Readers' Advisory

  I, like several others based on the posts I’ve read so far, used to be a bit of a book snob when it came to eBooks. I was dedicated to physical copies above all else, and if given the option, most of the time I still will opt for a physical copy of a book – but is one really better than the other? Physical books have the appeal of being tactile, something that you can feel, hold, and manually progress through by flipping pages. Many books, also, are formatted by their author with the intent of being in print, so some design elements or stylistic choices may not translate as well on an eReader –I’ve found this to be the case with poetry. When reading an eBook, a wonky looking line (meant to emphasize or stand out in print) might be all it takes to draw me out of a book and start thinking about the structure instead of the story. With that said, eBooks have their own set of appeals, mainly relating to convenience and accessibility. Nearly everybody has a phone or portable compute...

  Authors : Kate Quinn Title :  The Alice Network Genre : Historical Fiction Publication Year:  2017 Number of Pages : 560 Geographical Setting:  France, United Kingdom Time Period:  World War I (1915), post-World War II (1947) Series:  N/A Plot Summary: The year is 1947. Charlotte “Charlie” St. Clair is unmarried and pregnant, a condition considered disgraceful by her wealthy parents. In the few years since World War II, her and her family have suffered great losses, but Charlie has a desperate hope that her beloved French cousin, Rose, who went missing during the war is still alive. In her search, Charlie encounters a haggard, drunken, and traumatized woman in London who she is convinced can lead her to her lost cousin. This is Eve. The year is 1915. Young Eve Gardiner is recruited and sent into France as a spy to uncover secrets of their German occupants. Eve’s country, the safety of her fellow spies, and her life all balance on the b...

My book club experience actually took place this afternoon, and I am glad to have found a group to observe/participate with within the deadline! Over the past few weeks, I have been looking into book clubs offered by libraries within approximately 20 miles of me, and unfortunately the meeting times of those I could find each conflicted with my work schedule. Thankfully, a friend of mine mentioned her office’s book club to me last month and extended an invitation to me for today’s meeting. This was the third meeting of the group in as many months. We met at a bar in the area, where everyone ordered their own drinks and appetizers. While the club was created by a group of coworkers together, only one of them had prior experience with book clubs, so she took the lead of the discussion, as she had for the other meetings. I later learned that she also has been selecting the books that the group has been reading, though the other members have had some input regarding the type of book they ar...

For this assignment, I decided to explore literary awards, their merit, their impact, and whether readers do (or should) care about them. While I might not consider this to completely fall under the category of a literature review essay, much of the content does revolve around the published opinions of others in the literary world, the points that they make, and how those opinions connect with one another. One of the key points I touched on in this essay was the impact of awards on writers. While there is much contention around literary awards and who wins them, it is worth noting how impactful these awards can be for writers. Yes, an award can help an author's works be more popular, serving as an advertisement of sorts, but many awards also come with direct monetary prizes that can greatly impact writers' lives. Here's a brief excerpt: Generally, writing is not a very lucrative profession. According to the Authors Guild’s 2023 Author Income Survey, “median author income fo...

Authors : Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shafer Title : The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Genre : Historical Fiction, Gentle Reads Publication Year: 2008 Number of Pages : 274 Geographical Setting: England, Guernsey (Channel Islands) Time Period: Post World War II (1945-46) Series: N/A Plot Summary Following World War II, British writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration from a random correspondence about literature with Dawsey Adams, a man from recently liberated Guernsey, an island in the English Channel that had been occupied by Nazis during the war. As she learns more about the experiences of the people of Guernsey under Nazi occupation, and their impromptu, unconventional Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Juliet finds herself pulled to the island, called to tell their story. Subject Headings: Guernsey (Channel Islands), Interpersonal relations, World War II, Book Clubs, Personal letters Appeal: Characterization : One appealing factor of the novel i...