This year's project

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I've had an idea for my reading this year, which was hinted at in my previous post when I said that I was consecutively re-reading the Merrily Watkins series of supernatural mysteries by Phil Rickman.  This year I am going to be all about the series.  This might mean that I will post a bit less frequently on here - and it might be a good thing to have a little blogging break - but I will keep popping in with random thoughts and other one off reviews (I badly need to catch up on my review copies).

So far I am thinking this year that I will (re)read the following series:

The Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman

I've currently nearly finished the fifth, "The Prayer of the Night Shepherd," which might be my favourite, as its plot deals with Conan Doyle and the possibility that the hound was inspired by Hereford legend rather than Devonian.  As a south-west girl, I heartily refute this: I've even visited the grave of the guy who was meant to have inspired the character of Hugo Baskerville and got a bit freaked out, which I wrote about in the course of a review here.  As it has quite a human rather than supernatural resolution, I've never quite understood why "The Hound of the Baskervilles" gets described as horror - but Rickman has the interesting idea that Conan Doyle shied away from the supernatural because, in the words of one of Rickman's characters, something happened that "disturbed Conan Doyle enough to send him into complete denial and turn the Hound into a detective story with a weak ending".

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series

I love this series, but I'm a bit behind (I haven't read the last one yet) and my experience of reading them has been quite disjointed.  The plot is very complex and I think I've lost track, so I need to go back to the start to get a hold on how it all develops.

The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I love these but haven't read them for probably about 10 years, so it will be nice to re-read them.  I'm including in the series the Eoin Colfer addition to Douglas Adams' work, as I haven't read this yet.

I'm not planning on re-reading the Harry Potter series as, during a recent bout of headaches, I started to listen again to the audio versions by Stephen Fry.  As I'm feeling the Fry love at the moment (not literally, alas), I will probably continue to listen to the series on my IPod while walking to and from work.  I don't tend to write about audiobooks on here, as they feel like cheating.

This has started me on thinking about series, and how some series of novels are ripe for this kind of consecutive reading while others are not.  I love the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, but I don't think that they would repay being read in a row.  To want to re-read a series it needs to show development of writing style, ideas, plot or character (and preferably all four).  I think that the ones I am planning to read have this - whereas, funny though the Stephanie Plum novels are, Stephanie is pretty much as bad in her bounty-hunting job in the nineteenth novel as she is in the first and she seems scarcely any closer to resolving her love triangle: re-reading the series consecutively would just expose how static the series has remained, but it's fun to dip into them occasionally.

Has anyone got any suggestions for series that I should visit this year?

"Notorious Nineteen," by Janet Evanovich

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I must be slipping.  I normally buy Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books in hardback the day that they come out, so impatient am I to read them.  This time, with a busy week at work, it had already been out for 4 days by the time I bought it.  I did make up for this, however, by starting it immediately and finishing it in a weekend.

The first thing that struck me was that the style of the cover was a bit different from usual: slightly more muted, less garish than the usual bright covers.  Just to prove that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, the contents were pretty much the same as usual.  Stephanie is still broke and struggling to pay her rent, still living with her (by now, surely, rather elderly) hamster and still driving a barely functional car (which, typically, gets blown up in the first chapter).  Stephanie, desperate to make some money, takes on trying to find a high bond skip who disappeared from a hospital following an operation to remove his appendix, as well as agreeing to be Ranger's "date" for an event at which he needs some extra security.

In this novel - and this is a spoiler, but will surely be no surprise for fans of the series - Stephanie still fails to decide between Ranger and Morelli.  I read recently that Janet Evanovich was a fan of the series "Moonlighting," but felt that the sexual tension between the two leads was lost when they got it together.  This isn't unique to that series - just think of Mulder and Scully, or Niles and Daphne in "Frasier" - but there is an equal danger in trying to stretch that unresolved sexual tension past its limits of endurance.  I can forgive the Stephanie Plum series a lot, and I do, because I love it so much but, if I am honest, the sexual tension between Stephanie, Ranger and Morelli was probably stretched to its optimum point quite a few books ago. 

