Thursday, January 26, 2017

Week Three Prompt

Part One

1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

A: Bloody Bones

Search for Laurell Hamilton. Looking through the results you will see some of the Anita Blake titles. Any of these titles will have a series tag of “Anita Blake” on it. By clicking on that series tag you will see (in order) all of the Anita Blake titles.

2. What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

The first thing I did was go to Barbara Kingsolver’s page on NoveList to see some of the book appeal terms used to describe her work. Then I went to the “Browse By” option at the top and clicked on “Appeal.” There are three drop down options that you can use to set the parameters for your search. Two of the drop down options will be used specifically for appeal criteria that match Kingsolver’s work. The third drop down option can be used to select “Fast-paced” for the book’s pace. Depending on what other criteria you opt for, you get different results. If the patron was with me I would have him/her pick which appeal terms were most important.

3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!

I did a basic keyword search for “Japan” and then limited the results to “Fiction” and “Adult” and set the location to “Japan.” That gives me 1,755 results so I would want to ask a few follow up questions to find out more about the patron is looking for!

4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?

I would do a search for Well Schooled in Murder and then click on Author read-alikes for Elizabeth George. Of the nine authors listed – Ruth Rendell, Peter Robinson, Tana French, Louise Penny, Deborah Crombie, Dorothy Sayers, PD James, Carol Goodman, and Erin Hart - I don’t think any are particularly creepy so each one would be a good option.

5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

A: If the patron is looking for a personal recommendation than they’re out of luck! I can’t handle scary things! But luckily there’s NoveList to help us out. I did a search for World War Z and then clicked on Title read-alikes. There are nine titles listed, some that I recognize. For the record, I would also ask a co-worker who is a fan of the genre for their personal recommendations. That’s always a good thing to consider. For example, I work at a branch with a lot of patrons who love Christian fiction. I don’t know the genre very well but one of my co-workers knows it cold.

6. I love books that get turned into movies, especially literary ones. Can you recommend some? Nothing too old, maybe just those from the last 5 years or so.

I went to the advanced search section and clicked on Browse/Appeal. In the box next to the “Browse for” I typed in “books into movies.” The subject “BOOKS TO MOVIES” was the second option. I clicked on that and then changed the limiter for publication date to 2011-2016 so that it would only show the books that had been published in the last five years. There were quite a few titles, though most were thrillers, suspense, or mystery. I would suggest the most recent Dave Eggers novel, The Circle. The movie adaptation comes out later this year.

7. I love thrillers but I hate foul language and sex scenes. I want something clean and fast paced.

I struggled a bit with this one. My best guess would be to use a Boolean search. I went through the list of possible Appeal terms but there wasn’t one that perfectly matched up. I played around with a variety of terms including “Gruesome” (using NOT in the search), “Chaste,” and several others but it felt like whenever I combined two of the terms together I got very poor results. In the end, I opted for using just “Thrillers and Suspense” NOT “Explicit” as my search. There were a lot of results and I opted to go for the most recent John Grisham title as a recommendation. It is certainly fast-paced and Grisham, in general, does not have bad language and gratuitous sex scenes.

Part Two

There are five ways that I find books to read:

1. Word of mouth – Whether it be from patrons, co-workers, family, friends, or random folks around town, a large number of the books I read come from personal recommendations. Some times they’re books I’ve never heard of, but more often the personal recommendation is the extra bit of oomph I need to pick up a book I’m already aware of.

2. Library magazines – I go through a variety of magazines (Library Journal, School Library Journal, Booklist, New York Times Book Review, etc.) every month.

3. My list – I keep a list of favorite books/authors and will periodically check every few months to see if any of the authors have new books coming out.

4. Websites/Blogs – I use blogs most often for baseball books but will occasionally use them for non-baseball books, too. I also use Amazon quite a bit. I’m not very active on social media so I’m limited to non social media sites.

5. The Great Delivery – We receive new materials almost every morning at my branch in a big grey box. Opening that box is like opening presents on Christmas morning. I usually find a book or two (usually kids books) every week that I was unaware of.




Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Thriller Annotation: Before The Fall


Hawley, Noah. (2016). Before the Fall. New York: Grand Central.

