Book Review Websites
Sometimes reading a great book review is almost as satisfying as wrestling your way to the end of a 900-page Russian novel.
To be honest, the only Russian novel I’ve ever finished is the conveniently slim One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, but I stand by my original statement.
I always appreciate when a book review sums up the relevant details of some massive tome, works in a bit of thoughtful analysis, and leaves me feeling like I’ve enriched myself so much in about five minutes that I won’t have to add yet another title to my massive list of books to read.
It doesn’t always end so cleanly, though. So many excellent book review resources on the web inevitably unearth fascinating new authors or revisit classics I predictably haven’t read.
Here are some that I try to keep up with, and I’m curious what other sites readers find especially useful:
The New York Times Book Review kind of seems like the granddaddy of them all, even though it’s been pared down like so much other newspaper content over the last few years. Still, the big-name reviewers who know they can make or break careers like small-time Oprahs seem to take their responsibilities here seriously.
The New York Review of Books is the place to go in between breezing through those Russian novels, as their exhaustingly lengthy reviews often require almost as much heavy lifting.
Arts & Letters Daily is way too packed with fascinating articles, and their often misleadingly named “New Books” section is great for dragging overlooked classics out of semi-obscurity.
Blogcritics.org’s book reviews are great for quirky genre stuff, and the wide range of reviewers offers truly (small “d”) democratic opinions.
Slate.com’s Books section often features interesting “Book Club” discussion groups where medium- to big-name writers shoot emails back and forth for a week or so. For readers, it’s like eavesdropping on the conversations of geniuses (or wacked out but entertaining nut jobs).
What other book review resources on the web should readers know about?
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I really like Elegant Variation, the literary weblog http://marksarvas.blogs.com/
HIs reviews are succinct, interesting, sometimes humorous, controversial, and amazing titles float by, the blog includes links to other reviewers, there are interviews and it has an international flavor.