Part 1 (Readers Advisory):
1. What's the fourth book in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series?
I get this kind of question a lot at work, and I like to use bookseriesinorder.com for these questions. The fourth book in the series is The Lunatic Cafe, published in 1996.
2. A book like Barbara Kingslover's Prodigal Summer, but a bit faster paced:
I would recommend trying Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I chose this novel because Gruen has a similar writing style to Barbara Kingslover, it has ecological themes like Prodigal Summer, and judging from the reviews it's supposed to be quite the page turner suggesting it has a faster pace than Prodigal Summer.
3. Historical fiction set in Japan; highly descriptive:
I would recommend Memoirs of Geisha by Arthur Golden. I chose this book because it is historical fiction set in Japan and the writing style is described as richly detailed. While I haven't read it, I know it was extremely popular when it came out to the point that it was turned into a movie.
4. A read similar to Elizabeth George's Well-Schooled in Murder:
If the reader has already read the other books in the Lynley series or is not interested in reading more from that particular series, I would recommend Still Life by Louis Penny. It has the same kind of storyline; character-driven and intricately plotted. Novelist recommends this series for fans of Inspector Thomas Lynley. Lastly, Louis Penny is a very popular author at my library, so it seems like a safe bet. If the read would prefer something with some humor, I would also suggest Martha Grimes' Richard Jury mysteries. The first book in the series is A Man With a Load of Mischief. Like Still Life, Novelist recommends this series for fans of Inspector Lynley. Like George's novel, this book also takes place in the U.K., should that be of particular interest to the reader.
5. Zombie books like Walking Dead and World War Z:
I would recommend Blackout by Mira Grant and/or The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus. If he would like to expand beyond zombies to other undead apocalypses, he might like to read I Am Legend by Richard Matheson which involves vampires taking over the world. All three books are read-a-likes for World War Z on Novelist. They are all apocalyptic tales of the undead and humanity's attempt to survive. I think all of them would satisfy fans of the Walking Dead and World War Z.
6. Literary books that have been turned into movies in the last 5 years:
This is a very broad genre so ideally, I'd want to narrow down what kind of literary books the reader is interested in. However, given the information at hand, I would probably recommend Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens or A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, both of which have very recently been turned into movies. Most recently A Man Called Ove was turned into a movie called A Man Called Otto, but there is also a slightly older version with the same name as the book. There was also a new version of Little Women released in 2019 if the reader is interested in something more romantic in nature.
7. Clean thrillers (i.e. no foul language or sex scenes):
This is a popular genre style where I work so two authors come to mind immediately. Anything by Colleen Coble. Colleen is a well know author in this genre and just happens to be from and currently lives in the town where I live and actually holds a library card to the library where I work. She's an extremely popular author at my library. Another author that our patrons who are fans of clean suspense/thrillers enjoy is Lynette Eason. According to Novelist, Too Close to Home is a good place to start with Eason's books.
Part 2 (How I choose books):
I currently work as a circulation assistant at a public library. Part of that job entails checking patrons' books in/out, shelving and occasionally checking in newly processed books. In all honesty, I find a lot of books just going about these daily tasks. Sometimes I get recommendations from co-workers. I like to flip through the new BookPage when it comes out (my library subscribes to it). I have used Goodreads for years and recently started playing around with LibraryThing. Unfortunately, LibraryThing obstinately refuses to import my Goodreads library in its entirety. Thus, I still primarily use Goodreads. I have also used Novelist. My library just upgraded to Novelist Plus, which is exciting, though I haven't had a lot of time to explore it. I've also had recommendations from family and friends as everyone knows I'm a bookworm. Lastly, if I'm looking for the next book in a series that I'm reading or trying to figure which book is the first in a series I go to bookseriesinorder.com.
