mashups

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, combines many categories.  Primarily falling under magical realism, there is  a good dose of history, romance, intrigue and gothic/supernatural, all written in a literary style.

Kindred by Octavia Butler certainly encompasses and transcends many genres.  Though classified as Sci Fi, it deals with the major moral and historical issues concerning slavery in this country.

Week 6 #3

A Google search for western + ranger + fiction yielded Ralph Cotton's website, www.ralphcotton.com, devoted to the series and individual titles of this prolific author.  Montana Red, Jurisdiction and Guns on the Border were just a few of the many featured titles.  Described in another review as "...blood-soaked, sweat-stained, gritty believability...", these titles are heavy on history, plot and characterization.  The search for justice, and clearly cut situations of good vs evil, make for historically interesting and entertaining reads with possibly predictable moral outcomes.

Week 6 #3

www.rakehell.com, a website devoted to Regency romances  (Google search regency romance + novel) mainly features reviews of existing and upcoming works.  Some titles mentioned were The Last Hellion by Loretta Chase, The Wagered Heart by Rhonda Woodward, and The Greatest Sins by Christine Merrill.  Character-driven, these stories take place in Regency England in the early 19th century, and focus primarily on the romantic plot.  Class distinctions, social activities and other period trappings round out the picture.

Week 6 # 2 and 3

After checking out the Prezi link (fantastic, Alex!), I have chosen Steampunk, Regency Romance and Westerns - Rangers to explore.
For Steampunk, www.rantingdragon.com (Google search steampunk + novels) seems to be pretty popular.  Contributors are excited by the Twnety Must Read Steampunk Books list, offering comments about the books and their own favorites.  They also seem to be excited by the Anticipated Novels, movie and video game releases.  Some book titles would be The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson; The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, and Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.
Appeal factors might include all things fantasy, taking place in Victorian, future or post-apocalyptic times, or a combination of those.  They are imaginative, adventuresome, and plot-oriented.

Week 6 #1 genre resource

I have quite mixed feelings about the Street Fiction genre link, and my introduction to Urban Fiction. The resource is clear and well-designed, visually appealing, with  its sub-categories of Street Fiction, Urban Nonfiction, Urban Christian Fiction and Urban Teen Fiction, each of which hold a wealth of information.
Browsing the featured books, generally in the street fiction category, I was frankly initially shocked at the content and cover images.  As I read through more reviews, however, it seemed that thematically, though in the setting of the street and criminal worlds, many titles dealt with universal issues, love, despair, revenge, and just getting by.  Reading author interviews, I learned that many of the themes in the stories are not plans for action, but cautionary tales. 
What I am having a rather difficult time with is under the tab "topics."  This is so sad I feel I could cry.  A representative sampling of what these books deal with are: Abuse, Addiction, Car thieves, Conspiracy, Drug dealing, Gangs, Homeless, Iraq War, Kidnapping, Mafia, Murder, Pimps, Prison, Prostitution, Sex Trade and Suicide.  If these books are presenting a realistic picture of life in our contemporary urban areas, I feel hopeless and powerless, and I am just looking in from the outside.
As I sample these titles, I will hopefully gain a greater understanding of a vital part of our society.

Highly Anticipated title

In the highly anticipated category, I chose Last of the Doughboys: the Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten War, by Richard Rubin.  In 2003, the author began to track down veterans of the Great War, by then all over 100 years old, managing to find dozens.  Traveling all over the country, he interviewed those individuals, and their resulting stories make up this book.  Rubin has done a great service, not only for that generation, but for all of us who are only too likely to overlook or forget their contribution.  Informative, emotional, heartbreaking, and above all respectful of the interviewees,  these characteristics make a great book, and not only for those who have an interest in history.  That being said, I plan to recommend this title to my husband, a military history buff.  I also include The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War by Peter Hart as a similar read, in that the focal point is the war itself.

