Week 11 Prompt

 The Readers' Advisory Matrix for The Way I Heard It, By Mike Rowe

1. Where is the book on the narrative continuum?

A mix (combines highly narrative moments with periods of fact-based prose)

2. What is the subject of the book? 

This book combines memories of the author's past with historical anecdotes.

3. What type of book is it?

A memoir.

4. Articulate appeal

What is the pacing of the book? It is a fast paced book but can be read at a leisurely pace. Short chapters create the pacing.

Describe the characters of the book. Each chapter focuses on a different set of historical or famous people. Mike Rowe is center stage in each chapter talking about his childhood, teen years, and his adult life as he worked his way to being a television host and creating his own podcast. Rowe is relatable to his readers with the way he spins each tale. He is humorous, sometimes a little raunchy but always entertaining. He tells his stories and those of people like the man on the Titanic who survived by drinking excessively. 

How does the story feel? Humorous, historical, enlightening, real world

What is the intent of the author? To entertain listeners with his life story and stories from his podcast.

What is the focus of the story? To bring some new facts to stories we have heard before as well as give us insight to how Rowe has lived his life.

Does the language matter? Yes, it helps create the humorous feel of the story and is lighthearted. 

Is the setting important and well described? The settings are not as important as the characters that are being brought to life. Each chapter is its own entity so the focus is on what is going on with the characters and not describing the setting. 

Are there details and, if so, of what? There are some details so we can figure out who the characters are before he says their names but beyond that the details are not in your face. Some stories feel like they are there just to be there with not much detail and others are detailed enough to keep readers going.

Are there sufficient charts and other graphic materials? Are they useful and clear? There are no charts but there are small graphics that are depicting a small aspect of the historical anecdotes Rowe is discussing. They are almost like old school clipart and do not add much to the story.

Does the book stress moments of learning, understanding, or experience? Yes, through his memories we are taught all three of these things. He shows us learning through his parents, understanding through his historical anecdotes, and experience through his work.

5. Why would a reader enjoy this book (rank appeal)?

1. Learning/experiencing

2. Tone

3. Language

Nonfiction Annotation: The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe

The Way I Heard It 

Author: Mike Rowe

Genre: Nonfiction

Publication Date: October 15, 2019

Number of Pages: 272

Publisher: Gallery Books

Subject Headings: History, Humor, Facts, Anecdotes, Memories, Podcast

Summary: Mike Rowe takes his readers through his favorite shows from his podcast, The Way I Heard It. He reminisces about Dirty Jobs and middle America. He also gives us stories from his childhood and sheds light on how he heard stories and learned from them over the years. Sometimes crude but always humorous, Mike Rowe takes readers along with him while he reminisces about his past work, history, and how he ties it to his own life. He gives us anecdotes of history and allows us to see how these humorous, partially factual events in history helped shape him as a young boy, teenager, and adult. The stories are sometimes funny and other times they are enlightening. Follow Mike Rowe as he tells us about the Titanic, how he became an opera singer, and learn about his parents, also famous in their own right.

Nonfiction Elements:

The tone is light and humorous throughout the book. When Mike Rowe is giving us insight to his own life he not only tells us how he felt but we can laugh along with him and see the humor of the situations.

The intent of the author is to entertain his readers through anecdotes and biographical stories.

The book is a memoir that is filled with chapters that are cut in half between facts and historical stories and end with Rowe telling us about his own memories of his life.

This book is fast paced with short chapters that can be read quickly but you learn plenty in a short time about history, how Mike Rowe saw things, and about how he became who he is today.

3 Terms to Describe the Book:

• Humorous
• Relatable
• Personal accounts

Read-Alikes:

• About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known: Ruminations and Revelations from a Mother to Her Dirty Son by Peggy Rowe
• Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
• Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman
• Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It by Adam Savage

*I highly recommend this book as an audiobook if you enjoy watching or listening to any of Mike Rowe's TV shows, documentaries, or his podcast. It brings the book to a whole new level.

