Shirley Jackson Awards as a Readalike Tool

I know I often talk about using awards lists as a RA and Collection Development Tool, but no award is more useful as a pure readalike list [except the Mary Higgins Clark Awards, which is equivalent] than the Shirley Jackson Awards. 

Why? Because these awards are given out to people whose work, like the late, great Shirley Jackson, cannot be defined. They touch on psychological suspense, horror, and dark fantasy. And for me, they are the epitome of a great read.

The 2017 nominees were just announced and you can also see them below. All of these are excellent choices for readers who like lyrical, creepy, weird stories.

I have added links to the titles I have reviewed to help you out a bit more.

Here’s the thing about this list though-- these types of stories are very popular right now. Slightly askew, lyrical, dark tales that bring intense unease but are not outright horror. These are the books on the edges of dark speculative fiction where it brushes with literary fiction. These are titles many of your patrons who would love them, probably won’t know about without your help.

However, you make a “Shirley Jackson Awards” display using this list of nominees and all the lists from the years before [back to 2007], then "presto chango” you have happy patrons. You can also easily take the titles here and from previous years, and make a Shirley Jackson readalike list. And guess what? You don’t have to worry if it is inclusive because it already is. In fact, it always has been [I checked] because these are stories on the fringes, a place where the non-normative authors already lurk. It makes sense. Outsiders lurk on the outside, but that position makes the stories they tell fascinating. There is no need to conform to the genre standards because people ignored them, and we readers get to reap the benefits.

For me personally, those fringes have always been the most beautiful space to find great reads. I often went to this “weird” space with my readers who wanted something different. The Shirley Jackson Awards list was a got to of mine to find them titles, always. 

So here’s the current list, here are all the old lists. Now you have your next interesting display. 

2017 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees

Boston, MA (May 2018) — In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories: Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.

The nominees for the 2017 Shirley Jackson Awards are:

NOVEL

• Ill Will, Dan Chaon (Ballantine Books)
• The Bone Mother, David Demchuk (ChiZine Publications)
• The Changeling, Victor Lavalle (Spiegel & Grau)
• The Hole, Hye-young Pyun (Arcade Publishing)
• The Night Ocean, Paul La Farge (Penguin Press)

NOVELLA

• Fever Dream, Samantha Schweblin (Riverhead Books) [Recently read, review pending]
• Mapping the Interior, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
• The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, James Morrow (Tachyon Publications LLC)
• The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, Margaret Killjoy (Tor.com)
• The Lost Daughter Collective, Lindsey Drager (Dzanc Books)
• The Murders of Molly Southbourne, Tade Thompson (Tor.com)

NOVELETTE

• “Take the Way Home That Leads Back to Sullivan Street,” Chavisa Woods (Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country)
• “The Resident,” Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties)
• “Sun Dogs,” Laura Mauro (Shadows and Tall Trees Volume 7)
• “The West Topeka Triangle,” Jeremiah Tolbert (Lightspeed Magazine)
• “You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych,” Kathleen Kayembe (Nightmare Magazine)

SHORT FICTION

• “Blur,” Carmen Maria Machado (Tin House, issue 72, Summer 2017)
• “Live Through This,” Nadia Bulkin (Looming Low)
• “The Convexity of Our Youth,” Kurt Fawver (Looming Low)
• “The Mouse Queen,” Camilla Grudova (The Doll’s Alphabet)
• “The Second Door,” Brian Evenson (Looming Low)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

• Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press)
• She Said Destroy, Nadia Bulkin (Word Horde)
• The Dark Dark, Samantha Hunt (FSG Originals)
• The Doll’s Alphabet, Camilla Grudova (Coffee House Press)
• Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country, Chavisa Woods (Seven Stories Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

• Black Feathers: Dark Avian Tales, edited by Ellen Datlow (Pegasus Books)
• The Djinn Falls in Love, edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (Rebellion Publishing / Solaris Books)
• Looming Low, edited by Justin Steele and Sam Cowan (Dim Shores)
• Shadows and Tall Trees Volume 7, edited by Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)
• Tales From a Talking Board, edited by Ross E. Lockhart (Word Horde)

What I’m Reading: Zero Day to Commemorate the Final Meeting of the ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study

Today I have a starred review of the final book in a trilogy. The star I gave this final book is really a star for the entire series. I have enjoyed the other books in the series which I wrote about here and here, but with the publication of the final installment I can 100% tell you that this is a must buy and a must read.  

Even though this review was published last week, I held it for today because it is the final meeting of the two-year ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study.  You can click here for all of the notes and assignments. 

