Week Three: The Readers’ Services Conversation

   Are you listening?

Week 3: Assignment 1
Review NoveList article “The RA Conversation” by Neal Wyatt.

Week 3: Assignment 2
Listen to this podcast of Nancy Pearl talking about books. Note how long her individual book talks are, how she describes the book, and how much plot is discussed.

Week 3: Assignment 3
Review these patron descriptions of “what they are looking for” and post an entry on your blog on what you heard or deduced, and what title you would recommend. (Note: There isn’t one “right” answer to what title you would recommend to these customers, just be able to support your recommendation.)



Convo 1:
Librarian: Hi, is there anything I can suggest?

Customer: I’m looking for a good story, you know, something that draws me in. But I don’t know where to start looking.

Librarian: What was the last book you read? Could you share something you liked about it?

Customer: The last book I read was Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Everyone is reading it so I had to pick it up. It was lovely. She is such an interesting woman and so brave. I enjoyed the descriptions of the countries she went to and what she did while she was there, of course, but I think what I liked most was how she shared her inner thoughts — so reflective but funny too. I thought it might be just light fluff or all me, me, me, me, but it was so much more than that. I read all the Oprah books and just love them. Anyway I wanted to ask you for a few suggestions for my book group. It’s my turn to pick the title.

Sounds like this person is interested in character: the character's voice, viewpoint, and personality seems important.  They also want a story that is compelling intellectually, something of interest that will make them reflect.



I may recommend something like The wives: the women behind Russia's literary giants, by Alexandra Popoff (Aug 2012).  These are the true stories of the wives behind the great Russian writers with intriguing anecdotes and first-hand accounts from diaries and letters describing their dedication despite political persecution and oftentimes less than loving relationships.


This reader may also enjoy Zadie Smith's On Beaty, 2005.  Novelist describes this title as "character-driven", "witty", and "lyrical".  The story is about a college art professor struggling with an unraveling marriage and his relationship with his three adult children.  Crises of identity, politics, and suffocating relationships emerge, enough meat to give the reader ample topics for self-reflection.

Convo 2:
Customer: Can you recommend any vampire books that are nothing like the Twilight series?

Librarian: Let me see how I can help you. What don’t you like about Twilight?

Customer: Everything, but especially that teen love story – way too much angst! And way too slow. Have you read any good vampire stories lately? 

This reader doesn't want to have anything to do with the repellent inner dialog of vapid teenagers.  They want something faster-paced, less internally reflective and probably less "Woe is I, the misunderstood teen.".  Let's see if we can find them something up their alley...



This reader may enjoy Laurell K. Hamilton's series of Anita Blake stories.  Blake is a vampire and monster hunter and supernatural detective located in St. Louis.  Hamilton's style is described as fast-paced and compelling; the storylines involve serial killers, unknown murderers, and hesitant alliances.  There are scenes of eroticism, but don't seem to be in the vein of an eternal teen-aged love affair.  If the reader is open to suspense and action, these titles may be of interest.



Kim Harrison's Hollows series may also be a good choice.  This series is based on a Cincinnati bounty hunter whose world involves witches, monsters, vampires, and a variety of other-worldly characters.  Solving murders while rogue diseases are plaguing the human population, our heroine Rachel Morgan's world is fast-paced and uncertain.




Convo 3:
Librarian: Hi, are you looking for anything in particular?

Customer: I just read this great book The River of Doubt. It was about Teddy Roosevelt and this ill fated expedition to chart an uncharted river in the Amazon. They lost almost all their provisions, the president was injured, and it turns out one of their crew was a murderer since there was a murder. And the most amazing thing was that it true. It was fascinating and really fast paced. Do you have anything to recommend that is like that?
Convos adapted from Wyatt (2008), retrieved from NoveList Plus.

Oooh, this reader is just up my RA alley.  They seem to like true-life stories, but fast paced.  (In this case I may avoid some Eric Larson.  While Devil in the White City has an interesting plot, I actually stopped reading because the alternating storyline and almost suffocating detail wasn't quick enough for me).

 

Here is a book lauded as fast-paced with true adventure:  Lost in Shangri-la: the Epic True Story of a World War II Plane Crash into the Stone Age (Apr 2011).  All true and previously untold, this story details a plane crash of American soldiers holding fast to their lives as they struggle to survive the New Guinea wilderness, a place where the native tribes have never seen white people and fear they are from the spirit world.

 

A grim true story, if the reader is up for a challenge imaging the limits of survival, is Ordeal by Hunger: the Story of the Donner Party.  In this gripping true historical account, author George R. Stewart uses first-hand documents to piece together the fates of these West-bound pioneers who unluckily got caught in the grips of the brutal winter conditions of the high Sierras.

I hope my fictional readers enjoy these real recommendations!
Keep on reading!
=)