While You Wait for The Cuckoo's Calling

JK Rowling's latest book The Cuckoo's Calling, a detective novel written under the pen name Robert Galbraith, has flown off the shelves and hit the bestsellers lists. It received favorable reviews before the author's true identity was leaked. But now that we know who the real author is, it's in great demand. So here's some advice from our own Tracy G:

...if you are eagerly awaiting a hot item, consider asking us for suggestions to pass the time with. You may stumble across an undiscovered gem while waiting for your hold to come in.

So while The Cuckoo's Calling is still a wish away, why not sample another mystery featuring a flawed but gifted detective. Here are just a few:

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  Case Histories
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  The Little Sister
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  Tonight I Said Goodbye
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  The Invisible Ones
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  Dead Souls
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  Hardcase

The Lure of the Hold List

Your library card grants you telekinesis on books, movies, and music available at the library. Being able to reserve materials feels like the force for me.

Courtesy of breathing-chemicals

 It is neutral  in nature, maybe even lawful neutral (Dungeons & Dragons anyone?), but in the wrong hands (my hands) it can become a problem. A Hoarders-like problem.

Putting things on hold through the library catalog inevitably becomes a free version of an online shopping binge. Which is awesome at first.

Courtesy of  lynncolourmonster

Then when the items I have ordered come in, I am left awash in a sea of disturbed confusion, trying to piece together what events and thoughts led me to request half the YALSA Quick Picks list, Train's Drops of Jupiter, and Alive at the same time.

Being able to request a nearly unlimited amount of items through the library is a great power. And with it comes great responsibility as Uncle Ben said in Spiderman. Use it wisely, and before deciding you can read 6 books at once via osmosis merely by stacking them near your bed, consider adding them to The List You Never Finish first.

On the opposite end of the holds spectrum, if you are eagerly awaiting a hot item, consider asking us for suggestions to pass the time with. You may stumble across an undiscovered gem while waiting for your hold to come in.

Watch this? Read that! Fall 2012 Edition

Fall always ushers in chilly weather, football, and pumpkin spice lattes. Fall also brings us a fresh batch of television shows. Whether you are waiting for the new season of an old favorite to start or dipping your feet into a debut that looks interesting, there is undoubtedly a book to match your viewing interest at Des Plaines Public Library. Here are some pairings you may like to try:

If you are watching The Office…

Show premise: A documentary team follows the everyday antics of a wacky group of coworkers working for a paper company.

Try: Personal Days by Ed King and/or Who Moved My Blackberry? by Lucy Kellaway. Both are takes on the everyday life of office workers and their personal and professional plights.

If you are watching American Horror Story…

Show premise: The first season followed a fractured family moving into a haunted, dangerous house. The second season will revolve around the strange and deadly occurrences at a mental asylum.

Try: For the first season try reading Richard Matheson’s Hell House. Stephen King called it the “Mount Everest of haunted houses”, and the malevolent spirits in both stories manipulate the living characters in similar ways.

If you are watching The Mindy Project…

Show premise: Mindy’s show is a comedy revolving around a fun female doctor trying to successfully navigate her personal and professional life.

Try: Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner. Cannie finds out her ex-boyfriend has written an expose on their love life entitled “Loving a Larger Woman”, and hilarity ensues as she tries to deal with the scandal. Also the obvious choice: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling.  

If you are watching Nashville…

 Show premise: A fading star and new kid on the block compete and reveal some of the dynamics behind the country music industry in this drama.

Try: Fender Benders by Bill Fitzhugh. This humorous, action-packed tale revolves around a country singer hitting it big and learning just how treacherous and wild the country music industry can be.

If you are watching Arrow…

 Show premise: Following the footprints of Smallville, Arrow depicts the adventures of DC comic superhero the Green Arrow who functions as a cross between Bruce Wayne and Robin Hood.

Try:  Green Arrow: Year One by Andy Diggle and Quiver by Kevin Smith. Both will get you caught up with the Green Arrow.

If you are watching The New Normal…

 Show premise: Two gay men work together with a surrogate mother to have a child in this timely comedy.

Try: Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? by Dan Bucatinsky. Much like the television series, this memoir explores the day-to-day realities of gay adoption and parenting.

If you are watching Last Resort…

 Show Premise: US Navy Officers are declared renegades and must figure out who set them up while trying to survive. 

Try: Exit Plan by Larry Bond. When a US ship is sent to rescue two Iranians who hold key information, their ship is attacked and they are left stranded with little hopes of rescue.

 

If you are watching Elementary…

 Show Premise: A contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes set in America, with Lucy Lui playing Dr. Joan Watson.

Try: Beyond the canon stories, two intriguing interpretations include The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes by Barry Grant and the short story collection Sherlock Holmes in America by various authors. Grant’s interpretation involves a modern man named James Wilson discovering his roommate may very well be Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes in America has an array of authors placing Holmes in a variety of American settings as he interacts with fictional characters as well as famous people in history.


Any shows I left out or additional matches you can think of? 

Read Alikes and the Power of Readers' Services

So you're browsing the catalog, and that latest must-read bestseller is checked out. Or maybe what you're looking for is owned by another library, but not by us. The van service isn't running right now, and at the moment, the library has put a hold on purchasing new materials. What's a reader to do?

Certainly, you can place a hold on any item we own, and you can also request an inter-library loan through WorldCat, if it's something we don't. The folks here at the Readers' Services desk would be happy to help you with that. But if you just have to have something now, we can help you with that, too. Call us, text us, throw us an email, or come on up to visit us on the 3rd floor. We can suggest a book with a similar feel or style as the one you are eagerly anticipating. We call them read alikes, and we have a lot of them here at our fingertips.

Check out this list of read alikes for four of our hottest titles:

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

• A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance by Marlena De Blasi
  

• Tales of a Female Nomad: Living At Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman
  

• Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple
  

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

• The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly

• Sanctuary by Faye Kellerman

• The Paperboy by Pete Dexter

Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner

• Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen

• Dark Horse by Tami Hoag

• Fractured by Karin Slaughter

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

• We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg

• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

Click on any title to request that book today!
You never know, the book you choose to tide you over could introduce you to a new favorite author.

Joe Dee Pea Koe

Do you know that song by Gershwin, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," that has the line about... you say Tomato and I say Tomahto...? Well, how do you say Picoult? As in the prolific writer of contemporary novels, Jodi Picoult. The pronunciation of her name confuses the best of us. Thank heavens for audiobooks, radio interviews and the Library of Congress for help with the pronunciation problem. The Say How page at the Libray of Congress web site shows her name as pē-KŌ.

And Jodi pē-KŌ is pretty popular this summer. A movie based on her novel My Sister's Keeper opens June 26. But even without the movie, her novels are never on the shelf. Young adults and book groups devour her writing. She is known for well developed characters dealing with a topical problem and a moral dilemma.

Readers are often asking for an author like Picoult. If you've enjoyed her books, or are just waiting for one to become available, consider these authors in the meantime.

Elizabeth Berg
Chris Bohjalian
Kim Edwards
Karen Joy Fowler
Patricia Gaffney
Ann Hood
Sue Miller
Jacquelyn Mitchard
Luanne Rice
Anita Shreve


Have any authors' names you are wondering how to pronounce? Thoughts about Jodi Picoult's books? What about the casting of Cameron Diaz as the mother of three in My Sister's Keeper?