Pre-Pub Alert: Becky’s BEA Galley Favs Part 2 of 2

Let’s get right back into the discussion of the books I am excited out. Six more today in part 2.

Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler [September 2016]:

From one of America’s most important writers, Perfume River is an exquisite novel that examines family ties and the legacy of the Vietnam War through the portrait of a single North Florida family. 

Robert Quinlan is a seventy-year-old historian, teaching at Florida State University, where his wife Darla is also tenured. Their marriage, forged in the fervor of anti-Vietnam-war protests, now bears the fractures of time, both personal and historical, with the couple trapped in an existence of morning coffee and solitary jogging and separate offices. For Robert and Darla, the cracks remain under the surface, whereas the divisions in Robert’s own family are more apparent: he has almost no relationship with his brother Jimmy, who became estranged from the family as the Vietnam War intensified. Robert and Jimmy’s father, a veteran of WWII, is coming to the end of his life, and aftershocks of war ripple across their lives once again, when Jimmy refuses to appear at his father’s bedside. And an unstable homeless man whom Robert at first takes to be a fellow Vietnam veteran turns out to have a deep impact not just on Robert, but on his entire family.

So before BEA I knew who Robert Olen Butler was because he had won the Pulitzer, that meant I knew I had to buy his books for my library. But I didn’t know anything else.  After listening to him talk about his life, his work, and this upcoming book, I am sad I didn’t pay more attention to him previously.

He spoke at length about the Vietnam War and how it effected him personally but also many others. He also talked about how literature is “the art form of human longing,” with brilliance and elegance. Finally, he said in this new novel one of the big questions he is trying to answer is “who is our own and who is the other.” This alone is the reason many patrons would and should read this book.

Everyone sitting around me was blown away by him. One of my friends even tweeted at the event:

I second that. Don't just order the book, read it.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead [September 2016]:

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all slaves, but Cora is an outcast even among her fellow Africans, and she is coming into womanhood; even greater pain awaits. Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her of the Underground Railroad and they plot their escape.

Like Gulliver, Cora encounters different worlds on each leg of her journey...Whitehead brilliantly recreates the unique terrors of black life in pre-Civil War America. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage, and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

Look, I know you know Colson Whitehead is great. Personally, I am a huge fan of Zone One. This new title is getting great buzz.  Whitehead was on a panel and here are a few things he shared with the group:

• With regards to the violence in his book, Colson Whitehead took inspiration for the tone (matter of fact) from slave narratives.
• "It's very disappointing when you discover as a kid that [the Underground Railroad] not a subway.”

I am excited to read this book because Whitehead is one of the few writers who is able to write wonderful stories without ever allowing himself to be pigeon-holed. He is a rare treat for library workers, a literary fiction writer who is accessible to all. I also think he is a good example of what I wrote about at length in this post-- just because an author is of a different race than the patron in front of you, doesn't mean you should be hesitant to suggest that author.

From 2 known quantities to a new voice that I am excited about....

The Mortifications by Derek Palacio [October 2016]:

Derek Palacio’s stunning, mythic novel marks the arrival of a fresh voice and a new chapter in the history of 21st century Cuban-American literature. 

In 1980, a rural Cuban family is torn apart during the Mariel Boatlift. Uxbal Encarnación—father, husband, political insurgent—refuses to leave behind the revolutionary ideals and lush tomato farms of his sun-soaked homeland. His wife Soledad takes young Isabel and Ulises hostage and flees with them to America, leaving behind Uxbal for the promise of a better life. But instead of settling with fellow Cuban immigrants in Miami’s familiar heat, Soledad pushes further north into the stark, wintry landscape of Hartford, Connecticut. There, in the long shadow of their estranged patriarch, now just a distant memory, the exiled mother and her children begin a process of growth and transformation. 

Each struggles and flourishes in their own way: Isabel, spiritually hungry and desperate for higher purpose, finds herself tethered to death and the dying in uncanny ways. Ulises is bookish and awkwardly tall, like his father, whose memory haunts and shapes the boy's thoughts and desires. Presiding over them both is Soledad. Once consumed by her love for her husband, she begins a tempestuous new relationship with a Dutch tobacco farmer. But just as the Encarnacións begin to cultivate their strange new way of life, Cuba calls them back. Uxbal is alive, and waiting. 

Breathtaking, soulful, and profound, The Mortifications is an intoxicating family saga and a timely, urgent expression of longing for one's true homeland. 

