Now Read This II: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1990-2001 (Genreflecting Advisory Series) - Hardcover

Pearl, Nancy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1563088673 ISBN 13: 9781563088674

Publisher: Libraries Unlimited, 2002

Synopsis

Navigate the fascinating world of mainstream fiction! With emphasis on award-winning fiction, this companion guide to Now Read This: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1978-1998, features more than 500 novels published between 1990 and 2001. Using the same easy-access organization that made the original so popular, this book includes more than 400 new entries and several features that enable you to discover new reads and read-alikes based on an appeal-characteristics approach to the literature. Never again shy of an answer to Can you recommend a good book? you will find this to be an indispensable resource and tool.

About this title

About the Author

NANCY PEARL is Director, Washington Center for the Book, and Collection Development Specialist at Seattle Public Library, Washington.

Reviews

In her introduction, Pearl (director, Washington Center for the Book, and collection development specialist, Seattle PL) declares that one of the prime joys of reading fiction is its endlessness. One novel leads to a seemingly unlimited number of other novels and nonfiction books. Librarians and booksellers have the fun and the challenge of finding and recommending new titles to readers, based on past preferences. Unlike genre fiction, mysteries, fantasy, sf, romance, and historical fiction, which boast a number of tools, like Diana Tixier Herald's venerable Genreflecting (5th ed., Libraries Unlimited, 2000), to aid reader guidance, no similar current advisory exists for mainstream fiction. Updating her Now Read This: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1978-1998 (Libraries Unlimited, 1999), Pearl offers a simple method of finding good novels based on the elements of a book that make readers enjoy them. She has divided her guide into four main sections, corresponding to the four "appeal characteristics" for mainstream fiction: setting, story, characters, and language. In each section, entries are arranged alphabetically by author and include title, publisher, date, pagination, a brief but illuminating summary, secondary appeal categories (if any), subject headings, and, most important, a "Now Try" list of further reading. Other icons flag books particularly suited to young adults or book groups. There is also an author/title index and appendixes on book clubs, awards, and genre fiction. The quality of the books selected, the entries, and thoughtful recommendations for further reading, combined with its beautiful arrangement and indexing, make this a great purchase for public libraries, even if they subscribe to online services such as EBSCO's NoveList . Paul D'Alessandro, Portland P.L., ME
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Now Read This II, like its predecessor (which covered titles published from 1978 to 1998), is based on what the author calls "appeal characteristics," so librarians and booksellers can recommend mainstream fiction to persons who want to find something else "like that title" to read. It lists 500 mainstream novels published between 1990 and 2001, more than 400 of them new to this edition. Arranged under the appeal characteristics of setting, story characters, and language, entries are listed alphabetically by author. New features include a YA designation for selected titles, a section on fiction trends, and two appendixes, one on genre bridges (books that share elements with genre fiction) and one on book groups. Like others in the Genreflecting series, this work is a truly useful tool, especially for readers' advisory staff. Patricia Hogan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1563088673
• ISBN 13: 9781563088674
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300