Still Page Turners 10 years Later

Readers of RA for All know that I am a huge champion of the backlist: books that were popular in the past, are still good now, but not generally available at your local book store. Well, it seems that the bloggers over at The Daily Beast are also on the backlist bandwagon.

Click here to read Isabel Wilkinson's "Back to the 90s" article outlining nine page turners from the 1990s that are still holding strong.

All are readily avaiable at your local public library, right now.

Patron Who Wanted "Captivating Books"

This week at the BPL RA desk I got exactly the patron I warn my students about each and every semester, and it is exciting and terrifying (at the same time), even for a veteran like me. But I have to admit, I love the challenge.

Here is the set up. A late-30s woman walks into the library and asks for an "easy read." More probing from me leads to the revelation that she is going on a 6 hour plane ride and will then spend 10 days on the beach and wants a book that will "captivate her."

Okay, first warning bell goes off in my head. What I find captivating may be be what she finds captivating. I asked more questions and found she wanted new or "hot" books. She likes to stay "ahead of the curve," or at least even with it.

She seemed to want books that were popular with book discussion groups, but not difficult or overly depressing, although sad was okay. I started throwing out titles to see if she had read and liked them. For example, she has read and liked The Lovely Bones, books by Jodi Picoult, and The Secret Life of Bees. So she wants substance, but not plodding pace; she wants a page-turner with some substance behind it. Also, I checked if she minded a mystery or suspense element and she was fine with that too.

I also found out (again by asking) that she likes to have read books that are going to be made into movies. This goes with her wanting to be ahead of the curve issue.

This discovery lead to the first book I put in her hands, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. This book is provocative, moves steadily, has a bit of suspense, and will be a movie in 2010. My book discussion group read this book and I wrote about it here. As I handed her Never Let Me Go I began by talking up the movie (due 2010) and how she will be ahead of the curve.

I then thought of authors who are popular now and asked her if humor was okay. She said yes. I gave her the first Lisa Lutz mystery The Spellman Files (which I read here) and played up how popular she has become since this breakout debut. I told her she should read this first and then she could come back and read the new one. She loved being in on a hot new author from her beginnings.

I ended by giving her an oldie but goodie by an always popular author: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. This is a short and captivating coming of age story. I talked it up by focusing on Kingsolver's popularity, my own experience leading a discussion on this title, and this book's timeless charm. She knew of Kingsolver and had never read her, so for her this qualified as "hot."

Notice none of these books are particularly"hot" or new in and of themselves. In fact, they are just some of our popular back list titles. They would not be featured on display at your local book store right now. That is not the point. RA service is about selling the right book to the patron for their particular reading need at that moment.

You need to think of a book or author and then find a way to tell the potential reader the highlights as it pertains to their reading tastes or needs. Depending on who you are talking to, you will sell the book differently. For example, I played down the SF angle on Never Let Me Go, but mentioned it, saying it was dystopian, not aliens, just so she was prepared. I also did not give away the huge twist but did let her know there was a big secret about the school which the characters attend (to find out click here).

Also, it is important to give your patrons at least 3 choices. She took all three (2 pbs and one medium sized hard cover) and can always switch if she is no longer captivated by any. There is nothing worse than being stuck on vacation with nothing to read! (An exaggeration, I know)

Not a single one of these books was on the new shelf, but they were all "hot" titles as I sold them. It is all about perception. She got 3 great books, tailored to her needs, all by stopping by the RA desk before going on vacation. And it didn't cost her a cent.

BPL Displays: August 2009

Now that summer reading is over, our displays are going back to a monthly rotation; and do we have 2 good ones for you this month.

The small display has a back-to-school theme that has books featuring teaching and school life.

And, the tall display is featuring book titles that make you go hmmmm.... For the record, we made sure it wasn't just the titles that were intriguing; the books themselves are good reads too.

Also, don't forget, we keep every list we have done on the website here. So, if you missed a month, we've still got it on the website.

What I'm Reading: The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death

Before I saw Charlie Huston at ALA, I read one of his new, non-Joe Pitt titles, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death.

This is a novel about Web, a basically good guy who has survived a terrible tragedy and has not been able to pull out of his post-traumatic stress funk. Web has no job and has alienated all but one close friend. In an attempt to help Web get back on his feet, an acquaintance, Po Sin, offers Web a spot on his "clean team," cleaning up crime scenes. We are talking brain matter and body fluids here. Web finds the job satisfying, but gets wrapped up in a smuggling ring and a turf war between cleaners. Serious danger ensues.

