Week 7: Assignment 2

New Adult: Needless Marketing-Speak Or Valued Subgenre? Publisher’s Weekly, Dec 14, 2012

I thought this was an interesting article. I think the “New Adult” tag does have a place as a subgenre. I’m not sure why there is a discussion as to whether it belongs in Teen or Adult though. As a genre, it is geared towards “new adults”. I would suggest to file within Fiction. Fiction contains a huge variety of subgenres, so this is just one more to think about and be able to suggest to our patrons. The New Adult subgenre to me is much different than what I see in the teen genre. Currently the teen genre is dominated by a lot of supernatural, futuristic, dystopian themes, whereas “New Adult” is a bit more focused on finding ones place in the world as a developing adult.

Not Just for Teens [PDF] Library Journal, Jun 15, 2011

Having read many of the popular teen books (Maze Runner, Twilight, Divergent, etc.), I was able to relate to this article. These popular teen books are fast-paced, exciting, and for the most part somewhat easy reads. As an adult, I’m not always looking for something slow and heavy. That is when I turn to these kinds of books. When I was a teen, the options were not quite as varied (I read lots of VC Andrews, for instance, which would not appeal to me to read now). These books to me feel a bit like a shot of adrenalin. They keep me up at night rather than put me to sleep. That is a book a person of any age might potentially want to read.

Week 6

Assignment 1:

Streetfiction.org 

I signed up for their weekly email back in week 1, but I have yet to receive an email from them. I’m not a huge fan of this site. The content is somewhat stagnant, besides new book reviews. I think it’s mostly just a collection of book reviews within the various subgenres. At first when I started looking at the site, I knew nothing about the genre, so I learned quite a bit. At this point after looking at the site more frequently, I’m no longer getting much out of the site besides seeing new reviews within the Urban Fiction genre. If I have a patron who is well-read in this genre, it could be a good site to visit simply because there are so many reviews available.

Assignment 2:

Prezi Link Exploration--very cool page.

Assignment 3:

Three subgenres:

1. Paranormal horror

Dean Koontz- Writes horror based novels featuring supernatural beings. Very popular Odd Thomas series.

Sarah Pinborough- Writes horror novels set in England featuring monsters and demons. Compelling and fast-paced.

John Saul- Writes psychological thrillers often with elements of the supernatural. Can be very dark and gruesome.  

2. Cyberpunk Science Fiction

               Philip Dick- writes science fiction in urban landscapes. Often bleak and futuristic.

               Bruce Sterling- writes bleak science fiction set in advanced and/or futuristic settings.

Pat Cadigan- writes about the relationship between human consciousness and virtual technology, gritty, futuristic, science fiction.

3. Regency Romance

Julia Quinn-Uses humor, passion and strong female characters to create stories of romance in addition to exploring women’s relationships. Regency setting.

               Amanda Quick-Uses a combination of humor and passion set in Regency and Victorian settings.

Lisa Kleypas—Writes character-driven romance novels in Regency settings.

Cross over titles:

Paranormal Romance—Many people like romance and many people like the paranormal. Bringing these genres together simply means you get the satisfaction of a good romance with the backdrop of a paranormal twist.

Historical Medical Thrillers---The history of medicine is extremely interesting. Many story lines could be written around certain time periods where medical treatment was very different than the current.