We crushed on The Readers Advisor Online, Book Dwarf, and KDL’s What’s Next, among others.

Karen found you readalikes for Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, and provided timely resources on Haiti, both fiction and nonfiction…

While Rebecca wondered if there were any readalikes for The Lovely Bones, raved about Learning to Fly and Erasure (the novel, not the 80s band, although she loves them too) and showed her affection for post-apocalyptic fiction.

So come on over and keep track of us over at Library Journal! You can easily subscribe to the feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ShelfRenewalBlog

We have some non-LJ stuff in store this Spring, such as a program for ARRT, and Rebecca will be speaking at ILA’s Reaching Forward, PLA 2010 in Portland, and the Illinois State Library’s On the Front Lines.  So we’ll keep posting that sort of thing here on the good ol’ original ShelfRenewal site.

So, keep track of us here, but don’t forget about the blog at LJ… see you there!

Karen and Rebecca

The Allie Beth Martin Award recognizes a public librarian for demonstrating a range and depth of knowledge about books and other library materials and the distinguished ability to share that knowledge. This year’s award of $3,000, donated by Baker & Taylor, will be presented to Rebecca Vnuk for her unwavering dedication to books of any cover.

http://pla.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/plaawards/awardwinners/index.cfm

So please add us to your feed reader from the LJ site, (http://www.libraryjournal.com/RSS, you’ll have to scroll to the bottom to find us) or, add the feed URL directly to your favorite reader (Karen’s partial to iGoogle, while Rebecca’s a Bloglines fan, but hey, we like ‘em all and think they are a brilliant invention.)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ShelfRenewalBlog

Subscribe away!!
…and thanks!

The look is a little less luxe,  but we promise you all the same content you first fell in love with.  (and, momma always said looks don’t matter, it’s what’s inside that counts.)

We’re not leaving you entirely, either…check back here at www.shelfrenewal.com for updates on what Karen and Rebecca are doing in libraryland.  For example, we’d be thrilled if you invited us to come and play at your library for a training or a staff day.  We can provide information as well as entertainment – see what ILA had to say about us!

http://illinoislibrariesmatter.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/readers-writers-books-and-blogs/

So head on over to www.libraryjournal.com/shelfrenewal for our regularly scheduled blog postings.  Don’t forget to update your feedreader as well if you’re a regular – and thanks!!

Karen and Rebecca

I’m not saying Grisham isn’t a good storyteller. I’m not saying that at his best he’s not a great storyteller. And I’m not saying that I got a free copy of Grisham’s book before it was available to the public as, apparently, Conroy routinely does. I’m just saying that once there was a little boy who said he kept seeing wolves, but there actually were no wolves, so everybody stopped believing him. And then, this one time, there was a wolf. That’s all.

And with that, we bring you…

Tully by Paullina Simons. 1994.

Simon’s first novel had a large print run and garnered positive reviews, but quickly hit the remainder table.  Possibly thanks to it’s door-stop length (594 p!) and fairly bland cover.  It doesn’t help that Simons went on to write all over the map, from historical Russian fiction to twisty thriller to college noir.  But if you can get this book into a reader’s hands, they just might fall for tough-girl Tully.  Her lower-class Topeka, KS adolescence is marred by an abusive mother, and the suicide of a close friend.  Things don’t get much better when she begins an affair to escape her reality.  You know,  I can’t understand why this wasn’t an Oprah selection!  It sounds bleak and depressing, but it’s really an honest and well-spun story with great characters.

As a tomboy in West Texas, Lily is a daddy’s girl who roars through life with great whoops of confidence and a well-honed sense of adventure. A boarding school attempt at civilization leaves her no more ladylike, but inspires her to become a teacher. Which, at 14, she does. Lily’s struggles to fit in to the conservative small towns that will take an adolescent teacher exemplify the unwillingness to compromise that will define her. Through marriages, floods, blizzards, men named Rooster who fall hopeless in love with her, poker games, and hearses turned into school buses, Lily stands her ground, even when stepping aside might have been the smarter choice.