I knew nothing about this author or this title before I went to Library Journal Day of Dialog.  This is why you go people. To find out about titles that you might have missed.

Here are some of my notes as to why I was excited about this book:

• For fans of Zadie Smith, Rachel Kushner, Marlon James and Junot Diaz. These are very popular authors for lit fiction readers.
• Sweeping family saga-- also VERY POPULAR
• Portrait of what it is like to be an immigrant in America! and a refugee-- current events!

I put this title after Whitehead to reiterate the point I made above about suggesting good "diverse" books to people not of the same heritage of the diverse author. Again, I have many, many examples and thoughts in this post, but the point is, this is a good book for the public library, general audience, no matter who they are or where they live. Order it.

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple [October 2016]:

Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he's on vacation. Just when it seems like things can't go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret.  

TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT is a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living.

Not much more to say here than....heads up, Semple will have a new book. I included this more as a reminder as to what a great backlist option Where's You Go Bernadette? is, especially for people looking for a beach read that is funny, quirky, and compelling.

Now for the biggest surprise for me personally-- a nonfiction book about math!

How to Bake Pi: An Edible Explanation of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Dr. Eugenia Cheng [Out Now]:

What is math? How exactly does it work? And what do three siblings trying to share a cake have to do with it? In How to Bake Pi, math professor Eugenia Cheng provides an accessible introduction to the logic and beauty of mathematics, powered, unexpectedly, by insights from the kitchen: we learn, for example, how the béchamel in a lasagna can be a lot like the number 5, and why making a good custard proves that math is easy but life is hard. Of course, it’s not all cooking; we’ll also run the New York and Chicago marathons, pay visits to Cinderella and Lewis Carroll, and even get to the bottom of a tomato’s identity as a vegetable. This is not the math of our high school classes: mathematics, Cheng shows us, is less about numbers and formulas and more about how we know, believe, and understand anything, including whether our brother took too much cake. 

At the heart of How to Bake Pi is Cheng’s work on category theory—a cutting-edge “mathematics of mathematics.” Cheng combines her theory work with her enthusiasm for cooking both to shed new light on the fundamentals of mathematics and to give readers a tour of a vast territory no popular book on math has explored before. Lively, funny, and clear, How to Bake Pi will dazzle the initiated while amusing and enlightening even the most hardened math-phobe.

Talk about diverse reads.  Look, I have always appreciated reading books by people with a different world view, but I have not been so great about reading books about topics that do not interest me. I took so many notes when she was talking.  Not only did she make math seem approachable, but she also was hilarious. Here is just a small sampling of the things she said:

• Eugenia Cheng talking about her book How to Bake Pi. Telling us we can do math. I am starting to believe her.
• People will not realize they are learning math while they read-- Cheng
• "Math is not just about numbers, it's about thinking logically about things."
• Most people like food more than math, so she combined them to make math seem more approachable.
• We all want to take a math class with Dr. Cheng now.
• My kids love math. I need to read this book to understand why.
• She poked fun at the "grumpy old" mathematicians who will complain that her book has no theorems. So what?- Cheng
• She's even drafted theorems about hard hard it is to lose weight. Math can be used for everything.
• Listening to Dr. Cheng talk about math makes it seem like I am missing a big party by not being engaged by math.

That's just a sampling of the notes I took. This book and its author made me realize that a book I might have dismissed for myself is actually a perfect read for me. Sure, this is a great general nonfiction purchase for all libraries, but I learned something about myself as a reader through her talk; I learned that making sure I read "diverse" books goes beyond the identity of the author. I need to consider more topics too. Something I think might not be "for me." might be just perfect if I only drop my preconceived notions.

Last but definitely not least-- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders [February 2017]:

The captivating first novel by the best-selling, National Book Award nominee George Saunders, about Abraham Lincoln and the death of his eleven year old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War 

On February 22, 1862, two days after his death, Willie Lincoln was laid to rest in a marble crypt in a Georgetown cemetery. That very night, shattered by grief, Abraham Lincoln arrives at the cemetery under cover of darkness and visits the crypt, alone, to spend time with his son’s body. Set over the course of that one night and populated by ghosts of the recently passed and the long dead, Lincoln in the Bardo is a thrilling exploration of death, grief, the powers of good and evil, a novel - in its form and voice - completely unlike anything you have read before. It is also, in the end, an exploration of the deeper meaning and possibilities of life, written as only George Saunders can: with humor, pathos, and grace.

