An easy way to learn about some books before they’ve reached stores
Does your book group sometimes have to plan meetings long before the reviews have appeared for books you might like to read? Or would you like to dazzle your friends by being able to talk intelligently about books before others have read about them in The New York Times Book Review or elsewhere?
Now you can. Starting next week, One-Minute Book Reviews will occasionally review forthcoming books well as those that have reached stores.
For years there have been two main sources of reviews of books that haven’t yet appeared: Publishers Weekly www.publishersweekly.com and Kirkus Reviews www.kirkusreviews.com. But both were created for people other than you, the general reader — they were launched to provide reviews of forthcoming books for publishers, librarians, booksellers and others. And to some extent their Web sites still reflect this. The PW site has lots of publishing-industry news that might not interest most people, and Kirkus charges a fee for full access to its content.
So for a long time, I’ve wanted to create on this site another channel for reviews of forthcoming books. And starting next week, you’ll be able to read some full reviews — just like the others on this site — of books that will appear in the next few months.
First up: A review of Anne Easter Smith’s Daughter of York www.anneeastersmith.com, a historical novel about Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV and Richard III, which Simon & Schuster will publish in February 2008. In each case I’ll give you a link you can copy or bookmark if a book interests you. And I’ll mention the book at least in passing after it’s reached stores to remind you of it.
Since its launch in late 2007, One-Minute Book Reviews has kept adding new features to keep the site fresh, including original reading group guides (saved in the Totally Unauthorized Reading Group Guides category at right) and the Delete Key Awards for the year’s worst writing in books, announced annually on March 15. To avoid missing any of these, please bookmark this site or subscribe to the RSS feed.
Thanks for visiting One-Minute Book Reviews.
This site does not accept free books, advance reading copies or other promotional materials from editors, publishers, authors or agents, and all reviews offer an independent evaluation that is not influenced by marketing concerns.
(c) 2007 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
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