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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607002018003 | Adult Fiction | MITCHAR | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Mitchard's 'Still Summer' plunges into terror By Carol Memmott , USA TODAY Secure your life preserver. Tie yourself to the mast. It's late August, but it's still summer, and Jacquelyn Mitchard is taking you on a thrill ride you won't forget. Mitchard made her mark in the literary world in 1996 whenTheDeep End of the Oceanwas chosen as the first pick for Oprah Winfrey's now-legendary book club. Since then, she has written six other novels, but none matches the suspenseful pitch ofStill Summer. It's a tale of terror on the high seas, but this is noPirates of the Caribbeanwannabe. Readers know something terrible is going to happen, but Mitchard ratchets up the suspense by allowing her story to unfold at a leisurely pace. She painstakingly fleshes out her characters, because as readers will discover, their temperaments and personalities are as crucial to the story as the mounting disasters. Tracy Kyle, Holly Solvig and Olivia Montefalco, lifelong friends in their early 40s, charter a yacht and two-man crew for a sailing vacation that will take them from St. Thomas to Grenada. The trip starts out as an innocent adventure in paradise until two accidents in quick succession strand the women without their crew. What else can go wrong? In a word, everything. The engine conks out, the sails are torn, lack of electricity spoils their food and limits their drinking water - and then there's the injury to Holly's leg. Nature's fury, murderous drug dealers and, possibly most deadly of all, their own frailties and secrets are added to the list. Readers will wring their hands with frustration, weep with sadness and second-guess the choices these women make. But since characters must do the bidding of the authors who create them, we can only sit back - or sit on the edge of our seats - and let Mitchard's terror-filled tale wash over us.
Author Notes
Jacquelyn Mitchard was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 10, 1957. She studied creative writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1976, she became a journalist and eventually achieved the position as lifestyle columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper. Her weekly column, The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, appeared in 125 newspapers nationwide until she retired it in 2007.
She is the author of children's, young adult, and adult books. Her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club and was named by USA Today as one of the ten most influential books of the past 25 years. It was also adapted into a movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Her other adult novels include The Breakdown Lane; Twelve Times Blessed; Christmas, Present; A Theory of Relativity; The Most Wanted; Cage of Stars; and Still Summer. Her children's books include Starring Prima!: The Mouse of the Ballet Jolie; Rosalie, My Rosalie: The Tale of a Duckling; and Ready, Set , School! Her young adult books include Now You See Her; All We Know of Heaven; and The Midnight Twins series.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestselling Mitchard offers the harrowing tale of four women lost at sea and pitted against nature and a cohort of contemporary pirates. Tracy, Holly and Olivia have known each other since high school, when they were glamorous, popular troublemakers. Twenty-five years after graduation, the three women, plus Tracy's 19-year-old daughter, Camille, set out on a "reading, sunning, gossiping" trip aboard a luxe sailboat helmed by a two-man crew. But a storm leaves the women adrift with no sail or engine and their co-captains gone overboard. With limited sailing experience, failing radio equipment and a rapidly diminishing cache of food and water, the women are vulnerable to the worst threats the Caribbean can offer--the elements, sharks and, most troublesome, pirates. This fast-paced novel borrows qualities from several genres--suspense, survival epic, coming-of-age--and mostly succeeds in melding the better aspects of each, though Mitchard has a surer hand in creating women characters than men. Mitchard's fans will appreciate this high-stakes adventure. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
Popular novelist Mitchard (Cage of Stars) continues to explore family relationships, this time adding a twist of high-seas suspense. Best friends since high school, Tracy, Olivia, and Holly plan a reunion cruise on Olivia's yacht, along with Tracy's adopted teenaged daughter, Camille. The cruise unravels through a series of small missteps and betrayals. After a slow beginning, with chapters alternately highlighting the tensions between Tracy and her daughter and the twisted path of a group of drug dealers, the story comes alive as the four women find themselves lost at sea and fending off modern-day pirates. Fans of Mitchard will be pleased. Recommended for large fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/07.]-Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll., NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.