Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

This is classic awesome sales goodness. What a great idea!

The art of matching the consumer to the product is fading in other arenas, as well. I hate it when I go to a restaurant and ask the server what they recommend. Most of the time they respond with: “It depends on what you like.” No questions about what I like, no qualifying, no information about what the chef is proud to offer. I always want to tell them to grow a sac and quit riding the fence.

There used to be a wonderful site which automated book matching, social networking before web 2.0. It worked much better than Amazon recommendations, too. Unfortunately it has been shuttered (and my word is dead22—how appropriate!). Pity, since their romance users were few and far between which made the romance recs hit or miss for me—I would have loved to see the bitchery unleashed on their data sets.

This request immediately reminded me of my favourite ever Dick Francis novel, Longshot, about a writer of survivalist guides who ends up roped in to ghostwrite an autobiography - and ends up mixed in with a whole group of racing types who are themselves recovering from a murder in their community.  The theme of survival in unusual terrains is continued throughout - particularly as a source of bonding between the protagonist and the people he is staying with, and when a Mysterious Someone starts using the info from his own books to set dangerous, life-threatening traps.

The book is actually set in rural England, not exactly the wild exotics, but it is all about surviving scary landscapes and how even your own backyard can be a scary landscape if you’re not prepared.

Wow.  i haven’t read this book in years and even had to google to find the title but it’s pretty firmly lodged in my memory!

I remember when I first started reading romances I lived in a town that at the time was still “small town USA”. Teresa, the manager of the local privately owned bookstore was my dealer. Each week she would set aside books she thought I would enjoy. Through her guidance I read books I may not have read, discovered authors I still love today, and basically expanded my horizons into genres I would never have read. I agree her personal service is something that is lost today (unless you live in small town USA). I am excited about you giving through the net this back to the world, but at the same time…it makes me nostalgic for the past.

SPAMWORD EARLY48=I was introduced to at least 48 books early because of Teresa.

I’m a bookseller, I’ve worked in indies for ten years, and I handsell every day. Trying to match reading history, likes and dislikes to what I have in stock and in my head is really most of what my job is about, and it’s what I like most about being a booksseller.

One of my favourite things about it is that once in a while the customer will handsell me books, based on my recommendations to them. Or when another customer overhears, and joins in the conversation.

My colleagues and I handsell one another books, too. “You hafta read this one. You liked that one, didn’t you? Here’s a book I think you’ll like.”

To me, the entire point of going to a bookstore is the conversation about books, getting tips about what next to read. The on-line bookstores, while cheaper, with a wider stock, just don’t have a way to get that personal touch, and you tend to miss the unexpected book that a visit to a bookstore might have given you.

Yes, I’m totally biased.

rural locales where the landscape is dangerous

Black Hills by Nora Roberts:  The hills of South Dakota and dude: Mountains, wild animals and No Public Transpo.

Midnight Rainbow by Linda Howard: Romance in a jungle.

The Dead Sea Cipher or The Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters:  Murder, mayhem and romance (touch of) in dangerous settings.

This is HARD with only one cup of coffee!

Good idea! But I can’t imagine the mouth breathers and window lickers who work at Books A Million hand selling me a book. And now that I know there’s a term for it, turns out I’ve been hand selling to the cashiers who work there.

I am blessed that I have an independent shop close to me and I give them 80% of my business and they hand sell. Not a lot, or maybe just not to me because I always know what I want & try out new authors all the time. The do have some shelves where books recommended by employees are stacked and Lily’s; well we’re BFFs. Anytime we’re in the store together we spend a good 10 minutes comparing notes and putting books in each others hands.

Oh and to actually answer the question and not always make it about me… ;)

Elizabeth Lowell’s Death is Forever or you may find it used under the old title of Diamond Tiger written by Ann Maxwell. Great scenes where our couple is walking through the Australian outback. Without supplies and if that isn’t enough they’ve got a stalker too.

@ Karin: Absolutely.  Having a conversation attract yet another person with recommendations is one of the best things about discussing books in a bookstore, whether you’re the customer or the bookseller.  Always delightful.

As for the remote locale suggestion, I immediately thought of The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier.  It’s a bit… quirky, but a large chunk of it has to do with a woman trapped alone in the antarctic. 

