April 2017 Read-alikes and Bestsellers

| By Elyse Monahan | April Read-alikes Your patrons have their favorite authors and genres that they know and love. Below is a list of titles debuting in April inspired by those favorites! Jump to the April Bestsellers  If your readers like David Liss and Robert Harris, they might like: The Ashes of London by … Read more

Goodreads Big Books of Spring 2017

Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Their mission is to help people find and share books they love. They have 55 million members and there are over 50 million readers on their website. Their Spring list contains the top 25 books that readers are adding to their “Want to Read” shelves. We’ll be publishing the following of these buzz books in large print.

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Good Week To Be Large Print: 60% of NYT Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers, 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners

Posted on May 3rd, 2016 

We’re having a good week at Thorndike, and this news is also good for libraries – and all readers who appreciate the ease of access that large print provides.  Here’s what we’re excited about:

  • Of the seven books debuting on the New York Times Print Hardcover Best Sellers Fiction list the week of April 24, five are titles available from Thorndike in large print.
  • Overall, of the 20 published/extended titles on the Print Hardcover Best Sellers Fiction list, we offer 12 (that’s 60%!) in large print.
  • In addition, Thorndike offers two newly announced Pulitzer Prize-winning books in large print.

Our editorial staff is thrilled, as we continue our quest to put the BEST titles in the best (most accessible to all) format in readers’ hands as quickly as possible. (BEST titles in the best format?? TOP titles? Don’t want to use Best twice.

Read moreGood Week To Be Large Print: 60% of NYT Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers, 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners

Peer Picks…Meet Our Newest Peer Picks Selector

Posted on November 11, 2015

Robin BradfordRobin Bradford is currently the collection development librarian for fiction, Large Print, DVD, music and world languages for the Timberland Regional Library System in Washington. Prior to moving to Washington a few months ago, she was the fiction collection development librarian for the Indianapolis Public Library. She has worked in a variety of libraries, academic and public, in a variety of positions, from student assistant to librarian. The one thing that has been a constant throughout, however, is a love of reading. When she isn’t working, or tweeting, or blogging, or reading, or at a conference focused on books, Robin is looking at the map and planning her next adventure.

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Love, passion, humanity – yes, please!

Unexpectedly, she saw a man standing on the sidewalk looking right at her. He was tall, with blond hair, and broad across the shoulders. He was also handsome; watching him stirred something in Olivia, a feeling that while unfamiliar was far from unwelcome……….. 

–Excerpt from Take Me Home by Dorothy Garlock

Romance novels have the same effect on their readers – stirring passion, happy memories, dreams, and, as public librarians know well, demand for more titles. Far more than the province of lonely women, romance titles attract readers of all ages with their lively story lines, adventurous plots, and exploration of all aspects of human emotion and experience.

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21 Voices, Predictive Findability, and What Have Your Students Taught You Lately

By Daniel Marano

At Gale and Cengage Learning, we conduct hundreds of user studies in any given year. In each study, we talk to and observe dozens of users as we iteratively design or modify our resources and tools. We have been doing and learning from this user-centered design approach for years now, and have a centralized user experience department that conducts this research for the entire organization.

What this traditional form of user-centered design leaves out, however, are certain types of longitudinal data, and the evolving habits and technologies that a student moves through over time. That’s why last year we launched a novel new research study called 21 Voices.

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In Other News: 43 Abducted Ayotzinapa Students

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you? Heartbreakingly, this is no surprise. Here is a basic run-down of facts, as they are known, in in the U.S., today: on 26 September, 46 students from the Ayotzinapa Teachers’ College traveled to the city of Iguala. Three students (and an additional three others) were killed by the police. The other 43 students have not been seen since.

Reports indicate that the city’s mayor had the police “intercept” the students, as he had reason to believe they were planning to protest a speech his wife was delivering that day. At some point, police started firing on the students, killing (at least) 3 and 3 others. “Local police allegedly turned over the 43 missing students to members of the criminal gang Guerreros Unidos,” according to the AP. This finding publicly supported by Mexico’s Attorney General this week, citing his office’s own investigation.

In the weeks since, nine mass graves containing 30 victims was found outside of Iquala. As a relief to families, these appear the result of (an)other crime(s). (Horrible news for other families, conversely.)

Read moreIn Other News: 43 Abducted Ayotzinapa Students