Week Four: Goodreads!

Yes, yes, and yes! I have had a Goodreads profile for a few years now and find it a handy way to keep track of my reading (if I can remember to post my books!) I have "want to read," "read" (that's past tense), and "to read" shelves. Maybe I should expand the shelves: favorites? by topic?

I made a book recommendation to Andrea S.

I enjoy Goodreads for keeping in touch with friends, and what they are reading, and for exploring new titles. But I probably use it for the social aspect, and personal library diary, more than exploring new titles. The recommendations page has not piqued my interest as much as doing key-word advance searches in NoveList has. I'm not sure what kind of appeal factors they use for that, but then I don't find the "read alike" feature on NoveList appealing for me either. It is a fun site.

But, Goodreads isn't just for keeping lists and searching for books. I "attended" a live webcast with author Susan Cain. It was super! And I was invited simply because I read her book Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking, which is very good BTW. I intend to explore this aspect of Goodreads further!

Week Three: Conversations

Assignment 2:

I  have been listening to Nancy Pearl's book reviews on NPR for years, but after completing Assignment 1, reading "The RA Conversation" by Neal Wyatt, I heard her book review with new ears. OK, new ears sounds a little silly, how about a fresh perspective! She didn't really spend a lot of time going into the plot of the books. She described her very favorite book, A Gay and Melancholy Sound, by Merle Miller as having "mid-century markers" like McCarthyism, and having all the "snark, wit, and irony" that any 21st century reader could appreciate. Sara Levine's Treasure Island!!! was described as having "high quality writing" and she found herself "laughing and wincing" at the same time. And Lost by Michael Robotham was described simply by what she thinks makes a mystery good: a flawed but appealing hero who tries to get to the bottom of a very complex plot. I'll be sure to pay more attention to the way she describes books from now on. This was very enlightening!

Assignment 3:

Conversation 1

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... Anyway I wanted to ask you for a few suggestions for my book group. It’s my turn to pick the title.

Oh, I love travel memoirs! While it's a little more food-oriented, you may enjoy Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me With Apples. Are you familiar with her? She was a food writer and restaurant critic for many years and has had some TV shows on PBS, and was the last editor for Gourmet magazine. This is kind of "part two" in her memoirs. She is embarking on her food writing career as her marriage falls apart, and travels to New York, China, France, and Los Angeles. In it she shares recipes and intimate stories, often hilarious, sometimes painful, but always honest.

Another title that could work for a book club, and is incidentally being made into a film, Orange is the New Black, by Piper Kerman, is a story about the author's one-year stay in a minimum security federal prison for a drug smuggling/money laundering scheme she had been tangled in 10 years prior, shortly after graduating from Smith college. Not the typical inmate, she had to rely "on the kindness of strangers," and quickly learn the many unwritten rules of the "game" in order to survive. Full of humor, heartbreak, and humiliation, she takes the reader into a seldom seen world, and surprises herself by finding new friendships. I think your book club would find a lot to talk about with this one!

Conversation 2

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

I hear ya! Many of the popular vampire series are very relationship based. I did a search in our database, NoveList Plus, which is right on our website and I can show you how to use, and found a series that is more action-packed and fast-paced. They are called the Lee Nez Novels, by David and Aimee Thurlo. The series follows a Navajo vampire, Lee Nez, who is also a New Mexico state police officer. In his work he ends up coming across other vampires and werewolves, since they are attracted to his supernatural nature. So, it combines vampires with police mystery, and has plenty of suspense.

Another thought is Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I really enjoyed Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, the first two. They are very detailed, melancholy, and sensual accounts of the lives of a group of vampires who end up in New Orleans.

Conversation 3

Customer: I just read this great book The River of Doubt...  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?

You may enjoy Argo (the book) by Antonio Mendez. Like The River of Doubt, it is a true story, suspenseful, dramatic, and dark. If you haven't seen the movie, it is the story of the Iran Hostage Crisis, and how the CIA joined forces with the Canadian government to make the rescue. It has been described as "a real-life tale of intrigue and deception."

But then, if you have seen the movie, perhaps you would like to try something else. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson was my first thought. It's a true crime story that takes place during the Chicago's World Fair right before the turn of the (20th) century. It is dark and gritty. The World's Fair is supposed to be this bright and shiny feat of wonder, and one of the characters is using that aspect to lure dazed and unsuspecting people in to murder them. There are a lot of interesting historical details described along with a gruesome story line.

