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.