ARRT RA UNconference: Play With R.A. on April 23rd in Wheaton, IL Plus Resources for ALL

Click the image to register

I am starting the week off with an announcement for people who live within deriving distance of the Chicagoland area. But don't worry, then I will get to resources for everyone.

The Adult Reading Round Table (ARRT) is having an in person, interactive UNconference centered around games. Not gamifying RA but games. Attendees will be playing games that will help them be better at connecting books with readers.

I love this idea and have spoken with on of the organizers. It is going to be a great time. I will be there. If you cab, I suggest you join us.

Click on this link or on the image above to register.

But as promised, I have something for the vast majority of you who cannot make it to Wheaton, IL. Please don't sleep on ARRT's free resources for any and all library workers. Click on this link to explore their website, but specifically, please checkout the following backlist bonanza of resources available all with a few clicks:

• Book Club Study Archive: Featuring notes on book discussions held since 2015. Click on the title to  reveal not only;y notes on the discussion, but also on the leadership discussion topic for that meeting. I am extremely proud of revamping the ARRT Book Discussion program before I left the Steering Committee to make this more like their famous genre studies. The fact that it is still going strong fills me with joy. This is THE place to go to see an example of how a discussion of a particular book went AND to find help for all of the common book club leadership issues and concerns which we all face, often alone.
• Genre Study Archive: The ARRT Genre Study program has been going on for decades but you can access notes going back to 2011. Noe genres change over time and what was "studied" in 2011-12 for Historical Fiction is NOT the same as how that genre functions with today's readers, but it is a great way to see how readers' tastes and preferences have changed over the years and you can find a few backlist gem suggestions.

Poke around on the website for more but these two landing pages are worth spending some of your time on as March comes to a close. 

And if you can make it to Wheaton, IL on Thursday, April 23rd, sign up to come play with RA. They already have my $20. I can't wait. 

The State of the Mystery via CrimeReads

Each year just before the biggest awards in Mystery-- the Edgar Awards-- are announced, Molly Odintz, the Managing Editor of CrimeReads conducts a series of conversations with Edgar Award nominees to talk about the state of the genre at that moment.

First, let me remind you of my post about this year's Edgar Awards when the nominees were announced here. From that post you can look into all previous winners and more.

Second, here is the announcement of the award winners via PW.

Okay, now back to Odintz and her pieces on CrimeReads.

The State the Mystery, Part 1: Craft Lessons and Favorite Reads. From the introduction:

For the past 7 years, I’ve had the privilege of putting together a roundtable discussion between the nominees for the Edgar and other MWA awards, with predictably spectacular (and somewhat long-winded) results, necessitating the result of publishing the collated responses in two parts. This year had the most contributors yet, and may be my favorite conversation thus far (I know, I say that every year). 

In part one of the roundtable discussion, I asked authors to discuss craft, reading habits, old favorites, and the evolution of genre. In part two, running tomorrow, you’ll find a discussion more focused on  issues: social, political, financial, and as of the recent rise of AI, technological. 29 nominees and special award winners contributed to the following discussion, for an interview that reads as a snapshot of an entire community at an inflection point in history. 

The State the Mystery, Part 2: Issues Concerns and the Long Road Ahead. From the introduction:

Welcome to part two of our roundtable discussion featuring nominees for the Edgar Awards (as well as other special categories awarded during the same ceremony). 29 writers weighed in on the most pressing issues facing the genre today, and the place of crime writing in our current political landscape (perfectly timed for May Day!).

Check out part one of the discussion, published yesterday, for thoughts on craft, tropes, and favorite reads. And good luck to everyone at the ceremony tonight, as well as a big thank you to Mystery Writers of America for collaborating with us here at CrimeReads for the seventh year in a row.

Begin with the 2025 posts because there is no place better for you to understand the state of Mystery-- one of our most popular genres at the library-- than at this moment. This is a conversation with the authors who were nominated for its highest award.

Then click here to bring up past year's conversations as well. The best thing about current trends is not identifying what they are at the moment (although that is extremely useful for us as we help readers), rather, it is in watching today's trends as they have evolved from past trends. I love doing this as you learn a lot about readers while watching the trends change over time.

But I want to broaden this discussion today and end with general advice about staying up to date on all genres, and this is advice I have been sharing for years: the best time of year to get yourself up to date on the most important authors, trends, and issues of any genre, is when said genre's awards are being handed out. 

But this is not for the obvious reason of the awards themselves.

Rather, because it is so easy to get caught up in the day to day activities of our work, we often forget to schedule time to step back and assess the bigger picture. Use the timing of awards announcements as your reminder that it is time for you to take a day to poke around in the genre in question and make sure you are aware of the most popular and critically acclaimed authors while also looking through its best resources. Just take a spin around the genre during its moment in the spotlight. 

