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If nobody talks about books, if they are not discussed or somehow contended with, literature ceases to be a conversation, ceases to be dynamic. Most of all, it ceases to be intimate. It degenerates into a monologue or a mutter. An unreviewed book is a struck bell that gives no resonance. Without reviews, literature would be oddly mute in spite of all those words on all those pages of all those books. Reviewing makes of reading a participant sport, not a spectator sport.

The first function of a book review should be, I believe, to give some idea of the contents and character of the book.

Most books reviews aren't very well-written. They tend to be more about the reviewer than the book.

I started to write book reviews as a means of recording my thoughts about what I'd read before all memory of them vanished.

A book reviewer is usually a barker before the door of a publisher's circus.

If I like a book, I tend to read the author's entire collection. But I choose mainly through personal recommendations, general word of mouth and book reviews.

I look upon book reviews as an infantile disease which new-born books are subject to.

I mean, when you're tired of book reviews, you're tired of life.

You don't want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason that they haven't done what I do. Most book reviewers haven't written 11 novels. Many of them haven't written one.

I'm never a fan of the sociopathic kind of reviewing, people who are sort of self-immolating and have social problems or whatever, and let it out in literary-criticism form. I just feel like book reviewing should be respectful and calm and not filled with bile.

The individual attributes of warmth and competence are often perceived to be negatively correlated. That doesn't mean they actually are, but that's how people perceive the world. So, cruel people, those who gave negative book reviews, for instance, were seen as less likeable but as more intelligent.

Book reviewers are little old ladies of both sexes.

I would be wonderful with a 100-year moratorium on literature talk, if you shut down all literature departments, close the book reviews, ban the critics. The readers should be alone with the books, and if anyone dared to say anything about them, they would be shot or imprisoned right on the spot. Yes, shot. A 100-year moratorium on insufferable literary talk. You should let people fight with the books on their own and rediscover what they are and what they are not. Anything other than this talk.

The authors of book reviews would consider themselves dishonored were they to mention, as they should, the subject of the book.

So, you see, it's a real chore for me to write a book review because it's like a contest. It's like I'm writing that book review for every bad book reviewer I've ever known and it's a way of saying [thrusts a middle finger into the air] this is how you ought to do it. I like to rub their noses in it.

We set up a beta site, a test site, with movie, music and book reviews. If you're reading them and you want to buy a book or a ticket for a movie that's reviewed on the site, you can do that without leaving our site.

I’m interested in so many different things and I’d like to cover a lot of territory. I’m trying to see my show as the Sunday Times. You have the Arts & Leisure section, you have the Op-Ed page, you have the Book Review...even the Style section has those wonderful essays about relationships.

The whole family is a bunch of dangerous freaks...Most are ex-cons or junkies or deranged from inbreeding. Five have died violently, three are back in prison, two have gone insane from untreated venereal disease, and one writes book reviews.

Book reviews have never helped me. Most of them erred in their interpretations and their work has been a waste of time.

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

I'd sit at my kitchen table and start scanning help-wanted ads on my laptop, but then a browser tab would blink and I'd get distracted and follow a link to a long magazine article about genetically modified wine grapes. Too long, actually, so I'd add it to my reading list. Then I'd follow another link to a book review. I'd add the review to my reading list, too, then download the first chapter of the book—third in a series about vampire police. Then, help-wanted ads forgotten, I'd retreat to the living room, put my laptop on my belly, and read all day. I had a lot of free time.

A mom reads you like a book, and wherever she goes, people read you like a glowing book review.

Most people don't have the money to spend on advertising to create awareness among readers, nor do they have the contacts at newspapers or magazines to get their books reviewed.

Note that the #1 Top Reviewer at Amazon (4550 book reviews) is Harriet Klausner, formerly an acquisitions librarian in Pennsylvania. This just goes to show that librarians were destined to rule the Web.

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SLJ 's reviews editors list their favorite Best Books quotations of 2022.

It’s been another year of wonderful books. After taking one more look back at 2022, the SLJ book reviews editors are happy to present a series of “favorites” roundups. 

In our travails through dozens (and dozens, and dozens) of incredible titles, some words found their way deep into our hearts and stayed there. Here are our editors' favorite Best Books quotations of the year.

"But they only lasted until I ran

headfirst into the hydrant,

and quick as that, my hair sprung back

from straightened curls to natural coils

because it was finally summer

and hair too

had a right to be free."

—Jacqueline Woodson, The World Belonged to Us

Andrew Eliopulos, Editor, Graphic Novels

“Rage can fuel you. But grief gnaws at you slow, a termite nibbling at your soul until you’re a whisper of what you used to be. I didn’t want to face the grief. I still don’t. But I think I have to try.”—Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage

Kimberly Olson Fakih, Senior Editor, Picture Books

“Sometimes, it’s okay to be sad. Sometimes, it’s the only thing we can do.”—Jonathan D. Voss, The Wishing Balloons

“Please remember that when adversity is drawn out of the shadows and recognized, we ensure that human beings living under oppression—past and present—know they are not forgotten.

Together we can shine a light in dark corners of the past.

Together, we can give history a voice.”—Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You

Florence Simmons, Associate Editor

“Our children will be beautiful: of dusk skin and brilliant eyes, hair a reclamation. Oh, how I will braid pride down their backs, and from the moment they leave the womb, they will be born in love with themselves.”—Elizabeth Acevedo, Inheritance: A Visual Poem

Ashleigh Williams, Associate Editor, Chapter Books & Middle Grade 

“What a courageous soul you have, Moon, to want to learn a lesson like this. To learn how to love yourself.”—Kacen Callender, Moonflower

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The 22 best book quotes — and the books they come from

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• Some of the best quotes about life and love come from literature.
• We've gathered some of the best book quotes as well as the books they're from.
• Want more books? Check out our list of the best classic books .

Great literature has gifted us some of the most meaningful and timeless quotes about life, love, and everything in between. Writers can put words to the feelings and experiences we can't quite capture ourselves and leave us with quotes that resonate long after we've turned the page. Readers have found moving quotes in everything from gothic classics to contemporary young adult reads . 

Sometimes, we're inspired by a quote that we didn't even know came from a book. I've heard "Not all those who wander are lost" countless times but never knew it was from a beloved fantasy series. To create this list, I looked at some of the most memorable and moving quotes from literature throughout time. For readers looking for a new inspirational read or wondering where some of the greatest lines originated from, here are some of the best literary quotes and the books they came from.

The 22 best book quotes of all time:

"love is or it ain't. thin love ain't love at all.".

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.29

" Beloved " is a Pultizer Prize-winning historical fiction about Sethe, an escaped slave still running from her past 18 years later. Haunted both metaphorically by her memories and literally by the ghost of her baby, Sethe's past and present collide when a mysterious teenage girl arrives with the same name engraved upon her child's tombstone.

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $5.47

This adored classic is about four sisters — Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy — who are struggling to survive in New England during the Civil War. First published in 1869, this novel has delighted readers for generations as they follow the sisters on each of their unique journeys to womanhood. 

"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

"Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $14.99

First published in 1969, " Slaughterhouse-Five " is an anti-war novel about Billy Pilgrim, who becomes a chaplain's assistant in the US. Army during World War II. While the story begins with Billy's childhood and continues years after the war, Billy occasionally travels through time to reflect upon his life, humanity, and the devastating effects of war.

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.89

" The Alchemist " is a powerful and inspirational story full of wisdom about a boy named Santiago who travels to Egypt from Spain in search of a treasure buried near the Pyramids. On his adventure, Santiago encounters numerous obstacles, meets interesting new people, and discovers so much more than the treasure he once sought.

"There is always something left to love."

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez, available at Amazon and Bookshop , $14.49

This beautiful multi-generational story of the Buendía family begins with José Arcadio Buendía, the founding patriarch of the town of Macondo. Following seven generations of the family through feuds, friendships, and technological advancements, this novel uses magical realism to explore extraordinary moments through time.

"What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?"

"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.98

" The Hate U Give " is a moving and timely young adult read about Starr Carter, a 16-year-old who witnesses her best friend, Khalil, get shot and killed by the police. When his death makes national headlines, everyone wants to hear what really happened, but Starr is fully aware of what telling the truth could mean as well as the consequences of staying silent.

"They say nothing lasts forever but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it."

"On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous " by Ocean Vuong, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.67

This stunning and poetic novel is a letter from a son to his mother, who cannot read. Little Dog is in his 20s, exploring and speaking frankly about sexuality, masculinity, grief, and race as he unravels his family's history rooted in Vietnam, leading to an unforgettable conclusion in this powerful novel about humanity and language. 

"Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for."

"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.22

Loved as a funny and realistic view on war, " Catch-22 " is about Yossarian, a bombardier during World War II who is mad that thousands of enemies are trying to kill him while his army continues to increase the number of dangerous missions he's required to fly. Yossarian finds himself in a Catch-22, a bureaucratic rule that says men who continue to fly dangerous missions should be considered insane, yet if they make a request to be removed, they are proven sane and ineligible for relief.

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am."

"The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $15

" The Bell Jar " is a semi-autobiographical novel and a haunting classic from Sylvia Plath. The book follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman in Boston who is consumed by depression and anxiety as her mental state worsens over time.

"Time moves slowly, but passes quickly."

"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.99

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, " The Color Purple " is a magnificent and important novel about the abuse silently suffered by Black women in the 20th century. Celie and Nettie are sisters who were separated as children but continue to communicate and share messages of hope through letters that sustain them through seemingly insurmountable pain in this story of strength and redemption.

"Now that I knew fear, I also knew it was not permanent. As powerful as it was, its grip on me would loosen. It would pass."

"The Round House" by Louise Erdrich, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.25

This 2012 National Book Award winner follows a young boy on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota whose community and family is changed forever in the wake of a terrible crime. Richly layered, this profound mystery is about so much more than finding a criminal and seeking justice.

"When I discover who I am, I'll be free."

"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $13.99

" Invisible Man " is a 1952 classic that shaped American literature as an unnamed man from the South who gets a scholarship to an all-Black school in Harlem but must participate in a horrifying and humiliating "battle royal" in order to claim his spot. Powerful and raw, this novel explores identity and belonging as the narrator continues to search for his individuality in a society that doesn't want him to be himself. 

"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."

"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $5.52

First published in 1818, " Frankenstein " is a horror classic about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who brings a monster to life and flees his laboratory in disgust, to return the next day and find that the creature is missing. In this novel that explores the dark power of alienation, Frankenstein's monster tells the devastating story to his creator of his first challenging days in the world.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.99

In this classic French children's book , a young prince meets a pilot whose plane has crashed in the desert, who begins to tell him his story of traveling across various planets and all he had seen and learned along the way. One of the most translated books in the world, " The Little Prince " is for readers of all ages who wish to reminisce upon the nostalgic innocence of childhood.

"Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!"

"Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.99

" Don Quixote " is a historical novel from the 1600s and one of the top-selling books of all time . Quixano is a young nobleman who decides to become a knight-errant after reading countless romances and falling in love with the idea of chivalry. Under the name "Don Quixote de la Mancha," Quixano brings the witty Sancho Panza along as his squire on his quest for knighthood.

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.36

" Wuthering Heights " is a classic, gothic novel from 1847 about two families — the Lintons and the Earnshaws — and their relationships with the Earnshaws' adopted son, Heathcliff. Full of complex characters, this classic follows Heathcliff's young friendship with his benefactor's daughter, Cathy, as it grows and morphs into a passionate and twisted romance.

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.35

" I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings " is Maya Angelou's first book in her multi-volume autobiography series. This installment offers a glimpse at Maya Angelou's early years as she struggles against racism when she and her brother are sent to live with their grandmother in a small Southern town. When she returns to live with her mother, a horrible attack changes Maya Angelou's life forever in this memoir about identity, race, and hope in the face of impossible circumstances. 

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum."

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.99

Offred can remember enjoying life with her husband and daughter not long ago. Now, trapped in a dystopian present where women are only valued if they have viable ovaries, Offred is the Commander's handmaid, forced to lie down for him once a month and pray she gets pregnant in this devastatingly memorable read .

