Week 9

Part II
After watching a handful of trailers for some upcoming teen books, I would have to say that they tend to be hit or miss in terms of being successful. The ones that are the shortest, around 30 seconds tend to be the best, in my opinion. There is usually just information to get the watcher hooked or not. Additionally, I really think the production value/budget for each varies greatly, which in turn, affects how successful it is. I would have to say I would not find myself using them in RA.

Part III
I found this training to be really information and helpful especially in the area of subgenres. I enjoyed the wealth of resources presented and having to post on them. This forced me to follow and visit sites I had either written off or sites I was just unaware of.

Week 8

Part III

Food-940

• Keeping the feast: one couple's story of love, food and healing in Italy by Paula Butturini (945B)

Memoirs-Biography

• The good girl's guide to getting lost:a memoir of three continents, two friends and one unexpected adventure by Rachel Friedman (910.4F)

History-900s

• What we knew: terror, mass murder and and everday life in Nazi Germany: an oral history by Eric Johnson (943.086J)

Faith-200s

• A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master" by Rachel Held Evans (277.3E)

Part IV

Keeping the feast: one couple's story of love, food and healing in Italy by Paula Butturini

• In this poignant recounting, a struggling marriage, pushed to the edge because of physical and emotional peril, is renewed and rediscovered by way of a healing and reawakening trip to Italy. The author and her husband are news correspondants in Romania where they are both physically injured, leading their already fragile relationship to the breaking point. It is upon deciding to take a trip to Rome, where and when their love is rekindled and their vibrancy returned. Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love and Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun will enjoy!

A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master" by Rachel Held Evans

• In this witty, funny and, often time, thought-provocking look into what the bible describes as the ideal woman, author Rachel Held Evans gives up all her preconceived notions of being a woman in today's world for a year of biblical womanhood. Gone is the idea of a split division of work and responsiblities and in are the notions of submission, obdeience and domesticity. Fans of theMary Beth Chapman's Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope and Chicken Soup for the Soul series  will enjoy Evans short, all inclusive chapters and light tone.

Week 7

Part II:
So I decided to read the follow 2 articles:
"New Adult: Needless Marketing-Speak Or Valued Subgenre?" Publisher's Weekly, Dec 14, 2012
"YA Comes of Age" Publishers's Weekly, Oct 3, 2011

I would have to say when thinking in terms of our customers, I think the phrase "new adult" is unhelpful. Personally, I am a huge YA reader. I cannot get enough and usually have to be persuaded to read something in another genre. In terms of this "new adult" marketing term, I don't foresee it lasting long or being relevant to those not in the publishing/book world. Customers aren't going to necessarily care whether or not a title is considered "new adult" or what that even means. I think the boom in YA popularity is due to the fact YA publishing has evolved and the storylines have become much more appealing to the average reader.

I commented on Julie B's and Mary Kay L.'s blogs

Part III:
I am following the following two:

• John Green's Tumblr - Before this week, I had never been on either John Green's website or Tumblr and now I don't know why I wasn't following him earlier. I chose to look at his Tumblr. His Tumblr is so accessible (can reach a wide audience) and covers a lot of different topics. I really like how there are posts about his books, news happening around the world that he is trying to bring attention to and he doesn't seem to take himself too seriously.
• Cassandra Clare's Tumblr- I am a big fan of Cassandra Clare's writing and, yet again, I was not a follower of her blog. Her Tumblr is very focused on her readership audience. Currently, almost all of the posts are concerned about her series, The Mortal Instruments, which has been made into a movie and will be released in August.

 Part IV:
I choose to look at Harlequin Teen and Harper Teen. Dystopian fiction still appears to be very popular and not waning, with a focus on sci-fi. Additionally, many of the books coming out seem to be a bit dark-a lot of mystery, thriller and horror titles. And of course, romance is still a major theme in most of the books.



Week 6

Part I: Urban Reviews

To be honest, I haven't been checking up on my genre website, Urban Reviews as much as I should have been within the last couple of weeks. However, I have noticed a couple of things.

To start off, I am unsure I am happy with my choice of Urban Reviews. The main reason for this is that the site does not categorize or provide genres for the titles they review. This makes it difficult because the reviews are just listed in order in which they are published. My best guess at a category is looking at the title and then reading the review. It would be much more accessible to have genres to search within. Additionally, the reviews seem to be outdated/old. The most recent review that is being highlighted on the site is from January 2013. This could be due to the fact that the staff is made up of individuals who do this in their spare time; none of them are professional reviewers.

