New Paranormal and Urban Lit Resources

Paranormal Fiction and Urban Lit are among the most popular genres at libraries all over the country.  Thankfully, I have 2 new book resources and 2 web resources to pass on to you as you assist your patrons.

Fang-tastic Fiction by Patricia O' Brien Mathews is part of the same series as my book. Here is the product description:

What's good besides Twilight? Answer burning questions such as this with the help of Mathews engaging tour through today's spooky lit. Readers will be able to search "read-alike" lists for series featuring their favorite "creatures" with up-to-date, chronological lists of series titles and summaries. Librarians will be able to suggest a multitude of adventures starring angst-ridden heartthrobs, superheroes, and champions. Focused exclusively on the best of the best, this lively readers advisory

• Rates each series on a scale of 1 - 5 for levels of violence, sensuality, and humor
• Contains more than 200 annotated entries
• Enables book selection by type, character, series, and author
• Lists all the volumes in a favorite series together and offers numerous read-alikes

Designed to keep librarians and readers up-to-date with the hottest contemporary supernatural beings in adult literature, Fang-tastic Fiction is both fun to read and easy to use.

On the web, thanks to Shelfrenewal I also found Wicked Little Pixie.  This website reviews paranormal romance and urban fantasy.  There are reviews and a great list of series in alpha order by author.  I am going to be using the link, printing series off, and handing them to happy patrons from now on.

On the Street Lit front, Libraries Unlimited is releasing Urban Grit: A Guide to Street Lit as part of their Genreflecting Advisory Series at the end of this month.  Here's the product info on this yet to be released title:

Street lit is also known to its enthusiastic readers as "urban fiction," "ghetto lit," "hip-hop lit," and "gangsta lit." No matter what it's called, it remains one of the most significant and increasingly popular forms of modern literature.
This text provides a much-needed resource guide to this vibrant genre. In this title, more than 400 entries appear in eleven chapters, each focusing on a different subgenre of street lit. The author has organized titles by popular subgenres and themes, such as prison life and urban erotica, to help librarians more easily identify read-alikes. Urban Grit: A Guide to Street Lit also contains practical tips on integrating these books into an existing collection or library program and meeting challenges that may arise in the process.

The author, Megan Honig also has a fabulous blog which you can access here.  This month in anticipation of the release of the book, she is running a series called 30 Days of Street Lit.  You can use this link to follow her postings.

We have ordered both books for out RA Reference shelf here at the BPL.  I am excited to have some new resources to help the many readers who ask about these two emerging genres each and every day.