Week 10 Prompt

 I am going to be honest and say that until the pandemic I rarely used ebooks or audiobooks. Now I am obsessed with them and they are almost all I read. I feel ashamed for being a snob about disliking them before. When we all got told we had to stay home I loaded up on books thinking I'd have free time to read and fly through them. I had so much going on with work that I barely had time to sit down at night. That is when my husband, avid ebook and audiobook user, convinced me to try audiobooks on Libby or Hoopla. He has always loved Libby and does our Overdrive purchases for the library. He has tried talking to me about the trends he sees from requests for ebooks and audiobooks but I never thought about trying them myself. I'd used Hoopla for graphic novels but I was never into using the online apps. I ended up going through some series in no time and now I get other people to try them out by telling them my story. 

I always valued the touch and feel of a book. It helped draw me into the story seeing the cover, how big or small the book was, if it was worn from use, etc. Now I look more at descriptions and less at what the covers look like. It's less about judging the cover for appeal and more about seeing if the description appeals to me. 

I also really like that I can sit down with a patron who is against ebooks because they say they are too old and cannot see the screen and see them get excited about being able to read a new author that was not in our physical collection. I am in charge of fielding our patron questions and I became pretty good at explaining through email and over the phone how to download and use library apps. I think that helped me appreciate them more. 

Okay, audiobooks are both my favorite and least favorite format. I started listening to them when I was working from home so I would not get distracted. I got so much more work done and learned that some of my favorite children's authors need new narrators (I love kid books and wanted to feel calm during the pandemic). I learned why I had such disdain for them since I was introduced to them as a child and that would be the horrible narrators. I think with audiobooks the narrators make or break the feel and pleasure a patron gets from a book. I cannot stand when the person is just using one voice for every character in the book or when their voice is so soothing I want to fall asleep. I want to be drawn into the book like I would if I were reading the pages. I think with audiobooks if someone does not like the narrator then the publishing company has lost a sale or reader. 

So, all this being said I am going to tell you about what I did this weekend without realizing we were talking about ebooks and audiobooks this week. My husband and I sat my mother-in-law down and taught her the value of digital formats for books and audiobooks. She works a lot and does not have the time to always go into the library when the library is open. We have told her about the apps before but she seemed skeptical because she is not a fan of technology. We got her the Libby app with her library card and we took turns showing her cool things she can do to customize the books she's reading. She's notorious for saying she needs her glasses but not actually getting them to look at things. My husband used this to his advantage and showed her that she can change the font size. We also showed her how to place holds, see the different formats, and how to browse by subjects, authors, genres, etc. She left our house saying she was going to look at a few authors she had not read in a while. I think we converted her!

With this story and patrons I have helped throughout the years I have learned a few differences in how people choose books inside a library compared to on an app. Here are the ways people pick books or see as a positive when checking out ebooks and audiobooks:

1. If the narrator is horrible just try a different book or try to read the ebook. The draw factor for audiobooks are how the story is told and if it is a genre the patron enjoys. A narrator can change the entire tone of a book with their voice. Patrons find narrators they enjoy and that can cause them to go out of their comfort zone and try new genres if the narrator is so good they want to hear more from them.
2. Judging books by their covers is not as important because the covers don't have as much pull for me or some patrons when "browsing the stacks" online. The descriptions get people to read the books over anything else.
3. How libraries customize their homepages for apps is key. In Libby and Overdrive libraries can curate collections to feature and try to draw patrons into checking out books. This is a new way patrons can find books through passive readers' advisory. Libraries had to find new ways to get popular and new books to their patrons without blowing budgets last year. I think curated collections helped librarians showcase some books that were already there and get patrons interested in new authors and titles that could be new or old. 
4. How the book looks does not really matter. Font, color, covers, etc. do not play a big factor because they can be made to look however the reader wants them to look. Don't like the stark white background then change it to nighttime mode. Cannot read the text because it is too small then change the font size and even the type of font. 
5. The tone can change with audiobooks based on speed. I learned this when I decided to quicken the pace of a book and it made the story seem off. I try to stick to the pace the publishing company sets but with audiobooks it is the narrator's job to make sure they make the pace and tone known through their voice. We are not reading the words on the page so we have to rely on the narrator to do this for us.
6. Music in the background or between chapters can be useful. I know my sister loved it growing up because she knew when she could take a break from reading. It also can help with the growing anticipation of a cliff hanger ending.
7. A big appeal for patrons and myself with Hoopla's online materials is that I can get them instantly. I can essentially skip waiting lists and if I find a series I can read it all as quickly or slowly as I want. This is a big factor for many patrons I talk to when they decide what format of book they want to read.
8. One of the biggest appeal factors our library had for promoting ebooks and audiobooks before we got rid of fines for most of our materials was the lack of fines for online resources. People did not have to worry about getting the book back to the library on time or about there being a waitlist and being rejected their renewal. No fines and no driving has increased our registrations in my generation. We like doing things on our phones and from our homes. It's also a positive for some of our patrons who had to transition to assisted living and cannot always rely on getting transportation to the library. They have gotten ereaders and we've taught them how to use our apps. 

