

Will people go to see it? Definitely.

Will it break even or make money? Doubtful.

Do you like Celine?

I do, and I think this is funny.