HAVEN'T READ IT

The reading I most wanted to respond to this week was Jo Walton's SF reading protocols  post on Tor.com. I've never really gotten into Science Fiction, but it's not for lack of trying. I end up feeling confused for the first 150 pages, which is enough to make me abandon a book altogether these days. (Stay tuned for my annotation of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness  later this week.) I appreciated this post for recognizing that my frustrations with SF are not related to lack of intelligence or effort. I just haven't developed the same tools as readers who have engaged with SF since childhood. I don't know when to wonder or ask questions about a detail, or when to "skitter over the surface" of an info-dump the same way my SF fan peers do. I saw myself in that description, for sure. However, my problem with the article is that it heavily implies, and at least at one point outright states, that someone "who doesn't have the skills...

Dating is different today than it was a generation ago. Thanks to the internet and the proliferation of personal electronic devices, apps and websites connect two people who might have never crossed paths in real life. Reading plays a big role in finding Mr./Ms. Right—you can read profiles to get to know someone before you even say hello. I propose a passive promotion display of romance novels with fake online dating profiles for characters stylized like Tinder, OKCupid, Hinge, Grindr, Match, Plenty of Fish, etc. Here’s an example for the romance I just reviewed: These profiles will be cut out and glued to a construction paper backing, and then either posted on a bulletin board space, or peeking out of the books themselves. We can also use these images on the library’s social media accounts throughout the month of February, including a link to the book in our catalog. I could include integrated advisory by making profiles for popular movie and television characters, as well, ...

Summary: Maggie Concannon is a talented glassblower with a temper as hot as her furnaces. Rogan Sweeney is a smooth talking, blue-blooded businessman with a knack for discovering emerging artists and championing them in his world-renowned galleries. The two couldn’t be more different—heart vs. head, Clare vs. Dublin, struggle vs. family wealth, fire vs. water—so when they meet, sparks fly. After enduring her parents’ loveless marriage, which left her father dead and her mother with a bitter contempt for her daughters, Maggie swore she would never let passion get in the way of her dreams. But Rogan’s not used to letting what he wants slip away, and it is Maggie he wants most of all. Romance Characteristics: An emotional tone draws readers into the love story. They can be lighthearted or brooding and tense. Maggie’s father dies suddenly in the first chapter, which I think has the effect of pulling in the reader and making them root for her success in light of her struggles and he...

Title:   Bttm Fdrs Authors: Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore An alternate reality Chicago creature feature with the social commentary of  Us , this carnival-colored graphic novel finds symbiosis in a fresh, new genre: Gentrification Horror. When Darla moves into her first apartment—an old animal testing lab cum industrial artist’s loft in the Bottomyards, she thinks she’s found a cheap place to live while she works on her clothing line. The Bottomyards are so far south Darla can’t trust the CTA, her scheming landlord Gene, the creepy ComEd guy who seems to be stalking her, or her best friend Cynthia, an oblivious white woman who is only interested in coming over to Darla’s place when she learns local ironic DJ Plymouth Rock lives in the building, too. On her first night in the building, she meets original tenant Katherine and her traumatized adult son Chucky, who laments the building’s rising rent as she packs for a move to the suburbs. “Everything is a ...

This assignment hits close to home, because I’ve been on the other side of trade reviews as a book publicist (it was a lot less glamorous than it sounds—trust me). Although, I will say that even when the books I repped got dragged by   Kirkus   or another review source, we were often able to eke out a phrase or two that still made it onto the book’s publicity materials. The worst was no coverage at all! A big part of that job was managing author expectations. Everyone thought their book had a shot at the   New York Times  bestseller list. Librarians rely on reviews for collection development, because no one can read everything, or be aware of every book that is published. Reviews from reliable sources help librarians make decisions quickly and with the highest probability that the book will be well-received by readers in their communities. After familiarizing yourself with review publications, you begin to get a sense of their individual personalities—what the...

For the Secret Shopper assignment, I asked the new librarian at my CPL branch for a Fantasy recommendation. The book I chose at the beginning of this class is a Patrick Rothfuss title that is 600+ pages long, and while I’m eager to read it eventually, I also wouldn’t mind a shorter option.  I told Justin that I was looking for a fantasy novel for a class. I told him it had to be a book for adults and that I have very little experience with the genre. I read the Harry Potter series, but had trouble getting into Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. I told him about the Rothfuss book and how I would prefer something shorter. His first question was, “what do you like to read?” He asked what I meant by “fantasy—do you mean dragons and wizards?” I replied that I was open to high fantasy but I wanted the book to be purely fantasy if possible, and not a blend of multiple genres. Thinking about the interaction from Justin’s point of view, it has to be difficult to “respond to the shiftin...

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 in the series is called  The Lunatic Café . 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. I noticed  Where the Crawdads Sing  by Delia Owens was in the read-alikes sidebar for  Prodigal Summer . That could be one recommendation, if the library has any copies available—I know this one has been popular so there might be a long holds list. I’d also recommend  The Stars are Fire  by Anita Shreve because it sounds like it starts with some intense action, but still has the lyrical aspect the patron enjoyed. 3.    ...

Summary: Along Came a Spider  is the first title in James Patterson’s series starring detective and psychologist Alex Cross. Set in gritty Washington D.C., the novel begins with the double kidnapping of Maggie Rose, a famous actress’s daughter, and her friend Michael, the whiz-kid son of the Secretary of the Treasury. The villain is the children’s teacher, madman Gary Soneji who may or may not be suffering from split personality disorder. Brilliant but brooding, Cross still hasn’t gotten over his wife Maria’s senseless, unsolved murder. He becomes entangled in an ill-advised romance with Jezzie Flanagan, supervisor of the Secret Service. When Michael’s body is found, the stakes grow higher—can Cross find Maggie Rose alive? Suspense Characteristics: At first I wasn’t sure if this novel should be classified as thriller or suspense. The back of my copy calls Patterson “the world’s most popular thriller writer, with over 280 million copies of his books sold worldwide.” Howev...