Have you been visiting One-Minute Book Reviews since it was running around in Pampers just over a year ago? Consider yourself a visionary.
Janice Harayda, editor-in-chief of One-Minute Book Reviews, has been named one of 25 “Women Bloggers to Watch in 2008” by the site Virtual Woman’s Day, which aims “to bring together women from around the world to network together, learn together and grow together” virtualwomansday.blogspot.com/2008/01/women-bloggers-to-watch-in-2008.html. Heidi Richards, creator of VWD, also publishes We, a quarterly magazine about women.
One-Minute Book Reviews has had a policy since its launch in late 2006 of devoting at least 50 percent of its posts to books by female authors.
(c) 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
One-Minute Book Reviews 
Congrats, Janice!!
Comment by speedytexaslibrarian — January 10, 2008 @ 12:14 am |
Thank you, Amanda. I don’t know Heidi, so this was a lovely surprise. Jan
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — January 10, 2008 @ 1:45 am |
I was wondering if you had any tips for writing book reviews. No, I’m not planning to compete with you–I received a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book and need to write a good review to increase my chances of getting more such books. Maybe you could do a post on writing good book reviews?
Comment by speedytexaslibrarian — January 10, 2008 @ 9:26 am |
Thanks for the encouragement. I might well do tips on book reviewing.
For now: You’re already doing the first thing right, which is to read a lot. One characteristic of good reviews is that they are well-informed, or authoritative without being stuffy. Another is that they tell you enough about a book that you have a sense of whether you might like it, even if you disagree with the critic.
From my perspective good reviews don’t hand down opinions untethered to facts.
This doesn’t mean they’re larded with many paragraphs of plot or factual summary. Those things can make a review dull. But it does mean trying to show readers what is actually IN the book (as opposed to your opinion about what’s in it) even if you have only a couple of paragraphs for the review.
This week I wrote a post about “The Real Republican Dictionary” that’s just a few sentences long but quotes one of its definitions: “Patriot Act: Defending the nation against the twin evils of terrorism and library patrons.” You might be able figure out from that one whether the book is for you, whether or not you agree with me.
Jan
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — January 10, 2008 @ 10:23 am |
Congratulations Janice. I think the format you’re using is very appealing, plus your workrate is formidable. Well done and good luck in 2008.
Comment by Chris Routledge — January 11, 2008 @ 4:50 am |
Your comment couldn’t have been better timed, Chris. My view of my work rate has taken a big hit this week as I’ve studied the lists posted by libraries of candidates for the Newbery and Caldecott medals (being awarded Monday) and realized how many of these I haven’t read.
I’d like to post a review of at least one winner on the day of the awards (as I did last year when “Flotsam” got the Caldecott). In order to do that, I’ll clearly have to have made some lucky guesses in my reading. Thanks so much for your encouragement.
Jan
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — January 11, 2008 @ 11:21 am |
Janice: Reading is like a huge amusement park where the number of great attractions increases by the minute but you’re only visiting for the afternoon. No point getting hung up about it; a lot of people don’t even get through the gates.
Comment by Chris Routledge — January 12, 2008 @ 1:43 pm |
Congratulations. You do good work here. More people need to know about it.
Malcolm
Comment by knightofswords — January 12, 2008 @ 6:22 pm |
Bless you both. Monday could be a killer day for me. I may put up a half dozen or more posts, depending on how that Newbery and Caldecott awards go (that is, depending on how many of the winners I have read and how newsworthy they are). Your lovely comments will help to fortify me.
Jan
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — January 12, 2008 @ 7:21 pm |