Monday Discussion: What Are You Thankful For? (2011 edition)

It is that time of year again, when we count our blessings.  Last year I ran this Monday Discussion where I listed what I was thankful for. I checked; it all still applies.


This year I want to spend a few moments thinking about it again, but with a different twist-- share with me the specific books or authors or formats or genres (you get the idea) for which you are thankful.

I will start.  I am thankful for much hyped books which turned out to be as good as advertised. For me this year that would include The Discovery of Witches, Swamplandia, The Night Circus (review forthcoming), and Before I Go To Sleep (review forthcoming).

I am also thankful for my old standby authors whose backlist titles I can fall back on when I need something good to read.  This year that included Tana French and Louise Penny.  And, my old standby favorites who continue to impress me with their newest books like Kate Atkinson, Stephen King, and Keith Donohue.

I am thankful for authors who are new to me and who will now become old favorites like Dave Zeltersman and Gillian Flynn.

I am thankful for awesome graphic novels without superheroes and of course horror (especially since unlike this time last year, I am not frantically finishing the book).

Finally, I am thankful that Amazon is allowing my library patrons to borrow ebooks on their Kindles because I was getting sick of telling them "No."

All links above lead you to my reviews where available.  This is also a small peek into some of my year end favorites to come next month.

Now it is your turn.  What books, authors, types of books, etc... are you thankful for this year?

You can follow past Monday Discussions here.

Too Much YA Lit?

The first thing I heard about when I turned on the morning news AND when I walked into work was the one-two combo of people who were out late to see the midnight showings of Breaking Dawn and the official debut of the Hunger Games trailer (embedded at the end of this post for the 5 people who haven't seen it yet).

I have mentioned here on RA for All many times how important the YA crossover phenomenon is.  Even though I work at what is technically the adult fiction desk, I spend at least a little but of my time every day helping patrons (of all ages) find YA titles.  And I am not the only one experiencing an increase in YA related questions.  As a result, we are in the planning stages of completely revamping how we provide YA service here at the BPL.  As YA and Adult titles begin to cross over more and more, YA and high-middle Youth titles are also beginning to intersect less.  New strategies need to be considered.

As I said, this is only in the planning stages, but hopefully early in 2012 I will have more to say on this topic.

This leads me to another YA/Adult crossover topic though.  Yesterday, I was at the Circulation Desk talking to Jose who loves reading YA titles and we overheard 2 Youth Services employees discussing books that could be summarized as "steampunk with zombies."  Jose and I stopped our conversation about another book and quickly jumped in excitedly into theirs, offering, "the only thing better than steampunk is steampunk with zombies!"

We talked about the appeal of these books and why we and our patrons love them.  It was a very engaging and useful professional discussion; oh and it was fun too.  I went on with the rest of my day, happy that staff in 3 different departments were sharing books and their appeal.

And then today, I saw this post on Book Riot of the "Top Five Signs You're Reading too Much Young Adult Literature," and now I am worried we all fit the bill.  Don't get me wrong, I am worried in a good way.  But if you have found yourself spending more and more time talking about YA lit these days, it is time to check the signs that you are addicted.  The first step is admitting you have a problem. But with all the great YA literature out there these days, it is a very good problem to have.

Have a nice weekend whether your plans include YA lit or not.

RA Links Round Up

The post is late today because I have been working on an exciting project here at the BPL.  I will unveil that in a few weeks when it is all complete, but in the meantime, here are a bunch of things I wanted to make sure to pass on:

• Anne Beattie's "Seven Truths About Writers, Barely Discussed" from the New Yorker's Book Bench Blog.
• Indie Book Blogger, Lori Hettler share her list of the Top 10 Indie Picks of 2011.
• Book Riot has a great feature which they call "Reading Pathways."  They take an author and suggest three books you should read in order to understand that author.  Recently, they tackled one of my favorite mid-list authors, Jonathan Tropper.  Click here to see all of the Reading Pathways.
• The National Book Awards were given out, and for another year now they were less than exciting. Oh, except for Nikky Finney who was awesome as she accepted her award for poetry.
• My Dad passed this one on, The Huffington Post is chronicling the plight of the public library in these tough economic times with their wonderful Libraries in Crisis series.
• And finally, as if anything else could be this exciting....Neil Gaiman will be on the Simpsons this Sunday!!!

