Be More Bookish: Some Recommendations I've Made

Following up on Week 2, I posted two recommendations on Olivia's blog. She wrote about her passion for character-driven novels with a touch of sci-fi and humor. First I suggested Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan, based on Novelist's suggestions for read-alikes. I also went out on a limb and suggested David Wong's John Dies in the End, which has a good amount of characterization, as well as humor and a sci-fi flavor. In it's chewy caramel center, though, Wong's book is outrageous and zany horror, so I may have missed the mark on that one.

That brings up an interesting point, though. Reader's advisory is necessarily a balancing act. The customer has told us what they like. We need to parlay that into a suggestion. In some cases and some genres, we can suggest a book that hits their every taste exactly (cozy mysteries, I'm looking at you). In the much more common cases, we can find books based on appeal factors, but rarely does a book match everything they want.


Following up from Week 4, I sent a suggestion to my coworker Jaime on Goodreads. Based on her ratings for celebrity autobiographies, such as Bossypants, I suggested Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg. Let me tell you, though, it was tough to find a book that wasn't already on her Goodreads! That's only natural since she's a darn good librarian.

Be More Bookish: Week 3, Conversation 3

Conversation 3

I, too, love non-fiction that reads like fiction, so I can suggest quite a few good books like River of Doubt. It sounds like you enjoy reading about dramatic historical adventures, so we can start with:

Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone by Martin Dugard, which is a fast-paced telling of the exploration of sub-Saharan Africa with two of the most famous explorers, and the challenges they faced. It's hard to believe just how perilous the adventure was.










I can also suggest A Night to Remember by Walter Lord, which is about the sinking of the Titanic. Lord was a great researcher, and he has written a deliciously detailed account of the voyage that is a good companion to the movie from the 1990s, if you liked that.










Another book, in the too-weird-to-be-true category, is Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. It's about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and it contrasts the stories of the Fair's coordinator with a madman who abducted tourists to torture and kill them. It's interesting but kind of gruesome, and completely true.











I hope you enjoy some of these suggestions!

Be More Bookish: Week 3, Conversation 2

Conversation 2

I haven't personally read any vampire stories recently, but they are a pretty popular subject right now, so I'm sure we can find something that you'll like better than Twilight. It sounds to me that you are looking for a vampire story with more action and suspense, and less of a teenage love story. I can look on Novelist to see what some titles would be.



Here we go...Here's one called 13 Bullets: A Vampire Tale by David Wellington. It's a modern-day vampire tale featuring a police officer vampire hunter. A group of vampires is committing several murders in rural Pennsylvania, and the main character must track them and stop them. Just a warning, though, it's quite violent.











Here's another, called The Blood Gospel by James Rollins, who is quite popular for his fast-paced dramatic thrillers. This one features a team of scholars who are investigating a sect of possible vampires who have existed since the time of Jesus and have infiltrated the Vatican.











If you're in the mood for something just as fast, but lighter, I can suggest Stray Souls by Kate Griffin, which is about a support group for magical beings--including vampires--who band together to fight an evil that is determined to destroy London.













Do any of those sound interesting to you?

Be More Bookish: Week 3, Conversation 1

Conversation 1

It sounds like you enjoy memoirs and travel writing with a strong female lead character and detailed descriptions of places. And also books that would be good to reflect upon and discuss with a group.

I can suggest a couple that might be to your liking, and you can choose the one that you like best:

Wild by Cheryl Strayed: About a woman who solo hikes the Pacific Crest Trail and her successes and setbacks in that endeavor. The book features reflections on her life before the hike and her motivations for the trip.









The Awakening by Kate Chopin: A story about a woman in upper-class Victorian New Orleans who vacations on an island resort and falls in love with a young bachelor there. In the story, she tries to reconcile her marriage and children with her desire for personal freedom and fulfillment.











Others: Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mays, Committed by Elizabeth Gibert - the "sequel" to Eat, Pray, Love.

