Reviews for the Literary Inclined discussion

Hi my name is Jessi. I just recently decided to start reviewing books in my spare time more seriously. I'm also hoping to eventually create a blog. If you are an author I will have an section just for you to post discussions about your current projects. I will also have a section just for books you want reviewed. Any other questions please let me know.

Hi my name is Nicky- Thanks for the invite! I haven't written many reviews but can't wait to see where the group leads. Also Jessi, wish you luck in starting your blog-

Thanks Nicky...I'll need it. And you don't have to write reviews maybe you can use them to decide if you want to read a certain book or not.

Hi I'm Erika and thanks for the invite Jessi! Good luck with the new group and the blog. If I can help just let me know!

Hi. I'm Carrie. Thanks for the invite! I also haven't written many reviews but i'll be interested to read them. Good luck with the new group and the blog!!

Hi Jessi - I always post a review (even if it's just a few lines) for any book I read. I'd be interested in co-moderating with you (not sure what that entails, but sounds fun!)

To all: Thanks...You guys are awesome!

@Vered: Moderating will consist of coming up with poll ideas/questions, book/author of the month themes/questions, helping with the New Releases section, and pretty much adding your ideas of something we should do within the group.

Jessi wrote: "To all: Thanks...You guys are awesome!

@Vered: Moderating will consist of coming up with poll ideas/questions, book/author of the month themes/questions, helping with the New Releases section, an..."

Sounds fun! I'm game.

Hello I am Kerry.
Thank you for the invite. I look forward to reading the reviews or even being reviewed.

Thank you Vered for the invitation to join. Hello, I'm Maya, looking forward to getting to know everybody, reading reviews and even being reviewed... ;)

thanks for the invitation....!! I'm Augustine-Sophia, but call me as you wish. I'm eighteen and I'm studying English Litterature. I'd love to meet new people and read your reviews:) Thank God there's a group for the bookworms:)

Hi my name is Maxine, I run a book club on the Gold Goast, Australia and I review books on my blog. I will sometimes read and review independent novels but I prefer to plough my way through a 1001 books you must read before you die listing. I especially enjoy 19th century fiction and I have a penchant for horror though this is diminishing as I seem to have read all the good stuff in that genre :)

Thank you Vered for the invitation. I'm Terri. My blog is mybookboyfriend.blogspot.com. I'll read just about anything except non-fiction. I'm an avid reader. I've read year to date about 180 books, a few are betas that aren't yet on GR for me to add. And that's about it.

Welcome all!!!

Hiya!, As stated above, my name is Jax,
And like Augustine said - "Thank God there's a group for Bookworms!"

Sadly, other than my husband, Very few people I know read or collect books like I do! :) (This excludes online friends made on GR)
I look forward to seeing what everyone has to say!
I mostly enjoy series, but the occasional independent novel slips in every once in a while! :)
Big Fantasy/Urban Fantasy fan - but also love books like that written by Dan Brown and Michael Crichton.
(Sorry, I'm not sure how to classify them...)

And before I start rambling aimlessly, I think I should end off... :D

@Jax: This is a group for bookworms of all genres and I liked Angels & Demons by Dan Brown it kept me completely engaged. I think you can classify them as Mystery/Thriller.

@All: I'm also hoping (to eventually) that once this group & my other group "Casting Call: Characters Welcomed" has been up and running for a while to do a contest or a challenge or something in conjunction with each other.

Hi my name is Mariah

Hi my name is Rhea,

Thank you for the invite, this group seems good. I write reviews for almost all the books I read. I have started a blog already called in-a-world-where-anything-goes.blogspot.ca/ check it out if you have time.

@Jessi: Blogspot is a great way to start blogging, its quite simple to play with and allows enough freedom to make it your own. Once your ready, you should check it out, it's Free too.

Rhea wrote: "Hi my name is Rhea,

Thank you for the invite, this group seems good. I write reviews for almost all the books I read. I have started a blog already called in-a-world-where-anything-goes.blogspot.c..."

Thank you I will....

Hi and thanks for the invite. I'm Ruby (but I'm a bloke!) and I'm an author of thrillers and reviewer of (mostly) literary fiction. I post reviews of books I enjoy on my blog http://rubybarnes.blogspot.com as well as Goodreads, Amazon etc.