I also don’t know if it’s quite what you’re looking for, but a good bit of Ann Patchett’s excellent novel The Magician’s Assistant follows an LA woman into the rural midwest after the man she loves dies.  The danger isn’t quite there, but the isolation certainly is.  Neither of these suggestions are romance per se, but hopefully still helpful?

I am always pretty sceptical about the ‘If you liked X, you’ll love Y’ form of bookselling.  The books that I have loved most have been ones I’ve picked up as not really like anything else I read - Jasper Fforde’s books are a great example of this.  Even within the genre, I find that other people’s recommendations don’t work too well.  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told, ‘If you love Heyer, you’re sure to love X’.  It’s never worked.  But if you’d like to try me out with your expert, tell her I really, really, really love Heyer’s Venetia.  I promise I’ll read whatever she suggests, but I make no promises to love it.

Most of the time I buy my books online, but I dearly mourn a little used bookshop in Oxford.  My friends and I used to call it “Black Books” after the very funny comedy series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtcCmYcBwfw&feature=related
It was run by a very grumpy oldish woman, who when she suggested a book you daren’t not buy it.  Funny thing is that she was usually right - I’ve still got several of the books she suggested on my keeper shelf.  She might have been grumpy but she knew her stuff.

I’ve been racking my brain for a romance that I liked set in dangerous territory, but I mainly come up with horror.  King’s The Shining was the first one that popped into my mind—snowed in as caretakers to a closed luxury hotel with a history—my favorite King ever. 

Michael McDowell also wrote a scary novel that made the drifting sand dunes of the Gulf Coast a very dangerous place—Elemental.  McDowell wrote the screenplay for Beetlejuice so you know to expect the unusual although the two are quite far apart in tone and effect.

Phil Rickman who writes the Merrily Watkins mystery series, also wrote Man in the Moss set on the edge of the Pennines at Samhain.  When the body of a celtic priest/warrior is removed from a bog the village it has protected begins to have problems.  I like to read this one at this time of year.  Rickman is very good with the parts of Britain where the dangerous old Pagan lurks (rather than the new age sanitized stuff.)

In the library world this is called “Reader’s Advisory” and though it might be a dying art in bookstores, it’s still taught in library science grad programs.

Stephanie Bond offers a great mini-tutorial on handselling at her website under Bookseller Articles (http://www.stephaniebond.com/booksellers_articles.html)

It’s where I learned tips that have measurably improved my customer-service skills.

Ditto e, at the library it is reader’s advisory. The guru of RA is Nancy Pearl, who also is from the northeast. She has some interesting things to say about how you match people with books. What I’ve got out of it is that key to getting from one book they liked to another book they might like is finding out what it is about the first one that appealed to them. Best example is Stephanie Meyer, lots of folks like her books, but they like different things. Some people like the romance elements, others the vampires, others that it is “clean,” some people like it because it is popular, and I had someone yesterday ask if I could find another book with the same writing style as Meyers.

So if you don’t have a good book store around to recommend books, give your public library a try.

Every so often the person at the register in Borders will try to handsell me something based on what I’m buying but I say try because every time that has happened they’re handselling a book I’ve already read. Which, I suppose, is good but doesn’t really help me find new books.

No one has ever tried to handsell me anything in the indie bookstore I occasionally go to. But I only occasionally go there because they don’t have a romance section at all. They’re a bit snobby in that respect.

The first book that came to my mind is heavier on the suspense than romance, but “The Killing Hour” by Lisa Gardner uses inhospitable eco-disaster environments as part of the plot.  Love Lisa Gardner’s books, even though she’s moved more mainstream.  This does one uses characters from previous books; reading the others might better intro the characters but it can stand alone.

“Up Close and Dangerous” by Linda Howard - plane crash in the snowy mountains.

Seems like every third romantic suspense I read involves trekking through the jungle somewhere.  Cindy Gerard and Roxanne St. Claire do it well.

Nora Roberts’ “Hot Ice” chases through Madagascar, I think?

