Status Updates From From Dead to Worse (Sookie ...

Notes:
(1) No titular line? Again?
- I guess it's not a thing anymore.
(2) "Alcide had grown up a lot in the past few weeks. All in all, he was changing into a man I admired much more than I had the old one."
- Makes sense... Sookie didn't so much admire the old Alcide as lust after him.
(3) In sum: a housekeeping book.
- All loose ends and continuing plot threads get tied-up and a new series paradigm is established.

Notes:
(1) "My brother was an asshole, and Crystal was a whore. These were facts I had to deal with."
- To be fair, Jason is also kind of a whore… and Crystal is definitely an asshole.
- Wait, can women be assholes? Or is the proper term bitch? You never really hear "She's such an asshole"—sounds off.
(2) It's weird, this book never really had a central narrative or A-story.
- It's more like interwoven short stories.

Notes:
(1) Niall: "I understand the bitch is dead?"
Sookie: "Yes, sir … The bitch is dead."
- "The bitch is dead" is, of course, the famous final line from the novel "Casino Royale."
- In this case, literally a bitch—a lady werewolf.
- I wonder how many people know this quotes James Bond?
- I wonder if Charlaine Harris knows she quotes James Bond?
- Possibly she only saw the 2006 film, which also ends with that line.

Notes:
(1) "Crystal was looking sullen and slightly pregnant … I wondered about Crystal drinking, but decided it wasn't my business."
- I think it actually is her business. Jason and Crystal are her only living (human) kin—well, also Hadley's kid, but Sookie's only just found out he exists.
(2) "'Bye, Mr. Carmichael.'
'Call me Cope, please, Sookie.' I’d just known he was going to say that."
- Duh... she's a telepath!

Notes:
(1) "[Bill] leaned over to pick up a sword he'd left propped against the couch. Yep, he'd come fully armed."
- So, I'm guessing it's a Civil War sword? If so, I'm surprised he kept it, or was able to—it'd almost-certainly have corroded.
- Possibly it's a recent acquisition?
- Do vampires even need weapons? I suppose a silver-bladed sword would be useful, but I doubt many exist outside of European crown jewels.

Notes:
(1) "I punched in the number for Fangtasia without even having to look it up. So not good. And it was on speed dial on my cell phone. Geez."
- Of course, nowadays, speed dial is the norm… so much so that we don't even bother with the term.
- Hard to believe, but it wasn't so long ago that everyone knew all their friends' phone numbers by heart. This book seems right on the edge of that no longer being a thing.

Notes:
(1) "The Fellowship was a radical organization that believed (a) vampires were sinful by nature, almost demons, and (b) they should be executed."
- To be fair, vampires do by nature feed off the blood of humans.
- As for condemning execution calls, doesn't the very creation of a vampire involve murder?
- Also, isn't she friends with actual demons? Sookie should know better than to use the word as a pejorative.

Notes:
(1) "I'd spent time with Eric, who always rattled my chain…"
- Does "rattled my chain" here mean upsetting or titillating? Or both?
(2) "I had no idea what kind it was, and I hoped it was in a bag, because I'd never made hot tea in my life."
- Wait, doesn't she make peach tea all the time? Minus ice, isn't making hot tea pretty much identical?
- Do Southerners not drink hot tea? Or is that mostly a city thing?

Notes:
(1) Sookie meets Niall Brigant, who, if I recall correctly, is the last notable book character/element adapted for the TV show.
- Honestly, I only have the vaguest recollection of the show's last few seasons and wouldn't be able to say how close an adaptation it was—not very, if I had to guess.
- Honestly, I only have the vaguest recollection of the books from this point on—all the fairy stuff never resonated.