Reviewing the Review

Bloggers (and others) are abuzz about Sunday's article, "The Book Review: Who Critiques Whom--and Why?", written by New York Times Public Editor, Byron Calame. In this piece Calame unveils something many of us find mysterious: the book-review process at his own paper. Calame explains that his own inquiry was prompted by the NYTBR's recent list of "100 Notable Books of the Year." After the list was published earlier this month, he says, "calculations from several readers and bloggers soon turned up in my in-box. Of the 61 nonfiction books on the list, they noted, six were by Times staffers--enough to pique my interest in the overall book-review process at the paper." It should be enough to pique your interest, too.