Since I’m not big into harsh landscapes (prefer city settings like New York or LA) I can’t comment on that part. Though there was one recently I can’t remember the name of - most of it took place in a small town near a wilderness, but part of the back story is set back in the woods. It’s about a little girl whom comes wandering out of the woods, half wild, with a wolf pup, and the doctor whom fights to bring her back to civilization. Turns out the kid and her mom had been kidnapped years ago by a rapist whom raped the mom and kept the child chained up. The girl’s wealthy father had been accused of murdering the mom and her. The mom was long dead by the time the girl escaped the woods and the rapist hadn’t shown up to feed her in a long while, which is why she made the escape, because she was hungry. Darn it, can’t remember the title at all. But it was pretty good. Not earth shattering great, but pretty good.

But in answer to the question - nope, never, not even as a small child, has anyone handed me a book that I absolutely loved. Probably because I’m as picky a reader as I am an eater. As you’ll find out when you read my e-mail.

There’s a huge difference between booksellers and people who work in bookstores or sell books online.  If you go to n independant store you have a greater chance of talking to a clerk that loves books and is actually well-read.  If you buy books online, and you buy from an established bookseller, you have a greater chance of buying from a booklover, not just a person who sells books because they bought the $9.99
digital book on “how to sell books on the internet”.  For instance, I sell books online -have for just shy of 11 years.
But I’ve been collecting books for 40 years, and read voraciously.  My home (which is probably sinking as I type) is filled with close to 10,000 books.  Only 1,400 or so are listed online, because the rest are my personal books and not for sale.

That’d be the difference between a person selling books and a bookseller.

square43 - the number of pounds per inch my house foundation is currently supporting,thanks to all the books

Lol I hand sell to people all the time.  Strangers in the bookstore, strangers on the bus, waiting rooms…...etc.  I’m incredibly nosey and interested in what other people are reading at all times.  But I will say that I’ve had the same strangers (especially the bus riders) catch later on and tell me how they loved the books I recommended.  :-)  I always feel like my Karmic balances shifts a little more in my favor when I do that.

Hmmm…harsh landscape + romance?  I’m going to have to go with Darlene Marshall’s Smuggler’s Bride, where there’s an alligator attack, backwoods critters and insects, snakes, palmetto scrub and possum stew.

Anyone who’s spent a summer in interior North Florida without air conditioning knows what I’m talking about.[g]

I’m with Kristina—I handsell books to people all the time. But I still somehow didn’t make it past the interview stage for a job at Barnes and Noble!

Ditto Karin…

I am a bookseller also.  We carry a huge notebook in the store our customers LOVE.

It is a “if you like… try”  with a twist… we allow our customers to add to it on a regular basis.

What an awesome feature! In my 25 years of book buying I can only recall being “handselled” once! It was at the Borders in Madison Square Garden. I was getting ready to hop on a bus back to DC and ran in looking for the first Black Dagger Brotherhood book. I was looking in Sci-Fi/Fantasy first and when I couldn’t find it asked for help. The girl who helped me must have been specifically assigned to the Romance Section because she KNEW her sh*t!

I walked out with 2 BDB books, a Sherrilyn Kenyon and a Lora Leigh book. Lastly she offered her email address to me so I could ask her more questions, but since I didn’t live in NYC I didn’t accept and now I’m kicking myself. She was something special and I hope this skill doesn’t die out!

I agree her personal service is something that is lost today (unless you live in small town USA).

I live in a large city (San Francisco) and maybe it’s different here because our neighborhoods function like small cities, but there’s a ton of personal service at the local shops (books, food, clothes, whathaveyou). The key is being a regular and getting to know the owner/staff (as you would in a small town). And I’ve certainly seen the exact same dynamic at work in Manhattan (my best friend lives in Hells Kitchen). I think maybe the key here is to live in “small town” or “big city” not suburbia (my parents live in suburbia, and there are basically no real “shops”, just Big Box Stores where it’s pretty much impossible for them to give you personal service).

My favorite part of book stores are the shelf of staff recommendations. I always peruse those when I’m browsing for books.

What a great post idea! I’m writing you soon - or do I need to write to Billie? It’s probably in the post and I missed it… I’ve got a setting too that I just love and want more of in my romance reading.

