Rules for Saying Goodbye by Katherine Taylor

September 8th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Synopsis:
An episodic look at the life of a California girl living in New York.
Review:
I do not like to give negative reviews on this blog so I will just say that I finally gave up on Rules for Saying Goodbye with only 70 pages to go. I did not like that it was a memoir [...]

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

May 12th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Synopsis:
An aging rock star buys an old suit that brings with it a vengeful spirit with a personal vendetta.
Review:
Let’s just get it out of the way. Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. His debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, is a work of horror. And not only is it damn good, it’s good enough [...]

Popularity: 28% [?]

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Tags: On Reading

Sunless by Gerard Donovan

October 4th, 2007 · No Comments

Synopsis:
Bereft and aimless, an ex-meth head signs up to test a new drug promising to cure anxiety of all kinds.
Review:
I picked up Sunless because it promised a Chuck Pahlaniuk-esque satirical romp through all the woes of our modern age, dressed up in off-kilter post-apocalyptic trappings and with an addictive prose style.
Instead, I suffered through a [...]

Popularity: 37% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

I Voted For Lacey

August 15th, 2007 · 2 Comments

I realize this is not a blog about dance. In fact, dance and reading couldn’t be more disparate activities. You definitely can’t do them at the same time.
Popularity: 11% [?]

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Popularity: 11% [?]

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Tags: On Reading

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

August 9th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Synopsis:
A young man with severe amnesia comes to realize that he is being stalked by a conceptual shark (which is much, much scarier than you might think).
Review:
What surprised me most about The Raw Shark Texts was how fast it moved. For all its high-minded metaphysical aims and experimental underpinnings, the book has the pacing [...]

Popularity: 77% [?]

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Tags: British Literature

Kiki Strike: The Empress’s Toom by Kirsten Miller

June 9th, 2007 · No Comments

Synopsis:
The continuing adventures of the Irregulars, a band of disgraced ex-girl scouts protecting the Shadow City underneath the streets of Manhattan.
Popularity: 35% [?]

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Popularity: 35% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

May 14th, 2007 · No Comments

My review of Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand is up on Blogcritics.org. Here’s the opening paragraph:
How Cass Neary, the protagonist of Elizabeth Hand’s latest novel Generation Loss has stayed alive this long is anyone’s guess. Super young, super talented and super stoned at the birth of punk below 14th Street in the 1970s, Cass [...]

Popularity: 27% [?]

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Tags: On Reading

The Taker by JM Steele

December 12th, 2006 · 2 Comments

Synopsis:
A super-stressed high school senior bombs on the SAT, blowing her chances for Harvard–until she gets a text message from someone calling himself “The Taker” and promising to get her within 150 points of perfect.
Review:
High concept premise that fails in the execution for a lack of emotional honesty insight. Perhaps fans of the Gossip [...]

Popularity: 16% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

October 23rd, 2006 · 1 Comment

Synopsis:
An autobiographical collection of irreverant essays about finding Jesus in the most unlikely places, starting with super-pagan Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
Review:
I kept hearing about this book from various people whose opinion I respected, but I was a little skeptical. I am weary of efforts to make Christianity “cool” or “relevant” or “postmodern” or [...]

Popularity: 35% [?]

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Tags: American Literature