Specifically this is our [final] assignment for later today:

Lunch, Book Talks, and Wrap-Up

December 7, 2017, 2-4 PM
Glenview Public Library
Assignment:

• Read the article “Let’s Talk About Genre: Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro in Conversation”

• Come prepared to share a 90-second booktalk on an author or book we didn’t cover the course of the genre study. Please bring a printout of the booktalk so we can include it in the notes.

Which brings me back to the review for today, this book is the perfect title to showcase speculative fiction today. It is fun, draws from different genres, and can be read by a wide range of readers, even those who don’t think they like speculative fiction. 

[On a side note, today is also my final time in 5 years where I had some type of leadership responsibilities for the genre study. I will not be a part of the team running the 2018-19 Romance genre study, but I will still be posting notes and assignments here on the blog.]

Here is the draft of my Booklist review which I will be presenting as my book talk:

Zero Day.

Boone, Ezekiel (author)

Feb. 2018. 336p. Atria/Emily Bestler, hardcover, $26 (9781501125102); e-book (9781501125133). First published December 1, 2017 (Booklist).

Following directly on the heels of THE HATCHING and SKITTER, Boone brings his excellent spider-apocalypse thriller to an exciting conclusion in ZERO DAY. Back is the same realistic, fast paced, edge of your seat action from the first two books, as the story continues to bounce around the world, following the cast of well developed and diverse characters readers have grown to loathe and love, as they inch closer to figuring out the key to defeating the spiders who are systematically destroying humanity. This final installment has everything readers crave in a solid thriller series, speculative or realistic, but it is the spiders, the inherent fear they invoke, their ability to reproduce efficiently, and their evolution as actors in this drama that raises the stakes, the suspense, and the enjoyment here. Also, unlike most adventure stories, this one is not fueled by testosterone; in fact quite the opposite, as it is the women here who posit that the key to saving the world might be in understanding the spider queens. In particular it is a female scientist and US President who fight the men to be heard, take over, and lead the final charge, hoping that their intuition will save all of humanity, but fully knowing that if they are wrong, the world as we know it will end. Readers will race to the trilogy’s finish with our heroes, and be glad that they went along for the entire ride. ZERO DAY cements the entire series as one you will be handing out for years to come for fans of all high action thrillers, but especially for those who like the speculative frame in titles by Mira Grant, Jonathan Maberry and Ben H. Winters. But more importantly, it is a series worth rooting for. In a landscape where the adventure thriller seems to be dragging, it is clear all we needed were some spiders to revive it.

Further Appeal: I cannot stress enough how this is a perfect thriller with or without the spiders. To prove this point, I gave it to a patron who loves Baldacci and doesn’t really like apocalyptic or speculative fiction. She literally couldn’t put the first two books down. Well, let me rephrase that, she only put them down when she started to feel things crawling on her. She took a break but went back to it as soon as she could. Yesterday I gave her my ARC of this third book. She cannot wait to finish the series.

As a reader, I also liked how this series shows the apocalypse as it unfolds, in real time. Many apocalyptic series start post apocalypse and then they go back and show you how things got to be destroyed through flashbacks while they concentrate the “present" action on how people are surviving. Here, in Boone’s series, we watch the apocalypse happen in real time and the focus is on the battle to stop it. Choices, both good and bad, are made, and they are made urgently as things are unfolding quickly. We the reader can see all over the world and know things the local actors do not. All of this adds suspense, drama, and intrigue to the story.

Finally, I have to say it.....SPIDERS! Seriously, is there anything people in general are more scared of than spiders? Nope. It’s genius to have them bring the apocalypse.

Three Words That Describe This Book: fast-paced, speculative thriller, fun

Readalikes: All three mentioned in the review above are the best matches as they are all series that share the fast-paced, speculative thriller, and fun appeal factors, but many realistic political thrillers would work also work, like Baldacci.

World War Z is also a good readalike, and that is a book that also had cross-over appeal for people who don’t normally like supernatural aspects to their geo-political thrillers. However, World War Z  is told entirely in flashback. If you really liked the speculative apocalypse in real-time aspects of the Boone series, I would suggest The Fireman by Joe Hill instead.

Reminder: ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study Penultimate Meeting is Tomorrow

Even if you cannot join us, here is the assignment for our meeting tomorrow. You can always feel free to use our notes and assignments to run your own genre study. All of the information you need is available here. The notes for all previous meetings in this specific study are up to date and available here.

And don’t forget this video presentation of a panel I moderated on Genre Studies where Karen Toonen outlined the details of the ARRT Genre Study, how it has evolved over time, and what we try to accomplish with it.