I’ve never ever ever had a bookstore employee hand sell me anything, nothing, not even a notepad or a book light. So sad now! At first the idea sounded too invasive to me; I imagined some pushy sales person working on commission (and if you do, bless you’re heart, I understand and feel for ya, but I prefer to ask for help first…), but a person in the store that would know what books I might like based on a certain element? This actually sounds awesome.

This is all kinds of awesome.

I haven’t had booksellers hand-sell to me, but I have a friend who works in a chain bookstore and they hand-sell all the time.

As far as books in dangerous locations, I agree with Nora Roberts’ Black Hills, and would add her Northern Lights as well - takes place in Alaska.

As well as hand-selling, another tactic I enjoy from a bookstore is a newsletter. I get a couple from independent bookstores, where the owners/managers take a lot of time to write a newsletter with a description of upcoming releases, plot descriptions, and quite a few personal reviews/recommendations. I’ve added quite a few books to my “to buy” list this way.

Fantastic new feature! I love this whole idea. Handselling is definitely a lost art—at most chain bookstore, I find myself doing more to help other customers browsing the romance section than the employees ever do. I recently met another great handseller, though, at a used bookstore in Port Clinton, Ohio! Annette turned me on to some great authors, and I think probably sold more copies of MY book in a single day than the nearby big box bookstore.

As for dangerous locations—what’s that oooold Linda Howard that takes place in a jungle? Is that HEART OF FIRE? I must have read that one fifteen times when I was, oh, about fifteen…

I love books set in rural locales where the landscape is dangerous, and going off alone without preparation can kill you - like the frozen north, the exceptionally hot tropics, that kind of thing.

Have you tried the Jade Del Cameron mysteries, by Suzanne Arruda?  They are set in Africa, just after WWI.  The heroine was raised in New Mexico and went to France to be an ambulance driver during the war.  Though suffering from PSTD from her experiences, Jade is the epitome of intrepid. 

The first book, Mark of the Lion explains how and why she ends up in Africa.  I liked the first book the best, though the others were good, too.  Don’t mind the Editorial Reviews on the Amazon page—I feel like they damned the book with rather faint praise and I suspect it’s because it has a romantic subplot.  (I draw this conclusion due to such phrases as:  “romances a man twice her age”; “conclusion is a tad predictable”; “not as captivating” as a book about Africa by some guy who probably didn’t go for that romantic nonsense.)

The books that I have loved most have been ones I’ve picked up as not really like anything else I read - Jasper Fforde’s books are a great example of this.

Yes, but his books aren’t like anything else at all! They are totally awesome though—a world inside books, where the characters are real people, and the books are constructed like movie sets, and the heroine polices them, both from the inside and out.  Absolutely wonderful.

But not pertinent to the question.  I’m sure I must have read tons of books like this—let me think. What immediately sprang to mind was the Aussie outback.  Janet Gover’s The Farmer Needs a Wife is set in various rural parts of Australia.

Oh and if you fancy a historical, Loretta Chase’s Mr Impossible is set in 1820s Egypt, where just about everything was deadly.

And I know there was a Sherrilyn Kenyon set in Alaska, if you want paranormal.  Dance With The Devil, I think.

I have recollections of the Aussie outback being a staple setting for old Mills & Boons but can’t think of any titles. The desert of some invented Arabian country is also a strong memory (just think: you’re stranded in this inhospitable climate, you’re dehydrated, it’s getting dark, a snake scares you into stumbling and twisting your ankle, and just as all hope is lost a tall man in a white robe gallops through the sand and sweeps you into his arms.  Mmm).

On the Edge by Ann Aguirre is a romance set in an interestingly hostile environment.  Also, the early Amelia Peabodys by Peters are romancery and set in Egypt.

The now-closed Scotland Yard Books outside Chicago was known for hand-selling mystery fiction. As a tiny, but enthusiastic independent, our customers relied on us to introduce them to the right books and authors. I had long thought of our role as that of matchmaker and it was the most satisfying work I’ve ever done. So glad to see it’s still happening, especially at the SBs.

What about shadow of the moon by mm Kaye set during the Indian “mutiny”

Komarr and A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold tell the story of Miles and Ekaterin’s romance, and the first book features a physcially dangerous setting.  Both books have a strong elements of political and emotional danger as well.  Come to think of it, Shards of Honor tells the story of Miles’s parents’ romance, and that is set on an unpopulated and unexplored planet.

