I’ve been thinking about book reviews and criticism. Back in May I was in the audience for a panel held during Book Expo of America (BEA) called The Crisis In Reviewing, Disappearing Space and Disappearing Pay. Whenever a panel is listed at a conference or festival I’m attending on this general topic I always make an effort to sit in… because I love books, I … Continue reading Book Criticism: The Great Migration?
I began a post on my 2018 reading resolutions a few days ago. It was so boring I fell asleep. Hell, it was so boring it put my dog to sleep. Don’t believe me? I began with a section on time management. TIME MANAGEMENT. And while that might be a very worthy endeavor, and there are quite a few very good books that tackle the … Continue reading Hello 2018! Some News & Reading Resolutions (shhhh!…. don’t wake Emma)
2017 was not the best year. I am very aware that may be the understatement of the decade, but there it is. I med an old blogging friend at this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival and tried to explain to him why I’d retreated from Social Media (and the world) – which amounted to a list of the same reasons that everyone who eventually retreats from, … Continue reading 2017 In Review
So far, 2017 has been a good reading year. I’m even a few books ahead on my Goodreads Reading Challenge. I wanted to post links to some reviews I’ve written for other sites in the past few months (in case you all missed me). Cockroaches, written by Scholastique Mukasonga and translated by Jordan Stump, is a memoir from of a survivor of the Rwandan genocides. What … Continue reading Book Reviews In the Wild
On Wednesday I posted a review of The Case of Lisandra P., a thriller written by the French writer Hélène Grémillon and translated by Alison Anderson. I began the review with a paragraph defending the position that while I felt it was a mediocre book, even mediocre books deserve reviews. That it was unfair to demand that women to produce only amazing books which are worthy of … Continue reading In Defense of Reviewing Mediocre Books #WITMonth
READER AT LARGE 