Week 5 assignments

Getting an early start on this today.

Assignment 1 - Useful information from the Week 1 resources
I've been checking two spots, although not as frequently as I'd like.  They are:

Salon Books - This site is useful because it covers such a wide range of titles. Its appeal is to the more brainy, educated reader. From this site I am learning more about the huge diversity of books that are being published.  There are many interesting nonfiction titles and I find those particularly interesting.  This morning I read about Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala.  It's a true account of the author's experience of tragedy in the tsunami of December 2004.  I thought about the assignment from Week 3 where we were asked to recommend a title to someone who liked River of Doubt.  I suggested some manly man titles about Shackleton.  Wave would have been a good item to add to that mix, in case the customer would want something with a similar situation but with greater emotional appeal. Salon is a good spot to find titles with a broader appeal, too. The site covered hot popular fiction with a 'what will everyone else be talking about' tone.  That's always handy.

Fiction Affliction -  This site also proved to be useful for me since I'm not a big reader in the science fiction or fantasy genres. This site has a high volume style that makes it useful for me.  There's enough cover art to make it interesting without being distracting.  Each post covers a large number of titles and includes brief, readable annotations.  For someone who is playing catch-up in learning about an unfamiliar genre, this is a great place to go.

For both of these, I found that one of the most useful features is how retrievable they are. That's handy for that "what was the title of the book about....?' situation. If you can remember where, and preferably when,  you read about a particular title, you can scan through the posts to find the information.  That proved handy for me when I was trying to remember Wave so that I could mention it in this post.

Assignment 2 - Early-Word-a-go-go
 Early Word has so many resources on it that it's a little cognitively overwhelming for me.  A person does need to visit it regularly to become familiar with the content areas. I find the information about trends in the publishing industry interesting but the most useful things for me on Early Word are the lists that are featured on the lower left, particularly the awards and nonfiction genres.  Those lists and annotations are good for keeping up with things that might not catch my eye othewise. It always helps to know what the award nominees and winners are.  Book club customers love that. 

Assignment 3 - Post about a Season Previews title
For a quick summer beach read, it would be hard to find anything better than Ladies' Night by Mary Kay Andrews. This quickly paced, contemporary novel tells us the story of Grace Davenport Stratton who must attend divorce group counseling sessions. In a weak moment she gave way to the he-done-her-wrong urge to drive her husband's car into the swimming pool after she caught him in a compromising situation with another woman.  With witty dialog, a mix of entertaining quirky characters, and situations that can range from cathartic to madcap, readers will find themselves engaged and entertained.  Fans of Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen or the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich will find this title sure to appeal.