Friday, June 19, 2009

Sookie Stackhouse!

from Wikipedia:
a fictional and main character in The Southern Vampire Mysteries, a series of nine books written by New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris that were first published in 2001. The series is a first-person account of Sookie's life as a barmaid and telepath in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001.

(This series was recommended to me by the CCHS librarian as a good after-Twilight selection)

Books in the series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone

Find them under "Harris" in our Mystery section, first floor.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Pope Joan, A Novel by Donna Woolfolk Cross

Suspend for a moment the belief that a woman could never be Pope and you will enjoy this “historical” fiction. The novel is filled with descriptions of the dark ages (A.D. 814) including war, plague, Vatican intrigue and politics, and the status of women.
Joan is born in a Frankland village to a Saxon mother and an English father. Joan is very bright and is taken under the wing of a Greek scholar. Ultimately, she takes the place of a younger brother at a Benedictine monastery when he is killed by Saxon invaders. She thrives in the learned environment dressed as a man and then moves to Rome where her wisdom and medical skills allow her to outshine her peers.
Although, “she leads a man's life, Joan dies a woman's death, losing her life in childbirth. In this colorful, richly imagined novel, Cross ably inspires a suspension of disbelief…” Publishers Weekly 2006.

You can read more about Pope Joan at the following websites:
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Story?id=1453197&page=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/pope.htm
http://wais.stanford.edu/Religion/religion_FirstFemalePope(110503).html
And in this book at Helen Hall Library:
The Myth of Pope Joan by Alain Boureau.