The Art of Reviewing

I recently finished a collection development article for the February Library Journal, covering a couple of my favorite topics: urban gardening and homesteading.

Looking at this made me realize that I have been reviewing and writing professionally now for several years, and sometimes it is still amazing to me that I am actually doing it.

Anyone who has followed this blog for a while will know it has taken a lot of different paths through the years. I started reviewing titles on the blog because I wanted to bring more of my professional interests into it, and because I wanted to share my thoughts on the books I read and was interested in.

If you look at the archives, you will see a lot of science fiction and fantasy and LGBT titles, plus urban farming, gardening, and homesteading. A bit of an eclectic mix, I know, but I wanted to talk about what appealed to me, as opposed to keeping to one "theme" for reviews.

In 2011, I saw a call from Library Journal for new reviewers for a brand new format: e-originals. Books that were only being published digitally were really taking off, and Library Journal knew that reviews would be needed for collection development. At the time, I still had my previous job at the network, which included working with our shared OverDrive catalog. As libraries were seeing demand for ebooks grow and the limits in effect by publishers who (at the time) were not providing access to a lot of the frontlist titles, a lot of titles were sitting under the radar. So, I joined a merry band of librarians to review digital romances. Since then, I have read and reviewed a range of romance from historical to fantasy to erotic, but have really enjoyed covering the LGBT titles, especially M/M, romances, of which there are certainly plenty.

Not long after, I responded to another request (on Twitter, actually) by Library Journal for someone to write the Mystery Preview for the April 2012 issue, then jumped on the call for the SciFi/Fantasy/Horror Spotlight in August. These long articles really stretched my skills as a reviewer, as I was looking at trends more than actual titles. I know that without my wonderful editor, I would be up a creek without a paddle (and probably without a boat or life jacket either). I was honored to be asked back to write those same articles in 2013, plus I also ended up joining the science and technology reviewers, writing reviews of artisan cooking, beekeeping, and the like. All similar to the titles I loved reviewing on my blog and that are of personal interest to me.

This has all led to some fun things, for example:

I was thrilled to be chosen as one of Library Journal's Reviewer of the Year. To have this work that I do validated in this way really makes me believe that I am making a solid contribution to the profession.

When I was young, I dreamed of being a writer. While this is not the bestselling novel I expected to publish, I am a writer, and happy to be one such as this.