"As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

"The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $6.10

Hazel's terminal cancer diagnosis has been extended by a few years when she meets a gorgeous boy named Augustus in her support group. Immediately drawn to one another, they agree to read each other's favorite books, launching a whirlwind teenage romance that's full of love and heartbreak.

"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet."

"The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.98

" The Namesake " is Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel and explores the immigrant experience through the Ganguli family, whose story begins as Ashoke and Ashima uproot their traditional life in Calcutta and move to America shortly after their arranged marriage so Ashoke can attend school at MIT. When Ashima names their child Gogol, the meaning of his name continues to follow him through his life as he navigates the expectations of a first-generation immigrant.  

"We accept the love we think we deserve."

"Perks of Being A Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.19

In this unique coming-of-age novel set in the 1990s, Charlie is a freshman in high school who is torn between passivity and a budding passion for life while also being stuck between childhood and adulthood. This book is a compilation of his letters to an unknown recipient, discussing the challenges he faces with his family, in school, and in his personal life.

"Not all those who wander are lost."

"The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkein, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.27

" The Fellowship of the Ring " is the first novel in the classic fantasy "Lord of the Rings" series. In this book , the hobbit Bilbo Baggins entrusts young Frodo Baggins with an incredible and dangerous task: To take the powerful Ring to the Cracks of Doom and destroy it once and for all. Frodo sets off on an epic adventure across Middle-Earth in this beloved and revered novel.

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Blog – Posted on Friday, Mar 29

17 book review examples to help you write the perfect review.

It’s an exciting time to be a book reviewer. Once confined to print newspapers and journals, reviews now dot many corridors of the Internet — forever helping others discover their next great read. That said, every book reviewer will face a familiar panic: how can you do justice to a great book in just a thousand words?

As you know, the best way to learn how to do something is by immersing yourself in it. Luckily, the Internet (i.e. Goodreads and other review sites , in particular) has made book reviews more accessible than ever — which means that there are a lot of book reviews examples out there for you to view!

In this post, we compiled 17 prototypical book review examples in multiple genres to help you figure out how to write the perfect review . If you want to jump straight to the examples, you can skip the next section. Otherwise, let’s first check out what makes up a good review.

Are you interested in becoming a book reviewer? We recommend you check out Reedsy Discovery , where you can earn money for writing reviews — and are guaranteed people will read your reviews! To register as a book reviewer, sign up here.

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

Should you become a book reviewer?

Find out the answer. Takes 30 seconds!

What must a book review contain?

Like all works of art, no two book reviews will be identical. But fear not: there are a few guidelines for any aspiring book reviewer to follow. Most book reviews, for instance, are less than 1,500 words long, with the sweet spot hitting somewhere around the 1,000-word mark. (However, this may vary depending on the platform on which you’re writing, as we’ll see later.)

In addition, all reviews share some universal elements, as shown in our book review templates . These include:

• A review will offer a concise plot summary of the book. 
• A book review will offer an evaluation of the work. 
• A book review will offer a recommendation for the audience. 

If these are the basic ingredients that make up a book review, it’s the tone and style with which the book reviewer writes that brings the extra panache. This will differ from platform to platform, of course. A book review on Goodreads, for instance, will be much more informal and personal than a book review on Kirkus Reviews, as it is catering to a different audience. However, at the end of the day, the goal of all book reviews is to give the audience the tools to determine whether or not they’d like to read the book themselves.

Keeping that in mind, let’s proceed to some book review examples to put all of this in action.

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Book review examples for fiction books

Since story is king in the world of fiction, it probably won’t come as any surprise to learn that a book review for a novel will concentrate on how well the story was told .

That said, book reviews in all genres follow the same basic formula that we discussed earlier. In these examples, you’ll be able to see how book reviewers on different platforms expertly intertwine the plot summary and their personal opinions of the book to produce a clear, informative, and concise review.

Note: Some of the book review examples run very long. If a book review is truncated in this post, we’ve indicated by including a […] at the end, but you can always read the entire review if you click on the link provided.

Examples of literary fiction book reviews

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man :

An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.

His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.

This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.

Lyndsey reviews George Orwell’s 1984 on Goodreads:

YOU. ARE. THE. DEAD. Oh my God. I got the chills so many times toward the end of this book. It completely blew my mind. It managed to surpass my high expectations AND be nothing at all like I expected. Or in Newspeak "Double Plus Good." Let me preface this with an apology. If I sound stunningly inarticulate at times in this review, I can't help it. My mind is completely fried.

This book is like the dystopian Lord of the Rings, with its richly developed culture and economics, not to mention a fully developed language called Newspeak, or rather more of the anti-language, whose purpose is to limit speech and understanding instead of to enhance and expand it. The world-building is so fully fleshed out and spine-tinglingly terrifying that it's almost as if George travelled to such a place, escaped from it, and then just wrote it all down.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over ten years ago in my early teens. At the time, I remember really wanting to read 1984, although I never managed to get my hands on it. I'm almost glad I didn't. Though I would not have admitted it at the time, it would have gone over my head. Or at the very least, I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it fully. […]

The New York Times reviews Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry :

Three-quarters of the way through Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, “Asymmetry,” a British foreign correspondent named Alistair is spending Christmas on a compound outside of Baghdad. His fellow revelers include cameramen, defense contractors, United Nations employees and aid workers. Someone’s mother has FedExed a HoneyBaked ham from Maine; people are smoking by the swimming pool. It is 2003, just days after Saddam Hussein’s capture, and though the mood is optimistic, Alistair is worrying aloud about the ethics of his chosen profession, wondering if reporting on violence doesn’t indirectly abet violence and questioning why he’d rather be in a combat zone than reading a picture book to his son. But every time he returns to London, he begins to “spin out.” He can’t go home. “You observe what people do with their freedom — what they don’t do — and it’s impossible not to judge them for it,” he says.

The line, embedded unceremoniously in the middle of a page-long paragraph, doubles, like so many others in “Asymmetry,” as literary criticism. Halliday’s novel is so strange and startlingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the state of fiction. One finishes “Asymmetry” for the first or second (or like this reader, third) time and is left wondering what other writers are not doing with their freedom — and, like Alistair, judging them for it.

Despite its title, “Asymmetry” comprises two seemingly unrelated sections of equal length, appended by a slim and quietly shocking coda. Halliday’s prose is clean and lean, almost reportorial in the style of W. G. Sebald, and like the murmurings of a shy person at a cocktail party, often comic only in single clauses. It’s a first novel that reads like the work of an author who has published many books over many years. […]

Emily W. Thompson reviews Michael Doane's The Crossing on Reedsy Discovery :

In Doane’s debut novel, a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery with surprising results.

An unnamed protagonist (The Narrator) is dealing with heartbreak. His love, determined to see the world, sets out for Portland, Oregon. But he’s a small-town boy who hasn’t traveled much. So, the Narrator mourns her loss and hides from life, throwing himself into rehabbing an old motorcycle. Until one day, he takes a leap; he packs his bike and a few belongings and heads out to find the Girl.

Following in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William Least Heat-Moon, Doane offers a coming of age story about a man finding himself on the backroads of America. Doane’s a gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, using The Narrator’s personal interactions to illuminate the diversity of the United States.

The Narrator initially sticks to the highways, trying to make it to the West Coast as quickly as possible. But a hitchhiker named Duke convinces him to get off the beaten path and enjoy the ride. “There’s not a place that’s like any other,” [39] Dukes contends, and The Narrator realizes he’s right. Suddenly, the trip is about the journey, not just the destination. The Narrator ditches his truck and traverses the deserts and mountains on his bike. He destroys his phone, cutting off ties with his past and living only in the moment.

As he crosses the country, The Narrator connects with several unique personalities whose experiences and views deeply impact his own. Duke, the complicated cowboy and drifter, who opens The Narrator’s eyes to a larger world. Zooey, the waitress in Colorado who opens his heart and reminds him that love can be found in this big world. And Rosie, The Narrator’s sweet landlady in Portland, who helps piece him back together both physically and emotionally.

This supporting cast of characters is excellent. Duke, in particular, is wonderfully nuanced and complicated. He’s a throwback to another time, a man without a cell phone who reads Sartre and sleeps under the stars. Yet he’s also a grifter with a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” attitude that harms those around him. It’s fascinating to watch The Narrator wrestle with Duke’s behavior, trying to determine which to model and which to discard.

Doane creates a relatable protagonist in The Narrator, whose personal growth doesn’t erase his faults. His willingness to hit the road with few resources is admirable, and he’s prescient enough to recognize the jealousy of those who cannot or will not take the leap. His encounters with new foods, places, and people broaden his horizons. Yet his immaturity and selfishness persist. He tells Rosie she’s been a good mother to him but chooses to ignore the continuing concern from his own parents as he effectively disappears from his old life.

Despite his flaws, it’s a pleasure to accompany The Narrator on his physical and emotional journey. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to an epic and memorable road trip.

The Book Smugglers review Anissa Gray’s The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls :

I am still dipping my toes into the literally fiction pool, finding what works for me and what doesn’t. Books like The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray are definitely my cup of tea.

Althea and Proctor Cochran had been pillars of their economically disadvantaged community for years – with their local restaurant/small market and their charity drives. Until they are found guilty of fraud for stealing and keeping most of the money they raised and sent to jail. Now disgraced, their entire family is suffering the consequences, specially their twin teenage daughters Baby Vi and Kim.  To complicate matters even more: Kim was actually the one to call the police on her parents after yet another fight with her mother. […]

Examples of children’s and YA fiction book reviews

The Book Hookup reviews Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give :

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: 5 stars! I can’t imagine how challenging it would be to tackle the voice of a movement like Black Lives Matter, but I do know that Thomas did it with a finesse only a talented author like herself possibly could. With an unapologetically realistic delivery packed with emotion, The Hate U Give is a crucially important portrayal of the difficulties minorities face in our country every single day. I have no doubt that this book will be met with resistance by some (possibly many) and slapped with a “controversial” label, but if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to walk in a POC’s shoes, then I feel like this is an unflinchingly honest place to start.

In Angie Thomas’s debut novel, Starr Carter bursts on to the YA scene with both heart-wrecking and heartwarming sincerity. This author is definitely one to watch.

♥ Review: The hype around this book has been unquestionable and, admittedly, that made me both eager to get my hands on it and terrified to read it. I mean, what if I was to be the one person that didn’t love it as much as others? (That seems silly now because of how truly mesmerizing THUG was in the most heartbreakingly realistic way.) However, with the relevancy of its summary in regards to the unjust predicaments POC currently face in the US, I knew this one was a must-read, so I was ready to set my fears aside and dive in. That said, I had an altogether more personal, ulterior motive for wanting to read this book. […]

The New York Times reviews Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood :

Alice Crewe (a last name she’s chosen for herself) is a fairy tale legacy: the granddaughter of Althea Proserpine, author of a collection of dark-as-night fairy tales called “Tales From the Hinterland.” The book has a cult following, and though Alice has never met her grandmother, she’s learned a little about her through internet research. She hasn’t read the stories, because her mother, Ella Proserpine, forbids it.

Alice and Ella have moved from place to place in an attempt to avoid the “bad luck” that seems to follow them. Weird things have happened. As a child, Alice was kidnapped by a man who took her on a road trip to find her grandmother; he was stopped by the police before they did so. When at 17 she sees that man again, unchanged despite the years, Alice panics. Then Ella goes missing, and Alice turns to Ellery Finch, a schoolmate who’s an Althea Proserpine superfan, for help in tracking down her mother. Not only has Finch read every fairy tale in the collection, but handily, he remembers them, sharing them with Alice as they journey to the mysterious Hazel Wood, the estate of her now-dead grandmother, where they hope to find Ella.

“The Hazel Wood” starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. (The fairy stories Finch relays, which Albert includes as their own chapters, are as creepy and evocative as you’d hope.) Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a very good book. It’s a captivating debut. […]

James reviews Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon on Goodreads:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is one of the books that followers of my blog voted as a must-read for our Children's Book August 2018 Readathon. Come check it out and join the next few weeks!

