Be More Bookish Summary

I found the program fun and interesting for the most part. I will focus on using appeal factors when doing RA with customers instead of racking my brain for titles from the get go.

I learned about book trailers and will check YouTube regularly. Also will continue to check some of the publisher's sites.

I hope the committee will consider doing a similar type of RA training for children's books focusing on ethnic fiction and books for reluctant readers.

Week 9 Book Trailers

I read the articles from the Chicago Tribune and the NYT. I didn't find the embedded links in the Tribune article. What appeared to be random word links took me to commercials.
Better luck with the NYT links.
I also viewed 2 YouTube book trailers.

YouTube trailers were by far the best for marketing a book. I looked at the clips for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Clockwork Angel.
Both were dramatized book talks and were excellent. Actors were used, there were appropriate costumes and just enough of the plot to  make you want to read the book.

The other trailers(from NYT links)were simply "talking heads" with sometimes still photos interspersed. Not at all interesting and would not grab a reader to find the book.

YouTube trailers could be useful in RA but whether the book you want to suggest is there is hit or miss. Still worth a try.

Week 8

Assg. 1 Read the two assigned articles.

Assg.2 Viewed the E-Learning video

Assg.3 - Genres/Dewey area

                 Science - 500's
                 Travel - 900's
                 Food - 600's
                 Disaster -900's

Biog. - Keeper - Andrea Gillies
946P - Walking Back to Happiness - Christine Palmer
641F - The Sharper your Knife, the Less You Cry: love,laughter and tears at the world's most famous cooking school - K.Finn
976.4L - Isaac's Storm: a man, a time and the deadliest hurricane in history - Erik Larson

Assg.4

Keeper by Andrea Gillies is a funny, heartbreaking story of the author's attempt to be all things to all people. Andrea Gillies seeing that her aging in-laws are struggling to cope on their own invites them to move in with her, her husband and three young children. The entire family moves to a huge Victorian house in the north of Scotland. In addition to caring for the family and trying to write fiction Andrea also opens a B&B!
As her mother-in-law's Alzheimer's progresses Andrea learns that she has undertaken a monumental challenge. Her struggles with the care system, trying to maintain a semblance of normality for her children and her own frustration are described with honesty and humor.

I would suggest this title to fiction readers who liked Turn of Mind and other titles that deal with memory impairment and women as caregivers.

The Sharper your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Finn - Finn was a 36-year old working in London. When she lost her job she took a huge risk - emptied her savings account and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of studying at LeCordun Bleu cooking school.
Much to her surprise, instead of the glamorous world of gourmet dishes she finds herself struggling with hot-tempered chefs, competitive classmates and a huge language barrier. She learns to gut fish and decapitate rabbits. Her attempts at pastry dough and sauces are gut-wrenching!

I would suggest this title to readers who enjoy other non-fiction titles such as Eat,Pray, Love or Julie and Julia. Fiction readers who enjoy books with cooking at the center of the plot - White Truffles in Winter, School of Essential Ingredients will make an easy transition to this engaging true experience.

Week 7

Assg.1-  Looked at the What to Read Next flowchart. Clever idea that will be useful when working with  customers. I like the fact that book covers are part of the chart. The Prezi we used for subgenres was difficult and not visually interesting. This one is.

Assg.2 I read Next Big Thing from YALSA and Who is Buying Teen Books from Wall Street Journal. These two were the most recent on the list.

Both used the Bowker research for their statistics. I learned that 55% of customers who buy teen books are over 18 and that the largest group is 30-44 years old!
Both articles cite reasons for this:

    - less complicated writing style
    - popular adult authors are writing for teens
    - nostalgia and escapism
    - mainstream media publicity

Assg.3  I've chosen to follow Teenreads and School Library Journal.

Teenreads is part of TBRN. The group provides web developmet and Internet marketing and publicity services for authors and publishers. The site is quite extensive containing reviews, a blog, Books on Screen, YouTube and RSS links. There are author interviews and lots more. The audience is teen readers but book stores and selectors will find it useful too.
I especially liked the "Adult Books You Want to Read" section. Another nice review feature is the tagging of a title as family, action/adventure,paranormal romance, etc.
Complete bibliographic is provided for titles reviewed.

School Library Journal: Someday my Printz Will Come. It's audience is librarians. There are interesting articles and lots of reviews of books and media.

Assg.4 Teens at Random and Harper Teen. Both featured current and forthcoming titles. The titles for both include post-apocalyptic fiction, paranormal romance, fantasy/scifi and romance.

