Wk 3 Prompt

1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

The Lunatic Cafe (1996) by Laurell K. Hamilton is the next book in the series, book #4.

2. What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

The book they read by Kingsolver was tagged as “lyrical” and “descriptive,” so I

conducted a search using those terms and then filtered the results using the “fast-paced” option.

I found Oryx and Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood using this method and would recommend that.

3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you

help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author

describes it so much it feels like I was there!

The Shogun’s Daughter: a Novel of Feudal Japan (2013) by Laura Joh Rowland. I searched “historical Japan” and then filtered the results on the side

panel to be fiction and set in Japan. I browsed the list, clicked on this book, and checked its

tone and writing style to find it tagged as “atmospheric” and “richly detailed,” which is perfect

for this reader who wants to feel like they are there.

The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama (1994) might also be a good one to recommend because it ties in both historical China and historical Japan. 

4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and

I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John

Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?

Looking at the Well-Schooled in Murder page on NoveList, I saw a few readalikes suggested. I clicked on Still Life (2006) by Louise Penny to check it out, and discovered that it has the same genres  as the George novel – “mystery” and “police procedurals.” The storyline descriptions were the exact same as well – “Character-driven; Intricately plotted.” Finally, the writing style for both was listed as “lyrical” and “richly detailed,” so I believe the patron would enjoy this book. Additionally, this book is one of eighteen in a series, so if they enjoy it, there are several more to pick up.

5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking

Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

I did a subject search on NoveList for “zombies” and “zombie apocalypse” and most of the

results were Walking Dead graphic novels/books. However, one book that stuck out to me

was Day by Day Armageddon (2009)

by J.L. Bourne. Obviously, the book is similar to

the ones read by the patron in that it deals

with zombies and a zombie apocalypse, but it is also similar in the theme of

“band of survivors” and “survival.”

6. I love books that get turned into movies, especially literary ones.

Can you recommend some? Nothing too old, maybe just those from the

last 5 years or so.

Women Talking (2018) by Miriam Toews has been turned into a film to be released this year. The book’s

genre is literary fiction.

Also, Where the Crawdads Sing (2019) by Delia Owens could also be something I recommend to them based on how popular it was within my library system. The film was released a few years ago and we could not keep enough copies of this book on our shelves. 

7. I love thrillers but I hate foul language and sex scenes. I want something

clean and fast-paced.

Searched for “Christian thriller” and found “Christian suspense” to be a genre. I then searched NoveList for “Christian suspense” and narrowed it down to “fast-paced” and found a few options: The Queen: a Patrick Bowers Thriller (2011) by Steven James and The Ezekiel Option (2005) by Joel C. Rosenberg. Since both are Christian, they will not contain foul language or sex scenes.

Also,  A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series by Holly Jackson is an option. Young Adult novels tend to be well-liked by adults that don’t want a lot of profanity and sex scenes.

How I Find Books!

Goodreads has become ol’ reliable for me these days. I am constantly looking through user and site-curated lists and reading the synopses to find new books to read. IndyPL has a service called “Wowbrary” that allows you to see what books they have ordered, and I check that out every week to see what new fiction will be arriving in the coming months that I might want to read. 

After reading the RA tools for adults list by Mary Chelton, I decided to check out

booksense.com (now indiebound.org) – I had never heard of it, and am always

looking to support local indie bookstores when I decide to actually buy a book instead of just

checking it out from the library!