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"!