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'lessons' finds some familiarity with author ian mcewan's own life.

Heller McAlpin

Lessons.

How do you take the measure of a life?

In Ian McEwan's expansive new novel, a man assesses his life's trajectory from childhood to old age, focusing especially on what he considers his wrong turns and disappointments. Set against the backdrop of 70 years of major global events, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Covid pandemic, Lessons displays both breadth and depth. It ranks among McEwan's best work, including Atonement.

Roland Blaine, the novel's effete protagonist, feels he never lived up to his potential — careerwise or otherwise — beginning with his dismal academic performance. We eventually learn why. Intent on self-improvement, Roland strives to make up for his aborted formal education with an ambitious self-directed reading course, but he still rues his inability to cobble together more than a subsistence living with watered-down versions of his talents — playing piano in a cocktail lounge instead of a concert hall, teaching tennis instead of competing in it, writing greeting cards instead of great poems.

In the novel's opening pages, McEwan deftly introduces Roland and the two life-changing experiences inflicted on him two decades apart: sexual predation at boarding school, and marital abandonment as a new father. Additional issues come into focus later, including the art/life tradeoff and questions about whether genius can co-exist with happiness — or ever justify bad behavior. Some of the novel's answers may surprise you.

When we meet Roland in 1986, his wife, in a sort of Doris Lessing move, has just left him and their 7-month-old son without warning because she felt she was living the wrong life and feared repeating her mother's mistake of sacrificing her literary aspirations to a constricted, domestic existence.

Newly deserted, with no idea where Alissa has disappeared to, Roland must fend off police investigations into his possible culpability. The sleep-deprived, newly single parent recalls an earlier experience of extreme disorientation: one of his first piano lessons at the progressive English state boarding school to which his parents sent him from their home in Tripoli at age 11, in 1959. Shy and homesick, he didn't know what to make of his pretty young teacher when, after he hit a wrong note on a Bach prelude, she pinched his bare inner thigh hard enough to leave a bruise. That pinch turns out to be the first of Miss Cornell's increasingly inappropriate physical and emotional transgressions, from which it takes Roland much of his adulthood to recover, in part because of his guilt at his enjoyment of the sex.

Despite his personal trials, Roland knows enough about political persecution and global privation to count his blessings. During the Margaret Thatcher years, he muses in a passage that showcases McEwan's perspicacity: "His lot lolled on history's aproned lap, nestling, in a little fold of time, eating all the cream. Roland had had the historical luck and all the chances. But here he was, broke in a time when the kindly state had become a shrew."

Because Lessons is such an interior narrative that spans so many decades, it sometimes feels like it channels Roland's journals, which ploddingly summarize his days. But his story — like life itself — is periodically punctuated by more riveting confrontations, including reckonings with the two most influential women in his life.

One of the more striking aspects of Lessons is its many salient parallels with McEwan's life — which is unusual in his work. McEwan and Roland were both born in 1948 to mothers who had a wartime extramarital affairs while their first husbands were at the front. Both his mother, Rose Moore, and her fictional counterpart, Rosalind Morley, gave up a son conceived from this liaison before their first husbands were killed in combat — a secret kept for nearly 60 years in both novel and real life, where it was giddily covered by the British press in 2007. McEwan's father, like Roland's, was a career army officer whose posts included East Asia, Germany, and North Africa, including Libya. The author and his protagonist also share strong Labour Party leanings, as well as "[religious] disbelief, which was so complete that even atheism bored him."

In a rare autobiographical detail in his 1987 novel, The Child in Time, McEwan wrote about the jolt of being sent 2,000 miles from his home in Libya to Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk — an experience he recaps in The Lesson through Roland's eyes. Although Berners Hall, the stand-in for Woolverstone, is relatively benign as British boarding schools go, it is hardly cozy.

Yet should you insist on reading Lessons as a thinly veiled autobiography, McEwan has a lesson for you — which he has Alissa deliver when Roland objects to what he sees as an evil version of himself in one of her novels. Alissa, one of Europe's most acclaimed writers, shouts at him, "Have I really got to give you a lesson in how to read a book? I borrow. I invent. I raid my own life. I take from all over the place, I change it, bend it to what I need." Her books, Alissa adds, encompass "Everything that ever happened to me and everything that didn't. Everything I know, everyone I ever met — all mine to mash up with whatever I invent."

It's an apt description not only of this multivalent novel, but of the art of literary fiction.

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Reviews of Lessons by Ian McEwan

Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio

by Ian McEwan

Lessons by Ian McEwan

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  • Literary Fiction
  • UK (Britain) & Ireland
  • Eastern Europe
  • 20th Century (multiple decades)
  • Generational Sagas
  • Coming of Age
  • Dealing with Loss
  • Strong Women

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Book Summary

From the best-selling author of Atonement and Saturday comes the epic and intimate story of one man's life across generations and historical upheavals. From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic, Roland Baines sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it.

When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life. Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past? Epic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.

This was insomniac memory, not a dream. It was the piano lesson again—an orange-tiled floor, one high window, a new upright in a bare room close to the sickbay. He was eleven years old, attempting what others might know as Bach's first prelude from Book One of The Well-tempered Clavier, simplified version, but he knew nothing of that. He didn't wonder whether it was famous or obscure. It had no when or where. He could not conceive that someone had once troubled to write it. The music was simply here, a school thing, or dark, like a pine forest in winter, exclusive to him, his private labyrinth of cold sorrow. It would never let him leave. The teacher sat close by him on the long stool. Round-faced, erect, perfumed, strict. Her beauty lay concealed behind her manner. She never scowled or smiled. Some boys said she was mad, but he doubted that. He made a mistake in the same place, the one he always made, and she leaned closer to show him. Her arm was firm and warm against his ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

  • How did your reading experience differ between passages and scenes related to major historical events and those that were more intimate and specific to Roland and the other characters?
  • Roland reflects: "The past, the modern past, was a weight, a burden of piled rubble, forgotten grief. But the weight on him was at one remove. It barely weighed at all. The accidental fortune was beyond calculation, to have been born in 1948 in placid Hampshire, not Ukraine or Poland in 1928, not to have been dragged from the synagogue steps in 1941 and brought here. His white-tiled cell—a piano lesson, a premature love affair, a missed education, a missing wife—was by comparison a luxury suite. If his life so far was a failure, as he ...
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Reader reviews, bookbrowse review.

Lessons shines at disrupting hoary old concepts like good guys and bad guys, clear motivations and closure by tweaking well-trodden themes. Perhaps inevitably, the plot's artful setup, with all its neat foreshadowing and synchronicities guaranteeing a juicy outcome, its trotting out of historical upheavals through yet another fictional character's lens, can feel a tad by-the-numbers. Sometimes you can almost glimpse the novelist consulting his outline and research to make sure no poetic connection goes unconnected. But for the book's spectacular chemical reactions to occur, some basic elements have to be methodically poured into the mix. While Lessons puts plot, characters and ideas first, its prose style is routinely insightful and enticing: "Long drives usually settled him into sustained reflection… His little car, nimbler and more spacious than he expected, was a thought-bubble pushing north through a country he no longer quite knew or understood.".. continued

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(Reviewed by Jacob Lenz-Avila ).

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A review of Lessons by Ian McEwan

review book lessons

Lessons by Ian McEwan Knopf September 2022, Hardcover, 448 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0593535202

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

One of the advantages of growing older is an ability to comprehend literature that seemed puzzling or irrelevant in younger days.   I read Mrs. Dalloway when in my twenties, but it was not until years later, after reaching the age of the central character in Woolf’s novel, that I could relate to her emotions and concerns.

Some reviewers of Ian Mc Ewan’s new novel, Lessons,  suggest that the central character, Roland Baines, is a whining, privileged loser who never really got his act together, and claim that the novel lacks action and includes too much history. (The time frame extends from World War II   to the present day.) Other reviewers criticized Lessons for being too realistic – not sufficiently innovative or experimental.

Readers familiar with the great realistic novels of the 19 th and 20 th century, in which historical events affect the characters’ fates, will be able to appreciate Lessons .   (One thinks of how the Napoleonic Wars and British imperialism in India feature in W.M. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair , for example, or Thomas Hardy’s depiction of 19 th century agricultural mechanization destroying the old rural social code in Tess of the D’Urbervilles .)  

In Lessons , the Second World War and the Cold War (especially the nuclear threat) hover over Roland’s generation. Like all human beings, he shapes his own destiny, but under circumstances created by the past.   In particular, the Cuban Missile Crisis, German war guilt, and the Chernobyl disaster influence his actions, with life-changing consequences.

