Caitlyn's Reading Blog

Author: Weiner, Jennifer Title: Good In Bed Genre: Women’s Fiction, Chick Lit Publication Date: 2001 Number of Pages: 375 Geographical Setting: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, NYC, Hollywood Time Period: Present day (2000) Plot Summary (spoiler free): Cannie Shapiro has just broken up with her longtime boyfriend Bruce. Feeling alone and vulnerable (and edging into 30) she finds out her ex-boyfriend has written a tell-all expose about their relationship titled Loving a Larger Woman . Not only does the whole world now know about her relationship troubles but they also know about her weight struggles. Can Cannie come back from this humiliation and become the strong woman she was always meant to be? This book is the first in a series Saricks Rule of Three: Character-driven, witty, funny Elements of Women’s Lives (may contain spoilers): Most women can relate to Cannie’s struggles with both body image and relationships, and this is one of the elements that makes up th...

For this response I want to focus on celebrity inspired book clubs. The article “Celebrity Book Clubs Create Virtual Reading Community” talks about the popular online book clubs of Emma Watson, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Florence Welch, Zoella, Emma Roberts and of course the mother of all celebrity books clubs, Oprah. While some of the quotes in the article are cynical of celebrity book clubs (“they have a shelf-life and people like Emma Watson will get bored and start looking for the next new thing”-Claire Armitstead of The Guardian ) there is no denying the power of a celebrity endorsement for book sales and hype. In the article “From Obscurity to Bestseller: Examining the Impact of Oprah’s Book Club Selections”, Oprah’s book club picks from 1995 to 2002 were examined to see what impact being featured as a book club pick on her show had on the sale of the books. The researchers found that being featured on Oprah’s show as a book club pick had a tremendous impact. The f...

Horror Reader's Advisory With the surge in popularity of Netflix’s The Bird Box, I think a catchy display could be a good idea to get people’s attention about the horror books on offer at the library. The display itself could include scenes from the movies or tv shows featured (copyright permitting) which would help draw in people to the display. A small display of available titles along with bookmarks detailing books you might like based on your favorite horror movie/tv show/ video game could go over well and increase circulation of titles that might be languishing on the shelf. The bookmarks would use integrated advisory by connecting book titles to the movie/tv show/video game. Here are some sample lists, but there are many possible popular titles that this kind of bookmark could be done for: If you liked Netflix’s The Bird Box , try these: The Silence by Tim Lebbon The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Fireman by Joe Hill The Passage by Justin Cronin Blindness by ...

Author: Paul Tremblay Title: A Head Full of Ghosts Genre: Horror, psychological suspense Publication Date: 2015 Number of Pages: 284 Geographical Setting: Beverly, Massachusetts Time Period: mid 2000s (exact date not given) and 15 years in the future Plot Summary: When Meredith Barrett was only eight years old her fourteen-year-old sister Marjorie began experiencing strange things and exhibiting terrifying behavior. Her father, laid off from his job of 19 years, turns to religion and becomes increasingly more zealous and terrifying. Her mother tries taking Marjorie to psychiatrists to get her help but nothing seems to work. At a loss her father turns to the local Catholic priest Father Wanderly, who believes Marjorie is possessed by the devil. Knowing about the family’s precarious financial situation Father Wanderly suggests letting a tv crew film a reality tv show about their experiences and the upcoming exorcism. 15 years after those horrifying events, Meredith re...

Kirkus Review A Dog Named Christmas By Greg Kincaid When Todd McCray, a young man with developmental disabilities who lives on a big farm in Kansas with his mother and father, hears that a local animal shelter is looking for dog foster families for the Christmas season he immediately jumps to action and wants to help. His father, George, a Vietnam war veteran, is reluctant. Todd’s determination wins out in the end and the family takes in one of the strays. Will the new dog stay with the family and help heal George’s past traumas? Will Todd succeed in getting other people involved to clear out the shelter? The story follows the family’s journey through fostering the dog and George’s sad reasons for why he does not want to keep the dog. While the story is heartwarming and cute the writing is stilted and the side characters feel one dimensional. The author tries to make George a salt of the earth guy, but often he comes across as old-fashioned, and not in...

Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular (especially in the romance genre) see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author, and then still it's usually only RT Reviews (formally Romantic Times) or other genre heavy publications. How does this affect collection development? This could affect collection development because unless the library’s collection development librarian is aware of these other sources for reviews they may not purchase those kinds of e-books for their library. By not acquiring these types of books many library patrons will be left without books or resources catered to them. This is an issue because according to the Code of Ethics from the American Library Association we should “provide the highest level of service to all library users through appropriate and usefully organized resources”. We should also “uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources” (American Lib...