BOOK NOTES by Dr. Joan Ruddiman
This is true confessions time.
I’ve never listened to a book on tape and I’ve never read a Janet Evanovich novel.
Until now.
Spring break allows for some indulgences along with playing catch-up and the desperate attempts to get ahead. On the to-do list was to go to the library, check out an audio book and read "for fun." Though all reading is fun, rarely does it seem to be in the category of pure entertainment. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels are purely for fun.
It is difficult for Type A personalities to do anything just for fun. But what we’ve discovered is that books on tape can be paired with doing something else. How perfect! "Read" a book AND commute or knit, or clean the house, or exercise. It is a Type A’s dream paired activities.
My commute is not long enough to listen to NPR news, and I sure don’t knit. Let’s not discuss house chores. However, I really need that half-hour morning walk. Like Oprah, I don’t like to exercise, but I really like how it makes me feel. Get those endorphins racing through the blood stream and feel the stress turn to energy. But listening to tunes gets old, as does the repetition of a daily routine.
Enter books on tape. The Allentown Public Library has a nice audio selection, including a number (no pun intended) of Evanovich novels "One for the Money," "Two for the Dough," etc. After reading a few covers, I decided on "Seven Up" since it is set completely in the ‘burg.
For those who are uninitiated, Evanovich’s main character, Stephanie Plum, is a bounty hunter who works for her bail-bondsman cousin, Vinnie, bringing in clients who have forgotten to show up for their court date. Ms. Plum lives and mostly works in the Chambersburg section of Trenton.
I did know this much having read reviews of the books, and interviews with Evanovich. Though I’ve never indulged, I have bought at least one copy of every one of her novels to send to the Jersey snowbirds in Florida.
Nothing, however, compares to actually reading Evanovich, unless it is hearing it read with all the Jersey accents intact.
Evanovich is not a Chambersburg native, but she got familiar with the area and friendly with the local folks when her mother had a prolonged stay at St. Francis Hospital years ago. With some savvy marketing, and a series that provides consistent levels of entertainment, Evanovich has carved a nice niche for herself in the publishing world.
And though she lives in New Hampshire, she has her thumb right on the pulse of Jersey’s world. Her throwaway lines are laugh-out-loud funny.
For instance, when Stephanie pays a professional call on the sleazy owner of a paving company she encounters several men in the office playing poker. She observes that they aren’t in suits, yet they don’t look like they are the workers. "In creased slacks and button down sweaters, they are evidence of why ‘The Sopranos’ has been good for New Jersey. People now know how to dress."
On another day, Stephanie stops to see Lunar, her quite wasted but mellow friend from high school days. He’s worried about Dougie, who lives two doors down.
Stephanie considers walking, but hops back in the car reflecting, "It’s the Jersey way."
Not only has it been fun to discover Stephanie Plum’s charms, I realize that I now am a member of an expansive Evanovich fan club. Bumping into teacher-pal Andrea over the break led to confessing to discovering Evanovich and audio-tapes.
Not only is she a fan, so is her colleague Kim. They have plans to attend Evanovich’s book signing in New York City in June since neither can make her Trenton appearance scheduled days later.
"Her books as an obsession!" Andrea exclaimed, sharing her own confession. Though she hasn’t read the books in order, she has read them all as she was just finishing "Hot Six," a copy of which was protectively gripped under her arm as we chatted.
Andrea even liked the romance novels from Evanovich’s early days. Before the wildly successful Stephanie Plum series, Evanovich (between 1988 and 1992) wrote a dozen short romance novels for "Loveswept." The objective was to get them out fast, so not much was done with character development and the plots were predictable. They were quickly out of print, but given the Evanovich name, Harper Collins has re-released nine of what Evanovich calls "red hot, screwball comedies."
As Andrea will attest, they are fun to read. They are more romance than mystery than the Plum novels, which rely on the inverse formula. However, the inklings of Stephanie Plum can be found in the ditzy main character Stephanie Lowe, who hires out as a cook on a schooner captained by a hunky man.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in actually reading (hearing) a Plum mystery is how totally bumbling Stephanie Plum truly is. Maybe I was expecting Nancy Drew who could always anticipate the next clue and was ready to cleverly piece the puzzle together. Stephanie can’t see the clue when she’s standing on it and isn’t really sure there is a puzzle to be solved.
Then there is her personal life. "I don’t know what was wrong with me. My mouth was operating without my brain." This is a reoccurring theme with Stephanie, often brought on by the dysfunction of those around her. Her mother whines, Grandma shocks, Dad grunts, sister Valerie cries, boyfriend (Yes? No?) Joe grins wickedly and shacks up with Bob the Dog who prefers Joe’s digs to Stephanie’s. Good thing. He eats the furniture.
She is a total goof, yet someone you just have to love.
But as the ads say, "Buckle your seat belts… " as Evanovich is branching out. "Metro Girl" is her latest with a new character and new venue. Evanovich still relies on what she knows. In this case, placing the action in Florida where she lives part time, and building a plot around a feisty character named Alex who is a NASCAR fan much like her own Alex who is the keeper of Mom’s Web site and right-hand daughter.
It takes a couple weeks to walk my way through a book. Then I can walk to the library to get another. What fun!
Joan Ruddiman, Ed.D., is a teacher and friend of the Allentown Public Library.