Week 6 continued

Fan club:  Didn't find a fan club. Did find author's websites with blog input from readers.

Authors:

Christine Feehan

J.R. Ward

Kresley Cole


Appeal factors:

romance
adventure
evil with "steamy encounters"
action
danger


Mashup:

Discovery of Witches by Harkness
Fantasy Lover by Kenyon

Both titles contain all the appeal factors that Paranormal romance readers like but they will move them out of the series titles into plots with  more literary depth.

Mystery subgenre cyphers and codes:

No fan club as such but there are fan clubs for specific authors, i.e. Dan Brown

Authors:

Dan Brown

Ian Pears

Alan Wall

Appeal factors:

suspense
intricate plot
fast paced
political intrigue
mysterious objects(manuscripts, aritifacts)
secret societies

I would recommend :

An Instance at the Fingerpost by Pears

Burning Road by Benson

These titles contain the appeal factors that readers of the subgenre enjoy. Some are historical other contemporary. Both contain puzzles and/or codes that are involved in solving the mystery.

This was a challenging assignment and I learned a lot. I used NovelList and Goodreads but actually found the information more quickly using Google!

Week 6

Assg.1. I'm confused about this assignment. Didn't I just do this last week when I commented on the two genre links I've been following? Let me know if I'm misreading the assignment.

Assg2. I've spent 1 hour and 30 minutes on my first subgenre! No way can I do this assignment in the time allotted off the desk! My scheduler has been very generous but an hour and a half won't be nearly enough for this.

I chose Steampunk as one of my subgenres:

Fan site: TOR - then used the search box to focus on Steampunk. I did a Google search to find the site. Didn't find much discussion of why fans like the literature but did learn that Steampunk is a cultural phenomenom! Clothes, design and even philosophy.

Authors:    Jules Verne                          
Appeal Factors: Fast-paced
                           adventure
                           unique characters
                           combine history, SF, Fantasy

Verne titles: 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea
                      Around the World in Eighty Days

These are classic fantasy titles that have migrated into the Steampunk world due to the time period, the fantastic inventions and happenings.

I'm going to post this event though I have 2 more subgenres to go. I'm on my way to BEA and there's no more time this week. I'll try to finish next week.

Week 5

Assg.1

I chose to monitor Mystery Readers International and Stop, You're Killing Me!

MRI was not a good choice. It's a commercial site that requires paid membership in order to access the information. This site is geared toward book store owners rather than readers.

Stop, You're Killing Me! was a better choice.

It:   
    -lists new titles in all formats

    -lists award winners
  
    - has great indices:
           genre
           historical
           character

This site is a good reader's advisory resource.

Assg.2: Early Word

     I liked the current information in the body of the newsletter. Also liked the NPR and Indie Next Bestseller links.
     Movies and tv shows based on books is a good resource and I'll continue to monitor theses.
     Not so thrilled with the links to review sources that list old reviews - caveat: I grab PW, LJ and Booklist when they arrive in the branch so I have already read the posted reviews.

Assg.3: Early Word - highly anticipated titles

    I found it hard to apply appeal factors to titles I hadn't read(lots of the titles on the list are no longer "anticipated.")
    There were several reviews and blurbs that did give appeal factors - one was The Dinner- descriptors used gave an idea of what type of reader might enjoy the book - " family", "chilling," "shocking," and "unputdownable". I have read this title so I found the appeal factors on target and would give this to an reader who likes literary but fast moving fiction.

Another was Madness Underneath described as a teen thriller that is "sinister and fun." I would suggest this to a young adult who likes thrillers with a dose of humor and not so much blood and gore.

   

  

Week 4

Forgot to comment on Recommendation from Goodreads: I don't find them useful at all. They are too general and often unrelated to my reading interests.

My reaction could be because I never need reading recommendations - my house overflows with books! I know the authors I like, the genres I enjoy and really have trouble understanding people who don't just enjoy the serendipity of just browsing the shelves and picking up a book with an attractive cover or an interesting title.
Of course I never say this to a customer. I employ my reader's advisory skills and send them home with several titles

Made friends with Katie and Debbie.

Added a Mystery shelf to Goodreads and it shows on my page but the books I selected for the shelf do not appear. The shelf reads 0. Another reason why I dislike Goodreads!

Week 4 - Goodreads

I recommended two titles to a Goodreads friend. The titles were Defending Jacob and Nobodies Album. My friend gave 5 stars to The Dinner by Koch.
The titles I recommended also dealt with parents trying to save children accused of crimes. I did think Nobodies Album was closer in style to The Dinner and cited that in my recommendation.

