Week Three - assignments

Neal Wyatt's clear, informative Novelist article on the RA Conversation was enlightening. I especially found value in two things: how important it is to listen to the customer; and how little needs to be said. Listening to the customer also entails extracting as much as possible from a potentially taciturn reader. However, using the techniques she recommends can engender great relationships with readers, or even simply create one singular instance between librarian and customer.

Nancy Pearl is always enjoyable to hear due to her obvious love of books and the desire to match readers with books. What I like about her choices on this podcast is that they are not the most obvious selections. She is also not afraid to suggest genre selections as well as more literary titles. Her familiarity with each is important to note - you cannot fake your way through RA. She probably spends a bit more time speaking about books than many librarians in the trenches actually have, but cultivating relationships with readers is very important to keep them coming back.

Conversation 1 (Eat Pray Love) had me thinking a lot about travel memoirs, a favorite genre of mine. It helps that I'm the selector who buys them for the library system! The first book that came to my mind, due to her enjoyment of Elizabeth Gilbert's inner thoughts, is Tales of a Female Nomad, by Rita Golden Gelman. We featured this book in a Genre Boot Camp a few years ago, and I think it would be a great match for a person who enjoyed Eat Pray Love for the reasons stated in the conversation. I might also recommend Bill Bryson's works, especially In a Sunburned Country, which informs the reader not only of his Down Under experiences, but of Australia's history, geography, and people.

Conversation 2 (Something vampiry other than Twilight) made me instantly think of Annette Curtis Klause's classic teen vampire tale Blood and Chocolate. A very different take on the vampire genre than the Twilight series and the numerous variations/knockoffs that followed.

Conversation 3 (Something like The River of Doubt) prompted me to consider a number of presidential histories. The first that came to mind was Destiny of the Republic (by the same author, Candice Millard, as The River of Doubt), about the short, ill-fated presidency of James Garfield. Beyond that, I also thought of Edmund Morris' biography of Teddy Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, and also Nathaniel Philbrick's books

Week Two - assignments

The Neal Wyatt article was a great refresher on appeals characteristics and the many variations of them.

Two books I've read and enjoyed lately are:

Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard, by Annette LeBlanc Cate, is a primer for elementary and middle-grade naturalists interested in the feathered friends who live in and around us every day. The tone is informative while also very humorous and light. The funny illustrations and handwritten text make for a breezy introduction to ornithology. A reader may not even realize how many facts she learns and how many birds he will recognize after finishing the book. Emphasizing journaling and sketching, this book may also appeal to young artists.

After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story, by Michael Hainey, is a literary true crime/memoir that includes many mysterious elements. In clipped prose and short, slice-of-life chapters, the author evokes a Chicago of what seems to be another era, though in fact is not so very long ago. Word choice and turns of phrase keep the reader entranced as the story of what actually happened to Hainey's father unfolds. Heartbreaking but also life-affirming, this could appeal to the many fans of affliction memoirs.





I suggested read alikes to Justin H. and to Julie B. for their reads of Divergent and Charms for the Easy Life, respectively.