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.

Writing from Beyond

I was commenting recently about the newest Robert B. Parker western novel, Blue-Eyed Devil. I mentioned that I liked his westerns. I noticed that there seemed to be even more white space on the pages and shorter chapters, which doesn't bother me as much in a western as it does in a suspense novel. The person I spoke with said I shouldn't expect too many more since Parker passed away earlier this year.

My first thought was I wonder how many books he has left. Some authors seem to keep writing from beyond the grave for years or decades. V. C. Andrews still has new books coming out every year even though she died in 1986. Others sometimes pass on their series to a protege, like Lawrence Sanders did, giving his McNeil series to Vincent Lardo.

As far as classics go, one of my favorite Hemingway novels was Islands in the Stream, published posthumously. Many wonder if J. D. Salinger who also passed this year has another book or two waiting to go.

There have been rumors Steig Larsson of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fame who died in 2004 has a 4th book waiting to go but legal battles over his estate have kept it from the public. I guess we will just have to wait and see.