The story begins in medias res , with Roland Baines, in his home in Clapham, waking from a nightmare about his boyhood piano lessons, and realizing that he is now a grown man taking care of his infant son, Lawrence.   Roland is “the baby’s bed and his god.”   Alissa, Roland’s wife,   has vanished, leaving a note telling him not to find her. “I have been living the wrong life. Please try to forgive me,” she wrote.

When Roland reports Alissa missing, he is questioned by a constable who seems to suspect that he has murdered her, but postcards from her show that she is alive but does not want to be found.   In the weeks that follow, Roland leads the life experienced by many mothers with small children deserted by their husbands.   No longer able to leave the house to earn a living, he applies for social assistance. (He has cobbled together several jobs: part-time journalist, lunchtime piano player in a hotel and tennis instructor. He continues to write poetry when time and inspiration permit. Luckily, the baby, Lawrence, “is more a comfort than a chore.”  

Roland not only blames his deserting wife for his plight, but tries to assess the effects of his boyhood piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, on what he has done with his life so far. Then the greater world intrudes in the form of the Chernobyl disaster. The headline, “Radiation Cloud Reaches Britain,” spur him to seal his windows with plastic to protect himself and the baby.

One of Roland’s commendable qualities is his determination to be a good father, a contrast to his own.   His dad, a World War II veteran who remained in the army and rose in the ranks, is a domestic bully. Roland’s mother has two older children living in England by her first husband, a sailor killed in the war.    

When the Suez Crisis breaks out in 1956, the family is stationed in Libya and Roland’s mother is visiting her son and daughter.   Since Roland’s father is in charge of   evacuation plans for all British and American families, he puts his son in a temporary camp with other mothers and children.   Instead of feeling deserted, Roland feels liberated   from his father’s bossiness and the “unspoken family problems.” The experience gives him the hope that there is always “some emancipated life just beyond reach.”

This feeling sustains him in 1959, when, at age eleven, he attends boarding school in England. Previously, he had “flourished in a barely visible mist of events,” but now there are many rules to follow. Roland copes with this “transition into adult time and obligation” and makes friends with his fellow students, who are “as bewildered as he was, and friendly.” At boarding school, he often feels free.

His only problem is his piano teacher, a young woman about ten years his senior.   She criticizes his sloppy appearance and ridicules him when he makes mistakes. Over the next eight months she treats him in a way that confuses him; she pinches his bare leg, smacks him with a ruler, puts her hand on his thigh and finally, to his surprise, kisses him on the lips. She then arranges that he take his piano lessons from the man who heads the school music department. Roland is going through puberty and Miss Cornell becomes the object of his fantasies, though he rarely sees her in person any more.

Then an outside event leads him to seek her out. His school is located near an American airforce base with planes equipped with nuclear bombs. When the Cuban Missile Crisis hits the news in 1962, he and his schoolmates realize that the base will be a prime target for Russia and that they, along with everyone in the vicinity, may be annihilated.   Roland doesn’t want to die without having had sex, and goes to Miss Cornell’s village on the weekend with this in mind.   For many years afterwards he will brood over the relationship that results. To what extent was he complicit?

After dropping out of school, he works at various gigs, (construction, photography and music) has a series of relationships, and travels.   He takes a German literature course at the Goethe Institute in London, where Alissa Eberhardt is his instructor. Of English and German parentage, she has “something dangerous and unruly in her manner,” which attracts him.     After the course is over, they lose track of each other,   then cross paths four years later and fall in love.

Complicity is a theme that concerns Alissa, too.   Her English mother rose from humble beginnings to secretarial work for a   prestigious magazine publisher.   Aspiring to a writing career, she was elated when her boss sent her to Germany in 1946 to interview survivors of the White Rose (anti-Nazi) movement. There, she fell in love with a German law student who had been on the fringes of White Rose, and her writing plans get lost in marriage and motherhood.

Although Alissa has an easy childhood compared with that of her parents, her awareness that her mother resents her existence makes her feel guilty and angry. She also sees that her father, a country lawyer, serves some clients who were low level Nazi supporters. She realizes,too, that the tragically short-lived White Rose movement is being used by German officialdom to create the impression that there was a resistance to Hitler, when in reality it was neither widespread nor strong.   Faced with a baby, she feels doomed to repeat her mother’s unfulfilled life.

Because of Alissa, Roland spends time in Germany where he meets a young couple who like the forbidden popular music of the capitalist world.   When they run afoul of the law, Roland blames himself. The aftermath of the Second World War looms larger in Lessons than in novels by North Americans set in the same period.

Human foibles bring humour to the novel.   One situation involves a musician buddy from Roland’s early years who subsequently finds success in a different field but leaves his wife carrying the weight of the household and a job.   Many years later, when he and Roland are in their seventies, they get into a physical fight over the scattering of her ashes.

Another recurring funny situation is Roland’s inability to resist reading Alissa’s novels as they come out.   He wants to see if each work is good enough to justify her leaving him, and also to   see if he appears as a character.   For many years he does not appear, and feels disappointed, as if he wasn’t important in her life, or as if she has denied him her version of his short-comings.  

The question that impels us forward in Lessons is whether or not Roland will eventually find satisfactory answers to how much fault he bears, if any, in his life-changing relationships with Muriel Cornell and Alissa Eberhardt?   McEwan gives readers (and Roland) the satisfaction of confrontation scenes with them, and the one with Alissa is hilarious and heart-rending:

“Have I really got to give you a lesson in how to read a book? I borrow. I invent.   I raid my own life. I take from all over the place. I change it, bend it to what I need….Everything that happened to me and everything that didn’t.   Everything I know, everyone I ever met – all mine to mash up with whatever I invent.”

To this, Roland replies, “Then listen to my humble request. One extra tiny bit of invention. Move that shithole house out of Clapham.”

In the end, Roland has gained closure in some relationships and reconciliation in others; he has gained insights into puzzles of the past, including his   parents’ unhappy marriage, and he is happy in his own family life.   Achievement in the world’s terms doesn’t matter.

Incidentally, in his Acknowledgements, Ian McEwan writes: “No such piano teacher as Miriam Cornell was ever there” [at the boarding school he attended.]

About the reviewer: Ruth Latta’s new novel, A Striking Woman , about a Canadian trade union leader, will be published in 2023.

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by Ian McEwan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2022

A richly observed story that spans decades to recount lives of sometimes-noisy desperation.

A tale of aspiration, disappointment, and familial dysfunction spread across a vast historic panorama.

Embracing the years from the Blitz to Brexit, McEwan’s latest finds Roland Baines, an unaccomplished fellow who scrapes out a living as a lounge pianist and sometime journalist, worrying about his infant son, Lawrence: “Shocked, numbed, scar tissue forming within hours in the lower regions of the unconscious, if such a place or process existed?” The boy has good reason to be damaged, for his mother, Alissa, has abandoned them. She will go on to great things, writing bestselling novels and, decades on, a memoir that will falsely accuse Roland of very bad behavior. Alissa is working out a trauma born of other sources, while Roland floats along, remembering traumas of his own, including piano lessons with plenty of illicit extras at his boarding school. McEwan weaves in the traumas of world history as well: As the story opens, the failed nuclear generator at Chernobyl is emitting radioactive toxins that threaten the world. Other formative moments include the Suez Canal crisis, Covid, and 9/11, which causes Roland more than his usual angst: “Only a minuscule faction, credulous and cruel, believed that the New York hijackers reclined in paradise and should be followed. But here, in a population of 60 million, there must be some.” McEwan is fond of having his characters guess wrongly about what’s to come: A detective scoffs at forensics based on genetics (“Fashionable rubbish”), while Roland nurses a “theory that the Chernobyl disaster would mark the beginning of the end for nuclear weapons.” Well along his path, though, Roland comes to realize a point learned in childhood but forgotten: “Nothing is ever as you imagine it.” True, but McEwan’s imagination delivers plenty of family secrets and reflects on “so many lessons unlearned” in a world that’s clearly wobbling off its axis.

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-593-53520-2

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION

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Review: Ian McEwan returns with masterful book ‘Lessons’

This cover image released by Knopf shows "Lessons" a novel by Ian McEwan. (Knopf via AP)

This cover image released by Knopf shows “Lessons” a novel by Ian McEwan. (Knopf via AP)

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“Lessons,” by Ian McEwan (Alfred A. Knopf)

“Roland occasionally reflected on the events and accidents, personal and global, minuscule and momentous that had formed and determined his existence.” That one sentence in Ian McEwan’s new novel, “Lessons,” nicely sums up the book.

