Jana Seeks Recommendations for Gothic/Atmospheric Romance

Hi all! It's during this time of year that I start craving creepy gothic romances that are not going to kill me with the scareds. I love the atmosphere and the ominous happenings in these books, but I don't enjoy stories that are heavy on the supernatural or demon/ghost/etc. stuff. I'm happy with YA or adult, historic or contemporary.

Here's a few gothic and/or atmospheric books I really enjoyed so you know my tastes:

I'm reading Of Monsters and Men by Jessica Verday, and it's pretty meh at this point. It's not giving me what I want! So, help me please!

Jana's Request for Romantic Suspense Recommendations

Hi all! I went on a cruise to Mexico a few weeks ago and read Till Death by Jennifer Armentrout. LOVED IT. It was amazing, and my new favorite romantic suspense novel. I got quite a hankering for more, but I'm coming up empty. I tried a Barbara Freethy one afterwards, and DNF'd it because it was so bad. I am so unfamiliar with this genre and I've only read a handful of romantic suspense novels, even though they always end up being my favorite kind of books.

So I thought I'd take this to all of you, our ever faithful readers. I'm in desperate need of some good romantic suspense. I really only have two wishes for these recommendations:

1. No paranormal stuff. I just don't like it. lol. And this seems to be hard because all the RS novels I'm finding have paranormal elements to them.
2. No erotica. (Some sex is fine, but it needs to take a back seat to the story.)
3. (Wait, I lied.) I'm not a fan of gangs and drugs in books.

Other than that, I'm pretty open and I'm not kidding when I say that I probably have not read anything you're going to recommend to me because I'm such a newbie to this genre. So throw a TON of them at me. I will take all you have to offer! I was gifted Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard after getting recommendations from some friends on Twitter, so that's happening. I've heard it's super popular.

Anyway, help a girl out!

Help Kimberly meet her Goodreads goal!

Okay fellow book lovers. I need your help. I need to read 16 books before the end of the year. I'm SEVEN books behind schedule!! How did that even happen? Okay, so I hit several reading slumps this year, that's how it happened. It's been a weird year.

What are some of your favorite quick reads? Novellas? Graphic novels? Tell me all about them!  Help me reach my goal of 100 books this year!

Daisy Asks for Your Recommendations (Once Again)!

So this is gonna be me in a little while :) My bump's not big enough to actually balance something on right now, but we're slowly going to get there!

The boyfriend and I are slowly preparing for life with a baby that will actually NEED things (as in opposed to just me needing things at the moment) and while I have the whole pregnancy information thing down with all of the sites across the interweb and What To Expect When You're Expecting, which has a TON of knowledge, and also the things I know as a doctor, I'd like to be a little more knowledgeable about the stuff that comes after the baby makes his or her grand entrance.

And I wouldn't be the little bookworm that I am if I didn't want to read up on all things baby-related and parenting tip and tricks. I mean, obviously I've already made a deal with the baby that he or she will be a bundle of joy, filled with rainbows and fairy dust. But just in case he or she decides to go back on this agreement, I'd like to know everything I need to know.
SO hit me with your best suggestions! I have a chunk of time at my disposal before my due date early March. I've already got French Children Don't Throw Food by Pamela Druckerman, which looks awesome.

And also: what are the books you loved to read to your kids in the early days? I'm determined to read him or her lots of stories :)

Daisy Asks For Your Fluffy Contemporary Recs!

Ok guys, I've asked you for recommendations before, and obviously you're all awesome at this! So now I REALLY need more fluffy contemporaries in my life and I'm asking you to tell me what I should be reading. I want cute and aww-inspiring and swoony and just something that will make me smile. I prefer YA or NA, but if you have a good adult rec, that's fine too :)

If you're interested in my Goodreads shelves, you can find them here.

Thanks!

"Book Your Trip" -- NPR's Summer Reading List

Photo from Article

I've only recently started keeping track of NPR's book news.  I know that they annually put out a summer reading list.  This year they took a different track and organized their lists into modes of transportation, as opposed to genre.  You can read the full introductory article here.

The idea came from a previous article that looked for a common thread in a variety of books.  By organizing the summer reading lists around modes of transportation, readers are introduced to a variety of books of all genres and for all ages.  For instance in the car list, both Go Dogs, Go and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas appear and on the trains list, both The Little Engine that Could and Anna Karenina appear.  The tagline for the series is that they have lists on "literary travel by train, plane, car, bike, boat, foot, city transit, horse, balloon, rocketship, time machine and even giant peach."

One of the things that stood out to me as I was reading the list was that their emphasis was on discovery, introducing readers to books that may not have heard of or thought about reading before.  By linking the books to something readers do know about or are interested in, they might read something new and different.  Naturally, these lists are not even close to being exhaustive.  And they were going for variety, so some well-known books had to get cut from the final list.

Reader advisory is something that I really didn't get interested in until the very end of my library school time.  As in, I became interested in April, then I graduated in May.  The place I went is having a class on reader advisory this summer, but I was unable to take it (stupid graduation!).  I also got the opportunity to meet Nancy Pearl at a talk she gave in Tulsa in April (which led to my interest in reader advisory).  To me, at the core of this is that some people don't like reading because they haven't been introduced to the right book.  So when you learn how to recommend books based on a person's interests and situation, you are providing a much better service than simply handing off your favorite book to an unsuspecting victim.  I've been practicing this in the past few years--just because I love a book doesn't mean my dad or Zach (my usual "Here, read this!" victims) are going to like it, so I hold some books back.

Naturally, with these mass summer reading lists, you can't be specific to every single person who looks for the list...but you can try to be general and hopefully get someone's attention by linking a couple of books together.

Personally, I find this to be an interesting and great way to organize a book list.  Mostly for the variety factor.  But not everyone would agree.

What do you think about this kind of organization?