Week 3 Prompt

1) I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

I went to Laurell Hamilton's web page, clicked on Works,  then All the Books in Anita Blake series and the page showed all the books in order. The fourth book is The Lunatic Cafe. Her page does not have a printable list. It would take too much ink to print. Goodreads doesn't either, and NoveList has one but I couldn't figure out how to cut out the graphic novels. I've printed lists from there before, and while it's less ink, it is very lengthy. I'd write the rest of the book series down.

2)  What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

I went to NoveList, typed in Prodigal Summer, clicked on title and searched.  I then clicked on Read-a-likes and the first on the list is Ant Hill by Edward O. Wilson. Going back, I then added in Fast Pace and that brought up two mysteries. I went back and clicked on the title and on the right side of the screen was a listing of 9 Read-a-likes, beginning with Ant Hill again which is described as lyrical. I'd also show the patron A Rhinestone Button by Gail Anderson-Dargatz as the writing is described as lyrical and lush. 

 3) I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!

First I would try to determine what "modern" and "historical" means to the patron. Does the patron like WWII? Is that "modern"? If that's not what he/she is interested in, then that would quickly rule out many books. Does the patron like books about Royalty, romance or adventure? Through NoveList, I initially searched for "Japanese historical" and that brought up The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery. Then I put "Japan" in the search and clicked on "strong sense of place", "historical fiction", "richly detailed" and for location, "Japan" again. This again brought up The Teahouse Fire, but also The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. I clicked on Read-a-likes for The Teahouse Fire, and that brought up Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I would show the patron each description to see if any of these appeal. 

4)  I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?

I went to Goodreads and typed in the title. Then I would let the patron know that the book is the third novel in a series and see if he/she would like to read the others. There is a link of Readers Also Enjoyed on the top right, and Martha Grime's The Old Fox Deceiv'd was listed. If not, after to going to NoveList, I typed in the title and a Read-a-like was Still Life by Penny Louise.

5) My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

I typed in World War Z and clicked on Read-a-likes on NoveList and out of the 10 books listed, only four of them have zombies in the books. If he wants zombies, I would suggest the four listed, starting with Blackout by Mira Grant.   


I generally find books I read from blogs and websites. I signed up for several of them to get daily emails. Unfortunately, my library doesn't get Locus or a number of good magazines. I keep track of my books on Goodreads, this was before I had even heard of LibraryThing (or others like it), and I haven't even tried to figure out how to get all 1800 of my reads over there. I have found some good books from it. The other cool part about Goodreads is that many authors are on it, so you can become "friends" and/or check out their blogs or pages to see what's new. It's also nice to find a reviewer that has the same taste in books that you do, and then you can follow them. To help others I usually go to Goodreads and put in a title or an author they like and see what is similar. If a patron likes a book I have read, then I try to find a similar title or author from memory, Goodreads or NoveList. Usually in that order. Depending on how much time a patron has, or if we get crazy busy, I have been know to write down the patron's information and look it up if they need to leave. Then after I find something I think may be of interest to them, I'll either call or write a note in their record. They seem to appreciate the effort. This approach may not be the best way, but that's why I am taking this class!

How do I access the RA Online from IUPUI?