Yes, the short story master, Saunders has written a novel.  I saw him speak about it at a dinner during BEA.  I was touched by how honest he was about how difficult writing this novel was for him.  He worked on it for years and despite his enormous success with stories, he still struggled. He had to tell this story in novel form though. He out it aside many times before completing it.

That's my very abbreviated look at only 11 of the general interest galleys I was most excited about after BEA. There will be a genre related post of upcoming titles coming tomorrow.

Pre-Pub Alert: Becky’s BEA Galley Favs Part 1 of 2

Today I have part 1 of my posts on the galleys I got at BEA that I am most excited to share with you because I feel like these are books you need to share with a large audience-- your patrons.  Above is the picture I took of the upcoming titles I will discuss below. I no longer have many of these books in my possession anymore as I sent them off to other libraries to use as prizes or to share with their staff in preparation for hand selling them later this year.

For each title, I will provide the publisher summary, a link to Goodreads, and the publication month followed by some commentary by me on why I think you should be promoting these reads to your patrons. I also have some suggested readalikes based on the publisher’s book talks. Read my comments to help you decide who to hand these books out to, but I would argue that each of these 11 titles need to be purchased by every public library. 

Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge [October 2016]:

On an average day in America, seven young people, aged nineteen or under, will be shot dead. In Another Day in the Death of America, award-winning Guardian journalist Gary Younge tells the stories of the lives lost on one random day—November 23, 2013. Ten children died that day. From Jaiden Dixon, nine, shot point-blank by his mother’s ex-boyfriend on his doorstep in suburban Ohio, to Tyshon Anderson, an eighteen-year-old gang member who’d recently been released from prison on Chicago’s South Side; from a rural hamlet in Michigan to the deindustrialised streets of Newark, the narrative crisscrosses the country over a period of twenty-four hours to reveal the stories behind the statistics and brief mentions in local papers. 

This powerful and moving work puts a human face—a child’s face—on the “collateral damage” of gun violence at a time when the gun issue in America is being hotly debated. This is not a book about gun control, but about what happens in a country where it does not exist. What emerges in these pages is a searing portrait of youth and family in America today.

Mr Younge spoke on a panel at LJ Day of Dialog focused on forthcoming Nonfiction.  As you can see above, this is a serious but necessary book for everyone to read. I was struck by the topic and it’s focus-- using a single day makes it so much more poignant and hopefully, will make the call for change much stronger.  Here are a few paraphrased comments made by Mr. Younge on the panel [from my notes]:

• In some parts of this country, people expect to be shot.
• Kids are shot each day in America. “In no other country would this be possible.” --this comment alone is why you need to read this book.
• As an outsider who has lived in America [Black-British man married to an American], Younge discussed his unique perspective to look at this heartbreaking topic

This was the most serious book on the nonfiction panel by far, but it is also the most important. Give this to your readers who care about social justice or current event. No, scratch that, give it to everyone. This book feels like it will become as important as There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz has become. Kotlowitz’s book led to the end of public housing in Chicago. Can Younge’s book help curb gun violence in America? If enough people read it, maybe.

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn [Out Now]:

Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis- Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas. At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman. As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman—fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves—must confront long-hidden scars. From a much-heralded new writer, Here Comes the Sun offers a dramatic glimpse into a vibrant, passionate world most outsiders see simply as paradise.

I saw Ms. Dennis-Benn speak on 2 librarian focused panels AND I ran into her on the convention floor where I thanked her so much for coming to talk to us.  Not only does her book look fantastic, but she was so eloquent and thoughtful in her talks. She literally bared her soul to us about the dichotomy between the world of Jamaica we see on vacation and the real life of the women who provide the services to the tourists. She brought herself and many of us to tears in her second appearance.

Personally, I enjoy Caribbean set novels and have ready many, but this novel is so much more.  One of the many moving and brilliant things Ms. Dennis-Benn said to the audience was this [and I paraphrase from my notes]: I write about mothers and daughters and the mother saying, I love you so much, I will be the first to break you.

What an honest and moving statement. She talked about how when she read Beloved the first time she was confused as to the choices the main character makes, but reading it later, as an adult, she truly understood why someone would kill their own daughter to save them from a terrible fate. She made it clear she was not comparing herself to Toni Morrison, but only sharing what she had learned from her own life and how it was put into her writing.

