The fine art of reviewing
Here at Fiction Focus, reviewing is what we are all about. Not only do we read many book reviews in order to select titles for our journal, we depend on our wonderful network of reviewers to comment on the books we send out. We are told that Fiction Focus is held in high regard because all reviewers have experience as teachers or teacher-librarians, so the classroom-cred has been established. Our reviewers are not paid and without them, Fiction Focus would not be the journal it is. Our volunteers are great and the rest of this entry does not pertain to them in any way!
With reviewing so much on our mind, particularly as we are in the final stages of editing Issue 1 for the year, this article on a New York Times blog caught our eye. ‘Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing’ has unleashed a flurry of comments from peeved readers of reviews. The 227 comments (so far) are just as entertaining as the original blog entry. If you have a pet-hate overworked book review word or phrase, we’d love to hear it.