Here are some things I have noticed about ebooks and audiobooks that are not so appealing to libraries:

1. If it is online you don't own it permanently. I remember the collection development librarians for a couple departments talking about how it is getting harder for them to get multiple copies or order more than the requests because of the price to renew or rent popular authors. When the pandemic hit we had to think about how we wanted to allocate our funding. We have always had a steady flow of patrons use our print collection. Now we are seeing a trend of more and more patrons only using our online databases to check out materials. 
2. Audiobooks that are in CD form are declining because people prefer downloading them on their own devices. It is easier to whip out our smartphones than to get a CD player and hope the disc isn't scratched.

Appeals of physical materials:

I cannot remember where my friend found an image but it was all about what makes print books great and appealing to readers: the feel of the book, the cover, the smell, what color the pages are, and the descriptions. All these factors draw readers in. Physical books tell a story. You can tell if an older book was well received if it looks a little worn or the pages have colored from age. You can also tell when browsing the stacks what is popular if there is no dust in an area. Publishers take authors' names into consideration when publishing a new book. They also look at the appeal of a book cover or how it will fit into the genre for that time period.

One drawback to physical materials where ebooks and online audiobooks will always win is how much space they take up. Working in a smaller library has made me realize the value of being able to weed out some books in the physical collection while making sure to have copies of the books through online avenues. This has really helped the library I work at with graphic novels. They do not get as much attention in-house as they do online because the audience in our community prefers to use apps to checkout books.

                

All this being said, I love all types of books. I guess I can say a positive came out of last year for me. I learned to get over my disdain of using my phone or computer to read.

Historical Fiction Annotation: Transcription by Kate Atkinson

 

Transcription

Author: Kate Atkinson

Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery/Spy Thriller

Publication Date: September 6, 2018

Number of Pages: 343

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Geographical Setting: London, England

Time Period: 1940s, 1950s, and 1981/WWII and post war era

Subject Headings: Spy, Espionage, MI5, Radio Producer, England, WWII, BBC

Summary: Miss Juliet Armstrong joins MI5 at the age of 18 during World War II. She has no family and she wants to help her country during war times. She gets recruited to be a typist for Perry, a boss in an undercover operation, at an apartment where they are trying to track the day to day lives of Nazi sympathizers. Juliet spends her days listening into conversations of Godfrey, a spy posing as a middleman for Hitler. Her boss Perry sees that she is quite good at lying by taking her on expeditions that no one but him would find fascinating. After a few of these daunting expeditions Perry enlists Juliet to be a spy. This allows her to infiltrate a group of sympathizers. All throughout this time she is still seen as a silly girl who happens to work for MI5. After the war she is let go and decides to work for the BBC. She moves to Manchester then back to London in the 1950s. 10 years after her time in MI5 her old life comes back to haunt her. She starts running into many of the people she had not talked to in years and starts to wonder if it is a coincidence. After all Perry always told her nothing was ever coincidence. Will this pull her back into MI5 or is there something dark lurking in the corners of her past? This book goes back and forth between Juliet at the BBC, her time at MI5, and 1981 when she is 60 years old.

Historical Fiction Elements:

Historical detail is throughout this novel. The setting, customs, culture, and more are all realistic when you dive into Juliet's life with MI5 and BBC. The dialogue, clothing, and characters make you feel like you have stepped back into 1940s and 1950s London. The way the author shapes the dialogue among the characters makes readers learn about the customs during war time and how different cultures can collide in the worst ways.

