Laura Kirkham Reader's Advisory Class

            According to Neal Wyatt and Joyce G. Saricks (2019), readers of Relationship Fiction “like to talk about the books they read…and are receptive to suggestions” (p. 201) . Wyatt and Saricks (2019) explain that Gentle Reads is not its own genre, but instead they include it in their chapter on Relationship Fiction   (p. 194) , so my thought is that the readers of Gentle Reads are probably similar in this way to the readers of Relationship Fiction more generally. Therefore, my idea for promoting Gentle Reads at the library would involve patrons (who are interested) in addition to library staff. Rather than having staff members come up with all of the suggestions/promotion for the genre, I would want to do a program in which readers of Gentle Reads could meet together to suggest favorite books to the rest of the group and talk to them about what they enjoyed about the books. This would hopefully promote other group me...

Author: Debbie Macomber Title: Alaskan Holiday Genre: Romance Publication Date: 2018 in hardcover, 2019 in paperback Number of Pages: 203 (paperback) Geographical Setting: Ponder, Alaska and Seattle, Washington Time Period: Modern-day Plot Summary: Josie is a recently-graduated aspiring chef spending six months in Ponder, Alaska before returning to Seattle, Washington to begin her dream job in a brand new restaurant being opened by a renowned chef. While in Alaska, Josie develops an intense connection with local resident Palmer, who hopes Josie will choose to stay in Ponder with him forever rather than return to Seattle. However, Josie values her career and the dream job waiting for her in Seattle, and she is not willing to give those up to remain in Ponder. But a missed trip on the last ferry out of town before winter causes Josie to remain in Alaska longer than she had intended, and makes her decision between Palmer and her dream job even more dif...

Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library?           I feel that both of these reviews are reliable, at least to an extent, because they seem to have been written by people who are regular readers of romance; one mentions that they “do love a good Christmas romance” (Cataldi, Ebook Only Romantic Suspense Novel, n.d.a) and the other mentions that the plot of this book is “a very common story” (Cataldi, Ebook Only Romantic Suspense Novel, n.d.a) . Their seeming familiarity with the genre would cause me to place more reliance on their reviews. Both reviewers seemed to feel positively toward the book overall, even though the blog reviewer also included some criticism of it (Cataldi, Ebook Only Romantic Suspense Novel, n.d.a) , so based solely on these two reviews I would probably be likely to purchase the book for my library. How do these reviews make you feel abo...

A Review of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout                Olive Kitteridge is a former school teacher, mother to only child Christopher, wife to husband Henry, and a person who knows exactly how she thinks things and people ought to be and behave. Although Olive Kitteridge is the titular character of this novel, she is not the central character in most of the book’s chapters, but rather she turns up at some point in each by way of her relationship to its primary characters. At times funny and heart-warming, but at many times distressing and sad, Olive Kitteridge does not shy away from a realistic portrayal of life. As Olive and the other characters move through their lives, many heavy topics including illness, infidelity, estrangement between family members, and death are at the forefront of their struggles. This novel does not gloss over the hardships of life, but rather illuminates them in gut-wrenchin...