Hardihood Books Newsletter 39
August, 2024
Greetings.
Welcome to the August edition of the Hardihood Books Newsletter. Thank you for supporting my work.
Housekeeping:
No news.
Next Month and Beyond:
I’ll be starting a new serialized novel next month. Stay tuned.
A Word on Book Reviews:
As with some previous newsletters, this newsletter is outside the paywall for reference purposes. Please feel free to share it widely.
Earlier this summer, I wrote a review of S. by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. I’d like to do more book reviews. I would also love to get more submissions of book reviews by guest writers, for two reasons. First, I like to encourage reading books and I like to help my audience discover new books. Second, I find book reviews interesting.
I’d like to lay out some of my thoughts on book reviews, which can serve as guidelines for anyone submitting one.
Book reviews do not need to be overly critical. They can be. If the book deserves criticism, it is fair and reasonable to give criticism. However, some reviewers go out of their way to find something to criticize, in order to demonstrate their distance and independence (i.e., not appear hagiographic and biased), or out of the mistaken belief that “good reviews” find the bad. I’ve seen readers commenting online that they dislike hagiographic or overly-positive book reviews, but I disagree.
If the book deserved praise and didn’t deserve criticism, there is no reason to find something negative to say. By all means, say it if it’s there. But there is no reason to go out of your way to be negative. A popular blogger and podcast host once wrote that the letters he receives from Americans, while expressing gratitude and praise, contain some version of the line, “Of course, I don’t agree with everything that you write.” Letters from Latin America never contain this line. It isn’t that readers and listeners from Latin America agreed with everything he ever said or wrote, but that only American readers felt the need to tell him.
Something similar is at work, in my opinion, when American readers feel the need to read something critical in a review out of a belief that otherwise the reviewer is just doing marketing for the author. Sometimes, there isn’t really a need to bring up anything worth criticizing in a review, because it would detract from deeper exploration on some theme or argument in the book.
If you haven’t read the book, or you haven’t read the whole thing, don’t write a review. Unfortunately, it is too common for major newspapers and magazines to run reviews by reviewers who haven’t read the book they are reviewing. We have no deadlines here, and there is no reason for you to make something up in order to fill pages.
I will not accept anything written in bad faith. If you mischaracterize the author’s work or background, or ignore information which isn’t difficult to find, or deliberately hide something or reveal only partial truths, or engage in gross simplifications, or attack the author unfairly, or make an unsupported claim, or resort to sophistry (link to definition), we will not publish it.
Some spoilers are fine, however you have to be clear upfront that you will have spoilers and we will want some sort of obvious warning for the reader.
Don’t have ChatGPT write your review. If you do, I have serious questions as to why you are submitting it to me for publication.
Consider why you are writing the review. What makes the book interesting to readers and why should we seek it out? What have you noticed in the book which other readers may not have noticed? What has the author done which is particularly noteworthy or praiseworthy? How does the author do what he or she does? If it is fiction, how do the elements of setting, point of view, character, and timeline work together to support the theme?
If you are writing a critical review, make sure you do your homework. Don’t make any mistakes. Consider why the book deserves criticism. If it is nonfiction, does it falsify information or have holes in its arguments? If it is fiction, do the elements of craft fail to support one another?
Don’t make the review about you. If you are reviewing a book, keep the focus on the book and its author. If you have to mention other books or other authors, try to keep these mentions relevant and infrequent. I’m asking for book reviews, not literary criticism.
Please don’t hesitate to review old books. I’m happy to publish reviews of books from decades or centuries ago, especially if some notable anniversary is approaching.
Keep in mind that I may not have read the book.
Thank you for any and all submissions. All genres and topics are welcome, although I will screen book reviews to ensure that they are relevant to my readership.
In Closing:
Thank You and Until Next Month,
Ben Connelly