Science Fiction Annotation

 

Author: Megan Angelo          

Title: Followers

Genre: Science Fiction

Publication Date: November 10, 2020

Number of Pages: 416 pages

Geographical Setting: Constellation, California and New York, New York

Time Period: 2015 and 2051

Series: N/A

Plot Summary: In 2015, aspiring writer Orla rents out a room in her apartment in New York to Floss, a wannabe celebrity. Together, they come up with a plan that will get them both famous, even if their methods are a little questionable. Their plans work and fame comes, until a publicity stunt gone wrong has deadly consequences. Meanwhile, in 2051, Marlow lives in a locked down city called Constellation, where the government has chosen people to be influencers and have their entire lives filmed and their storylines be at the mercy of “the network”. Smartphones are a thing of the past thanks to a data breach called “The Spill” and instead, Americans have devices implanted in their wrists that track them, direct their thoughts and show influencers such as Marlow the comments on her feed. When Marlow’s latest storyline causes her to learn her entire family history is a lie, she runs away from Constellation and sets out to find out the truth.

Subject Headings: Fame fiction, conspiracy fiction, women fiction, social media fiction, friendship fiction, future.

Appeal:

1. Tone: the casual nature in which the dystopian future is described, for example, mentioning the implanted devices without comment on their ethicality, takes readers out of their comfort zone and forces them to imagine a future world the way that the book describes.

2. Pacing: the back and forth between 2015 and the future causes the book to be fast-paced; it keeps readers going to try and reach the point where the two time periods meet up and questions are answered about the connection between the characters in the present day and future.  

3. Frame/setting: The futuristic setting of Constellation transports readers to another world. Although the future is very different and dystopian, it is not so different from our current world that it confuses readers or feels far-fetched.

3 terms that best describe this book: dystopian, cautionary, thought-provoking

3 Relevant Fiction Works and their Authors

·         Touch by Courtney Maum- Although set in present day instead of the future, both books are written about the downsides of social media, technology and being a celebrity.

·         The Circle by Dave Eggers- Both books discuss the dangers of social media in a not too far away future where the internet is run by the government.

·         The Farm by Joanne Ramos- Like Followers, this book features a closed off living community where its residents are monitored; however, instead of for fame like in Followers, the women live here in exchange for giving birth to a child for someone else.

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors:

·         Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier- This book advocates for deleting social media accounts, which is something some readers of Followers may want to do after reading it.

·         Killing the Legends: The Lethal Danger of Celebrity by Bill O’Reilly- This book follows the lives of three famous celebrities and shows the negative results of their fame, a theme that is also throughout Followers.

·         Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar- Like Marlow in Followers, Jill grew up being filmed on the show 19 Kids and Counting. The book follows her journey as she grows, starts seeing red flags, and eventually breaks away from her family’s ultra-strict religious lifestyle.

Week 7 Prompt Response

     As a reader, particularly an avid reader of memoirs, I try to take memoirs with a grain of salt.  In my opinion, even ones that have not been subjected to controversy are not going to be 100% factual because it's just one person's perception of the experience. It reminds me of the old saying, "There's 3 sides to every story: yours, mine and the truth." I actually stumbled upon A Million Little Pieces in my teenage years. It was after it had already been published, and could have even been after the controversy but I didn't know about it at the time. I read and enjoyed the book, and found out about the scandal years later. Did it make me suddenly hate the book that I had enjoyed? Not really. The quote from the New Yorker article sums it up pretty well,  “A Million Little Pieces tries to capture the experience of recovering from addiction. Readers don’t care whether these things literally happened to James Frey, because they didn’t buy the book to find out about James Frey. They bought it to learn about addiction and recovery. James Frey’s job as a writer is only to convey that experience" (Menand, 2018).  

    The ethics of publishing something as a work of non-fiction even though it is not all true is definitely questionable. In an ideal world, it would be nice if the authors put a disclaimer at the beginning of the book stating something about how some events or people may have been exaggerated for the sake of the story. But this could definitely affect the book's success if people know it's not 100% a true story. Is it better for a book to sell less but it's the author's own story? Or is it better to be successful only to be hit with controversy later? I guess that's a choice an author has to make for themselves. Ultimately, I think the readers themselves have to decide how much of a stake they want to place in the book's authenticity and how much they want it to affect them when there are controversies. 

