Week 9

I've read the articles and watched the book trailers.

I would agree that most of the trailers are poorly made. At this point in time, I can't see using them for reader's advisory. They are too scattered and hard to find. It would be nice to be
able to offer this visual clip to a reader who is  a visual learner.

I enjoyed trolling through the book trailers (right, terrible name for this). I did select one or
two titles for my own reading based on the trailer. I don't know if the connection between the book and trailer would be strong enough to increase sales or readership of a particular title. I'm reminded of the year that a very clever TV advertisement won many awards. At the end of the day the company who hired them did not renew the contract with the agency that created the advertisment. Why? Because nobody remembered what product this fabulous commercial advertised. This may be the case with the book trailers. Will the viewer make the connection to the particular title? That remains to be seen.


I have found this training to be very useful as a way to provide me with the template for providing reader's advisory. Some of the exercises were a bit of a stretch (mash-up genres and fan sites), but for the most part I have learned a great deal and am happy to have had the opportunity to participate.
Thanks to the committee who put this together.

Week 8

Assignment 1 & 2:

I read the two articles assigned and watched the video.

Assignment 3:

Memoirs                                         Dewey Area Bio
Psychology                                     155.2
History                                            973.3
Medical                                           636.7

1.  Do You Dream In Color? by Laurie Rubin -  Memoir
2.  Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When American Became Independent May 1 - July 4,   1776  by William Hogeland - History
3.  Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - Psycholgy
4.  Dog Walks Into A Nursing Home by Sue Halpern - Medical



Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks...
We all learned about the the American Revolution. What was it like to be there during the critical time before July 4, 1776? This book will give you a front row seat. The pacing was quick as we relive this arduous period. The detail is finely drawn and one can almost feel the plight of the militias. The characterization of George Washington and his generals give us some idea of what he was up against and insight to the decisions he made. General Howe is also discussed in some detail as we watch the British snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. There have been many books written about the American Revolution. This one is suitable for someone who likes a narrative style with quick pacing and not an overwhelming amount of historical detail. It is also suitable for someone who wants to learn more about this subject. It is very accessible.


Dog Walks Into A Nursing Home
This is the story of a woman, her therapy dog and the people she visits in a nursing home.
The characterization is strong as the author talks about her dog, taking us through the process of becoming a therapy dog and the work that this qualification allowed her to do. The author reveals a great deal about her thoughts on death/dying and life in general. The pace of the book slows down considerably when the author goes off on her theological tangents and I feel it detracts from the story of the residents and her dog. The setting is well drawn as we meet the varous residents of the nursing home learn how the dog responds to them and them to her. Although this could be a depressing topic it doesn't feel that way in this book. We are left with an appreciation of the power of dogs to provide comfort and small miracles to those who are in institutional settings. I would recommend this to an animal lover, anyone interested in aging and institutional care and even though I didn't care for this part of the book, anyone who is interested in the authors theological/philisophical take on the work of the therapy dogs and death and dying.

Week 7

Assignment 1
I looked at the  "What to read Next" flow chart. It was interesting to see the thought process behind this flow chart. I doubt, however, that I will use this particular chart for any RA.

Assignment 2

I read "New Adult Needless Mareting-Speak or Valued Subgenre?" As we see the move of older readers back into YA books, the publishers and book sellers need to find a way to categorize this so that everyone is speaking the same language. The article ended by quoting a book seller who was wrestling with where to put this material. She said "You're still going to be asked if new adult is kids, or adult". I think that is the bottom line here. No body likes suprises when it comes to content for kids. So... is New Adult a needless genre? It may be. Some clarity on the parameters of the term would be helpful. If it helps someone find their way to books that they enjoy, I say go for it.

I also read "Who is Buying Teen Books" as published in the Christian Science Monitor. It had
some interesting points, and ones that I recognize when I go to the YA collection for something to read. These books are generally easier to read. They are less complicated and can serve as a good literary escape. Sometimes you just don't want to work so hard. If something is written well, it's written well and differentiating the target audience between YA and Adult is just splitting hairs and at the end of the day, not very important. . We've seen this with Harry Potter and the Hunger Games.

Angelina Benedetti's "Not Just for Teens" article in LJ, essentially embellished the other two articles.She provided more details aobut the appeal factors of YA books and spoke about Ebook sales of YA material.

I posted comments on Kathleen MacCubbin's and  Becky Lindberg's blog.

Assignment 3

I have been following Teenreads.com. Its intended audience seems to be teenagers. I like the content rich site which should keep anyone who doesn't have a long attention span busy. The features that I found useful were the reviews, coming soon,  and books to movie list. I think it would successfully appeal to teens. I was not able to ascertain who was responsible for the content although it is part of the "Book Report Network".

