Week 9

Assignment 1

Two articles didn't seem to be very excited about book trailers, neither did the authors involved.

Assignment 2

Not much difference that I can tell between a written summary and the book trailer, of course, the video.  As a reader, I would much prefer to read about the book and not necessarily see the author or even less appealing, an actor, trying to promote the book.  Perhaps this will be more important as the generation who are now definitely on You Tube become more interested in the book trailers.


In Summary,

I found parts of these assignments to be new and enlightening to me.  However, there were parts that were very well-known to me and most likely most people in this field that I found a bit repetitous.  For the most part, it was a worthwhile experience being exposed to different ways to advise our readers.

Assignment 4

Breaking Night by Liz Murray is her story of struggle to overcome many obstacles in her life.  It does have a happy ending and would appeal to those readers who enjoy feel good endings.

Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly would appeal to students of history and those who enjoy reading historical fiction.

Assignment 3

One book that fiction readers would enjoy is a biography of Liz Murray entitled Breaking Night.  This of course, is in our biography section and would be of interest to anyone who enjoys a "feel good happy ending".  The story is very inspirational.

Another genre is history in the 973's.  A book I would recommend for those who enjoy historical fiction would be Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly.  Definitely reads like fiction, but based in fact.

The third genre I chose is faith.  Located in the 133's, I would recommend Law of Attraction expecially for those interested in self help reading.

Finally an ultimate medical genre in the 616's is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skoot.  Anyone interested in medical ethics as Robin Cook, would like this book.

Assignment 2

Some of the information about nonfiction reading pretty common sense.  However, it was interesting to view the categories of nonfiction in much the same way as fiction.

Week 8
Assignment 1
Read the two articles.  I found I totally agree with the suggestion that people who read fiction can be interested in narrative nonfiction if introduced by the many factors stated in the articles.

Assignment 4

Checked out Little, Brown and discovered that they are promoting Finishing School.  Sounds a bit different from some of the trends today.  Also looked at Penguin Teen.  Found it interesting that they link to what they call miniwebsites, which are websites which are devoted to each individual book.

Assignment 3

Looked at School Library Journal.  Although they are seasonal, they are still folowing some books over the summer.  Also checked out Teen Reads and was able to see some of the new books that are coming out.

Week 7

Assignment 1

Intersting flow chart.  Makes it esay to recommend.

Assignment 2

No surprise that YA literature crosses over to all ages.  We enjoy reading the stories and of course, now some popular authors are now writing for that genre.

Assignment 3

I'm not completely sure I could find fan websites for the folowing three subgenres Cyberpunk, Steampunk and Dystopia, however, I was able to research them and gather information through websites that follow that subgenre.   Cyberpunk had a website called Cyberpunk Project that had an informational database.  I believe some of the books that were on this database were as follows; Count Zero, Agrippa and Mona Lisa.  Not knowing much about this subgenre, I would imagine that these books would be relating to cyber  travel.  The Steampunk website that I discovered was called Steampunk Workshop and linked to a website called Coilhouse that appears to be a worldwide website for followers of Steampunk.  Another was Porkpie Hatters, interesting.  Some of the titles promoted were OSAMA, Warm Bodies and The Hollow City.  The third subgenre I researched was Dystopia.  This one was much more familiar to me.  It deals with oppressive societies, some set in the future.  With the popularity of The Hunger Game series and the somewhat older, but now classic 1984 and Brave New World, this subgenre was much easier for me to understand.  I found it very interesting that these were all subgenres of Romance.

Assignment 2

Prezi Link was most interesting to follow, particularly when I discovered that romance also covered a religious sub-genre.

Week 6

Assignment 1

I have been following RT, as I stated previously, because it is a genre, I thought was unfamilliar to me.  However, I discovered that because of the crossover with historical fiction that it is not that unfamiliar. Therefore, I learned that it isn't all the books that I believed were strictly romance.  Also I discovered that followers of RT have great parties!