This picture book was such a delight. I hadn't remembered reading it when I was a child, but it might have been read to me... either way, it was like a whole new experience! It's always so difficult to convince a child to fall asleep at night. I don't have kids, but I do have a 5-month-old puppy who whines for 5 minutes every night when he goes in his cage/crate (hopefully he'll be fully housebroken soon so he can roam around when he wants). I can only imagine! I babysat a lot as a teenager and I have tons of younger cousins, nieces, and nephews, so I've been through it before, too. This was a believable experience, and it really helps show kids how to relax and just let go when it's time to sleep.

The bunny's are adorable. The rhymes are exquisite. I found it pretty fun, but possibly a little dated given many of those things aren't normal routines anymore. But the lessons to take from it are still powerful. Loved it! I want to sample some more books by this fine author and her illustrators.

Publishers Weekly reviews Elizabeth Lilly’s Geraldine :

This funny, thoroughly accomplished debut opens with two words: “I’m moving.” They’re spoken by the title character while she swoons across her family’s ottoman, and because Geraldine is a giraffe, her full-on melancholy mode is quite a spectacle. But while Geraldine may be a drama queen (even her mother says so), it won’t take readers long to warm up to her. The move takes Geraldine from Giraffe City, where everyone is like her, to a new school, where everyone else is human. Suddenly, the former extrovert becomes “That Giraffe Girl,” and all she wants to do is hide, which is pretty much impossible. “Even my voice tries to hide,” she says, in the book’s most poignant moment. “It’s gotten quiet and whispery.” Then she meets Cassie, who, though human, is also an outlier (“I’m that girl who wears glasses and likes MATH and always organizes her food”), and things begin to look up.

Lilly’s watercolor-and-ink drawings are as vividly comic and emotionally astute as her writing; just when readers think there are no more ways for Geraldine to contort her long neck, this highly promising talent comes up with something new.

Examples of genre fiction book reviews

Karlyn P reviews Nora Roberts’ Dark Witch , a paranormal romance novel , on Goodreads:

4 stars. Great world-building, weak romance, but still worth the read.

I hesitate to describe this book as a 'romance' novel simply because the book spent little time actually exploring the romance between Iona and Boyle. Sure, there IS a romance in this novel. Sprinkled throughout the book are a few scenes where Iona and Boyle meet, chat, wink at each, flirt some more, sleep together, have a misunderstanding, make up, and then profess their undying love. Very formulaic stuff, and all woven around the more important parts of this book.

The meat of this book is far more focused on the story of the Dark witch and her magically-gifted descendants living in Ireland. Despite being weak on the romance, I really enjoyed it. I think the book is probably better for it, because the romance itself was pretty lackluster stuff.

I absolutely plan to stick with this series as I enjoyed the world building, loved the Ireland setting, and was intrigued by all of the secondary characters. However, If you read Nora Roberts strictly for the romance scenes, this one might disappoint. But if you enjoy a solid background story with some dark magic and prophesies, you might enjoy it as much as I did.

I listened to this one on audio, and felt the narration was excellent.

Emily May reviews R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy Wars , an epic fantasy novel , on Goodreads:

“But I warn you, little warrior. The price of power is pain.”

Holy hell, what did I just read??

➽ A fantasy military school

➽ A rich world based on modern Chinese history

➽ Shamans and gods

➽ Detailed characterization leading to unforgettable characters

➽ Adorable, opium-smoking mentors

That's a basic list, but this book is all of that and SO MUCH MORE. I know 100% that The Poppy War will be one of my best reads of 2018.

Isn't it just so great when you find one of those books that completely drags you in, makes you fall in love with the characters, and demands that you sit on the edge of your seat for every horrific, nail-biting moment of it? This is one of those books for me. And I must issue a serious content warning: this book explores some very dark themes. Proceed with caution (or not at all) if you are particularly sensitive to scenes of war, drug use and addiction, genocide, racism, sexism, ableism, self-harm, torture, and rape (off-page but extremely horrific).

Because, despite the fairly innocuous first 200 pages, the title speaks the truth: this is a book about war. All of its horrors and atrocities. It is not sugar-coated, and it is often graphic. The "poppy" aspect refers to opium, which is a big part of this book. It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking.

Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry’s Freefall , a crime novel:

In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it’s a more subtle process, and that’s OK too. So where does Freefall fit into the sliding scale?

In truth, it’s not clear. This is a novel with a thrilling concept at its core. A woman survives plane crash, then runs for her life. However, it is the subtleties at play that will draw you in like a spider beckoning to an unwitting fly.

Like the heroine in Sharon Bolton’s Dead Woman Walking, Allison is lucky to be alive. She was the only passenger in a private plane, belonging to her fiancé, Ben, who was piloting the expensive aircraft, when it came down in woodlands in the Colorado Rockies. Ally is also the only survivor, but rather than sitting back and waiting for rescue, she is soon pulling together items that may help her survive a little longer – first aid kit, energy bars, warm clothes, trainers – before fleeing the scene. If you’re hearing the faint sound of alarm bells ringing, get used to it. There’s much, much more to learn about Ally before this tale is over.

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One , a science-fiction novel :

Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.

The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three.

Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.

Book review examples for non-fiction books

Nonfiction books are generally written to inform readers about a certain topic. As such, the focus of a nonfiction book review will be on the clarity and effectiveness of this communication . In carrying this out, a book review may analyze the author’s source materials and assess the thesis in order to determine whether or not the book meets expectations.

Again, we’ve included abbreviated versions of long reviews here, so feel free to click on the link to read the entire piece!

The Washington Post reviews David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon :

The arc of David Grann’s career reminds one of a software whiz-kid or a latest-thing talk-show host — certainly not an investigative reporter, even if he is one of the best in the business. The newly released movie of his first book, “The Lost City of Z,” is generating all kinds of Oscar talk, and now comes the release of his second book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” the film rights to which have already been sold for $5 million in what one industry journal called the “biggest and wildest book rights auction in memory.”

Grann deserves the attention. He’s canny about the stories he chases, he’s willing to go anywhere to chase them, and he’s a maestro in his ability to parcel out information at just the right clip: a hint here, a shading of meaning there, a smartly paced buildup of multiple possibilities followed by an inevitable reversal of readerly expectations or, in some cases, by a thrilling and dislocating pull of the entire narrative rug.

All of these strengths are on display in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Around the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered underneath Osage lands in the Oklahoma Territory, lands that were soon to become part of the state of Oklahoma. Through foresight and legal maneuvering, the Osage found a way to permanently attach that oil to themselves and shield it from the prying hands of white interlopers; this mechanism was known as “headrights,” which forbade the outright sale of oil rights and granted each full member of the tribe — and, supposedly, no one else — a share in the proceeds from any lease arrangement. For a while, the fail-safes did their job, and the Osage got rich — diamond-ring and chauffeured-car and imported-French-fashion rich — following which quite a large group of white men started to work like devils to separate the Osage from their money. And soon enough, and predictably enough, this work involved murder. Here in Jazz Age America’s most isolated of locales, dozens or even hundreds of Osage in possession of great fortunes — and of the potential for even greater fortunes in the future — were dispatched by poison, by gunshot and by dynamite. […]

Stacked Books reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers :

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Malcolm Gladwell’s writing. Friends and co-workers tell me that his subjects are interesting and his writing style is easy to follow without talking down to the reader. I wasn’t disappointed with Outliers. In it, Gladwell tackles the subject of success – how people obtain it and what contributes to extraordinary success as opposed to everyday success.

The thesis – that our success depends much more on circumstances out of our control than any effort we put forth – isn’t exactly revolutionary. Most of us know it to be true. However, I don’t think I’m lying when I say that most of us also believe that we if we just try that much harder and develop our talent that much further, it will be enough to become wildly successful, despite bad or just mediocre beginnings. Not so, says Gladwell.

Most of the evidence Gladwell gives us is anecdotal, which is my favorite kind to read. I can’t really speak to how scientifically valid it is, but it sure makes for engrossing listening. For example, did you know that successful hockey players are almost all born in January, February, or March? Kids born during these months are older than the others kids when they start playing in the youth leagues, which means they’re already better at the game (because they’re bigger). Thus, they get more play time, which means their skill increases at a faster rate, and it compounds as time goes by. Within a few years, they’re much, much better than the kids born just a few months later in the year. Basically, these kids’ birthdates are a huge factor in their success as adults – and it’s nothing they can do anything about. If anyone could make hockey interesting to a Texan who only grudgingly admits the sport even exists, it’s Gladwell. […]

Quill and Quire reviews Rick Prashaw’s Soar, Adam, Soar :

Ten years ago, I read a book called Almost Perfect. The young-adult novel by Brian Katcher won some awards and was held up as a powerful, nuanced portrayal of a young trans person. But the reality did not live up to the book’s billing. Instead, it turned out to be a one-dimensional and highly fetishized portrait of a trans person’s life, one that was nevertheless repeatedly dubbed “realistic” and “affecting” by non-transgender readers possessing only a vague, mass-market understanding of trans experiences.

In the intervening decade, trans narratives have emerged further into the literary spotlight, but those authored by trans people ourselves – and by trans men in particular – have seemed to fall under the shadow of cisgender sensationalized imaginings. Two current Canadian releases – Soar, Adam, Soar and This One Looks Like a Boy – provide a pointed object lesson into why trans-authored work about transgender experiences remains critical.

To be fair, Soar, Adam, Soar isn’t just a story about a trans man. It’s also a story about epilepsy, the medical establishment, and coming of age as seen through a grieving father’s eyes. Adam, Prashaw’s trans son, died unexpectedly at age 22. Woven through the elder Prashaw’s narrative are excerpts from Adam’s social media posts, giving us glimpses into the young man’s interior life as he traverses his late teens and early 20s. […]

Book Geeks reviews Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love :

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5

SUBJECT: 4/5

CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5

RELEVANCE: 3.5/5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5

“Eat Pray Love” is so popular that it is almost impossible to not read it. Having felt ashamed many times on my not having read this book, I quietly ordered the book (before I saw the movie) from amazon.in and sat down to read it. I don’t remember what I expected it to be – maybe more like a chick lit thing but it turned out quite different. The book is a real story and is a short journal from the time when its writer went travelling to three different countries in pursuit of three different things – Italy (Pleasure), India (Spirituality), Bali (Balance) and this is what corresponds to the book’s name – EAT (in Italy), PRAY (in India) and LOVE (in Bali, Indonesia). These are also the three Is – ITALY, INDIA, INDONESIA.

Though she had everything a middle-aged American woman can aspire for – MONEY, CAREER, FRIENDS, HUSBAND; Elizabeth was not happy in her life, she wasn’t happy in her marriage. Having suffered a terrible divorce and terrible breakup soon after, Elizabeth was shattered. She didn’t know where to go and what to do – all she knew was that she wanted to run away. So she set out on a weird adventure – she will go to three countries in a year and see if she can find out what she was looking for in life. This book is about that life changing journey that she takes for one whole year. […]

Emily May reviews Michelle Obama’s Becoming on Goodreads:

Look, I'm not a happy crier. I might cry at songs about leaving and missing someone; I might cry at books where things don't work out; I might cry at movies where someone dies. I've just never really understood why people get all choked up over happy, inspirational things. But Michelle Obama's kindness and empathy changed that. This book had me in tears for all the right reasons.

This is not really a book about politics, though political experiences obviously do come into it. It's a shame that some will dismiss this book because of a difference in political opinion, when it is really about a woman's life. About growing up poor and black on the South Side of Chicago; about getting married and struggling to maintain that marriage; about motherhood; about being thrown into an amazing and terrifying position.

I hate words like "inspirational" because they've become so overdone and cheesy, but I just have to say it-- Michelle Obama is an inspiration. I had the privilege of seeing her speak at The Forum in Inglewood, and she is one of the warmest, funniest, smartest, down-to-earth people I have ever seen in this world.

And yes, I know we present what we want the world to see, but I truly do think it's genuine. I think she is someone who really cares about people - especially kids - and wants to give them better lives and opportunities.

She's obviously intelligent, but she also doesn't gussy up her words. She talks straight, with an openness and honesty rarely seen. She's been one of the most powerful women in the world, she's been a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she's had her own successful career, and yet she has remained throughout that same girl - Michelle Robinson - from a working class family in Chicago.