When we first meet Roland Baines he is a new parent, struggling to his raise his son alone. The news is filled with ominous headlines about a radiation cloud floating from Chernobyl toward Britain. His wife, we’re told, has “vanished.” There’s a detective in the house, asking questions. Is Roland a suspect? From there we’re swept back in time to Roland’s upbringing in Libya with a stern father and a mother who cowered before him. When the family flees Africa for London, 11-year-old Roland is sent to a boarding school where he exhibits a prodigious piano talent and meets the young woman who will forever alter his life — Miriam Cornell.

Their private music lessons quickly become about much more than music. When he hits a wrong note, “her fingers found his inside leg, just at the hem of his grey shorts, and pinched him hard.” That first touch awakens something in Roland and years later he is still not yet old enough to drive but is drawn into a passionate sexual affair with Miriam. It’s clear that this abusive and domineering relationship will define Roland’s life long after Miriam is no longer part of it.

One of the joys of the novel is the way it weaves history into Roland’s biography as well as the lives of other characters in the book. The event that precipitates his affair with Miriam is the Cuban Missile Crisis. The prospect of being “vaporized” in a nuclear blast spurs him to hop on his bike and answer a three-year-old invitation to stop by her house for lunch. The wife who is missing at the start of the book has parents who were members of the White Rose resistance movement of World War II. Later, as a young man before the birth of his son, Roland is at the Brandenburg gate when the Berlin Wall comes down. And at the end, it’s present day, with COVID altering everyone’s lives. Those historic markers put the very personal story of Roland’s life in perspective. “We are all one with history now, subject to its whims,” thinks Roland as he weathers the pandemic, alone, cut off from family and friends.

There are other themes here McEwan explores in depth — from envy to ambition to what truly constitutes a life well-lived — but the pleasure in reading this novel is letting it wash over you. McEwan is a storyteller at the peak of his powers and this deserves to be near the top of the “best books of 2022” list.

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Lessons by Ian McEwan review — an ambitious tale of trauma and regret

In Lessons, Ian McEwan reflects on the vanity and splendour of human action in an disordered world

Ian McEwan has always had a morbid interest in the power of calamitous chance events to unsettle a well-ordered life. A child is snatched in a supermarket; a man drops to his death from a hot-air balloon; a bridegroom prematurely ejaculates on his wedding night, ending his fledgling marriage before it has begun. The loss of control, the tyranny of contingency: these are the kinds of vivid catastrophe still able to evoke a sensation of unholy dread in readers who share with McEwan’s protagonists a disenchanted world view and rational hard-headedness.

In Lessons , McEwan’s 17th novel, the speculation that life might be derailed in some sudden and irrevocable way finds expression in the form of counterfactual autofiction. McEwan presents us with a protagonist, Roland

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Ian McEwan: ‘My last novel? I feel as if I’ve said as much as I know’

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Ian McEwan’s Lessons, his most autobiographical novel, is a new experiment in vulnerability

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Lessons is Ian McEwan’s most autobiographical novel to date. It is the story of a man’s life, but it is also the story of a man making his life into a story. It exemplifies the risks and rewards of living a life shaped from within by the logic of literature.

Lessons – Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape).

Anyone familiar with McEwan’s extensive, award-winning oeuvre will know that his resort to personal material is not for lack of imagination. He is, by any standard, a master of style and invention. It is hard to class his novels within a genre because he has forged his own – one that combines crisply realist surfaces with sudden excursions into the darkest corridors of the mind.

review book lessons

These hallmarks persist in Lessons, but the inclusion of autobiographical details – like McEwan, the novel’s protagonist grows up in North Africa in a British military family and discovers late in life that he has a brother – is a new experiment in vulnerability.

The novel’s central character, Roland Baines, reveals a writerly consciousness at work. Roland is attempting to make sense of his life as lessons – stories of cause and effect. The solipsism and pathos of this project are on display, along with a glimmer of grace.

A labyrinth of cold sorrow

Lessons begins with a piano lesson remembered with sensory immediacy. Bach’s prelude seems to the 11-year-old Roland “like a pine forest in winter […] his private labyrinth of cold sorrow. It would never let him leave.” His piano teacher, Miriam, pinches the boy’s thigh, slips her fingers towards his crotch, and strikes his knee with the edge of a ruler. She styles this abuse as a lesson.

As an isolated and obsessed 14 year old, Roland seeks out Miriam during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He wants to experience sex before he is “vaporised” by nuclear war. But the world goes on, and so does their intoxicating and destructive relationship.

A narrative leap locates these memories in the mind of the adult Roland, a sleep-deprived father to a young infant. His wife Alissa is missing and he is a suspect in her disappearance. Who is to blame? And what is the point of the pain? From these formative betrayals by women – one a controlling sadist and one an absconder – Roland tries to extract some answers.

There is something suspicious about this narrative set-up. In their physical absence, Roland invents the power of these female characters. Like witches in fairy-tales, they carry the destructive drives.

This displacement frees Roland to present himself as a talented person living an inconspicuous existence. He commits to the loving labour of raising their son, while Alissa goes on to become an award-winning novelist. The writerly consciousness is thus split across two very different kinds of life choice, but it is disappointingly conventional that the female characters are made to carry the destructive ego traits. Somehow Roland’s story gets told, but it costs him far less than Alissa to tell it.

But there is a dark edge to Roland’s writerly mind too. A poem in a notebook the police took from his desk refers to murder and burial. Roland explains to the detective that this is figurative language used to express the end of a different relationship – the liaison with Miriam – and scoffs at the clumsy intrusion by the police:

The street-level forces of law and order were long-ago typed into the culture as Shakespeare’s Dogberry. This visit would be an exquisite tale, one that Roland would work up and tell, as he had before.

review book lessons

The passage throws suspicion on Roland. In Much Ado About Nothing , Dogberry’s police force does apprehend the villains, albeit accidentally. Moreover, Roland’s propensity to “work up” tales is laid bare. McEwan lets the author’s hand flicker into view.

Even more disconcertingly, Roland says to himself: “The grave containing her remains did not exist.” The plain meaning is clear: there is no grave. But the word-order puts “the grave” before the reader’s imagination before making it disappear. What, we wonder, is the extent of the damage done inwardly to Roland? Can this keeper of secrets keep secrets from himself? The sliver of doubt is thickened by self-questioning: “Why even tell himself this?”

Read more: Philosophy, obsession and puzzling people: Julian Barnes' new novel explores big questions

A storytelling habit

Roland’s storytelling habit entails a desire for narrative epiphanies, as for sex, with unknown limits. Alissa’s wry comment – “this piano teacher […] rewired your brain” – raises the possibility that the novel’s shaping consciousness is indelibly damaged.

Roland might not be a murderer with a mind half in shadow, but he has a compulsive habit of burying and exhuming the past to make the present bearable. He is trying to mitigate life’s painful confusion. He shares this habit with most human beings, of course. The key difference is that Roland’s life, because it is a narrative invention, has more returns and more plot resolution than most real lives.

He eventually catches up with both Miriam and Alissa. From Miriam, he receives a pleading apology. He takes control of their story by deciding that he won’t bring a case against her because “this wasn’t the same woman”. Alissa, with her amputated foot and morbid addiction to nicotine, offers another scene of pathetic resolution. Roland sees that her choice of a writing life has cost her a relationship with their son. Both women are diminished by the narrative – a point sharpened by the title of Alissa’s award-winning novel: Her Slow Reduction.

review book lessons

Surprise returns trigger new hope and old pain. Roland is reunited with his lost brother – a plot point implausible enough to be from real life. The eager, awkward regard in which the two ageing men hold one another is depicted with great gentleness.

Daphne, the stalwart friend of his early single-parent days, also returns when they are in their sixties. One night as they sit “shoeless by the fire”, Roland asks her to marry him. The epiphany seems to have arrived:

Everything glowed […] This was how to steer life successfully Roland thought. Make a choice, act! That’s the lesson.

But this instant of empowering volition is eclipsed only 24 hours later when Daphne tells Roland she has received some test results:

It’s cancer, grade four […] It’s everywhere! I don’t stand a chance. I’m so scared.

The very next page begins:

He lifted it from the drawer where he kept his sweaters and placed it on his desk. It was a weighty ceramic jar.

