Week Fifteen Prompt Response - Promoting Collections

There are, of course, a large variety of ways to market a fiction collection and no one way will fit every library. Each library has its community and readers that have their preferred ways of finding reading materials. So these are just a few of the ways we can promote our collections. 

Social Media

While it may feel a little passive at times, social media is an excellent way to promote a fiction collection. My library has a number of things they do on their social media pages to market these collections. They regularly post a "What are you reading?" prompt to invite patrons to share about the books they're reading and interact with each other - many will often share a little of what it's about or what they like/don't like about it. For National Library Week, they posted about fiction titles that revolved around libraries while linking to staff lists on the library's catalog site. Other staff lists are often shared, as well. They've recently begun working on getting more staff picks involved in the creation of social content (I was semi-forced into making a silent reaction video for TikTok about fantasy romance novels (the pains of working next door to the communications department and being friends with them)) that has garnered attention from patrons for more content like it. They'll also occasionally do a "give us a book and we'll give you your next read" type of posts, involving librarians and giving patrons a glimpse into readers advisory. 

Week Fourteen Prompt Response - Separating Collections

For this prompt response, I play a little bit devil's advocate, knowing that what I have to say is likely going to be very different from what most people say. Because determining where to place collections like Urban Fiction or LGBTQ+ into the collection as a whole can be a very tricky subject. At the library I currently work at, Urban Fiction titles have their own call number and all shelved separately (but directly next to) from the regular fiction at nearly every branch (some smaller branches do interfile because of space). For LGBTQ+ titles, some branches have specific displays or sections and some don't; but the titles do not have any sort of labeling delineating a title as LGBTQ+ in order to protect patrons safety, if needed, which is something I strongly agree with - I see no reason to separate LBGTQ+ titles beyond displays because that is not a genre. 

For a separate library, I think I would argue for something similar, while also arguing for room to change how its done in the future, especially if patrons and the community want to see it! If at our core, libraries are to provide access for our patrons and communities and they want something that we can actually offer them why not do it? This of course does encounter a roadblock when some parts of the community want something different than other parts. But the key, is community input. If we make decisions on things for our community without them telling us what they actually want, are we ethically making those decisions? Or making them because we feel like that's what they should be because of institutional and systemic racism?

Week Thirteen Prompt Response: YA and New Adult

The idea that adults shouldn't read young adult or new adult books is one that, frankly, frustrates me. The idea that anyone should decide what is acceptable for others' to read borders on, or often is outright, censorship. I have read a large number of young/new adult novels in the past couple of years, often not realizing the book is even considered that until I've already fallen in love with the book and realized the characters are all 16-19 years old. These novels are the ones that got me back into reading in the first place. After years of not reading a thing, I decided to reread The Hunger Games series and I haven't looked back. Jennifer L. Armentrout's Blood & Ash series introduced me to the concept of "new adult" books, and I haven't looked back from that yet, either. 

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn: A Young Adult Novel

Author: Tracy Deonn 
Title: Legendborn 
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy 
Publication Date: 2020
Length: 506 pages, 18 hours & 54 minutes audio
Series: The Legendborn Cycle, Book #1
Geographical Setting: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Time Period: Present Day

Plot Summary: 16-year-old Bree Matthews is attending the University of North Carolina's Early College program to escape the memories of her mother's death. On her first night in Chapel Hill, she witnesses a magical attack and meets another teenager calling himself a "Merlin" who attempts to wipe her memories of the attack. Bree quickly discovers she could break the memory magic and accidentally unlocks a memory from the night of her mother's death  - recognizing that someone else tried to wipe her memory that night, too.  She soon meets Nick, a Legendborn who wants nothing to do with it, Bree throws herself into his world to search for answers about how her mother really died. She soon realizes that Legendborns, and the mysterious "Merlin," are descendants of the famous mythological figures King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the wizard Merlin. And they are all trying to stop a vicious, magical war against the Shadowborn demons that is looming over them. Bree has to decide how far she's willing to go to find the answers she seeks about her mother and her heritage and if she's willing to help the new Legendborn friends she's made in the oncoming deadly war, all while trying to navigate the grief over her mother, the casual (and intentional) racism she encounters daily, and the generational trauma she begins to understand she inherited. 

