Who Reads Book Reviews?

Whenever I choose a book to read, I almost always read multiple reviewers' comments before I purchase the book. To me, there's nothing more frustrating than buying a used book on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com and not being able to flip through the pages and see if I like the writing enough to read the book.

I can be critical of the books I read, as most readers are. We're all looking for specific things from our reading experience. The clarity and cohesiveness of an author's writing is a major part of the reading experience for me.

Do you like to read book reviews before you read a book?

I know some people that don't. At first, I couldn't understand why they wouldn't want to read what someone else thought and evaluate whether they wanted to invest their time and money on a book. 

But after reading hundreds of reviews, and sometimes pausing mid-way through a book in order to read some, I can see how a review can unduly influence your reading experience. There have been occasions that I did not notice a character's flaws, or the over-dependence on clichés, etc., until a more discerning reader pointed them out in their review.

So when I'm looking for a book to read, I find thoughtful book reviews to be incredibly useful to save me both money and time. By "thoughtful" I mean reviews which pinpoint why they did or did not like a book, regardless of the star rating, not reviews that either praise or criticize with abandon.

When I read a review, I'm looking for several things. Those, more or less, correspond to what I notice when I read a book. This can be the quality of character development, or the uniqueness of plot, but also writing style, and anything that a reviewer points out about which strikes a chord with me. For example, if a writer uses too many similes to the point where a reviewer has complained about them, I can be certain that I'll probably notice, too. (However, there is the chance that when I read a review like this, then buy the book anyways, I will notice it now--whether or not I would have without reading the review.)

Do the pros of reading a review outweigh the cons?

For me, yes, the pros of reading a review far outweigh the cons. 

I want to know that the book I'm going to pay money for has many critical readers and that it can stand up under the weight.

The Best Sellers list is one instance where reading reviews really comes in handy for me. I poll a selection of each "star" rating. I'll look at a few 5 stars, a few 4 stars, 3 stars, all the way down to 1 starred reviews. Until recently, I've rarely read books on the Best Seller's lists. I find that when I do, I'm often disappointed in the quality, and I often agree with the dissenting reviewers. 

Reading a dozen reviews from discerning reviewers has saved me a lot of money. If it sounds interesting despite a few bad reviews, and I find myself still wanting to read it but the reviews have given me reservations, I'll check it out from the library instead of pressing "buy now."

The Fourth Fisherman by Joe Kissack, A Review

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. But I knew that it was about a man and his marriage, and, somehow, how a group of fishermen had saved his marriage. Two seemingly unrelated incidents, and two incidents that I am still not quite sure complement each other.

When I began reading this book, I think I expected something between a Nicholas Sparks book and Moby Dick... But it fell short on both ends and pleasantly surprised me in the middle.

Joe Kissack had it all, a fancy house, expensive car, enviable job. He had it all, but something grave was lacking. A part of him always understood this, and he sought to fill the hole inside him with more stuff and more accomplishments. Eventually, alcohol, and then drugs filled that hole. It’s not an uncommon scenario: raised under a tough father, the man wants to please his father and so becomes an overachiever, until he finally realizes that nothing fills this hole and he needs help.

But for Joe Kissack, help arrived in the story of five fisherman who disappeared from the Mexican coast. It was a news story that went largely unnoticed in America, overshadowed by the confession of John Mark Karr to having killed JonBenet Ramsey. Kissack, however, followed a different story, a story about survival in the midst of overwhelming odds, a story of five men drifting in the ocean who had only each other, a boat and a Bible.

The story of the three surviving fishermen, Jesús, Salvador, and Lucio, does not parallel Joe Kissack’s much. The telling of their stories, narrated in alternating bits and pieces, is at times frustrating and other times slow. Although both stories are interesting, I found the fishermen’s story more so, and was disappointed that the fishermen’s story was not featured more prevalently past the first twelve chapters. 

For some Christian readers that suffer from depression and drug and alcohol abuse, Kissack’s dramatic salvation and easy abandonment of such demons could be challenging to read about. Although it is stated once that most Christians do not have a transformation like Kissack experienced, the story is more focused on the amazing aspects of his salvation. I do not mean to make light of God’s ability to change lives, and though this story is about that ability as much as about the fishermen, for some readers, this may not be an inspiring read, but one that leaves them unhappy with their ongoing battle with depression or drugs and alcohol.

