After a college graduate with a history of hapless jobs reads Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Treasure Island," she is dumbstruck by the timid design of her life. Convinced that Stevenson's book is cosmically intended for her, she redesigns her life according to its core values: boldness, resolution, independence, and horn-blowing.

A young slacker decides to live her life according to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure: "A rollicking tale, shameless, funny and intelligent" (The New York Times).

When a college graduate with a history of hapless jobs (ice cream scooper, gift wrapper, laziest ever part-time clerk at The Pet Library) reads Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island, she is dumbstruck by the timid design of her life. When had she ever dreamed a scheme? When had she ever done a foolish, overbold act? When had she ever, like Jim Hawkins, broken from her friends, raced for the beach, stolen a boat, killed a man, and eliminated an obstacle that stood in the way of her getting a hunk of gold?
Convinced that Stevenson's book is cosmically intended for her, she redesigns her life according to its Core Values: boldness, resolution, independence, and horn-blowing. Accompanied by her mother, her sister, and a hostile Amazon parrot that refuses to follow the script, our heroine embarks on a domestic adventure more frightening than anything she'd originally planned. Treasure Island is the story of a ferocious obsession, told by an original voice--"insane, hilarious, and irreverent" (Alice Sebold).

"Highly original . . . will keep you entertained in spite of (or more accurately, because of) its toxic narrator."--Library Journal

"A hoot."--Kirkus Reviews