The leap from Daphne’s living fear to Roland handling a jar of her ashes is a cruel jolt. It is two years after her death and he is preparing to return to Scafell Pike to scatter her ashes. Skipping the pain seems a cowardly, solipsistic design – no one in the novel gets to be as complex and concentrated a consciousness as the protagonist. Daphne’s last chapter of life unfolds through Roland’s memory. The narrative follows the contours of his mind, not the sequence of days.

review book lessons

Roland’s granddaughter Stephanie enters late in the novel. As a new character, she permits fresh returns. Their shared story-within-the-story is Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat – a “beautiful impossible adventure” – which Roland had read to his son Lawrence, who in turn reads it to his seven-year-old daughter. Stephanie begins to learn and recite the poem during a COVID lockdown.

In the novel’s closing pages, Stephanie’s obliviousness to a heavy-handed message in a different bedtime story makes Roland reflect that it is a “shame to ruin a good tale by turning it into a lesson”. He then confides in her that

there’s a pretend book I want to read. It’s very interesting and so enormous that I don’t think I’ll ever get to read it all.

He tells her that it has “everyone in it, including you”.

Here is the familiar McEwan coup: a narrative bent back on itself. Before he is led off the stage of his own story by Stephanie, Roland (or McEwan) shows that the controlling hand of the narrative retains masterful control even when letting go.

The final return comes after the story is complete. In a postscript, McEwan reveals another inter-generational story of reading and writing: “Finally, my thanks to my English teacher, the late Neil Clayton, who insisted that I used his name unchanged”. Clearly, the lesson that has shaped McEwan’s literary imagination is the one same that sticks for Roland: in the patient processes of living and writing, epiphanies arrive rarely and unbidden. They are less like a lesson and more, like McEwan’s novel, a gift.

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Lessons Reader’s Guide

By ian mcewan.

Lessons by Ian McEwan

Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction

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READERS GUIDE

Questions and topics for discussion.

1. How did your reading experience differ between passages and scenes related to major historical events and those that were more intimate and specific to Roland and the other characters?

2. Roland reflects: “The past, the modern past, was a weight, a burden of piled rubble, forgotten grief. But the weight on him was at one remove. It barely weighed at all. The accidental fortune was beyond calculation, to have been born in 1948 in placid Hampshire, not Ukraine or Poland in 1928, not to have been dragged from the synagogue steps in 1941 and brought here. His white-tiled cell—a piano lesson, a premature love affair, a missed education, a missing wife—was by comparison a luxury suite. If his life so far was a failure, as he often thought, it was in the face of history’s largesse” (page 206). Do you agree with this idea, in particular the “weight” of Roland’s own experience? How do you contemplate your own life experiences in the context of history at large?

3. Discuss the various “lessons” that Roland learns throughout the novel, whether they are explicit or implicit, asked for or imposed upon him. Who of his “teachers” leaves the biggest impression? How does he pass those lessons on to the future generation?

4. Which of the historical time periods that the novel traverses—from post−World War II to Covid—have you directly experienced? How did reading Roland’s experience of them affect your own understanding, or lack thereof, of the events? In what ways do the circumstances of Covid, as explored in the novel, make us question the placement of the present in the fabric of history? Do you make efforts to preserve the present like Roland and others do, through journals, photographs, and other relics of memory?

5. Why does Roland’s introduction of jazz music into his and Miriam’s repertoire change the nature of their relationship? If you’ve heard “’Round Midnight,” how would you describe the nature of the music, and perhaps why it was so threatening to Miriam’s dominance over Roland?

6. Besides Roland’s piano lessons, music helps mark time—cultural and personal moments—throughout the book, creating a kind of soundtrack or refrain. What are some of the groups, songs, and albums that shape Roland’s experience of the world and his own life? What pieces of music stand out in your memory in a similar way?

7. Although Roland pursues work in art—poetry and piano—he’s surround by others, such as Alissa and Miriam, whose investment in art is more complete, even debilitatingly so. What does Roland gain, and what does he lose, by not devoting himself to piano or other formal studies that could have won him more social acclaim? Consider the promise of the review of his performance as a teenager: “Young Roland played his part not only with technical mastery, but with a barely credible emotional maturity and formidable insight. I predict that within ten years the name of Roland Baines will resound in classical circles and beyond. He is simply brilliant” (page 136). Was his “emotional maturity” at the time actually credible?

8. Roland’s romantic experiences with Miriam, Alissa, and Daphne are radically different in terms of how they come about, the dynamic between the partners, and what Roland comes away with when he’s ultimately left alone without his partner. Discuss these differences and how you responded to each relationship, as well as what you thought of how Roland made amends (or did not) with each of the women at the end of the relationship.

9. Is Alissa’s refusal of motherhood a product of her time, a choice reflective of her personality that would have happened in any time period, or both? What about the way Roland responds to her leaving differs from other similar stories you’ve read, where the husband−wife conflict is opposite?

10. Alissa is unperturbed about writing her own life into fiction, in both The Journey and Her Slow Reduction. What responsibility do artists have to their influences? Consider not only Alissa’s story, but also other (real) artists, such as Robert Lowell, mentioned in the novel. How do you as a reader factor into your evaluation whether details of a work of art—a novel or other medium—are based in reality? Did you find yourself asking these questions while reading Lessons ?

11. During their final encounter, Miriam asks Roland “to stop seeing it all through the eyes of a child” (page 315). How does Roland’s viewpoint, of Miriam and of other people and events, change from when he is a child and teenager, into his later years? What do other children in the book, such as Lawrence and Stefanie, offer by way of their limited but unique child-perspectives on the world? Consider Roland’s observation from one of his first piano lessons—“He hesitated before yet another of those blinding encounters with the ways of adults. They never told you what they knew. They concealed from you the boundaries of your ignorance. What happened, whatever it was, must be his fault and disobedience was against his nature” (page 4)—as well as Roland’s comment about Gerald’s medical opinion of his chest pain (which turns out to be wrong)—“But Gerald was in pediatrics. Children’s hearts were different” (page 389).

12. Did you agree with Roland’s decision not to persecute Miriam? What is it about the circumstances of time and history that made this option even possible—and how does the label of “abuse” change Roland’s own memory of his experience with her? How does her behavior compare to Alissa’s, in terms of the damage it does to his life and the lessons it affords him?

13. Discuss the standards upheld for men and women in the novel—as humans, as parents, as teachers and students, and as artists. For instance, how would it have been different if Miriam was a man and Roland a young girl; or if Roland had left Alissa to become a great poet and “follow the obscure trail of an exquisite idea that could lead to a lucky narrowing, to a fiery point, a sudden focus of pure light to illuminate a first line that would hold the secret key to the lines that must follow” (page 21)? Did you find yourself siding with one gender, or with certain characters, over others, and how did your opinion of their individual stories align with your broader social views on gender and gender equality?

14. We hear differing, subjective accounts of the virtues and sins, the care and violations, committed by Roland’s and Alissa’s parents, towards their children directly and indirectly. How do Roland and Alissa resolve these tensions personally, and what stories and impressions of their parents are imparted to Lawrence as  grandson? How do you think Lawrence will pass down the memory of his parents to his children? Reflect on the dynamics within the generations of your own family, and how time fixes or contorts the memory of certain individuals.

15. How does Peter’s arrival on the scene on the trail, when Roland intends to scatter Daphne’s ashes, alter the significance of that moment in Roland’s overall story? What other moments in the novel similarly derail an expectation of how a memory will be formed? Has anything like this happened to you, and how did you respond?

16. Daphne predicts the pain she’ll feel upon dying will be “big, ‘like a tower’” (page 366). How does what actually happens to her compare to the real towers (and walls, and other physical structures) that fall in the course of the novel? What do we know about their impact from Roland’s suffering in the wake of the collapse?

17. What details about the struggles of past decades—war, “unreliable supplies of labour and materials,” climate change, et cetera—seem to persist throughout time (page 344)? How could you relate to some of the details of Roland’s early experiences in the sixties and seventies, even in modern times?

18. When Roland visits Alissa at her request late in their lives, she asks him, “How was your life?” To which he replies, “Good and bad” (page 411). How does this simple exchange reflect the sum total (or more) of the novel’s events and revelations? How would you answer that question?

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17 Book Review Examples to Help You Write the Perfect Review

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

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 .

