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!

According to Fantastic Fiction (www.fantasticfiction.co.uk), the fourth book in the “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series is The Lunatic Café. There are other editions of the series that may include several of the books. To make sure that you’re getting the next part of the story…does this description sound like something you already read:
The zombie-raising business gets slow in December, so Anita Blake is starting to see some oddball cases. She's got a neatly typed list of eight missing lycanthropes given to her by Marcus, the leader of the local werewolf pack, who wants her to find them. The trouble is, Anita's occasionally furry boyfriend Richard is locked in a power struggle with Marcus. Jean-Claude, master vampire of the city and Anita's other love interest, is getting jealous as well. To top it off, Anita has to solve some horrific murders and keep her bounty-hunting friend Edward from killing Richard and Jean-Claude. Hamilton alternates between funny and fearsome in this larky series about a monster hunter with a few dark secrets.

I assumed that the patron is asking for the fourth book in the original Anita Blake series, rather than the omnibus collections of those series. I chose to use Fantastic Fiction (FF) as I do not have access to Novelist, and I feel that FF is the easiest and most robust resource when it comes to adult readers’ advisory. The description of the book comes from Amazon.com, which is readily linked from the book’s listing on Fantastic Fiction.

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 searched Goodreads for books like Prodigal Summer. If you would like to read another book by Barbara Kingsolver, her 2012 novel Flight Behavior is very similar in language and seems to provide a more fast-paced story. If you would like to experiment and find a new author to read, Goodreads members who liked Prodigal Summer also liked All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki, which is about environmental activism, agribusiness, and its impact on community.

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!

For a more “modern” historical fiction set in China, The Crazed by Ha Jin is an excellent book that explores Chinese society set around the Tiananmen uprising. For an “older” historical fiction novel set in China, Taming Poison Dragons by Tim Murgatroyd takes place in 1196, and is very descriptive regarding the civil war that took place.

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?

The Sculptress by Minette Walters is also liked by Goodreads users who also like Well-Schooled in Murder. It is also a British mystery-thriller that flirts but does not cross the horror line.

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?

Very much in the same vein as World War Z, Dead Inside, Do Not Enter: Notes from the Zombie Apocalypse is told through notes, signs, and journal fragments rather than in a straight narrative form.

When I am look for books to read, I typically find word-of-mouth from friends, family, and my fellow co-workers at the Pendleton Community Library. I also typically find books to read through regularly selecting books using Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and VOYA. While I would love to use Novelist, we at the library decided to pursue Mango Languages rather than Novelist as it fills a major gap in INSPIRE and in our print resources.