Re: Book Reviews

48northfarm — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 12:40:41 GMT

When I was getting published as a mystery writer I read nothing but other mysteries. Now I read nothing but horse books, 99% of which are non-fiction. One exception: Tami Hoag's DARK HORSE and ALIBI MAN--her only horse mysteries out of dozens of mysteries she's written--which were set in the dressage world in Wellington, FL. Tami is not only a successful mystery writer, she is an FEI-level dressage rider, so she was writing about what she knows.

That said, I would prefer reviews of non-fiction horse books b/c the only well-known writer of horse fiction is *** Francis, who is dead now, and if you're not too well-known you are probably not very good. John Strassburger's recent review of SHEDROW indicates exactly that: the book is poorly edited and proofread, and if I had purchased it b/c of the HJ review I would have been very disappointed. Grammar and punctuation DO matter to me, and I know that good books do not get poor editing. John's comments about who will like the book and who will not like the book were helpful.

I would read more reviews of horse non-fiction b/c that's what HJ is good at, the horse how-to topics. Leave the fiction reviews for the book review section in the newspaper: that's what THEY are good at.

ETA: I just read my post and saw that my mention of Richard Francis by the name he is known by got bleeped. :)

Book Reviews

Cindy Foley — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 10:10:27 GMT

Are you buying horse books (not newsletters/magazines)? Horse Journal has done a few book reviews. Did you read them? Would you like to see us continue to do them? Would you change anything about how we do them?