Since the awards are given out once a year, this guarantees that you will take a moment to look at the big picture of each genre at least once a year. And there you have it! You are up to date without feeling overburdened. 

The ARRT Nonfiction Genre Study Begins

Later today I will attend the first meeting of the 2 year, ARRT Narrative Nonfiction Genre Study. While the notes of every discussion will be made available to all, I wanted to share today's introductory assignment and some of my preparation today.

Before we begin with the newest study, a quick reminder that the main page for all of ARRT's genre studies, current and past, goes back to 2011-12. The most recent Genre Study on Romance just finished up in December of 2019 and is an excellent, up to date resource for that genre. You an use ARRT's current or former Genre Studies as a guide to organize your own.

Now on to Narrative Nonfiction. Click here to access the full schedule with dates and locations. Assignments and notes are added as they become available. 

Here is how the organizer have divide up the huge collection of genres that Narrative Nonfiction encompasses. Note, biographies and memoirs are not a category because they will be specifically considered within each category:

Welcome Meeting  Assignment Social Issues  Assignment Let’s Make Something: Food, Crafts, Arts, Decorating  Pop Culture, Sports, Entertainment  Global Issues: Beyond America  Travel and Adventure  Crime  History, War, Politics  Improvement: Personal or Professional  Nature, Science, Health  Current Events/Trending Topics  Wrap-Up And it all begins today with this assignment: Welcome Meeting February 6, 2020, 2-4 PM Lisle Library District Here is the assignment: For our first meeting we’ll discuss the outline of the genre study and how we will tackle narrative nonfiction. For your assignment: Bring one “Sure Bet” nonfiction book. When you have someone who says they have to read a nonfiction book (against their will), what book do you find they end up enjoying? Be prepared to discuss why you think this book appeals broadly to many readers. Please read a narrative nonfiction book that appeals to your sense of humor. Since humor is so hard to define, you are just looking for a book that makes you laugh. If you can’t find one, bring an example of a book that failed and why it failed to make you laugh. I have my notes ready to answer both questions, but I am more excited to see what everyone else in attendance has to say because that is the best part of any Genre Study. It is through the group discussion of the topic, the sharing of different opinions, the crowd sourced lists and notes we create [and share here, for free, after every meeting for all to use to improve their service] where the real learning happens. So bookmark the Narrative Nonfiction Genre Study homepage, use it to train yourself, or to organize your own genre study. Follow along. I will be alerting my readers when new notes are available. Finally, here is a quick teaser of the authors and titles [with links] that I will be mentioning for each bullet point above: Candice Millard, David Grann, In the Kingdom of Ice by Sides [Wildcard: The Big Year by Obmascik] Assassination Vacation by Vowell and A.J. Jacobs

ARRT Updates with Links and CE Options for All Both Near and Far

It's a new year for ARRT and for the first time in a long time, I am not on the Steering Committee, but I am still a member.

One of the things I worked on while on the Steering Committee was to make as much of the ARRT work product as possible available to people everywhere.

ARRT is a regional RA networking and continuing education group which means you get the most out of the membership if you live in the Chicagoland area. However, we produce resources through our programs that can and should be used by anyone serving leisure reading patrons at any library, anywhere.

As ARRT begins the new year, the latest issue of the newsletter just went out to the mailing list. You can click here to see that newsletter with all of the links, but I also wanted to remind you that you do NOT need to be a member of ARRT to get the newsletter. Anyone can signup for the ARRT mailing list here.

I did want to repost a few of the most useful links and information from the newsletter, here on the blog. You can find those below. Personally, I plan to be at the February launch of the Nonfiction genre study and the next Book Club Study meeting. So maybe I will see some of you there in person, or  you will see me in the notes [for those of you who participate from afar].

Have a great weekend.

ARRTcon 2019

A big thank you to all of you that attended ARRTcon 2019. It was a full day of presentations and sessions about readers' advisory. We also were thrilled to announce the newest version of the ARRT Popular Fiction List. As members of ARRT, you should have received an email with a file of the most current list. You can find slides and handouts from ARRTcon 2019 here. 

 

Book Club Study: The Mars Room

In November, we discussed The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner. The leadership topic focused on discussing Summer and Winter reading programs.

