"Sunday Best" was a pleasure to read. I must admit that I haven't heard about John Carey before. My bad! The reviews he has chosen for this collection are fascinating. The author writes skilfully, he is knowledgeable and opinionated with a healthy dose of snark. And most importantly? He has a sense of humour, which is not a given when it comes to old boys from the Oxbridge club. My only complaint? After reading these brilliant reviews I feel no need to read the actual books, that were reviewed. I am sure I couldn't enjoy the books as much as I enjoyed the reviews. A paradox? Maybe.
This book is also a marvellous course in writing reviews. I am a reviewer myself, but not a pro like John Carey. Obviously. If you are a reviewer or enjoy reading reviews you should definitely give this book a chance.

I received "Sunday Best" from the publisher via NetGalley. I would like to thank the author and the publisher for providing me with the advance reader copy of the book.

It's difficult to know how to rate this book. On the one hand, it is full of delightful ideas for people who love books about books and adding to their own personal lists of things to learn and read about. As a librarian, I definitely fall into this category, adding 9 books to my TBR and mostly agreeing with his assessments on the handful of books I've read from his list. On the other, the tone is sometimes jarringly acerbic and grating in its pronouncements: a representative closing denouncement reads "The only surprise is that, with so many friends in the literary world, none of them persuaded him not to publish this book."

The good in this collection is very good and Carey is unquestionably talented. I appreciated learning about some books I may not have seen any other way. I found him at his best when he was writing warmly of books he seemed to genuinely enjoy or was making some social commentary: "... Warden explained that there were many better-qualified candidates [to Merton College, Oxford], but promised to use his influence to secure her son a place, which he did. I am sure this injustice does not happen in Oxford any more, but it is not surprising that people that it does given that it was so prevalent recently." I laughed out loud. But in the end, I kept being pulled out of total enjoyment by discovering that some recommendations were for books that have had issues found with their veracity in the years since he originally published his reviews. As mentioned above, the tone was also off-putting in many places.

I found this quite interesting. I adore book reviews so this was right up my alley. I found the author fair and very concise in his reviews. His reviews (whether good or not) were well explained without being verbose.

It would have never ever occurred to me that someone might publish a book containing nothing but book reviews. Yet, here we are. The idea might seem odd, but it turns out to be a good one.

This is a collection of reviews of books published mostly within the last two decades. They are organized into sections by type, such as cultural history, science, memoirs, anthropology, etc.

All the reviews are spot on. John Carey is a fine reader and an acute observer. He is not afraid to praise a book nor to criticize it when it's needed and he does so in such a gentle and respectful way, we could all learn from him a great deal. Humor across the reviews makes the reading experience even nicer.

Being a grumpy person as I am, the only thing I smirk upon is the number of titles I have written down after reading this brilliant collection. As if my TBR list isn't long enough. Smirk.

Now I must confess I think I partly hold the blame for not loving this book as I probably am not the target market.
I read the synopsis and saw that it was a collection of book reviews from John Carey who is in addition to being a leading English professor also reviews books weekly in the times but I was unaware this book would be focusing purely on non-fiction.

Non fiction is one of those things I have to be in the mood for and im very selective in which subjects Grab me and I find interesting and sadly the non fiction mood didn’t take me.
This book did give me a great perspective on how to structure my own reviews and a couple of books have been added to my wishlist such as singles out: how two million women survived by Virginia Nicholson.

I just wish it had been dispersed a bit more across both fiction and non fiction .

There is no better reviewer in British literary history and this collection brings us his very best work. I learned so much and now must go through everything he has recommended to enjoy them all over again. Masterful.

This was an enjoyable book. Carey’s reviews are witty and fair, with just enough of a summary of each book to give a reader enough information to decide if they want to read it. I enjoyed the format with the reviews being organized by topic.

I did not think that I could enjoy a non-fiction piece as much as I enjoyed hearing the reviews from John Carey's "Sunday Best", and his latitude with a variety of topics, ranging from philosophy, history, as well as biographies and vegetable gardening. Each section brought me with a new level of enjoyment and investment into whatever novel he was speaking about next, and I can only wish to write with a quarter of the gusto, enthusiasm, and dedication as he does. Carey's way of being able to meticulously describe details of a novel, while also adding his own opinions and insights throughout the book made each review easy to follow and investing to read about (some of the novels that he spoke about have already been added to some of my "to read" shelf). Ergo, I believe that Carey's reviews would be a piece greatly enjoyed by those who are able to keep pace with the seamless transitions from one book to the next; one topic that may be of less interest to the reader, but one that they are willing to read about from the perspective of Carey. Overall, this book helped me to find a perspective I would have been lost without, and is definitely one of my more recent favorite non-fiction pieces.

I liked this well written and witty book reviews that made me discover some new to me authors and books.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This is a book about someone's best and favorite books!! What true book lover wouldn't read this. I had never read alot of these so I greatly enjoyed it.
I just reviewed Sunday Best by John Carey. #SundayBest #NetGalley
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A book of two extremes. Some very interesting and fascinating reviews and some that switched me off . I skipped some of the reviews after reading the first few paragraphs of the review. Stick with it as there are lots to learn from this book and if you want to follow up afterwards be sure to thank John Carey

This is a brilliant selection of reviews/essays by a Professor of English and a reader and writer of book reviews at the Sunday Times.
John Carey's writing is witty and entertaiing as he tackles subjects as diverse as slavetrading, scientific histories, Stonehenge and gardening..
Organised into sections; Cultural history, science, memoirs, anthropoology, biography, literature, nature and mind benders, Carey offers his perspective as well as providing detailed book reviews.
This is an excellent publication that will tempt many of its readers to buy the books mentioned.

Thank you so much, Professor Carey, as now thanks to you, I’ve read about fascinating books, some of which I’ve already borrowed from my local library.

After reviewing books each month for the London Sunday Times, over the past three decades, Sunday Best: 80 Great Books from a Lifetime of Reviews is just that, and it’s wonderful.
This is a book to go back to, time and again, for reading inspiration.

I view lists like this, not as something to be disappointed by, since I’ve read only a minute number of the books here, but more as something to learn from, in that, hey, I’ve found a ton of books I’ve never heard of or considered before, read intelligent and thoughtful reviews of, and was able to add a lot of books to my TBR list.

Carey’s writing is honest, brutal, wonderfully caustic in places, and gives so much of the gist of many books, that often like with a film trailer, you’re getting the most salient and important bits. I enjoyed this one a lot.

I would first like to warn readers that there is not a single novel among those reviewed in this book, and then, unfortunately and due to my supreme ignorance, there were like 5 books that I had read as well. Apart from that, I found out that horrible people were Orwell and Naipaul and the story of Ted Hughes' mistress and other more or less interesting things.

Vorrei innanzitutto avvertire i lettori che non c'é nemmeno un romanzo tra quelli recensiti in questo libro e poi, purtroppo e per via della mia somma ignoranza, erano tipo 5 i libri che avevo letto anche io. A parte questo, ho scoperto che persone orribili erano Orwell e Naipaul e la storia dell'amante di Ted Hughes e altre cose piú o meno interessanti.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.