Content Warnings: car accident, death of a parent, depictions of grief, mentions and minor depictions of slavery and rape, mild gore, mind control/memory manipulation, racism (both micro- and macro-aggressions), violence

Week Twelve Prompt Response - Non-Fiction RA Matrix

Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: The Story of Schitt's Creek by Daniel Levy and Eugene Levy 

• Where is the book on the narrative continuum?
• Highly narrative (reads like fiction)
• What is the subject of the book?
• The making of the television show, Schitt’s Creek.
• What type of book is it? 
• Memoir told from multiple points of view

Week Eleven Prompt Response - Appeal Factors: Audiobooks and eBooks

Audiobooks

I am a big lover of audiobooks - especially when I'm at work doing a task that does not require a whole lot of brain power. I've discovered that I do excellent at listening to audiobooks of books I have already read, when I'm doing things that may require me to think a little bit more because I already know what is going to happen. Cahill and Moore (2017) mention a quote from Neil Gaiman where he describes the power of listening to a book in a way the author meant it, creating a more intimate experience for the reader. I have experienced this in so many ways. Libba Bray's Beauty Queens is a YA audiobook that is read by the author, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Bray is able to read the story in such a way that captivates the listener in precisely the way she intended when she wrote the book - the tone, the characterization, the pacing, the storyline, etc. are all affected by the way she read the book. The way she reads the story makes it infinitely more hilarious and captivating (it's kind of Lord of the Flies meets Miss Congeniality meets Lost meets every television teen soap opera drama from the mid- to late-2000s. It is absolutely amazing, please listen to it). 

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson: A Fantasy

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Title: Tress of the Emerald Sea

Genre: Landscape - Fantasy - Epic Fantasy

Publication Date: 2023

Length: 369 pages, 12 hours & 26 minute  audio

Series: Cosmere - The Secret Projects

Geographical Setting: The sometimes deadly spore seas of a planet in the Cosmere. 

Time Period: Unspecified 

Plot Summary: Tress has spent her whole life on the Rock in the middle of the Emerald Sea. She spends her days collecting and admiring cups delivered by sailors traveling the world and spending time with her friend, Charlie. One day, Charlie gets whisked away by his father, The Rock's Lord, on a quest to find him a bride. While waiting for her Charlie's promised return as an unmarried man, his father returns with a new heir - Charlie's cousin. Tress learns Charlie sailed the deadly Midnight Sea to avoid marriage, getting captured and held for ransom by the Sorceress. On her own quest to save Charlie, Tress becomes a stowaway on a merchant shop which soon gets destroyed by pirates. Tress quickly adapts to the pirate life, finding friends and allies in pirates and talking rats amongst the dangerous, deadly spores as she learns that she is more than just a girl from a small island in the middle of a sea. 

Content Warnings: death, kidnapping, violence, body horror

A Book Club Experience with the New York Public Library

I digitally attended the New York Public Library's book club - Open Book Hour: What have you been reading?  The next one will be March 19 at 4pm. 

This book club is one of the new book club formats as discussed by Hoffert (2019). Rather than have a specific book everyone reads followed by the discussion, this book club provided the opportunity for attendees to share what they've been reading and get recommendations from one another. The facilitator, a NYPL librarian, explained that each participant will discuss two books they have read in the past two months (since the last meeting of this book club was in December). The discussion was to include a little summary, any thoughts about the book, and whether they would recommend the book.

I was one of 5 attendees to this book club, not including the facilitating librarian. It was quickly evident the attendees were regulars; everyone was chatting with one another and addressing each other with familiarity. This was exemplified by the facilitator who had clearly built relationships with her participants, addressing everyone by name - including me once I had the chance to introduce myself - to create a better book club experience. Once everyone had arrived and introduced themselves (namely me, as I was the newcomer and they were all very excited to learn about me being in an MLIS program and learning what working in an archive is like), the librarian explained the format of the book club both as a reminder to previous attendees and for newcomers (again, me). As participants went around and did so, the librarian did an excellent job at being the facilitator, while still participating when possible.

Romance and its Subgenre, Historical Romance - Special Topics

Since at least the 1990s, the modern romance novel has dominated the publishing market. It has brought in over a billion dollars year after year (DeFrancis, 2013; Blueberry Hill Productions, n.d.; Nielsen, 2016). At these numbers, romance has dominated nearly a third of the entire publishing market for fiction sales for years (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019; Nielsen, 2016). But romance novels have been popular for well over 200 years.  
 
What we know as the modern romance genre today dates to 1740 with Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, where the story depicts everything from first encounter to happily ever after (Regis, 2007). Closely following the success of Pamela is the ubiquitous Jane Austen, specifically Pride & Prejudice (1818) - which has lasted through the centuries as one of the best romance novels of all time (the sheer number of adaptations, works inspired by, retellings, etc. of just this one novel of Austen’s six is countless), if not touted as the best. Historical romances specifically find their inspiration in the life and times of Jane Austen’s world as the first published historical romance novel was a regency historical romance, Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer in 1935 (Wyatt et al., 2007).  

