Rebecca Yarros | Fiction
2019, 424 pages
The average reading level of The New York Times bestsellers has trended downward over the past 60 years, with most books from 1960 to 2014 falling into the seventh-grade level, and roughly 97% of 2014 bestsellers reading below a 7.2 grade level. Since 2000, only two books on the list exceeded a ninth-grade readability level.
I know this, which is why I don't read off the NYT best seller list anymore. I should have done my research before I started The Last Letter. Its genre is romance. The average writing level for this genre is fifth grade. I feel like I am not only being treated like a fifth grader, but the story and the characters are pure fluff. I have way too many books on my shelf to spend my time here. I wonder how this made it to my reading list? Interestingly, it has one of the highest scores on Goodreads that I have seen in recent months, a 4.5. Which causes me to lose trust in Goodreads, also.
Friends and book clubs and the occasional NPR article and Washington Post review generally source my TBR list, but this has me wondering ... is there another best seller list you use and recommend? Is there a source of reviews, not Goodreads, that you use and recommend?
January 2026
I’ve found BookPage to be a fairly reliable source and it has its “best books of 20XX” . I don’t use Goodreads but do check reviews on Amazon. Not so much for reader comments but the snippets from Editorial Reviews. I watch for starred reviews from sources I relied on when doing book selection for the library – such as Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly (PW) Library Journal (LJ). Kirkus and PW are available online. I believe PW offers Best Books lists. That said, I see this book received starred reviews. This is probably a book I would have selected for our library because I know it would appeal to our readers and the author appears to be popular. I’ve started books that received rave reviews including from reading friends and didn’t like for a bunch of reasons. I never understood the appeal of Danielle Steele or Mary Higgins Clark but they were wildly popular.
Thanks, Mary! I will check out BookPage, which I have not heard of, and Publisher’s Weekly.
I pick up Book Page at the library. I thought you had found it yours.
I was shocked at the stats you quoted, and disappointed. I read reviews of readers, NYT reviews, Goodreads, and now The Atlantic (got a Christmas gift from hubby), Kirkus, etc. Had not heard of BookPage and haven’t used Publisher’s Weekly. I will check them out. I find it difficult to find a good book. One of my sources is you, Andrea!
I have been reading The Atlantic for about six months. I find it dense and often hard to get through, but in the last edition … with 18 pages of profiles on people who had been fired or quit as a result of willy-milly hatchet cuts by the administration was compelling, sobering, and very sad.
I am still awaiting your book club’s 2026 reading list. René!