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By Kathleen Dacey, on May 30th, 2011 [This is the final entry in our Deserted Isle Books series, in which our contributors discuss the one book they would choose if they were stranded alone on a deserted isle forever. Read other installments of the series here, get your own copies at Powell's, and explore other series like this on our Special Features page.]
I can’t honestly imagine being stranded on a beach. Woman verses the elements? Not this girl. I’ve never roughed it; I didn’t take Survival in high school and my Girl Scout troop vacationed on Cape Cod. All of my experience with camping has involved masses of friends. Running water. Coolers of beer. Bug spray. I’ve stayed up all night on the beach, but in the morning we drove to a diner for breakfast. Aside from Martha’s Vineyard I’ve never even been on an island.
Like Shannon on Lost, I have asthma and allergies. I burn easily and too much sun gives me migraines. I’m clumsy and would never be able to steady my stance long enough to catch a fish. I’ve never been able to shimmy up a tree so I’d have nowhere to hide from hungry animals. I’m not especially fast. I’d be easy prey—the carnivores would take me down the first night. Or I’d make it a week and be so beat up by the experience that I’d give in and float myself face-down out to sea.
I wouldn’t want my favorite book along for this miserable journey. And I don’t think I’ve read the “best” book out there. But I do have a story that soothes me, a style that comforts me, a buddy book. …
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By Kathleen Dacey, on May 20th, 2011  Author: Nora Roberts
1981, Silhouette Books
Filed under: Romance
Get a copy at Powell’s
| C4 Ratings...out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
4 |
| Entertainment..... |
7 |
| Depth..... |
0 |
Irish Thoroughbred is Nora Robert’s first novel. My book club chose it as a vacation from all the backbreakingly serious books (Townie, Just Kids) we’ve been mucking through. As expected, it’s an easy read, crushable in a single day. And although it’s a vapid book, it offers several steamy moments and a comfortably predictable plotline (much like a Lifetime Original movie).
We follow Adelia, a poor Irish orphan who immigrates to the US to work with her uncle, a hand on a horse ranch. Aside from the uncle, the only other character worth noting is the young boss, a wealthy landowner and horse breeder named Travis. Predictably enough, Travis and Adelia are beautiful, bull-headed, and destined to be together, just as soon as they overcome a few obstacles.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t only the love story that was predictable. Roberts’s characters embody every old-fashioned romance-novel stereotype possible. Adelia is the quintessential damsel in distress. She’s tiny, feisty, and rather dumb (it’s 1981 and, OK, she’s a country bumpkin, but still, she’s excessively impressed by the airport, a dishwasher, indoor fountains at the mall…). …
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By Kathleen Dacey, on April 8th, 2010  Author: Rachel Vincent
2007, Mira
Filed Under: Horror, Romance, Chick Lit, Thrillers, Young Adult
| C4 Ratings.....out of |
10 |
| Language..... |
3 |
| Entertainment..... |
5 |
| Depth..... |
3 |
I’m not sure I can say that I liked Stray. I wouldn’t read it again and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else (unless they were a werecat enthusiast, in which case I’m sure it would come to mind, and I would bring it up, and I would say, check this shit out). But I did read it in one week. Which says something.
First, a few fun facts about werecats:
- Werecats have this amazing sense of smell. Lines including descriptions such as: “my citrus-scented pants” and “wholesome femininity layered with Herbal Essences and cherry Bubble Yum” really clue the reader in. Over and over and over again
- Werecats do not have nine lives. As the protagonist puts it, “that would be cool, though.” Maybe her werebabies will have that gene?
- Good werecats don’t eat human flesh. Bad “strays” do.
Did I mention that I trash-picked this book from the trash? Yep. Found this gem on the side of the road. Look at the cover: You would have picked it up, too. There’s a sex kitten right on the cover and you wonder, is that a tattoo on her lower back, or a scratch mark?
I’m not always a fast reader. Sometimes I forget my book at home and end up spending the day with the Metro. Or I switch around, hopping from story to story.
One week says something. It says that I opted to read about werecat love triangles when I could have been out at the bar or catching up on my new favorite British teen drama, “Skins” or, you know, going to the library for a better book. It says that I remembered to bring it with me to work everyday so that I could read it on the train and on the elliptical machine at the gym. It says that I maybe hunted around my room for it late one night when it was hiding under my blankets and I really wanted to know whether or not the protagonist was going to be raped by the bad guy.
…
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