Summer Reading and Awards: Off the Beaten Path Options

I have been finding some great, nontraditional summer reading lists that I wanted to share with you.

• From NPR, try this list, entitled "Zombies and Monster Squid: Summer's Monster Hits!," of five freaky books about aliens, pulsating brains, mutants and more. 
•  From io9 try this list of "The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books for Summer Escapism."  One of the titles on the list, Feed, is already on its way to me through ILL.
• Here is a Nonfiction Summer Reading list from the Daily Beast.
• Entertainment Weekly's "18 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Summer." A nice mix of books in many genres.
• For those who want to beat the heat, try these suggestions from RA Online, "Cool Reads for Hot Days." Nothing but snow and ice here.
• Get a jump on August with that month's picks from Indie Next; some are already out.
• Read a one-hit wonder.

Also this past weekend a couple big genre awards were handed out. Lists of award nominees and winners make for great reading lists, both because a larger group deemed them worthy of your time and because they are newish, but not brand new, so they may be on the shelf right now.

• The International Thriller Writers Association announced their annual awards in NYC. Click here for the full list of winners and nominees.
• The Shirley Jackson Award for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic were announced. Click here for the full list of nominees and winners.

Finally it is shameless promotion time. My friend, Jennifer Weiner's brand new book Fly Away Home comes out today. GO BUY IT!!! I always get at least 6 copies. Her best selling, smart women's fiction novels make a great gift.

The Future of Book Reviewing now available for download

Keir Graff over at Booklist Online posted an MP3 of the program he moderated at the ALA Annual Conference entitled, "Everyone's a Critic: The Future of Book Reviewing." Click here to access it and see the slide show from the presentation.

I was very upset to have had to miss this presentation but am glad I can now partake in it via tape-delay. Thanks to Graff for sharing.

Monday Discussion: How Much Can You Take?

One of the trickiest parts of being a Readers' Advisor is gauging your patron's acceptable level of sex and violence in a book. After years of experience, I can tell you there is no way to know for sure without straight out asking the patron. I have little old ladies who tell me they like their romances, "the hotter the better," and young people who get squeamish if there is any blood in a book. You cannot judge a patron by their cover. You need to find a way to get to the heart of the issue in a bold and direct matter.

The problem, however, is two-fold. First, you need to be able to find a way to ask your patrons about their preferences for sex and violence in a book. But, second, and even more importantly, you also need a resource to find out how hot and bloody a book is.


Let's start with the second problem first.  I have a great resource for finding blunt descriptions of a book's level of sex and violence. All Readers.Com provides book reviews by real people. At the end of each review there is a chart which evaluates the major appeal factors of said title. All you need to do is read the chart and it lists, very clearly, the level of sex and violence in the title.


Here is the chart for a fairly racy Susan Elizabeth Phillips book versus this one for a tame Debbie Macomber title. See how different their "What kind of sex" sections are.


Also, for violence, here is a review for the graphic Darkly Dreaming Dexter book (note under Main Character when it asks how much violence he uses. Answer: "a tremendous amount.") and another for a cozy, culinary mystery by Diane Mott Davidson. Comparing the two tells you quite a bit.


For all of these examples, compare the difference in their sex and violence levels. All Readers does a great job of really telling you what to expect. Since we cannot read every book, this is a great way for the librarian to know what the reader can expect.  Anytime there is a issue, I simply print the review from this resource and give it to the patron to decide for him or herself.

Now let' get back to the first problem: how to ask a patron about their preferences when it comes to sex and violence in a book. When a patron tells me that they want to read a romance, suspense, thriller, or mystery, I don't beat around the bush. I immediately ask who they already like to read. Their answer helps me to know what their acceptable levels already are. Remember, if they talk about an author with which you are unfamiliar, take a minute to run their name through All Readers so you can see for yourself.

However, as you know, there are always the patrons who, when asked what authors they enjoy, answer to the effect of, "Oh, I like everything." For these people you have to be direct. It helps if you have a prepared line. This makes you less nervous to ask such a personal question and hopefully makes them more willing to answer.