I already have many Goodreads friends so I didn't have to do this.

I have an useasy association with Goodreads. I find it incredibly user unfriendly! Front screen is overwhelming and I can't find a way to delete a message sent by Goodreads. A Help and User section would be great.
 That said, I do enjoy posting what I'm reading and seeing what friends are reading. Seeing other people's point of view is interesting.
 Another good feature is the giveaways section. I've received a couple of ARCS by registering although you need lots of time to go through the offerings. You can narrow your search by genre or author.

Conversations

1. If you enjoyed Eat,Pray, Love you'll like Walking Back to Happiness by Christine Palmer. Palmer is a bit overweight and discontented with her life. She decides to walk from southern France to northern Spain following the Santiago de Compostela trail. Her stated goal is to fit into a skimpy, silk Bellino top but she achieves much more than that. Funny, insightful and inspiring.

You might also like Wild:from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.

2. Have you read A Discovery of Witches by Harkness? The main character is a witch although she denies it. She finds herself attracted to a vampire. Romance without the angst set in Oxford, U.K.

Other authors you might like are Anne Rice and Laurel K. Hamilton.

3. If you are looking for a heroic presidential adventure you can't go wrong with PT-109 by Robert Donovan. It's the story of John F. Kennedy's survival after his boat is hit by a Japanese destroyer during WW11. He spends 30 hours in the water towing the disabled boat and saves all but 2 of his crew.
Unfortunately, BCPL no longer owns copies of this classic but it is available through ILL.

Another amazing survival story is Unbroken by Hillenbrand.

Finished Week 2 assignments. I read the article and sent two recommendations to two bloggers.
I found it interesting and challenging to recommend annotate and recommed based on appeal factors.
On to Week 3!

Assignments

Read the Appeals article.

Posted my Appeals titles.

Sent one recommendation to a friend. I had trouble with this. My first post disappeared into the netherworld. I tried again and it seems to have been successful.
Some direction on what to choose from the pulldown menu would have been helpful. I chose the Google post link but it didn't work the first time. The second attempt took the post but I had to enter security words to "prove I wasn't a robot."

Appeal factors assignment

Donna Leon's latest title, The Golden Egg features her popular character Commissario Brunetti. In this title Guido is touched by the death of a man he knew only by sight. His detective work uncovers a sad tale of scandal and abuse. I recommend this series to readers who enjoy:

strong, individualized characters - Brunetti, his family and his work colleagues each have unique personality traits. Readers who follow the series look forward to Chiara's(Brunetti's daughter)latest ethical stance and the continuing mystery of Signorina Elettra and her amazing research skills that can uncover whatever detail Brunetti needs to solve his case.

steady pacing - Leon's stories move like the canals of Venice - steady and sure. The action may diverge to a side issue but there is always linear movement toward the solution of the mystery.


setting - Venice is the city in which the story takes place. The atmosphere is conveyed by the description of the architecture, the narrow streets and of course the canals. Even readers who have not visited Venice will feel they have been transported.

detail - followers of the series look forward to the descriptions of Paola's lovingly prepared meals and the family routines. The mystery itself always involves an unfolding solution that is exposed like an onion skin - layer by layer.

I enjoyed The Dinner by Koch. Two brothers and their wives meet for dinner at a ritzy restaurant in Amsterdam. One brother is a politician - the other, a former teacher who is no longer employed for mysterious reasons. They meet to discuss an incident involving their teenage sons.
I would recommend this title to customers who like:

strong characters - each of the characters is unique and the author exposes them through their actions rather than through physical descriptions.

setting - the action takes place over a short period of time in a restaurant. It is described to illustrate the ambiance of a 5 star dining venue.

detail - table settings in the restaurant, clothing of the characters serve to draw the reader into the story.

tone - there is a tension throughout the book. The reader knows things are not as they appear. Characters are not open but yet not fully exposed. The reader feels that something explosive is going to happen yet is never sure of what it is until the end.

OOPS!

OK- I didn't read the assignment correctly - speedreading is not always a good thing.

So, here are the genre sites I'll follow:

Mystery Readers International and Stop, You're Killing Me. I read lots of mysteries of various types. I really don't need more suggestions but I can't resist a new mystery so I'll use the sites to find authors I don't already follow.

I'll be following the following book review sites:

Goodreads - because I already use it.
Early Words - because it's not one I'm familiar with and I want to try something different.

Be More Bookish

It's not possible that I could be more bookish but I'll try!