Week 3: Assignment 1:
I found the NoveList article, "The RA Conversation" by Neal Wyatt very useful. It's nice to know that I don't have to be some kind of expert to do reader's advisory and that I can use online and print resources at my fingertips to reccommend an appropriate title to a customer and begin to build positive relationships around literature with our diverse public with my present knowledge and a friendly, welcoming attitude.

Week 3: Assignment 2:
I noticed that Nancy Pearl kept the individual book talks short and sweet, and described the books in an engaging manner based on important markers like character, pace, detail and tone. She also makes it  a point to describe her feelings and strong reactions to the characters and situations in which they find themselves. I can imagine that adding this personal touch to reader's advisory can draw a customer in and increase interest and curiosity in reading the story.

Week 3: Assignment 4: Conversation One
I deduced that the important elements of this conversation are: a strongly developed main character, detailed foreign setting, and most importantly an introspective protagonist. I would reccommend Chai Tea Sunday by Heather Clark and Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes ( the book and the movie, starring Diane Lane). Both focus on evolving female protagonists who journey to other lands to reinvent themselves after failed marriages. They each look inward and grow through grappling with emotional strife against foreign landscapes.