Aug 25, 2010

We discuss what constitutes a  review and exactly what it is that we try to do here. Thanks to all of you who wrote and called with info, we have a big list of series you love. For two books, Michael goes back a year and Ann goes back 75.

What is a Review?

On our Goodreads Group several people mentioned reviews, what are they are, how to write them. Ann and I have always intended Books on the Nightstand to be a recommendation show, not a review show. It's why we don't talk about books we don't like and it's why we don't write out a script ahead of time. We're just here to tell you why we love a book.

As for "real" reviews, we do our best to say what we think they do (analyze characters, plot structure, writing style) and how much they should give away, but we'd love to know what all of you think. We've started a new discussion thread for your thoughts.

Series, Redux (9:33)

We heard from so many of you about series you love. So many that we are embarrassed to have forgotten! Here's the full list of series discussed:

• William Kennedy's Albany Cycle, the first three of which have been published in one book
• Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin seafaring adventures. Master and Commander is the first in the series
• A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
• Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy
• The North and South Trilogy and The Bicentennial Series (more commonly known as The Kent Family Chronicles) by John Jakes
• Jan Karon's The Mitford Years
• The Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books
• Madeleine L'Engle's series about the Murry family, which begins with A Wrinkle in Time
• The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
• Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
• Authors like P.G. Wodehouse, Dante and William Shakespeare all wrote series and were mentioned
• The Rabbit Angstrom books by John Updike
• Robertson Davies wrote several trilogies
• Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Back at our Goodreads group (it really is the place to be), in the discussion on Books in Series, Vanessa told us about her rigid guidelines for series reading and how those are enabled, errr... helped by a site called Fantastic Fiction, which lists authors and their series in order.  I heard about the site from a BOTNS listener several years ago, but am finally getting around to checking out now! A British listener mentioned the popularity of historical series in the UK, most notably Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books and Conn Iggulden's Caesar and Khan series.

Two Books We Can't Wait For You to Read (21:51)

Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin arrives in paperback on August 31. It's the story of Angel Tungaraza, a woman in Rwanda's capital who runs a bakery out of her apartment. Meeting with her customers, she learns their stories and so do we. Ann cheats  a bit and talks about new reissues of several Nancy Mitford novels, most notably Wigs on the Green, a satire of fascists; it has been out of print since the 1930's.