Sunday Brunch: Can We Rely On Book Ratings?

Brunch isn't really a big deal over here but I love the idea of it - and enjoy going to brunch whilst on holiday. Whenever I'm throwing together ideas for a new story, one of my favourite things to do is go Google Maps-ing for all the nice restaurants in the area. As I have dairy intolerance, I often have to watch what I eat at restaurants so it's not always a fun experience. However, the rise of all those Food Network shows and Pinterest and all the great reviews on Yelp and Chowhound allow me to live vicariously through all you gastronauts. 

So, I thought I'd try and start a new feature (I'm not good at keeping up features so we'll see) where we go for brunch on a Sunday, anywhere in the world, and have a chat. This week we'll be:

[SABRINA'S CAFE MENU]

I used to always find my new books on Goodreads. Sometimes I'd use the Amazon 'You Bought This, So You Might Like This' thing but I'd always go back to Goodreads to double check. Then I started this blog and started following more book bloggers, trusting their reviews and buying new books that way. 

My TBR/To-Get list (that's a whole other topic) was getting a little bit outdated so I decided to start again with an Excel spreadsheet, splitting them into various categories and adding all the new books from all the WoW posts and whatnot. In order to do this properly, I had to go through them all and decide if I really needed to add them to the new and improved list. So, I started looking through Goodreads and that's when I realised the types of reviews have changed. 

To be honest, I've come to the conclusion that for certain types of books - often YA/NA and 'chick-lit'/women's fiction - Goodreads ratings are quite unreliable. I'm not sure if this is because there are loads of super fans? Maybe people are just more liberal with their five star giving these days? On the other hand, there are quite a lot of one or two star ratings too. I can count on one hand how many books I've given two stars and I don't think I've ever given a book one star! I don't know what's going on - maybe it's all in my head- but it seems like the rating on Goodreads and my overall opinion are more and more at odds these days. I like to think I'm fairly measured when it comes to my feelings about a book although I do tend to lean towards the more positive side. I'm usually quite optimistic whilst reading and will often see a book through to the end, even if I'm not one hundred per cent won over. So, with all that in mind, I don't think I'm being harsh or unfair when I'm disappointed in a book that had a 4.5 rating on Goodreads that, in my opinion, would be more of a 3. 

I recently bought and read The Boys of Summer by C.J Duggan. I wanted something quick and easy and fun, so quickly scanned through Amazon's suggestions on my Kindle. The Boys of Summer was recommended, so as I said above, I cross-referenced with Goodreads and saw it had a 4.0 from 1900+ ratings. Sounded good enough to me. Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this book (I gave it a 3) but I was just disappointed. I was expecting something more thanks to the rating. For comparisons sake, Winger (which is still in the top three of my favourite books of the year) is a 4.17. Perhaps I'm comparing apples to oranges but The Boys of Summer was no Winger. I've had a similar experience with Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout, which to me is Twilight with aliens. It's a quick read but again not really a 4.3, at least not for me. 

So, why do people give such high ratings these days? I was thinking perhaps reviewers feel compelled to give higher ratings if the book has been given to them as an ARC. Obviously, book blogging can be competitive - the more ARCs you get and author interviews and giveaways and followers, the bigger and 'better' you are - so you don't want to burn bridges with publishers I suppose. However, if this is the case, then it's not fair to the regular readers who just want to find a good book via Goodreads but end up disappointed because the ratings are very unbalanced. 

Also, as I said above, the New Adult ratings are often sky high and I've definitely learnt to not consider the Goodreads ratings for these. In fact, if I'm going to read New Adult, I'll consult Dahlia's list and go from there. I think that's because NA readers know what they want, and know what they're looking for, and the books often always give them what they want. So, why wouldn't you give it 5 stars?

Then again, I was thinking, can we rely on ratings at all? Unless you're a professional reviewer or a librarian or another literary related profession, I think it would be hard to provide an objective review. So, the way we feel about a book, and our subsequent review of it, is dependent on so many things - our mood, the weather, our location, genre bias etc. 