Audiobooks, Youth/YA, Graphic Novels
October 5, 2017, 2-4 PM
Lisle Public Library

Check out the featured resources: Audible

Watch at least one of each section below (preferably something new to you).

Audiobooks (bonus points if it’s something you’ve read in print)

• Harry Potter
• World War Z
• Ready Player One
• Station Eleven
• Bird Box
• Sleeping Giants
• Nimona

Youth/YA

• The Hobbit
• The Hunger Games
• The Graveyard Book
• The Giver
• Rot and Ruin
• Shadowshaper
• A Wrinkle in Time
• A Wizard of Earthsea
• An Ember in the Ashes

Graphic novels

• Saga
• Monstress
• Locke & Key
• Kindred
• Bitch Planet
• Battling Boy
• Fables

ARRT Book Club Study and Genre Study Notes and News and a ARRTCon teaser

Last Thursday we had our every other month ARRT Steering Committee meeting and I have many things to share with all of you out there, no matter where you live. Here's the preview and then you can read below for the details that most interest you:

• Updates to the Book Club Study including new notes and the November meeting info
• Updates to the current Genre Study
• Announcement of the 2017-18 Genre study topic!
• A save the date with some early info on ARRTCon [which will be awesome and a great deal]

Okay, now all the juicy details.

The Book Club Study group met in July and had an amazing discussion of Dream Land: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones. The group highly recommends doing this book as a discussion at your library. They could have kept going for another hour. The leadership topic was about how discussing nonfiction is different with your book club. The group also created an EXCELLENT list of nonfiction titles that worked and didn't work with people's book clubs. We will eventually turn it into a bibliography and post it here, but if you can't wait, it is in the notes. Speaking of....

Click here now to access the notes on the discussion of both the book and the leadership topic. If you encounter this post in the future, the links will have been moved to the Archive page.

All of the details about anything book discussion related from upcoming schedules, to notes about any of our past discussions, to resources from other places are always available on the ARRT Book Club Study site.

Next up for the ARRT Book Club Study is:

Please join us for a discussion of The Mothers by Brit Bennett led by Megan Rosol: 

It begins with a secret. 

"All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we'd taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season." 

It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it's not serious. 

But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. 

Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults and still living in debt to the choices they made that one seaside summer, caught in a love triangle they must carefully maneuver, and dogged by the constant, nagging question: What if they had chosen differently? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

In entrancing, lyrical prose, The Mothers asks whether a "what if" can be more powerful than an experience itself. If, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.

The discussion will be held:

Wednesday, November 8th

2-4 pm

Morton Grove Public Library

RSVP to Megan Rosol (mrosol@mgpl.org) 

Please arrange to obtain your own copy of the book for the discussion 

As always, discussion of the book includes a nuts-and-bolts session devoted to sharing practical solutions to the problems and concerns of book discussion leaders. 

The Leadership Topic, led by Greta Ulrich, will focus on discussing sensitive topics. Please come ready to share your successes and failures in this area so we can all help each other. Also, remember that you can always bring any problems or concerns you have with your group, no matter the topic, so we can all help each other.

I am especially excited for this discussion because I loved The Mothers the first time I read it. I also advocated for this leadership topic once Megan picked this book for her discussion because we really need to find a way to teach people how to have civil, respectful, and thoughtful discussions about touchy subjects. People in general are doing a very bad job at this. We, as library workers, can lead through example here.

Now on to the news about the current Genre Study. Here I will be quick because you all want to know about the next one. Please go to the Speculative Fiction Genre Study website for lots of new information. We have the entire schedule from the past 2 years up with notes and assignments. We have only 2 meetings left, so there is a ton of useful info here. Use it to train yourself or as a guide to lead your own genre study.

But you want to know what's next.  I know. Well, we tallied the votes and....drum roll please... Romance came out on top, barely beating nonfiction. We are all very excited to get started planning the next genre study and will be using much of what we learned by shaking things up with the Crime Fiction and Speculative Fiction Studies to improve this one. Plus, we have a team of Romance experts and novices on the leadership team which I think is fantastic. I really think a genre study is improved by including the voices from both sides in the planning and execution of the genre study.

And the last bit of ARRT news is that you all should save the date for ARRTCon on Thursday, November 9th at Naperville Public Library's newly renovated 95th Street branch. This all day RA focused conference will include breakfast and lunch, a keynote by a Chicago area author, the chance to choose your [multiple] breakout sessions based on your training needs [I will be leading some], programming geared toward all levels from RA 101 to RA experts, and a book buzz with free ARCs from Sourcebooks and Random House-- all for a cost of a half day at our state conference. And it’s no filler-- all RA, all day.

