Now Read This II: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1990-2001

by Nancy Pearl

Overview

Navigate the fascinating world of mainstream fiction! With emphasis on award-winning fiction, this companion guide to Now Read This: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1978-1998, features more than 500 novels published between 1990 and 2001. Using the same easy-access organization that made the original so popular, this book includes more than 400 new entries and several features that enable you to discover new reads and read-alikes based on an appeal-characteristics approach to the literature. Never again shy of an answer to Can you recommend a good book? you will find this to be an indispensable resource and tool.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781563088674
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/07/2002
Series:	Genreflecting Advisory Series
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

NANCY PEARL is Director of the Washington Center for the Book and Collection Development Specialist at Seattle Public Library, Washington. She was also named winner of the 2003 Washington Humanities Award.

Editorial Reviews

In her introduction, Pearl (director, Washington Center for the Book, and collection development specialist, Seattle PL) declares that one of the prime joys of reading fiction is its endlessness. One novel leads to a seemingly unlimited number of other novels and nonfiction books. Librarians and booksellers have the fun and the challenge of finding and recommending new titles to readers, based on past preferences. Unlike genre fiction, mysteries, fantasy, sf, romance, and historical fiction, which boast a number of tools, like Diana Tixier Herald's venerable Genreflecting (5th ed., Libraries Unlimited, 2000), to aid reader guidance, no similar current advisory exists for mainstream fiction. Updating her Now Read This: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1978-1998 (Libraries Unlimited, 1999), Pearl offers a simple method of finding good novels based on the elements of a book that make readers enjoy them. She has divided her guide into four main sections, corresponding to the four "appeal characteristics" for mainstream fiction: setting, story, characters, and language. In each section, entries are arranged alphabetically by author and include title, publisher, date, pagination, a brief but illuminating summary, secondary appeal categories (if any), subject headings, and, most important, a "Now Try" list of further reading. Other icons flag books particularly suited to young adults or book groups. There is also an author/title index and appendixes on book clubs, awards, and genre fiction. The quality of the books selected, the entries, and thoughtful recommendations for further reading, combined with its beautiful arrangement and indexing, make this a great purchase for public libraries, even if they subscribe to online services such as EBSCO's NoveList . [Pearl, a longtime LJ reviewer, edits The Reader's Shelf column (see p. 160) in each issue. Ed.] Paul D'Alessandro, Portland P.L., ME Multicultural Services Bridging Cultures: Ethnic Services in the Libraries of New York State. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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