Marked is P. C. and Kristin Cast’s first book in the series called House of Night. House of Night is also the name of the school where Zoey will train to become an adult vampire. Everyone who is Marked is sent to the school for this special training. However, not everyone who is Marked makes the Change. It is lucky for Zoey that the vampire Goddess Nyx has Marked her as special, but she is not the only one at the House of Night with remarkable powers.

The House of Night is a new beginning for Zoey. When she first arrives at school, it’s a bit hard for her to settle in, but Zoey quickly becomes friends with Damien, Stevie Rae, Erin, and Shanuee. Together they have to work to overcome all the evil in the world — and it’s up to them to save it.

Marked does a great job in introducing us to the characters and the world of the House of Night. If you liked the Harry Potter or Twilight series, chances are you will like this series as well.

Tom Neary – Central Library

It’s hot, my brain hurts, and I need some mindless fun. Thank you MaryJanice Davidson!

Betsy Taylor (former model, unemployed, 30, single…and recently deceased) is in a bad mood. Her stepmother, the Ant, has buried her in a cheap suit — and stolen her designer shoe collection. Betsy is an anomaly: a vampire who doesn’t burn in sunlight, resists the drinking of blood, and still attends church. She is also the prophesied Queen of the Vampires.

Sexy vampire Eric Sinclair is chasing her to make her his Queen, the ancient, creepy vampire Nostro is chasing her to make her permanently dead, while Betsy is chasing the Jimmy Choos at the legendary Nordstrom semi-annual shoe sale. Witty madcap chick-lit and paranormal romance at its best, devour these books like summer snow cones. You’ll be sad when you reach the eighth book of the Undead and… series and then have to wait until next summer to shake your head at Betsy and, did I mention her step-sister is the Anti-Christ?

Shirley ONeill – Administration Offices

Gail Carriger’s debut novel Soulless is best described as enchantingly silly. Taking place in a steampunk version of Victorian London, vampires and werewolves — and other supernaturals — are accepted members of society. And, as in all good Victorian novels, manners matter.

The book opens with our heroine Alexia Tarabotti retiring from a ball to enjoy a small repast in her host’s library. No shy debutante, Miss Tarabotti has ordered refreshments from the butler after finding there was scandalously little on offer in the ball room. Instead of being able to enjoy her tea, she is brazenly attacked by a starving vampire. This just isn’t done! Even worse, she manages to kill the poor thing — although her ballgown is definitely the worse for wear and the treacle tart, most sadly, does not survive.

So, how did this society lady survive such a ghastly occurrence? Quite simply, she is soulless. In order to maintain a world in balance, the supernatural creatures must have a natural predator. Such is our preternatural dear Miss Tarabotti, whose touch reverts vampires and werewolves to mundane human status. Aside from her top-secret abilities, Miss Tarabotti labors under several other social handicaps. Her deceased father was Italian, and she inherited his Mediterranean complex. Also, the spinster has a decided scientific and bookish bent.

After the unfortunate scene in the library, the authorities from the ministry assigned to keep track of supernatural activities join the fray. Although they manage to keep Alexia’s face and name from the press, she must deal again with her social nemesis Lord Woolsey, who rules Britain’s werewolves and runs the aforementioned ministry. Alexia finds him socially appalling, but personally appealing.

Added to this stew of passion and mystery, the excellent authoress Gail Carriger also mixes in young dandies about the town, a best friend with awful taste in hats, a nefarious, scientific gentleman’s club, and a stepfamily who just does not appreciate Alexia. The wit is sly, and the romance bold. Our heroine saves the day, but loses her parasol. She gains much more in the end.

Kristen Blount – Administration Office

Today’s installment of Adult Summer Reading Club book reviews comes from our Glenwood Branch. Remember that each book you read is a chance to win — make sure you complete an entry form at any Howard County Library branch!

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

The book was well written, with very good character development and a well-paced story time-frame. There was no one climatic event in the story, but the portrayal of a young, college-aged nanny working through the many obstacles and bad behaviors of her upper-class middle-aged employers was attention grabbing enough to make the book an enjoyable read. – Lisa R.

Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted by Gerald Imber

My mother worked for years on “Halsted 1,”  a surgical recovery ward at Hopkins Hospital. She related to me some stories about Dr. Halsted and other great men at Hopkins. I enjoyed the book very much, as it delved into the lives of these men that few of us knew, but many benefited from, because of their knowledge, courage, and dedication. – Graham H.

