Week Nine: Book trailers

Assignment Two:

Over the last few years, I may have seen one or two book trailers, and I didn't give them much thought. I don't even recall the titles. I do remember hearing a few adverts on the radio. They didn't have any effect on my reading decisions.

After I read the two articles, I searched through Youtube for a couple of the trailers mentioned in the articles: One for Christopher Hitchen's Hitch-22, and Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story. Surprise, surprise. I now want to read Hitch-22. The trailer was entertaining and funny, and made me want to read the book. I've read some of Mr. Hitchen's columns that were published in Vanity Fair,

and I liked them. I also remember that, when SSTLS was initially published, I had wanted to read it. After viewing the hilarious trailer, I placed it on my Goodreads Want to Read list..I placed Hitch-22 there, too.

I checked out trailers of some current NYT bestsellers.

These books have big publishing houses behind them; hence, a bigger trailer budget, and it shows. These trailers indicate that they have an improvement in design and style since the Chicago Tribune article was written. They're slick, and do a good job of selling the titles.

I think Nina Metz's opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune still rings true. The book trailers are more sophisticated. Some are an entertainment unto themselves, but I don't think they are an effective means to sell a book or to use as a reader's advisory tool. Advertisers have not figured out a way to use multimedia websites to sell books. Book review blogs have joined the old standbys, such as traditional advertising in print, and on websites, book reviews in major publications, and word of mouth. Goodreads' recommendations is more useful advertising than trailers, in my opinion.

Assignment Three:

This is the end. This program did force me to think more about readers' advisory, and to make suggestions by using the appeal factors. Perhaps this was part of the introduction to RA online tools, but I thought that the resources offered titles that were too predictable for anyone wanting to delve deep into a genre. If a reader came up to me and asked for a romance or a mystery, I could ask a few questions to find out where the reader's taste level lies and then find a book to fill that need. ("Are you looking for a soft-edged murder mystery? Try Margaret Truman.

Something a bit harder? Try Ruth Rendell.") But it's too easy to point readers to the familiar. RA becomes challenging with the reader who has read all of Ruth Rendell, P. D. James, Elizabeth George, and wants to try something new. Interestingly enough, I found better titles and authors listed in the Go Further! links that would lead a reader beyond the Rendell/James/George triumvirate.

Week Eight: Non-Fiction

1. Travel  910s History and geography/Geography and travel/Ancient world through extraterrestrial     worlds  Jungle of stone: The true story of two men, their extraordinary journey, and the discovery of the lost civilization of the Maya by William Carlsen

2. History   363 Social Sciences/Social problems and social services/Other social problems The Siege: 68 hours inside the Taj Hotel by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark

3. Contemporary social issues  360s or Biographies Between the world and me by Te-Nehisi Coates

4. Crime  364 Social Sciences/Social problems and social services/Criminology Love's blood by Clark Howard

                                                       The Siege

reads like a fast-paced thriller. It is harrowing, suspenseful, infuriating. It has villains, heroes, heroic deaths and senseless killing. It looks at the victims as well as the perpetrators. It gives a fascinating look at the inner workings of the Mumbai police force, and a look at Indian culture. The book moves from Europe to Pakistan to India, invoking a strong sense of place, along with a map to aid the reader in placing where the characters and concurrent events are taking place.

This is the true story of Islamic terrorists taking over a luxury hotel in Mumbai, India in 2008. It puts the story in context, and looks into the backgrounds of the people who play important roles in the events. It also has photos of the people, as well.

Love's Blood is a true crime story with a fiction-like narrative. The story of the circumstances of what leads up to a savage murder of a family committed by one of the family members is fast-paced and engrossing. With strong characterizations, plot-driven, and horrific acts committed by seemingly normal people, this book appeals to those who like works of fiction that explore the dark side of human nature.

Set in Michigan, the book describes appalling events mixed with the banal. Larger than life events taking place inside a suburb. Also, for those readers who like books that look at the depravity that lies beneath the surface of normality.

cimironology

Week 7: Not Just for Teens

Assignment 2: My thoughts about the articles content: When the Harry Potter and Twilight publication juggernauts dominated American culture, I was surprised that numerous media outlets reported on the amount of adults reading those and other juvenile and YA books. My surprise continued as these types of reports morphed into mainstream adult publications with an adult regularly featuring articles and reviews of juvenile and YA titles. There are offshoots of this phenom: Adult coloring books.