Fictional characters feel real. The way that the characters talk about their monarchy or how they talk about the Nazis make readers believe they are back in time. The MI5 agents and Nazi sympathizers were realistic in character and gave different takes on how people felt about WWII. The war time and London setting shapes Juliet's life and readers can imagine the book as a piece of nonfiction work based on the details that are put into shaping the characters.

Densely packed pages shape this novel. It is not huge like most historical fiction works but it does pack in quite a bit of information on each and every page. If one was to listen to the audiobook they would want to listen closely for all the details of the story. If one tries to read this book at more than a leisurely pace they may miss out on important details of the story unfolding.

3 Terms to Describe the Book:

• suspenseful
• character driven
• undercover 

Read-Alikes:

• The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
• A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of Virginia Hall, WWII’s Most Dangerous Spy by Sonia Purnell
• The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
• The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone
• Jackdaws by Ken Follett

References for the Historical Fiction Element Section:

Wyatt, N. & Saricks, J. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction (3rd ed.). ALA Editions.

Western Annotation: Hondo by Louis L'Amour

 

Hondo

Author: Louis L'Amour

Genre: Western

Publication Date: 1953

Number of Pages: 191

Publisher: Bantam Dell

Geographical Setting: Arizona/Apache Land

Subject Heading: western, gun fights, Apaches, ranch, land rights

Summary: Hondo Lane is a gunslinger who has a reputation. He once lived with the Apaches and had an Indian wife. Now he works for the cavalry and on occasion doles out his own form of justice. Angie Lowe has been abandoned by her gambling, alcoholic husband and left to run her ranch and raise her son alone. Both of them are in Apache land and the Apaches have vowed to rid their lands of the white man. Hondo meets Angie while he is scouting for the cavalry and is drawn to her instantly. She does not understand why a woman would live alone with her son on land that the Apaches intend to claim as their own. Angie has always gotten along with the Apaches. Her son is an honorary blood brother. Vittoro, chief of the Apaches, has bonded with Angie's son and wants him to learn the Apache way. This is the condition of Angie and Johnny staying on their ranch. When worlds collide Hondo and Angie are both questioning what is right and what they should do to survive the war that has started in the West between the Apaches and the white man.

Western Elements:

Loner hero is a central character to Westerns. Hondo Lane lives alone and from the first description of him a reader can pick up on this detail. He can take care of himself but he has a sense of justice in the world that he instantly gains respect from strangers. He is known throughout the West and is admired by all who meet him. He is the loner hero.

Detailed landscapes are prominent in every chapter. Between Hondo, Angie, and Vittoro readers can picture the Arizona ranch or the hills where the Apaches live. This takes readers back to a forgotten era and they can imagine each part of the story in their heads and get a sense for the surrounding landscapes. Not only are the landscapes detailed but the animals and people.

3 Terms to Describe the Book:

• Vivid characters
• Fast paced
• Action packed

Read-Alikes:

• The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
• Tucker's Reckoning: A Ralph Compton Novel by Matthew P. Mayo
• North of Laramie by William W. Johnstone

Movies/TV Shows similar to Hondo novel:

• Rio Grande (1950)
• Broken Arrow (1950)
• Broken Trail (2006)
• Cheyenne (1955)

References for the Western Elements Section:

Wyatt, N. & Saricks, J. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction (3rd ed.). ALA Editions.

Book Club Experience

I went to a book club in late February. I have never gone to a book club so I was not sure what to expect. I always worked nights before I got my current position then the pandemic came and in-person events have mostly stalled. I chose one that was fairly local to my area to participate in. The history book club sounded fun and I like hearing what others think about different time periods. I chose to go to a history book club for a couple of reasons. 

1. I studied history for my undergrad degree so it sounded like a fun way to experience my first book club.

2. I wanted to read more nonfiction books which is what this book club reads.

3. The book sounded more like my cup of tea than this month’s fiction lover’s book club. Plus the book is on my TBR list.

4. I was hoping to meet some new people who also enjoyed some of the same subjects I do.

5. The book is about a woman who was born and raised in Huntington, IN which is where I live.

The book that was discussed was The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone. From what I had read it is well-written and I felt like I was reading a book that was a mix of fiction and nonfiction. It was more of a narrative and made me feel like I could connect with the main character.