And if you’d like to see even more book review examples, simply go to this directory of book review blogs and click on any one of them to see a wealth of good book reviews. Beyond that, it's up to you to pick up a book and pen — and start reviewing!

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Literacy Ideas

How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide

review book lessons

WHAT IS A BOOK REVIEW?

how to write a book review | what is a Book review | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

Traditionally, book reviews are written evaluations of a recently published book in any genre. Usually, around the 500 to 700-word mark, they offer a brief description of a text’s main elements while appraising the work’s strengths and weaknesses. Published book reviews can appear in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. They provide the reader with an overview of the book itself and indicate whether or not the reviewer would recommend the book to the reader.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A BOOK REVIEW?

There was a time when book reviews were a regular appearance in every quality newspaper and many periodicals. They were essential elements in whether or not a book would sell well. A review from a heavyweight critic could often be the deciding factor in whether a book became a bestseller or a damp squib. In the last few decades, however, the book review’s influence has waned considerably, with many potential book buyers preferring to consult customer reviews on Amazon, or sites like Goodreads, before buying. As a result, book review’s appearance in newspapers, journals, and digital media has become less frequent.

WHY BOTHER TEACHING STUDENTS TO WRITE BOOK REVIEWS AT ALL?

Even in the heyday of the book review’s influence, few students who learned the craft of writing a book review became literary critics! The real value of crafting a well-written book review for a student does not lie in their ability to impact book sales. Understanding how to produce a well-written book review helps students to:

●     Engage critically with a text

●     Critically evaluate a text

●     Respond personally to a range of different writing genres

●     Improve their own reading, writing, and thinking skills.

Not to Be Confused with a Book Report!

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BOOK REVIEW AND A BOOK REPORT?

book_reviews_vs_book_reports.jpg

While the terms are often used interchangeably, there are clear differences in both the purpose and the format of the two genres. Generally speaking, book reports aim to give a more detailed outline of what occurs in a book. A book report on a work of fiction will tend to give a comprehensive account of the characters, major plot lines, and themes in the book. Book reports are usually written around the K-12 age range, while book reviews tend not to be undertaken by those at the younger end of this age range due to the need for the higher-level critical skills required in writing them. At their highest expression, book reviews are written at the college level and by professional critics.

Learn how to write a book review step by step with our complete guide for students and teachers by familiarizing yourself with the structure and features.

BOOK REVIEW STRUCTURE

ANALYZE Evaluate the book with a critical mind.

THOROUGHNESS The whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. Review the book as a WHOLE.

COMPARE Where appropriate compare to similar texts and genres.

THUMBS UP OR DOWN? You are going to have to inevitably recommend or reject this book to potential readers.

BE CONSISTENT Take a stance and stick with it throughout your review.

FEATURES OF A BOOK REVIEW

PAST TENSE You are writing about a book you have already read.

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE Whatever your stance or opinion be passionate about it. Your audience will thank you for it.

VOICE Both active and passive voice are used in recounts.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF TEXTS

how to write a book review | movie response unit | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

⭐ Make  MOVIES A MEANINGFUL PART OF YOUR CURRICULUM  with this engaging collection of tasks and tools your students will love. ⭐ All the hard work is done for you with  NO PREPARATION REQUIRED.

This collection of  21 INDEPENDENT TASKS  and  GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS  takes students beyond the hype, special effects and trailers to look at visual literacy from several perspectives offering DEEP LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES by watching a  SERIES, DOCUMENTARY, FILM, and even  VIDEO GAMES.

ELEMENTS OF A BOOK REVIEW

As with any of the writing genres we teach our students, a book review can be helpfully explained in terms of criteria. While there is much to the ‘art’ of writing, there is also, thankfully, a lot of the nuts and bolts that can be listed too. Have students consider the following elements before writing:

●     Title: Often, the title of the book review will correspond to the title of the text itself, but there may also be some examination of the title’s relevance. How does it fit into the purpose of the work as a whole? Does it convey a message or reveal larger themes explored within the work?

●     Author: Within the book review, there may be some discussion of who the author is and what they have written before, especially if it relates to the current work being reviewed. There may be some mention of the author’s style and what they are best known for. If the author has received any awards or prizes, this may also be mentioned within the body of the review.

●     Genre: A book review will identify the genre that the book belongs to, whether fiction or nonfiction, poetry, romance, science-fiction, history etc. The genre will likely tie in, too with who the intended audience for the book is and what the overall purpose of the work is.

●     Book Jacket / Cover: Often, a book’s cover will contain artwork that is worthy of comment. It may contain interesting details related to the text that contribute to, or detract from, the work as a whole.

●     Structure: The book’s structure will often be heavily informed by its genre. Have students examine how the book is organized before writing their review. Does it contain a preface from a guest editor, for example? Is it written in sections or chapters? Does it have a table of contents, index, glossary etc.? While all these details may not make it into the review itself, looking at how the book is structured may reveal some interesting aspects.

●     Publisher and Price: A book review will usually contain details of who publishes the book and its cost. A review will often provide details of where the book is available too.

how to write a book review | writing a book review | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

BOOK REVIEW KEY ELEMENTS

As students read and engage with the work they will review, they will develop a sense of the shape their review will take. This will begin with the summary. Encourage students to take notes during the reading of the work that will help them in writing the summary that will form an essential part of their review. Aspects of the book they may wish to take notes on in a work of fiction may include:

●     Characters: Who are the main characters? What are their motivations? Are they convincingly drawn? Or are they empathetic characters?

●     Themes: What are the main themes of the work? Are there recurring motifs in the work? Is the exploration of the themes deep or surface only?

●     Style: What are the key aspects of the writer’s style? How does it fit into the wider literary world?

●     Plot: What is the story’s main catalyst? What happens in the rising action? What are the story’s subplots? 

A book review will generally begin with a short summary of the work itself. However, it is important not to give too much away, remind students – no spoilers, please! For nonfiction works, this may be a summary of the main arguments of the work, again, without giving too much detail away. In a work of fiction, a book review will often summarise up to the rising action of the piece without going beyond to reveal too much!

how to write a book review | 9 text response | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

The summary should also provide some orientation for the reader. Given the nature of the purpose of a review, it is important that students’ consider their intended audience in the writing of their review. Readers will most likely not have read the book in question and will require some orientation. This is often achieved through introductions to the main characters, themes, primary arguments etc. This will help the reader to gauge whether or not the book is of interest to them.

Once your student has summarized the work, it is time to ‘review’ in earnest. At this point, the student should begin to detail their own opinion of the book. To do this well they should:

i. Make It Personal

Often when teaching essay writing we will talk to our students about the importance of climbing up and down the ladder of abstraction. Just as it is helpful to explore large, more abstract concepts in an essay by bringing it down to Earth, in a book review, it is important that students can relate the characters, themes, ideas etc to their own lives.

Book reviews are meant to be subjective. They are opinion pieces, and opinions grow out of our experiences of life. Encourage students to link the work they are writing about to their own personal life within the body of the review. By making this personal connection to the work, students contextualize their opinions for the readers and help them to understand whether the book will be of interest to them or not in the process.

ii. Make It Universal

Just as it is important to climb down the ladder of abstraction to show how the work relates to individual life, it is important to climb upwards on the ladder too. Students should endeavor to show how the ideas explored in the book relate to the wider world. The may be in the form of the universality of the underlying themes in a work of fiction or, for example, the international implications for arguments expressed in a work of nonfiction.

iii. Support Opinions with Evidence

A book review is a subjective piece of writing by its very nature. However, just because it is subjective does not mean that opinions do not need to be justified. Make sure students understand how to back up their opinions with various forms of evidence, for example, quotations, statistics, and the use of primary and secondary sources.

EDIT AND REVISE YOUR BOOK REVIEW

how to write a book review | 9 1 proof read Book review | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

As with any writing genre, encourage students to polish things up with review and revision at the end. Encourage them to proofread and check for accurate spelling throughout, with particular attention to the author’s name, character names, publisher etc. 

It is good practice too for students to double-check their use of evidence. Are statements supported? Are the statistics used correctly? Are the quotations from the text accurate? Mistakes such as these uncorrected can do great damage to the value of a book review as they can undermine the reader’s confidence in the writer’s judgement.

The discipline of writing book reviews offers students opportunities to develop their writing skills and exercise their critical faculties. Book reviews can be valuable standalone activities or serve as a part of a series of activities engaging with a central text. They can also serve as an effective springboard into later discussion work based on the ideas and issues explored in a particular book. Though the book review does not hold the sway it once did in the mind’s of the reading public, it still serves as an effective teaching tool in our classrooms today.

how to write a book review | LITERACY IDEAS FRONT PAGE 1 | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

Teaching Resources

Use our resources and tools to improve your student’s writing skills through proven teaching strategies.

