For authors, reviews are essential. We crave them; we dread them; we beg for them; we pray they are positive, and inwardly weep when they are not. Some have been known to outwardly rage and argue with the reviewer if what has been written is not outright praise, but that (thankfully) is rare.
The point of a review is to encourage other readers to buy the book, or, conversely, to warn prospective purchasers to save their money. The column this month is intended to offer a note of hope to all those authors who have been the recipients of one-star diatribes against their much-loved and sweated over literary babies.