Book reviews are their own genre. They are not like anything else that you’ll write as a scholar. This is true for several reasons, which I’ll outline, but certainly because they are doing a particular kind of work in their analysis. Articles and books are generally self-explanatory for what they do as pieces of academic writing—book reviews’ values are not as easily grasped at first blanche.
In this post, I hope to share a few pointers for how to write a helpful book review. I use “helpful” and not “good” purposefully. Book reviews are utilitarian and meant to be engaged and digested by more people than will read the book. Know the genre and recognize its value.
- Word limits: obstacles and opportunities
Books and articles have word limits, but are generally much longer than book reviews. This is for good reason. There are far more books to be reviewed than there are book review slots available in published journals.
Most book review editors will tell you how long a piece should be. For instance, American Quarterly only does group book reviews and has a wide wordcount range. The Journal of Mormon History has a limit of 1000 words.
Blogs often have suggestions for word limits but often allow many more than print journals. Black Perspectives also frequently posts reviews and are much longer than reviews found in print journals. I encourage folks reviewing books for JI to take 750-1250 words. This is more to help folks be concise and to focus their writing rather than a hard-and-fast rule.
Word limits are helpful for focusing your writing but that doesn’t mean that they don’t present their own problems. How do you summarize a book’s argument, make praises and critiques, and more in such a relatively short amount of time? While each reviewer will wrestle with this in their own way, this is my general advice:
- 20% introduction (Name the book and author and the topic)
- 50% summary of the book (what’s most important about the argument)
- 20% historiography (how does it fit into the field, critiques and praise for how it fits into the field’s bigger picture)
- 10% conclusion (summarize and say who you would recommend the book to)
I would also recommend to folks that they write everything they want to in a first draft and then make cuts based on word count. Writing is thinking. Your first draft is your thinking draft. After you have a draft you’ll know what’s most important and can go back and cut. You may not know what’s most important about the book as you read, but you will by the time you have to trim words. Other helpful ways to cut down on word count include combining sentences, removing passive voice, and considering what someone who is deciding whether to buy the book will want to know.
2) Book reviews are more social than most pieces of academic writing
I know of several authors who refuse to read book reviews for their mental health. That is good and wise. Also, every single person I know that does this has tenure already. By and large, folks will read their reviews. Presses will use them in their marketing. Authors will know your name as someone who has reviewed their work. So will their friends.
In saying this, I mean that you should be aware that these are not idle pieces of writing. They contribute to tenure files and job applications and grant applications. They can have long-term impacts even if they seem routine and less-than-exciting in the moment.
When writing, I would encourage writers to reread Stuart Parker’s article on Richard Bushman’s “hermeneutic of generosity.” In short, Parker argues that Bushman always gives his historical subjects the benefit of the doubt, recognizing that areas fall short but that generally people mean to do well. Be kind. In Mormon history you may be attending conferences and sharing special collections space with someone whose work you’re reviewing for decades. That doesn’t mean you can’t share shortcomings but it does mean that you should see yourself as a teammate rather than as someone who you need to tear down to prove your bona fides.
It’s an honor/privilege/ joy/terrifying event to have your book reviewed. Review someone’s book the way you would want someone to review your work. Never punch down. Be as positive as you can. Often, when reviews are purely or overly negative, it reveals more about the reviewer than it does about the author.
3) Your review will set expectations for scholars wanting to understand the field
Folks read book reviews because they want to know if they should use their valuable time and funds to read new publications. They may also be reading the reviews because they’re entering a new field and want to know which books should be at the top of their lists.
Readers may also be scholars who are unfamiliar with the field. They may not know how to read or review an academic book. Indeed, graduate students may be reading your work to better understand how to write a book review or what they should know about a book. Your reviews are helping serve the field and are teaching, directly or indirectly, others how to approach the field.
Here are other helpful resources:
Examples of book reviews in several formats
David Grua on God’s Red Son
Le’Trice Donaldson, Racial Beachhead
Joseph Stuart, Books on Race and Mormonism
Black Perspectives Roundtable on The Promise of Patriarchy
For almost 28 years, I’ve done a daily book review on KDXU Radio in St. George. I script the show and its about 3 minutes. When I’m busier in life, there are more paperbacks, classics, repeats, etc., but I still manage to get in 3 or 4 new books per week. Obviously, my reviews aren’t the level you’re talking about in this post, but there’s still a niche for them. Here’s an example of one of mine:
Hi everyone. I’m Terry Hutchinson and welcome to Bookmarks. Its been a couple of weeks since school got going again and we’re all settling in for this term, including the college kids. For those who seem to run out of time for their English homework, there’s a book that may provide some relief. Over the last twenty-four years [now twenty-eight] of doing this program, one of my favorite experiences was from a woman who thanked me for the program and told me she listened all the time. Usually, the person will then go on to describe how they have been reading a lot more and which particular books they enjoy, but this woman said something surprising. She said, “I listen all the time because when I go to parties, I can pretend I’ve read the books you talk about and people think I’m so smart!” For years, I’ve laughed about that, but the woman was apparently on to something. As they say, truth is often stranger than fiction. I’ll tell you more about it right after this brief message.
When it comes to English literature, it takes the French, naturally enough, to tell us English speakers how to do it. I’ve talked about this book on the program before. It came out ten years ago, but its applications aren’t any less now than they were then. Its called How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read. You might think this is some kind of a gag gift, but it isn’t. The author of the book is Pierre Bayard and he’s serious. This book was a huge best-seller in France. Bayard admits that no matter how well read we are, we can’t keep up with the thousands of good books newly published every year. He asks the question, what do we do in those situations when we inevitably have to have a social conversation about a book we haven’t read?
In this book, Bayard argues that we don’t need to have read the book to have that conversation, in fact, sometimes reading the book can be the worst thing you can do. He breaks books down into different categories, books we don’t know and never heard of, books we read a long time ago and have forgotten, books we’ve skimmed and books we’ve heard about. To set the example, every time Bayard mentions a book title, he gives us the category along with the opinion he’s formed of the book based on his skimming it, his vague recollection of it or what he’s heard about it. For example, Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose is a book I’ve read six times. It’s a murder mystery set in a 13th century monastery and features a mysterious book. Name of the Rose is a book Bayard’s heard about, never read and has a very high opinion of.
This book is a serious look at how we are impacted by our culture, how we often take in books almost by osmosis and why we form our opinions about them. It is not a gag gift, although it would make an excellent gift for someone who likes to read. Bayard’s style is not as easy to read as the title may sound. His examples are practical and down to earth. College students who are too busy to actually study will appreciate the chapter on how to talk to professors about books we haven’t read. Remember you heard it here on Bookmarks. That’s it for today. I’m Terry Hutchinson and that’s Bookmarks.
Comment by Terry H — July 6, 2022 @ 9:33 pm