Week Two: Annotations

Assignment 1

Read "Appeal Factors" by Neal Wyatt: Check!

Assignment 2

Book 1

I just finished Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn, which is the second book in her Jackson Brodie mystery series.

Like other books of hers I have read, this one has a somewhat dark and cynical tone, and she takes her time letting the story develop, letting the reader get to know the characters' personalities. It is very realistic and much in tune to our modern world. The story takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland, which becomes an interesting and endearing character in itself. While having a dark tone, Atkinson is also a master at making you laugh out loud in surprising places throughout the book.

Jackson Brodie, the main character of the series, is an ex-cop, ex-military, ex-private investigator, ex-husband, and all-around helpful, though irreverent guy who keeps ending up being in the wrong place at the wrong time (or is it the right place at the right time?) and always looks like he's been caught red-handed in something nefarious. He often finds he is defending himself throughout the story. He is not perfect--he makes plenty of mistakes, but he also has many endearing qualities, like listening to the most heart-breaking country music he can find. But, he really does try to do the right thing.

I find all the characters in this book so interesting because they are complicated. They are not black and white, good or bad, but every-day people who struggle getting through life, and sometimes fall victim to the circumstances they've been thrust into, finding themselves unable to act. Ambiguity is evident in every character, except probably "Honda-man," but I won't share any tidbits about him! There were many crimes committed in this story, but I wonder if indifference, self righteousness, and other character flaws were also crimes, in a sense. Having questions like that to contemplate after reading a book is what makes me appreciate it.

While this book is classified as a mystery (although BCPL has it in fiction), Kate Atkinson is able to dip into the classic tragedy seamlessly, and that is how all of her books read for me. One of the many reasons I love them!

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Book 2

I am such a fan of Laura Lippman that I managed to become her Facebook friend. So long as I keep my stalking to a minimum, I think I’m OK; she doesn’t seem to mind my frequent “likes.” :-)

Laura Lippman is known for her Tess Monahan private detective series. Every Secret Thing is her first “stand alone” novel and probably my favorite, so I was pretty thrilled when she spilled the beans a few months ago and revealed that it was being being made into a movie, due to be released in the spring of 2014.

Every Secret Thing draws on my very favorite appeal factors.  

As far as the story line goes, it is a crime novel that has elements of psychological suspense, childhood darkness, and tragedy.

The setting is Baltimore, and the details are very particular. As a fan of Baltimore, and all its neighborhoods, I especially enjoy this factor. She includes details that native Baltimoreans will recognize and appreciate, like 11-year-old children being told not to cross Edmonson Avenue alone.

The characters are not so easy to define at first glance and your sympathies for them evolve as the story develops. The story involves two 11-year-old girls who find an unsupervised baby, and things go terribly, terribly wrong.  At first it is assumed they are the “good girl/bad girl” thing, but as the story unfolds, you realize there is so much more to both of their characters than that. The exploration of Cynthia Barnes's feelings, the character whose baby was stolen and a woman from a prominent black family in Baltimore, feels so spot-on. With a subtle pen, Laura Lippman is skilled at portraying how complicated, and sometimes uncomfortable, race relations are in a city like Baltimore.

The tone is dark and tragic. This is not a cozy and comforting read, but bringing in familiar details, and childhood memories that I can relate to brings a certain amount of comfort to the read.

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Assignment 3

I commented on Jaime Bink's blog.

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Week One: What I Already Know

Greetings! My first post for BCPL's "Be More Bookish."

The "Recommended Links - Books" link I have chosen is the Book Beast from the Daily Beast website. I like that it is news oriented and somewhat trendy. I like to stay on top of trends, and I am already familiar with the NPR and Salon book pages, and I've been on Goodreads for a while now. I'm already spying several books on the Daily Beast page that look fascinating... stop me, I must get off this page. I only have an hour to spend!

For my "Recommended Links - Genre" selection, I have chosen Stop You're Killing Me a website devoted to lovers of mystery, spy, and suspense books. While I do consider myself a fan of mystery books, I don't know enough about them, and have only read a few series, so I'd love to expand my knowledge.

Assignment 1

The adult books I did OK on (I missed Dan Brown's book? Really?) but I did better on the children's books than expected.

Assignment 2

I did really well on this one. I am not sure why. I think it is the marketing aspect. I look at a lot of magazines!

Assignment 3

Check!

Assignment 4

See above.

Assignment 5

Adorbs.