I love these books because they are an enjoyable comfort read, with familiar, warm characters and a sense of humour.  However, they have been starting to feel a bit samey for a while, and I am starting to realise that the Stephanie, Ranger and Morelli sexual tension - which on the surface I still enjoy - is a part of the problem.  There is no development in the series, which seems to just continue like Stephanie's seemingly immortal hamster, and it is only when she decides between Ranger or Morelli that the series will either be able to reach a satisfying conclusion or will start to take Stephanie somewhere new and different...

"Wicked Business," by Janet Evanovich

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Last year I read the first in this series by Janet Evanovich, "Wicked Appetite," which I wrote about here.  As I love Janet Evanovich's books - although I prefer her Stephanie Plum series - I decided to treat myself to bed, book and coffee on one day of my week off.

In "Wicked Business," Lizzie's routine as a baker in Salem is once again disrupted by the arrival of Diesel and his delinquent monkey, Carl.  A man who has been thrown out of a window with a handprint burned into his neck - Wulf's trademark - indicates that Wulf might have a lead on one of the other SALIGIA Stones.  This time they are on the trail of the Luxuria Stone...

It occurred to me with this novel how similar the formula for the SALIGIA stories is to the Stephanie Plum series.  Lizzie is Stephanie, as out or her depth in the world of supernatural powers as Stephanie Plum is in her makeshift career as bounty hunter. Wulf is the equivalent of Ranger - dangerous and seductive - while Diesel, like Morelli, is the comparatively safer option but no less sexy; Lizzie's friend Glo, an erratic witch, fulfils the same quirky friend role as Lula, while the owner of the bakery in which Lizzie works is a little bit like Connie.  This is stretching the comparisons a bit, but you could even compare the social embarrassment of hanging around with a monkey who likes to give people the finger with having a crazy grandmother who breaks into closed caskets at funerals. 

I don't mind too much that Janet Evanovich's novels tends towards the formulaic, though, as I still find the formula entertaining.  In the SALIGIA stories, she adds a twist in finding a way to prolong the sexual tension between Lizzie and Diesel (if two people with supernatural powers get it on, then one of them will lose those powers).  I can't escape the thought that it might be worth it, Lizzie, even if you do lose your powers of finding enchanted objects and making great cupcakes....

"Explosive Eighteen,' by Janet Evanovich

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

It's no secret that I love Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series - I wrote about the previous one here - so it is unusual that, although I bought this book when it first came out, I hadn't got around to reading it yet.  Normally, when there is a new Stephanie Plum it jumps immediately to the top of my reading pile.  It's indicative of my spate of low library willpower that it has has taken me this long to get to it.

In the 18th in the series, Stephanie has returned early from a disastrous holiday in Hawaii that she doesn't want to talk about - and she especially doesn't want to talk about why she has a tan line on her ring finger.  Our hapless heroine finds a mysterious photo in her hand luggage, which some very dangerous people seem to want to get their hands on, and the man who sat next to her for part of the plane journey is found dead at LAX.  She also returns to work to find that one of the "skips" who she has to track down is her arch-nemesis Joyce Barnhardt, who she once discovered doing the nasty with her husband (now ex, understandably) on the dining table. 

I've been thinking in the past few months that one of my failings as a reader is that I read too quickly, and don't read deeply enough.  However, reading "Edge" and now this has made me realise that perhaps some things are meant to be read quickly - thrillers should have pace, and make you want to read quickly to find out what will happen next.  If your reading experience of a thriller drags, then maybe the book isn't doing what it set out to do.

I've just checked and there doesn't seem to be a release date for number 19, but I'm sure there will be another in the series that just seems to keep on going.  In some ways that is a good thing because I look forward to the new Stephanie Plum - it's hard to beat the series for a fun, entertaining ride -  but I would like to see the triangle between Stephanie, Ranger and Morelli come to a resolution....

"Wicked Appetite," by Janet Evanovich

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Our local library had been hiding a Janet Evanovich that I had not yet read: "Wicked Appetite."  They fooled me by having it in the main fiction run, rather than the crime section.