Hi, my name is Catherine. Thank you for the invite Vered! I love reading, and try to put a lot of time and thought in to all my reviews. I don't have a blog, but maybe one day I will :). Until then, my reviews go mostly on goodreads or Amazon.

Hi, everybody! Thanks for the invite. My name is Monica and I'm an avid reader of dystopian, scifi in general, fantasy, urban fantasy,regency and medieval romance,steampunk, and some other genres I can't remember now :)

Hi There! I'm Jena and an avid reader. I've been posting reviews of pretty much everything I read (leaving the Dr. Suess and such that my little ones read to me out) here and on my book review blog. For years I only read Fantasy and generally just the same authors and books over and over and over again but a few years ago when I started homeschooling I decided to branch out more. Fantasy, and especially urban fantasy, is still my favorite but I went through and grabbed lots of lists of classic literature, the 1001 books list, and others and have been working my way through those books as well. Doing challenges here has also helped me to branch out and I've been enjoying it immensely. My life is a bit too crazy to help out much here but if you let me know what needs doing, I'll try my best.

Monica wrote: "Hi, everybody! Thanks for the invite. My name is Monica and I'm an avid reader of dystopian, scifi in general, fantasy, urban fantasy,regency and medieval romance,steampunk, and some other genres I..."

OMG! I feel like a moron trying to reply to your post! LOL I guess I'll learn.

What is steampunk and regency? And what's the difference between fantasy and urban fantasy?

Hi there everybody, so nice to be in a group of book lovers! Thanks for having me Jessi! :o)

My name is Vicki and I am learning to appreciate more genres than I used to thanks to GR! I now enjoy THRILLERS and MYSTERIES, dystopian, fantasy, historical romance, fiction, literary fiction, non-fiction, Christian/spiritual, and others that I don't know probably. I have yet to read a single vampire or zombie book, but my daughter and I promised each other we'll read/try one vampire book soon.

I do reviews of the books I read and post them mainly to Goodreads and Amazon.

I am an English teacher of freshmen mostly, and I am the yearbook adviser of our high school. During the school year I am pretty busy grading papers and so forth, but I am trying desperately to read the novels I want to read...painstakingly slowly due to the nature of my job. I still work harder, not smarter. :u(

Jax wrote: "Hiya!, As stated above, my name is Jax,
And like Augustine said - "Thank God there's a group for Bookworms!"

Sadly, other than my husband, Very few people I know read or collect books like I do! ..."

Hey Jax - good to see another South African on here! I have family in CT, so I'll look you up on our next trip down (I live in Kenya).

Welcome to everyone. Great to have you, and thanks, Jessi, for setting up the group. I live in Kenya, so my time zone is a bit off from most of you (except Jax!). But I usually check in at least once a day, so looking forward to getting to know you all and reading more reviews. I've picked up a lot of good books through GR.

Awesome! A 'review' doesn't have to be a major piece of work. It can even be two sentences. It's just to give other people an idea if this is the type of book they'd like to read.

Hi everyone. Thank you, Vered, for the invite to join and to Jessi, nice to meet you, thanks for setting up this group. It sounds interesting enough though I'm not sure what is now or going to be different from other groups I'm in but I like joining "at the ground floor" for a change :) I always seem to join groups after they've been around and the core membership has their "in crowd" established so it becomes hard to participate in a meaningful way. I hope that makes sense. I'm not referring to "cliques" though there are certainly enough of those groups around but rather, the "in jokes" and knowledge that come from being in a group that grows up in front of you.

A little about me for those who don't know my prolific self already. I talk a lot :) Even in writing. I post big, long-winded remarks that hopefully have a lot of meat to them but I sometimes disappear for days (or even weeks) at a time. The reason is that I have 3 full authorial careers going at once plus, somewhere, somewhen I had actually planned to start up a publishing company this year. hahahahaha. Phoenician Books may or may not happen this year, Vered but you are one of two authors who expressed interest in it if I can ever get it off the ground!

