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

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

20.7 Slipstream

Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler

Review: I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I definitely understand that it fits into the slipstream genre – it’s not quite fantasy, not quite historical fiction, and not even magical realism. It’s something in between all of that, which is fine but left me a bit antsy. I’m comfortable with realistic fiction, and I’m comfortable with fantasy. I love urban fantasy, which has fantastic elements set in a real setting. Magical realism has always left me unsteady, and so does this. The story surrounds a character who exists only at the edges – she rarely speaks, and no one really understands who she is. The setting is interesting – the west coast right after the Civil War – but the whole thing is just hard to grasp. I guess that’s why they call it slipstream.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.6 – published 1991, 790 ratings)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 1260

10.10 Group Reads

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Review: I could have sworn I read this book as assigned reading in high school, but I’m now questioning that since I do not remember having read this at all. I had it on my Goodreads list as five stars, so I apparently not only thought I read it, I thought I loved it. This time, I didn’t love it. I was frustrated with all the characters, and bounced back and forth between thinking it was a relatively progressive portrayal of the female experience. Tess is mostly a pawn in others’ (mostly men’s) games, but sometimes she takes hold of her life and makes decisions that I applauded. Occasionally she’d even say something and I’d think, “you go girl!” It is obvious that Hardy felt that certain restrictive societal constructs were ridiculous and harmful to women. On the other hand, Tess is quite obviously being used as a metaphor, and that rarely sits well with me. I doubt I’ll be reading all that much more of Hardy, although I’m glad I checked this one off, for real this time ;)

+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
+10 Oldies
+10 Combo (20.1, 20.4)

Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 1225

10.2 Scary

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Review: I decided to read Frankenstein while I was watching Pemberley Digital/PBS’s webseries called Frankenstein, MD. It took the story and made into a modern video blog type format, focusing much more on the medicine than the book actually does. I finished the series before I finished the book, so I knew the ending, but I found it interesting how much of the feedback for the series seemed to have no clue what the book was about. Even before reading it, I knew that its main theme was the hubris humanity can have about controlling nature and even death. I didn’t realized how much character the monster actually has in the book – Hollywood has made it into a caricature. I wasn’t particularly scared while reading it, but it is definitely horrifying.

+10 Task
+15 Oldies
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.5, 10.7, 10.9, 20.1)

Task Total: 55
Grand Total: 1180

20.5 Political

Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey

Review: I read The Monkey Wrench Gang in college and really liked it, so I was excited to read the sequel. I didn’t realize before reading it that Abbey wrote this one so much later and that it was actually published posthumously, and that could be part of my problem with it – I think some editing and rewriting was in order. I don’t remember tons of details about the first book, but I do know I was invested in the characters. Unfortunately, either this book is totally different or I have completely changed perspectives since then, because it read as the jumbled rantings of a horny guy who cares about the environment to the point of madness. I’m pretty sure I skimmed about half of it – I’m not sure I’d have finished except that I own the book and I wanted to claim it for this task.

+20 Task ( on American political novels list)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1125

20.6 Underrated

Unsettled Conditions by Ann Somerville

Review: After reading and loving Cold Front, it didn’t take me long to be sucked back into Dek and Ren’s world and follow their story to the end. This is a short story and a novel set a few months after Cold Front ends. The first volume focused on Dev’s emotional well-being, and now it’s Ren’s turn. This volume introduces an additional narrator, which some people seemed to have found disappointing but I was fine with it. The world Somerville has created is fascinating, and the addition of a new central character from a different planet highlighted the different religions in an interesting way. This is a super angsty book – I actually cheated by skipping to the end at one point just to have some closure – but I loved that about it. I just wish I hadn’t started it when I was on a business trip – I was a little distracted during my meetings, just wanting to get back to the story.

+20 Task (73 ratings, published 2010)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.4)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 1095

10.4 9, 10, 11 Letter Word

Girl Genius, Vol. 12: Agatha Heterodyne and the Siege of Mechanicsburg by Phil Foglio

+10 Task (Heterodyne)
Graphic Novel – No Styles

Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 1060

15.5 – BtW – Constant Traveler

The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer (pub. 1928)

+15 Task
+15 Bonus

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1030

Deedee wrote: "I looked at the link for poll 3 -- it counts Australia and the United Kingdom as "island country listed under Sovereign states"."

