Week 9: Book Trailers

Assignment 1/2
My first experience with book trailers featured Gary Shteyngart and his dachshund, so I started out with positive feelings toward them. I think in theory that they would be an excellent marketing tool. We live in a visual world, and the trailer format, done well, can be intriguing, entertaining and potentially leave a more vivid impression than a written blurb or review. The sticking point: where do you put them so that readers will see them? Can the cost of producing a quality book trailer (that would entail professional production values, talented actors, well-done concept and writing) be offset by increased book sales?

Assignment 3
Be More Bookish has been an interesting experience. It was a journey through some familiar and some unfamiliar sources and ways of thinking about Reader's Advisory. The format was a nice change from the typical read some books/attend a half-day workshop presentation; there are those who get more out of the individual work and time for thought. It was a worthwhile project, and I personally appreciated the extended time for completion.

Week 8: Nonfiction

Assignments 1 and 2: Read, read, viewed.

Assignment 3:
Memoir: BIO + name
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
Contemporary Social Issues: 362
Methland: the Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding
Medical: 600s
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost and Gail Steketee
Food: 641
Cooked by Michael Pollan

Assignment 4:
Oelwein Indiana: a small town filled with hardworking people. How does it become a center of methamphetamine production and distribution, riddled with poverty, violence and addiction? In Methland: the Death and Life of an American Small Town, Nick Reding chronicles the town's transformation, caused by the takeover of family-owned meat-packing plants by huge agribusiness conglomerates, with journalistic detail. This is a fascinating look at the growth of an underground economy based on illegal drug trade, and at its residual effect on the people in small towns across America. Fans of Breaking Bad will gain more insight into the real world of meth production and distribution.

If you've ever been glued to an episode of the TV show Hoarders, by turns fascinated, disgusted, sympathetic and perhaps even seeing a bit of yourself in it, Randy Frost's Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things would be an enlightening read. Frost and co-author Gail Steketee, who have spent nearly 20 years working with hoarders, provide a sympathetic portrayal of hoarders and the numerous underlying causes of this compulsion. Pair this with E.L. Doctorow's fictional portrayal of the infamous hoarding Collyer brothers, Homer & Langley.

Week 7: Not Just for Teens

Assignment 1: Done. Useful recommendations. Not exactly a flowchart, though.
Assignment 2: PW's article on "New Adult" as a sub-genre: Obviously this is all about how to market a product, and for publishers, if the marketing is successful, an aid to deciding what product to commission. At what point will the content of New Adult fiction be what is wanted by middle-aged adults, which will force publishers to classify the product that attracts the Baby Boomer reader as....Old Adult? Senior Fiction? Geezer Grabbers?
"Who is Buying Teen Books?": The key point: Adult readers are looking for fast-moving, absorbing, low stress reading. Teen reads fit the bill.
Assignment 3: John Green's Tumblr looks like a pretty typical tumblr: posts and reblogs of things he finds personally interesting. I get no sense of his literary output from the posts, and I would guess fans of his work follow it to get that personal connection with the author, like becoming his facebook friend.
Squeetus Blog is clearly a promotional tool: in depth discussion of Hale's work, upcoming events and author appearances, a summer book club. An avid fan would find a lot of interest here.
Assignment 4: Paranormal, Steampunk, Vampires, Dystopian stories continue to be all the rage.

I commented on the blogs of Rose F. and Nancy C.

Week 6: Building Base Knowledge (Genres)

1. I've been following Stop, You're Killing Me!, and I really appreciate its simple low-tech look and arrangement. Easy to find a mystery by character, geographic location, era, job, etc, etc. The site isn't overwhelmed by flashing ads or gratuitous graphics, just the information you're looking for.
2. I enjoyed the genre prezi. The dizziness has subsided.
3. I did some frustrating googling for fansites, and finally arrived at Westernauthors.com, which was handy for its description of the many Western sub-genres. I was intrigued by Western Time Travel Romances, a veritable stew of plots. "These stories are similar to the historical romances, except one of the protagonists travels back in time and has to face the arduous task of melding his/her modern perceptions with very old-fashioned ways." Authors listed include Madeline Baker, Lauri Robinson, and Sherry Wille.
The Pulp Fiction Group on Goodreads brings together fans of the hardboiled and noir genres of crime fiction. These feature cynical detectives, corrupt legal systems and self-destructive characters. Classic authors in this genre are Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and Elmore Leonard.
Urban Fantasy takes magical stories and places them n contemporary, urban, real-world settings. Laurel K. Hamilton, P.C. Cast and Diana Peterfreund are some authors recommended by the Goodreads group devoted to this genre.

Mashups: Inspirational fiction with a Western twang: Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith's A Cowboy at Heart. Innocent Amish girl meets cattle rustler; love ensues.
Snow White and the Seven Dead Dwarves by Bob McLain combines classic fairy tale with zombies to create perfect bedtime reading,if you're Eddie Munster.

Week 5: Assorted assignments

1. I've been following Salon.com, by which I mean my inbox has been flooded with their emails. I haven't found it to be particularly useful bookwise, though my celebrity gossip awareness level has been raised to defcon 1. I find their book reviews a little too long and college term paper-like. Most useful to me so far was their recent summer reads column.
2. Early Word has more to offer. The touch of librarian is so evident in its arrangement; that long list of specific categories down the left side makes finding genre-specific articles or best book lists from previous years easy to find.
3. Flavorpill's 30 Most Anticipated Books of 2013 led me to Sam Lipsyte's The Fun Parts. This title will be sure to appeal to fans of cynical and dark humorous writing, fast-paced satire, and the short story form.

Week 4: Building Base Knowledge

I've been on Goodreads for years, and I've used it in place of those little spiral bound notebooks full of book titles kept and carried around by the sorts of women that I am bound to become eventually. Not only does it help me remember the actual titles of books I've read and enjoyed (helpful for readers advisory), but updates from friends have given me additional reading ideas, and the "Want to Read" option is useful.
I just created a few shelves, and checked out their recommendations based on them. Pretty accurate; I have actually already read (but not posted) a number of the suggested titles.

I suggested a title to Cynthia W., based on the high ratings she's given to well-written books featuring family stories in diverse cultures.

Week 3: Assignment 3, Conversation 3

A fast-paced, fascinating true story of an expedition into uncharted territory, featuring a U.S. President? I could go in a few directions here. Focusing on the presidential angle, I found through Amazon Scott Miller's The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century. If the expedition aspect was more compelling, Martin Dugard's Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone might please this customer. Novelist pointed me to David McCullough's Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914.