Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

We try to keep our posts here on Shelf Renewal original content, but we’re also big believers in the mantra, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.”  So when our friend Brad Brooks posted a fantastic list of graphic novel suggestions for the Oak Park Public Library over on their GenreX site, I couldn’t help but make sure you all got a chance to read it.  Ridiculously spot-on readalike suggestions here, people!

Don’t forget that Booklist is well known for our coverage of Graphic Novels, as well! You can browse reviews on Booklist Online, there are feature articles a-plenty, and every year we have a Spotlight issue focusing on Graphic Novels, as well.

Looking for the perfect Father’s Day gift for the hip dad in your life? Check out the reviews on Gear Patrol for the coolest in books with high-style, guy appeal.”Gear Patrol is a gathering place for guys hell bent on making the most of their time on planet Earth in the 21st century. What we do is what magazines have always done: provide a filter on the world, our take on what’s valuable and interesting, using original photography and thoughtful storytelling — but with the agility a website affords. That means we can tap dance between piping hot news, valuable, richly researched insights and timeless stories about people and far-off places, on the same day, on the same page, from our HQ in New York or anywhere else in the world. We value our long game and our short game equally.” [Strong self-esteem recommended. Even the most tuned-in urban sophisticate may feel like a bit of a bumpkin after reading.]

Philipp Meyer’s The Son stands out on this week’s NYT bestseller list. It’s not part of a series. It spans 150 years. There are no vampires, government conspiracies, or dragons. Earning some of the highest praise of the year, it’s an ambitious exploration of American history focusing on three generations of one Texas family. (Hint: If your dad likes literary, historical fiction or still has a hardbound copy of Lonesome Dove on his bookshelf–this would make a REALLY GOOD Father’s Day gift.)

For other thought-provoking examinations of the father-son dynamic, suggest that your readers dive into:

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
In the Fall by Jeffrey Lent
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Marsha Toy Engstrom is The Book Club Cheerleader, and she firmly believes that “most reading groups who fail, do so based on faulty group dynamics.” Therefore, her motto is, “They come for The Book, they stay for The Fun, and they leave if you screw up The People part.”

Marsha’s main site offers a handy “Tip of the Month,” she answers questions in the “Coach’s Corner,” and has tons of links to great resources.  The associated blog is filled with Top 10 lists, and lengthy reviews.

Is there a Buffy-loving, English-major librarian alive who hasn’t already downloaded tickets to this weekend’s opening of Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing? Our people may be a little over-represented in the theaters this weekend, but we won’t be alone. Encourage your drama-loving patrons to explore the many incarnations of Shakespeare’s plays represented in these Bard-inspired works.

• Love in Idleness by Amanda Craig
• Juliet by Anne Fortier
• Thirteenth Night by Alan Gordon
• The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig
• Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King
• Prospero Lost by L. Jagi Lamplighter
• Fool by Christopher Moore
• Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
• Prospero’s Daughter by Elisabeth Nunez
• The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer
• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
• Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Mystery Fanfare blogger Janet A. Rudolph is known as “The Mistress of Mystery.” She is the writer/producer for Murder on the Menu®, director of Mystery Readers International, editor of the Mystery Readers Journal, a teacher of mystery fiction, and has been a columnist for most of the mystery periodicals. Posts range from mystery news to cartoons to author obituarys to  themed lists. It’s clear that Rudolph is fan and her love of the genre will appeal to other armchair detectives.

Chicago police lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels anchors this over-the-top mystery/thriller franchise. In Whiskey Sour, Jack’s personal life is as much a part of the story as her search for a serial killer who is torturing and kiling young women, leaving their corpses displayed in public places around Chiago. Jack’s lecherous former partner is now a PI wanting some leads, her new partner is one doughnut away from a heart attack, and ever since her divorce, her love life’s been a mess. Don’t let Konrath’s humor fool you, this series can be grisly.

I’ve mentioned this fabulous site before, but it remains my all-time favorite website for mystery readers’ advisory.

Stop You’re Killing Me: This mega-mystery site has put every mystery book properly in place  – you can search by author, title, character name, character profession, place,  time period, the list goes on.

Created by Bonny Brown and maintained by Lucinda Surber and Stan Ulrich, this is a site that we just can’t get enough of. About the only thing missing is a searchable index by color of the front cover.  (Come on, guys, get on that, will you??)

So when your patron comes to the desk looking for a mystery they read 10 years ago, featuring an Episcopal vicar from New Jersey, it will take you no time at all to point them to the Mother Lavinia Grey series by Kate Gallison.  And you will look BRILLIANT.

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/

Now a Syracuse newspaper report, former Long Island debutante Madeline Dare can’t quite shake her upper class upbringing, no matter how far removed her current circumstances seem. In A Field of Darkness, her two worlds collide when a story about the 20-year-old murder of two young hippies points to her uber-preppy cousin as a main suspect. Believing her cousin to be too spoiled and incompetent to pull of a decades-long cover up. Madeline’s on her own when husband Dean is literally off working on the railroad, so she takes up her own investigation–meeting some upper New York State locals who are as Faulkner as she is Fitzgerald. The beginning of a smart, sophisticated series.

If a website’s been around since 1995, it must be doing something right. What MysteryNet has been doing is creating a welcome haven for puzzle-solvers of all stripes. It has essays and links to awards and bookstores and reading lists, but what really sets it apart is its commitment to collecting online mysteries and mystery games. Every Month the site features See-n-Solve, Solve-it, Twist and Flash mysteries. Every Day: Get-a-Clue mini-mystery. The site also provides a very active online community with mystery discussion forums on everything related to the mystery genre. A true time-losing rabbit hole of a site for mystery fans.