All mothers of daughters should read this book. All people who have been to a resort on vacation in the Caribbean should read this book. All people who want to understand those who work in the shadows should read this novel.  Basically everyone should read it.

I am grouping the next 2 books in the stack together for a few reasons: Leave Me by Gayle Foreman and Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer

First the summaries. Leave Me [Out September 2016]:

International bestselling author Gayle Forman's trademark humor and insight abound in this masterful adult debut, showing us that sometimes you have to leave home in order to find it again. 

For every woman who has ever fantasized about driving past her exit on the highway instead of going home to make dinner, for every woman who has ever dreamed of boarding a train to a place where no one needs constant attention--meet Maribeth Klein. A harried working mother who's so busy taking care of her husband and twins, she doesn't even realize she's had a heart attack. 

Afterward, surprised to discover that her recuperation seems to be an imposition on those who rely on her, Maribeth does the unthinkable: She packs a bag and leaves. But, as is so often the case, once we get to where we're going, we see our lives from a different perspective. Far from the demands of family and career and with the help of liberating new friendships, Maribeth is finally able to own up to secrets she has been keeping from those she loves and from herself. 

With big-hearted characters who stumble and trip, grow and forgive, Leave Me is about facing our fears. Gayle Forman, a dazzling observer of human nature, has written an irresistible novel that confronts the ambivalence of modern motherhood head-on

Second, Here I Am [Out September 2016]:

In the book of Genesis, when God calls out, “Abraham!” to order him to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham responds, “Here I am.” Later, when Isaac calls out, “My father!” to ask him why there is no animal to slaughter, Abraham responds, “Here I am.” 

How do we fulfill our conflicting duties as father, husband, and son; wife and mother; child and adult? Jew and American? How can we claim our own identities when our lives are linked so closely to others’? These are the questions at the heart of Jonathan Safran Foer’s first novel in eleven years--a work of extraordinary scope and heartbreaking intimacy. 

Unfolding over four tumultuous weeks, in present-day Washington, D.C., Here I Am is the story of a fracturing family in a moment of crisis. As Jacob and Julia and their three sons are forced to confront the distances between the lives they think they want and the lives they are living, a catastrophic earthquake sets in motion a quickly escalating conflict in the Middle East. At stake is the very meaning of home--and the fundamental question of how much life one can bear. 

Showcasing the same high-energy inventiveness, hilarious irreverence, and emotional urgency that readers and critics loved in his earlier work, Here I Am is Foer’s most searching, hard-hitting, and grandly entertaining novel yet. It not only confirms Foer’s stature as a dazzling literary talent but reveals a mature novelist who has fully come into his own as one of the most important writers of his generation.

These are both big name authors and you will probably be buying these titles anyway, but the reason I wanted to point them out was because both look at parenting from an interesting, different, and thought-provoking  perspective. I wanted you to be prepared for book talking these upcoming buzz titles to your patrons. Both may have a different audience than their previous books. You need to be aware that you can expand who you think will like these books.

Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vásquez [Out September 2016]:

From the brilliant mind of the author of The Sound of Things Falling, a powerful novel about a legendary political cartoonist. 

Javier Mallarino is a living legend. He is his country’s most influential political cartoonist, the consciousness of a nation. A man capable of repealing laws, overturning judges’ decisions, destroying politicians’ careers with his art. His weapons are pen and ink. Those in power fear him and pay him homage. 

At sixty-five, after four decades of a brilliant career, he’s at the height of his powers. But this all changes when he’s paid an unexpected visit from a young woman who upends his sense of personal history and forces him to re-evaluate his life and work, questioning his position in the world. 

In Reputations, Juan Gabriel Vásquez examines the weight of the past, how a public persona intersects with private histories, and the burdens and surprises of memory. In this intimate novel, Vásquez plumbs universal experiences to create a masterful story, one that reverberates long after you turn the final page.

I don’t feel like this summary does this novel justice.  So I am going to share my notes from the panel where a representative from Riverbed books gushed about this slim novel:

• Can be read in 1 sitting.
• Powerful and politically infused
• Vásquez is one of the most powerful writers of his generation in Columbia
• For fans of Ishiguro, Coetzee, Julian Barnes, and Ian McEwan-- all very popular book discussion authors AND among the best circulating literary fiction writers in the library. This will be an easy one to hand sell.

After the presentation, I ran (well speed walked) to grab a copy of this novel.  I have not read it cover to cover, but I have skimmed it.  This is a tight, compelling, and thought provoking read. Worth your purchase for all collections.

