After the brisk activity of the past two weeks, this week’s bestseller list is remarkably quiet, with only a handful of debuts.

Other than the Wimpy Kid at #1, you have to go to #25 before you hit a new title and it’s not really new. The hardcover was published in 2004. The 2005 paperback reprint hits the list for the first time, thanks to the magic of the author’s appearing on Oprah’s Best Life Week series. Of all the books that were featured during that week, this one has the highest position on the current list. Libraries are showing heavy reserves.

Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow 
Lesser, Elizabeth

• Paperback: $14.95; 352 pages
• Publisher: Villard (June 14, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0375759913
• ISBN-13: 978-0375759918

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It’s not until #50 that a new hardcover appears:

Mounting Fears
Stuart Woods

• Hardcover: $25.95; 304 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (January 13, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0399155473
• ISBN-13: 978-0399155475

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After that, the next new title is at #128,

The Best of Everything
Roby, Kimberla Lawson

• Hardcover: $23.99; 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (January 13, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0061443069
• ISBN-13: 978-0061443060

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Among books-to-movies, Revolutionary Road is climbing the list. It’s now at #9, its highest point after 4 weeks on the list. The Reader at #25, is also at its peak after 5 weeks.

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Most  mass market paperback originals hit the list and then slide down precipitously. Not so for Star Bright which is at #15, its highest point after 3 weeks. Some libraries are showing very heavy holds.

Star Bright, by Catherine Anderson

• Paperback: $7.99; 432 pages
• Publisher: Signet (January 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0451225716
• ISBN-13: 978-0451225719

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A new YA series debuts at #97 from a familiar name, 

 3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows 
Brashares, Ann

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: $18.99; 336 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (January 13, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0385736762
• ISBN-13: 978-0385736763

The Wimpy Kid has knocked the Twilight saga off the #1 spot on the USA Today bestseller list. According to USA Today‘s Book Buzz column, Abrams is going back to press for 500,000 copies of The Last Straw, the third title in the series, to add the the million copies already in the pipeline.

But Twilight has hardly disappeared, books in the series still occupie the #2 through #5 positions on the list. New Moon, the second title in the series has been on the list for 123 weeks.

In the new Time magazine (2/2), critic Lev Grossman gives his view of the future of publishing. No particular revelations here, even though he claims that book publishing is “evolving, and so radically that we may hardly recognize it when it’s done.” 

He kicks the piece off by writing about how Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, went from self-published, to debuting on the 1/25 bestseller list.

#5 NYT Paperback Trade Fiction, 1/25
#79 USA Today, 1/22, after two weeks — up from #95 last week

Still Alice, Lisa Genova

NYT annotation: “The story of a 50-year-old woman’s sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer’s.”

• Paperback: $15;  320 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (January 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1439102813
• ISBN-13: 978-1439102817

On Monday, we’ll hear the ALA Youth Award announcements. Yes, we will post them here, but to hear the results immediately,  watch on-line (beginning at 9:45 a.m., EST) and then dial-up your distributor ASAP.

For ALA Midwinter Meeting participants, the press conference will be held in the Colorado Convention Center in the Four Seasons Ballroom. Doors will open at 7:30 a.m., MT.

The awards announced on January 26, 2009 include:

• Alex Awards for the best adult books that appeal to teen audience
• Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children’s video
• Coretta Scott King Book Awards honors African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults that demonstrate sensitivity to “the African American experience via literature and illustration.”
• John Newbery Medal honors the author of the year’s most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Award honors an author or illustrator whose books have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
• Margaret A. Edwards Award honors an author’s lifetime contribution in writing for young adults as well as a specific body of his or her work.
• May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award recognizes an author, critic, librarian, historian, or teacher of children’s literature, who then presents a paper, considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature, at a winning host site.
• Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults
• Mildred L. Batchelder Award is presented to an American publisher for the most outstanding book originally published in a country other than the United States in a language other than English and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States.
• Odyssey Award is presented to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults available in English in the United States.
• Pura Belpré Award recognizes Latino/Latina writers and illustrators whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.
• Randolph Caldecott Medal honors the illustrator of the year’s most distinguished American picture book for children.
• Robert F. Sibert Medal honors an author, illustrator and/or photographer of the most distinguished informational book published for children.
• Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience.
• Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is presented annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished book for beginning readers published in English in the United States.
• William C. Morris Award begins in 2009, honoring a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.

