Week 3: Readers' Services Conversations

Conversation 1:
This customer enjoys good stories as well as travel stories with descriptions of various countries. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes immediately came to mind and then I did an author search on Mayes. She also wrote A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller  in which she chronicles her journey to 12 new destinations. I also came across a book by Alice Steinbach, Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman. Like Elizabeth Gilbert and Frances Mayes, Steinbach records her travel experiences as well as her life experiences. Although I have not read any of these titles myself, they seem to have the same basic feel as Eat, Pray, Love.
As for the book club suggestion, I would ask the customer if she was aware that Oprah restarted her book club in June 2012. Since I read The Twelve of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, the December 2012 selection, I might suggest that title since it is very discussable. I also looked on Oprah's website and discovered that the editors O Magazine and Oprah.com have a book of the week. There's a nice annotation of each book and there would be many to choose from for a book club. In the past I've also referred customers to dateLines so they can see what some of our library book clubs are reading.

Conversation 2:
This Twilight-hating customer is looking for a fast-paced vampire story without any elements of romance. I started my search by going to Novelist Plus and doing a general search for vampires. I then narrowed my results by selecting plot-driven storyline and suspenseful tone. The Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine looks like a good choice because it is described as action-packed, fast-paced and compelling. The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead was among the results but I might be hesistant to recommend this series to this customer because it is described as steamy and this customer wanted to avoid love stories. Another suggestion would be the Drake Chronicles by Alyxandra Harvey. The short annotation on Novelist describes a fast-paced plot sans romance.

Conversation 3:
Once again, I turned to Novelist to assist this customer who is looking for fast-paced, true adventure stories. I took a look at the title read-alikes listed for River of Doubt but many of the titles listed seemed to have been chosen simply because they are about Theodore Roosevelt. Based on the appeal factors of River of Doubt, I searched for more titles by selecting adventure writing, fast-paced, dramatic and compelling. This search resulted in a small but viable set of suggestions: In Harm's Way: the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton, The Cruelest Miles: the Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic by Gay Salisbury and finally, Frozen in Time: an Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff. These titles are real-life, historical adventure stories that may appeal to our adventure-seeking customer.