My deliberations over the 2022 Book Review Contest are at an end, and I’m pleased to be able to announce the winners. We had 38 official entries, and I’m really not blowing smoke when I say that the overall quality was really high. There genuinely wasn’t a single entry that I thought of as a cross-off on a first read. (This made my life more difficult, but I’m very pleased about it.) One sour note: I sadly had to disqualify five reviews because they exceeded the 2000-word maximum, even after I excluded headings. I would love to be flexible but it wouldn’t be fair to the 33 entrants who stuck to the stated word count limit. I also feel honor-bound to tell you that, while I used the same anonymizing and numbering system I used last year, due to a stupid slip-up on my part I saw the names of several of the contest entrants. (That is, I saw the names matched with the book titles.) I’m confident that I maintained impartiality and that this mistake didn’t affect the results.
There’s no first or second runners-up, so they’re listed here alphabetically.
Winner: Carina, Elbow Grease by John Cena
Yes, that John Cena! Very gutsy move to do a children’s book written by a famous professional wrestler, but I just love this review. It makes use of visuals drawn from the book, which I thought was appropriate, and uses the reviewer’s own child and his reactions to the book as an organizing principle. Most importantly, it’s a cogent exploration of why the book’s message is incoherent, and in the commission of that exploration troubles the basic conception of working hard in order to deserve success. All children’s media should be subject to this pitiless gaze. More than anything, this review is just fun and I’m excited to share it with my mailing list.
Runner up: Aurelian, Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live Without a Self by Jay L. Garfield
There are good reviews that stick very closely to the text itself, but many good reviews use the reviewed object as a means to consider a broader issue or concern. Aurelian uses Garfield’s book to take a broader survey of a subject that could hardly be bigger or more complicated, the human self. Oftentimes this is a subject that leaves me running for the door - there’s so much wank in this space - but this review remains focused, grounded, and free of woo. While I love negative reviews too, I’ll be buying a copy of the reviewed book, which is a strong statement about the ability of the reviewer.
Runner up: Luke Harrington, Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo by Reggie Fils-Aimé
I am a noted defender of the Wii U - I think it’s quietly genius in a way the Switch is not - and Luke takes a big old poop on the Wii U in his review. Repeatedly. So you can believe me when I say that I quite enjoyed the review, given that I’m awarding it a runner-up position here. To repeat my theme from the previous runner up, one of the toughest tightropes to walk in reviewing is understanding how far you can walk away from the book to consider broader themes without losing the subject of your review. Several of the reviews I considered for this contest started out promisingly but then wandered so far from the text that I had to move them down the list. (You must relate your observations to the book.) Luke manages that balance very well in this review.
Choosing the best reviews was a series of genuinely difficult decisions, and I wish everyone could win. As promised, the winner will receive $1000 and have their entry run on the newsletter, while runners-up will receive $500 and can have the option of running their entries on the website if they so choose.
If I had one piece of communal advice, it would be one that’s constantly invoked in review writing, which is sensible because it’s about the most common problem with reviews: it’s essential to avoid too much summary. The reader needs to find you in the review, and early on. If I’ve read the first three pages of your review and know a lot about the book but little about your opinion, something’s gone wrong. I have no preference for shorter or longer reviews - I seriously considered a ~750 word review for an award, and I also enjoyed the three reviews that landed at exactly 2000 words - but I need description of the text to be subordinate to evaluation of the text. That’s why it’s a review and not Wikipedia. again, the reviews were very well done overall, just a bit of a tendency to excessively summarize.
I will be in touch with winners this weekend to discuss payment and when to run the respective reviews. Thank you all so much for your hard work, your interest in my opinion, and your dedication to books. And for being a part of our community here.
Congratulations everyone!! I haven't really paid any attention to the book review contest, but I'm so pleased to read Freddie's announcement of the winners. Books have always been a lodestone in my life and it's cheering to see their importance in the lives of others. I eagerly await reading the reviews promised.
Congrats Carina!!!!!!