Week 9

The Chicago Tribune article started off by covering all the bases and managed to strike out at the bottom of the ninth by suggesting the Silicon Valley could magically change the paradigm. Book trailers much like movie trailers manage to give away all the funny lines and big explosions; one just has a drastically higher production budget.  I do not see a startup sinking vast quantities of money into book trailer production as one would first need to convince publishing companies to part with far too much money with no guaranteed return.

I would like to stress that celebrity endorsements in video forum are not book trailers; they are endorsements in video format. As an author of memoirs, Mary Karr is at ease with her own voice for storytelling; something that may not translate well with all fiction authors. Trailers should be avoided in RA as most are more likely to turn readers away due to the cringe worthy nature of the production value; which leads me to me next conclusion, the only way I see a book trailer going viral would be because of the train-wreck effect. Publishers should not be focusing on reviving the corpse that is a book trailer but rather focus on what actually draws in readers: i.e. clips of author interviews, endorsements from established authors, book tours, Oprah and good storytelling.

             This training has shifted the way I view genre, prior to Bookish I thought of genre in a broader scope.  The Fiction Genre Follow Chart neatly laid out many sub-genres I had not considered or given much thought to in the past. However; after using the Reader’s Services Conversation in practice I feel like I would be able to add a few more to the chart.  Additionally, reading the other camper’s entries specifically in weeks two, three, four and eight has allowed me to view the conversation from various perspectives, tastes and reading histories. I found that to be extremely helpful.

Week 8: Non-Fiction

Crime

362 Social welfare Problems & Service (Lucky)

364 Criminology (Black Mass)

932 Ancient History (The Murder of King Tut: the Plot to Kill the Child King)

975 General History of North America (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)

Essays

081 General Collections American (Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World)

211 Concepts of God (Honest Doubt: Essays on Atheism in a Believing Society)

814 Essays (Consider the Lobster)

824 English Essays (Facing Unpleasant Facts)

940 General History of Europe (The Summer the Archduke Died)

974 General History of North America Northeastern US (The Wordy Shipmates)

Disaster

796 Athletic & Outdoor Sports & Games (Between a Rock and a Hard Place)

797 Aquatic & Air Sports (Fatal Depth)

910 Geography & Travel (Overboard!)

919 Other Areas (The Lost Men)

974 General History of North America Northeastern US (The Johnstown Flood)

979 General History of North American Great Basin & Pacific Slope (The White Cascade)

Adventure

385 Railroad Transportation (Nothing like it in the World)

940 General History of Europe (Lost in Shangri-la)

979 General History of North American Great Basin & Pacific Slope (On the Burning Edge)

Book Talk

The Johnstown Flood

            Author David McCullough leads the reader down the tragically preventable path that led up to the Johnstown flood. McCullough spares no detail describing the greed and lack of accountability in the Glidden age while acquainting the reader with the victims, survivors and the villains. McCullough’s account of the flood will interest any history buff and should be required reading for law students in order humanize the need for the strict liability standard.

Black Mass

            Lehr and O’Neill’s Black Mass reads more like a best seller crime thriller than a true rendering of organized crime and corruption. Chapter by chapter they strip away any illusions some might harbor regarding Whitey’s character and bring to light the suffering of his victims and their families.

Week 7: Teens

YA readers are clearly not ready to put down their apocalyptic novels anytime soon even if the editors are ready for a small ray of sunshine. It is understandable that younger readers relate to an oppressive environment, i.e. zero tolerance school policies.  In conjunction, Who’s Buying Teen Books and YA Comes of Age point to a depressing trend reflective of a country involved in long war and recovering from a recession. I tend to hesitate that YA has truly become exponentially more popular as I imagine the aforementioned factors make the waste world and boppressive environments more relatable to a wider audience.


Shannon Hall’s blog is clearly intended for the school administrations, teachers, librarians (when school’s employ one) and PTA members. Between encouraging schools to employ a fully qualified librarian/school media specialist and promoting her school assembly credentials she takes aim at school administers evoking the belief that boys cannot enjoy a story written with a female protagonist by a female. I hope more principals check out her blog before booking YA authors to speak at their schools and take note of the little boy that was too embarrassed to admit to reading about a ninja princess in front of his peers. Gender bias is not limited to YA books, it is embedded in our society, i.e. Ronald Moore defending his love of the Outlander series as a male. I imagine these posts have increased her page views but not necessarily her popularity.  John Green Books blog reminds the page viewer immediately that he is a New York Times Best Selling author.  He site targets his audience with book scroll on the left and by vlogging not blogging. Which also happens to be a great way to share the trailer to his cinematized book with his audience.


 The teen harlequin page appears to be an entire publishing company dedicated to finding the next Twilight mega success, while using the same plot devices and language found in the company’s books written for adults. A brilliant marketing strategy to bring lifetime readers to the brand. The Harper Collins teen website seems to be more focused on the suspense teen thriller, obviously brought on by the success of the Pretty Little Lairs series. Harper still have a few fantasy novels sprinkled into the mix owning to their success as well. The obvious trend in teen publishing, milk it for all it’s worth.