My "Friday Baldwin" pen name (this one) writes SciFi--the classic, gritty stuff that's more of the social scifi and NOT involving any kind of exploding spaceships, flashing lasers or weird aliens. It's not that I don't like those things but somehow they never enter into my stories. I write more about people than things. I have two books out in my series: a novel (Conditioned Response) and a short story/novella (When Minds Collide which is free) but I wrote the entire series back in the 1980s and am just scrambling to edit it now. I am always open to getting new reviews so anyone who likes SciFi let me know if you want to review these suckers. I've enrolled my SciFi self into RABMAD (Read a Book, Make a Difference) which means I'll donate 10% of all my proceeds, on a quarterly basis, to a cause - check out http://bit.ly/fridayRABMAD to learn more about my cause or R.S. Guthrie's RABMAD idea.

My real-name pen name writes Romantic Suspense and some Romantic Comedy. I have just finally begun my first Romantic Suspense novel this month. This is all-new material and gotta say, much more interesting to work on than editing the SciFi though my heart belongs to SciFi (get it? my heart, romance novelist...yeah, I'm usually snarkier) I've enrolled this pen name in RABMAD also but am trying not to give away the secret identity :)

I have a non-fiction pen name as well and today, just started designing my very first paperback book. Wow, what an experience! I'd love to have an area in this group to talk about book DESIGN--as in the process of laying out the content (not to discuss the content itself) and/or the different kinds of cover art and why some work and others don't. I dunno, maybe design of books is not really a topic for this group? Vered and Jessi you'll have to tell me. I just know I've learned so much in the last few days -- and I used to think I knew graphics design with typography from the 5 years I ran a web design business. Not!

Lastly, I just joined LibraryThing under two of my pen names (Friday Baldwin on LibraryThing here and you'll have to private message me to get the other one LOL). I'm signing up for the Early Reviewer program there, so as to FORCE myself to start reading and reviewing again. I've spent so much time working on my 5 projects at once -- and always seem to have 5 more waiting -- that I haven't read any new material in almost a year! *yikes*

I've probably read over 10,000 books in my lifetime (used to be a voracious reader) so I'd like to get back in the habit of reading and writing reviews. I find it's incredibly useful for honing my editing skills, oddly enough.

Thanks again for the new group and the invite to join it. I look forward to this.

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Sarajayne wrote: "Marjorie wrote: "Hi everyone. Thank you, Vered, for the invite to join and to Jessi, nice to meet you, thanks for setting up this group. It sounds interesting enough though I'm not sure what is now..."

Too much so! Sometimes, I think I should just drop one of the 3 pen names but then it starts feeling like choosing between one of three children, you know? I mean how do you choose to keep two and kill the third? *eep*

Sarajayne, if you're writing reviews, you are doing something with your writing skills! It's not easy to write a good review; in fact, it's something of an art form. Hence, why I want to revive my skills at doing it.

Hi:
My name is Donna and I want to thank Vered for inviting me to this group. I always write a review about each book I read.

I don't have the best writing skills and I often get stuck in what I want to say in my reviews. I just do my best.
Donna

Hi Everyone.

Thanks for the invite Vered. I'm a reader first, author second :-) Although now that I am writing full time (as well as being wife and mother), reading unfortunately does come 2nd a lot. I do try to review most of the books I read on GoodReads, but mostly for myself. I find it helps jog my memory about whether or not I liked a certain author's writing, so that when I come across their work again I know whether I'd like to read it.

I'll probably be reviewing a little less now, as it seems like it's not the 'done thing' to be reviewing other Indie author's work, unless you're giving a 4 or 5 star. I'd rather not review than give a false review. Sad - but unfortunately some unscrupulous authors have apparently taken to 'dissing' other author's work just because it's in the same genre and doing well, so now the rest of us have to refrain because it's seen as doing the same thing. *sigh*

I'll still be watching other reviews with interest and reviewing well established authors.

Hi I'm Sandy. Thanks for the invite, Vered. I recently started reviewing books more seriously within the last couple of months, but have always been an avid reader. I have my own blog also. :)

I review whatever books interest me, mainly Young Adult - both Published and Indie. I also work full-time so I fit reading, reviewing and everything else around that. :D

Welcome, Sandy, Sharon (don't let a few bad apples stop you from reviewing - other authors and readers appreciate it), Donna and Marj (yup, I get that ground floor thing!).

Jessi wrote: "Hi my name is Jessi. I just recently decided to start reviewing books in my spare time more seriously. I'm also hoping to eventually create a blog. If you are an author I will have an section just ..."

