Week Three Prompt:

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!

The fourth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton is The Lunatic Cafe. 

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.

Yellow Emporer's Cure and The Miniaturist by Kunal Basu have a descriptive, lush, and lyrical writing style while also having a faster pace to their plot.  

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!

For historical fiction set in Japan with rich details, I found the following list for you:
  1.)  The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet David Mitchell--In Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, 1799, the Japanese Empire's single port and only window on the world, a resourceful young clerk, Jacob de Zoet, has five years to earn a sufficient fortune to win the hand of his wealthy fianćee back in Holland. But Jacob's intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with the daughter of a samurai doctor.

   2.) The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery--The fates of two women--one American, one Japanese--become entwined in this sweeping novel of 19th century Japan on the cusp of radical change and westernization. The Japanese tea ceremony, steeped in ritual, is at the heart of this story of an American girl, adopted by Kyoto's most important tea master and raised as attendant and surrogate younger sister to his privileged daughter Yukako. Pasts shrouded in secrets and mysterious traditions rocked by modernization make The teahouse fire a compelling and provocative story, lush in details and epic in scope.

   3.) The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd--A young Scottish woman, in 1903, travels to Peking to marry a British military attache. She becomes a scandal to the British community by having an affair with Count Kuriha, a Japanese soldier. She is shunned by her own people, and not really accepted by the Japanese either. We are given the account of a hard, lonely, but fascinating life in an alien culture. Description by: Joe Sedey.


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?

Dorothy L. Sayers is a very similar writer to Elizabeth George in that her series sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey is both sophisticated and aristocratic.  Sayers also uses rich language in her mystery writing.  Strong Poison is a good place to start with this series.  

Deborah Crombie is also a mystery writer that has a has a similar writing style as George and also sets her stories in England. Her male and female investigator team's whose professional and personal lives become entangled throughout their cases.  You can start with her award-winning Dreaming of the Bones, a later book in the series. If you prefer to start at the beginning, A Share in Death introduces the reader to the investigation team at the beginning of their partnership.

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?

Feed by Mira Grant is the first book in the Newsflesh trilogy--In the year 2014, a new virus emerges, taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command, FEED, and, now, 20 years later, two reporters will stop at nothing to expose the dark conspiracy behind the infected.

The Rising by Brian Keene is fast-paced, plot driven and richly detailed--The dead are returning to life as intelligent zombies. Trapped by the undead, escape seems impossible for Jim Thurmond. But Jim's young son is alive and in dire peril hundreds of miles away. Despite overwhelming odds, Jim vows to find him-- or die trying.

Dead Sea by Brian Keene--As zombies, driven by the need to kill and feed off human flesh, terrorize the streets, a small group of survivors finds a safe haven in an old Coast Guard ship out at sea where their isolation soon becomes their downfall. 

My own Book Search Tools:

I don't really have a standard way to find books.  I tend to find my reading materials in a variety of ways.  I'm a bit of a Pinterest addict, and through all of the different boards and people that I follow, there is always a huge variety of recommendations.  I am an avid reader of Entertainment Weekly and really enjoy their upcoming recommendations lists.  From time to time, Buzzfeed will have great lists.  I'm also a big "browser".  I love walking through Barnes and Noble, and taking notes of books that catch my attention.  Currently, I work in my library's Circulation Department and I'm constantly finding titles to read and take home with me (at least one or two a week...it's becoming a problem...)  I'm trying to use GoodReads, but I can't seem to get into it.  Interestingly enough, before this assignment, I had never realized that my library has NoveList.  

My Reading Profile

Trying to think about my Reading Profile leads to so many complicated thoughts.  I have always loved reading and been a voracious reader all of my life.  I chose to become a Language Arts teacher.  However, due to a chance encounter during my senior year of college, I realized I had chosen the wrong major and should have been a Library Science student...and, unfortunately, it was too late to change my career direction.  

I was a middle school Reading and Language Arts teacher for eight years, and even earned a Master's Degree in Education.  The teaching profession has changed so drastically in the past ten years, and I began to hate it--not the students, the job.  My favorite thing about teaching was inspiring my students to read and teaching novel units that allowed us to have great class discussions.  I built a classroom library that contained over 1,000 titles to encourage free choice and was very proud of that collection.  The pressures from testing began to take those things away--no time for free reading (according to a horribly ignorant principal)!  My husband and I had a very serious discussion, and I decided to begin applying for jobs in the library profession and go back to school.  It has been a huge sacrifice, but completely worth it!!!

My courses for this degree have introduced me to a great deal of reading material and information about reading.  I now feel guilty that I have not been as diligent as I should have been about reading.  I have kept a reading journal for over ten years, but it has huge gaps where I didn't record what I was reading, so I don't have an accurate count of what I've read, how many books in a year, etc.  At times I become overwhelmed thinking about all that I NEED and WANT to read.  My "To Read" list is ginormous.

My favorite books in no particular order:

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
• Unwind (book and series) by Neal Shusterman
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Harry Potter Series (especially book 5!) by J.K. Rowling
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larson
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

My favorite books to teach:

• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

I'm, generally, fairly open to reading all genres---except non-fiction!  It is very very very rare that I will enjoy a non-fiction book.  (Although, I recently finished Yes Please by Amy Poehler  and loved it so much several family members received it as a gift for Christmas.)  I want to be a Teen Librarian, so my choices tend to cater to that age group.  

I would love to be a part of a book club.  Unfortunately, most of the ones through my local library meet at very inconvenient times, or choose books that I have no interest in reading.  One major drawback of online courses, I keep meeting people that I would love to be in a book club with, but we don't live anywhere near each other...

Practice Post

Testing this Blog thing...

I had a blog several years ago, but I don't really remember how it worked.  It completely revolved around my crafting "business".  Hopefully this is going well, and will show up correctly on my page. Time and the "Save" button will let me know in a moment...