#book reviews

Thar Be Trolls: On Reading Amazon Reviews

On losing an afternoon to reading one-star reviews of excellent books.

Dear Publicists: Don’t Solicit To My Book Club

A Book Club leader asks publicists to stop offering her their books.

Book Rating Categories That Should Exist (Because Star Ratings Can Be Useless)

Rating books can be a source of frustration but, with these handy new categories, you can be more accurate with your descriptions.

When Book Reviews Go Wrong

Welcome to the Dear Book Nerd podcast, a biweekly show that answers YOUR questions about life, love, and literature! My guest co-host this week is the effervescent Cindy Pon, author of YA fantasy books Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix, with Serpentine coming out in 2015. Cindy and I answer listener-submitted questions that focus primarily on book reviews. We discuss topics such as: what happens if you win a book in a Goodreads giveaway, but you don't like the book? What should you do when an author responds to a negative review you posted? Is reading reviews before reading a book a good idea, or will it influence your opinion? And much, much more. Thanks for joining me, Cindy!

The Ladies Have Always Kicked Ass: Why We Talk About Gender, Books, and Criticism

Last week’s release of the annual VIDA count highlighted yet again that the influential review world favors male authors and ...

Best of Book Riot: The Four Parts of a Book Review

To celebrate the end of the year, we’re running some of our favorite posts from the last six months. We’ll ...

The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name: An Editor’s Dilemma

Last week, I read a book from cover to cover that I simply loathed. (Yes, I almost always finish a ...