Movies based on comic books. The juvenilization of adulthood is nearing completion, or so it seems. I understand that some of these books, movies, videogames, comics, etc. can be entertaining, and perhaps even have some depth. Well, call me a grouchy old cuss, if you must, but I cannot stop myself from judging people who like to read YA novels. I do attempt to curtail my judgement about all this by reminding myself that this is America. Adults can read or view whatever they choose. Full disclosure: I've watched Captain America  and X-Men movies in the past, up to Winter Soldier and Days of Future Past respectively. I bought a Playstation 3 when it was released, and I religiously played COD, Uncharted, and Bioshock.

Now, I'm both bored and weary of these two activities, and I find myself able to resist the unrelenting hype that comes  with each new release.

Nevertheless, I have to admit I find the adults-liking-kids-stuff somewhat disturbing. Adults seeking out juvenile/YA lit, and not only that, but being proud to do so seems...um, abnormal.










When I hear adults having discourse on cosplay or video games, or talking about Captain America: Civil War as if they were discussing the Malick ouevre

, my patience wears thin.

Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I thought adults were supposed to pursue adult things, not starting reading fiction that is aimed at undeveloped minds...minds that are trying to figure out the world in which we live in. Adults are supposed to help guide them, not join book clubs to discuss A Shade of Vampire.

We don't live in an easy world, and we all have to find ways to cope, but regressing to childish activities? And defiantly proud of it? I don't get it. I don't want to get it. I think I'll sit over here and read my book. An adult wrote it. For adults.

Assignment 3: So! Here are my observations of two YA-centric websites.

Forever Young Adult: For women in their 20s who like to read and drink and don't know who Maureen O'Hara is. .

Squeetus Blog: Oh good god. I can't. I just can't.

Assignment 4: The trends I see, by way of these publishers' websites, is more of the same: Doomed teen stories for a good cry. Fantastic epics. Sci-fi. And realism, with teens coping with dysfunctional families, or death, or the trauma of surviving high school. The gadgets may change, but the stories remain basic, because, I feel teens go through the same drama as I did when I was a kid, but without so many monitors at our disposal. I do know where I will head, though, if I get an RA question about teen lit.

Week Six: Building Base Knowledge (Genres)

Assignment 1: I chose romance. I haven't read any books that could be classified as belonging to the romance genre. I see them, of course, and I know there are a lot of series. I was told of a website, freshfiction.com, a website that features many fiction genres, and also invites readers to become a reviewer for the site. Under each genre are sub-genres. For romance, there are the following: Chick Lit, Contemporary, Historical, Gay, Suspense, Erotic, Time Travel, and Paranormal. Most of the books are part of ongoing series. I noted that most, if not all, of the gay romance are written by women.

I am familiar with the names of the top selling romance writers: Danielle Steele, Nora Roberts, Debbie McComber. They are represented here, but the less known authors get just as much exposure here on this website. So, for any reader, who wants to break the surface of romance novels, the freshfiction website would be a good starting point.

Hold Your Breath is part one of the Search and Rescue series. Many of the romance novels listed are parts of ongoing series.

Assignment 3:

Sub-genre 1: Borough warfare is a sub-genre of urban fiction. These novels typify what I would think all urban fiction novels would contain: Turf wars, usually over drugs, with the protagonist fighting rivals and the police to stay alive. There is violence, sex, and sequels.

The novels are fast-paced, suspenseful,, and invite the reader to identify with the main character, no matter which side of the law he dwells. There are also female-centric versions of these types of tales. The male versions go with titles with "Thug" something or other," while the female-led stories tend to have the word "bitch" in the title.

Sub-genre 2: Military romances have Navy Seals, Special Ops, Green Berets and other of the more glamourous armed forces professions as romantic heroes. The men and woman in this sub-genre are rugged, fit, handsome, resourceful, and totally committed to their jobs. The romantic entanglements

entanglements generally pulls out a sensitive side. The conflicts rise out of commitment to lines of duty and not wanting to give in to emotion while fighting a strong physical attraction. Other conflicts come from the setting itself: War and call of duty has a tendency to get in the way of romance, as well. Just ask Knox McLemore of In Too Deep by Kira Sinclair.

Sub-genre 3: Techno thrillers combine military might, espionage, and suspense to come up with a subgenre. Topical themes involving current or recent global political turmoil, including terrorism, keeps the hero of this novel occupied, enough so that he appears in a slew of sequels.

