A Taste of True Blood: The Fangbanger’s Guide gives True Blood fans something to savor between episodes – and whets their appetite for more. Covering the show’s first two seasons and released just in time for the third (with real-time online updates from the book’s contributors throughout season three), the book includes such pieces as:

• Vampire Porn by Daniel M. Kimmel
• Home is Where the Bar Is by Maria Lima (we love her!)
• Pure Blood by Joseph McCabe
• True Stud by Kirsty Walker
• A Kinder, Gentler Vampire by Vera Nazarian
• From Castle Dracula to Merlotte’s Bar & Grill by Bruce and Karen Bethke

A Taste of True Blood also includes a quick reference guide to the show’s first two seasons, with episode summaries and memorable quotes.

These books were released several years ago and are compilations of the first 5 books in the Sookie Stackhouse Series.

Dead In Dixie contains Books 1-3:

#1: Dead Until Dark (paperback, Kindle)
#2: Living Dead In Dallas (paperback, Kindle)
#3: Club Dead (paperback, Kindle)

Check out the book cover!

Here’s a close-up of “Sookie” and “Bill” from the cover:

And here’s another version of the cover:

Dead By Day contains Books 4-5:

#4: Dead to the World (paperback, Kindle)
#5: Dead as a Doornail (paperback, Kindle)

And here’s that book cover – I assume this is supposed to be Sookie and Eric:

These books were special issues released by the Science Fiction Book Club.

Does anyone have these books?

In this new Sookie Stackhouse book Sookie and Sam travel together to attend Sam’s brother’s wedding. If you look at the book cover you’ll see that it’s a drawing of Sookie with a dog – I assume the dog represents Sam!

The book will also contain a section where Sookie answers fan questions! A couple of months ago Charlaine Harris ran a contest where fans could email their questions to her and she’d choose the best ones for the book. I’m sure someone asked questions about Sookie’s future love life!

An exclusive interview with Alan Ball is also included in the book. It will be interesting to see if he reveals anything about Season 4 of True Blood.

The Sookie Stackhouse Companion is now ON SALE.

pre-order the book!

Here’s the book description from the Amazon UK site:

“If you think your family relationships are complicated, think again: you haven’t seen anything like the ones in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie Stackhouse is dealing with a whole host of family problems, ranging from her own kin (a non-human fairy and a telepathic second cousin) demanding a place in her life, to her lover Eric’s vampire sire, an ancient being who arrives with Eric’s ‘brother’ in tow at a most inopportune moment. And Sookie’s tracking down a distant relation of her ailing neighbour (and ex), Vampire Bill Compton. In addition to the multitude of family issues complicating her life, the werewolf pack of Shreveport has asked Sookie for a special favour, and since Sookie is an obliging young woman, she agrees. But this favour for the wolves has dire results for Sookie, who is still recovering from the trauma of her abduction during the Fairy War.”

It hits the streets on May 4th but if you pre-order it you’ll get it delivered right to your door as soon as it’s available!

Also, if you pre-order it you get the book at a discount!

Bite

This book contains a diverse range of short stories with one thing in common: the stories revolve around vampires and their distant relatives, the werewolves. The sometimes light-hearted humor and sometimes suspenseful adventure make this collection of fantasy short stories a delightful and exciting one.

Here’s a quick summary of each story:

The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death by Laurell K Hamilton
This story is about a desperate mother who seeks out the vampire hunter, Anita Blake, for help in finding her daughter. Why? Because her daughter is trying to turn into a vampire in order to escape her cancer. Anita agrees to find her, knowing that if the girl has already become a vampire, she’ll have to stake the vampire that turned her since turning a teenager is against the law. In this tale Anita and her boyfriends, Jean-Claude (a vampire), and Ulfric (the leader of a wolf pack) have their work cut out for them.

One Word Answer by Charlaine Harris
Sookie Stackhouse, a psychic waitress in Louisiana, has another case to solve. While doing yardwork with her vampire ex-boyfriend, Bill Compton, a mysterious man pulls up in a limousine and informs Sookie that her cousin, Hadley, has died and left Sookie all of her possessions. But Sookie distrusts this news and has a hunch that the messenger’s not human and that there’s more to the story than meets the eye. She’s right on both counts for she’s about to be lured into a much bigger and more dangerous mission.

By the way, the latest entry in the True Blood books series, Dead In The Family, will be released May 2010!

