examples of book review

examples of book review

Analyzing and Crafting Effective Book Reviews

1. Introduction to Book Reviews

That is the purpose of this book. To provide a resource that encourages a fresh look at book reviews and examines this book review cultural phenomenon from the perspectives of the people writing them, the people using them, and the process. It offers insights into the approach reviewers take, what readers expect, and how reviews can differ. To provide reviewers and readers with some information on what good looks like, and help the review process evolve from this.

For centuries, book reviews have been intrinsic to the complete book experience as book discovery tools for prospective readers and valuable feedback for their authors. But the importance and relevance of reviews has never been higher in an era when readers can shop for anything, anywhere, anytime. What’s more, book reviews are an accepted way in this internet age to have millions of people decide in a few seconds whether or not to spend a few dollars on a book. The global nature of the review culture and its impact makes it essential for interested parties to understand why reviews are written and who writes them. Each group may well have different motives, but they all serve a common purpose and some may even share common motives. Data and information on book reviews and reviewers are critical to establishing how and why the review process works, what goals reviewers have in writing their reviews, and what types of reviews are preferred by potential readers and reviewers.

2. Key Elements of a Book Review

The appropriate length of a summary will depend on the book review’s audience. If the review is intended for people who are generally familiar with the book, a somewhat shorter version will be necessary. However, if the review must also provide the background information necessary for people who have not read the book, a slightly longer summary will be necessary.

Analyze and interpret the book over two to three days or weeks, rather than one sitting. In this case, determine the main themes and major points of each section. A reading period of about a week usually permits enough time to fully understand even a 500+ page book. Sometimes during this analysis a few key phrases, particularly well-documented examples, or significant points will stand out. Make note of them, as they may provide useful tools for writing your review.

In writing a summary, proceed as follows: Read each chapter or section carefully and note its primary purpose, content, and themes. Highlight or underline the chapter’s main ideas both as you read and after you have finished.

The purpose of the summary is two-fold: it serves as a brief overview of the book that provides the essential background for subsequent evaluation, and it aids readers by making the review accessible to them even if they have not yet read the book. It is not necessary to summarize every chapter because the main ideas of the book can often be conveyed more effectively by focusing on a few key chapters, themes, or examples.

A. Summary of Key Elements

The most effective book reviews begin with a brief summary, encompass a discussion of strengths and weaknesses, and conclude with a recommendation to readers, as appropriate. The following section discusses each of these components in greater detail.

3. Different Types of Book Reviews

In the absence of such models, reviewers are free to explore approaches entirely of their own devising and to be creative and innovative with the various conventions governing every aspect of how reviews can be structured, explored, questioned, adapted, manipulated, and broken in order to see if, defaced, and re-functioned to better suit and serve their purposes.

Reader Responses: These book reflections – written by reading enthusiasts, typically disseminated through non-professional media, such as blogs or consumer review sites, or through teaching and social-network platforms, such as Goodreads or OpenCourseWare – are generally solicited or self-triggered as spontaneous, informal, introspective reactions designed to share the pleasures and discontents of reading, not the moments of undemanding reading itself.

Scholarly Assessments: These book analyses – written by research experts, typically peer-reviewed for publishing in scholarly journals or scholarly websites aimed at professionals, such as the Virginia Quarterly Review or Bookforum – are generally focused more on helping writers engage directly with books than on helping readers decide whether to read them.

Professional Reviews: These book reports – written by professional critics, typically published in book-trade periodicals, such as Booklist or Publisher’s Weekly, or in newspapers, such as The New York Times or The Chronicle of Higher Education – are generally focused more on helping readers choose books than on helping writers to appreciate them.

Critical or not, book reviews often come in different types – with distinctive forms, purposes, and features – whether meant for composing on one’s own or for consulting when reading a book and thinking about it for review. The most common varieties are:

4. Tips for Writing a Compelling Book Review

What is the book about? Why was it written? Is its purpose descriptive, analytical, expository? What data does the author present? Are most of these data quantitative, qualitative, or both? How does the author interpret this data? What are the major conclusions and key arguments set forth in the book? What is the nature of the book being reviewed, i.e., is it argumentative, a summary, synthesis, a personal opinion, or a description? What are the author’s basic underlying assumptions? Who is the author and what is his/her research interest? What is the general field or genre, and how does it relate to the general literary self-understanding? What is the standpoint of the author, are there quality headings provided; is the evidence primary or secondary? How about the summing up? Is the author’s perspective evenhanded or prejudicial? Are the author’s allusions winning or, on the contrary, excessive? Webster’s Dictionary defines love as “an attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers.” The philosopher Robert Solomon, on the other hand, defines the term as “also used to describe compassionate and affectionate actions other than personal attraction or affection,” based on nurturing feelings and taste of commitment on the surface. The texts of literature fall among both the two approaches of love but most of the time only one. In Erich Fromm’s “Is Love an Art?” readers are taken on a journey, defining all of the various dynamics of love.

When preparing to write a book review, ask yourself the following questions to prepare appropriately.

5. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Book reviews are, however, taken to be an accepted institution. A complex set of social attitudes about what is desirable on review pages supports the weight they have and the serious attention they claim. It is quite an elaborate process that is more than an acceptance of a hot cultural phenomenon. The amount of concrete unpredictability in any individual review, the deliberate avoidance of actual quantitative metadata in a review as well as the constraints imposed by page length, the pressure to achieve consistent policy, and the big number make it difficult enough. Produced in the atemporal backroom setting of the traditional reviewing process without immediate feedback, bureaucratic accountability, written communication skills, fancy statistical algorithms or a large serving of one’s valuable time protecting vested interests, it is quite a feat.

We have seen that aside from negotiation of all of the decisions that are made through a comparative process that is much more important than it was when organizations themselves were not so large, books are reviewed against a complex cultural background. That background changes at an astonishing rate. First, it involves new books about topics people are interested in. It also takes into account the current preoccupations of the book-buying public. Beyond that, what is it in our culture that drives us to want a new book about a particular topic? Both of these elements of the environment have cultural and competitive elements that change with time. Therefore, in a review period, even extracting consistency between the total social flux of information that represents these factors is a complex task.