Every now and then, the thought occurs to me to do book reviews. I’m not really sure how that would work, though. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who are writers, and I have qualms about reviewing books written by people I know. Book A gains one star because the author also happens to make amazing brownies. Book B loses 4 stars because it was written by someone I don’t particularly like, and who cannot cook well enough to bribe me.

Did I mention that a co-worker came up to me the other day–eleven and a half months pregnant, and freshly engaged, and told me about the book she’d just published? A million billion stars because pregnant.

If someone’s a part of my writers’ community, and there aren’t happy comments, I always feel like I’m saying something that should have been said before the book was published.

And then, there’s the nature of monetizing a blog.

If you earn money by selling books, there’s no real benefit to posting a review that isn’t positive. Here’s a book. It sucks. It will appeal to recent lobotomy patients, and middle school boys in search of spit wad materials.

I could see doing a Book Recommendations thing. And the fact that everyone’s aware that the non-recommend-y books go in the “Can’t say anything nice” pile might make it seem a little more… honest.

Of course, there’s still the concept of tact and diplomacy.

So, how do other writers approach book reviews? Or do you?