The details are almost all in place and being passed on to our contracted graphic designer. The EventBrite is being set up so you can rank your breakout session choices. As soon as it is all ready, I will let you know. This is going to be one of our best,  all day events ever.

Finally, don't forget about the ARRT website or Facebook page for lots of RA related news and info. We realize that membership makes more sense for people who can attend our programs so we offer free access to the newsletter and all of our notes to help ALL. Every patron deserve quality RA Service, and ARRT is doing our part by making as much of our information available as possible.  

ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study Today Featuring My Notes on Video Games and a HUGE Announcement

That headline probably threw a few of you for a loop. Video Games?!?!

Well today is the latest installment of the ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study and we are tackling Movies, TV, and Video games-- or in library lingo Whole Collection RA for speculative fiction. Yes we are talking about the non-book science fiction, fantasy, and horror items that we check out in large numbers at our libraries but for which many of us book centric RA people don't know how to suggest or guide patrons.

[Oh and for that huge announcement in the headline, you have to wait until the end of the post]

Here is today's assignment.

Movies, TV, and Video GamesAugust 3, 2017, 2-4 PM
Glenview Public Library
Check out the featured resources: Black Girl Nerds, IGN, NerdMuch? 

Watch at least one of each genre (preferably something new to you). If you watch a TV show, try at least a couple of episodes. 

SF ·         The Arrival (2016)·         Ex Machina (2015)·         Blade Runner (1982)·         Battlestar Galactica (TV 2004-2009)·         Any Star Trek (movie or TV)·         Black Mirror (TV 2001-; skip first episode “The National Anthem”)·         Alien (1979) 

Fantasy·         Any Star Wars (movies or animated, just don’t start with Episode I for heaven’s sake)·         The Lord of the Rings trilogy (any film)·         Any Harry Potter film·         Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)·         Spirited Away (2001) 

Horror·         Get Out (2017)·         The Cabin in the Woods (2012)·         Rosemary’s Baby (1968)·         Night of the Living Dead (1968)·         Penny Dreadful (TV 2014-2016)

So I am in charge of talking about video games today. Now let me be clear, I know more about video games than the average public librarian, but I am not even close to an expert. That is a huge point I want to make in this post however. When you lead a genre study you DO NOT need to be an expert on the topic.

Let me say that again slightly differently...even someone who knows nothing about a topic can still lead a genre study on that topic. Why? Because of a little thing we call resources. We are all library workers. We all know how to do research. We don’t know the answer to every question, but we do know how to find the answer. This is not are information to anyone reading this, yet for some reason you all think that when it comes to leisure reading we have to intimately know a genre and like it in order to teach it. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

In fact in a genre study, everyone is learning together and sometimes the experience is enhanced if the leader is not a fan of the topic because they are more open to the information they gather as leader.

Either way, fan or not, every genre study leader needs to do research on the topic in order to “teach” it.

To that end, learning about the current state of the gaming industry is key.  As you saw above, our group was asked to review 3 resources: Black Girl Nerds, IGN, NerdMuch?. All three have gaming reviews, industry info, and breaking news.  We will be looking at those together and talking about trends, but quick spoiler, speculative fiction frames for video games are [and have always been] dominating the market.

Let’s start with those of us who grew up in the 80s playing all sorts of space related arcade games. The first game I ever owned for our first home computer [an Apple IIC] was a haunted house story based game featuring werewolves, vampires, and other supernatural creatures. I can’t remember the game’s name, but I clearly remember playing it and loving it.

Flash forward a few years to see games like The Legend of Zelda emerge as all time favorites and you can see that video games with well developed world building and speculative elements have always been popular.

This is because the storytelling in video games is a huge element and appeal for those who play them. Speculative fiction novels and video games are more intricately linked than many library workers realize, and I mean beyond having patrons who both read books and play games.

Look at these extensive crowdsourced lists via Wikipedia for proof:

• List of novels based on video games
• Video Games Based on Books

Not only have many authors started as video game writers [one popular example is Naomi Novik] but also, many established speculative fiction print worlds have been bought by video game developers to use as the base for the intricate worlds in their games- some obviously [ex: tie-in games for Walking Dead, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings] and some subtly. It is a well know secret that without speculative fiction authors creating the worlds, characters, and storylines behind today’s elaborate video games they would not be as popular as they are.

