Blow Me Down

Blow Me Down
By Katie MacAlister

First off, this book requires some SERIOUS suspension of disbelief. The story is as follows: Kate gets “trapped” inside a virtual reality computer game about pirates by a jilted computer programmer. She experiences this alternate game world exactly like reality. Now, we’ve come a long way from the days of ATARI, but if you’ve ever played a MMPORPG you know it’s not like reality. (I know I’ve just revealed my true level of geekiness by using that acronym…)

Back to the book – aside from being totally ridiculous, I kind of enjoyed this book. It’s basically a period romance set in “pirate times” (I made that up because I have no idea when it was actually supposed to take place), except it’s actually set in the present but the main character gets trapped in an alternate reality based in the past. The book was fresh and funny, and at its heart is a twist on the classic boy-meets-girl story. Well, girl gets trapped inside pirate video game and meets boy pirate only to discover that he’s really the creator of the pirate video game and is also trapped and they band together to fight evil pirate who’s actually a computer programmer in real life and they fall in love… It's a fun, light read - and the cover is very bright and summery if you care about that sort of stuff.

Wildcat Wine

Wildcat Wine
By Claire Matturro

Trashy mystery books with sassy female heroines are for me like a piece of carrot cake with cream cheese icing that I had once as a child. I remember it as being the single most delicious thing I have ever eaten and I am constantly trying (and failing) to replicate the experience. No cake is ever quite moist and carroty enough. No icing quite creamy enough. I still love carrot cake, but each first bite is always a little bit disappointing, no matter how good the cake is, because it can never live up to my memory of the perfect piece of carrot cake. I think my obsession with the genre can also be traced back to my first Nancy Drew book and that moment when I realized that I loved Nancy Drew and that there were like fifty more Nancy Drew books that I hadn’t even read yet. I could spot those yellow covers in any library, bookstore or yard sale from twenty feet away… I still have my prized Nancy Drew collection stored at my parents' house.

I digress. Wildcat Wine: it’s got a lot of right ingredients – not carrots in this case, but a neurotically endearing young heroine – yet it doesn’t really live up to its potential. I liked Lilly, who is an obsessive-compulsive litigation lawyer - although she's no Nancy Drew. Matturro did a good job of building the plot so that I hadn’t figured it all out by page 10, but when it all finally came together it made sense. Matturro tried to build a bit of a romantic element into the plot, but it really fell flat and detracted from the book for me. All in all it was a good mindless read.

Empire Falls

Empire Falls
By Richard Russo

I really loved this book. Empire Falls is about a town of the same name and Russo has created an unforgettable cast of characters who inhabit the town. His characters are vibrant and engaging, and the book is much more character driven than plot driven. My only criticism is that I found the plot itself to be disappointingly predictable. There were a few moments that I suspect were intended to be “twists” but their foundations had been laid so obviously that there was no real surprise. I've never read anything else by Russo but I’ve added his other books to my “to read” list because I enjoyed Empire Falls so much.

I’d be interested to hear whether anyone who has read this book has also seen the mini-series based on it. I had it in my hands at the video store last night, but I put it back because I didn’t want to taint my experience of the book in case it was poorly done.