Welcome to "Off the Shelf", a book review blog for the rest of us.
What does that mean? Well, it means we're not professionals. We're everyday readers, just like you. To use the popular phrase, we don't know much about art, but we know what we like.
The contributors to this blog have been chosen because we each read a lot of different kinds of books, and at least one of us can offer something the others can't. Sure, sometimes we'll overlap -- sometimes you might even get two reviews of the same book, from two entirely different viewpoints. But this way, we can run the gamut from mystery to romance, literary to mainstream, fiction to nonfiction. To be thorough, we won't just review the new stuff -- we'll go back and review some of the books we've already read, some we liked, some we loved, and a few that we absolutely hated.
While we all reserve the right to read and review whatever we want, in general: Lizzie is our romance, mystery, and Christian fiction reviewer. Princess Ladybug is our mainstream and paranormal romance expert. Phineas is our resident teenager, computer guru and mystery buff. Cleggy tends to read the nonfiction and literary stuff. He also works for a library, so occasionally you'll see a repost of a review he did for their Teen blog. This is not an attempt to "pull a fast one"' -- we just see it as an opportunity to give you more books to choose from.
We are all excited to have this forum to share our thought and opinions, and we hope you'll enjoy the reviews, enjoy the books, and support the authors who make it all possible.
Just a quick note about the reviews: the actual review format was borrowed (with kind permission) from Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes, the talented, hilarious and humble folks behind UNSHELVED. Please show your support and appreciation by visiting their site, reading their comic strip... heck, order something if the spirit moves ya! These guys deserve it.
See you later!
