Week Seven Prompt: Oprah's Book Club

“In this paper, we present evidence that strongly implies the conventional wisdom is correct: Oprah’s TV picks helped sell the books she endorsed.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read that sentence in the introduction of From Obscurity to Bestseller: Examining the Impact of Oprah’s Book Club Selections. Well…yeah! Of course Oprah helped sell the books she endorsed! Everyone in the world knew that! But there were some interesting discoveries in the study, chiefly that the books picked later in the study sold less than the books picked earlier. Why? The authors offered three possibilities:

1. Oprah’s influence waned

2. Declining quality of the books 

3. Oprah started picking older books

I would venture a guess that Oprah’s influence did not wane – at least not until she stopped doing her afternoon television show. Nor do I think that the books she chose were of poor quality. The older books suggestion piqued my interest

That sparked a look at the history of Oprah’s book club picks. In 2002 – the last year of the study – Oprah chose two books, one published in 1996 and one published in 1973. The latter was Sula written by Toni Morrison – the fourth book of Morrison’s that Oprah had chosen up to that point.  But in the previous two years (2001 and 2000) Oprah picked a total of 15 books. Eight of the fifteen – more than 50% - of those titles had been published within a year of their selection for the book club. Twelve of the 15 – 75% - had been published within three years of their selection. The only exceptions were:

A Fine Balance (1995) – picked in 2001

We Were the Mulvaneys (1996) – picked in 2001

The Bluest Eye (1970) – picked in 2000

So it's hard to make the case that "older books" caused the decline in sales. I do think it’s significant that following the ado over The Corrections, Oprah chose three books that were published at least six years prior to their Book Club selection. And it's not far fetched to see a connection between The Corrections and what came next.

Following Sula in April of 2002, Oprah took a full year off before resuming the book club in June of 2003. That’s when her selections get really interesting. Starting in 2003 - in other words, after the study – Oprah really focused on older books. And not just older books; we’re talking older older books. Over the next two years she picked nine books. Here they are, listed by publication date:

1967 – One Hundred Years of Solitude

1952 – East of Eden

1948 – Cry, The Beloved Country

1940 – The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

1932 – Light in August

1931 – The Good Earth

1930 –As I Lay Dying

1929 – The Sound and the Fury

1877 –Anna Karenina

It’s almost as if Oprah thought, “Oh! You think my 2002 picks were old? I’ll show you some old picks!”

In September of 2005, Oprah finally picked a recent book. Unfortunately, she chose A Million Little Pieces. If you’ve done the other readings for this week you know how that turned out!

One final thought: Oprah ended the original Oprah’s Book Club in December of 2010 with a couple of Charles Dickens books. Her show ended its run five months later. In 2012, Oprah brought the book club back – calling it Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 – using her website and social media to promote and discuss the selections. She's picked six books over the last five years. I would be very interested to see the impact of the new incarnation of the Book Club compared to the original version. I think it would be an interesting study of Oprah’s continued impact on American culture but also the impact of digital media versus traditional media.

Mystery Annotation: The Dry

Harper, Jane. (2017). The Dry. New York: Flatiron Books.

Synopsis

Days after a childhood friend named Luke killed himself and his family in a horrific murder/suicide, Aaron Falk receives a letter in the mail that simply says: “Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral.” Aaron returns home to the small Australian town of Kiewarra for the first time since the drowning death of a young girl over twenty years ago – a death that most people in the town think Aaron committed. The only reason he wasn’t charged was an alibi provided by his friend Luke, an alibi that was a lie. Aaron’s plan is to leave town as soon as the funeral is over, but before he knows it he finds himself joining forces with the local sheriff to figure out if there is more to Luke’s death than meets the eye. Flashbacks tell the story of the original murder, too, and readers will be completely engrossed as the truth is revealed in the two crimes. The Dry is a gripping and thoroughly enjoyable page-turner that will have you guessing until the very end.

Mystery Characteristics

* In the opening paragraph of the mysteries section in The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, Joyce Saricks writes that “mysteries are a puzzle” and that “we, along with the detective, are drawn into the puzzle in an attempt to solve it” (Saricks, 145). That describes The Dry to a tee. Aaron Falk is drawn into this puzzle and almost feels compelled to solve it for Luke, for Luke’s family, for himself, and for the city of Kiewarra.

* A crime, usually a murder, has been committed. (Luke and his family were murdered. Twenty years ago, Ellie was murdered.)

* An investigator (or investigative team) attempts to discover who committed the crime. (Aaron, a federal agent with the financial investigative unit, teams up with Raco, the local sheriff.)

