Assignment 3

I really appreciate the opportunity to be a part of Be More Bookish.
I do think learning about new resources, various exercises, and readings will serve to enhance my RA skills.  The blog could be an exercise in frustration at times and being a part-timer it was hard to find the time to complete assignments.  I do wish I'd had more time
to put more effort and finesse into the blog-it kinda looks like one hot mess. My co-workers were wonderful and it created a bonding experience as we coached and helped each other.

Week 9

Assignments 1 & 2

I’ve watched some book trailers that were effective and others that did not entice me at all.  The trailer for The 5^th Wave by Richard Yancey looked like a movie preview- I was waiting for it to say Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You.  I also thought it gave away too much of the plot-which served to dissuade me from wanting to read the book.  The trailer for Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu was a montage of pictures and words set to a sappy song-and I did not find it very engaging. The trailer for Lowboy by John Wray was a spoof with actor Zach Galifinankis  portraying the author and John Wray  portraying a journalist interviewing him. It was funny and unexpected and while it didn’t give much about the plot, it did entice me to find out more about the book.  I immediately looked it up on Amazon.  I did not find a direct link to the trailer but it may have been on the author’s Amazon page which I did not have time to look at.  One of the embedded trailers (I’m forgetting author and title) was similarly  witty and engaging.  Another looked like a movie trailer.  I did not see any that were simply the author booktalking their book and I wonder if that would be an effective marketing strategy- I guess for some yes and others no- but I think that methodology would be the best as far as Reader’s Advisory goes.

 

Week 8
Assignments 1 and 2
I read the articles and viewed the video.

Assignment 3
Nonfiction genres :
Travel 910 Eat Pray Love Elizabeth Gilbert
Science 612 Bonk:The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex Mary Roach
Food 641 and Biography Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain
Social Issues 305 Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich

Assignment 4

  Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach is filled with thorough, but zany research on the science of sex.  Brothels, pig farms and sex toy research labs are some of the places she has investigated.  Readers who like authors such as Chuck Palahniuk and/or Christopher Moore  may appreciate the quirky humor in Mary Roach’s science writing. Dexter fans who don’t shy away from a little blood or gore might find Bonk is similarly lurid in a droll way. If you liked 50 Shades of Grey and your high school biology class, Bonk should be right up your (ahem) alley!

  

Readers of fiction in foreign settings that are witty and introspective such as Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses or Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple are likely to appreciate a book like Eat Pray Love which has similar appeal
factors.  The tone is essentially light with an underpinning of emotional drama and explores the dynamics between human relationships and self as do the characters in Tan's and Semple's books.

 

 

 

Week 7

Assignment 1

I took a look at the flow chart recognized some titles and noted the others.

 

Assignment 2

I read the article The Next Big Thing YALSA

The article was enjoyable but I thought the reasons listed for Adults Reading Young Adult Literature had a glaring omission.  I think a major draw is that adults want to get inside the heads of teens. It is well known that teen brains are not fully developed – especially when it comes to making rational decisions.  Personally, I love reading the genre to get inside teen minds and to try to understand some of the psychology behind their behavior. 

 

The article Not Just for Teens  Library Journal  covered a lot of the same territory as the Yalsa  article regarding explanations of the seemingly recent hunger for teen books by adult readers (i.e. nostalgia, wanting to know what their kids are reading, the paranormal craze, marketing and tv/movie tie-ins).  I was pleased to see that the article made mention of wanting to relate to teen issues and understand teen behavior.  This article also mentioned that the plot in YA literature generally moves at a more rapid pace and characters are more fully fleshed out sooner so readers can more quickly make an emotional connection.

 

Assignment 3

John Green Books is a blog that lets John Green’s inner comedian and social commentarian sides be front and center.  He posts a lot of videos on seemingly random topics which are quite entertaining and also thought provoking.  He has a lot of guest posters (especially now as he is currently on paternity leave) and they seem to share his style of humor and sensibilities.  It’s fun and he and his brother Hank have been doing this for some time and are known as the Vlog Brothers.  The only John Green book I’ve read so far is Looking for Alaska.  I thought that Green did a good job of capturing the voice of an awkward self-conscious teen-age boy in his protagonist Miles. The Fault in our Stars is definitely on my list for this summer.

The other site I’ve started to follow is Stacked.  The latest post deals with validating (or not) the feelings of teenage girls through novels. The writer seems to feel that boys’ issues have long been taken more seriously than girls’ and it is only recently that this is starting to change.  I’m not sure if I agree or not- I would need to read a lot more YA books from past years in order to have a justifiable opinion.

 

Assignment 4

I looked at Harper Teen- the majority of books on the site have a fantasy or paranormal element- no surprise there.  I also looked at Teens at Random and found similar content.  I clicked on a few of the posts and saw people posing with favorite books and casting their dream cast for movies of books they love.