Sure Bets
March 10, 2008
Yesterday, a patron came in to RV looking for a good book to read. The last book he read was The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger, but could not think of any other books he’d read that he liked. He wasn’t interested in classics so much, but just a good book. What would you have recommended? What are your Sure Bets? (Books that you can confidently recommend to anyone.) Please add your comments to this posting!
For more Readers Advisory discussion, here’s a great article by Mary K. Chelton on Readers Advisory 101, subtitled A Crash Course in RA: Common Mistakes Librarians Make and How to Avoid Them. (CLJ)
Entry Filed under: book chat, readers advisory. Tags: Mary K. Chelton, sure bets.
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1.
peter wolf | April 8, 2008 at 5:11 pm
while aware there is probably no sure bet for all populations i generally feel happiest when recommending Jasper Ffordes brilliant “the eyre affair” it would at the absolute least be suitable to a catcher in the rye reader.
i’m having an awful good time with the blog. i hope it doesn’t wear off!
2.
Heidi | April 8, 2008 at 5:36 pm
The favorite titles I’ve consistently recommended are part biographical, non-fiction, thoroughly enjoyable, AND have been made into movies. Well, I think the core 4 of them have been anyway …
James Herriot’s “All Things Bright and Beautiful; All Creatures Great and Small;
All Things Wise and Wonderful;
The Lord God Made Them All.
These make a wonderful segue into his kid’s books as well as other animal stories. James Herriot is one of my all-time favorite authors because he tells his stories in a gentle, lilting storytelling fashion — what I wouldn’t have given to have heard him speak …
3.
Therese | April 9, 2008 at 9:25 am
When I have someone who says they need something funny, light, or somewhat mindless to reduce his or her stress, I often recommend The Princess Bride by Goldman and I still encourage people to read Janet Evanovich, if they have’t already.
4.
Monica | April 9, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Here are my sure bets, genres are all over the place:
Lonesome Dove by McMurtry (I still remember sitting in bed at 3 AM sobbing over the death of one of the characters … and I’m not a Western fiction fan. This seems to be common with those that love this book, I’ve found)
Outlander by Gabaldon (love! romance! passion! Scotsmen! sword fighting! time travel! what doesn’t this book have? The first, and I think the best, of Gabaldon’s series)
A man in full by Wolfe (love Tom Wolfe, and this is definitely his best, well, maybe after The Right Stuff)
(for some reason those are all long books … hmmm …)
5.
Jennifer | April 9, 2008 at 4:25 pm
It depends on the patron. If I get a woman looking for a good modern read I recommend the following authors:
Jodi Picoult
Luanne Rice
Billie Letts
Debbie Macomber
Jennifer Weiner
as a few off the top of my head…~jd
6.
Anna | April 11, 2008 at 11:06 am
I just read Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. It was an ALA Notable book from last year and it felt, in many ways, like Catcher in the Rye for the eighties. It was sweeter, but truthful in a gritty way. I also think Plath’s The Bell Jar has the same feel to it.
I LOVE the RA article link: it makes me excited to think more about RA, an area that I’ve kind of let go as I’ve been trying to learn all the other details of librarianship. I love reading, but it is so hard to call to mind all of the books and it really helps to have those more structured guidelines.
7.
Karen B | April 14, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Honestly? I don’t have just one. I always make people take a stack.
For people who like thrillers — Flynn, Coben, Hoag, Kyle Mills, Lowell, Stephen White, Lisa Jackson.
Nonfiction — John Berendt, Michael Perry (Population 485), David Sedaris, Tim Cahill (my favorite travel writer!), Barbara Kingsolver, Diane Ackerman, Freakonomics.
Home/Family — Picoult, Susan Wiggs, Siddons, Karon, Landvik, Kathryn Stone, Sparks, R P Evans.
8.
Carrie Watt | April 14, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Perks of Being a Wallflower is good and often compared to Catcher in the Rye.