{"uid": "AEBKGKE4ULWDJQSFRWRK33BOKJTA", "writer_prompt": "You are an expert at characterising how a specific human writes online book reviews.\n\nYou will be shown 8 examples of reviews written by ONE user, each preceded by the book's metadata. Your job is to write a rubric that captures this user's distinctive style, voice, content focus, and writing patterns -- so that a separate evaluator can use the rubric to judge whether a new candidate review looks like something this user would actually write.\n\nThe user's persona:\n<|The Start of Persona|>\nDemographics: Missing\nInterests: \n Unable to determine interests\nValues: \n Unable to determine values\nCommunication: \n Unable to determine communication style\nStatistics: \n Unable to determine statistics\n<|The End of Persona|>\n\nThe user's past reviews:\n--- Example 1 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Children's Books->Growing Up & Facts of Life\n- Title: The Three Little Rigs\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – Picture Book, May 10, 2005\n- Price: None\n- Author: David Gordon\n- Description: From School Library Journal Grade 1-3–Three little rigs are sent off by their mama to build their own individual garages. The blue one builds his out of wood, the yellow one uses bricks, and the red one makes his out of steel. The evil wrecking ball comes and smashes the first two. The final rig, along with his brothers, enlists the help of the cranes and sends the wrecking ball, the mean magnet, and the cruel cutter to their fiery deaths in the melting pot. This fractured tale is not for the faint of heart ...[truncated]\n- Features: From the author/illustrator of Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery ! \"Will mesmerize tool-and-vehicle-obsessed little ones\" (ALA Booklist ). \"Kids who love trucks will enjoy this adaptation\" (School Library Journal). When the three little rigs set out to build their own garages, each one thinks that his is going to be the strongest. But then the big bad wrecking ball comes to call and threatens to smash their new homes to smithereens. The brothers learn that it’s only by bravery and teamwork th ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nClever Adaptation: This is one of the more unique adaptations of The three Little Pigs I have read. A yellow, a blue, and a red rig set out on their own. David Gordon explains what tools and materials are used by each rig to build their own garage. The blue one uses wooden planks which are knocked down by the big, bad wrecking ball. The second uses stone blocks, which are also knocked down by the big, bad wrecking ball. The third rig uses steel beams to build his garage. The wrecking ball is unable to knock it down but returns with the mean magnet and the cruel cutter. In the end, the three villains are thrown into the melting pot.

Children who are interested in building and big machines will love this book. It is engaging, clever, and informative.

The illustrations are clear, bright, and strike a perfect balance between simplicity and detail. Although the main characters are machines, Gordon manages to infuse them with expression. The double-page spreads have the feeling of a movie screen, understandable since Gordon has worked for Pixar and other companies. I think they are digitally drawn. There are number of pages with interesting perspectives and shading is used well to provide mood.

Since the child, hopefully, already knows the story, the tension is reduced. But, Gordon arouses our curiosity as to how the formidable villain will be defeated. I would’ve liked the sentence explaining why the wrecking ball wanted to destroy all the garages. In the original version, we know that the big bad Wolf is hungry.

Well recommended.

For more picture book reviews, go to bferrante.wordpress.com/\n\n--- Example 2 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Children's Books\n- Title: Shape Capers\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – September 1, 2007\n- Price: 20.3\n- Author: Cathryn Falwell\n- Description: About the Author Cathryn Falwell's first book, Where's Nicky? , was published in 1991, and since then many books have followed, including the popular Turtle Splash! , which Kirkus Reviews called \"a lovely example of multidisciplinary bookmaking showing how science, art, and literature can all connect.\" She lives in Gorham, Maine.\n- Features: Shapes! Circles Squares Triangles Semicircles Rectangles What can you do with them? Anything! Everything! The only limit is your imagination. Come on! Let's go on a shape caper!\n\nReview by this user:\nfun while they learn: Mark Collins’ greatest talent lies in his illustrations. The cartoonish exaggeration will make children laugh out loud. It is the first day of holidays, and Ben is going to make the most of it. He rides his bike, hunts for sharks, paints a picture, jumps in puddles, and does far, far more. The little boy’s exuberance and delight with his experiences is clearly apparent on every page. His gentle enthusiasm for life is contagious.

The story is more of an anecdote than a plot. Ben is happy that it is the first day of summer and he isn’t going to waste a minute. He enjoys the day to the fullest and collapses happily into bed when night arrives. The rhyming text, sometimes ABAC and sometimes rhyming couplets, are well matched to the fast, fun filled pace of the child’s adventures.

There is no conflict in the story, no rising tension, no problem to solve. It is a simple romp from dawn till dusk. Not once does Ben resort to any screens for entertainment. Many of his toys and activities could be done by any child. This would be a great book to share with the child on holiday who says, “I’m bored.”\n\n--- Example 3 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Children's Books->Literature & Fiction\n- Title: The Wizard\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – Illustrated, June 26, 2007\n- Price: 24.49\n- Author: Jack Prelutsky\n- Description: From Publishers Weekly On a seemingly normal suburban cul-de-sac, one house is definitely out of character—the looming tower that's home to the title character. Dressed in a green robe and peaked hat decorated with stars and moons, He's tall and thin with wrinkled skin, writes Prelutsky, a tangled beard hangs from his chin. (The verse originally appeared in the 1976 collection Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep .) As he ponders in his wicked way/ what evil deed he'll do this day, the wizard decides to ...[truncated]\n- Features: The wizard, watchful, waits alone within his tower of cold gray stone and ponders in his wicked way what evil deeds he'll do this day. What do you think the wizard is planning to do? Conjure a magic spell? Turn a frog into a flea? Fill a cauldron with bubbling brew? You may think you know . . . but watch out. Because if the wizard is bored, he may come looking for you!\n\nReview by this user:\nGorgeous illustrations: This book is a wondrous blend of poetry and illustration. The cover draws you in immediately. A wizard, with long white hair and beard, wearing a green robe raises his arms to a magical light above. In one hand is a crooked wand. Caught in the rays is a small green frog. The picture fairly glows with magic.

The illustrations inside are not a disappointment. They are all exquisite two page illustrations. They gleam with magical charm.

The story rhymes but not in that irritating singsong way that many picture books adapt. It feels as though you are reading a book of poetry, much like one of my favorite books by Prelutsky The Dragon’s Are Singing Tonight.

It begins:

“The Wizard, watchful, waits alone

within his tower of cold gray stone

and ponders in his wicked way

what evil deeds he’ll do this day.”

A ragged crow, sitting on a cobwebbed table filled with magical paraphernalia, watches the Wizard as he gazes out his tower window onto the small town. The reader is instinctively intrigued as to what wickedness is about to unfold.

This story is basically a vignette wherein the Wizard transforms a frog into a flea into a pair of mice into a cockatoo into chalk into a silver bell and back into the bullfrog. Children may find it upsetting that at the end he dispenses of the bullfrog in a cloud of smoke. The story ends:

“Should you encounter a toad or lizard, look closely…

it may be the work of the Wizard.”

Although the story is easy to understand, I would recommend it for school-age children and up. Younger children, especially those who believe in magic, may be disturbed by the events.

School-age children who love magic and wizardry will be captivated by this beautiful book.\n\n--- Example 4 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Children's Books->Growing Up & Facts of Life\n- Title: The Truly Terribly Horrible Sweater...That Grandma Knit (Blossom Street Kids Books)\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – Picture Book, September 29, 2009\n- Price: 16.99\n- Author: Debbie Macomber\n- Description: From Booklist There’s probably not a knitter alive who hasn’t presented a handmade gift and wondered whether the recipient would use it or throw it in the closet. Cameron’s sweater from Grandma Susan gets the closet treatment—and worse. Although he loves his grandmother, her birthday present, a handmade striped sweater, is a huge disappointment. His goal is to get the sweater out of his life via the dog, a rummage sale, and smears of ketchup and mustard. His plans fail though, and he finds himself wearing t ...[truncated]\n- Features: Cameron loves his grandmother. She knows just what makes him tick. That's why he can't figure out why Grandma would send him a sweater—a truly terribly horrible sweater—for his birthday. Cameron pours mustard on his sweater. He puts it on his dog (in the rain). He even tries to send it to the thrift shop. But nothing works. Now Grandma is coming for the holidays, and Cameron has to wear her gift to him. But what's he going to say when she asks what he thinks about the sweater she made? With a sure hand and ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nGenuine and touching: Cameron is very excited to receive a birthday gift from his grandmother. She always gives him the best gifts, but this time he is deeply disappointed. Inside the box is a handknit sweater striped with green, blue, orange, and yellow. Cameron is mortified and vows to never ever wear it, especially in front of his friends. He tries a series of tricks to get rid of the sweater, but doesn’t succeed.

His mother says, “Grandma Susan would have been heartbroken if anything happened to this sweater.” Finally, Cameron begins to think about his grandmother’s feelings, but not enough to wearthe sweater. When grandma comes to visit, Cameron’s mother insists that he put on the sweater.

Grandma explains the significance of each color. Green represents Cameron’s excellent soccer skills, blue represents his success at learning to ride a two wheeled bike, orange represents his favorite fruit, yellow represents how happy his birth made the family, and red represents how he is always in his grandmother’s heart. Cameron’s attitude toward the sweater changes. He vows to wear it for a very long time.

Every child has received a gift that was disappointing. This book will remind them that the thought behind the gift is more important than the present itself. It also stresses the special link between grandmothers and their grandchildren and how different generations show their love in different ways. The story will encourage living life with a sense of gratitude, one of the most important keys to happiness.

Vincent Nguyen uses branch double spread pictures to illustrate the story. That this is a happy, loving family is apparent from the expressions of the characters.\n\n--- Example 5 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Children's Books->Growing Up & Facts of Life\n- Title: My Garden\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – Picture Book, February 23, 2010\n- Price: 14.39\n- Author: Kevin Henkes\n- Description: From School Library Journal Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 2—Imagination grows and spreads from the fertile pages of this book to the minds of young readers. Henkes's familiar illustration style invites children into a most unusual garden. It never needs weeding, the flowers are ever-blooming, and colors change just by thinking of them (even into patterns). \"In my garden, rabbits wouldn't eat the lettuce because the rabbits would be chocolate and I would eat them.\" Jelly beans would grow on bushes. Tomatoe ...[truncated]\n- Features: How does your garden grow? A wondrous New York Times bestselling picture book from Caldecott medalist Kevin Henkes. A girl helps out in her mother’s garden, but in the garden of her imagination, there are chocolate rabbits, tomatoes as big as beach balls, flowers that change color, and seashells. “This intimate exploration of a child’s burgeoning imagination hits every note right. Just plain perfect.” — Kirkus (starred review) “With its adroit look at a child’s colorful imagination, My Garden is as fresh an ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nGrowing Imagination: The picture book begins in reality with a little girl helping her mother in the garden. From there the child imagines the perfect, magical garden where nothing dies, flowers change color, rabbits are chocolate, and anything you plant including jellybeans and umbrellas will grow. The child discusses flowers and vegetables. At the end, the little girl decides to indulge her fantasy and secretly plants a seashell in the garden.

This simple story would be a wonderful accompaniment to discussion on gardens, what does and does not grow, and what work is necessary to maintain a garden. It encourages imagination. What would grow in your child's fantasy garden?

The illustrations are bright, simple, and charming. Every page is filled with luxurious color. The author/illustrator, Kevin Henkes, was awarded a Caldecott Medal for another book. His boldly outlined pictures are filled with action and expression. This charming picture book would make a lovely spring, Easter, Hanamatsuri, or birthday gift.

Bonnie Ferrante - author of The Amida Tree and other picture books\n\n--- Example 6 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Teen & Young Adult->Literature & Fiction\n- Title: Before I Fall\n- Subtitle: Paperback – June 1, 2021\n- Price: 9.59\n- Author: Lauren Oliver\n- Description: Review “Oliver’s debut novel is raw, emotional, and, at times, beautiful....readers will love Samantha best as she hurtles toward an end as brave as it is heartbreaking.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Samantha’s attempts to save her life and right the wrongs she has caused are precisely what will draw readers into this complex story and keep them turning pages until Sam succeeds in living her last day the right way.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review) “Oliver, in a pitch-perfect teen ...[truncated]\n- Features: Like Adam Silvera's They Both Die at the End and Colleen Hoover's It Ends with Us , Before I Fall raises thought-provoking questions about love, death, and how one person's life can affect so many others. With this stunning debut novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver emerged as one of today's foremost authors of young adult fiction. For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—\"Cupid Day\"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come wi ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nredemption is possible: I almost gave up on this book after the first chapter. I really disliked the protagonist. However, I'd heard good things about it so I persisted. By the fourth chapter, I was hooked. A fabulous book about growing up, bullying, insecurity, cliques, self-image, and karma. Powerful.\n\n--- Example 7 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Teen & Young Adult->Literature & Fiction\n- Title: Illegal\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – March 8, 2011\n- Price: 17.99\n- Author: Bettina Restrepo\n- Description: Review With searing realism, debut author Restrepo describes Nora's anger, desperation and loss of faith... This memorable coming-of-age story will awaken readers to the overlooked struggles of immigrants. --Kirkus - 2-15-2011Thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking... an excellent choice for a book discussion group or a class conversation starter about immigration, prejudice, or gangs --VOYA - 4 in quality and popularity From the Author I used to be an auditor at a chain of ethnic grocery stores, Fiesta M ...[truncated]\n- Features: In this timely and gripping novel, author Bettina Restrepo exposes the challenges of one girl’s unique yet universal immigrant experience. This is an eye-opening look into the harrowing journey a family takes to forge a more hopeful future. Nora is on a desperate journey far away from home. When her father leaves their beloved Mexico in search of work, Nora stays behind. She fights to make sense of her loss while living in poverty—in wait of her father’s return and a better day. When the letters and money s ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nA Heartbreaking Reality: A 13 year old girl and her mother enter the U.S. illegally to find her father who went there to work and disappeared. The family is poor because they have no water for their grapefruit grove. It doesn't go into detail about where the water went, but it seems pretty clear anyway. Nora is a sweet girl who loves her father, mother, and grandmother. They are willing to work, to learn, and to obey the law but because of the drought they are forced into living an unlawful life. A deeply moving and dignified story.

Bonnie Ferrante - Writer\n\n--- Example 8 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Children's Books->Cars, Trains & Things That Go\n- Title: Everything Goes: Stop! Go!: A Book of Opposites\n- Subtitle: Board book – Picture Book, December 26, 2012\n- Price: 7.99\n- Author: Brian Biggs\n- Description: From School Library Journal PreS-These books take advantage of toddlers' affection for vehicles to introduce simple concepts. The counting book goes from 1 bus to 10 bicycles and ends with \"1 BIG traffic jam!\" The book about opposites includes familiar terms such as \"Up, Down\" and \"Stop, Go.\" The large, clear texts stand out against the brightly colored backgrounds. The silly cartoon illustrations are as lively as the texts. People of all races and ages use the vehicles. A gray-haired woman rides a chopper ...[truncated]\n- Features: Learn about opposites with cool cars, trucks, trains, and more!\n\nReview by this user:\nClear and uncluttered: This is a cute concept book, clear and uncluttered. Each pair of opposites is presented on a double page spread. The first page says slow and has a man on a bicycle. The second says fast and has a racing car. All the pictures are cartoon and brightly colored. The other concepts are up and down, small and big, many and few, off and on, old and new, loud and quiet, far and near, and of course stop and go. There are bits of humor scattered throughout.

