Mystery Annotation: Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley

Details -

• Title: Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
• Author: Alan Bradley
• Publication Date: September 20, 2016
• Genre: Mystery
• # of Pages: 326
• Setting: 1950's Bishop's Lacey, England

Synopsis -

In the eighth installment of Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce novels, Flavia has made her way back after being kicked out of a Canadian boarding school. Upon arrival, she finds that her father has contracted a serious case of pneumonia and is in the hospital, her sisters are as unwelcoming as ever, her live-in cousin is just as insufferable, and her poor pet chicken has been butchered. This is not the reception for which she has been hoping. She immediately wishes to set out to see her father, but is delayed time and again by the matron's insistence that he receive no visitors. She instead sets out to on an errand for the vicar's wife and stumbles upon the corpse of an old man. With the use of her budding deductive skills and affinity for chemistry, this young and spunky heroine sets out to solve the mystery of his death, all while dealing with her own dysfunctional family dynamics. 

Mystery Characteristics -

• The plot focuses around a crime; in this case (and most mystery books) the focus is on a murder.
• The story focuses on our young (12 years old) investigator, Flavia.
• Contains interesting supporting characters in the form of both suspects and series characters.
• One in a series, containing both enticing mysteries and interesting character life, which keeps the reader returning to learn more.
• The investigator genuinely enjoys solving crimes (in Flavia's case, she particularly enjoys happening upon dead bodies and is intrigued by the chemistry that takes place there).
• The author sets the frame and setting to attract readers.

Characteristics of Amateur Detective Subgenre

• The main character "falls into" the case when she attempts to deliver a letter and find a corpse instead.
• The main character has a contact with the police department. Flavia frequently shares her findings with Inspector Hewitt and looks up to him. She wants to impress him.
• Plot has a gentler tone.
• The investigator is not formally trained since she is a 12-year-old girl.

Read-a-Likes -

• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (the first in the Flavia de Luce series)
• A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
• A Curious Beginning by Deanna Rayburn
• Bryant & May: A Strange Tide by Christopher Fowler
• The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Awards or Lists -

This book has high reviews from many reputable sources, such as Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews. For his Flavia de Luce series, Alan Bradly has won numerous awards, including:

• Debut Dagger Award of the Crime Writers Association in the UK
• Agatha Award for Best First Novel
• 2010 Dilys, awarded by the International Mystery Booksellers Association
• Spotted Owl award, given by the Friends of Mystery
• 2010 Arthur Ellis Award, given by the Crime Writers of Canada for Best First Novel
• titles on ALA's best books lists and New York Times Best Sellers lists

My Thoughts -

This is one of the series that I follow. I would definitely call it a "cozy" mystery. It is leisurely paced and is about more than just the murder, though that is the main story line. The main character, Flavia, is also dealing with a lot in regards to her family. The entire series is told from her perspective, which gives you a really good view into her personality. It is easy to fall in love with her wit and humor and somewhat sad to see her family dynamic. The way that she handles various situations is endearing. The series also gives some insight into the personalities of her family members and neighbors as well. Her love of chemistry and age definitely make her a unique heroine. The murders in each book are complicated enough that I never guess how all of the pieces fit together, but I do make some correct guesses. The murder mystery part of it is fun, but Flavia is definitely why I keep returning to this series. I fall in love with her character again during each book. In order to really enjoy it, though, you need to be in the mood for something a little bit slower. Don't read this when you are in the mood for a fast-paced, action packed novel; you won't do it justice.

Week 6 Prompt

This is totally late, but hopefully someone will enjoy it anyway!

For Week 6's prompt, I have chosen to focus on Gentle Reads. I really like the initial description used in our textbook: Warm Milk. When I think of Gentle Reads, I think of books that are meant to help you relax. Nothing is rushed. Everything works out in the end. They may even be a bit funny.

Two times of year come to my mind when I think of Gentle Reads: summer vacation (beach reads) and winter break (cozy up with a blanket and hot chocolate reads). Both are times of year that people most wish to relax and take it easy. I think that a display during each of these times of year would do best. You wouldn't necessarily name your display Gentle Reads. I am thinking more something along the lines of "Relax on the beach or by the pool with...." and "Snuggle up with your blanket, hot chocolate, and one of these cozy titles." I would set up a reading corner near these displays meant to show that same scenario. You could use beach chairs, sunglasses, and sand toys for the summer reading. For the winter display, you could set out blankets, pillows, slippers, snow globes, and even hot chocolate. You could give a short description of each suggested book and why it would be perfect for these take-it-easy times of year. Making the displays / reading corner eye-catching would draw more patrons in to read the blurbs.

