I am one of those awful people who often reads bestsellers and well-reviewed books simply to dislike them. Well, I don’t set out to dislike them, but I find that I frequently do. Take, for instance, my complicated relationship with the novels The Help (by Kathryn Stockett) and A Gate at the Stairs (by Lorrie Moore). I read them because they were both getting a lot of buzz, and I disliked them both. Intensely.*

So why don’t I just stay away from bestsellers and the big buzz titles? Well, for one thing, I rather like knowing what people are reading, what they’re talking about, and what books are selling (because it’s a safe bet that publishers will publish a lot more books LIKE the biggest sellers, because they are in business, after all). I also sometimes get a Book Snob charge out of not agreeing with the career book critics and reviewers. But mainly I keep reading them because when I’m wrong, I’m WRONG. And nothing is more thrilling than not wanting to read a book because everyone else has loved it, and then falling in love with it yourself.

This happened to me this week with Suzanne Collins’s YA novel The Hunger Games, which blew me away. (After polishing it off I had to go out immediately and get the sequel, Catching Fire.) Have you read this novel? It’s set in a (maybe not too distant?) dystopian future, in which the ruling powers of Panem, ensconced carefully in their Capitol, keep the rest of the population under control by demanding “tributes” from different regions of the country to compete to the death in the annual Hunger Games. The tributes are, of course, people’s children–every child between the age of 12 and 18 has their name entered in a drawing, and each region of Panem has to send a male and female tribute to the games. But when Katniss Everdeen’s younger sister is chosen, she does the unthinkable–and volunteers to enter the Games in her place.

I couldn’t be more pleased that this book turned out to live up to its hype, and then some. So how’s about it? We’re heading into the weekend–how about having some fun? Have you read any books lately that you expected not to like, but which won you over? Have you read any books you expected to love, but which left you wanting more? Tell us all about them!

*I can tell you that as a secret. Of course, if a reader wanted help finding readalikes for either book I’d enthusiastically try and help them find something.

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What is with all the nonfiction books recently coming under fire for their lack of (as Stephen Colbert would say) truthiness?*

The latest big “my nonfiction book isn’t TRUE at all!” story is that about Charles Pellegrino’s history (“history”?) of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima titled The Last Train From Hiroshima. First it seemed that perhaps Pellegrino had simply been misled by one of his main sources (Joseph Fuoco, now deceased, who claimed to be in one of the planes that escorted the Enola Gay on its bombing run); now stories are turning up that Pellegrino himself has fabricated some of his own qualifications. The publisher, Henry Holt, has stopped printing the book (for now), which the Christian Science Monitor reports is only making it sell faster.

Pellegrino is not alone, of course, in facing these types of charges. What makes his case particularly noteworthy is that his book was not a memoir, but was being billed as a more straightforward narrative history. The problem of truthiness in memoirs is now old news: so many titles have been debunked of late that it’s becoming hard to keep track of them. Such titles include Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, Misah Defonseca’s Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, Forrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree, Margaret B. Jones’s Love and Consequences, Herman Rosenblat’s The Angel at the Fence, Matt McCarthy’s Odd Man Out, and of course, the granddaddy of them all, James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces.

We all know memoirs sometimes skirt the slippery line between fact and fiction; and perhaps it is time we talked about what to do with these books in our libraries. But what I find more disturbing are the supposedly more hardcore nonfiction history and investigative books in which serious errors are cropping up; another example of this type of book is Nick Reding’s nonfiction Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town.

Once again, I’m not really sure what to think. (I don’t have any such problems with what to feel about this: I feel annoyed. Very, very annoyed.) So today I have a two-part question for you: 1. How do you treat these debunked and problematic books in your libraries? 2. In a world where authors are largely responsible for their own fact-checking (Reding’s publishers admit he was on his own, and we’ve learned firsthand from author Stacy Horn that she was also responsible for her own work in this regard), how can we encourage publishers to perhaps give their authors a little more help (or encourage readers to demand that their nonfiction be more stridently reviewed)?**

*Thanks to Beth at the Both Eyes Book Blog for the inspiration for this post.

**I know, I know, this is totally unrealistic. Sometimes (not often) my idealistic side actually muscles my much more-developed cynical side out of the way.

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By Cindy Orr

This Week In Books
New Titles on the Most Wanted Mashup This Week

Fiction

Nonfiction

To see the entire Most Wanted Mashup of this week’s top bestsellers, look to the righthand column.
_____________________________________________
Lots of New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer entries this week including:

And many more…there’s a long list this week. Scroll down to the next entry to see the whole list of hot titles to be published in the next seven days, or click here.
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Our Under the Radar list this week is Discussable Women’s Fiction: New Titles Good for Book Clubs. Look in the righthand column just under the Most Wanted Mashup for this list.