Ooh, that may change my vote.

In general, I personally prefer to have at least a few tasks that let me access a wide range of genres, so tasks finding words in the titles and things appeal. The Sovereign states one was my second choice because I've been trying to read up on Trinidad, and if the UK and Australia count, that'd allow accessing a wide range of genres...

20.6 Underrated

Cold Front by Ann Somerville

Review: This may be the best self-published book I’ve ever read. Somerville seems pretty prolific, so I’m not sure why it’s self-published, but I do think it might be a difficult sell – it’s ostensibly a male-male romance novel, but it’s really much much more. First off, it’s a collection of two short stories, both of which are heavier on the sex and relationship dynamics, plus a novel that reads mostly like a police procedural. The entire thing is set in a science fiction world but with fantasy elements. The world building is mostly subtly done, although it was very slightly difficult to get into at first. The first short story throws you into a new world where the protagonists meet in a BDSM club and have a one night stand, and the combination of the BDSM and the world’s terminology was a tiny bit hard to get into. In the novel, I guessed who done it well before the characters, which was super frustrating. Ultimately, though, I was fully engaged and loved this. It’s very well done and well-balanced.

+20 Task (published 2010, 155 ratings)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 1020

20.3 Thieves and Mysteries

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

Review: When I went to rate this, I noticed that there were a bunch of low ratings because it wasn’t what people expected from a Sherlock Holmes story. That’s precisely what I ended up liking about it. The first half is a typical Watson-narrated Holmes figuring it out kind of story, which felt like hanging out like friends I hadn’t seen in a while. The second half formed the background of the story, narrated in the third person, and it was a nice change of pace. The thing is, while I love hanging out with Holmes and Watson, they kind of get on my nerves after a while. This setup totally prevented that, so it ended up being one of my favorites of Doyle’s.

+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.7, 20.1)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies

Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 990

15.4 – BtW – Constant Traveler

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees (pub. 1926)

+15 Task
+15 Bonus

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 940

10.4 9, 10, 11 Letter Word

An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James

Review: It had been a while since I read the first book in the Desperate Duchesses series, so it took me a few chapters to feel immersed in the world again. Unfortunately, this second book felt like a filler – the supposed protagonists’ story made up what felt like less than a third of the book. The real stars of this series are Jemma and Villiers, and their stories come much later. The good news is that by then they will be fully developed characters, but I wish that wouldn’t have come at the expense of Poppy and Fletch.

This is a really interesting premise – the story takes place four years after a marriage, when both husband and wife have realized how much of a failure it is. It’s rare to see a couple have to work through marital problems as part of a romance novel, and it would’ve been awesome to stay in their story without being jerked out of it to see what Jemma and Villiers were up to. Poppy really needed to work through her issues – she’s been emotionally and physically abused by her mother throughout her life – but that storyline took a backseat, which was unfortunate. I’m looking forward to the next installment, which is supposed to be better than this one was.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 910

15.3 – BtW – Constant Traveler

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster (pub. 1924)

+15 Task
+15 Bonus

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 885

10.8 Comfort Read

The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan

Review: I’m having a hard time not just reading every single thing Courtney Milan has written right now – they’re all hitting exactly the right note for my current mood. This was a quick novella that sets up her Brothers Sinister series, and it’s totally sweet and interesting and wonderful. In so few pages she tells a story that’s different from most of those in the historical romance genre – the tale of two ambitious people who aren’t from the upper, titled classes. Hugo is a great hero – his development occurs quickly but still completely believably. I love that there was still enough room for Milan to develop Serena’s relationship with her sister as well.