I also think that it would be a good idea to incorporate one of the suggested titles in with the monthly book club. You could start with these lists to choose a book and then make it into a display for the entire season. This will give automatic recommendations to your book club members who enjoyed the book you chose to focus one.

Week 5 Prompt

Romantic Suspense Novel Reviews
These reviews are not professionally written. They contain numerous typographical errors. Both reviews state their opinions without really giving supporting evidence from the book. They both give a pretty good summary, but I don't really trust their reviews. The Amazon review gushes without giving supporting details. The blog review is wishy-washy. He or she says that they enjoyed the book, yet thought the plot was odd. Other than it was focused on Christmas, the blog poster doesn't really say what made it odd. There is not enough supporting details in order for me to take these reviews seriously.

From these reviews, I also do not get the feeling of a romantic suspense novel. There are no elements of suspense noted.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
These reviews are much more professionally written. There are no "I" statements. The different aspects of the text, such as the focus on humor, are backed up by examples from the text. The reviews focus on the aspects of the text rather than the reviewers feelings about the book. Because of this, it feels much more like a recommendation than simply someone's opinion. The reviewers weaved a summary into explaining the feeling of the book. I would be much more likely to add Angela's Ashes  to my library than The Billionaire's First Christmas. In fact, I think that I will check my catalog now to see if we have a copy.

Book Review Bias
It definitely seems that there are biases when it comes to choosing books to review professionally. The books that you see reviewed are typically either literary fiction, popular authors, or more socially accepted genres. You don't see many reviews of romance or romantic suspense featured in Kirkus. I think that this may come from the idea that all romance and romantic suspense novels are is fluff. I assume that reviewers typically review genres that they enjoy and not many reviwers prefer these genres.

As far as how it affects my book ordering, though, I am not sure that it does. Honestly, our patrons read romance, cozy mysteries, and Christian fiction more than any other genres. Because we know this, we have an automatic order set up with book vendors for these genres. Do I specifically go looking for these types of titles to add? No. We already get new ones in regularly. I focus my efforts on finding reviews for those genres that we do not have on automatic order.

Negative Reviews
I am not quite sure exactly how I feel about negative reviews. I think that they are important. A review should be honest. I do not think that it is okay to pay someone to only say nice things about a book if they don't have only nice things to say. That much I know. When it comes to whether or not to publish those negative views is where I am on the fence. Personally, I want to read honest reviews whether they are good or bad. It is frustrating not to be able to find a review for a book. If the company's sole focus is only to recommend books, though, I am not sure that it is necessary to publish negative reviews. If a book has an overwhelmingly negative review, the company will obviously not want to recommend it. I do think that it is important for people to know this about a company, however. They should be forthright with what you expect to get from their reviews. If they don't post negative ones, it should be common knowledge.

My Use of Reviews
I use reviews both when ordering books for my library and my own personal use. I stick to the big names: Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. I also check the Amazon description for the book. Sometimes reviews from other magazines, newspapers, and authors are listed there. The more good reviews that the book can brag about, the better.

When ordering for the library, I am more professional when it comes to book reviews. I look at the big names and see if it has won any awards. When looking for myself, I do these things, too. I also, however, look at personal comments in Amazon and Goodreads. I don't read through them thoroughly. You are more likely to find spoilers that way. I glance over the top few reviews to kind of get a feel for how the book was received.

Kirkus Style Review - A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin follows a series of characters in the fight for the throne of the kingdom before the oncoming winter.

With winter comes great despair and hardships. Throughout the realm of the Seven Kingdoms, various parties have different views of who would best rule for this oncoming time. Throughout multiple perspectives, we see that the fight for the thrones is fought with more than simple swords and shields. Secret battles, attempted murder, political intrigue, back-stabbing actions, and many other attacks are used to gain the advantage. Stuck in the middle of this complicated situation is the Stark family of Winterfell. George R. R. Martin weaves the various members of the Stark family, among many others, into the thick of the struggle for the throne. Every member of the Stark family plays an important role in this struggle, from 7-year-old Bran to head-of-the-household Ned. Even with a multitude of different characters, each one is well-developed. The various story plots interconnect between key figures and help to develop a complex and real story. The depth that Martin produces in both the plot and the characters provides for a world that the reader can immerse themselves into, as long as they can keep track of who is doing what.