That’s the first half of the stack. I’ll be back tomorrow with the second half.

RA for All: Call to Action-- Using Summer Reading Programs As a RA Tool

Back in 2013, I had this post about how to use Circulation Data and Summer Reading Program Data to help you all year long.

Quite of few of the library’s in my area began summer reading today.  I know from 14 years of running a program that Summer Reading is hard but also very rewarding.  Right now most of you are just tired from all the planning and anxious to get going, but in a week or two, you are going to be exhausted. You may be questioning why you got yourselves into this for yet another year.

Today, I am reposting in order to remind you of the reasons why summer reading can help you be better at your job all year long. Yes, first and foremost Summer Reading is about serving the patrons who flock into our buildings during these months, but if we don’t work to use the data we get from their visits to help us cultivate better collections for the years to come, we are losing a treasure trove of great information.

Read below.  Remember this post is 3 years old, so we still did data collection with paper slips, but the concept is what matters.

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THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013

Using Circulation Statistics and Summer Reading Programs As RA Tools

Yesterday my husband passed on this interesting article from the local NPR station's blog about accessing the Chicago Public Library's open data portal to look at circulation and popular titles in real time.

At the BPL, we regularly look at the circ stats for our various genre and format categorizations to see what is most popular with our patrons.

Now I am sure you are thinking, well of course, but this is all helpful from a collection development perspective; it let's me know what I should buy more of and what I should consider weeding.  But how is this related to RA and matching readers with their next good read?

Well, let me take this a step further. All of these stats only tell you WHAT your patrons are checking out.  They tell you nothing about HOW they felt about the titles.  How do we gather this information?

Well, some of it is by talking to readers and asking them WHY they like or don't like a specific author or title, but that only gives us some appeal information from the patrons who already talk to us.  I want to know the likes and dislikes of the people (for whatever reason) don't talk to us but still check out books.

Summer reading is our best time to gather precisely what I am talking about. This is when we get the highest number of leisure readers coming through the door. So, we have created an adult summer reading program that has some of the easiest rules around (making patrons happier) but allows us to collect the richest data (making the staff happier).

Our adult summer reading program is simple.  We have a theme and we make some fun displays to go with them for those who want to play along, but in reality, all you have to do is read 3 books.  Any three books.  They don't even have to be checked out of the library.  All we ask is that for each set of three books, you fill out the official prize entry form completely.  On this quarter sheet page you have to put your name and contact info (in case you win) and the titles of the books you read. We ask you to rate the books on a scale of 1 to 4 (we have boxes you mark and we allow half a box) and then for at least 1 title, tell us what you liked or didn't like about it or write a blurb.  Just give us a sentence about the book.

That is it.  After you fill out the form, you place it in a box and you are entered into one of the many drawings we have all summer.  You can enter as many times as you like.

Now we save every single one of those slips.  A staff member goes through them at the end of the summer and enters all of the info into the computer. Each fall, we are able to not only see which books were checkout the the most, but how they were rated by readers and we even get some appeal language from the comment line.  This is valuable appeal information.

Since this is our first year doing the Teen summer reading program and we are still new to developing that collection, we are allowing teens to enter for a chance to win with each and every book they read.  But for them, they have to give us a blurb for each book by writing it down or posting it on our Facebook wall.

For teens we are letting them enter for a chance to win with every book they read as long as they give us a sentence in writing or on Facebookwith what they like about it.  And they are doing a great job.  Look at what we have posted there already. This is going to help us to build a Teen collection that is responsive to their likes and needs.

So now by using the circ stats and the information we gather from our summer reading program in tandem, we have a more complete picture of what people like a why.  But there is even a further step you can take to provide better RA service.  Use what you have learned gathering this data in your conversations with readers. Ask questions about why they liked them using terms of appeal that you have heard or seen other patrons use for similar authors or titles.

Let's look at an example from the information we gathered during last year's summer reading program. Like most libraries we learned that Gillian Flynn is one of the most popular authors at our library (remember she came to our library too), but by gathering information as described above, I also know that people like her for the hard edged psychological suspense, the alternating view points, the family drama aspects, and the twists.

Since we gathered this more specific info from readers last summer, I have been able to work this appeal language into my RA conversations with patrons.  I specifically ask if they like these points in her writing, or I ask about these appeals in general when talking to readers since I know they are popular appeal terms with our patrons. This has allowed me to be more precise with my reading suggestions to patrons.