I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't benefit from reading this book.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better idea of how to write a book review. You might be wondering how to put all of this knowledge into action now! Many book reviewers start out by setting up a book blog. If you don’t have time to research the intricacies of HTML, check out Reedsy Discovery — where you can read indie books for free and review them without going through the hassle of creating a blog. To register as a book reviewer , go here .

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Home › Books & Reading Quotes

160 Quotes About Books & Reading

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Many of us have special memories of the books that have inspired us, and have learned the profound effect that reading the right book can have at the right moment. If you’re short on time, reading some quotes about books is the next best thing.

Books have the power to transport us to new worlds and different times , but they can also take us back to the important moments in our own lives.

From building your vocabulary to reducing stress, preventing age-related cognitive decline and increasing your ability to empathize, reading books is an easy way to look after your mind and body.

Whether you’re an avid reader or wish you read more, we hope you enjoy these quotes about books and reading!

Page Contents

Quotes About Books

′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read. Mark Twain

Sleep is good, he said, and books are better. George R.R. Martin

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. Charles W. Eliot

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. Jane Smiley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Novel

The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night. Isabel Allende

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. J.K. Rowling

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. Carl Sagan

When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. Erasmus

Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. Dr. Seuss

That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. Jhumpa Lahiri

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie

I love the smell of book ink in the morning. Umberto Eco

Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. Bill Patterson

It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially. Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Neil Gaiman

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. E.B. White

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. Charles Baudelaire

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island. Walt Disney

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. William Styron

The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries. Kurt Vonnegut

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx

I love books. I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas. I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud. Nnedi Okorafor

Books were my pass to personal freedom. Oprah Winfrey

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. David Mitchell

If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads. Francois Mauriac

Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories. Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest. C.S. Lewis

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. Austin Phelps

The best books… are those that tell you what you know already. George Orwell, 1984

It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. C.S. Lewis

Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Reading one book is like eating one potato chip. Diane Duane

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. Anne Lamott

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. Mortimer J. Adler

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher

I guess there are never enough books. John Steinbeck

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. Anne Herbert

Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. Ursula K. LeGuin

A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. Terry Pratchett

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! Thomas Babington Macaulay

Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper. David Quammen

You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. Paul Sweeney

I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books. Gary Paulsen

Happiness. That’s what books smells like. Happiness. That’s why I always wanted to have a book shop. What better life than to trade in happiness? Saran MacLean

Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don’t you agree? Christopher Paolini

Quotes About Reading

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write. Annie Proulx

Reading brings us unknown friends. Honore de Belzac

My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. Jean Rhys

Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. Malorie Blackman

We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind. Anna Quindlen

Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world. Napoleon Bonaparte

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. Harper Lee

Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read. Jorge Luis Borges

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. Mary Wortley Montagu

A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. Abraham Lincoln

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. Rene Descartes

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. James Baldwin

Reading—the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay. William Styron

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. Ursula K. LeGuin

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities. Ben Okri

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift. Kate DiCamillo

I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage. Roald Dahl

Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them. George Saunders

Reading—even browsing—an old book can yield sustenance denied by a database search. James Gleick

Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work. Khaled Hosseini

I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time. Virginia Woolf

Reading means borrowing. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds. Roxane Gay

Read. Read. Read. Just don’t read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different style. R.L. Stine

Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. Rainer Maria Rilke

The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours. Alan Bennett, The History Boys

It wasn’t until I started reading and found books they wouldn’t let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else. John Waters

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. Sir Francis Bacon

The world was hers for the reading. Betty Smith

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. Voltaire

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Stephen King

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. Robert Frost

Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head. Paul Auster

A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting. Walter Mosley

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul. Joyce Carol Oates

A word after a word after a word is power. Margaret Atwood

Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers. Steven Spielberg

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live. Annie Dillard

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. John Locke

Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window. William Faulkner

Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you. Louis L’Amour

Reading was a joy, a desperately needed escape — I didn’t read to learn, I was reading to read. Christian Bauman

Reading is departure and arrival. Terri Guillemets

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” President Harry Truman

Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Nora Ephron

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. P.J. O’Rourke

Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading. Lena Dunham

The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t. Mark Twain

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight. Robertson Davies

Leaders are always readers. Kevin Trudeau

Ready for more reading? Check out our list of 8 Books for Graduate Students and flip some great pages today.

The Best Literary Quotes

Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Virginia Woolf, Street Haunting

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. Holbrook Jackson

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand. Ezra Pound

I couldn’t live a week without a private library – indeed, I’d part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I’d let go of the 1500 or so books I possess. H.P. Lovecraft

Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other. A.S. Byatt, Possession

If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories. Michael Ende

There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away. Emily Dickinson

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde

In the end, we’ll all become stories. Margaret Atwood

Reading is my favorite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read. Anne Brontë

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. Gustave Flaubert

So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. Roald Dahl, Matilda

Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. Cassandra Clare

Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though. J.D. Salinger

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… the man who never reads lives only one. George R.R. Martin

We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read. Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. Robert Louis Stevenson

Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them. Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. C.S. Lewis

Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times?” Mo had said…”As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells…and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower…both strange and familiar. Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own. John Berger, Keeping a Rendezvous

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief. Franz Kafka

We hope you’ve loved these quotes about books and reading.

It’s never too late (or early) to expand your horizons and start reading, and reading books is even good for your physical and mental health . So star turning those pages and getting inspired through reading today.

Natalie Seale

3 thoughts on “160 Quotes About Books & Reading”

Thank you for all of these book quotes. I like to write them in my book journal and reread them often.

Thanks so much, for this wonderful book quotes.

My favorite quote is “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”– Erasmus

Thank you for this very interesting collection of thought-provoking quotes. If felt good to agree and disagree with them all – with none leaving me untouched.

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How To Write A Book Review: 6 Steps To Take

Adiba Jaigirdar

Adiba Jaigirdar is an Irish-Bangladeshi writer, poet, and teacher. She resides in Dublin, Ireland and has an MA in postcolonial studies. She is currently working on her own postcolonial novel and hopes that someday it will see the light of day outside of her computer screen. Twitter:  @adiba_j

View All posts by Adiba Jaigirdar

Whether you’re a student, a novice blogger, or just someone looking to become a more active user of Goodreads, writing a book review is an important skill to have! Here are six steps for how to write a book review for school and beyond. 

1. Begin with a brief summary of the book

This is probably the best way to introduce any review because it gives context. But make sure to not go into too much detail. Keep it short and sweet since an official summary can be found through a quick google search!

2. Pick out the most important aspects of the book

I usually break this down with character, world-building, themes, and plot. But this might vary between books, genres, and your tastes!

Dedicate a paragraph to each of these important aspects, discussing how well the author dealt with it, along with what you enjoyed and what you didn’t enjoy.

3. Include brief quotes as examples

Including quotes is always a great idea, because it gives examples for everything that you’re saying! If your review talks about a character being particularly witty, a witty line from the character lets your readers see exactly what kind of witty character you’re dealing with here.

But be careful: lengthy quotes can take up big chunks of space and overpower your review. Short quotes will usually get your points across while letting your work shine through.

4. Write a conclusion that summarises everything

Like your introduction, keep your conclusion short and sweet! It should bring up the main points of your review, along with your overall opinion of the book.

5. Find similar books

A great way to wrap up a review is to find similar books to the one you’re reviewing. So you can say, “if you were a fan of X book, I think you’ll definitely like this one!”

You can also be more specific, looking at the exact things that might make two books similar. So you can suggest something like…“if you liked that the main character in X book was a kick-ass superhero, then you’ll love the main character of this book!”

6. Give it a star rating

A star rating is obviously encouraged in a lot of review sites, but they’re not necessary! If you do want to give a star rating, you can go the conventional “out of five/ten” route. You could also try something slightly less conventional, and break down your star-rating into different categories for character/plot/world-building, etc.

Now go forth and review! And share any tips you have for how to write a book review in the comments.

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Louise Erdrich's disquieting new novel will keep you on your toes

Maureen Corrigan

The Sentence: It's such an unassuming title (and one that sounds like it belongs to a writing manual); but, Louise Erdrich 's latest is a deceptively big novel, various in its storytelling styles; ambitious in its immediacy.

The Sentence is part of a vanguard of fall fiction — by writers as disparate as Jodi Picoult , Gary Shteyngart , and Michael Connelly — that tries to capture a splintering America during this long pandemic moment. For Erdrich, these strange times call for a ghost story that sometimes shifts into social realism: specifically, into an account of the first months of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd .

An absorbing and unquiet novel, The Sentence , like the era we're living through, keeps us readers on the alert for the next improbable turn of events looming ahead of us. Erdrich's story starts in a slapstick crime mode, reminiscent of the novels of Elmore Leonard . Our narrator, a wry and resourceful woman named Tookie, recalls the misdeed that, years earlier, landed her in federal prison.

Back then, Tookie drove a refrigerated grocery van and she was asked by a grieving friend to steal the corpse of a recently deceased lover away from another woman's house. Tookie pulled off the snatch, but didn't notice that packets of cocaine were taped under the corpse's armpits. Arrested, Tookie took the fall. She tells us that "the most important skill I'd gained in prison was how to read with murderous attention."

Mercifully released after 10 years, Tookie, who's Native American, lands a job at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis — the very same independent bookstore that Louise Erdrich owns in real life. Erdrich herself makes sporadic appearances here, but she's by no means the most jarring presence in the bookstore, as Tookie ominously tells us: "In November 2019, death took one of my most annoying customers. But she did not disappear."

Flora was a white woman, who patronized Birchbark, which specializes in Native books. Tookie calls her "a stalker — of all things Indigenous." At first Flora's spectral activities are confined to footsteps and book reshufflings. But, as the pandemic, manifests itself in late winter of 2020, Flora's behavior grows more sinister — she wants to take possession of Tookie, who shifts from pissed-off to petrified. There's also a suspicion that Flora's death may have been caused by the last sentence of the last book that she was reading.

Throughout her long career and most recently in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Night Watchman , Erdrich has interwoven the workings of things seen and unseen into her writing. White appropriation and the attempted decimation of Native identity have also been Erdrich's abiding subjects. But these unprecedented times call forth unusual strategies from writers: In the second half of The Sentence, Erdrich layers on a style closer to creative nonfiction as Tookie witnesses the protests in Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd. Here's Tookie describing her drive to work:

I passed burnt-out stores with walls like broken teeth. ... I passed a woman with a shopping cart full of children. . . . Pockets of peace, then full-out soldiers in battle gear. ... I passed a popcorn store that was open and I stopped to buy popcorn. The popcorn smell modified the smell of spent tear gas — sour, musky chalk. ... I got stopped by a cloud when I was nearly home. It was a cloud of emotion. I came to a halt and tried to breathe my way through the mist. It was cleared by the loud curfew alert on my phone."

Though I've never put Norman Mailer and Erdrich together before, sections like this one remind me of Mailer's 1968 masterpiece, The Armies of the Night , his so-called "nonfiction novel" chronicling an earlier time of fracture and unrest in America.

All is tumultuous in The Sentence — the spirits, the country, Erdrich's own style. One of the few constants this novel affirms is the power of books. Tookie recalls that everyone at Birchbark is delighted when bookstores are deemed an "essential" business during the pandemic, making books as important as "food, fuel, heat, garbage collection, snow shoveling, and booze." No arguments here. And I'd add The Sentence to the growing list of fiction that seems pretty "essential" for a deeper take on the times we're living through.

• Louise Erdrich

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Writing a Book Review

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Book reviews typically evaluate recently-written works. They offer a brief description of the text’s key points and often provide a short appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the work.

Readers sometimes confuse book reviews with book reports, but the two are not identical. Book reports commonly describe what happens in a work; their focus is primarily on giving an account of the major plot, characters, and/or main idea of the work. Most often, book reports are a K-12 assignment and range from 250 to 500 words. If you are looking to write a book report, please see the OWL resource, Writing a Book Report.

