Reading and Book Trends 2018

Hi All,

So originally I was going to write a blog entry about 'Shopping Trends in 2017' - but then I looked around and realized everybody and their sister would be blogging about this type of topic.

I needed to write about something different - and then I typed in 'trends 2017' in Google.  And low and behold the idea struck me - write about 'Book trends in 2017'.

Click on the various links below to learn about book trends.

Enjoy the lists and the trends for 2018!

Regards,
Stu

Izzard Ink Publishing - 5 Publishing Trends For 2018 

Publishers Weekly - Bologna 2017, Agents Talk Children's and YA Trends 

Pressbooks.com - 2017 Publishing Trends For Authors 

The Guardian - Up Lit: The New Book Trend With Kindness at Its Core 

BookBusinessmag.com - Top Trends: What Publishers Should Expect in 2017?

Medium.com - Fiction Trends to Watch For in 2017 (and Beyond) 

Children'sBookReview.com - Trends in Children's Books and Young Adult Novels 2017

CNNMedia.com - Real Books Are Back, E-book Sales Plunge 20% 

GoodReads -  2018 Book Lists

Publishers Weekly - New and Anticipated Books 2018

Banned Books - Read Them When You Can!

Hi All,

Librarians love lists of banned books - we just want to help patrons get the right book to them at the right time and on the right topic!

Here's a list of banned book websites - and in some cases why the particular books were banned.

20 Beloved Books & Why They Were Banned - MSN Lifestyle

All About Banned Books Week 2016 - ALA website

Banned Books Week - from the Banned Books Week website

11 Books That Were Banned For Completely Ridiculous Reasons - Barnes & Noble

List of Books Banned By Governments - Wikipedia

Banned Books: Complete List of 144 Books and the Reasons Why They Were Outlawed - PostDesk

Common Reasons For Banning Books - Butler University

Banned Books That Shaped America - Banned Books Week.org

Banned Books With Reasons Why - The Book Escape

10 Beloved Children's Books Banned For the Stupid Reasons  - ListVerse

Enjoy the lists and books!

Regards,
Stu

Commonsense Media - Homework Help Websites and Best of Lists

Hi All,

Commonsense Media is a website that rates schools, helps educate folks regarding kids issues, and advocates for kids, families and schools.  For more information about Commonsense Media click on this link. 

One of the best sections on the site is their Homework Help Websites link.  This is where parents, teachers and students can learn about useful homework help sites.   Sites are divided up for
* Preschoolers (2-4 years old)
* Little Kids (5-7 years old)
* Big Kids (8-9 years old)
* Tweens (10-12 years old)
* Teens (13+ years old)
* All Ages is also an option

Also available on the site is a section of 'Best of' Lists.  This is where parents, kids and teachers can find age-appropriate ideas and inspiration for every interest.  Best of lists include:
Best Movies For Kids
Best Games For Kids
Best Apps For Kids
Best Websites For Kids
Best TV For Kids
Best For Character Development For Kids
Best for Learning For Kids 
Best Books For Kids


Enjoy the site and the links!

Regards,
Stu

A Bakers Dozen of Civil War Books

Hi All,

It has been called the war that forged the United States into the country that it is today.  It is historic on a variety of fronts: in terms of the number of Americans killed, the length of the war, the political, social and economic changes it wrought and much, much more.

I'm talking about the United States Civil War from 1861-1865.  There are literally hundreds of websites dedicated to the varied facets of the war: battles, generals, President Lincoln, weaponry, soldiers, photographs and much, much, more.

So if you want to start to learn about the civil war, where should you start? Great question - and this blog post should at least get you started on your journey.  Folks have spent their whole lives studying this conflict - it is worth the time and effort to learn about this amazing period of American history.

So...click on these next few links to find top (best) books on the American civil war. Read on!

Top 12 Civil War Books Ever Written - Salon.com

Civil War Book List - New York Times, The Opinion Pages

Six Books on the Civil War - Smithsonian.com

50 Greatest Civil War Books - Civil War Memory

10 Best Novels About the US Civil War - Christian Science Monitor

Enjoy the links!  Happy reading.

Stu

Books-Houses-Reading-Smart Kids

Hi All,

Back on December 5th, the New York Times published an article in the Fashion & Style section titled, 'Our (Bare) Shelves, Our Selves'.  Readers can read the article by clicking on this link. 

The basic premise of this well-written article is that the more books a house has - the higher the reading performance of the children.  Specifically, 'After G.N.P., the quantity of books in one's home was the most important predictor of reading performance....The implications are clear: Owning books in the home is one of the best things you can do for your children academically.  It helps, of course, if parents are reading to their children and reading themselves, not simply buying books by the yard as decor.'.  So there you have it.  Read books and keep them in the house for the children if you want them to get better grades in school.

