The Librarian's Guide to Book Programs and Author Events

December 1, 2016

What better way is there to engage and enrich a local community of book lovers than by hosting book discussions and author events at a library? Hooper (former adult books editor, Booklist; Writing Reviews for Readers' Advisory) describes how to plan and coordinate the many types of book-related activities such as book clubs, author appearances, and community-wide reading initiatives that would be a natural fit to a library's calendar of events. Despite the overly long and repetitive academic introduction, the substance of Hooper's guide is written in a conversational tone that encourages staff to get excited about planning their library's reading and book programs. VERDICT While the guide provides valuable information and insights, as well as suggestions of titles and a few useful websites, other works such as Brett W. Lear's Adult Programs in the Library, Chappie Langemack's The Author Event Primer, and Lauren Zina John's Running Book Discussion Groups offer more planning tools and publicity advice to assist staff in bringing their programming ideas to fruition.--Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

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