The Hardest Part is Getting Started: How Reader's Advisory Can Help!

In my interactions with patrons in the library over the years, I have learned that many people struggle with reading not because of reading itself but because they can't pick a book. The inability to pick a title also comes in varieties ranging from "I can't find anything that interests me" to "there are just too many choices." I get it! There are times when I can't seem to decide, whether it's because my TBR is now well over eight thousand titles long or because I'm just in a reading funk. Seriously, my GoodReads lists are frightening! 

The struggle is real, and you are not alone. The good news is that librarians know about this problem and are here to help! Reader's advisory is one tool in my librarian toolbelt that I use to help patrons. Here's a quick rundown if you aren't familiar with that term. Reader's advisory is a library service where librarians help connect readers with books through direct or indirect means. So, whether you find a book using the resources on this guide or you stop in and talk to a librarian, you've participated in our reader's advisor services! 

The Vikings Read More Challenge & Book Club is a multifaceted reader's advisory tool to help guide readers to books. First, the "challenge" is a motivational mechanism meant to guide readers toward a broad topic to help narrow down choices. The February theme is "social justice and civil rights," I have created an entire page to help a potential reader pick a book. On the page for February, I have showcased a variety of potential titles centered around this theme. The books range from non-fiction to fiction, and there might even be a graphic novel or two! Does a reader have to select a "social justice and civil rights" book to participate in the book club? Absolutely not, but it gives that reader a place to start regarding title selection. Next, the club Zoom meetings give readers a place to chat and share their thoughts about books. Many of my favorite books came as recommendations from friends and colleagues. In addition to those great things, I've also added a reader's advisory page dedicated to book recommendation websites outside of our libraries that can expand your horizons! 

In the spirit of reader's advisory, I will provide a list of some "social justice and civil rights" books that I have read over the past few years. I'll spare you a review here, but if you want to chat about a title one-on-one, I'm willing and ready to do that! I will only be listing books we have at the SJR State Libraries for bonus points! 

Enjoy!

- Brittnee

And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts

Call Number: Palatka Circulation RA644.A25 S48 2007

ISBN: 9780312374631

Publication Date: 2007-11-27

Upon it's first publication twenty years ago, And The Band Played on was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of investigative reporting. An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts' expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years. Now republished in a special 20th Anniversary edition, And the Band Played On remains one of the essential books of our time.

 

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; Michael Eric Dyson (Foreword by)

Call Number: Orange Park Circulation HT1521 .D486 2018

ISBN: 9780807047408

Publication Date: 2020-11-17

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this "vital, necessary, and beautiful book" (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and "allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people' (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

 

So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Call Number: St. Augustine Circulation E184.A1 O454 2018

ISBN: 9781580056779

Publication Date: 2018-01-16

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in America Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it's hard to know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law hang up on you when you had questions about police reform? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life. "Simply put: Ijeoma Oluo is a necessary voice and intellectual for these times, and any time, truth be told." ―Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can't Touch My Hair

 

Doing Harm by Maya Dusenbery

Call Number: St. Augustine Circulation RA564.85 .D88 2018

ISBN: 9780062470805

Publication Date: 2018-03-06

Editor of the award-winning site Feministing.com, Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with doctors and researchers, and personal stories from women across the country to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today. In Doing Harm, Dusenbery explores the deep, systemic problems that underlie women's experiences of feeling dismissed by the medical system. Women have been discharged from the emergency room mid-heart attack with a prescription for anti-anxiety meds, while others with autoimmune diseases have been labeled "chronic complainers" for years before being properly diagnosed. Women with endometriosis have been told they are just overreacting to "normal" menstrual cramps, while still others have "contested" illnesses like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia that, dogged by psychosomatic suspicions, have yet to be fully accepted as "real" diseases by the whole of the profession. An eye-opening read for patients and health care providers alike, Doing Harm shows how women suffer because the medical community knows relatively less about their diseases and bodies and too often doesn't trust their reports of their symptoms. The research community has neglected conditions that disproportionately affect women and paid little attention to biological differences between the sexes in everything from drug metabolism to the disease factors--even the symptoms of a heart attack. Meanwhile, a long history of viewing women as especially prone to "hysteria" reverberates to the present day, leaving women battling against a stereotype that they're hypochondriacs whose ailments are likely to be "all in their heads."  Offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its sometimes catastrophic consequences, Doing Harm is a rallying wake-up call that will change the way we look at health care for women.