I had emailed the leader of the book discussion the day before to let him know that I was an MLIS student and that I had read some but not all the book for the discussion. He was extremely polite and said if I just wanted to observe he was fine with that and he was excited to have a new member. He also warned me that if there is bad weather or snow on the ground (even if it has been there for over a week) that it might be a small crowd.

The night of the meeting I went into the genealogy room at the library and was worried that I was going to be the only participant aside from my husband. He read some of the book as well and decided to tag along. Then two more patrons showed up. I could tell they were regulars because the librarian leading the discussion knew their names and talked to them for a couple minutes about how their lives were going and if they were doing okay. The atmosphere was cheery and they all made my husband and I feel welcome. All in all there were four of us and two librarians. One librarian was leading the discussion and from what I had been told if he was unable to make it the other one would have led the discussion. 

Since there are social distancing rules and masks I did not expect it to be a big crowd or snacks and drinks. I was correct. We all sat distanced at different tables. It started with the leader giving us about a minute or two of background on the book’s author and Elizebeth, the main character. Then he started off the discussion with a question. This led to a couple people talking and we had a good discussion about how we all felt about the book and writing style. He let us answer and then he told us how he felt about the book. That is how he did each question he asked. He tried to interact with all of us individually by asking us by name what we thought about different parts of the book, characters, and other general questions. One of the participants sounded like a big history buff so he told us a little bit about how he saw this woman’s life relating to other nonfiction works he has read based in those times. The other patron explained how she thought the PBS documentary did a good job of staying true to the book. Just to let you guys know there was a short documentary put out about the book. I’ll add the link to the bottom of this post.

Sadly, as much fun as I had about talking and learning about other peoples’ perspectives the librarian who was not leading the discussion monopolized much of the conversation. She kept talking about her own personal life and I could see where she was connecting it to the story but felt like she was not giving others a chance to talk much. When the other librarian would ask someone a specific question she would talk first without giving the patron a chance to talk. It was clear that there was a clash on how the book club should be run and I felt like the leader wanted more discussion and less personal talk. I am not sure if this is how it always goes but for the most part I could tell that the leader kept trying to circle back to the book discussion. I know he had plenty of questions because he had a page typed up that he would look at before asking us something. We got to talk very little about the book.

We all actively participated a little bit and the questions we were asked were ones that people could expand upon and dive deeper into the story and they were ones that could lead to other topics within the book. One attendee talked more than the rest of us but I think that is because the other attendees were shy, two being my husband and I. If we had discussed more of the book and kept up the discussion that we were having when patrons were talking I would have really enjoyed the book club. I was even excited because the next book they are reading is also on my TBR list. The attendees were both nice and said they hoped we would come back next month. We even ended up walking out together and it ended on a great note. I felt like I could go back and that I made some new friends. Who knows, I might give it another try and see if next month is any different. The actual book discussion was fun and the librarians were extremely nice and excited that two younger people showed up. 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/codebreaker/

Special Topics Paper: Agatha Christie and Detective Fiction

Detective Fiction and Agatha Christie

Detective fiction has been a mystery subgenre for over a century. It all started with Edgar Allan Poe and then it became a phenomenon between the two world wars. This era became known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. This era brought us many great authors. One such author was Agatha Christie the all time best selling author. She is considered to be one of the queens of crime and her works shaped many authors' writing styles. She was a war nurse during World War I and this was where she got some of her ideas for poisons and other tragic plot twists. During the war years she began writing her first detective novels. She did this because her sister dared her to write a detective book. Her sister did not think she could do it (2021). She proved her wrong and went on to write books for decades in the subgenre. The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was all about the plot and details. Christie, like many other authors of the time, would figure out the plot then the characters would come after. The details in the clues and puzzles were key to detective fiction in the 1920s to 1940s. Nowadays detective fiction focuses more on the character and setting than the plot. Some authors will still do the classic writing style and many will look at the older era of detective fiction for inspiration but today's detective fiction captures people's attention for the character's story, not so much the plot.