+10 Task ( I rated Unveiled 5 stars )
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.4)

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 855

10.8 Comfort Read

Unlocked by Courtney Milan

Review: This is a short little interim book in the middle of the Turner series, which stands entirely on its own – a few the characters from other novels show up but have no bearing on the plot at all, and I can’t specifically recall either of the main characters in any of the other books. The heroine, Elaine, has been tormented by a group of what amounts to “the popular kids” since her first season, and when the originator of most of the taunts comes back after a decade away, she thinks her life, which has mostly settled down, is suddenly going to get worse. It turns out Evan has changed for the better, but it takes the two of them a while to get on the same page. It was an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story, which combines some of my favorite romance tropes, and in spite of its short length the romance is well developed. It’s purely romance – no mystery plot or anything like that – but an interlude in which nine months passes allows the story to develop and the ending to be totally believable.

+10 Task ( I rated Unveiled 5 stars )
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 830

10.9 Mythological

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Review: I’ve had this on my Kindle forever, and it’s such a classic of Fantasy (Urban Fantasy?) that I’ve been in a number of conversations in which I felt pretty uninformed because I hadn’t read it, but it took me forever to get around to it. I’m glad I finally bit the bullet – it’s a great book. Following Shadow through his journey was kind of strange – every time I picked up American Gods, I raced through it and didn’t want to put it down – but then I didn’t totally feel the need to pick it up again. I think it’s possible that because Shadow kind of just lets things happen to himself – his wife even tells him that he’s not truly ALIVE – I never felt like I needed to go back. But then I did, and I was sucked right back in. This is not a light hearted, childish fantasy – it’s definitely adult, definitely dark – but it’s also a lot of fun.

+10 Task (approved in help thread)
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (656 pages)

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 810

10.8 Comfort Read

Unraveled by Courtney Milan

Review: After finishing Unclaimed, I just decided to move on to the final book in the Turner series. I wanted to know more about Smite, the tormented middle brother. The Turner siblings went through a lot in their childhood, but Smite bore the brunt of his mother’s madness and carries more of it into his adulthood. This book was really about him much more than Miranda’s – and I was okay with that. I liked seeing a few appearances from the other people in the series – Richard Dalrymple is my favorite and I want him to have a book all his own – but it was still much about Smite and his relationship with Miranda. It was definitely a tie things up happily ever after type romance novel, but it also allowed for the characters to continue to be themselves and not miraculously healed by love. It allows Smite to have his problems but embrace them rather than be “fixed”, and that was pretty interesting to see. I’m sad to see the series end.

+10 Task ( I rated Unveiled 5 stars )
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.4)

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 785

10.8 Comfort Read

Unclaimed by Courtney Milan

Review: This is the second book in Milan’s Turner series, and I just want to keep reading all the novels and novellas that are part of this world. I’m a sucker for a broken hero in my romances, and man are the Turner brothers broken. This one deals with Mark, the youngest brother who wrote a book on chastity that ended up being a hugely popular text, spawning chastity clubs and any number of other things. Mark is the most famous virgin in his 1841 world, usually populated by rouges and rakes. The book didn’t feel quite as solid as the first in the series – some of the plot was convoluted and the pacing was a little strange – but I just love Mark. I’ve loved him a little since the first book, and I want to just keep reading about this family forever.

+10 Task ( I rated Unveiled 5 stars )
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.4)

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 760

20.6 Underrated

Point in Time by Linda O. Johnston

Review: I found Point in Time in a used bookstore near my parents’ house and I grabbed it up right away. A time travel romance set in Pittsburgh in the 1760s? Sign me up! Reading it didn’t totally hold up to my hopes, but it was still a fun book. The author clearly loves Pittsburgh, a city that is close to my heart. Unfortunately, those parts were a little distracting for me – the descriptions were so over the top that even though I agree with them, I found them hard to believe. The setting was rare – between the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War in what was then the gateway to the west – that’s interesting. The romance itself was just so-so, and the motivations behind the antagonists were a little convoluted. I’m not sure I’d pick up more by the author unless they were also set in Pittsburgh, but who knows.

+20 Task (25 ratings, published 1998)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 735

15.2 – BtW – Constant Traveler

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini (pub. 1922)

+15 Task
+15 Bonus

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 705