I am relatively new to Early Word, and many features are attractive.  Nonfiction readalikes seem especially useful, front lists and back lists broken into helpful categories.  Coming Soon, both kids and adults New Title Radar is great, and Books to Movie and TV will probably be useful.  I love the publishers catalogs, and since I am especially partial to SOHO Books, am happy to find this resource.  That being said, the format of the page is a bit of overload.  Scrolling through tons of different visual information on a screen is difficult for me and gives me a literal headache - something to do with my extreme farsightedness I suspect.  I will try to keep up with it, and hope to discover lots of new stuff.

Building base knowledge - week five

I have been following Salon - Books since week one.  I was attracted to its clean look in comparison with some of the other choices, and am finding it easy to navigate and informative to use.  Instead of a multitude of smaller bits of information, Salon's focus is very in-depth book reviews contributed, mostly, by Laura Miller, senior writer.  Her long descriptive and insightful reviews give a clear taste of the books, and are certainly complete enough to provide an excellent basis for Readers Advisory.  After reading her reviews each week, I feel I have almost read the book!  Recently, some of the choices have been The Unwinding: What's Gone Wrong with America, She Left me the Gun: Her Mother's Shocking Past, Wave: A Family Vacation Turns into the Worst Nightmare, The Woman Upstairs, and The Astor Orphan: Rich Little Poor Girl.

Salon also offers excellent audiobook reviews and does have an archive of former reviews.  Though I may not find something new every day, I will continue to follow this resource for in-depth reviews on varying topics.

Goodreads

I've been on Goodreads for about two years, have added many books, rated them, and received recommendations.  In the fiction, mystery and historical genres I favor, many of the recommendations overlap, and, though I have discovered a few new titles/authors, similar selections appear to come up.  I have not really found the lists to be helpful and don't rely on them for Readers Advisory. 

If this seems not terribly positive, well - it's not.  As a quiet non-joiner, social media in general, and in this case, Goodreads, are TERRIFYING! No, I'd prefer not to put all that out there, and though it's nice to keep up with your friends' reading, I'm afraid it's just not for me.  So there you have it.

In any case, based on her interest in historical nonfiction, I recommended to my friend Cassie the following:

Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former Director-General of MI5
byStella Rimington

Dame Stella Rimington writes of her time with MI5, climbing from clerk (in India) to the first female Director General. Not only dealing with the stresses of motherhood and then single motherhood, she worked in what was very much a man's political world. Historical and personal at the same time, this book is a fascinating look at Cold War and post-Cold War England.

The customer seems to be looking for fast-paced vampire stories without any teenaged emotional overtones.

I would recommend the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, which makes Twilight, etc. seem pretty immature.  Power, seduction, evil, and the paranormal are ramped up to a "fever" pitch in an apocolyptic Dublin, as humans battle it out with the Fae.  Heart-thumping stuff.

Doris S says:

May 6, 2013 at 6:42 pm

This customer seemed to enjoy a nonfiction book containing many elements of fast-paced thriller/mystery/adventure fiction.

I would recommend Destiny of the Republic, a tale of medicine, madness and the murder of a president. The title sums it up in this story of the life of James Garfield, tragically shot in the back in the fourth month of his presidency. A cast of bizarre characters, and even more bizarre scenarios of the shooting, the long aftermath and the wierd pseudo-scientific ideas of the day, include all the elements of genre fiction, but is heartbreakingly true.

Doris S says:

May 6, 2013 at 6:57 pm

It sounds like the customer enjoys a character-driven book, possibly a strong woman sharing adventures and emotions.

I recommend  Almost French, by Sarah Turnbull, which I just finished. Young Australian journalist and world traveler Sarah meets Frederic, quintessentially French, on her travels, visits him at his home near Paris, and the adventure begins…Moving to France entails not only learning a language but adapting to a seemingly endless array of cultural differences. Often hilarious, always fascinating, the story moves along with Sarah and her quest to maintain her Australian identity but to become “Almost French.”

I have commented on my friend and fellow librarian April Fell's blog, recommending The Madonnas of Leningrad and 1222 to her.