Reader's Repose

 Listen to the perfect playlist while reading: Author: Loren D. Estleman Genre: Western Publication Date: 2005 Number of Pages: 284 Geographical Setting: Continental United States Time Period: 19th century Plot Summary: After a powerful New England businessman commits suicide, Richard Connable is called in by the businessman's ring of powerful associates to hide the cause of his death through his gifted art of undertaking. While he is away, his wife Lucy reflects on their decades of marriage as she makes arrangements for the arrival of her own death-- unbeknownst to her loving husband. Subject Headings:   Man-woman relationships -- Fiction. Undertakers -- Fiction. Historical -- Fiction. Appeals Characters:  Flawed While many of the main characters in the Western genre are stereotypical "champion[s] of justice" who spring into fights blazing their guns, Richard Connable is a quiet man whose fight for justice is won in the mortuary, where he gives grieving relatives ...

 I hardly have any book club experience, so I was unsure of what to expect when I arrived at the Greenwood Public Library and attended their Primetime Book Club. The club meets on the first Tuesday of every month, with Executive Director Cheryl Dobbs leading the group. I was the second person to arrive in the board room, which is a room almost entirely encased in glass walls with adjoining administrative offices and a private bathroom. While there were no snacks available, the conversations were so lively that no one would have had time to finish their food. The rest of the group soon joined. Before the starting time of six-thirty, a few of the ladies took out their personal books and exchanged them with each other as a casual session of readers’ advisory. It was clear to me rather quickly that all of them are very avid readers. By six-thirty, Cheryl had everyone introduce themselves so I could get to know them. During the introductions, I learned that a few of the ladies had been ...

 For my special topics paper, I wrote about the current state of AI and its usage in a readers' advisory context. To start, I wrote about Talpa , an AI that is built to find the book title and author for those who have forgotten what the book is called. While it is still in its experimental phase, the AI is built in such a way that it is limited to just a few sources and the catalog of the library that hosts it. Thus, there are thousands, perhaps millions, of books that Talpa will never be able to identify. To remedy this, I recommended that people wishing to identify a book turn to the Reddit page r/whatsthatbook whose 239,000 members (238,000 at the time of writing my paper) help to identify books with the advantage of being able to write a much longer description. Their success rate is commendable and a fantastic resource for people who have scoured the internet to no avail. I also discussed ChatGPT , developed by OpenAI, that many librarians are already using for readers' ...

Listen to the perfect playlist while reading: Author:  Karen Kingsbury Genre:  Christian Romance Publication Date:  2013 Number of Pages: 320 Geographical Setting:  Georgia and California Time Period:  Modern day (2013) Plot Summary:  After her parents separate, teenager Ellie moves away to California with her father. Before she leaves, she and her best friend Nolan write each other letters and bury them in a box under their favorite tree, promising to return in eleven years to dig it back up. As the years pass, Ellie loses her faith in God while Nolan becomes a famous NBA star known for his faith. As the date approaches for them to dig up their box of letters, can Ellie’s long-repressed love for Nolan be enough to face him after eleven years, and will Nolan’s long-cherished love of the one who got away be enough to make her stay? Subject Headings:   Man-woman relationships -- Fiction. Friendship -- Fiction. Faith -- Fiction. Appeals Heat Index:  ...

I have one regular patron who, every month, requests the newest James Patterson. She and I know full well that James Patterson does not truly write all the books he sends out every month with his name on them. I have only noticed in recent years that Patterson has begun including the names of his ghostwriters on the covers (though never bigger than his name). Yet still, when this patron comes looking for a new book, it is always James Patterson's name she tells me. The books are still his, even if the ghostwriter is acknowledged.  While this is not exactly like the examples Louis Menand (2018) describes in his article for The New Yorker, James Patterson and other author mills could very well be described as hoaxes. By writing their name on the cover of the book, something only authors do, they are establishing themselves, if not the author, as one of them. If this isn't true, and a 2017 study by Simon Fuller and James O'Sullivan deduced that James Patterson functions more...

Listen to the perfect playlist while reading: Authors: Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows Genre: Historical Romance Publication Date: 2008 Number of Pages: 291 Geographical Setting: London, England; Guernsey, Channel Islands Time Period: January-September 1946 Plot Summary: After World War II, writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book when she receives a letter from a man named Dawsey Adams on the island of Guernsey. Dawsey tells her of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which was formed during the island’s Nazi occupation. As letters stream into her London flat, Juliet begins to fall in love with their story and the island’s people. Subject Headings:   Women authors -- Fiction. Book clubs (Discussion groups) -- Fiction. World War, 1939-1945 -- Occupied territories -- Fiction. Military occupation -- Fiction. Appeals Heat Index: Chaste; Sensuous language For readers wanting a non-spicy read, this one is for you, though characters do speak in every-so-o...

To promote a library's collection of horror, both film and books, I propose an October-long Horror Fest! This may sound daunting, but with the right moves, it can be a fun and engaging time for the library to bring in new patrons and patrons who last visited the library long ago. Activities the library can do during "Fright Fest" include film screenings, book discussions, passive poster surveys, horror film and book displays, and a Halloween party for families.  You can find royalty-free horror films from the 1920s-1950s if you're on a tighter budget. Older films might even prove to be scarier than newer ones! Films included in your physical collection, or through the library's streaming platforms, can help promote what your library has to offer. For example, if you have Kanopy as one of your library's subscription services, you can have a film viewing of Black Sabbath (1963), Little Shop of Horrors (1960), or Dead of Night (1945). To make a film viewing more ...