The AML Discussion Board welcomes reviews and comments, formal and informal, solicited and unsolicited. (Our review archive currently contains over 1000 subscriber reviews.) These guidelines provide informations specific to our formal review program, but we hope those preparing unsolicited reviews will find this information useful as well. We are interested in reviews of films and plays as well as books.

You can write either a full-length review or a brief paragraph. By posting a review in the AML Discussion Board Review category you grant permission for the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) to include the review in the online Review Archive as well as in Irreantum, at the discretion of the editors.

Every review should include the following bibliographic information, either in point form, as here, or in bibliographic format at the head of your review:

Author (or Director for films or plays)
Title
Publisher for books or DVDs (or Location for a play)
Date of publication for books or DVDs (or of production, for a play)
Hardcover / softcover (not applicable for plays or DVDs)
Number of pages (also not applicable for plays or DVDs)
ISBN (please give the 10 as well as the 13 ISBN)
Cost in US dollars
Three other items to include, whether in point form or in your review text:

Target audience (adults, teens, kids, etc., LDS, non-LDS, etc.)
Brief plot summary (fiction, films, plays)
Main topic or theme (poetry, essay)
Try to give a sense of the book's (or film's or play's) main ideas and how well it achieves its purpose. Keep in mind that a review should help your audience decide whether or not to invest time and money in this book (etc).

In addition, please consider these three questions:

Does the author demonstrate significant writing skills?
Do you see the book fitting into any trends?
In what way does the book demonstrate Mormon culture?

Full Review

The AML Discussion Board prefers full-length reviews. The following points list One good approach for a full review.

Spend a paragraph or two summarizing the book and describing the main characters.
Devote a paragraph or two more to your own impressions and the questions listed above (is it written with skill, does it fit in with a trend, how is it Mormon).
Somewhere in the review, include an excerpt from the book one or two paragraphs long that illustrates your points.

Minimal Review

If you find you do not have the time you expected to complete a review or you do not relate to a book's content, please post at least a minimal review. The following points describe one approach for a minimal review.

Read the first chapter, the last chapter, and a chapter at random.
Give the bibliographic information listed above.
In one to three sentences, describe the book's purpose or general story line.
Quote a brief excerpt (one to three sentences) as an example of the book's style.
In one to three more sentences, give your impression of the book. If you can, touch on the three questions listed for a full review.

Post reviews in the Review category of the AML Discussion Board, in the appropriate area, by starting a topic for the book/film/play you are reviewing. Please format your topic subject as follows:

PETERSON, Backslider

If someone else has already started a topic on the book/film/play you are reviewing, you may either start a new topic or post your review in the same topic.

Thank you. We look forward to your reviews.