Yesterday, a Farewell ...

Yesterday I retired from doing book reviews for Kirkus Reviews.*  I've been doing them since March 1999, and they now total more than 1550.

I realized, you see, that I cannot predict how I'm going to feel in the ensuing months as my cancer treatments intensify, and I do not want to accept an assignment that, perhaps, I won't be able to fulfill.

My friend Ron Antonucci started me on my book-review career. At the time I met him, he was a librarian here in Hudson, and he was also editing a publication called Ohio Writer--and he asked me one day if I'd do a review for him. I did. Then I did a few more.

Ron was also reviewing for Kirkus, and he recommended me to them. They sent me a book to review. I did it. They sent me another one. I did it. And soon I was a "regular." Kirkus is published on the 1st and 15th of every month, and I think I've had at least one review in every issue since March 1999.

All reviews are anonymous, by the way--though all the names of the reviewers are listed in each issue.

I do only nonfiction for Kirkus--history and memoir mostly (though every now and then I get a book about baseball or music)--and I have to say that, otherwise, I probably would not have read about 90% of the titles they send me--but I'm almost always glad, afterward, that I did. (Some exceptions, of course--principally memoirs by celebrities!)

When I was teaching at Western Reserve Academy (2001-11), I would do one title a week during the school year, more in the summer. And I realized I had to set up a routine if I was going to get all that work done.

So here's what I did. First thing every morning (at the coffee shop!) I would read 100 pp of the text--and take notes (oh, do I take notes!). I would plan to finish the book on Friday, then go home that day and write the review (while all was still fresh in my head). If the book was 300 pages (or so), I would start reading it on Wednesday; 400 pages; on Tuesday. Etc.

The reviews are each about 310 words--no matter how long the book is. So, I have had to write 310 words about 150-pp books, about 750-pp books. And everything in between.

I am proud to say that I never missed a deadline--hell, I was even reading at the Cleveland Clinic when I was recovering from prostate surgery in 2005! I read beside my sleeping father when he was dying in 1999. And in all other sorts of situations. I always had this feeling, you see, that my mother--a most organized woman--would know if I messed up. Couldn't have that!

And I did mess up now and then (I guess I have to confess that I'm a human being?)--getting a fact wrong, misquoting something. When those things happened, my editor would share with me the annoyed email from a writer--or his/her publisher. That was always fun.

But that happened only rarely--which is why, of course, that Kirkus has continued sending me titles.

Lately, those titles have been coming in electronic format--and I kind of like that: It's easier to keep an iPad open than a paperback!

I have only two books left; I will finish one tomorrow--the other next Friday. And that will be that.

I wrote to my editor yesterday to tell him about my decision--and the reasons for it. And he sent back a very kind note about my service for them.

More eye-dampness as a result.

Kirkus, by the way, led to another, related, gig with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and I did several hundred reviews for them until they basically shut down their books pages a few years ago. Oh, have I missed doing those!

It seems impossible to believe that I have reviewed for Kirkus for twenty-one years. The same span as from my birth through college graduation. Oh, am I old!


*Kirkus is a publication aimed at libraries, bookshops, collectors, and the like. Anyone can subscribe to it--and they have a robust online presence, as well.