Week Seven - Prompt Response

My work is corporate, and therefore has never really been affected by author controversies. However, on a personal note, in 2018 I found out that I had been accepted into IU's MLS program (I later paused my degree to accommodate work and switched over to IUPUI...but that's neither here nor there). I was so thrilled - I'd always loved libraries, and had been rudderless in my career for a while. To celebrate, some friends and family went to the Indianapolis Central Library that night for an event - a book reading and Q&A with an author, along with some passed appetizers and wine. A perfect way to start my future librarian life. The author was Junot Díaz. I thought his writing was amazing, and the experience of hearing him read in the absolutely breathtaking space that is the Central Library on that particularly meaningful day actually brought me to tears. I bought one of his books, The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, and fell in love with it. I stood in line and shook his hand. It was one of the best days of my life. 

No more than a month later, the news broke about his #metoo moment, the allegations that he had sexually harassed and made aggressive and misogynistic comments to several women. I was devastated. It wasn't only that I'd enjoyed his work and now had to grapple with the never-ending question of how to enjoy the great art of terrible people (which is a common dilemma). It was that the beautiful moment I'd had was turned into ash. I can still look back on that day and remember that I was happy, but it no longer makes me happy to think about it. I felt physically sick reading the allegations. I felt like something important had been taken from me, and I was angry at Díaz himself for taking it. 

To take a Readers' Advisory lesson from this experience, I believe that librarians should be aware that readers often have emotional connections to books they've read, and that they might experience a lot of grief when they feel that they can no longer support or love certain works or authors who were once special to them in some way. Those can be tough conversations. I think, in that moment, if I had gone to a librarian for an RA interview I would have loved it if the librarian had worked with me to find other, less known authors that similarly explored Dominican heritage and toxic masculinity and all of the themes that made Oscar Wao such a powerful read. 

A quote from the Vox article in our assigned reading this week made me think of that sort of RA work as a form of healing. As horrible as it is when a beloved author, especially one who is seen as representative of a community, falls from grace, "'[...]it can also be a moment to open up our shelves to other writers from these communities'" (Underwood, 2018). 

Horror Annotation

 

Title: The Only Good Indians

Author: Stephen Graham Jones

Publication Date: 2020

Genre: Horror

Number of Pages: 305

Geographical Setting: North Dakota, Montana

Time Period: approximately current day 

Series: none/standalone 

Plot Summary: Ten years ago, four Blackfeet men went on a hunt. Something happened on that hunt, something bad. Something that none of them wants to talk about or even think about. But their actions on that fateful trip are about to have devastating consequences, because now something is hunting them. Part supernatural slasher gore-fest, part slow burn commentary on Native life both on and off reservations, The Only Good Indians is broken into parts to tell the stories of Ricky, Cass, Lewis, and Gabe as they each try to navigate a violent past and a bleak future. 

Subject Headings: Indian men -- Fiction.

Revenge -- Fiction.

Survival -- Fiction.

Appeal:

• A nightmare tone: All of the emotional beats for a classic horror novel are here: "dread and chill, a sense of menace, a feeling of terror" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 239). There are plenty of non-horrific moments in the book, pages and pages where nothing scary is happening. But it starts on a violent note and the reader is aware that something very bad is about to happen to these characters. We don't exactly know what and we don't exactly know when, but that makes the dread build even higher in periods of relative peace. 
• Haunted protagonists: Some of the characters feel the impact of their actions on the hunting trip more than others, but they're all broken somehow - by reservation life, by leaving or staying, by disappointing family members, by the violent deaths of loved ones. 
• Supernatural framing, human story line: Not to give too much away, but the Big Bad of the novel is decisively supernatural, and heavily inspired by Blackfeet mythology. It also happens to fall into my favorite horror trope of all time, something my husband and I lovingly refer to as "weird deer." This book is part ghost story, part revenge slasher, and very monster-heavy. However, like Wyatt & Saricks mention, "[u]nderneath the details and blueprint of Horror are stories of deep-seated anxieties about human nature" (p. 240). The characters openly reflect on what it means to be a good man, a good Blackfoot, a good father or son or husband. And the penalties for failing to measure up to that goodness are dire, punishments outweighing crimes by a wide margin. 
• Creative styling and jumpy pacing: By dividing the novel up into sections, focusing on each character in turn, Graham Jones really ratchets up the terror. We move through one person's entire, awful experience, reaching a bloody conclusion...and then we turn the page and find ourselves with a new, innocent protagonist who has absolutely no idea they're next. "Pacing in this genre is erratic, to better match the unpredictable flow of the story" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 243). Some parts of the novel are slow, slow burns, embodying the storyteller approach to horror. And other parts are visceral, action-packed, non-stop adrenaline fuel. When you turn to a new character's section, you really don't know what you're going to get. 

