Insecure Writers Support Group 6 December 2023

 

Image by mcmurryjulie from Pixabay

December 6 question: Book reviews are for the readers. When you leave a book reviews do you review for the Reader or the Author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?

I...um...wut?

I'm not sure I understand the question correctly, but I'll take a crack at it.

When I review the book, I'm reviewing the story, including what I liked and/or disliked about it. I probably know little to nothing about the author, so it really isn't my place to critique them as a person. 

Sadly, my experiences with Online Book Club burned me out on doing book reviews and I rarely have time, anyway. I'm almost always amenable to doing promotional posts. You can learn more about that at the following link if it sounds like something you'd be interested in.

https://ornerybookemporium.blogspot.com/p/ornery-literary-services.html

Here's a link to a four-star audiobook review I wrote in October. I cite several reasons for enjoying the story and explain my reason for giving it four rather than five stars.

https://ornerybookemporium.blogspot.com/2023/10/for-long-run-audiobook-review.html

https://odysee.com/@tombaileybackingtracks:d/acoustic-rock-guitar-backing-track-in-25:5?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

Wordy Thursday: New Mindest, New Results

Genre:

Business

Rating:

Four out of Four Stars for Online Book Club

Disclosure:

I received an advance copy of this book for review purposes.

This post contains affiliate links. If readers purchase a copy of the book through the above link, I will receive a small commission from Amazon.

Please read my exclusive Online Book Club review of this book here.

This is a brief, encouraging book geared towards small business owners who have employees. It can also be utilized by solo entrepreneurs and by managers in a larger business or corporate setting. The author writes in a friendly, personable tone. He addresses issues such as communicating with one's staff in an encouraging and forthright manner as well as personal perseverance. 

When employees feel as though they are a valued part of a business, they will be engaged and involved in its growth. I wish that some of my past employers had a book like this at their disposal. They might have enjoyed increased staff retention and performance if they had treated their employees as assets rather than disposable components.

Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors

Ornery Literary Services

Fat Friday #15 + Ornery Reviews: How To Define Yourself by Chuck Clifton

Yet Another Unoriginal Positive Thinking Tome Complete With Fat-Shaming Icing on the Unpalatable Cake

Rating: One out of Four Stars

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review purposes

You are welcome to read my exclusive review of this mess for the Online Book Club.

Main positive takeaway:

This book is brief. This means that you can get angry quickly. The more quickly you get angry, the sooner you can recover from being angry and focus on better things.

Main negative takeaway:

Pretty much everything about this book. It started out as a generic "Positive Thinking" tome and devolved into a body-shaming mess complete with a picture of a Headless Fatty wearing a shirt several sizes too small, a fat guy who apparently does not own any dish towels so he licks his plate to clean it, and the erroneous and asinine assumption that All Fat People Are Fat Because They Are Always Stuffing Their Fat Faces With Bad Food. Never mind that many larger people are food insecure or that there are big people who do EVERYTHING RIGHT and somehow are still fat, or that there are thin people who eat All The Wrong Stuff and lots of it and yet are still thin. 

I do not recommend this book to anyone, so I am not providing a link to it.

It isn't often that I find a book I hate so much that I give it a one-star review. This book is one of two that I've reviewed this year which earns that dubious distinction.

~Cie the Ornery Old Lady~

I recommend this book instead. It is the last diet book you will ever need.

Review of Ship It by Britta Lundin

This is a duplicate of my review for this item on Amazon.

I generally don't write negative reviews. If I dislike something, I tend to put it aside. I try to find something I like even in things that didn't hit home for me. However, I never thought I'd find anything which made Twilight look like a literary masterpiece, and I found it in this book.

Claire, the heroine of the story, isn't just socially awkward, she's malicious. 

I know this is a work of fiction, but basic reality stepped out of the room when a television show geared to adults asks a teenager to become a consultant and adults confide sensitive personal information to this teenager.

I probably wouldn't have written a review for this book at all, except that Claire illustrates an extremely toxic aspect of fandom culture. She doesn't like being told "no," and she behaves in a vindictive and malevolent fashion when an actor who plays one of the characters she ships doesn't support said ship. She is disrespectful, self-absorbed, and unlikable. 

This book reads like not particularly well-written fan fiction. It was touted as being humorous, and I was hoping for a likable geek in its heroine. Instead, I found Claire, who is the sort of fan that no actor or creator wants. She is an obsessive backstabber. 

I probably would have liked Rico better if he didn't seem like a two-dimensional cardboard cutout. Aside from Claire, the characters were props with no particular distinguishing features to compel the reader's interest.

Perhaps the author was attempting to make Forest (the actor who refuted Claire's beloved ship) more unlikable through unflattering physical description, but "watery blue eyes" makes me think the poor chap is having an allergic reaction to something and needs a Zyrtec and some Visine, stat.

Regarding Claire's love interest, Tess: I want to care at least a little if the hero/heroine gets their guy/gal. The Claire-Tess romance seemed forced and I really couldn't care less. Tess was a prop, and Claire was self-serving and odious. Such a character would be fine if that's what she was supposed to be, but it isn't. She was supposed to be a sympathetic character.

Claire was a great illustration of the downside of fandom culture. Beyond that, there was nothing great or even particularly entertaining about this book. Perhaps Ms. Lundin's forte lies in scriptwriting rather than novels.

~Cie~