 

The next Book Club Study:

Book Club Study  Wednesday, February 19th, 2-4pm  Deerfield Public Library   Please arrange to obtain your own copy of the book for the discussion. As always, discussion of the book includes a leadership topic session devoted to sharing practical solutions to the problems and concerns of book discussion leaders. The leadership topic for this session is discussing nonfiction. Please bring a list of  nonfiction titles you have discussed with your book group.    Free to ARRT members. RSVP to Melissa Stoeger  (mstoeger@deerfieldlibrary.org) Romance Genre Study  We wrapped up our 2 year Romance Genre Study in 2019. Here are the notes for the last sessions in 2019: August: Paranormal Romance. October: Romance Programming and Merchandising. December: Book Talks and Wrap-Up. Save the Date: 2020 Narrative Nonfiction Genre Study  2/6/2020 @ Lisle District Library: Welcome Meeting, 2-4 p.m. 4/2/2020 @ Glenview Public Library: Social Issues, 2-4 p.m. 6/4/2020 @ Lisle District Library: Let's Make Something: Food, Crafts, Arts and Decorating, 2-4 p.m. Click here for full schedule.

2010-2019: A Decade of Change in SF and Fantasy: A Long But Great Read via Tor.com

Yesterday, Tor.com published this long discussion between four members of their team all about the large issues, trends, tropes, and books of the last decade in all of speculative fiction.

In fact, that is important to point out ASAP. They don't list Horror in the title of the piece [because Horror always gets put in the corner] but they 100% discus the horror genre and some of the key titles along with SF and Fantasy.

I am posting this on a Friday because it is long, but totally worth your time. Take a break over the weekend if you can to read this, or bookmark it for later.

You can use the piece for collection development, to help yourself get up to speed in the speculative genres, and to make a display.

Below is the intro and here is the direct link to the entire discussion.

2010-2019: A Decade of Change in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Leah Schnelbach, Christina Orlando, Natalie Zutter and Renata Sweeney

This December brings us to the close of a truly extraordinary and transformative decade for SFF. Epic series like The Wheel of Time finally concluded as A Song of Ice and Fire rose to mainstream prominence on television (with Wheel of Time to follow suit?). Newer stars like N.K. Jemisin rose, while familiar faces like Neil Gaiman published some of their most innovative work yet. We saw the rise of fiction that dealt directly with the ongoing Climate Crisis, works that wrestled with the tumultuous political shifts, cozy space opera, gritty space opera, and literal space opera, with like, actual singing. Zombies faded from favor while orcs and goblins and fishmen found their time to shine. Readers went from celebrating Strong Female Characters to asking for Complicated Female Characters, and the literary landscape became much more inclusive for writers who had previously been marginalized. And, as in every decade, the villains threatened to steal the show entirely.

Four members of the Tor.com fam, Publicity Coordinator Christina Orlando, Tor.com writers Leah Schnelbach and Natalie Zutter, and Tor Books’ Senior Marketing Manager Renata Sweeney sat down for a rollicking, five-hour-long conversation about the decade in genre, discussing trends, favorite books, the heroes and villains who have stuck with them, and even a look forward to some titles that will help define the next decade.

Click here to continue reading

Why I Love Romance: A Guest Post By Rachel Stevenson

Today I am kicking off a new occasional series to coincide with the beginning of the ARRT Romance Genre Study [first meeting is 2/1; details at this link]. The series I am kicking off is inspired by the work I do every October gathering “Why I love horror” posts from library workers and authors. I do these posts both the help and inspire all of you out there who are afraid of helping horror readers.

Romance, like horror suffers from a huge lack of respect, especially among library workers. Yes there are some in our ranks who love these genres, but in general, horror and romance get disparaged as not as “good” as other genres. I often argue in my programs that this is a direct result of the fact that both genres appeal to the readers’ emotions, thus making them more susceptible to being waved off as less serious. And with Romance, everything is magnified because it is a genre mostly read and written by women. This is a fact that is undeniable. 

No matter the reason, the truth is that many of you [library workers] don’t like Romance, don’t read it personally, and as a result, don’t really understand what the appeal of the genre is to its fans. The remedy for this is to educate ourselves and a genre study is a fun way to do this. It allows allows you to learn from others, gathering different perspectives as you go.

As we embark on this 2 year journey through romance, one you can all follow along via the notes, I am going to add to the conversation by providing another level of training, the voice of romance fans from all over sharing their personal passion for romance [pun intended]. I am tagging all of these posts “Why I love” in the hopes that some day other genres will also be represented under this label.

Today we begin with Rachel Stevenson. Rachel is a librarian in Erie County, Pennsylvania. She received her masters in library and information science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2009 and her masters of art in arts administration from Goucher College in 2014. Stevenson is an avid reader and love traditional Regency romances, historical fiction especially about the World Wars and the Long Weekend, Jane Austen, and historical mysteries. She acts as Lois Alter Mark’s bibliotherapist on her blog Midlife at the Oasis and has been featured in the Huffington Post. 

