Previews, Reviews, and Collection Development
Reading nonfiction can sometimes feel like eating your vegetables. You know it is good for you, but finding just the right preparation can be a challenge. This year, we are lucky to have had a wealth of great, true stories out to choose from. Here are just a few of the year’s best offerings. Aronson, [...]
As with any sort of collection development, librarians building a learning to draw collection should consider trends, interests, and demographics of their users and their local community. For example, do you have a large constituent of retired seniors who may be looking for a new hobby?
It’s December with temps in the 30s; I guess autumn really is over. I had fun extending my triathlon season into October, but all good things must end, including the only book I really sat down with over the past few months, Color Stories by Benjamin Moore (covered below). I relied on my minions to [...]
Self-help: the term evokes the busier aisles of the bookstore and some of the most popular ranges in any local public library. It is also, as we know, a category of writing, publishing, and reading subjected to a great deal of mockery and satire in the public sphere and, perhaps, deservedly so: there is a kind of rapid reach for easy conclusions and at times a haste in writing and structure that leaves self-help writers and readers vulnerable to the most contemptuous sort of criticism.
K’wan. Animal. Cash Money Content, dist. by Atria: S. & S. ISBN 9781936399253. pap. $14.99; eISBN 9781936399260. Given their author’s unmatched ear for street talk and talent for bringing gritty characters to life, K’wan’s “Hood Rat” stories make up one of the best series in urban fiction. His latest plot will draw readers into an [...]
“I ponder questions such as: At what point does a musician say, “I’m going to start a cover band.” And who are these people who say, “Guess what, Honey? There’s a Beatles cover band playing at the casino on Friday and I bought tickets for us!”~ Author James Brotherton It’s pretty rare that a book [...]
Doug Lord on the books that’ll keep you up all night.
It can take a long time to answer a simple question: What happened? Good memoir writing takes facts and makes sense of them; great memoir writing takes emotions and does the same. This month’s memoirs all take a hard look back at events that begged for explanation. Was the process therapeutic for the writers? Perhaps. [...]
Sexy street lit covers often have volumes flying off shelves. Yet savvy librarians can give circulation a professional nudge by presenting the story in pithy summaries. Here then are six-word descriptions of this month’s selections. Let’s call them Six Shades of Street Lit. Wild killer seeks revenge in Harlem. Crazy murderess stripper seduces, slays men. [...]
LJ Reviews Social Club