I'm finished!

I enjoyed the work, the sessions definitely taught me a lot about Reader's Advisory. To be honest, I am not a fan of online learning or trainings; to me, it is at your own pace and becomes lax. With a interactive group discussion and training would be better.


I would recommend having a meeting halfway through to discuss the sessions face to face and a meeting for the last session as well and also to throw opinions and different insights of the trainings, and not just reading everyone's reviews online.


But it was great!

Book Trailers (week #9)

This is my first time hearing about book trailers actually being a thing so I had no expectations when looking for some YouTube, but I was presently surprised at how captivating they were. Some are done by libraries, while others are made by the book publishing media outlets. I honestly think they are an awesome way to promote books. The book trailers remind me of TV show trailers, adding to the drama of the book which hooks the reader, and also gives an example of the imagination by adding the visual of the book.

week #8 part 4: Recommending Non-fiction

Wild by Cheryl Strayed is a memoir of a woman who takes a 1100-mile solo hike who loses everything, and through her adventure, she becomes herself again. This book is pretty popular because it just became a movie last year. It has an inspiring tone and a descriptive and lyrical writing style which is relative to travel fiction.


The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a well-told story of the events taken during the building and events of the Worlds Fair which took place in Chicago, circa1893. Larson depicts the true life events of Daniel H. Burham, who was the architect of the Worlds Fair, and of Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who used the Worlds Fair to lure victims. This book is very engaging and has a suspenseful and disturbing tone. It is very detailed and gritted. I would recommend this book to anyone that reads true crime or murder mystery fiction.

week #8 part 3: Nonfiction Genres

The four non-fiction genres that I find narrative styles in are History (940), Crime (364), Travel-Adventure (910-920) and Biographies. Not all bios with narrative styles are in the Biography sections; for example, Yes, Please by Amy Poehler is a American humor nonfiction but it is also an autobiography of American comedian Amy Poehler, and I would recommend to someone that usually reads humor fiction. The Devil in the White City (crime) and Dead Wake (history) are both by Erik Larson but are different genres of non-fiction. He is a great narrative non-fiction, able to tell a factual story with suspense that grabs the reader. For Travel-Adventure, the book that came to mind first was Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Non-fiction isn't boring (week #8)

I'm not a person that rushes to read Non-Fiction to be honest because I have always felt them to be boring and boggled down by facts. However, there are some non-fiction that I have found to be beneficial. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, from reading the two articles about non-fiction, I have come to realize that I have treated non-fiction like a bad child. I never noticed until reading these that during a RA interview with a patron, I default to Fiction. But now, I will start to ask all the patrons' interests, and I might find a non-fiction option that suits their needs.


I think these articles have enlightened me to the fact: non-fiction can be just as enjoyable as fiction. Also, as Catherine Ross suggests in her article, "Reading Non-Fiction for Pleasure...," start thinking about non-fiction in terms of appeal factors which we talked about in week #3. Also, Ross gives the warning of being aware of the nonfiction counterparts of popular fiction genres.
From reading "Borderlands: Crossing between Fiction and Nonfiction in Reader's Advisory,"  Jennifer Brannen stresses that non-fiction and fiction are very interchangeable, and that the appeal factor crosses freely between them.

John Green (week #7 part 3)

So being a part of the Tumblr community myself, I chose to follow John Green's tumblr page. I have not read any of his books, even though he has definitely grown a popular author over the years, especially with A Fault in Our Stars book-turned-movie and Paper Towns soon coming out as a movie.  His tumblr page is for those who like John Green, not just as an author but also as an individual. I think he tries to not only post things that have to do or relate to his books or subjects he covers, he also makes it fun for his viewers. And yes, I do think his tumblr blog is successful!

Trends among YA novels (week #7 part 4)

I think I mentioned this before in my first week #7 post, but by looking at the teen imprint sites, LB Teen and Teens at Random, the trend I see or the trend I see forthcoming is a focus on Science Fiction and Fantasy genre-related books. I am honestly not surprised because as I said before, this whole post-apocalyptic/dystopia (Sci-Fi) craze among YA novels and readers has taken off since the Hunger Games was published. So most books that have anything to deal with after the end of the world or post end of the world societies, those books will be popular. As far as fantasy is concerned, it has always been a reoccurring trend among YA novels.