I have also been following Squeetus Blog: Official blog of Shannon Hale. I didn't find this blog
very useful. It is a marketing medium for Shannon Hale. It contains what amounts to annotated notes to the text of her books. I can't envision using this blog for RA.

Assignment 4

I've spend some time on  Teen at Random. It is packed with features. New books, blogs, author profiles, Youtube videos and lots more. I like that you can select genre, author or title. I also followed Tor Teen.
I'm seeing alot less vampires, but still much fantasy, dystopian, teen relationship angst,
and humor.

Week 6 Assignment 3

Magic Realism

Site found via Google search:   Margin: the world’s only continuous survey of literary magical realism. http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/margin/

Excellent site with articles discussing the genre, reading lists.  They offer to publish writers who meet the criteria of MR and also offer mentorships.

 

Four authors/titles associated with this genre:

• Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Isabel Allende: The House of Spirits
• Mya Goldberg: Bee Season 
• I.B. Singer: Gimpel the  Fool

Hallmark/appeal factors:

I'm compelled to quote S.L. Deefholts, the Managing Editor of the website listed above.
"To me, magic realism is about acknowledging that perceptions of reality are culturally determined and seeking to give voice to alternate versions of what is true. It is important to realise that the subject matter can be as diverse as the people who are writing it—there is no set formula behind 'getting it right."

Appeal Factors: a storyline which exposes a context or theme that is not easily explained by one’s cultural values. To amplify this, the story might have strong characterization and setting.

Regency Romance

Regency romance novels are set in the British Empire in the early 19^th century. The story lines and characters focus on the norms of society which provide a background for the story and dictate the actions of the characters.

http://www.rakehell.com/  "Rakehell where regency romance lives!" This is primarily a website of reviews of regency period romance novels. They are soliciting reviewers.

Three Authors in this genre:

• Amanda Quick
• Georgette Heyer
• Mary  Balogh

Appeal factors:

• Setting and attention to detail as this genre describes the aristocracy of England in the early 1800’s.
• Storyline/theme.  Attention is paid to  the historical context as the characters deal with the social constraints of their time. 
• Language. A good regency romance will use the language of the time period, which is part of the appeal of this genre.

Realistic Fiction – Adventure - Disaster and Science Fiction – Post-apocalyptic

 

I put these two genres together because as I trolled around the web there was little distinction between the two genres. I was not able to find any fan sites for disaster novels, or SF-post apocalyptic aside from GoodReads and Library Thing lists.

These novels deal with an apocalyptic and/or post-apocalyptic event (i.e. nuclear war)  and/or a pandemic that frequently knocks out all modern day conveniences, and renders the world unrecognizable from the way it was before the event.

Appeal factors would be continual suspense, the context of how life has changed and details about the setting.

Four authors/titles

• H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds
• Stephen King, The Stand
• Poul Anderson, Maurai series
• Nevil Shute, On the Beach

 

Mashups

Steampunk Mysteries

 

Affinity Bridge by George Mann and Blameless by Gail Carriger. Both of these titles are Steampunk genre in that they take place in the Victorian Era and contain the steam-powered machinery to move the plot along.  Each of these titles contains a mystery that is solved by the main characters. Some are more violent than others. Perhaps a Steampunk, Mystery, Cozy genre, anyone?

 Western Science Fiction

Dark Tower Series by Stephen King and The Ghosts of Watt O'Hugh  by Steven Drachman.

These books are westerns that are combined with elements of science fiction.

Week 6 Assignment 1

I have been follwing RT book reviews. I was not aware of all the sub-genres of romance until I started following this site. They also have reviews of the winners of romance book prizes. There is a lot more information on this site, but I don't know if I'll be digging much deeper (with apologies to this year's SRC theme) into this site.

Week 5 Assignment 3

The book I've selected from the "Coming Soon Sseason Previews" sidebar in Early Word is
Maurice Sendak's  My Brother's Book. This book pays homage to Mr. Sendak's brother Jack.
This title is written in a poetic style. Mr. Sendak's wonderfully detailed drawings allow us to delve as deep as we want. This book contains both love and grief and in honoring his brother we will come away with a comforting feeling that his brother will not be forgotten. This is a treat for adults who
have come to appreciate Mr. Sendak's wide body of work for children.

Week 5 Assignment 2

I have been an earlyword.com fan for quite some time. I've explored the site in more depth and have discovered that the sidebar is a quick and easy way to find award winners and a large number of best
seller lists. The recent coments were interesting. Consumer Media book coverage may be a place to
look for the customer who comes in having just seen a title on TV. Sometimes, these are hard to track
down and this will be another tool in the tool box. I also signed up for their newsletter.

I will continue to follow earlyword on a regular basis. Checking the items I mentioned above will be
part of the check-in.