Given the volume of world publishing: 305,000 new books published in the US each year; 184,000 in the UK; and 28,000 in Australia (https://ebookfriendly.com/countries-publish-most-books-infographic/) it’s a relief to know that the fiction component, at least, is sufficiently structured and otherwise organised for library staff to answer the reader’s question: ‘What’s a good book to read next?’ This book is a major part of the solution.
Joyce Saricks is a towering figure in readers’ advisory (RA). Her Readers’ advisory service in the public library introduced the concept of ‘appeal characteristics’ as a way for library staff to help readers find the next book to enjoy and has changed forever the value we place on leisure reading. Now, with a pre-retirement flourish, she’s back with Neal Wyatt, a former president of the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Reference and User Services Association, with a comprehensive update of another seminal work, and this time her guide to genre fiction is arguably as relevant to readers as it is to those who advise them.
Eleven fiction genres are described – one to each chapter: adrenaline (adventure, thrillers, suspense), psychological suspense, mystery, literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, westerns, historical fiction, relationship fiction, romance, and horror.
For each genre, the authors discuss characteristics and appeal in terms of pacing, storyline, tone, characterisation, frame or setting, and language or style. Also covered are key authors, overlap with other genres, reader expectations, links to non-fiction, poetry, graphic novels, audiobooks, film and television, and video games. To better serve their readers Wyatt and Saricks challenge readers’ advisors to read beyond familiar genres, listing as starting points five recent titles in each genre because ‘There is nothing like digging into the books to make a genre make sense’.
There are 32 pages are allocated to a comprehensive author/title index and 12 pages to an index of subjects and appeal characteristics. Despite the concentration of information, layout is clear, and navigation is quite straightforward.
This is a practical, thoughtful, enjoyable and highly useful contribution to the RA literature. And it’s more than that. As an up to date, authoritative guide to fiction, it’s in a class of one, essential reading for readers’ advisors and rewarding reading for readers.