Terms that best describe this book: Brutal, violent, engaging 

Relevant Fiction Works and Authors: 

• There, There by Tommy Orange: For readers more interested in the idea of exploring reservation life and Native communities by following multiple characters, and less interested in vengeful spirits wreaking havoc, this book would be a good way of exploring the same themes present in The Only Good Indians without the horror trappings. 
• White Horse by Erika T. Wurth: Both novels are noted for their "menacing" and "creepy" tones, both deal with Indigenous characters reckoning with a past mistake or incident, and the language/writing style of both novels is "sparse prose." 
• Bad Cree by Jessica Johns: A Cree woman who left her family and reservation must return to grapple with her sister's death and confront her nightmares in this magical realism horror novel. A different country and a different tribe might interest readers who enjoyed the reservation setting of The Only Good Indians. 

Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors: 

• Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell: Considered to be a faithful collection and translation of traditional Blackfeet stories, published in the 19th century. this book might help readers contextualize the characters of The Only Good Indians, as we can imagine these are the stories they grew up on. 
• The Sun Came Down: The History of the World as My Blackfeet Elders Told It by Percy Bullchild: For nonfiction readers who appreciated the "own voices" tone of The Only Good Indians and want to read more about the history and culture of the Blackfeet tribe. 
• Women of Myth: From Deer Woman and Mami Wata to Amaterasu and Athena, Your Guide to the Amazing and Diverse Women from World Mythology by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy: The monster from the novel was created by Graham Jones, but she's based on a real mythological figure from Native American lore. For information about the deer woman, and to read more about figures of mythology beyond the most well-known, there are many options - including this beautifully illustrated one. 

Relevant Multimedia tie-ins: 

• Lore (podcast): The premise of this podcast is simple but effective - each bi-weekly episode goes into depth about a bit of folklore. The tone is often creepy, and listeners get to learn a bit of history and culture while also getting goosebumps. Episode 61 is actually about the Deer Woman, so start there for an extra tie-in. 
• The Forest (video game): This is a survival horror video game where you control a plane crash survivor, exploring the vast woods where you've landed. During the day, you collect materials and build shelter, waiting to be rescued. During the night...the monsters come out. For readers who liked the tense, hide-and-seek chase at the end of the novel, this might pump your heartrate up in the same way. 
• Basketball or Nothing (TV series - Netflix): Basketball is a huge theme in The Only Good Indians - generations of characters bond over the sport, and it's often seen as a way out, a way to a better life. Basketball plays a major role in Lewis and Gabe's stories in particular. This documentary show follows students at Chinle High School on the Navajo reservation through the lens of basketball. 
• Spirit Island (board game): Maybe you found yourself sympathizing a little bit with the antagonist of the novel. In that case, you might be interested in Spirit Island, a cooperative board game where players take on the roles of terrifying nature spirits, like "Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island" or "Shadows Flicker Like Flame", as they use their powerful elemental magics to remove settlers and invaders from their lands. 
• The Ritual (movie) - Four friends go into the ancient Swedish forest to bond and deal with the trauma and grief of losing one of their loved ones, but when something in the woods starts to hunt them, their ties of friendship begin to fray. Despite being a British film set in mainland Europe, this movie has a ton in common with The Only Good Indians, up to and including a terrifying "weird deer" monster. 

Week Six - Prompt Response

 Let's celebrate the month of February by sending our patrons on a blind date. And, to draw some attention to our multimedia collection, let's make it a double date! Staff will select romance novels and pair them with romantic movies (in Blu-Ray or DVD format), then wrap the pair up in opaque paper so the contents can't be seen. Then, a few words that describe the appeal of the pair will be written on the paper so patrons can pick a "blind date" that suits their mood. For example, you could pair It Happened One Night with Managed by Kristen Callihan, then write "steamy road trip romance" on the wrapping paper. Or wrap Someone Great with Memorial by Bryan Washington, tethered together as "bittersweet breakups." Stick Sweet Home Alabama together with Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake, and attach a label of "romantic comedy, returning home." 
The double-blind-date books and movies should be displayed prominently, on a table near the front of the library, with an appropriately decorated poster board explaining the way the activity works. For a little added romance, consider having a bowl of wrapped chocolates at the check-out desk to send our date-goers off with. 

Kirkus Style Review - The Bone Clocks

Through time-hops, through the eyes of multiple point of view characters, and in a variety of locations both in our reality and outside of it, we follow the life of Holly Sykes as she plays a pivotal role in the metaphysical war between the benevolent immortal Horologists and the greedy, soul-stealing Anchorites. 

In 1984, Holly is fifteen and she runs away from home. A simple act of teenage rebellion, sparked from a fight with her mother and a bad breakup, sets into motion an unstoppable string of events that draw her into a psychic struggle between good and evil. In 1991, a Cambridge student named Hugo Lamb goes on vacation to a ski resort town, and meets Holly Sykes - a waitress at a bar, adrift and without a plan or purpose. In 2004, war journalist Ed Brubeck is bored at a family wedding, itchy to return to his dangerous work and guilty for wanting to abandon his young daughter, Aoife, and troubled wife. Holly. In 2015, has-been fiction writer Crispin Hershey is frustrated when he is upstaged at a book signing by a new, popular author Holly Sykes ,whose memoir about growing up with supernatural abilities made a big splash. In 2025, a Horologist named Marinus - an immortal warrior and scholar who regenerates in a new body and new life every time she dies - has to recruit a powerful human psychic, Holly, for one last big battle with the Anchorites, the Horologists' dark counterparts, who synthesize false immortality through gruesome sacrificial means, And in 2043, elderly Holly Sykes ekes out a living in a climate-change ravaged, post-apocalyptic Ireland. 