Synopsis

A plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean acts as a fulcrum with the narrative pivoting between the lead up to the disastrous day and then the aftermath. The flight’s passengers were famous (one was a powerful conservative television network boss) and suspicion arises that the accident was not an accident at all. The reader learns the backstory of the flight’s passengers and crew and what put them on the plane that day. The story also focuses on the two survivors, a young boy and a struggling painter, who are now bombarded by media attention and, in the case of the painter, suspicion. While an investigator combs through the clues, the survivors must adjust to their new normal.

Thriller Characteristics

*  Before the Fall combines elements of other genres (suspense, adventure, mystery) but the focus is on the story and how the hero/heroes uses his or her abilities to make it through. 

* There are events that occur in the book that have massive national consequences. In other words, there’s a lot riding on finding out what happened (and a lot of pressure on the people who have to figure out what happened).

* When the investigative team is involved there is highly specific jargon used. That is a common element of thriller books - language and details specific to a certain occupation like the law or medicine or, in this case, police procedure. 

* Before the Fall is incredibly fast-paced. It grabs your attention immediately with the plane crash and survival. (I had to remind myself to breathe during the latter.) By alternating between the lead-up and the aftermath, the reader is constantly yearning to find out what comes next.

* The book is very compelling. You won't want to put it down.

* The main characters - Scott (the struggling painter), JJ (the boy), Gus (the inspector), and Eleanor (the boy's aunt) - are strong and sympathetic protagonists. You find yourself rooting for them. However, the secondary characters - the other passengers, investigators - are all very one dimensional and the antagonists are a bit too evil to be believable.

* After the initial plane crash and survival, the book's action is more cerebral than physical

*  The book reads like a movie and it would be easy to see it adapted.

Appeal Terms

Character: Well-developed
Storyline: Intricately plotted
Pace: Intensifying
Tone: Suspenseful
Writing Style: Compelling

Readalikes

And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
North of Boston – Elizabeth Elo
The Professor of Truth – James Robertson
The Woman in Cabin 10 - Ruth Ware

Fun Facts

The book’s author, Noah Hawley, is the creator and showrunner of the Emmy Award winning TV show Fargo, which is based on characters from the 1996 movie of the same name.

Named one of the best thrillers of 2016 by The Washington Post.


Friday, January 20, 2017

Reading Profile

A friend once called me a “binge reader.” The combination of work, school, parenthood, and (if I’m being honest) obsessing over baseball makes for limited reading time. But when I do read…I read. And read. And read. When I start a book, I devour it. And then I usually go straight into another book. For example, last semester I didn’t read very much. It felt like there just wasn’t any time. But when the holidays came – when school was finished and the library slowed down and family visited (and distracted my daughters) – I read several books. Whole days would go by and I spent them entirely with my nose in a book. It was great!

I read a little bit of everything. My go-to genres are, more often than not, suspense and thriller. Easy reads. Escapist. I like a good mystery and an occasional sci-fi novel, too. I read a lot of literary fiction but those are a little harder to commit too. However, when I do commit I usually love them and wish I read more. I always have at least one non-fiction baseball book going as well. I like to joke that I have the largest personal baseball book collection in St. Joseph County, though it might not be a joke! I also read a ton of children’s fiction. I use my daughters as an excuse but the truth is that I just really like children’s fiction. We are always reading a book out loud as a family. (Right now we are reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon and it is phenomenal!) But it’s not uncommon for us to have three or four books going at the same time. Plus, we read a ton of picture books and first chapter books.

I serve on my library’s Reader’s Advisory Committee and I really love it. We develop programs for both staff to help with reader’s advisory services and we provide RA assistance for our patrons. It’s absolutely helped me sharpen my own RA skills plus I’ve found so many great books by trying to help other people find books to read. In fact, my “to read” list is absurdly long. I need to get reading!

Some lists for you:

Favorite all-time books (in no particular order):

Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
The Alienist – Caleb Carr
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon
The Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
The Lord of the Rings series – JRR Tolkien

Favorite all-time baseball books (in no particular order):

The Soul of Baseball – Joe Posnanski
Sandy Koufax – Jane Leavy
Moneyball – Michael Lewis
The New Bill James Historical Abstract – Bill James
Summer of ’49 – David Halberstam