This will only be a mini review, as I have recently written on Janet Evanovich with "Smokin' Seventeen."  "Wicked Appetite" is not a Stephanie Plum book - still my favourites of her prodigious output - but does feature a couple of characters who have popped up in Stephanie Plum books: Diesel, and Carl the monkey.  In this book Diesel enlists the help of Elizabeth Tucker, a baker living in Salem who has Unmentionable powers, to find the SALIGIA Stones (which represent the Seven Deadly Sins).  Think of the Sankara Stones with an attitude problem, and you will have a rough idea.  They have to find these stones before the bad guy, Wulf - who also guested in a Stephanie Plum novel - as the person who collects all the stones will have the power to "create hell on earth."

Since this novel only has them acquire one stone - representing gluttony - it's a fair bet that this will be the first in a series.  Salem is a nice change from the New Jersey of Stephanie Plum, and Lizzy Tucker has an entertaining friend in erratic, wannabe witch Glo.  The stones affect human behaviour, so there are some entertaining moments as the gluttony stone starts to affect Lizzy's actions and thoughts.  It isn't my favourite Janet Evanovich novel, but it is a fun and entertaining way to pass some time.

"Smokin' Seventeen," by Janet Evanovich

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.


When I was doing my MA I wrote a - not very good - dissertation on feminism and crime fiction. One of my lecturers recommended that I read Janet Evanovich, for which I will be forever grateful (he was also responsible for introducing me to the brilliant "The Things They Carried," by Tim O'Brien). "Smokin' Seventeen," which I bought on its release date earlier this week, is the 17th (obviously) in Janet Evanovich's long running series of Stephanie Plum novels. She has also written a few "between the numbers" novellas to intersperse with the main series, usually centred around a holiday event such as Hallowe'en and Valentine's Day.

Stephanie Plum lives in New Jersey and, after losing her job in a lingerie factory, she takes a job working for her cousin Vinnie's bail bond office as a bounty hunter. Stephanie is very entertainingly the world's most inept bounty hunter, but her meagre skills improve marginally over the course of the series thanks to the tutoring of security expert and hottie Ranger Mancuso. Her life is further complicated as her attraction to Ranger vies with her relationship with on-off boyfriend cop Joe Morelli (also a hottie). She has a pet hamster called Rex - which is about as much responsibility as she can handle - who must, by the 17th book, be in the running for the Guinness Book of Records' longest living hamster (unless, of course, Janet Evanovich goes to the pet shop and picks up identical hamsters in between books when Stephanie isn't looking). Add to this gun-happy funeral groupie Grandma Mazur, ex-prostitute Lula and Star-Trek obsessed stoner Mooner, and you have a very entertaining cast of memorable characters.

In "Smokin' Seventeen," Vinnie's bail bonds office is working out of Mooner's van, as the office was burned down in the previous book. The reconstruction of the office has been delayed by the discovery of a dead body, topless bar owner Lou Dugan. Business is slow and Stephanie only has a couple of skips to track down, including a senior citizen who is convinced that he is a vampire. In the way of all Stephanie Plum novels, the body count increases and Stephanie herself is in danger. In this novel, the standard love triangle of Stephanie, Ranger and Morelli becomes a love square as Stephanie's mother colludes to match-make her with a school contemporary, Dave, who has returned to Trenton following his divorce.

I selfishly hope they never make a Stephanie Plum film. This is because I would like to be Stephanie Plum (I feel the same way about Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next), and I don't like the idea of someone else getting to play her. I'm probably a bit shorter, a bit fatter, a bit older and I can't do a New Jersey accent, but I still think I would be a natural because, like her, I would suck at being a bounty hunter and - don't tell my husband this bit - I think I would also find it impossible to chose between Ranger and Morelli.

I would be the first to admit that Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels follow a standard formula and they do blend into each other a little; however it is a formula that I still love. She averages one Stephanie Plum book a year - this year she seems to have upped her writing speed even further and the next one is due out in November - and I always look forward to them. They are quick, fun and compulsively readable. They are all glossy surface and no hidden depths, but that surface is fun to skitter across like an excitable puppy running on a waxed floor.