Readers' Advisory for Detective Fiction

There are many ways to promote detective fiction in the library. I found different ways of promoting the mystery genre and slightly adapted them to fit the subgenre of detective fiction. One way Wabash Carnegie Public Library promotes their mystery section is by having a monthly mystery newsletter of new books. This could easily be adapted by adding a detective fiction newsletter and picking books that are similar to the old school detective fiction of the Golden Age. 

Another way that I have seen my hometown library in Huntington, Indiana creatively incorporate readers' advisory is by promoting local productions on their social media and by word of mouth. This is a little unconventional but back in 2019 the Pulse Opera House in Warren, Indiana put on a production of And Then There Were None. The local library and librarians promoted the production to get patrons interested in Agatha Christie and other detective fiction authors. One thing I would note is that the production crew took Christie's work seriously and asked the audience to figure out which of the endings (she wrote a couple) they were using for the night. This could also make people think of detective fiction without people knowing because the audience is trying to remember which ending the actors were acting out.

A library could also have a scavenger hunt throughout the library with a mystery theme. Little Learners blog created one for her open house mystery theme at her school. She made scavenger hunts and gave all her students badges and clipboards to investigate (2010). This could be something that parents could do with their kids at the local library or for adults to do on their own. It would be a great way to promote detective mysteries across all ages. The youth services department could display Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books while the upstairs displays Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham. 

A form of passive readers’ advisory is doing wall displays or posters. At the Cedar Park Public Library, they created a poster for the teen area called “Once Upon a Crime.” The librarian adapted it from the normal once upon a time to get teens interested in different mystery genres (de Boer, 2013). This could easily be geared towards detective fiction for adults. The same style could be used, and librarians could switch it out with detective fiction books, new and old, for patrons to look at. Posters are also great ways for passive readers’ advisory because they take up much less space than displays and libraries can personalize their posters for different themes, seasons, or events. 

References used in paper:

Agatha Christie Limited. (2021). About Agatha Christie. The Home of Agatha Christie. https://www.agathachristie.com/about-christie

De Boer, Emma (2013, August 16). Once upon a crime. https://confessionsfromabibliophile.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/once-upon-a-crime/ 

Grover, Alex (2015, June 10). How to tell if you’re about to be murdered in this mystery: a flowchart. Quirk Books. https://www.quirkbooks.com/post/how-tell-if-youre-about-be-murdered-mystery-flowchart 

Littlest Learners (2010, April 28). Mystery themed open house ideas: Whatever Wednesdays. Clutter-Free Classroom. http://littlestlearners.blogspot.com/2010/04/mystery-theme-open-house-ideas-whatever.html

Martin, R. (2013). Crime and detective fiction. Salem Press.

Riches, Tony (2015). The writing habits of Agatha Christie. Literary Ladies Club to the Writing Life. https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/writing-advice-from-classic-authors/the-writing-habits-of-agatha-christie/

Wyatt, N. & Saricks, J. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction (3rd ed.). ALA Editions.

Mystery Annotation: "A" is for Alibi

 "A" is for Alibi

Author: Sue Grafton

Genre: Mystery/Crime/Detective Fiction/Thriller

Publication Date: April 15, 1982

Number of Pages: 275

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston

Geographical Setting: Santa Teresa, California, LA, California and Las Vegas, Nevada

Series Information: This is the first book of the Kinsey Millhone or "Alphabet" series. This series ended on the letter Y when the author passed away and asked that her series not be written by a ghost writer.

Subject Headings: Women detective, women private investigator, mystery, California, cold case

Summary: Kinsey Millhone is an ex-cop turned private investigator. Kinsey is straightforward, likes her wine, a loner, and does not like when her clues don't add up. Nikki Fife shows up at her doorstep wanting Kinsey's help to figure out who murdered her husband 8 years ago. Nikki has already served time for the crime and Kinsey is intrigued enough to take the case. She appreciates Nikki's honesty and reasoning behind wanting the case reopened. As she starts to look into the murder of Laurence Fife she finds another murder that occurred within days of Laurence's. She finds it odd that the police never tried to connect the two since Laurence knew the accountant, Libby Glass, and they died the same way. Kinsey goes from Santa Teresa to LA to Las Vegas to track down who committed the crime. She wants justice for those who have died and as the case goes on she starts to question if her gut instincts about those who were in Laurence's life and if they could have committed murder. Laurence was not a good man so there were many people who preferred him dead 8 years ago. In the end Kinsey finds out who did it and is thrown for a loop.

