Reader's Advisory Blog

Author: Trevor Noah Title: Born a Crime Publication date: November 15, 2016 Number of pages: 304 Geographic setting: South Africa Time period: 1990s Subject headings: Noah, Trevor--1984-.Comedians--Biography. Television personalities--Biography. Type: Biography, Memoir Series notes: N/A Book summary: As the current host of The Daily Show , Trevor Noah is broadcast into millions of homes, sharing his specific worldview and experience with them. And despite "apartheid Africa" being a familiar idea, many know little to nothing about the lives of those who lived under it. As a mixed child, the son of a white Swiss man and black Xhosa woman, born in Johannesburg, Noah's very existence was illegal. In this episodic memoir, Noah recounts his sometimes violent upbringing with his signature wit and self-deprecation, sparing little detail or embarrassment. He tells of having to hide away when seeing his white father and having to pretend to be the nanny's...

In some ways, whether a book is an ebook or an audiobook shouldn't affect the appeal factors too much. The book itself--the words that were written--don't change between formats. However, realistically, how a reader ingests a book is going to make a big difference in their experience with it. I think this is more heavily affected in audiobooks than in ebooks, though. Because an audiobook is produced by a group of people, their decisions of a narrator and/or cast, music, and direction are integral to the quality of the reader's experience. As Kaite Mediatore says in "Reading With Your Ears: Readers' Advisory and Audio Books," "a poor match between the pace of the story and the pace the narrator uses can cause a reader to stop listening to an audio book. Clyde Edgerton's Walking Across Egypt is narrated by Norman Dietz. Even though the book's southern setting and small town characters warrant a narration slower than that of a thriller, Dietz is to...

The Alienist by Caleb Carr (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler #1) Synopsis: It's 1896 in New York City and someone is killing and mutilating boy prostitutes. The police want nothing to do with the murders of the least of city's denizens, but Theodore Roosevelt, the newly appointed police commissioner, is determined to bring the person responsible to justice. So he enlists his friends Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a well-known (and largely disliked) psychologist, and John Moore, a crime beat reporter, to investigate--unbeknownst to anyone else in the department. Kreizler seeks to do something no one has ever done: create a portrait of the killer using the evidence and inference--then find the man who fits that profile. However, it's not just time and the killer they're racing against, as the city's crime bosses don't want anyone snooping in their business and even the police interfere, fearing the loss of their income through pay offs and illegal dealings. And as Kreizler and Moo...

For my book club observation, I visited the book club my mom runs. She has run it for at least six to seven years, and while it’s something I’ve been aware of and made suggestions for books to read for, I’ve never actually been to a meeting. This is in large part because of when they meet—midday on the first Friday of the month—and what they read, which is not to my taste for the most part. I didn’t have time ahead of the meeting to read the book, so I simply observed, and I made them aware that I was observing for a class assignment. This was because they all know me and would think it odd if I showed up to a meeting and didn’t participate. The group meets in the parlor at our church, a mid-sized, comfy room with couches and armchairs scattered in a loose circle around the room. My mom, the creator of the group, normally prepares a snack, which is most often a coffee cake or something similar, and sets up coffee and water to drink. This is all set along a sidebar in the room, for pa...

For my special topics paper, I wrote about book packagers, an aspect of publishing most people don't know about. The American Book Producers Association equates a book packager to an indie film, where a small company puts together a movie and seeks distribution for it. The little guy did all the creative work, but the larger company is the one that puts it in theaters and handles the marketing. That is largely the same for a book packager. In most instances, the packager handles the creative aspect--the story, editing, writing, production--and the publisher takes the product, puts their name on it, and sends it out into the world. Book packaging is far from a new idea. As early as 1899, Edward Stratemeyer produced the Rover Boys series and would later publish the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books as well. The Sweet Valley High series was as a result of packager, 17th Street Productions, which later became Alloy Entertainment--which is responsible for the Gossip Girl, Vampire Diar...