Week Three 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!

Using NoveList, I selected the “series” option and typed in Anita Blake.  One title came up for the series, and I selected that.  When the detailed information for the first book in the series came up, I selected a tab labeled, “Books in the Series.”  From there, I got the answer.  The next book in the series, is Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The Laughing Corpse, Book 2: Necromancer.  However, there was a prequel to the series that came out a few months before the third book that the reader would possibly be inerested in: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The First Death.

2.  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.

I would recommend that this reader try a book that is also described as character-driven, bittersweet, and moving, but the author’s style is a little faster paced – Flying Changes by Sara Gruen.   The appeal term “compelling” is used to describer her writing.  On NoveList, compelling is defined as follows:  “Incorporating a variety of narrative techniques, from foreshadowing to frequent changes in perspective, these gripping books have a powerful effect on readers, drawing them irresistibly into the story” (http://support.ebsco.com/ /help/?int=novp&ver=live&lang=en&feature_id=AdultAppeal).

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!

Starting with a specific search didn’t result in many items, so I started with a basic search on “Japan” and added limiters one by one.  I furthur limited the search by selecting historical.  Since the question said that the person liked books “set” in different countries, I took that to mean fiction (but not ruling out nonfiction).  Even though I put “Japan” in the original search, there was an option to limit where the story takes place, so I chose “Japan,” of course.  Lastly, I chose the limiter “richly detailed” since the patron wants to feel like he/she is there.  After all of this, I came up with a suggestion of The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery.

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?

The obvious answer here seems to be that this patron should find more books by Elizabeth George.  However, the title that she mentioned is also part of a series referred to as the “Thomas Lynley Mysteries.”  There are seventeen books in this series, and a prequel as well that was written right after Well-Schooled in Murder.  I would recommend that this reader start with the prequel, A Suitable Vengeance, and continue with the first book in the series, A Great Deliverance.

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?

There are nineteen books in The Walking Dead series, so he has a lot to choose from.  If this patron meant that her husband has already read the entire series, he may want to try the BPRD series by Michael Mignola (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense), a spinoff of the Hellboy series.   If it has to be exclusively zombies, he could try the Awakening series by Nick Tapalansky.  However, if he would like something more like World War Z that is not a graphic novel, he could try Pariah by Bob Fingerman – a novel about a group of survivors of a zombie plague.