Book review policy ~ updated April 2019

Apparently only my friends read my book review policies, but I seem to be updating them every two or three years anyway.

Review policy ~ 2013

Book review policy ~ 2016

My policy is simple now:

Nope, not interested.

If you have looked at my blog, even a cursory glance at books I write about, you'd know I don't read thrillers or mysteries or horror or whatever bestseller "everyone" is reading.  I have enough books on my shelves right now to last the rest of my life.  I'll be 79 in a couple of weeks, so that is NOT an exaggeration.  Not only are my shelves full, I have boxes of books stacked in my bedroom and even more boxes of books in storage.  Ridiculous, I know.  But that's why getting another book "for free" doesn't interest me.

In 2016, my policy update began with these words, which have been ignored:

"I am not accepting requests for review..."

It's 2019 now.  Believe me, I really mean it.  I'm not reviewing books these days.

Book review policy ~ updated 10-1-16

I am not accepting requests for review right now, since my life seems to be much too full this year.  If I ever get back to reviewing books other than ones I have chosen to buy or borrow, these are my rules:

1.  It's easier to flip back and forth through "real" books when I need to write about them or teach from them, so I prefer trade paperbacks or hardbacks.  Only rarely would I consider a book to read on my Kindle.

2.  I will not review books that require that I post something on a specific date, so don't bother asking me to do "book tours" or any other scheduled reviews.

3.  This is my blog with my content, so I will never post specified content.

4.  Any books accepted for review are subject to being tossed aside if they don't work for me.  If I choose to DNF (Did Not Finish) a book, I reserve the right to say nothing at all about it.

5.  When I review or write anything about a book, I may post a few lines or go off on a tangent about something in the book that sparks a thought in my philosophical word universe.  That means I may write a single paragraph or a few words.  It could mean I throw in a quote or two and go off in what may seem to you to be a strange direction.  So don't ask me to review a book at all if you're not willing to accept very brief thoughts or my discretion to write about whatever interests me.

6.  And finally, I reserve the right to change this policy at any time.  Click on this link to see my earlier review policy.

Sunday Salon ~ books and boys

BOOKS ~ coincidences?

Body Surfing ~ by Anita Shreve, 2007, fiction (New Hampshire)

At the age of 29, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed.  Trying to regain her footing, she has signed on to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple as they spend a sultry summer in their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage.  But when the Edwardses' two grown sons arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught up in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter divisions.  As the brothers vie for her affections, the fragile existence Sydney has rebuilt is threatened.

Having found another bookstore here in the St. Louis area this afternoon, I came home with this novel.  It's a used book, and tucked inside was the original receipt for the books.  On May 3, 2007 — exactly eight years ago today — someone bought this copy of the novel in Louisville, Kentucky.  I love "coincidences" like this, that I bring home the same book on the same day, years later.  What are the odds?

I've read several of Anita Shreve's books, so I didn't hesitate to pick up this one as soon as I saw it.  I'm reading some nonfiction books right now, but this is likely be the next fiction for me.  Other recently acquired books include another "used" book.  I wonder how much I'll actually learn from this one, since I went to seminary, have a Master's degree in theology, and taught religions of the world (as an adjunct) for over a decade.  But I was curious, and the price was right.

Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned ~ by Kenneth C. Davis, 1998, religion

With wit, wisdom, and an extraordinary talent for turning dry, difficult reading into colorful and realistic accounts, the creator of the bestselling Don't Know Much About®, series brings the world of the Old and New testaments to life as no one else can in the bestseller Don't Know Much About® The Bible.  Relying on new research [it was new back in 1998] and improved translations, Davis uncovers some amazing questions and contradictions about what the Bible really says.  Jericho's walls may have tumbled down because the city lies on a fault line.  Moses never parted the Red Sea.  There was a Jesus, but he wasn't born on Christmas and he probably wasn't an only child.  Davis brings readers up-to-date on findings gleaned from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Gnostic Gospels that prompt serious scholars to ask such serious questions as:  Who wrote the Bible?  Did Jesus say everything we were taught he did?  Did he say more?  By examining the Bible historically, Davis entertains and amazes, provides a much better understanding of the subject, and offers much more fun learning about it.

BOYS ~ my great-grandsons

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Two books about the elderly

Eight of the books I'd had on reserve for weeks were ready for pickup on the same day.  EIGHT books.  Two of them were about older people, and that's why I am discussing them as a pair.  Mary Anne Schwalbe is 73 at the beginning of the first book, and she's dying of cancer.  I'm 74 and am more interested in this book than the one about a bride in that stack of eight books.  I'm much closer to when I'll die than when I was a bride, and I'm completely at peace with that.

The other book is about a last great adventure.  Even though Etta is 83 (or maybe because of it), she left home to walk to the sea, just as I moved last summer to St. Louis from my hometown in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  It's an adventure because I've never lived west of the Mississippi River and the only folks I knew here were my best friend Donna and her sister Jane.  I did not, however, walk the nearly 500 miles here.  My adventure started with a moving van.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James ~ by Emma Hooper, 2015, fiction (Canada)

Otto,

The letter began, in blue ink,

I’ve gone.  I’ve never seen the water, so I’ve gone there.  Don’t worry, I’ve left you the truck.  I can walk.  I will try to remember to come back.
Yours (always),
Etta.

Otto finds the note left by his wife in the kitchen of their farmhouse in windswept Saskatchewan.  Eighty-three-year-old Etta will be walking 3,200 kilometers to see the ocean, but somehow, Otto understands.  He took his own journey once before, to fight in a faraway land.  With Etta gone, Otto struggles with his demons of war, while their friend Russell initially pursues the woman he has loved from afar.  And James — well, James you have to meet on the page.  Moving from the hot and dry present of a quiet Canadian farm to a dusty, burnt past of hunger, war, and passion, from trying to remember to trying to forget, Etta and Otto and Russell and James is an astounding literary debut about friendship and love, hope and honor, and the romance of last great adventures.

The End of Your Life Book Club ~ by Will Schwalbe, 2012, memoir

During her treatment for cancer, Mary Anne Schwalbe and her son Will spent many hours sitting in waiting rooms together.  To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading.  Once, by chance, they read the same book at the same time — and an informal book club of two was born.  Through their wide-ranging reading, Will and Mary Anne — and we, their fellow readers — are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating, changing the way that we feel about and interact with the world around us.  A profoundly moving memoir of caregiving, mourning, and love — The End of Your Life Book Club is also about the joy of reading, and the ways that joy is multiplied when we share it with others.

Review policy

Bookfool has a New Review Policy about reviewing books, so it seems like a good idea for me to formalize my own policy.  I'm going to use some of her ideas here.

1.  REAL BOOKS — I read "real" books, paperback or hardback, and have no interest in e-books.   I underline and write in books and tag pages with Post-it notes so I can use the book while teaching.  Besides, I love that new-book smell, which I enjoyed this very minute because UPS delivered two books. ------>

2.  NO SPECIFIC DATES — I don't accept books for review on specific dates.  Being retired means that I can pretty much do what I want, when I want, unless I over-commit myself.

3.  NO PROMISES — Any books accepted for review are subject to being tossed if they don't work for me.   If I don't finish a book, I probably won't write about it at all.  I reserve the right to say nothing about the book at all.

4.  UNSOLICITED BOOKS — These will be reviewed if and when I choose to read the book.  I reserve the right to read what I want to read when I want to read it.

5.  EMAIL ME — To request a review, write to me at emergingDOTparadigmATyahooDOTcom.  I won't reply unless I'm interested in your book.