By contrast, book reviews are most often a college assignment, but they also appear in many professional works: magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. They typically range from 500-750 words, but may be longer or shorter. A book review gives readers a sneak peek at what a book is like, whether or not the reviewer enjoyed it, and details on purchasing the book.

Before You Read

Before you begin to read, consider the elements you will need to included in your review. The following items may help:

• Author: Who is the author? What else has s/he written? Has this author won any awards? What is the author’s typical style?
• Genre: What type of book is this: fiction, nonfiction, romance, poetry, youth fiction, etc.? Who is the intended audience for this work? What is the purpose of the work?
• Title: Where does the title fit in? How is it applied in the work? Does it adequately encapsulate the message of the text? Is it interesting? Uninteresting?
• Preface/Introduction/Table of Contents: Does the author provide any revealing information about the text in the preface/introduction? Does a “guest author” provide the introduction? What judgments or preconceptions do the author and/or “guest author” provide? How is the book arranged: sections, chapters?
• Book Jacket/Cover/Printing: Book jackets are like mini-reviews. Does the book jacket provide any interesting details or spark your interest in some way? Are there pictures, maps, or graphs? Do the binding, page cut, or typescript contribute or take away from the work?

As You Read

As you read, determine how you will structure the summary portion or background structure of your review. Be ready to take notes on the book’s key points, characters, and/or themes.

• Characters: Are there characters in the work? Who are the principal characters? How do they affect the story? Do you empathize with them?
• Themes/Motifs/Style: What themes or motifs stand out? How do they contribute to the work? Are they effective or not? How would you describe this author’s particular style? Is it accessible to all readers or just some?
• Argument: How is the work’s argument set up? What support does the author give for her/findings? Does the work fulfill its purpose/support its argument?
• Key Ideas: What is the main idea of the work? What makes it good, different, or groundbreaking?
• Quotes: What quotes stand out? How can you demonstrate the author’s talent or the feel of the book through a quote?

When You Are Ready to Write

Begin with a short summary or background of the work, but do not give too much away. Many reviews limit themselves only to the first couple of chapters or lead the reader up to the rising action of the work. Reviewers of nonfiction texts will provide the basic idea of the book’s argument without too much detailed.

The final portion of your review will detail your opinion of the work. When you are ready to begin your review, consider the following:

• Establish a Background, Remember your Audience: Remember that your audience has not read the work; with this in mind, be sure to introduce characters and principles carefully and deliberately. What kind of summary can you provide of the main points or main characters that will help your readers gauge their interest? Does the author’s text adequately reach the intended audience? Will some readers be lost or find the text too easy?
• Minor principles/characters: Deal only with the most pressing issues in the book. You will not be able to cover every character or idea. What principles/characters did you agree or disagree with? What other things might the author have researched or considered?
• Organize: The purpose of the review is to critically evaluate the text, not just inform the readers about it. Leave plenty room for your evaluation by ensuring that your summary is brief. Determine what kind of balance to strike between your summary information and your evaluation. If you are writing your review for a class, ask your instructor. Often the ratio is half and half.
• Your Evaluation: Choose one or a few points to discuss about the book. What worked well for you? How does this work compare with others by the same author or other books in the same genre? What major themes, motifs, or terms does the book introduce, and how effective are they? Did the book appeal to you on an emotional or logical way?
• Publisher/Price: Most book reviews include the publisher and price of the book at the end of the article. Some reviews also include the year published and ISBN.

When making the final touches to your review, carefully verify the following:

• Double-check the spelling of the author name(s), character names, special terms, and publisher.
• Try to read from the vantage point of your audience. Is there too much/enough summary? Does your argument about the text make sense?
• Should you include direct quotes from the reading? Do they help support your arguments? Double-check your quotes for accuracy.

Inside Reese Witherspoon’s Literary Empire

When her career hit a wall, the Oscar-winning actor built a ladder made of books — for herself, and for others.

“Reading is the antidote to hate and xenophobia,” Reese Witherspoon said. “It increases our empathy and understanding of the world.” Credit... Jingyu Lin for The New York Times

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By Elisabeth Egan

Reporting from Nashville

• May 18, 2024

“You’d be shocked by how many books have women chained in basements,” Reese Witherspoon said. “I know it happens in the world. I don’t want to read a book about it.”

Nor does she want to read an academic treatise, or a 700-page novel about a tree.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

Sitting in her office in Nashville, occasionally dipping into a box of takeout nachos, Witherspoon talked about what she does like to read — and what she looks for in a selection for Reese’s Book Club, which she referred to in a crisp third person.

“It needs to be optimistic,” Witherspoon said. “It needs to be shareable. Do you close this book and say, ‘I know exactly who I want to give it to?’”

But, first and foremost, she wants books by women, with women at the center of the action who save themselves. “Because that’s what women do,” she said. “No one’s coming to save us.”

Witherspoon, 48, has now been a presence in the book world for a decade. Her productions of novels like “ Big Little Lies ,” “ Little Fires Everywhere ” and “ The Last Thing He Told Me ” are foundations of the binge-watching canon. Her book club picks reliably land on the best-seller list for weeks, months or, in the case of “ Where the Crawdads Sing ,” years. In 2023, print sales for the club’s selections outpaced those of Oprah’s Book Club and Read With Jenna , according to Circana Bookscan, adding up to 2.3 million copies sold.

So how did an actor who dropped out of college (fine, Stanford) become one of the most influential people in an industry known for being intractable and slightly tweedy?

It started with Witherspoon’s frustration over the film industry’s skimpy representation of women onscreen — especially seasoned, strong, smart, brave, mysterious, complicated and, yes, dangerous women.

“When I was about 34, I stopped reading interesting scripts,” she said.

Witherspoon had already made a name for herself with “ Election ,” “ Legally Blonde ” and “ Walk the Line .” But, by 2010, Hollywood was in flux: Streaming services were gaining traction. DVDs were following VHS tapes to the land of forgotten technology.

“When there’s a big economic shift in the media business, it’s not the superhero movies or independent films we lose out on,” Witherspoon said. “It’s the middle, which is usually where women live. The family drama. The romantic comedy. So I decided to fund a company to make those kinds of movies.”

In 2012, she started the production company Pacific Standard with Bruna Papandrea. Its first projects were film adaptations of books: “ Gone Girl ” and “ Wild ,” which both opened in theaters in 2014.

Growing up in Nashville, Witherspoon knew the value of a library card. She caught the bug early, she said, from her grandmother, Dorothea Draper Witherspoon, who taught first grade and devoured Danielle Steel novels in a “big cozy lounger” while sipping iced tea from a glass “with a little paper towel wrapped around it.”

This attention to detail is a smoke signal of sorts: Witherspoon is a person of words.

When she was in high school, Witherspoon stayed after class to badger her English teacher — Margaret Renkl , now a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times — about books that weren’t part of the curriculum. When Witherspoon first moved to Los Angeles, books helped prepare her for the “chaos” of filmmaking; “ The Making of the African Queen ” by Katharine Hepburn was a particular favorite.

So it made sense that, as soon as Witherspoon joined Instagram, she started sharing book recommendations. Authors were tickled and readers shopped accordingly. In 2017, Witherspoon made it official: Reese’s Book Club became a part of her new company, Hello Sunshine.

The timing was fortuitous, according to Pamela Dorman, senior vice president and publisher of Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, who edited the club’s inaugural pick, “ Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine .” “The book world needed something to help boost sales in a new way,” she said.

Reese’s Book Club was that something: “Eleanor Oliphant” spent 85 weeks on the paperback best-seller list. The club’s second pick, “The Alice Network,” spent nearly four months on the weekly best-seller lists and two months on the audio list. Its third, “ The Lying Game ,” spent 18 weeks on the weekly lists.

“There’s nothing better than getting that phone call,” added Dorman, who has now edited two more Reese’s Book Club selections.

Kiley Reid’s debut novel, “ Such a Fun Age ,” got the nod in January 2020. She said, “When I was on book tour, a lot of women would tell me, ‘I haven’t read a book in four years, but I trust Reese.’” Four years later, on tour for her second novel, “ Come and Get It ,” Reid met women who were reading 100 books a year.

Witherspoon tapped into a sweet spot between literary and commercial fiction, with a few essay collections and memoirs sprinkled in. She turned out to be the literary equivalent of a fit model — a reliable bellwether for readers in search of intelligent, discussion-worthy fare, hold the Proust. She wanted to help narrow down the choices for busy readers, she said, “to bring the book club out of your grandma’s living room and online.”

She added: “The unexpected piece of it all was the economic impact on these authors’ lives.”

One writer became the first person in her family to own a home. “She texted me a picture of the key,” Witherspoon said. “I burst into tears.”

Witherspoon considers a handful of books each month. Submissions from publishers are culled by a small group that includes Sarah Harden, chief executive of Hello Sunshine; Gretchen Schreiber, manager of books (her original title was “bookworm”); and Jon Baker, whose team at Baker Literary Scouting scours the market for promising manuscripts.

Not only is Witherspoon focused on stories by women — “the Bechdel test writ large,” Baker said — but also, “Nothing makes her happier than getting something out in the world that you might not see otherwise.”

When transgender rights were in the headlines in 2018, the club chose “ This Is How It Always Is ,” Laurie Frankel’s novel about a family grappling with related issues in the petri dish of their own home. “We track the long tail of our book club picks and this one, without fail, continues to sell,” Baker said.

Witherspoon’s early readers look for a balance of voices, backgrounds and experiences. They also pay attention to the calendar. “Everyone knows December and May are the busiest months for women,” Harden said, referring to the mad rush of the holidays and the end of the school year. “You don’t want to read a literary doorstop then. What do you want to read on summer break? What do you want to read in January?”

Occasionally the group chooses a book that isn’t brand-new, as with the club’s April pick, “ The Most Fun We Ever Had ,” from 2019. When Claire Lombardo learned that her almost-five-year-old novel had been anointed, she thought there had been a mistake; after all, her new book, “Same As it Ever Was,” is coming out next month. “It’s wild,” Lombardo said. “It’s not something that I was expecting.”

Sales of “The Most Fun We Ever Had” increased by 10,000 percent after the announcement, according to Doubleday. Within the first two weeks, 27,000 copies were sold. The book has been optioned by Hello Sunshine.

Witherspoon preferred not to elaborate on a few subjects: competition with other top-shelf book clubs (“We try not to pick the same books”); the lone author who declined to be part of hers (“I have a lot of respect for her clarity”); and the 2025 book she’s already called dibs on (“You can’t imagine that Edith Wharton or Graham Greene didn’t write it”).

But she was eager to set the record straight on two fronts. Her team doesn’t get the rights to every book — “It’s just how the cookie crumbles,” she said — and, Reese’s Book Club doesn’t make money off sales of its picks. Earnings come from brand collaborations and affiliate revenue.

This is true of all celebrity book clubs. An endorsement from one of them is a free shot of publicity, but one might argue that Reese’s Book Club does a bit more for its books and authors than most. Not only does it promote each book from hardcover to paperback, it supports authors in subsequent phases of their careers.

Take Reid, for instance. More than three years after Reese’s Book Club picked her first novel, it hosted a cover reveal for “Come and Get It,” which came out in January. This isn’t the same as a yellow seal on the cover, but it’s still a spotlight with the potential to be seen by the club’s 2.9 million Instagram followers.

“I definitely felt like I was joining a very large community,” Reid said.

“Alum” writers tend to stay connected with one another via social media, swapping woot woots and advice. They’re also invited to participate in Hello Sunshine events and Lit Up, a mentorship program for underrepresented writers. Participants get editing and coaching from Reese’s Book Club authors, plus a marketing commitment from the club when their manuscripts are submitted to agents and editors.

“I describe publishing and where we sit in terms of being on a river,” Schreiber said. “We’re downstream; we’re looking at what they’re picking. Lit Up gave us the ability to look upstream and say, ‘We’d like to make a change here.’”

The first Lit Up-incubated novel, “Time and Time Again” by Chatham Greenfield, is coming out from Bloomsbury YA in July. Five more fellows have announced the sales of their books.