Biting in Plain Sight by MaryJanice Davidson
Sophie Trudeau is a veterinarian in a small, quiet Minnesota town. She’s a vet that only tends to sick animals in the middle of the night. She also never seems to grow any older. People know there’s something different about her, but they don’t push it because she’s a great doctor. However when a chain of deaths occur, Sophie suspects a rogue vampire. So Sophie, along with her good friend Liam, set out to solve the crime with the help of a ditzy vampire queen. This story combines humor and a good plotline to make for a wonderful short story.

Galahad by Angela Knight
The setting is Mageverse, and King Arthur and his vampire knights dedicate themselves to saving the day and humanity as a whole, with the help of some witches. However, the witches’ aid comes with a condition; their power can only be activated by having sex with a vampire. Caroline Lang, a new witch, is just starting to learn the ropes when an evil cult threatens to take over the universe. Can Caroline get her magic “activated” in time for her to join the battle? As you can imagine, Galahad is an adventurous and lustful (and I do mean LUSTFUL) tale.

Blood Lust by Vickie Taylor
Daniel Hart has developed what many thought impossible: a flawless synthetic form of blood. But his vampire employer steals both his work and his girlfriend. Daniel, not one to take things lying down, seeks to turn himself into a vampire and go after what was stolen from him. However he discovers that becoming one of the undead is an almost impossible challenge. Blood Lust is an engaging short story with lots of fun characters.

I had a lot of fun reading Bite and comparing the different writing styles of the authors in this funny and sexy fantasy book. Check it out.

These stories show a side of Sookie that we don’t see in the other Southern Vampire Mystery books. It’s refreshing to see her in different settings with different characters.

Here are the stories included in the book:

1. Fairy Dust (from the book Powers of Detection, 2004)
2. Dracula Night (from the book Many Bloody Returns, 2007)
3. One Word Answer (from the book Bite, 2005)
4. Lucky (from the book Unusual Suspects, 2008)
5. Gift Wrap (from the book Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, 2008)

Here’s a quick summary of each story:

Fairy Dust: Sookie is asked to use her psychic power to investigate the murder of a local fairy. Sookie soon learns that it’s not easy to kill a fairy, which narrows the list of suspects quite a bit. This story contains a good primer for fantasy fans on how to kill supernatural creatures.

Dracula Night: Who knew vampires celebrated the birth of the Original Vampire? Eric throws a big bash for the OV and invites Sookie. But perhaps there’s more on the menu than cheese and crackers.

One Word Answer: While doing some late night yard work with her vampire ex-boyfriend Bill Compton, Sookie is approached by a mysterious man in a limousine. It seems that a relative of hers has died and left everything to Sookie. Told that she needs to travel to New Orleans to claim her fortune, Sookie soon realizes that the mystery man is hiding secrets that could cost someone their life.

Lucky: Sookie once again finds herself in a difficult situation when she agrees to investigate a recent spate of break-ins at a friend’s office. Between vampire problems and magical spells, Sookie discovers something more sinister than your average B & E.

Gift Wrap: Sookie, alone at Christmas, decides to take a walk through the woods. While there she comes upon a gravely injured werewolf. Although she opens her heart and her home to him and attempts to nurse him back to health, this handsome hunk may actually be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

A Touch of Dead makes a great addition to your Sookie Library and will help tide us over until “Dead In The Family”, the next book in the series, comes out in May 2010.

-the ENTIRE Sookie Stackhouse Box Set!
-a $30 Amazon gift card!

We spent hours creating charts and graphs, developing complex statistics and conducting in-depth analyses on the best way to conduct the contest. It was hard work and required mass consumptions of Cheetos and Starbucks mocha frappuccinos but we finally decided on a strategy. Are you ready?

TO ENTER THE CONTEST YOU MUST ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:

“Name one person that will be killed in the season finale of True Blood Season 2″

That’s right, just answer this question and you’re in the contest. Oh, and tell us which prize you prefer (either the books or the gift card) when you enter.

The contest is open to U.S. residents. Only one entry per person please (IP addresses will be checked).

The contest will be open until September 13th at 9:00pm EST, the time that the finale airs. At that point we’ll accept no more comments. After the show airs we’ll take all of the correct answers and use the random integer software to determine a winner.

The lucky winner will be chosen shortly after midnight. The winner will be announced at the site and then promptly notified via email.

Remember, just give the name of the one person that you think will be killed during the season finale. Good luck!

And thanks to Yankee Blood, VBooker and Kitty Kat for “nudging” us in the True Blood Rehab Lounge about holding a contest!

See also: True Blood “Who Died” Contest Winner!