Week 5 Prompt

Romantic Suspense Novel Reviews
These reviews are not professionally written. They contain numerous typographical errors. Both reviews state their opinions without really giving supporting evidence from the book. They both give a pretty good summary, but I don't really trust their reviews. The Amazon review gushes without giving supporting details. The blog review is wishy-washy. He or she says that they enjoyed the book, yet thought the plot was odd. Other than it was focused on Christmas, the blog poster doesn't really say what made it odd. There is not enough supporting details in order for me to take these reviews seriously.

From these reviews, I also do not get the feeling of a romantic suspense novel. There are no elements of suspense noted.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
These reviews are much more professionally written. There are no "I" statements. The different aspects of the text, such as the focus on humor, are backed up by examples from the text. The reviews focus on the aspects of the text rather than the reviewers feelings about the book. Because of this, it feels much more like a recommendation than simply someone's opinion. The reviewers weaved a summary into explaining the feeling of the book. I would be much more likely to add Angela's Ashes  to my library than The Billionaire's First Christmas. In fact, I think that I will check my catalog now to see if we have a copy.

Book Review Bias
It definitely seems that there are biases when it comes to choosing books to review professionally. The books that you see reviewed are typically either literary fiction, popular authors, or more socially accepted genres. You don't see many reviews of romance or romantic suspense featured in Kirkus. I think that this may come from the idea that all romance and romantic suspense novels are is fluff. I assume that reviewers typically review genres that they enjoy and not many reviwers prefer these genres.

As far as how it affects my book ordering, though, I am not sure that it does. Honestly, our patrons read romance, cozy mysteries, and Christian fiction more than any other genres. Because we know this, we have an automatic order set up with book vendors for these genres. Do I specifically go looking for these types of titles to add? No. We already get new ones in regularly. I focus my efforts on finding reviews for those genres that we do not have on automatic order.

Negative Reviews
I am not quite sure exactly how I feel about negative reviews. I think that they are important. A review should be honest. I do not think that it is okay to pay someone to only say nice things about a book if they don't have only nice things to say. That much I know. When it comes to whether or not to publish those negative views is where I am on the fence. Personally, I want to read honest reviews whether they are good or bad. It is frustrating not to be able to find a review for a book. If the company's sole focus is only to recommend books, though, I am not sure that it is necessary to publish negative reviews. If a book has an overwhelmingly negative review, the company will obviously not want to recommend it. I do think that it is important for people to know this about a company, however. They should be forthright with what you expect to get from their reviews. If they don't post negative ones, it should be common knowledge.

My Use of Reviews
I use reviews both when ordering books for my library and my own personal use. I stick to the big names: Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. I also check the Amazon description for the book. Sometimes reviews from other magazines, newspapers, and authors are listed there. The more good reviews that the book can brag about, the better.

When ordering for the library, I am more professional when it comes to book reviews. I look at the big names and see if it has won any awards. When looking for myself, I do these things, too. I also, however, look at personal comments in Amazon and Goodreads. I don't read through them thoroughly. You are more likely to find spoilers that way. I glance over the top few reviews to kind of get a feel for how the book was received.