Welcome and Ratings Explanation

 Welcome to See Mel read.  I'm a librarian, and rather unexpectedly that makes me an avid reader.  Here you will find rambling, in-depth thoughts on the books I read.  It may not always be cohesive, but as long as I'm coherent I'm taking the win.

I will use the five-star rating system in my reviews, but I'll provide some context for what those ratings mean to me, as I think there's a lot of room for interpretation from person to person.

5 Stars - The Mary Poppins of books, practically perfect in every way.  

4 Stars - Pretty good, but there were things that irked me.

3 Stars - This one is the most confusing.  A lot of books get rated 3 stars, and it means a few different things to me.  It can mean "this wasn't actually good but I was entertained anyway," "predictable plot but the characters kind of make up for it," "a really interesting concept that could've used more polish in the execution," or "I really have no strong feelings one way or another about what I just read."

2 Stars - Some redeeming qualities, but mostly not very good.

1 Star - Should be kept on hand as emergency fire fuel in case of long-term winter power outages.

And that's basically it!



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