Richard does book reviews! The Nervous Breakdown, Lit Reactor, Bookslut, OWC, The Cult and more.

My latest review is up, Daddy's by Lindsay Hunter (awesome):

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2010/11/daddys/

Also, forgot to post up The Avian Gospels by Adam Novy (surreal):

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2010/11/theaviangospels/

My review of Benjamin Percy's debut novel The Wilding is now up at TNB:

http://tinyurl.com/282fdal

When I first (mis)read the thread title, I thought, "What? Whose book review gave Richard Thomas a nervous breakdown? I'll punch him in the face."

This is a much better thread than that one would have been.

hahahaaha

and, wow how could i forget to post up my review of SGJ's It Came From Del Rio?

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2010/11/delrio_jones/

that cover art is pretty bad-ass.

for sure...kind of reminded me of hunter s. thompson's artist, steadman

it's a great book too, a lot of fun, very cool

Best book cover of the year, really. All book covers should look like this.

Had a conversation with Blake Butler about the Grace Krilanovich novel The Orange Eats Creeps. Wild book. If you like Burroughs, Evenson, and/or Erickson, this might be for you.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/01/theorangeeatscreeps/

New book review of Ethel Rohan's CUT THROUGH THE BONE. Excellent collection:

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/01/cttb_rohan/

New book review about Paul Tremblay's excellent collection, In The Mean Time:

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/01/itmt_tremblay/

This is awesome. You know I stumbled across this conversation googling and read the whole thing before I realized it was you!

I have The Nervous Breakdown bookmarked now. I'm enjoying the hell out of your reviews.

thanks so much, mirka - you just made my day - i was going to link to this via the Joshua review of it but didn't know if that would be appropriate

it's been a lot of fun, i got into it and found that shya scanlon (a great author himself, Forecast) is the new fiction reviews editor so he's been very helpful, supportive and definitely on the same page as me - i like to read indie presses, and am trying to get more eyes on the voices i love, and that's what he wants from me, his goal as well - you'd certainly love most, if not all of the books i've reviewed so far - i loved Daddy's by Lindsay Hunter, as well as The Physics of Imaginary Objects by Tina May Hall, and of course I'm a SGJ fan (will have a review of The Ones That Got Away up this month in addition to my review of It Came From Del Rio), becoming a big Paul Tremblay fan too, that was In The Mean Time, and have loved Benjamin Percy (The Wilding) for years now

thanks again for the kind words

if you follow this thread you'll get my updates here every time i post up a new review (or there's an RSS feed at TNB too)

coming up:

The Ones That Got Away by SGJ
Forecast by Shya Scanlon (at The Collagist)
Sarah Court by Craig Davidson
Slut Lullabies by Gina Frangello (probably at The Collagist)
Baby by Paula Bomer
You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know by Heather Sellers (non-fiction)
Volt by Alan Hitchcock

I posted a link on Josh's review (which I also found through Google, so funny.)

I thought 'The Ones That Got Away' is excellent! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Okay, and 'Slut Lullabies'??...I am so intrigued, what a great title!

I'll subscribe to this thread, thanks!

Very cool, thanks. Appreciate your support, as always, Mirka.

My book review of The Ones That Got Away by Stephen Graham Jones is now live up at The Nervous Breakdown. Such a great collection. Nominated for a Bram Stoker award too, on the final ballot.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/03/sgj_totga/

My review of Sarah Court by Craig Davidson is now live up at The Nervous Breakdown. One of my favorite books of 2010. So good.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/03/sarahcourt_davidson/

Hey, Richard. Sorry I haven't been in touch lately -been Super busy with Mark's intensive -it was great and lasted about 2 months because we all got into a couple of the lessons and he was cool enough to extend it for us.

But that's where I've been -Just wanted to say that I checked out The Nervous Breakdown -and Wow! Great Site, eh??

Couldn't believe it. Saw a lot of other reviews from you there as well and will be ordering some of those books. I have quite a few to catch up on, but either way -Great resource for finding out about things -Don't stop posting in this thread.

