Prompt Response Booktalk

Book:  Carrie and me:  another daughter love story by Carol Burnett, published 2013.

  This is a griping story about Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie.  Carrie grew up with her TV mom, Carol Burnett, a funny lady which everyone loved.   Carrie got addicted to drugs and this book helps us understand what she went through.  She went to rehab and got better.  She was working on a movie script, in Colorado, which is at the end of the book.  She writes back and forth to her mom, which makes a great memoir.  If you love Carol Burnett, you will love this book.  It has lots of pictures with her and her daughter Carrie.  You learn a lot about there relationship.  Once you pick up the book you will be drawn to the real characters in the book.  This is a book I loved and I think you will love it too.

  I believe that in order to make a good booktalk, you need to talk about books you have read and loved reading.  If you talk about a book you haven't read, it is harder to present the book.  If you talk about a book that you didn't like you wouldn't be as enthusiastic about it.  When you present a book that you have read and loved, hopefully you will get other people to read and love it too.

 

Gentle read Annotation

Author:  Alice Kimberly

Title:  The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library

Genre:  Gentle reads

Publication Date:  2006

Number of pages:  258

Geographical Setting:  New York City and Quindicott, Rhode Island

Time Period:  October 18-22, 1946, and today.

Series:  Haunted bookshop mysteries, 3

Plot Summary:  The prologue tells you about the man Jack, who this lady hired to investigate the whereabouts of man that she did an investment deal with.  This was back in 1946.  The story takes you to today where Jack is a ghost and he communicates to this lady, Penelope, who owns a bookstore.  He helps her solve a murder that is believed to be an accident and the victims name is Peter Chesley.  She goes to his house with her Aunt Sadie and they come back later and find him dead.  He leaves her a 13 volume set of books by Edgar Allan Poe and they are highly sought after.  Jack helps her solve a code related to the books.

Subject headings:  Bookstores, Codes (Communication), Haunted places, murder and Women booksellers.

Appeal:  Leisurely paced, Story lines about relations between women and others and the characters are comfortable companions.

Look-a-likes by NoveList

Hiss and Hers by M.C. Beaton

The burglar on the prowl by Lawrence Block

The Cat who went bananas by Lilian Jackson Braun

Prompt response book reviews

When I read book reviews, I look at length and substance.  The review from the blog and Amazon were quite short and didn't have much substance to it.  These didn't follow the guidelines Erin talked about in her presentation.  She talked about quotes from the book and a summary of the book.  These two just gave their opinion which I thought was very good.  It made me want to buy the books, but for myself and not for the library.  For a librarian the book reviews need to have substance and meaning.  The review for the eBook and the romantic suspense were much more thought out.

The reviews from Angela's Ashes I thought were very good, but were quite lengthy.  I would have a hard time making it through reviews that were all this length.  My favorite one was from the BookReview because it was straight forward and funny.  Malcolm Jones calls Angela's Ashes , " A splendid memoir of a ghastly Irish childhood."  It was very humorous when he talked about going to the doctor and he knew he would be getting better because the doctor farted.  After reading this review, I wanted to get this book to put in the collections.  I didn't feel the same way about the other reviews.  When I read a review I want something to stand out that will make people want to read the book.  I appreciate that this man had a hard life, but the tidbit about the doctor farting will intrigue people.

As far as some books getting reviewed more that others, I think it is fair because some books are more popular than others.  Every book should have a review because for every book there is a person to read that book.  Vampires and Zombie books are more popular now because of the TV shows and the movies. Having a lot of reviews for a book will affect the libraries collections because the library will choose the popular books and the ones with great reviews, but the ones with poor reviews may get left out.  The book review sources that don't print negative reviews don't help the library as much as they think they do because you don't know if someone hates the book.  I would like to know if someone loves and hates the book.  When they saw only the good reviews, it means that they are biased and that is not a good thing.

Before this class, I just looked at Amazon and what people thought about the book I was thinking about buying.  I would not buy a book if it had too many negative reviews.  I also like to read the reviews that in in the paper.  The New York Times has great book reviews.  I have just started to look at Goodreads.  The local library has some great reviews and it also takes you to Goodreads.    

"Kirkus-Style" Review

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a story of children
From the "Chronicles of Narnia"  volume 1, by C.S. Lewis

This book and the following books in the series takes you on an imaginary journey.  Four children go exploring in an old English mansion and enter a wardrobe which brings them to the land of Narnia.  This land has talking animals and a white witch that terrifies all the animals in Narnia.  The lion needs the children to help save the kingdom against the wicked witch.  The white witch enslaves Edmund, the eldest boy.  The rest of the children save him and the kingdom from the witch.  The children are also made kings and queens.

I was told this book is for children, but adults may enjoy reading it too.  I read it long before it was made into a movie.  It seemed like a great plot for a movie.  It is full of adventure and fast paced.  This book is full of allegories, like when good prevails over evil.  It is also great for children to use their imagination.  The children come back in the following books in the series and have more adventures.    

Adventure Annotation

Author:  James Rollins

Title:  Map of Bones

Genre:  Adventure

Publication Date:  2005

Number of pages:  434

Geographical Settings:  Egypt, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.

Time Period:  Present day and most happened in four days.