Readers wanting more stories of strong women making their own way in the world will enjoy:

Away by Amy Bloom
After her family is killed, Lillian Leyb leaves Russia and comes to the United States in 1924. Doing whatever it takes to survive, Lillian finds new determination when she learns that her daughter may still be alive. Though much bleaker than Half Broke Horses, Lillian is a tough-willed woman storming her way through America’s often inhospitable landscape.

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
After a convent deflowering, common-law marriage, and bank robbery abduction, Agnes DeWitt assumes the identity of Father Modeste, a priest on his way to serve on a North Dakota Ojibwe reservation. There she spends the rest of her life, living as a man and keeping watch over those around her.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
Eighty-six-year-old  Ninny Threadgoode puts Evelyn Couch’s midlife crisis in perspective as she tells her the story of Idgie and Ruth. The whole town of depression-era Whistle Stop, Alabama, was moved by the change they saw in brash, independent Idgie when she fought for gentle Ruth and her son Stump.

A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
Like Lily Casey, Haven Kimmel’s 1960s childhood home was small (Mooreland, Indiana. Population 300) but her world was grand. A little girl who often displays more sass than sense, I once told a friend, “It’s like reading Ramona Quimby’s autobiography. But it’s real!”

These Is My Words by Nancy Turner
I swear, if you put Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett in 1881 Arizona you’d have 17-year-old Sarah Agnes Prine. As Sarah and her family travel back to the Arizona Territories from a disastrous trip to Texas, she meets the outwardly disagreeable Captain Jack Elliot. And there’s banter and misunderstandings and Indians. And it’s wonderful.

This week’s crush is Reading the Past.

This blog features previews of upcoming historical fiction as well as backlist reviews. Sarah Johnson is tareference/electronic resources librarian at a midwestern university and  the book review editor for the Historical Novels Review; she also reviews and writes about books for Booklist, NoveList, and CHOICE, among others.  Some of the reasons we enjoy her blog are: she has an unpretentious style; you can tell she totally LOVES historical fiction; and, there just aren’t very many historical fiction blogs out there, so if you’re going to do one, do it right!  And she does.

In the latest from the erotic paranormal romance writer (her words), tough guy Jim Heron’s performance on seven tasks will determine the fate of the world. If he’s successful, the angels win and hell and its minions disappear. If he fails, the demons win and the world as we know it and all the angels up in heaven go bye-bye.

His first mission is to save the soul of driven businessman Vin diPietro. At first Heron thinks he is supposed to help Vin commit to his mysterious girlfriend Devina. But no, Vin’s soulmate is really Marie-Terese, an abused single mother on the run from her her powerful ex who only works as a prostitute to keep her son safe. (And, yes, the movie “Pretty Woman” is referenced half a dozen times.)

The book is a traditional romance in that the main story becomes the relationship between Vin and Marie-Terese and they do get their happily ever after. There are several steamy sex scenes, but fewer than one might expect in nearly 500 pages from a best-selling erotic romance writer. Faithful readers of Wards’ Black Dagger Brotherhood series will enjoy the focus on alpha-males on a mission. Fans of both series may also enjoy:

Lara Adrian
Midnight Breed series
Book 1 “Kiss of Midnight”

Keri Arthur
Riley Jenson series
Book 1 “Full Moon Rising”

Christina Dodd
Chosen Ones series
Book 1 “Storm of Visions”

Christine Feehan
Carpathians series
Book 1 “Dark Prince”

Sherrilyn Kenyon
Dark-Hunter series
Book 1 “Night Pleasures”

Alexis Morgan
Paladins fo Darkness series
Book 1 “Dark Protector”

C.E. Murphy
Negotiator Trilogy
Book 1 “Heart of Stone”

Lynn Viehl
Darkyn series
Book 1 “If Angels Burn”