Week Five- Assignment 3

     After perusing the top 25 anticipated titles of 2013 on the Earlybird site, I found two which look very promising.  The first is Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman.  I have read a few of Gaiman's books, and I enjoy the atmosphere, the writing style, and the elements of myth, memory, and childhood which are evoked in many of his books.
     Another title which looks very interesting is the Historical fiction title Transatlantic by Colum McCann. This book seems to have several interesting appeal factors: it is a triptych of major transatlantic historical events from the 19th and 20th centuries; the motivations of people who travelled across the Atlantic, and the different experiences of making the crossing between 1840 and 1998, and how the development of transportation and technology helped to "shrink the world" and compress time for the average person.

-Monty Phair

Week  Five-Assignment 2

  Some of the results from the CATONSVILLE Top 25 are not surprising, others are a bit...

1             Private London/ Patterson
2             Gorie Girl: A Novel/ Flynn
3             The Forgotten/ Baldacci
4             Alex Cross: Run/ Patterson
5             Merry Christmas, Alex Cross/ Patterson
6             Casual Vacancy / Rowling
7             Fliigh Behavior/ Kingsolver
8             Notorious Nineteen/ Evanovich
9             NYPD Red/ Patterson
10           The Perfect Hope/ Roberts
11           Six Years/ Coben
12           Secrets from the Past/ Bradford
13           Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel/ Kinney
14           Dream Eyes/ Krantz
15           Private Berlin/ Patterson
16           A Wanted Man: A Jack Reachers novel/ Child
17           Mad River/ Sandford, John
18           Guilt: An Alex Delaware novel/ Kellerman, Jonathan
19           The Storyteller/ Picoult
20           Black Box/ Connelly, Michael
21           Bone Bed/ Cornwell
22           Last Man/ Flynn, Vince
23           Week in Winter/ Binchy, Maeve
24           Low Pressure/ Brown. Sandra
25           Daddy's Gone a Hunting/ Clark, Mary Higgins

-Monty Phair

Week 5  Assignment 1-
    I am truly happy with my close following of C-SPAN Booknotes and Book TV--this source includes many of the same new NF books that one finds on Early Word, but goes even further.  This weekend I happened to catch an interview with Temple Grandin--a fascinating woman and author of books on topics ranging from Autism to the Treatment of Animals. On Saturday morning there was a recorded talk from Washington, D.C. earlier this year on "Autism across the Spectrum", which was very interesting on brain development and perception, and the range of behaviors which are sometimes classified as autism or asperger's syndromes.  Grandin related her own experiences with school and jobs over the years, and her personal discoveries about the elusive condition known as Autism. Her talk made me want to read her book, on a subject I probably would have otherwise avoided.
    Book TV is a wonderful tool for discovering New Non-fiction titles with multiple Appeal Factors.

-Monty Phair

Appeal Factors revisited

Group Exercise- Appeal Factors.
     Today at the Catonsville Library, Zeke White and I introduced the topics of "The RA Conversation" and all of the aspects of Roving Readers Advisory work. We had most of the Fulltime and half of the P/T staff bring their recent annotations and personal "Patron Description" to the meeting with them.
     we presented the concepts of tone [light, conversational, narrative, etc], major appeal [Is the story Plot driven?, character driven?, or is the setting and mood more important?], and key features or elements [such as humor, travel, appealing characters who show up in a series, style of writing, etc.]
     Each participant worked with a team member to discuss their personal reading preferences, at least two annotations, and best practices when interviewing customers for Reader's Advisory work. At least a dozen librarians participated in this session today, and all found the experience quite rewarding. We also discussed the various tools which can be used to locate books and materials in genres "outside of our comfort zones and frame of reference."

