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

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

20.9 Heretically

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo


Review: I’ve been meaning to read this for a long time, and especially since seeing the movie adaptation of the musical. I wanted to know whether the plot holes that were evident in the movie were a fault of the source material or the adaptation. In the end, I definitely fall on the side of the adaptation, with one exception – the romance. Perhaps it was simply that in the 19th century people spent less time getting to know each other before falling in love, but I was tired of reading about the love at first sight thing when I read Tolstoy, and this wasn’t any better.

But other than that, the novel is a classic for a reason. It may be long, and Hugo may drone on about things that have nothing to do with the story, but he also drones about things that are absolutely relevant – to the story, to the times, and to today. Hugo’s insights into poverty and the unfairness of France’s justice system during and after Napolean were woven between the story and sidebars. Both serve to illustrate the hopelessness that can be present in a life from birth – and how different people born to different circumstances end up taking drastically different paths. I wish his words were less pertinent today, but there is also hope present in his words, illustrated most clearly by Jean Valjean’s rise from hopelessness into love and belonging, despite the rather abrupt and not entirely happy ending.

+20 Task
+25 Combo (10.3, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4)
+15 Oldies
+25 Jumbo
+10 Review

Task Total: 95
Grand Total: 650

20.3 Pride & Prejudice

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Review: This was a book I’d heard so many good things about I feared reading it. Luckily, it didn’t disappoint. I loved this book. It was thoughtful and beautiful without being pretentious or slow. I don’t usually like magical realism, and this didn’t have anything outside of the real, but it still read like I imagine the best magical realism could – a bit creepy, a bit disorienting, and all wonderful. I don’t usually like male coming of age novels, but this had a true growth of character that is so often missing. The only thing I wasn’t convinced about was the romance, especially given Daniel’s parents’ obvious love. All in all, this was a magical, haunting tale that I would recommend to just about anyone.

+20 Task (133,946 ratings, 4.19 average rating)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 555

20.10 Initially

Lover At Last by J.R. Ward

Review: This is the eleventh book in a series I just shouldn’t still read, and probably won’t after this installment. For the last few books, the only reason I kept reading is to see two people together, and they finally did in this one. But instead of being worth the buildup, it seemed thrown together, haphazard, and unworthy. Maybe the author was shy about her first male-male book. Maybe she was just tired of people wanting it and wanted to move onto the next thing. Regardless, it was filled with a plot that meant nothing, with the romantic and emotional parts that so many fans were looking forward to crammed into a chapter or two. At least now I feel no need to continue reading a mediocre series…

+20 Task (Ward publishes under J.R.)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 525

20.4 Mansfield Park

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (1020 Lexile)

Review: I have to admit that when I read this I felt a certain amount of schadenfreude. Something about reading about absolutely horrible working conditions and quality of life made it easier to deal with my comparatively tiny problems. Perhaps I would have felt better had I not felt like Orwell actually had a chance of bringing himself out of it? The working conditions and life of someone living in the dregs of 1920s Paris and London were appalling, which didn’t surprise me. Orwell and his fellow ‘down and outs’ were resourceful and in many cases much more optimistic than I certainly would have been, but it didn’t take away from the horrendous conditions they were dealing with. The worst thing about it, however, is how many lines I highlighted because I saw direct parallels with today (too bad my ebook loan expired so I can’t actually pull any of the quotes out of my Kindle…).

+20 Task (#4 on Underclass list)
+5 Combo (20.6 – on satirists list)
+10 Oldies (pub 1933)
+10 Review

Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 495

20th Century - Chronologician

15.5 – Away by Amy Bloom (pub 1996)

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 450

20th Century - Chronologician

15.4 – Rose Daughter (1210 Lexile) by Robin McKinley (pub 1997)

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 425

20.10 Initially

No Colder Place by S.J. Rozan

Review: This Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery is narrated by Bill, and thus contains less of the caught-in-the-middle feeling that Lydia’s episodes of the series tend to – it’s much more a straight forward PI story. It’s also one that shows the author’s background as an architect, and if I weren’t one myself, I’m not sure I’d have had half as much fun reading it.