Here are some of the lines I use. For violence question: "Do you mind a lot of blood and violence in your story?" "Do you want a mystery that is more about the characters and the story and less about the murder?" (this is a nice way to find out if they want a cozy or not) For sex questions: "Do you want a sweet and innocent romance or is it okay if it is more adult?" I also go right out and ask many patrons, "And how much sex can the book have?" You'd be surprised, most patrons are happy that you have asked, and are even happier to answer.

That being said, no matter how careful we are to ask these questions, we can never guarantee that a book is "safe." If you have a patron who is adamant about reading a "clean" book, you need to make sure you give them as much information as you have and then be honest that you can't know for sure. Even if you have read the book yourself, do not make a guarantee because what is acceptable to you may not be okay with your patron.


So for today's discussion let me know how you handle asking patrons about their acceptable levels of sex and violence? Do you have any resources you use to help with this issue? If you are a patron, how do you want to be asked about this by the librarian? Does it even matter to you?

Remember, you can follow any of our past Monday Discussions by using this link.

Introducing Flashback Fridays

This is a busy time of year for me in terms of anniversaries. My wedding anniversary is in June. I also had a birthday recently, one of my kids has her birthday 2 days later, and then I remembered that this month marks 10 years at the Berwyn Public Library for me.

It is my anniversary, but it is also the anniversary of the creation of RA service at the BPL. We have come a long way in 10 years. One of the biggest marks of the RA department's success is the fact that the person I worked so hard to create the department with, is now the Director of the BPL. Not to mention all I have accomplished.

Next month, also marks the 3rd anniversary of RA for All. Three years and 570 posts later, even I don't remember everything I have talked about here. I go back and search for things from time to time and am surprised at how good and useful some of it is.

So in order to remind myself and all of you readers about the treasure trove of information hiding in this blog's archives, I have begun "Flashback Fridays." From now on, every Friday I will re-post something from the current week in a previous year.

Today, to mark the first Flashback Friday I want to point you to a post from two years ago today and it is one I have gone back to for my own use over the last 2 years.

Suggestions for a Guys Book Group

I had a patron come to the desk at BPL on Monday to tell us about his new book group. It consists of a dozen or so 30-something, fathers, who meet in a local bar to hold their discussions. They had their first meeting last month and they read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. They are reading Confederacy of Dunces next and Motherless Brooklyn in August. All three are excellent choices to get a guys group going.

I told him I would compile I list of suggestions for future months. His requirements were that the books be less than 350, they wanted fictions and nonfiction, a few classics, short stories, a "scary book for Halloween, and anything I just thought might be good.

So here are the suggestions, for both his group, and anyone else out there, to peruse.

Let's start with the "scary" book suggestion. I have three. The first two might have less to discuss in the traditional book discussion sense, but are VERY scary, and the third is not as scary, but a good book discussion title. Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box and Scott Smith's The Ruins, are the two best horror books of the last few years (IMO). The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue is about changelings and has provoked a lot of conversation and accolades. It also deal with fatherhood.

Now onto other suggested titles. I will list fiction and nonfiction separately. Each is linked to Amazon, where interested readers can find not only summaries, but comments from actual readers. When choosing titles for a book discussion, I always look at a few 5 star reviews and a few 1 star reviews to get the full spectrum of opinions on a book. It has served me well for 7 1/2 years of picking book discussion titles.

I have placed a * in front of my top 10 picks for discussion. But this is only my opinion.

FICTION*Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
*Blindness by Jose Saramago
*Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (which is technically 18 pages over the limit, but many of the pages are just pictures)
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami (Short Stories)Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro (Short Stories)
*Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Short Stories)
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
*On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Van by Roddy Doyle

NONFICTION (The page limit really held my choices back here, but these are all great options. Many are under the limit in text, but over when you count the notes sections)
Cod by Mark Kurlansky
*Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
*Maus or In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman (both graphic novels)
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
*Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson
*Longitude by Dava Sobel
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
*1776 by David McCulough
Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Good luck to the Berwyn guys and anyone else who chooses to use this list. Please feel free to use the comments to add to the list. I know there are a lot more books to add because I had to force myself to stop.

Patriotic Books Part 2: The SF and FSY Edition

On Monday, I began a discussion here about what books represent America to you. Some people have shared their thoughts, but no genre fiction really came out of the discussion.