The press release announcing all of the winners will be posted in the Youth Media Awards Press Kit prior to 10:30 a.m., MT.

Many will be asking if these”best books” appeal to children.

I don’t know. I do know that the kids at the Bank Street College of Education, read, discussed and voted in a mock Newbery and a mock Printz. These are their winners:

Mock Newbery

Winner:

Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing up Scieszka

Jon Scieszka

• Paperback: $12; 106 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (October 2, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 067001138X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670011384

Honors:

Every Soul a Star

Maas, Wendy

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
• Hardcover: $15.99; 336 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers; (October 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0316002569
• ISBN-13: 978-0316002561

Gods of Manhattan

Mebus, Scott

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
• Hardcover: $17.99; 272 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (April 17, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0525479554
• ISBN-13: 978-0525479550

Mock Printz

Winner:

Hunger Games

Collins, Suzanne

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: $17.99; 384 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press (September 14, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0439023483
• ISBN-13: 978-0439023481

Honors:

T4

LeZotte, Ann Clare

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
• Hardcover: $14; 112 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; (September 22, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0547046847
• ISBN-13: 978-0547046846

The Other Side of the Island

Goodman, Allegra

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
• Hardcover: $16.99; 272 pages
• Publisher: Razorbill (September 4, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1595141952
• ISBN-13: 978-1595141958

Kudos to Maura McGill, Children’s Librarian for coordinating the selection of the short llst, discussions and vote. Eighty nine 5th and 6th graders participated in the Mock Newbery and forty three 7th graders in Mock Prinz.

Today is launch day for the adaptations of Three Cups of Tea for children and young adults. Author Greg Mortenson and his daughter, Amira, appeared on the Today Show to promote the books.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, got the most Oscar nominations (13), including one for Best Picture. The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire, both based on books, also were nominated for that category.

The big surprise is that Kate Winslett was nominated for Best Actress for The Reader, not for Revolutionary Road. The latter film picked up nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Michael Shannon), Art Direction and Costume Design.

Dark Knight was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing, MakeUp, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects.

The full list of nominees is available on the Oscars Web site.

Shooting scripts for two of the Best Picture Nominees are available from Newmarket Press.

Slumdog Millionaire: The Shooting Script
Beaufoy, Simon with introduction by Danny Boyle

Milk: The Shooting Script
Black, Dustin Lance, Introduction by the director, Gus Van Sant

• Paperback: $19.95; 130 pages
• Publisher: Newmarket Press; (December 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1557048274
• ISBN-13: 978-1557048271

In today’s New York Times, Dwight Garner reviews  Animals Make Us Human which follows up the authors’ earlier book, Animals in Translation, a book that

…occupies a special place among the animal books of the last few decades. Ms. Grandin’s autism gives her a special understanding of what animals, whether house cats or cattle, think, feel and — perhaps most important — desire. There is a revelation on almost every page…

Although Garner feels that the new book rehashes material from the earlier one, “If you liked the first one, you’re going to like the second.”

Garner goes on to describe some of the author’s provocative ideas and sums it up with, “We’re lucky to have Temple Grandin.”

Library ordering is light, perhaps because of Library Journal‘s much less enthusiastic response to the book,

…unfortunately, there is a definite sense of uncompromising bias in favor of the authors’ ideas, mitigating any sort of objective study or research that differs from their own conclusions. Those who work with animals will balk at some of the discussions as it’s possible to find examples in which what the authors write isn’t necessarily the case.

On the other hand, Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review.

The book debuted on the 1/25 NYT Nonfiction list at #13. 

 Animals Make us Human
Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson

• Hardcover: $26; 352 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt;  (January 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0151014892
• ISBN-13: 978-0151014897

It’s heartening to see the chapbook of Elizabeth Alexander’s Inaugural poem, Praise Song for the Day, rise on Amazon. It’s currently at #290 (from #9,059) in overall sales rankings and at #1 in poetry, despite the fact that it was reprinted in newspapers and online.