Please check out my book when you can on www.mokauthor.wordpress.com and leave your email and comment. I would appreciate it if you could review my book.

Hey my name is Marita but in the literary world I go by M.O Kenyan and M.O Knight (fantasy trilogy on the way) please check out my blog www.mokauthor.wordpress.com and be my friends on goodreads.

Vered wrote: "Hi Jessi - I always post a review (even if it's just a few lines) for any book I read. I'd be interested in co-moderating with you (not sure what that entails, but sounds fun!)"


Please check out my book when you can on www.mokauthor.wordpress.com and leave your email and comment. I would appreciate it if you could review my book.

Donna wrote: "I don't have the best writing skills and I often get stuck in what I want to say in my reviews. I just do my best."

As an Author and avid reader, let me just say that anyone who writes an honest review that talks about how they reacted to the book (rather than just rehashing the plot or dissing the author for lack of this or that), someone who can actually tell me the WHY behind what they enjoyed or disliked, THAT person is writing a great review IMO.

I don't care if the grammar is correct or the spelling fraught with typos, so long as I can believe the person really read the book and really is sharing with me, a fellow reader, what to expect should I choose to try to read the book as well. As much as we Authors love reviews, Donna, in the end, a review is a message from on reader to the next.


Sharon wrote: "I'll probably be reviewing a little less now, as it seems like it's not the 'done thing' to be reviewing other Indie author's work, unless you're giving a 4 or 5 star. I'd rather not review than give a false review. Sad - but unfortunately some unscrupulous authors have apparently taken to 'dissing' other author's work just because it's in the same genre and doing well, so now the rest of us have to refrain because it's seen as doing the same thing. *sigh*"

Interesting. I had heard about unscrupulous Author groups reviewing each others' books in order to give lots of 4 or 5 star reviews but I hadn't heard about the dissing of competition to make them look bad. I have heard of (and experienced) truly nasty reviewers who either give nasty shelf names (name-calling the author) or diss the author because of comments the author made in a group. In fact, I made EXACTLY THIS STATEMENT in another group a few days ago and IMMEDIATELY got shelved as "won't-read-in-a-million-years" witha sub-shelf of "authors-who-badmouth-reviewers" Really? I'm the one badmouthing there? I call that nasty behavior.

Calling a spade a spade is not badmouthing. Expecting people to behave professionally (especially the same people who expect ME to behave professionally) and not name-call others in public is not "bad-mouthing." It's called good manners and lack of tolerance for bullying. The fact we have so much bullying - online and off! - compared to 50 years ago, makes me wonder about the anarchy we are striving towards now. In another 100 years, I mean, where exactly do these bullies see their grandchildren? I don't see them being polite, saying please and thank you. I see them behaving like the bullies in Clockwork Orange. It's sad to think that might really become our future -- and THIS from an author of DYSTOPIAN SciFi!!

I need to go hug the dog now so I can get back in touch with and remember what pure love of life still exists in the world--until we euthanize all of our domesticated animals too.

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Jessi wrote: "Hi my name is Jessi. I just recently decided to start reviewing books in my spare time more seriously. I'm also hoping to eventually create a blog. If you are an author I will have an section just ..."


Hi Jessi is nice too meet you. My name is Telia but thanks for inveting me into this gourp anyway. I'm looking forward to it.

Hi everyone, Karen here. I'm an avid reader and just started reviewing the books I'm reading. The reviews are fairly short because I'm not quite sure how to write a proper review. Marjorie, your advice is very helpful as I tend to not rehash the book at all but instead focus on how I felt while reading. Looking forward to picking up more tips here! Thanks for the invite, Vered!

@Marjorie: I understand completely what you mean about core groups. As for the group that's the beauty of it, it's about book reviews of any kind. Books have covers therefore we can review them. I think what will be different about this group is that it's truly for everyone no matter which genre you read or your favorite parts about the book that you read. If you want to do reviews about book designs(or explaining the parts about it that we generally take for granted) well just let me know and I'll set up the folder. I agree with you about honest reviews. That's what I always try to do, give my honest opinion about something but I'm always respectful about it. I'm a those who can't write, review kind of person.

