How to Write a Book Review (Part 1)

Writing a book review is, in my opinion, a win-win-win scenario. First win: I get to read a book. Second win: I get to write. Third win: I get to share a book with others.
Writing book reviews is a good way for writers to hone their writings skills and analyze how another writer writes. Writing a book review, however, can be more than just telling the read how I feel about it and what is in it. Sometimes, just sharing the contents and how you feel about the book is appropriate. But a classical book review, worthy of publication, should analyze the book carefully and methodically, decide the focus of the review, and determine the proper structure for the review. Here is my method for preparing for, and writing, a thorough book review. First, the major processes I follow (for either nonfiction or fiction works):

1. Four questions to keep in mind as I read.
2. Four-step preliminary content analysis, and then a reading of the book.
   1. For fiction, I read and then do the four-step analysis of content.
   2. for non-fiction, I do the four-step analysis and then read the book.
3. A summary of the books contents, key words and sentences, arguments or worldview (purpose)
4. My critiques
5. Putting it all together into a book review.
6. Revise and edit ad infinitum

I begin with the following questions, which I write down:

1. What is/are the books theme(s) or subject matter(s). (What is the book about?)
2. What are the authors main ideas?
3. How does the author support those ideas?
4. What are the implications of these ideas and their support? Why does this book matter?

With that list beside me, I am ready to begin. if the book is fiction, I read the entire book from cover to cover, without taking notes (though I may highlight or make passages). The goal is to immerse myself in the book as a reader, without too much analysis yet. Then I perform the steps below.
On the contrary, if the book is nonfiction, I first do the actions below. Once finished, I read the book cover to cover. (We sometimes forget that fiction unfolds like a play, and therefore should be in a linear fashion (“don’t read the end!”). Nonfiction, however, is intended to convey information, and there is no need to keep the middle or the end a secret! You’ll learn more by doing the following first.

1. I skim through the book, looking at the title, subtitle, information about the author, what the publisher wrote about it (back cover, usually), scan the dedication or acknowledgments, read through the table of contents, skim any appendices or indexes.
2. I flip through the entire book, reading the preface or introduction, the first and last paragraph of each chapter, and the closing summary or epilogue of the book.
3. Next, with the book sitting beside me, I answer the four questions above. I try to write at least a paragraph for each, but probably no more than two or three.
4. I look over what I have written. Could I now write up a brief summary of the book (no critiques or analysis yet), that describes for the reader the (1) kind of book it is, (2) the subject of the book, (3) describe some of the major sections of the book, how it all ties together, and an overall outline of the book, (4) define the information/problem/argument of the book (nonfiction) or the theme/issue/subject being addressed (fiction).

To reiterate: for nonfiction, I do the steps above first, then read the book. For a fiction work, it is the opposite—read it first, then do the above steps. Once I have completed the fourth step, I have a nice, written summary of the book that should give any reader a good sense of the book. I should also feel like I have a decent handle on the author’s purpose, style, intent, and subject matter.
A reader wants to known about the content itself, of course. Therefore, my third stage of the process consists of these four steps:

1. What words and concepts does the author emphasize?
2. What are the key scenes or sentences that get to the heart of the plot, purpose, or subject matter.
3. What is the author trying to show, teach, or argue?
4. What problem did the author solve, or how did the theme or subject matter play out?

At this point, we would have an excellent set of notes for a high school or college essay that is designed to tell the teacher about the book. This goes a little deeper than just a summary of the book, but it is not a proper book review just yet. For that, we will need to analyze and critiques the results of the author’s work: did the author succeed in purpose, theme, development, and/or argument?
Part two of this series will address the “Critique” phase of the book review process, and then the actual writing of the review itself.
(Those of you who have read Mortimer Adler’s book, How to Read a Book, will recognize that much of this is taken from that classic work. He addresses non-fiction, but I adapt many of his ideas for reviewing and reading fiction as well.)

ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES

How to Write A Book Review (Part 1)
How to Write A Book Review (Part 2)
How to Write a Book Review (Part 3)
If you are interested in writing a book review for Sulis blog, contact Anthony Holmes via email.