As Reese’s Book Club approaches a milestone — the 100th pick, to be announced in September — it continues to adapt to changes in the market. Print sales for club selections peaked at five million in 2020, and they’ve softened since then, according to Circana Bookscan. In 2021, Candle Media, a Blackstone-backed media company, bought Hello Sunshine for $900 million. Witherspoon is a member of Candle Media’s board. She is currently co-producing a “Legally Blonde” prequel series for Amazon Prime Video.

This month, Reese’s Book Club will unveil an exclusive audio partnership with Apple, allowing readers to find all the picks in one place on the Apple Books app. “I want people to stop saying, ‘I didn’t really read it, I just listened,’” Witherspoon said. “Stop that. If you listened, you read it. There’s no right way to absorb a book.”

She feels that Hollywood has changed over the years: “Consumers are more discerning about wanting to hear stories that are generated by a woman.”

Even as she’s looking forward, Witherspoon remembers her grandmother, the one who set her on this path.

“Somebody came up to me at the gym the other day and he said” — here she put on a gentle Southern drawl — “‘I’m going to tell you something I bet you didn’t hear today.’ And he goes, ‘Your grandma taught me how to read.’”

Another smoke signal, and a reminder of what lives on.

Read by Elisabeth Egan

Audio produced by Sarah Diamond .

Elisabeth Egan is a writer and editor at the Times Book Review. She has worked in the world of publishing for 30 years. More about Elisabeth Egan

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

An assault led to Chanel Miller’s best seller, “Know My Name,” but she had wanted to write children’s books since the second grade. She’s done that now  with “Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All.”

When Reese Witherspoon is making selections for her book club , she wants books by women, with women at the center of the action who save themselves.

The Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, who died on May 14 , specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope , spanning decades with intimacy and precision.

“The Light Eaters,” a new book by Zoë Schlanger, looks at how plants sense the world  and the agency they have in their own lives.

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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Donald Trump Movie ‘The Apprentice’ Ignites Controversy in Cannes Over Rape Scene

By Tatiana Siegel

Tatiana Siegel

• Screening of Graphic Oct. 7 Hamas Attack Movie Canceled in Cannes Amid ‘Serious Security Risk’ 3 days ago
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It proved to be the most disturbing scene in a movie chock full of unflattering sequences about Donald Trump.

In Ali Abbasi’s “ The Apprentice ,” Trump (played by Sebastian Stan) violently throws his then-wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) to the ground and proceeds to have nonconsensual sex with her. 

Popular on Variety

The film depicts Trump’s rise from an insecure real estate wannabe in the 1970s to a self-professed “killer” and “winner” in the mid-’80s. In a likely bid to avoid litigation, the Trump origin story opens with a disclaimer that it is based on true events, but some of the characters’ names were changed.

Other than Trump, the two characters who enjoy the most screen time are Jeremy Strong’s Roy Cohn and Bakalova’s Ivana. Both Cohn and Ivana Trump are dead.

Still, it’s an extraordinary turn of events for a film to depict a former president sexually assaulting his wife. One source familiar with the script permutations told Variety that the scene was even more overt in earlier drafts, while a second insider says the scene’s inclusion was debated for its necessity to the storyline. 

But one insider says audiences may find “The Apprentice” to be an oddly humanizing portrait of a man vilified by half of the country. 

The film, which is being sold by CAA, WME and Rocket Science, enters the festival without distribution. It remains to be seen if buyers have the stomach to take on a project that will certainly be a lightning rod heading into the home stretch of the election.

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Book Summaries

The culture code summary: key takeaways & review.

Sudarshan Somanathan

Head of Content

May 21, 2024

Managing large teams can be challenging. Disjointed communication, misaligned expectations, siloed teams, and unclear goals play a huge role. Then how do big organizations like Pixar and Google thrive? It depends on the team culture, says Daniel Coyle in The Culture Code .

This book isn’t just your typical workplace read—it’s a journey into the heart of what makes teams truly thrive.

The Culture Code Book Summary at Glance

1. safety first, 2. embrace vulnerability, 3. establish a clear purpose, 4. lead by example, 5. celebrate small wins, 6. encourage diverse perspectives, 7. invest in relationships, 8. continuous improvement, popular the culture code quotes, manage team tasks, improve company culture , ensure seamless collaboration, build psychological safety, encourage vulnerability.

The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle is an insightful study on how a great team culture sets the foundation for highly successful groups and organizations. Coyle argues that specific creative skills and dynamics are common to most successful groups, enabling them to thrive in various environments. 

Throughout the book, Coyle illustrates his points through captivating case studies of organizations with highly successful cultures. From Pixar’s creative powerhouse to the elite teamwork of the U.S. Navy SEALs, each example offers valuable insights into the culture-building process. 

By examining real-world scenarios from The Culture Code , you can better understand the principles and practices that contribute to creating high-performance teams.

• Author: Daniel Coyle
• No. of pages : 304
• Year published : 2018
• Estimated reading time : 3 hours 46 minutes
• Publisher : ‎Random House Business
• Goodreads rating : 4.46/5
• Listening length: 7 hours and 13 minutes

The Culture Code provides compelling insights into the underlying dynamics of successful groups and offers practical strategies for cultivating a positive team culture and organizational culture. Whether you’re a leader looking to foster collaboration within your organization or an individual striving to contribute effectively to a team, the book offers actionable advice and guidance for building a culture of excellence and core values . 

Key Takeaways from The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle

Building an effective teamwork culture starts with ensuring psychological safety at the workplace. Psychological safety helps individuals feel safe expressing themselves and being vulnerable. It empowers people to take risks without the fear of judgment and builds trust within the larger team. This improves team collaboration, professional development, and innovation.

As Coyle says—“ The number-one job is to care for each other. ”

• Accepting our shortcomings takes a lot of courage. Therefore, leaders must first create a safe work environment to build trust and cooperation.

Encouraging vulnerability within a group fosters deeper connections and stronger relationships. When team members are willing to admit their weaknesses and share their struggles , they build empathy and strengthen bonds.

Coyle expresses, “True greatness is achieved by embracing vulnerability, taking risks, and learning from failure.”

• He says a vulnerability loop is the most fundamental building block of group cooperation and trust. To do this, avoid giving sandwich feedback (a manager giving a piece of negative feedback “sandwiched” between two positive ones). Instead, aim for radical candor to avoid brutal honesty, as followed at Pixar.

Successful groups have a compelling sense of purpose that unites group members and guides their actions. Such groups define a shared mission to establish purpose, which ensures each team member aligns individual efforts toward common goals .

• Here’s what Coyle says, “ The idea behind building purpose is not to get a brilliant breakthrough moment but rather about building systems that create lots of ideas to help unearth the right choices .”

Not everybody has a eureka moment every day. However, by establishing a clear purpose, teams can work on small ideas leading to greater achievements.

Coyle explains that building a purpose is about setting your priorities straight . List and rank your priorities, align team members’ goals, and measure what matters.

Leaders play a crucial role in setting organizational behavior and shaping a group’s identity and culture. By embodying the values and behaviors leaders wish to see in their successful teams, leaders set the tone for collaboration, trust, and team accountability .

• Coyle talks about the Lighthouse Method—it’s about providing a clear, guiding light that helps individuals or teams navigate from their current position (A) toward a desired future state (B). This approach is often characterized by setting clear goals, establishing values, ensuring transparency , and creating a vision that aligns with the purpose.

Recognizing and celebrating progress, no matter how small, reinforces positive body language and encourages team efforts. By building a culture of appreciation and acknowledgment , you foster a sense of belonging and accomplishment within the group.

A team that communicates effectively trusts each other, and utilizes every person’s strengths is more likely to achieve its goals than one that relies on a superstar performer.

• Coyle states, “ Success is not about the lone genius or the superstar performer but about the collective effort of a team .”

Embracing diversity of thought and experience enriches group cohesion and enhances problem-solving abilities. Leaders should encourage open dialogue and welcome different viewpoints to foster creativity and innovation.

“ Valuing the individual isn’t just about being nice; it’s about harnessing the full power of each person on your team .”

• Valuing individuals should go beyond being just cordial. It also means taking others’ perspectives into account and utilizing their strengths, talent, and potential.

Building strong relationships within the group is essential for promoting trust and collaboration. Leaders must cultivate strong connections among team members to create a supportive and cohesive environment.

• Coyle highlights the importance of investing in relationships by saying, “ Cultures that foster deep connections among team members create a sense of collective ownership and responsibility .”

It signifies that when teammates feel strongly connected, they have a sense of responsibility and collective ownership . Team members also feel encouraged to contribute actively and take responsibility for their actions.

Cultivating a strong group culture is an ongoing process requiring everyone’s commitment and effort. Regularly assess and refine group dynamics , seeking feedback and implementing necessary changes to create safety and ensure continuous growth and success.

Moreover, extraordinary leaders provide direction and help the team members perform better.

• Coyle explains, “ Cultures thrive when leaders create an environment that enables people to become their best selves. ”

“Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do.”

“Belonging cues are behaviors that create safe connections in groups.”

“Vulnerability doesn’t come after trust—it precedes it. Leaping into the unknown, when done alongside others, causes the solid ground of trust to materialize beneath our feet.”

“Great cultures are not built by one leader or by top-down mandates, but through hundreds or thousands of simple, often imperceptible interactions among people who are driven by a sense of purpose.”

“Culture is not something you are; it’s something you do. It’s like a muscle: it can be strengthened and refined. If you do the work, it gets stronger.”

Apply The Culture Code Learnings with ClickUp

The Culture Code is a valuable resource for improving your company culture and building a positive work environment . However, implementing these learnings requires team spirit and collaborative effort. One of the best ways to apply The Culture Code learnings is to use efficient workplace communication tools such as ClickUp that streamline workflows and promote accountability within teams. 

Here’s how you can use ClickUp to implement specific insights from The Culture Code :

ClickUp is an all-in-one platform for effective team communication, collaboration, and project management. 

Team efficiency and productivity are all about efficient task management. Use ClickUp Tasks to set shared goals. It allows you to assign action items and comments, create checklists, build a task database, and automate recurring tasks. Its features, such as task watchers, enable real-time updates and encourage open dialogue among team members while keeping everyone in the loop.

ClickUp allows teams to set clear goals, priorities, and deadlines for each task or project. By aligning individual tasks with overarching objectives, ClickUp helps establish a sense of purpose within the team. Members understand how their contributions contribute to the organization’s larger goals, motivating them to work collaboratively toward the same outcome of shared success.

Company culture sets the foundation for high-performance teams. If you’re looking for inspiration, the ClickUp Company Culture Template can get you started with the basics of a thriving company culture. It allows you to visualize and align team priorities and set shared values and expectations. This template focuses on team collaboration, productivity, and employee engagement and helps you build a unified culture.

You can also promote seamless collaboration among team members through comments, @mentions, and file sharing. Teams can easily communicate, share updates, and collaborate on tasks within the platform. It promotes teamwork, fosters a sense of belonging, and strengthens the bonds within the team.

The ClickUp Communication Plan Template helps you set team communication processes, organize goals, and manage stakeholders.

Streamlined workflows and transparency into project progress create a sense of psychological safety within teams. ClickUp offers a centralized platform for task management, communication goals , and collaboration. This makes team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas, updates, concerns, and feedback, knowing they can access all the necessary information and support to carry out their tasks effectively.

Open communication promotes a culture of vulnerability where individuals feel comfortable expressing their thoughts, asking for help when needed, and admitting mistakes.

The ClickUp Team Space Template promotes open communication by enabling teams to collaborate on team tasks and projects in real time and discuss concerns.

Establish a Stellar Company Culture with ClickUp

Prioritizing a strong company culture is essential for fostering a thriving and high-purpose environment. Implementing the principles outlined in The Culture Code using tools like ClickUp can create a culture that promotes collaboration, transparency, and employee well-being. 

Sign up for free on ClickUp to build a culture that drives success and fosters employee satisfaction and loyalty.

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• Entertainment

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and JFK Jr.: Inside Their Tempestuous Love Affair and Final Days: New Book (Exclusive)

In 'Once Upon a Time' author Elizabeth Beller details the couple's meet-cute, fiery relationship and tragic end

Liz McNeil is an Editor at Large at PEOPLE, where she's worked for over 30 years.

