Book Reviews Category
They’re saying good things about Speedloader (Snubnose Press)
Posted on July 20, 2011 Leave a Comment
So I’m always curious to see what total strangers have to say about my writing. Speedloader (Snubnose Press) is getting some love over at Amazon and Goodreads, so I thought I’d share the kind words that these readers had to say about my story “Herniated Roots.” So far mostly five stars, nothing worse than four, […]
My review of Zazen by Vanessa Veselka is now up at The Nervous Breakdown.
Posted on June 30, 2011 Leave a Comment
My review of Zazen by Vanessa Veselka (Red Lemonade) is now up at TNB. Great book, great new press. Funny, touching, sad, frightening, this book puts you through the emotional wringer. Well worth the ride.
My review of Drinking Closer to Home by Jessica Anya Blau is live at The Nervous Breakdown.
Posted on June 22, 2011 2 Comments
My review of Jessica Anya Blau’s hilarious, touching and heartbreaking novel, Drinking Closer to Home, is now live at The Nervous Breakdown. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book. It starts off with a ton of characters, and I kept thinking, oh man, this is going to be too soft, to […]
My review of Forecast by Shya Scanlon is now live at The Cult
Posted on May 18, 2011 Leave a Comment
My review of Forecast by Shya Scanlon is now up at The Cult. Vonnegut meets PKD, it’s a fantastic book. I don’t want to repeat everything I said in the review, but following this story from its original publication across dozens of websites as Forecast 42, to its publication by Flatmancrooked (which sadly is closing […]
Kind words about Transubstantiate at Barnes and Noble.
Posted on May 17, 2011 Leave a Comment
Some very kind words from Jed Ayers (Noir at the Bar in St. Louis) about Transubstantiate in his Barnes and Noble column today, when talking about The Dewey Decimal System by Nathan Larson (which looks like a great book). I’m honored to be mentioned in the same article as so many fantastic voices. And TDDS […]
Review of Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City by Michael Bible is now live at The Nervous Breakdown.
Posted on May 9, 2011 Leave a Comment
My review of Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City (Dark Sky Books) by Michael Bible is now live up at The Nervous Breakdown. Great little chapbook, very entertaining, a lush read. Bits of Hunter S. Thompson, a touch of William Burroughs, maybe Denis Johnson if he was lost in the desert, and a sprinkle of Tom Robbins […]
My guest post about Black Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips is now live at the Emerging Writers Network for Short Story Month.
Posted on May 5, 2011 Leave a Comment
I was recently introduced to Black Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips by my professor, Dale Ray Phillips (no relation) at Murray State University. I’m getting my MFA down there and he thought the story “Home” might help me with one of my stories for my thesis. I wasn’t expecting this work to resonate with me […]
Review of The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch is live at The Nervous Breakdown.
Posted on April 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
I don’t read a lot of memoirs. But so far this year I’ve read two, and both have blown me away. There was You Don’t Look Like Any I Know, the book about Heather Sellers, and her inability to remember faces and now there is The Chronology of Water (Hawthorne Books) by Lidia Yuknavitch. What […]
Review of Volt by Alan Heathcock is now live at The Nervous Breakdown
Posted on April 27, 2011 2 Comments
Volt (Graywolf Press) by Alan Heathcock is a linked collection of short stories. It reminded me of Knockemstiff for sure, for its rural setting, and also Sarah Court for its families overlapping, fighting and loving. The testimonial of Benjamin Percy got my attention, but the emotional truths, the revelations and understandings, the prose and the […]
Slut Lullabies by Gina Frangello review is now live at The Cult
Posted on April 27, 2011 Leave a Comment
My review of Slut Lullabies by Gina Frangello is now live at The Cult. A wonderful collection of short stories, these tales are funny, sexy, and dark, pulling you in and knocking you down. Head on over for the full review. “Van tells me one of his students has written a story about a girl […]
- Richard Thomas - 