In The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell has crafted a subtle and loving story of one woman's life, disguised as sci-fi epic. And if the reader is left with the sense that they wish they could have spent just a little more time with some of the characters, well, isn't that what it means to be human? 

Week Five - Prompt Response

 

Both reviews for this ebook-only romance novel could be considered reliable in the sense that I see no reason they aren't the true, expressed feelings of the readers. However, the first review (from Amazon) is extremely casual, lacking format and grammar. The second (a blog-post style) makes me think it comes from a serious reader who does make a habit of reviewing books. 

I would be unlikely to add this book to a library collection, unless a patron specifically requested it. Based on the reviews, and on the number of ratings it has on Goodreads, I'm just not convinced it would have high circulation. It's also available completely free on the Kindle, and since it's an ebook only, that's probably how patrons would access it already. 

On the other hand, the reviews for Angela's Ashes make it sound like any library collection that does not contain this book is missing something. Because the book is so well-regarded, and because it is considered a classic, it is likely that patrons will specifically seek it out. It isn't only librarians who use these review sources, but readers as well. So, if a book is getting a lot of buzz, or has been consistently beloved for years, a library should make sure that they have enough copies to meet patrons' needs. It also circumvents having to order a book and wait for it to come in, when you can reasonably guess that you'll need a copy at some point. 

I'm not going to pretend like it's fair that some books get reviewed in every available publication, while others are released as free ebooks to almost no notice. However, time is a limited resource. Reviewers can't read and write about every book that comes out. This does have an unbalancing effect on library collections, and becomes a recursive loop. A book that is reviewed more is going to be more popular, so libraries stock more copies. But then, smaller books that aren't even in a library's collection are never going to be able to become popular, because patrons can't even discover or access them. It's a problem that I'm not entirely sure libraries have the capacity or responsibility to solve. Self-publishing, free ebooks, and word-of-mouth/"non-professional" reader reviews might be the best way for unknown authors to combat the issue. 

Publications that refuse to publish negative book reviews feel pointless to me. Negative reviews often point out important problematic things about a book - I'm specifically thinking of the controversy surrounding American Dirt - and without them, people and libraries might purchase things that they would never knowingly support. I understand the impulse of following "if you can't say anything nice. don't say anything at all," especially about something as personal as a book. But come on. It's a review. Not everything can be good.

I do a little bit of book purchasing for my company, although they're mostly medical textbooks so the process is slightly different. It's rare that the decision comes from me - usually our editors request books specifically and so reviews never come into play. However, I do pay close attention to reader reviews for my personal reading. I don't necessarily keep up with professional publications, but mainly focus on Goodreads reviews. The reviews aren't the end-all, be-all (like, I'm never going to dismiss a book just because it doesn't have a high rating) but it is helpful to skim some reviews to make sure a book isn't just...racist or sexist, or incredibly misleading, or anything like that. 

Secret Shopper

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For this assignment, I went to a local library where I am not known. When I first entered the woman sitting behind the reference desk immediately smiled at me and asked if she could help me. I thought that was a good instinct on her part. I bet a lot of people come in secretly wanting interaction but for whatever reason don’t feel comfortable approaching and asking

I explained that I was in the middle of the audiobook of Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo, the sequel to Ninth House, and that I was really enjoying it but that I needed a non-audiobook for when I wanted to actually read. I said I’d tried Bardugo’s other writing - namely the Shadow & Bone series and hadn’t loved it quite as much. 

The librarian, luck would have it, also read and enjoyed Ninth House. She pointed out that all of Bardugo’s other work was YA and wondered if that was maybe why it didn’t work for me as well. I said that that was definitely part of it, and also that one of the things I liked about Ninth House was that it was set on Earth - just with some magic. 

The first recommendation ((The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton) was made off the top of the librarian’s head - she said she saw a book checked out the other day that she’d recently read as well, and that it had reminded her of Ninth House.

After that, she went on Novelist, scanned through the read-alike list, and picked one out that she’d heard about but hadn’t read yet - Book of Night by Holly Black. She explained that, just like Ninth House, this was the first adult novel by an author who had previously written YA fantasy. This is the one I ended up taking home with me, and it looks exactly up my alley. 

At this point, the librarian (based on my reaction to the first two books, and my saying I was really into the murder mystery angle as well) mentioned that she felt like our taste was actually pretty similar. She asked if I’d be open to a couple recommendations that weren’t fantasy, but still had a lot in common with Ninth House. I said sure. She then went into her own Goodreads account and scrolled through her own recently read list. From that, she pulled two titles: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley, and Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li. 

This was a great experience! I walked away with a book I’m very excited to start, and three more for later. I learned that a friendly greeting and invitation to ask a question can put a patron at ease and start a productive conversation. I am a little interested to see what that same librarian would do in a situation where her own reading taste didn’t overlap with the request. But it seemed like she was very comfortable with Novelist and Goodreads, so I feel like she would still be able to come up with something.