Intellect Genre (Literary fiction) review

Invisible Cities
 by Italo Calvino

Summary:
 Marco Polo tells Kublai Khan of the cities he has seen throughout Khan's vast empire.  The majority of the text is a description of the different cities and what they hold.  Each is very fantastical and different than any other.

What makes this book literary fiction:
- Style is important, Calvino is very unique and this book is no exception
- Structure of the novel is experimental
- Not much to be said for characters in this novel, unless you consider the cities to be characters, each of them is unique and metaphorical
- Storyline is thought-provoking, unique, and philosophical
- Pacing is... well depends on how much time you want to spend dissecting each city
- Tone is thoughtful and hard to pin down, some cities are more morose and others are more happy

Read-a-likes:
- Caspian Rain by Gina Nahai
- The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch
- Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
- The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda

Sci-fi Genre Read

2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke

Synopsis:
When a black slab is discovered on the dark side of the moon (insert Pink Floyd reference here), Mankind is lead on a journey out to Saturn. With a supercomputer along for the ride, the astronauts leading the mission are unaware of what they are really looking for.

How does this fit into Sci-fi:
- Advanced space travel and technology, but also maintains a sense of realism
- Ethics reexamined in light of new technology
- Science creates an important frame of the story
- Focus of story drives the pacing, set in space so seems somewhat slow at times
- Clarke is considered a key author in science fiction and 2001 a classic.

Read-a-likes:
- I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
- Mars by Ben Bova
- Starfarers by Poul Anderson
- White Light by William Barton

Horror Genre Read

For my horror genre book, I read House of Leaves.

I gave a potent intro to the book in my kirkus style review, so here is the additional info you may need:

Characteristics that fit into horror:
- Dark mood/tone
- Monster (maybe) and a supernatural element
- Many unresolved aspects
- Protagonist haunted
- Unexpected often happens
- Evokes emotional response, though with the typical style of horror, as this book has a large philosophical aspect
- Storyline does not follow a logical order

Some read-a-likes:
- The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
- The Shining by Stephen King
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- The House by Bentley Little

Kirkus style book review

House of Leaves

Author: Danielewski, Mark

Publisher: Pantheon

Pages: 708

Copyright: 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Category: Fiction

Danielewski authors mostly works of fiction that play with typographical settings to alter the mood of the book. He has also authored Only Revolutions (2007), The Fifty Year Sword (2005), and the Whalestoe Letters (2000).

A piece of "postmodern" fiction that contains narratives within narratives within narratives and philosophical concepts thrown around like snowballs in winter, House of Leaves uses philosophy as a grounds to construct and deconstruct a horror/suspense story of sorts. Starting with the story of Johnny Truant and the tale of how he stumbles upon a written movie review and then moving into that movie review as the main text of the novel, House of Leaves has much going on within its pages. Truant gives the reader updates on his experiences through the footnotes he has included while reading through this movie review. The movie that this review is based off of adds much of the "postmodern" aspect of the book, mostly through the exploration of a house that is bigger spatially on the inside than on the outside. The movie is then critically reviewed with philosophical terms and ideas and it only gets crazier from there. Somewhere along the line Danielewski manages to throw in an unreliable narrator to make you wonder if any of what you are reading is true, text that is crossed off, pages that have only a few words on them or strangely placed text, and the idea that the book you are holding in your hands is somehow aware of it's existence as a book.

Needless to say this book is overwhelming. But after wading through it and applying oneself into truly understanding this book, it is a masterful work. If only read on the surface level, and as a light read, it would be misunderstood and hated. This book requires thought and effort, and if it is given that, the reader will receive much in return.