Reader's Advisory Service in the Public Library; Death of a King; Suicide Notes

"Reader's Advisory Service in the Public Library" by Joyce G. Saricks was another book for work, but it was pretty good and had a lot of great ideas for creating "readalikes" for when people come in and ask for books like the ones their favorite authors write. I remember being 17 or 18, and finishing all of the books Stephen King had written up to that point, and wondering what I was going to do now. A readalike would have helped me find some new authors, which I did eventually on my own, anyway.
"The Death of a King" was a mystery by P.C. Doherty about King Edward II. There are some scholars who believe Isabella and Mortimer did not have Edward murdered at Berkeley Castle, but rather he escaped and lived in hiding. Doherty has a clerk hired at the behest of King Edward III investigating the murder of his father. The clerk determines the truth and chases Edward II down to his hiding place, an Italian priory. It was an okay book; I felt he could have fleshed it out a little more. It was very short and felt bare bones.
Okay, so I've spent the last two days at the American Libraries Association's Annual Conference in Anaheim, and I've had the best time! Today I got to meet DEAN KOONTZ!!! It was amazing. He was so witty and funny and charming and just all around super nice, and he autographed "Odd Thomas" for me. It was fantastic. I also got to pick up some advance readers' copies of books to be published this fall. When I worked at Barnes & Noble, we used to get these advance copies, but ever since I migrated over to the library world I've missed these. So I got a few today and read one of the teen ones this afternoon while I was waiting for Dean Koontz's speech to start (I got there early; I wanted to make sure I had a good seat). This book is due out in October, and it's called "Suicide Notes" by Michael Thomas Ford. It's about a teenage boy who wakes up and finds himself in the psychiatric ward of the hospital after a suicide attempt. He won't admit, even to himself, why he tried to commit suicide. The author drops some hints along the way, mostly trying to lead the reader off track. The book describes sex very frankly, and had some disturbing scenes. I don't know if it's something I would have wanted to read as a teenager. I was rather depressed and suicidal myself when I was younger, and reading about other people who had similar problems didn't make me feel better. In fact, it ticked me off because I (and I don't think I'm alone on this) felt that my problems were totally unique and no one else could ever understand. So, I don't know about this book. It made me feel sad, and I don't think any teen, whether they have a healthy mental outlook or not, really needs that.