This is a great little board book for introducing a toddler to new vocabulary. Even though the pictures are simple cartoons they have just enough detail to intrigue the child.\n\nThe specific book this user is about to review:\n<|The Start of Book|>\n**User Amazon store: Brian Floca (Author)**: - Category: Books->Children's Books->Science Fiction & Fantasy\n- Title: The Frightful Story of Harry Walfish\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – January 1, 1997\n- Price: 16.95\n- Author: Brian Floca\n Brian Floca is the author and illustrator of Locomotive, winner of the Caldecott Medal; Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 (revised and expanded in 2019 for the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing); Lightship; The Racecar Alphabet; and Five Trucks. His most recent book, Keeping the City Going, is a tribute to the essential workers who stayed on the streets and on the job during the Covid-19 pandemic. Brian has illustrated Avi's Poppy Stories series, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan's Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, Laura Amy Schlitz's Princess Cora and the Crocodile, Maria Gianferrari's Hawk Rising, and other titles. In addition to the Caldecott, Brian's books have received four Robert F. Sibert Honor awards for distinguished informational books, a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, and have three times been selected for the annual New York Times Best Illustrated Books list.\n- Description: From School Library Journal Grade 2-4?On a visit to the natural history museum, Ms. Leonard-Brakthurst quietly gets her rampaging class's attention with a cautionary tale about Harry Walfish, her mischievous classmate who was once locked in the museum. Harry's initial glee changes to terror when the animals slowly come to life; fleeing wildly through the darkened halls, he ends up in the monkey room, where guards and his teacher find him at midnight, cowering in an exhibit case surrounded by animal specimens pressing on the glass. The creatures that regard Harry unblinkingly in Floca's cartoon illustrations seem more surprised and curious than menacing, and though Ms. Leonard-Brakthurst waves her arms dramatically, she tells the tale in a detached, precise way, inserting an occasional scientific name or fact, finishing with the assurance that, of course, she has only Harry's word that any of this happened. Children aren't likely to be as spooked by the episode as Ms. Leonard-Brakthurst's class is, but most will get the gently delivered point about behavior in public places.?John Peters, New York Public LibraryCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the Author Brian Floca is the author and illustrator of the Caldecott Medal-winning book Locomotive . He also wrote and illustrated Lightship and Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 , both Sibert Honor Books, and illustrated Avi's Poppy Stories series as well as Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan's Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring , also a Sibert Honor Book. Brian grew up in Texas and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. Find him online at www.brianfloca.com.\n- Features:\nGuiding her class through the Natural History Museum, Ms. Leonard-Brakthurst teaches her students about a special bird's nesting habits through an overlay of the hilarious tale of the rambunctious Harry Walfish.\n- Details:\n Publisher: Orchard Books (January 1, 1997)\n Language: English\n Hardcover: 32 pages\n ISBN 10: 0531330087\n ISBN 13: 978-0531330081\n Reading age: 5 - 9 years\n Lexile measure: 900L\n Grade level: Kindergarten - 3\n Item Weight: 1.01 pounds\n Dimensions: 9.25 x 0.25 x 10.5 inches\n<|The End of Book|>\n\nFirst, PREDICT the substantive review THIS user would most likely write about THIS book, using their persona + past reviews + this book's context. Then turn that prediction into a rubric.\n\nWrite 8-12 numbered criteria that a judge will use to check whether a CANDIDATE review COVERS THE KEY POINTS this user would actually make about THIS book. Ground every criterion in the user's likely CONTENT, not surface style:\n- Their likely OVERALL STANCE / verdict on this book (would they like or dislike it, and why), inferred from their taste and this book's genre/premise/themes.\n- The SPECIFIC aspects they would most likely comment on here -- name concrete elements from THIS book (particular plot points, characters, themes, pacing, craft, comparisons) that a reader like this user reacts to.\n- Their characteristic OPINIONS / reactions (what they would praise or criticize here) and the direction/strength of sentiment.\n- Any content they habitually include (recommendation, audience, warnings, comparisons).\n\nWrite the criteria to match HOW the candidate will be graded (coverage of the user's real review minus a penalty for extra content):\n- Each criterion should reward COVERING a specific likely key point, checkable in a short review.\n- Make them DISCRIMINATING: a candidate that writes a generic or merely on-topic review WITHOUT the user's specific likely take must score LOW; only a candidate that hits the user's actual likely points and stance scores HIGH.\n- Include at least one criterion that PENALIZES speculative, hedging, off-target, or padded content not central to what this user would say.\n- Do NOT reward surface formatting.\n\nOutput ONLY the rubric:\n\n1. \n...\n", "num_candidates": 255, "top_gold_scores": [1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9, 0.9]} {"uid": "AEENSLZS6WAJQE7GRMNHI74TIYYA", "writer_prompt": "You are an expert at characterising how a specific human writes online book reviews.\n\nYou will be shown 8 examples of reviews written by ONE user, each preceded by the book's metadata. Your job is to write a rubric that captures this user's distinctive style, voice, content focus, and writing patterns -- so that a separate evaluator can use the rubric to judge whether a new candidate review looks like something this user would actually write.\n\nThe user's persona:\n<|The Start of Persona|>\nDemographics:\n age group: approximately 43 years old (was 42 in 2009, last response in 2010)\n occupation: former manager with 'long tenure in management' (ended ~2008), technology professional with IT experience\n other: married (references 'married man' with familiarity), long-term technology user since at least 2002\nInterests: \n Technology books and operating systems, particularly Windows versions and Photoshop Elements across multiple releases\n War literature and military narratives, especially Iraq War fiction and non-fiction ('The Last Day,' 'Our Boys')\n Sports narratives and journalism, particularly football stories ('Our Boys' about Kansas high school football)\n Crime fiction and noir literature (reviews of 'Gutshot Straight,' 'Slammer,' 'Spooner')\n Literary fiction with complex narrative structures and multiple perspectives\n Digital photography and image editing techniques and workflows\n Film and cinema, frequently referencing movies like 'Fargo,' 'Frost/Nixon,' 'The Conversation,' 'Taxi Driver'\n Business management practices and organizational behavior (performance review systems)\n Autobiographies and memoirs, particularly those blending humor with serious themes (Craig Ferguson)\n 1970s cultural and political history ('Strange Days Indeed')\n Computer hardware and system building ('Building a PC For Dummies')\n Publishing industry practices and book quality standards\nValues: \n Accuracy and currency of information: criticizes 'Building a PC' for being 'at least a hardware/software generation behind' with 'No discussions of Pentium 4 class systems'\n Completeness and thoroughness: praises books that are 'comprehensive, informative, and presented with orderly structure and excellent readability'\n Authenticity in storytelling: appreciates when authors 'write it just as he sees it' and criticizes when 'Nobody in this book does anything that surprises us'\n Practical utility over theory: values books that help users 'harness its full power' and provide 'sound advice'\n Intellectual honesty: criticizes works with 'fundamental errors' and appreciates authors who are 'brutally honest'\n Nuance and complexity: frustrated by oversimplification, noting 'things can't always be as nice as they seem' and seeking 'what changed him?'\n Respect for reader intelligence: praises authors who 'treat readers as intelligent (rather than as \"dummies\")'\n Balance in criticism: consistently notes both strengths and weaknesses, stating 'These are all overlookable shortcomings' while identifying issues\n Empathy for veterans and disabled: though critical of execution, respects books addressing 'combat-wounded veterans and respect for the disabled'\n Quality craftsmanship in writing: values 'gorgeously written' prose and 'skilled blend of humor and darkness'\n Transparency about data collection and privacy: notes Adobe's 'wide scope of data collection' should be disclosed\n Evidence-based decision making: frustrated when conclusions lack 'empirical data (rankings and scoring)'\nCommunication: \n Long-form, detailed reviews averaging 400-500 words with sophisticated analytical structure\n Frequent use of structured critique format: opening context, detailed analysis, concluding recommendations\n Liberal use of parenthetical asides and em-dashes to add nuance: '(or did they really? hmmmm...we're just not sure when the pages end)'\n Comparative recommendations: 'consider the OReilly \"PC Hardware in a Nutshell\" book instead' and 'Combine this book and David Pogue's Windows 7'\n Literary and film references to contextualize: 'I was reminded of William Macy as Jerry Lundegaard in \"Fargo\"'\n Rhetorical questions for emphasis: 'How can I be so hard-hearted to offer just one star to a well-intentioned book'\n Direct quotations from books being reviewed to support analysis: extensively quotes passages as evidence\n Balanced tone that acknowledges both merits and flaws: 'These are small shortcomings that do not detract seriously from the overall worth'\n Use of ellipses for dramatic effect or trailing thoughts: 'Cover-to-cover fun; intelligent, funny and entertaining...'\n Technical precision when discussing technology: 'tactile commander' vs 'tactical commander' correction\n Conversational yet authoritative voice: 'If you're a fan of large doses of literary conceit, go ahead and read it'\n Structured opening hooks: often begins with thematic statements or questions before diving into analysis\nStatistics: \n Average response length: approximately 400-500 words, with range from 150 to 600+ words\n Frequent opening phrases: 'In [book title],' 'If you,' 'While,' 'This is,' 'The book'\n Common transitional phrases: 'in the end,' 'less satisfying,' 'more correctly,' 'in order,' 'beyond'\n Consistent use of colon-structured sentences for elaboration and lists\n Heavy use of parenthetical clarifications and asides (averaging 3-5 per review)\n Frequent comparative constructions: 'rather than,' 'instead of,' 'more than,' 'less than'\n Regular use of conditional statements: 'If you want,' 'If this describes you,' 'If you're familiar'\n Typical sentence structure: complex sentences with multiple clauses, averaging 20-30 words per sentence\n Common critical phrases: 'falls short,' 'shortcomings,' 'deficiencies,' 'flawed by,' 'fails to'\n Recommendation patterns: often ends with 'read it for' or 'if you [condition], then [recommendation]' structure\n<|The End of Persona|>\n\nThe user's past reviews:\n--- Example 1 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Short Stories & Anthologies\n- Title: Further Interpretations of Real-life Events\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – January 1, 2012\n- Price: None\n- Author: Kevin Moffett\n- Description:\n- Features: A dazzling new story collection from brilliant, young, award-winning writer Kevin Moffett, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events illuminates the intimate experiences of characters caught between aspiration and achievement, uncertainty and illumination, inertia and discovery, the past and the future. Channeling unexpected, eclectic voices in a collection perfectly suited to readers of Daniyal Mueenuddin, Alice Sebold, and Dave Eggers, Moffett delivers a nuanced, powerful, humorous, and moving meditatio ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nClever, spare and entertaining short stories...: ...that move at a fast pace.

Kevin Moffet's \"Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events\" is a collection of nine stories that are variously funny and sad, and all clever.

In the hierarchy of contemporary writing, short stories probably occupy the same space as essays and poetry, where they get little mainstream affection, but are followed by those who appreciate the skills applied in a unique writing craft.

Moffett presents us small casts of characters in various states of disrepair, and does so in stories that are rather spare, very fast moving and infused with subtle humor.

The title story --the first one presented in the book-- was by far my favorite. In a writing seminar within a short story, the narrator --a writer himself-- flashes back to the lessons of a fabled fiction writing teacher who influenced his craft.

If you're a fan of short fiction, or are looking for an opportunity to become one, this book is a good choice.\n\n--- Example 2 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Science Fiction & Fantasy->Fantasy\n- Title: Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy, 1)\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – October 28, 2014\n- Price: 8.99\n- Author: Ilona Andrews\n- Description: Review “Ilona Andrews’ books are guaranteed good reads.” — Patricia Briggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author “With heart-pounding romance and non-stop action, this is Ilona Andrews at her best!” — Jeaniene Frost, New York Times bestselling author “Addictive, imaginative, and incredibly sexy.” — Eloisa James, New York Times bestselling author “Andrews serves up a refreshing new magical society, excellent world-building, beguiling characters, and strong storytelling...Romantic sparks and a tangled mystery ...[truncated]\n- Features: In this spellbinding first novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews’s urban fantasy Hidden Legacy series, private detective Nevada Baylor navigates her way through an alternate world where dynasties, built on inherited wealth and magic, guide the course of humanity. ?Nevada Baylor runs a small-time detective agency in Houston, Texas, busting scammers, exposing cheaters, and dealing with petty criminals. She’s very good at her job—helped by a magical ability to sense when someone tells the ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nNot my usual fare...but immensly readable...: ...I'm not normally a reader of genre fiction, and confronted the unopened pages of \"Burn For Me\" with the same level of anticipation I gave to a large serving of spinach as a 6-year old.

The result now, like then, was rather surprising. Eventually I came to appreciate that fresh spinach, cooked (or not) and properly seasoned has charms all its own. This book came was pleasantly refreshing to somebody utterly unschooled in the ways of genre fiction.

In a semi-dystopic current world, some people are skilled users of various forms of magical powers; those who have harnessed the most skill in use of these powers enjoy influence and privilege that others do not.

Private Investigator Nevada Baylor (her power: she can tell when somebody is lying; great skill for a PI, dontcha think?) and her principal antagonist (and, since this is the lead in a series, future love interest?) Mad Rogan are both in pursuit of the same \"Prime\" power wielder gone bad, Adam Pierce (whose magic is fire).

I'd like to say hilarity ensues, but there is much more than that in their present (and future) relationship.

This contains graphic novel type violence, and enough discussions of non-magical weapons and technology that most men should be able to read this without cringing (just hide the cover from your most macho friends). On the fringe are enough badasses to fill half a dozen Quentin Tarantino films.

Both the main and supporting characters are interesting enough that you do become invested in their fate. The dialog is crisp and effectively propels the story forward.

For those who aren't normally readers of genre fiction or already familiar with the husband-wife duo that created this story: keep an open mind and keep this nearby for your next downtime reading adventure. It's worth the quick reading time to explore.\n\n--- Example 3 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Sports & Outdoors\n- Title: Stumbling on Wins: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – January 1, 2010\n- Price: 33.0\n- Author: David J. Berri\n- Description: Review As seen on The New York Times' Freakonomics blog, ESPN.com's True Hoop, and Slate.com. \"In Stumbling on Wins , sports economists Berri (Southern Utah Univ.) and Schmidt (College of William and Mary) follow up their The Wages of Wins (with Stacey Brook, CH, Jan'07, 44-2764) with more modeling and number-crunching applications. The holy grail remains the same: understanding and improving decision making on the court, field, and ice and in the front offices of North American professional team sports. Su ...[truncated]\n- Features: The next quantum leap beyond Moneyball , this book offers powerful new insights into all human decision-making, because if sports teams are getting it wrong this badly, how do you know you're not? Sometimes the decisions that teams make are simply inexplicable. Consider: sports teams have an immense amount of detailed, quantifiable information to draw upon, more than in virtually any other industry. They have powerful incentives for making good decisions. Everyone sees the results of their choices, and the ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nProbably not a good choice for hard core fans...: ..of either sports OR statistics.

Confession: It took me two years to finish my first year of high school algebra...and I wasn't allowed to return for my sophomore year of college until finishing a second year of high school algebra in a summer session.

I avoided statistics in later studies until my curriculum left no choice. While I did far better than any of my algebra teachers might have predicted, I have no illusions about my ability to DO statistics today. I can however appreciate meaningful statistics, and I learned enough to understand when data is being parsed in a worthwhile way.

To the extent that David Berri and Martin Schmidt provide vignettes of selected sports statistics (from the NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL) this book is interesting enough. Yet the complexity of modern professional sports offers so many potential variables for analysis (not to mention those ever-present intangibles, such as weather or officiating or the utter unpredictability of team performance from one game to the next) left me to wonder:
did they pick the right stuff to analyze? I can't answer that question, but I sure keep asking it over and over. Hard core statistics and spreadsheet geeks might find themselves asking the same question. In fairness, the closing pages of this book concede the fundamental flaw in trying to force individual performance metrics (such as a pitcher's win-loss record) into a team context.

Sports fans looking for riveting prose blending sporting achievement with quantitative analysis will find meticulously documented statistical data and processes, but mostly about settled sporting business that the analysis doesn't bring to life in any novel way. If, however you've studied stats or quantitative analysis in the social sciences, you'll find yourself in familiar territory as the authors present tabular data and review their methodology. In doing so, they remove much of the possible joy for those seeking a few minutes of escape from worrisome world might expect in a \"sports\" book.\n\n--- Example 4 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Reference->Writing, Research & Publishing Guides\n- Title: Presentations in Action: 80 Memorable Presentation Lessons from the Masters\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – January 1, 2011\n- Price: 5.15\n- Author: Jerry Weissman\n- Description: From the Back Cover “Jerry Weissman is the Jedi Master of presentations and effective communication. I’ve added this important and to-the-point book to my Jerry Weissman collection. Another fabulous read from the Silicon Valley legend.” Garr Reynolds , author of Presentation Zen and The Naked Presenter “Across all fields there is one common trait of leaders: the ability to persuade groups to follow. This is the field guide to persuasion, thus the field guide to successful leadership.” Scott Cook , Co-Founde ...[truncated]\n- Features: World-renowned presentation coach Jerry Weissman has spent 20 years helping top executives succeed in the most important business presentations of their lives, and he’s learned the best way to get his message across is to show his techniques in action. Weissman does just that in Presentations in Action: 80 Memorable Presentation Lessons from the Masters . He teaches how to make spectacularly successful presentations by showing exactly how great presenters have done it. Weissman dives into his library of out ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nGreat resource for anybody working in front of a crowd...: ...with or without PowerPoint.

But if you're stuck like many of us with the expectation that your presentation will be supported by the lingua franca that PowerPoint has become, this book offers even more value as a powerful weapons in your audience-taming tool kit.

Jerry Weismann's \"Presentations in Action\" offers 80 separate vignettes on presentations techniques in five broad categories:
-Content
-Graphics
-Delivery
-Q & A
-Integration

While many of these address specific PowerPoint issues (fonts, color selection, animations, graphics), a greater portion address knowledge transfer based on lessons from artists, writers, athletes, politicians, business people and the media. Most are less than three pages long, and the chunking of this information allows this book to be read in almost any order and absorbed in almost any amount of free time.

Anybody who speaks in front of others --whether a captive audience of students in a classroom, or a skeptical audience of potential customers (or investors!) who are waiting for you to *show* them-- can benefit from these lessons.

Even if you are a regular in front of groups, if you're looking for some tips to freshen up your persona: this book is an excellent resource to help improve your game.\n\n--- Example 5 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Business & Money->Skills\n- Title: Pearson Business Reference and Writer's Handbook (with downloadable ebook access code)\n- Subtitle: None\n- Price: 19.41\n- Author: Roberta Moore\n- Description:\n- Features: This easy-to-use reference tool helps users quickly access the information they need to solve writing problems and improve their use of Standard English. Offering a two books-in-one approach, it includes principles for producing grammatically correct documents (business reference manual) and concrete examples of how to improve and modify writing to meet specific communications objectives (writing handbook). Its functional organization is underscored by its color-coded design, clearly distinguishing between ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nEven the most confident writers can use a little help...: ..and there's seemingly an endless supply of writing aids in a crowded market promising to help you!

I'm not suggesting this is the only writing reference to keep near your desk; if you work in a large organization, you can expect to balance the advice in this book with what your own organizational style guide prescribes.

Nicely organized into three major content areas:
-Grammar, Mechanics and Usage
-Writing Process and Style
-Document, Content, Format and Design

These are further divided into 11 sections providing the detailed discussions 8-10 major content points for each section.

A final fourth part provides an excellent index and a very user-friendly quick reference index.

The paper copy of this book is spiral bound, allowing it to lay flat when you refer to it. The inside front cover includes and outlined table of contents and the inside rear cover includes an alphabetical topical index. Both of these guides to content contain fullly detailed versions (at the front and rear of the book, respectively).

In addition to the logical four-part organization, each major part is also color coded within the book (with tabs visible on the fore and top edges. Good enough, but the shade of orange selected for the fourth part doesn't have good contrast with the white labels; this may be an issue in poor lighting or some visually-challenged readers).

Overall, the advice is sound in this book. You may have your own preferences or organizational requirements for other approaches to writing, but if you are working alone and need a solid writing reference, this is very good choice.\n\n--- Example 6 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Biographies & Memoirs->Historical\n- Title: Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West\n- Subtitle: Paperback – Illustrated, March 1, 1992\n- Price: 15.99\n- Author: Wallace Stegner\n- Description: Review \"This book goes far beyond biography, into the nature and soul of the American West. It is Stegner at his best, assaying an entire era of our history, packing his pages with insights as shrewd as his prose.\" —Ivan Doig About the Author Wallace Stegner (1909–1993) published more than two dozen books throughout his life, including the novels Angle of Repose , which won the Pulitzer Prize; Crossing to Safety ; The Big Rock Candy Mountain ; and The Spectator Bird , which won the National Book Award. An e ...[truncated]\n- Features: From the “dean of Western writers” ( The New York Times ) and the Pulitzer Prize winning–author of Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety , a fascinating look at the old American West and the man who prophetically warned against the dangers of settling it In Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Wallace Stegner recounts the sucesses and frustrations of John Wesley Powell, the distinguished ethnologist and geologist who explored the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon, and the homeland of Indian tribes of the American ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nAdventure, religion, culture, politics, geography and WATER in the American west...: ...wrapped up in a lyrically written and finely researched history.

