Week Seven Prompt - Celebrity Book Clubs

The celebrity book club that interests me is the one that Emma Watson started, Shared Shelf, I am a huge Harry Potter and Emma Watson fan. When I heard that she was starting a book club focusing on Women’s equality it perked my interest. I think this is a very important topic in today’s society and I think it’s relevant to her work as a UN Women Goodwill ambassador.

Emma Watson’s Feminist Book Club.

The book the Shared Shelf is currently reading.

I don’t think celebrity book clubs are a bad thing, anything that gets people to read is good in my opinion. I think Oprah’s book club was very beneficial to authors and publishers alike and helped revitalize interest in book clubs. I was curious to see what other celebrities have book clubs and found an interesting article from USA Today. I plan on checking many of these out!

I discuss books with my friends and have started sharing what books I am reading on social media as well. I have enjoyed this because it has sparked some conversations about books we have read or want to read. I don’t think just celebrities can promote what they are reading, I think everyone should share what books they have really enjoyed.

Horror Annotation

Author: Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

Title: The Strain

Genre: Horror

Publication Date: June 2, 2009

Number of Pages: 403

Geographical Setting: New York City, New York

Time Period: Present

Series: The Strain Trilogy

Summary: A plane arrives at JFK and as soon as it lands everything goes black. A doctor from the CDC that investigates biological threats finds all but four people aboard the plane dead from no apparent cause. In less than 24 hours the bodies of the deceased are missing and the city is faced with a vampiric virus that could destroy life as we know it. Will a former professor that survived the Holocaust be able to help stop the spread of the virus before it's too late?

Characteristics of Horror Genre: The book contains a creepy and suspenseful tone throughout the story and the ending is unresolved, both classic features of the horror genre. The monsters in this story are of a supernatural nature, however; the author provides a scientific explanation to make the story more plausible in today's society. The protagonist of the story is flawed, but I think this makes him more realistic and relatable for the reader. The author uses language that allows the reader to vividly picture the vampires and the danger they pose. At the end of the book the Master gets away and the reader is introduced to another group of vampires, making the reader continue with the next book in the series to get closure.

Read-A-likes:

Fiction: These books will appeal to someone that enjoyed The Strain. They feature vampires, viruses and the potential end of the world.

Nonfiction: The books address the folklore and myths surrounding vampires.

Week 6 Prompt

I would like to promote our zombie horror collection next month, I have some ideas that I am very excited about.

My idea consists of three displays, one by the main entrance, one by the fiction section and a display in the teen section.

The first display would be rather simple and its purpose would be to catch the public’s attention. The display consists of a large green hand made of cardboard and paper holding a Zombies for Dummies book. I would also integrate some of the library’s more popular Zombie movies into this display for patrons to easily check out. This display would go at the main entrance with guidance on where to find more information.

The second display features a poster from Random House highlighting their published Zombie books. This display would be placed in the fiction section with the books we have from the poster out as well for patrons to easily pick up and check out. Zombie memorabilia will make a great addition to this display. I would also post the information from the poster on the library’s social media pages.

This is the poster that I would place in the teen section of the library, I think it will catch their attention. I would place it on an end cap and feature the YA adult Zombie books in the collection to tie it in and provide this list on the library’s social media and make the poster into a bookmark with the books listed on the opposite side.

A couple of programming idea for teens would be to have a showing of one of the recent or classic zombie movies, have a zombie make-up class or a zombie themed book club.

I utilized ideas from Pinterest for this post.

Week Five Prompt

For this week's prompt, I want to start a conversation about the different types of reviews. Different publications review different types of books and they allow different types of conversations. For example, Booklist will not publish negative reviews, while, as you have all seen, Kirkus has no problems with it. Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular (especially in the romance genre) see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author, and then still it's usually only RT Reviews (formally Romantic Times) or other genre heavy publications. How does this affect collection development?

I think this can effect collection development depending on the library's collection development practices. It is my belief that a librarian should consult reviews before purchasing books for the collection. I would personally consult multiple review sources and not base a purchase based on one review. However, Booklist, Kirkus and Library Journal are standards in reviews based on my limited experience, if two of these will not publish a negative review then a librarian can't get a true opinion.

