Book Reviews


I review books on this blog and I every time I do a review I am conflicted between providing my honest opinions of the book for other readers and my general disdain for criticism that is not helpful (and once a book is published I am not sure my thoughts are helpful for the author). Nearly every time I complete a review I hear in the back of my mind one of my favorite quotes from Teddy Roosevelt.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic"  delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910. 

So if the authors of any books I happen to review somehow stumble across this blog, please refer to Mr. Roosevelt above and remember - you were in the arena and toiled to write a book and you found a way to get it published. That, in and of itself, matters more than what I think of it.  

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