For example, for those who say they really loved hard edged psychological suspense I lead to Mo Hayder and Chelsea Cain.  For those who like suspense and twists but also enjoyed family drama, Tana French is perfect.  And for those who liked it all in Flynn but wanted the violence toned down a notch or two, S.J. Bolton has become my go-to author (with tremendously successful results).

The point here is, you need to see the stats, but you also need to use them to probe for more information. People are checking these books out, but WHY and HOW did they like them. FInd that out and you will feel more confident in your suggestions and have more satisfied patrons to boot.

So ditch the strict rules for summer reading participation and instead of rules, engage your patrons to tell you what they like.  Everyone will be much happier in the end.

Summer Reading Begins...

Today is the first day of my kids’ summer vacation, so I have summer reading on the brain.

My daughter is lucky to have a fantastic list of titles to choose from for her high school’s summer reading.  Here is the full list. She only has to read 1, but she chose at least two-- Ready Player One and Between the World and Me. Thankfully, I have read both [you can click on the titles for my reviews], and for Ready Player One, I even got to interview the author [although the link is no longer public per Cline’s request]. We are both excited to talk about them together.

Either would make a great summer read for anyone out there. Between the World and Me because it is timely, lyrical, and poignant [and short] and Ready Player One because it is exciting, thought provoking, and will be a huge blockbuster movie very soon.

My son is 11 and a voracious reader of anything and everything-- fiction, nonfiction, kids, teen, adult. The problem with him, is keeping enough books in his hands. Right now he is reading every Mike Lupica football book he can get his hands on, and after a visit from the public library to his school, he was excited about The Big Dark. His copy came through ILL this week.

Me, I have a stack of horror titles to review for the August Spotlight on Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror issue for Booklist. But I also have a stack of books I am very excited to read for fun. I have a 2 week vacation in July that I am saving them for.  That list is:

• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
• The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics
• Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

This post is only the start of my summer reading conversation with all of you. Over the summer, most Fridays I will continue to have “summer reading” posts here on the blog. Rather than simply link you to the millionth list of good summer reads (you can get those over on Early Word), I will have posts about what what we are reading in my house and what books I am suggested to others as good summer reads. I will especially focus on great backlist titles for different reading situations.

You can use the tag “summer reading” to pull up all of these posts, and posts from previous years-- because older good summer reads are still good summer reads.

But also, feel free to leave your current summer reading suggestions in the comments for others to see and use with patrons.

ARRT Speculative Fiction Genre Study: SF Meeting Notes and Horror Assignment

We just finished our latest meeting of the Adult Reading Round Table Speculative Fiction Genre Study. Today was our Fantasy Bootcamp!

But at every new meeting we are always ready with the notes from the previous meting and the assignment for the next meeting. I know that there are many of you out there following along via our notes, so....

Click here for the detailed notes from our April Science Fiction Boot Camp.

Click here to see the assignment we had for today’s Fantasy discussion.

And here is the assignment for the Horror Boot Camp in August which I am leading.

June is Audiobook Month

Readers of this blog know that I am a huge audiobook fan. [Click here for proof] So it should come as no surprise that I am jumping on the “June is Audiobook Month” bandwagon from day 1.

Here are some resources so you can join in the celebration too:

• 11 Ways to Celebrate June is Audiobook Month via Books on Tape
• Slides from last months ARRT Listen Up Program
• Everything tagged Audiobooks from the Booklist Reader. In reverse chronological order. This is a treasure trove of backlist information too.
• Audio Publishers Association homepage which currently features the recording of the entire Audies presentation [held last month] on the front page.
• Audiofile Magazine because it is a great resource.
• Share your audiobook love, displays, ideas, and celebrations with others: #loveaudiobooks.

Now get listening.

RA for All: Call to Action-- Get Off Your Butt Rant

This Call to Action series may be new, but the Becky "rant post" is not.  One of my earliest, posts of this type was way back in March of 2010. Affectionately dubbed the “Get off your butt rant” by Rebecca Vnuk, this post discusses why every library worker need to get into the stacks, no matter what your “level” is.

Now I know at some libraries, like Chicago Public Library for example, union rules prohibit anyone but shelvers from physically putting books away, but everyone can find a reason to get up and wander the stacks. So don’t use that as an excuse when you read this post below.