I am going to say it at least a dozen times in this post, but every format we are discussing today is about world building and storytelling at its core. Most people who enjoy speculative fiction like everything speculative. It’s what the average American would call “nerd” culture. Think about it. Whovians love Doctor Who in all media. Ditto Star Wars, Zombie, Vampire, etc... fans. We know this   fact yet we often overlook it when helping readers. We get too stuck in the format rut and we are afraid of jumping into a world we are less comfortable with.

I also want to mane a side note about RPGs before we go too much further. Role Playing Games are also making a huge mainstream comeback. I’m not just talking about Dungeons and Dragons either. In April, when I was the first ever Librarian Special Guest at StokerCon, I also met the first ever Gaming Special Guest, Bill Bridges. Not only is he a great guy, but we were also able to have a long talk about the video gaming industry. His website has a lot of useful information. He has been involved with video games and RPGs for many years.  I will be sharing some of that insight with the group today, but for everyone, here is a Huffington Post article about his Live RPG event at StokerCon and a quote from the article:

“A particularly unique event was a game of Werewolf, hosted by White Wolf creator and writer Bill Bridges. The game participants were none other than George R.R. Martin, fellow White Wolf creator and author Chuck Wendig, Maria Alexander, who would go on to garner her second Bram Stoker Award for YA Novel, Stephen Graham Jones, a nominee for the werewolf themed Mongrels, and New York Times Best Selling author Nancy Holden. It was truly a dream lineup for any RPG fan as well as a fascinating exercise in group storytelling. Danielle DeLisle joined the game for the second half and helped the group capture the diamonds as well as werewolf bragging, er… howling rights.”

As that quote implies, and as I said above, games and books are not that dissimilar. Storytelling is at the core of both; it is just the method of how the story is delivered that varies.

Look, I could spend a few more hundred words listing the most popular speculative framed video games right now, but that is not going to help you. The resources mentioned above will handle that. Talking to your patrons who like video games will also help you. What I want to focus on here is the fact that simply understanding that both video games and books share a strong storytelling core and remembering to ask your hard core speculative fiction readers what video games, tv shows, and movies they also like, will help you to further to giving them the best experience possible. Simply remember to check the resources a few times a year and include questions about these non-book formats in your RA conversations and you are doing great.

You may not ever be comfortable suggesting a video game to a patron, but by asking them if they like video games and if yes, which ones [and why!] will go a long way toward earning your patrons’ trust and teaching you how to make cross format appeal connections. This will lead to better RA conversations, and then ultimately, a better library experience for tall of your patrons.

That is the discussion we will be having in Glenview today. We are not going to become movie, tv, and gaming experts, but we will become better at whole collection RA and at helping our patrons, and that is our goal with every Genre Study meeting. We will gather the notes and share them with everyone after the fact, here.

Now on to the big announcement.

As I mentioned yesterday, Rebecca Vnuk is leaving Booklist [today is her last day]. Rebecca did much more than just edit for Booklist, she also led their library outreach. Publisher, Bill Ott has hired me to fill some of the non-editing holes left by Rebecca's departure on a consultant basis [for now]. I will not become exclusive to Booklist but I will be taking a more official role in their library outreach in the coming months.

We are in the process of developing some brand new programming options, but for now, I will be taking over some of the already contracted Booklist and NoveList live events. The first of which fits in perfectly with this post because it is on GENRE STUDIES. Truth be told, I was going to be a part of this panel no matter what, I just went from participant to organizer.

The exact details will be coming next week, but for now save the date for a NoveList and Booklist sponsored, free, live event on August 22, 2017 from 2-3:30pm [central time]. You can attend in person at Chicago Public Library Harold Washington Center or join us virtually [live or archived].  Link here on the blog soon.

I have a panel of genre study experts lined up and I will be presenting and moderating. I have also convinced Booklist to make some changes to their website which will benefit everyone and I will be highlighting much of the new NoveList genre content, some of which is available for free whether you are a database subscriber or not. I will be unveiling all of it at the program. Please stay tuned and hold the date.

Tomorrow, I will go into more detail about Rebecca Vnuk’s new job which is a publishing venture for libraries that I am involved with and super excited about.

I warned you all I had a lot to report when I got back from vacation.....

ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study Update With Notes

Look at that snazzy new ARRT Genre Study logo. Click here to learn more about why we are working to brand the ARRT signature programs.

That’s not the point of today’s post, obviously, but it is a great logo.