-Monty Phair (CA)

Week 4- Building Base Knowledge

     I have been subscribed to Goodreads.com for about a year.  I presently have 68 books listed, and these are arranged on 14 different bookshelves. I have a few friends who share their favorite reads with me, and vice-versa.
    My latest addition was the book the Enchanted Wanderer  by N.S. Leskov, a rather obscure Russian 19th Century short story writer.  His obscurity may have ended due to this recent translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky, who have managed to decipher the interior puns, and colloquial Russian phrases & slang of the era, and translate these magical stories into delightful modern English.  The stories are fantastic, magical, full of folklore and legend, eccentric characters and interesting situations.
     I will soon be adding The Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp, by Ann Kirschner, and The War of 1812: Writings from America's Second War of Independence [Library of America, 2013].
       Before subscribing to Goodreads, I kept a LENGTHY paper record in several small notebooks listing every title have read since 1982. The electronic list is less cumbersome, and is easier to recall in many cases, when my memory will not suffice. I strongly recommend that dedicated readers try Goodreads for this purpose.

-Monty Phair

Be More Bookish Week 3: Activities

Conversation 1
Based on the information provided by the reader who had finished Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert I would feel comfortable recommending Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier.  Yes, of course there are gender differences, but most of the same appeal factors: Interesting narrator, description of country, inner thoughts and reflections are described, and there is a good bit of humor too.
    If the reader would prefer a female narrator, I would recommend Castles, Follies & Four Leaf Clovers by Rosamund Burton. The setting for this book is central Ireland, but also includes many of the same appeal factors. (and even more humor).

Conversation 2
This reader would like Vampire stories, but without the Teen Love story element.  This person might want to try novels by Anne Rice, the Night Tracker series by Cheyenne McRay, the Carpathian series by Christine Feehan, and even Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden in the book, Changes.  All are action-packed vampire stories with interesting adult characters. This genre has really exploded in the last few years, and there are several authors and sub-genres to choose from, including a recent one called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter., by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Conversation 3
The person who read River of Doubt would probably find any non-fiction title with action and suspense to their liking. I would recommend the Devil's Rooming House by  M. William Phelps. This book is about one of America's most dangerous female serial killers, and the basis for the play and the novel "Arsenic and Old Lace." Another very good title is Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard, the true story of the assasination attempt on President Garfield, and what really caused his death. (It was not from the assassin's bullet).

-Monty Phair

     This week I have visited Stoddard's Palm Garden, the blog created by co-worker and friend Bryce Rumbles. Bryce reads lots of interesting stuff, and this includes history and Historical Fiction. I noticed that he has included Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth on his blog this week. I am a great fan of Follett, a gifted writer who refuses to be pigeon-holed into one particular genre. Follett is as adept in writing Historical Fiction as he is with suspense, espionage, and thriller. Pillars of the Earth has multiple interest points including Medieval British History and social life, architecture, and family saga.
    At this time, I am reading Dissident for Life: Alexander Ogorodnikov and the Struggle for Religious Freedom in Russia, by Koenraad De Wolf. Dissident is not merely a memoir of a pivotal and courageous non-violent Christian protester, but also a chronicle of Soviet repression against ALL people of faith in the former Soviet Union since 1917. The struggles of Armenians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Siberians, Jews and other groups are also included in this tremendous work by Belgian journalist De Wolf. It is also de facto one of the most readable accounts of the events leading directly to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-1991.  This account looks at the religious factors which contributed to that collapse along with the economic, social and political ones. This is an important book for anyone interested in these topics.

    At the other end of the biographical spectrum is another new biography, Lady at the O.K. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp by Ann Kirschner. This book starts off in an interesting manner with a quote by Nora Ephron, and an excellent hook in the first chapter: "Did you know that Wyatt Earp was buried in a Jewish Cemetery?" And so begins the life story of a lady who would be Earp's partner for around 50 years until his death in 1929. This is a great twist on one of the great legends of the American West, and will probably be at least as popular as the novel Doc [in reference to Dr. John Holliday] by Mary Doria Russell. (Arguably the best novel ever written about the man.)