I was pleasantly surprised to be contacted by ELLE to read books for the June and July panels this year. However, the excitement was short-lived — the July column is a web-only feature, and I’m sensing that they are phasing this column out. I enjoyed the June memoirs, and agreed Read more…
The non-fiction selections I read for October for ELLE magazine’s readers’ panel were quite challenging; the theme this month was triumph over early trauma. I found all three difficult to read, and I only would recommend one of them. Here’s what we read: EpilogueThis is the only book I’d recommend out Read more…
I had a pleasant surprise this spring when I was contacted to join a fiction panel for ELLE magazine’s readers’ panel; I had only done non-fiction reviews up to this point. The books that we read were quite varied, covering stories about early 20th-century anthropologists in Africa, a musician touring Europe, Read more…
As part of the jury for the ELLE magazine Readers’ Prize, all reviewers get to vote on the top book of the year, either for fiction or non-fiction. Since I’ve been reading non-fiction titles for them, I voted on six memoirs that had been picked as “best of the month” throughout Read more…
I was able to fit in one more reading panel for ELLE magazine before the baby came; I sent my reviews during the last week before my due date. To my surprise, they said the results were quite close. I had to send in a weighted preference to help them rank Read more…
Now that I’m six months pregnant, I’m trying to read as much as I can before the baby comes. These reviews were submitted before the holidays, and I’m looking forward to fitting in at least one more jury before my due date in April. While this was my second pick Read more…
While there are times that I’m disappointed to be on the non-fiction panel for Elle magazine’s reader’s jury, the December books this year were completely engrossing. Better yet, they cited my reviews for all three books this month on the website — and I think this was the first month Read more…
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. Read more…
Last summer, I noticed that ELLE magazine invites their readers to be a part of their Readers’ Prize jury. Each month, they ask 15 people to read three books and rank them best to worst, and submit brief comments on each selection. I emailed the editor about my interest, and Read more…