Brandy's Reads

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things By: Jenny Lawson Spurred by her #furiouslyhappy Twitter campaign, blogger Jenny Lawson takes us on a hilarious, self-deprecating, and sometimes life-altering ride of her ups and downs in life while battling life with her inner demons in this irreverent memoir. In her follow up to Let's Pretend This Never Happened,  Jenny Lawson has written an entertaining, candid, and moving take on her own battle with mental illness. While she is quick to point out that everyone's battle with their inner demons is different, her illness(es) will sometimes leave her unable to leave her bed or her house for days. Her roller coaster ride is filled with loops and twists, but thankfully, she receives a great deal of support from family and friends. Furiously Happy stemmed from a Twitter campaign that started when she received a letter about a friend that had passed away and she was tired of being sad and decided she had en...

For this week's prompt, I want to start a conversation about the different types of reviews. Different publications review different types of books and they allow different types of conversations. For example, Booklist will not publish negative reviews, while, as you have all seen, Kirkus has no problems with it (check out this savage review - https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sebastia-alzamora/blood-crime/). Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular (especially in the romance genre) see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author, and then still it's usually only RT Reviews (formally Romantic Times) or other genre heavy publications. How does this affect collection development? If books aren’t being reviewed, how do librarians and/or readers know if people are enjoying them? Librarians want to purchase books that will check out and circulate, but also books that have been reviewed. This is because they want to know...