A common practice in libraries is to separate major fiction genres i.e. Westerns; Mysteries

Science Fiction and General Fiction. Bookstores also tend to group genre fiction especially paperbacks. It can be tricky labeling fiction  – - is this a suspense novel or a mystery?

At Fullerton Public Library we try to have fiction works that feature a main character such as Jesse Stone in one genre. (This is a series of myteries by Robert B. Parker). Sometimes when an author begins a series he/she isn’t sure where the plots will go. So, what happens is at first the books may be labeld General Fiction by the publishers and then by the third novel suddenly it is categorized as Fantasy!! This is why if the series features a main character we at FPL will do our best to have the entire series in one genre.

The Western is an adventure novel, but it  is too distinctive to be just put in Adventure. Yes, there is action in a Western but it is secondary to the setting.  Stories can be from the entire Westward movement in the U.S. beginning in the early 19th c. up to present day Western North America.

A Western is all about attitude toward life – - independence and self reliance. Due to this ‘life attitude’ a Western does NOT need to take place in North America. Zane Grey, a famous American writer of Westerns ,wrote Wilderness Trek about a cattle drive in Australia. The motion picture Star Wars is often referred to as a horse opera in space ( its saloon scene is a classic Western saloon scene).

Westerns are popular all over the world perhaps due to the dream of freedom in a world of unspoiled nature. Westerns are good stories, strong on adventure & action, with easily defined characters.

As you may be aware, there’s a new Sherlock Holmes movie coming out, starring Robert Downey, Jr. as an action hero version of Doyle’s iconic detective. This has aroused a small amount of protest from self-identified Holmes fans. Many of the objections raised are a bit misguided. For example, some fans object to the inclusion of fight scenes in the movie, claiming that Holmes was not a fighter. This is, of course, rubbish. As any true aficionado can tell you, Holmes was an avid, and quite formidable, boxer and fencer. And does the word “baritsu” mean anything to you? Others object to the conspicuous absence of both deerstalker cap and gooseneck pipe, both of which were introduced in earlier movies, not in the novels or stories. My main objection is that by focusing on physical action, the movie risks missing the entire point of Holmes. Yes, he is a fighter, but his brain should be the primary star of the show. Also, there is the physical appearance of Downey himself. Holmes is tall, thin, hawk-nosed, grey-eyed; Downey is none of these things. In short, I’m inclined to be skeptical, but I will attempt to reserve judgment until after I have seen the film.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Vol I
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle/BBC Radio 4 (Book on CD 791.447 DOY V. 1)
If you’ve not read the stories, but want to get a clear picture of the literary Sherlock Holmes before the Guy Ritchie film soils the character forever, you could do a lot worse than the excellent radio dramatizations from BBC Audio. Happily, the Fullerton Public Library owns pretty much the entire series on CD, beginning with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Vol I. These are atmospheric full-cast dramatizations, complete with music and sound effects. All the members of the cast do a great job of capturing the characters, especially Clive Merrison (Holmes). The violinist, Leonard Friedman, is excellent. Although abridged and adapted for radio, the adaptations are quite faithful to the original novels and stories (including, yes, the cocaine use). “Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot.”

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This is a CNN article about how vampire novels just won’t quit.

Vampire romance novels suck in readers

This is a blog with what he thinks are the 10 coolest bookends out there.  I think they are pretty darn neat.

My favorite:

Sooner or later, all who haunt the library will encounter its evil. It moves through the stacks with a shambling gait, the sound of its passage like the rustling of brittle pages turned by an invisible hand. It waits amongst the musty tomes, lurking in the corner of the eye, just out of sight. Until one day, when—in desperation—a particular book is taken down from the shelf, and its horrid face stares out from the darkness with ghost-lit eyes. Its creaking jaw gapes, and it whispers its terrible question: What the heck are you going to read?

To spare you from this madness (and in the spirit of the season), here are a few spooky novels we’ve previously reviewed:

Duma Key
By Stephen King (Fiction)
This atmospheric offering from the indefatigable King tells the tale of Edgar Freemantle, a successful contractor with a multi-million dollar business and a loving wife, whose life is suddenly and unalterably transformed when a crane accident severs his right arm and robs him of his memory. Physically and mentally crippled, suffering from depression and fits of blinding anger, and unable to reconnect emotionally with his wife, Edgar relocates to a remote key off the coast of Florida and, upon the advice of his therapist, takes up painting. Initially, his recovery proceeds apace and his artistic talent blooms, but he soon begins to experience increasingly disturbing psychic events while painting, events which lead him to conclude that something is seriously wrong on Duma Key. This is a great modern take on the traditional ghost story, with a heavy emphasis on mood and characterization. Paradoxically, I often find King to be better at writing real life than supernatural horror, but here he succeeds admirably on both counts. KS

