Readers' Advisory - General - Resources for Readers - LibGuides at Huntsville-Madison County Public Library

Reader's Advisory Online Resources - NoveList Plus

Whether you are looking for more books like your favorites, looking for a new author or if you simply want to recall all the titles in a series, NoveList Plus has your answer. This great database contains fiction and nonfiction titles for all ages from youngest readers to adults. Find reading recommendations and read-alikes connected to every single title, author, and series record.

NoveList Plus is available in our library branches without a library card at http://hmcpl.org/novelist. To access this database outside library locations, click the "My Digital Library" link in the upper left corner of the main page. Log in with your library card number and PIN under "My Account". Then click on the "NoveList" icon.

The special features of NoveList Plus include:

Author Read-alikes - you can search by author, title or series. You can also narrow your search by genre and subject.

Book Discussion Guides - NoveList Plus includes many detailed discussion guides on a wide variety of titles written by qualified scholars--useful for academic study or general interest.

NoveList Feature Articles - many insightful articles on literary genres and topics that provide readers' advisory and cite read-alikes.

Plus Award Winners, a Readers' Advisory Toolbox, teaching aids and much more.

NextReads

Are you looking for a few good books to read? Sign up for our e-newsletters and get great book suggestions by email. We'll deliver reading lists right to your inbox along with new gems, bestsellers, and related titles. You'll also be able to check immediately whether the items are available at your local Library or whether they've been checked out.To get started, choose your favorite topics below, enter your account information, and let us deliver recommended readings to your inbox. To preview a newsletter before signing up, click on the name of the newsletter.

Newsletters focus on specific genres, books for children and young adults, fiction and non-fiction bestsellers, news of library events and notification of upcoming selections for library-hosted book clubs.

Reader's Advisory

Readers' advisory is a service performed by most public libraries. It is usually rooted in a non-judgmental assessment of the personal preferences of the reader through a series of questions. The assessment focuses on reader likes and dislikes with regard to a number of factors, including subject, reading level, genre, writing style, the level of characterization, plot elements, storyline, pace, tone, frame, and setting.

From Wikipedia; accessed February 15, 2012.

Video Tutorial - Finding Books in a Series using NoveList Plus

This video tutorial walks the user through the steps of finding books in a series using NoveList Plus.

FROM THE HMCPL CATALOG – GENERAL ADVISORY

Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Pearl, Nancy
Call Number: 011.73 PEA - Available at Main, Madison and Bailey Cove Branches
ISBN: 9781570613814
Publication Date: 2003
This guidebook to great reading from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl is organized into more than 174 creative, useful and witty lists covering topics such as cover such topics as mother-daughter relationships, science for nonscientists, mysteries of all stripes, African-American fiction from a female point of view, must-reads for kids, books on bicycling, “chick-lit,” and many more.
More Book Lust - Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason by Pearl, Nancy
Call Number: 011.73 PEA - Available at Main, Madison and Bailey Cove Branches
ISBN: 9781570614354
Publication Date: 2005
This follow-up to 'Book Lust' is also organized by topic and includes an array of titles in nearly 150 eclectic categories, including Plots for Plotzing (highly unusual storylines), Animal Love (in which humans fall in love with animals), The Autobiographical Gesture (memoirs about complex lives), Child Prodigies (child characters who are called on to perform great and sometimes heroic acts), Nagging Mothers, Crying Children (true tales from the frontlines of parenting), and Libraries and Librarians.

The following volumes, available in the Huntsville-Madison Co. Public Library catalog, provide suggestions for the right book for any occasion.

Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers by Pearl, Nancy
Call Number: 011.6 PEA - Available at Main Branch
ISBN: 9781570616501
Publication Date: 2010
Nancy Pearl returns with recommended reading for more than 120 destinations around the world. With stops from Texas to Timbuktu, this literary globetrotting guide points readers to the literature of place for destinations near and far.
The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Fadiman, Clifton and John S. Major
Call Number: 028 FAD - Available at Main, Bailey Cove Branches
ISBN: 9780062702081
Publication Date: 1997
For the reader that wants to be versed in the classics of world literature, this guide provides readers with brief, informative and entertaining introductions to more than 130 classics of world literature. This new edition offers a much broader representation of women authors, such as Charlotte Bronte, Emily Dickinson and Edith Wharton, as well as non-Western writers such as Confucius, Sun-Tzu, Chinua Achebe, Mishima Yukio and many others. The fourth edition features a simpler format that arranges the works chronologically in five sections (The Ancient World; 300-1600; 1600-1800; and The 20th Century), making them easier to look up than ever before.
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Boxall, Peter - General Editor
Call Number: 028.1 ONE - Available at Main, Madison Branches
ISBN: 9780789313706
Publication Date: 2006
From the book jacket: "From Aesop's 'Fables' to Zeno's 'Conscience' and from Achebe to Zola, '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die' offers concise critical insight into the books and the writers that have excited the world's imagination. From 'Billy Bathgate,' 'Billy Budd,' and 'Billy Liar' to Calvino, Camus, and Coetzee, here you'll find the big ideas and the best-sellers. From the popular drama of Louisa May Alcott to the stomach-churning cult fiction of Chuck Palahniuk, you'll find the writing that has made the world over and over again.'