Looking for Mr. Goodbook

Forthcoming
books

BarnesandNoble.com's Coming soon pages for adult books and children's books offer a dozen or so titles of upcoming books available for purchase before their release.

Amazon.com's Not yet Published page also provides a short list of upcoming books ranked by popularity of their pre-orders.

The longest lists of upcoming books are discovered using the Amazon.com search page.

1. Go to Amazon.com's search screen.
2. Type in an author, title or very broad topic in subject (e.g., children, mystery, romance). Typing something in these boxes is required.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
4. Change "Publication date" to "during the year" and type in the current year or next year (e.g., 2003) in the box at the end of the line. (NOTE: Using "after the year" frequently brings up publication dates unbelievably far in the future. Such dates are probably typos.)
5. Change "Sort results by:" to "Publication date."
6. Scroll up and click the yellow "Search now" button.

Bestsellers

LJ:Digital (the digital version of Library Journal) offers bestseller lists and prepublication alerts. Look on the menus down the left side and across the top for choices.
(libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/)

Book Sense Bestseller Lists lists the bestsellers from 350 independent bookstores from around the United States. Lists are by genre including trade paperback fiction and nonfiction, hardcover fiction and nonfiction, children's fiction and picture books.
(www.booksense.com/bestsellers/)

BookSpot.com lists 10 sources of bestseller lists and groups sources by genre including audiobooks, business, children, computer, mystery, romance, self-help.
(www.bookspot.com/bestsellers.htm)

Barnesandnoble.com provides provides weekly bestseller lists by genre including fiction, nonfiction, children, business and self-help.
(www.barnesandnoble.com/bestsellers/)

Book reviews

Booklist is a source of one-paragraph reviews respected by librarians. In the past, CKLS members were required to subscribe to the print version. Booklist's reviews back to 1995 are now online, listed by...

• Author's last name (www.ala.org/booklist//007a.html)
• Volume number (i.e., year) (www.ala.org/booklist//007v.html)

TitleTales offers the full-text of reviews from Booklist, Kikus, Horn Book, School Library Journal, Library Journal and Publisher's Weekly. TitleTales is a free, extensive, easily searchable database of children's, young adult, and adult titles. Users can search by title, author, subject, by Dewey Decimal 100s, state and national awards, interest levels, publication date, print book review sources, classification (e.g., fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, large print, etc.), number of pages and Dewey Decimal call number range. To see bibliographic details click the "See details" at the end of titles. To read reviews click the red FTR at the end of titles. Though this database is free, users need to register. Only public librarians are eligible.
(www.bwibooks.com/), then click TitleTales.

AllReaders.com provides very detailed reviews on hundreds of books. Each reviewer writes a paragraph describing the plot and then fills out a very detailed multiple-choice form defining the type of main character, type of adversary, setting, theme, amount of violence, degree of character development, amount of description about the society and on and on. Users then use this same form with its multiple-choices for searching to find the exact book they desire. Reviews are also grouped by author in six genre, mystery/thriller, romance, biography, science-fiction, literature and history, for browsing. Unfortunately, the Web pages are very cluttered and the Web site clunky.
To browse titles:

1. look for the light green horizontal stripes one-third of the way down from the top.
2. Click the genre to browse.
3. When the Web page appears, scroll down and look in the middle of the page for names of authors.

1. Look for the box in the center of the screen called "Detailed Search."
2. Click the blue links for genre.
3. When the blue page appears, click on the drop-down menus to choose the features to search.
4. To start a search, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the button called "Click here to search."