* Secondary characters, whether suspects or supporting characters in the investigation, play an important role in the appeal of the mystery. (There are so many great characters in The Dry, and Harper does an excellent job giving you just enough information to make you plausibly suspect that they could have committed either of the murders.)

* The investigator(s) follows clues, working to solve the puzzle. (It’s a lot of fun to watch the pieces fall together. Some clues are dead ends and others aren’t what they initially appear to be.)

* Order is restored, but justice does not always result. (I feel like I answer this one I might be giving too much away!)

* The frame in which the mystery is set plays a crucial role in the appeal of the mystery. (Keiwarra is a small town in the Australian outback that has been plagued by drought. That plays a large role in the book and Harper’s description of the barren landscape turns the setting almost into a character.)

* Mysteries are often written as series. (Harper has already announced that her next book will again feature Aaron Falk though it will be in a different setting.)

Appeal Terms

Character: Authentic

Storyline: Fast-paced

Tone: Atmospheric

Writing Style: Compelling, Richly Detailed

Readalikes

The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)

Crucifixion Creek – Barry Maitland

The Black Box – Michael Connelly

A Great Reckoning – Louise Penny

The Broken Shore – Peter Temple

Personal Notes

* The Dry was the book choice for the book club I visited in February.

* Harper was a business writer for the Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne. She wrote The Dry as part of an online novel-writing class put on by a literary agency in Australia. The book was independently published to wide acclaim in 2015 before being gobbled up by Flatiron Books later that year.

* Reese Witherspoon’s production company purchased the film rights to The Dry shortly after Flatiron bought the publication rights.

Week Six Prompt: Blind Date With a Book

It’s Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air.

We can’t provide our patrons with a candlelight dinner or a beautiful bouquet of flowers, but we can give them a little touch of romance with the help of some construction paper, a black sharpie, and a whole bunch of romance novels.

Blind Date with a Book brings the spark into the patron’s reading experience. Carefully selected romance novels are wrapped in construction paper so that the patrons can’t tell what they are. A brief description of the novel is written on the construction paper such as:

“Hi. I’m a historical romance novel featuring a dashing sailor. Will I make it back from sea to save my true love? Pick me and find out.”

(We could be even more vague if we want.)

When patrons bring the books to our desk to check out they will get (as a little bonus) a special Valentines card and a Dove chocolate. We will also create a separate display close by for non-romantic novels so that people who don’t want a romance novel this Valentines season can still play along. Maybe we’ll include a few horror novels. Additionally, we will put special Valentines Day bookmarks in favorite novels in the stacks that have a romantic bent. It’s a fun, easy way to promote our romance collection.

(As fate would have it, this is actually a program we did for the first time at my branch this week. It was a big success both in terms of circulation and bringing awareness to the collection. It also was a great conversation starter!)

Gentle Reads Annotation: The Shunning

Lewis, Beverly. (1997). The Shunning. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishers.

Synopsis

All her life, Katie Lapp has felt she was different – and not just because of her striking red hair. She can’t help it, but Katie rebels against the Amish way of life in the peaceful community of Hickory Hollow. A love of music – given to her by her deceased true love, Daniel - symbolizes that rebellion and Katie struggles with behaving the way an Amish woman is supposed to. Just before she’s to marry the community’s bishop, Katie learns a secret that flips her world upside down. More secrets follow and Hickory Hollow might never be the same.

Gentle Reads Characteristics

* The Amish setting is evocative of a gentler, less-hurried time.

* Set in a close-knit community in a small town or rural setting

* There is no sex, violence, or strong language.

* The strength of the book is the relationships between characters. Katie’s relationships with her mother, her best friend, and the “wise woman” of Hickory Hollow – drive the book.

* The book has a happy ending. (Well…kind of.)

* The story appeals to the emotions and projects a comfortable sense of well-being.

* Heartwarming and poignant.

Appeal Terms

Character: Authentic, Strong female, Sympathetic, Well-developed

Storyline: Character-driven, Open-ended,

Pace: Fast-paced

Tone: Bittersweet, Chaste, Heartwarming, Homespun, Moving, Suspenseful

Writing Style: Dialect-filled, Engaging, Richly detailed

Readalikes

* Plain Perfect – Beth Wiseman

* A Gift of Grace – Amy Clipston

* The Storekeeper’s Daughter – Wanda Brunstetter

* When the Heart Cries – Cindy Woodsmall

* The Confession & The Reckoning – Beverly Lewis (books 2 & 3 in The Heritage of Lancaster County series)

Fun Facts

* Book one of three in The Heritage of Lancaster County series.

* The Hallmark Channel adapted the book into a movie in 2011. They also made movies for The Confession (2013) and The Reckoning (2016).

