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Wants to read Sherlock Holmes & the Christmas Demon

Wants to read Sherlock Holmes & The Three Winter Terrors

Rated Shortpacked!, Vol. 1: Brings Back The Eighties 7/10

Wants to read Snow Crash

Rated Count Zero 10/10

Rated The October Man 8/10

Rated Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection 8/10

Wants to read King of the Rats

Rated The Domestic 6/10

Rated False Value 8/10

Rated A Rare Book of Cunning Device 6/10

Rated Broken Homes 8/10

Rated Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows 8/10

Rated Real Tigers 8/10

Rated The Gospel of Anarchy 8/10

To expect Taylor to devise an entire philosophy out of nothing along with the novel itself would be naïve. Expecting fiction to arrive completely out of the imagination misunderstands the act of writing. Even the most speculative or avant garde fiction hopes to connect with its readers, and readers connect when they can identify. The best fiction contains so much truth and honesty, but affords itself the benefit of creating its own facts. Taylor took an existing philosophy and manufactured a world to surround it. He lived in Gainesville between 2000 and 2004, and the description of the university town drips with humidity and rising mercury. The pressure builds in each character in a way that mimics the Florida summer. Borrowing from an existing group of people is no less valid than borrowing from an existing city.<br><br>(full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2011/07/gospel-of-anarchy-by-justin-taylor.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>)

Wants to read The Kremlin's Candidate

Rated Red Sparrow 8/10

Wants to read Desiccated Water

Wants to read My Name Is Markham

Rated A Second Chance 10/10

Rated The Honourable Schoolboy 6/10

Wants to read Portraits

Wants to read The Very First Damned Thing

Rated Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event 6/10

Starting to think that Men Are Weird Around Bernice is the theme of S2, but still enjoyable.

Rated The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy 4/10

Ugh. This could have used some.... strong guidance from an editor as to what was necessary to include. The times that the author references herself could have worked if this was written as a mix of analysis and memoir, but instead, it was more like an uneven mixture of decent analysis paired with conjecture with the occasional, "And then I did this/liked this/talked to this person." It was really uneven, and I wanted to be charitable and give it three stars because music commentary is indeed subjective. There was so much padding in here that was -supposed- to be cultural context, but it felt tacked on as an "Oh shit, gotta make this book a certain length" at the end. <br><br>There are strong bits, and I love this album, but overall I don't recommend buying this book.<br><br>(Full disclosure: I received this book for free via NetGalley.)