Cory Day’s Comments (group member since Aug 18, 2012)

Cory Day’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.1 FYTS: Time Traveler
1966-2016

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall (published 1966)

+15 Task

Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 585

10.7 First Letter

Cop Out by K.C. Burn

Review: Cop Out was a weird book for me to read at this point in my life. It opens with Kurt’s getting hurt in an explosion, and his work partner (he’s a homicide detective) is killed. When Kurt realizes that he never knew Ben, down to the fact that he had a husband, he is devastated but makes it his mission to get to know the widower, Davy. In the process, he falls in love, realizing for the first time that he’s gay, and they end up with a happy ending. As a recent widow myself, I really really would have liked it if some of the chapters were either written from Davy’s perspective or at least some of the issues Kurt brings up were explored. For example, it’s pretty clear that Ben’s closeted nature had the effect of emotional abuse on Davy, but he works through those issues completely off-screen and it almost seems like they were brought up simply to make it okay for Davy to get involved with someone new so soon after loosing his husband. Regardless, it was a decent book and I’m mildly interested in reading the sequel someday.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 570

Ok, I'm trying to line up getting copies of the books, but in general the things on the list that I haven't yet completed for this season's challenge and/or have multiples lined up are these:

10.7
10.8 (I'll have the book in hand on Wednesday)
20.6 (I've slated a WWI book)
20.7-20.10

Looking forward to it!

Karen Michele wrote: "Would everyone be fine with the diagonal suggested by Don in post 6? It seems like a good one because we could each write a review for the first book we read in July and have that square finished r..."

I like that idea. I haven't looked to sync up what I'm reading with the Bingo card yet, but I'll try to do that today :)

20.2 The Gods!

The Just City by Jo Walton

Review: In The Just City, Jo Walton tells a story in which the gods of the Greek pantheon, who exist out of time and space, create the Just City as Plato envisioned it. Located on an island that would eventually succumb to a volcanic eruption, becoming the legendary city of Atlantis, Apollo and Athena pull famous, semi-famous, and should-be-famous adults from across time to be “masters” and buy ten-year-old slaves to form the basis for their society. Both become members of the group of children, but Athena chooses to simply take human form while Apollo choses to become incarnate, losing his powers and feeling truly human (although keeping his memories). Told in alternating viewpoints among Apollo, a child named Simmea, and a Master named Maia, it’s identifiably written by Jo Walton. She has a style that I can’t quite describe, writing somehow in an almost clinical, methodical, bordering on boring way that nevertheless manages to be completely engrossing. My biggest disappointment was that the end was very abrupt and the sequel is set twenty years later, but I’ll be picking it up at some point anyway. I kind of fell a little in love with her version of Apollo.

+20 Task (it revolves around the Greek gods, and two of them are main characters)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 550

Hi everyone! I'm glad to be back and this will be a fun way to really come back to the group. :)

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 174 Cory Day wrote: "10.7 First Letter

Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Review: Shades of Gray didn’t really stick with me all that much, although I did enjoy ..."

You're right... I'm sorry! Too many books of the same name! I'll edit the post just to make sure it's right :)

20.9 Political

Special Interests by Emma Barry

Review: Special Interests is maybe half romance novel, half political process novel. It definitely gets into the weeds on how Washington, DC works, so if that’s not interesting I’d definitely recommend against reading the book. The romance was in some ways very well developed and in other ways not at all, and the same goes for the characters. I think I have a hard time with contemporary romances in general – it’s maybe harder to suspend disbelief and buy into falling in love within months. Granted, it’s been a long time since I’ve been on the dating scene, so maybe it could happen – who knows.

+20 Task (politics on main page)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.7)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 520

20.1 South America

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

+20 Task (born in Brazil)
Lexile 580 – no styles

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 485

10.7 First Letter

Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan

Review: I love everything Courtney Milan writes – it doesn’t matter if it’s her best or worst book, I’m going to sink into it and want to reread it. Prior to this one, one of my favorites was actually a less popular novella in which the hero had completely wronged the heroine in the past, and this novel has a similar theme. My biggest complaints about the execution of Once Upon a Marquess is that the ending didn’t really live up to the buildup, and I saw the twist coming a mile away. Like all of Milan’s books, however, she set up the side characters so well that I’m totally looking forward to all of the planned sequels.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 465

20.7 U.S.

The Bells of Times Square by Amy Lane

Review: I’m not sure this was really the best book for me to read at this time in my life, but I made it through. From the beginning, you know it’s not going to have a happy ending – the entire story is about a lost love. What I didn’t really realize is that the vast majority of the story is set in the past – ostensibly, the book is about two relationships (the grandfather’s in the past and his grandson’s in the present), but really it’s pretty much only about the past. Gay romances set in the past are difficult for me even when they’re not actually doomed, since the obstacles to a happy ending were just so insurmountable. Regardless, it’s actually a well-written and touching story, with a decent amount of hope in spite of the grim reality of the tale.