I had not read anything by Wallace Stegner for many years, until a recent trip to the Grand Canyon restored my interest in the history of its exploration. Many choices are available to discover the history of the last part of the American west to become marked as something other than \"unknown\" on government maps. In \"Beyond the Hundredth Meridian\" Stegner expands the horizon beyond the confines of the dangerous canyon walls that threatened John Wesley Powell's 1869 expedition through the Grand Canyon.

To be sure, Stegner is an excellent chronicler of the that trip down the Colorado. He captures the adventure, the danger, the great unknowns that faced Powell's crew. That voyage is the centerpiece of the first half of the book, and could stand on its own as a a tour de force of American discover.

Stegner gives us much more. He incorporates sophisticated discussions of the cultural climate, and the intersection of antebellum political mores in Washington, the fabric of relationships between the US government, native Americans, the Mormons and western settlers. He illustrates fine points of topography, geology, geography and river hydrology as he focuses on the essential element of any migration to the west: water. He explores the grand topics and the often overlooked (would \"Big Canyon\" be as good a name as \"Grand Canyon\" ? It almost got this name!).

As these lessons unfold, the book never comes across as a textbook. The writing is vibrant and often lyrical, without being overblown or self important. If you've spent any time in the parts of the United States where the rain is scarce and the vistas are vast, this book will provide an important education in the many forces that came to bear on its settlement. Even if you haven't, you'll acquire a solid foundation in the complex calculus that provides the initiative for discovery.

This quite simply a great piece of historical writing.\n\n--- Example 7 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Mystery, Thriller & Suspense->Mystery\n- Title: Slammer\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – International Edition, November 18, 2009\n- Price: 5.97\n- Author: Allan Guthrie\n- Description: From Publishers Weekly Edgar-finalist Guthrie ( Savage Night ) explores the tenuous division between truth and desperate fiction in the mind of a rookie prison guard in this gritty thriller. In 1992, having recently relocated to Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife, Lorna, and young daughter, Caitlin, Nick Glass manages to form an uneasy friendship with Mafia, a nearly blind inmate, whose crime was so horrific that no one will talk about it, at a prison for violent offenders nicknamed the Hilton. With abuse c ...[truncated]\n- Features: Newly minted prison officer Nicholas Glass has fallen in with the wrong crowd at \"The Hilton,\" a Scottish prison for violent offenders. The problem is, there's no right crowd. Bullied and abused by inmates and colleagues alike, Glass finds that each day is getting longer than the one before. When a group of cons use outside help to threaten his wife and daughter, he agrees to do them a 'favor'. But, as their threats escalate, and one favor leads to another, he grows ever closer to breaking point. And when G ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nDark and violent with great dialog, but ultimately average...: Nick Glass, the novice guard corrupted at the start of this story (and whose name is a foreshadowing sobriquet) is at the center of a misanthropic crew of inept guards and brutal criminals inside and out of a Scottish prison.

With the single exception of the innocence personified by Nick's young daughter, every person Allan Guthrie offers in this dark tale of a life spiraling downward is motivated by pure self-interest. Nick's wife is an adulterous alcoholic, his peers are corrupt or incompetent, and each prisoner and criminal is more menacing than than the last. Nick makes the wrong choices with every person he meets at each turn of the plot. I was reminded of William Macy as Jerry Lundegaard in \"Fargo\", who realizes far too late that if you want to play hardball with hard cases, you'd better do so early.

The graphic, personal violence comes early and often in the book, along with nearly non-stop drug use by Glass (which may explain the poor choices he keeps making!). I couldn't help imagining Quentin Tarantino as Guthrie's imaginary audience of one for this book. I like dark fiction, and believe that violence has its place in both genre and mainstream literature. In this book, Guthrie gives us so few respites from the violence that is ceases to alarm; it's just there.

The dialog in \"Slammer\" is crisp, and excellently illuminates the book's characters, creating a quick, fast-moving read. Less satisfying is the ending, which dissolves into an ambiguous world of alternate offerings of who really did what to whom...and when. As with the violence, there is also a place in fiction for ambiguity. I kept waiting for somebody in this book to surprise me, but everybody stayed true to their original persona; in the end, I cared little about the fate of any of the adults...even those who may have met horrific ends (or did they really? hmmmm...we're just not sure when the pages end). After putting his protagonist --and his readers-- through so much, readers of Slammer deserved more clarity in the conclusion.\n\n--- Example 8 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: Twisted Tree\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – January 1, 2009\n- Price: 18.0\n- Author: Kent Meyers\n- Description: From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. In his beautiful and unsettling new novel, Meyers ( The Work of Wolves ) examines the effects of a murder on the residents of a small South Dakota town. In an opening sequence that is so disturbing it's difficult to read, teen Hayley Jo Zimmerman is stalked and abducted by a serial killer. The rest of the novel uses the rippling consequences of Hayley Jo's murder to explore the smaller rural tragedies in Twisted Tree, S.D.: Elise, a forlorn grocery clerk, judges everyo ...[truncated]\n- Features: Hayley Jo Zimmerman is gone. Taken. And the people of small-town Twisted Tree must come to terms with this terrible event—their loss, their place in it, and the secrets they all carry.In this brilliantly written novel, one girl’s story unfolds through the stories of those who knew her. Among them, a supermarket clerk recalls an encounter with a disturbingly thin Hayley Jo. An ex-priest remembers baptizing Hayley Jo and seeing her with her best friend, Laura, whose mother the priest once loved. And Laura ber ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nLong on literary devices and descriptive detail...short on coherence: If clever literary devices are all you need to satisfy your fiction reading needs, then go ahead. Although nominally a novel, \"Twisted Tree\" lacks a clear protagonist, lacks a central story line, and does too much to keep readers guessing.

Some of the devices seem merely stylish, like the absence of traditional quotation punctuation when characters are speaking. The cavalcade of shifting time and narrators grows wearisome, even though each has intriguing narration to offer.

In the end, I wasn't sure if this was a crime drama, a psychological thriller, a western or a whodunit. By the time the end rolled around, I was exhausted from figuring out who was talking (and where, and when).

