Discuss This!
As a librarian, NoveList is a resource that I would definitely have a hard time living without. As everyone knows it is a great readers’ advisory tool; especially for genres you have little interest in reading. I am not a reader of science fiction, and I will readily admit that I have a hard time suggesting titles for steampunk and space opera readers! Another gem in NoveList that I recently started using is the Book Discussion Guides. Our community has many book discussion groups, so at least monthly I have a book discussion leader stop by the reference desk and ask for some help in finding author info and a few good discussion questions to help their group along.
NoveList Book Discussion Guides are accessible from Lists & Articles and Professional Toolbox in the orange menu bar and under the Quick Links lower down the main page. The guides are categorized as Adult or Teens, and each guide has author info, book summary, several discussion questions, and further reading. You can browse the 800+ guides by author or title, or use the Advanced Search to look for specific titles or authors and limit by Document type –Book Discussion Guides. You can further limit by Audience (adult/young adult), publication date, number of pages, author’s gender, author’s nationality, award winners, etc.
If you don’t find what you are looking for on NoveList, try Lit Lovers, they too have a great amount of discussion guides. Lit Lovers was started by a former college English instructor who currently resides in Pittsburgh!
Sharon (Mt. Lebanon Public Library)