Going back an re-reading this entire post was also a nice reminder to me that my core values about public service have not changed over time.  The final lines of this post, "Any of these duties will improve your skills as a librarian and, more importantly, they will greatly improve you patrons' library experience. And, isn't that why we work in public libraries in the first place?” echo the words I still write regularly 6 years later.

Here is the link to the original post, but it is also reposted below so that it can officially come part of the Call to Action archive.

And after you read it, please get off your butt and get into the stacks.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2010

Keeping the Shelves In Order

 

Every other week I volunteer at my daughter's elementary school library. Although I am often consulted on larger issues pertaining to the library's collection and do provide quite a bit of RA to the students, I am mostly there to help shelve the books.

Also, this week at the BPL, our page injured herself and I spent a large part of my shift shelving books.

Now, many librarians would say that using a professional librarian to shelve books over other more "worthy" duties is a poor use of the librarian's skills and expertise. I am here to tell you today that those people are flat out wrong.

First and foremost, neat, clean, and ordered book shelves are THEmost important service you can provide for you patrons. Think about it, if a patron comes in looking for a book, checks the catalog, and goes to the exact place where the book is supposed to be and cannot find it, how do you think they are going to feel about the service you are providing?

Many librarians think it is beneath them to keep the shelves in order. I would argue that as the professionals, we should be responsible for keeping them in order. If that means getting in there and shelf reading (which means you go through a section, book by book, to make sure they are in the correct order) or literally shelving the books, so be it. We need to take responsibility for our collections from the selection of materials to their home on the shelves.

This does not mean we should fire all of our pages and start adding daily shelving to our already busy schedules, but it does mean we should make sure all of our staff spend at least a couple of hours a week shelf reading or shelving. I have empty shelves of books and wiped them down with paper towels and cleaner many times. More memorably, I did a survey of the entire SF and Fantasy section, including weeding, shelf reading, and cleaning the shelves while 8.5 months pregnant. I can tell you I am a better librarian for it; possessing a more intimate knowledge of our collection and its strengths and weakness.

Too many librarians stay behind their desks all of the time. They do not get out, into the stacks to see what the patrons see. By just getting up and  roaming the stacks you will find people confused by signage (now you know to fix that signage), lost patrons looking for help (a great opportunity to start the RA interview), and dusty, messy, or over stuffed shelves (these need immediate attention.)

Once when I was helping out with the shelving, I came upon an area so tight that it needed immediate weeding and a huge shift. How long had this been going on? How many patrons were unable to remove a book they wanted and were too embarrassed to ask for help? I don't know, but myself and my then department head Briana spent a few days fixing that section. This led to a collection wide inventory, weeding, and shifting project which is still going on and has made our collection much neater and more relevant to our patrons' needs.

I haven't even begun to mention all you can learn yourself by roaming the shelves. When shelving I have come upon lost treasures: books that I had meant to read years before, books with interesting covers or titles that demand a second look, or classics in need of replacements. In each of these instances I have brought the books back to my desk and spent some time with them. Some times I will check them out or add them to my to-read list, but more often than not, I end up passing them on to a patron to enjoy. A book they would have never found if I hadn't of gotten up and moved myself into the stacks.

Now get off your butt and get into the stacks! Shelve some books, shelf read a few stacks, or clean some shelves. If I could do it 8.5 months pregnant, what's stopping you? Any of these duties will improve your skills as a librarian and, more importantly, they will greatly improve you patrons' library experience. And, isn't that why we work in public libraries in the first place?

Want to Understand The Book Industry Today? Ask an Author

I know I spend a lot of time on this blog talking to you about working with publishers, helping patrons, and using resources, but I rarely talk about the authors themselves beyond discussing their work and which readers they most appeals to.

However, if we want to fully understand the book industry we library workers are a part of, I think we have to talk a little more about authors and how they do or do not make a living in today’s publishing world.

Few authors are more vocal or honest about the financial issues of being a writer than horror author Brian Keene. Unfortunately, as he would tell you himself, he came into being an author advocate and expert in working with publishers [as a professional writer] by accident. It was because of his place in the center of one of this century’s biggest publishing collapses-- the shuttering of Leisure Books.  Back in 2010, I blogged about this issue and Brian’s place in it on the horror blog here.

Brian led a group of authors, many of who are gracing your library’s shelves right now, in a fight for to reclaim the rights to their own works from the closing publisher. This was a HUGE deal, and something that still happens to authors all of the time.  Without fighting to get their rights back, these authors’ works would not be able to be published again. Brian Keene’s The Rising was caught up in this mess, a novel that is cited all the time [along with the first Walking Dead comic and the film 28 Days Later] as the beginning of the current zombie craze.  It is a seminal work in popular culture and it was almost lost.