The Historian
By Elizabeth Kostova (Fiction)
Written with an air of authenticity, with rich historical references, The Historian makes the impossible feel utterly possible, in this modern retelling of the Dracula saga. From the first word of the forward to the last word of the epilogue, Kostova’s rich and creepy historical novel leaves the reader on the edge of their seat. The story begins in 1972, when a sixteen-year old girl in Amsterdam discovers a strange old book in her diplomat father’s library, which has no text, just a curious woodcut of a dragon in its center pages, with one word written across the front, “Drakulya.” Along with the book, is a stack of letters addressed to “My dear and unfortunate successor.” While later confronting her father, Paul, about the book and letters, the chilling story gradually unfolds. Twenty years earlier, while a graduate student in history, Paul embarks on a harrowing search for his mentor, Professor Rossi, who disappears just after relating to Paul that Dracula, Vlad Tepes of 15th Century Walachia, lives. Filled with a cast of amazing characters, the story spans three time periods, the 1970s, 1950s and 1930s, and several countries. Mysterious and bone chilling plot threads weave together, answering questions regarding the girl’s mother, what happened to Professor Rossi and, above all, what has happened to Dracula. The Historian is a remarkably original and suspenseful reworking of an age old tale of horror. CD

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks (818.602 BRO)
This is the latest offering from Brooks, whose previous book, The Zombie Survival Guide, was a popular novelty read among the Horror Geek set. World War Z is much more robust and satisfying, like a big, juicy Chess Club brain. Zombie fiction works best when the shambling undead serve as a kind of cracked mirror through which the soon-to-be-devoured humans can observe their own flawed reflections: What makes Us so different from Them? Brooks delivers with a book that’s not really about zombies at all, but rather an examination of the best and worst traits hidden in humanity, awaiting only the End of the World to make their appearance. Plus, it addresses some other important issues. For example, just how effective would F-22 Raptor Joint Strike Fighters and M-1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks be against a millions-strong army of the living dead? Hint: Not very. KS

Cross posted from the YA blog:

I would love to be able to do a program like this, where dogs come to the library and kids read to them.  I saw a place that had dogs like that at the American Library Association conference last year and it was pretty cool.  Too bad my dog is nuts and couldn’t participate.  He’s too squirrely to lay down for that long, esp with other dogs around.

Please, please somebody give me something to read. It doesn’t have to be great, or even good, really. But it has to be Urban Fantasy. Or Contemporary Fantasy. Or possibly Horror. But I want something where the protagonists to encounter magic and/or magical beings (preferably horrible) in a modern setting. Nothing too girly. Anybody?
First let me tell you what I’ve already read. Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels. (See, I told you it didn’t have to be good.) Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. (Also not good.) Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. (Sorry, I hated that book.) Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. (Currently reading, not too bad so far.) Fables by Bill Willingham. (A comic book and the first on this list that I’d go so far as to call good.) Declare by Tim Powers. (Also good. I’d like to read more of his, but I wish they’d come out on CD.) Buffy, Angel, True Blood, Doctor Who, and Torchwood on TV. Quite a few Stephen King books.
So, what am I missing?

Reprinted (ie blatantly copied from Booklist Online.)

Hooper, Brad (author).

FEATURE. First published October 15, 2009 (Booklist).

Readers pick up a first novel with both excitement and trepidation. An untried author is always a reader’s gamble. But pick up the following first novels, all reviewed in Booklist over the past year, with no trepidation, only excitement.

Dream House. By Valerie Laken. HarperCollins, $24.95 (9780060840921).

Laken is masterful at character construction as she explores issues of race and class.

A Fortunate Age. By Joanna Smith Rakoff. Scribner, $26 (9781416590774).

This novel provides a pitch-perfect portrait of the generation that came of age in the 1990s.

Grace Hammer. By Sara Stockbridge. Norton, $23.95 (9780393067187).

Stockbridge deftly captures the mood of Dickensian London in this gripping debut.

The Invisible Mountain. By Carolina De Roberts. Knopf, $24.95 (9780307271631).

Words, so beautifully employed by this author, seem inadequate to convey the essence of this twentieth-century Uruguayan woman-centered family saga.

Lime Tree Can’t Bear Orange. By Amanda Smyth. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23 (9780307460646).

In lithe, lyrical prose, the author evokes the lush language of the West Indies and the modest lives lived at the mercy of fate.

Mathilda Savitch. By Victor Lodato. Farrar, $24 (9780374204006).

Lodato indelibly captures the fragile vulnerability and fearless bravado of adolescence.

Miles from Nowhere. By Anmi Mun. Riverhead, $21.95 (9781594488542).

There is nothing simplistic or sensationalized here as Mun, a writer of gravitas, portrays the dispossessed and the cast out.

The Moon Opera. By Bi Feiyu. Houghton, $18 (9780151012947).

At once a sad and lovely story, this slender novel on a rather narrow topic—the Peking Opera—nevertheless resonates with a clear, crystalline tone.

Precious. By Sandra Novack. Random, $25 (9781400066803).

Trouble simmers beneath the surface of a bucolic Pennsylvania town in Novack’s dramatic, elegantly rendered debut.

Under This Unbroken Sky. By Shandi Mitchell. HarperCollins, $25.99 (9780061774027).

The author’s screenwriting skills serve her well in this remarkable portrait of a Ukrainian farming family in Alberta during the late 1930s.