The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn

If you enjoy mystery with a penchant for vampires and werewolves, this book might be for you. It is 1858 in Edinburgh, and Theodore Lestrange has lost her grandfather. She doesn’t want to live with her married sister, so decides to stay with a school friend and write her first novel. She is soon on her way to Transylvania to stay with Cosmina Dragulescu. Do you believe that vampires and werewolves roam the Carpathian Mountains, or can science explain unusual happenings? – Pamela H.

True Blood may seem like your average girl-meets-vampire-but-is-secretly-loved-by-a-wolf-man story, but it is actually much deeper. In this alternate Louisiana, as in much of the United States, there are vampires that dwell among humans. A company realizes the danger of vampires feasting on humans, and develops a synthetic substitute for human blood: True Blood. 

Meet the cast of characters who make up the colorful tapestry in this Southern Gothic romance. In a small rural Louisiana diner, a waitress named Sookie can read people’s minds — except Bill’s, who happens to buy True Blood. Sookie’s best friend is Tara, who is tactless when interacting with others, but tries to be a good daughter to her alcoholic mother. Tara’s cousin is Lafayette, a gay drug dealer who works with Sookie and Tara at the diner. Sookie’s brother Jason loves the ladies, but for some reason the ladies end up dead. And the police think he may be the main suspect…

True Blood is a wildly creative series. Besides telling a supernatural tale sprinkled with romance, it also provides social commentary. Vampires are treated as second-class citizens who must fight for their rights, against those who disagree with the vampire political movement. Meanwhile, some humans hunt the vampires and drain them of their blood for sale as a drug. There are people taking the drug and becoming addicted to it.

The show is based on the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. Dead Until Dark is the first novel, and provides the main plot line for the first season. Dead Until Dark is available at the Library in book and playaway form (Playaways self-contained digital audio books). There are currently ten books in the series, along with several short stories. There is also a CD featuring music from the series, with songs that vary as much as the characters on the show — including country, rock, swamp, and blues rock. 

For a creative series with colorful characters, I recommend the addictive True Blood. 

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch

It’s time to let your dirty little secret, your guilty pleasure, perhaps even your burgeoning obsession out of the bag. Twilight. I am "too old" to be reading Stephenie Meyer’s juggernaut of a young adult series. But I have read all four books in the series, and, what’s more, I like them. There, I said it. If there’s a 12-step program for Twi-hards, I’ve just taken the first step.

Perhaps I’m not so far gone that I could be called a Twi-hard or a Twi-mom, but I am tired of hiding my shame. Yes, there are parts of this series that my feminist side finds repellant. There are parts that my literary snob side finds criminal. My inner child (recall an earlier post when I admitted he is an adolesent boy) is embarrassed by these books. And of course, the vampire fan in me (LOVE vampire stories, have before most Twilight fans were born, even took an undergrad class called "Vampires in Literature," much to my mother’s chagrin), well, that vampire fan is disgusted by these books. But, even with all that protestation (Gertrude had a point, methinks), I must admit that I found the books strangely compelling. They are entertaining. 

And so, I am encouraging other adult Twilight fans to come out of hiding and join me for the Nosy Grown-Ups book discussion on January 14, 7:00 pm at Central Library. And, more importantly, I am encouraging those who despise these books to join me as well. Can I argue that there is a very strong pro-feminist message in these books? Can I defend some of the less than stellar writing? Can I prove that Stephenie Meyer is a genius (evil or otherwise)? Can you or I say anything about Twilight that hasn’t been said already? Find out. Come and explore this extraordinary phenomenon with me.  Copies of Twilight are currently available at the Fiction desk at Central for anyone who wishes to attend Nosy Grown-Ups. Please do come and see if we can figure out together what all the fuss is about.

Joanne Sobieck-Lingg – Central Library

There are some writers whose work is so seemingly dense and obtuse that no one wants to bother with them anymore, especially in a modern world full of intriguing fast reads and fairly easy-to-digest deep ones. But when it comes to a literary thirst for all things scary, if you’re tired of vampires or just want something different you may want to reconsider the classic creepiness of Nathaniel Hawthorne, where everything is not what it may seem.

If you have the patience and time to read his work slowly, Hawthorne actually makes perfect sense depending on your interpretation (and there’s always room for more than one), and often overwhelms you with the paranormal beauty and (emotional) bluntness of his stories.

In this collection there are the "standard" stories you probably remember from school (Young Goodman Brown and The Birthmark) that you’ll see with new eyes and amazement at their precocious take on human nature. And then there are the ones you may never have read like The Hollow of the Three Hills, where the reader never truly knows what is real and what is imaginary — and guilt, not necessarily evil, is the great destroyer.