I was feeling bad about this until I saw that over on his science fiction and fantasy books news and reviews blog, Grasping for the Wind, John Ottinger III shared his thoughts on this topic in a July 4th essay entitled, 12 Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels and Stories of Americana:

"Today is the Fourth of July, and in the United States, we celebrate our Independence Day with fireworks, tributes to our men and women in uniform, and a hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. It is a day to be happy that, even with its faults, we live in one of the freest countries on Earth. In commemoration of that fact, I’d like to give you a non-comprehensive list of X science fiction and fantasy books and stories that are distinctly American in flavor or content. "

The list that follows ranges from Brit Neil Gaiman's American Gods (one of my all-time favs) to Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Orson Scott Card, and even Jim Butcher.

Not only was this an interesting essay as it pertained to the discussion I was hosting, but it also serves as a nice intro to "American" science fiction and fantasy.

Preview of the Biggest Books Still to Come in 2010

With all the talk about the hot books coming out this summer, we tend to loose track of the fact that this Fall and Winter are bringing some big name books.

Here is a detailed rundown from The Millions. This list has great annotations by The Millions staff with links to Amazon for the suggested book and any previous books by the authors. Today, I have been busy making sure the BPL has most of these books on order, so you can begin placing your holds today. Get on it quick though, the holds list for the new Jonathan Franzen novel is growing by the minute and it isn't coming out for over 6 weeks.

Also, here is Amazon's list of the best books of the first half of 2010.

Stephen King's Summer Reading Picks

I was reading the most recent issue of  Entertainment Weekly this morning and I discovered it has my favorite summer reading list of the year, Stephen King's 6 Must Reads for Summer.

I not only love his picks each year, especially because he doesn't limit himself to new books, but also, his annotations are the best. He writes his reviews as a reader (not as a writer). His love for the books he is recommending come down to why he enjoyed them as a reader; there is very little about their "literary merit." His enthusiasm for a good story is contagious.

For example, here is what he had to say about The Passage, which I am almost done with:

"You've heard about this ripping (literally) yarn; summer's the perfect time to read it. Zombie vampires called ''virals'' overwhelm the world, and mankind's only hope rests with an immortal little girl from Iowa. The book's white-hot center is a rousing chase set on a train racing balls-to-the-wall through the Nevada desert. If it doesn't raise your pulse, you're probably a viral yourself."

Also, here is the link to King's list from last year. There are some good ones here too.

RUSA 2010 Notable Books

At the American Libraries Association National Conference, RUSA (The Reference and Users Services Association) announced their 2010 Notable Books:

Since 1944, the Notable Books Council has annually selected a list of 25 very good, very readable and at times very important fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for the adult reader. Books may be selected because they possess exceptional literary merit; expand the horizons of human knowledge; make a specialized body of knowledge accessible to the non-specialist; have the potential to contribute significantly to the solution of a contemporary problem; and/or present a unique concept.

The list has some great titles, many of which I have read this year or will be reading with my book club before the year is out. What I like most about this list is that, as it says above, the books have to be "very readable." Books can be "good," they can have "exceptional literary merit," and still be very readable. Click here for the full press release, or look below for the fiction and nonfiction choices:

Fiction:

• Jessica Anthony. The Convalescent. McSweeney’s. $22 (ISBN 978-1-934-78110-4). Rovar Pfiegman, bus-dwelling meat salesman, fulfills his destiny as the last of his clan in this oddly imaginative tale.
• Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood: A Novel. Doubleday/ Nan A. Talese. $26.95 (ISBN 978-0-385-52877-1). In the near future, two women survive an apocalyptic event in a queasily enthralling work.
• Nicholson Baker. The Anthologist: A Novel. Simon & Schuster. $25 (ISBN 978-1-416-57244-2). Poet Paul Chowder, a charming failure, struggles to regain his muse and his girlfriend while watching deadlines slip by.
• Dan Chaon. Await Your Reply: A Novel. Ballantine. $25 (ISBN 978-0-345-47602-9). This chilling exploration of the modern meaning of identity follows three people on the fringes of society.
• Chris Cleave. Little Bee: A Novel. Simon & Schuster. $24 (ISBN 978-1-416-58963-1). The compelling voice of a refugee illuminates the life-changing friendship between two women that began with a horrifying encounter on a secluded Nigerian beach.
• Pete Dexter. Spooner. Grand Central. $26.99 (ISBN 978-0446-54072-8). A boy struggles to navigate the vagaries of the world with the lifelong guidance of his stepfather in this funny and heartbreaking tale.
• Paul Harding. Tinkers. Bellevue Literary. $14.95 (ISBN 9781-934-13712-3). In this lyrical novel, the life of a dying man is examined through the smallest moments of time and memory.
• Yiyun Li. The Vagrants: A Novel. Random House. $25 (ISBN 978-1-400-06313-0). The execution of a dissident woman reverberates through her small town in the aftermath of China’s Cultural Revolution.
• Colum McCann. Let the Great World Spin: A Novel. Random House. $25 (ISBN 978-1-400-06373-4). Phillipe Petit’s highwire walk between the Twin Towers provides the backdrop for this rich portrait of the unlikely connections between a group of New Yorkers in the 1970s.
• Toni Morrison. A Mercy: A Novel. Knopf. $23.95 (ISBN 9780-307-26423-7). Four women—white, mixed race, black, and Native American—become a makeshift family under the care of a “good” man in colonial America.
• Richard Powers. Generosity: An Enhancement. Farrar. $25 (ISBN 978-0-374-16114-9). In this postmodern indictment of the biotech industry, a student’s unnerving happiness seems to hold the key to banishing despair from the human genetic code.
• Colm Tóibín. Brooklyn: A Novel. Scribner. $25 (ISBN 978-1439-13831-1). A young Irish woman faces heart-wrenching decisions in this unabashedly romantic and deceptively simple story of immigration and belonging.

Nonfiction:

• Dave Cullen. Columbine. Twelve. $26.99 (ISBN 978-0-44654693-5). This fine work of investigative journalism challenges the myths and misconceptions of the Columbine tragedy.
• Dave Eggers. Zeitoun. McSweeney’s. $24 (ISBN 978-1-93478163-0). This powerful account explores the devastation of post–Katrina New Orleans through the eyes of a Syrian American who remained during the storm and endured the resulting chaos and confusion.
• David Finkel. The Good Soldiers. Farrar. $26 (ISBN 978-0374-16573-4). An embedded reporter describes the human cost paid by a U.S. Army battalion on the streets of Iraq in language that is searing, visceral, and immediate.
• David Grann. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Doubleday. $27.50 (ISBN 978-0385-51353-1). An intrepid reporter sets out to uncover the mysterious fate the last of the great Victorian explorers in this thrilling adventure.
• Emmanuel Guibert. The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors without Borders. First Second. $29.95 (ISBN 978-1-596-43375-5). Using mixed visual media, this stunning memoir vividly depicts the struggles and accomplishments of a humanitarian mission in an unforgiving terrain.
• Richard Holmes. The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. Pantheon . $40 (ISBN 978-0-375-42222-5). This lively, stellar group biography animates the engrossing accounts of the research that inspired a sense of awe in poets and scientists alike.
• Patrick Radden Keefe. Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream. Doubleday. $27.50 (ISBN 978-0-385-52130-7). Human trafficking and its subsequent effects on the American economy and social structures are documented in this fast-paced panoramic expose.
• Christopher McDougall. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Knopf. $24.95 (ISBN 978-0-307-26630-9). One journalist’s quest to discover the secrets of the reclusive Tarahumara Indians leads to an exciting and dangerous endurance race.
• Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman. Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath. Farrar. $30 (ISBN 978-0-374-27260-9). In-depth, brutal, and moving, this narrative provides multiple perspectives into a tragic World War II episode in the Philippines.
• Lainey Salisbury and Aly Sujo. Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art. Penguin. $26.95 (ISBN 978-1-594-20220-9). This enthralling page-turner describes how archivists uncovered one of the most extensive frauds in recent art history.
• David Small. Stitches: A Memoir. Norton. $24.95 (ISBN 9780-393-06857-3).Stark drawings give voice to the horrors of a child who finds redemption in art while growing up in a repressed and  disturbed family.
• Nicholas Thompson. The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War. Holt. $27.50 (ISBN 978-0-805-08142-8). The remarkable half-century friendship and rivalry between two influential strategists who helped shape American policy is brought to life in this insightful dual biography.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of RUSA.