BOOK REVIEW GRAPHIC ORGANIZER (TEMPLATE)

how to write a book review | book review graphic organizer | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

101 DIGITAL & PRINT GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS FOR ALL CURRICULUM AREAS

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Introduce your students to 21st-century learning with this GROWING BUNDLE OF 101 EDITABLE & PRINTABLE GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS. ✌ NO PREP REQUIRED!!! ✌ Go paperless, and let your students express their knowledge and creativity through the power of technology and collaboration inside and outside the classroom with ease.

Whilst you don’t have to have a 1:1 or BYOD classroom to benefit from this bundle, it has been purpose-built to deliver through platforms such as ✔ GOOGLE CLASSROOM, ✔ OFFICE 365, ✔ or any CLOUD-BASED LEARNING PLATFORM.

Book and Movie review writing examples (Student Writing Samples)

Below are a collection of student writing samples of book reviews.  Click on the image to enlarge and explore them in greater detail.  Please take a moment to both read the movie or book review in detail but also the teacher and student guides which highlight some of the key elements of writing a text review

Please understand these student writing samples are not intended to be perfect examples for each age or grade level but a piece of writing for students and teachers to explore together to critically analyze to improve student writing skills and deepen their understanding of book review writing.

We would recommend reading the example either a year above and below, as well as the grade you are currently working with to gain a broader appreciation of this text type .

how to write a book review | book review year 3 | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

BOOK REVIEW VIDEO TUTORIALS

how to write a book review | 2 book review tutorial28129 | How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide | literacyideas.com

OTHER GREAT ARTICLES RELATED TO BOOK REVIEWS

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Transactional Writing

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How to write a text response

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How to Write a Compare and Contrast Essay

how to write a book review | expository essay writing guide | How to Write Excellent Expository Essays | literacyideas.com

How to Write Excellent Expository Essays

The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh.  A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane’s latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing , can be found here.  Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.

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9 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

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Our recommended books this week run the gamut from a behind-the-scenes look at the classic film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” to a portrait of suburbia in decline to a collection of presidential love letters with the amazing title “Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?” (That question comes from a mash note written by Woodrow Wilson.) In fiction, we recommend debuts from DéLana R.A. Dameron, Alexander Sammartino and Rebecca K Reilly, alongside new novels by Cormac James, Ashley Elston and Kristin Hannah. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

COCKTAILS WITH GEORGE AND MARTHA: Movies, Marriage and the Making of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Philip Gefter

Rarely seen diary entries from the screenwriter who adapted Edward Albee’s Broadway hit are a highlight of this unapologetically obsessive behind-the-scenes look at the classic film starring the super-couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

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“Showed how the ‘cartoon versions of marriage’ long served up by American popular culture ... always came with a secret side of bitters.”

From Alexandra Jacobs’s review

Bloomsbury | $32

TRONDHEIM Cormac James

James’s new novel is a deep dive into a family navigating a crisis. It follows two mothers waiting in the I.C.U. to see if their son will wake up from a coma, and through that framework, explores their lives, their relationship, their beliefs and much more.

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“Hospital time has a particular and peculiar quality, and ‘Trondheim’ is dedicated to capturing the way it unfolds.”

From Katie Kitamura’s review

Bellevue Literary Press | Paperback, $17.99

REDWOOD COURT DéLana R.A. Dameron

This richly textured and deeply moving debut novel begins with an innocuous question: “What am I made of?” From there, a young Black girl in South Carolina begins to grapple with — and attempt to make sense of — a complicated family history and her place in it.

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“Dameron is a prizewinning poet and it shows: She does a beautiful job weaving in local vernacular and casting a fresh gaze on an engaging, though flawed, cast of characters.”

From Charmaine Wilkerson’s review

Dial Press | $28

LAST ACTS Alexander Sammartino

In this hilarious debut, a young man moves in with his father after a near-fatal overdose and decides to help save the family business, a Phoenix gun shop facing foreclosure. Their idea is to pledge a cut of every sale to fighting drug addiction, but they soon find themselves mired in controversy.

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“Sammartino is extraordinarily good at balancing the farcical nature of contemporary America with the complex humanity of his characters. He’s also a magnificent sentence writer.”

From Dan Chaon’s review

Scribner | $27

DISILLUSIONED: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs Benjamin Herold

Once defined by big homes, great schools and low taxes, the country’s suburbs, Herold shows in this dispiriting but insightful account, were poorly planned and are now saddled with poverty, struggling schools, dilapidated infrastructure and piles of debt.

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“An important, cleareyed account of suburban boom and bust, and the challenges facing the country today.”

From Ben Austen’s review

Penguin Press | $32

ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE STORM OF LOVE MAKING? Letters of Love and Lust From the White House Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

This charming collection features presidents from Washington to Obama writing about courtship, marriage, war, diplomacy, love, lust and loss, in winningly besotted tones.

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“Answers the question ‘What does a president in love sound like?’ with a refreshing ‘Just as dopey as anybody else.’ ... It is a lovely book, stuffed with romantic details.”

From W.M. Akers’s review

Simon & Schuster | $28.99

GRETA & VALDIN Rebecca K Reilly

Reilly’s generous, tender debut novel follows the exploits of two queer New Zealand 20-something siblings from a hodgepodge, multicultural family as they navigate the chaos of young adulthood, and as they come closer to understanding themselves and their desires.

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“If this novel shows us anything, it’s that love — of family, of romantic partners, of community — is most joyful when it’s without limits.”

From Eleanor Dunn’s review

Avid Reader Press | $28

THE WOMEN Kristin Hannah

In her latest historical novel, Hannah shows the Vietnam War through the eyes of a combat nurse. But what the former debutante witnesses and experiences when she comes home from the war is the true gut punch of this timely story.

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“The familiar beats snare you from the outset. ... Hannah’s real superpower is her ability to hook you along from catastrophe to catastrophe, sometimes peering between your fingers, because you simply cannot give up on her characters.”

From Beatriz Williams’s review

St. Martin’s | $27

FIRST LIE WINS Ashley Elston

In Elston’s edgy, smart thriller, Evie Porter has just moved in with her boyfriend, a hunky Louisiana businessman. Sadly for him, their relationship is likely to be short-lived, because she’s a criminal and he’s her latest mark.

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“Evie makes for a winning, nimble character. Elston raises the stakes with unexpected developments.”

From Sarah Lyall’s thrillers column

Pamela Dorman Books | $28

Explore More in Books

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

In her new memoir, “Splinters,” the essayist Leslie Jamison  recounts the birth of her child  and the end of her marriage.

The Oscar-nominated film “Poor Things” is based on a 1992 book by Alasdair Gray. Beloved by writers, it was never widely read  but is now ripe for reconsideration.

Even in countries where homophobia is pervasive and same-sex relationships are illegal, queer African writers are pushing boundaries , finding an audience and winning awards.

In Lucy Sante’s new memoir, “I Heard Her Call My Name,” the author reflects on her life and embarking on a gender transition  in her late 60s.

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

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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What Should You Read Next? Here Are the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

Featuring new titles by leslie jamison, phillip b. williams, sarah ruiz-grossman, and more.

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Leslie Jamison’s Splinters , Phillip B. Williams’ Ours , and Sarah Ruiz-Grossman’s A Fire So Wild all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week.

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s home for book reviews.

1. Ours by Phillip B. Williams (Viking)

3 Rave • 2 Positive Read an excerpt from Ours here

“…a vast and rapturous feat of fabulism … This is a 19th-century historical epic created with both a vivacious enthusiasm for folkloric traditions and a deep contemplation of what it means to be freed from the violent machine of slavery in the U.S. … Williams has a voice that soars across each page, breathing life into his dazzling array of characters–the lovers and the malcontents, the queer and the mystical, the brazen and the cautious.”

–Dave Wheeler ( Shelf Awareness )

2. The Variations by Patrick Langley (New York Review of Books)

2 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Langley is a mesmerizing guide to Selda’s music and the fantastical world of the hospice, a ‘variously demonized, patronized, scorned, venerated, vilified, and today largely ignored and near-bankrupted institution.’ This is exquisite.”