Also, the YA novels have been pretty dark these past few years, touching on heavy subjects which isn't a bad thing. Teens and Young Adults are exposed and experience a lot more and they are a group that is constantly investigated by older adults.

YA is not just for YA (week #7 part 2)

It's no surprise to me that there are more grown-ups that want to read YA novels. From Harry Potter to Twilight, to the Hunger Games, there has been an increase adults have frequented more YA books in recent years. According to Molly Driscoll, in her article "Whose Buying Teen Books," the appeal of these books might come from the less complex writing style and also these books offer a literary escape from the reality of life and an escape from adult fiction. Most adult novels are very serious and are bogged with complex dramatics and tragedy.

Week #7: Craze about the end of the world

Looking back at the last couple of years, there has definitely been an increase in interest in living in an apocalyptic/dystopian world, and when looking at the flowchart, I was not surprised to see that it was centered around those who have followed the Hunger Games series. The flow chart does a great job of breaking down the different plot devices that can catch a reader's attention (i.e., apocalypse due to an environmental disaster v.s. a war or living under an authoritarian government). Now this specific genre has become more popular because of the Hunger Games series movies and also the Divergent series movies. And also the Maze Runner movie too! Could be pure coincidence that these are becoming popular now or maybe it's a sign?

Subgenres

I am familiar with most of the subgenres on the Prezi link but ones that I am not dying to read I have chosen: magic realism and occult. The authors/titles that are associated with Magic Realism, are any title of Neil Gaiman and any title of Alice Hoffman. These authors are definitely the front runners for Magic Realism. Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicle series are horror writers for sure.

All About the Genres

So remember how we were supposed to choose a genre based website and explore it? And this week we were supposed to discuss our discoveries? Well I did choose Happily Ever After but from how the website was designed, I became disinterested quickly. Over the past few weeks, I forgot about choosing a genre-based website, my bad.


I have picked a new one and it was TOR.com (Fiction Affliction), which is one of the Sci-Fi genre dedicated websites. I chose this one mostly based on website design to be honest. The website is definitely up to date, and posts are as frequent as a couple of hours apart and everyday. They post new releases of books and reviews of them, and excerpts of new books as well.


What caught my attention, were the posts from today, such as "Five Fantasy Novels with Perfect Opening Lines" which breakdowns five novels that will get you hooked with the first sentence. Also, an article called "What Your Favorite Joker Says About You" which talks about the different depictions of the Joker character throughout pop culture and what that joker says about your personality type.

2 of my favorites (from week #2 or #3)

1. Mitch Albom's The Timekeeper is a fast-paced read. Albom, known for capturing details and giving the reader, goes beyond that in this novel. By using an action-adventure and suspenseful storyline, surround the mysteries of time in our lives, Albom successful allows the reader to be immersed in the story. The tone is light and suspenseful, and gives the reader the understanding of time and how humans never have enough time and how we try to control it.


2. Tosca Lee's The Legend of Sheba: Rise of a Queen takes us to a biblical time when a girl inherits her father's wealth and throne and she grows to be a queen of a rich and wealthy, and prosperous land. Further in the book, there is a conflict where she has to decide become allies with the great King Solomon, and must yield her pride to prove her status and wealth of kingdom, and through communications they begin to love each other. Lee's attention to detail of the location ad time through descriptions of clothing, palaces, etc., transports the reader into the backdrop of the biblical history and character development.

I can only say in the past year of reading, I have only enjoyed these two.

Week #5: Ooops..my bad

From choosing Goodreads as my base knowledge source during week #1 assignment, I sort of didn't challenge myself to go out my comfort zone, since I am accustomed to Goodreads. I did explore EarlyWord and will talk about that later in the post. But what I did do was explore Goodreads further and actually search through the groups and browse by category tags (i.e., historical fiction, Sci Fi, etc.) and see what groups are reading my "To-Read" books, or the books I am currently reading. It is a good way to check out recommendations or suggestions of books similar.


