This is How I do It: Book Reviews

Just a quick note before I launch my first real Book Review here on site. Basically I've done reviews where I just spew a squeegasm onto paper and tell you all how awesome the thing is.
However now I plan to do things a little differently. I'm trying to focus on providing a review with good presentation that gives you a snapshot of the book without spoilers, that highlights my experience of the book, while still allowing for your own interpretation. I refuse to put spoilers in my reviews, because I hate tripping over them when I troll the web for new material.

At the top and bottom of each book I'll give a "Grade" this is my personal subjective opinion on where the book ranks in a 10 out of 10 scale. This hinges on a lot of things, an authors past works, my expectations of the novel, writing craft, and whether the overall story grabbed and held my attention.
There will glowing reviews, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't love reading and want to share my passion, but in fairness there will be critical reviews and yes, even the dreaded Bad Book Review.

I'm also toying with the idea of a semi-frequent post titled 'Calling to the Carpet', a chance where I will tackle with blistering honesty a particular book failing. I'm reserving this for sections where the writing just didn't stand up, when the craft fumbled. I don't like to focus on the negative, but I think we can all remember at least one time as a reader when  a book failed so dramatically that we actually felt betrayed. (This happens much more often to me at the movies!) These moments deserve at least an accounting, and even if nothing ever comes of it, at the very least there will be those of you who empathize and appreciate the vicarious venting.

That said, let's move on to our first Book Review in the new system, a book I've reviewed before, but I liked it so much I wanted to kick off the new review section with a real winner.
Head on to the next post for "Blackbirds"!

Bad Book Reviews!

I'm launching my 'Bad Book Reviews' here now!

What qualifies a book as being a 'Bad Book'? Typically these are the books that have done well enough to earn a following of hatred.

 I'm open to suggestions, but the books must meet these criteria. One, the book needs to be pretty well known. Two, no self pubs, horror or excessively violent books, no non-fiction or politics. Three, I reserve the right to reject any and all recommendations. Four, I'm looking for books that might appeal to people, yet managed to still go wrong. Books that completely tanked for being terrible got there for a reason. I want books, that like certain 'B' movies, find there way onto shelves over and over, despite being terrible.

Got any ideas? Thus far on the chopping block are '50 Shades of Gray', and 'Twilight'. I've already read both, but I'm waiting on 50 Shades to do a comprehensive overall review of the trilogy.

So give me your suggestions! What are some terrible books out there that manage to sell? What books do you want me to critique with no holds barred honesty? Give me ideas!

Intentions

I apologize for not having more new content up here. Blogging is one of those odd little activities that I wind up having a lot of feelings and plans, but I find myself juggling doubts and worries as well. It becomes one of those semi-competitive things where it isn't that I want to be better than the other blogs I read, I just don't want to be that much worse.
I'm a pantser, fly by the seat of my whimsy sort of blogger, but I started questioning that too. For while I want to maintain the freedom to just climb up on my blog and say whatever I'm thinking about, I recognize that in sitting down, typing something out and hitting send. Well... it's not the best way to present quality writing.
Then my brain starts to worry that people who read my unedited and sometimes sub-par blogging will assume that this is how I WRITE, and dear god they're JUDGING ME! What if they assume my book (which isn't even finished or being shopped yet) is TERRIBLE based on my mad slapdash approach??

This led to me not blogging, anything, because after I wrote it I'd set it down to edit 'later' and then I'd spend all my time editing, revising and writing on my MS that the blog entries just got abandoned. So clearly that much planning isn't going to work either.

So I'm going to compromise. I'm going to write my blog posts nicely, and neatly as I can in Word. I'll check my spelling and commas like a good girl, and then after a quick copy edit I will post them with the understanding that this is NOT my best work, but I am saving my best work for my actual novels. I'm not saying I'll deliberately put anything here that's not a unique idea, the writing I put here I am to have good content. I just don't have the sort of focus to regularly update a blog with perfectly polished entries.

Books are easier. Books I plan the end and middle and beginning before I start, I poke and prod and write and rewrite. My blog is more a stream of consciousness ramble that starts out with a point, eventually gets there, then sometimes continues on to a new question. It's not the prettiest most planned thing in the world.

But frankly, I need it. I need a place to write the words that are topical and important to me without having to worry about if it'll still be relevant in three weeks or a month, or a year. I want to write about what matters when it matters so I can work these thoughts out in catharsis, and maybe even spawn a meaningful discussion.

I intend to have more regular content here. I intend to link to other blogs that are relevant and interesting. I intend to do vocal, interesting, and possibly NSFW book reviews. (If I review a book with profanity, there might be profanity in the review. If I review erotica, there will be discussion of sex scenes. Don't be scared.) I intend to rant about possibly triggery subjects like rape culture, the phenomenon of 'the creeper' (related), and how to be less awkward in public (A process I'm still learning.).
I will probably discuss depression/anxiety/OCD my specific problems with those, how they relate to writing. I also hope to use this space for occasional musings on things that I love, things that inspire.
It's very likely that I won't hold myself to any sort of specific format, some posts might be long, some short, others might simply be a link and a quote to something I think is thought provoking.

All said and done, my goal is to use this space, to add to my scope here, and not just limit the freedom of my thoughts to twitter. This will be me, uncensored and not super focused. It'll be me trying to gather my thoughts, internet wandering, writing, and reading to one place so anyone interested can join me. Hope you enjoy that.

Additionally... this is like a New Years Resolution. I really hope I can stick to it. :-)
Liz