Week Six

Week 6: Building Base Knowledge (Genres)

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May 262013

 

May 27, 2013

We all have favorite genres. We know their classic writers, their offshoot subgenres, and that special je ne sais quoi that makes us fans for life.  More than knowing into which category a book fits, you will learn the characteristics, trends, and subcategories of many genres. Expand your knowledge outside of your regular reading habits and find titles that cross over genre lines.
 Week 6: Assignment 1 
In Week 1: Assignment 4, you began following one of the genre links on the right.  Write a blog post about your discoveries.
  Week 6: Assignment 2 
Explore this Prezi link of Fiction Genres and Subgenres.
 Week 6: Assignment 3 
Pick 3 subgenres that you are unfamiliar with.

• Find a fan website for each subgenre and summarize the current buzz among fans. Why are they excited about this subgenre? How did you find the website?
• List three authors or titles that are associated with or typify each of these 3 subgenres.  What are the hallmarks or appeal factors of each of the subgenres?
• Mashups of subgenres, e.g. steampunk westerns, are becoming increasingly popular.  Find two titles, not shown on the flowchart, which could cross over into another subgenre. Describe your rationale.

Assignment 1: I selected flavorwire.com/category/books as the site to follow. While it has lots of interesting stuff, in addition to books, I find it to be too much stuff for the amount of time I have and my attention span for looing at sites like this. I realized that I am much more comfortable looking at NPR's book section and the reviews in print sources like New Yorker, which I read every week, and the NYT book review which I see at work.

Assignment 2: Great information on the Genre Prezi. I would like a copy of it. I found it hard to move through the prezi  - the key commands did not seem to work, but the content was very helpful. Great job, Alex!

Week Five

There are lots of different ways to find out about new and popular books – there are some useful sources linked on the right side of this page.  Looking at these sites regularly can help you increase your title knowledge and anticipate what your customers will be looking for.
This week, in addition to discussing the general tool that you have been following, we will be looking at various sources of reliable readers’ advisory information to see what titles are:

• Forthcoming
• Releasing this week
• On bestseller lists
• Predicted to be popular with bookclubs
• Being adapted into movies
• Award winning

Wouldn’t it be great if all this information was in one location?  Early Word is a great resource in part because it aggregates all this information into one page.  This should be a site that you check regularly, but if you don’t have time to look at it everyday then sign up for the newsletter which will deliver the highlights of the week and, as well as, a list of big forthcoming titles of the next week right to your inbox.
Week 5: Assignment 1
What useful information have you learned from the resource that you have been monitoring  since week one?  Blog about it.
Week 5: Assignment 2What’s popular in your branch?  If it’s “popular” or “commercial” fiction then you want be sure to look at The New York Times Best Seller List or People Magazine.  For forthcoming titles check the Publisher’s Weekly On Sale calendar. If literary fiction and narrative nonfiction is popular, you can monitor the Indie Next Best Seller List (formerly BookSense) and NPR.  Do your customers want to read the book before the movie comes out?  More than likely, you have a diverse mix of customers who have equally diverse reading preferences, but all of these resources are available via Early Word.  Take a look at the site and click around; there are lots of links in both sidebars.  Post to your blog: What resources are new discoveries for you?  What do you think that you will continue to use?
Week 5: Assignment 3 Pick a title from the highly anticipated titles of 2013, found under the righthand “Coming Soon- Season Previews” sidebar on Early Word.  Write a blog post using appeal factors or read alikes to describe the title.  Why is this title expected to be popular and to whom would it appeal?


I accidentally mixed up week 6 and 5. I'm working on what I missed.

Assignment 1:

Assignment 3:

Week Four

Assignment 1: Explore Goodreads. I set up a Goodreads account. I'm not finding it as intuitive as I had head that it was. I have made friends with some of my colleagues and my branch. I have added two titles, but I don't (yet) see anything about shelves. I recommended Almost French: love and a new life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull to Martha B, since she likes books about travel and she recently read Paris in Love.  It is about the author, a young Australian journalist who is traveling around in Europe and falls in love with a French man, Frederique. It looks at her adjustment to a new culture and her assumptions about that culture. It is honest, funny and engaging.

Week Three

Assignment 1: The RA Conversation - Good tips. I am glad that he mentioned tools and bibliographies.

Assignment 2: Podcast with Nancy Pearl - exemplifies the combination of a good reader and articulate reporter. I wish I could hold as many titles and summaries and appeal characteristics in my head, as she can! I reserved two of the titles that she recommended!

Assignment 3: Conversations -

Conversation 1 - Eat Pray Love - It sounds like you liked learning about the internal life and feelings of the narrator, as well as her experiences in a different country. I think you would like Almost French by Sarah Turnbull. It is about the author, a young Australian journalist who is traveling around in Europe and falls in love with a French man, Frederique. It looks at her adjustment to a new culture and her assumptions about that culture. It is honest, funny and engaging.

Conversation 2 - vampire books - Stories about vampires have become extremely popular since the Twilight series and the movies that followed. It sounds like you would like some stories that are not directed toward teens and that, perhaps, have more depth and detail to them. An article called "Vampire Fiction: It's Not All Fangs and Capes Anymore" by Nanci Milone Hill has many good suggestions and summaries.  Some of the titles that look like they would interest you are Everlasting Desire By Amanda Ashley, I'm the Vampire, That's Why by Michele Bardsley and Insatiable by Meg Cabot.  It looks like BCPL owns all of them.

Conversation 3 - River of Doubt - I agree that non-fiction titles like River of Doubt are very interesting. It is exciting when the author is able to share real events and people from history in a way that makes it hard to put the book down. A similar title that you might enjoy is Destiny of the Republic, also by Candice Millard. In it, she tells the story of an attempted assassination of James Garfield and what happened as a result of his injuries and care. If you are looking for something else that combines history and crime, you might try In the Garden of the Beasts by Eric Larson.

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Week Two

Assignment 1: Read the article.
Handy reminder - the eight essential elements of appeal:

1. Pacing
2. Characterization
3. Story Line (including the books context, type, genre, theme, and subjects)
4. Language
5. Setting
6. Detail
7. Tone
8. Learning/Experiencing

Assignment 2:

Far from the Tree : parents, children, and the search for identity  by Andrew Solomon, is a detailed and enlightening look at families where one or more child has a difference or disability that was not necessarily expected by the parents. Solomon's stories of families and individuals are based on thousands of hours of scholarly research and interviews with parents and their children. Though lengthy and deliberate, Solomon's sensitive and articulate interviews allow the reader the opportunity to experience the challenges faced by the parents and their offspring, exposing readers to complexities, paradoxes and circumstances that otherwise would be hidden.

Week One

Assignment One: got 14 out of 24 on the adult book cover game. 12 out of 20 on the kids'. It was fun, but frustrating to recall the author but not the title or not remember the title, precisely.

Assignment Two:  Missed most of them. Same thing happened on the SATs.

Assignment Three: very much appreciate the points made by Cindy Orr. Good things to remember. I liked looking at the other things on Libraries Unlimited, especially the Reader's Advisor Online http://readersadvisoronline.com/blog/ and the Hot Prospects for 2013 column (over on the right) which brings togther book columns from many publications. Check this out http://flavorwire.com/category/books.