What I'm Reading: The Snowman

I finished listening to The Snowman (back in September), Jo Nesbo's breakout hit in America, back in September and now that same audio is showing up on many a year end best list.

Jo Nesbo is a huge best-selling author in Europe.  His Harry Hole series (of which this is number 5), is set in Norway and has been feverishly promoted here in America as a Steig Larsson, Nordic Noir readalike. America has fallen in love with Hole and embraced Nesbo.  Even though The Snowman is the 5th Hole novel, it is a fine entry point into the series.

The plot is fairly easy to explain, but the appeal of this book lies in how the investigation is laid out and in Harry himself.

The plot revolves around a new serial killer who is stalking married women with children who happen to also be cheating on their spouses.  He strikes only after a fresh snowfall.  To say anymore would give away the fun of reading this compelling story.

The plot is not why you read Nesbo.  This is why.  First, his idea of taking the innocence of a fresh snowfall and the fun of building a snowman and then making it scary and suspenseful is awesome.  I read this book back in September and got chills from the coldness of the snow here.  There is a scene where Harry is so freaked out by the serial killer and his co-opting of snowmen for nefarious purposes that he attacks some neighbor kids who are just building a snowman.  That was extremely unsettling and was a great was to build the tension here.

Second, Harry is the classic troubled investigator.  He had previously become a star for catching Norway's first serial killer, but his problems with alcohol had led to problems at work and with his girlfriend.  As The Snowman opens, a chastened Harry is looking for redemption. The problem is everyone else knows this and they don't initially believe him when he claims there is another serial killer.  This also adds extra tension and suspense.  [By the way, remember I entered this series here at #5 and I was able to figure out all of these past issues with Harry by reading just this book.]

Other appeal factors to keep in mind.  This novel has graphic violence; it is bloody, but it is also intricately plotted and very compelling.  You do get peeks into the killers mind also, but they are limited; the story is mostly  from Harry's point of view.  There are a lot of twists, but all are foreshadowed appropriately or explained realistically.  This is the story of a sick and evil serial killer, but a realistically possible one.  In fact, I was not surprised by who the Snowman was, but I was surprised by the "why he did it" and how it was all figured out.

Finally, My only complaint about this novel is that the ending was a bit too Hollywood for me. But most hard-core mystery readers will love it.
 
Readalikes:  I went on the Nordic Book Blog, which is my go-to resource for Scandinavian fiction.  I used their search feature to find reviews which made comparisons  to Nesbo.  Use this link to run the search for yourself, but here is one I found that I want to share immediately.  The words in quotes are from the linked entry; they are not mine: 

• Midwinter Sacrifice by Mons Kallentoft-- "Malin Fors is an intriguing and complex heroine – she is tough, has had serious problems in her marriage and is now divorced. She also has a problematic relationship with her daughter, and tends to drink too much. She is mostly unbalanced and on the edge. I tend to think of her as a blend: one part Irene Huss, one part Inspector Winter and one part Harry Hole. She is talented, ambitious, tough, smart and unpredictable."

Another big appeal here is Harry himself.  He is from a long tradition of brilliant detectives who are troubled but have a good heart and the best intentions.  For people who are looking for more detectives like Harry Hole, I would highly suggest Kurt Wallandar (by Henning Mankell), Harry Bosch (by Michael Connelly), John Rebus (by Ian Rankin), the hard-boiled crime fiction of George Pelecanos or go old-school with Raymond Chandler.

Finally, I would NOT suggest fans of Nesbo run out and read Steig Larsson automatically, despite the marketing which claims otherwise.  Yes both are dark and violent, but the Nesbo is much more in line with a classic detective novel, while Larsson's books are more thrillers.  Nesbo spends a lot of time describing the investigation, while Larsson's amateur detectives are not as linear in their investigations.  Also, Larsson includes a lot of extra side-stories and diversions from the investigation, while Nesbo's Hole novels are much more focused.  You could enjoy both (I did) but it is not an automatic match.

