Review Guidelines

[This page is now moot, since I am not seeking new materials for review.]

I am happy to review materials of many kinds which fall within my areas of interest. These are broad but not all-encompassing; they also differ from the interests reflected at many other review sites, so I hope there is the possibility of my developing a little niche over time.

Book 'em, Danno! is not only a review site. It is a books-and-movies-and-general-culture blog. I write honestly about whatever interests me.

I can be equally interested in mainstream and non-mainstream, conventionally distributed and independently distributed materials.

You will find writing here about:

  • Books and literature
  • Movies and television
  • Music of many kinds
  • Theater
  • Visual arts
  • Architecture
  • History and geography
  • Philosophy
  • Other blogs and websites

...and so on and so on.

Some of the types of books that I am particularly interested in reading and writing about are:

  • History (all places and eras), emphatically including "local history" 
  • Geography
  • Nautical topics
  • Travel and adventure, and general interest books about international locations (especially Mexico and Korea, by virtue of my personal experiences) 
  • Exploration and mountaineering
  • History of transportation (including railroads and automotive history)
  • Aviation and space travel
  • Cultural and literary history 
  • Literary fiction, emphatically including translations 
  • Classic fiction, emphatically including any and all "rediscoveries"
  • Drama 
  • Poetry
  • Crime fiction, especially hard-boiled / noir 
  • True crime and "unsolved mysteries"
  • Film history and studies 
  • Radio and television history and studies
  • Music history and studies (classical, jazz, folk, pre-1990 popular music)
  • Theater history and studies
  • Visual arts history and studies
  • Architecture and urban studies
  • Biography 
  • General interest non-fiction (especially of the topic history type - Cod, Longitude, Uranium
  • Economics and financial history
  • Political science
  • Sociology and (serious) psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Americana
  • Canadiana 
  • Australiana and Kiwiana
  • Baseball history and biography
  • Golf history and biography
  • Other sports books tending to the historical, sociological, and biographical 
  • Natural history
  • Animals (including zoo studies, unusual pets, cryotozoology)
  • Beer and spirits
  • Menswear and its history

This list is suggestive rather than exhaustive. I am very interested in serious self-published and independently published books in these categories. I am very interested in academic and university press books, and independent scholars' books from McFarland and similar outfits.

Are you a local historian? I would be very interested in reviewing your local history book for a wider audience. This is a special interest of mine.

What about genre fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, Western, romance, children's, YA) other than crime fiction? Generally speaking, the more literarily ambitious the book, the more likely I am to be interested. I don't mean that to be sound snobby (although to be truthful, I am a bit of an elitist); it's just an honest self-assessment.

My book reviews are posted here at the blog and also at Amazon, LibraryThing, and Goodreads. A link to the blog review is added to the "Latest Indie Book Reviews" page at The IndieView.

When it comes to movies, television, and video, I'll look at almost anything. I am very interested in micro-budgeted and "outsider" productions. I am very interested in serious international cinema, and in virtually all films of the past. I am very interested in any film that has played at a festival.

Will I review music? Well, I will write a little about music, let's put it that way. I am not a musician and am not competent to write technically about music; on the other hand, I have strong tastes in the areas of classical music, jazz, Sinatra-era pop music, Beatles-era rock 'n' roll, etc.

I would be happy to consider reviewing (or at least noticing) other types of material of interest, as they come up. I would review a virtual art exhibition. I would review a new website or blog. I'm pretty open to stimuli, although I do have a few blind spots such as video games. No one is comprehensive. 

Any review I write will be my honest take, but I don't go in for hatchet jobs. I believe in supporting creators, which is one reason why I want to do what I can to help them gain exposure for their work.

If you are interested in sending material for review, please contact me first at


I live in Queretaro, Mexico. My post office box here is:

Mark R. Harris
CAP (Centro de atención al público) Centro Historico
General José María Arteaga # 5
AP 1-355
Colonia Centro
Santiago de Querétaro
Querétaro, Mexico CP 76001

Mark R. Harris is my "real" name.

Allow 2 to 4 weeks for items to arrive here. Let me know what day you sent an item, so I can be on the lookout for it.

Use the US Postal Service to ship, as the Mexican postal service does not accept packages sent through private services such as UPS. I recommend paying a few cents extra for tracking and insurance, if they are not already included in the base price. That way, if an item goes lost - and in Mexico, it has been known to happen! - you can recuperate the cost of the item as well as of the shipping.

I'm happy to work closely with you on matters regarding shipping.

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