Read Along: Week Two - "A Night in the Lonesome October"

"Why are you growling, friend?" Jack asked. 

I shook my head. I was not sure. (18)

This week Snuff has been meeting with other watchers and trading information.

One of the other watchers got into a tight spot, and Snuff saved her, showcasing the relationship between the watchers. Of course, their masters are still competitors, but "it's too early in the Game to begin eliminating players" (41). Of course this rescue counts as another favor and favors are to be traded like information. It's a very reciprocal system and each of the watchers obey the unwritten rule. 

One of the Things in the master's house has the ability to shapeshift and keeps attempting to woo Snuff by transforming into different types of dogs, which is increasingly funny as we read Snuff's commentary about all the elements the Thing got wrong. All of the Things are trying to escape, using whatever trickery possible, but Snuff is too good of a watchdog for that. 

We meet the Great Detective, who is investigating some murders and grave robberies. Perhaps the players of the Game are to blame. Who knows what type of "ingredients" they are collecting! There were some hints that point to the possibility that Dr. Frankenstein is involved, which would explain the grave robberies at least. 

All in all, a very exciting week full of mystery and humor!

Read Along: Week One - "A Night in the Lonesome October"

While week one of October was a short one, it was definitely an exciting one in the Night in the Lonesome October read along. I’m having a hard time only reading one chapter a day because I want to learn more about this exciting life of Snuff, the watchdog and narrator!

In the first three chapters, I specifically enjoyed seeing Snuff from three different sides: first, with his
interactions with the antagonizing Things; second, with another watcher (a cat no less!); and third, with his master, Jack (and later his new acquaintance, Needle, a bat).

It’s the relationship with Jack that has me most invested and quotes like “He had donned his cloak and said to me, ‘Snuff, fetch!’ And from the way he said it, I knew that it was the blade he required” (11) only add to the intrigue.

Slowly but surely, we get to see more of Snuff and Jack’s mission – they go out collecting ingredients every night, and on night three, we learn that a new player has entered the “Game,” though we do not know what the game is.

I’m still only reading the chapter on the day I'm supposed to, but it's a only been a little tease so far with chapters less than three pages.

You can follow the read along on Twitter (#GoodDogSnuff and @ChiReviewPress).

Read Along: "A Night in the Lonesome October" by Roger Zelazny

“The last great novel by one of the giants of the genre.”  —George R. R. Martin

“Jack the Ripper meets Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, and a few other choice individuals in this romp through the annals of literary horror and mystery. . . . Zelazny’s quirky humor and Wilson’s appropriately creepy drawings complement each other in grand style.”  —Library Journal

Apparently it is a tradition among Roger Zelazny's fans to read A Night in the Lonesome October one chapter a day during, you guessed it, October. The chapters are even aptly titled "October 1," "October 2," etc. So this month, I'll be joining the Chicago Review Press in doing a read along!

Today I met Snuff, a watchdog and the narrator of the novel. It is his job to help his master, Jack, as well as keeping watch, of course. Together, they are the keepers of curses and their work is "very important." I don't know much else yet, as the first chapter is only two pages long!

If you have a copy, grab your book and read chapter one—it's October 1st! You can follow our adventure on Twitter (#GoodDogSnuff and @ChiReviewPress). I'll be updating weekly as we progress through the book.

Review: "The Story Keeper" by Lisa Wingate

A story within a story, Lisa Wongate's The Story Keeper follows the adventure of a New York editor following a mysterious manuscript to its roots in the Blue Ridge mountains.

The novel weaves Jen's history growing up in the Blue Ridge together with the story of Sarra, a local legend all the way back to the person Jen thinks may have written it - renowned author Evan Hall. It's no easy task for her to try to contact the reclusive author, who retreated from public eye after his mega popular fantasy series developed a cult-like following.   She also must confront some of her own uncomfortable memories. Her family is living in poverty, trapped in an endless cycle of overspending, under-educating, and being trapped by an oppressive religion.

The manuscript that Jen discovers appears in sections through the novel. As she reads the story, we read along with her.  She was hooked immediately and very attached to the manuscript after only the first two chapters, but it wasn't until later in the book I began to appreciate it as much as the story being told around it. 

This novel definitely worth reading for any book lover out there as its message is crucial: Everyone has a story. Someone just needs to care enough to share it.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Tyndale for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "The Story Keeper" by Lisa Wingate

This week I received The Story Keeper by Lisa Wingate in the mail from Tyndale.

As I'm about to start a job at a publishing company, the synopsis of this book immediately caught my attention. A successful editor starts a new job and finds a dangerous story in the slush pile. The editor follows the trail of the book to discover the "book's hidden origins and its unknown author."

Sounds exciting! I can't wait to get in to it. Look for my review on the blog soon!

Review: "Just My Typo" by Drummond Moir

"If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." (266)

As is to be expected, Just My Typo by Drummond Moir is a novelty, flip-through type book.  Though I do love a good typo, this book didn't hold much beyond what a blog post or Buzzfeed article might contain.  Moir broke the typos up into chapters of similar types: literature, historical/political, legal, Bible, and even autocorrect typos to name a few.

In some cases, the book told a story about the typo, which were my favorite part.  Specifically, I enjoyed examples of typos that made a reader misinterpret the text so completely.  A Harvard literary critic analyzed a passage from Melville's White Jacket that read "soiled fish" instead of "coiled fish."  He wrote "rather gushingly, that 'hardly anyone but Melville could have created the shudder that results from calling this frightening vagueness some 'soiled fish of the sea'" (11).

In a later example, a misprint in a Bible leads a preacher to discuss what "I am fearfully and wonderfully mad" meant, as the "e" had been left of "made" (141).

Most of the book though was repeated examples of the same type of mistakes, such as four separate examples of when "pubic" was used instead of "public." I get that these are funny because of the serious nature of the documents they usually occur on, but I don't need to see it four times to get it.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Interview: Kyle Tennant of "Unfriend Yourself"

A while back I posted my review of Unfriend Yourself, a book about the implications of social media use and how it has changed us and our communication.  It was a book that challenged readers to go three days without social media to reflect on how it affects our lives, especially through our relationships with others.

I've just come across this interview with the author, so it might be worth a read if you're interested in it at all.  He reiterates some of the important messages of his book, namely how some people use social media to replace face-to-face conversation.

The Blessings and Curses of Social Media: An Interview with Unfriend Yourself Author Kyle Tennant