Adult Reader's Advisory

Marketing Fiction 1.         Bookmarks I love bookmarks; I have probably 50 scattered around my house and I actually make my own from contact paper and pressed flowers from my itty-bitty garden. They are inexpensive and fun and can be tailored for dozens of different marketing campaigns. Bookmarks can be used for passive readers advisory with a new or bestselling title on the front and read-alikes on the back. I love the idea of creating bookmarks for specific authors too, ones that maybe have several titles and current bestsellers but whose older works aren’t as universally well-known, like Fredrik Backman or Matt Haig. Tying bookmarks in with current displays and book club selections is a great way to promote fiction too! 2.        Displays/Shelf talkers Displays give you so many different options for promoting fiction. You can permanent displays with rotating inventory, like Page to Screen for books being adapted int...

  I found myself torn on this subject. On the one hand, I completely understand the need to create separate sections. It’s the same reason Westerns are in a specific place, or romance, or horror. If you are specifically looking for urban/street lit or LGBTQ+ books, it would be extremely helpful, for navigation purposes, for a separate section to exist. However, I am going to go with not separate. An article from the School Library Journal discusses a survey about this exact topic, with public and school librarians across the country participating. An overwhelming majority, 92%, do no have separate sections. While this survey is aimed more at the young adult and children’s areas, the arguments made are valid and my main reason for keeping the books together is the idea of the “otherness” that can be instilled in someone who visits the separate section. “Concerns about students not wanting to be seen going to the special section, being judged, or revealing something about themselve...

  How to Make Friends with the Dark By Kathleen Glasgow Published April 9, 2019 432 pages Summary: Tiger and her mother live an odd life. Tiger wears hand-me-downs and thrift store finds and her eclectic mother is always trying to make their on-the-edge-of-poverty life seem like an adventure. Tiger mostly doesn’t mind; after all, it has always been her and mom against the world. After a huge fight causes a rift in the relationship, Tiger storms off, content to spend the evening falling for a boy and feeling the ecstasy of a perfect first kiss. And then a phone call comes, bringing the darkness and changing Tiger’s life forever. A brain aneurysm. Here one second, gone the next. And now Tiger is alone in the darkness. After her mother dies, she is shuffled around between foster homes, some significantly worse than others, and Tiger fades further into the darkness, letting it surround her, consume her. Her grief becomes a tangible thing, pushing her down, smothering her...

  I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer By Michelle McNamara, Introduction by Gillian Flynn, Afterword by Patton Oswalt Published February 27, 2018 (posthumously) 352 pages Geographic Setting-Oak Park, IL, Hollywood, CA, Sacramento, CA, Irvine, CA, various California towns Time Period-1976-2016 Subject Headings-Home invasions, cold cases, serial rapists, serial murders, criminal investigation, Michelle McNamara Type-Autobiography, biography, true crime Summary: The Golden State Killer terrorized California for two decades. He is responsible for at least fifty sexual assaults and ten murders, in addition to countless counts of theft, vandalism, stalking, and destruction of property. He was never found. In this book, Michelle McNamara presents her own story alongside that of the Golden State Killer, recounting the origin of her true crime passion, and her growing obsession with finding the person responsible for dozens of...

    The Reader’s Advisory Matrix-I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara 1.        Where is the book on the narrative continuum? Highly narrative 2.        What is the subject of the book?  The author’s obsession with chasing cold cases and unsolved crimes and her hunt for the Golden State Killer 3.        What type of book is it? True crime narrative, part reporting, part memoir 4.        Articulate Appeal ·          What is the pacing of the book? The author takes a measured approach, giving enough detail to each individual case as necessary but quickly enough that the reader does not linger for long on the more emotional and difficult to read passages ·          Describe the characters of the book. The author herself is truly the main character. Any fi...