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Reader's Advisory Resources

tamarack — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:06:12 -0800

[LibraryFilter] What are your best resources for (fiction) reader's advisory (children, YA, adult)?? Right now I need the most help for the YA (teens and preteens) reader's advisory. My scope of knowledge doesn't seem to extend far enough, and (who knew) teens are a little shy. I'm new on the (public library) ref desk, and in general feel I need better tools for getting beyond Twilight ('cause surprise-surprise, all the copies are out).

My library has NoveList. If I can get an author, I sometimes use Fantastic Fiction's links. There is Amazon, but c'mon...it's pretty lame.

Books that take place in Knoxville/East Tennessee?

timetoevolve — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:39:59 -0800

I'm looking for books, either fiction or non-fiction, that take place in Knoxville, Tennessee or other nearby places in East Tennessee. As happens every summer, I am missing my Southern homeland something fierce, and I would like to pepper my reading list with books that are set in Tennessee, preferably in Knoxville.

Some notes:

-I read A Death in the Family in high school, and Suttree is already on the list.
-I have no preference in genre, but I especially like memoirs, travel literature, and creative nonfiction (of the John McPhee variety).
-Since my tastes run more to non-fiction these days, some more fiction would be lovely.

Any recommendations?

Intelligent page turners

objdoc — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:56:50 -0800

Recommend some bed-time and weekend fiction or non-fiction reading that will keep me enthralled after a long day or a long week I'm looking for page-turners, no specific genre, but nothing dry, hard to get into or especially long. Definitely need something plot driven. Probably set in the present, maybe political or business thrillers, maybe something else altogether... Bonus if the books are intelligent, literate, and teach me something about the world...

What is your personal narrative?

loiseau — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:13:33 -0800

Do you have any recommendations for solid creative non-fiction magazine columns or the like? I'm a writer and I really enjoy both reading and writing personal narratives like the NYT's "Modern Love" column or the Nerve "Personal Essays" section... the kind of thing which is sometimes called "creative non-fiction".

With a view to both finding new regular reads and finding new markets for my own writing, I'm looking for recommendations for this style of magazine writing, or anything you think is related and worth exploring. I'd prefer stuff I can read online for free, but I'm not particularly excited for Joe or Jane Blogger, unless they're professional and write in a more thoughtful memoir style, rather than this-is-what-my-kid-did-today.

Thank ye!

Stock my liberry.

zoomorphic — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:51:57 -0800

I just finished the last book on my Must Read list. Help make me a new one. Short-Listed Favorites: Lolita, Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Middlesex, Autobiography of Red, White Teeth, God of Small Things.

Gathering dust on my shelves: Pynchon, Roth, DeLillo. No conspiracy theories or White Man crises about how mass media and technology are snuffing out our souls.

I've undergone the mandatory high school and college reading lists, so I'm looking for something new and mind-blowing.

Looking for a good book recommendation website that isn't amazon.com

Sprout the Vulgarian — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:13:25 -0800

Has anyone come across a good website that accurately generates book recommendations, based on what you've read and enjoyed? Amazon.com isn't really working out for me, and nextfavorite.com seems kind of buggy at best, and kind of in cahoots with amazon.
Is there anything a bit more independent and/or user friendly out there? I prefer fiction, if that matters.

Pretend you are Oprah

barnone — Fri, 05 May 2006 13:23:01 -0800

My mom loved The Secret Life of Bees and The Year of Magical Thinking. She couldn't get through much of The Time Traveler's Wife. What else might she like? My mom isn't a big reader but she'll generally have a book on the go. Right now she's having a rough time and I'd like to get her a few great books to read before going to sleep. She also kind of enjoyed the Life of Pi and I think she read A Million Little Pieces and enjoyed it. She doesn't like those books that are mindless fluff (like that Shopaholic series), but she's not into the Atwood heaviness either. I'm thinking about something like A Kiss from Maddalena, Frangipani, Middlesex, A Mermaid's Chair, or The Brothers K.

I haven't read most of those though (well, none other than Middlesex) so I'm not sure if they'd be appropriate. Things that I'd like to exclude: time travel, sci-fi, 'weird' stuff (c'mon, think about a mom book club), really depressing stories, old English or complicated prose/chronology. She wants a good read, it can be thoughtful or sad in places, but not overwhelmingly heart-breaking or juvenile.

Any suggestions? Would any of the ones I listed above work? I'll go browse though a dozen or two at the bookstore to pick out a few for her, so more recommendations would be much appreciated.

Du vin, du pain & a whole lot of books please.

Skyanth — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 00:36:05 -0800

Good french books by good french authors? I have this thing where I try to read books in the language in which they were originally written. While this is fine for some languages, I find that my contact with french culture is too little to know what the good stuff is. Which means I hardly ever read french, which in turn means my french is rapidly detoriating. Action needs to be taken! Can you recommend some (preferably historical, but this is by no means a restriction) novels by modern french authors?

Children's books about cities

matildaben — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 11:33:50 -0800

Please recommend children's books about great cities of America and/or the world. A six-year-old who lives in a gorgeous and very rural area expressed a spontaneous interest in the urban (specifially, she announced of her block tower that it was "Chicago!!!"). Her very urban non-biological auntie would like to encourage this sophisticated young lady to understand more about the ways of big city life and the offerings of the great cities of the world. Could you recommend some good books for early readers (4-8 range)? An Amazon search has revealed the works of Martha Day Zschock but I would like recommendations of books you have actually seen or read. (Eloise, of course, is a given.)