All in all, I've changed the way I use Goodreads. Now, I tend to just look at the synopsis and ignore the rating. I've learnt to trust a couple of bloggers who have similar tastes to me and they haven't really let me down in the recommendations department as of yet. That doesn't mean to say I won't try something one of these bloggers has deemed not so good but they often provide balanced reviews and qualify their issues with the books. I also check out Top Ten Tuesday and Waiting on Wednesday posts when I have time. I've also gone back to taking recommendations from my monthly magazines. I've been getting the US issues of Glamour and Marie Claire regularly for about a year now and find they often recommend books that I end up enjoying. After all, I found Gone Girl through Elle magazine when it was released.

So, I've talked far too much. What do you think about ratings? Should we just get rid of the ratings system altogether, perhaps? 

What's Occurring?

As I've said before, I've never really gotten into the habit of doing a Friday links type post but I often have little topics that I want to talk about or come across things in the week that warrant sharing, so I'll try and do this at least once a month. 

The Pages

• I've read quite a lot recently but haven't felt like doing full reviews for any of them. That's not to say they weren't good. I might do a mini round up at some point.
• Right now, I'm reading Obsidian by Jennifer L.Armentrout. It cropped up on a lot of lists for Top Ten Tuesday - Books like X TV Show/Movie, with the show being Star-Crossed. I've nearly finished it and, well...hmmm. We'll talk about it in relation to something else tomorrow. 
• I finally read Life In Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland and LOVED it. Such an inspiring story. I also read Listen To The Squawking Chicken by Elaine Lui, which was so funny and heartwarming. Her mum sounds like a riot. 

The Soundtrack

• I love Rita Ora's new song I Will Never Let You Down and Pharrell's Marilyn Monroe. Also still listening to Foster the People's latest album. Arctic Monkey's AM is STILL going strong for me. I haven't listened to them this much since Favourite Worst Nightmare.
• As you can probably guess from my reading habits, I'm in a bit of a dance mood at the moment. As a result, I loved this video for Sia's Chandelier! I don't watch Dance Mom's (I tried to watch it once but couldn't stand the teacher woman) but apparently the young dancer is a regular on the show. Amazing. 

The Words

• Technically I won Camp NaNoWriMo last month BUT I forgot you have to do the validate your word count thing so didn't get a badge or anything. Still, I was pleased to have met - and exceeded - my target. 
• Also, I'm having fun playing with ideas for a new one. 

And The Rest...

• Still no luck on the job front :(
• I have recently discovered the wonder that is Chicago Fire. LOVE IT. It's like a tamer Rescue Me.
• Thanks to Clear Eyes, Full Shelves I've been pushed to finish the first season of Dance Academy so I can get to the second season, which was written by the immensely talented Melina Marchetta.
• Last week, I saw The Showman of Our Time a.k.a Mr Barry Manilow at a taping of The Graham Norton Show. It was great, especially as we got treated to a second performance of I Write The Songs due to technical issues. 
• Only two weeks until Star Trek Live, which I cannot wait for. It's one of those events where they show the film and the score is played live alongside. That score is one of my absolute favourites (I wasn't keen on anything about Into Darkness). 
• Let's finish with a video of Misty Copeland. After finishing the book, I watched dozens of Youtube videos of her because I've never had the honour of seeing her perform live. For some reason, I never used to watch any ballet or orchestra performances on Youtube because I thought it wouldn't be the same as seeing it live - like something would be lost - but I've gotten over that. Anyway, enjoy!

Only Boring People Are Bored

Mad Men Wednesday means more of my favourite adverts.

As summer approaches, the fashion brands are putting their best foot forward ad wise.

Missguided - Born As A Unicorn 



Everyone's loving Sleigh Bells, aren't they? I think this song was used in the promos - and in the film? I only got through 20 minutes - for The Bling Ring. Fun advert. (It's called Kids if you want to know). Very Nasty Gal-esque.

Tesco F&F - Feel the Heat Summer 2014 

I really thought this was Missguided/BooHoo etc to begin with. Great advert - the music really helps. The Tesco creative department have been really on trend of late (even ahead at times).

French Connection did have one I think but I only saw it once and can't find a video. Well, there's a S/S 14 video on their Youtube page but I'm not sure if that's the same advert. I'm not so keen on that one, so I'll keep it on the backburner.


