I love non-fiction books. Me and my dad frequently buy each other history books as gifts, and I am always looking for great new non-fiction books I could give him.
Frequently when I am looking for books to buy, I will often look up professional critics’ reviews of books that catch my eye for one reason or another. I am generally not too interested in random user reviews on something like Good Reads or something because I have no idea what perspective that user is coming from. Ideally, I would like a professional opinion from someone who has experience in that field or area who can let me know whether this is a worthwhile contribution to the scholarship on a subject.
And yet invariably when I look up a book review of a non-fiction book on something like the New Yorker, or the Guardian, or any of the other liberal snooty rags I like, the author basically just sums up what the book is *about* and the main points the author makes, with virtually no assessment of the quality of the book itself, whether substantively or in form. The review will give a synopsis, list some of the major points raised by the author or the implications of the argument, and then it just ends. At best they’ll say something like “in this *intriguing* book by…”, and that is what you have to go off of.
I understand that there can be a difference between a “consumer review” and a “critical analysis”, but these “reviews” aren’t doing either of these things, they’re just summaries. Who is this for?
Is there something I am not understanding about book reviews? Some tactic understanding everyone else has that I don’t? Why are they so *incredibly* unhelpful?
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by Bufus