So I just had a thing happen. It was the first time on one of my book reviews I received a really scathing, insulting and utterly hateful comment. This was a long comment, one the reader really put some thought into. It was full of nothing but insults to my intelligence, claims that I’m juvenile and not well-read simply because I didn’t care for the book, and various other really hateful assertions I need not mention.
Look, as readers, we are not always going to agree. I have read book reviews of books I couldn’t stand in which the reviewers just raved about them. The opposite is also true. I have loved books that other reviewers ripped apart. Typically, if I write a really negative review I do worry a bit about being called out by someone who thinks my vehemence was a tad unfounded. I don’t want to be just plain mean, but I do want to be honest. In this particular case, I never expected the level of vitriol I received, because there were lots of things I DID like about the book, and I was very clear about that.
Whenever, as a reader, I stumble upon a review I don’t agree with, I will tell you what I don’t do. What I don’t do is jump on that person’s page and tell them they are stupid for not sharing my opinion. I don’t create an anonymous online persona that I can use to trash another content creator. When I write my book reviews, I am as honest and thorough as possible. I don’t just say “this is garbage,” give it 1 star and move on. And, trust me, there were plenty of people on goodreads who did exactly that with this particular book. Any time I write a review, I give my reasons, they are my own, and I make sure I share both what I liked and what I didn’t like. That is my only job as a reviewer, and I don’t have to make readers feel better about their particular position on something. What a boring world would this be if we all shared the same opinions about everything?
In part, I’m writing this post to sort of vent my frustrations, sure. It does kind of hurt to be insulted for something that you enjoy so much. My words are important to me. I enjoy sharing them with readers. But do I believe him? Do I believe that I’m stupid, uneducated, or juvenile in my reading tastes? No. The uneducated and juvenile position is being pretentious enough to believe you’re superior to someone else in your intellect simply because you liked a book and they didn’t. In this case, I did respond. I tried to be as professional as possible but I made it clear I would have appreciated a more professional and less personal attack. I could have merely trashed his comment. I could have marked it as spam. I didn’t do either of those things. I will let his comment speak for itself. Some people may agree with him. Some people may agree with me. That’s life.
How do you handle this situation? Has it ever happened to you? Did you respond to it or did you ignore it? Feel free to comment and share your own frustrations. One thing I’ve always loved about this community is that people seem to be very respectful and supportive of each other and I’m very grateful for that. Until next time, happy reading and happy blogging. And down with trolls. 😊
Currently reading Liane Moriarty’s newest release, Apples Never Fall, which I’m using as my book set in Australia for my reading challenge. I’ve filled a few slots in on my reading challenge this month thankfully. Though I’ve finished more than 52 books this year, I doubled up on some categories so I still have 7 books to read to finish the entire challenge not counting the ones I already have in the works. 
The audiobook I’m listening to is My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. Mr. Jones will be at the Springfield-Greene County Library next week, so I want to get this one finished by then. Basically I have a lot of reading to do between now and the end of December and I hope I make it. 
I have just finished reading the audiobook version of Unf*ck Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop. I will likely write a pretty short review of this one today. It wasn’t exaclty earth-shattering, but it was useful for its intended purpose and I think it was quite a big dose of reality that I needed this week. The other book I finished I will post a more detailed review of. 
It is The Women of the Copper County by Mary Doria Russell. Russell is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read everything she’s put out to date. It took me a while to get to this one simply because I owned a copy, and I always wind up setting those aside to meet library deadlines. I finally pushed myself to finish it, however. 
Next I’m going to pick up the book club selection for October. It’s a nice scary Halloween classic, The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty. I’m not super squeamish like some of the other folks in our book group, so I doubt this keeps me up at night. I hope not, anyway. On audio, I am going to keep going with one I’ve already started.
It’s Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. To be honest, though a classic, I don’t find Twain as charming as I used to. Maybe it’s my current mood. Not sure, but I’m still going to finish it for the reading challenge. 
If you are a lover of historical fiction, commit the name Nathan Harris to memory, because you will be hearing from him again. Harris is an alumnus of the Michener Center for Writers out of The University of Texas at Austin. While there, Harris spent most of his time focusing on The Sweetness of Water. Let’s face it, novels of the Civil War are common, but only an expert wordsmith can create something so unique and refreshing in a genre flooded with content as to speak to every reader in a deeply personal way. This is surely one of these books. 
A Promised Land is the Presidential memoir of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. Obama was a positively historic President for the US, as he was the first black President to serve as commander in chief in a country whose history is seething with racial strife. His election was a momentous occasion for millions of Americans, and it was especially important for young people of color growing up in a country that previously felt like such a position was out of their reach. He was and still is an extremely polarizing figure, either adored or demonized depending upon which side of the political divide one falls. In reality, any human individual who has ever sat in the seat in which he sat contains flaws, and he is no different. No President has ever made perfect decisions, just as no other flesh and blood person has ever made perfect decisions. The difference is that the President makes decisions in front of the entire nation and the entire world and will be forever judged by those decisions. And will also have to deal with a whole lot of malarkey flung their way, which should just be ignored, as he deftly demonstrates in this book. 
Ten-year-old Ruby Trick lives in the small seaside village of Limeburn in Devon the United Kingdom. She adores her father, the unfortunate John Trick, an out of work and down on his luck lover of all things cowboy, and practically detests her mother, Alison, a woman we readers can quickly glean is much more complicated than Ruby imagines. A masked assailant begins to terrorize the women of Limeburn and his antics quickly turn deadly. When John takes Ruby along on his “posse” to track down the killer, Ruby finds herself facing potentially deadly consequences for herself and her family. 
I am going to start the same book I planned before, Apples of Stone by Philip Marsh. I saw his brother yesterday at work and verified I would be picking it up soon, so I am really truly committed now. Until next time, happy reading! Hopefully I’ll have more to share next week. 
This is an incredibly different book than the last Hoover novel I read, It Ends With Us. There are some similarities. Again with the odd naming conventions, though I do rather like the name Verity Crawford. There is also a very intense undercurrent of abuse, though in this case it is pretty intense child abuse versus the spousal abuse from the first, so be warned. Otherwise, whereas It Ends With Us is a pretty straightforward plot, this one is twisty and intriguing with more than a few curve balls. 
Audrey Blake is the pen name of not one author, but of two. Authors Regina Sirois and Jaima Fixsen teamed up to write this riveting and intelligent work of historical fiction about a young woman who develops a passion for medicine after being orphaned in the cholera epidemic and growing up in the home of the eccentric doctor who saved her life. This book is a tribute to the real life pioneers in medicine, not only the women who defied the odds to follow careers in a field that barred them on the basis of sex, but to the men who championed the intellects of their female peers, risking damage to their reputations and careers for their principles against sexism. 
A Librarian and Her Books 