Katie Reads Books

Science Fiction    Author: Jessie Mihalik Title : Polaris Rising Genre : Science Fiction Publication Date : February 5, 2019 Number of Pages : 448 pages Geographical Setting : Various space stations, spaceships, and planets outside our solar system. Time Period: Thousands of years in the future Series: The Consortium Rebellion Plot Summary : Princess Ada von Hasenberg, the fifth daughter of one of the three noble houses (Rockhurst, von Hasenberg, and Yamato) is in big trouble. After being on the run for two years, the bounty hunters hired by her father have finally found her. Ada plans to escape with notorious fugitive and murderer, Marcus Loch, but before they can make a mad dash for the escape pod, her estranged fiancé of House Rockhurst intercepts the mercenary ship Ada and Loch are imprisoned on.  After every possible thing goes wrong, the space princess and wanted criminal crash land on a backwater exoplanet like something out of Star Wars. The f...

Reader's Advisory Prompt Four The Wild World of "Work-for-Hire" Authorship      The New Yorker Article mentions various types of hoaxes, from the more serious examples such as Go Ask Alice , which had a negative impact on culture due to the War on Drugs through the words of a dubious identity (Menand, 2018, para. 18). He also mentions misleading authorship in cases of The Hardy Boys and other such series. I want to challenge his assertion that these are generally not cause for any sort of drama. And for this example, I am going to have you all consider the wild world of “work for hire” fiction.      This type of published work is most common in children’s series like The Babysitter’s Club , Warrior Cats , Young Adult series like Gossip Girl , or The Vampire Diaries . However, it also occurs in adult novels, such as the work of the prolific V.C. Andrews’. There are a lot of people who don’t realize that Andrews died in 1986, and that the vast majo...

  Promoting Horror I find that timing for any sort of genre really helps catch people’s attention. Romance, our other genre for the week is an obvious February shoo-in. For a horror display, I find it best to have it coincide with October. It can also be helpful to sync it up to a popular movie, show, or game release. Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House is a good example; it was very popular when it came out. Doing a display about haunted house scary stories would be a timely display for that and likewise any sequels to that anthology series could be used as display inspiration. You could also use series or movie releases that are horror genre blends as display ideas. Stranger Things is an example of this. The video game Elden Ring is considered dark fantasy, so a display of dark fantasy titles (books and movies) could link with the hot topics of a given time period. Right now, zombie fiction is trending because of HBO's adaptation of the video game The Last of Us . Our blog p...

 A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah. J. Maas Graphic Audio Edition, read by a full voice cast.               In the vintage style of radio shows from days far gone, we follow the story of a young woman who hunts in the cold and dangerous forest outside her small village. Feyre lives a hard life with her two sisters and father in their minuscule cottage near the magical border between realms. Sometimes things, that have no place in the Human world, cross over and devour any unfortunate enough to run across them. Feyre discovers this in the worst way possible when a beast breaks down the door of her family's humble dwelling demanding a life for a life. She is spirited away to the land of the fae, a realm far more dangerous than meets the eye. And Feyre knows that much like a carnivorous plant, it lures humans like flies for dinner.      Sarah J. Maas creates a world both unfamiliar and familiar in this romantic retelling...

 Prompt #2 For this week's prompt, I want to start a conversation about the different types of reviews. Different publications review different types of books and they allow different types of conversations. For example, Booklist will not publish negative reviews, while, as you have all seen, Kirkus has no problems with it (check out this savage review - https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sebastia-alzamora/blood-crime/). Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular (especially in the romance genre) see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author. How does this affect collection development? Naturally, less reviews, especially by professionals, means that I am less likely to take notice of a book. However, with the rise of BookTok and BookTube, libraries are more likely to order indie books. I also think that BookTok has been important for erotica in library collections. Other digital mediums, such as Hoopla, have made erotica muc...

 Hi, everyone! This secret shopper assignment was pretty fun and I had a fairly good experience. I went to one of the branches of the LFPL, but I won't say which one. The reference librarian was very helpful with choosing read-alikes for me.  I asked for urban fantasy/paranormal romance novels with "diverse" protagonists. I told her that I had enjoyed the Mercy Thompson series in the past, but wasn't sure how well it held up. She had three suggestions, which she pulled off the top of her head because I lucked out and found someone who enjoyed that genre.  She asked a few questions about what I meant by "Diverse." I really liked that and it helped her narrow down choices for me. She suggested three books: Minion by L.A. Banks, The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, and Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy. They all sounded pretty interesting, though I am not sure about Urban Shaman . I couldn't find any information as to whether the author is Indigenous American or ...