Book Review: Heathens by Jonah Bergan

“I get it. In my own work, I often talk with students who feel like they are pushed down and pushed down by life. This is often a manifestation of the power and oppression dynamics that exist in our own world.” -From the Gaming For Justice review of Heathens.

Reading and Gaming for Justice

TW: death, oppression and violence based on sexual orientation

Can one angry boy save the world?

I have not read a more accurate tagline in a very long time. Heathens by Jonah Bergan follows Holden, an extremely angry teenager in the aftermath of the fall of civilization as we know it. This is a ‘young adult’ low fantasy, dystopian novel, but is definitely more on the violent and explicit side of young adult novels.

The book follows a teen Holden as he bands with others in a dystopian world in order to survive. The United States fractured over the polarized fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Once the government fell, Texas took most of the Midwest, creating the Republic of Texas, and a Christian based faction took over the Northeast. The United States retained some land in the south. And for Holden and other members of the LGBTQ+ community it is all…

View original post 692 more words

A Letter to Aspiring Book Reviewers A Blog Series

8: The Long Form Book Review:

In the last post we discussed the structure of the review and looked more closely at the commercial format. We discussed the appropriateness of posting a commercially formatted review at a retail website, and we very briefly discussed the long form review and why it belongs at your blog. If you’ll remember, the distinction between these two formats is that the commercial review serves as an endorsement of a book, whereas the long form review serves as the discussion of a book.

In the long form review you can explore the characters and the plot far more deeply than the author could or should in the blurb. In the long form review you can discuss some of the questions raised and some of your emotional experience of the story. You can and should discuss how the book related to something in your own life. In the long form review you are at liberty to expand on what you feel is important for a reader to know—about the story, the theme, or whatever it was that touched you or inspired you about the book. Remember, when looking for a book to review you are looking for a gem. You are looking for a thoughtful novel that provokes an emotional response. Among the many reasons for seeking such novels is the fact that you will be required to think about it, to write about it and to spend your time with the novel in question. Another good reason is the opportunities such a novel provides to you.

A Letter to Aspiring Book Reviewers A Blog Series

7 Two Texts For One Review: The Structure of the Indie Book Review

You have your notes, you have contemplated and considered and gathered your thoughts. Now it’s time to write. Don’t write directly onto your blog. Don’t write directly into the form field at Goodreads or Amazon. Use your word processor, or a pen and paper if you’re that sort, and write. Just write. If the book was great, no doubt you have a lot to say, and you should write every word of it now. Then edit. Then revise and rewrite and reconsider. Then do it again. Remember, reviewing is like writing because it is writing. Writing is drafting and editing and polishing over and over and over again. Do this until you have two finely polished texts.

Yearning for new Stargate episodes?

From The Verge: The long-running science fiction franchise Stargate will be returning later this fall with a new digital show from MGM called Stargate Origins. The announcement was made [ recently ] at San Diego Comic-Con, during a 20th anniversary retrospective on the series Stargate SG-1.

I’m Not Ashamed to Admit…

A fun and earnest commentary by Kelly Jensen, a fun and earnest author!

Kelly Jensen

There’s a link floating around Facebook that takes you to a list of books you should be probably be embarrassed to admit to reading. I ticked off sixteen out of the hundred. My score would have been way higher if they’d listed every book by some of the authors, particularly John Grisham and Jackie Collins.

I’m not one to brag about having read anything, mostly because I read for pleasure and really hate the idea of judging anyone for what they do for pleasure. (Plucking the heads off kittens and equally disgusting and bizarre hobbies would be the exceptions here.)

View original post 687 more words

A Letter to Aspiring Book Reviewers A Blog Series

6: Reading to Review:

At the outset, quite a few aspiring reviewers will read the full book, and then set out to summarize the story and the experience as though “the reading” and “the reviewing” are separate functions. They are not separate functions at all. You are not reading for entertainment, you’re reading toward a purpose. You’re reading to prepare yourself to write on a topic, that being the book you chose. You’ll need to express the emotional experience presented in the book and although you may also need to discuss the way the book made you think about this or that, in the review of any work of fiction, it is the emotional experience that is key. Your own thoughts and feelings should guide you to your conclusion regarding the work. It should guide you to how many stars you offer, and it should guide you to what you have to say in your review. Here’s how to do that:

A Letter to Aspiring Book Reviewers A Blog Series

5: Responding to Book Review Requests:

You’re reading now. You’re reading a lot. If you do too much in one sitting, if you read too many blurbs and previews, one after the other, you may find that instead of reading with a sense of hopeful anticipation, you are beginning to feel impatient and maybe you’ve started dismissing books without giving them a fair chance to capture your imagination. If you find yourself in this situation, you can give yourself a break while still making progress. You can respond to some of the authors who requested reviews of books that you’ve decided not to review.

A Letter to Aspiring Book Reviewers A Blog Series

4: Choosing Your First Book To Review

In the last post we discussed getting your “leads,” by posting to one or more threads in the various Goodreads groups that relate to the genres that interest you. In this weeks post we’ll discuss the way to follow up those leads with a mind toward finding a good, great or mind-blowing book to review.

One of the first things you’ll notice while browsing the responses that your post has generated is that indie authors are typically quite bad at following directions. You’ll have messages in your Goodreads in-box, and responses within your post, even if you asked the authors to use your contact or submission form at your blog. Bear with them. Don’t by-pass a book because the author is a little clumsy like this. Chalk it up to the fact that like most people, Indie authors tend to be rushed and hurried and even a little awkward where self-promotion and marketing is concerned. They tend to miss the details. You might want to give those authors who did follow your directions a little edge (priority) but don’t skip the others, there might just be a gem waiting there for you.

Review of How to Surround Yourself with Idiots and Bring About the Fall of a Vast Galactic Empire: A Memoir By Darth Vader

Hailed by many as evidence that Lord Vader, a man widely known as the enforcer and the right hand of the Emperor, was in fact an undercover agent of the Rebel Alliance, “How to Surround Yourself with Idiots and Bring About the Fall of a Vast Galactic Empire” speaks not in support of the publisher’s claims, so much as to undermine any such claims. It must be remembered that the working title of this piece was: “My Personal Empire.” The posthumous renaming of the work smacks of a purely profit-driven agenda. It is an insult to those brave sentients of the Rebel Alliance who fought for the lives and liberties of galactic citizens everywhere.

J Scott Coatsworth and “The Great North”: Review

Anna Butler

You know, I always thought of Scott as a temperate zone kind of guy; a Californian sun lover, even. And yet here he is, talking about the icy desolation of the Great North. And shivering, likely. I know I am, but that’s the Great British summer for you: hot sun one day, November-like rain the next.

Anyhow, I’m delighted about Scott’s visit here today. Scroll down for a thinky post on the rewards of writing from Scott, and for a review of The Great North from me.

Dwyn is a young man in the small, isolated town of Manicouga, son of the Minstor, who is betrothed to marry Kessa in a few weeks’ time.

Mael is shepherding the remains of his own village from the north, chased out by a terrible storm that destroyed Land’s End.

Both are trying to find their way in a post-apocalyptic world. When the two…

View original post 1,795 more words