Bill is sent to investigate strange happenings at a construction site, and soon ends up investigating a crime that’s bigger than he ever expected. Crooked contractors, crooked architects – nothing is quite the way it seems. It read smoothly for me, but I had to wonder if those not as familiar with the jargon, etc. would have thought. Perfect for me, though I’m looking forward to reading more from Lydia’s perspective.

+20 Task (Rozan publishes under S.J.)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 400

20th Century - Chronologician

15.3 - Sea Swept by Nora Roberts (pub 1998)

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 370

20.10 Initially

Mountain Echoes by C.E. Murphy


Review: Mountain Echoes is the eighth book in the Walker Papers series, which I’ve been reading since the beginning. It took a while for me to start to understand the world building and to like the main character, but from the beginning the side characters have been fun. Joanne Walker, who found out not so long ago that she’s a shaman, hasn’t had much of a break since she came into her magical powers. In this installment, she goes home to the reservation where she spent the bulk of her childhood, and in many ways encounters the most brutal environment so far. People die, and she never fully triumphs over the bad guy, although that final battle is being set up – the next book is supposed to be the last. A bonus in this one is that the magic Joanne encountered was causing her to basically stop and smell the roses – a plot device that neatly allowed the author to more deeply investigate her protagonist’s personal life and feelings, and I was all for it.

+20 Task (Murphy publishes under C.E.)
+5 Combo (Murphy is a female author, Joanne is the single female MC/narrator)
+10 Review

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 345

Jenifer wrote: "20.3 In honor of Pride and Prejudice

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
> 191,070 ratings > 4.08 as of 4/7/2013


+20 task
+15 jumbo (870 pages)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 175"

Claire's a nurse and that figures pretty prominently in the book, so I'd think it would be +5 for 10.7?

20.5 Emma

Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

Review: Another book in a series – although this one is only the second. Seanan McGuire may be my favorite urban fantasy authors, and while I still prefer her Toby Daye series, this one is building up to being very interesting. This follows Verity Price, whose family is human but with exceptional training – to keep track of, protect, and only as a last resort contain threats by the non-humans living around them. Verity lives in New York and is attempting to make a life as a dancer rather than just a Price, but even by this segment the dancing has taken a backseat. Her love interest comes from a group whose mission is to exterminate all non-humans – and while his feelings may be evolving, the group’s is not, and that conflict comes to a head in this installment. The story looks to be moving out of New York for the next book, so I look forward to getting to know more of the side characters who have thus far only been introduced distantly.

+20 Task (McGuire is a female author, Verity is the single female MC/narrator)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 305

20th Century - Chronologician

15.2 - Eleven Days by Donald Harstad (pub 1999)

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 275

20.10 Initially

No Dominion by C.E. Murphy

Review: The majority of Murphy’s Walker Papers books follow Joanne Walker’s perspective entirely, so we only view the wonderful side characters through her eyes. In this book of short stories, we get other perspectives, with the longest story told through cabby Gary Muldoon. Joanne met Gary in the first book in the series, and he’s had her back ever since. This takes place between the seventh and eighth books, and we get a lot of Gary’s backstory. He’s in his 80s by the time he meets Joanne, but this story shows him in his youth and through his life prior to meeting her – which may not have been just the luck of the draw after all.

+20 Task (Murphy publishes under C.E.)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 250

10.8 Spell it Out

In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood

Review: I’d heard bits and pieces of Margaret Atwood’s relationship with science fiction: that she doesn’t like having her works called science fiction, that the SF community rejects her because of that, etc. And at a surface level, that’s true. This book is a collection of essays that she’s written about sci-fi, addressing this issue but also detailing her relationship with the field.

She prefers her works be called speculative fiction, and has elaborate definitions of what she thinks of as science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. Genre definitions in general tend to make me a little nuts, and I’m not sure I bought her argument, but I think it comes from a good place. The essays in this book were not written by someone trying to separate herself from sci-fi because she feels higher than it. Instead, she obviously has a life-long love of the genre, and is much more knowledgeable than most people about all kinds of unreal fiction, whether science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 220

20.2 Sense and Sensibility

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Review: I’ve heard Kate Atkinson described as a kind of ‘literary’ crime writer, and while I don’t love grouping books as either literary or genre, I can kind of see where the comparison comes from. Case Histories isn’t a straight forward mystery or thriller – rather, it’s like a series of interconnected stories, tales of horrible things happening to children across multiple decades, woven together until a present-day detective solves the cases all together.

