Reading Library

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Michael Curry's favorite novel, he always carries a copy when he travels, rereads it for comfort and a visit with an old friend and named his contractor company after the novel. Like Pip, Michael is from a very poor background but gets an opportunity to move away from his impoverished beginnings and build his own future while acquiring his own wealth. This combination of proletariat and bourgeoisie leads Michael to refer to himself as a "high prole".

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

The central character in this novel and its 1941 film adaptation is, for Michael, Manderley, the house itself. One of Michael's "house" movies, the book centers around a young woman who marries the mysterious Maxim de Winter, a recluse whose first wife, Rebecca, died under mysterious circumstances and whose housekeeper keeps Rebecca's bedroom suite as a shrine to her former mistress and does not accept the eternally unnamed second wife as Rebecca's replacement. The elegance and refinement of the house itself is the draw for Michael, and it becomes one of many book and film related prototypes for the houses he builds his career restoring. It is also an early reference to his fascination with and future restoration of the First Street house in New Orleans.

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

If you are interested in a brief history of vampires and a fiction series set in Rhode Island, click the link:

Vampires and the Ocean State

Want to read more about the blending of humans with other beings?  I have taken the time to put a short list of books together that I've read (or plan to read) and which I found excellent in terms of being entertained.  There are a variety of supernatural beings in these books but what appeals to me most about them is that they are about everyday people having extraordinary experiences.  They are fun reads and really beg the question of how we are to blend the material world with the spiritual. 

Anne Rice's own literary inspirations for what appears in the Mayfair books appear elsewhere on this site.  This is really a contemporary list of what has been inspired by the work of Anne Rice and Dracula by Bram Stoker (a must-read for anyone interested in vampire lore and Victorian England).

Sooo...

Fans of Dracula might be interested in these books by:

Fred Saberhagen

The Dracula Tape

A Coldness in the Blood

An Old Friend of the Family

Dominion

A Matter of Taste

A Sharpness on the Neck

The Holmes-Dracula File

Thorn

A Question of Time

Seance for a Vampire

The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer:

Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn

The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris:

Dead Until Dark

Living Dead in Dallas

Club Dead

Dead to the World

Definitely Dead

Dead as a Doornail

All Together Dead (Set in New Orleans)

From Dead to Worse

Dead and Gone

Dead in the Family

Dead Reckoning

Deadlocked

Dead Ever After (Last in Series)

Charlaine Harris also has other series books out including Lily Bard, Harper Connelly and Aurora Teagarden.

Krewe of Hunters

Heather Graham, a popular romance novelist, also has written some excellent novels about ghosts (my real favorite) and the people who can see them.  Included are titles she wrote that concern vampires.  I've noted the books set in New Orleans and in Louisiana:

Haunted

Ghost Walk (Set in New Orleans) 

The Vision 

The Seance 

The Dead Room 

The Death Dealer

The Presence

Kiss of Darkness

Phantom Evil (Set in New Orleans)

Heart of Evil (Set in Louisiana)

Sacred Evil

The Evil Inside

Night of the Vampires

Ghost Shadow

Ghost Night

Ghost Moon

Nightwalker

Night of the Wolves

Unhallowed Ground

Dust to Dust

Deadly Gift

Deadly Harvest

Deadly Night (Set in Louisiana)

Blood Red (Set in New Orleans)

Romance in New Orleans

If you're interested in romance set in New Orleans, whether historical or contemporary, here is a list of novels I've read over the years and have in my collection that are set there (yes, I know, some of the titles are cheesy):

Wild Magnolia – Wanda Owen

Louisiana Lovesong – Wanda Owen

Louisiana Caress – Terri Valentine

New Orleans – Sara Orwig

New Orleans Legacy – Alexandra Ripley

Louisiana Dawn – Jennifer Blake

French Silk – Sandra Brown

Storyville – Lois Battle

V.C.Andrews

Ruby – V.C. Andrews

Pearl in the Mist – V.C. Andrews

All That Glitters – V.C. Andrews

Hidden Jewel – V.C. Andrews

Tarnished Gold – V.C. Andrews