Assignment 3

Some of the books that were on Early Word that seemed very interesting were Real Santini by Pat Conroy.  This is the nonfiction account that parallels the fictional The Great Santini. For those Pat Conroy fans, it will be interesting to read the factual account about growing up with an abusive parent as opposed to the fictionalized version.  Another poplular author who generally writes for adults is Lisa Lutz.  She seems to use the same type of humor in her Spellman series for the children's book, How to Negotiate Everything.  This should be fun to read.  The other two that, I found interesting were We Need New Names, by NoViolet Bulawayo.  This one deals with the very heavy subject of child abduction and disappearance.  Then the book S.H.I.E.L.D which will be launched in time for the TV show

Week 5
Assignment 2

Most of our customers opt for the NYT best seller list which always seems to include James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Nora Roberts, etc.  In other words the very prolific, popular authors.  Since that is the case, we try to follow that list and others on our website that show what will be the newest published by those authors.  I have not, in my imited experience found that customers would prefer to read a book before the movie comes out.  I have found that they either ask specifically for the movie, or book or audio.

Week 5
Assignment 1
After following RT, mostly because I was not familiar with romance books, I learned that it isn't all the books that I believed were strictly romance.  There is a fair amount of crossover with historical fiction.  Also I discovered that followers of RT have great parties!

Week 4

Learned more about navigating through Goodreads.  I often use their website for recommendations.  I have also included as friends several colleagues and also recommended to Melanie D a childrens' book entitled The Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas that I thougth she might enjoy given that she is currently reading childres' literature/

Week 4
This is an easy one as I have joined Goodreads several years ago!

Finished week 3!

Week 3

Conversation 3

This reader might enjoy the two fairly new books by Bill O'Reilly Killling Lincoln and Killing Kennedy.  Although they do not have any murders, they tell us some important times in the lives of these two presidents. They are full of historical events that many of us already know, but do not have the same insight that O'Reilly lends to the story.

Week 3

Conversation 2

I would recommend The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.  It is written more on an adult level.  this book is the first in a series of vampire books by Anne Rice.  Almost one of the orignal books that fascinated people about vampires.

Week 3  Assignment 3

First suggestion.

The customer enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love about a strong woman's adventure.  Another book worth reading is Breaking Night  by Liz Murray.  Also a non-fiction book about a woman's journey.  Her journey is also one about finding answers.  However, it is a journey through the difficulties of life.  An amazing story that keeps you wanting to find out exactly how she survives.

Some book club suggestions:
Snowflower and the Secret Fan  Lisa See
Also a book about strong women and their journey through life.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Jamie Ford
A "bitter sweet" story about a love affair which takes places during and beyond the internment of Japanese Americans during World War2.

Week 3  Assignment 2

Nancy Pearl is able to give an enormous amount of information about a book in a very short period of time.  I wanted to read each one of the books she suggested!  I was also interested in the information about reprinting of books and the role that Amazon can play.

Week 3

Read Neal Wyatt's article.  It is pretty much what we already do to assist readers in finding books.

Made suggestions for books she might like to Kim B.

Was able to complete all assignments in Week 2.  So far so good!

Books I have enjoyed.

One of those books I have recently read is Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly  Of course, it is easy to understand how a book that is non-fiction would be a learning experience.  Not being a true history buff, particularly about war, I discovered that the language of a non-fiction book can be just as compelling a read as historical fiction which is my genre of choice.  The setting was well-known, but the details were from a different point of view and quite interesting to me.

The second book, one of my favorites, is The Last Chinese Chef. by Nicole Mones  This book, although fiction, had a great deal of learning experience for me as well. Lots of us enjoy Chinese food, but what true Chinese cooking is all about was a revelation to me.  I enjoyed many aspects of this novel which included the setting, China, the tone, a love story of all things, and of course the detail about Chinese cooking including recipes.

Onto Week 2

Week 2 Assignment 1  read about the appeal factors of books

Week 1

Finished week one.  What's next?

Week 1 assignment 2

Never realized , but of course it's very true, how very important a cover is!

Week 1 assignment 1

Missed a few but some were very recognizable.

Week 1 assignment 4

Decide to follow Early Word.   I thought at first it might be about children's book in particular.  However I discovered that there are other kinds,but I would still like to revisit kiddie lit.  I chose Romance Genre and looked at RT Book Reviews.  My reasoning for this genre, believe it or not, is because it is something I do not read, do not really enjoy, but find that a great many customers do.

Too little time and too much to read!