Rating: 2 stars
Headline: “The Complete Guide to Goats” offers comprehensive goat-raising advice but lacks effective formatting and author credibility
Review:
I am a country girl at heart. Eighteen years growing up in the rural surroundings of the English Cotswolds will do that to anyone. Books on farmyard creatures? Right up my street.
The Complete Guide to Goats by KC Kent does exactly what it says on the cover, providing would-be goat enthusiasts with a comprehensive guide on all elements of ownership, from the sustainable benefits and the importance selecting the right goat breed, to how to care for and make a commercial enterprise out of them. Across eleven chapters and nearly 160 pages, Kent’s guidance leaves no stone unturned when it comes to would-be goat enthusiasts.
While this is a highly informative book, the layout and formatting of the guidance itself may form an accessibly blocker for some. Throughout this guide, there are no illustrative examples to support readers and the copy is presented in dense and varied fonts (in some places text appears to have a 1.5 line spacing, in other places single). The indentation of bullets, where used, is also too deep, resulting in copy filling up more space than is probably needed.
Another element that is crucially missing is a introductory biography of the author. There is a throwaway comment made halfway through the introduction of Kent having raised goats for many years, but there seems to be a missing link to add authenticity. To perhaps put it somewhat more bluntly, what makes Kent’s guide better than the competition, more importantly still, how can readers trust it? It may be a bit more author background was needed in the initial introduction but as it stands the main concern around recommending this book is the lack of transparency that Kent as the right author to be issuing guidance on agricultural matters.
When it comes to The Complete Guide to Goats, the content is there, but it is the formatting of it, and the lack of author credentials, that lets the side down.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews – “The Complete Guide to Goats” by KC Kent
Purchase Link: “The Complete Guide to Goats” by KC Kent (Amazon)
**
My Housemate's a Mermaid 