Military hardware, techno gadgets, and state of the art weaponry along with race-against-the-clock thrills make this sub-genre a must for those who enjoy these elements. Clive Cussler, Len Deighton, W.E.B. Griffin, Robert Ludlum, and, of course, the late Tom Clancy are some of the top names who continue to churn out the fast paced plots.

Week Five: Building base knowledge Part II, Assignments 1-3

Assignments 1-2: Ok, I am so used to checking the sites and blogs that I have come to rely on over the years that I have not checked out EarlyWord or any of the other blogs/sites mentioned in week one. The one exception is Goodreads. The other sites I check out are Library Thing, NYT book reviews, Facebook pages, and various blogs. Library Thing provides its users with free copies of books if the recipient agrees to write a review of it. I also check Amazon bestsellers, as well.

What is popular at my branch? DVDs,

and urban fiction.

I've helped customers in selecting DVDs, and occasionally, with a reference question, but I have not been asked any RA questions, I should point out that I am a part-timer and I have been working here for almost six months.

Assignment 3:

I chose from the Amazon Best of the Month page a novel entitled Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave. I would sell this book by telling readers that it is similar to the bestseller All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Both are works of historical fiction taking in place in Europe during WWII. Both also focuses on characters' plights and reactions to dramatic events that took place during the war: the Nazi occupation of France and the London Blitz. This title would appeal to readers who like fast-paced, suspenseful historical fiction, with strong characterizations and realistic descriptions of the events.The descriptions of locales makes the setting of both these novels very inviting despite the harrowing events that take place within them. 

Week Four: Building Base Knowledge

I started using Goodreads a number of years ago on the suggestion of a friend, but so many life events got in the way (read: video games) that I stopped using it. I decided to take up the Goodreads Reading Challenge in 2015 in which members set a goal of a number of books to be read within a year. I made my goal of 25 books, and, after a shaky start, I completed the challenge. I took up the challenge again this year, which keeps me a bit more active on the site. I using Goodreads to track which books I've read, and which books I plan to read.

As a side note, I read a juvenile book for my job, and I rated it in Goodreads. Now I don't generally read juvenile or YA fiction, and I also like graphic novels. To my dismay, Goodreads, in its wisdom, combined the two and recommended that I read The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, volumes 1 and 2.

Though I have nothing against wealthy waterfowl, Click! Not interested. And I also deleted the juvenile book from my Read shelf. Problem solved.
















For this week's assignment, I recommended And the Mountains Echoed by Khalid Hosseini

 to a colleague because she had read The Kite Runner by the same author.
















And I also recommended The Greatest of Marlys by Lynda Barry to another colleague because she liked Fun Home and she likes books with quirky humor.

Week Three: Readers' Services Conversation

Conversation #1: The reader who loved Eat, Pray, Love.

This reader mentioned that s/he liked the "inner thoughts" expressed in the writing. S/he also said that s/he admired for embarking on a life-changing journey. I recommended Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It: Life Journeys Inspired by the Bestselling Memoir, edited by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Conversation #2: The reader who thirsted for vampire novels

This reader didn't like the Twilight books because of the "angst," which made me think that s/he wanted a more adult vampire story. From my personal reading history, I would recommend Dracula by Bram Stoker

and 'Salems Lot by Stephen King, two classic vampire tales in the horror vein. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice mixes horror and romance but is written for adult readers.

Conversation #3   The reader who wants to be amazed by Amazonian true-life adventures


Two read alikes came to mind: The Lost City of Z by David Grann and King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild.

These read alikes are similar to the book that the reader had enjoyed.

I used my memory and the Internet to find similar books for all three readers. It was pretty easy to find titles that I think that these three readers may like, but in real life, I am sure this would be more of a challenge. But, as the article states, it's more important to get the conversation started.

Second week: Appeals Factor

I read through the material for the Appeals Factor assignment, and I applied the factors to three books that I read recently. As I worked my way through the assignment, I noticed that more than one appeal factor applied to all of my selected books. The three books are The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Changing Tides by Michael Thomas Ford, and Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke.

The Girl on the Train is both a psychological thriller and a character study. The plot revolves around a young woman who, on her daily commuter train ride, suspects a crime involving the people she sees from her seat. Her psychological state complicate her endeavors as she discovers truths about the crime and about herself.

Pacing: The novel is easy to read...it's a page turner. The revelations in the plot are plotted well enough apart, and keep the reading pace brisk.

Characterization: The main character is alcoholic, and whose emotional life is in turmoil. The effects of the alcohol cause her to make bad decisions. These decisions are exasperating both for the other characters and the reader, yet she is treated sympathetically by the author, which, in turn, makes the reader to feel sympathy for her.

