I have been enjoying the fact that, about a year ago, I was accepted to be a member of ELLE magazine’s readers’ jury, a group of the magazine’s readers that are invited a couple of times a year to read 3 books and rank them from favorite to least favorite. As an avid reader (and writer, of course), it’s always fun to read advance copies and to compare how my rankings stack up to others that read the books.

I was happy to see that I was cited twice this month, on my favorite and least favorite books:

  • As I mention in the excerpt from my review on Happier at Home, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy this book. It was full of lots of little ways to focus on the positive and live a more fulfilled life.

  • At least the 15 readers agreed on my least favorite book of the three, Why Have Kids — and not, as a non-parent, for the reasons you’d think. In addition to the quote they used on the website about its content, I was also incredibly frustrated with the book’s structure. The book is sloppily put together, she often repeats points, and she rarely shows the other sides of her arguments.

Speaking of the jury, I must go read some more; I have to finish one more book before submitting my reviews for their end-of-year rankings…