I am currently reading (in all my free time) A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf, and Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall, edited by Kate Bernheimer. In A Room of One's Own Woolf opines on the reasons for the severe lack of literature by women in the history of the western world. Writing in the early twentieth century, she points out that without the adequate resources that most male writers take for granted and some time and space in which to reflect on one's thoughts and actually follow through with writing them down, women who could become brilliant writers instead end up lost in laundry and dishes, or at best, some awesome writer's mistress, wife, or sister. Bernheimer, on the other hand, compiles a selection of today's women writers to reflect on the impact that fairy tales have had on their own writing experiences. She chooses women from around the world, from different walks of life, and who work in different genres. What a difference a half century makes, huh?
So what does all this have to do with J.D. Robb, perhaps better known as Nora Roberts?
Well, for starters, she was one of those women without a room of her own. Before she began seriously writing she was a single mother making money any way she could, holding down a variety of different jobs to support her two small sons. Once she decided to jump in and do it, to write for a living, it took a lot of work, a lot of patience, and as she says, the mandate in her house that while she was writing she was not to be disturbed unless there was fire or blood. Obviously her boys were a bit older than my 9 month old.
But she did it. She found a room of her own in her own way and has become quite a prolific, best selling author.
Of course, I had no clue about any of this when I first picked up her books as a young woman looking for the romance that I did not have in my life in paperback novels. I just like the way, as one reviewer put it, "Nora Roberts can sure spin a tale."
Now, after working academically and professionally on literature for seven years, much of my reading (again, in all my free time) is academic. I read to expand my knowledge of the world, to stay fresh in my various fields of literature and education, to flesh out my understanding of subjects with which I am not familiar, to engage the Spanish and French language sections of my brain, and so on.
But in the middle of it all, when the reading becomes overwhelming and my brain feels like it will not expand any more in this moment, it simply cannot take any more information or learning, I turn to Death.
J.D. Robb's In Death series is just fun, fun, fun. I have come to enjoy those books more than I do any television show I follow, because in the same way that a book is better than the movie on which it is based, the In Death series is like a television series that is crying out desperately to be made, if only so we fans can lament the fact that the show can never be as good as the books. These books are witty, gruesome, action-packed, even a bit educational, with a little bit of solid romance thrown in.
Eve Dallas, New York Lieutenant 50 years in the future, the main character, is as badass chick as they come, and her husband, a billionaire businessman/reformed mastermind criminal hailing from Ireland, is a badass in his own right.
The relationship between these two, and among them and the other major characters in the series, of which there are many, is simply striking. The character development is constant. And the ability of Robb to come up with a new, riveting yet disturbing murder scenario plot is pleasantly surprising.
In short, if you haven't turned to these books when you are yearning for a quick paperback read, you should.
I know I'm looking forward to my next escape into that fascinating fantasy world.
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