Hawaiian Holiday

David and I returned from our vacation to Maui and Oahu on August 1st, and I'm just now finding time to post! (It takes too long to play catch-up.) I made it through only four books in the 10 days I was gone, so obviously I did too much sightseeing and not enough reading!

(An example of the sights--maybe it's a good thing that I wasn't reading!)

Our flight left at 8:00 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, July 21, so my fantastic friend Jenni bought the Harry Potter book for me at midnight on Friday at Ralph's and left it on my doorstep so I could take it on the plane in the morning. I was one of many people reading the book on the plane. I read most of it on Saturday and managed to finish it by noon on Sunday. Although I cried numerous times, I loved it! I thought J.K. Rowling did a great job of tying in to all of her previous books, yet she still managed to work in a new story about the three "deathly hallows." The book dragged a little while Harry, Ron, and Hermione wandered in the wilderness, but the last 200 pages or so were thrilling. A few predictions came to pass (spoiler: I knew Snape couldn't be all bad), and a few surprises knocked me off of my feet! My tears at the end of the book came because I knew there would be no new adventures for Harry--I'll miss him. Thanks to Rowling for such a fantastic series of books!

I also made a new find while in Maui--a series of books by the author Charlaine Harris. She writes fiction that she bills as "Southern Vampire Mysteries," and I would add "humorous" to the description. I chanced into Club Dead, the 3rd in the series, and was intrigued by the concept. They are set in the current time in a world where the vampires existing side by side with us mere mortals have decided to "come out" and announce their existence due to the invention of a realistic synthetic blood that allows them to no longer have to feed on humans. The werewolves and shape shifters are watching in the wings to see how this stunt will work for the vampires before they come out! The books are about Sookie Stackhouse, a mind-reading waitress who falls in love with Bill the vampire, and about how she feels torn between human society and vampire society. Quirky is a good description for these books, which means I know they won't appeal to everyone, but for this vampire-loving reader, I find them to be a fun read! (P.S. Did you know that Elvis isn't really dead--he was just turned into a vampire!!!!)