Newspapers, magazines, radio and tv, friends, stores both brick-and-mortar and virtual . . . An overwhelming assortment of sources proffer books vying for attention. CLP librarians add our voices to the mix, offering something commercial sources lack – independence. We’re not trying to sell you anything, we’re just sharing our favorite reads.
Every month my colleagues and I write reviews of books we’ve read recently, which are posted on our Web site in a section called Staff Picks, to inspire you, the reader in search of a great book.
Staff Pick pages are located a few clicks into CLP’s main Web page. The easiest way to find them is to type “staff picks” into the search box at the top of our home page:
Search results will show “Top 5 Results on Our Site,” and the top of the list is 1. 2009 Staff Picks, New and Featured at Carnegie Library of …, the current month’s list.
April features fiction in the form of short stories, horror, contemporary novels, and one non-fiction book. Staff Picks have been archived since 2004, and are sortable by year, genre and reviewer. As with our Eleventh Stack blog posts, we sign our work. If you find a staff reader whose taste intrigues you, click on her name, and all her reviews will pop up together.
I chose Gardening When it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, by Steve Solomon for my April Staff Pick. I’m excited about this book and the opportunity to share my enthusiasm. Since my review appeared on our Web site, eight library patrons have requested this title. I don’t know if my recommendation deserves credit, but because Gardening When it Counts isn’t new (it was published in 2005) and is past its initial publicity push, I enjoy imagining that I’m influencing readers.
Librarians may or may not be bookworms, but everyone I work with shares an enthusiasm for books and writes about them avidly.
-Julie
Eleventh Stack 