Tara Cheesman is a freelance book critic, National Book Critics Circle member & 2018-2019 Best Translated Book Award Fiction Judge. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Quarterly Conversation, Book Riot, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Rumpus and other online publications. She received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. You can follow her on Twitter @booksexyreview and Instagram @taracheesman .

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Dear Readers,

In 2009 I thought BookSexy Review would be a great name for a blog. I was wrong.  It was a bad choice for any number of reasons.  The primary one being that most employers put blocks on sites with words like “sexy”, which means potential readers can’t browse at work. Even publishers have had problems viewing the site – this issue was first mentioned to me by a Harper Collins publicist years ago. At the time I was too new to blogging to understand the import of what she was trying to tell me.

Skip forward 8 years. My goals and interests have changed.  The site evolved from a general book review blog to one devoted to books in translations. I decided it was time to rethink how and why I write about books.  With that in mind I began contributing to other review outlets as part of my quest to become a better writer and reviewer. You can now find links to those reviews by going to the menu clicking on the Clippings page.

I realized that if I was going to continue the blog it would have to change, beginning with the name.  The BookSexy Review url now redirects to ReaderatLarge.com.  All of the content from the old blog is still available on the new site.

The reason this blog continues is because of the generosity and friendship of an incredible international community of like-minded readers, bloggers and independent publishers. Thank you all for your support and passion… but mostly thank you for reading.

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Review Policy

Reader@Large is a general book review blog with a focus on fiction, literary fiction & non-fiction.  I currently only accept books by international authors and translations, mostly small press, for review.  I am always happy to receive requests from publicists and authors. Please send them to tara.cheesman@gmail.com .  

04.11.2019 – Recently I have been receiving a significant number of ARC’s of non-fiction titles. While I will happily review biographies, essays, world history books and the like, it’s rare. I tend to request and purchase books that fall into this category that I’m interested in. I’ve no interest in reviewing business and self-help books. 

Acceptance of a review or advance copy does not guarantee a review (favorable or otherwise).

All reviews will be fair and all opinions expressed will be my own unless otherwise noted.  I also contribute freelance reviews to other sites and reserve the right to submit my review of any book, including review copies sent to Reader@Large, to another outlet/site of my choosing.  This is entirely at my discretion. When this happens the publisher will be notified as to where and when the review can be viewed. 

You can also find me on GoodReads (Tara Cheesman-Olmsted), Twitter (@BookSexyReview) and Instagram @taracheesman