Midwest Book Review contains short reviews grouped by the following areas: Children's BookWatch, Small Press BookWatch, Internet BookWatch, Business Bookshelf, etc.
(www.midwestbookreview.com/)

AcqWeb's Directory of Book Reviews on the Web is a long list of print magazines and other sources offering book reviews.
(acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/acqweb/bookrev.html)

Book Review Sources lists over 60 online and online versions of print magazine and some newspaper review sources. These sources cover academic and popular genre adult and children's books. Thanks to Lewis A. Armstrong at Emporia State University for recommending this site.
(ejw.i8.com/libweb.htm#bkrev)

BookSpot.com contains links to the book review section of 20 newspapers, 10 magazines, 6 online sources and other sources grouped by genre including children, cookbooks, mystery, romance, science fiction, and young adult.
(www.bookspot.com/reviews/)

Reader's Catalog groups over 40,000 of the best books selected by the The New York Review of Books into 3,000 catagories, including Books for Young Readers.

Amazon.com provides reviews from review sources like Publisher's Weekly and from readers. The link below is to the Web page for searching for author, title, or subject. Near the bottom of the page is a "Sort results by...." This drop-down menu can be changed for sorting by "Avg. Customer Review." Such a sort will bring better books to the top of the list.
(www.amazon.com/books)

The two Web sites below provide links to Amzazon.com by author name:

• PopularAuthorBooks.com has an extensive list of the names of popular authors with links to their their books on Amazon.com.
  (www.bestsellerreviews.com/)

• Stop, You're Killing Me focuses on writers of mysteries. My thanks to Linda Flanders of CKLS for bringing this Web site to my attention.
  (www.stopyourekillingme.com/)

Children's Literature lists links to over 50 online resources providing reviews of children's books.
(ejw.i8.com/libweb.htm#child)

Google's list of over a hundred book review sources
(directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Reviews_and_Criticism/)

Book awards

• Genre (www.literature-awards.com/awards_by_category.htm)
• Name of award (www.literature-awards.com/bookawards.htm)
• Author (www.literature-awards.com/authors/authors.htm)

BookSpot.com provides brief descriptions of all major awards with links to lists of award winners from the beginning to the present.
(www.bookspot.com/awards/)

Awards for Children's Literature by State is at (www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/newreadingd.htm)

TitleTales provides lists of state and national awards for children's, young adult, and adult titles. To get there, look on the main menu across the top of TitleTales Web page and click "Bibliographies." TitleTales is a free service to public libraries, but you must register.
(www.bwibooks.com/), then click TitleTales.

Reading
lists

The Book Sense 76 are recommendations by staff of independent U.S. bookstores. The list is annotated with the comments of the recommender. Book Sense also provides lists of recommendations on a topic.
(www.booksense.com/readup/booksense76/index.jsp)

ALA and RIF reading lists for children by grade at (www.udel.edu/ETL/RWN/ReadingLists.html)

United Methodist Women Reading Lists from 1997 to 2003.
(gbgm-umc.org/UMW/ReadingProgram/)

TitleTales provides core bibliographies by Dewey Decimal and type of book for children's, young adult, and adult titles. BWI also produces "Special Topics Lists." For example, BWI produced 4 lists supporting the 2003 Kansas Summer Library Program theme, Laugh It Up @ Your Library: non-fiction, juvenile fiction, picture books, YA fiction. To see these lists:

1. Login to TitleTales.
2. On the main menu across the top of the TitleTales page, click Bibliographies.
3. Click blue box called "BWI Special Topics List."
4. Use the scroll menu to get to "Laugh It Up @ Your Library"
5. Click ON the desired list.
6. Click the blue "View Selections" box.

Reading Lists lists seven online and online versions of print magazine and some newspaper sources for reading lists. Thanks to Lewis A. Armstrong at Emporia State University for recommending this site.
(ejw.i8.com/libweb.htm#read)

Publishers and catalogs lists over 50 online and online versions of printed publishers' catalogs. Thanks to Lewis A. Armstrong at Emporia State University for recommending this site.
(ejw.i8.com/libweb.htm#pub)

Best Books for Young Adults lists from 1996 to the present of the best books and top ten books for young adults.
(www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/bbya)

Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults are annual lists from 1997 to the present of paperback titles focusing on four topics. Members of YALSA can view full-annotations of the titles in the list.
(www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/poppaper)

Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers are lists of fiction and non-fiction titles for young adults from years 1996 to the present. YALSA members can read the full-annotations decribing the titles.
(www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/quickpicks)

Outstanding Books for the College Bound are lists of fiction, nonfiction, biography, drama and poetry recommended for young adults in grades 9 through 12. Each title is described in one sentence. With the exception of Shakespeare and a few other authors, most titles are Twentieth Century "classics." These lists are updated every five years.
(www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/obcb)

Large print books

Powells.com offers an extensive selection of new and used large print titles.
(www.powells.com/psection/LargePrint.html)

Large Print Review provides reviews for hundreds of large print books. The "What's new" section provides lengthy reviews of about six new fiction and nonfiction. At the end of each review is a short list of related titles. The reviews are archived.
(www.largeprintreviews.com/)

Large Print Books offers lists of large print books grouped by adventure, Bibles, biograpies, business, children, christian fiction, classics, cookbooks, crosswords, gardening, health, history, inspirational, mysteries, nonfictin, religion, romance, scince fictiion, teens and westerns. They also offer a list of large print Spanish language titles. Detailed information about the title is supplied by a link to Amazon.com.
(www.largeprintbooks.com/)

Magazines

Audiobooks,
Videos,
CDs,
DVDS

• Core List of Videos is a list of important nonfiction videos compiled by Members of the American Library Association Video Round Table Listserv.
  (www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/corefinal.html)

• Notable Videos for Adults is a yearly list of about 20 videos recommended by the American Library Association Video roundtable. Each entry on the list gives the title, distributor, price, length of video in minutes and date of release. Their lists go back to 1999.
  (www.ala.org/vrt/notablewinners.html)

• Children's Notables are lists of books, videos and recordings recommended by the Association for Library Services to Children. The lists go back to 1996.
  (www.ala.org/alsc/awards.html#notable)

• Popular paperbacks for young adults recommended by the Young Adult Library Services Associaton since 1997.
  www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/poppaper

• Selected audiobooks for Young Adults provides annual lists back to 1999 of audiobooks for young adults. YALSA members can see the full-annotations describing the titles.
  (www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/selectedaudio/selectedaudiobooks.htm)

• Selected Videos and DVDs for Young Adults is a yearly lists recommended by the Young Adult Library Services Association of ALA. The lists go back to 1997. YALSA members can see the full-annotations describing the titles.
  (www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/selecteddvds/selecteddvdsvideos.htm)

• Metacritic contains critics top-ten recommendatons for films.
  (www.metacritic.com/film/awards/#awards)

• Midcontinent Library's Based on the Book identifies over 1,000 books, short stories, and plays made into movies since 1980.
  (www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/movies/)

Awards

• Metacritic awards pages lists the nominees and winners for movies from numerous organizations.
  (www.metacritic.com/film/awards/#awards)

• Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video is an annual award given for the best movies for children. These awards go back to 1991.
  (www.ala.org/alsc/carnegie_recipients.html)

• Amazon.com sells videos, CDs, and DVDs. Records for titles contain the same selection information provided for books, including customer reviews and, for music, the ability to listen to samples. Records also provide links to (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/all-stores.html/)

• Booksontape.com provides reviews and customer ratings on hundreds of audiobooks on cassette and CDs. They also provide 4 different standing order plans for libraries.
  (library.booksontape.com/)

• AudioFile offers online hundreds of audiobook reviews by genre in the current edition of their print magazine. Access to the archive of over 8,000 reviews is available only to subscribers to the print magazine. The Golden Voices section lists the most popular narrators.
  (www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews.html)

• Metacritic brings together reviews by major critics for recent movies, videos, DVDs, music and games. The awards pages lists the nominees and winners from numerous organizations. This site also contains critics top-ten recommendatons.
  (www.metacritic.com/home.shtml)

