Confessions of a book reviewer: the best of carte blanche

摘要

Michael Cart has been a columnist for the ALA journal Booklist for over 23 years. He has had a varied career, but throughout he has been an author and book reviewer, as well as a very effective journalist. He has selected 50 of his columns to reprint from his years with Booklist. He is currently active in the field of Young Adult Literature (YAL) for which he confesses a passion. This is reflected in some of the pieces in his collection which embraces his three key areas of activity: reading, writing and publishing. Columns vary in length and are grouped in eight categories (e.g. The lives that late they led: Biography). They are uniform in tone and style and have plenty ofcolourful anecdotes and observations. They are all unmistakable products of one exuberant but keenly observant lover of books and the culture of the readers he addresses. As he states: 'An easy informality is my goal' (p. 174). This accounts for his use of a certain folksiness with humour and colloquialisms. The confessions of the title are the revelations of how he has hit upon a style and manner which is the means of keeping his monthly columns informative, enjoyable and readable. There is nothing glib about this and he obviously disarming when he describes his passions and interests in reading and above all, in communicating.