Pam,

Exactly. If you google my name, you'll come up with about 15 --20 pages. I'm really easy to find and if that person had written to me directly, I would have offered her money back.

Norah,

I agree that it always looks better to have a diversity of opinion. I review all kinds of books on Amazon and I don't give everything a five-star review. In fact, I gave Tom Wolfe's last book a terrible review.

Shortly afterwards, I was reading a book by Nick Hornby -- one of my favorite writers -- who said how much he hated Amazon reviewers! Since then, I haven't posted any reviews.

Let's face it. Amazon is a populist forum. In some ways that's great because it gives everyone an opportunity to get on and write their opinion. On the other hand, not everyone's opinion is that valuable! That may sound snobby and I don't mean it that way. I just mean that it is a forum for amateur critics and I don't want to respond as an amateur writer. I would like to appear professional even if I'm feeling disillusioned :-)

Sigrid