Mystery Elements:

Order (justice) to be reestablished is a big theme throughout the book. Kinsey comes into contact with all the people who knew Laurence Fife best and his death has had different impacts on each of them. Kinsey sees how much Nikki wants justice and as she delves deeper into the crime at hand she wants justice for Laurence Fife and Libby Glass. This comes in twists and turns as clues come to light that are not interconnected. Kinsey wants her life to go back to normal as the plot thickens.

Focus on the investigator is another key element throughout the story. Readers find out about who Kinsey Millhone really is and reasons behind why she not only investigates in a certain way but why she quit the force. This story follows Kinsey's life as much as it follows the investigation. We learn about her day to day life and what brought her to where she is today.

3 Terms to describe the book: 

• authentic main character
• plot-driven
• suspenseful

Read-Alikes

• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
• One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
• Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky
• Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
• 1st to Die by James Patterson

References for the Mystery Element Section:

Wyatt, N. & Saricks, J. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction (3rd ed.). ALA Editions.

Week 7 Prompt

 For this week's prompt I am going to talk a little bit about hoaxes and about when I learned as a child the difference between fiction and nonfiction works. 

The New Yorker article we had to read about was fascinating to me. I think the biggest takeaway I got from it is that people want to believe in the story that is in front of them. Some people will not care if the author is false and others will think it is the most appalling act to the literary world and the books should no longer be taken seriously. To those who are appalled I just have one question, do you not like the book because you found out the author is not who you wanted it to be? If a book can be read authentically by people and win awards then what is the big deal? Everyone reads certain books for a reason. I think with nonfiction work people forget that authors have to write something that draws them in and keeps readers wanting more. This means stories will be dramatized and possibly fictionalized. 

For me, I think people, including myself, care too much about the person behind the book. I could even say this branches out to other industries like film. People have become fascinated with writers and creators of works and if the person does not live up to their expectations they can see the works in a different light. I am someone who will look up authors and actors/actresses to find out what their life stories are. I am not saying I don't hope they are slightly what I picture in my head. I also am one that cares more about what I think about the work that is being put before me than who created it. I want the story, not the person behind it. If it is an autobiography I look at it the same way I look at "reality" television. It cannot be completely true and unscripted. I do not see the big deal with the hoaxes of authors writing under different names. I say this because many beloved authors used/use pseudonyms to branch out from their known genre. Look at Nora Roberts for example. She writes under multiple names and where I work all her books get checked out. I think it is funny that the J.D. Robb books also have her real name on them and not just the pseudonym. Does anyone else laugh about that when they are in the stacks and come across her books?

As for why I feel the way I do. It all started with Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was obsessed with her as a child. So much so that I wore my hair in pigtails far too frequently (I still would if I could braid my own hair) and begged my parents to take me to her house, that is a museum, so I could see where she lived. For the record, I was never taken but will go there someday! I wanted to know everything about her. I read all the chapter books, watched the show, and would look up things about the other people in her life. Then when I got in later elementary school I realized that her books were fictional. I did not realize there was a difference as a small child between what she wrote about and what was real. I did not know that there were different genres because I was a kid that just read for pleasure and not to know the difference between fiction and nonfiction or fantasy and historical fiction. I assumed that it was all real because she used her own name in the books. Granted she did base some events on her real life but they were mostly fictional events. I was crushed for a while. She was my favorite author and I did not understand why Laura would do such a thing. I got over it pretty quickly, and much to my mother's disdain, continued to watch the show and read the books (many times). I take how I bounced back as a child with Laura Ingalls Wilder as the way I look at other works. I may care about who the author is but deep down I want a good story to read. I also never forgot the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Hoaxes are always going to be a thing. I might as well care about the story and if I think it was well written and a fun read then it does not matter who the author is or is not.

On a side note I found out in college that Laura Ingalls Wilder also had picture books. I accused my mom of purposefully hiding their existence when I went home. She laughed and never really told me why I was not told about the picture books. I went to the library, checked them all out, read them, and even did a report on a few for an English class in undergrad. 

New Yorker article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/literary-hoaxes-and-the-ethics-of-authorship