Booktalk and Baker Response - Prompt 6

BOOKTALK

Have you ever felt alone?  Have you ever felt that you don't belong?

That is how Iona Sheehan has felt all of her life!

Iona grew up with indifferent parents craving devotion and acceptance.  The only person she felt cared for her was her beloved grandmother, Nan.  From Nan, Iona learns of Ireland and family that she has there.  Iona decides to quit her job, sell all of her possessions, and move to Ireland to meet her cousins Brenna and Connor O'Dwyer.  Once there, she not only finds love and acceptance, but hidden magic as well.

This novel Dark Witch by Nora Roberts is the first book in her newest trilogy, the Cousins O'Dwyer.

Iona moves to the County Mayo in Ireland to track down her cousins Brenna and Connor with nothing but her Nan's directions, an unfailing optimistic attitude, and an innate talent with horses.  Not far from the luxurious castle where she is spending a week, she finds her cousins, and family being family, they invite her into their home and into their lives.

Soon after Iona learns a secret, Brenna and Connor are witches and Iona is one too!  

The two O'Dwyer cousins delve right in and start helping Iona reach her untapped magical power.  However, Iona soon learns that all power comes with a price. 

 Brenna, Connor, and Iona are the three descendents of the great witch Sorcha.  Sorcha battled a powerful dark wizard in 1263 who wanted to possess her and combine their powers.  Sorcha passes on her great power to her three children and sacrifices her self to save them from the dark wizard, Cabhan.  Centuries later, Cabhan is back and wants the power that he was denied.

Meanwhile, Iona lands a job at the local horse stables where she meets the owner, Boyle McGrath.  Boyle is the combination of cowboy, pirate, and tribal horseman and Iona finds herself weak around him.  Will Iona find time for love and a life with Boyle while fighting for her life?  

Read this all new novel from Nora Roberts to find out!!

BAKER COMMENTS

In the article by Baker, she states that you should only choose books that you have actually read and enjoyed.  I do agree with this statement to an extent.  It would be much easier to do a booktalk on a book that you have read because you will be prepared to answer questions about the book confidently.  It would also be easier to do a booktalk on a book that you have enjoyed because the audience will be able to tell if you have negative feelings about a book and that might detour them from reading it themselves.  However, we all know that librarians are stretched for time.  You may not always have time to read a book beforehand or you may be thrown into it at the last moment.  I personally do not think that I would do very well if I have not at least read the first few chapters.  I do not like feeling unprepared and only reading an abstract or review of a book would not prepare me enough to present a booktalk.  

Romance Annotation

At The King's Command

By: Susan Wiggs

Paperback: 375 pages

Publisher:  MIRA Books 2009 (Updated from original publication CIRCLE IN THE WATER published by Harper Collins 1994)

ISBN: 9780778327387

Book 1 of the Tudor Rose Trilogy

Brief Summary:  Frustrated by his own failures at matrimony, King Henry VIII punishes an insolent nobleman by commanding him to marry the vagabond woman caught stealing his horse.  Stephen de Lacey is a cold and bitter widower, long accustomed to the sovereign's capricious and malicious whims.  He regards his new bride as utterly inconvenient...though undeniably fetching.  But Juliana Romanov is no ordinary thief - she is a Russian princess forced into hiding by the traitorous cabal who slaughtered her family.  One day she hopes to return to Muscovy to seek vengeance.  What begins as a mockery of marriage ultimately blossoms into deepest love.

Genre:  Romance, Historical Romance

Romance Characteristics:  

•  Evocative, emotional tone that draws readers in as they participate in this love story and read towards a emotionally satisfying happy ending.  By the end of this book, Juliana gets both the happy ending and her revenge!
• Stephen de Lacey's character is the typical male romance lead.  He is tall and intimidating with blond hair and a handsome face.  He comes across as strong and distant but learns to open his heart again to Juliana.  Juliana's character is the typical female lead in a romance novel.  She is beautiful but also bright and independent.  She could live happily ever after without Stephen but follows her heart instead.
• Stephan and Juliana have all kinds of misunderstandings throughout this book.  At times they were humorous and other times brought tears to my eyes.  However, these misunderstandings are resolved and they both get their happy ending.
• Although this book is a fast and easy read, it can be put down and started again without losing any of the story line.

Storyline:   Character driven, Intricately plotted

Pace:  Leisurely

Tone:  Funny, Moving

Writing Style:  Lush, Witty

Series Information:  This is the first book in the series.  Book 2 is titled The Maiden's Hand and book 3 is titled At The Queen's Summons.

Read-A-Likes: 

• Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux
• Almost Innocent by Jane Feather
• The Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
• Two Dukes of Wyndham by Julia Quinn
• Darling Jasmine by Bertrice Small

Prompt 5

According to Erin, there are five guidelines for writing reviews.  These guidelines can also be used to help librarians decipher what a well written review should look like.  Basically, reviews should understand what the author attempted to accomplish in his book but with the understanding that the author should bot be blames if he did not achieve his goal.  Review should also use a few direct quotations from the book so that the reader can get his own impression about the book.  Obviously book reviews should be a summary of the plot but should not give away anything, especially the ending. 

Honestly, I have never read a book review before.  I use plot summaries to help me decide if a book sounds interesting or not.  I will read just about anything and I do not want someone else's opinion to sway me on my book choices.  Obviously, I will have to peruse book reviews for the library so this week was good practice. 