Okay, back to the business at hand.... The next meeting of the Speculative Fiction Genre Study is happening soon. Here are the details and the assignment:

Doorway: ToneJune 1, 2017, 2-4 PMLisle District Library 

Featured resource: Peruse the  The Book Smugglers blog 

Assignment:1) Read a book from two different authors from the list below (two books total). Preferably, both authors will be new to you:

• Terry Pratchett
• Douglas Adams
• Gail Carriger
• Mercedes Lackey
• Laurell K. Hamilton
• Christopher Moore
• Jeff Vandermeer

2) As you read, think about the genre/subgenre of the book and additional appeal factors for the books

As you can see, we have a range of tones represented here. These are also all authors for whom their tone is one of the reasons people either enjoy or dislike their stories. Why? Ahh, but that is for the discussion on June 1st.

That is what is up next, but we also have posted the notes from April’s meeting about the doorway of language here.

Finally, please note that while you must be a member of ARRT to attend the meetings, anyone and everyone is welcome to use our assignments and notes as a guide to run their own genre studies. All we ask is that you cite ARRT as a resource.

Speculative Fiction Genre Study Update

Later today is the next meeting of the ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study. Due to an after school event for my kid [and to the fault of traffic between Glenview and my house], I will be missing out. But, as I always say here on the blog, no matter where you live, ARRT allows you to still follow along and participate. We have everything, from past assignments to the detailed notes from every meeting, posted here for all to view.

Reminder: we would love for you to use our assignments and notes, in full or part, to guide your own genre study, but please do credit us as your source. That is all we ask. 

Here are the notes from the last meeting when we discussed the Doorway of Character.

And here [and below] is the assignment the group will be discussing later today.

Doorway: LanguageApril 6, 2017, 2-4 PMGlenview Public Library 

Featured resource: Peruse the website of the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. 

Assignment:1) Read a book from two different authors from the list below (two books total). Preferably, both authors will be new to you:Nick HarkawayJo WaltonJasper FfordePatricia McKillipLord DunsayGene WolfeSamuel DelaneyTananarive Due 

2) As you read, think about the genre/subgenre of the book and additional appeal factors for the book besides language.

I can't wait to read the notes to see what I missed. I will post them on the blog, along with the next assignment when they are ready. However, you do not have to wait for me. The Speculative Fiction Genre Study page is open for your clicks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Locus Recommended Reading List: Best of 2016 in Speculative Fiction

Today is ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study day and to celebrate Locus released their annual, expert curated, Recommended Reading List of the best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror from the past year. Well not really, but still, it was excellent timing.

Screen shot from the announcement:

Use this link to pull up the full list of all the best books, collections, and short stories from the year that was in Speculative fiction.

I cannot stress enough how useful this annual list is to our work with readers and for collection development. Speculative fiction is where some of the best and smartest stories come from. It is where our current ideas, beliefs, and issues are debated. It is a place from where fiction can lead to real world change.

Don’t forget, Locus has been publishing this list in every February 1st issue for years. And they always put the full list on their website. Backlist options work especially well for speculative fiction. The current boost in sales of books like 1984 is only one example of many titles that prove this point. Use these older lists!

The easiest way to find those old lists is to do a search from the Locus homepage for “Recommended Reading List.” [Because they use Google to run their searches, you need to do this yourself; the link I will give you might not work.] It will pull them up out of order. Add the year to your search if you want a specific list. Remember though, the February 2017 issue has the 2016 Recommended Reading List. They have not tagged every list with a list specific tag, but my suggested work around does the job.

Here a reminder that back in 2015, I wrote this post on why I love and use this resources. Here is an excerpt:

Here is why I love this resource no matter the year:

1.  It is a great collection development tool. You can use it to make sure your collection has the key titles from the past year.
2. It is a wonderful science fiction and fantasy training tool.  You can use the list to make sure that you and your staff are aware of who’s who in the genre today. 
3. All of the lists from the current one to those from years' past make for the perfect sure bet backlist reading list for speculative fiction fans. I recently showed the 2014 list to a friend who needed a suggestion for vacation, and she now thinks I am THE GREATEST LIBRARIAN EVER. [She checked out The Bees for her trip, by the way.] 

Click through to that post if you want more details from me, but at the very least, look at this year’s list, see how your collection stacks up to what the experts think are the very best pieces of speculative fiction [and nonfiction], and start suggesting, making lists, putting up displays, etc... for all of these titles.

Go on now....get to work! You’ve got plenty to do now, and I’ve got a Speculative Fiction Genre Study meeting to get to. We are leading off with this post!

New ARRT Genre Study Notes and an Open Invitation For All to Join Us for Our Next Meeting

Next week we will be having the first meeting of the second year of our two year Speculative Fiction Genre Study. 

Normally attendance at the Genre Study Meetings is only open to ARRT members; however, at the beginning of every year we encourage new people to try us out. So we'd like to extend an invitation to everyone-- even if you are not a member and even if you haven't completed the assignment. Come join us and see what we are all about.

