The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction

by Neal Wyatt, Joyce G. Saricks

Overview

Everyone's favorite guide to fiction that’s thrilling, mysterious, suspenseful, thought-provoking, romantic, and just plain fun is back—and better than ever in this completely revamped and revised edition. A must for every readers’ advisory desk, this resource is also a useful tool for collection development librarians and students in LIS programs. Inside, RA experts Wyatt and Saricks

• cover genres such as Psychological Suspense, Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Mystery, Literary and Historical Fiction, and introduce the concepts of Adrenaline and Relationship Fiction;
• include everything advisors need to get up to speed on a genre, including its appeal characteristics, key authors, sure bets, and trends;
• demonstrate how genres overlap and connect, plus suggestions for guiding readers among genres; and
• tie genre fiction to the whole collection, including nonfiction, audiobooks, graphic novels, film and TV, poetry, and games.

Both insightful and comprehensive, this matchless guidebook will help librarians become familiar with many different fiction genres, especially those they do not regularly read, and aid library staff in connecting readers to books they’re sure to love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780838917930
Publisher:	American Library Association
Publication date:	12/12/2018
Series:	ALA Readers' Advisory Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
Sales rank:	546,510
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Neal Wyatt is a contributing editor and the readers' advisory columnist for Library Journal. She has served as President of The American Library Association's Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), chair of the Collection Development and Evaluation Section, and as chair of the Readers' Advisory Research and Trends Committee, The Notable Books Council, The Reading List Council, and The Listen List Committee, the last two of which she founded. She was instrumental in the creation of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, the Sophie Brody Award, and the Zora Neale Hurston Award and is the founder of the Readers' Advisory Research and Trends Forum. She won RUSA's Margaret E. Monroe Award (2012) and the Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award (2013). She is the author of The Readers' Advisory Guide to Nonfiction as well as numerous articles and several book chapters. She holds a PhD in Media, Art, and Text.

From 1977 until her retirement in 2004, Joyce Saricks worked at the Downers Grove Public Library and developed and directed the readers’ advisory department which involved working with fiction readers and books. She is the author of three books: Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library, The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, and Read On: Audiobooks. In her retirement she taught Readers’ Advisory at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, served as Audio Editor for Booklist, and consulted for Ebsco’s NoveList. She has presented workshops on readers' advisory for public libraries and library systems across the US and abroad and has spoken at state, regional, and national library conferences. She won the Public Librarian Association’s Allie Beth Martin Award in 1989, was named Librarian of the Year by the Romance Writers of America in 2000, and won the Reference and User Services Association’s Margaret Monroe Award in 2011.

Table of Contents

The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, Third Edition Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Series Introduction Introduction: Appeal and Genre The Adrenaline Genre 1. Adrenaline The Intellect Genres 2. Psychological Suspense 3. Mystery 4. Literary Fiction 5. Science Fiction The Landscape Genres 6. Fantasy 7. Westerns 8. Historical Fiction The Emotion Genres 9. Relationship Fiction 10. Romance 11. Horror Appendix: Hack This Book and the Five-Book Challenge About the Authors Author/Title Index Subject/Appeal Index

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2019

In the third edition of this guide, former librarian Saricks (Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library) is joined by Wyatt, LJ's readers' advisory columnist. The authors promote the "appeal framework," a set of terms for readers' advisors to use in classifying works, based on writing elements and features including pacing, story line, characterization, and tone. The framework crosses genre, subject, and format; indeed, this latest version of this guide emphasizes the importance of the entire collection (including nonfiction and multimedia) more so than previous editions. Another key component is genre studies, which examines in detail what makes each category unique, while also looking at genre subdivisions, core features, titles, and authors. Rather than focusing on well-known genres (mystery, romance, sf, etc.), the authors combine them into four broad-based topics: adrenaline, intellect, landscape, and emotion. These more general terms allow librarians to determine more effectively how genres overlap and connect while also acknowledging that their readers' preferences do not always fit easily into a particular type of work. VERDICT This valuable resource lets public librarians move beyond a narrow approach to readers' advisory and become more open to a wide range of possibilities.—Dave Pugl, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Library Journal