+20 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 445

10.7 First Letter

Shades of Gray by Brooke McKinley

Review: Shades of Gray didn’t really stick with me all that much, although I did enjoy the read. It’s the story of an FBI agent who falls in love with the key witness in the high-profile case he’s working on. The witness, Danny, is a criminal, basically middle management in the drug trade. Agent Miller Sutton has been denying he’s gay for years, and really shouldn’t fall for his charge anyway. The situation is kind of unbelievable, but McKinley wrote it well, and the end was well earned. I wish it were a series, but the author hasn’t even written any other books, which is a shame.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 415

20.3 Winners!

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (Lexile 800)

Review: I wasn’t paying attention when I put this book on my to-read list, since when I started reading and saw it was a novel in verse I was totally surprised. I might not have picked it up had I realized that – poetry and I have a complicated relationship – but I really enjoyed it. I think it’s possible I missed some of the beauty, since I have never been great at slowing down and listening to the words in my head, but the story Lai tells is beautiful and tragic and just a little hopeful. I know it’s partially autobiographical, but I still kind of wanted a sequel, just to see the connective tissue between the child described in the book and the adult writing today.

+20 Task (Newberry Honor 2012)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.7)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 395

10.7 First Letter

Somebody Killed His Editor by Josh Lanyon

Review: Josh Lanyon has become comfort reading for me, and this one was actually available at the library! The first in the Holmes and Moriarity series is basically a locked room mystery with lovers reunited, and it’s fun if a little predictable. Christopher Holmes is a writer with just the right amount of cranky, and J.X. Moriarity is an ex-cop with just the right amount of swagger for me. I look forward to reading the second book, since this had a lot of plot involving Kit’s being accused of murder and getting locked in his cabin. The side characters were a trip, and so was Kit’s makeover, too.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 360

20.4 Go for the Gold!

Ink by Isabelle Rowan

Review: It’s been a while since I’d read a vampire novel that wasn’t part of a series I started years ago. This is in a lot of ways not all that much different than a lot of the “fated love” type of books that proliferated around the time of Twilight, but it is definitely better written and deeper than most. I found myself not loving that trope all that much, and it kind of prevented me from fully engaging in the story. I did like the characters and their backgrounds – I’d just have preferred that the central romance revolve around more than “we need to be together so I’ll become a vampire after thinking about it for a day.”

+20 Task (set entirely in Australia)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.7)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 340

10.3 Holiday

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

+10 Task
Lexile 750 – no styles

Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 305

10.9 It's Personal

Alex by Sawyer Bennett

Review: Alex is the first in a series of books chronicling the love lives of a fictional hockey team in Raleigh, NC. It started out really interesting to me –gruff hockey player with a bad childhood meets a well-adjusted therapist. At the beginning, they got to know each other, were intrigued, talked, explored, and took it slow. I didn’t mind when they started having sex, because they were both interested adults, but from that point forward it seemed like they used sex to communicate at the expense of true understanding. It was still a cute romance, but the characterizations felt rushed in the second half of the book.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 295

20.4 Go for the Gold!

Tigerland by Sean Kennedy

Review: Tigerland is the second in the Tigers and Devils series, which follows Simon and Dec through their lives as a couple. In the first book, they got together and the closeted Australian rules football player Dec was publicly outed. Their relationship has survived years after, and this one finds them settled and happy, but an old nemesis threatens their happiness. This was a nice change from the high stakes of the previous romance series I’d been reading, and it’s interesting to read about a gay couple in Australia. I always assume the US is kind of behind the times in terms of western culture with things like that, but it turns out we have gay marriage before Australia, and it sounds like maybe the macho culture is worse there than it is here. I wish the next in the series could have Simon and Dec get married, but it isn’t to be – yet.

+20 Task (set entirely in Australia)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 275

10.4 Opposite Lists

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin

Review: The Nanny Diaries reminded me of a show called Odd Mom Out that I watched last summer, which technically came after this but has a similar tone. I liked the show better, but I guess I can’t blame this book for not giving me that same thing, since it came first. I don’t love the genre of books that blasts rich Manhattanites – I’d rather blast them myself while watching The Real Housewives of New York (I have a thing for Bravo) – but I didn’t get the impression this was aiming to be more than it was, which was mostly fun. Still, it was super cringe-inducing, and when I found out the sequel follows up ten years later after the main character has married the love interest in this book, I started nitpicking all the characterizations. I doubt I’ll pick up the sequel, especially after peeking at reviews.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 245

20.7 U.S.

Part & Parcel by Abigail Roux

Review: When I read this, I thought it was the final book in the Sidewinders series, and therefore the final book where I could hang out with Ty Grady and all the guys who are so important to him. I’m really glad it’s not actually the last one, but it would have worked as one. This is a road trip novel, and has all the surviving Sidewinders (plus Zane) doing basically a scavenger hunt for their dead comrade. It made me wish Eli hadn’t been dead from book one – he would have been a great addition to the crew. Nick deals with a lot – I’m beginning to think he’s Roux’s favorite character rather than Ty or Zane – and has to face up to himself, his decisions, and all of the complicated relationships in his life. He comes out of it more solid in his relationships with Ty and Kelly, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. One criticism I read about this book was about some of the clunkier dialog, and I noticed it too, but I think Roux is trying very hard to be sensitive to all kinds of sexualities, even if it means having the crew have an almost clinical discussion of their own feelings. I’m okay with that, and honestly I could see some of those conversations actually happening with these characters anyway.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.7)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 225