Also, Out of Control by Suzanne Brockmann starts out in California, but then moves to a jungle in Indonesia.

I also want to mention, I love, love, LOVE Julia Spencer-Fleming’s books, and I’m so glad to see that Billie recommended them, even though they’re not romance, per se.

Yes, but his books aren’t like anything else at all!

Well, no book is exactly “like” any other book, and I’d usually do a more in-depth interview about a person’s individual “appeal factors”, but I’ve had great success recommending Terry Pratchett, Christopher Moore, Tom Holt, and Gideon Defoe to fans of Jasper Fforde. 

All of them “break the fourth wall” in a wry way to a greater or lesser degree.

I used to be so spoiled when in came to hand selling. David and Cathy at the Bookmark in Charlotte knew me…well like a well read book. Every time I walked in (2 or so times a week @ lunchtime) they would have two or three romances waiting behind the counter for me to check out. 8 times out of 10 I bought them.

It got to the point that sometimes they would have me read ARCs before they decided to buy and once or twice they asked me to recommend to other customers.

*Sigh* It was the perfect bookstore-reader relationship.

Alas I switched day jobs and don’t work downtown anymore and they don’t open on the weekends. Lord how I miss them.

Reader’s Advisory is my favorite part of the job, when somebody is willing to accept it.  Most of the browsers in the fiction section at my library want to be left alone, but I’ve made some Kelley Armstrong and Steven Saylor fans.

I have to admit that my favorite patrons are the ones who, after we’ve run through “I like this and this about author X” “Well, author Y has a lot of that…” also ask me just to tell them my favorites in a genre because they want to try something different, too.

Chloe, I so understand your pain.  I had a close relationship with a B.Dalton in one of the malls.  The manager and several of the staff would save books for me.  Even books I had never expressed an interest in.  If they thought it fit with my tastes they held one back for me to look at when I came in.  Sadly that mall decided to go upscale boutique and the bookstore closed.  Then I had the same relationship with a Brentanos at another mall.  Same thing happened, the mall management decided they just NEEDED a trendy Brazilian BBQ on that end of the mall and my store disappeared. 

And interesting thing both stores had was a “What the Staff is Reading Now” shelf in front of the store.  Each staff person would hand write a review for what they were reading that week and post it with a copy of the book above it.  I always loved stopping at that shelf and getting a peak into their minds.

Estelle, I’m going to assume your a librarian?  I must applaude you and those in your field that take an interest in your patrons reading habits.  A very dear lady introduced me to Anita Blake and Harry Dresden (both characters, not authors) when I was in a Romance Novel slump. 

I had been sighing frustratedly (sp?) in front of the romance shelf at my local library when she walked up to me and said “You look bored.  Let me show you something”  At first I was very skeptical cuz I thought vampire/horror/fantasy genre was tacky and silly.  But she dared me, gave me the first 5 Anita Blakes and said to let her know what I thought.  I was back a week later for the rest of them, she then handed me Harry Dresden and Weather Wardens.  I’ve been hooked ever since.  I wish she was still at that library, she would so be on my Christmas list.

BTW, I do STILL love Anita Blake.  Just spent the whole summer reading ALL the her books (17 of them) in a row.  Gave me a fresh perspective on the story line and a new appreciation of what is thought to be a tired and dead series.  :-)

Anywho, thanks for all you do Estelle!!  We the readers appreciate our librarians!!

BTWx2:  I love Kelley Armstrong!!

Not a romance, but Elizabeth Hay’s Late Nights On Air definitely fits the bill of dangerous location (frozen north in this case), and it’s a beautifully written book to boot. Awesome stuff! Above Reader should definitely try it. :)

Meg Cabot’s She Went All the Way started with hero and heroine getting stuck in Alaska without shelter. Then when they make it back to civilization, they go to LA. Another dangerous environment!

Not sure if this has already been posted but “Duncan’s Bride’ by Linda Howard is set in Montana and there are some very harrowing winter scenes in there.
Also “Midnight Rainbow’ another Linda Howard which is hilarious and set mainly in a jungle.

