How to Write a Good Book Review Guide

Writing a good book review doesn't have to be painful...

Part 2:

How to Write a Good Book Review - A Shorthand Approach:

Scan the Book's first parts - it's Covers (front and back), TOC, Introduction, any prefaces or preambles.

Read the Text

Record impressions as you read and note effective passages for quoting.

Genre?
Point of View?
Writing style?
Clear concepts?
How accurate?
Book format, layout?
Did the book do what it set out to?

Check other sources about the author and their earlier books.

Then lay out your own review:

Introduction - get their attention and lay out your view of the author's work.

Development - state what you found and give examples to back them up.

Conclusion - Wrap it up, summarize, don't add anything new. Tell them to buy/read the book or to not bother.

Two types of reviews.

There are two types of book reviewing: the impartial (descriptive) and the critical.

A descriptive review is where the writer, without over-enthusiasm or exaggeration, gives the essential information about a book. You state the perceived aims and purposes of the author, and explore these by quoting striking passages from the text.

A critical review is one where you describe and evaluate the book, based on your understanding of it and again, support your opinions with evidence from the text.

In both of these, you aren't just giving an "at-a-boy" or flaming the author. Neither are useful to other readers. You want to simply state what you thought of it.

One approach is take three points that stick out in your mind and then illustrate them with a good quote or two. In this case you write the review by saying,"I'm going to tell you about three things that stood out for me: One, Two, Three." Then explain One, Two, and Three. Conclude by saying something like, "Now I think this book (was great/sucked) because it did/didn't do three things: One, Two, Three."

Next: How to Write a Good Book Review Advice - Part 3