Chicago Public Library has a lot of books. No really, I mean A LOT. If you don't walk into a branch with a specific title in mind, you might think, "Where the heck do I start?!" A resource that can solve this dilemma is NoveList, a free database provided to all CPL patrons to help you find books you'll want to read based on books, authors, series, or genres that you already like. How cool is that? You'll find both an adult and a K-8 tool on the CPL website and both have a feature called "Read-Alikes" to help you find books based on content or author. If you search by keyword, there is a link or links provided under each search result (Title Read-Alikes, Author Read-Alikes, etc.) and if you click on a title, a list of Read-Alikes appears on the right side of the page.
I have been really into mystery and thriller books lately (perhaps because of my Get Caught Reading post), so I did a search on The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym of JK Rowling (of Harry Potter fame). In this debut mystery, Private Investigator Cormoran Strike is hired to examine the death of a young supermodel, initially ruled a suicide, but believed by her brother and Strike's childhood friend to be a murder.
NoveList recommended a number of Read-Alike books to me, including The Little Sister, Case Histories, and Tonight I Said Goodbye. These books were recommended based on qualities of The Cuckoo's Calling, which is characterized by NoveList as a fact-paced, atmospheric fictional mystery.
I'm looking forward to reading these books and to using NoveList whenever I find myself thinking, "_____ was an awesome book! What now?"
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