I’ve never been hand-sold a book, but I know of booksellers who have hand-sold mine and I love them dearly.

Wow, thanks to Billie for remembering those books!  She really DOES know her stuff! 

I have enjoyed writing books that demand a great deal of the characters, and often that can come from the environment.  I think my favorite was the desert in THE DREAM HUNTER, which almost becomes a character in itself, I think.

I want to know when Billie is going to host an overnighter at Powell’s? I just want to bring a sleeping bag and roam those halls all night . . . though I’m terrified of what my MUST OWN stack would look like come morning, LOL!

On the Edge by Ann Aguirre

I think this one was written by Ilona Andrews, not Ann Aguirre.  Or, at least, that’s the name it was published under.  I know Ilona Andrews is the pen name for a husband and wife team.  Maybe Ann is the wife half of that couple?  Anyway, I read this one not long ago and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Jasper Fforde was one of the authors I used to handsell quite frequently because his books crossed the genre restrictions.

They are literary, they are sci-fi, they are mystery, they are romance.

Authors I originally discovered via handselling include Janet Evanovich, JK Rowling, Jennifer Crusie, and Elizabeth Peters. All but Peters I started reading BEFORE they became NYT bestselling authors thanks to the booksellers who recommended them.

To some extent, the indie bookstores MAY have someone who can handsell, but they’re also just as likely to employ people who only read literary fiction or non-fiction. At least, that’s the case with nearly every indie bookstore I’ve visited. They don’t carry and don’t read romance.

I worked for Barnes and Noble for years (a big two level store) and we were trained to handsell. We had a list of which booksellers liked what genre. So if a bookseller who didn’t read Sci fi needed advice for a customer interested in that genre, he or she could hop on the phone and get recommendations from someone working in a completely different part of the store.

We had also had a list similar to the one Sarah’s friend compiled. It was kept at the fiction area at all times.

As for dangerous locales, they tend to lend themselves to romantic suspense or paranormal romance. Feehan has several set in Brazil. Kenyon’s Dance with the Devil takes place in Alaska. Roxanne St. Claire’s Make Her Pay takes place in the ocean off of Florida and in Portugal. And there a few of Suzanne Brockmann’s novels set in dangerous locales as well.

I’ve had great success recommending Terry Pratchett, Christopher Moore, Tom Holt, and Gideon Defoe to fans of Jasper Fforde.

Since I’m a huge fan of Pratchett and also quite enjoyed Holt, I might look up the others.  Thanks!

Incidentally, Jasper Fforde’s cousin-in-law is the chairman of the Romantic Novelists Association, Katie Fforde.

BTW, someone mentioned the Dresden Files. Jim Butcher also writes the Codex Alera series, which is all-out fantasy set in a world where people can control the elements (fire, water, metal, wood, air and earth).  This quite literally makes the environment lethal, as watercrafters can smother you with water, aircrafters choke you, earthcrafters bury you, etc. He’s a very compelling storyteller (and a very nice man too: was anyone else lucky enough to spy him at one of the free signings—Penguin? Berkley?—at RWA Nationals?).

I’ve worked at four bookstores in my life, two used and two new (Borders and Waldenbooks).  As a lifelong reader, it was my pleasure to introduce and/or recommend books to my customers.  In fact, while at Waldenbooks, I had two regular customers who simply told me to pick out books and they would buy them, one in Romance, the other a 11 year old boy who would come with his father the weekend after report cards came out to get Science Fiction books (from the adult section, not children). 

It’s a heavy responsibility, but a wonderful way of passing the love along.  And I rarely recommended the big names, although there were exceptions.  I tended to go with the more obscure writers, the ones who got no respect from neither their publishers nor the bookstores.

Duh, forgot to answer the question.  A romance set in a wild area has me thinking of a few authors right off the bat. 

The first is Essie Summers.  Most of her books were set in the Outback of Australia.  She wrote sweet romances found in early Harlequin Romance series. 

Some of Jennifer Blake’s books would be set in rough areas.  Her romances are old style with large dollops of history.

Dorothy Garlock does frontier and turn of the century America novels.  Again has history and is rather tame in regards to romantic encounters.

