National Book Critics Circle members pop up at book festivals and events all over the country. Most recently, on a 10 a.m. panel at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley April 28.Their topics: What makes for a good book review? How about a good book reviewer, for that matter? How are books chosen for review, and reviewers chosen for a particular book? How should a “bad” book be panned—or is it better to just not review it at all? Panelists (from front left), Jane Ciabattari, reviewer for BBC Culture, and current NBCC vice president/online (and former president), Lydia Kiesling, editor of the literary website The Millions; and Ismail Muhammad, who was in the first class of NBCC emerging critics, and is now an NBCC board member, reviewer for The Millions and contributor to Slate and the Paris Review. In the back, NBCC member John McMurtrie, books editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and Paul Laity, nonfiction editor at The Guardian.
