2012 book reviews
Here are the top three most-read reviews from economics and business studies. Martin Jacques is a highly distinguished British scholar, writer and columnist. When China Rules the World , first published in , is among his most important publications. Since then the book has been translated into eleven languages, and sold nearly a quarter of a million copies worldwide. Jacques argues that the rise of China has not followed the Western model of a transition to modernity and will challenge the global dominance of the Western nation-state. This excellent book raises more questions than it answers.
Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels
Novelist — and nominee — Geoff Dyer meets Anna Baddeley, who runs the review aggregating website Omnivore. But first, asks Emine Saner, why did Anna set up the prize? Anna Baddeley: I've been running the website for a few years, and one of the features we had was Hatchet Job of the Day.
The aim was to boost the profile of professional arts criticism and make it more accessible and entertaining. We thought Hatchet Job of the Year would get a lot of attention and be a fun way to highlight professional book reviewing.
Emine Saner: Why was Geoff nominated? AB: I agreed with it. I really like Julian Barnes , I think he's a brilliant writer, but I wasn't impressed with A Sense of an Ending and I felt a lot of the reviews were far too generous. It was nice to read someone who disagreed.
Geoff Dyer: I see the fun of this prize — the malicious enjoyment people can get from bad reviews — but were you not tempted to set up a prize for excellence in reviewing, whereby the final verdict of the review wasn't a precondition for being eligible?
It seems to me that now there could be a real incentive to write negatively. I would be wary if this were to serve as any sort of inducement to write witty and damning phrases.
The key thing is the sensitivity of the response and the accuracy of the judgment. AB: I wouldn't want this award to be seen as encouraging cruel reviewing. We've been careful not to include reviews we felt were personal attacks. It's unclear who newspaper reviews are written for. I'm speaking as a reader. I'm not a novelist and I have felt let down by reading lots of good reviews of a book, each one saying "this is a masterpiece", then reading it and not being impressed.
GD: John Updike said: "Review the book, not the reputation", but I think reputation works in two ways. On the one hand, you can be rather deferential; on the other hand, when you've got a certain reputation, people are eager to bring you down. To what extent is book reviewing a young person's game? AB: It's not any more. I would love to see a young Martin Amis break through.
I recently read a collection of his book reviews and they're so good. There's a shortage of new voices. Is it a cliche to say reviewers can often be envious, malicious writers? In the London Review of Books or the New York Review of Books, people are writing as critics, but they are also successful novelists, and there is a constant movement between the two camps.
ES: Have you noticed friends of writers review favourably, or give a good review to someone from the same publisher? AB: That does happen, and anyone who thought we could fix that would be quite naive, because writers are always going to write about each other.
GD: I think it's possible to get over-conspiratorial about it. It's not a score-settling or back-slapping scene as I think you're suggesting. Or is that unfair? AB: It goes on. What bothers me more is the quality of the writing, and that's the major issue here. GD: I hate it when a reviewer summarises the plot and adds a few things on the end about style. AB: I think what we've achieved with the reviews we've selected is that they're not just entertaining, they're learned and persuasive.
There's a real argument that newspaper books pages should give more scope to university imprints and that kind of stuff. One of the problems with reviewing is that newspapers are obsessed with their review appearing first — being up to date rather than having the time to form more of a considered view.
ES: Is there still a role for the professional critic, when I can go on Amazon and read reviews, or book blogs? GD: The good thing about print reviews is that there is some filtering. AB: There's a place for Amazon reviews, and some are well written, but the problem is if they, and reviews by book bloggers, are the only reviews we have. One of the major roles of the professional critic is to provide an authoritative voice, even if you don't agree with everything they say.
GD: It's a horrible feeling, but I've been fortunate that all the bad reviews I've had have been written by idiots. I'm sure I have given reviews that have been [too harsh in retrospect]. I've certainly had some nasty letters. There's that old joke — if you review books by your friends, you get to the point where you're either not a very good critic, or you end up with few friends. ES: How does it feel to be on the receiving end of a scathing review?
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Apocalypse An Investigation into Civilization's End [Lawrence E. Joseph] on parrotsprint.co.nz Author interviews, book reviews, editors' picks, and more. Strieber's alien/apocalyptic books and been somewhat increasingly disappointed by each successive volume, I started with a sense of apprehension. Was I.
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He was with a bunch of other boys, one of whom showed off a copy of Playboy to giggles and intense interest. A few years ago, Mr.
Lamenting the state of the book review has been the literary world's favorite pastime ever since Edgar Allan Poe reviewed for Graham's Magazine in the s. From Henry James to Heidi Julavitis, writers seem to delight in publishing manifestos that outline the book review's shortcomings and inadequacies.
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy
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Should we celebrate scathing book reviews?
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described summary review or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review's length may vary from a single paragraph to a substantial essay. Such a review may evaluate the book on the basis of personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review for an extended essay that can be closely or loosely related to the subject of the book, or to promulgate their own ideas on the topic of a fiction or non-fiction work. There is a number of journals devoted to book reviews, and reviews are indexed in databases such as Book Review Index and Kirkus Reviews ; but many more book reviews can be found in newspaper and scholarly databases such as Arts and Humanities Citation Index , Social Sciences Citation Index and discipline-specific databases. Photios I of Constantinople has been referred to as "the inventor of the book-review" for his work, Bibliotheca. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Form of literary criticism in which a book is reviewed for its content, style, and merit.
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T he core idea behind this book is simple and quite enticing. Nassim Nicholas Taleb divides the world and all that's in it people, things, institutions, ways of life into three categories: the fragile, the robust and the antifragile. You are fragile if you avoid disorder and disruption for fear of the mess they might make of your life: you think you are keeping safe, but really you are making yourself vulnerable to the shock that will tear everything apart. You are robust if you can stand up to shocks without flinching and without changing who you are.
Reading List: Most-read economics book reviews 2012
It's almost a cliche at this point to say that teen fiction isn't just for teens anymore. Which is why we were only a little surprised to see the tremendous response that came in for this summer's Best-Ever Teen Fiction poll. A whopping 75, of you voted for your favorite young adult novels, blasting past the total for last year's science fiction and fantasy poll at, dare we say it, warp speed. And now, the final results are in. While it's no surprise to see Harry Potter and the Hunger Games trilogy on top, this year's list also highlights some writers we weren't as familiar with. Selecting a manageable voting roster from among the more than 1, nominations that came in from readers wasn't easy, and we were happy to be able to rely on such an experienced panel of judges. But deciding what does and doesn't count as a young-adult novel isn't an exact science. If you're surprised not to see some of your favorite books among the winners, you might want to look at this blog post , which describes the thinking behind the tough calls. Summer, like youth, is fleeting. But the books we read when we're young can stay with us for a lifetime. Here's hoping that when the school bell rings in a few short weeks, it will find you engrossed in just such a memorable read, selected by the NPR audience. For your convenience, here's a printable version of the top list , and here's a list of the finalists. Harry, Ron and Hermione must master their craft and battle the machinations of the evil wizard Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
Book Reviews: A Tortured History
Novelist — and nominee — Geoff Dyer meets Anna Baddeley, who runs the review aggregating website Omnivore. But first, asks Emine Saner, why did Anna set up the prize? Anna Baddeley: I've been running the website for a few years, and one of the features we had was Hatchet Job of the Day. The aim was to boost the profile of professional arts criticism and make it more accessible and entertaining. We thought Hatchet Job of the Year would get a lot of attention and be a fun way to highlight professional book reviewing.
