LEFT OUTER JOIN VS. RIGHT OUTER JOIN

Dear experts,

I have a query:
SELECT ...
MAX(CASE WHEN r.r_type = 'Audio' THEN r.Awards END) AudioReviews,
MAX(CASE WHEN r.r_type = 'Print' THEN r.Awards END) PrintReviews,
...
FROM BookList b
...
LEFT OUTER JOIN
(SELECT BookStem, r_type, GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN Award IS NOT NULL THEN
CONCAT('<a href="/manage/review.asp?review=', CAST(ID AS CHAR), '" target="_blank">', Award, '</a>')
ELSE CONCAT('<a href="/manage/review.asp?review=', CAST(ID AS CHAR), '" target="_blank">Review</a>') END SEPARATOR '<br />') Awards
FROM Reviews
GROUP BY BookStem, r_type) r
ON b.BookStem = r.BookStem

That outer join part makes my query very slow. I replace the LEFT OUTER JOIN with RIGHT OUTER JOIN and swapped tables accordingly:
SELECT ...
MAX(CASE WHEN r.r_type = 'Audio' THEN r.Awards END) AudioReviews,
MAX(CASE WHEN r.r_type = 'Print' THEN r.Awards END) PrintReviews,
...
FROM
(SELECT BookStem, r_type, GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN Award IS NOT NULL THEN
CONCAT('<a href="/manage/review.asp?review=', CAST(ID AS CHAR), '" target="_blank">', Award, '</a>')
ELSE CONCAT('<a href="/manage/review.asp?review=', CAST(ID AS CHAR), '" target="_blank">Review</a>') END SEPARATOR '<br />') Awards
FROM Reviews
GROUP BY BookStem, r_type) r
RIGHT OUTER JOIN
BookList b
ON b.BookStem = r.BookStem
...
To my surprise, now the query runs 3 times faster, though the result seems to be the same. Could you please explain this to me? I always thought it there should be no difference.
Also, maybe you could give me any suggestion how to improve the query further?
Thanks.