The AP’s story on the poem noted that the publisher is releasing 100,000 copies of the chapbook, but that Maya Angelou’s poem for President Clinton’s inauguration sold a million copies. At the time of that story, Praise Song was at #429 on Amazon.

Alexander’s earlier poetry collection is at #3 in poetry (#2 is Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter, which is not poetry, but a collection of essays. Amazon’s classifications can be strange) and is at #333 on the overall list. It’s owned in small quantities in most large libraries, with reserves in some areas

Praise Song for the Day: A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration 
Alexander, Elizabeth

• Paperback: $8.00; 32 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (February 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1555975453
• ISBN-13: 978-1555975456

American Sublime
Alexander, Elizabeth

• Paperback: $14; 96 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (September 22, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 1555974325
• ISBN-13: 978-1555974329

Getting attention in the sports pages is a dispute over claims in a coming out next week about steroid use in the major leagues, Bases Loaded.

Of seven large libraries I checked, five have it on order. Reserves are light.

Among today’s stories are the following;

New York Times,  For Second Time in 2 Days, Mitchell Disputes Part of Radomski’s Book

USA Today, Radomski backs former Clemens’ trainer McNamee in new book

Sporting News, Radomski sides with McNamee over Clemens

Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report

Radomski, Kirk

• Hardcover: $25.95; 256 pages
• Publisher: Hudson Street Press (January 27, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1594630569
• ISBN-13: 978-1594630569

Close on the heels of the Edgar Awards, the Dilys nominees were announced today. Given by the Independent Mystery booksellers Association for the book their members most enjoyed selling, it is named in honor of Dilys Winn, the founder of the first bookstore to specialize in mysteries, Murder Ink, NYC (sadly, now closed).

The winners will be announced in early March, at the Left Coast Crime convention in Hawaii.

The nominees are:

Trigger City, Sean Chercover

• Hardcover: $23.95; 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (October 14, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0061128694
• ISBN-13: 978-0061128691

The Victoria Vanishes, Christopher Fowler

• Hardcover: $24; 336 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 28, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0553805029
• ISBN-13: 978-0553805024

Silent in the Sanctuary, Deanna Raybourn

• Paperback: $14.95; 560 pages
• Publisher: Mira (January 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0778324923
• ISBN-13: 978-0778324928

Child 44, Tom Rob Smith

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0446402389
• ISBN-13: 978-0446402385

• Audio CD: Unabridged edition, $39.98
• Publisher: Hachette Audio;  (April 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 160024159X
• ISBN-13: 978-1600241598

• Hardcover, Large Print: $26.99; 736 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0446509256
• ISBN-13: 978-0446509251

Dawn Patrol, Don Winslow

• Hardcover: $23.95; 320 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (June 3, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0307266206
• ISBN-13: 978-0307266200

• Audio: Blackstone
• Reader: Ray Porter
• 7 Tape: LIBRARY, 1-4332-1486-8,$65.95
• 1 MP3CD: LIBRARY, 1-4332-1490-5, $29.95
• 8 CD: LIBRARY, 1-4332-1487-5, $90.00

In case, like me, you were caught up in the Inauguration and missed the fact that the Edgar nominees have been announced, here’s  the link to the full list at the Edgar Web site. The winners will be announced at the Edgar Awards Banquet on April 30, in NYC.

Above, are the covers for the Best Novel Nominees.

The Wall Street Journal today observes that personal finance books have gone bearish,

Just a year or so ago, the personal-finance bookshelf was a happy-go-lucky place where everybody and their neighbor was about to become a millionaire. Now it’s more like a bomb shelter stocked with canned goods for a long battle. Pugilistic titles like Fight for Your Money and Gimme My Money Back are pushing aside sunnier fare like Millionaire by Thirty and You Can Do It!: The Boomer’s Guide to a Great Retirement.

But, cheer up, they also quote a study that “stocks perform substantially better after the publication of bearish financial books than they do after bullish titles are published.”