Here are the details:

Doorway: StoryFeb. 2, 2017, 2-4 PMLisle District Library 

Featured resource: Read a short story from Clarkesworld online magazine 

Assignment:1) Read a book from two different authors from the list below (two books total). Preferably, both authors will be new to you:Paolo BacigalupiLarry NivenBen BovaDavid WeberKim HarrisonRamsey CampbellOctavia ButlerPatrick Rothfuss2) As you read, think about the genre/subgenre of the book and additional appeal factors for the book besides character

Also, here is the info on the last meeting including the links to the assignment and the notes. These are always free and open to all on our website:

Doorway: CharacterDecember 1, 2016, 2-4 PMGlenview Public LibraryAssignmentNotes

Finally, please remember that we encourage those of you who cannot join us to use our genre study assignments and notes with your groups as you strive to improve your service to your leisure readers. All we ask is that you cite us as your source.

End of the Year Adult Reading Round Table Updates

Today I have a bunch of links, information, and announcements having to do with my work with ARRT. Please remember, while ARRT is a networking and training organization for Readers' Advisory Library Workers, we provide much content, lists, and training documents for everyone, everywhere.

From our Popular Author lists (both for Adult and Teen authors) which are always available in the RA Toolbox on NoveList to allowing anyone to signup for our newsletter [the form is on every page of the website in the right gutter] and much in between, ARRT is here to help anyone who is helping leisure readers.

Here is a sample of our most recent updates and information:

• Back in November, I presented as part of ARRT's RA Hacks program. You can click here for my slides.  I also was one of five breakout session leaders. As promised, we compiled the notes from the breakout sessions and they are now available here.
• The Speculative Fiction Genre Study is about to enter it's second, and final, year. The last meeting was on December 1 and we discussed the Doorway of Character. Here is the assignment we used. Just before that meeting, the notes on our first Doorway discussion, this time of Setting, went live at this link. Our next meeting, on the Doorway of Story will be on February 2, 2017. Details, including the assignment, are here. In general, anyone can access all of the information about the Speculative Fiction Genre Study, and even past genre studies, including all assignments and notes, here. We encourage others to use our Genre Studies as a guide to frame your own. Use as much of what we have up here as you want, all we ask is that your cite us as your source.
• The Book Club Study [formerly known as the Literary Book Discussion and Leadership Training] is going strong. We are meeting on January 12, 2017, from 2-4 pm at Schaumburg Township District Library to discuss Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. The book discussion will be led by Emily Vinci. The Leadership Topic, led by me, will be about managing the group dynamic during book discussions. All of the details are here including how you can sign up.
• Finally, we are in the middle of our annual membership renewal drive. Here is the form so you can renew or join. Remember, while the notes from all of our programs are free on the web, in order to attend the Book Club Study and the Genre Study you must be a member.

I truly believe in the work we do through ARRT for everyone out there helping leisure readers. We all volunteer our time to be on the Steering Committee because we know that we are lucky to have such a long standing RA networking group in our area. But please know we realize that many of you are going at your work alone. Don't forget we are here to help, either through the ARRT website, our social media [Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest], or here on RA for All with the ARRT tag.

ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study Tackles Character

The next meeting of the ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study is less than a month away.

I am so sad that I am going to miss it because I love all of the authors on this list. Why do I love them all, despite the fact that they span 3 genres? Because we are talking about speculative fiction authors who excel at character, and character is my number one entry point to any book.

You can click here to follow the entire genre study, see the assignments, and read the notes-- from anywhere in the world. The only thing that is only open to our members is attending the meetings and being part of the actual discussion [which is quite a huge benefit actually, as I will see when I have to miss this meeting]. I have also attached the “Character" assignment below.

And remember, we do not mind at all if your group uses our assignments and notes to run your own genre study, just please make sure you give us credit. 

Doorway: Character
Dec. 1, 2016
Glenview Public Library

Featured resource: Listen to a speculative fiction podcast (see some suggestions at bottom of page).

Assignment:

1) Read a book from two different authors from the list below (two books total). Preferably, both authors will be new to you.

Connie Willis
Lois McMaster Bujold
Orson Scott Card
Naomi Novik
Jim Butcher
Kevin Hearne
Brian Keene
Ann Leckie

2) As you read, think about the genre/subgenre of the book, and write down three additional appeal factors for the book besides character.

3) Come ready to talk about other character-driven speculative fiction books you may enjoy and why.

