Database spotlight: NoveList

Hmm, what should I read today?

Actually, I have a huge stack of books I want to read, and sometimes I read more than one at a time. Right now I'm on the last book of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and have also just started his From a Buick 8. It's the age-old dilemma of working in a library--surrounded by wonderful books, and no time to read them. But when I'm looking for something new to read, I get suggestions from my friends. And now, I have a new source for book recommendations. It's NoveList.

NoveList, a product of Ebsco Publishing, is going to be great fun for me! With its help I can waste time at work browse through hundreds of thousands of fiction titles, as well as what the site calls "readable nonfiction" titles. There are book reviews and recommendations for all age levels. You can search by author, title or series, and even by plot elements. I've already used NoveList to find fashion and science books for my daughter and truck books for my son, who's obsessed by anything on four wheels. I'll also be using it to suggest books to our patrons. Did you know you can enter the name of an author and find others with similar works? My to-read list grows exponentially with every visit to the site. Author biographies and book discussion guides will be a help to both literature students and teachers. Education students take note: there's a section just for teachers, with ways to connect books with various areas of the curriculum. There are even lesson plans to correlate with many picture books.

I wish I'd found this site sooner. Reinhardt folks, you really owe it to yourselves to check NoveList out!