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Joe’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Joe’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Joe Kraus’s Followers (135)
913 books
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156 friends
14,750 books
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3,859 friends
6,798 books
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5,051 friends
1,830 books
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34 friends
4,664 books
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731 friends
417 books
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221 friends
1,405 books
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201 friends
12,593 books
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1,088 friends
More friends…
Joe Kraus
Goodreads Author
Member Since
June 2009
URL
https://www.goodreads.com/joekraus
More books by Joe Kraus…
Joe’s Recent Updates
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Joe Kraus
rated a book liked it
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This is my third Richard Matheson novel in a quick span. It’s also probably the last of his I’ll ever read. This one at least does show some good thriller skill. We have a “protagonist” whose dark past comes back to haunt him when his old pals in robb ...more |
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"I confess I am a friend of fellow Chicagoan John O'Connor, whose book, Streets & San (2025), the winner of the Illinois State Poetry Society book of the year for 2025, I just read through once, journaling my way through my own responsive stories to s"
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Joe Kraus
rated a book it was ok
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| This is not a good book. From what I understand, it’s the second pulp novel that Richard Matheson published, just months after his first, the stronger Someone is Bleeding. That one works the femme fatale trope with skill if not with particular ethica ...more | |
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Joe Kraus
rated a book liked it
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This re-released mid-century noir novel makes me ask what should probably have been an obvious question: is it possible to write about the femme fatale without veering into full-on misogyny. Dave is an uncomfortable stand-in for a novelist writing his ...more |
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Joe Kraus
rated a book really liked it
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This is a play. Or maybe it’s a monologue. Or maybe it’s an adaptation, as the title page says. Or maybe it’s a an edit. In any event, it’s a powerful work that has the benefit of making Mihail Sebastian’s journals more accessible. I have a 600-page e ...more |
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Joe Kraus
rated a book it was amazing
The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder through Science & Poetry
by Maria Popova (Goodreads Author) |
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What a terrific book. I had heard of science writing, of course – I am even in the middle of another of the excellent Michael Pollan’s books right now. I am not sure I had heard of ‘science poetry’ before. If I had, I might have doubted that it’s as r ...more |
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"Ask for Lois is a 1962 sleaze pulp that is a tell-all on the Harvey Weinstein side of Hollywood some sixty years earlier. Although Lois is portrayed on the cover as a conniving golddigger, in the novel itself, she is that corn fed innocent who though"
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Joe Kraus
rated a book it was amazing
The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals to Wonder through Science & Poetry
by Maria Popova (Goodreads Author) |
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What a terrific book. I had heard of science writing, of course – I am even in the middle of another of the excellent Michael Pollan’s books right now. I am not sure I had heard of ‘science poetry’ before. If I had, I might have doubted that it’s as r ...more |
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"“The old man smiled. 'I shall not die of a cold, my son. I shall die of having lived.’”
I decided to read something vastly different than the comics and thrillers I had been reading and saw a friend’s rave review of this book so reread what many have " Read more of this review » |
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“You can't choose where you belong, and where you don't. But what if the place you don't belong is the only place you have left?”
― The Ghosts of Belfast
― The Ghosts of Belfast
“"Wonderful things can happen", Vincent said, "when you plant seeds of distrust in a garden of assholes."”
― Glitz
― Glitz
“Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
―
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
―
“I see no reason to keep silent about my enjoyment of the sound of my own voice as I work. ”
― Loitering with Intent
― Loitering with Intent
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