I Wanted to Like This Book; I Thought I Would Like This Book, but, Not So Much...

Seriously people.  I love history, almost every kind of history poses some sort of something that I can latch my teeth on to.  But, come on.  When you write a book, please consider that even academic readers enjoy good books.  When you string together long lists of factual stuff, but don't connect it in any sort of meaningful way, I just think - God, please let me get out of this book ALIVE! 

What's worse is when the title, cover images, interior images, intro and conclusion, transition passages between chapters all tell the reader you are going to take them on an exciting, soulful, and passionate ride rich with human drama....and then you fall FLAT.  How does an author do all those things previously mentioned and then just sandwich it around long lists of facts, endless facts, boring, meaningless facts? Facts are just data, unless they are connected in some meaningful way. Ugh.

To that end, it has recently occurred to me that there is a distinct difference between writing a dissertation and publishing a book, even an academic one, that less than 5% of the country will ever read.  It appears as if this person wrote hir dissertation, then, in order to make it publishable, revamped the intro, conclusion, and transitions to make it more booklike.  However, the inside still forces the reader to swallow the author's research skills, without the advent of meaningful connection or theory.  I can't argue with hir argument, because I'm not sure ze had one, it seemed to just be a string of facts, graphs, and statistics. [Note: hir is the gender neutral pronoun combo for him/her and ze is the gender neutral pronoun for she/he; that way, ideally, it makes it more difficult to ascertain who one is speaking about]

Will not be recommending that one to anyone anytime soon.

PS - It is not whatever book the sidebar says I'm reading. :o)

**Miss Clio

Book Analysis

I received back my first book analysis today. I was pleased with the grade I earned, especially considering that it was such an uncomfortable assignment to complete. Former Dr. S always quipped that "outside your comfort zone is where you grow" so I guess I was growing and that was why I was uncomfortable.


For the uninitiated, a book analysis evaluates a book by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of its arguments, assessing the author's methodologies and sources, as well as looking at the book's value within the broader scholarship and historiography. As I understand it these are pretty common in graduate school, so I had better get it together and work out my misgivings.

Those misgivings stem from several things. Firstly, who am I to review this scholar's work? I am a neophyte historian and I sort of cringe because I feel like "historian" is a title I haven't yet earned. Secondly, my knowledge base regarding the subject pales in comparison to the author. He/She/They know all the ins and outs. I, on the other hand, am only familiar with broad overarching themes and have a framework of cursory knowledge to help contextualize. Current Dr. S assured me that I was entitled to my opinion and that I could effectively evaluate whether or not the author produced enough evidence to prove her thesis, whether or not I agreed with said thesis and what additions or deletions I would like to see. So, that's what I did and it felt very odd, but I received high marks, so apparently I am on the right track. The third hurdle is the page limit. There is so much to write, it is sometimes difficult to sift through and sort the most important/pertinent information with a 2 pg limit. Unfortunately, I'm almost always over and at some point, I'm going to run into a prof that doesn't appreciate my verbiage.

Dr. S gives amazing feedback on graded papers. She is very open about my strengths and weaknesses and that is a good thing. I struggle with writing killer topic sentences (former professor scared me so much that now I just freeze up) and it's good to know that they are getting stronger and I am feeling more confident in writing them. It's so good to see progress!

After handing in this analysis, I have committed myself to write mini-analyses of each chapter or page grouping of assigned reading. I have found this to be an extremely fruitful exercise and, surprisingly, I have found it changes the way I read.

No more official book analyses due this semester, but I'll keep trying to hone those skills so next time won't be so worrisome

PS - H-Net maintains a great stockpile of electronic reviews at
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/home.php

**Miss Clio

(Sources: http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/pics/jackets/g/gilmore_gender_afloat.jpg)