Week Seven Prompt Response: Celebrity Book Clubs

Image Credit: Grunenwald, 2019. 

Honestly, I think celebrity book clubs might have helped get me back into reading after a decade long slump. During 2020, I spent nearly every weekday morning watching the Today Show, specifically the 10 o'clock hour: Today with Hoda and Jenna. One of the hosts, Jenna Bush-Hager, started her own book club and once a month she would discuss the book, and usually speak to the author. While I never actually go around to reading any of the books she featured, she still placed reading and talking about books back into my mind. 

I never read the books for a couple of reasons. Sometimes they just did not sound interesting to me. But, if I was at least a little bit interested, the wait time at my local library made me disinterested by the time I got the book. For example, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah intrigued me, despite not being a big fan of historical fiction. When I went to place it on hold at my library, there were over 5oo holds on the title (this was before I really started reading e-books and I can only guess how many hold there were on Libby because there's almost always more) and I knew I wouldn't get the book for months. So, in addition to Kristin Hannah already being a popular author, the book was featured on a celebrity book club. As Nichols (2019) notes, these book clubs can sometimes be directly responsible in growth of book sales (Obama's recommendation caused a book to have a 2,300% increase in sales over three months!!), but clearly they can also be responsible for long library wait times. 

Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly: A Mystery

Author: Michael Connelly 
Title: Resurrection Walk 
Length: 405 pages, 11 hours and 29 minutes
Geographical Setting: Los Angeles, California
Time Period: Present Day 
Series: The Lincoln Lawyer - Book 7 
Genre: Intellect - Mystery - Legal Mystery
Publication Date: 2023

Plot Summary: Mickey Haller, the renowned defense attorney known as the Lincoln Lawyer, has begun his own version of the Innocence Project since he got a wrongfully convicted man out of prison. Flooded with applications from inmates asking for Haller's help, he enlists his half-brother and former police detective Harry Bosch to sus out which applications are genuine, and which are last-ditch efforts by rightfully convicted prisoners. Out of the never ending pile, Bosch finds a letter that rings true from one Lucinda Sands claiming she is innocent of the murder of her ex-husband, an LA County Sheriff Deputy. Haller and Bosch's investigation leads to the uncovering of a sheriff gang tied to a Mexican cartel, an FBI investigation, and a plot to frame Lucinda. With Haller fighting the battle in court and Bosch using his decades-long experience to uncover the truth, the two find themselves up against the federal government on a quest to seek justice for Lucinda and give her her own Resurrection Walk. 

Content Warnings:  mentions of gun violence, smoking

Week Six Prompt Response: Promoting Romance

As we know, romance readers are some of our number one patrons (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019).  Avid romance readers love a good trope. Personally, I'm a big fan of rivals/enemies-to-lovers, fake dating/relationship, grumpy/sunshine pairings, and a slow burn romances. These are only a few of so, so many tropes out there. I often like to seek out romances that have some of these particular tropes in them, and I know I'm not alone. To promote romance novels based on these tropes, I believe the way the Tropes and Trifles Romance Bookshop in Minneapolis, Minnesota is the way to go. A combination of catchy displays and passive programming is effective at both bringing in seasoned readers of certain tropes while potentially grabbing the eye for readers who might not be familiar with it. Plus, after reviewing some Reddit threads of the subject of trope displays, including cards that have a summary and why a staff member recommended it for display is helpful for those readers that want more than just knowing there's a "grumpy sunshine" trope. 

Additionally, these displays being marketed on social media is an excellent way at promoting even more what materials are available. Armistead (2022) argues that the romance publishing market these days is being driven by the readers themselves, not the publisher's marketing. Having displays that shows what staff are reading and sharing that with other readers is a great way to make those connections, making the displays and programming both by and for the readers. 

References

Armistead, C. (2022, June 8). 'After lockdown, things exploded': How TikTok triggered a books revolution. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/08/lockdown-exploded-tiktok-books-revolution-booktok '

Tropes & Trifles Romance Bookshop [tropesandtrifles]. (2023, December 1). PSA: Sunday is the last day to stop in and cast your vote for the character archetype of your choice. [Photographs]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/C0UZp8sLq40/?img_index=1

Wyatt, N. & Saricks, J. G. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction (3rd ed.). ALA Editions.

