Now Read This Books

Recommending books to readers of contemporary mainstream, or literary, fiction is perhaps the most challenging of all endeavors for readers' advisors. Pearl and her co-authors attempt to ease the process with this helpful guide to the most elusive genre. Covering 1,000 novels, many of them award winners, the book organizes titles according to their major appeal characteristics (e.g., language, setting, story, and character) as delineated by Saricks and Brown in their standard text, Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library, 2d ed., (ALA, 1997). For each book there is a plot summary, indications on the book's suitability for book discussion groups, and recommendations of similar titles. Awards are cited as well, and all titles mentioned are indexed by title, author, and subject. Describing some of the best literature published in the United States and abroad in recent years, this book is an essential guide for readers' advisors, and a helpful collection development tool.

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.

The third in the Now Read This series, Pearl & Cords's guide briefly describes and organizes approximately 500 of the most popular and current contemporary, mainstream fiction titles according to their primary appeal features-character, setting, language, and story. It also notes award-winning titles and those appropriate for book clubs; and it offers users suggestions for related reads. Focus is on titles published since 2000, and all annotations are new to this volume. This is the standard readers' advisory guide to mainstream fiction, and an essential tool for readers' advisors.