This book, while creating an in depth and complicated world, is not for light readers. Serious focus is required in order to fully enjoy and understand this first novel in the series A Song of Fire and Ice.

Secret Shopper

The library that I went to serves a single town. It has one branch and only had one desk. All queries are answered at this one desk. While there was no signage promoting reader's advisory, the librarian was very friendly and willing to help.

I asked specifically for a literary fiction recommendation. (That is the only genre annotation for which  don't have a book picked out.) She gave me a puzzled look at consulted her computer. I told her that it was for an assignment. She seemed to consult Google and then switch to Goodreads. Google gave her fairy tales and fables. Through Goodreads she was able to find some actual titles that would fall under that category. She did consult a decent tool in searching Goodreads, but did not have ask the necessary questions in order to narrow down the choices for me. She gave me a list of titles. After it seemed that was all she was going to do, I told her thank you and that I would review the titles and come back. During the reader's advisory interview, she did ask me what I liked to read. There was no follow up, however, and she did not learn much about my reading tastes.

While I wouldn't exactly call this experience unsuccessful, it was not what it should have been. I walked away with a list of titles to look into, but I still don't have a book lined up for that category. Knowing the community that this library serves and its size, I believe that this transaction was not very successful due to lack of experience. I doubt that they get many reader's advisory questions in general, and probably even fewer asking for literary fiction. Lack of knowledge and training is most likely what made this transaction less successful than it could have been.

Romance Annotation: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Details -

• Title: The Notebook
• Author: Nicholas Sparks
• Publication Date: January 5, 2000
• Genre: Romance
• # of Pages: 206 (Kindle edition)
• Setting: 1946 & present-day-ish New Berne, North Carolina

Synopsis -

The story begins with an elderly man in a nursing home. He finds his way to a woman's room who has Alzheimer's. Throughout the day, he reads to her from a notebook about the love between Noah and Allie. They fall in love as teenagers, are separated, and think each has forgotten the other. Through this story, we learn of their timeless love. Later on, we learn more about the elderly gentleman and lady that we meet at the beginning of the story. We reminisce with him through his life's memories. This couple shows the reader the possibilities that an enduring and passionate love can have on a life.

Romance Characteristics -

• Contains the tone and mood of a romance in that it focuses on emotions, feelings, and thoughts of the characters.
• The characters exhibit qualities of easily identifiable types: Noah is strong and rugged while Allie is beautiful, strong, and bright.
• The story contains both outside circumstances that force them to part (Allie is forced to move with her parents at the end of the summer) and a misunderstanding between protagonists (Allie never receives the letters that Noah sends).
• The language is that of a typical romance novel. There is a lot of poetry and descriptive language.
• The focus is on the characters and their emotions rather than the plot.
• The focus is on the romantic relationship.
• Fast-paced in that it was an easy book to read through quickly.
• Results in a "happy" ending; Allie remembers Noah on their anniversary night. They spend that night together like they used to be.

Read-a-Likes -

*Disclaimer* Since I do not have much experience with this genre, these read-a-likes were gathered through reader's advisory resources.

• A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
• Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

Awards or Lists -

While this book has not won any awards (to my knowledge), it was turned into a major motion pictures. The movie was nominated for and won many different awards.

My Thoughts -

I have mixed feelings about this one. The initial portion of the book that goes through Allie and Noah's past was not for me. I found it all too neat and cliche. There was some eye-rolling involved. I had a hard time relating to it. It was all love and understanding. Where was the anger? Where was the frustration? Why was everyone so understanding? No one would be that understanding in real life. The second half of the book, however, got to me a bit more. The second portion was told from Noah's point of view in the present day. He thought back through memories with his children and with Allie. He reread letters that they had written to each other. He dealt with the difficult feelings that come with a loved one with Alzheimer's. This I found much more touching. To imagine the pain that someone must go through in that situation was heartbreaking. Overall, I thought it too idealistic. I am not a big romantic, though. I don't believe in love at first sight; I believe that love takes work and sweat. This book made love sound like something that easily and naturally came to two people. I know Nicholas Sparks is a popular author, but I don't think he is the author for me or that romance is the genre for me.

Week 3 Prompt

Reader's Advisory Prompt Questions

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!

I searched the keywords Anita Blake in NoveList. The first two results were Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. The first result was a novel series; the second result was a graphic novel series. Looking at the details for both, I concluded that the patron was most likely looking for the next novel, rather than graphic novel, because the graphic novel series did not go up to four volumes. The next novel is the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton is The Lunatic Cafe based upon publication date.