The Journal notes that personal finance gurus have changed their tune — Suze Orman recommended hybrid mortgages (fixed rate for a few years, followed by adjustable rates) in her 2005 book, The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke, but  Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe says fixed rate is the way to go (note to weeders — if you haven’t already, get rid of the bullish books. Even if the markets turn around, it will undoubtedly have new rules).

Are there any enduring titles? A financial planner recommends A Random Walk Down Wall Street, because it “gives a really sound grounding in the economics of how financial markets work.” 

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
Malkiel, by Burton G.

• Paperback: $18.95; 416 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton; 9 edition (December 24, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 0393330338
• ISBN-13: 978-0393330335

The texts of both Obama’s Inaugural speech and of Elizabeth Alexander’s Inaugural poem will be released in the next two weeks:

The Inaugural Address, 2009: Together with Abraham Lincoln’s First and Second Inaugural Addresses and The Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance
Obama, Barack 

• Hardcover: $12; 112 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 4, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0143116428
• ISBN-13: 978-0143116424

Elizabeth Alexander’s publisher, Graywolf Press, will release a chapbook of the Inaugural poem. According to the publisher’s Web site, a Spanish edition will follow.

Elizabeth Alexander Inaugural Chapbook
Alexander, Elizabeth

• Paperback: $8.00; 32 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (February 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1555975453
• ISBN-13: 978-1555975456

PBS’s Gwen Ifill, who moderated the vice-presidential debate last fall, received some heat from McCain supporters when it was discovered that she was also writing a book about Obama. It  is being released today and is covered by both the NYT and USA Today: It is also adapted earlier in the Wall Street Journal.

Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama
Ifill, Gwen

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (January 20, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 038552501X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385525015

• Audio CD: Unabridged; 9.75 hours on 8 CDs edition; $34.95
• Publisher: HighBridge Company;  (January 20, 2009)
• Read by: Gwen Ifill
• ISBN-10: 1598878727
• ISBN-13: 978-1598878721

The NYT reviews another Obama title being released today. Written by the editor-in-chief of the NAACP magazine, it also addresses the issues of race and the election.

What Obama Means…For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future
Asim, Jabari

• Hardcover: $21.99; 240 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (January 20, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0061711330
• ISBN-13: 978-0061711336

We conjectured last week that the movie, Killshot, based on the Elmore Leonard book and shot back in 2005, may finally appear in theaters on January 23rd, largely due to the sudden revival of the career of Mickey Rourke, who appears in the film

Ad Age confirms it will be released, in a story that shows the amazing twists in the long path from a book being optioned to it appearing on screen.

The Sunday book reviews feature the Inauguration. The LA Times Book section’s “Special Inaugural Issue” asks six writers, including Jane Smiley, “What might the presidency of Barack Obama mean for literature and culture?”

The Washington Post Book World offers an odd take, featuring three books of Americana, including Barack Obama: 44th President, by Avery Krut (Whitman, $49.95), calling it,

Not so much a book as a cupboard between hard covers, it is full of tickets, bumper stickers, reprints of speeches, penciled letters from admiring kids and all sorts of other electioneering byproducts, each tucked into its own envelope-like slot.”

The NY Times Book Review examines books on important topics for the next administration, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, Presidents who took command during difficult times, and even, The Case for Big Government. 

The NYT BR also sorts through recent titles on Obama, “written and published (with great speed) before or just after the election…” as well as an earlier book by incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Reviewer Alan Brinkley, Columbia University history professor recommends the following:

The most impressive, “for sheer speed and competence” 

A LONG TIME COMING: The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama
By Evan Thomas

• Hardcover: $22.95; 256 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs, (January 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1586486071
• ISBN-13: 978-1586486075

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The “most interesting of the recent policy books” (it appeared right after the 2006 Congressional elections)

THE PLAN: Big Ideas for Change in America
by Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed

• Paperback: $13.95; 224 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; Reprint edition (January 5, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1586487604
• ISBN-13: 978-1586487607

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A “particularly valuable guide to what the progressive left hopes to see in the Obama presidency”

OBAMA’S CHALLENGE: America’s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency
By Robert Kuttner

• Paperback: $14.95; 224 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing (August 25, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1603580794
• ISBN-13: 978-1603580793