Tag Archives: Goodreads

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Top Book Recommendation Sites

books and booksLast week we included a post with summer reading lists. Worried that you need more?

Title lists are one thing, engaging in a whole book lovers community is another rich way to become aware of additional titles for your wish list. If you have a Goodreads account, you know that you can immerse yourself in a community of readers and book recommendations. Sounds like summer nirvana to me!

The Guardian recently offered a great post to let you know about other sites like Goodreads. Who knows where you might feel most at home! Check it out…. Top book-recommendation platforms: what are your favourites?

Have we missed others?

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Goodreads Choice Awards

choice-logo-large-2351c460df498161ce47dd7562e1d8f5Drum roll please….it is time for yet another book list! This one is like the people’s choice awards for books, garnering over 137,000 online  votes this year!

Goodreads has been rounding up its users favorite books of the year since 2009 through its Goodreads Choice Awards. On this year’s list, the top book in fiction is Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountains Echoed, with over 24,000 votes. Coming in at #2 on the fiction list is Jodi Picoult’s The Storyteller, with over 21,000 votes. The full list of Goodreads’ users favorite books of 2013 in twenty categories,  can be found here. Tip: To get the lists from past years, scroll down to the bottom of the left frame on the page.

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Featured Book: The World's Strongest Librarian

This post is a part of an original series created by librarians/media specialists across Central Minnesota featuring books. If you have a book you would like to showcase, send your review to our offices.

Review by Maria Burnham, SRRHS Library Media Specialist

Maria Burnham, SRRH Library Media Specialist
Maria Burnham, SRRH Library Media Specialist

Book Review for The World’s Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne

I originally selected this book because it’s obviously a memoir about being a librarian, something that I can relate to.  However, the book is about so much more than that.  John Hanagarne recalls memories of his childhood as a boy obsessed with reading who also happens to have Tourette’s.  In reading this memoir, I learned about the Mormon church, Tourette’s syndrome, kettleball training, the daily challenges as a public librarian, and the power of unconditional love.  This book made me laugh out loud, mainly in the descriptions of the bizarre scenarios that take place in a large metropolitan public library.  But I also loved the formatting of the book–each chapter started with subject heading and Dewey numbers relating to the topic.  Although the book covers so many aspects of Josh’s life, perhaps the part I loved most is his insight into the power of a library and its place in our democracy.  His extraordinary descriptions of the power of books, information and literacy is bound to make any reader’s heart fill with joy.  If you love books, learning, feel-good stories, libraries, or just want to laugh out loud, this is the book for you.  A-mazing!

Follow Maria on Goodreads!

 

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Goodreads Choice Awards are In!

Are you interested in knowing what average readers like you and I deem to be the best books in 2012? The results of the Goodreads Choice Awards 2012 are in! The winners were voted on by the site users, making it a sort of People’s Choice of the book world. How many people voted? Over 1.1 million votes were cast this year and  winners and runner-ups are listed below. There were a few close calls, and more than a few landslide victories. It’s fun to see if your favorites this year match the list below. Feel free to comment on which ones were the best of the best in your eyes!

Best Fiction
The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling 11,525 votesGoodBook2
Where We Belong by Emily Giffin 7,841 votes

Mystery and Thriller
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (woohoo!) 27,502 votes
Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb 6,364 votes

Best Historical Fiction
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman 6,918 votes
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel 6,516 votes

Best Fantasy
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King 8,226 votes
The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde 5,221 votes

Paranormal Fantasy
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness 12,660 votes
Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich 5,917 votes

Science Fiction
The Long Earth by Terry Prachett and Stephen Baxter 7,670 votes
Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey 5,624 votes

Romance
Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James 22,967 votes
Bared to You by Sylvia Day 8,306 votes

Best Horror
The Twelve by Justin Cronin 7,414 votes
Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz 6,549

Best Memoir & Autobiography
Wild by Cheryl Strayed 8,207
Paris in Love by Eloisa James 4,308

Best History & Biography
Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith 6,507 votes
Drift by Rachel Maddow 4,313 votes

Best Nonfiction
Quiet by Susan Cain 7,532 votes
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo 5,356 votes

Food and Cookbooks
The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond 7,977 votes
The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila 2,888 votes

Best Humor
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson 13,066 votes
I Am A Pole (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert 4,984 votes

Graphic Novel and Comics
The Walking Dead, Vol. 16: A Larger World by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard 8,614 votes
Avatar by Gene Luen Yang 6,937 votes

Best Poetry
A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver 5,520 votes
Alien Vs. Predator by Michael Robbins 1,333 votes

Best Goodreads Author
Insurgent by Veronica Roth 20,328 votes
City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare 13,858 votes

Young Adult Fiction
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 37,438 votes
Easy by Tammara Webber 8,890 votes

Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction
Insurgent by Veronica Roth 23,827 votes
City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare 14,814 votes

Middle Grade & Children’s
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan 16,681 votes
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney 7,912 votes

Picture Books
Olivia and the Fairy Princesses by Ian Falconer 7,699 votes
The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems 6,971 votes

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

OCLC and Goodreads

My enjoyment and use of Goodreads continues, and I am encouraging family members, friends, and colleagues who count on me as their readers advisor to join me on Goodreads. Have you noticed that through a partnership with  OCLC (since 2007), you can pretty painlessly link to your home library to see if the item you are longing for on your “to-read list”  is available? It makes perfect sense for the two entities to partner up, and this union has provided greater visibility for libraries.   A new agreement pledges to improve Goodreads members’ experience of finding fresh, new things to read through libraries. It will also provide libraries with a way to reach this key group of dedicated readers through social media. Since 2007, Goodreads has sent more than 5 million web referrals to WorldCat, and it is hopeful that the expanded partnership will increase that number.
Go to http://tinyurl.com/co75gl8 for the minute details of this expanded partnership between OCLC and Goodreads.