Customer Reviews

Book Sense Best Books: 125 Favorite Books Recommended By Independent Booksellers

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I'm gung ho for independent booksellers, independent publishers, and all that good stuff. So it makes sense that I love the whole "Book Sense" concept and check out the monthly lists all the time. That said....this fifth anniversary celebration publication is kind of lame. Basically, the Book Sense member booksellers voted on their favorite titles of the last five years (15 adult books and 10 children's), and this book simply publishes the results along with blurbs on each from various booksellers. These 25 selections are backstopped by another 50 titles recommended for reading groups and another 50 children's/young adult books. Minus the blurbs, you could have gotten this information from one well-formatted, 2-sided sheet of paper -- or better yet, the Book Sense web site. To be fair, the previous reviewer paints a rather distorted picture of the blurbs, they actually do describe the books' setting and gist of the plot pretty well. In the previous reviewer's example of the entry for "The Poisonwood Bible", they omitted to mention the third blurb, which reads: "A fascinating novel about the politics and culture of the Belgian Congo in the late 1950s. The story is told by the wife and daughters of Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist missionary. The family is transformed during their three decades in postcolonial Africa." That seems pretty descriptive to me.

But the main problem with this book is not the writeups, it's the selections. Those who are most likely to actually purchase it and/or support the Book Sense program will have known of these books for quite some time! For example, under fiction, we get: Atonement, Bel Canto, Da Vinci Code, Empire Falls, Life of Pi, Lovely Bones, Poisonwood Bible, Red Tent, Secret Life of Bees, and only one that is perhaps less well known, Peace Like A River. More or less the same holds true for the five adult non-fiction books. The point is, these are not books that intelligent book-seekers are going to have missed... It also bears pointing out that of the ten adult fiction listings, nine were published by companies that are owned by international media conglomerates and benefit from talk-show and TV bookclub pimpery, and other media conglomerate synergies. Only one was published by an independent press, and perhaps not coincidentally it's also the one that's less well known Peace Like A River (published by Grove/Atlantic). So perhaps a more useful compilation for Book Sense to undertake is a list of booksellers favorite books published by independent publishers.

I should say that I can't speak for the children's section, perhaps that's more useful in the sense that parents need a little more assistance finding stuff kids are going to enjoy. One interesting thing I discovered is that if you look at the ten fiction titles almost all have custome

This book gives the titles of 125 books recommended by independent booksellers, and divides them into three categories: adult fiction, adult non-fiction, and children's books. And that's all. A one-page list of these titles would have provided as much information as this whole books does.

Book Sense does not tell what the books are about. Of course, nobody would expect a synopsis that could spoil the pleasure of reading, but the editors could have given us an idea of the content. Are they thrillers, detective stories, romantic novels, historical novels. What's the basic story line? Only a few articles provide a bit information. Most are meaningless sets of praises, the same kind you find at the back of many books.

For example, the book "The Poisonwood Bible" has several comments. One reads: "Poisonwood Bible is on my lifetime top-ten-favorite-books list. As I read the first sentences I almost shivered with excitement. Kingsolver's incredible descriptive language had me transfixed and I knew immediately I was going to love this book.", The second reads: "This is Kingsolver's richest, most complex, and most deeply affecting novel yet. It offers the reader so much on so many levels." This does not tell me anything about the book. It does not help me decide whether I want to read the book. It's only a bunch of empty words.

Amazon.com describes the Poisonwood Bible the following way: "In 1959, Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist, takes his four young daughters, his wife, and his mission to the Belgian Congo - a place, he is sure, where he can save needy souls. But the seeds they plant bloom in tragic ways within this complex culture. Set against one of the most dramatic political events of the twentieth century - the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium and its devastating consequences." This is the kind of description we should have expected from "Book Sense Best Books," enough information to help us decide whether or not we want to read this book, enough to get us interested.

In this sense, "Book Sense Best Books" completely fails.