Week 8!

Assignment 3

This was a hard assignment, and I also thought, a little confusing. I don't often read nonfiction but when I do, I sometimes like it to be narrative nonfiction, but sometimes I read it because the subject matter interests me.  Even so, it doesn't have to be only in narrative form for me to enjoy it, and
I do find that customers approach nonfiction the same way. 
For example, I often recommend Malcolm Gladwell's books on audio for folks who are taking a trip who like something a little different but also like nonfiction.  He's got a great reading voice and has a great way of telling a story.  His books, The Tipping Point and Outliers,  are part narrative nonfiction and traditional nonfiction wrapped up in a single package. 
So with that in mind, it was a little hard for me just to pick only pick narrative nonfiction for this part of the assignment...so I picked what I liked to recommend.
Here goes.

Crime: Columbine by David Cullen 371.58C

Memoir (but could also go under Overcoming Adversity):  A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion  Biography

History: In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson  943.086L

Travel:  Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Gelman  910.4G

Assignment 4

Columbine reads as well as any crime novel.  Cullen draws the reader in with an in depth history of the two boys who masterminded the Columbine High School tragedy.  Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were seeming two average teenagers when the planned to blow up their school and kill their classmates.  There is suspense and drama as Cullen weaves a tale escalates to the final day where although you know the tragic end, you hope you are wrong. Cullen uses the suburban setting to emphasize the ordinariness of the crime: it could happen in any town USA.  Cullen draws his characters carefully, so much so that the reader wants to scream to all the adults in this community to wake up and pay attention! 


A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion  is a heartbreaking story of love and perseverance. Told in diary format Didion relays her journey through heart ache in the year after her husband passed away suddenly and her daughter fell into a coma.  Through the tone, pacing and language, she conveys the slowness and the sadness that prevail after her husbands death.  Didion has led a somewhat glamorous life, writing movies and plays, traveling and living in exotic, lovely places bu this has not exempt her from the harsh realities of life; death and tragedy, as her husband succinctly explained, all evens out, everyone gets there turn.  A love story, to be sure, but also a story of grace and resilience in the face of great sadness.

Week 7!

Assignment 2

The Next Big Thing YALSA; The Hub, Oct 2012
Been loving teen reads for sometime now, so, like the author of this article, I'm not surprised! I'm not sure what the great appeal for others may be but for me, it's the fact, that YA reads are often just good stories, with good character development. So, I keep reading and recommending them!
I commented on Katie McGowen's and Karin Kinzel's blogs...two friends who also love good books and good ya stories!

YA Comes of Age Publisher’s Weekly, Oct 3, 2011
Basically is saying the same thing....The are telling great stories!  I love that Tamara Pierce is commenting on this page, and offering suggestions! 

Assignment 3

John Green is hysterical, and I've been enjoying his Vlogbrothers and his TUMBLR for sometime...
I'll continue to keep an eye on these but will also take a look at some of the other stuff, like TeenReads and Stacked and post thoughts later

Assignment 4

I was poking around the teen sites, checked out Little, Brown Books for Teens but it's really out of date; the dates on the new Teen Fiction are books published in 2012.  Guess I'll be following some of the others.  Harlequin Teen is similar to Adult Harlequin; it has the vampire and spirit thing going on, some fantasy and of course regular teen age angst.  It has a good selection, has links for read a likes, and has a place for comments. 

Week 6!

Assignment 1

Discoveries on the Street Fiction include: this site has a great section just for Christian Urban fiction and also divides the fiction by the city where the book takes place. And not only are there titles listed under Maryland, there are also titles for Baltimore and DC.  It also breaks it down into different topics ranging from abuse to trials.  It's a good database that's well organized and easy to use.

Assignment 2

The Prezi was impressive!

Assignment 3

Finding fan fiction is hard!  But here is what I have so far...
Horror-gothic
Western - Native American          https://sites.google.com/site/oldwestwateringhole/sub-genres-1
Stories told from the Native American perspective, and often provide historical information into the culture of the old west. 
Authors:  Tony Hillerman is one of the great western authors and often writes from the Native American perspective.

Science Fiction - Cyberpunk        http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/cyberpunk-science-fiction.php
Offers some great information regarding all kinds of science fiction books, including cyberpunk, and also offers lots of lists of great titles of the this genre. 
Hallmarks of the genre include: Science is a huge deal with Cyberpunk, technology, all kind of cyborgs, and cybernetics all play a huge role in Cyberpunk.  Also important is the changing relationship between hunmanity and technology.

Authors: Cyberpunk  William Gibson  Gibson is considered the father of cyberpunk with his title Neuromancer

Fantasy Fiction - Comic  I went to http://www.fantasy-fan.org/ and looked around; this is a great site, but didn't have what I needed. There is also  http://www.sfsite.com/home.htm which is also a very good database.  Still searching!

Week 5!

Assignment 1

Useful Info ~  Street Fiction website is the resource I've been following, and I have to say, this site is jammin!  It's an easy site to search, with access to resources by author, title, genre, subgenre, links to author interviews, and librarian resources to name a few. It also links to WorldCat and Amazon for easier searching.    The author list is huge! The database even includes a search for a city.  All cool stuff and easy to use. 

Assignment 2

New Resources, hmmm.....I look at Publisher's Weekly, and occasionally check out NPR. I've been a long time user of IndieBound and have gotten some good titles from there but the resource I use most and find the most reliable information is Entertainment Weekly. It has great reviews for ALL things from movies, to books including audiobooks and ebooks,  to video games and podcasts, all sorts of things. I like to be able to use a wide array of materials to chose from when offering readers services. 

Assignment 3

Well this is a tricky assignment, as there is nothing to go on regarding any of the books other than the cover and the author. With that in mind, I chose Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane

 

Gaiman is a popular author who has strong following.  He tends to lean toward the scary and fantasy  and from the cover picture, it would be safe to say, this title will follow suit.

Gaiman writes a meaty story often full of allusions, and interesting plots and characters. Readers of his previous works will probably already be in line for this most recent title.