In Which I am Slow on the Uptake

I've been reading Ellery Queen for I'm not sure how long now - H got me a subscription for my birthday when we lived on Annunciation (I think) so at least 6 years. As is my habit with periodicals, I read it straight through, whether the stories or reviews or whatever are to my taste or not. I never noticed until the June issue I just got, wherein it is explicitly explained, that the asterisks before the titles of reviewed books are meant to be stars in a rating system.