Right after the Romance NYT controversy, which is part of our first Romance Genre Study Assignment [and which I also blogged about it here], I was a guest at the PA Lib Association Annual conference.  Many of us were chatting about it and Rachel, was one of the most vocal about why the whole hub-bub made her mad. I asked Rachel to share her passion for romance with my readers. Below, is her response and the very first Why I Love Romance guest post.

If you are a romance fan, drop me a line and we can talk about you contributing to this series.

But for now, here is Rachel.

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I have a group of fabulous friends and every time we talk the badinage flows. Badinage? You might say. Well it’s a word I recently learned while reading romance novels. It means witty conversation. Romance novels are how I grow my vocabulary even though most people think the romance industry is selling mendacious propaganda and they get all lachrymose and mumpish about it. Personally, I think they are all a bunch of quidnuncs and should go study lepidoptery instead. Most of the people who decry the romance industry would prefer we pay obeisance to “better genres” like literary fiction and Nobel Prize winners. Even Hillary Clinton has criticized the romance industry and I bet she hasn’t read a romance book either ever or in a really long time. 

Years ago I was ashamed I read romance, but not anymore. Now I read it freely, openly, with abandon, and I even talk about it with people I think would look down on romance novels. Why? Because romance isn’t bad. It doesn’t hurt us. And it can have some really positive aspects. Case in point….my vocabulary. 

The opening paragraph uses words that many people have never heard before and I learned them all from reading romance novels. Romance is like every other genre out there. Some are really bad. Some are really good. And some are in between. I’m sure we can all find Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning novels that fall into the exact same categories. I’m actually convinced to win a Pulitzer all you have to do is write a 700 page novel that someone wants to read. So Diana Gabaldon and George R. R. Martin should be next. 

Romance books fall into so many categories and the category I read the most take place in the Regency time period when Jane Austen was alive and mad King George III (he’s the guy we fought against in the Revolutionary War) could no longer rule so his son took over as Prince Regent hence the title The Regency Period. This period ended when George III died and his son, George IV became king. Look at all that history I just learned and it came from reading romance novels. 

In Regency England the upperclasses were better educated knowing words and phrases from the Ancient Greek and Latin. Women needed to know how to speak French and Italian as well as their native English to be considered accomplished. So today when I read a Regency romance, the authors I choose research well and include history and correct terminology in their stories. 

For me this is great. I love words. As a librarian I like to learn new words and I like to share them. I like to use my two years of Latin to try to figure out some of the Latin words like quidnunc, which means a person who gossips. My Latin tells me that quid means what and nunc means now. So the Latin translation is “what now” and of course that is perfect to describe a gossip because they always want to tell you what happened now. Or quidnunc. Obviously they know their French as well since badinage comes from the French term “to jest”. 

Finding these words is like a hidden treasure in romance novels. Not only do I get a good story with a happy ending I also get to sleuth by looking up words I’ve never heard before and then go deeper by finding out from where they originated. If you have teenage children you should be pushing romance novels on them so they too can build their vocabulary. Mendacious and lachrymose are great SAT words. And here’s another newsflash not all romance have sex. Shocking I know. Not everything is a bodice ripper. In fact, traditional Regencies, what I read most, barely have any sex at all because women and men didn’t just sleep around whenever. There were very strict rules about men and women and what they could or could not do. If you were found alone with a man….you had to marry him. Even if it was by accident. Even if you’ve only just met. Even if you despised him. If they were that strict for just being in a room alone with a man you have no idea what premarital sex would get you. 

For those who are intrigued, but not enough to find a dictionary mendacious means a lie. Lachrymose means full of tears or weepy (hint: for those of us who are also adults but read children’s books there is a Lake Lachrymose in Lemony Snicket’s A Serious of Unfortunate Events). Mumpish is sullen and lepidoptery is the study of moths. Finally obeisance is deferential respect like something you would show Queen Elizabeth II if you ever happen to meet (in a romance novel you just might!). And these words are just a few. Each book is filled with more words than I can count that I have not heard before and am willing to learn and use to broaden my vocabulary. 

So what we need to do is not only broaden our vocabulary, but also our minds by reading romance novels. I just finished one by Mary Balogh that taught it was kindness that is the most important aspect of love. To be kind and to be treated kindly in return. Now that doesn’t seem like a bodice ripper or a bad story for our children to learn while growing up. In conclusion, don’t judge romance just because you think you know what it is and what the plot devices are. Stop being so Spanish Inquisition and become inquisitional. Pick up a romance novel. Try it out. Learn a new word and maybe learn something new about life, love, and yourself.