I will continue to slowly clear the back log of my reviews in the coming days.

Readers, Writers, Books, and Blogs Resources

Over on Shelfrenewal, Rebecca and Karen have compiled a great list of blogs.  It really is the best overall list I have seen (and not just because both RA for All blogs are listed there).

Please click through to see it.

I would suggest any librarian who is working with leisure readers go to this list and start following the conversations and information coming out of them.  They have categories for general RA, genre specific, and, my favorite category, "chatty," to chose from.

There is no one out there reading this who could not learn something from this list.  Believe me, I am on the list and I found a few new sites to check out.

Why are you still here?  Go, go....

Monday Discussion: What Books Are You Giving Out This Holiday Season

I know it is early, but with the entire month of December's discussions scheduled for year in review, I wanted to ask now:  What books are you buying for people this holiday season?

If you read this blog AND participate in the Monday Discussion, I know you are a book lover.  And, us book lovers love to give books to people.

So, share your ideas here, or use the discussion to get new ideas.  I will start.  For all of the adult readers on my list I am giving Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson.  This is a great, thrilling, and suspenseful story with little sex and violence.  I will have a full review soon, but it is my go-to holiday book gift. I have already told my Dad to buy it for my Mom.  It is also on many year-end best lists and is a Berwyn Staff favorite.

I will also be gifting the new Shel Silverstein poetry collection Every Thing On It and Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick to families on my list, including  my own.

Finally, I would like to remind people to support their local book store when making their book purchases.  I am splitting my purchases between my children's school book sale and The Book Table in Oak Park.

So what books are you planning to gift this season?

Past Monday Discussions can be followed here.

Serving 20 and 30s Somethings At The Library

Here is the article I wrote on the topic for the latest issue of NoveList RA News Newsletter.

This issue also has an article on serving seniors.

Flashback Friday: You Can Judge a Book By Its Cover

This past week, I spent a few shifts at the elementary school book sale.  During some down time, I heard one parent say to another, "This cover looks good, I should read this."  Then the other said, "But you can't judge a book by its cover."

I jumped into the conversation to say, "Oh, but you can."  I began to to explain why. So for today, here is a Flashback Friday post from 2008 where I explain why you can AND should judge a book by its cover.

Have a nice weekend.


MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2008

You Can Judge a Book By Its Cover

Each year, the Book Design Review posts its list of the best book covers of the year. Here is the link to further information on the winners.

How does this help with your RA service though? You'd be surprised how much a cover tells you about the text to be found within its pages. My colleague, Joyce Saricks has argued this point to me many times. The most important thing to keep in mind as you help readers is that the cover tells the reader what the publisher (not necessarily the author) wants us to know about the book. The book cover is a marketing tool, and as Readers' Advisors we should "read" book covers to try to decipher the appeal factors which the cover is trying to convey.

For example, books which feature the author's name more prominently than the title, are being sold on the popularity of said author's name, not necessarily on the content. Also, more complicated and abstract covers, tend to be put on more complicated and abstract books. There are also cover trends. A few years ago, all chick-lit books featured a pastel color theme with some kind of shoes on the cover; so finding readalikes was as easy as looking at the cover.

These are just a few examples, but if you want to test the theory, grab a couple of your favorite books and see how the cover reflects the story held within. What assumptions can be made about the book's context from the cover? I think you will be surprised at how much of the book you CAN judge by its cover.

Also, don't forget to put as many books as you can "face out" on your shelves to have the marketing power of the book cover work for your patrons.

Amazon's Best of the 2011 List

Yesterday, Amazon released their Top 100 Books of the year.  The Art of Fielding, a debut novel, by Chad Harbach got the top honor.

Interestingly, this past weekend when I saw my father we exchanged books and he gave me his copy of The Art of Fielding (I gave him my copy of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close).

Click through to see the entire list. 

Student Annotations: Nonfiction

I am may be taking a night off from teaching,  but Joyce and the class are talking about Nonfiction.  Click on over to the class blog to see what the students had to say about their reading for the week.

Also, as a bonus, here is my new favorite nonfiction leisure reading resource, Sophisticated Dorkiness.