Favourite Reviews I Wrote in 2019 [A Book Blogger’s Reflections]

Part 1 – What Am I Doing Here? | Part 2 – Learning from Other Review Styles | Part 3 – Favourite Reviews I Wrote in 2019 | Part 4 – Developing a New Review Style | Part 5 – Reading Challenges & Community

Last week, I looked at five different reviewing styles that I like and considered what I’ve learnt from them (see part two linked above). I did that as way to digest some ‘food for thought’ as I consider how I might improve my own reviewing style in 2020. This week, I’m considering what I like about my own style by looking at some of the reviews I wrote this year.

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• The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman – When I first reviewed this book, I apologized for not being articulate enough. But looking back, I like that I shared my personal reaction while also sharing some concrete details about what kind of story the book is.
• The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles – This was an ARC review where I discussed what appealed to me personally, noted some general points about the book’s content, and connected the book to events in the wider publishing world. I would like to do that more often going forward (situate my reviews within a broader discussion about books/publishing).
• The Moon Within by Aida Salazar – This is an example of reviewing a book far out of my comfort zone and personal experience. I find it challenging to review certain books because I want to highlight why they are important even if they didn’t resonate with me personally. It was the first time I tried having a completely separate ‘personal response’ section.
• The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arakawa – I include this review because 1) three seemed liked too few, 2) it’s adult fiction which is a bit rare around here and 3) I remembered to share a quote, which I would like do with all my reviews.

While I generally liked all the reviews I wrote this year, they were similar in a lot of ways, so I chose these few as exemplars. This exercise helped me realize that I like how I write when I balance my personal view while sharing objective observations about a book (ex. when I describe the types of relationships in The Devouring Gray and then what I liked about them). I’m not convinced about separating personal opinion completely. I think I will keep my reviews a blend of opinion and fact, perhaps followed by a brief ‘professional thoughts’ section.