“I mention this because people like to grumble about book reviews being cronyism and favoritism and untrustworthy. That isn’t how they work in my experience. Indeed, book reviews are one of the rare publishing spaces largely free of that. Which is one reason it’s sad that book review sections keep dwindling. Blurbs are often connections, publicity is paid for, and buzz tends to be a bit of both, but professional book reviews aren’t either”