Tropical settings would definitely bring to mind Catherine Coulter, particularly her Viking series.

I’m still thinking about recs for the original requester, but in the meantime I thought I’d take up Ros’ challenge. If she walked into my library & asked the same question, I’d start off by asking her what it is about Venetia that she loves: the banter? the unconventional romance? the quirky family?

If it was the latter, I’d probably recommend The Flying Troutmans or The Spellman Files. If the banter, maybe some of Connie Willis’ “screwball SF” like Bellwether or To Say Nothing of the Dog. And for unconventional het romance, it’s hard to go wrong with Jennifer Crusie. Anyone But You could be a good starting point (also with the banter, BTW).

Eve Kenin’s was set in the future (?) in the frozen north. I liked the first one Driven better. http://www.evesilver.net/eve-kenin.html (I’m sorry I don’t know how to link directly)

The only time I was ever handsold a book was by one of the folks at Adventures in Crime and Space back when they had a storefront.  BONITA FAYE by Margaret Moseley, indeed a worthwhile read—it has mystery elements, it has romance (though I wouldn’t necessarily call the ending a HEA, but it’s definitely hopeful), and it has rich and interesting characters.

Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon books, set in various National Parks—mysteries rather than romance but with a great deal of relationship/kissy stuff.

I know I should have read all 53 comments before adding my own, but…

I was happy to see the other librarians speak up.  Reader’s advisory is my favorite part of being a librarian and I practice it on friends and family all the time.  :)  It is important to figure out what about a book a person liked in order to help them properly.  Also, the best libraries have access to Novelist which has many read-a-like suggestions made by Nancy Pearl (librarian star) and other librarians. 

As to exotic terrains, I’m thinking Maine doesn’t count, but I loved Marcia Evanick’s Misty Harbor series set in Maine where the winter was quite nasty.  And this is probably a terrible thing to do, but I’ll put out there Anne Stuart’s Ice series starting with Black Ice.  The reason it may be terrible is that I haven’t read them yet.  Definitely more romantic suspense.

I had never actually heard of handselling before, but it makes sense - basically, the bookstore version of readers’ advisory.  I would guess that it’s slightly easier to do in a library environment than in a bookstore one, because there is absolutely nothing to lose in a library if you go with whatever you’re recommended.  I had a few people in my readers’ advisory class who were working in a bookstore at the time and practiced what they were learning on customers, so there are definitely still people out there outside of library environments doing that sort of thing.

I worked in a Waldenbooks for years before they closed.  Handselling was the name of the game.  I remember recommending Harlan Coben thrillers many times…..if only because he was the only suspense author I read.  At least he was good!

Its a shame I didn’t read Romance when I worked there.  My store had numerous regulars who read over a dozen Romances a month.  Nowadays, I’d have tons to talk about with them.

It is really hard to believe for me that You can tell from the look of a person about his literacy preferences. Maybe there is something about that but I’m not convinced. But I can believe that selling hand to hand is something demanding. Sometimes there are so many good authors unknown to wider audience and they never get a chance to become as famous as some highschool-crappy titles.

hmmm…dangerous location immediately made me think of Sherry Thomas’ Not Quite a Husband.  i don’t have a recommendation for rural.  i’m a city girl and i like city stories and foreign locations.

i’ve had a couple of clerks at Borders recommend books to me but that’s it.  there aren’t any non-Christian independent bookstores where i live.  so i have to survive off chains and the internet.  there aren’t even any good used bookstores with decent romance sections.  it makes me very sad.  where i used to live, there was a great used bookstore 5 minutes from my house.  i used to love going in there and swapping out my duds for new reading material.

anyway, recommendations are the reason i haunt Smart Bitches and Dear Author, so i’m excited about the Bookmatcher.  i’ve got my booklist ready for new entries.

The state of handselling in one chain bookstore: we’re told to handsell a particular title whether we’ve read it or not. Whether we like it or not, that’s the featured book and the store is supposed to sell X number of copies a week or we get in trouble with the corporate overlords. We can recommend books we know and like, but the featured book has to be in there first.

I’m most comfortable in fiction, mystery and romance (now, thanks to the smartbitches) and now working my way through kids and YA, 2 of our biggest sections.

