Monday, May 16, 2016

Week 5

Assignment 1:

I'll be honest, I haven't really been paying attention to the NPR blog like I should be. I've really been checking BookPage and Kirkus Reviews more regularly. One of the things I love about Kirkus Reviews is they have a quick overview of the best sellers and recommend "buy it", "borrow it", or "skip it". To be honest, I love reading the "skip it" stuff the most. I like knowing when a book isn't as good, and why.

Having just checked the NPR blog now, it seems to me like they're reviewing a lot of the same books I keep seeing all over. I cant help but feel like there's a handful of books each month (or whatever) and they get reviewed positively all over so I see them everywhere and then all of the customers want to read those books that get reviewed and then all of these good books that didn't get reviewed everywhere get left behind.

*rant over*

Assignment 2:

What's popular in my branch? Goodness. Everything. People line up for the new James Patterson, Debbie Macomber, Danielle Steel etc. Jewishly related fiction (I seriously need to come up with a better term than that) is also pretty popular, but that would be a reflection of the Pikesville area  population. Kids devour pretty much every series and are constantly asking for the next book only to find out it's not coming out for the next several months or more. It's actually one of the things I love about working at this branch, there really are readers here. People leave with stacks of books.

Assignment 3:

So I actually look forward to Amazon's best of the month every month. I think it's really interesting what they pick and it generally gives me a good sense of what's coming down the pike in terms of popularity. In fact, Hugh Jackman actually posted a picture to his Instagram today of him reading The Gene: an Intimate History.
Anyway, I think The Atomic Weight of Love might take off here. Romance and sweeping timeline seems to go over very well at this branch.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Week 4

So Assignment 4 is to explore Goodreads. If anyone wants to see my profile or friend me, you can find me here. My husband and I had spent a day or two a few years ago trying to log all of our books into Goodreads in the hopes that we could keep track somewhat of our books, but I haven't really touched it much since except to enter some giveaways (which is always fun). Poking around it a bit now, I can see that I should probably  be using it more often than I do. This would give me a chance to find new things to read, or have a better sense of read-alikes. I'm interested in seeing what other people are reading or recommending and will hopefully make a few recommendations later in the week.


Monday, May 2, 2016

Week 3

Assignment 1:

Thanks for having a review of this. It looks like it should be something I revisit often.

Assignment 2: 

It's great to listen to someone who is very eloquent in their discussion of books. She give just enough information to let you know what the book is about, but not enough to give it away or make it seem uninteresting.


Assignment 3:

Conversation 1) You might like No Baggage: A Minimalist Tale of Love and Wandering  by Clara Bensen. An expansion on her article about her craziest OKCupid date, this is a book about a woman who meets a really energetic professor and on their first date they agree to go travel the world with no plans, no hotel reservations, and no luggage. It's an interesting story of relationships, adventure, and stepping out of your comfort zone.

Conversation 2) I personally really like the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. While it does have a bit of angsty romance, it's got a lot of adventure and humor. They're a fun read and easy to get through the whole series.

Conversation 3) There's a new book out called The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer. Though it's a title worthy of a cable show, its the true story of a Haidara, an archivist and historian who helped smuggle manuscripts out of Timbuktu after Al Qaida militants enacted Sharia law and began destroying the literature.