more reviews roundup from last year

The Worst Books I Reviewed, Where I Mean Worst In The Bad Way

-- David Lindsay, Devil's Tor. Oh, David Lindsay. I will always love and respect you. EXCEPT FOR THIS BOOK GAH. Surprise!unintentional!Nazis are never a good thing.
-- Loretta Chase, Don't Tempt Me. Horrific Orientalist fiddle-faddle. I could have been much nastier to this than I was.

The Worst Books I Reviewed, Where By Worst I Mean Most Hilarious

-- Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Crazy Beautiful. Thinking about this book will never not be funny. Never. ALL THE ANGST! Mahogany and topaz are the same color!
-- John Boyd, The Pollinators of Eden. I was not expecting the alien orchid tentacle porn. Because honestly, I am never expecting that.
-- Louis Rodrigues, A Long Time Waiting. If I ever have to fight a duel with bad poetry, this is the book I'm bringing to use as a weapon.
-- Frank Miller, 300. ... sometimes you just need to break out the caps-lock.

I Am Still So Blazingly Ambivalent About This Book, Seriously

-- Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey.

The Reviews I Enjoyed Writing The Most

Well, I mean, I desperately enjoyed everything in the hilariously bad category, but also:

-- Opal Whiteley ed. Benjamin Hoff, The Singing Creek Where The Willows Grow. You don't get material like this to work with every day. A confusing joy of an experience.
-- Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander, + Lady Sarashina, Sarashina Nikki: the numerical mixup which caused me to read an extra book was perfectly real, and I still think this was a good way of dealing with it.
-- Vikram Seth, The Golden Gate. From about halfway through the book it was obvious how the review needed to work, and I took a while to become reconciled to it, but then it was fun.
-- Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy. A liberation. I had stayed up so late and read so hard that I was basically high-- incredibly loopy, randomly giggly-- and for some reason the book makes me think in French, so I was having to translate every sentence into English as I wrote it down, and that was when I realized that I had no particular obligation to go into details on the plot, historical background, etc., and what's more the review would be better if I didn't. This improved later reviews immensely both for me and for everyone else.
-- Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. This is a case of me talking to myself about a book and figuring it out as I go, and I'm happy with where it ended up because the vast majority of other reviews I'd seen didn't have much to do with the text as I read it.
-- Pat Conroy, Prince of Tides.

The Review I Just Kind Of Wrote Down And Then Everyone Told Me It Was Really Good And Okay, I Do See It Now You Mention

-- T.H. White, The Goshawk.

The Reviews I Wish I'd Done Better:

Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes; both Patrick Rothfuss reviews; M. John Harrison, Light. Did not adequately express the goodness of the books involved. Michele Jaffe, The Story of 0; was having one of those days where you forget information you know perfectly well and then people have to remind you of it in comments; can't imagine where I put my brain.

more reviews roundup from last year

The Worst Books I Reviewed, Where I Mean Worst In The Bad Way

-- David Lindsay, Devil's Tor. Oh, David Lindsay. I will always love and respect you. EXCEPT FOR THIS BOOK GAH. Surprise!unintentional!Nazis are never a good thing.
-- Loretta Chase, Don't Tempt Me. Horrific Orientalist fiddle-faddle. I could have been much nastier to this than I was.

The Worst Books I Reviewed, Where By Worst I Mean Most Hilarious

-- Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Crazy Beautiful. Thinking about this book will never not be funny. Never. ALL THE ANGST! Mahogany and topaz are the same color!
-- John Boyd, The Pollinators of Eden. I was not expecting the alien orchid tentacle porn. Because honestly, I am never expecting that.
-- Louis Rodrigues, A Long Time Waiting. If I ever have to fight a duel with bad poetry, this is the book I'm bringing to use as a weapon.
-- Frank Miller, 300. ... sometimes you just need to break out the caps-lock.

I Am Still So Blazingly Ambivalent About This Book, Seriously

-- Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey.

The Reviews I Enjoyed Writing The Most

Well, I mean, I desperately enjoyed everything in the hilariously bad category, but also:

-- Opal Whiteley ed. Benjamin Hoff, The Singing Creek Where The Willows Grow. You don't get material like this to work with every day. A confusing joy of an experience.
-- Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander, + Lady Sarashina, Sarashina Nikki: the numerical mixup which caused me to read an extra book was perfectly real, and I still think this was a good way of dealing with it.
-- Vikram Seth, The Golden Gate. From about halfway through the book it was obvious how the review needed to work, and I took a while to become reconciled to it, but then it was fun.
-- Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy. A liberation. I had stayed up so late and read so hard that I was basically high-- incredibly loopy, randomly giggly-- and for some reason the book makes me think in French, so I was having to translate every sentence into English as I wrote it down, and that was when I realized that I had no particular obligation to go into details on the plot, historical background, etc., and what's more the review would be better if I didn't. This improved later reviews immensely both for me and for everyone else.
-- Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. This is a case of me talking to myself about a book and figuring it out as I go, and I'm happy with where it ended up because the vast majority of other reviews I'd seen didn't have much to do with the text as I read it.
-- Pat Conroy, Prince of Tides.

The Review I Just Kind Of Wrote Down And Then Everyone Told Me It Was Really Good And Okay, I Do See It Now You Mention

-- T.H. White, The Goshawk.

The Reviews I Wish I'd Done Better:

Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes; both Patrick Rothfuss reviews; M. John Harrison, Light. Did not adequately express the goodness of the books involved. Michele Jaffe, The Story of 0; was having one of those days where you forget information you know perfectly well and then people have to remind you of it in comments; can't imagine where I put my brain.

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