Angie Engles – Central Library

In his chilling new supernatural novel Blood and Ice, author Robert Masello effectively uses alternating chapters spanning centuries to tell both a love story and an adventure.

Journalist Michael Wilde hopes that an assignment in the South Pole will give him a new lease in life. On a routine dive in the Antarctic Ocean, he discovers a submerged block of ice holding two captive bodies bound in chains. Beside them is a chest filled with a strange, and sinister, cargo. The block of ice begins to melt and everyone assigned to the research station must grapple with what is unleashed. As Michael unravels the mystery of the couple, his search leads from the battles of the Crimean War to the unexplained depths of the Antarctic Ocean.

This book has everything I like in a novel…romance, history, suspense, tangible characters, good pacing and an intriguing setting. I also became quite curious about Antarctica and often referred to a visually gorgeous book entitled Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent "to get the facts".

Eve Olsen – Central Library

Bram Stoker really started a trend when he wrote Dracula in 1897. Who could have guessed that over the next century, vampire books would become a whole sub-genre of horror literature?  The Strain (the first book of a new trilogy) by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan is the latest entry in the field.

In recent decades, both movies and books have given us any number of new and different slants on the bloodsuckers we find so fascinating (and scary).  We’ve had comic vampires (remember Love at First Bite?) and romantic vampires (the Stephenie Meyer books). We’ve also had vampires with a yen for self-revelation (see Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice). You name it, we’ve had it. I’ve not yet run into a book about vampire space aliens, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere.

As for The Strain, it goes back to original principles. The vampires portrayed in this book are relentlessly predatory and downright terrifying. Humans have blood and vampires drink it. Period. With the crowd of bloodsuckers in The Strain, there’s no such thing as skipping a meal.

Paradoxically though, The Strain is also a remarkably modern take on the vampire myths. The hero is a doctor who works for the Centers for Disease Control.  As a scientist, he begins with no more belief in vampires than he might have in the Tooth Fairy.  However, as a scientist, the existence of the undead becomes utterly logical to him when he discovers there’s nothing magic or supernatural involved in their creation. What is involved is a virus. Unfortunately it is a very powerful and fast acting virus. Neither Holy Water, the Cross, nor antibiotics will work against it.

The book begins with a plane full of dead passengers landing at Kennedy Airport. Only they’re not exactly dead. As this last reality becomes clear, the action spreads to the rest of the New York metropolitan area while the doctor and his associates attempt to contain what has quickly become an epidemic.

How do they deal with it? Can they deal with it? Maybe yes and maybe no. It will take two more books before the reader can know for certain.  Personally, I can’t wait for book two.

Joe McHugh – Administration Office

I must admit Robin McKinley is one my favorite authors. Most of her books can be found in the YA section and are fantastic retellings of fairy tales and other adventures. Sunshine is a dark departure for her, and a most wonderful one at that. This multi-layered, richly drawn story happens in a world that looks a lot like ours, but with some important differences. For example, people in McKinley’s setting use the Internet to search sites about demons, fairies, and vampires. Sometimes, the supernatural creatures talk back in the chat rooms.

Rae Seddons is the pastry cook at her stepdad’s diner, where she specializes in making cinnamon rolls as big as your head. Charlie, her stepdad, gave her the nickname Sunshine after watching her spend an entire winter sleeping in patches of sunlight. Narrated in her unmistakable first person voice, Sunshine is gregarious with an attitude, but definitely does not suffer fools gladly.

After a grueling, hot day at work, Sunshine decides to relax at her grandmother’s cottage beside a local lake. A nasty group of vampires kidnaps Sunshine and uses her as bait to lure a starving enemy of their own kind. Only this vampire, Constantine, seems to have a moral code and demands Sunshine tell him stories so he knows she is a rational creature. After two days of their mutual captivity, Sunshine and Con combine wits and magic to escape. Following that first, inadvertent meeting, the two main characters share a bond that leads them into strange and dangerous adventures.

One of the things I like best about Sunshine is that McKinley doesn’t sugarcoat the vampires. They are completely alien and inimical to humanity. There’s a quiet war being waged, and it’s clear that humankind does not hold many advantages. Even though Con is allied with Sunshine, he never stops being a creepy vampire. The scene where Sunshine and Con are chained together drips suspense and terror.

Unfortunately, McKinley does not write many sequels. When you get to the end of the books and want "More! Now!", you can join the rest of McKinley’s fans in their frustration. So, allow me to recommend all the rest of her novels, including two of my all-time favorites The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown.

Kristen Blount – Administration