Tone: The tone is dark and suspenseful. The main character, because of her drinking problems, suffers from blackouts, and as she slowly discovers what occurred during the blackouts, the seemingly inevitable downbeat ending makes for an intense reading experience.

Story line: The book falls under the dark psychological thriller category, with undertones of mystery.

Genre group: The Girl on the Train would engage the Emotion group because the book's focus is on the main character's thoughts and feelings.

Changing Tides by Michael Thomas Ford is a coming-out story with an unconventional main character in that he is older, has a daughter, and is introverted and awkward in his social interactions. The subplots include the investigation of the provenance of a unpublished manuscript purportedly written by John Steinbeck, and the process and sensation of scuba diving is vividly described.

Story line: A developing romance, and the tensions between a father and his estranged teenage daughter make up the bulk of the plot. The scuba diving portions were well researched, and written graphically enough to give the reader a feeling of what an actual dive would feel like in the real world. Three characters are followed in their separate story lines until they merge towards the conclusion of the book.

Pacing: The reading pace of the book is swift, but the plot develops slowly. The romance doesn't emerge until the second half of the book .

Characterization: The three characters' viewpoints alternate throughout the book so that the reader is exposed to each character's motivations and emotions in conjunction with the other characters are thinking and feeling. The character arc of the three come together at the end of the book as each of their revelations about self cause psychological growth.

Setting: The novel takes place in Monterey, CA. Cannery Row, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Monterey Bay itself are the three major settings, and play major roles within the plot In particular, present-day Cannery Row and the Cannery Row of the past figure prominently in the book. In addition, many of the scenes take place underwater, and these scenes describing the flora and fauna of the sea floor come alive.

Story line: Book is plot driven. There are many references to John Steinbeck's life and his work, and Steinbeck, Steinbeck's work, both real and fictional, provide the motivation for one of the character's story arc.

Genre group: This would appeal to the Emotion group. The book delves heavily into the characters' thought and emotions, their reactions to past events in their lives, and their growing self-awareness and their adaptions to their changing inner and outer lives.

Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke

A lapsed writer, waiting for her husband and relatives on Christmas Day, interacts with her adopted daughter. The interactions become sinister as the daughter's behavior and the mother's actions become increasingly bizarre.

Pacing: Slow but deliberate. 

Characterization: This novel is told in the first person by the mother, whose thoughts and reactions to her daughter's behavior become suspicious and paranoid.

Setting: The story takes place in a suburban house on Christmas Day with frequent flashbacks that take place in Russia. 

Story line: The story line is spare. Character is the most important element in the novel, but the mystery provides psychological dread and interest.

Week One, Assignment Four.




I poked around four of the "Recommended links - Books" sites, which are linked from the Be More Bookish blog. I didn't poke around Goodreads because I use it frequently. I love GR. I can keep track of what I want to read, what I have read, what I'm reading, and I participate in the reading challenge. Plus, it features great graphics of the book covers, especially in the tablet version. Out of the four other sites, I decided to keep tabs on two of them:

I don't like listening to NPR. Something about their hushed tones in conveying the news smacks too much of pretentiousness, and I also do not like having to listen to someone say, "I heard on NPR that blah  blah blah....," which also smacks of pretentious because the person is not just saying that he or she heard something interesting on the radio, that person is announcing his political views, taste in books, movies, music, etc in this roundabout way, like wearing a tshirt or creating a meme. Most people who don't listen to NPR will say something like, "You know, I heard on the radio that blah blah..." But NPRers have this need to announce to the world, or at least to those in the room, that they listen to NPR. Who cares! So, given my vituperative rant, you would think I would not choose to use and peruse the NPR books page, but I love their graphics display of covers of the Best Books of 2015. Incidentally, I only read one of NPR's Best Books of 2015....The Girl on the Train.

                                                          I do have the Two Brothers

graphic novel on my desk, which is also on the list. Enough book reviews are on there to keep me interested, and maybe enough to help me get through Be More Bookish.

I also decided to keep tabs on Early Word, again because I like the graphics, but also because the other two websites are not being updated,  The NPR site was rather sparse, but Early Word has a lot more book blurbs, categories of books, and links for any casual sitting. Still, EW's flashier design is lot more inviting than NPR's site, which is either intentionally minimally designed or neglected. Seems a little strange given that NPR's target demographic seem pretty literate.

OK, assignment four is complete. Onward.