All right. Just saying hi and thanks for posting. Hope you're well.

no worries, glad you've been keeping busy, mark's a good guy, very smart - glad that you liked some of these reviews too - tnb is a great group of people, really enjoying my work there - hope you're doing good too

peace,
richard

My review of YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE ANYONE I KNOW, the touching, courageous, heartbreaking memoir by Heather Sellers is now live at The Nervous Breakdown. It's the story of a woman who has face blindness. She can't remember anyone's face. Heather came down to Murray State where I'm getting my MFA to speak, and she was so funny, a great teacher, smart, beautiful, just a really giving person. I had no idea she had all of this going on. Really endearing, her story.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/03/ydllaik_hsellers/

My review of Normally Special by xTx is now live at The Nervous Breakdown.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/03/normallyspecial_xtx/

This is the debut collection from Tiny Hardcore Press and Roxane Gay. INTENSE stuff. How intense? Well, I lead off the review with this quote:

“It is difficult to masturbate about your father, but not impossible, as it turns out.”

Read your review and it does sound intriguing, but I'm so not a fan of flash fiction.

ah, i didn't know that - not all of it is super short, but some is - great collection, i thought

Funny you chimed in, Mirka -I'm now reading The Orange Eats Creeps at your general recommendation to everyone in a thread a while back. Or at least I think it was you -didn't you rave about it? And Richard I know you had some thoughts about it -so it seemed to be a Love/Hate book for everyone and I had to get it and see for myself. I'm reading that now and Samaritan by Fred Venturini. So far I'm enjoying both -vastly different from each other and that's the way I like to have it while I'm reading. Reading a couple of others too, of course.

But on to the relevant topic -yeah I've been checking out All the reviews -loving The Nervous Breakdown and just ordered How They Were Found by Matt Bell, Cut Through The Bone by Ethel Rohan, Tina May Hall's "The Physics..." and then also Person by Sam Pink, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, and The Rules of Attraction by Ellis.

That'll all last me a While, though, so not sure I'll be able to keep up with the reviews for much longer. How in hell do you post so many reviews, Richard -you read That fast or had these all read beforehand? Anyway -Thanks for all the recommendations. I should be good for the year until The Devil All The Time and We Are Oblivion.

Thanks nathan for the kind words, I just squeeze these books in when I have spare time, which is never - shoot, if I'd known you were looking for Orange or Physics I would have sent you copies, I have an extra of each! That's an impressive list of books, let me know how you like them all.

Will do!

Even though this is HERE, adding it to the list.

My review of Slut Lullabies is now live, RIGHT HERE AT THE CULT:

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/reviews/slut-lullabies

Great collection of sexy, funny, dark stories.

haha, I saw this bumped and thought to myself 'I'm going to edit it his thread title to: Richard does book reviews at The CULT. Just to mess with you a little.

Claude:(Nathan?)I definitely had it on the top 10 list. I'm curious to know what you think of it.

oh, and Richard, I finished 'You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know' last night. Love it! I'm not sure I would have stumbled across it if not for your review so thanks very much for that!

Yeah, maybe I should alter that title anyway. I'm expanding my review base, trying to get stuff up at The Collagist, The Rumpus, Bookslut, The Believer, etc.

So glad you read that one, YDLLAIK, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. She's such a great author, and a very generous person too, met her a few times. Very cool.

Volt is live tomorrow at TNB. I know you loved A Prayer for Dying, and I think you liked Knockemstiff, so you might like this one.

My review of The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch goes live Thursday at TNB. It's a memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch. WOW. That was a wild book, you might dig that too. Sad, funny, sexy, all the usuals.

Busy week all of a sudden!

Nathan's right. Claude's an old character of mine who unfortunately Doesn't live or appear in anything that I write -ahahaha

Anyway, yeah -I have to admit that I find The Orange Eats Creeps to be an extremely challenging read, but not in a way where I find myself wanting to put the book down. That's a huge plus or indicator for me that there's "something" good about the overall picture. I won't pretend that it fully makes sense to me, yet, but I understand a lot more than I thought I would after reading the first 20 pages or so. It's Engaging, somehow, despite the challenging pace and prose, and so that much I can say about it at this time. I'll post more when I finish.

And yeah, Richard -the reviews have been a breath of fresh air for me in my never-ending search for new books to read. Glad to hear you're expanding. The Rumpus is Stephen Elliot, right? Another great writer -good website, too. Congrats on the expansion.

Very cool. So far I've read two women's memoirs this year, and I've NEVER read one previous to this (I don't think). Both were unexpectedly captivating, wild stuff, funny as hell, hot and sexy, and really sad and dark as well. Complete experiences.

