The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.
The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner (Morrow) is the top holds title of the week. LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for patrons waiting to read this buzziest book.
Zoe Grossberg was born to be a pop star—she has the look and the attitude down. But it’s her shy sister, Cassie, who has the talent. Their duo, the Griffin Sisters, released one blockbuster album before everything fell apart during their tour. Decades later, Cassie is living anonymously in Alaska, interacting with as few people as possible, while Zoe does her best to forget her musical legacy, focusing instead on keeping up appearances at the expense of herself and her eldest daughter Cherry, who is intent on pursuing a career as a musician against her mother’s wishes. When Cherry auditions for an American Idol–style show, her talent is apparent, but it’s her connection to the legendary Griffin Sisters that could cement her spot in the competition, leading her on a search for the aunt she’s never met and illuminating why her mother and her aunt are estranged. VERDICT Weiner (The Breakaway) excels at capturing the complex relationships among sisters, mothers, and daughters, and the novel’s nonlinear structure and multiple viewpoints add both nuance and interest. An excellent addition to the current crop of Y2K pop culture–themed novels; this will satisfy Weiner’s many fans.—Nanette Donohue
Happy and You Know It by Laura Hankin (Berkley)
Appeared on the May 2020 LibraryReads list
“Claire is a musician whose former band became famous without her. She takes a gig singing nursery rhymes for a playgroup, and her life takes a couple of sharp lefts from there! For fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Elizabeth Berg.”—Danielle Hansard, Westland Public Library, Westland, MI
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine)
Appeared on the June 2021 LibraryReads list
“Four celebrity children of Mick Riva, a famous singer, throw a massive party that ends in a fire and leaves family secrets exposed. Reid skillfully goes back and forth in time to fill in the background story of the entire Riva family, beautifully bringing each character to life.”—Cathy Branciforte, Ramsey Free Public Library, Ramsey, NJ
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel (Riverhead; LJ starred review)
Appeared on the May 2018 LibraryReads list
“Set against the backdrop of the highly competitive and merciless world of classical music, this brilliantly written debut is an exquisite portrait of a group friendship spanning decades. Gabel weaves a lyrical tale of four young musician’s journeys and their complex, yet resilient, relationships with each other.”—Mayleen Kelley, JV Fletcher Library, Westford MA
I am baffled by the apparent belief that any of these "tasks" are of sufficient merit to overcome the massive environmental, legal, ethical, educational and quality drawbacks of LLM "AI". Anyone who thinks that students would draw benefit from having a machine spit out a mediocre and potentially error-raddled summary or outline instead of creating their own; or that a workplace would be improved by context-free workflow; or thinks that they would save time or effort by letting an algorithm concoct their "low-stakes" presentation or artwork which will need extensive double-checking and correcting for hallucinations, is probably already cool with the idea that they are stealing words and images created by real live humans without compensation, and melting the planet we all have to share to do it.
But sure, let's have a flagship association for librarians promote and cheerlead this destructive and pointless technology. We're so desperate to appear hip and trendy that we're happy to give up the expertise and judgment that makes our profession valuable.
while I do think your concerns are valid, I believe there is also potential for AI to enhance library services when implemented thoughtfully and ethically. The key is to strike a balance, leveraging AI's strengths while maintaining the core values and expertise that define the library profession.
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