Week Three Prompt Response
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!
The fourth book is called the “Lunatic Café,” and as a heads up, the fifth book is called “Bloody Bones.”
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.
If you liked that read, I would also suggest “Bloodroot” by Amy Green. This book is a bit faster paced, but it still has a similar writing style that is lyrical like Kingsolver’s style. I would also recommend “Frog Music” by Emma Donoghue. She also has a similar writing style that is lush and lyrical but is faster paced. If you are looking for an author similar to Kingsolver, I would recommend Annie Dillard who has a writing style that is descriptive, lush, richly detailed and lyrical.
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 would recommend “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden. This book is set in Japan in 1929 and has a writing style that is richly detailed. This is also considered a historical fiction novel.
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?
Yes, I would recommend the Louise Penny mysteries. This is in the police procedurals genre, is intricately plotted, and is similarly character driven. I would also recommend Deborah Crombie as she is also in the police procedurals genre, has a similar leisurely pace, and a tone that is suspenseful and has a strong sense of place.
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?
Yes, I would recommend “The Living Dead” by George Romero as it has zombies, and a similar fast-pace and gruesome tone.
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 would recommend “The Good Liar” by Nicholas Searle. This literary fiction title came out in 2016 and was turned into a movie in 2019. Another one is “Julieta” by Alice Munro. This literary fiction title came out in 2016 and was turned into a movie that same year. As a bonus I would also recommend “The Rules of Magic” by Alice Hoffman. This is a recent title from 2017 and is in the literary fiction genre. It is currently being turned into a TV series!
7. I love thrillers but I hate foul language and sex scenes. I want something clean and fast paced.
I would recommend anything by Mary Higgins Clark, she does not include sex, violence, or coarse language in her novels.
I find books to read in several different ways and as I have gotten older, they have really changed. When I first started really getting into reading, it mostly consisted of me going to Barnes and Noble and browsing the stacks for anything that looked appealing to me. Barnes and Noble is fantastic at marketing books and I purchased a lot there as I did not live in a town with a library.
As I got older and started using the internet, I joined Goodreads. This was a great place for me to find books that other teens my age were reading. I would typically scroll through the popular titles, read the non-spoiler reviews, and diligently write down all of the titles I wanted. I would then proceed to plead with my grandma that I just had to read them; all the teens were!
Once I got into college, all pleasure reading vanished. The only titles I read were assigned reading, however I did read some really great novels that were assigned at that time. It wasn’t all bad! Just mostly bad. Does forced reading count as book discovery? In a weird way, I think so.
As I have entered the library world, I have been using a combination of online tools, social media, and recommendations from coworkers. My favorite online tool is definitely NoveList. I use this a lot to find similar reads to titles that I really enjoy. The website Fantastic Fiction is also hands down the best place to find the next book in that obscure series that you’re reading that you can’t find any information about on the first page of Google. At work I am a part of the Reader’s Advisory team, and because of this I am exposed to a bunch of really diverse and interesting books that my coworkers recommend (or stay away from the ones that they don’t recommend). I also subscribe to several newsletters through Library Aware. I actually edit the Fantasy and Science Fiction one my library subscribes to, so I get a sneak peak of their recommendations and will inevitably find something to add to the ever growing to be read list.
Finally, the tool that I have been using the most to find reads recently is… TikTok! Or BookTok, as I and many others like to call it. There is a whole book community on there that does reviews, recommendations, comedy, and whatever else you can think of that is book related. A large part of the books I read in 2020 came from TikTok recommendations, and honestly it has just been such a fun way to discover new reads.
Looking through Chelton's (2020) guide, I think the ones I am most interested in checking out would be the "Edgar Awards" and the "Nebula Awards" (p. 7). I don't typically look up specific award titles, but I would like to be more exposed to these popular titles as I think it would help me down the line when I am doing reader's advisory for patrons. I will also be checking out "weRead" and "What Should I Read Next" (Chelton, 2020, p. 22).
References
Chelton, M.K. (2020, December 7) Readers advisory tools for adult readers: A five-year retrospective selected bibliography, with a few earlier exceptions. Web Junction. https://www.webjunction.org/content/dam/WebJunction/Documents/webJunction/RAToolsMaster10_08_1_.pdf
Hi Darla,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about the different ways you find books. I had no idea people posted book-related things on TikTok. This might be due to the fact that I have never actually been on TikTok, only heard about it :) I guess I thought it was more song-related. Maybe I will check it out and see what book stuff I can find. I think that social media in general is a really great way to learn about books. I follow a bunch of publishers and librarians on Instagram and I always enjoy seeing the new releases they post about. I am going to check out some of the other resources you mentioned as well - thanks for sharing!
Sara,
DeleteTikTok used to be more song related because it used to be the app called Musical.ly, but it has definitely shifted from that! There is all kinds of content on there. Cooking, activism, still a lot of singing/dancing, etc. Pretty much anything you can think of! If you go on there you can search the hashtag #booktok. I definitely have an unhealthy obsession with it to be perfectly honest haha.
Hi Darla,
ReplyDeleteI understand the forced reading. I found some books that I love and also a lot of bad books. I had to read a book in high school for summer reading and borrowed it from one of my friends that had already taken the course. To this day I still remember the note she left in the book. "I hope you find something good about this book. I didn't." It was torture to read. Ironically my teacher quit in the summer and I instantly liked my new teacher for rating the book a 5 out of 10. I hope you have had more time to get back into reading for fun! Thanks for sharing.
Abby,
DeleteThat note is hilarious. I remember commiserating with my high school friends about the woes of bad books.
Hi Darla,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in college I didn’t have time to read for pleasure either. Though, in one of my English classes we were assigned A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf which became one of my favorite books. I loved the stream of consciousness writing style.
Kim,
DeleteYes my undergrad was rough for pleasure reading. I did have a class where we read "Nickel and Dimed" though and I ended up actually really enjoying that book. Which for me, not being a fan of non-fiction, was surprising!
I also would have to say I have not heard people are using TikTok to discuss books. It is a popular social media trend now, so people might really get into sharing book recommendations on it.
ReplyDeleteWe have been using NoveList at my library for awhile now and I did not know about the field codes when searching. It was very useful in finding a book about Japan for question number 3. Did anyone else find it hard to answer?
Candace,
DeleteI also had a hard time with that one until I used the advanced search option. I typically don't use that feature, so using it was a great reminder.
Great prompt response! Did you use Novelist to find all your answers? Sounds like you are definitely already cutting edge in the RA field - I can't wait to hear what you have to contribute in this class! And how cool that you edit the sci-fi/fantasy newsletter! I will admit that I am not remotely familiar with tiktok - but if that's where book recs are heading I better get on it! Full points and great suggestions!
ReplyDeleteI did! I love using NoveList. I feel as though I always discover some cool feature that I didn't know about before every time I sit down and really use it. And thank you so much! I really appreciate the compliment. It's kind of funny because I don't do a lot of adult RA at work, but actually do quite a bit of children's RA. This is a nice change of pace!
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