Knockout by Sarah MacLean: A Romance

Sometimes the best man for the job is a lady. 

New York Time bestselling author Sarah MacLean returns with the next Hell's Belles novel about a chaotic bluestocking and the buttoned-up detective enlisted to keep her out of trouble. 

(spoiler: She is the trouble). 

Author: Sarah MacLean 

Title: Knockout 

Genre: Emotional - Romance - Historical Romance

Publication Date: 2023
Length: 404 pages, 12 hours and 2 minutes
Geographical Setting: London, England  
Time Period: 1840, Victorian Era
Series: Hell's Belles, Book 3

Plot Summary: Lady Imogen Loveless, the explosions expert for the Hell's Belles group of vigilante women taking down aristocratic criminals, is instructed by her brother, the Earl of Dorring, to find a husband - after all she's been on the market for years and it's time. Despite not wanting to be married, she concocts a plan to pretend to find a husband so she can try to identify which aristocrats are ordering the string of explosions that have occurred around town to certain businesses supporting women's and worker's rights. While investigating, Imogen finds herself running into surly Detective Inspector Thomas Peck, the rising star of Scotland Yard, over and over again. Thomas knows Imogen is dangerous - both with explosives and with the potential to steal his heart. In order to keep an eye on her (and to protect her from danger), Thomas finds himself enlisted as her temporary bodyguard. Sparks fly as the two team up to investigate the explosions and to find out if what is between them can last. 

Content Warnings: classism, misogyny, police brutality, sexual content, violence

Week Five Prompt Response: All About Reviews

Negative Reviews & Collection Development 

Negative book reviews are going to exist, it's a fact of life; not everyone is going to like a specific type of book. Fans of certain authors are not going to like everything the author writes. I'd argue that those negative reviews can be just as informative as positive reviews, if not more so, especially for the reader. Often, negative reviews may provide vital information about a book that a reader may not want to read. For example, I was recently very excited to read a queer historical regency romance novel. When I was perusing reviews on Goodreads, I saw a few mention that the two characters become step-sisters while maintaining their romantic relationship. For me, that is something that I just do not want to read. Those negative reviews including that information allowed me to make the decision to not read a book that had the potential to make me uncomfortable. Similarly, the reviews provided for Angela's Ashes did the same. While these were positive, they still provided me with enough information that told me I probably would not like reading it. 

The reviews provided for The Billionaire’s First Christmas fall into the middling category between positive and negative, in my opinion. These are my favorite reviews to read when I’m decided what to read because sometimes they’ll share something as a negative that I would find positive. The blog review provided mentioned the book having too much Christmas content – if I made a point to read holiday romance, this would probably be more of a plus for me.

A Kirkus Review: House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas

In the highly anticipated third installment of the  Booktok favorite Crescent City series, Bryce Quinlan and company continues their mission to save Midgard from the evil Asteri.

After travelling to a new, unknown world at the end of Book Two, Bryce finds herself being interrogated by another group of Fae with similar ancestors. Desperately wanting to get back to her home world of Midgard, her mate Hunt, her brother Ruhn, and the rest of her motley crew, Bryce attempts an escape when she ends up in an underground maze of tunnels with the magic starlight she carries leading the way. She is soon accompanied by two of the Fae from the new world, trusting them as little as they trust her. As they follow the star through the endless tunnels, they battle monsters that haven’t seen the light of day in thousands of years, discover the source of their magic, and delve into their shared history with the evil Asteri. Bryce finds a way to open a portal back to her home world and once she does, she continues to uncover the puzzle pieces that will help her, and her friends, finally defeat the Asteri that have been ruling Midgard for over fifteen thousand years. Throwing in an unnecessary crossover with characters from her beloved A Court of Thorn and Roses series that feels like a cash grab, Maas creates an overly complicated backstory that misses the mark. Her attempt to weave together two separate worlds is inviting for her devoted fans, but quickly falls flat as the story becomes confusing and beloved characters seemingly have new personalities. Despite being known for her fast-paced, action-packed final 100 pages, fans may quickly lose interest, finishing the book only because they made it this far. 

Full of beloved characters, casual fans will enjoy Book Three, but for devoted, self-described die-hard Sarah J Maas fans, the book falls short of the high standards she has become known for. 

Secret Shopping at IndyPL

I conducted my secret shopping trip at the Southport Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library. Suzy was the librarian that assisted me. 

As a disclaimer – I do work for IndyPL, but I do not know anyone at this specific branch and had only been inside the building one time approximately 2 years ago to print something off and I talked to no one.