* Hickory Hollow is a fictional location, but other cities referenced in the book are, in fact, real.

Personal Note:

* Amish fiction is incredibly popular at the branch I work at. There were several patrons who were quite excited that I was reading my first Amish fiction book!

* I have to admit, I got hooked into Katie’s story. While I had a few qualms with gender roles in the book, Katie made for a compelling character. Imagine my horror when I discovered that The Shunning was only book one! Now I have to read books two and three to find out what happens!

Kirkus Review

(I had intended to review an adult book but my family just finished reading this year's Newbery Award winner and I can't get it out of my head!)

The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill
Age Range: 8+

A girl is accidentally “enmagicked” as a baby and grows up to join an unforgettable cast of characters to thwart an evil witch who has cast a gloom on a village.

Luna spends her childhood in a forest with her grandmother, a bog monster, and a perfectly tiny dragon named Fyrian. Little does she know that her grandmother is, in fact, a helpful witch named Xan who saved her (and countless others) from certain death when she was an infant. During the rescue, however, Xan accidentally feeds Luna moonlight, giving the girl magical powers that start to appear when Luna approaches her 13th birthday. Meanwhile, the land of Luna’s birth, the Protectorate, is under the spell of an evil witch who the townspeople mistakenly believe to be Xan. But the real witch lurks in the Protectorate and - with the help of the evil Council of Elders - lives off the suffering of the townspeople. Things come to a head when Luna’s birthmother and a young couple in the Protectorate figure out the truth and fight back. They join forces with Luna and her compatriots to end the evil witch’s reign. It’s an enchanting story about the power of love, the harm of sorrow, and the power of forgiveness. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And when it’s over you’ll want to read it all over again. I haven’t been so captivated by a book since the last Harry Potter title. Barnhill doesn’t waste a word and the gorgeous prose begs to be read out loud. Luna’s non-traditional forest family is so expertly crafted that you’ll wish you had a kindly witch for a grandmother, a bog monster who recites poetry, and a perfectly tiny dragon to curl up in your pocket, too.

Week Five Prompt

1. How does the discrepancy in what is and what is covered (and how it is covered) affect collection development?

I don’t envy the job of collection development librarians!

The discrepancy in what books are reviewed and how books are reviewed is incredibly frustrating. And with the increase in self-published titles, pop-up publishing houses, and e-book only titles, it’s become increasingly difficult for collection development librarians to make sure they are covering all their bases. Not only that, but they have to decide the number of copies of each item. It’s a no-win job!

2. Are the reviews reliable? How likely would you to buy this book for your library?

I think this is a tough question. On the surface, no – the reviews of The Billionaire’s First Christmas are not reliable. I don’t know this reviewer or this blog. But that’s not to say that I couldn’t. Over time I think it’s absolutely possible to learn to trust blogs but it depends on the blog. I adore baseball books and there are a couple of blogs that I unequivocally trust. If they say a book is worth reading than I will read it. As for reviewers on a website, I am always, always cautious. In fact, I rarely ever look at customer reviews for anything. I’ll look for professional reviews or personal reviews from voices I trust. That’s it. As for buying this book for my library – I would not rule it out because this type of book tends to circulate well. This is where knowing your patrons and knowing your collection would play a huge role in what you select to purchase. Before buying it, though, I would find out a bit more about the book first.

3. How do the professional reviews of Angela’s Ashes make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela’s Ashes to your collection?

Let’s pretend I don’t have a well-worn copy of Angela’s Ashes on my bookshelf (as well as ‘Tis)! I lean very heavily on professional reviews as a reader and I would assume that I would do the same as a collection development librarian. If I read reviews like these I would absolutely order copies of the book for my library.

4. Do you think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed to death and other types of books get little to no coverage? How does this affect a library's collection?  And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate? If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources?

Easy answer: No, it’s not fair. But there are so many books! And so little time! I’m not sure how to change that. Odds are definitely stacked against the smaller books from the smaller publishing houses. And that means that books from the big publishing houses are much more likely to get picked. It’s why our libraries are filled with James Patterson and Fern Michaels and Stuart Woods books when there are arguably – arguably! – better books available elsewhere.

I think the issue of review sources who won’t print negative content is very interesting. I don’t have a problem with it as long as the review source is open about what they do. (And while some of these positive review sources don’t print negative reviews, you can absolutely read in between the lines of some of their less gushy reviews!) As mentioned above, I lean very heavily on professional reviews. I like to look through Library Journal, School Library Journal, Booklist, The New York Times Book Review, Publisher’s Weekly, and several blogs.