References:

Menand, L. (2020, December 7). Literary hoaxes and the ethics of authorship. New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/literary-hoaxes-and-the-ethics-of-authorship

Romance Annotation

 

Author: Emily Henry

Title: Happy Place

Genre: Romance

Publication Date: April 25, 2023

Number of Pages:400 pages

Geographical Setting: Knott’s Harbor, Maine 

Time Period: Present Day

Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Harriet is looking forward to her and her college friends’ annual trip to Maine, where they spend the week exploring the shops, relaxing on the beach, and hanging out at her friend Sabrina’s family's summer home. There is just one problem—Harriet has a secret; her and her fiancé Wyn broke up six months ago, and since he was an integral part of her friend group as well, she hasn’t had the heart to tell anyone. She plans to use the trip to break the news, but then Wyn ends up showing up on the trip and throws everything off track. When some important news about the future of their annual trip is revealed, Wyn and Harriet decide that it’s for the best to wait to tell their friends the truth about their relationship. They will spend the week pretending they are still together, which seems easy enough since they are both still drawn to each other, even amidst their heartbreak. Will they be able to pull off their secret and enjoy one last week together in their happy place?

Subject Headings: My library has this book's subject headings as Man-woman relationships-fiction and Vacations-Maine-fiction.

Appeal:

1. Pacing: Although this book takes place over the course of a week, the book is very fast paced. There is a lot of dialogue in this book that helps it move quickly along. The witty banter also keeps the reader going in the book to hear what they have to say next.

2. Tone: This book does a good job of capturing Harriet’s emotions through its tone. The relationships in this book are depicted authentically and allows readers to become invested in the characters.

3. Storyline: The storyline of this book is interesting. The mix of the present situation in the book intermixed with flashbacks to the history of Harriet’s relationship and where things went wrong helps readers stay engaged and rooting for them. I also appreciated all of the friendship and family dynamics that were included in the storyline to help build on Harriet’s character and show why things are happening the way they are.

3 terms that best describe this book: Fun, light, witty

3 Relevant Fiction Works and their Authors

“It happened one summer” by Tessa Bailey

    Both of these works are romances that take place during a trip to a small beachfront town. Both books also reveal information about the characters’ pasts and include the main female character going through a transformation into their true selves.

 "The Boardwalk bookshop" by Susan Mallery

    Like “Happy Place” this book takes place on the beach of a small town and it also includes a group of close women friends who have become like family who navigate their relationships as friends as well as their romantic relationships. 

  “Emergency contact” by Lauren Layne

    While this book takes place during the Christmas season instead of summer, it also features a second chance at romance storyline and a career driven female character.

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors:

  "Frommer’s Maine Coast Complete Guide" by Kevin Brian

    This book would pair well with this book for any readers wanting to hear more about the Maine setting.

"How to Be a Best Friend Forever: Making and Keeping Lifetime Relationships" by John Townsend.

     The friendships between the three female characters in this book are a big part of the story. But the friends are also navigating changes in their friendship as their lives change and they grow older. This book could be interesting to those who were interested in helping their own friendships through similar situations.

"Pottery for Beginners: Projects for Beautiful Ceramic Bowls, Mugs, Vases and More" by Kara Leigh Ford

    The main character of this book finds an interest in pottery. This book would be a good starting point for anyone else who is interested in trying out this hobby.

 

Week 6 Prompt

As we have seen at our library, there has been a huge demand for "spicy" romance books that have grown popular via Tiktok. This has been great for drawing new readers into the genre. However, I am interested in getting those readers to branch out and explore other areas of our romance collection outside of those viral authors.

 As a fun way to get our readers interacting with the other romance books in our collection, I would like to include bookmarks in our romance books that will have a rating system that asks our readers to rate the spiciness of the book. We could include a little chili pepper emoji, ranking from 1 to 5 peppers, and after the reader has finished the book, they could mark the chili pepper based on where they thought it fell. As more readers read the book, new readers picking up the book could look at the past pepper ratings and decide if they wanted to read the book or not. This rating system could help those looking for spice to find it, and those wanting romance without the spice to choose elsewhere. This is also a more discreet way for readers to find their comfortable spice level, since it is anonymous and they could explore the books themselves looking for a rating without having to ask a librarian. 

Since our library catalog also has list features, I would also like to make a list of movie pairings that readers of these popular Tiktok romance books would enjoy. For example, if you liked Colleen Hoover, you may like this list of movies or TV shows. We could even integrate this into a display with book and movie bundles. 

Kirkus Style Review

 The Summer of ’69 by Elin Hildebrand

Release date June 18, 2019

A family spends the summer of 1969 at their Nantucket summer home while navigating changes and problems, both nationwide and within their family.