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And now on to the news of the week:

_____________________________________________
Books on Screen

_____________________________________________
Awards

_____________________________________________
Authors

_____________________________________________
Lists

_____________________________________________
Lighthearted Link of the Week

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• Dan Brown – The Lost Symbol
• Joanne Fluke – The Apple Turnover Murder
• Kristin Hannah – Winter Garden
• Kim Harrison – Black Magic Sanction
• Henning Mankell – The Man from Beijing
• Robert B. Parker – Split Image
• James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge – Worst Case
• J. D. Robb – Fantasy in Death
• Danielle Steel – Big Girl
• Kathryn Stockett – The Help

• Mitch Albom – Have a Little Faith
• Atul Gawande – The Checklist Manifesto
• Elizabeth Gilbert – Committed
• John Heilemann and Mark Halperin – Game Change
• James S. Hirsch – Willie Mays
• Ozzy Osbourne & Chris Ayres – I Am Ozzy
• Henry M. Paulson, Jr. – On the Brink
• Roger Rosenblatt – Making Toast
• Rebecca Skloot – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• Andrew Young – The Politician

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Tuesday Fiction

Tuesday Nonfiction

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Last night I spent a very enjoyable evening reading Jenny LaPerriere’s and Trish Christiansen’s book Merchandising Made Simple: Using Standards and Dynamite Displays to Boost Circulation.*

I know. Reading a book on doing library displays when I’m not currently working IN a library, and enjoying it, pretty much marks me out as a total nerd. But I am now a nerd with a much better understanding of how “CPS” (Collection Presentation Standards) and attractive book displays and merchandising can truly translate into better circulation for your collection and a more pleasant facility.

The book is straightforward, can be read easily in one or two sittings, and (perhaps most importantly) includes a wealth of helpful and informative photographs. In the first few chapters, the authors do not make the mistake of leaping right into suggesting display themes, but instead build their case for understanding your patrons’ needs, adapting retail and merchandising techniques to your needs, and understanding both traffic flow in your library and what tools are available to form the base of good displays. In later chapters they do provide more nitty-gritty suggestions (how to use props, how to make signs, how to keep track of your display schedules), but they also highlight the importance of involving all staff members in the process, as well as the necessity of training shelvers and all staff of the presentation standards a true library merchandiser should try to uphold.

I spent a lot of time working in library circulation departments, where the real work of maintaining the library’s collections is often performed, and these authors’ impressive understanding of just how important EVERYONE in your library is when tasked with keeping it clean and attractive made a real impression on me. This paragraph in particular struck me:

“Keep your staff members involved at every step by asking for their input and ideas and explaining your process. You want the entire staff to be passionate about connecting the customers and the collection in more seamless and exciting ways. The benefits are high when everyone has a sense of ownership.” (p. 97.)

Passion! Ownership! Excitement! Remember when you felt all those things about working in a library, about not only being around books and readers, but helping them to find each other in meaningful ways? If nothing else, reading this excellent book might help rekindle all those feelings. When I visit my local library this afternoon I would guess I’ll find myself straightening and tidying whatever shelves I choose to browse; I won’t be able to help it.

*Full disclosure: This title is published by Libraries Unlimited/ABC-CLIO, which also publishes the Reader’s Advisor Online and this blog.

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If we’ve missed a program, please let us know. It’s great to see so many RA programs on the schedule this time! And if you’re lucky enough to be attending one of the above programs and wouldn’t mind sharing with those left at home, please let us know. We’ll publish reports on the conference programs here. Drop us a note at rablog@lu.com.

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By Cindy Orr

This Week In Books
New Titles on the Most Wanted Mashup This Week

There are three novels new to the bestseller lists this week, but no new nonfiction:

Fiction

To see the entire Most Wanted Mashup for this week, look to the righthand column.
_____________________________________________
The Spring flood of books is starting, with a huge list of new New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer entries for this week including:

… and many more. Scroll down to the next entry to see the whole list of noteworthy books to be published in the next seven days, or click here. And for those who use this list as a double check on purchasing, we’ve added ISBN for your convenience.
_____________________________________________
Our Under the Radar list this week is Historical Novels, Strong Women. Look in the righthand column just under the Most Wanted Mashup for this list, or click here.
_____________________________________________
And now on to the news of the week:

_____________________________________________

Books on Screen

_____________________________________________
Awards

_____________________________________________
Authors

_____________________________________________
Lists

_____________________________________________
Lighthearted Link of the Week

Bookmark to:

• Sarah Blake – The Postmistress
• Dan Brown – The Lost Symbol
• Jackie Collins – Poor Little Bitch Girl
• Laurell K. Hamilton – Flirt
• Kristin Hannah – Winter Garden
• Joe Hill – Horns
• Henning Mankell – The Man from Beijing
• James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge – Worst Case
• Cathleen Schine – The Three Weissmanns of Westport
• Kathryn Stockett – The Help

• David Dosa – Making Rounds with Oscar
• Elizabeth Gilbert – Committed
• John Heilemann and Mark Halperin – Game Change
• James S. Hirsch – Willie Mays
• Ozzy Osbourne & Chris Ayres – I Am Ozzy
• Henry M. Paulson, Jr. – On the Brink
• Jenny Sanford – Staying True
• Rebecca Skloot – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• Patti Smith – Just Kids
• Andrew Young – The Politician

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