If you're a fan of large doses of literary conceit, go ahead and read it. If you want characters or a story line that's developed in a meaningful way: this may not be for you.\n\nThe specific book this user is about to review:\n<|The Start of Book|>\n**User Amazon store: Stephen Rodrick (Author)**: - Category: Books->Biographies & Memoirs->Leaders & Notable People\n- Title: The Magical Stranger: A Son's Journey into His Father's Life\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – Box set, May 14, 2013\n- Price: 14.12\n- Author: Rodrick, Stephen\n Stephen Rodrick is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and also a contributing editor at Men’s Journal. His writing has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Crime Reporting, and The Best American Political Writing. He lives in Los Angeles.\n- Description: Review “In this penetrating blend of memoir and reportage, Rodrick spends nearly two years with his father’s former squadron, seeking a better understanding of the man he knew all too briefly.” — The New York Times Book Review “Fascinating . . . . An exemplary piece of modern reportage.” — Tom Bissell, Harper's “ The Magical Stranger is one of the realest and best books I’ve read in the past several years.” — Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk “ The Magical Stranger is the true story of a boy chasing a ghost and stumbling into manhood. It is heartbreaking and funny, broken and hopeful, often on the same page.” — Judd Apatow “Stephen Rodrick’s The Magical Stranger illuminates the innate ties between fathers and sons in a fresh and fascinating way. . . . Rodrick’s firsthand knowledge thoroughly transports the reader into the hearts and minds of U.S. servicemen and their families.” — Norman Ollestad, author of Crazy for the Storm “Stephen Rodrick finds words for what I thought was inexpressible: the private language of a military family that experiences the worst kind of loss and finally creates a path forward. There’s no more authentic account of a military family. Required reading for an America that is continually considering the cost of combat.” — Alison Buckholtz, author of Standing By “Stephen Rodrick exhibits courage, Catch-22 comedic flair, and unfailing emotional grasp in telling this powerful and surprising story. Anyone who wants to understand the sacrifices made by military families should read this book.” — Lily Burana, author of I Love a Man in Uniform “Stephen Rodrick’s poignant tale blends memoir, reportage, and clean, crisp, unsentimental prose to produce a book that makes you think, even at times makes you laugh, but in the end tears your heart out. A truly fabulous book.” — Robert Timberg, author of The Nightingale's Song “How does Stephen Rodrick manage to produce writing that is raw, heartbreaking, and beautifully-controlled, all at once, and on that most difficult of all topics: fathers and sons? Find out for yourself―it’s time very well spent!” — Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of It All “A wrenching, fascinating memoir, The Magical Stranger captures the elusive, sometimes crushing unease that haunts the lives of military families. It is written with the pace of a thriller and the emotional density of first-rate fiction.” — Blake Bailey, author of Cheever “This memoir of a son’s search to know his father is deeply moving, important and beautifully written. Rodrick has reminded us that the casualties of war remain long after the last mission is won.” — Danielle Trussoni, author of Falling Through the Earth “A powerful debut. . . . Candid and affecting.” — Kirkus “An engaging and immersive look at the dynamics of military units and the dual lives servicemen and women lead. . . all viewed through a crisp journalistic lens that helps Rodrick separate myth from reality.” — Publishers Weekly “Stephen Rodrick is possibly the best prose stylist alive.” — Wil S. Hylton, author of Vanished From the Back Cover On November 28, 1979, squadron commander and Navy pilot Peter Rodrick died when his plane crashed in the Indian Ocean. He was just thirty-six and had been the commanding officer of his squadron for 127 days. Eight thousand miles away on Whidbey Island, near Seattle, he left behind a grief-stricken wife, two daughters, and a thirteenyear-old son who would grow up to be a writer—one who was drawn, perhaps inevitably, to write about his father, his family, and the devastating consequences of military service. In The Magical Stranger , Stephen Rodrick explores the life and death of the man who indelibly shaped his life, even as he remained a mystery: brilliant but unknowable, sacred but absent—an apparition gone 200 days of the year for much of his young son's life—a born leader who gave his son little direction. Through adolescence and into adulthood, Rodrick struggled to grasp fully the reality of his father's death and its permanence. Peter's picture and memory haunted the family home, but his name was rarely mentioned. To better understand his father and his own experience growing up without him, Rodrick turned to today's members of his father's former squadron, spending nearly two years with VAQ-135, the \"World-Famous Black Ravens.\" His travels take him around the world, from Okinawa and Hawaii to Bahrain and the Persian Gulf—but always back to Whidbey Island, the setting of his family's own story. As he learns more about his father, he also uncovers the layers of these sailors' lives: their brides and girlfriends, friendships, dreams, disappointments—and the consequences of their choices on those they leave behind. A penetrating, thoughtful blend of memoir and reportage, The Magical Stranger is a moving reflection on the meaning of service and the power of a father's legacy. About the Author Stephen Rodrick is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and also a contributing editor at Men’s Journal . His writing has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Crime Reporting, and The Best American Political Writing . He lives in Los Angeles. Read more\n- Features:\nThe Magical Stranger is a moving story of love and sacrifice, fathers and sons, heroism and duty, soldiers and the families they leave behind. On November 28, 1979, squadron commander and Navy pilot Peter Rodrick died when his plane crashed in the Indian Ocean, leaving behind a devastated wife, two daughters, and a 13-year-old son.In this powerful, beautifully written book, journalist Stephen Rodrick explores the life and death of the man who indelibly shaped his life, even as he remained a mystery. Through adolescence and into adulthood, Stephen Rodrick struggled to fully grasp the reality of his father’s death and its permanence. To better understand his father, Rodrick turned to members of his father’s former squadron, the \"World-Famous Black Ravens.\" As he learns about his father, he uncovers the layers of these sailors’ lives: their loves, friendships, dreams, disappointments—and the consequences of their choices on those they leave behind. The journey doesn’t end until November 28, 2013, when Rodrick’s first son is born 34 years to the day after his father’s mishap. A penetrating, thoughtful blend of memoir and reportage, The Magical Stranger is a moving reflection on the meaning of military service and the power of a father’s legacy.\n- Details:\n Publisher: Harper; 1st edition (May 14, 2013)\n Language: English\n Hardcover: 400 pages\n ISBN 10: 006200476X\n ISBN 13: 978-0062004765\n Item Weight: 1.2 pounds\n Dimensions: 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches\n<|The End of Book|>\n\nFirst, PREDICT the substantive review THIS user would most likely write about THIS book, using their persona + past reviews + this book's context. Then turn that prediction into a rubric.\n\nWrite 8-12 numbered criteria that a judge will use to check whether a CANDIDATE review COVERS THE KEY POINTS this user would actually make about THIS book. Ground every criterion in the user's likely CONTENT, not surface style:\n- Their likely OVERALL STANCE / verdict on this book (would they like or dislike it, and why), inferred from their taste and this book's genre/premise/themes.\n- The SPECIFIC aspects they would most likely comment on here -- name concrete elements from THIS book (particular plot points, characters, themes, pacing, craft, comparisons) that a reader like this user reacts to.\n- Their characteristic OPINIONS / reactions (what they would praise or criticize here) and the direction/strength of sentiment.\n- Any content they habitually include (recommendation, audience, warnings, comparisons).\n\nWrite the criteria to match HOW the candidate will be graded (coverage of the user's real review minus a penalty for extra content):\n- Each criterion should reward COVERING a specific likely key point, checkable in a short review.\n- Make them DISCRIMINATING: a candidate that writes a generic or merely on-topic review WITHOUT the user's specific likely take must score LOW; only a candidate that hits the user's actual likely points and stance scores HIGH.\n- Include at least one criterion that PENALIZES speculative, hedging, off-target, or padded content not central to what this user would say.\n- Do NOT reward surface formatting.\n\nOutput ONLY the rubric:\n\n1. \n...\n", "num_candidates": 255, "top_gold_scores": [1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.87, 0.87, 0.86, 0.86, 0.85]} {"uid": "AEFUZGKQWDB5DHVU7CX6MW3QGY6Q", "writer_prompt": "You are an expert at characterising how a specific human writes online book reviews.\n\nYou will be shown 8 examples of reviews written by ONE user, each preceded by the book's metadata. Your job is to write a rubric that captures this user's distinctive style, voice, content focus, and writing patterns -- so that a separate evaluator can use the rubric to judge whether a new candidate review looks like something this user would actually write.\n\nThe user's persona:\n<|The Start of Persona|>\nDemographics: Missing\nInterests: \n International and translated literature, particularly German authors like Günter Grass ('this is the century of Guenter Grass') and French military history\n Military history and battle narratives, showing detailed knowledge of WWI writers Remarque and Jünger, and Napoleon's campaigns ('meticulously researched, in incredibly vivid detail')\n Geographic and cultural accuracy in literature, criticizing books that misrepresent locations ('And where was the author? Nowhere in sight of the real Niger')\n Literary quality and sophisticated prose, praising 'superb language and meticulous attention to detail' and authors who 'handle the English language beautifully'\n Mystery and thriller genres with innovative plotting, appreciating 'tightly written' narratives and 'excellent writing'\n Historical fiction that balances entertainment with accuracy, particularly works about Central Asia, colonial history, and WWII\n Character development and psychological depth, noting when characters are 'two-dimensional' versus 'sharply drawn'\n Publishing industry practices and literary authenticity, criticizing books 'palmed off on the public' by publishers\n Cross-cultural narratives and immigrant experiences, engaging with stories set in Pakistan, Jamaica, Philippines, and other diverse locations\n Literary awards and critical reception, referencing Prix Goncourt, Nobel Prize, and other prestigious honors\nValues: \n Prizes literary merit over commercial appeal, stating 'It must be read by everyone interested in military history' and 'I recommend this book not just as a good mystery, but as a true work of literature'\n Demands historical and factual accuracy, noting 'On page 203 Lorraine Riddock is 19 years old and has red hair. On page 212 she is in her mid-thirties and has black hair. There is absolutely no excuse for such sloppiness'\n Values authentic cultural representation over stereotypes, criticizing authors who 'tries too hard to be everything to everybody'\n Appreciates moral complexity and ambiguity in characters, praising stories where 'Whatever happens, is nobody's fault' and noting 'Doc Hata is a Walter Mitty who dreams'\n Respects intellectual honesty and depth, stating 'The author never insults our intelligence. Quite a reprieve from all those shlock writings'\n Critical of political bias in literature, noting 'Disturbing is the bias shown' when discussing explorers with controversial politics\n Values comprehensive research and attention to detail, praising 'well researched' works and 'perfect description of the town of Geneva'\n Believes in honest criticism over politeness, directly stating books are 'garbage' or to 'Forget it' when warranted\n Appreciates authors who tackle difficult subjects without preaching, noting 'The author describes this fast descent into the abyss beautifully, without getting preachy about it'\n Values originality and innovation in storytelling, praising 'Extremely innovative' plots and 'novel story line'\nCommunication: \n Uses sophisticated vocabulary and literary terminology naturally, employing terms like 'meticulously researched,' 'scathing indictments,' and 'gung-ho militarist'\n Incorporates foreign language phrases seamlessly, using German terms and demonstrating multilingual literacy\n Employs rhetorical questions for emphasis: 'And where was the author?' 'Is this the NYPD?' 'Who knows?'\n Provides specific textual evidence including page numbers: 'On page 203 Lorraine Riddock is 19 years old'\n Uses vivid, memorable titles for reviews: 'Buffalo chips,' 'Remember the Edsel!,' 'Beware the Snake Charmer,' 'The Poor Shall not Inherit the Earth'\n Balances criticism with praise, often noting 'The author handles the English language beautifully' even when finding plot issues\n Makes literary and historical comparisons to contextualize works, referencing other authors and historical events\n Uses direct, unambiguous language for negative reviews: 'WHOLLY AND ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE,' 'piece of garbage,' 'Forget it'\n Structures reviews with clear opening statements followed by supporting details and concluding judgments\n Employs humor and irony, noting 'His typewriter must have run out of apostrophes by now' and 'Anyone called Daphne knows how to do shepherd's pie'\nStatistics: \n Average review length approximately 120-150 words, with range from 80 words (shortest critiques) to 200+ words (detailed historical analyses)\n Most frequent phrases include 'the author,' 'should be,' 'the book,' 'makes no/little sense,' 'wonderful,' 'incredible,' and 'forget it'\n Consistently uses exclamation points for emphasis (2-4 per review) and question marks for rhetorical effect\n Employs em-dashes and semicolons frequently for complex sentence structures\n Uses quotation marks extensively to cite specific text or highlight ironic usage\n Typically structures reviews in 3-5 paragraph format with clear topic sentences\n Frequently includes comparative references to other works or authors (1-3 per review)\n Uses capitalization for emphasis: 'WHOLLY AND ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE,' 'NYPD'\n Incorporates specific numerical details: page numbers, dates, ages, monetary amounts for precision\n<|The End of Persona|>\n\nThe user's past reviews:\n--- Example 1 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Contemporary\n- Title: The Heart of Redness: A Novel\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – August 7, 2002\n- Price: 15.3\n- Author: Zakes Mda\n- Description: From Publishers Weekly In Mda's richly suggestive novel, a Westernized African, Camagu, becomes embroiled in a village dispute that has its roots in the 19th century. The war between the amaXhosa and the British in South Africa (known to Westerners as the Zulu Wars) was interrupted by a strange, messianic interlude in which the amaXhosa followed the self-destructive commands of the prophet Nongqawuse and were split between followers of Nongqawuse (Believers) and their opponents (Unbelievers). In the village ...[truncated]\n- Features: A startling novel by the leading writer of the new South Africa In The Heart of Redness -- shortlisted for the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize -- Zakes Mda sets a story of South African village life against a notorious episode from the country's past. The result is a novel of great scope and deep human feeling, of passion and reconciliation. As the novel opens Camugu, who left for America during apartheid, has returned to Johannesburg. Disillusioned by the problems of the new democracy, he follows hi ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nSouth African Life among the Natives: The story intermingles two time frames: Both share the same family and Xhosa location on the shores of the Indian Ocean. One part tells the story of the British war against the native tribe in the mid-19th century - the war now known as the Zulu war. The other part deals with the present time.
Camugu comes from Johannesburg and tries to fit into the somewhat primitive village of Oorloha. He lands in the middle of the fight that has been going on for 150 years. In those days, the teenage prophetess Nongqawuse Told the tribe that all cattle had be killed and the harvest destroyed. Thus the tribe was split between Believers and Unbelievers, each group blaming the other for whatever went wrong. And so the verbal fighting goes back and forth.
Xhosa used to be a real tribe, but nowadays only the language survives as part of the Bantu languages. That accounts for the click sounds that are mentioned. The Zulu war did take place, of course, and the prophesy also happened. The story is interwoven with the local history.
The narrative has won prizes and has been called \"brilliant' and loaded with genuine mythic power. Unfortunately, I can't see it that way. The story drags on and on without there being much of a concrete action. The two time periods are so intermingled as to confuse the reader who constantly has to check the names to place it correctly. Untranslated local words and expressions can be used to good effect, but here they are overdone. And the story itself is not new, not exciting, and utterly predictable.\n\n--- Example 2 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->United States\n- Title: The Gangster We Are All Looking For\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – May 6, 2003\n- Price: 27.97\n- Author: Thi Diem Thúy Lê\n- Description: From Publishers Weekly Le's first novel is a bracing, unvarnished, elliptical account of a Vietnamese refugee family, in America but not yet of it, hobbled by an unfamiliar environment and their own troubled relationships. It's narrated by the family's young daughter, newly arrived in San Diego with her father after being sponsored by a well-meaning but condescending American family. Her mother soon joins them, and the family endures an itinerant existence of low-wage jobs and cheap rental apartments. Other ...[truncated]\n- Features: A momentous literary debut: the life of a Vietnamese family in America luminously observed through the knowing eyes of a child. In 1978 six refugees—a girl, her father, and four “uncles”—are pulled from the sea to begin a new life in San Diego. In the child’s imagination, the world of itchy dresses and run-down apartments is transmuted into an unearthly realm: she sees everything intensely, hears the distress calls of inanimate objects and waits for her mother to join her. But life loses none of its strange ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nNew Life in a Foreign Land: A six-year old girl, born and raised in Viet Nam, escapes together with her father and winds up in San Diego. She tells her story of growing up in a foreign land. But she still remembers her daydreams from the land of her birth. She remembers that she had a little brother who drowned. And grandparents who stayed behind, while her mother could join them a few years later.
There are connections such as their life near the water, both in Viet Nam and in San Diego. There is repetition within the life of the refugees, such as the various fences, first in Viet Nam, then in the detention camp in Saigon, and finally in the housing complex in San Diego. The mother tries very hard to become an \"American\" without really knowing what that involves. The father works as a handyman and later as a gardener. But the foreign land breaks him in spirit and body. The little girl grows up and leaves to live on the east coast.
Obviously, the book has a large content of biographical remembrances. But it is never written in a maudlin tone, although the family shatters on these foreign shores. And though it is nobodies fault. The dreams of the orderly past among family and friends are just too strong and repetitive.
It is a wonderful story, told with a great heart and without complaints.\n\n--- Example 3 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Literary\n- Title: The Right Hand of Sleep\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – April 17, 2001\n- Price: 14.9\n- Author: John Wray\n- Description: From Publishers Weekly The ghost hovering over this assured and astonishingly mature first novel is that of Joseph Roth, the great interwar Austrian novelist. Perhaps this reflects Wray's own double origin, as the son of an Austrian father and an American mother. Oskar Voxlauer, Wray's Austrian protagonist, was a teenage deserter from the Austro-Hungarian army in WWI. As the novel begins, he is returning to his native village, Niessen bei Villach, in 1938, after a 19-year stay in the Ukraine. His Russian lo ...[truncated]\n- Features: Oskar Voxlauer is in flight from his past—from his bourgeois Austrian upbringing; from horrific memories of fighting on the Italian front in 1917 as a teenage recruit; and from the twenty years he has spent in the Ukraine watching his socialist ideals crumble and the life of the woman he loved slowly waste away. Alone, he finally decides to return to the Austrian village of his birth, where his mother is waiting to greet a son she hasn’t seen since he was a boy.But the year is 1938, and despite Oskar’s atte ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nA Cloud over Austria: Oskar Voxlauer is born in 1902 in the Austrian province of Carinthia. At age 16, he is drafted and sent to the Isonzo battlefront in the Dolomites. He deserts and wanders east, coming to a stop in the Ukraine. There, he spends the next twenty years on a communist colchose before returning to his small village in Carinthia. Together with Else, he moves to a lonely cottage where he works as a game keeper. It is now 1938.
Germany is under Nazi rule, and the clouds drift towards Austria. The first messenger is Kurt, Else's cousin, who just returned from a two-year stay in Berlin. We now get the first run-ins between the former Bolshevik and the Nazi. More and more events come to a head. Austria becomes part of Germany, and Kurt shows up in the uniform of a SS officer. Else, guarding her own secrets, is placed in the middle between the two combattans.
Wray wrote a magnificent book, not painting Oskar all good, nor Kurt all bad. It is a most plausible story that shows in clear and absolutely accurate detail what actually happened in those days. It is a textbook of history enveloped in a gripping story. That Wray makes mistakes in the naming of the SS ranks can easily be forgiven.
This is a book for the younger generation to learn from, and for the older generation to rediscover. But I do wonder if there was a purpose to placing the action in Carinthia, probably the only western region nowadays under the government of a dedicated Nazi (Joerg Haider).\n\n--- Example 4 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Classics\n- Title: Embers\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – September 25, 2001\n- Price: 28.83\n- Author: Carol Brown Janeway\n- Description: Amazon.com Review In Sándor Márai's Embers , two old men, once the best of friends, meet after a 41-year break in their relationship. They dine together, taking the same places at the table that they had assumed on the last meal they shared, then sit beside each other in front of a dying fire, one of them nearly silent, the other one, his host, slowly and deliberately tracing the course of their dead friendship. This sensitive, long-considered elaboration of one man's lifelong grievance is as gripping as an ...[truncated]\n- Features: The rediscovery of a masterpiece of Central European literature originally published in Budapest in 1942 and un-known to modern readers until last year. An extraordinary novel about a triangular relationship, about love, friendship, and fidelity, about betrayal, pride, and true nobility. In a castle at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, an old aristocrat waits to greet the friend he has not seen for forty-one years. In the course of this one night, from dinner until dawn, the two men will fight a duel of ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nWhat is the sense of life?: Henrik, the general, and Konrad, the artist, are both 75 years old. On his castle in Hungary, Henrik has waited for 41 years for the only and closest friend of his youth, Konrad, to return. And now Konrad has arrived. The book gives us the dialog between the two men, starting with friendship, truth, loyalty and honesty. Then comes the split: there are truths that are not reality. Reality is that Konrad as a young man, was very poor and had to seek support from Henrik's family. One day, he suddenly leaves and now returns after 41 years to answer his friend's questions. The dialog now changes from friendship to passion, to envy, and finally to hate.
What is the sense of life? The author describes in direct language how this sense can change - depending on truth and reality. He shows the fascinating bridge from friendship to hate. Henrik's truths are turned inside out. Instead of reality he now sees the truth.
I wonder whether the author, who travelled much and committed suicide at age 89, entered autobiographical notes into his narrative.\n\n--- Example 5 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Contemporary\n- Title: Monstruary\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – March 6, 2001\n- Price: 4.95\n- Description:\n- Features: Julián Ríos's sensual and stylish Loves That Bind was acclaimed as \"a literary tour de force\" by the Washington Post Book World . Now, in Monstruary , the author is back to his old tricks, using dazzling wordplay and masterful allusions to give us a sensual exploration of art, literature, and the shadowy realms of the human spirit.Ríos takes us into the eerie existence of the painter Victor Mons, who has created a series of works titled Monstruary , a menagerie of personal demons summoned from the disturbin ...[truncated]\n\n\nReview by this user:\nDazzling nonsequiturs: An incredible assemblage of characters. A multitude of hints and hidden meanings. It seems to me that the author wants to show off his extensive knowledge of the arts and literature. In that way the book is a quiz about the reader's education, giving him an "aha" moment every time he recognizes one of the characters. And that is just about it - there is no story line to the book. The author is just playing around.\n\n--- Example 6 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Mystery, Thriller & Suspense->Mystery\n- Title: Death in Holy Orders (Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Series #11)\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – April 10, 2001\n- Price: 13.99\n- Author: P. D. James\n- Description: Amazon.com Review Despite challenges from Ruth Rendell and (more recently) Minette Walters, P.D. James's position as Britain's Queen of Crime remains largely unassailable. Although a certain reaction has set in to her reputation (and there are those who claim her poetry-loving copper Adam Dalgliesh doesn't correspond to any of his counterparts in the real world), her detractors can scarcely deny her astonishing literary gifts. More than any other writer, she has elevated the detective story into the realms ...[truncated]\n- Features: The setting itself is elemental P. D. James: the bleak coast of East Anglia, where atop a sweep of low cliffs stands the small theological college of St. Anselm’s. On the shore not far away, smothered beneath a fall of sand, lies the body of one of the school’s young ordinands. He is the son of Sir Alred Treves, a hugely successful and flamboyant businessman who is accustomed to getting what he wants—and in this case what he wants is Commander Adam Dalgliesh to investigate his son’s death. Although there se ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nUnholy Doings: Baroness James was 81 years old when she wrote this book. Maybe it takes that long in the course of human events to learn about the small and large vicissitudes of life, to notice the world around you, to fathom the human soul. That is what the author presents to us in such superb form. There are lines that are pure poetry and paragraphs that fully explain a human being.
Commander Dalgliesh investigates at St. Anselm, a college affiliated with the Church of England. Donald Treeves, one of the ordinands, is dead on the beach. In quick sequence follow the sister of Father John Betterton and Archdeacon Crampton. And St. Anselm is about to be closed down. Who will benefit from it? Will the many red herrings lead to a feast of perceived truth?
This is a wonderful novel. But it is not a great mystery. There are many occurrences that are left hanging. And the final denouement does not make that much sense , either.\n\n--- Example 7 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Contemporary\n- Title: Norwegian Wood\n- Subtitle: Paperback – Student Calendar, September 12, 2000\n- Price: 9.99\n- Author: Haruki Murakami\n- Description: Amazon.com Review In 1987, when Norwegian Wood was first published in Japan, it promptly sold more than 4 million copies and transformed Haruki Murakami into a pop-culture icon. The horrified author fled his native land for Europe and the United States, returning only in 1995, by which time the celebrity spotlight had found some fresher targets. And now he's finally authorized a translation for the English-speaking audience, turning to the estimable Jay Rubin, who did a fine job with his big-canvas producti ...[truncated]\n- Features: From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore: A magnificent coming-of-age story steeped in nostalgia, “a masterly novel” ( The New York Times Book Review ) blending the music, the mood, and the ethos that were the sixties with a young man’s hopeless and heroic first love. Toru, a serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. As Naoko retreats further into h ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nMurakami Revisited: Toru is a student who cannot come to grips with his life. He loves Naoko, who is even more unbalanced than Toru. Naoko winds up in some obscure institution. Toru is ready to fall apart, but is rescued at the last moment by a real-life woman.
No doubt the story is written beautifully and, standing on its own, should be recommended. But: If you ever read any of Mr. Murakami's other books, then you know the contents of this book without reading it. After a while, it gets to be monotonous.\n\n--- Example 8 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->United States\n- Title: The Dying Animal\n- Subtitle: Paperback – July 9, 2002\n- Price: 14.7\n- Author: Philip Roth\n- Description: Review “A disturbing masterpiece.” —The New York Review of Books “Sorrowful, sexy, elegant ... [A] distinguished addition to Roth’s increasingly remarkable literary career.” — San Francisco Chronicle “Roth is a mesmerizing writer, whose very language has the vitality of a living organism.” — The Los Angeles Times “No one can come close to Roth’s comic genius and breadth of moral imperative.” — The Boston Globe From the Inside Flap No matter how much you know, no matter how much you think, no matter how much ...[truncated]\n- Features: The unforgettable story of an affair between a star lecturer at a New York college and the beautiful daughter of Cuban exiles—and the quagmire of sexual jealousy and loss that ensues—from the renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Pastoral . “[A] disturbing masterpiece.” — The New York Review of Books No matter how much you know, no matter how much you think, no matter how much you plot and you connive and you plan, you’re not superior to sex. With these words our most unflaggingly energetic and ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nThe Old Man with the4 Breast Fetish: There seems to be just one main theme for Vidal - one he comes back to again and again: SEX.
As the author ages, so does the protagonist professor David Kepesh, age seventy and telling a story of eight years ago. At the center of the story is Consuela Castillo, of Cuban descent and then 24 years old. She has the most perfect female form, magnificent large breasts, an almost translucent white skin and black hair. She is just simply perfect, also in everything she does. This liaison lasts about a good year, stopping abruptly.
Some years later, Kepesh gets a call from Consuela, who needs his help and understanding. She has breast cancer, already lost her hair and will now lose one of her breasts.
Roth mainly writes about the juxtaposition of old age and youth. He finds that youth has its advantages, but they are not guaranteed. Consuela's youth and perfection are being destroyed, while Kepesh lives on. There is a lesson hidden here somewhere, and the lesson has to do with old age surviving. And that beauty is not reliable.\n\nThe specific book this user is about to review:\n<|The Start of Book|>\n**User Amazon store: Anthony Bourdain (Author)**: - Category: Books->Biographies & Memoirs->Professionals & Academics\n- Title: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly\n- Subtitle: None\n- Price: 13.81\n- Author: Anthony Bourdain\n Chef, author, and raconteur Anthony Bourdain is best known for traveling the globe on his TV show Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Somewhat notoriously, he has established himself as a professional gadfly, bête noir, advocate, social critic, and pork enthusiast, recognized for his caustic sense of humor worldwide. He is as unsparing of those things he hates, as he is evangelical about his passions. Bourdain is the author of the New York Times bestselling Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw; A Cook’s Tour; the collection The Nasty Bits; the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo; the biography Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical; two graphic novels, Get Jiro! and Get Jiro!: Blood and Sushi and his latest New York Times bestselling cookbook Appetites. He has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Times of London, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Vanity Fair, Lucky Peach and many other publications. In 2013, Bourdain launched his own publishing line with Ecco, Anthony Bourdain Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. He is the host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning docuseries Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on CNN, and before that hosted Emmy award-winning No Reservations and The Layover on Travel Channel, and The Taste on ABC.\n- Description: Amazon.com Review Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential , that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of \"wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths,\" in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase. Such is the muscular view of the culinary trenches from one who's been groveling in them, with obvious sadomasochistic pleasure, for more than 20 years. CIA-trained Bourdain, currently the executive chef of the celebrated Les Halles, wrote two culinary mysteries before his first (and infamous) New Yorker essay launched this frank confessional about the lusty and larcenous real lives of cooks and restaurateurs. He is obscenely eloquent, unapologetically opinionated, and a damn fine storyteller--a Jack Kerouac of the kitchen. Those without the stomach for this kind of joyride should note his opening caveat: \"There will be horror stories. Heavy drinking, drugs, screwing in the dry-goods area, unappetizing industry-wide practices. Talking about why you probably shouldn't order fish on a Monday, why those who favor well-done get the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel, and why seafood frittata is not a wise brunch selection.... But I'm simply not going to deceive anybody about the life as I've seen it.\" --Sumi Hahn Review \"...the kind of book you read in one sitting, then rush about annoying your coworkers by declaiming whole passages.\" -- USA Today \"Utterly riveting, swaggering with stylish machismo and precise ear for kitchen patois.\" -- New York Magazine \"You'll laugh, you'll cry...you're gonna love it.\" -- Denver Post A gonzo memoir of whats really going on behind those swinging doors.... Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain is unique. -- Newsweek Hysterical.... Bourdain gleefully rips through the scenery to reveal private backstage horrors. -- New York Times Book Review About the Author Anthony Bourdain is the executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York, and he is the host of the series No Reservations on the Travel Channel. He is the author of A Cook's Tour , Les Halles Cookbook , and the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo . Read more\n- Features:\nWhen Chef Anthony Bourdain wrote \"Don't Eat Before You Read This\" in The New Yorker, he spared no one's appetite, revealing what goes on behind the kitchen door. In Kitchen Confidential, he expanded that appetizer into a deliciously funny, delectable shocking banquet that lays out his 25 years of sex, drugs, and haute cuisine. From his first oyster in the Gironde to the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, from the restaurants of Tokyo to the drug dealers of the East Village, from the mobsters to the rats, Bourdain's brilliantly written, wild-but-true tales make the belly ache with laughter.\n- Details:\n Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1st Ecco Ed edition (May 1, 2001)\n Language: English\n Paperback: 320 pages\n ISBN 10: 0060934913\n ISBN 13: 978-0060934910\n Item Weight: 9.8 ounces\n Dimensions: 5.31 x 0.72 x 8 inches\n<|The End of Book|>\n\nFirst, PREDICT the substantive review THIS user would most likely write about THIS book, using their persona + past reviews + this book's context. Then turn that prediction into a rubric.\n\nWrite 8-12 numbered criteria that a judge will use to check whether a CANDIDATE review COVERS THE KEY POINTS this user would actually make about THIS book. Ground every criterion in the user's likely CONTENT, not surface style:\n- Their likely OVERALL STANCE / verdict on this book (would they like or dislike it, and why), inferred from their taste and this book's genre/premise/themes.\n- The SPECIFIC aspects they would most likely comment on here -- name concrete elements from THIS book (particular plot points, characters, themes, pacing, craft, comparisons) that a reader like this user reacts to.\n- Their characteristic OPINIONS / reactions (what they would praise or criticize here) and the direction/strength of sentiment.\n- Any content they habitually include (recommendation, audience, warnings, comparisons).\n\nWrite the criteria to match HOW the candidate will be graded (coverage of the user's real review minus a penalty for extra content):\n- Each criterion should reward COVERING a specific likely key point, checkable in a short review.\n- Make them DISCRIMINATING: a candidate that writes a generic or merely on-topic review WITHOUT the user's specific likely take must score LOW; only a candidate that hits the user's actual likely points and stance scores HIGH.\n- Include at least one criterion that PENALIZES speculative, hedging, off-target, or padded content not central to what this user would say.\n- Do NOT reward surface formatting.\n\nOutput ONLY the rubric:\n\n1. \n...\n", "num_candidates": 255, "top_gold_scores": [1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.95, 0.95, 0.93, 0.9, 0.9]} {"uid": "AEHYRNVSVD5L3RTNSKNVX5GTIQPA", "writer_prompt": "You are an expert at characterising how a specific human writes online book reviews.\n\nYou will be shown 8 examples of reviews written by ONE user, each preceded by the book's metadata. Your job is to write a rubric that captures this user's distinctive style, voice, content focus, and writing patterns -- so that a separate evaluator can use the rubric to judge whether a new candidate review looks like something this user would actually write.\n\nThe user's persona:\n<|The Start of Persona|>\nDemographics:\n age group: 30s-40s (parent of tweens aged 10-11 in 2012)\n gender: Female\n location: United States\n nationality: American\n other: Married with two sons (ages 10-11 in 2012), homeowner, husband works in construction\nInterests: \n Paranormal romance with unique twists on vampire and fairy mythology, as seen in enthusiasm for 'Piper's Fury brings some new ideas to the table' and 'very unique and different take on fairies' in Wings\n Contemporary romance with emotional depth, particularly stories involving 'danger and romance' and 'touching and unexpected love story' elements\n Young adult fiction featuring realistic teen experiences, actively seeking 'YA books that have male main characters' for her tween sons\n Mystery and thriller novels with strong female protagonists, enjoying 'fun and entertaining read' quality in series like Lucky Stiff\n Character-driven narratives where 'characters are so well defined' and feel like 'real people with real problems'\n Books addressing serious topics like body image, teen pregnancy, and family dysfunction in 'thoughtful' and 'approachable' ways\n Stories with multiple perspectives, appreciating when 'story is written from not just [one] point of view but each of the four teens'\n Practical non-fiction for home management, finding books with 'lots of great ideas' and 'useful' tips that can be referenced repeatedly\nValues: \n Authentic character development over time, expressing frustration when protagonists 'make the same stupid mistakes book after book' without growth\n Realistic emotional processing, troubled by characters who 'just falls for this man mere weeks after her husband dies' without proper grieving\n Age-appropriate content awareness, noting books 'will go in the list of books available to them in a few years' when sons are older\n Non-judgmental exploration of difficult topics, appreciating 'important that teens know and understand that there are people out there who will help'\n Emotional authenticity in storytelling, valuing books that are 'full of many different emotions, I laugh and I cried and felt a lot all the way through'\n Practical usefulness and reference value, keeping books 'on my shelf for a long time' because 'I can reference it time and again'\n Family relationships and support systems, appreciating stories showing 'there are adults who will be there as support'\n Avoiding assumptions about others, endorsing the message 'You don't know everyone's story so don't make assumptions'\nCommunication: \n Conversational and accessible writing style using first-person perspective with phrases like 'I really enjoyed,' 'I found,' and 'I think'\n Structured review format typically opening with initial expectations, moving through plot analysis, and concluding with ratings like '4.5 of 5 stars'\n Personal connection to material, relating stories to own experiences: 'As a mother, I could completely understand where Auto was in her life'\n Balanced criticism using transitional phrases like 'The only thing that really bothered me' and 'One issue I have had with this series'\n Informal expressions and colloquialisms including 'All in all,' 'Let's get into the story a bit,' 'Quite fun actually,' and 'for sure'\n Consistent paragraph breaks for readability, typically 3-5 paragraphs per review with clear topic separation\n Direct recommendations to readers: 'I recommend this book for a fun quick read' and 'if you enjoy family stories...you're going to want to pick this book up'\n Honest acknowledgment of personal biases: 'I find myself having a really difficult time with writing a fair and unbiased opinion because the views in this book are just so different from my own beliefs'\nStatistics: \n Average review length approximately 300-400 words, with minimum around 150 words and maximum exceeding 500 words\n Frequently used phrases include 'I really enjoyed' (appears in 8+ reviews), 'All in all' (appears in 6+ reviews), 'I loved' (appears in 5+ reviews)\n Consistent use of rating systems, often concluding with numerical ratings like '4.5 of 5 stars' or '4 out of 5 roses'\n Typical review structure: 3-5 paragraphs with opening reaction, plot summary, character analysis, and concluding recommendation\n High frequency of first-person pronouns and possessive adjectives ('I,' 'my,' 'me') indicating personal engagement with material\n Regular use of qualifying language like 'I think,' 'for sure,' 'kind of,' and 'pretty much' to soften statements\n Balanced positive-to-critical ratio, typically highlighting 2-3 positive aspects before introducing 1-2 criticisms per review\n Consistent paragraph breaks and formatting, never using bullet points or numbered lists, maintaining prose narrative style throughout\n<|The End of Persona|>\n\nThe user's past reviews:\n--- Example 1 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Teen & Young Adult->Science Fiction & Fantasy\n- Title: Dreamless\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – May 30, 2012\n- Price: 8.75\n- Author: Josephine Angelini\n- Description: From School Library Journal Gr 9 Up-This paranormal sequel to Starcrossed (HarperCollins, 2011) continues demigod Helen's quest to descend into the Underworld to try to defeat the Furies and end thousands of years of endless killing among her kin. In this world, Helen and her demigod cousins are descended from one of Four Houses, and the Furies make them all enemies of one another. Despite the fact that Helen and Lucas were from enemy Houses and wanted to kill each other in Starcrossed, they fell in love an ...[truncated]\n- Features: StarHearts, as fans of Josephine Angelini call themselves, will stay up all night reading Dreamless, the second book in the bestselling Starcrossed series. The saga mixes mythology, romance, action, and intrigue in a completely original way. Dreamless continues the story of Helen Hamilton, a shy girl living on Nantucket Island whose desire for an ordinary life was thwarted when she discovered she is a Scion, a descendant of a Greek god and a mortal. Each Scion has a power, and Helen's is the ability to trav ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nAnother good installment: Dreamless, the second installment in the Starcrossed Series, started a bit slow for the first 75 pages or so, at least in my opinion. It look me a very long time to get into the story, but once I did it really grabbed a hold of me and I just needed to know what was going to happen with Helen. This is by far one of the most unique takes I have read on Greek Mythology and for the most part I really like it. I do get challenged at points where I just cannot seem to figure out which Gods or Goddesses are being discussed. I like the tension between Helen and Lucas. I cannot imagine finding out the person you are most attracted to is family and you need to stop having those feelings. What really surprised me about Dreamless is the introduction of the love triangle between Helen, Lucas and Orion. Orion shows up in the Underworld with Helen one night sent my her mother to help her save the Scions and hopefully save herself along the way.

