Sometimes I wish I worked in a library where I could do reader’s advisory. I had someone come up to me today looking for fun new fiction books to read. Although we DO have a new books shelf, it is going to be crowded with titles like Reading the East India Company, 1720-1840 : colonial currencies of gender as opposed to light reading. So other than giving this poor guy some call number ranges to browse for literature in and telling him about the wonders of interlibrary loan there wasn’t a whole lot I could do
There are a couple of things I’ve read recently that I would put on one of those handy bookmarks or flyers you can pick up from a library that does reader’s advisory, listing books similiar in tone or genre.

If you like the works of Tamora Pierce and (plenty people do, I never expected to run across a web page debating the question “Is Alanna a Slut?”) and Robin McKinley AND want to read some manga, you will probably like Basara. The heroine, Sasara, comes to grips with her destiny and takes on a non-traditional gender role in a post-apocalyptic Japan that has turned into desert and is ruled by feudal warlords. And if you like stories of star-crossed love, the developing relationship between Sasara and the object of her affections is as star-crossed as any pair of lovers can possibly get.

Another book that I read a while ago that would appeal to people who liked Harry Potter is The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud. Actually I picked up the advance copy of the book at ALA in Toronto, gave it to my little sisters, and then stole.. I mean “borrowed it back” when one of them told me it was better than Harry Potter. Although there are some similarities since both books center around orphan boy wizards training to better their magic skills, Amulet of Samarkand is much darker in tone. Nathaniel is so consumed with ambition and wanting to gain magical power that he manages to capture a djinni named Bartimaeus. He then forces Bartimaeus to steal a mysterious amulet, setting powerful forces in motion. The book switches back and forth between showing events from the points of view of Bartimaeus and Nathaniel. As befitting an imortal djinni, Bartimaeus has a very dim view of humanity and frequently expresses himself through the use of sarcastic and witty footnotes.