Monday Discussion: Patriotic Books

The BPL is closed today, but the Monday Discussion stops for no one.

Since we all spent the holiday weekend thinking about the founding of our country, I thought I'd ask everyone what books, movies, or music, we find "American."

What I like about this question is that the answer could be just about anything; it is a personal feeling that would make you choose something, not anything you could search in a card catalog. So what stories make you think of this country, our freedom, and ours lives, for better or worse?

For me, this is a no brainer. I was an American Studies major in college, and I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the documentaries of Ken Burns. To me his movies, the books he compiles to go with them, and the soundtracks scream America to me. He has been quoted thousand of times saying that he uses all of his films to tell the same story-- that of America and its people. If I had to pick one film though, it is The Civil War. Even after having spent an entire year of my life watching it over and over, it is still a moving story of our country's struggle to stay together.

In terms of more traditional nonfiction, David McCullough makes American History come alive for me in his narrative nonfiction. Of course most of you will be familiar with John Adams, but I would also suggest The Johnstown Flood and, my favorite, The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I have a drawing of the Brooklyn Bridge over my television because of that book. McCullough turned the bridge and the people who built it into symbols of American ingenuity, and the book (and the film Ken Burns made based on the book) still inspire me.

In fiction, Independence Day by Richard Ford captures the American family in turmoil. Frank Bascombe takes his troubled son on an ill-fated Independence Day weekend trip and much of what it means to be a father, a son, and an American family is explored in this Pulitzer Prize winning book. Independence Day is the 2nd book in the Bascombe trilogy.

Finally, when I think of American literature, Mark Twain always comes to mind. Twain captured what it meant to be American and the contradictions between what we say and how we live.  He was never afraid to satirize our country and probe deeply into serious issues at a time when this attitude was not as common place as it is today. If you ever come by the BPL RA desk, we have his bust watching over our staff as we help readers. I like to think he would be proud of us.

Now it is your turn. What books, movies, or music do you find the most patriotic?

Remember, you can follow also previous Monday Discussions by clicking here.

What I'm Reading: These Children Who Come at You With Knives

A few days ago I finished Jim Knipfel's amazing short story collection These Children Who Come at You with Knives, and Other Fairy Tales: Stories. I have 2 comments to begin. First, these are not stories for those who like happy endings and second, WOW!

This is a collection of short, biting, alternative fairy tales in which one thing is certain, the main character is in for a bad end. The collection is populated with gnomes, talking chickens, monkeys of despair, and killer house plants (just to name a few).

Each story can be read in 5-10 minutes. They read like traditional fairy tales, just very pessimistic, unhappy ones. But they are brilliant in how they comment upon our society right now. Also, although each story stand alone, for those who read the entire collection cover-to-cover, Knipfel has included a wonderful pay off. In the last, titular, story, the final lines hold a surprise which brings back a charcater from an earlier story and makes for a great last line of the book.

This is a book for people who like dark twists on standard stories and tongue-in-cheek humor. The characters are key here, as with most short stories. Because they are fairy tales, Knipfel can use just about any character he can think up; again the monkey of despair was very original (not to mention very evil). These eccentric characters are the main attraction here.

This book is not for every reader. For many readers, this book will be too dark and too pessimistic. This is NOT a feel good read. That  being said, I did love it and  had fun reading each and every story. I loved the humor and laughed at the untimely ends many of the characters met. But again, I am a reader who seeks this darker kind of story out.

Three Words That Describe This Book: dark, twisted,biting

Readalikes: This is very easy for me, since I read stories like this all of the time. Last year, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya released There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales which is extremely similar to These Children Who Come At You With Knives.

Knifel's prose reminded me of the work of Steven Millhauser, one of my favorite writers. Really anything by him, stories or novels, is a great readalike suggestion here.

The twisted re-tellings of fairy tales by Gregory Maguire, Joe Hill'sstory collection 20th Century Ghost, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods are also great options.