Josephine Angelini is an outstanding story teller. It cannot be easy to take a traditional mythology and make it modern and relevant for teens today. I think that this is what draws me to this series the most. Dreamless, once it picked up was equal to if not better than Starcrossed. Now to wait another year for book 3, I don't know that I can wait that long.\n\n--- Example 2 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: Skinny: A Novel\n- Subtitle: Paperback – April 26, 2011\n- Price: 14.99\n- Author: Diana Spechler\n- Description: From Publishers Weekly Instead of relating to her charges at a teenage weight-loss camp, 20-something Gray Lachmann studies them through the same empathy-free eyes with which she views herself in Spechler's shallow second novel (after Who by Fire). Feeling culpable in her father's death, Gray leaves New York and takes a job at Camp Carolina for the summer, hoping to lose the pounds she gained bingeing in her guilt and grief, and to also meet Eden, the girl she believes to be her stepsister, discovered via a ...[truncated]\n- Features: “ Skinny will be my go-to recommendation all year for anyone who wants smart, endearing,beautifully written women's fiction.\" —Allison Winn Scotch, New York Times bestselling author of TheOne That I Want and Time of My Life \"Spechler…transcends melodrama and clichewith striking sensitivity and delicate touch.\" — Boston Globe To escape thegrief she feels following her father’s death, twenty-six year old Brooklynite Gray Lachmann becomesa counselor at a summer camp for overweight children, where she discovers ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nSo relateable: I really enjoyed this book. I picked it up and to be completely honest did not want to put it down. I could completely relate the Gray - eating issues seems to be running crazy in our society and I for one have been affected. This book take a very bold stand and the connections between food and pain both emotional and physical. It is a very hard topic to write well and Diana Spechler does an outstanding job of putting into words what some many women and teens face day in and day out. I really enjoyed that the way that this was done was not necessarily through traditional relationships but partly through Grey giving up her entire life in New York City to be a counselor at a \"fat camp\" after she thinks that she finds out her father had another daughter after he dies suddenly. She leaves behind a boyfriend but quickly falls for another guy at camp. She also had some trouble with a wicked girl at camp. It never ceases to amaze me how twisted a character can be in a book and bring me right back to times in my history that I would rather forget. I loved the different characters in this book. They all had their own challenges. It made the book very well rounded. The end was a bit abrupt for me, mostly due to the fact that I wanted more. I wanted to see where things were going to go.\n\n--- Example 3 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Teen & Young Adult->Literature & Fiction\n- Title: Divergent\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – Box set, May 2, 2011\n- Price: 11.08\n- Author: Veronica Roth\n- Description: Amazon.com Review A Q&A with Author Veronica Roth Q: What advice would you offer to young aspiring writers, who long to live a success story like your own? Roth: One piece of advice I have is: Want something else more than success. Success is a lovely thing, but your desire to say something, your worth, and your identity shouldn’t rely on it, because it’s not guaranteed and it’s not permanent and it’s not sufficient. So work hard, fall in love with the writing—the characters, the story, the words, the theme ...[truncated]\n- Features: This first book in Veronica Roth's #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy is the novel the inspired the major motion picture starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Kate Winslet. This dystopian series set in a futuristic Chicago has captured the hearts of millions of teen and adult readers. Perfect for fans of the Hunger Games and Maze Runner series, Divergent and its sequels, Insurgent and Allegiant, are the gripping story of a dystopian world transformed by courage, self-sacrifice, and love. F ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nMy Favorite Book of 2011: After hearing Veronica Roth talk about her book at The Dark Days of Supernatural Event in June, I was super excited to read this book. Listening to an author talk about their process and how they went about gathering ideas and writing the books always seems to pull me into the story more.

The story itself is about a young girl, Beatrice who about to go through the selection process to select her faction. She does not want to let her family down but she knows that she cannot stay with them. This is especially true when she goes through her test and finds out that she is something called divergent, but cannot tell anyone this. She leaves her family and goes through an almost crazy initiation. She meets Tris and begins to struggle with who her friends are and who is against her. It also seems that there is a bigger problem out there and she doesn't know what it is.

Veronica Roth build an outstanding world for this series. I was impressed with the complexity of the different areas of town, some very familiar as present Chicago, but always with a twist. I like her ability to take familiar things and make them different to fit what she needs at that point in the story. For a debut author, this story was extremely well written without many gaps in story line or character development. Relationships were a bit difficult because there was no relating to those of different factions. I did feel in part that Beatrice did not \"mourn\" the loss of her family like I expected rather just jumped into her training head on.

My favorite story element in the story was the factions. What an interesting way to take what we view as driving morals and turn them into a way to govern people. I thought that this was a really creative take.\n\n--- Example 4 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Teen & Young Adult->Science Fiction & Fantasy\n- Title: The Selection (The Selection, 1)\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – April 24, 2012\n- Price: None\n- Author: Kiera Cass\n- Description: Review “An engrossing tale reminiscent of Shannon Hale’s Princess Academy and Ally Condie’s Matched. Fairy-tale lovers will lose themselves in America’s alternate reality and wish that the next glamorous sequel were waiting for them.” — School Library Journal “Cass’s immensely readable debut novel is a less drastic Hunger Games, with elaborate fashion and trappings. The fast-paced action will have readers gasping for the upcoming sequel.” — Booklist “A cross between The Hunger Games (minus the bloodsport) a ...[truncated]\n- Features: Fall in love—from the very beginning. Discover the first book in the captivating, #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series. Prepare to be swept into a world of breathless fairy-tale romance, swoonworthy characters, glittering gowns, and fierce intrigue perfect for readers who loved Divergent, Delirium , or The Wrath & the Dawn. For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape a rigid caste system, live in a palace, and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nHunger Game crossed with the Bachelor: First let me say that the cover for The Selection was a bit deceiving and mislead me as to what the book was really about. It is a beautiful cover don't get me wrong but it lead me to believe that this was a big beauty contest and it turned out to be so much more. I felt that The Selection was a cross between The Hunger Games and The Bachelor, but leaning much more toward The Bachelor. The idea of their being castes and seeing the differences between them reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games but this was not the major part of the story. The majority of the story was set in the castle where Prince Maxon spending time with the Ladies individually and as a whole group. There is a lot of catty behavior and craziness between the Ladies. While this was an enjoyable part of the story, I really enjoyed the time that America spends with Prince Maxon and the understanding they come to that she will be his friend, ally if you will, in this selection process since she is still in love with her next door neighbor back home, Aspen, who is a caste level below her and therefore not acceptable to marry. But things begin to change along the way and America's feelings start to change about Maxon. There are many other interesting things going in the country and the Ladies are there for selection and many things happen in the country that Maxon is not aware of, first and foremost that there are many people out there who do not have food to eat.

I really enjoyed this book and felt like it flew by. I was very frustrated when I got to the last page because it ended in such a cliffhanger! America becomes one of the Elite, in this selection one of the last 6 Ladies in the Selection process of finding a new princess. The writing style was quickwitted and fun. All of the girls had very different personalities and Kiera Cass did a great job of developing each person so that they have clear personalities. This is a great book to check out for a quick summer read.\n\n--- Example 5 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Women's Fiction\n- Title: On the Island\n- Subtitle: Paperback – January 1, 2012\n- Price: 17.0\n- Author: Tracey Garvis Graves\n- Description: Review Praise for On the Island and Tracy Garvis Graves “[Garvis Graves is] the patron saint of independent authors.”— Kirkus Reviews “If you like Lost , Castaway and Fifty Shades of Grey , this initially self-published and now New York Times bestseller will float your boat.”—Genevieve Fox, Daily Mail (London) “An addictive hybrid: The Beach meets Robinson Crusoe meets Room .”—Julia Llewellyn, The Telegraph “The breakout hit.”—Susan Maguire, Booklist About the Author Tracey Garvis Graves is the New York Tim ...[truncated]\n- Features: In this runaway New York Times bestseller, a harrowing near-death experience brings together an English teacher and her student as they struggle to survive on a desert island. Sixteen-year-old T.J. Callahan has no desire to go anywhere. With his cancer in remission, all he wants is to get back to his normal life. But his parents insist that he spend the summer catching up on the school he missed while he was sick.Anna Emerson is a thirty-year-old English teacher who has been worn down by the cold Chicago wi ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nVery Surprised: I was a bit skeptical about On the Island when I first read the blurb. I was really just not sure that I was going to be able to connect with the characters, I mean a 30 year old woman and a 16 year old boy, it just felt very unlikely. So I was very surprised when it captured my attention and I didn't want to put the book down. It starts with Anna, a tutor, leaving with her pupil, T.J., headed to a foreign island for the summer. T.J. is recovering from cancer was was behind in school so his parents hire Anna to help get him caught up over the summer. The trip to meet the family keeps being delayed and they catch a seaplane that is not originally on the plan just to get there after more than 24 hours of travel. Their pilot suffers a heart attack and they crash into the ocean. After a very dramatic scene of survival, they find themselves alone on a island with nothing. Some of their belongs wash up on short but after one plane flies over there is nothing. The story of their life on the island is outstanding. The writing is believable and powerful. It takes a while before the romance starts between them and it starts in a very believable way and grows from there. There is some problems with the timeline as to how long they are actually on the island but by my count it is about three and a half year. You can only imagine how hard it would be to survive that long and the hope that you would lose along the way. I was left wondering how or when they would be discovered and it was in a way that I never expected. I was so surprised but that is for you to find out when you pick this book up. Once they are rescued and go back home they both say they will stay together but life is not that easy. There is a lot of press and Anna takes a lot of press for her relationship with T.J. For a while this separates them but there has to be a chance that love will prevail.