Series:  Sigma Force Novel 2

Plot Summary:  The book starts with a prologue  which explains about how the bones of the Magi got to Cologne, Germany.  The Sigma Force is also introduces.  They came to a midnight mass in Monk clothes, in Cologne Germany and killed everyone except one boy.  An American Grayson Pierce leads an effort to find these men with the bones.  He has a love interest, Rachel Verona, a lieutenant.  There are three others in this group, Rachel's Uncle Vigot, a Vatican official, Monk and Kat.  They start at the church in Germany, here the Sigma Force finds them and they nearly get killed.  It is here that they find that the bones are made from gold and this is what killed the people.  They also go to Rome and the Peter's tomb where they find a map.  The map leads them to Alexandria, Egypt and then to France.  The Sigma Force follows them and catches most of them in Egypt, except two.  They all meet back in France, but a few of the Sigma Force people get killed in the water close to Egypt.  The leader of the Sigma Force gets killed in France.  At the end the evil people, the Sigma Force gets stopped and killed.  The hero Grayson get the lady Rachel too.



Appeal:  Pace:  fast-paced

              Story-line:  Plot - driven

              Tone:  Suspenseful

              Writing style:  Compelling.



Read - alikes from Novelist

 

The Emperor's Tomb by Steve Barry





The Chase by Clive Cussler

The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams

Secret Shopper at Tecumseh Library

  I decided to go to the Tecumseh Library, which is a branch of the Allen County Public Library,  because it wasn't the library I usually go to and no one will know me.  When I went to the library, I asked the lady at the front desk for a good book to read.  I told her I was interested in fiction.  She showed me to the new books and let me browse.  I saw she had some books by Anne Rice and I wondered if they had any books that her son wrote.  She sent me over to the mystery section and told me to look for myself.  I didn't find what I was looking for, but I browsed the books and found a couple of interesting books; a book from the Supernatural series, and The Reader.  I have the movie The Reader, but haven't watched it yet.  I also asked her to look for a James Rollins book because I am reading one of his books now.  She told me there was two books by this author and where to look.  I looked there and found none.  I also had her look up Perks of a Wallflower and they didn't have it.  I was very disappointed with my experience at this library.  I am glad I live closer to a better library, the Shawnee branch of the Allen County Public Library.  I know a couple of people that work, so I couldn't go there.  My experience has been a positive one at other libraries.    

Prompt response Week 3

1.  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.
 I went to NoveList from the Allen County Public Library and put in Laurell K. Hamilton, author in the search bar.  It lists the books in the Anita Blake series.  I then looked at Vampire Hunter and found the first book in the series called guilty pleasures, vol. 1 and went to the fourth book in the series and that is called
Vampire hunter:  laughing corpse, book 2; necromancer.  There are eight books in this series and one is a prequel.  The prequel is called Vampire hunter: The first death.

2.  What have I read recently?  Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer.  I really like the way it was written, you know, the way she used language.  I wouldn't mind something a big faster paced though.
I first put in Barbara Kingslover for the author and found Prodigal Summer.  It said the writing style is descriptive, lush and lyrical.  The tone of the book is romantic and thought-provoking.  I looked under the Title Read-alikes and the author Read-alikes, but I didn't find anything faster paced.  I searched more by checking tone moving and writing style richly detailed.  I found books by Sara Given was at the top of the list.  It said to start with Water for elephants, which is a book that is romantic and engaging.  I wasn't sure if this book was fast-paced enough, so put in fast-paced in the search engine.  I then narrowed in down to fiction, books since 1981 and the writing style: descriptive, lush and lyrical.  I came up with two books: Yellow emperor's and the miniaturist.

3.  I like reading books set in different countries.  I just read one set in China, could you help me find one  in Japan?  No, not modern historical I like it when the author describes it so much it feel like I was there!
I put Japan in the search engine and came up with 1,939 books, so I limited it to historical fiction and came up with 99 books.  I would have to ask what else the person would like in a book.  I also limited the search to a strong sense of place and came up with six books, which are:  The teahouse fire; Blossoms and shadows; The gods of heavenly punishment; Child of vengeance; Office of innocence and Rising sun, falling shadow.

4.  I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it.  Then my dentist said that if I like mysteries I would probably like John Sundford, but was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?
I searched the author Elizabeth George and no results were found.  I put in Well-Schooled in Murder and found it  I see that Well-Schooled in Murder is in a series, so I would suggest other Thomas Lynley mysteries.  The next book in the series is For the sake of Elena.  The top three Read-alikes are: Still Life by Louise Penny; The men with a load of mischief by Martha Grimes and Whose body? by Dorothy Sayers.

5.  My husband has really gotten into zombies lately.  He's already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?
I put in Walking Dead in for the title and it came up with many books.  I must ask, which book your husband read in the series?  because he may want to read other books in the series.  There are 19 volumes in The Walking Dead series.  I also put in the title: World War Z and looked at the Read-alikes.  The top three Read-alikes are:  Oryx and Drake by Margaret Atwood; The gone-away World by Nick Harkaway and Robopocalypse  by Daniel Wilson.  He will like any of these books.

I find books to read by searching Amazon for similar books that I bought before.  I also look at the library and browse the shelves.  In the past I have looked at the local bookstores, but haven't done that lately because I haven't had the time.  I now will use Novelist which is at the local library site.