Week 4: Building Base Knowledge

I joined Goodreads in February of this year, but then just let it sit idle.  This training has reintroduced me to Goodreads and challenged me to make it a part of my life with books!  I now have the app on my phone, and just this past weekend I was out of town with friends and when the conversation came around to talking about what we were reading and book recommendations, I was able to just add titles to my “Want to read” bookshelf from my phone during the conversation. Love this feature, and so easy!

For this assignment I added and rated a few past reads to my account, not in any particular order, and then started to add bookshelves.  I like the fact that you can select any category for your bookshelves and do not have to choose from a pre-selected list.   As I was looking around in other friends accounts, I noticed that one of my colleagues created the bookshelf categories of “read in childhood”, “read in high school”, “read in college” etc., I thought that was a cool and interesting way to categorize titles.

For my friend Beth, who is currently reading and enjoying “The Cartel”, I am going to go out on a limb and recommend the nonfiction book “American Pain: how a young felon and his ring of doctors unleashed America's deadliest drug epidemic” by John Temple.  This is a compelling story that chronicles the rise and fall of a Florida pill mill and how it helped tip the nation into its current opioid crisis, the deadliest drug epidemic in American history.

For my friend Kelsey, I see from her bookshelves that she enjoys reading memoirs and nonfiction.  Since she enjoyed the book “The Impossible Rescue”, I am recommending, “The finest hours: the true story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s most daring sea rescue” by Mike Tougias and Casey Sherman. It is the story of a dramatic and heroic sea rescue by the U.S. Coast Guard of the crew of two oil tankers ripped in half by a violent nor’easter off the coast of Cape Cod in the winter of 1952.  

Week 3: The Readers' Services Conversation

Customer #1

Customer: I’m looking for a good story, you know, something that draws me in. But I don’t know where to start looking.

Librarian: What was the last book you read? Could you share something you liked about it?

Customer: The last book I read was Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Everyone is reading it so I had to pick it up. It was lovely. She is such an interesting woman and so brave. I enjoyed the descriptions of the countries she went to and what she did while she was there, of course, but I think what I liked most was how she shared her inner thoughts — so reflective but funny too. I thought it might be just light fluff or all me, me, me, me, but it was so much more than that. I read all the Oprah books and just love them. Anyway I wanted to ask you for a few suggestions for my book group. It’s my turn to pick the title.

What stands out to me in the customer’s responses are the phrases ...“She is such an interesting woman and so brave” and “what I liked most was how she shared her inner thoughts”.  Based on these comments and the fact that she is looking for a book club title, I would recommend “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, another book adapted to the big screen.  Like “Eat, Pray, Love” it is an inspiring and descriptive memoir of a brave and independent woman seeking clarity and direction after a difficult period in her personal life. Her quest leads her to the decision to hike the entire length of the Pacific Crest trail, solo. It is written in an engaging and reflective style that will draw you into her journey.   

Customer #2

Customer: Can you recommend any vampire books that are nothing like the Twilight series?

Librarian: Let me see how I can help you. What don’t you like about Twilight?

Customer: Everything, but especially that teen love story – way too much angst! And way too slow.  Have you read any good vampire stories lately?

This is a great example of a circumstance when a customer is asking for a recommendation in a genre that you may completely unfamiliar with.  I have not read the Twilight series, although I have seen a couple of the films in the series.  In this situation, I would tell the customer that I don’t personally know of any vampire books to recommend of off the top my head, but that there is a great tool that we can use to generate some recommended titles.  Together with the customer, I would demonstrate how to utilize the Novelist Plus database through our website, the subject search features of our catalog and maybe Goodreads if they show interest.  I would plug in “Adult” fiction books with a subject of vampires, that are fast-paced and engaging.  I would sort based on popularity as a start.  

Scrolling through the generated list I would ask the customer if they have read any of the popular Sookie Stackhouse series books by Charlaine Harris.  Other possibilities are Anne Rice’s series, “The Vampire Chronicles” and the “All Souls Trilogy” by Deborah Harkness.  Customers are usually thrilled to find out how to use search features that they can then take advantage of from home or on their smartphone.   

Customer #3

Librarian:  Hi, are you looking for anything in particular?

Customer: I just read this great book The River of Doubt.  It was about Teddy Roosevelt and this ill fated expedition to chart an uncharted river in the Amazon.  They lost almost all their provisions, the president was injured, and it turns out one of their crew was a murderer since there was a murder.  And the most amazing thing was that it true.  It was fascinating and really fast paced.  Do you have anything to recommend that is like that?

I also really enjoyed “The River of Doubt”.  I would suggest “The Perfect Storm” by Sebastian Junger, another fast-paced adventure story that tells the dramatic account of a commercial fishing vessel that gets caught in the “Storm of the Century” off of the coast of Nova Scotia.  Other non-fiction books that may interest the reader due to thier richly detailed and compelling tales are “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer and “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand.  

If the customer was open to a fast-paced, character driven book of fiction that takes place in the Amazon, I would suggest “State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett for it’s sense of place and adventure.  

Week 2: Appeal Factors

I have a lot of catching up to do!

This assignment was a real struggle for me.  I found the article to be very informative, and I learned a lot.  However, I feel this assignment would be better suited for later in the training, especially for those of us who are just learning about how to describe books using appeal factors.  With that said, this is my best shot...

I love to cook, driven by my love of enjoying good food! It is pure bliss to me to browse the pages of a cookbook.  The good ones take you on a journey and aim to educate and inspire the reader, without being complicated.  Lucie L. Snodgrass does just that in the book "Dishing Up Maryland: 150 recipes from the Alleghenies to the Chesapeake Bay".

Snodgrass celebrates the diversity of Maryland food with 150 recipes organized by season, each chapter contains not only delicious recipes featuring local ingredients, but include stories, told in rich detail, of local farmers, waterman, chefs and restaurants throughout the state. The book includes the expected crab and rockfish recipes, but Snodgrass wants the reader to know that there is much more to Maryland cuisine than seafood-such as bison, cheeses, grapes, figs, vinegars and wines, to name a few. And she wants you to get out and explore and taste all that Maryland has to offer! Full of beautiful photos and a helpful list of resources, Dishing Up Maryland will surely inspire you to search out and support local farmers and waterman, cook seasonally and to prepare delicious, fresh food!

I'm sure everyone has seen the cover of the BC Reads Young Adult novel "All American Boys", co-authored by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely.  The story revolves around Rashad and Quinn, two typical 16-year old high school students, one black and one white, whose lives are forever changed in the moment when Rashad becomes an innocent victim of police brutality and Quinn witnesses the brutal beating, which comes at the hands of a cop who happens to be the brother of his best friend as well as a close family friend. 

This character-driven, fast paced story unfolds in a time span of one week.  Alternating chapters present the unique perspectives of each boy, told in a compelling and authentic first-person narrative, which highlights the struggles and emotions of each teen as they try to understand what happened and why.  Which leads them to question who they are, what they believer in and what they are willing to stand up for.  This story will stay with you long after the last page.