Week 3: The Readers' Services Conversation

Conversation 1: something like Eat, Pray, Love

Another memoir sounds in order here.  An Italian Affair by Laura Fraser is also about the aftermath of a difficult divorce, and the author begins a transatlantic love affair with a professor from Paris.  It is described as having "irresistible honesty," and the patron in the conversation said she liked the way the author shared her inner thoughts.  

Conversation 2: Vampires that are nothing like Twilight

Something fast, probably no love story or teenagers.  I may recommend Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore if they're looking for humor.  When Jody is bitten by a vampire, she goes from a typical 9-5 workday to prowling the night in search of blood.  I may also take a risk and recommend a film (gasp!)--in this case A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (directed by Ana Lily Amirpour), which is a truly unique spin on the vampire genre (Iranian vampire Western; Lynchian film style).  Another option is Peeps by Scott Westerfeld.  The main character, Cal, contracts the parasite that causes vampirism from a one night stand (vampirism is an STD).  Cal--who carries the parasite, but is not a full-blown vampire--works for an organization that tracks down other 'peeps' or parasite positives, an organization Cal begins to have reason to be suspicious of.

Conversation 3: something like River of Doubt

I'd recommend Jungleland: a mysterious lost city, a WWII spy, and a true story of deadly adventure by Christopher S. Stewart.  The author attempts to retrace the journey of Theodore Morde (who would one day attempt to assassinate Hitler) through the South American jungles in search of a city Morde claimed to have discovered, which he called the Lost City of the Monkey God.  I'd also recommend Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick, the story of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, a fleet of six ships and countless scientists and other experts sent to catalog and claim the Pacific, as well as the expedition's ambitious commander.  Both are true, exciting, convoluted stories.

Week 2, Assignment 1&2: Appeal Factors

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, first book of the Kane Chronicles, is a fast-paced adventure story. Brother and sister Carter and Sadie Kane learn that their parents were magicians who unleashed the gods of ancient Egypt from their millenia of imprisonment--and things just keep getting stranger.  As Carter and Sadie find themselves under attack by the magicians of the House of Life, powerful gods, and forces of magic and chaos that they don't understand, they also have to learn what it means to be a family.

Appeal factors:  pacing, storyline.  Great for Percy Jackson or Harry Potter fans.

Do you like Junie B. Jones?  Then Ramona the Pest, by Beverly Cleary, is the book for you.  Ramona is starting kindergarten, and like most kids, she's not sure how she feels about this school business. There's a good reason the Ramona books have been around as long as they have.  Ramona thinks, speaks, and acts just like a kindergartener, and her experiences (pulling a classmate's springy curls, getting her new boots stuck in the mud) are instantly relatable.  

Appeal factors: characterization, tone.


M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton is the story of a thirteen year old boy whose home in the Appalachian mountains is threatened by a strip mine at the top of the mountain his family has lived on for generations.  He's desperate to save them all, which puts him into conflict with his father, who refuses to abandon his home and ancestors.  The book is rich with detail about life in rural Appalachia.

Appeal factors:  detail, setting, language.