Darla's Readers' Advisory Blog

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben  1. Where is the book on the narrative continuum? A mix (combines highly narrative moments with periods of fact-based prose) 2. What is the subject of the book? Trees and how they communicate, feel, and live their lives. 3. What type of book is it? A non-fiction work of science. 4. Articulate appeal -What is the pacing of the book? The pace is leisurely, but it does read quickly. -Describe the characters of the book. This is not a character driven work. The main subjects of this book are the trees and forests the author discusses. The author does anthropomorphize the trees so they could be characters of a sort. He also features himself in some areas of the book. -How does the story feel? It feels upbeat and uplifting. -What is the intent of the author? To give readers a glimpse into the mysterious world of trees and to ensure a reader never looks the same way at trees again. -What is the focus of the story? The focus of the story is how t...

 

I am a huge fan of ebooks and audiobooks. I prefer these formats so much that even if I have a physical copy of a book, I will typically go out of my way to read the ebook format, or choose to listen to it, depending on availability at my library. When I was younger I always preferred the weight of a book in my hand, the smell and feel of the pages, and being able to physically see my progress as I read a book. Now, I almost see a physical book as an inconvenience. I can't just carry it in my pocket, read it in bed in the dark, or squeeze in a few pages while waiting in line at the grocery store. Even though I can't feel a physical weight of a particular book, just my device, I can still look at how many page numbers there are and follow along with my progress bar. This still gives me a "feel" for a book and gives me insights into that genre. As I have gotten older, my lifestyle has changed from the leisure I had as a child and teen to looking for what is more accessi...

 

I attended an online book club, and they were discussing “In the Country of Women” by Susan Straight. This was a virtual meeting. There is a clear leader, which is one of the employees at the library. However, once a question is asked, several people took turns to chime in and some asked questions that snowballed off of the original questions. The leader was great at navigating the discussion and in the span of an hour a ton of questions and topics were touched on. The leader does ask questions and first lets other people respond. If there is no response to the question after a few seconds pause the leader steps in and gives her thoughts, to which people would then chime in with their own thoughts most of the time. If no one chimed in, the leader would quickly move on to the next question. A few times the leader called on a couple specific people to ask their opinions. It seemed as though she knew them well, because once she got them to open up, they would continue to chime in. This wa...

When one reflects on celebrity book clubs, one name comes to mind: Oprah.  Oprah Winfrey started her first book club in 1996 and featured a discussion segment on her talk show that included 70 books and ran for a whopping 15 years (Plato, 2020, p. 1). She has also created a digital platform that incorporates book discussions on popular social media sites to continue her legacy of fantastic book choices (Plato, 2020, p. 1). As the segment gained momentum, being a featured author on Oprah’s show was no small feat. “A personal recommendation on her daytime talk show could lead to hundreds of thousands — or even a million or more — hardcover book sales” (Nichols, 2019, p. 1). This opportunity could literally change the trajectory of an author’s career, forever. While Oprah has certainly paved the way in the celebrity book club industry, she is no longer the only celebrity that book club fans have their eyes set on. These clubs include Reese Witherspoon’s “Hello Sunshine”, Emma Watson’s...

Celebrity book clubs can be a fantastic way to get word about a title out to the masses. Not only is this great for the author, but it can also be a great way to highlight movements. According to Loggins (2020), "a few of these clubs have a specific focus — such as feminism or female-authored novels" (p. 1). This can help amplify stories that are important and deserve to be heard, but may get lost in all the noise of the publishing world. Amplifying titles that speak on important issues, such as feminism, can also spark needed discourse surrounding those topics. For example, Emma Watson's bookclub, Our Shared Self, has public "discussions about feminism and current events" on Goodreads (Loggins, 2020, p. 1).  While a celebrity sharing a book may not seem like a big deal, these book clubs have massive influence over the market. Of the fifteen New York Times (2021) bestsellers in hardcover fiction, five are celebrity or TV show book club picks (p. 1). The number o...