What's the best book about Japanese history?

selfnoise — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 11:35:45 -0800

I'm interested in learning about Japanese history pre-1900. What book(s) should I be reading? I've been reading Lone Wolf and Cub (as well as some Samurai Executioner) and it struck me that I really don't know much about Japanese medieval history. I mean, I know a little about the samurai, and the structure of the country, and the various periods that history is divided into. But I'm lacking a lot of detail, and I'm in the mood for a meaty but readable history of Japan, preferably from early times to the dawn of modernity. Does anyone have any suggestions? If I really need to read 2-3 books rather than just one, that's fine too.

I should also throw in the caveat that I don't speak or read Japanese, so any books would have to be in English.

Books about people aged 25-35?

callmejay — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 00:28:44 -0800

Please recommend some good novels about people between 25-35. I just finished Little Children, which I enjoyed, and I realize it's been a long time since I've read something with characters who are about my age. Reading about adolescents was great when I was one and passes the time well now, and reading about middle-aged folks is fine sometimes too, but I'd love to immerse myself in the lives of (fictional) people my own age a little more often. Help me out.

What book can't you put down?

exceptinsects — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 12:16:29 -0800

I'm looking for a really good story--I feel like I'm drowning in books but there's nothing I really want to read. I'm tired of all these 'literary' novels where nothing really happens, or the big best-sellers that are all action and no substance. I don't really care what genre, fiction, nonfiction, anything is fine as long as it really sucks you in. Ones I've liked: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, Positively 5th Street by James McManus, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl, Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon, Word Freaks by Stefan Fatsis, My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki, The Brothers K by David James Duncan, Bee Season by Myla Goldberg, The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis, anything by Neal Stephenson, Barbara Kingsolver, Malcolm Gladwell, Ursula LeGuin, or Robertson Davies.

Did not like: Da Vinci Code, The Eyre Affair, anything by Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Crusie, Ayn Rand, or Piers Anthony; depressing 'women's fiction' in general.

Looking for Historical Fiction Recommendations (Newer is Better)

Johnny Assay — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 10:28:14 -0800

What are your favourite historical fiction novels? [more inside] One of my relatives put "historical fiction" on their Christmas list this year, and aside from once giving a friend a Kenneth Roberts novel that they'd asked for, I know next to nothing about the genre. Newer stuff is probably better, as he's less likely to already have such things.

And yes, I realize that this question is a pretty broad one. But that just gives y'all the opportunity to go nuts with recommendations.

Fiction dealing with religion & science with nature & ecology

jmd82 — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 12:42:24 -0800

I just got done reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn for class. Now, I have to find a book that also deals with nature in the same regard to read (ie, we're destroying it- go fix it! Though it could be how nature is ours to control and we should actually exploit it more). Preferable, though not necessary, for my own pleasure would be something that intertwines religion and science with nature (from a negative or positive standpoint) into the book.

Give me your reccomendations on books about the Republic and Empire.

WolfDaddy — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 18:08:10 -0800

As a lay...very lay...student of Roman Republic and Empire, and anticipating the upcoming HBO/BBC series Rome with relish, I'm reading everything I can get my hands on about both Republic and Empire. Currently I'm reading an abridgement of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire I just inherited. What next? [insert Latin for "more inside" here].

Memoir Recommendations

mojohand — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 12:20:31 -0800

My wife likes reading biographies and memoires, particularly of women in culture and the arts. Think "Reading Lolita in Tehran" rather than, say, "Mornings on Horseback." Any recommendations for a birthday present?

Sci-fi books for non-readers?

Zetetics — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 09:06:27 -0800

I need to recommend a book for a male, teenage, esl student. Which book would you recommend to a person who says he's kind of interested in science fiction but doesn't like to read? So far, I'm thinking Ender's Game but I'd like to have a few more choices.

Fantasy novel recommendation needed

grumblebee — Tue, 23 Mar 2004 10:10:51 -0800

Please recommend fantasy novels for someone who doesn't like fantasy novels (more inside). I'm generally not into the whole swords-and-scorcery thing. But I somehow picked up George R.R. Martin's first "Ice and Fire" book and got hooked. Now I'm trying to wait for the fourth book in the series, but It's taking him a really long time to finish it.

I'd like to read more fantasy, but most of the books I find are bad Tolkein or Harry Potter rip-offs.

But since I loved the Martin books, I'm guess that my dislike of the genre is based more on lack-of-education than problems with the form itself. I just don't know how to find the good books.

In order for me to like it, a fantasy MUST be well-written. I'm talking about prose style here. I can't stomach hack writing, no matter how good the plot is.

I'm not really into jokey stuff, so I don't respond all that well to Harry Potter. I know that there's a serious side to those books, but they're a little too full of silly names for my taste.

I also don't want to read parody or allegory. I want to be transported to another world -- not reminded of this one is some clever way.

In addition to Martin, I've also read Tolkien, the Philip Pullman books, C.S. Lewis, Watership Down, and most other well-known "classics."

What books am I missing?