JOY E. SCHELLER/ CAROLYN BESSETTE JOHN F KENNEDY JR ARCHIVE IMAGES; Gallery Books

Nearly 25 years after her death, there's still an air of mystery about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, the enigmatic woman who married John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996.

After her death on July 16, 1999, at age 33, when the plane piloted by John, 38, also carrying her sister Lauren, 34, crashed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, she remains celebrated as a style icon on countless Instagram accounts.

But as Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller reveals, there was so much more to who she truly was. “People wrote about her so harshly and cast her as icy,” says Beller, “but she was a lioness, effervescent, warm and so full of life.” 

After graduating from Boston University with a degree in education, she worked in the city's Calvin Klein boutique and then moved to New York in 1989, where she began working in VIP sales for the minimalist designer. That's where she first came across JFK Jr. Below, read an exclusive excerpt from Beller's book about what happened from there.

Gallery Books

In spring 1992, Calvin Klein was just getting back into menswear. None other than John F. Kennedy Jr. had an appointment for a fitting and [Calvin decided] Carolyn should show John the selection. He came out of the meeting smitten, with a few suits and Carolyn’s number.

“John invited her to join his group at a gala dinner,” recalled [Calvin’s assistant.] “Sitting next  to him was another woman that Carolyn either mistook as his date, or actually was his date.” It was unclear, and Carolyn wasn’t pleased. 

But when they met again at a May 18 fundraiser, they were spotted in deep conversation at the bar. 

John and Carolyn stayed there for over an hour, never looking away from each other. Lightning had struck.

After the benefit, John and Carolyn continued to see each other, in a haze of sultry dinners, dancing, and walks in Central Park. John even brought Carolyn to Sea Song, the Long Island, home he rented with his cousin, Anthony Radziwill.

The week after that, Carolyn met John for dinner at El Teddy’s, where he presented Carolyn with a letter [from] a friend of his. The letter claimed Carolyn was a user, a partier, that she was out for fame and fortune [and] “dated guys around town.” John casually tossed the piece of paper at her, stood, and walked out the door. Carolyn stared in shock at John as he departed.

John meanwhile, had been spotted about town with Daryl Hannah that fall—all documented in the press. Granted, Carolyn knew she wasn’t his only option. When she came across a pair of [former girlfriend] Julie Baker’s duck boots in John’s apartment, despite them being a size too small, she made a point of wearing them. 

For more on Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe  here .

But Carolyn became increasingly irked that he wouldn’t introduce her to his mother. “I took him to meet my mom,” Carolyn told a friend. 

Bettmann Archive/Getty

“John called all the time,” says [a] Carolyn friend, “[We recorded] an outgoing message on her answering machine.” Anyone who called would get Carolyn saying, “Hey, hon, I’ll be back by seven o’clock, can’t wait to see you!” The idea was that John would hear it and assume she’d moved on. John did—and he called even more.

But behind closed doors, Carolyn and John were developing a real kind of intimacy.

The weekend of July 4, 1995, he asked her to go fishing in Martha’s Vineyard—and proposed.  

He turned to Carolyn and said, “Fishing is so much better with a partner.” Then he put a platinum band of diamonds and sapphires on her finger. Carolyn told him, “I’ll think about it.”

This was also the time when Carolyn lost weight, and plucked her eyebrows to small wisps.  And so when Carolyn stepped into the [Municipal Art Society] gala on John’s arm [on Feb  27, 1996], she had metamorphosed to a platinum siren.

JOY E. SCHELLER/CAROLYN BESSETTE JOHN F KENNEDY JR ARCHIVE IMAGES 

She planned their Sept 21 wedding on Cumberland Island, off the Georgia coast, and flew to Paris where her friend, Narciso Rodriguez designed her pearl-colored silk crepe dress.

The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. John had misplaced his shirt, and Carolyn  tried to put her dress on in the car. She forgot that she needed to put the dress on before doing her hair and makeup, which meant redoing both. Just before sunset, Carolyn arrived and was walked down the aisle by her stepfather, Dr. Freeman, as a gospel singer sang “Amazing Grace.”

They returned from their honeymoon to a ravenous press, and the pressure only intensified from there. 

Almost a year later, Princess Diana was killed in a car accident as the result of her driver trying to outrun the paparazzi.  Carolyn was terrified. [She] tried to get John to call Princes William and Harry to give his condolences when it came out that Diana had hoped for her sons to emulate John’s modesty in the face of media obsession. He demurred, as he didn’t know them and thought that their situations greatly differed. 

John earned his pilot’s license in 1998. 

“The only person I’ve been able to get up to go with me, who looks forward to it as much as I do, is my wife,” he [told USA Today]. That she loved flying was probably a reach, [recalls] Bruce Weber. “We both spoke of our dread of flying, especially over those islands off the coast of Massachusetts, because the weather can change so quickly.” 

They began marriage counseling in the spring of 1999. 

A week [after July 4], John had told several friends and colleagues that he and Carolyn were splitting up. Yet, others noted they seemed very happy together, even the weekend before.

After initially refusing to attend his cousin Rory’s July 17 wedding, Carolyn agreed. John would  also fly Carolyn’s sister Lauren from New York to Martha’s Vineyard on their way to Hyannis Port.

Tabloids put forth an alleged timeline in which Carolyn lingered for hours getting a pedicure. Yet an eyewitness report has her leaving the pedicurist by 5 p.m. She went to Saks to buy a dress for the wedding and picked out a black Yves Saint Laurent evening dress. After the purchase, the salesgirl wished Carolyn good luck. “Thanks,” Carolyn replied. “I’m going to need it.”

[John, Carolyn and Lauren] were stuck in traffic and didn’t make it to the airport until after 8 p.m. Before they took off, Carolyn called Carole Radziwill, and they talked about Sunday-night dinner. “The plan,” Carole wrote in What Remains , “was grilled steaks and peach pie.”

When they hadn’t arrived by 10 pm, friends began to worry. 

Carole called the Hyannis Port Airport, Caldwell Airport, Martha’s Vineyard, then the Coast Guard. 

Then, Carole called Ann Freeman and her husband Dick. Dr. Freeman answered, and Carole explained that Carolyn and John hadn’t arrived and there was a search underway. Ann immediately called her back.  “Well, everything’s okay, right? Was anyone else on the plane with them?” Carole was silent. Long enough for Ann to scream. 

For the July 24 Memorial Service in Greenwich, CT, Ann asked Carole to eulogize Carolyn.

She was wild and vivid in a cautious and pale world. Always burning a little more brightly than any of us around her. Then I remembered a story written by Henry James. It was the story of a young girl named Isabel [in Portrait of a Lady]. A girl who was as brave as she was beautiful, who was pure of heart and as unafraid to love...I wondered how it was possible for him to have known her.

From Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller. Copyright © 2024 by Elizabeth Beller. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.

Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller is on sale May 21 and available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

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Tracker season 1 episode 12 review: off the books.

When you pair up two ridiculously magnetic actors in an action-adventure series, what you get in return is one hell of an entertaining hour of television.

Tracker Season 1 Episode 12 may be the best installment since the pilot.

And I'll let you take a wild guess as to why that might be.

Whoever decided to cast Jensen Ackles as Russell Shaw deserves their favorite beverage of choice and big ol' hug because it was a perfect piece of casting.

Tracker has a knack for bringing in compelling guest actors every week, but there was something extra special about Jensen joining the fray, and it probably had to do with the fact his appearance was two-fold.

Not only was Russell a link to Colter's past and a beacon of information regarding the Shaw Family drama, but he was also a significant player in the case of the week.

Russell came looking to make amends with his baby brother, and things got off to a rocky start because Colter was Colter, and he wasn't willing to just buy whatever Russell was selling.

And to be fair, although they're siblings, Colter and Russell have been estranged for most of their lives. It would be hard for anyone to take the word of someone they hadn't spoken to in so long when it went against something they'd believed to be true since they were a kid.

While no love was lost between Dory and her mother when she and Colter met for dinner during Tracker Season 1 Episode 11 , Russell felt much different. He was more understanding than I would be if half my family thought I was a murderer.

Casting Jensen Ackles in a role means two things immediately: you will get charmed, and you will want his character to stick around in any capacity so you can keep being charmed.

Russell was VERY clearly keeping his secrets, and Ackles played him in a cagey but also incredibly endearing way. He was a guy looking to reconnect while also letting that innate sibling rivalry slip in occasionally.

Colter had to slowly coax those secrets out of him throughout the hour, but Russell seemed genuine when he talked about their family.

Colter: Why would Mom let me believe that you did it? Russell: Yeah, I don't know. I like to think she did the best she could. But Mom had her secrets, trust me. Permalink: Yeah, I don't know. I like to think she did the best she could. But Mom had her secrets,...

Something was very clearly up with Ashton and Mary, and all the kids knew it, but of the three, Colter's less willing to just chalk everything up to them being "crazy."

He's not naïve enough to believe they didn't have their secrets and whatnot, but he views things differently than them due to the closeness with his mother that none of the others share.

The idea that someone else was in the woods and may have been the one to push Ashton is a theory I've seen fans float around, and Mary's involvement has also been bandied about.

This Shaw Family business may be the slowest burning affair on television right now as we are twelve hours into Tracker and have very little information to go on. I'm not mad about it, but my curiosity is so high, and I'm impatient!

But if continuing to drag this out means we may get Dory and Russell to return in Season 2, I'll allow it.

While Russell did come to see Colter and give his side of the story, he also had a favor to ask. And when Colter decided to help Russell find Doug, you can't tell me a part of him wasn't looking to show off for his brother a little bit.

We've established throughout Tracker Season 1 that Colter isn't solely in the reward business for the money. He does want to help people, and when he makes a promise, he intends to keep it.

But showing Russell what he does and how good he is at it played into his decision to take on the case.

Tracker is going to Tracker, meaning the case got a bit complicated in the middle, but the case was a sideshow to the buddy comedy that was Russell and Colter.

Much like Colter, Russell also presented as a bit of a drifter, but it was apparent that Doug was important to him. And as more of their history unraveled, you could see why.

Getting involved with a civilian contract unit that made you sign an NDA meant that Russell and Doug had to keep many things close to the vest. And for Doug, in the weeks leading up to his disappearance, he was probably dealing with so much fear alone.

There was a great parallel between Colter and Russell, two brothers on shaky ground trying to find their footing, and the Solano brothers, who were close enough for Carlos to bend over backward to avenge his brother's death.

Getting the Solano name meant that Colter and Russell had to do a lot of legwork across Virginia, and perhaps nothing crazier than breaking into a morgue to examine a dead body.

There were some great scenes between the brothers, especially when they'd both be awed by one another's skills. And it was funny to see Russell drop into Colter's world and discover he had a lawyer and a Bobby on standby to help.

It's been a little while since Colter landed behind bars, but to know Colter is to know he wouldn't be there for long.

Russell: You saying she's fair game? Colter: I'm saying she's off-limits. Permalink: I'm saying she's off-limits.

A Reenie sighting is ALWAYS a good thing, and Russell getting a little flirty with her was precisely what I thought would happen. Russell was a pretty flirty guy in general, but who wouldn't be a little smitten with Reenie?

Colter quickly shut it down, but I wouldn't expect anything less from him. The last thing he needs is any drama infiltrating his little team, and Russell may be a nice guy underneath it all, but he's still trouble.

Maybe the good kind of trouble? But still trouble.

Related: Jensen Ackles's Inspired Tracker Casting Gives Us Goosebumps

As the search for Doug raged on, it became more and more obvious that the Horizon Group had something to do with paranoia and his fear, and Russell's commitment to finding Doug was admirable.

When Russell said he owed Doug, he wasn't kidding. Doug put himself in harm's way to protect him, and if the Shaw brothers have anything in common, it's their dedication and follow-through.

Russell wasn't dropping off the Find Doug train until he found Doug.

There was some action in this one! And it came with the Shaw brothers coming across some bulletproof vests and smoke bombs to penetrate a heavily guarded home to retrieve Doug.  

