How I choose my stars.

Yesterday you read "How Many Stars?" by Mary Lee Tiernan where she discussed some of her frustrations with reviews and how there is no common standard. This made the wheels turn in my head. I thought, "Oh, I could create a rubric and post it so authors know how I decided the number of stars to give them!"

(Side note: If you are unsure what a rubric is then click this link to see a sample. Remember, my degree is in Education so my mind goes to teacher methods. LOL! This is often used to grade writing assignments and other things that aren't just, "You got 9 out of 10 right so 90%." It gives the teacher a scale.)

As I pondered the many things I could include in a rubric, I realized that was impossible. I'd need a different rubric for each genre of book. Then I'd need one for each sub genre. However, each book is so different that I'd probably just have to create a new rubric for every book. Yeah... I just don't have that type of time on my hands. So, I scratched the idea for a rubric.

Why don't I just explain how I decide the stars?

5 STARS ***** - A five star book is phenomenal. There are very few, if any, typos or mistakes that I notice. The story rocks and has me from the beginning. It's one of those books that I don't sleep for because I just need to find out what happens next. It's the book that I tell all my friends about until they're all reading it and I'll read it over and over and over again.

4 STARS **** - A four star book is really good. I really enjoyed it. The story kept me engaged, maybe not up all night engaged, but I thought about it throughout the day and was curious to find out what happened next. The typos aren't too numerous and the story is fun. If a friend specifically asks about this one or about this genre then I'd recommend it, but I wouldn't list it in my top ten.

3 STARS *** - A three star book is still good for me. I enjoy it, but maybe it wasn't as marketed or there were more mistakes in it then I could just ignore. This could also be the book where I feel the writing is just okay and the words don't just flow into the story. I can still play it like a movie in my mind, but I have to use more imagination than in the 4 and 5 stars. It's still good though and if a friend asks specifically about this book I'd reply, "It's pretty good, you should give it a shot."

2 STARS ** - The two star books are the ones where the typos are distracting or perhaps the story drags on and on. Or, maybe the story is all telling and no showing so I have trouble imagining what is going on and have to constantly refocus my mind back to the book. This is not the book I'd recommend to a friend.

1 STAR * - I'll be honest. If I read a book that is 1 star, I normally don't review it. I feel bad doing that to the author and if it's going to be a 1 star, I generally know that before I get to the end and am just unable to finish the book. This is the book where I dread reading. The thought of picking it up leaves me preferring finding a new TV show on Netflix. This is the book I whine to my husband about the typos or the way the story is dragging. This is the story that normally has typos AND a dragging story AND I cannot picture the book into a movie.

Another thing to remember when reading reviews is that one book is not going to please everyone. For example, The Life of Pi was this amazingly popular book. Everyone loved it! My husband kept telling me I had to read it. I just had to. So, I did and I could not get into it. It was a ONE STAR book for me. It was soooo very boring. However, if you look at Amazon it has 4.3 our of 5 stars with 6,627 reviews. 59% of them were 5 star reviews and only 4% of them were 1 star reviews.

Moral of this post: Definitely read multiple reviews. Read why they didn't or did like something. This will help you figure out if it's a book you are interested in reading or not.