Two Reviews, Six Novels You Need to Know About

I've been very busy lately reviewing books. This is because people send me books to review, so I read and review them. Anything else seems impolite.

Still, I have one rule about reviewing: If I don't like a book, I don't review it. This is partly because of the aforementioned polite thing, but there is also some logic to it. There have been about a thousand books published during the time it took me to write this sentence. If I don't like a book, I don't want you to know about it. I'd rather your bandwidth were taken up by books I'd like you to read, or at least by books that I would not not like you to read. Why would I bring a book I don't like to your attention? The current state of publishing takes care of bad reviews for us.

With that in mind, I've had a couple of reviews published online in the past week or three. First, my 2014 rock novel omnibus review was published at The Rumpus. I worked on this piece for the better part of a year. Names like D'Erasmo and Doyle are bandied about. Check it out.

Also, my review of Patrick O'Neil's Gun, Needle, Spoon came out a little while ago at Entropy.  Good stuffs.

To be clear, I do not, in these reviews, avoid stating what I don't like about these books. Any perusal of the links above will show that much. But if I'm reviewing it, there is something about it worth your attention to my mind.

That being said, feel free to judge my judging for yourself.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie.

 

Stuck Outside of Phoenix from All Channel Films on Vimeo.