Sort of on topic. Today I was in a Waterstones in Bury St Edmunds (UK) and spotted Elizabeth Hoyt, E Boyle, Jenna Petersen and Liz Carlyle in the erotia section! I asked why and one assistant told me that perhaps the person who shelved them did not know the difference between erotia and romance!! I took them off the shelf and told them to reshelve them in fiction along with Amanda Quick, Julia Quinn etc.

I have to recommend three books from my teen years, two by Julian Thompson:
The Grounding of Group Six
A Question of Survival

and one by Dennis Reader:
Coming Back Alive

They’re really YA books, and the Thompson ones are awfully creepy in premise :)

I have to say I’m quite overwhelmed with the apparent success of this feature. I love anything that gets people talking to each other about books, and this has certainly done that.

Also, a slight clarification: When I called ‘Instant Gratification’ less-good than ‘Instant Attraction’, that was in no way meant to imply that ‘Instant Gratification’ isn’t a good book and worth reading. It is. But, ‘Attraction’ was so very good that I’m afraid that the other books in the series are bound to be less so by comparison.

My inner fangirl is squeeing a little over the fact that Laura Kinsale actually popped in to comment. (I’m at work, so I’m thankful the inner fangirl stayed inner.)

And, Kalen, sorry, but I work at the Airport stores, so a lock-in would be cramped and sorta boring. Though the Hudson News is open all night, so we’d never run out of over-priced snack foods.

gypsydani said

hmmm…dangerous location immediately made me think of Sherry Thomas’ Not Quite a Husband.

Thank you!  I was just about to recommend it myself.  Cuz how many romances take place in the Himalayas? 

(Okay, so it was the Hindu Kush, but thereabout.)  :-)

Don’t think I’ve been handsold to in an actual book store. I’ve had it happen in Comic Book stores, music stores, and once at a book stall at a gaming convention.

While I can think of some books set in inhospitable climates that I’d recommend ; The Terror by Dan Simmons, Path of the Eclipse and Dark of the Sun both by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro; I wouldn’t classify them as romances.

writing95-Probably. Now if I could just finish one. :)

If your looking for some books that have intimidating or interesting landscapes, I would recommend reading some books by Australian authors (yeah, yeah, I know Im bias!). But the landscape here is often used symbolically/metaphorically. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf is incredible. And there series of books by John Marsden - the first is called tomorrow when the war began- which is aimed at a young adult audience but I loved them and much of the action takes place in the bush.

Neither of them are romances though!

When given half a chance at the bookstore I was very good at hand selling to customers. However, between budget and personnel cuts and a tyrannical manager, the fun of doing that went by the wayside. I know that I turned a lot of customers on to new authors over the years, and they likewise returned the favor. Which made hand selling all the more fun and not really a job at all.

It may have been suggested already, but many if not most of Suzanne Brockmann’s book take place in hostile territory,—both the Troubleshooters series and the older Tall, Dark and Dangerous series.  See Wikipedia for booklists.  (The types of ‘hostile’ and ‘territory’ vary wildly in locale, threat, and temperature.

Bookmatching is just part of a days job for most librarians working in a public library. And there are a number of courses and readers advisory (RA) tools that we use to do it. And the best thing is we do it because we love finding the right book for each individual borrower. My biggest buzz is when I get regulars coming in looking for me because I manage to satisfy their reading needs nearly every time. And my biggest challenge - a 14 year old girl who read voraciously and lurrrved romances. And my favourite RA tool? www.whichbook.net because it is all about how a book makes you feel.

It’s good to see that there are still people in bookshops that handsell books. I’d imagine that it would be much harder to handsell when you need to turn a profit.

I recommend “Golden Urchin” by Madeleine Brent. An English girl is raised as an aborigine(?) in Australia’s outback, and later her wilderness survival skills come in to play in Africa. I loved the descriptions of her finding water underground, and making meatballs out of bugs.

Sun at midnight by Rosie Thomas is a romance played out during an expedition to Antarctica. It certainly has the dangerous location, and there is not a bit of mystery or suspense in sight. It is very character-driven and wonderfully atmospheric.

It’s British though, but I’m certain the wonderful Bookdepository sells it.