No Stars: Reviews of Other People's Books

Dana Stabenow says, “I read a lot and I read everything. Science fiction? Love it. Romance? Love it. Urban fantasy? Love it. Crime fiction? Well, yeah. “I read history and picture books and chapter books and YA and science (I skip over the parts I don’t understand) and political science. I’ve read books about a cappella and the Atlantic cod and a guy taking a fridge around Ireland and girl groups and fonts and maps (love atlases) and deep sea diving and biographies from Alexandre Dumas’ dad to Fannie Farmer to Damon Runyon to Julius Caesar to Nellie Bly to Cleopatra to Winston Churchill (That one took four months and I am now officially Winstonned out.) I’ve read every word written by Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Robert Heinlein, Barbara Tuchman, and Nevil Shute. I reread a lot, too. “My reading needs are simple. I want a plot, thumping along in the background like the base guitar in a band, keeping plot, setting, and characters on the beat. I want a fully realized setting. Whether it’s the Five-Hop One-Stop on Gora or a small town in the Dordogne, I want to know how it sounds, tastes, feels. I want characters, at least one of whom I like or I’m outta there. I want dialogue that, in the words of Betty Smith, characterizes the person speaking, moves the plot forward, and is interesting in and of itself. These rules apply to fiction and nonfiction alike. “I love telling people about good reads almost as much as I like reading them. When I became an author I was told I had to have a website. Okay. So then I had to figure out what I should post on it. Seemed like reusing the reviews I’d been writing on Goodreads would fill up a page or two. “Recently I counted them both up to discover that I’d written over 1100 reviews. Huh. That’s a lot of words. So I thought why not collect them in an e-book? It’s called No Stars because I don’t star my reviews, because stars are so arbitrary and so very subjective and so easily manipulated. I’d rather talk about books than star them, even if it’s only to myself in a review. “So here you go. Enjoy! Or, you know, yell at me. I’m here for either.” View Less