Janet Evanovich is a writer of women’s fiction, aka romance novels, except for her ‘By the Numbers Series’, which also appeals to men, teens, adults, and the elderly.
The series is also known as the tales of Stephanie Plum, and the books’ titles are based on numbers such as: “One For the Money”, “Two For The Dough”, “Three to Get Deadly”, etc.
The 16th book of the series is slated for release June 22nd, 2010.
Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series is one of the most popular works of fiction in recent memory that has crossed the barrier of women’s fiction to a large, loyal male readership.
http://www.evanovich.com/
Ms. Evanovich has also accomplished a most treasured feat of having her Stephanie Plum come to life on the big screen next year.
In Movie Theaters: TBA, 2011 (Development)
Directed by: Julie Anne Robinson
Starring:
Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum
Jason O’Mara as Joe Morelli
Daniel Sunjata as Ranger
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Genres: Drama Crime Mystery
http://www.themovieinsider.com/m1037/one-for-the-money/
Those of us who are rabid fans of Stephanie Plum have speculated for years on the casting should it ever be made into a movie and the actors chosen are not exactly the people her fans would have chosen, but we’re willing to wait and see.
Other books made into movies, such as “An Interview With A Vampire” suffered similar complaints with the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat, but that worked out nicely and fans of the books were appeased.
Stephanie Plum is a comical character whose life is filled with crazy mishaps and humorous catastrophes once she begins the life working for her cousin Vinny as a bounty hunter.
She has a pet hamster named Rex that lives in a soup can within an aquarium, and she keeps an unloaded gun in the cookie jar on her kitchen counter.
Joe Morelli is the roguish Italian cop that she’s known all of her life and eventually becomes her on-again, off-again boyfriend.
Ranger is the dark man of mystery, always dressed in black with a sketchy background and sketchy heritage, who owns a security company Rangeman Inc. and he saves Stephanie from several hilarious and not so hilarious adventures.
Stephanie is from the ‘burgs’ of Trenton and the book is filled with a zany cast of characters, plus a dog named Bob.
There’s Grandma Morelli with her ‘evil-eye’ and Grandma Mazur who always carries a loaded gun in her pocketbook and has been known to shoot the chicken on the platter during family meals.
There’s Stephanie’s nemesis Joyce Barnhardt that boinked Stephanie’s husband on her dining room table, leading to a very short marriage and quicker divorce.
Eventually Stephanie meets and saves a prostitute Lula, who is one of the most beloved characters in the series.
I’ve always thought that Sandra Bullock would make an exceptional Stephanie Plum and Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock should be Ranger.
Alas, that is not to be, but I’m willing to keep an open mind.
I am hoping that Cloris Leachman will be cast as Grandma Morelli and Betty White as Grandma Mazur.
As for Lula, I think that one of my favorite actresses – Queen Latifah – would be prefect for the comedic part.
I started reading the Stephanie Plum books several years ago and my husband would always hear me laugh out loud. By the time I was on book 4 of the series, he had to read them to find out what was so funny and he’s been a fan ever since.
And he laughs out loud, too.
So, if you’ve never read them, I would suggest that you give them a try, and see if they’ll make you laugh out loud, too.
I’ve read ’em all, the best Stephanie Plum’s were books 2-8. The first was too serious and complicated, but she hit her stride on #2. By now, Ms. Evanovich is on auto-pilot, cranking out boring retreads of her better books. But when she was on, she had it going good.
Hi, audadvnc! It’s so great that you found an older post–I’d missed this one.
Thanks, javaz! I’m always looking for good reading recommendations. And I’m seriously thinking about an iPad so that I can carry thousands of books with me at a time. I’m definitely putting these on my list.
Hiya Nellie!
If you like mindless comedy, you’ll like the books!
And as I wrote to KQ, the stories do get better and better as they progress.
Even my 87 year old mother-in-law loves the books as do my brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.
Once Lula comes in and I think she begins in the 3rd book, things really start to roll on the humor.
I wish I could tell you more, but don’t want to ruin anything in case you do read them!
377 people (out of 580) gave it 5 stars on Amazon. So I’m stoked!
Wow!
I just love them books, as does my husband, because they are silly things, but they do make us laugh and laugh out loud.
There’s other ones in the series, and those are actually quite funny, too, but I wouldn’t recommend them at this point.
But they are the “in-between the numbers” and they are more imaginative.
I had hoped that others had read these books because they are so much fun and fun to talk about and the series really is wildly popular.
Have you ever read Nora Roberts? Or her series under her pseudonym JD Robb?
I collect all her books and am re-reading one of her series for the 5th time, and I just love them.
The JD Robb books are a futuristic series and really not that far into the future -2050 is when they start, and those are really good murder mysteries, and more like that old TV series ‘Hart to Hart’.
My husband has read a few of those, but he prefers the Janet Evanovich because of the humor.
Another really fun book is “Agnes and the Hitman” by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer.
That one is very close to the Evanovich series, and I’ve read others by the pair but they weren’t as good as “Agnes and the Hitman”, but that’s another good one if you like murder mysteries with humor and a touch of romance.
Don’t a lot of murder/mystery books, even by male authors, have a touch of romance?
John Grisham has romance in his books as does Dean Koontz.
Romance novels have a bad reputation and yes, there are many that do deserve it, but there are many that do not.
That’s one of my complaints in how women authors so often get the romance writer reputation whereby the books are actually quite good and so many in-depth/researched history wound around fiction, so they don’t get the respect that they should, imho.
Javaz I will check it out based on your recommendation. I’m a sucker for comedy and romance I hate to admit.
Hey KQ – the romance part in the series is secondary more or less.
It’s not the main focus of any of the stories.
The first book is more of an introduction to all the zany characters and the books actually do get better as they progress and more exciting.
There are some nail-biting endings in some, but they are simply more fun than anything else and a good escape from the serious issues.
I’ve never heard of them, javaz. I need something light and hilarious. A good sprinkling of roguish Italian cop could never hurt either unless there is a heavy Brooklyn accent involved.
I think you will enjoy these books as they are truly hilarious and you fall in love with the characters from the get-go.
They are just fun entertainment, easy to read – you can pretty much read one per day if you have the time – they do not require any thinking, and they are just laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Another thing, once you get it into them, is the dilemma of when the series finally ends, since all good things must come to end, is who do you want to see Stephanie end up?
Morelli or Ranger?
I honestly cannot decide!
LOL
Sounds like Lost. Jack? Sawyer? Jack? Sawyer? Jack? Sawyer….