Going Undercover to Find My Next Jodi Picoult Read

 On a Saturday afternoon, I went to the “ASK” desk in the adult fiction department at a huge, new library down the street from where I work. It was busy so I was a little worried it would be a bad time to go “shopping.” However, I asked the staff member at the desk if she was available, and she was more than willing to help me find a book to read.

The first question she asked was, “what kind of books do you like to read?” I said that I like page turners, and it does not really matter what genre. Thrillers, fiction, romance, anything goes. So then, she asked: “What was the last book you read?” which I said was Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult. (It was actually The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, but I did not want her to find another like that one. If I wanted another hilariously cheesy, guilty-pleasure romance, I am sure I could find it on my own 😂). She said, “Would you like to read another book by the same author?” and I said, sure! I haven’t read any of Picoult's other books.

She did some Google searching then; I peeked at her screen and it looked like she was searching up Picoult’s most popular books. Then she said, “I’d recommend Mad Honey, but it’s all checked out right now. Would you like me to place a hold for you?” to which I also said “Sure.” “Alright, I have a hold placed on that for you. But let’s get you a book you can take home today. Here are her other books,” as she took me to the area in the Fiction section with Jodi Picoult’s novels. “This one [The Book of Two Ways] is really high in circulation; it’s really popular right now. This one [Small Great Things] also goes out a lot.” Both were published recently, in 2020 and 2018 respectively, so it made sense that they are being checked out a lot. I had actually just browsed Picoult's bibliography earlier this week and was not interested in Small Great Things, but I took the time to look at both of them. She gave me a minute to read the inside covers, and I asked her if she has read either of them. She said “No, but I used to work at Barnes and Noble and sold a lot of her books there.”

She waited with me in the stacks until I’d settled on one of them, and then told me to come back to the desk if I wanted help finding another book. I didn’t end up checking out either of the ones she had pulled out, but only because I have one I’m already reading for the upcoming book club assignment and I don’t want to get ahead of myself! I was actually really intrigued by the plot description of The Book of Two Ways, so I added it to my Goodreads list right away. I am glad that Mad Honey will be coming up for me in a few weeks. Wish You Were Here was really good, so I'm eager to read more Picoult.

I think this staff member did an excellent job conducting a reader’s advisory interview. She quickly narrowed down what genre I’d like to read next and the whole interaction lasted less than 15 minutes, leaving me satisfied with a book I would like to read. I can’t think of anything she could have done better! She clearly has enough experience to be able to recommend books off the top of her head without having to do an in-depth search, but I was also not being very picky. However, I do think that if I’d been a more “difficult” customer, she would have taken the time to help me settle on something.