I think this is an issue that many library workers don’t even know about. Most of us just assume if an author writes something that gets published that said author still owns the works.  Often they do not. Brian brought this often hidden issue out of the shadows.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issues authors have to deal with in today’s publishing world. And, I think it is important for us to understand their perspective.

Thankfully, once Keene started giving a public voice to the large mass of mid-list authors, he didn’t stop. For the 9 months he is writing a weekly column for horror publisher Cemetery Dance about his life in publishing.  You can click here to read all of the columns. They come up in reverse chronological order.  The first four are up now.  But to get you started, here is the link to the first one.

After reading these columns, I think you will have a fuller picture of the industry behind the books we are hand selling to patrons each and every day.

Booklist Mystery Month Resources

Every May Booklist turns their attention to Crime Fiction. When you group Mystery, Suspense and Thrillers all together, you easily have the most popular genres for library patrons. Which means, you need to be looking at the information they compile each and every May to stay up to date on the wide offerings in these popular reading areas.

So, just in case you haven’t seen any of it, I wanted to point out a few of lists and article to get you started before Mystery Month ends:

• A list of the best crime series narrators by Joyce Saricks
• The Booklist list of the Top 10 Crime Novels of the Year
• A guide to the novels of the late great Ruth Rendell by Rebecca Vnuk
• Brothers and Sisters of Salander-- crime novels with hackers by Bill Ott
• Ten True Crime options for mystery fans by Karen Kleckner Keefe
• Three Asian Detective series by Erin Downey Howerton [features one of my personal favorite mystery series]

This is just a sampling of what there is to offer.  You can use this Mystery Month tag to pull everything up in The Booklist Reader.

And don’t forget, with your library’s subscription to Booklist in print, you have digital access to search the archives for past year’s Mystery Month resources. At the very least, I highly suggest checking past year’s May 1 issues for the Top Crime Novels of the Year annual list [in print or online]. You can find some great backlist, under the radar titles for you Crime readers who are fresh out of “new to them” titles.

Finally for a more comprehensive discussion of crime fiction, please look at the assignments and notes from the ARRT Crime Fiction Genre Study, which I led during 2014 and 2015.

Upcoming Appearances Open to Anyone

Many of the training sessions I offer are closed to the public. More often than not, I am hired to present to the staff of a specific library or library system.  However, during the second week of June there are 2 opportunities for you to catch me presenting BRAND NEW programs-- one in person and one virtual.

Starting June 1, Library Journal is offering a fantastic new, online course:

You can click through for all of the details, but I will be presenting first on June 14th. I will be talking about "Merchandising" and RA. I will have 45 minutes of tips and tricks to merchandise your collections and your staff expertise better.

Then, 2 days later, I will be in Worcester, MA delivering the Keynote address for the 1st Annual Massachusetts Library System Readers' Advisory Summit:

Join other readers’ advisory enthusiasts for a day of information, hands-on learning, and sharing stories as MLS brings together years of experience with innovative techniques. 

Becky Spratford, Illinois librarian and head of RA for All, will talk about “RA Rethink: From Quaint and Comfortable to Cutting Edge.”

Joyce Saricks, (also from Illinois) will lead a hands-on workshop: “Sharing Books: Notes from the Field. Bring with you three titles to use in the exercise.”

“What do you know?” Five 20-minute presentations from MLS members on RA topics that can be broken down and used by any library.

Also, 5 in 15 recordings will be available to record ON-SITE all day! More information will be provided to those interested in recording one of our popular RA segments. (http://guides.masslibsystem.org/5in15).  

Use this link for the full details and to signup. 

This summit is open to anyone who can make it to the event on that day. It is extremely affordable too.

This brand new RA Rethink program will have a similar tone to my Call to Action series and will feature some of what I present in the Library Journal Online class.  I have been working on it all day today and am very excited about getting the chance to deliver this invigorating talk to such a receptive audience.

I really hope some of you can join me.

I will also be contributing my own 5 in 15 [mentioned above] to the MLS archives. I know I will do horror titles, but I am not sure the theme. I think I am stressing over picking only 5 horror titles to booktalk more than I am about the 90 minute keynote.

If you cannot make it to either event, the slides will be available here on the blog.