Howling Frog Books

The Invisible Man, by H. G. Wells I've read most of Wells' short SF novels--even The Food of the Gods --but I missed The Invisible Man.   Griffin, a brilliant physicist and an albino (that's important), discovers a way to make himself completely invisible!  He thinks it's going to be great.  He'll be able to find out anything, take anything he likes.  The entire story is about how wrong he is; being invisible is terrible.  Griffin is an utter outcast from humanity.  His hold on sanity was probably not too strong in the first place, and invisibility makes him completely selfish and full of rage.  He is more of an angry ghost than anything else, and all he can do is terrify people. This is the final title for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge!  I'm done!  It's been fun, and I never would have read and enjoyed The Phantom of the Opera without it.

Dracula , by Bram Stoker When I put Dracula on my list of classics to read this year, I was kind of excited to finally get around to reading such a famous story.  I am clueless enough that I had no idea who Van Helsing was supposed to be, much less Mina Harker, who doesn't get a movie named after her.  After carefully examining the movie poster just now, I much prefer the literary Dr. Van Helsing.   I may have to watch the movie though, because it looks terrible , and I kind of like terrible movies.   (Although it makes me very sad that Kate Beckinsale, who started off adorable and fun to watch and a favorite of mine, has turned into a generic pseudo-Victoria Beckham.) Anyway.  The novel.  It's all documentary!  The whole book is comprised of journal entries and letters, meant to give the story that authentically-reported atmosphere that was so popular in the Victorian era.  There is a sort of ensemble cast of men, plus two lovely,...

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , by Jules Verne I've never read Jules Verne before, so the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge was a good chance to get around to trying one out. It was pretty enjoyable; I was slow to get into it, but after a while I was very interested. What a story! I read a different version than most people see. Back in the early 90's, the Naval Institute Press came out with a new translation, complete with annotations and plenty of nice lithograph illustrations. It's a big book, and a bit unwieldy. The important thing was the new translation, which is much more exact and includes all the original material. I was surprised to learn that the usual English version of 20,000 Leagues is about 75% as long as it ought to be. Much of the technical and descriptive material was just left out or skimmed over. The notes of my edition were pretty ticked off about this, and had a lot to say about how scholars have criticized Verne over and over for his ...

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain It's been a very, very long time since I read about Tom Sawyer! I really had fun reading this book, and I'm sure I appreciated it much more this time around. It's very funny, and just such a great picture of a young boy. I wound up requesting the audio book for my younger daughter, who probably couldn't handle the reading quite yet but will love the story. I also checked the sequels out and will probably read them; they sound a bit more Jules Verne-y than this more realistic (if very improbable) story. This was a selection for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge! That takes me to 6 out of 9. I checked 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea out of the library, so that's next.

The Picture of Dorian Gray , by Oscar Wilde Everybody knows the story, so I'm not going to say much. I was not a fan this time around (I read it years ago in college). The character that was pretty interesting was Lord Henry, and you don't get to know him well at all. He never says anything that isn't a well-polished epigram, and he manipulates people as a hobby. He is truly, seriously evil behind his facade, and you'll never know him. Or maybe you do get to know him in the new uncensored edition, but I stuck with the copy I've had for 15 years, and that's OK for me. This is a re-read title for the November's Autumn Challenge. Maybe.

Great Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, selected by John Dickson Carr Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about a squillion adventuresome short stories, and the best of them are collected together here. There are a couple of Sherlock Holmes tales, but the rest are stand-alones with the exception of one Professor Challenger story. Several are rather how I imagine Jules Verne stories must be, about fantastic adventures in the air or under the earth. Others are sporting stories about boxing and so on. I liked most of them. "The Final Problem" is not included in this collection, but I read it too. It is the single Sherlock Holmes story featuring Holmes' intellectual equal, Professor Moriarty. Unfortunately, since Doyle really only wrote it in order to kill Holmes off, it wasn't all that interesting. Holmes talks a lot about the Napoleon of crime, but all that really happens is that Moriarty follows him to Switzerland and they disappear. It's pretty disappointing, but ...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , by Robert Louis Stevenson I ran into this yesterday at work and since it's so short, I just picked it up and read it in an afternoon for the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" challenge. It's hard to know what there could be to say about such a famous story. Foolish Dr. Jekyll wants to indulge in his private vices without besmirching his reputation, and he comes up with a drug that allows him to bring the evil side of his nature to the fore, transforming him into Mr. Hyde. All too soon, Hyde gets too strong to be controlled. Hey, look! A paperback cover! Sadly it is not as racy as a proper pulp cover should be, but I'll take it.

The Phantom of the Opera , by Gaston Leroux I did not know that this was even a book. When I was about 16, the Broadway musical was a big hit and most of my friends lived in the grip of Phantom-mania. I never saw the show or the movie, so I was pretty clueless about all of it. But it turns out that originally, it was a mystery by one of the original detective-story geniuses! The Phantom of the Opera was published in 1910 (in French of course), and it wasn't very popular at all, but the film adaptations did much better. The story is told by a detective who does relatively little detecting in the story; mostly he just narrates the information he has gathered. It is the story of the young Swedish singer, Christine Daae, the young and romantic aristocrat Raoul who loves her, and the "Opera Ghost" who is obsessed with her. He has a deformed face which makes him an outcast. He is also diabolically clever and entirely insane. I enjoyed the story, which is more Gothic tale ...

King Solomon's Mines , by H. Rider Haggard It's the first book for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Challenge! I gather that Allan Quartermain, the narrator of this story, is the leader of the League. King Solomon's Mines was the first book about Allan Quartermain, but it was so popular that Haggard wrote another 15 or so stories about him. I've only ever read one Haggard book, and it wasn't a Quartermain story. Quartermain is an expert hunter living in South Africa, and he's approached by a couple of men who want to search for a lost brother. It so happens that Quartermain knows that the brother went searching for King Solomon's Mines, and he is also the sole possessor of a 300-year-old map to the mines. So off they trek, across veldt and desert and mountain, until they end up finding a lost civilization. Their noble bearer Umbopa turns out to be the lost rightful king, so he gets the support of several generals and they all depose the evil usur...

This one is not quite my usual thing, and it looks like a lot of fun. I have never seen the 2003 movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," but evidently it gathers heroes from several novels and pits them against two literary villains. The challenge is to read every character's book. Here are the rules: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read the original book featuring each of the main characters and post a review of each between 1st January 2012 and the 31st December. Every single one of these books is out of copyright (which is how they could be used in the first place) and so are free for download on most e-book readers. Even if you don't complete the challenge, it's great fun watching the film and knowing a little more about the characters! The main characters and their books are: Allan Quatermain from King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard Mina Harker from Dracula by Bram Stoker Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under The ...