• KidsFirst! reviews by adults and children on videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs and audiorecordings for children up to age 15. Reviews are a brief description of contents followed by quotes from the Kids First adult and kids jurors. Jurors also recommend age-ranges for each title. Reviews are grouped by fairytales, literature and myth, CD-ROMs, educational, family holiday, how-to, special interest, music, nature, foriegn language. A They also provide lists of recommended programs by age group.
  (www.cqcm.org/kidsfirst/)

• Internet Movie Database is a major online resource for information about movies.
  (www.imdb.com/)

• Educational Media Reviews Online reviews educational CD-ROMS, videos, and DVDs. In addition to the long reviews, each video is rated for the apporpriate audience and whether the title is recommended, highly recommended or not recommended. The search engine allows searching by title, selection of subject from a long list of subjects, recommendation and format (i.e., video, DVD and CD-ROM
  (libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/search.html)

• DocumentaryFilm.Net offer reviews of "non-fiction" films including series by PBS. This site contains lots of links to other sites about filmmakers, educational television shows, film festivals, and specific film titles.
  (www.documentaryfilms.net/)

• Video Librarian Online provides free long reviews rating recently released videos and DVDs. Access to the archive of 12,000 reviews is for subscribers only.
  (www.videolibrarian.com/)

• DVDreview.com provides reviews for hundreds of DVDs.
  (www.dvdreview.com/html/all_reviews.shtml)
  • For more information about DVD technology, read DVD Demystified at (dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html)
  • Advice on Amazon.com on playing borrowed DVDs.

• TitleTales offers reviews of audiobooks, read-alongs, videos and music. TitleTales is a free, extensive, easily searchable database of children's, young adult, and adult titles. Users can search by title, author, subject, media, by Dewey Decimal 100s, state and national awards, interest levels, publication date, print book review sources, classification (e.g., fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, large print, etc.), number of pages and Dewey Decimal call number range. To see bibliographic details click the "See details" at the end of titles.
  (www.bwibooks.com/nodhtml.html)

Movie ratings explanations

• How It Works is Jack Valenti's history and explanation of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) movie rating system. Jack Valenti has headed MPAA since 1966 and was one of the creators of the current system.
  (www.mpaa.org/movieratings/about/content.htm)

• How to use Movie Ratings is a thoughtful 2-page essay exploring issues related to movie ratings. One paragraph explains the reason some movies are "not rated."
  (www.reelmoviecritic.com/id1196.htm)

• MPAA Ratings gives an interesting 3-page history of the rating system. The last section called "Industry Reaction" describes how movie directors are using DVDs to distribute unrated versions of their movies.
  (www.hometheaterinfo.com/mpaa.htm)

Comics,
Graphic novels

• (my.voyager.net/~sraiteri/comicslinks.htm)
• (www.library.on.ca/Profinfo/CollDev.html#Graphic)

Recommended graphic novels for public libraries by Steve Raiteri Revised October 29, 2003.
(my.voyager.net/~sraiteri/graphicnovels.htm)

Comics Worth Reading provides capsule, long reviews and previews of numerous, good comics and graphic novels. (www.mindspring.com/~johannadc/cwr.html)

Diamond Book provides lists of recommended comics in numerous genre categories. Librarian and columnist Katherine L. Kan reviews numerous titles.
(bookshelf.diamondcomics.com/reviews/)

No Flying, No Tights: Graphic novels for teens reviews of comics for teens about superheroes, fantasy, science fiction, humor, non-fiction, historical fiction, crime and suspense, and realism.
(leep.lis.uiuc.edu/seworkspace/rebrennr/304LE/gn/index.html)

Graphic Classics publishes graphical novels of classic literature by Poe, Doyle, Wells, and Lovecraft.
(www.graphicclassics.com/)

The Librarians Guide to Anime and Manga moves from definitions of Anime to Manga to recommendations, tips and issues.
(www.koyagi.com/Libguide.html)