Using these guidelines, I looked at a few different book reviews.  I first looked at the blog review of The Chosen One.  I actually felt that this was more of a plot summary, not a review.  There was a review from Amazon on this same book.  This review, by Dr. Leonard Rosmarin, was an actual review of the book/author.  However, using the above guidelines, this was not a well written review.  This review did not contain any direct quotes from the book and it did not have a plot summary. 

I then looked at the Kirkus reviews.  I liked that these reviews were so honest.  However, this is probably not a great site to use alone.  Perhaps if you are torn on whether or not to include a certain title in your library collection, this site will help you decide. 

I then looked at the Angela's Ashes review.  This review was so long that I did not want to read it.  We can all agree that the work day does not have enough minutes in the day to get through reviews like these.  Yes, this review was well written, but it was way too long!!  I felt like I was reading the first chapter, not a review.  However, of all of the reviews that I looked through, this one best followed Erin's guidelines. 

I work in circulation so I talked to a few of the librarians at my branch about what review sites they use to help choose materials.  Unfortunately, most of the materials for our branch are chosen by the acquisitions department.  We are allowed to request items that we want but that does not mean that we will always get them.  Our children's librarian uses  School Library Journal and Scholastic.  She also checks the ALA site for upcoming award winners to see if we need to request additional copies. 

I don't think it is fair that popular authors/books receive so much attention and reviews while less known titles receive very few.  All books deserve a review.  If a title has been published, there is a market for it somewhere.  Perhaps it would not be a title that you personally would read, but there is someone out there who would.  Little to no reviewed titles may be overlooked and this will affect the library's collection.  At my branch, we have only one copy of The Book Thief but 22 of The Hunger Games.  Perhaps this is due to book reviews?? 

I still will not use book reviews to help me choose books for my personal reading but I do see their allure.  I do not have a favorite review source yet but I am sure that by the end of this semester that I will.

Kirkus Review

Janet Evanovich

Takedown Twenty

New York: Bantam Books

November 2013

ISBN: 978-0345542885

The next highly anticipated novel in the Stephanie Plum series!  

Abstract:  New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum knows better than to mess with family.  But when powerful mobster Salvatore "Uncle Sammy" Sunucchi misses his court date, it is up to Stephanie to find him.  Unfortunately, no one in Trenton, New Jersey will turn him in.  Meanwhile, hot security specialist Ranger needs Stephanie's help in solving the bizarre death of a top client's mother, a woman who happened to play bingo with Stephanie's Grandma Mazur.  Before Stephanie knows it, she is working side by side with Ranger and Grandma at the senior center, trying to catch a killer on the loose - and the bingo balls are not rolling in their favor.

With bullet holes in her car, henchman on her tail, and a giraffe names Kevin running wild in the streets of Trenton, Stephanie will have to up her game for the ultimate takedown.

Review:  Although Janet Evanovich novels are notoriously funny, this book can be summed up into one word....BORING!  Evanovich should have wrapped this series up in Sizzling Sixteen!  How many more times can Stephanie's car get blown up?  These books have become perdictable:  Stephanie will blunder her way through a bounty, her car will get blown up, she will still be deciding between on and off again boyfriend Joe Morelli and hot and dangerous Ranger all while deciding if bounty hunting is the job for her.   Evanonich seems to be running out of ideas and I am not even sure she would enjoy reading this book.  Seriously, a giraffe running loose in the streets of New Jersey?  However, this book will be popular among the masses but only because we want to see this series end!!  Will book 21 finally tie up all loose ends?  One can only hope!!

Secret Shopper

I went to a local branch that I have never been to before for this assignment.  I was worried that it would be obvious that I was a student so I really racked my brain for a reasonable request.  Ironically, I read a YA book about six months ago that I really liked but could not remember the title.  So I decided I would start there.

Upon entering the branch, I was able to see the circulation desk, the reference desk, and the children's reference desk.  I first walked around the branch to get a "feel" for the area.  This branch offered "read-a-like" book marks for popular authors like Nora Roberts, Jodi Piccoult, Danielle Steel, etc. 

I then approached the adult reference desk with my request.  I asked the young sitting at the desk for books that were similar to the YA book that I read a few months back.  She asked me what I liked about the book.  I told her that I could not remember the name of the book (which is true) but that it had Russian architecture on the cover and that it was a YA novel.  I also told her that the book was set in a distopian like Russia and that magic was involved.  I was able to see that she first went to Google and searched for YA books and Russia and Magic.  As she was scrolling down I saw a title that sounded familiar, Shadow and Bone. From there, she asked me what I liked about the book.  I told her that I love anything paranormal but also enjoy reading fiction that is inspired by historical Russia, particularly anything involving the Romanov's.

At this point, she asked me if I was familiar with library databases.  I lied and told her no.  She turned her computer towards me and showed me how to access Novelist.  She showed me how to search for Shadow and Bone read-a-likes and then how to search for books inspired by historical Russia.  I choose a couple that sounded good and she then showed me how to search the library catalog to see what branch had those books available.  None of the books that I was interested in were available at the branch that I was at so she showed me how to place a hold on those books and have them sent to the branch of my choice for pickup.  She then asked if there was anything else that she could do for me and also encouraged me to come back after reading the recommended books to let me know if I enjoyed them.

I was extremely impressed with the service that I received and was surprised at the length of time she spent with me trying to find books that I would enjoy.  I am also excited to read these new titles as I am always on the lookout for a new author!!