Introducing the midlist eHighlights catalog
By Todd Warhola, librarian and OverDrive Collection Development Analyst.
I’m very excited to introduce our newest edition of eHighlights online catalogs, The Midlist eHighlights. This Midlist edition focuses attention on some of our collections forgotten heroes. Everyone wants that bright and shiny new book but these hidden gems can be even better. Best of all, they’re available right now. No more sitting in long wait lists for you! For this edition, we are focusing on a handful of genres and a selection of books that may have fell through the cracks of your reading list in recent years.
Some of you are probably thinking, “Why a Midlist eHighlights?” Well the answer to that is twofold. First we want to help libraries dig a little deeper into their collection, find some of these overlooked champions and bring them the attention they deserve by curating lists of material you already own. Second, we’d like to bring to light titles that the library may have overlooked and give them another chance.
In this issue, we’re focusing on five genres: Cooking & Food, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, and Romance. Here are a few of the highlights you’ll want to grab before sitting in line for that brand new best seller.
DudeFood: A Guy’s Guide to Cooking Kick-Ass Food by Dan Churchill
Hangover cures and simple ways to impress girls are on the menu here from Dan Churchill, the star from MasterChef Australia. It’s written in an easy to follow way. Even a dude can do it. Churchill does a good job of laying out the basics and easing the non-cooker into the world of cooking.
Fantasy & Science Fiction:
The first installation in the series, Black Trillium follows three sisters as they undertake dangerous quests to conquer a dark force taking over their world. How much better does fantasy get? Here’s the best part: if you enjoy this title you don’t have to wait for the sequel!
The Drowned World: A Novel by J. G. Ballard
A futuristic Sci-Fi novel set in 2145. Melted ice caps! London is a rainforest! Giant lizards!
Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
I will talk about Fight Club. Leave your job, destroy all your possessions, and follow Tyler Durden into the dirty basement of a bar on the outskirts of town. It’s really great.
Chiefs: A Novel by Stuart Woods
Taking place in Delano, Georgia, over three generations, as three separate police chiefs try to discover the identity of a killer. This is the debut of the celebrated novelist Stuart Woods, author of the Will Lee, and Stone Barrington novels.
Many talented musicians have died at the age of 27, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison to name a few, when Zoey Flowers brother joins that list it has a bigger impact than she could imagine.
*Title availability varies by platform and country.*
Voracious readers live and die by the midlist since there simply aren’t enough books at the top of any particular genre to keep them satisfied, but these entries look a whole lot more like the backlist–older titles that nicely fill out a collection and allow late comers to today’s bestselling authors to catch up on their earlier works. But as one of those mystery readers always on the lookout for something new, and following a whole lot of high quality writers who aren’t quite best sellers yet, you might want to keep a lookout for some of those real midlist entries!