It would have been cool to see a little more of what was surely an insane gunfight, but I have to remember sometimes this is a network television series, not Tacker: The Movie.

They were lucky to walk away, with Russell only getting a bullet wound to the arm, considering how outnumbered they were. But I guess you never bet against the Shaw brothers!

When the duo left that house with Doug, I wondered if anyone would mention that they never got Carlos. He was still in the wind; in theory, you'd think he'd still be on a mission to get Doug.

So, it wasn't a surprise when Russell told Colter he was staying behind. Someone had to ensure Carlos wouldn't continue going after Doug, and Russell took it upon himself to make that happen.

I felt a bit of sadness at the episode's end, knowing we'd seen the last of Russell for now because Ackles and Justin Hartley made a magical pair.

Their chemistry was amazing; very few words were exchanged between the pair at times, and so much was spoken with their expressions and body language.

Colter's whole thing is being a lone wolf, and I GET IT, but I would not be opposed if Russell wanted to keep popping up in different cities.

Related: CBS Fall Schedule 2024-25: Tracker on the Move, NCIS: Origins, Matlock Trailers Are Here!

And while that's not likely to happen, he must return when the family drama ramps up again. We still need our Russell, Colter, and Dory reunion before this series ends someday!

Tracker Notes

• Tracker has moments of humor, but there were legitimately several scenes that were hilarious and made so because of Ackles's comedic timing. Flirting with front desk morgue lady Yolanda, even AFTER she got him arrested? So silly but so damn funny.
• Russell and Colter being so in sync when they took down those scammers at the tattoo shop was perfection. If I hadn't known there were deep-seated issues between the pair, I would have never guessed it.

• I love the dynamic between Colter and Reenie, and while I believe Colter doesn't want drama involving his work, and that's why he shot down Russell's advances toward her, I wonder if he was a little jealous.
• Russell leaving Colter his knife? Stab me right in the feels with that knife, why don't you?

That was a wonderful hour of television's hottest new show.

There's only one more episode this season, so please drop a comment below and let me know what you thought about the hour and what you want to see in the finale!

Off the Books Review

Whitney Evans is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lover of all things TV. Follow her on X .

Tracker Season 1 Episode 12 Quotes

Colter: Why would Mom let me believe that you did it? Russell: Yeah, I don't know. I like to think she did the best she could. But Mom had her secrets, trust me. Permalink: Yeah, I don't know. I like to think she did the best she could. But Mom had her secrets,... Added: May 12, 2024

Hey, little brother. You gonna shoot me, or can we sit down and have a few? I brought some of my homebrew. Russell [to Colter] Permalink: Hey, little brother. You gonna shoot me, or can we sit down and have a few? I brought some of... Added: May 12, 2024

Tracker Season 1 Episode 12 Photos

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Screen Rant

The forrest gump novel was very different (every change explained).

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25 Best Quotes From Forrest Gump

15 lessons we learned from forrest gump, why the harkonnen planet is black & white in dune.

• Movie vs. book differences: The novel's Forrest is more aggressive, foul-mouthed, and intelligent compared to the innocent film character.
• Friendship origins: In the book, Forrest meets Bubba in college, not boot camp like in the movie, leading to a close bond.
• Divergence in endings: The film has a more heartwarming conclusion with Forrest raising his son, while the book takes a darker turn.

Forrest Gump has gone down in history as a definitive piece of American cinema and introduced audiences to a remarkable title character, but the Forrest Gump book vs the movie shows a very different version of the story. Largely told in flashback by Forrest himself, the novel takes viewers on a trip through the latter half of 20th-century America, through the eyes of a guy who somehow manages to experience every triumph and tragedy of the era. The movie was produced for a modest budget with little faith in director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Eric Roth's adaptation of the novel.

Today, however, Forrest Gump is regarded as one of the best movies of all time, and its popularity has easily overshadowed that of the original book . Written by Winston Groom in 1986, the Forrest Gump novel made little impact upon its release and had all but faded into obscurity before the decision was made to adapt it into a film . While similar in terms of plot progression and framing, the differences between the two versions of the story are pretty drastic, with Forrest's adventures in the book taking him to places that the movie avoided. Here's a look at everything that was changed.

Forrest Gump is a beloved movie thanks in part to its memorable dialogue. These are the best Forrest Gump quotes.

Forrest Has A Different Personality

Book forrest is more aggressive at times.

There's a good reason why Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump is one of the most loved characters in cinema history. The gentle, good-natured man speaks softly and innocently, interacting with the world as a child might. Though this makes him less "book smart" than his contemporaries, his focus, hysterically random skills, and big heart make him easy to love.

There's also the fact that Forrest Gump 's accent makes him all the more endearing, which is obviously an element that only the movie could bring to the table. Indeed, this winning formula is slightly different in the Forrest Gump novel. While the book still retains his childlike personality and innocence, he can be gruff and even violent at times .

He is also heard swearing on many occasions throughout the book, an idea that was completely dropped for the film. The book also sees Forrest display infrequent moments of high intelligence relating to subjects like mathematics and physics, which was also abandoned by the filmmakers.

Forrest Doesn't Meet Bubba In The Army

The book starts this memorable friendship earlier.

In both the movie and the Forrest Gump novel, one of the key events in Forrest's life is meeting his friend Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue. The two form a close bond, largely owing to their similar mentalities and IQ. After becoming brothers in arms, Bubba eventually dies in combat in Vietnam, leading Forrest to honor his sacrifice with the eventual opening of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Corporation.

One key difference between the two stories is how the good friends first find each other: in the film, Forrest famously meets and befriends Bubba during basic training, while in the Forrest Gump novel, the two meet during a football game while they are attending university together .

Forrest Starts & Leaves His Shrimp Company Differently

Lt. dan also doesn't play a role in this business.

One of the most memorable parts of the film version of Forrest Gump is when the Vietnam vet returns home to America and fulfills a promise to the deceased Bubba to start a shrimping enterprise. After teaming up with Lieutenant Dan, Forrest establishes a massive shrimp-based empire and quickly becomes a millionaire.

These underscore how both the Forrest Gump novel and movie adapted history , though things play out differently in the book. In the movie, Forrest leaves the company behind to return to a simple life in his old home after his mother's passing. However, in the Forrest Gump novel, instead of returning to the states, Forrest begins raising shrimp in small ponds in Vietnam.

Lieutenant Dan doesn't play a part in the company, nor does he inherit it after Forrest leaves the shrimping business for good.

After hitting it big with his shrimp company, Forrest begins to yearn for a simple life and sacrifices the company to Bubba's family before hitting the road as a one-man band . Lieutenant Dan doesn't play a part in the company, nor does he inherit it after Forrest leaves the shrimping business for good.

Forrest Plays Chess & Goes To Space

Forrest teams with an orangutan in his space adventure.

Throughout the Forrest Gump film, Forrest travels through multiple historical events, experiences a variety of weird and wonderful adventures, and takes on a number of unexpected vocations. From becoming a champion football player and a war hero to establishing a multi-million dollar corporation and even emerging as a world-renowned Ping-Pong master, Forrest ends up leading quite a storied existence. However, the Forrest Gump novel included even more for Forrest to do, and some of his in-print exploits were downright bizarre.

This was ultimately removed from the film largely for reasons of length and pacing...

One accomplishment of Forrest's that was omitted from the movie was his proclivity for chess. In the book, Forrest's aforementioned higher IQ allows him to master the game and become a world-class player . This was ultimately removed from the film largely for reasons of length and pacing, with more emphasis instead being placed on Forrest's Ping-Pong career.

One of the book's most notorious plotlines involved Forrest Gump becoming an astronaut and venturing into outer space alongside an orangutan named Sue . Unsurprisingly, this concept was dropped for being a bit too ridiculous.

Forrest Never Ends Up With Jenny

Forrest also loses his son in the book.

Throughout all of Forrest Gump's various misadventures, high points, and low points, his guiding light remains Jenny, the girl he has been desperately in love with since his childhood. After being inseparable as kids, the two ventured on different life paths, with Forrest leaving school to join the army and Jenny ultimately succumbing to a life of drug and alcohol abuse.

This set up the most crucial turning point in the story of Forrest Gump. In the film, after years of intermittent separation and heartbreak, Forrest Gump and Jenny's son is born, and the three finally come together as a family until Jenny passes away a year later. As sad as this ending is, the Forrest Gump novel takes an even more upsetting turn.

While Jenny ultimately gets to live, she ends up taking Forrest's son away from him so that she can run off with another man . Although Jenny passing away is undeniably sad, the film's decision to let Forrest Gump 's titular hero at least raise his son was definitely a smart move.

Forrest Gump is a moving tale of perseverance and viewers learned awesome life lessons that Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks' movie teaches.

Jenny's Death Is Different In The Books

The sequel novel explores jenny's death in unexpected ways.

There is a lot of debate about Jenny's death in Forrest Gump as the nature of it is kept vague. When Jenny and Forrest reunite when she reveals their son to him, she tells him that she is sick with some condition that the doctors do not know a lot about. This led many viewers to assume she had contracted AIDS which was becoming an epidemic in the 1980s and was known to spread throughout the drug addicted community due to a sharing of needles. Jenny ultimately dies after marrying Forrest, leaving him to raise their child.

It is not the original book that confirms Jenny's death, but the sequel novel Gump and Co. In it, Forrest comes back into his son's life when Jenny dies of Hepatitis C, which was similarly rampant among the drug addict communities in the 1980s and doctors also didn't know much about it at the time . In the wake of Jenny's death in the sequel novel, her ghost also begins visiting Forrest.

Is Forrest Gump Better As A Book Or A Movie?

The movie offered a more grounded and endearing version.

Whether the Forrest Gump movie is better than the novel is ultimately a matter of taste. In contrast to the movie's perfect mainstream appeal, the Forrest Gump novel wasn't exactly aimed at all audiences, with Forrest having a history of violence and legal trouble. Curiously, Forrest Gump's dark past is merely hinted at in the movie, when Jenny's scrapbook is shown including a newspaper clipping about Forrest being investigated in his hometown.

Written from Forrest's perspective, the novel is filled with spelling and grammatical errors, and not every reader is prepared for such a format.

This moment underscores what makes the movie and novel truly different: the movie is a Hollywood adaptation of an absurdist novel, which is also why the novel is largely considered to be unreadable. Written from Forrest's perspective, the novel is filled with spelling and grammatical errors, and not every reader is prepared for such a format. Although necessary to the story, the way it's written can be difficult even for readers of absurdist literature. Even the hilarious scenario of Forrest Gump going into space served as little reward for trudging through prose that seems designed not to flow.

By toning down the absurdity and adapting only the elements necessary for inventing one of cinema's most endearing characters, Forrest Gump became universally loved . Inspired by the dark and absurd tale of a genius, Robert Zemeckis crafted a cornerstone movie for an entire generation, the creative footprints of which can still be observed in triumphant dramas and comedies like Walk Hard , Good Will Hunting , and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button .

There's certainly enough evidence to say that the movie is better than the book, especially in terms of cultural impact. That said, Winston Groom's Forrest Gump isn't a bad book - it's just extremely different from the movie.

What The Forrest Gump Author Thinks Of The Movie

Winston groom ultimately felt the movie maintained his original idea.

Forrest Gump novel writer Winston Groom didn't always see eye-to-eye with the team behind the movie, but before Groom died in 2020, he had smoothed things over with everyone involved in the production, made a fortune from royalties, and had praised the now-classic film. With viewers continuing to watch Forrest Gump and discussing the character in forums, Groom was also surprised by his character's persistent popularity years after the movie's theatrical release.

Notably, despite screenwriter Eric Roth's massive deviations from his book, Groom ultimately approved of Tom Hanks' definitive version of Forrest Gump . In an interview with the New York Times following the film's release in 1994 (via Washington Post ), Groom said:

“They kept the character pretty much as I intended... As I see it, it’s a story about human dignity, and the fact that you don’t have to be smart or rich to maintain your dignity even when some pretty undignified things are happening all around you.”

Forrest Gump

In this iconic piece of American film history, the presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson, the events of the Vietnam war, Watergate, and other history unfold through the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75.