Firstly, I want to say that secret shopping was awkward. I am someone who knows what I like to read and how to find it, so having to ask someone to help me find a book felt very different. But, I have to say - it was fun. Suzy, the librarian that helped me, was helpful, nice, and willing to admit that she doesn't read what I like to read, and I even left with a book to take home. The process looked like this: 

• I asked for a good book to read 
• Suzy asked if I liked fiction or non-fiction (always fiction), then proceeded to ask if I like a certain genre (romance). 
• Suzy took me to a table with cards full of author lists based on genres like romance, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, LGBTQ+, etc. They had both historical and contemporary romance author lists - I chose historical. 
• After choosing a card - Suzy offered to help me find some books in the stacks and showed me how you can sometimes easily identify romance novels based on the cover and sometimes based on the mass market paperback size. 
• Suzy also listed off some author names she already knew to see if I liked any of them. 
• Suzy then offered to go down some aisles and pull some books for me that I might like or to do an online search to see if we could find something there. 
• I found a book on the shelf that I actually have been wanting to read, so I checked it out and my secret shopping was finished. 

This experience was fun. I was able to see how another librarian would go about this process and see the different ways I could offer to help someone when I'm in my own job. 

Week Three Prompt Response

Recommendations Using Novelist 

• I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next.
• The Lunatic Cafe. This is listed as the fourth book on Novelist, and is confirmed by a few other sites, including the author's site. 
• What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.
• Try Yellow Emperor's Cure by Kunal Basu. This matches a search for a lyrical, descriptive, and lush writing style, but has a faster pace than Kingsolver's book.
• I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!
• Try The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery. Th book has is based in historical Japan, is said to have an engaging, descriptive, and lyrical writing style. 
• I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?
• Try A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny. It's similar in writing style, and also has an intricate plot while still being character driven. Another book along these lines would be Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George, which is part of the same series as Well-Schooled in Murder. 

The Coworker by Freida McFadden: A Thriller

Author: Freida McFadden 

Title: The Coworker 

Genre: Adrenaline - Thriller

Publication Date: 2023

Length: 360 pages, 8 hours & 12 minute audio

Geographical Setting: Boston, MA, US

Time Period: Present Day 

Plot Summary: Dawn Schiff is a person that likes routines, doing the same thing at the same time every day. One day, Dawn is late to work and Natalie, Dawn's cubicle neighbor, immediately feels like something is wrong because of Dawn's routines. After answering a phone call at Dawn's desk where she hears a quiet plea for help and Dawn not showing up for an afternoon work meeting, which she never does, Natalie decides to visit Dawn's home to check on her. What she finds inside sets off an investigation to find out what happened to Dawn, placing Natalie at the center of the investigation. But Natalie soon discovers that not everything is as it seems as someone seeks to implicate her in Dawn's disappearance. With two unreliable narrators, what follows is a set of twists and turns that leads you down a road of realizing that not everyone is what they seem. 

Content Warnings: ableism, infidelity, bullying, mentions of suicide, suicide ideation

My Reading Profile

My relationship with reading has fluctuated throughout the years. When I was a kid, I was always reading whatever I could get my hands on, especially fantasy and romance novels in the veins of Wicked or Jane Austen (I had this thing where I was reading books probably sooner than I was able to fully comprehend what was happening...). However, once I reached college and graduate school, and the years in between and following, my interest in reading disappeared. Between burnout and personal issues, I barely picked up books for nearly a decade. However, I wanted to start reading for fun again around 2018ish or so, but really got myself back into it with rereading the Hunger Games series in 2020 because the prequel novel was being published (which I highly recommend). With getting a job at my local public library and a Kindle, I've begun to read essentially nonstop. My Kindle goes everywhere with me (it's also on my phone which has proven dangerous) and I'm basically always reading 1-3 books at a time (usually an audiobook at work).

As for what I read - now this is something that hasn't changed, not entirely. I'm still an avid fan of fantasy and romance, but I've really found that my niche genre is romance. I absolutely love love and I love reading about people falling in love. I remember my mom telling me when I was a teenager (with teenage love troubles), that I was a hopeless romantic and all I wanted was to be swept off my feet (spoiler alert: it didn't happen because I was 15...it happened much later with my now wife, Marisa). I was discussing this with my colleague a couple of weeks ago, again calling myself a hopeless romantic. She quoted the 1984 movie, Remember the Stone, telling me that I was actually a hopeFUL romantic. This has stuck with me and this is what I decided I am.