The crimes are awful, worse than average because of how children are involved in each one. In the 1960s, a toddler, the family favorite, disappears without a trace. Later, a woman slaughters her husband in front of her baby – and the child’s life is never the same. In the present day, a young girl who has just entered college is murdered gruesomely, but no one knows why. Jackson Brodie happens to run across all of these cases at the same time, and his story becomes tied up into theirs. By the end, I was in many ways glad the book was over since the cases were not pleasant, but there remained some hope, some love, some starting over, that was welcome and hopeful if not outwardly optimistic.

+20 Task (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748888/?...)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 200

20.5 Emma

Sabrina by Candice F. Ransom

Review: I feel silly even claiming this, but it counts so I’m counting it ☺.

This book was one of my all-time favorites when I was a pre-teen. Part of a series of ‘Sunfire Romances’, young adult historical romance novels that each highlight a difficult time in American history with young female protagonists, the book is trite, clichéd, and predictable. But call me sentimental – I love it, as I love the entire series.

The premise is simple – a teenaged girl in Charleston, SC during the American Revolution is spunkier and more independent than her life allows. Add a love triangle that highlights the difference between her spirit and her life, then end with her choosing the path less traveled, and you’ve got the plot. But because of these books, I know all kinds of actual historical tidbits about all points in history, and I have since I was about 11. That’s success, even if it isn’t particularly original.

+20 Task (Ransom is a female author, Sabrina is the single female MC/narrator)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 170

20.10 Initially

Mandarin Plaid by S.J. Rozan

Review: S.J. Rozan’s Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series is one I like to come back to every once in a while. I first got into it because the author is an architect and so am I, but I fell in love with the characters. Each one can be read separately, although to fully understand the characters’ personal interactions, it’s best to start at the beginning.

Lydia narrates this installment, which means we get a lot of the kind of double life she leads by both being a private investigator on the streets of New York City and living with her traditional mother in Chinatown. Bill is her partner and would-be-what-if boyfriend, ready to help her professionally while wanting to fit any way he can into her personal life.

Mandarin Plaid centers on a fashion designer’s first big break and a mystery surrounding the sabotage of her dreams. Lydia investigates everywhere from the upper crust Upper East Side to the sweatshops of Chinatown, with a convoluted story that never quite makes sense, but gets tied up in the end. It would have been more enjoyable with a clearer mystery, but as always it was fun to follow the characters through the streets of New York.

+20 Task (Rozan publishes under S.J.)
+5 Combo (20.5 - Rozan is female, Lydia is the single MC/narrator)
+10 Review

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 140

20.5 Emma

House Rules by Chloe Neill

Review: This is the seventh book in an urban fantasy series that should definitely be read in order. In this one, the events of the previous few really come to a head, leaving room for future installments without making this one feel like a filler. Merit and her vampire house have made some decisions that have had consequences and will continue to have repercussions down the road. I also continue to love how much Neill cares about Chicago, making the Chicagoland Vampire series worthy of its name. With series that last as long as seven, I’m often afraid the author should have quit while she was ahead, but I’m still looking as much forward to the next one as I have for the earlier books.

+20 Task (Neill is a female author, Merit is the single female MC/narrator)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 105

20th Century - Chronologician

15.1 - The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (pub 2000)

+15 Task

Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 75

20.5 Emma

Ever After by Kim Harrison

Review: I have a love-hate relationship with this series. I've been reading it for years now, and this is the 11th book, so something definitely appeals. On the other hand, the main character annoys the heck out of me, and I'm not sure the plot will ever really move forward. A lot has happened, and there has even been a certain amount of character development, but with each installment I feel like Harrison is just enjoying continuing to build new characters, abilities, and rules into the world without any real movement. In this book, at least, the majority of side characters remain as wonderful as ever, Rachel may actually be learning something, and there is some progress on the romantic front.

+20 Task (Rachel is the only narrator/MC and Harrison is female)
+10 Review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 60