–Publishers Weekly

3. A Fire So Wild by Sarah Ruiz-Grossman (Harper)

1 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed Read Sarah Ruiz-Grossman’s list of books for the climate apocalypse here

“As the characters’ paths twine with fervor, Ruiz-Grossman’s engaging tale offers a vivid exploration of modern-day disparities within the timeless and universal search for belonging and self-determination.”

–Leah Strauss ( Booklist )

1. Splinters by Leslie Jamison (Little Brown and Company)

6 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed Listen to an interview with Leslie Jamison here

“This one is slimmer, less digressive, more focused on Jamison’s singular experience [than The Recovering ]. But it, like its predecessor, makes a particular life ramify more broadly in intriguing and poignant ways … About the bewildering nature of new motherhood, the implosion of Jamison’s marriage, parenting solo, dating as a single mother, coping with illness and lockdown. But it is also about storytelling … Though this well of grief and guilt is not dramatized, it is not unglimpsed. Jamison writes around the hole in her story, and we can feel the gravity of its pull in her presentation of herself … Her ferocious honesty, her stringent refusal to sugarcoat, her insistence on inhabiting and depicting moments in all their evanescence and incandescence make her one of the most compelling and trustworthy memoirists we have.”

–Priscilla Gilman ( The Boston Globe )

2. Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022 by Frank Trentmann (Knopf)

“Terrifically insightful … There is so much telling detail in the story: the fluent legal nonsense, the struggle with authority, the inner psychological conflict, all tacitly overshadowed by the recent memory of the Third Reich … This book runs to 838 pages, but barely a word is wasted. Trentmann is a skillful and unflashy storyteller with flickers of gentle irony.”

–Oliver Moody ( The Times )

3. Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York by Barbara Weisberg (W. W. Norton & Company)

2 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Riveting … Weisberg reassembles the story with the clear determination to treat both sides equally, and without leering … She cloaks the jagged facts of the case in the soft trappings of their social backdrop to soften their impact. Nevertheless, sharp edges pierce the velvet veil … By letting public and private records reanimate this vivid chapter of the past, Weisberg tells a story that fiction could not touch.”

–Liesl Schillinger ( The New York Times Book Review )

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Forget the ‘reading rules’ – and other lessons from a life with books

A writing professor reflects on the mistakes we make when we turn reading into a chore.

During the final days of 2023, my Instagram feed was filled with posts from readers attempting to squeeze in a few last books to meet their Goodreads Challenge goal: three more novels to 50, one last title after Christmas to clear 100, and speed-reading my last two to hit my goal.

I thought of these posts — and the surrounding debates in bookish circles over whether audiobooks or graphic novels “count” as reading — while working my way through “ Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out ,” a warm and funny memoir in essays from the appropriately named Shannon Reed.

Covering topics ranging from the deliciousness of that twist in “Gone Girl” and the joy of Amish romance novels to the semester she spent decoding George Saunders’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” Reed — who teaches writing and contemporary fiction at the University of Pittsburgh — chronicles her lifelong relationships with books and reading.

Underlying each essay, though, is a conviction that people should read what they want to read. The latest Emily Henry book, “Moby-Dick” and tomes on U.S. history, she explains, all offer value to the reader.

“There are simply too many rules about reading,” she writes. “Worse, the higher up the ladder of being a Good Reader … people go, the more rules they seem to have internalized.”

These rules, such as reading the right literary books and eschewing genre fiction, make reading a duty instead of a joyful exercise. It’s a message that anyone obsessing over meeting their Goodreads goal could use: Throw out the expectations about reading properly, and do what makes you happy.

But every bookworm, even those not hemmed in by constraints, will find an essay, perhaps many, to enjoy in “Why We Read . ” Its witty and joyful installments document Reed’s early years reading, her time teaching high school and then university students, and the books that helped her through tough times. As someone who never leaves the house without at least one book in my bag, I found myself nodding along, thinking, “That’s me!” at countless passages.

Can novels make us better people?

The collection opens with Reed reflecting on how she turned to books as a hearing-impaired child. The books she devoured gave her a place where she felt entirely at home. Family trips to national parks were spent reading Nancy Drew mysteries, not taking in the scenery around her. Nights were spent trying to squeeze in just one more page before falling asleep.

“You have an evening companion: your book. You’re reading. There’s nothing else to do except sleep, which has no appeal, not until you know what happens after Jo cuts off all of her hair,” she writes in lines that instantly transported me to the first time I read “Little Women.”

Years later, Reed works as a teacher helping existing book lovers find more to read. In one particularly lovely moment, she explains to a low-income student that all the books at the public library are available free. The student, blown away after showing Reed her newfound treasures, whispers, “All my best friends are at the library.”

In one of the collection’s strongest essays, Reed recounts teaching “The Diary of Young Girl” as a substitute early in her career. In it, she criticizes the way books and literature are often taught, showing that it can take the fun out of reading. Simultaneously, she demonstrates how much she has learned from leading class discussions, even after teaching the same texts dozens of times. When a student brings a class to silence by admitting she didn’t think she would have the courage to protect Anne Frank and her family, “every one of us grasped that protecting innocent fellow humans was the only morally correct choice. Yet only one of us was willing to admit what had to be true: that if this [had] been asked of most of us, we wouldn’t have done it.” That discussion, she theorizes, stayed with her students long after any book they simply took a test on would have.

Another standout essay focuses on Reed’s experience reading Atul Gawande’s “ Being Mortal” as her father died and then again seven years later after experiencing the covid-19 pandemic. The book devastates her while leaving her with a greater appreciation of the small moments of her life. It’s a potent reminder of the power of finding the right book at the right time.

Despite these dark topics, Reed, a semifinalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, intersperses her essays with funny lists gently mocking bibliophiles and genre conventions, such as “Signs You May Be an Adult Character in a YA Novel” (“Your kid’s friends think you’re the best”) and “Signs You May Be a Character in a Popular Children’s Book” (“You would like a hug”).

“Why We Read” would be a delightful addition to any bookworm’s shelves. In exploring the comfort and companionship books offer us, Reed gives her reader those gifts, as well.

Elizabeth Held is a writer in D.C. Her weekly newsletter, “ What To Read If ,” recommends a wide range of books.

Why We Read

On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out

By Shannon Reed

Hanover Square. 329 pp. $27.99

More from Book World

Best books of 2023: See our picks for the 10 best books of 2023 or dive into the staff picks that Book World writers and editors treasured in 2023. Check out the complete lists of 50 notable works for fiction and the top 50 non-fiction books of last year.

Find your favorite genre: These four new memoirs invite us to sit with the pleasures and pains of family. Lovers of hard facts should check out our roundup of some of the summer’s best historical books . Audiobooks more your thing? We’ve got you covered there, too . We also predicted which recent books will land on Barack Obama’s own summer 2023 list . And if you’re looking forward to what’s still ahead, we rounded up some of the buzziest releases of the summer .

Still need more reading inspiration? Every month, Book World’s editors and critics share their favorite books that they’ve read recently . You can also check out reviews of the latest in fiction and nonfiction .

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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Blm movement’s social justice politics and ‘queer, trans-affirming’ lessons delivered to kids as young as 5 in nyc school.

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A New York City elementary school is giving kids as young as 5 a woke Black Lives Matter coloring book that focuses on “queer and transgender affirming” lessons, revolutionary politics and demands to “fund counselors not cops” to teach them about Black History Month.

Students at PS 321 in Brooklyn’s Park Slope — which teaches children from kindergarten through fifth grade — were handed the “What We Believe: A Black Lives Matter Principles Activity Book” coloring book last week as part of a Black History Month lesson.

The book, which is based on the 13 “guiding principles” of the national Black Lives Matter at School curriculum, was reportedly assigned as coursework for the young kids. It includes dedicated pages with headlines like “transgender affirming” and “queer affirming.”

"What We Believe: A Black Lives Matter Principles Activity Book"

“When a person is born, their grown-ups generally decide whether to call them a girl or a boy. Sometimes that decision doesn’t match who the person really is, and that person is transgender,” a description on the trans page reads.

The book also lists off a slew of the BLM’s national demands and ways children can support the movement — including a push to “have counsellors in schools instead of police.” “use restorative justice” and “teach black history and ethnic studies.”

Some parents, however, insisted the coloring book didn’t actually teach their kids about black history and instead presented controversial ideas “as fact.”

“It’s not necessarily true. It’s not like every black person believes in these principles,” the mom of a fourth grader told The Free Press , which first reported on the woke coloring book Thursday.

