Tag Archives: adventure

Feb16

Something Wilder by Christina Lauren

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Something Wilder by Christina Lauren

Lauren, Christina. Something Wilder. Simon & Schuster, May 17, 2022 ISBN 1982173408 384 pp. $22.99

****

This departure from Christina Lauren’s romantic comedy oeuvre is an unputdownable adrenaline-fueled rush. In typical fashion, a past flame reappears and the passion is reignited. Lily Wilder, daughter of a famous rancher, expedition leader and amateur treasure hunter, lacks the funds to buy back the old homestead. She was in love once, for five months, with a sweet city boy who returned home to care for his injured mother and never called, wrote, or returned. She fills her time with horses and hookups. Leo Grady, love of her life, shows up ten years later with three friends for a canyon trip she and her friend Nichole are leading, and both Lily and Leo are utterly shocked.

Lily puts on a good (staged) show, following in the footsteps of the infamous bank and train robber Butch Cassidy, with her clients solving puzzles and ciphers as part of the tour. Things go wrong when one of the party reveals he want to treasure hunt the missing fortune for real.

“I feel like we’re in The Goonies,” says one of the characters about halfway through. It’s an apt comparison: there is a property to be saved, a pivotal map, puzzles to be solved, a budding romance, two groups of loyal friends, Reddit-fueled incels instead of the Fratellis, a high speed chase, and a kidnapping and escape. The sparks between Leo and Lily are palpable, and the romantic bits will speed up your pulse as well. The canyons of Wyoming are rendered in wonderful sensory details and the ending is satisfying, if predictable.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #SomethingWilder from #NetGalley.

Feb18

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

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Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Mariner Books, 2003. ISBN 978-0156027328 326 pp. $15.95

*****

I’m reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It’s a great book! Here’s the premise: a 16-year-old boy, Pi Patel, who practices Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, emigrates to North America on a cargo ship with his mother, father, brother and the animals formerly of the Indian zoo where his father was zookeeper. The ship capsizes, and all are lost save Pi, a wounded zebra, an orangutan, a spotted hyena, and a fearsome 450-lb. Royal Bengal tiger, who take up temporary residence on an eight-foot-wide, 26-foot-long lifeboat. Soon only Pi and the tiger are left. How he manages to stave off becoming meal fodder while surviving adrift at sea for a long period of time occupies the majority of the book.

I am a person who can only take so many Gary Paulsen adventure-type stories. However, I can’t put this book down, cutting into my prized sleep time to steal just a few more moments each day with Pi and Richard Parker (the tiger, an unfortunate victim of a paperwork snafu saddling him with such a name). Aside from the adventure component (which, given the presence of a hyena and a tiger, plus the necessity of eating whatever comes to hand, can get a bit graphic), there are thoughtful treatises on the treatment of zoo animals and the merits of each of Pi’s three chosen religions, all seasoned with Indian sensibility and humour, and a twist at the end that upends everything you thought you had learned about the book while reading it.