Vodafone - Spotify (RKCR/Y&R)

Not fashion related. Just makes me smile.

I'm Still Waiting For That Manhattan...

So, Don, Peggy, Joan, and I have all made up again - yay! I finally got around to finishing season 6 of Mad Men (a whole year later) and have caught up with the first three episodes of season 7 - part 1. In celebration, I thought I'd revive Mad Men Wednesday, which kind of started last year but fizzled out once I dropped the show. Obviously. So, let's cut the chit chat and get on with the ad's (both Wieden + Kennedy, sorry. I don't work for them, I swear). 

Cravendale - Barry The Biscuit Boy  (Wieden + Kennedy)

I laughed so hard the first time I saw this and still it never fails to produce a chuckle. If you can't view the video for whatever reason, I beg you to go and find it elsewhere. You won't be sorry. I would love to have a conversation with the person who came up with this - I'm sure it would be interesting to say the least.

Nike - Winner Stays (Wieden + Kennedy)

The World Cup is almost upon us. Need I say more?

We Need Diverse Books

I'm sure by now you've all seen #weneediversebooks on Twitter, which is part of the We Need Diverse Books campaign. Obviously, as a black Caribbean Brit, this is very important to me and I wholly back the campaign. I think it's obvious (or at least it should be) that we do in fact need diverse books and a shame that we have to campaign for it. However, for those who need convincing, here are a few reasons why I personally feel we need more diverse books.

First and foremost, so that young children today can see themselves reflected in the media in the same way I did when I was a child. Looking back on everything, I don't think I ever really questioned my identity. I have always been proud of who I am and where I come from and this all stemmed from good parenting, a strong faith, and the media I had access too. Growing up in the 90's, I never had to look very far to see someone like me reflected on the TV and my parents went to great lengths to make sure our books were diverse too. When we got home, we could watch Sister, Sister and Moesha and Smart Guy and The Proud Family. During the school holidays, our national TV stations had no problem showing The Cosby Show, Hangin' With Mr Cooper, Martin, The Oprah Winfrey Show and so many other shows featuring people who looked like me. This was so important considering we moved from a very diverse area to a predominantly white area. For a long time, my sister and I were the only black children in our primary school but we never experienced any problems and were always healthy, happy children. So much so, I never questioned the diversity issue until I started really getting into this blogging thing, particularly the YA section, and realised actually yes, all the characters in these YA contemporary books that I devour are rather homogenous. Where did it all go wrong?

To avoid tokenism and exoticism. These days, people in positions of authority seem to think they've passed the diversity test (because inclusion is a chore just like a test?) because there's one background character who is from a minority group. Similarly, this character might be added to the mix to 'spice things up'. Let's put in a 'fiesty Latina or a 'sassy' gay character. That's not cool. It perpetuates 'otherness' and elevates one group over another in a seemingly inoffensive way. 

I've seen a lot of people putting forward the vampire/monster example and think that's perfect. If Edward Cullen can make everyone's hearts flutter, why can't a HUMAN from a minority group do the same?! When you put it so simply, it really makes you think. 

So that when children of today go to interviews in 10-15 years time, they will know it is NOT normal or acceptable for the all white office of a multinational corporation to stop working and gawp as you walk by as if you're an alien. So that their interviewer will not go dead in the eyes when they realise you're not like everyone else in the office so won't be a good 'cultural fit', therefore won't even bother to interview you properly. Instead, said interviewer won't bat an eyelid because they will be interviewing the person whose CV/resume/cover letter suggested they are more than capable of sitting at the table. 

Regarding my own people, so that people know that our story is more than just slavery or poverty or rioting or rapping/dancing/entertaining/playing sports.

Finally, so that when another Lupita comes along (and hopefully there will be many more) we won't have magazines going into overcompensation mode because she's so 'different'. We won't have people who are 'pleasantly surprised' to hear someone like her speak so eloquently or be called beautiful. So that people like Lupita can just go on about their business doing what they love rather than having to carry the weight of all the other dark skinned people out there who have a dream because it will just be normal to have a dream of being on the big screen and be able to accomplish it regardless of your skin tone. 

I could go on forever but those are the first points that come to mind. If you feel we need more diverse books, join the campaign!