Week 3 Prompt Response

1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

The Lunatic Café is the fourth book in the series.

I searched for the author, Laurell K. Hamilton and selected the “series” tab where I found the Anita Blake: vampire hunter series. Novelist lists The Lunatic Café as the fourth in the series.

What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

You may enjoy other books by Barbara Kingsolver, like Flight Behavior (also described as a lush, richly detailed green read) or a similar read, Maja Lunde’s “The History of Bees”, an engaging, thought provoking green read focused on nature’s future and history.

I utilized the read-alikes page (searching for an engaging or fast paced option), as well as the original author’s page to find these suggestions, knowing that she has multiple well-received books.  

3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!

Some good options for you include Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee (set in twentieth century Japan) and The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery (set in nineteenth century Japan).

I searched for “Japan” within Novelist then refined to results under historical fiction. A further search included Descriptive writing style, which pulled the second book I recommended.

4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?

You may enjoy books by Louise Penny (such as her Still Life) or Ruth Rendel, authors who incorporate complex characters in their mysteries. Well-Schooled in Murder is also part of a series, the Thomas Lynley Mysteries. If you haven’t read the other books in the series, you should give them a look!

5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

The Living Dead, by George A. Romero and Zombies by Oliver Peru (a graphic novel on zombie apocalypse survival similar to The Walking Dead). If your husband has followed the The Last of Us games or recent HBO show, the tie-in prequel graphic novel series will also be right up his alley!

I looked through Novelist’s read-alikes for World War Z and also performed a general search for “zombies” and “undead” to find relevant books.

6. I love books that get turned into movies, especially literary ones. Can you recommend some? Nothing too old, maybe just those from the last 5 years or so.

Some options provided by Novelist include All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis, both of which have recently had films released. Another option you may have heard of is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, with ta film released in 2022.

Novelist has a Page to Screen quick links page that I utilized. I then opened several of the listed titles to confirm their genre (literary fiction).

7. I love thrillers but I hate foul language and sex scenes. I want something clean and fast paced.

I would recommend Lights Out by Natalie Walters, a chaste, fast-paced and suspenseful read.  While primarily known as a mystery novelist, Agatha Christie’s wide selection of crime novels may also appeal to you, especially her short story collections which are more fast-faced.

Under “tone” in novelist I selected “chaste” to negate any swearing or sex scenes, then refined for suspenseful reads.

How do I find books to read?

Up until this point, most of my reading has been the result of personal recommendations, hearing about books secondhand (through unrelated podcasts or YouTube videos), or the classic “judging a book by its cover”. Since I started working at a library as a shelver I believe I have a better grasp of what books are popular (since some get returned so frequently), but beyond that there hasn’t been much direction in what leads me to one book in particular. After this exercise, however, I can see myself utilizing tools like Novelist to find books that would be appealing to me, rather than the (mostly) random sampling I’ve been doing.