Like all Huston novels this is a true hard-boiled suspense story with lots of action, blood and guts, and vulgar language. There are also great characters here. Huston's story may move fast, but he finds time to fully draw out each and every character. Also, this novel has tons of laugh out loud moments. Even in the middle of room splattered with brain matter, there is humor. One good things about Huston is that his style is pretty consistent from book to book.

Again, I do want to stress there is a lot of violence and bad language here, so if you are concerned, open the book to any page and read about 5 pages to see if it is your cup of tea or not. Trust me, at least every 5 pages there is something that will test whether or not this book is okay for you. Personally, I loved it, but I can easily see where this is not the book for every reader.

This is only Huston's second stand alone novel, but with the Joe Pitt Vampyre series ending this fall, and with all of the character development and back story in this novel, I would bet (and hope) that Huston will want to revisit Web again real soon.

Readalikes: There are a lot of authors who write like Huston. First, and most obviously is Chuck Palahniuk, although it should be mentioned that Palahniuk may be more graphic than Huston at times. Jonathan Maberry's brand new series hero Joe Ledger would get along very well with Web. Finally, a more traditional author who will appeal to fans of this novel (and who Huston likes too suggest to his readers) would be James Lee Burke.

For nonfiction, although Chuck Klosterman does not write about crime scene clean-ups, fans of his works will find a similar tone and writing style to Huston's.

If you want to learn more about post-traumatic stress disorder or crime scene clean-up, you could also use the provided links.

Portabe Reading Devices

I have not commented about the Kindle and its ilk on this blog, mostly because my library does not have any electronic book readers to loan out, so the issue does not play a role in my RA work with patrons.

However, as this book store in GA reminds us all, the printed book is the original portable reading device.

I will remember this sign the next time someone tells me how great their Kindle is.

The Daily Beast Book Club with Aravind Adiga

Those who read this blog saw how taken I was with Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger. It is a book which has continued to stay with me weeks after finishing it. Apparently, I am not the only one.

The Daily Beast has begun a book club and Adiga's new collection of stories, Between the Assassins, is their first title.

What I find so interesting about this book club is all of the background information they are providing, including other stories and essays by the author, reviews and article about his works, and videos.

This is the first online book club I have seen that has fully embraced all the web has to offer. Most online book clubs are simply glorified chat rooms where readers, and sometimes the author, post about the book itself. Here, The Daily Beast is attempting to discuss the book while providing access to background and supplementary material simultaneously.

Now let's see what happens when they begin the actual discussion. I for one will be watching and hoping for their success.

More Reading Maps!

During the summer semester, many of Joyce's students created their own reading maps. They have now been added to our reading map archive over on the students' Word Press Blog. Check them out.

Don't forget the blog now has quite a few annotations available for you to browse.

I will be teaching this fall. The semester begins September 2, so look for even more titles and, hopefully, more reading maps very soon.

NPR Top 100 Beach Read Poll Results and Gwyneth's Beach Reads

Earlier this summer I was encouraging you to vote on your favorite beach reads over at the NPR web page. Well, they results are in, the the list is interesting.

And not to be left out, Gwyneth Paltrow has posted a list of her friend's favorite summer reads over at her newsletter Goop. I was skeptical, but the list is good

Even though it is August, there still plenty of time to get in a few more good books. Use this link to see all of my summer reading posts and get access to tons of suggestions. Also, use this link to see what I have been reading.

Eisner Awards for Graphic Novels

Comic Con is over and the word on the street is that it is slowly becoming more about media in general and less about comics.

But they still give out the Eisner Awards for the best in the world of graphic novels. Here are the winners.

Also, here is a link to all of my posts about graphic novels.

Neil Gaiman: "Enough with the Vampires!"

This week's Entertainment Weekly is going to be all about vampires! From the book perspective, EW interviewed master of all that is dark in literature, Neil Gaiman, to get his take on vampires past and present. Click here for the interview.

Also, here's an article from this weekend's Cleveland Plain Dealer about the evolution of the vampire from monster to sex symbol. Thanks to Cleveland native and RA Online Blog editor Cindy Orr.