About the Roundtable

My photo
Jefferson County, Alabama, United States

The Jefferson County Public Library Association (JCPLA) was founded in 1974 for the improvement of librarianship and for the advancement of public libraries in Jefferson County. The public libraries of Jefferson County form our cooperative system, the Jefferson County Library Cooperative (JCLC). Membership in JCPLA provides an organizational structure for staff training countywide.

The Reader's Advisory Roundtable is open to all library workers in the JCLC Community. If you love reader's advisory, need help honing your skills, or are looking for new tools/ideas, please consider joining us. JCPLA and the Roundtables are a great way to share resources, connect with other libraries in the county, network with your colleagues, or just take a break from the daily grind and get some fresh perspective!

Questions? Send an email to jclcraroundtable [at] gmail [dot] com

Join JCPLA!

JCPLA is the local professional organization for libraries in Jefferson County, AL. Membership is $5 and is only open to those employed by a public library in Jefferson County. JCPLA manages the local Round Tables for professional connection and development in different areas of librarianship, and organizes workshops and professional development conferences annually. Click here for a membership application!

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

isn't it romantic?

 

The next Reader’s Advisory Roundtable (RART) meeting will be on Wednesday, April 12th at 9:30am in-person at the O’Neal Library.  If you’d rather attend online, keep an eye on your email for a Zoom link to this hybrid meeting as the meeting date approaches.  The topic up for discussion will be Afrofuturism. 

Click here for more information about this topic: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/magazine/afrofuturism

RA Roundtable met on Zoom today to talk about romance of all kinds!

In attendance:

Holley W, O’Neal
Bridget T, Homewood
Melanie L, Hoover
Cara W, Center Point
Maura D, Trussville
Tamara H, Irondale
Samuel R, Springville Road BPL
Alisha J, Central BPL
Kenyata R, North Birmingham BPL

Research on the benefits of reading fiction:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/81-year-old-neuroscience-shares-brain-rules-that-keep-his-memory-sharp-as-a-whip.html (Thanks to Bridget T. at Homewood!)

More research may be found here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-effect/202203/the-mental-health-benefits-reading

https://www.realsimple.com/health/preventative-health/benefits-of-reading-real-books

https://www.webmd.com/balance/health-benefits-of-reading-books

https://www.today.com/life/inspiration/benefits-of-reading-rcna61735

When looking for spicier romance or finding the next in a spicy series, the splendid Fantastic Fiction series site has a separate sister webpage for erotica: www.ffadultsonly.com

Several in the group mentioned that Colleen Hoover is our most common ask at reader service desks.  In polling participants, several were willing to share the work they’ve done in assembling readalike books and authors.

A big thank you to Rebecca O. at Trussville for this list of authors!

Lucy Score
Emily Henry
Alyssa Cole
Ali Hazelwood
Alex Michaelides
Elena Armas
Jenny Han
Elle Kennedy
Helen Hoang
Christina Lauren
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Ashley Audrain
Tessa Bailey
Katie Cotugno
Akwaeke Emezi
Abby Jimenez
Jasmine Guillory
Micalea Smeltzer
Kimberly Belle
Samantha Downing
Jay Crownover
Jane Green
Carley Fortune
K.A. Tucker
Abbi Glines
Rebecca Serle
Sally Thorne
Jojo Moyes
Tia Williams
Jill Santopolo
Katja Millay
Rebecca Donovan

Stephanie B. at Hoover created this CoHo readalike list:

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver
Burying Water by K.A. Tucker
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
Wish You Were Here by Renee Carlino
Before I Go by Colleen Oakley
Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy
Bully by Penelope Douglas
More Than Words by Mia Sheridan
Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne

This CoHo readalike list is from NoveList:

The Push by Ashley Audrain
Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey
Birds of California by Katie Cotugno
The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan
Vanessa Jared’s Got a Man by LaQuette
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
One Day by David Nicholls

To these lists, Holley at O'Neal adds a couple more:

Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle
The People We Keep by Ally Larkin
Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess
Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay

Here are the love & romance titles we discussed this morning:

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian (the 2nd in the series is The Missing Page)

Under the Bayou Moon by Vanessa Frasier Luesse

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey 

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey (I thought this was going to be a trilogy, but I misread that information. As far as I can tell, this is a complete duology.)

Slippery Creatures by K. J. Charles

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Devotion by Hannah Kent (not available in the JCLC system, request from Interlibrary Loan)

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

The Bodyguard (film)

Email additions:

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

The books of Eloisa James (the penname of Mary Bly, a Shakespeare professor at Fordham University) and Sarah MacLean

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)