To my readers,
My book reviews, especially those for Bookpleasures.com, are often long and more detailed than the average ones you’ll find on Amazon, for example. Since I read many more books than those I review, I thought a few words and ranking about other books might help readers sift through the chaff to find the grain. Information is useful, even in abbreviated form.
Another reason for adding this blog category is that I just don’t have time to weed through all the new features on Facebook and user-unfriendliness of Goodreads. Since my blog is RSS’d to Goodreads anyway, this seems like an alternative that provides the same information to readers and is user friendly to me.
Finally, what I read and what I review is part of me, take it or leave it. I’m often cynical about what’s going on in the publishing world and that cynicism creeps into my reviews (see my review of Deaver’s 007 entry, for example). I expect that this will happen even in these mini-reviews. Expect some politics sprinkled around too—when I can’t resist (I’m not as caustic as Stuart or Colbert).
Don’t look for these reviews on any regular basis. My reading often goes in spurts, so reviews and mini-reviews will come in spurts too. They will all be catalogued here, so, if you wonder about an old book a few years down the road, you might want to check here. Most of these books will be eBooks. These mini-reviews will not appear on Amazon, by the way. I have no desire to compete with any Amazon reviewer who is out to win the “king of reviewers” title—I’d rather be writing!
With that wordy preamble, here are my first mini-reviews (be forewarned, some of these books are old; also, my stars are not given so freely as those you might find on Amazon):
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