And with that said...click on these 3 links that will absolutely, positively make you want to read tonight.  And you'll want to read to kids as well!

33 Classic Books That Will Make You Forget Your Smartphone - Realsimple.com

Your Holiday Reading List: 58 Books Recommended By TED Speakers - ideas.ted.com

13 "100 Best Books" Lists Combined & Condensed Into One Master Best Books List  -alistofbooks.com 

Enjoy the lists!

Regards,
Stu




 

Easy Reading...

Hi All,

Introducing our new Easy Reading collection! Read on for more information on this new, exciting, modern collection of material for the easy reader in your life!



Who: For patrons who want or need easy reading books.

What: Easy Reading books are less complicated, interesting, current and modern fiction titles.

When: All the titles in the collection were published between 2013 and 2015.

Where: The collection is located in our Teacher's Center which next to the Quiet Reading room under the clock in the library on the first floor.

Why: Because we're a library and we want to help readers of all ages and abilities to well, read!

How: We bought a bunch of titles for the collection including:

The Boom Room - Rick Blechta
The Thirteenth Rose - Gail Bowen
The Artful Goddaughter - Melodie Campbell
The Goddaughters' Revenge - Melodie Campbell
Dirty Work - Reed Coleman
The Boardwalk (A Gulliver Dowd mystery) - Reed Coleman
The Night Thief - Barbara Fradkin
Beethoven's Tenth (A Frank Ryan mystery) - Brian Harvey
A Woman Scorned - James Heneghan
Just Gone - William Kowalski
Him Standing - Richard Wagamese

Enjoy the titles and if you have any questions about this new collection come back to the Reference Desk and ask a Reference librarian!

Regards,
Stu

Reading...

Hi All,

I've come across two separate websites that are related to reading in different ways. 

The first article is from the NewYorker.  Entitled 'Being a Better Online Reader' the article discusses how to be a better reader.  Sections of the article discuss the physicality of the book vs the ephemerality of the screen, online distractions when you read, reading comprehension and how it differs when you read a book vs reading online with a monitor/screen/tablet and ways to increase reading comprehension when reading on a monitor/screen/tablet.

The second entry came via an article from the New York Times.  Entitled, 'With the Blessing of Bill Gates, an Unlikely Summertime Best Seller', the article discusses a business book that Bill Gates (one of Microsoft's founder) highly recommended.  The book in question is 'John Brooks'', 'Business Adventures'.- which was published back in 1969 - and has been out of print since then.  Because of Bill Gates' recommendation, the book is coming back in print and is a bestseller on Amazon.com.

The article discusses Bill Gates book blog - entitled GatesNotes - which is where he recommended the book.   Click here for the blog entry where Bill Gates recommends the book - along with five others that he recommends for summer reading.  Click on this link to read Bill Gates' full review of Business Adventures by John Brooks.

So, the real appeal here is that the reader can read book reviews by Bill Gates - of course from the books that he's read.  And what an eclectic reader he is!  Even a cursory look at the titles of the books he's read is breaktaking in its variety and scope!

Title/subject

Business Adventures/Business
Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism/History
Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History/Environment
Reinventing American Health Care/Health Care
Why Does College Cost So Much?/Higher Education
Most Powerful Idea in the World/history, steam engines, technology
World Until Yesterday/anthropology
Poor Numbers/economics,statistics

Enjoy the links - and if you click on any of the titles listed above, you'll go to that particular book review GatesNotes. 

Finally, click on this link to go to the online library card catalog to see if any of these books are available at the Farmingdale Public Library.

Enjoy!


Regards,
Stu

Library Book Club

Hi All,

I don't know if you know this or not, but the library has a book club.  Yep. We do. Actually we have two book clubs.

The first book club meets on Monday morning at 10:30am and second book club meets on Monday nights at 7pm.

Click on this link to the Farmingdale Public Library Eventkeeper calendar.  You'll be able to search for all future book club events - and other library related events for that matter. 

Click on this link from the Iowa Center for the Book for an insightful article on 'How to Begin and Lead a Book Discussion Group'.  This is a great gateway article as it includes 'Great Resources to Get Started' and 'Articles' about book discussion groups. 

Here is just a smattering of the variety of links:
1. American Library Association - Book Discussion Groups  - link has a long article about book discussion groups.  Headings include 'Resources for Getting Started', 'Selected Print Resources', 'Websites', 'Quick Start Guide', 'How to Structure a Meeting', 'Basic Ground Rules', 'Meeting Format', 'How to Select Books' and 'If You're Leading a Book Discussion'. Insightful, unbiased, clearly written and very, very authoritative!