Podcast suggestions:

Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy
Science Fiction and Politics
Sword and Laser
Speculate
SF Signal
SFF Audio
This is Horror
Drinking With Jason
Three Guys with Beards
Horror Show with Brian Keene

RA for All: Call to Action-- It's Horror Boot Camp Time

Not to freak you all out but Halloween is 6 weeks from TODAY!

Soon the hordes of horror hungry readers will be descending upon your buildings. Are you ready? My experience suggests the answer is probably, that you are not.

Not to worry because I am going to help you right now. Today's Call to Action is a reversal of roles. Instead of me calling you to do something to improve your service to leisure readers, I am calling myself into action for you.

Each year I run a 31 Days of Horror Blog-a-Thon for the entire month of October just to help you to serve your scariest readers better. That's right, you, the library worker are who I am writing these for. I give tips, provide lists, ask publishers and authors to share their thoughts, and even run a bunch of giveaways.

Over the next few weeks, you need to head over to the horror blog to look at the 31 Days of Horror from past years, and, well, just everything on that blog to prep for Halloween.  My goal is to make the Halloween season as easy as possible for you. There are literally thousands of reading suggestions for all types of readers from those who just want a small chill to those looking for outright gore fests, and everyone in between.

But I also understand that you are all very busy and might not have time to poke around the Horror Blog archives until you have to-- you know, when a patron is standing there asking a question and you have no idea. [click here, I have your back].

So today I am also offering up the notes from the Horror Boot Camp discussion I led for the ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study.  Click here for the notes with slide access. It is everything you need to know if you only had 2 hours to learn it.  Please note however that the slides and notes follow a specific assignment so you might want to check that out first.

And of course, you can always buy my book. Last October the eBook was the #1 bestseller, so I know plenty of you bought a copy. Thanks. For those of you who did not, know that although the material is a few years old at this point, the horror blog is written as a free update to the book. So if you have the book, you get more out of the blog. Plus the book has hundreds of titles that are still widely available in public libraries. And you know how I feel about that backlist. [If you are a new reader, note, it is your BFF].

No more excuses! I don't care if you are scared of horror yourself. I have got this one for you. I have done my part: warned you of the impending increase in demand for horror [it could start any day at this point], given you links with quality and useful resources, and even provided the "Cliffs Notes" version of the genre.

Now get to work.  People are relying on you to help them feel the fear this haunting season!

For past Calls to Action, click here.

ARRT Speculative Genre Study: Horror Boot Camp and the Coming Doorways Revolution!

At 2pm today, ARRT is having the 4th of our 12 planned Speculative Fiction Genre Study meetings -- Horror Boot Camp-- being led by yours truly.

The notes will be available to everyone and anyone in a few weeks, but for now, here is access to the slides I have made for the meeting.

Please note, the slides follow the assignment which was:

Featured resource: Horror.org (Horror Writers Association website)Assignment:Read Stephen King’s The ShiningRead your choice of any fiction by Joe Hill or Jonathan Maberry (EXCEPT for Maberry’s Joe Ledger thrillers)

Please note, this is not my final word on horror in libraries. But, it is a very good starting point, hence the term "Boot Camp."

Click here for the ARRT Horror Boot Camp Slides.

Today is also the final "boot camp" meeting.  After this we move to focusing on "doorways." We will be tackling the reasons why readers enjoy the books they do regardless of what genre box that book fits into. So we will look at the doorways of setting, character, story, language, and tone with a list of authors that represent science fiction, fantasy and horror (gasp) all together.

For example, in October, at our next meeting, we have the following assignment:

Doorway: SettingOct. 6, 2016Lisle District Library 

Featured resource: Tor.com 

Assignment:1) Read a book from two different authors from the list below (two books total). Preferably, both authors will be new to you. 

Frank HerbertHarry TurtledoveNeal StephensonKim Stanley RobinsonCherie PriestBrandon SandersonRobert McCammonN.K. JemisinJustin Cronin

2) As you read, think about the genre/subgenre of the book, and write down three additional appeal factors for the book besides setting/world-building. 

3) Come ready to talk about other world-building books you may enjoy and why.

I cannot stress enough how excited I am to do this. Talk about RA Rethink. We are completely reorganizing the standard genre study model in a way that makes us all better at helping actual readers. Our revolutionary idea is to start with how readers read instead of beginning with the books themselves. I am not exaggerating by calling this a revolution. It could fail, but I am betting that it works spectacularly and that our model could help all of you be better at serving patrons. Stay tuned.

So as excited as I am to share my horror knowledge with all of you today, I am eagerly anticipating when we can talk about all the speculative fiction genres together based on how patrons actually enjoy them.