@M.O: I will check it out and review anything you'd like me to. Can you post that link here for me?... http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

@Sandy: Hun people are cruel and they truly shouldn't be. If you have something you'd like me to review I can do that for you and give you an honest unbiased opinion if you want. I do know one thing for sure I'm not an author for 2 main reasons: 1) I don't have what it takes to plot, start & finish a story. I do a little poetry but that it. 2) I'm not brave enough but I'm honest. That's one of the reason I applaud authors for that bravery. If one author wants to bash another author well shame on them(they should help not hurt). That is one thing this group will not tolerate and if someone does it then they are out of the group.

@Everyone: Welcome to the group. I want this group to have everything we love about books & reviews all in one location instead of having to go to this group for contemporary or that group for historical. Like I mentioned to Sandy above... The only rule I have for this group is to not be afraid to be honest but please be respectful while your doing it. That one has no exceptions & I have a low tolerance for people bashing(as in I have none).

LOL Jessi, so um, does that mean NO ppl bashing? :-) YAY, I'm glad to hear there's a zero tolerance for bullies here. Thank you.

Hi i'm niamh, thanks for the invite vered :-) i love books & love to read all types although i'm currently on a fantasy buzz :-)

Hi, everyone! I'm Jo. I'm an author and AVID reader but I don't write reviews very often. Only if something intrigues me in one way or another :) I take ALL reviews: good, bad, and ugly. I love to hear what my readers have to say. ALL I ask is that you're honest. 100% honest. If you didn't like it, say that. :)

It's nice to be in a group like this. I hope I can contribute in some small way.

If you see something of mine that you think you'd like to read, send me a message! :)

You can find my list of books here: http://jomichaels.blogspot.com/p/link...

I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys.

Thanks for the invite!

Jo

Hello! I am Marialyce and have Vered to thank for the invite. I love to read (although lately have been slacking because of a daughter's wedding and a move to Virginia from New York). I hope to get back into the swing soon as I love to read particularly in the autumn. Cool nights, a fireplace, and a book...is there anything better?

At any rate I read lots of different genre, well except the S and M and hard core erotica. I am developing a real fondness for non fiction. (currently reading Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin), but also love the classics and any new author who has kept me in awe. I recently finished and loved Gone Girl as well as The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God.

As always, I am anxious to talk about books and again, I thank Vered for the invite.

Marjorie wrote: "Hi everyone. Thank you, Vered, for the invite to join and to Jessi, nice to meet you, thanks for setting up this group. It sounds interesting enough though I'm not sure what is now or going to be d..."

I have a graphic design degree. If you'd like to chat about it anytime, contact me :)

Jo

Welcome and thanks for accepting the invites! Looking forward to picking up new books to add to my ever growing list.

Jo replied to Friday saying: "I have a graphic design degree. If you'd like to chat about it anytime, contact me :)."

Hey, Jo, thanks for the offer but I wasn't actually soliciting help or need for a graphics designer. Rather, I was thinking that both readers and authors might enjoy discussing book cover art and/or book interior designs (the way some books look so nice inside and others just look like they printed it expediently). I've done quite a bit of graphics work myself and I know I can't look at a billboard or advertisement and not have my backbrain immediately identify the font face and what parts of the layout I like...then I look at/listen to the message. It's so funny the way I "automatically" dissect designs.

I've heard a lot of readers discussing book covers on a lot of groups here on Goodreads, not so much talking about HOW TO but rather talking about the end products, after the fact - covers that are already out there, as in "I like this one" or "I think that one is so funny" or "This one doesn't make me want to read the story but I could look at the cover forever."

I just find those kinds of discussions fun and interesting.

Marjorie wrote: "Jo replied to Friday saying: "I have a graphic design degree. If you'd like to chat about it anytime, contact me :)."

Hey, Jo, thanks for the offer but I wasn't actually soliciting help or need fo..."

I am FAR from EVER being a graphics designer, but I can tell you that a cover will draw me in to a book immediately! If I don't like the cover, sometimes I don't even want to see the inside. So I'd love discussing covers, but I'll never have a good, artistic idea for one. Thank GOD for graphic designers. :o0

Marjorie wrote: "LOL Jessi, so um, does that mean NO ppl bashing? :-) YAY, I'm glad to hear there's a zero tolerance for bullies here. Thank you."

LOL I guess that was a bit vocal...but yeah I can't stand bullies...