I have posted two more documents in the week five files. One is two reviews of an ebook only romantic suspense novel, one from a blog and one from amazon. Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library? Is this ebook even romantic suspense?

I don't feel either are very reliable reviews. The Amazon review is short and does not give a very good summary.  The blog review gets off topic from the start by including information that is unnecessary and unrelated. Neither review gives any information that leads me to believe it is a suspense. 

The other document contains some reviews of Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, an incredibly popular memoir. These reviews are all from professional publications, feel free to find more on your own I just nabbed a few from the Book Review Digest database for you. How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?

I enjoyed the reviews from Library Journal and School Library Journal, I felt I got more of an overall feel for the book then the others gave me. If I were to just base my purchase on the Kirkus review, I am not sure I would purchase it. The review focuses on sadness and was really depressing leading me to wonder how the book could be enjoyable. The other reviews included information besides just the incredibly sad details and shows how the book can be enjoyable. I feel much more comfortable about adding the book to the collection based on the additional reviews.

Do you think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed to death and other types of books get little to no coverage? How does this affect a library's collection?  And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate? If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources?

I don't think its fair some books get more coverage then others, that being said I would wonder if this is due to the publisher/editor. I think a library would be more likely to have a book that was widely reviewed then a book that was not widely reviewed. I think a does of realism in a review is necessary, some books are not for everyone. If a book is overly descriptive I am less likely to read it if it spends to much time using flowerly language. I use reviews a lot for personal reading, mostly Goodreads, Amazon and blogs.

The Jewel - A Kirkus Style Review

 The Jewel

By: Amy Ewing

Publisher: HarperTeen

Date: September 2, 2014

Series: The Lone City

Violet enters servitude in the Jewel when she is auctioned off as a surrogate to the royalty, but a forbidden love threatens the balance of their whole world.

Violet, born and raised in the marsh, has been raised to be a surrogate since a young age.  It was not by choice that she entered this arrangement, the royals may have wealth but they are unable to have their own children, necessitating another arrangement. Violet is greeted with a slap by the Duchess and soon realizes she will have to fight to survive in this treacherous world full of lies, backstabbing, and violence. One bright light in the Jewel is a hired companion to the Duchess's niece, but he is one thing she can't have. The author does a fabulous job looking at the issue of a caste system and how those relationships work when the people start to realize their importance.

This book will appeal to YA readers that enjoyed The Selection and other Dystopian series.

Secret Shopper Assignment

For this assignment, I went to my local library. I felt comfortable choosing this location because I have not been there recently, my school library has been meeting my needs.

Upon arriving at the library I approached the reference desk, where the reference librarian was sitting.  I told the librarian that I was wanting to try a new genre, horror, something written in the last five years.  Her immediate response was that was not her area and she really didn’t know, but she could show me the paperbacks they had that were horror and they should be more modern.

On the way to the paperback section, she stopped at the circulation desk upon seeing the circulation manager. She told him I was looking for a horror book. He responded with “That’s not my area”, she agreed with him but asked for his assistance. He recommended anything by Stephen King, he is classic horror, try anything that was made into a movie, the older stuff, such as The It, The Stand, The Shining, and Carrie. He did say that he was not a big fan of King because he didn’t like the author’s endings. He also recommended Ray Bradbury and H.P. Lovecraft, both other horror authors.

The reference librarian then showed me to the paperback section and where the Stephen King books were located and told me where I could find the other two authors. I thanked her for her assistance. I checked out Stephen King’s Pet Semetary and book about zombies.

Neither the reference librarian or the circulation manager used the reader’s advisory interview. I believe things could have gone much smoother if either employee had used it. There are no signs in the library encouraging patrons to ask for help finding something to read. I think the library could benefit from adding some signs encouraging patrons to ask for a good book to read, having a Goodreads account for patrons to follow, and possibly posting what they are currently reading in the library. I also believe some training for the employees on NoveList and reader’s advisory interviews would be beneficial.