Kathryn Esplin at Red River Writers Blog Tour

What goes into a great book review, Kathryn?

 

First, to write a a great book review, ideally, you should like the book you are writing a review about. This doesn't always happen, but it is an ideal situation.  You should have an excerpt, as well as some background information. What makes the story different? Better? What type of book is it? What is the author's background?  Is it fiction? Non fiction?   A review should list the publisher, the price, and where it can be purchased.

What else should you include in the book review?

You should put in an excerpt or two.  As far as an excerpt goes, make sure you put the excerpt in quotations - and note that it is an excerpt. Choose an excerpt or two that is not too long.  When you are reading a book, you will already be hooked by the passage you are excerpting. But a person reading the book review, isn't already hooked. And you want to make sure you hook the reader in the review itself. So a passage that may take three pages to fully develop may be  a great read in the book,  but it is too long for a review.

You may find that you can begin with an introduction  then excerpt a few lines....then use an ellipsis... and then continue. If you find you need to summarize what is happening between the first part of the excerpt and other parts that you are quoting, you may want to use an Editor's Note: Do this by inserting a Bracket then [Ed. Note: colon, write your remark, then close bracket, to indicate that the  words are yours.] Then continue with the excerpt in quotation. Sometimes, it is easier to use a colored font for the excerpt - a blue, for example, and to put it in a block quote with the heading BEGIN EXCERPT, and END EXCERPT.

 

Not all sites allow for colored fonts or bold text.  You might want to  perhaps an introductory passage of the book - the set up in a fiction book - and then perhaps toward the middle - or the complication - but not the climax, black moment, crisis - or resolution. not to spoil the book. In a non fiction book, you might  want to write about a beginning chapter and then include some pertinent information from the middle of the book, sometimes it is helpful to include some chapter titles.

  

What should the reviewer do in case they find they really cannot recommend the book? Should they 'pan' the book, or simply not review it?

 

Well, you shouldn't  pan the book if you simply do not like it. Keep in mind a few points. If you simply do not like the book, then you have to remove your subjectivity from the book. If it is on a topic that you might not know a lot about, for example, history, science, or any other topic you might not feel that comfortable in,  you might want to decline the review and to return the book so it can be given to another reviewer.  If that is not possible, then remove your subjectivity from the book. Write the review based on how well you think the author has accomplished his or her goals.

 

This can be easier to do with non-fiction. In nonfiction, whether you like the book or not, and whether you know something about the topic,  Look at the Table of Contents, the author's bio, research the author and see what else he or she has published, and what his or her background is.  If this is the kind of book the author is an expert in, chances are the author has done a pretty good job here.

 

Find passages in the book you enjoy, even if you find it is difficult.  Be sure to state in your review that you usually do not review or read this particular type of book, and that all reviews are subjective. What may be exciting to one reader or reviewer may be dull to another reviewer, and so on.

 

Don't  'pan' a book simply because you don't like or read that type of book. Base your review review on quality of the book - primarily on quality of the writing and or research.

 

If it is a book aimed at a different audience than you - for example, a children's book, or a teen, or middle grade or YA - see if you can find someone o that age group to read it to, or if they can read it themselves. What we grownups might find corny or dull might be a different story to a child or a teen. This is also true for different genders, age groups or different socio-cultural groups. It is important the review speak to the target reader. So, if you're not the target reader, find that reader.

 

If it is a fiction book and you think the story development is strong  or if you think it is  weak, be sure to point out those passages and why you think story development or characterization is strong or weak.

 

Trust your instincts. You are a reader. Any reader has valuable insights. A reader doesn't need to be a professional critic to have valuable insights. You know when the phrasing is excellent or when it's cliched. You know when a character works. And when it doesn't. If you're turning the pages as you read, and you can't put down the book. Well. You know you've got a great book in your hands.

 

How long does it take to write a book review?

 

Writing a book review takes a few hours or a few days. If the book is nonfiction, read most or all of it. If it is fiction, read all of it it.  If you do a good job on the review,  you will have served the audience well by helping them decide whether or not they want to buy it and also by helping the author.

 

 What are some of the examples of your book reviews, Kathryn?

 

I have 68 reviews up on Amazon.  A few of them are:

 

The Ultimate pH Solution: Balance Your Body Chemistry to Prevent Disease and Lose Weight

by Michelle Schoffro Cook 115 people found this review to be helpful.

 

Harvard Medical School Workout Workbook: 9 complete workouts to help you get fit and healthy
by Jonathan F Bean M.D. M.S. M.P.H.

Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry

by Donald Hall

Lie to Me

by Starr Ambrose

The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran

Notorious Rake, Innocent Lady

by Bronwyn Scott

The Liar's Diary

by Patry Francis

The Scent of God 
by Beryl Singleton Bissell

What is your educational and professional background?

I majored in English Literature at McGill University. I studied the classics, the medieval period such as Chaucer,   the Renaissance, which includes Shakespeare and  European Literature of the Renaissance. I continued studying English Literature through  the 19th century - The Romantics, Keats, Byron, Shelley,  then Dickens, the  Bloomsbury Group,  Virginia Woolf, and early modernists, such as D.H. Lawrence. I also studied 19th and 20th century European writers, as well as American writers, like Twain, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Steinbeck and many American poets.

 

I did some Master's Work in English at McGill, and was working on Donald Barthelme's Snow White, which is a retelling of the old Snow White.  Pretty much our modern American folk tales are retellings of older European folk tales. King Kong is Beauty and the Beast.  Disney of course takes the Grimm Stories, which are based on Ancient oral stories, and changes them a bit for an American audience.  Disney's Cinderella is a modern rendition of a very old tale that began in 9th century China.

 

How did you get started  writing book reviews?

 

I  was working on the Snow White manuscript when I happened to be offered a freelance job writing book reviews for the Montreal Gazette. I did this for a year.  One of the books I reviewed was Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, another was about Sacco and Vanzetti. It was there I became aware of the power that newspapers and the media have to spread the word.   

 

After you wrote book reviews, then what did you do?

 

I then did an internship at the Globe and Mail in Toronto, in the music and drama department. This was also a fabulous experience. There was an exhibit of Posters from Poland. This was during the Soviet era, and so the posters reflected human suffering under oppression. Sometimes a stark, grim beauty that deeply touches the soul arises out of oppression.  Also, I  saw the dress rehearsal for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Toronto was then and still is a leader in the arts. And of course, Second City Toronto is where most of the SNL crew comes from. I had a telephone interview with the then director of Second City Toronto. SC is an improv group that began in Chicago.

 

After Toronto, I resumed work on my master's and came to Boston to do research in Early American Lit. Harry Levin, a Harvard scholar, put forth the theory that one of the earliest American oral stories is still being 'talked about' today. This story. involves what we in Boston call the Charlie Card. If you've been on the T, our Subway, we used to use tokens, but now we have a 'Charlie card.' This of course comes from the song in the 70s, Charlie and the MTA  "He'll never return, No, he'll never return"....That song was most likely based on  the earliest American oral story that Levin  mentions, about a man in Boston on horseback who kept getting lost. This story began circulating around 1630 when people had been here only 10 years. He went from Boston to Charlestown and back and never found his way home. Newcomers  who drive in Boston frequently get lost, and think this idea of getting lost or never returning back home is quite funny. So you can see how stories begin and how they continue for hundreds of years.

 

Describe more of your journalism background to us. You went to Journalism school, I believe.

 

At this time, after Toronto and moving to Boston, I decided to not finish my MA in English, but to move directly into journalism. I went to the Medill School at Northwestern in Evanston, IL. Northwestern  is an applied school - all of its programs teach application, rather than theory.  For a field like journalism, you need an applied program. At Medill, we had daily deadlines for a particular beat. This is  how you lean the ABCs of any kind of writing. Apply Butt to Chair. You  Git R Done. Period. Then you move onto the next deadline. Great, great, great life training.

 

What else do you write besides book reviews?  And if you had your life to do over, what would you change?

 

I have written business and tech journalism, copyedited a book on HTML for Addison Wesley Longman, consulted to MIT in Marketing Communications, freelanced for IDG, worked for IDG for several years in news and features as a reporter and then Senior Editor. I had a short fiction story published in 2003. I nearly had a short fiction story published in high school, but I was a sophomore and the creative writing magazine was for Juniors and Seniors. But the story I wrote was judged by an independent judge, who ranked mine in the top 5. So I was encouraged.  If I had my life to do over, I would get my manuscripts out sooner. The sooner we get them out, the sooner we know our strengths and weaknesses. Right now, I am writing a couple of contemporary romance manuscripts, and have some manuscripts on the back burner, such as YA, memoir and perhaps paranormal romantic suspense.  People can reach me:  on Gather at www.kathryneo.gather.com 

 
 

Comments

[Kathryn E]

April, it was an honor and a pleasure to be interviewed today at Red River Writers on the Blog Talk Radio. And a pleasure to be on here, too.

[April Robins]

This blog has some great book review tips. We enjoyed Kathryn being on our Red River Radio show today. She has a strong presence at gather.com. Go and check her out. - April