Terms of Service

This is a personal review site. Reading it is free, there is nothing to sign up for except an optional newsletter, and there is no account to create. What follows is the short version of what you can and cannot rely on here, and using the site means you are content with it.

It is written for adults deciding what to read or listen to. It is not aimed at children.

The reviews are opinion

Every review is one person’s judgement of a book or a recording, written after reading or listening to it, and labelled with which of those actually happened. The two scores are opinions too, not measurements. Nothing here is a statement of fact about whether you will enjoy something, and reasonable people disagree about books constantly.

Edition facts go stale, and that is the useful warning

Runtimes, narrator credits, page counts, publishers, abridgement status and what is included with a membership are recorded as they were found, with the date where it matters. Retailers change listings, republish under new identifiers, and occasionally swap the file underneath an unchanged product page. All of that has happened to titles covered here.

So: check the edition before you buy it. Where two sources disagree, this site says so rather than picking one, and that disagreement is information rather than a failure to research.

Affiliate links

Some links earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The affiliate disclosure covers which ones, what they are worth, and why that does not decide the recommendations.

Other people’s sites

Links go to retailers, publishers, libraries and reference sources. Those are theirs, not this site’s, and their content, prices and privacy practices are outside anyone’s control here. A link is not an endorsement of everything on the far side of it.

Who owns what

The reviews, the writing and the design are Cal Hewitt’s. Quoting a sentence or two with a link back is welcome. Republishing a review in full, or feeding the archive into a product, is not.

Book titles, cover art, author names and narrator names belong to their respective owners and appear here for identification and comment. Cover images are served by Open Library rather than hosted here.

The newsletter and the contact form

The newsletter is one email a week at most, unsubscribe whenever, and the address is not sold or passed on. A first name is optional and only there so the email can open with something better than nothing.

The contact form is for corrections, errors, broken links, accessibility problems and recommendations. It is not for marketing, link requests, guest posts or anything automated, and submissions of that sort are deleted unread. The privacy policy covers where both forms store what you send.

No warranty, in plain words

This site is provided as it is. Reasonable care goes into getting facts right and corrections are made when they are wrong, but there is no guarantee that everything here is accurate, current or complete, and no responsibility is taken for a purchase you regret. You are choosing what to buy and what to spend your hours on.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute arising from this site or these terms belongs in the state or federal courts located in Harris County, Texas, and by using the site you agree to that venue.

Changes and corrections

These terms change when the site does. Corrections to reviews are made in place, and a change that affects a verdict is noted on the page rather than made silently.

Something wrong, or a rights question? Get in touch.