and yet still more on reviewing

MotherReader has written an insightful defense of negative reviews. And kudos to her for having the ovaries to point out that those reviews are often just a whole lot of fun.

For my final (I hope), concise wrap up of my position:
-- I am pro negative reviews
-- I am pro (freelance) reviewers making their own decisions about whether or not to write them

Are we clear?

Now, while I actually have the attention of some other reviewers, here are two issues that I've been pondering today:

-- what approach do you take to material when you don't find it particulary "good" or appealing, yet have reason to believe it will appeal to a particular subset of others?

-- what approach do you take when material is very similar to other books you've seen time and again and has nothing particularly outstanding to set it apart from the ones that have gone before it?