| ***** | Outstanding, extraordinary stuff. Probably exceptional material as well as writing. |
| **** | Great stuff. Maybe the material is great but the writing only good (or vice versa), or maybe I think you have to be in the mood, or something. |
| *** | Good stuff. Probably really great if some aspect of the book is appealing all by itself. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a *** book to people who seem interested in the book's identifying qualities. |
| ** | So-so stuff. You probably won't get me to recommend one of these, even if you are interested in whatever characterizes the particular book. But I won't implore you to skip it. These are the kinds of books you finish anyway, once you've got well into them. |
| * | Didn't like it. Not sure exactly why others do. |
| :-( | Hated it. Wouldn't even finish reading it, and this is hard for me to do. |