Be More Bookish: Week 2

Here are a couple books I've enjoyed recently:

Mr. Penumbra's 24- Hour Bookstore: A Novel by Robin Sloan (FSG, 2012)

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I've often jokingly described this book as a "more credible Da Vinci Code" because of its fast pace and the focus on the main character's quest to uncover the purpose of the titular bookstore. His techie friends inject 21st-Century flavor as they unravel the mysteries of the store's collection and customers. Sloan writes in a very quick and light prose, and the characters, quirky to the extreme, are sympathetic with the occasional eye-roll. Every generation of reader can relate to themes here: finding purpose in one's life, protecting one's legacy, and the transition from an analog world to a digital one.

On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make Our World Work by Scott Huler (Rodale, 2011)

Water comes out of the tap, a light turns on when you flick the switch. We don't give it a second thought, except when it breaks. Huler's book, a basic and friendly introduction to the infrastructure of our world, shows how our lives and utilities are interconnected, how they work, and why sometimes they don't. Using his native Raleigh as a model of a typical city, Huler's humorous descriptions and quirky asides about infrastructure (e.g. garbage trucks are affectionately called "one-armed bandits" by their operators) give a behind-the-curtain peek at the technology we depend on but don't even know about. This is not a technical manual, though there is a thorough bibliography for further reading. This book is a must read for anyone who is curious about how things work.

Some recent readers' advisory interactions

Since we're learning about readers' advisory, I'm going to share some recent interactions I've had with customers and how I handled them.

• A customer came up to the desk and asked for the NYT best seller list. I asked if she was looking for something in particular, and she told me that she was looking for a "beach read." She said that she loved The Lovely Bones and [another book I can't remember]. 
• I gathered that she liked fast-paced, thoughtful books with female leads. I suggested Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

• A customer stopped me while I was shelving and asked for a suggestion of a good book to read. She said she loved The Hunger Games and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and remarked that she only read series because she read so fast. 
• Going with the fast-paced, dystopian themes, I suggested the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. We didn't have the first book of the series, so I put it on hold. I wanted to make sure that she left the library with something to read, so I recommended The Giver by Lois Lowry, because it is a four-part series and is also dystopian and character-driven. 

•  A customer was browsing the playaways while I was roving. I stopped to ask how she liked the playaways, and she asked if we had any funny books on playaway because she only listens to books on that device. She specifically mentioned that she liked the Mr. Monk series by Lee Goldberg.  

• This was a really tough one. We don't have a whole lot on playaway, and none of the Mr. Monk series. In the end, the only thing I could find was Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie, which wasn't really appropriate.

I'd love any suggestions or feedback on these recommendations! How could I have done better?

Be More Bookish: Week 1

Assignment 1:

• For the adult books, I got 16/24 in about 3 minutes. I missed:  The Prophet, A Million Little Pieces, She's Come Undone, Lord of the Flies, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Eragon, Freakanomics (D'oh!), and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I take issue with the last one, since I tried "Chronicles of Narnia" and was rejected.
• For the children's books, I knew 10/20 in about 3 minutes, and only that because I'm doing the reader's advisory training checklist right now. I needed help on Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar, because I knew it as the "hungry little caterpillar". I also knew Are you my mother?, but tried it as "are you my mommy". Sporcle didn't like that. I missed James and the Giant Peach (on my to-read list for RA training), Stuart Little, Cricket in Times Square, Corduroy (I was thinking Paddington Bear, for some reason), Bridge to Terabithia, The Snowy Day, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and The Napping House. Guess How Much I Love You is a great book, although all I could remember was that the characters were the big nut brown hare and the little nut brown hare.

Assignment 2

• I could determine most of them at a glance, but I need a refresher on High Fantasy and Urban Fantasy.

Assignment 4

• I'm going to follow NPR Books because I rarely hear a formal book review on the air, but I love listening to their author interviews. I'm interested in seeing how the web reviews match up with their on-air programming.
• Picking a Genre link is kind of hard. I'm interested in all of them! I'm going to pick Fiction Affliction on Tor.com, because I'm not really familiar with new sci-fi and fantasy titles, and the site looks sleek and has good content. I am interested in following any of the urban and romance sites, and may do that, but I just don't feel comfortable browsing those covers at work. Who knows what my coworkers would think?!

Assignment 5

•  I think someone should write these books. I would read them!