- The most popular series by Laurell K. Hamilton, and the only one that she is currently publishing new books for, is the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. NoveList allows you to search by author, then by series. If you sort by volume, you find that Circus of the Damned was the third book in the series and that the next one you should read is The Lunatic Cafe, number four.
- Luckily, this reader was able to describe what they liked about Prodigal Summer. They liked the language, lush and lyrical in NoveList appeal terms. Looking at the descriptions of the Read-Alikes and keeping in mind that the reader might like something a little faster paced, I would suggest The Little Paris Bookshop. Both titles have romantic appeal and a lush writing style which refers to descriptive writing. Publisher's Weekly had this to say about The Little Paris Bookshop, "Her sumptuous descriptions of both food and literature will leave readers unsure whether to run to the nearest library or the nearest bistro." One more reason that I think the reader would like this book is that the writing style is referred to as "engaging" which to me, would draw the reader in to the story and characters. This would make the story feel as if it moved along more quickly as the reader can't wait to see what happens next.
- Using the Basic Search, I looked for historical fiction, Japan. I refined these results by adding: adult, fiction, richly detailed, and Japan. From these results, I would suggest that the reader try The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. Using "The Rule of Three" as described by Joyce Sarick in her At Leisure column, this title contains all of the appeal terms the reader mentioned: Historical fiction, Richly plotted, and it takes place in Japan. This book also received a popularity rating of 4 out of 5 stars from NoveList users and was given starred reviews by BookList, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Kirkus.
- The first thing I did was to compare the differences in the two author's appeal terms:
John Sandford
Genre:Police procedurals; Thrillers and suspense
Character:Flawed; QuirkyStoryline:Plot-driven
Pace:Fast-paced
Tone:Darkly humorous; Offbeat; Suspenseful; Violent
Writing Style:Compelling; Gritty; Richly detailed
Elizabeth George
Genre:Mysteries; Police procedurals
Character:Complex; Likeable
Storyline:Character-driven; Intricately plotted
Pace:Leisurely paced
Tone:Strong sense of place; Suspenseful; Violent
Writing Style:Compelling; Lyrical; Richly detailed
Character:Complex; Likeable
Storyline:Character-driven; Intricately plotted
Pace:Leisurely paced
Tone:Strong sense of place; Suspenseful; Violent
Writing Style:Compelling; Lyrical; Richly detailed
Starting with the basic search for mysteries, I refined those results by adding adult and fiction. Using the "Rule of Three" appeal terms that I felt were the most important for finding a suitable next book for the patron; character-driven storyline, a leisurely pace, and a lyrical writing style. Based on these results, I would either suggest another mystery by Elizabeth George or any books written by Louise Penny.
5. I started by comparing the similarities of the the appeal termsfor the two books that the reader liked.
Walking Dead
Genre:Books to TV; Comics (Graphic works); Graphic novels; Horror comics
Tone:Bleak; Gruesome; Menacing
Writing Style:Compelling
Illustration:Black-and-white; Dark; Detailed
Tone:Bleak; Gruesome; Menacing
Writing Style:Compelling
Illustration:Black-and-white; Dark; Detailed
World War Z
Genre: Apocalyptic fiction; Books to movies; Horror; Multiple perspectives; Satirical fiction
Storyline:Plot-driven
Pace:Fast-paced
Tone:Bleak; Gruesome
Writing Style:Compelling
Pace:Fast-paced
Tone:Bleak; Gruesome
Writing Style:Compelling
Beginning with a basic search using the genre, Horror, I added adult and fiction. In order to further refine these results by adding the appeal terms: bleak, gruesome, and compelling. I knew I was on the right track when the first two results were for the two books that the reader had mentioned they enjoyed. Based on these results, I would suggest the Preacher graphic novel series by Garth Ennis. In addition, based on the suggested read-a likes from NoveList, I would suggest either THMK by Jhonen Vasquez or the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.
Then, I realized that neither of these had anything to do with zombies. So...This time around, I used the advanced search with zombies, and the appeal terms; bleak, gruesome, and compelling. (The Rule of Three) By refining the results by using adult and fiction, I was able to weed out the Young Adult titles. Of the 44 titles in this list, only 3 were not World War Z or Walking Dead titles. The first two are in a series by Steven Barnes, Devil's Wake, which are about zombies, and although the other characters are teenagers, they are described by the appeal terms: gruesome and compelling. The third suggestion is The Damnation Game by Clive Barker and although it also is described as gruesome and compelling, I didn't feel that any of the three were likely to satisfy this reader.So...
Going back to the reviews of World War Z, I reread the professional reviews where George Romero's Dead trilogy was mentioned in three of them as read a-likes. The appeal terms and description for these titles seem to be more in tune with the reader's tastes. If the reader's wife comes back and reports that her husband didn't care for them, I probably would search other sources such as GoodReads or LibraryThing for new titles to suggest. These sites provide great feedback from readers about the book's appeal who offer lots of suggestions for read a-likes.