According to our stats we got back in June, the most popular author in our branch is James Patterson.


The book I chose from Amazon's Best Books of the Month was The Hand That Feeds You  by A.J. Rich. I think it will appeal to most people because it is a psychological, suspenseful, murder mystery thriller. These type of novels keep readers on the edge of their seats, wanting to happens next and not putting the book down.

Week #4: Loving Goodreads

So I joined Goodreads when I first started working for BCPL (has been a year now), after a bunch of co-workers highly suggested it, and I'm addicted to it. Like most people I add a lot of books to my "To Read" category and I feel like I will never get around to them because there are so many books, but so little time, and when you see more books that you want to read and you just keep adding them to the "To Read" category. It is a frustrating cycle to say the least, but still enjoyable. Until this week's assignment, I never thought to add my own shelves, instead I've only had the "To-Read," "Read," or "Currently Reading" shelves. I just created a "Self Improvement" shelf, a "Historical Fiction" shelf, and a "Dystopian/Apocalypse" shelf.


The one book I recommended to my colleagues at work, and to you if you are reading this, is The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I'm still reading it, and my cousin recommended it to me. It is a book that allows you to self reflect on your present thinking of yourself. It is a personal development book with a spiritual, almost calming tone, but whether you are spiritual or not, Tolle speaks to his audience in the present tense to whatever journey you are on in life.

RA Conversations

Conversation #1
The type of book I would suggest to this patron is a book that is light and witty with a tone of self-discovery and reflective inner-thoughts. Also, a book that most likely has or currently on the best sellers list. I would probably suggest Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail or Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun. 


Conversation #2
The type of book I would suggest to this patron is a book with a vampire story, without a romance or love story, a book with adventure or mystery elements, possibly a vampire/assassin type of book. I would probably suggest Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series.


Conversation #3
The type of book I would suggest to this patron is a thriller-type historical fiction novel with suspense and adventure. That being said, I would suggest Elizabeh Kostova's The Historian or Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale.

Reader's Advisory Reflections

Reflection of RA convo. article
Becoming a librarian in the past month has made me realize that the Reader's Advisory conversation is really important, when interacting with patrons. As Neal Wyatt states in the article, the point is to "connect with the readers" and actively listen to what the patron says about a book they have enjoyed to find other books similar to appeal to their needs. As the weeks go by, I am becoming a better listener to the customers to give better suggestions or alternatives on material.


Reflection on Nancy Pearl
Listening to the podcast of Nancy Pearl, I noticed that she usually spends a max of 3 minutes talking about a book: the plot, the tone the author used, and her personal review and feelings on the book.

The Golden Rules of Readers' Advisory Services

What stuck out to me the most in this article is keeping a reading log. I think I put too much faith in Goodreads, and I know it is a great tool to rate and comment on books; however, it is not a hardcopy, and I'm thinking I should start a Book Diary. Also, I need to venture out of my "comfort zone" genres because I want to be able to look at more genres objectively, and honing in and learning more readers' advisory skills would help me do that!

Week #1: Judge a book by its cover

For the two quizzes, I had high hopes because I figured I spent 3/4 of my life in libraries so I knew I would do pretty well recognizing the covers. Well, I was highly mistaken; the adult fiction cover quiz had me stumped after I guessed only 10 out of 24. After that, I gave up and realized I didn't know the rest. However, for the children quiz, I guessed 13/20 in the first two minutes and felt pretty good; some of them were old covers too. I was kind of mad that I recognized Eragon and just stared at it waiting for the name to come to me, but nothing came to me.

The genre book quiz was pretty easy, and introduced me to more subgenres I would have not have known, and I ended up looking them up after.

Goodreads was an easy pick because, personally, Goodreads has enlightened me to many different picks for different genres I would not normally look at. My problem is that I click the "Want to Read" button and never can find time to read them all. I picked Happy Ever After-USA Today because it appealed to me for the fairy tale reference, I will probably change this choice.

The article about the six-year old guessing what the book covers were was hilarious. Admittedly, I am sure my descriptions would have been similar to hers when I was 6 or even now if I had never encountered those classics.