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.