1. I read the Anita Blake series so I knew what the fourth book was without looking it up. However, I went into Novelist and searched to make sure that I knew how to find a certain book in a series. I searched for Laurell K Hamilton and clicked on the Anita Blake series. The books were all listed in chronological order. The fourth book in the series is the Lunatic Cafe.
2. I first did an advanced search in Novelist for Barbara Kingsolver read-alikes. Suggestions were Lorna Landvik's Patty Janes House of Curl and Sandra Dallas' New Mercies. I then did a basic search for the book Prodigal Summer. On the right hand side of the screen are suggested read-alikes. The two that I chose were Edward O. Wilson's Anthill and Nicholas Evans' The Loop.
3. I performed a basic search in Novelist using the keywords "historical Japan". I then browsed through the results for fiction titles that I felt fit within this category. A few books that I felt would fit this category are:
Laura Joh Rowland's The Shogun's Daughter: a Novel of Feudal Japan
Ingrid J Parker's Island of Exile: a Mystery of Early Japan and The Dragon Scroll
Gail Tsokiyama's The Samurai's Garden
I am not sure that these are exactly what the patron was looking for but it is a start. I believe that further information is required so that I could narrow it down better.
4. I searched Novelist for Elizabeth George's Well Schooled in Murder. I then searched thru the recommended read-alikes for books that were similar but not to scary. Good read-alikes are:
Martha Grimes' The Man with a Load of Mischief
Dorothy L Sayers' Whose Body?
Deborah Crombie's A Share in Death
5. I searched using the titles World War Z and then The Walking Dead. Between the two searches I found quite a few books/series that I thought the patron's husband would enjoy.
Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy (Feed, Deadline, Blackout)
Steven C. Schluzman's The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse
Steven Barnes' Domino Falls
Brian Keene's The Rising
Jonathan Mayberry's Dead of Night: a Zombie Novel
I very rarely get asked for read-alikes or suggestions at work. Most of the time it is just a certain book in a series or where on the shelf the book is. To find out the reading order, a fellow employee told me about a site called Fantastic Fiction. Although this site is not exactly "pretty", it does get the job done. I have been able to quickly find the reader order and titles for both adult and juvenile titles. When it comes to finding books for myself, I have found that working in circulation is key. Because I handle the books so often, I am able to find new authors and new titles that look interesting. Now that I know about Novelist, I will search to find read-alikes for my favorite authors.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
The Hunger Games - Practice Annotation
The Hunger Games
By: Suzanne Collins
New York, NY. : Scholastic Press 2008.
374 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-439-02348-1
Summary:
"In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen year old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place".
Genre:
This book is an example of science fiction.
Science Fiction Characteristics:
- Story takes place in the future
- The pitting of young children against each other in the games explores moral, social, and ethical questions against a setting that is outside of reality
- Advanced scientific technologies seen throughout the book: medicines, mutations, force fields, etc.
- The tone of the book is both evocative and visual
- Fast-paced action packed book
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Enclave by Ann Aguirre
Epic by Conor Kostick
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
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