Introducing:

Be-Stirred Book Reviews

  In February of 2023, I decided I wanted to review at least 30 books by the end of the year. Well, I led off with a whopping two books and then quit.  When I questioned why I lost the motivation to share my thoughts on books with others, I realized that I was reviewing books by well-known authors with thousands of reviews, and that my thoughts about those books were not really additive. 

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am an avid reader and, while I prefer historical fiction and science fiction, I read widely in other genres. Since writing and publishing Midgard, however, I’ve encountered other new or emerging authors whose works have broadened my reading far beyond anything I could have imagined.  Even though most of their books aren’t as polished or as erudite as those written by established authors, the stories themselves are unique and wonderful, and they deserve to have their proverbial moment in the sun.

I’ve written about this before, but I want to reiterate the importance of reviews to new(er) authors.  The quantity of reviews (rather than the quality) determines an author or book’s placement on bestseller lists or in SOE tools for online retailers like Amazon.  It’s easy to get reviewed as an established author or as one working through a traditional publisher.  It’s far harder for new authors and especially those who work with independent publishers to get the quantity of reviews they need to hit those thresholds.  Thus, the system reinforces the success of authors who have already made it, making it harder for the rest of us to get our ideas to a wider audience. 

Therefore,  I’ve decided to shift focus to reviewing books by lesser known or new authors, many of whom I connected with through the Creator Institute (now called Manuscripts Press), met at local author showcases, or whom I encountered through the Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference.  Rather than critiquing these works, however, I intend to focus on what I learned or valued most about the stories in the hopes that raising awareness about their content will help them reach more interested readers and prospective devotees.  

So…please stay tuned for the inaugural Be-Stirred book review of:

Deviate from Denial: Erasing the Stigma of Addiction and Recovery Through Inspirational Stories by Sam Perez (in the next 1-2 weeks). 

Sincerely,

Jeanne