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.

For this question, I looked up Prodigal Summer in NoveList to find its writing style. It was described as descriptive, lush, and lyrical. I searched by those appeals and added in a fast-paced. One recommendation would be Yellow Emperor's Cure by Kunal Basu. It contains the same writing style elements as well as a fast pace. Its genre does fall under the historical fiction category, though. Another option would be The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Galbadon. This book combines the writing styles descriptive and lyrical with a fast pace. It is also character-driven in the storyline like Prodigal Summer. This book falls under the categories of historical fiction and mystery.

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!

I searched the key words "ancient Japan" with the writing style selected as richly detailed. Some of the first titles that came up were part of a mystery series. Since the patron wanted to focus on historical fiction and did not mention series at all, I found the best result with the search to be The Teahouse Fire by Avery Ellis. It's writing style is richly detailed and is about turn of the century Japan. This book should be packed with the details that the patron asked for as well as a focus on the historical side of 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?

After searching NoveList for Well-Schooled in Murder, I found that this book is actually the third book in the Thomas Lynley Mysteries series by Elizabeth George. My first suggestion for this patron would be to read the first book in the series, A Great Deliverance. If the patron were to show resistance to continuing with this author/series, I would recommend the Ruth Rendell's Chief Inspector Wexword mysteries series. The first in this series would be From Doon with Death. This series/author has the same writing style as Elizabeth George and focuses on murder mysteries where the characters play a main role. I found Ruth Rendell by doing an author read-a-like search.

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 started with looking at The Walking Dead. The top read-a-like for this book is The First Days by Rhiannon Frater. It is the first book in the author's series titled As the World Dies. It share the same genre, pace, and tone as The Walking Dead while also containing zombies. I then decided to look at World War Z as well, because (from watching the movies and television show, which I know isn't exactly accurate to the book) I think that these two books have a different feel to them. I wanted to provide a couple of options that might work. The top read-a-like for World War Z is I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. While this book doesn't exactly contain zombies, it does contain people who are altered by a virus that exhibit zombie-esque behaviors. It also shares the same genre, pace, tone, and writing style as World War Z.

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.

This question is a bit tricky. Literary fiction can have a wide range of writing topics and styles. If the patron is interested in something on the classic literature side, The Great Gatsby may be one that he or she is interested in checking out. Life of Pi by Yann Martel was also made into a movie five years ago. If you want something more face paced and thrilling, Room by Emma Donoghue was made into a movie about two years ago. Some of my personal favorites (though the movies are slightly over five years old) are The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Both The Help and Water for Elephants would also fall into historical fiction. Water for Elephants and The Time Traveler's Wife have themes of love. It really depends upon what subject matter you are looking for. (Some of these books were found through using the genre filters Books to Movies and Literary Fiction. Some were found through a literary fiction list on GoodReads.)

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

For this one, I had a hard time finding a setting on NoveList. I tried finding lists on GoodReads, but that didn't result in much. So, I resorted to Google. I searched the term "clean thrillers" and it took me to a discussion on GoodReads. I looked at the recommendations there and then compared them to the book results in NoveList. I found Mary Higgins Clark to generally be considered a clean author and her profile on NoveList put her in the thriller/suspense genre. Her newest book is The Sleeping Beauty Killer, but she has oodles of books. 

Personal Tools

When it comes to looking at books for my personal reading, I tend to use GoodReads. GoodReads has a recommendation tool, but I tend to find that it doesn't always provide recommendations that I am interested in reading. Instead, I will look at a book that I have read already that I want a read-a-like of on the GoodReads site. Once you are on that books profile page, they have sections to the side and under the synopsis that are titled "Readers Also Enjoyed" and "Lists with This Book". They may also have section where other books in that series are listed and/or other books written by that author. I find that these are more helpful than the recommendation tool, because they come from other readers. GoodReads also does a yearls award for many different categories. If I am stuck on what to choose, I will look at their awards for the most current year. Before I choose a book, I skim a lot of the reviews. I do this both on GoodReads and on Amazon. Once in a while, I might check out the New York Times Bestsellers lists for inspiration or the website http://www.yournextread.com/us/. I really like the format of Your Next Read. It provides the recommendations in a web like format. You can then click on the different books to learn more information and get further recommendations based off of that book. It creates another web for each book you choose. They also have lists if you don't have a particular book in mind.