Part III: Subgenres

• Psychological (Horror)- I could not find any fansites for this no matter where I looked.
• Authors:
• Nicci French
• Stephen Walsh White
• Keith R. Ablow
• Appeal Factor
•  Intricately plotted
• Fast-paced
• Strong sense of place
• Compelling
• Urban/Contemporary (Fantasy)- Sara's Urban Fantasy blog/ Google
• Authors:
• Jeaniene Frost
• Simon R Green
• Laurel K Hamilton
• Appeal Factors
• World Building
• Fast-paced
• Engaging
• Action-packed
• Gritty
•  Military (Romance) -For The Love of Military Romance blog/ Google
• Writer wants to share her love of military romance books because she lives the life and writes about her 20+ years of experience through her own military romance novels.
• Authors:
• Suzanna Brockman
• Simon R Green
•  M.L Buchman
• Appeal Factors
• Suspenseful
• Fast-paced
• Romantic

Mashups-

Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith: historical and adventure

Soulless by Gail Carriger: Steampunk and romance

Week 5

Part I: Urbran Reviews and NPR Books

Surprisingly, I really like NPR books. This site provides genres and some review categories, especially the review categories: PG-13, My Guilty Pleasures and Summer Books. I have a feeling these categories, especially Summer Books, will be a great reference tool for me. I also like that there is a good amount of book world information but not an overwhelming amount.

Part II: EarlyWord

I am not a fan of EarlyWord; there is just so much information housed on its main page. It is a tad overwhelming and will definitely take some practice to be efficient at navigating that site. On the other hand, it is great having everything in one place.
Having never really used EarlyWord, I think this entire site will become a new resource for me. I might have to go about exploring in a systematic fashion because of the wealth of information. I think I will be more inclined to pay attention to different genres because of how categorized everything is on the site. Additionally, I like that publishing news is available and publishing trends.Also, the publisher catalogs is a nice resource to have on hand, or to know that they are easily accessed through EarlyWord.

Part III: Coming-Soon Season Previews (EarlyWord)
I chose Requiem by Lauren Oliver from PW-Most Anticipated Books for Spring 2013
This romantic, and yet action packed finale in the Delirium series, intricately concludes the compelling story of Lena Haloway's rebellion in a world where there is a "cure" for love. Fans of The Hunger Games trilogy, the Matched trilogy, the Divergent series and the Chemical Garden trilogy are sure to love this.

Week 4

Goodreads:
Prior to this Be More Bookish training, I had joined Goodreads and have become a consistent user. My absolute favorite part of Goodreads is the listopia section under Explore. I find myself always immediately going there to find new and upcoming books in whatever genre I am currently reading. To be honest, it can become a complete time trap. One list will lead to dozens upon dozens of books, creating this massive snowball effect.

Some of the other aspects of Goodreads I find helpful are found when a particular title is selected. When a title is selected, on that page, there is a list of similar books, genres the title fits under, other books by author, lists (from listopia) that the title is on, and Goodreads community reviews and ratings. While I often don't read any of the reviews of the books I personally read, I do however like to look at the ratings for titles.

As for some of the aspects I don't necessarily enjoy about Goodreads are the fact that no matter what computer I am on, it has a tendency to be slow in loading pages. Additionally, a possible downside is that Goodreads has a ton of information, which may seem daunting and overwhelming to the average user.

As for my recommendation-I recommended Huck: The remarkable true story of how one lost puppy taught a family-and a whole town-about hope and happy endings by Janet Elder to Debbie Bastacky. After looking through Debbie's "read" shelves, I saw that she tends to read and highly enjoy pet memoir books, especially those that are inspirational and heartwarming.

Week 3

Conversation #1:  Some of the appeal factors/book characteristics I picked up on from this conversation were:

• Title of last book (Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert).  
• Popular . It was lovely.
• Female narrator
• Travel
• Reflective
• Humor
• Oprah Book Club
• Memoir

Based on those I would suggest the following titles:

1. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin because it is funny, reflective, candid, engaging, memoir  with a strong female narrator
2. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen because it is a reflective, though-provoting, female narrated memoir
3. Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis because it is extremely popular and an Oprah Book Club selection

Conversation #2: Some of the appeal factors/book characteristics I picked up on from this conversation were:

• Vampire Story
• Adult characters
• Fast-pacing
• Action-packed

Based on those I would suggest the following title:

1. The Blood Gospel by James Rollins because it is a suspensefully compelling story that is intricately-plotted and richly detailed where the main characters are fighting against ancient and evil vampires.

Conversation #3: Some of the appeal factors/book characteristics I picked up on from this conversation were:

• Adventurous
• Historical
• Dramatic
• Compelling
• Suspenseful
• True-story

Based on those I would suggest the following title:

1. Agent Zigzag: true story of Nazi espionage, love, and betrayal by Ben Macintyre because it is a fast-paced historically true novel of a British double agent during WWII.