@CWatkinsNash > Yes, it is new. I have been know to disagree with professional critics. Consider that those of us who are not professionals are the ones who actually pay for the books. Critics obtain them free or are reimbursed by their publishers. Recently a few of us have been able to volunteer our time to read new offerings in exchange for our opinions. I've been pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of books I've received with few exceptions, though, as I said above, I do preselect my choices.
I would hope that MR continues to be a drama-free venue. I suspect that if an author were to accost me online in a public forum, unless (s)he had specific points and did it in an open manner, I would simply ignore him/her. Any feedback should go offline unless it would be of benefit to the forum as a whole. This is a well moderated forum comprised of mostly serious readers as are GR and LT, and I've seen few outright attacks which would be a clear violation of forum regulations in any case. And of course, we publish few reviews here anyway. My signature line says it all.
I continue to rely largely on reviews of amateurs like myself to choose my reading material. All reviews are valuable, both good and bad. I would hate to see an unworthy book float through the cracks because we are too kind to call a spade a spade. Good thread.
