Here’s the thing: the allure of the “expert” is pervasive in our culture. It’s easy to talk ourselves out of providing well-rounded reader’s advisory services, because we feel we have to defer to the experts: the experts in RA theory; the experts in classification; the expert at our own library who reads a mystery a day and knows all Mystery’s subgenres cold. And to a certain extent there’s something to be said for recognizing expertise and making use of it. I make no bones about the fact that I work with a librarian who reads and knows a lot more Science Fiction than I do.
But what do I do the days when I’m on the desk and she’s off? And a Science Fiction reader asks for assistance?
There’s the quandary. As much as we’d all like to be experts, it is simply impossible to read everything (although many of us, in love with books and readers, give it the old college try). So I for one would like to give a shout-out to the generalists among us: the advisors who may well be experts in certain genres, but who also recognize the value (and it does have value, even in our culture of specialization) of knowing a little something about a lot of everything.
Which is all a very long-winded way to introduce a new feature: Subgenre Spotlight. In certain posts we’ll share genre and subgenre definitions from the Reader’s Advisor Online, and provide a short reading list of titles pulled from the database.
Today’s subgenre: a Nonfiction offering. “New Perspectives,” a subgenre of History, is defined as “offering facts and evidence garnered through extensive research, but their authors often interpret those facts in new ways, and seek to expose historical theories or stories that they believe have been hidden or misrepresented. They provide the ‘other side’ of the typically accepted historical stories, with the hope that they may change how history is perceived. Many are written from the points of view of marginalized or minority populations.”
A few representative titles include:
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown;
Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces, by Linda Robinson;
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, by James Swanson;
Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, by Larry Tye; and
The Boys’ Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944-1945, by Paul Fussell.
Happy generalizing! (We’d love it if you’d like to explore the subgenre, its titles, and its read-alikes a bit more, and tell us what you think: please feel free to sign up for a free trial of Reader’s Advisor Online!)
[...] at Reader’s Advisory Online Blog is launching a new feature, called Subgenre Spotlight. The first article is on a subgenre of (non-fiction) History called ‘New Perspectives.’ Here’s her [...]
There is a sub-subgenre that I particularly enjoy – that of group royal bios. For instance, Stella Tillyard has written two – ARISTOCRATS and A ROYAL AFFAIR. Another new one is FOUR QUEENS: the Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone.
Diana,
Well, I have the same problem, only my weakest areas (they’re legion, sigh) are SF and Adventure, so I use those definitions and subgenre searches quite a bit.
Sarah,
You’ve gotten the spirit of this completely! There is a subgenre of Biographies we call “Buddy and Group Bios,” where the focus is on the relationship. Thanks for the title suggestions; we’ve got titles in the subgenre like “Franklin and Winston” by Jon Meacham.
What about something I call “group biographies” – would this fit? For instance, THE TITLED AMERICANS: The Life and Times of the Jerome Sisters, or AMERICAN BLOOMSBURY? The focus here is on the relationships between the subjects, and pointing out their influence as a whole, which is usually greater than the “sum of their parts”.
Sarah,
This is terrific. My weakest area is nonfiction so this really helps me. I love that the titles in your blog entry link up to the “Work” page in Reader’s Advisor Online so one can access the Read-Alike Finder and the Read-Alike Quick List. Very cool!