This story revolves around the Foley-Levin family. There is Exalta, the strict matriarch and owner of All’s Faire, the summer home where the story takes place. Her daughter, Kate has four children—3 from her first marriage to Wilder Foley, a troubled veteran who took his own life, and one from her second marriage to David Levin. When Tiger, Kate’s 19 year old son, is drafted in the Vietnam war, it sends Kate into a spiral of drinking, which causes her two older daughters, Blair and Kirby, to distance themselves from her. Blair and Kirby also have their own problems. Blair is married and pregnant, and her husband suffers from depression and stress over his job working at Mission Control for the upcoming moon launch. Kirby is navigating complicated romantic relationships and is trying to plan for her future while working on nearby Martha’s Vineyeard. Finally, there is Jessie, the youngest child, who is turning 13, and is worried about growing up and being Jewish. Exalta’s groundskeeper and his grandson Pick also have a storyline, with Pick wanting to set out for Woodstock to find his mother who abandoned him. As the story progresses, readers see family secrets revealed and historical events that changed the nation forever.

Alternating chapters from various family members point of view make it difficult for the reader to become invested in anyone. The attempt at tying in real historical events to the story also feel unnatural and forced. Finally, some of the secrets revealed were far too predictable. Still, for fans of summer reads who want to ease into historical fiction, this book may be enjoyable. Readers who are looking for more of the historical fiction element may want to look elsewhere.

Week 5 Prompt

Thinking about different reviews this week was really interesting to me. I think reviews do make a big difference. I know personally with my collection development, if I'm trying to decide between a book with reviews and a book with no reviews, often times the reviewed book is what I'm going to pick. However, learning that ebook only books and certain genres aren't often reviewed seems extremely unfair to those authors and definitely would have a big effect on the collection development of those titles. 

Looking at the reviews for the ebook only book, "The Billionaire's First Christmas", I am instantly thrown off by the casual nature of the reviews, and it automatically makes me question the credibility of the reviews. Based on that I would be wary of purchasing the books for my library. Comparing these reviews to the ones for "Angela's Ashes" makes the differences much more obvious. I would be very likely to order "Angela's Ashes" for my library, especially since review sites such as Kirkus that are able to post negative reviews are calling it "an extraordinary work". 

I definitely don't think it's fair that some types of books are reviewed more than others. It does make a difference in a library's collection. For example, at my library, one of the collection areas that I purchase for is juvenile and tween graphic novels. Both of these collection areas come out of the same budget amount, and I have noticed that the tween graphic novels are getting reviewed much more often. Because of this, I was unintentionally purchasing more of those and the budget wasn't being split as fairly between the two collections. It has taken a conscious effort for me to look at the reviews but also to trust my instinct on what my community wants or needs and not just what reviewers say we need. 

I was unaware before this discussion that there were review sources that won't print negative reviews and it definitely changes my opinions of that publication. I don't think this is appropriate and it takes away some of the credibility of that source. The review sources I use most often are Publishers' Weekly, School Library Journal/Library Journal and Booklist because these are the magazines that my library subscribes to. However I now plan to look into Kirkus Reviews a lot more because their ability to print negative reviews makes them more trustworthy to me. 

Secret Shopper Assignment

I had a very positive secret shopper experience. The librarian was very friendly and approachable and spent a long time working with me and finding me a book. He started by asking me what I had read recently that I really enjoyed. I told him I was looking for books similar to "The Great Alone" by Kristin Hannah. Then he asked what I liked about it, and I said the interesting landscapes and the family dynamics. He then asked if I liked the suspenseful elements, and I said I did like it, but I would be fine without it. I was really lucky that the librarian had read "The Great Alone" so he was able to recommend from personal experience. It didn't seem like he was using Novelist or any other site but drawing from his own experience, which I realize isn't always going to be the case. Unfortunately, his top recommendations, "The Giver of Stars" by Jojo Moyes and "This Tender Land" by William Kent Krueger were already checked out, which he placed on hold for me. However, he asked some very good follow up questions and I was still able to walk away with a book that sounded pretty good based on his suggestions: "The Lost Summers of Newport" by Williams, Willig and White. 

It definitely wasn't the librarian's fault that his top recommendations were already checked out. I have had this happen at the library where I work performing readers' advisory in the youth department. I think he did a really good job with the follow up questions, and even though I was more interested in the books he put on hold than the one that I walked away with, I think he did a great job working with what he had and listening to my answers to his questions. I would definitely go to this librarian again for a book recommendation.