What I didn't know was that Lidia founded Chiasmus Press too. Her and her husband, Andy Mingo run it.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/04/volt_heathcock/

My review of Volt by Alan Heathcock is live at The Nervous Breakdown. If you liked Knockemstiff, Sarah Court or are a fan of Benjamin Percy, you'll probably dig this collection of interlinked short stories. Rural, dark, touching. Loved it.

Sounds good -I'm still catching up on a lot of others you reviewed. And hey speaking of Knockemstiff, are you going to be reviewing the new DRP coming out in July?

For sure. It's been sitting on my desk for weeks now, dying to get into it, just have a few titles in front of it. From the Goodreads stars I see going up already, I think it's going to be somewhere between great and amazing.

BUSY WEEK.

My review of The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch is now live at The Nervous Breakdown. WOW. A great book - sex, drugs, abuse, and a fantastic literary voice. Inspirational really, powerful stuff.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/04/yuknavitch

My thoughts on BLACK TICKETS by Jayne Anne Phillips are now up at the Emerging Writers Network for Short Story Month.

http://tinyurl.com/3n4sj94

My review of Cowboy Maloney's Electric City (Dark Sky Books) by Michael Bible

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/05/cowboymaloney_bible/

is now live up at The Nervous Breakdown. Great little chapbook, very entertaining, lush read.

My review of FORECAST by Shya Scanlon is now up here at The Cult. Vonnegut meets PKD, it's a fantastic book.

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/reviews/forecast

My book review of Drinking Closer to Home is now live at The Nervous Breakdown.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/06/drinking_blau/

Not my usual fare here, but a really compelling story of family dysfunction. Loved it.

My review of Zazen by Vanessa Veselka (Red Lemonade) is now up at TNB. Great book, great new press. Funny, touching, sad, frightening, this book puts you through the emotional wringer. Well worth the ride. One of the first titles released by RL, this is the brainchild of Richard Nash, ex-king of Soft Skull Press.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/06/zazen_veselka/

My review of Cape Cod Noir is now up live at The Cult. Great collection. Loved the story by Paul Tremblay. This is a fantastic series too if you've never seen it.

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/reviews/cape-cod-noir

My review of Kio Stark's disorienting and lush novel Follow Me Down is now live at The Nervous Breakdown.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/08/followmedown_star/

My review of Donald Ray Pollock's THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME is now live at The Nervous Breakdown.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/08/devil_pollock

Dark book, wild ride, lush and depressing and raw. Loved it.

Loving this too so far -Been waiting for your review as well -Going to check that out just as soon as I finish the book. I'm well into it and want to avoid spoilers -not much further to go at all. This book got me through my recent move fiasco.

Your boy made the AV Club, too. Not too in depth of a review and it doesn't compare to the Nervous Breakdown reviews, but good exposure, nevertheless: http://www.avclub.com/articles/donald-ray-pollock-the-devil-all-the-time...

It's just good to see him there. Max Barry's new one got a review there as well.

But yeah, The Devil All The Time is damn fine writing and definitely deserves the Richard Thomas treatment at NB -Thanks for the update. The new one from Denis Johnson comes out on the 30th, too -A review on that at NB would kick ass. Not many people aware it's coming out I don't think. It's more of a novella, though -really short -called Train Dreams.

thanks for that nathan - i'm a big fan of DRP - new Denis Johnson, cool, i'll have to check that out, see if i can squeeze it in someplace

My review of Crimes in Southern Indiana is now live,up at The Nervous Breakdown. Visceral southern gothic shorts. Good stuff.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/09/cisi_bill/

I forgot to post up my review of Short Bus by Brian Allen Carr. This was a really good collection too.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/09/shortbus_carr/

My review of The Necessity of Certain Behaviors by Shannon Cain is now live at The Nervous Breakdown. Excellent collection of funny, dark, sexy stories. Winner of the 2011 Drue Heinz Prize.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/11/review-of-the-necessi...

If you liked Slut Lullabies by Gina Frangello and/or Daddy's by Lindsay Hunter, then pick this one up.

My review of Kate Zambreno's GREEN GIRL is now live at The Nervous Breakdown.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/11/review-of-green-girl-...

Emergency Press and Kate Zambreno are doing great things. Just read with her and Joshua Mohr here in Chicago, great time. Funny, dark and sexy book—my favorite combination.

My review of 11/22/63 is now live at LitReactorand I think it's Stephen King's best book in awhile.

http://litreactor.com/reviews/112263-by-stephen-king