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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Review of Normally Special by xTx is now live up at The Nervous Breakdown
Posted on March 24, 2011 2 Comments
My review of Normally Special by xTx is now live at The Nervous Breakdown. This is the debut collection from Tiny Hardcore Press and Roxane Gay. INTENSE stuff. How intense? Well, I lead off the review with this quote: “It is difficult to masturbate about your father, but not impossible, as it turns out.” This […]
Review of You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know by Heather Sellers
Posted on March 19, 2011 Leave a Comment
My review of You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know (Riverhead Books), the touching, courageous, heartbreaking memoir by Heather Sellers, is now live at The Nervous Breakdown. It’s the story of a woman who has face blindness. She can’t remember anyone’s face. Heather came down to Murray State where I’m getting my MFA to speak, […]
Review of Sarah Court by Craig Davidson
Posted on March 15, 2011 Leave a Comment
Sarah Court (ChiZine Publications) by Craig Davidson was one of my favorite books of 2010. I’ve been reading Craig for years now, and am a big fan of The Fighter and Rust and Bone. Head on over to The Nervous Breakdown to read my review, but here’s a quick summary from the dust jacket. If […]
Review of The Ones That Got Away by Stephen Graham Jones is live
Posted on March 9, 2011 Leave a Comment
My book review of The Ones That Got Away (Prime Books) by Stephen Graham Jones is now live up at The Nervous Breakdown. Such a great collection. Nominated for a Bram Stoker award too, for the best in horror, collections. Best of luck Stephen. This dark assortment of haunting, emotional, layered stories is one of […]
In The Mean Time by Paul Tremblay
Posted on January 24, 2011 Leave a Comment
In The Mean Time by Paul Tremblay is a powerful collection of short stories, always interesting, with the usual Tremblay Twists, unique perspectives and layers of emotions. These stories really socked me in the gut, so head over to The Nervous Breakdown to get all of that information, see what my favorites were, and be […]
- Richard Thomas - 