Effective Book Reviews

Book reviews are an integral part of the writing experience. They are a source of information for prospective readers, a measure of an author’s success, and a flexible market indicator for an author’s future. There is, however, an art to writing an effective and constructive book review. I find that the core of the reviewers art is a nugget of truth called, keep it positive.

Keeping our critical works positive is not a new concept; Hollywood has been exhibiting this skill for years. If one listens to how everyone in Hollywood talks about everyone else in Hollywood, it’s always gushingly positive: Finest director I’ve ever worked with, most talented actor in recent film, a cinematographer of extraordinary skill. Sometimes, Hollywood insiders have to reach for a compliment review but they always find one: I learned a lot from his thirty years of film making experience. Well, you get the idea. Very rarely do we hear a Hollywood (or really entertainment) celebrity publicly say some something negative about a colleague. On those rare occasions that a celebrity oversteps his bounds, I’ve noticed that the nay-sayer slowly, or rapidly, descends into obscurity. We just never hear from them again. We could all take a lesson from Hollywood-speak.

Now, don’t misunderstand my message. Hollywood celebrities do say critical things about each other, but they do it in a positive way. Hollywood celebrities aren’t being disingenuous. Most everything they say is true. Their praise may be the only positive, and also true, things that they can come up with to say, but they are true none the less. They just talk about each other in a diplomatic and complimentary way.

As an example, I subscribe to a local movie critic on a local TV news show in my area. Whether he likes a movie or not, whether he pans the movie or not, his reviews are positive. Recently, he reviewed the second ‘juvenile-bro-slapstick’ movie in a ‘juvenile-bro-slapstick’  series. This was not his movie genre. He said that if you like the first j-b-s movie, you would like the second j-b-s movie. He seemed to compliment the movie as artfully satisfying a certain segment of the movie going population. He also seemed to suggest that that select segment of the movie public had value. Then he added, if you are not a fan of j-b-s movie number one, this film may not be for you. He let the rest of us know not to waste our time. This movie was only for the cult following. Masterful. He panned the movie but he presented everything in a positive light.

As the popular antidote says: He could look at her lovingly and say, when I look into your eyes, all time stands still. Or, he could say, you got a face that can stop a clock.

I prefer book reviews that follow this positive profile. I like a reviewer that tell me the aspects of the book that the reviewer enjoyed. It enhances my enjoyment to know what to look for in the book as I read. I like when a reviewer ignores the minor deficiencies of a book. I don’t need to have them pointed out. Most of time, I will be so involved with the story, characters, and plot that I will just flow over the flaws. Most readers than I associate with tell me the same thing. They gloss over the flaws and fill in the gaps. I had a recent review of one of my books that focused solely on a series of questionable punctuation choices. As a matter of fact, the reviewer said that he could ‘not’ recommend the book because of what he viewed as unforgivable punctuation mistakes. I considered his review a whopping compliment. Punctuation errors was the worst he find, woo-hoo. He couldn’t find anything to criticize about my character development, plot twist, spelling or even my wording. It was a negative review but I liked it. I wonder how many people read the re iew and decided not to buy and read the book.
I have read my share of negative reviews, some scathingly negative. The ironic this is that I really enjoyed some of the same books.

Now, as Thomas Magnum would say, 'I know what you're thinking.' There are books that are just so bad that it is difficult to say something nice about them. Well, my local TV movie reviewer just doesn’t review the worst of the worst. For books, my opinion is the same. If the book is just so bad that a reviewer can’t say anything positive, then don’t write a review. If a reviewer just can’t stand it, I suggest that the reviewer contact the writer privately and express himself outside of the public eye. If the writer and the book are that bad, the reading public will find out on their own soon enough.

My name is Jeff Bailey I write action thrillers inspired by real events taken from everyday news. I also infuse elements of my near 50 years of experiences in nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants and nuclear research in to my stories.

 Not On My Watch is about a LCpl. Casandra Sing, a Marine aviation rescue firefighter. The inspiration for Cassie's character was the stories that my granddaughter, who was a Marine Corp. aviation rescue firefighter at the time of the writing. Elements of the story are also taken from my service in the Army Nuclear Weapons Program. LCpl. Sing witnesses the murder of two U.S. Army M.P.'s and decides that is her duty to stop the murderers. The situation gets complicated when she discovers that they have also stolen two nuclear weapons.

Welcome to my world!

A Review of Nadia Reimer's Colored Sand by Jeff Bailey

Colored Sand

I just finished reading Colored Sand, by Nadia Reimer and it to be absolutely surprising. Nadia, who is originally from Jordan, took me on a journey through the Jordan of her childhood woven into an intriguing story of archeological search. The first hand stories about the life of the average peasant Jordanian who lived around the ancient city of Petra and supported the tourist business was detailed enough to be interesting in itself. Nadia’s writing style is captivating. It was not entirely Americanized. Her writing has almost a hint of an accent that gives the book an air of authenticity, charming.

Nadia Reimer and Jeff Bailey

I met Nadia at a recent book-signing event and was able to spend some time listening to her stories of her childhood. She is a natural storyteller. In person, she has an easy humor that doesn’t come out in Colored Sand. We had an extended conversation about one of her writing goals: to send the message that most of the people from faraway places are just like us. We all want the best for our families, a good life and to live our life free to pursue our beliefs. I agree with her, ninety-nine point nine percent of the world want a better world. It’s only a small fraction of the world’s population that wants to disrupt the world to force their own values. I present a similar theme in my books, only not quite in the same words. Several of the scenes in my books take place in ethnically diverse locals, embassy rows, the American military, and international commerce settings. When everyone is different, differences don’t matter.

My compliments to Nadia Reimer and her nostalgic story, Colored Sand. I rate Nadia Reimerhigh on my personal reading list and look forward to reading my latest Nadia Reimer acquisition, Hunters of the Wild Beasts, also by Nadia Reimer. Colored Sand definitely rates five stars on my reading enjoyment scale.

Books by Nadia Reimer: Colored Sand, Hunters of the Wild Beasts, Old Garments and Matching Hats, Stray Notes in a Minor Key. Stray Notes is an interesting book of poems, one-third in English, one-third in Spanish, and one-third in Arabic.

Books by Jeff Bailey: The Defect (released by Deer Hawk Publications in June of 2016), I’m a Marine (Scheduled for release in spring of 2017 by Deer Hawk Publications), The Chilcoat Project, and Wine Country. Several other titles are scheduled.