She added the book doesn’t go “into enough detail and there is no mention of specific people. It just feels very vague.”

Other parents expressed outrage over the movement’s guiding principles, which are splashed across the website for Black Lives Matter at School, the Seattle-based group behind the coloring book. The woke org offers resources for schools across the country, including for “early childhood” lessons.

Children's coloring book with illustrations and text representing the 13 tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement, including Queer and Transgender Affirming and Restorative Justice.

Under the “Transgender Affirming” section of the Black Lives Matter at School site, for example, the group spells out that “we are self-reflexive and consistently do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege.”

Some parents at the school also took issue with a section titled Empathy and its use of the word “comrades” — with some interpreting it as a political term and push to promote communist propaganda.

“Using the word comrades comes from communist times,” the mom of the fourth grader, whose grandparents fled China for the US, told The Free Press. “They are using words that I don’t think are appropriate for elementary school.”

PS 321, with 1,217 students, has a reputation as one of the best elementary schools in the city. It also has one of the highest portions of white kids — 67%. Only 3% of students are black, city records show.

PS 321 in Brooklyn's Park Slope

While parents acknowledged that some of the lessons from the coloring book — and wider BLM curriculum — appeared harmless, such as the importance of forgiveness, they argued that others were rooted in revolutionary politics.

The “Black Villages” principle, for example, describes disrupting “the narrow Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.” And the “Intergenerational” section calls for a “communal network free from ageism and adultism.”

Robert Pondiscio, a teaching expert and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, weighed in on the backlash, saying he wasn’t convinced the book was an attempt to indoctrinate kids.

“But the poor judgment and lack of common sense among educators in selecting material is sometimes jaw-dropping and inexcusable,” the ex-Big Apple teacher wrote on X.

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Meanwhile, Phil Wong, a parent and former president of Community Education Council 24 in Queens, ripped the racial justice element associated with the coloring book.

“If schools really want to teach racial justice, then the materials should be about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglas or Harriet Tubman. Recent movements have erased these names from history classes,” Wong told The Post.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many PS 321 students were given the coloring book last week. One mom said she only learned of its existence when students were sent home for remote learning due to a winter storm last week.

Park Slope parents seemed in short supply in the neighborhood on Thursday, with schools closed for midwinter break. The kids who were out and about were mostly accompanied by nannies.

PS 321 on Thursday refused to comment on the distribution of the BLM coloring book until school resumes.

The city’s Department of Education confirmed the existence of the book, but declined to answer questions about whether officials knew of its dissemination – or if it was being taught in any other Big Apple public schools.

Instead, a DOE spokesperson only said: “Anytime parents have a concern about resources used in school, we encourage them to share their concerns to the school principal or district superintendent.”

Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts

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‘Her old laboratory will surely be a museum one day’: Katalin Karikó in 1989

Breaking Through: My Life in Science by Katalin Karikó review – real-life lessons in chemistry

This vivid account of the Hungarian biochemist who endured decades of derision before pioneering Pfizer’s Covid vaccine is a tribute to her tenacity and self-belief

I n May 2013, Katalin Karikó turned up for work at her laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania and found her belongings piled in the hallway. “There were my binders, my posters, my boxes of test tubes,” she recalls. Nearby a lab technician was shoving things into a trash bin. “My things!” Karikó realised.

Despite having worked at the tiny lab for years, the scientist – then in her 50s – was cast out, without notice, for failing to bring in “sufficient dollars per net square footage”. In short, she had not attracted enough grants to justify the meagre space she occupied.

“That lab is going to be a museum one day,” Karikó hissed at the manager who had ousted her. These were odd but prophetic words, as is made clear in this engrossing, touching tale of the tribulations of a scientist now recognised as one of the world’s greatest biochemists, a woman who helped create the vaccines that saved millions during the Covid-19 pandemic .

Karikó comes from a humble background in central Hungary, growing up in a single-roomed house that was heated in winter by a solitary stove and had no running water. Her father had to work as a labourer when he was dismissed from his job as a master butcher after falling foul of local Communist party officials.

It was a harsh life but a loving one, as Breaking Through reveals. Her family was close-knit and the state at least encouraged education. And Karikó was a worker. “I don’t consider myself especially smart, but what I lacked in natural ability, I could make up for in effort,” she says.

A vial of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine

She took summer science classes, became a biology student at Szeged University and eventually obtained a PhD there. Aged 22, she fell in love with Béla Francia, a trainee mechanic five years her junior. They married, and in 1982 Karikó gave birth to their daughter, Susan. Two years later they moved to the US with their entire savings – about £900 – that were sewn inside Susan’s teddy bear to avoid Hungary’s currency restrictions.

By this time, Karikó had become obsessed with messenger RNA (mRNA), the material responsible for translating our DNA into proteins, the molecules from which we are constructed. Crucially, mRNA is extremely difficult to work with because it is fragile and short-lived. But Karikó was convinced it could play a major role in medicine and constantly fought for it to be a research focus. Few colleagues agreed, dubbing her “the crazy mRNA lady”.

Such epithets were a minor headache, however. At Temple University, in Philadelphia, where she began her work in the US, her chief, Robert Suhadolnik – after initially being supportive – tried to have her deported because she had had the temerity to seek a post at another university.

Eventually she moved to the University of Pennsylvania. Again, things went well at first, but as she maintained her mRNA obsession, the university began criticising her failure to attract grants. She was demoted, refused tenure, had her pay cut and finally found her possessions dumped in a hallway.

Fortunately for Karikó – and the rest of the world – her obsession with mRNA was now shared by several other scientists and she was snapped up by the German company BioNTech to begin work on mRNA medicines.

The rest is scientific history. When Covid-19 struck, BioNTech and Karikó realised they were in a prime position to tackle the pandemic, and with the backing of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, developed a vaccine that played a key role in helping to protect the planet against the worst vicissitudes of coronavirus.

How this success affected Karikó is explained in one of the most moving moments in Breaking Through . She returned to Penn to be given one of the first Covid shots to be administered in the US. Karikó was spotted in the crowd and she was hailed, as a vaccine inventor, with roars of approval. “My eyes grew misty,” she recalls.

This is a vividly written, absorbing memoir of a life filled with triumphs (including her daughter Susan’s own successes as an Olympic gold medal-winning rower) over near-constant adversity. The precise reasons for the continual undermining of her research and academic prestige are left open, though Breaking Through hints that science today suffers because it requires its practitioners to publish papers in numbers rather than merit and to seek grants for safe research, as opposed to risky but potentially groundbreaking work. Quantity not quality has become a career driver.

Ironically, the last laugh for Karikó is missing from Breaking Through . Along with Drew Weissman, she won the Nobel prize for physiology in October 2023 – too late for inclusion in her book. What those who thwarted her research must think about this final success can only be guessed. One thing is clear, however. Her old laboratory may not yet be a museum, but it surely will be one day.

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State Of The Union

Muslim Families May Opt Out of LGBT Lessons In U.S. School

A Minnesota school district will allow families to opt their children out of LGBT-themed curriculum materials after Somali Muslim families threatened legal action.

The families argued certain books introduced to elementary students caused religiously objectionable confusion and distress by depicting LGBT topics.

While the district said classroom discussions cannot be opted out of, it will comply with state law allowing parents to review and opt out of instructional materials.

“Opt-outs based on representation of protected classes do not uphold our values of creating safe and inclusive learning and working environments in our schools,” the district stated. “However, because it is required within state law, any change would need to happen with the involvement of state lawmakers.”

The district statement was hailed as a win for religious freedom by the families’ attorneys.

“We think this is a win for religious freedom for people of all faiths, without even having to go to court,” attorney Kayla Toney said .

A mother in the district expressed happiness that the opt-out will allow families to raise their children according to their religious beliefs, as religious freedom was the reason they came to America.

“We came to America for religious freedom in the Constitution, and so our kids will have a great opportunity,” mother Hodan Hassan said.

“By granting us and other families the opportunity to opt out of teaching that violates our deeply held religious beliefs, families are able to raise their children according to the principle that they value the most,” the mother said.

The district will no longer conduct reviews of materials deemed objectionable by families.

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  8. A review of Lessons by Ian McEwan

    Lessons. by Ian McEwan. Knopf. September 2022, Hardcover, 448 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0593535202. Warning: This review contains spoilers. One of the advantages of growing older is an ability to comprehend literature that seemed puzzling or irrelevant in younger days. I read Mrs. Dalloway when in my twenties, but it was not until years later, after ...

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