Then, I realized that neither of these had anything to do with zombies. So...This time around, I used the advanced search with zombies, and the appeal terms; bleak, gruesome, and compelling. (The Rule of Three) By refining the results by using adult and fiction, I was able to weed out the Young Adult titles. Of the 44 titles in this list, only 3 were not World War Z or Walking Dead titles. The first two are in a series by Steven Barnes, Devil's Wake, which are about zombies, and although the other characters are teenagers, they are described by the appeal terms: gruesome and compelling. The third suggestion is The Damnation Game by Clive Barker and although it also is described as gruesome and compelling, I didn't feel that any of the three were likely to satisfy this reader.So...
Going back to the reviews of World War Z, I reread the professional reviews where George Romero's Dead trilogy was mentioned in three of them as read a-likes. The appeal terms and description for these titles seem to be more in tune with the reader's tastes. If the reader's wife comes back and reports that her husband didn't care for them, I probably would search other sources such as GoodReads or LibraryThing for new titles to suggest. These sites provide great feedback from readers about the book's appeal who offer lots of suggestions for read a-likes.
6. Using quick search drop-down menu for books into movies, refining it by adding the appeal terms; adult, fiction, and literary fiction, and limiting the search to 2011 and after, I would suggest The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers or Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. These books were rated a 5 and a 4 respectively and they both were the first choices on each other's list of read-a likes. Both books were turned into movies and are described as literary fiction. I'm not very confident about these suggestions however, because they lack a third common appeal term. If the reader doesn't seem interested in either of them, I hope that we could continue our "reader's advisory conversation" as described by Joyce Saricks article,
Rethinking the Readers'-Advisory Interview, and I would be able to discern some other appeal terms that the reader likes. This would help focus a new search.
7. This one was stumped me at first. I could only figure out to search by the thriller genre, then refine it by the tone, chaste. This gave me only two results, neither of which were rated very well, nor did they have much in common in terms of appeal. So, I went to the home page and chose to search the Recommended Book Lists for thrillers and suspense. Happily, when I hovered over that genre, I was given a chance to search for christian thrillers. (I learned something new about NoveList.) Searching through those results, I would probably suggest the Jed Patrick series by Mike Dellosso, the Men of Valor series by Irene Hannon, or a novel written by Dee Henderson. If the reader doesn't care for the christian theme, I would encourage further conversation and hope to glean additional appeal terms from them. Then, I would probably use a source other than NoveList, such as Whichbook.net.
Although I have not used this site, it seems like a great choice for this situation because it allows you to search with a series of 12 sliding scales including sex to no sex.
Rethinking the Readers'-Advisory Interview, and I would be able to discern some other appeal terms that the reader likes. This would help focus a new search.
7. This one was stumped me at first. I could only figure out to search by the thriller genre, then refine it by the tone, chaste. This gave me only two results, neither of which were rated very well, nor did they have much in common in terms of appeal. So, I went to the home page and chose to search the Recommended Book Lists for thrillers and suspense. Happily, when I hovered over that genre, I was given a chance to search for christian thrillers. (I learned something new about NoveList.) Searching through those results, I would probably suggest the Jed Patrick series by Mike Dellosso, the Men of Valor series by Irene Hannon, or a novel written by Dee Henderson. If the reader doesn't care for the christian theme, I would encourage further conversation and hope to glean additional appeal terms from them. Then, I would probably use a source other than NoveList, such as Whichbook.net.
Although I have not used this site, it seems like a great choice for this situation because it allows you to search with a series of 12 sliding scales including sex to no sex.
When looking for a book to read, if I am looking for a new or soon to be published one, I generally use several sources. Baker & Taylor's Forecast is usually my first stop. If professional reviews are available, I use those and then, almost always, go to Amazon and/or Barnes and Nobel to read customer reviews. With the understanding that not all of these reviews are totally honest, I read the worst ones first, then the best ones. Often, this is enough information for me to make the decision to put the title on my TBR list. If there were no professional reviews available, I will refer to Library Journal, Kirkus, BookList, or NoveList before going to Amazon or Barnes and Noble. When looking for a book to suit the reading mood I am in, I head to GoodReads, LibraryThing, or NoveList.
As a side note, many of my staff and patrons use FantasticFiction to keep up with a series and/or author. This is a U.K. site which our tech services director doesn't like it because it isn't 100% accurate, but then, neither is Baker & Taylor. You get a picture of the author and a short biography. When searching by author, all of their books are listed books by series name and publication date as well as giving their omnibuses, novels, and series contributed to. It also gives upcoming publication information. One really nice aspect of this site is that when you print the list, you are given a concise list of each series, in order, which patrons keep so they can easily find the next book they need. We used to use the What'sNext database, but many times they did not have the author or series we needed.
For mystery readers, Stop, You're Killing Me! (http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/) is a great site. In addition to being able to search for new additions, new hardbacks, new paperbacks, new large print, new audio, book awards, book reviews, and read-a-likes, they have for job, location, historical, diversity, and genre indexes! Just to give a taste of what the site offers, here are the genre and character job indexes:
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Absolutely wonderful blog post! You went into wonderful detail on how exactly you found book recs using different sites and you had some real good ones! Way to think outside the box on a few and to use the rule of three. Full points!
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