IMHO, the quality of the book reviews on the NYT has severely diminished over the last 5 years or so. Their reviews seem to be playing to an audience of highbrow intellects, where one needs a dictionary to understand them.
I have also noticed that they tend to put a large emphasis on non-fiction books concentrating on gay rights and racism. Although important topics, there are many other topics and issues that should and could be covered.
With regard to their selection of books to review, they rarely review mainstream authors such as Don Winslow or Erik Larson, both of whom are two of the best writers in their respective genres over the past 25 years.
All this being said, which sites do you use for book reviews and best seller lists?
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My go-to for reviews are the New Yorker and Bookforum.
If you’re into booktube, readwithcindy is great!
I prefer Goodreads and sorting by 3 Stars because I find those people often give the most balanced opinions that touch on both pros and cons. There’s also usually more reviews than just a singular site like NYT.
If you are looking for professional book reviews, I would probably say Publisher’s Weekly. But the problem with the “big” reviewers is that they give priority to “big house” publications whose publicists can get the books in front of their reviewers. If you are a fan of a writer who is not a “big time” author, or of a category that doesn’t usually get covered in that kid of review (stuff like romance, mystery, horror) you would probably get a better sense of the book to read the reviews on sites like Goodreads, Library Thing or blogs dedicated to that category.