Week Six

Sword & Sorcery Fantasy: Most readers enjoy this genre for the complex word building while enjoying the occasional battle of steal or spell.
1.      Tigana by Guy Gabriel Kay
2.      The Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett
3.      The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
   
Paranormal Romance: This genre is known for taking the standard romance plot and shaking things up with magic and sorcery.
1.      A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
2.      Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair
3.      Grave Witch by Kalayana Price

Medical Thriller: Readers of this genre have a natural immunity to fear of global plagues. Often times it feels as if the author takes a CDC guide book and adds some back story.
1.      The Fifth Vial by Michael Palmer
2.      Outbreak by Robin Cook
3.      Harvest by Tess Gerritsen

Cross Overs:

Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler (Paranormal Romance & Dystopia Science Fiction)
             The reader follows, Lilith and her offspring after she is rescued by a species interested in trade with the survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Genetic trade. Humans are genetically altered to be bread in bonded groups to give their offspring a chance of overcoming the basic flaw out hierarchal nature, which destroyed the species once. Butler forces the reader to not only reflect on humanities’ flaws but challenges the reader to reassess the foundations of family, love and loyalty.

Hello to the Cannibals by Richard Bausch (Realist Literary & Anthropology Mysteries)
             This novel follows two women over 100 years apart. As Lily researchs the historical figure Mary Kingsley she must deal with her own fears and gradual realization about the man she has married and her aspirations. Bausch weaves the two stories together allowing the reader to discovery Kingsley’s travels along with Lilly. Each women is restricted and belittled by their own families either by birth or choice. A lesser author would not have been able to strike a balance weaving together time and theme.

Week 5: Building Base Knowledge Continued

Assignment 1: Follow Up

                I despise the USA Todays’ Happily Ever After blog. Specifically, I find the layout with one third of the page devoted to Twitter to be poorly contrived. I find everything about this format distracting. It would probably function better on a smart phone. Perhaps if the Twitter was on a sidebar scroll it would not be so brightly distracting.  The actual content is useful in term of reader’s advisory; however, when I went to recommend a few books that looked good BCPL did not have a copy.  

NPR’s top seller lists are wicked useful especially if they link to an interview for reader’s advisory.  I find myself more comfortable recommending books on the list if I have heard an author interview or a review. The other day a patron was looking for a good spy novel and I was able to recommend an author he had not tried and the wait list for The Billion Dollar Spy. Which he said I had him at the "true story of a CIA source in soviet Russia".

 Assignment 2: Early Word

             One of the in demand authors at Randallstown is James Patterson while the in demand genre is Urban Fiction. Many of the summer readers tend to lean towards How to Train Your Dragon or other stories with a fantastical elements.  After pursuing Early Word I think I will use the downloadable Best Seller list from the past two years to make recommendations for books on the shelf in Randallstown as we tend to not have many of the new in demand items on shelf. This way I can recommend a similar title the patron might have overlooked while the book is shipped from another branch. I spot checked ten random books from the 2014 list and six were on the self in branch.  I like that you can download an excel table to sort by author, title or genre. This is by far the most usefully feature I have found.

 Assignment 3: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

            Toni Morrison called this book “required reading.” Coates will appeal to many readers not just as a local, but as a local that has written a series of timely letters to his son explaining his own history dealing with racism in America and systemic racism built into many facets of society. His work is insightful yet blunt. A style that should appeal to many readers. The author was recently interview by John Stewart on The Daily Show.

 

Week Four: Goodreads

Thoughts on Goodreads:

The Goodreads recommendations based on my shelves and to read list resulted in many not very appealing recommendations. Based on my fondness for Octavia Butler it recommended I read the African Immortals series which based on the title covers one of the few sci-fi areas I do not enjoy, i.e. rituals leading to never ending life. After spending some time exploring and updating my shelves, the generated recommendations did not improve. It seemed it got better selecting books I had no interest in reading. I have never used Goodreads to recommend books previously. I had seen the generated recommendations but failed to notice the function to recommend books to other people. A very big oversight on my part.

The Wonder Bread Summer by Jessica Anya Blau
Recommended to M'Lissa

I thought you might enjoy this book as you rated one of Blau’s earlier works as a three star book.  The Wonder Bread Summer is her third novel and the author has clearly hit her stride. The pace is much faster, the plot unpredictable and the humor is darker.  Just as a bonus the main character’s name is Alice as she too has fallen down the rabbit hole.

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Prison by Malika Oufkir
Recommended to Brenda

I thought you would enjoy this book to the degree anyone can enjoy a book detailing the torture and imprisonment of a family. As an avid reader of biographies and psychology you will appreciate the strength of author who manages to detail her imprisonment with as much clarity as her privileged up- bring. While the story is dark it manages to be insightful and illustrates the very real impact of humanitarian missions.

Week Three

Conversation I

The phrases that stuck out most were: draws me in, reflective but funny and inner thought. I would recommend Yes Please by Amy Poehler. This reader seems like she will enjoy another book by an interesting brave women with great divorce tips.

Conversation II

From this brief interaction I took away their hatred for the angst of teen drama.  I would recommend Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford. It is the first story in a trilogy that follows Vampire Jane Fairfax, former human Jane Austen, as she runs a book store in small town unable to collect royalist from her novels and all the tied in merchandise.  Where Twilight was all teen angst; Jane’s vampire tale is told from a comedic and insightful view.

Conversation III

The reader clearly wants to read another fast paced suspenseful adventure true story.  This reader will definitely enjoy The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk by Jennifer Niven. It also chronicles a lesser known historical adventure. Captain Robert Bartlett, who happened to be an ice breaker for Robert Perry’s successful trip to the North Pole, who must save his crew and the scientific staff from certain death once the Karluk is trapped in the ice. And did I mention one of the crew members was traveling under an assumed name most likely to cover up his murderous past. Where the landscape is barren and sparse the author weaves detail upon detail creating chilling scenes.