The Fourth Fisherman was a book that I am glad I read. It was interesting and kept my attention throughout, but I would have liked to see more substance with the fishermen and how their ordeal changed their lives. That part of the story is glossed over and the brief epilogue is too brief, in my opinion. Despite my reservations, I enjoyed the read. Kissack has written an inspiring book, one that could encourage men and women to accept some harsh realities about themselves and get help, whether from God or from counseling.

*I received this review copy from Blogging for Books.

My Rating: 

3.5/5 stars

It would provoke interesting discussion in a book club, but simply for the way the parallel stories are approached, I don't feel that I can rate this book higher.

Book Review: Caleb's Crossing

A young Puritan minister's daughter, Bethia, is slightly rebellious and wants to have a formal education--something refused to women in the 1600s, when this book is set. Her desire for knowledge and knack for languages instigates friction between herself and her family as her father teaches her brother Latin, Greek and Hebrew to prepare him for the life of a minister. Father angers when he realizes that Bethia is a better student than her brother, Makepeace, and forbids her from more learning. In order to quench her lust for knowledge, Bethia begins to eavesdrop on her brother’s lessons and "borrow" school books or her father’s books and study them in private.

Bethia’s father is a minister who preaches to the Wampanoag Indians on a New England island, and Bethia is a girl who struggles to accept her place in the world as a woman and future wife. There is no other option for Bethia in the 1600s, and she is determined to follow the example of her mother. Throughout the course of this novel, she struggles to resist rebelling against this destiny, by seeking her own fulfillment. 

And then she meets Caleb. Caleb, who is a Wampanoag Indian and the nephew to the wampaw (witch doctor) that is Bethia’s father’s nemesis. Caleb, who teaches Bethia his language as he learns English from her. Caleb, in more ways than one, changes Bethia’s life. He becomes not just a friend, but more a brother than her own brother has ever--or will ever--be.

What transpires throughout this novel is the telling of Caleb’s education throughout the years, as he is taught English and started in Latin, Hebrew and Greek first from Bethia's father, then becomes the first Indian graduate from Harvard. His knack for language parallels Bethia’s, and she, through a twist of fate (I won’t spoil it), follows him to Harvard. At Harvard, Bethia finds love and continues her education through eavesdropping. 

Although the ending is certainly bittersweet, it is reminiscent of life. Caleb’s Crossing is based on a real person, but the story itself is fictional. The story of Caleb crossing from one world into the next, however, is certainly factual. He crossed from the Wampanoags to the English and found that combining the two was harder than imagined.

My rating: 

4.5/5 stars

I would definitely read this again. It was quiet and thoughtful, sad and yet enjoyable. The writing was fluent and elegant. A worthwhile read.

The Shack: A book review

I just finished reading The Shack by W. Paul Young, and although I found the book thought-provoking and deep at times, at others, I thought the book dragged on to a disappointing degree.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, as I’d heard that this book was good but not really what it was about. That said, I’m glad I only listened to it via my iPod, as I think, had I been physically reading it, I might have gotten tired of it, put it down and not picked it up again. 

This novel centers around a man, Mackenzie Allen Phillips, whose daughter, Missy, was abducted while the family camped in Oregon. It appears that the daughter has been brutally murdered by a serial killer who targets young girls, and the girls are never found again. This plunges Mack into a long depression he dubs “The Great Sadness”. When he receives a note in his mailbox three years later from “Papa”, the name which his wife has for God, asking Mack to meet Him at the shack (the scene of Missy’s abduction) Mack reluctantly heads out to meet God for the weekend. Not knowing what to expect, possibly that this is a trick of the killer or a cruel joke, Mack travels to the shack while the rest of his family goes on a weekend away. There, he meets God and is transformed by the experience.

Young’s writing was eloquent and the plot well developed. I could believe the progression of Mack as he went from angry at God to forgiving God (and others), and, although the book was a bit predictable, it was refreshingly so. My issue was the tediousness that began to develop for me towards the end of the novel. In fact, it became so--forgive me--boring, that I had to put the book (iPod) away for several days and come back to it later. I’m not sure why I felt this way, other than that the “theology” of the book got a bit repetitive and dragged on for too long. I understood the challenge the author faced in not being cliché in converting Mack to his belief in God, and not jumping into this faith with both feet after being so hurt. I was glad that Young did not prematurely wrap up the ending, and took his time in “converting” Mack. However, there came a point in the novel where I just got bored. It became a chore to listen to the book, and I couldn’t finish it at that time.

Overall, the book was an interesting read, and thought-provoking at times, but not a book I would reread or buy.