On a librarian's discerning taste...

Today Jungle Red welcomes SALLY BISSELL an extraordinary Florida librarian who's been blogging since 2007 as SALLYB at Read Around the World. Every week she writes about the books she's reading. Her taste is wonderfully eclectic. Over the last few weeks she's dissected Colm Toibin's BROOKLYN, Michael Connelly's NINE DRAGONS, and Chris Cleeve's LITTLE BEE. She runs a book discussion group, and her online reviews are both insightful and personal.

HALLIE: Sally, how many books do you read and write about each month, and how do you pick them?

SALLY: Well, not nearly enough! The great thing is that I “read” in many different formats so that I’m able to have a book on my mp3 for exercising, a book in my car to keep road rage to a minimum, a book at my desk for lunch break and a book by the bed in case I can keep my eyes open long enough to get a few chapters in. I also get a book each month to review for Library Journal and I even have a Sony e-book reader for travel. I’d estimate that I read maybe 7 or 8 books a month. True confessions – I don’t always finish everything I start.

I read many professional review journals and subscribe to tons of book blogs, like your fabulous one, so picking books is easy. My “to read” list is huge and I keep buying used paperbacks to save for the day when I retire and can read that much more. Generally, I tend toward literary fiction, police procedurals, biography and some politics so that I can keep up with what my customers might be interested in.

HALLIE: What book has kicked up the most controversy in your discussion group(s)?

SALLY: Oh, wow, well, lots of them because I choose the book for that specific purpose. I’d have to say that Don DeLillo’s FALLING MAN, an examination of the effects of the attack on the World Trade Center on a small group of New York families, was a great way to begin our book discussion season last year. There were no wishy-washy responses to that novel!

It drew people I’d never seen there before, even a woman who had been living in New York during the tragedy, who shared her feelings openly and honestly. It never ceases to amaze me how willing people are to open up in a group of strangers. This is the beauty of literature, isn’t it, that we find a common ground on which to meet?

HALLIE: I agree completely. ! know you've discussed crime novels with lots of groups. If it's possible to generalize, what do you think today's readers particular like?

SALLY: Crime novels seem to be more popular than ever. I suspect, but who can really know this for sure, that the joy of a crime novel is that one is on the outside looking in and can say, “oh, this could never happen to me,” even though there’s a little frisson of suspicion that, in fact, it could.

Cyber-crime, identity theft, anything “ripped from the headlines,” as they say, is always good and then there’s the whole medical examiner genre kicked off by Patricia Cornwell, then Kathy Reichs, and echoed by CSI on TV, which is still very hot. I’ve noticed an uptick in books about terrorism and spies as well.

My personal guilty secret is medical thrillers. Michael Palmer scares me half to death!

HALLIE: What really turns them off?

SALLY: For my crew it’s definitely anything involving violence against children.

HALLIE: For you personally, when a suspense/mystery novel disappoint, is there anything in particular that tends to go wrong?

SALLY: I’d have to say that the motivation of the character is a big issue for me. It has to be believable when a person plots to take the life of another, especially a family member. Yet I completely understand random murder or murder in the throes of passion.

HALLIE: Here's a loaded question: what do you see as the main differences between murder mysteries and suspense on the one hand and literary fiction on the other?

SALLY:Ha, ha, watch me dodge this one! I think that murder and suspense novels and literary fiction have more in common than people may realize. Whenever we read, and we will always need stories in our lives, we are interacting with and recognizing a piece of ourselves in the characters on the page. Sometimes what we see isn’t flattering but it makes us think about what motivates people to act the way they do and, perhaps, to have more empathy for others.

There are novelists who some might consider crime writers yet who I think are very literary writers as well. George Pelecanos comes to mind right away, so does Dennis Lehane and Richard Price. That’s why I prefer not to box in an author to a certain genre and I try to get my customers to branch out a little bit as well
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HALLIE: Do you get involved in your library's buying decisions - and if you do, what makes a difference in whether a book gets on the BUY list or not (aside from budget).

SALLY: Yes, I am involved in what we buy and I love it. We have a relatively large library system with 12 branches so there’s been a big push on streamlining the ordering system. At a central location certain books are put on the purchase list each month based upon reviews in major publications, this list might be up to 100 titles a month. Then the list is sent to each branch where a librarian there chooses which titles he or she may want based upon a knowledge of the demographics and reading habits within that branch library’s area.

If the book is by an author I’m unfamiliar with I will check our database for past popularity, the number of times an author has been checked out.

We also have checks and balances to go along with this process. We periodically run reports that tell us how many customers are waiting for a particular title. For each 6 customers waiting we immediately lease another copy of the book. Leasing allows us to keep our readers happy while a certain book is hot and then, when the title cools off, we return leased books for credit toward future leases. I think this is common in libraries around the country.If a title falls through the cracks we are confident that our customers will let us know and we respond quickly.

HALLIE: Thanks Sally! Questions or comments for Sally? She'll be around today to respond.