Reviewers on Review
LJ honors an outstanding group of dedicated professionals
Francine Fialkoff, Editor -- Library Journal, 8/15/2003
For some time we've celebrated our reviewers at an annual reception, where we also give out Reviewer of the Year awards in an effort to single out a few for special recognition. In an exemplary group like this, that's not easy. Nevertheless, LJ's review editors managed to agree on four honorees this year, among them Lord. (For photos of the reception, see p. 45.)
A thirtysomething former law librarian, Lord might seem like an unlikely candidate for a self-help columnist. He'd never reviewed a pop psych book before, but, as his editor, Heather McCormack, said in nominating him, "You'd never know it." Moreover, he is fair to books that others would dismiss as "garbage." With "an open and perceptive mind," said McCormack, he "has done the impossible and devised a set of reasonable and intelligent criteria" for an overhyped category where librarians need clear direction.
What does Lord get out of reviewing? "I've always wanted to be judged on the quality of my work, the result of mental labor. It amazes me to learn that people actually read what I write, that it matters to them in the same way it matters to me."
Lord's comments on reviewing weren't that dissimilar from that of other Reviewers of the Year, like Doug Smith, a senior librarian at Oakland PL, who was cited for his fine arts reviews. "Within all of my banal day-to-day responsibilities," said Smith, "LJ has given me license to carve out some time to live 'the life of the mind' while researching and writing and attempting to be something of an authority on a given topic."
And authority he is: "He is able to take on monolithic art-historical texts…as well as less studious books like Art for Dummies," said Smith's editor Carolyn Kuebler. "His reviews manage to contain all the required elements in the tiny space allotted, but he also shows a genuine ease with the topic, a writerly fluidity, and an acute ability to make those pesky comparisons we're always asking for."
For John Hiett (Iowa City PL), who has reviewed video since 1984 and more recently added audio to his repertoire, "Reviewing has exposed me to material I wouldn't have chosen for myself. It has made me a better selector. [A]nd to have a nationwide audience of bright people is almost too much to ask for," he said in a note he sent to be read in his absence.
Perhaps Bob Lunn, fiction Reviewer of the Year, who also buys fiction at Kansas City PL, MO, summed up reviewing best: "It's not for the money, which is nonexistent. [It's] to convey the gist of the work, as briefly and economically as possible, so that the potential purchasers/readers may decide for themselves whether or not the particular title is going to be of value for their purposes. Among the greatest joys for me is the possibility of happening on a new talent and being able to trace its development from a first novel until the time when the laurels descend." One gifted writer Lunn picked out of the crowd is Joe Lansdale, who became an Edgar Award winner.
"The critic's greatest fear," continued Lunn, "is to get it horribly wrong and end up in one of those anthologies [of] critics who failed to appreciate the glories of Homer or found Henry James a tad tedious." That's unlikely to happen with this crew, and the hundreds like them who review for LJ, whose judgments are right on and whose dedication to the profession is extraordinary.