As a debut book, this was much better than what I have come to expect from first time authors. I know that Tracey Garvis Graves went through a lot to get her book in print to learn more check out her story.\n\n--- Example 6 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Children's Books->Growing Up & Facts of Life\n- Title: Impossible\n- Subtitle: Paperback – Bargain Price, August 11, 2009\n- Price: 9.83\n- Author: Nancy Werlin\n- Description: Review “Werlin earns high marks for the tale’s graceful interplay between wild magic and contemporary reality.” — Booklist , starred review “This unique story flows smoothly and evenly, and the well-drawn characters and subtle hints of magic early on allow readers to enter willingly into the world of fantasy.” — School Library Journal , starred review “Modern logic and methodology mesh splendidly with fairy lore. . . The conclusion is startingly wholesome, comfortable and complete. . . the melding of magic ...[truncated]\n- Features: A beautifully wrought modern fairy tale from master storyteller and award-winning author Nancy Werlin Inspired by the classic folk ballad “Scarborough Fair,” this is a wonderfully riveting novel of suspense, romance, and fantasy. Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that she is the latest recipient of a generations-old family curse that requires her to complete three seemingly impossible tasks or risk falling into madness and passing the curse on to the next generation. Unlike her ancestors, though, Lucy ha ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nSurprising: I did not do anything but look at this cover before I starting reading the book. Normally, I read the book jacket but I just didn't with this book so I had no idea what to expect. Right from the get go, I was drawn to Lucy Scarborough, who is going through the difficult teen years. To add to this already difficult time, she has been raised by an adoptive family as her mother has mental illness and she pops in and out of Lucy's life causing much stress.

Much to Lucy's distress, her mother Miranda, shows up just as she is getting ready to leave for prom singing the dreaded \"Scarborough Fair\" and talking of curses. Lucy ends up getting it all together and still goes to Prom but the unimaginable happens and she is raped by her date, who dies in a car accident that very same night. I was please that this book was kept at a very G-rating and any sexual reference were very light. Soon Lucy realizes that even though she took the morning after drug to prevent pregnancy, she is indeed pregnant and that maybe her mothers talk of this curse is not all crazy.

The remainder of the book goes through all of the challenges she is faced with to try to stop this seemly impossible curse to break. Lucy does not want to go crazy like her mother but how can she stop the curse?

I really enjoyed this book. At times, it was very hard for me to put down because I just had to know what was going to happen next. That being said there were times that there was just too much going on in the book, too many directions. Overall, I think that this book had a lot of interesting lore in it and was well written. The players in the game were likable and easy to get to know. The style of writing was clear and written at a level that almost any reader can enjoy.\n\n--- Example 7 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Teen & Young Adult->Literature & Fiction\n- Title: Along for the Ride\n- Subtitle: Paperback – Illustrated, April 5, 2011\n- Price: 9.74\n- Author: Sarah Dessen\n- Description: Review \"Beautifully captures that sense of summer as a golden threshold between past regrets and future unknowns.\" - The Washington Post About the Author Sarah Dessen is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels for teens, which have received numerous awards and rave reviews, and have sold millions of copies worldwide. She is the recipient of the 2017 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association.  Sarah lives in North Carolina with her family. Visit her online at sar ...[truncated]\n- Features: Soon to be a Netflix film!From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Once and For All Nights have always been Auden’s time, her chance to escape everything that’s going on around her. Then she meets Eli, a fellow insomniac, and he becomes her nocturnal tour guide. Now, with an endless supply of summer nights between them, almost anything can happen. . . . “As with all Dessen’s books, [this] is a must-have” — VOYA , starred review Sarah Dessen is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Awa ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nGreat Summer Read: This the first Sarah Dessen book I had read and I must say that I am thrilled to find an author this good. I picked up this book this morning and could not put it down. The story of a young woman, Auden, who has always been a little adult focused on her future and the new and life changing experiences she goes through when she visits her dad, step-mother and new baby stepsister in Colby. I can totally relate to Auden and her lack of social experience. I could understand her feelings and the choices she made because it is exactly what I would have done. I love the town of Colby and the girls that Auden meets there. They take her in even if she did make a huge mistake of making out with Jake the first night she is in town. That very same night she see a boy doing tricks on the boardwalk but doesn't know who he is. Auden learns that his name is Eli and he is going through a difficult time since the summer before his best friend, Abe, died in a car accident where he was the driver.
This is a wonderful story of a girl chance to take control of her life and really live. There is a perfect amount of detail in the story and many different story lines moving at the same time. I enjoyed that the story was not just a romance but really that of finding friendship, family, yourself and love all at the same time. It is a story of taking chances and growing.\n\n--- Example 8 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Teen & Young Adult->Literature & Fiction\n- Title: Anna and the French Kiss\n- Subtitle: Paperback – Deckle Edge, August 4, 2011\n- Price: 9.34\n- Author: Stephanie Perkins\n- Description: About the Author Stephanie Perkins (www.stephanieperkins.com) lives in Asheville, North Carolina. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. chapter one Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amélie and Moulin Rouge . The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, although I have no idea what the function of either actually is. Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, and a lot of kings named Louis. I’m not sure what they did either, but I think it has something to do with the French Revolution, w ...[truncated]\n- Features: “Stephanie Perkins’s characters fall in love the way we all want to, in real time and for good.” -Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna can’t wait for her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she’s less than thrilled when her father unexpectedly ships her off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Clair, the perfect boy. The only problem? He's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nGreat Contemporary!: First, let me say that I has so much anticipation to read Anna and the French Kiss. I had read review after review and they all had wonderful things to say. I was a bit nervous that for some reason I was not going to like it, but I had nothing to worry about. I loved this book. Stephanie Perkins did a wonderful job with not only the story line but really building full and complete characters. With as many as there are in this book, I was pleased to see the level on detail on each and everyone one of them.
What would seemly be an amazing opportunity to be away from your parents for your senior year of high school was a disaster for Anna but though meeting a group of friends right of the bat it is getting easier day by day for Anna. Though she does not realize it right away she is falling for St Clair and she does not know how to handle it - he is taken and she has a guy she really wants back home.
One of my favorite parts of this book is Anna's love for movies and the descriptions of the movie theaters in France. I loved this touch and it made Anna such a deep character.
I high recommend this book. It is a great fun loving read. I know I didn't want to put it down.\n\nThe specific book this user is about to review:\n<|The Start of Book|>\n**User Amazon store: Raymond E Feist (Author)**: - Category: Books->Science Fiction & Fantasy->Fantasy\n- Title: A Kingdom Besieged: Book One of the Chaoswar Saga\n- Subtitle: None\n- Price: None\n- Author: Raymond E. Feist\n Raymond E. Feist's previous novels include the first volume in the Darkwar Saga, Flight of the Nighthawks, as well as the Conclave of Shadows: Talon of the Silver Hawk, King of Foxes, and Exile's Return; Magician; Silverthorn; Faerie Tale; Prince of the Blood; and The King's Buccaneer; as well as the four books of the New York Times bestselling Serpentwar Saga: Shadow of a Dark Queen, Rise of a Merchant Prince, Rage of a Demon King, and Shards of a Broken Crown; and the three books of his Riftwar Legacy: Krondor: The Betrayal, Krondor: The Assassins, and Krondor: Tear of the Gods. Feist lives in Southern California.\n- Description: Review “Originality and wit a rollicking tale Feist’s narrative skill, ingenuity at creating systems of magic, and eye for plausible militaryscenarios stand him in good stead. His many fans will be pleased.” (Booklist)“Sheer readability.” (San Francisco Chronicle)“[Feist] introduces a new dimension to his universe and added new depth to recurring characters while creating fascinating new heroes and villains. With a fast pace and clean, crisp storytelling, this fantasy saga belongs in most libraries.” (Library Journal)“A promising start to what looks like a strong, dire trilogy of fantastic adventure.” (San Diego Union-Tribune)“Fast action, appealing characters, and a splendid setting will delight readers of fantasy and leave them eager for the next battle.” (Kirkus Reviews)“A massive, entertaining tale.” (Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)“There’s an evil sparkle here, brighter and hotter than any of Feist’s works since the Magician trilogy. The Dasati and their world are sumptuously realised . . . It’s an entertaining, at times intoxicating mixture.” (SF Site)“Feist brings a new world alive.” (The Oregonian (Portland))“Originality and wit... A rollicking tale... [Feist’s] narrative skill, ingenuity at creating systems of magic, and eye for plausible military scenarios stand him in good stead. His many fans will be pleased.” (Booklist)“Feist has a natural talent for keeping the reader turning pages.” (Chicago-Sun Times)“[A] compelling and profoundly moving tale… an invaluable addition to a beloved canon.” (barnesandnoble.com)“This tale of shape-shifting magicians, human sacrifice, man-eating demons, and a little young love will satisfy Feist’s fans, and the ending will leave them waiting for another volume.” (Publishers Weekly)“Action and intrigue and evocative writing . . . Feist brings a new world alive.” (The Oregonian (Portland))“A sensitive coming-of-age tale in which brutality and camaraderie are equally present, Feist’s newest saga has a freshness of vision that suggests it will avoid the staleness that often eats away at multi-volume epics.” (Publishers Weekly)“An epic reading experience . . . Unpretentious, fast-paced . . . Shadow of a Dark Queen works admirably.” (San Diego Union-Tribune)“A story of redemption and heroism featuring an unlikely hero . . . This classic fantasy should find a welcome audience among the author’s fans.” (Library Journal)“A great read and a wonderful addition to Feist’s collection.” (SF Site)“An action-packed story of intrigue and betrayal.” (Library Journal)“A fine yarn . . . vivid . . . suspenseful . . . The action is nonstop. (Booklist)“As usual, Feist brings this off wonderfully.” (Science Fiction Chronicle)“Another crowd-pleaser for Feist to add to his already impressive resume.” (Publishers Weekly on King of Foxes)“CLASSIC.” (Chicago Tribune)“Feist has the universe firmly under his control, and the adventure is grand[.]” (Contra Costa Times)“Feist’s fans will look forward to the saga’s final episode.” (Publishers Weekly)“Feist is at his best.” (Science Fiction Chronicle)“Originality and wit . . . A rollicking tale . . . Feist’s narrative skill, ingenuity at creating systems of magic, and eye for plausible military scenarios stand him in good stead. His many fans will be pleased.” (Booklist)“In the forefront of contemporary fantasy adventure.” (Library Journal)“FUN . . . A place to start for those yet to discover Feist’s fantasy worlds.” (Locus)“Fine entertainment . . . Feist works his signature magic . . . an absorbing and carefully crafted adventure with pleasing density of plotting, good characterization . . . this is populist Dickens out of Tolkien, and it works.” (Sydney Morning Herald)“Sure to please Feist fans and win new ones.” (Publishers Weekly)“Splendid . . . fast action, appealing characters . . . (It) will delight readers of fantasy.” (Kirkus Reviews)“Shows Feist in top form.” (Adelaide Advertiser)“This simple, charming fairy tale will appeal to adult fans of the Riftwar books as well as mature teens who don’t mind a bit of romance in their sword-and-sorcery.” (Publishers Weekly)“This is a series that gets better as it goes along.” (Science Fiction Chronicle)“With his storytelling mastery and ear for colorful language and nuance, the author of numerous books set in the dual worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan here launches a series that takes his fantasy universe into a whole new phase. ” (Library Journal)“The prose is smooth, the plot is exactly what you’d expect and the characters do exactly what Feist tells them . . . File under guilty pleasure.” (The Guardian)“The most interesting character in the saga to date, Kaspar . . . another complicated and compelling protagonist . . . [W]ill have Feist fans eagerly awaiting the next installment.” (Publishers Weekly)“Well-paced storytelling by a veteran entertainer.” (Kirkus Reviews) From the Back Cover After nearly thirty years and more than two dozen novels, Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Cycle has become one of the most iconic, beloved, and enduring sagas in modern fantasy. The Riftwars—including the original Riftwar, the Serpentwar, the Darkwar, and the Demonwar—were epic battles between Good and Evil whose ramifications have echoed through generations. The latest entry in the epic, A Kingdom Besieged , ushers in the most fearsome threat the Kingdom has yet faced—the Chaoswar—a magic apocalypse with cataclysmic results. A Kingdom Besieged Years ago, the Empire of Great Kesh failed in its attempt to conquer Krondor after the Serpentwar, thanks to the bravery, cunning, and magic of the sorcerer Pug and the Conclave of Shadows. Since then, peace has benefitted both nations, and the Kingdom has been free from the threat of another Keshian invasion. Yet now, the dark clouds of war gather again. . . . From the Far Coast in the west to the frontier with the Eastern Kingdoms, rumors, uncertainty, and political instability are rampant. Spies have gone missing—some were murdered while others have turned traitor. Factions are rising, powerful legions from the Keshian Confederacy have been mobilized, and an attack on the kingdoms of the Isles and Roldem is all but certain. As the men of the Western Realm begin to mount a defense, Martin conDoin, the middle son of Lord Henry, Duke of Crydee, finds himself leading the charge against the invaders—like his legendary ancestor, Prince Arutha, who stood firm to the death against the Tsurani invasion. But Arutha had an entire army at his command. Martin has just a ragtag force comprised of a few old men and young boys. As Kesh's invading hordes once again descend upon the Kingdom, no one is safe—not experienced masters of intrigue Lord James Dasher Jamison and the beguiling and deadly Lady Franciezka; not the brave warrior Knight-Adamant Sandreena and a new generation of loyal yet untested defenders; not even the great Pug himself, the most powerful magician the world of Midkemia has ever known. A threat far more terrifying has arisen, an evil whose burgeoning power portends Midkemia's demise. And soon even the Kingdom's enchanted defender will find himself questioning everything he's ever held abiding, true, and treasured . . . including the loyalty and desires of his beloved son, Magnus. About the Author Raymond E. Feist is the multiple New York Times bestselling author or coauthor of thirty previous books—all but one of which are Riftwar Cycle novels. He lives in San Diego. Read more\n- Features:\n“Feist has the universe firmly under his control.”— Contra Costa Times “Feist has a natural talent for keeping the reader turning pages.”— Chicago-Sun Times Midkemia’s fifth and final Riftwar—the devastating Chaoswar—explodes in the opening volume of Raymond E. Feist’s spectacular new epic fantasy trilogy of magic, conflict, and world-shattering peril. A Kingdom Besieged is a breathtaking adventure that brings back Pug—first introduced in Feist’s classic debut novel, Magician , and now Midkemia’s most powerful sorcerer—who faces a major magical cataclysm that forces him to question everything he’s ever held as true and dear…including the loyalty of his beloved son Magnus. The Chaoswar promises to be the crowning achievement in the three decades-long career of a New York Times bestselling master fantasist who rules the sword and sorcery universe along with Terry Goodkind, George R. R. Martin, and Terry Brooks.\n- Details:\n Publisher: Harper Voyager; First Edition (April 12, 2011)\n Language: English\n Hardcover: 368 pages\n ISBN 10: 0061468398\n ISBN 13: 978-0061468391\n Item Weight: 1.15 pounds\n Dimensions: 6 x 1.17 x 9 inches\n<|The End of Book|>\n\nFirst, PREDICT the substantive review THIS user would most likely write about THIS book, using their persona + past reviews + this book's context. Then turn that prediction into a rubric.\n\nWrite 8-12 numbered criteria that a judge will use to check whether a CANDIDATE review COVERS THE KEY POINTS this user would actually make about THIS book. Ground every criterion in the user's likely CONTENT, not surface style:\n- Their likely OVERALL STANCE / verdict on this book (would they like or dislike it, and why), inferred from their taste and this book's genre/premise/themes.\n- The SPECIFIC aspects they would most likely comment on here -- name concrete elements from THIS book (particular plot points, characters, themes, pacing, craft, comparisons) that a reader like this user reacts to.\n- Their characteristic OPINIONS / reactions (what they would praise or criticize here) and the direction/strength of sentiment.\n- Any content they habitually include (recommendation, audience, warnings, comparisons).\n\nWrite the criteria to match HOW the candidate will be graded (coverage of the user's real review minus a penalty for extra content):\n- Each criterion should reward COVERING a specific likely key point, checkable in a short review.\n- Make them DISCRIMINATING: a candidate that writes a generic or merely on-topic review WITHOUT the user's specific likely take must score LOW; only a candidate that hits the user's actual likely points and stance scores HIGH.\n- Include at least one criterion that PENALIZES speculative, hedging, off-target, or padded content not central to what this user would say.\n- Do NOT reward surface formatting.\n\nOutput ONLY the rubric:\n\n1. \n...\n", "num_candidates": 255, "top_gold_scores": [1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.85, 0.83, 0.8, 0.8, 0.8]} {"uid": "AENPSOK4BPFS3G6PLEDPRDSLP5KA", "writer_prompt": "You are an expert at characterising how a specific human writes online book reviews.\n\nYou will be shown 8 examples of reviews written by ONE user, each preceded by the book's metadata. Your job is to write a rubric that captures this user's distinctive style, voice, content focus, and writing patterns -- so that a separate evaluator can use the rubric to judge whether a new candidate review looks like something this user would actually write.\n\nThe user's persona:\n<|The Start of Persona|>\nDemographics: Missing\nInterests: \n Western fiction with particular devotion to Lewis B. Patten as 'my favorite Western writer'\n J.D. Hardin's Doc Weatherbee and Raider Pinkerton detective series, calling them 'guilty pleasures'\n Spy and espionage fiction including Earl Drake novels, Mission: Impossible, and Man from U.N.C.L.E. adaptations\n World War II thriller novels, particularly Basil Heatter's works which they compare favorably to 'The Guns of Navarone'\n Hard Case Crime series publications, hoping 'Hard Case Crime will be around for a long time'\n Historical aspects of the Old West including 'copper barons' in Butte, Montana and 'vigilante justice'\n 1960s television adaptations and their novelizations, showing familiarity with 'the old sixties TV show'\n Used bookstores and collecting older genre fiction, mentioning purchases 'from an old book store in Pittsburgh'\n Railroad-themed Westerns and detective fiction like the Faraday Security Service series\n Comparative literary analysis, referencing authors like Elmore Leonard, John MacDonald's Travis McGee, and Alistair MacLean\n Series fiction evaluation, tracking quality across multiple entries and identifying when 'the formula was becoming tired'\n Mining town settings and Western frontier locations in fiction\nValues: \n Prioritizes fast-paced, engaging narratives that can be 'read in one sitting' or 'finished in a single night'\n Appreciates originality over formulaic plotting, criticizing when stories are 'too formulaic' or 'dull and predictable'\n Values vivid writing style and sharp characterization over stock characters and flat personalities\n Shows social consciousness, noting themes of 'contemporary poverty and the incredible struggle to raise oneself into a better life'\n Believes quality entertainment can address serious themes like 'the havenots do not really stand a chance'\n Appreciates historical authenticity and lesser-known historical settings like 'the ugliness and political corruption of Butte, Montana'\n Values character development and 'coming of age' stories that succeed as both adventure and personal growth narratives\n Demonstrates loyalty to favorite authors while remaining critically objective about individual works\n Appreciates humor when it emerges naturally, praising 'great unforced humor from the relationships'\n Values publishers who preserve older works, praising Hard Case Crime for bringing 'great older and more contemporary crime stories to today's readers'\n Balances entertainment value with literary quality, acknowledging 'guilty pleasures' while noting their shortcomings\n Prefers substantive plots over excessive content, noting 'too much sex in these books' as a detraction\nCommunication: \n Consistently uses HTML break tags (
) to structure reviews into clear paragraphs\n Employs comparative analysis extensively, referencing other authors and works as benchmarks\n Provides clear recommendations using phrases like 'highly recommended,' 'not recommended,' or 'worth your time'\n Opens reviews with contextual framing such as 'Just finished this book' or 'I had read a few of the books in this series'\n Balances plot summary with critical evaluation without revealing major spoilers\n Uses conversational yet authoritative tone suggesting deep genre expertise\n Frequently offers alternative reading suggestions, directing readers to 'try [specific title]' for better examples\n Employs qualifying language like 'somewhat,' 'fairly,' 'perhaps,' and 'I think' to nuance opinions\n Structures reviews in 3-5 paragraph format with introduction, analysis, and conclusion\n Makes literary and cultural references to demonstrate broader reading context\n Uses specific evidence from texts including character names, plot points, and settings\n Maintains consistent rating patterns with detailed justification for scores\nStatistics: \n Average review length approximately 120-150 words with range from 50 to 200 words\n Most frequent phrases include 'highly recommended,' 'worth your time,' 'fast-moving,' 'well written,' and 'I finished it in'\n Consistently uses 'I think,' 'I like,' and 'I found' to frame personal opinions\n Employs qualifiers 'somewhat,' 'fairly,' 'perhaps' regularly to moderate statements\n Typical rating distribution: predominantly 4-star reviews with occasional 2-3 and 5-star ratings\n Sentence structure varies between short declarative statements and longer analytical compound sentences\n Reviews posted consistently over 6-month period from June to November 2010\n Frequently references specific book titles and author names, demonstrating extensive genre knowledge\n Uses comparative constructions regularly: 'better than,' 'not as good as,' 'reminds me of'\n Verified purchases noted in approximately 60% of reviews\n<|The End of Persona|>\n\nThe user's past reviews:\n--- Example 1 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: San Juan Shootout (J.d. Hardin)\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – June 1, 1984\n- Price: 5.32\n- Description:\n- Features: Bullets are flying over San Juan silver! Hired to protect an eccentric inventor from Ute Indians, money-hungry desperadoes, and his own passion for pleasure, Doc and Raider come to the San Juan Silver Mines--the riches and most dangerous in the West. The Pinkerton duo soon have their hands full. But despite the gunslinging necessary to get the job done, they still manage to quench the burning desires of a European soprano, a miner's daughter, and an enigmatic lady of the night...\n\nReview by this user:\nGood plot and subplots in this one.: Doc and Raider arrive in the mining town of Mineral Point, Colorado to find inventor Arcady Harrison who has disappeared in the mining fields, and is working on an invention to revolutionize silver mining. Soon after they find their man, Doc and Raider are caught up in the schemes of a corrupt assayer,an ignorant BIA agent and two cunning Indians all with their own agendas.