2. Seattle Public Library - Book Group How-To's - Has sections on 'Choosing Good Books for Discussion', 'Leading the Discussion' and 'Learning More About an Author'.

3. About.com - Top 5 Resources For Starting and Maintaining a Successful Book Club - entry has topics like 'How to Start a Book Club?', 'How to Lead a Book Club Discussion?', 'How to Structure a Book Club Dinner Group?', 'Ready-to-Go Book Club Discussion Questions', and 'One Year Book Club Reading List'.

So there you have it....3 great links on how to start, maintain and grow a book discussion group!

Good luck and regards,
Stu

Calling All Readers, Calling All Readers...

Hi All,

Just want to get back to some grass roots librarianship today. So, you've been reading a really, really great book by XYZ - and you want to find books with similar themes and topics to this one.

Where you you go?

Never fear, Novelist Plus is here! Click here for a link to the database. Alternatively, you can visit the library website by clicking on this link and then clicking on the 'Reference' tab. Click on the Literature tab. Novelist Plus is the fifth entry in the list under Literature. (Just remember to have your valid Farmingdale PL library card handy since you'll need to enter the barcode to gain access to the database.)

So, what exactly is Novelist Plus? Well, Novelist Plus (hereafter denoted 'NP') is an online database that all Farmingdale Public Library patrons have free access to. Specifically Novelist Plus lets users search among hundreds of thousands of popular fiction (made up) and non-fiction (real topics) to get summaries of books. Users can retriever author read-alikes, book lists, book discussion guides and more!

Users can also search by author, title, book series title and more. Advanced searching lets users search by genre, Dewey Decimal Classification number and by review.

One very new feature that Novelist has recently added is a section of reviews by readers. These reviews come from a website called Goodreads. Note that Goodreads has thousands upon thousands of reviews of well, thousands upon thousands of books.

You can visit Goodreads.com by clicking on this link.

Hope this entry helps you find books that you really, really want to read!

Regards,
Stu

How To Start Your Own Book Discussion Group

Hi All,

So the fall is here and winter is slowly approaching. Now is a great time for readers and book-lovers alike to get ready for this foul weather by starting a book discussion group.

And while for many people reading can be a solitary endeavor, many other folks like to read and talk about the book with other people. Enter book discussion groups and you have the making of a beautiful relationship - reading books and talking about them in a collegial, adult, pleasant environment. What could be better than that?

A good book discussion group has the following characteristics:
1. A book that all members are willing to try to read.

2. The book - unless all members agree - probably should not be a huge, esoteric, difficult-to-read tome.

3. A good book discussion group usually - notice I said 'usually' - has a moderator. While this isn't always the case, I've found that free form book discussion groups tend to run off the topic of the book.

4. The moderator should have a few general questions to get the discussion started.

5. Finally - and readers would be wise not to underestimate this point - bringing food (coffee, tea, crumb cake, cookies, etc) will help increase attendance to a book discussion group.

Click on this link from ReadingGroupGuides.com - an interesting website that discusses 'How to Start a Book Discussion Group', 'Choosing What to Read for a Book Discussion Group' and more.
The site also has a blog and an interesting newsletter link.

Click on this link from the Amherst town Library - in New Hampshire - that has a veritable treasure trove of book discussion group links. Included in these links are sections' from Amazon.com Reading Group Guides, BookBrowse.com, a link to Reading Group Choices.com, and a link to SparkNotes (similar idea to Cliffs Notes - summaries of some of the worlds' great titles).

Click on this link for a great list of books to read so that you can get your book discussion group off to a great start. The titles are on book discussion groups' choices - your satisfaction and appreciation of the books in the list might vary....Also note that you can type in the phrase 'book discussion group title list' into Google and you'll find many, many different lists from different book discussion groups and the books that they feel are good for a discussion.

Finally, readers might want to visit this link from About.com entitled, 'How to Lead a Book Discussion Group'. Reading this article might give you insight on how to make a more interesting and educational book discussion group experience.

Enjoy the links and enjoy the books! Have a great time!
Stu

What's On TV - Not What You Think!!!

Hi All,

So you've been watching tv and want to know the name of the book a particular author discussed on a tv show like Oprah, Inside Edition, Rachel Ray or the Situation Room, right?

Well a colleague of mine mentioned a very interesting website called 'Fresh Fiction...For Today's Reader's. Click here for some Fresh Fiction of your own choosing.

So what can you actually do with this and how can you search? The site has a drop down menu so users can pick a variety of television shows to choose from.

Clicking on a particular show gets you to a page that has the date and names and author of the books from a particular television show. Simple enough, eh? One other thing to note about the site...it has the names of the author and books historically so users can go back and look for a date in the past.

And remember that if you find a book you want, click on this link to see if the library has the book on the shelf.

Enjoy the site.

Stu

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