It's a fast-moving story with a colorful cast of villains, who might have come out of an Elmore Leonard novel.

I was hooked after chapter one, and finished it in a single night.

If you're going to read the \"adult Westerns,\" stick with this series featuring Doc and Raider. I think these books are better than either the Longarm or the Gunsmith stories you may have seen.

A good entry in this series. Recommended.\n\n--- Example 2 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: Tombstone in Deadwood\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – November 1, 1984\n- Price: 9.57\n- Description:\n- Features: PBK\n\nReview by this user:\nPass On It: Very little plot. Humdrum characters.

One of the worst in this series.

Skip it\n\n--- Example 3 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: Apache Trail (J. D. Hardin, No. 48)\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – May 1, 1985\n- Price: 7.03\n- Author: J. D. Hardin\n- Description:\n- Features: After Raider is shanghaied into the U.S. Army, Doc sets out alone to rescue the son of the Arizona governor from the Apaches\n\nReview by this user:\nOn The Apache Trail...: I've read and enjoyed several books in this series by J.D. Hardin, but this novel is one of the mediocre books in a long running series.

Frankly, there's just nothing new or exciting about the story.

If you want a well-written Western, check out books by Lewis Patten or Cameron Judd.

\"Apache Trail\" is not recommended.\n\n--- Example 4 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: Train Ride to Hell (J. D. Hardin, No. 71)\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – April 1, 1987\n- Price: from 2.50\n- Description:\n- Features:\n\nReview by this user:\nSomewhat weak compared with other books in this series...: Pinkerton operatives Doc Weatherbee and Raider escort a group of Russian nobility on a hunting trip, and are pursued by a criminal gang from Russia, who intend to kill the royal family.

It's not a bad read, but this team of ghost writers has certainly done better in past novels.

I think the series was canceled after this entry. Perhaps the authors had run out of ideas for Doc and Raider stories.

Try \"The Swindler's Trail\" or \"The Pecos Dollars\" or \"San Juan Shootout\" for some lively story telling.\n\n--- Example 5 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: Death's Deal (Raider, No. 6)\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – December 1, 1987\n- Price: 6.98\n- Author: J. D. Hardin\n- Description:\n- Features: Raider faces one outlaw after another while leading a group of inexperienced Easterners playing at being cowhands in a cattle drive along the Oregon Trail\n\nReview by this user:\nA very good solo Raider entry: \"Death's Deal\" is a fine entry in the solo Raider Western novel series. This series of books focused on the character of Raider, working alone for the Pinkertons after Doc Weatherbee leaves the agency.

Most of the plot is taken up with a grueling cattle drive, which brings out the courage and cowardice, good and evil of everybody involved. The major villain is more of a contemporary sociopath than the standard Western bad guy.

The solo Raider books just don't have the quality of the earlier Hardin series, but this one is excellent.

Highly recommended.\n\n--- Example 6 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: The Cheyenne Fraud (Raider, No. 8)\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – February 1, 1988\n- Price: 6.2\n- Author: J. D. Hardin\n- Description:\n- Features: Raider has to track down Gerhard Steinbrenner, a dangerous and cunning counterfeiter from Europe\n\nReview by this user:\nProbably Holly's best book.: Probably Joan Hunter Holly's finest book.

In the future, mankind has been programmed to feel no emotion. The few that can feel emotion are caught and put through a brutal re-education process.

Danig is determined to keep and raise a young boy slated to be eventually eliminated. The suspenseful plot moves at the right pace. The re-education scenes are frightening.

Highly recommended\n\n--- Example 7 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: Border Law (Raider, 34)\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – April 1, 1990\n- Price: 9.97\n- Description:\n- Features: Eager to teach his fast-gunned operative about how the law operates, Mr. Pinkerton makes Raider the temporary sheriff of Laredo, and Raider is hard-pressed not to use his gun to solve every petty disturbance in the town\n\nReview by this user:\nRecommended.: Raider takes on a sheriff's badge in Laredo, Texas in order to capture a Mexican bandit leader. However, there is more skullduggery in town which leads him to believe that El Lobo is not the problem.

Well written story with action and suspense and the plot takes some unpredictable turns.

Recommended.\n\n--- Example 8 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: The Gallows Land\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – May 1, 2001\n- Price: 12.5\n- Author: Bill Pronzini\n- Description: About the Author Bill Pronzini has authored or edited dozens of books in the mystery and western genres. He currently resides in California, with his wife, Marcia Muller.\n- Features: Roy Boone, a grief-striken widower, follows a mysterious woman who may have killed her abusive husband with the pistol she had stolen from Roy. Reprint.\n\nReview by this user:\nIf you've read all of Ed Gorman's Westerns...: If you enjoy the western novels of Ed Gorman, this book will certainly hold your interest.

Think of this book as a Old West noir story.

Recommended\n\nThe specific book this user is about to review:\n<|The Start of Book|>\n**User Amazon store: Betty Webb (Author), Jonathan Harrington (Author), Terence Faherty (Author), Nancy Baker Jacobs (Author)**: - Category: Books->Mystery, Thriller & Suspense->Mystery\n- Title: Desperate Journeys: An Anthology (Wwl Mystery, 491)\n- Subtitle: Mass Market Paperback – April 23, 2004\n- Price: 12.44\n- Author: Nancy Baker Jacobs\n Nancy Baker Jacobs is the award-winning author of 13 crime novels, including the Devon MacDonald private eye series; FLASH POINT (featuring arson investigator Susan Delancey) and STAR STRUCK (introducing “Hollywood Star” reporter Quinn Collins), both first installments in new mystery series; STAR SEARCH (a Quinn Collins novella); and seven suspense novels. Her latest suspense offering, RICOCHET, was chosen by the Mystery Writers of America as a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. As Nancy C. Baker, she’s also written six nonfiction books on subjects ranging from black market adoption to breast cancer. Nancy Baker Jacobs has worked as a private detective, a university professor and administrator, and a journalist. She lives on California’s Monterey Peninsula.\n- Description: \n- Features:\nDesperate Journeys by Betty Webb\\Terence Faherty\\Jonathan Harrington\\Nancy Baker Jacobs released on Apr 23, 2004 is available now for purchase.\n- Details:\n Publisher: WWL Mystery; Original edition (April 23, 2004)\n Language: English\n Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages\n ISBN 10: 0373264917\n ISBN 13: 978-0373264919\n Item Weight: 6.4 ounces\n Dimensions: 4.19 x 1.01 x 6.63 inches\n<|The End of Book|>\n\nFirst, PREDICT the substantive review THIS user would most likely write about THIS book, using their persona + past reviews + this book's context. Then turn that prediction into a rubric.\n\nWrite 8-12 numbered criteria that a judge will use to check whether a CANDIDATE review COVERS THE KEY POINTS this user would actually make about THIS book. Ground every criterion in the user's likely CONTENT, not surface style:\n- Their likely OVERALL STANCE / verdict on this book (would they like or dislike it, and why), inferred from their taste and this book's genre/premise/themes.\n- The SPECIFIC aspects they would most likely comment on here -- name concrete elements from THIS book (particular plot points, characters, themes, pacing, craft, comparisons) that a reader like this user reacts to.\n- Their characteristic OPINIONS / reactions (what they would praise or criticize here) and the direction/strength of sentiment.\n- Any content they habitually include (recommendation, audience, warnings, comparisons).\n\nWrite the criteria to match HOW the candidate will be graded (coverage of the user's real review minus a penalty for extra content):\n- Each criterion should reward COVERING a specific likely key point, checkable in a short review.\n- Make them DISCRIMINATING: a candidate that writes a generic or merely on-topic review WITHOUT the user's specific likely take must score LOW; only a candidate that hits the user's actual likely points and stance scores HIGH.\n- Include at least one criterion that PENALIZES speculative, hedging, off-target, or padded content not central to what this user would say.\n- Do NOT reward surface formatting.\n\nOutput ONLY the rubric:\n\n1. \n...\n", "num_candidates": 255, "top_gold_scores": [1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.97, 0.9, 0.9]} {"uid": "AEW6562N3JURITICBRTMOQFVZVDA", "writer_prompt": "You are an expert at characterising how a specific human writes online book reviews.\n\nYou will be shown 8 examples of reviews written by ONE user, each preceded by the book's metadata. Your job is to write a rubric that captures this user's distinctive style, voice, content focus, and writing patterns -- so that a separate evaluator can use the rubric to judge whether a new candidate review looks like something this user would actually write.\n\nThe user's persona:\n<|The Start of Persona|>\nDemographics:\n age group: Approximately 61 years old (calculated from stating they read 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' at age 14, loved it 46 years later in 2014, with last review in 2015)\n other: Married (mentions 'paying attention to the husband'); has owned cats for 40 years; appears to be an avid, lifelong reader\nInterests: \n Historical fiction set in various time periods (early 1900s Brooklyn, 18th-century Russia, WWII Europe, Tudor England, Belle Époque Paris)\n Literary mysteries and thrillers with 'who done it?' elements, as seen in praise for 'Secrets of Eden' and 'The Gravity of Birds'\n Coming-of-age narratives, particularly enjoying 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' as 'a story of love, fortitude, endurance and courage'\n Books exploring slavery and civil rights, calling 'The Invention of Wings' a 'must-read' about 'the evils of slavery'\n Stories with strong female protagonists and complex sister relationships, praising 'riveting tale of the power of sisterly love, jealousy and hate'\n Historical novels with 'clever point of view' techniques, appreciating when stories are told through servants or fictional narrators\n Books about the craft of writing, finding Stephen King's 'On Writing' both 'fun and informative'\n Cat care and behavior, calling 'Think Like a Cat' an 'excellent reference work' after owning cats for 40 years\n Works that combine multiple genres, enjoying 'a literary mystery' and 'fictional biography'\n Books with intricate plots featuring 'twists, turns and intrigue' and 'rich, textured' narratives\n Stories set in specific historical periods with attention to 'period details' and authentic atmosphere\n Reading companion works together, finding it 'fascinating to read' 'The Sun Also Rises' alongside 'The Paris Wife'\nValues: \n Appreciates well-researched historical accuracy, praising books 'steeped in history' and those with 'period details'\n Values character development over plot mechanics, criticizing 'one-dimensional' characters while praising 'fully-developed, three-dimensional characters'\n Believes in the power of literature to illuminate social issues, calling books about slavery and war 'must-reads'\n Respects craftsmanship in writing, distinguishing between 'great literature' and 'extraordinary storytelling'\n Appreciates books that explore moral complexity, praising works about 'goodness' coexisting with 'the evils of war'\n Values emotional authenticity, praising 'heartbreaking and riveting' stories and 'deeply moving' narratives\n Believes in the importance of sisterly bonds and female relationships, highlighting themes of 'sisterly love'\n Appreciates innovative narrative techniques, praising 'creative and thoroughly imaginative way to write history'\n Values perseverance and courage in the face of hardship, praising stories of 'endurance and courage'\n Believes books should provide both entertainment and substance, distinguishing 'beach books' from more serious literature\n Respects authors who tackle difficult subjects with 'compassion and tact'\n Values books that 'give you faith in the power of the human spirit'\nCommunication: \n Uses enthusiastic exclamations frequently, opening reviews with 'Wow! Wow! Wow!' and 'Wow! What a book!'\n Employs vivid metaphors and similes, comparing reading to 'the literary equivalent of eating a whole candy bar'\n Structures reviews with bold, descriptive titles that summarize main themes\n Consistently ends reviews with 'Highly recommended' or similar endorsements\n Uses conversational asides in parentheses, such as '(fill in the blank--cooking dinner, paying attention to the husband, going to bed)'\n Provides specific page counts or Kindle locations to indicate book length, noting '1,000 pages (or just over 17,324 locations for Kindle fans)'\n Balances criticism with praise, noting both 'riveting' and 'boring' sections in the same review\n Uses rhetorical questions for engagement, asking 'Wonder how evil sisters can be to one another?'\n Employs informal language mixed with literary references, mentioning 'Jane Austen, Gabriel García Márquez and William Faulkner'\n Provides reading recommendations and context, suggesting 'read \"The Tea Rose\" first' or reading companion books together\n Uses HTML formatting like
tags and " for quotation marks in reviews\n Writes in a teaching tone, explaining literary terms like 'fictional biography (my phrase)' and providing historical context\nStatistics: \n Average review length approximately 150-200 words, with detailed reviews reaching 250+ words\n Minimum review length around 100 words (cat book review), maximum around 280 words (historical fiction reviews)\n Frequently uses exclamation points for emphasis, often multiple in succession ('Wow! Wow! Wow!')\n Common phrases include 'Highly recommended,' 'must-read,' 'can't-put-it-down,' and 'what a read'\n Consistently provides star ratings of 4-5 stars, with only one 1-star review (for 'Midnight in Europe')\n Uses structured format with bold titles followed by detailed commentary\n Employs varied sentence structure, mixing short emphatic statements ('Boring! Boring! Boring!') with longer, complex sentences\n Frequently references specific time periods and historical contexts in reviews\n Often compares books to other works or suggests reading multiple books together\n Uses personal anecdotes sparingly but effectively, mentioning 'I remember my mother reading this book' and 'the first time I read this'\n<|The End of Persona|>\n\nThe user's past reviews:\n--- Example 1 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: A Man Called Ove: A Novel\n- Subtitle: Paperback – May 5, 2015\n- Price: 11.09\n- Author: Fredrik Backman\n- Description: Review “A charming debut…You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll feel new sympathy for the curmudgeons in your life. You’ll also want to move to Scandinavia, where everything’s cuter.” ― People \"In turns moving and funny. . . I wager that you’ll soon fall in love with Ove and be deeply moved by his situation, and after spending time with him, may perhaps gaze at the world around you with a little more empathy than when you turned the first page.\" -- Eric Larson“Even the most serious reader of fiction needs light r ...[truncated]\n- Features: Now a major motion picture A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks! #1 New York Times bestseller—more than 3 million copies sold! Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior th ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nA 10-Star Book! Read. It. Now.: I want to give this book 10 stars. Five is not enough. What happens when a grumpy old man who is intent on killing himself when he believes his life no longer has meaning meets a group of characters who thwarts his every suicidal move--unintentionally, of course? What happens is hilarious. And heart-warming. And poignant. What happens is love. And the power of community.

Ove is 58 and finished with living. And then new neighbors move in--a very unlikely bunch that moves into Ove's heart, too. Yes, it's a feel-good story, but what could be syrupy sentimentality is muted by the quirky, snarky humor and the result is you will laugh out loud more than once. I promise.

This is a 10-star book. Read it. Now. And be prepared to laugh and cry and go buy a Saab. (You'll get that last one when you read the book.)\n\n--- Example 2 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Children's Books->Animals\n- Title: Olivia the Spy\n- Subtitle: Hardcover – Picture Book, April 4, 2017\n- Price: 15.32\n- Author: Ian Falconer\n- Description: From School Library Journal PreS-Gr 2—Olivia, the long-eared, precocious pig in striped pajamas, decides to become a spy in order to hear her mother's many complaints about her behavior. Unfortunately, she misunderstands a half-overheard conversation and lets her imagination get the best of her, convincing herself that her parents intend to send her to prison. With a trembling lip, Olivia prepares for the worst, only to find herself at the ballet (a different sort of \"institution,\" it seems). Falconer's tra ...[truncated]\n- Features: Everyone’s favorite pig is about to have a birthday…but will her penchant for eavesdropping lead to more than presents? Olivia’s birthday is days away. Plans must be made. Who makes plans? Moms! Who simply must know the plans? Olivia, who is NOT above eavesdropping. But when she not-so-accidentally-but-kinda overhears her mom talking about her not-so-squeaky-clean-and-possibly-very-bad-behavior, Olivia’s imagination runs wild…because it sounds like not only will there be no birthday, but Mom might just be s ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nA Delightful Story With Extraordinary Illustrations: Oh, what a delightful book for your favorite precocious child! Olivia eavesdrops on her parents—in her mind she is spying—but only hears part of a conversation that leaves her reeling in confusion and fright. Her parents want to surprise her with a special outing, but because she doesn't have all the facts, her imagination runs wild.

Written and beautifully illustrated by Ian Falconer, this book is a treasure to read. There are funny, subtle messages in the text and illustrations that will keep the adult readers smiling and entertained, too.

I read this aloud to a first-grade class, and they were enthralled—that's the only word to describe it. They listened attentively to the story and paid close attention to the detail in the extraordinary illustrations. Best of all, they asked some very astute questions when I was finished reading.

Bonus: Most children who read this book will learn several new vocabulary words that are fully and creatively explained by the author. And that's a lesson in and of itself. As I told the first-graders, if you hear or read a word you don't know, ask someone what it means. This is the best way to expand vocabulary.\n\n--- Example 3 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: Water for Elephants: A Novel\n- Subtitle: Paperback – April 9, 2007\n- Price: 8.39\n- Author: Sara Gruen\n- Description: Review \"[An] arresting new novel. . . . At its finest, Water for Elephants resembles stealth hits like 'The Giant's House,' by Elizabeth McCracken, or 'The Lovely Bones,' by Alice Sebold, books that combine outrageously whimsical premises with crowd-pleasing romanticism. . . . Black-and-white photographs of real American circus scenes from the first half of the century are interspersed throughout the novel, and they brilliantly evoke the dignified power contained in the quieter moments of this unusual broth ...[truncated]\n- Features: Over 10,000,000 copies in print worldwide #1 New York Times Bestseller A Los Angeles Times Bestseller A Wall Street Journal Bestseller A Newsday Favorite Book of 2006 A USA Today Bestseller A Major Motion Picture starring Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz Jacob Janowski’s luck had run out--orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nA Page-Turner You Won't Want to Stop Reading: The Depression. A B-list circus. A beautiful, but flawed performer. A hero. Shady characters. And an elephant? Yeah, not my kind of book. But...wait! It is my kind of book as it turns out. "Water for Elephants" is the story of Jacob Jankowski, a Cornell-educated veterinarian, who jumps a circus train in the 1930s and embarks on the adventure of his life.

It's not often an author is skilled enough to write a page-turner of a tale with characters who seem so real and full-bodied. But Sara Gruen does it extraordinarily well. Filled with vivid descriptions, realistic dialogue that moves the plot and even a few (very!) sexy scenes, this book is one you should save for a long plane ride or an afternoon under a beach umbrella. It's too good to have to stop reading just because your family is expecting you to make dinner.\n\n--- Example 4 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Dramas & Plays\n- Title: The Promise: A Novel\n- Subtitle: Paperback – May 5, 2015\n- Price: 13.94\n- Author: Ann Weisgarber\n- Description: Review Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Finalist for the Spur Award for Best Western Historical Fiction Finalist for the Ohioana Book Award for Fiction “This second engaging novel from Weisgarber . . . has shades of Willa Cather, Sinclair Lewis, and Conrad Richter, and the prose has a streak of formality that gives the book a period flavor, but Catherine’s first-person narration (and later that of Nan Ogden, the housekeeper at Catherine’s new home) is also appealingly immediate. ...[truncated]\n- Features: Over 50,000 sold! From the author of The Personal History of Rachel DuPree (soon to be a major motion picture)! Shades of Willa Cather, Sinclair Lewis, and Conrad Richter.”— Publishers Weekly , starred review Young pianist Catherine Wainwright flees the fashionable town of Dayton, Ohio, in the wake of a terrible scandal. Heartbroken and facing destitution, she finds herself striking up correspondence with a childhood admirer, the recently widowed Oscar Williams. In desperation, she agrees to marry him, but ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nJust One More Page...You Won't Be Able to Stop Reading This Book: Riveting. Captivating. Spellbinding. Entrancing. Get the idea? This short, can't-put-it-down novel by Ann Weisgarber will grab you at page one and not let go. This is the kind of book that will make you forgo sleep, housework and other responsibilities. Just one more page. (Yeah, right...like you could stop after just one more page.)

It's 1900. Catherine Wainwright of Dayton, Ohio has been caught in a horrific scandal of such magnificent proportions that she is shunned by proper society and forced to flee. Even her mother is appalled by her only child's behavior. So Catherine writes a letter to Oscar, a boy she knew as a young girl--a working class boy who left Dayton to build a new life in Galveston, Texas. Oscar had always admired her from afar. It just so happens that Oscar, now a widower with a 5-year-old son, needs a wife. And Catherine needs to escape. A train ride across the country, a quickie wedding by a judge, and the two strangers begin their new life together in Oscar's tiny house on the island of Galveston.

The story is told in the first person alternating between Catherine and Nan Ogden, who was a dear friend of Oscar's first wife and who now keeps house for Oscar and his son. There are a series of storms. The inner storms that Catherine and Oscar suffer individually, the storm of the first days of their hasty marriage, the storm going on inside Nan and finally the biggest storm of all: The September 8, 1900 hurricane that is still the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States.

Just one more page...and you'll finish this book, wiping tears from your eyes.\n\n--- Example 5 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Reference->Writing, Research & Publishing Guides\n- Title: On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft (A Memoir of the Craft (Reissue))\n- Subtitle: Kindle Edition\n- Price: 12.99\n- Author: Stephen King\n- Description: Review \"A one-of-a-kind classic.\" — The Wall Street Journal \"This is a special book, animated by a unique intelligence, and filled with useful truth.\" —Michael Chabon \" On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style .\" —Roger Ebert “The best book on writing. Ever.” — The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) About the Author Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes ...[truncated]\n- Features: Twentieth Anniversary Edition with Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen King ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S TOP 100 NONFICTION BOOKS OF ALL TIME Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work. “Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing . Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestsell ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nA Glimpse of How the Wizard Works Behind the Curtain: How can you not love a book with a second preface that opens with this sentence: "This is a short book because most books about writing are filled b******t." (Yes, there are not only two prefaces, but three! Hey, why not?) Written in easy, conversational style, superauthor Stephen King explains how he does it.

About half the book is autobiographical (King's reaction when he finds out that the paperback version of "Carrie" sold for $400,000--this while he is living with his wife and three kids in a shabby four-room apartment--is worth the price of the book alone), while the rest tells his views on the art and craft of putting words on paper and making a story out of it. It's a fun and informative read. I recommend it for anyone who dreams of writing fiction or any diehard Stephen King fan who wants to get just a glimpse of how the wizard works behind the curtain.\n\n--- Example 6 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Perennial Classics)\n- Subtitle: Kindle Edition\n- Price: 13.99\n- Author: Betty Smith\n- Description: Review “One of the most dearly beloved and one of the finest books of our day.” Review “Betty Smith was a born storyteller.” -- USA Today “One of the books of the century.” -- New York Public Library“A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. It cuts right to the heart of life. . . . If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience.” -- New York Times “ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn deserves to be thought of as one of the greatest American novels.” -- The New Yorker “One ...[truncated]\n- Features: A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century. From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior—such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality o ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nA Story of Love, Endurance and Courage: The first time I read this wonderful book I was 14. I loved it then, and I love it now--some 46 years later. This classic coming-of-age story by Betty Smith doubles as a historical novel, as it explores not only the angst, agony and joy of growing up, but also the squalor and grit of real poverty in the early 1900s in the tenements of Brooklyn, New York. This is a story of love, fortitude, endurance and courage in the face of unspeakable hardship. It will give you faith in the power of the human spirit!\n\n--- Example 7 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: The Constant Princess (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels Book 4)\n- Subtitle: Kindle Edition\n- Price: None\n- Author: Philippa Gregory\n- Description: Review \"In her addictive new novel, [Gregory] turns her eye to Katherine of Aragon, a princess who became Queen of England -- all by dint of a well-kept secret.\" -- Marie Claire \"Gregory's story is as ambitious as its main character....\" -- Entertainment Weekly \"Gregory makes the broad sweep of history vibrant and intimate.\" -- Kirkus Reviews “The queen of royal fiction.” -- USA Today \"Sexy ... Scandalous ... Smart.\" -- Redbook magazine “Philippa Gregory turns real-life historical royalty into royally ...[truncated]\n- Features: From #1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” ( USA TODAY ) Philippa Gregory comes the remarkable story of Katherine of Aragon, Princess of Spain, daughter of two great monarchs, and eventual Queen of England when she marries the infamous King Henry VIII. Daughter of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, Katherine has been fated her whole life to marry Prince Arthur of England. When they meet and are married, the match becomes as passionate as it is politically expedient. The ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nOh, How Delicious!: Oh, how delicious! This is historical FICTION. Emphasis on the word "fiction." While it is a historical account of Catalina, princess of Spain who becomes Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife and queen of England, there is liberal artistic license taken.

The facts are the bones of the book; the fiction is the flesh. And author Philippa Gregory, who is one of the leading novelists about this time period, melds the two brilliantly. The book alternates between a third-person story and the first-person thoughts of Catalina/Katherine.

This is the first in a series of novels about the Tudors. The story continues in the next book, "The Other Boleyn Girl," when the Bolelyn family (first Mary and then her sister, Anne) so devastatingly disrupt the marriage of the King Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon and set in motion the birth of the Church of England.

If you enjoy the stories of the Tudors--I find it all quite enthralling--then this is a must-read.\n\n--- Example 8 ---\nBook:\n- Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: The Boleyn Inheritance: A Novel (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels Book 5)\n- Subtitle: Kindle Edition\n- Price: 13.99\n- Author: Philippa Gregory\n- Description: Review \"Fascinating...harrowing....If only...history books were written so vividly.\" -- Entertainment Weekly \"The queen of royal fiction.\" -- USA Today About the Author Philippa Gregory is the author of many New York Times bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl , and is a recognized authority on women’s history. Many of her works have been adapted for the screen including The Other Boleyn Girl . She graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, ...[truncated]\n- Features: From “the queen of royal fiction” ( USA TODAY ) comes this New York Times bestseller featuring three very different women whose fates are each bound by a bloody curse: the legacy of the Boleyn family. After the death of his third wife, Jane Seymour, King Henry VIII of England decides to take a new wife, but this time, not for love. The Boleyn Inheritance follows three women whose lives are forever changed because of the king’s decision, as they must balance precariously in an already shaky Tudor Court. Ann ...[truncated]\n\nReview by this user:\nA Riveting Story Written With a Touch of Literary Genius: When it comes to historical fiction, I do think the most fascinating time period is the reign of King Henry VIII during the first half of the 16th century. Why? It was such a soap opera! Everything was done to excess—eating, drinking, gossiping, playing and most of all extraordinarily bad behavior. This book, part of the Plantagenet and Tudor Novels series by Philippa Gregory, tells the story of the fourth and fifth wives of old King Henry.

No. 4 was Anne of Cleaves, the only one of his six wives to escape the marriage with her life intact. Henry despised her for many reasons, and only months after what he quickly considered a sham marriage, he caught the eye of 15-year-old Katherine Howard, portrayed in this book as a ditzy, greedy, vain and vapid little girl.

While this fictional story that is faithful to the historical facts may read like a soap opera in the extreme, Philippa Gregory has written this book with a touch of literary genius. Each chapter is told in the first person by one of three people: Anne of Cleaves, Katherine Howard or Jane Boleyn, who served both Anne and Katherine as a lady-in-waiting and was the sister-in-law of the doomed Anne Boleyn. Gregory so deftly and vividly distinguishes each of these three women's personalities and voices that chapter titles are almost not needed. Read a few sentences, and you will know who is the narrator. It is an extraordinary writing feat that adds abundant richness to an already gripping narrative. And face it, that's tough to do when anyone who studied European history in high school already knows the tragic, gruesome and terror-filled ending.

A valuable lesson to learn from this period of history: King Henry VIII may have received the crown humbly in 1509, but he turned into a tyrannical monarch who assumed he had the right to absolute power. He truly believed that whatever he did, no matter how horrific, violent or cruel, was the will of God. There were no checks and balances on his power. To silence his enemies, he killed them—thousands and thousands of them. He stole. He lied (a lot). He was duplicitous. He terrified an entire country. He proved that absolute power absolutely corrupts.\n\nThe specific book this user is about to review:\n<|The Start of Book|>\n**User Amazon store: Kate Morton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition**: - Category: Books->Literature & Fiction->Genre Fiction\n- Title: The Forgotten Garden: A Novel\n- Subtitle: Kindle Edition\n- Price: 13.99\n- Author: Kate Morton\n KATE MORTON is an award-winning, Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author. Her novels - The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House, The Clockmaker's Daughter and Homecoming - are published in over 45 countries, in 38 languages, and have all been number one bestsellers around the world. Kate Morton grew up in the mountains of southeast Queensland and now lives with her family in London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, and harboured dreams of joining the Royal Shakespeare Company until she realised that it was words she loved more than performing. Kate still feels a pang of longing each time she goes to the theatre and the house lights dim. \"I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people - you and me - in which our minds meet across time and space. I love books that conjure a world around me, bringing their characters and settings to life, so that the real world disappears and all that matters, from beginning to end, is turning one more page.\" www.katemorton.com www.facebook.com/KateMortonAuthor https://instagram.com/katemortonauthor Keep up-to-date on Kate Morton's books and events by joining her mailing list: www.katemorton.com/mailing-list\n- Description: Review “A long, lush, perfectly escapist read.” — The Daily News (NY) (The Daily News)“Morton whisks the reader into scene after vivid scene, sometimes frightening us, often perplexing us, and always providing us with a great deal of entertainment.” — Star Telegram (Fort Worth, TX) (Ft. Worth Star Telegram) About the Author Kate Morton is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The House at Riverton , The Forgotten Garden , The Distant Hours , The Secret Keeper , The Lake House , and The Clockmaker’s Daughter . Her books are published in thirty-eight languages and have been #1 bestsellers worldwide. Born and raised in Australia, she holds degrees in dramatic art and English literature, and now lives with her family in London and Australia. Visit her online at KateMorton.com or on Facebook and Instagram at @KateMortonAuthor. From the Back Cover A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, a maze, an aristocratic family, a love denied, a mystery - The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, ghosts, family and memories from best-selling author Kate Morton.Thirty-eight year old Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything known and dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra's life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family. Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace Rutherford - the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century - as well as a cliff-top cottage on the other side of the world, Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell, on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Amazon.com Review Amazon Best of the Month, April 2009 : Like Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved classic The Secret Garden , Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden takes root in your imagination and grows into something enchanting--from a little girl with no memories left alone on a ship to Australia, to a fog-soaked London river bend where orphans comfort themselves with stories of Jack the Ripper, to a Cornish sea heaving against wind-whipped cliffs, crowned by an airless manor house where an overgrown hedge maze ends in the walled garden of a cottage left to rot. This hidden bit of earth revives barren hearts, while the mysterious Authoress's fairy tales (every bit as magical and sinister as Grimm's) whisper truths and ignite the imaginary lives of children. As Morton draws you through a thicket of secrets that spans generations, her story could cross into fairy tale territory if her characters weren't clothed in such complex flesh, their judgment blurred by the heady stench of emotions (envy, lust, pride, love) that furtively flourished in the glasshouse of Edwardian society. While most ache for a spotless mind's eternal sunshine, the Authoress meets the past as \"a cruel mistress with whom we must all learn to dance,\" and her stories gift children with this vital muscle memory. -- Mari Malcolm Read an excerpt and the reading group guide for The Forgotten Garden . Amazon Exclusive: A Conversation with Author Kate Morton Q: The Forgotten Garden has some marvelous parallels with Frances Hodgson Burnett 's The Secret Garden , and Burnett even makes an appearance in your book as a guest at a garden party. Did her book inspire portions of your story? A: The Secret Garden was one of my favourite books when I was a little girl. Along with stories like The Faraway Tree and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , it's one of many classic childhood tales in which children escape from the adult world to a place in which their imagination is allowed free rein. However, it wasn't my intention to reference The Secret Garden when I first started writing. In fact, The Forgotten Garden (which was called The Authoress until the final draft!) began with a family story: when she was 21, my grandmother's father told her that she wasn't his biological child. Nana was so deeply affected by this knowledge that she told no one until she was a very old lady and finally confided in her three daughters. When I learned Nana's secret, I was struck by how fragile a person's sense of self is and knew that one day I would write a story about someone who experienced a similar life-changing confession. When I began to write about Nell, I knew that her mystery was going to lead her to an English cottage, but the other details were hazy. It was while I was auditioning English locations for my book that I came across mention of the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall. My interest was piqued, and I began reading everything I could find about this place: a grand country estate with astounding gardens that had been locked and forgotten after its gardening staff were killed during the first world war and the owners moved away. When it was rediscovered in the late 20th century, nature had reclaimed the estate, but the bones of the garden lay deep beneath the overgrowth. This story really fired my imagination and I knew that I'd not only found my location--Cornwall--but that I would also need a forgotten garden in my story! I was also eager to play with 19th-century gothic conventions in The Forgotten Garden . I adore books like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights , and I wanted a gloomy old house, wicked aunts, secretive servants, hidden identities, mysterious whisperings--the lot. But when my garden grew walls, I suddenly remembered The Secret Garden , and with my theme of fairy tales and storytellers and the vital role that such things play in a child's imagination, I couldn't resist introducing parallels (including a walk-on role for Frances Hodgson Burnett). It was a way of referencing my own childhood influences-- Enid Blyton and the Famous Five get a couple of nods throughout, too!--and was a lot of fun.