New York magazine points to nine nonfiction books and realistic novels, apparently anticipating a sober summer. The piece begins with the elephant in the room, Thomas Pynchon’s new novel Inherent Vice—“part noir, part psychedelic romp” and a “mere 400 pages”– which gets a brief mention, but no critical verdict.

Inherent Vice Thomas Pynchon Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Penguin Press (2009-08-04) ISBN-10: 1594202249 ISBN-13: 9781594202247

Available from Penguin Audio (8/4/09)

• Unabridged edition; $39.95;  978-0143144762

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn’s second novel, receives praise for the author’s skill in making a “caustic, self-loathing, unpleasant protagonist into someone you can come to root for, even if you never entirely like her.” The book is already on the extended NYT Fiction bestseller list at #35. It’s also discussed on the ARRT wiki – and the author will be at ALA in Chicago.

Dark Places: A Novel Gillian Flynn Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0307341569 ISBN-13: 9780307341563

Mark Kurlansky’s The Food of a Younger Land is dubbed “a thoroughly entertaining” collection of American Depression-era recipes, like ‘Squirrel Mulligan’  from the never-completed WPA project that sent depression era writers on the road in search of regional specialties. ” This one’s already at #400 on Amazon.

The Food of a Younger Land Mark Kurlansky Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2009-05-14) ISBN-10: 1594488657 ISBN-13: 9781594488658

Available from Tantor Media (05/09):

• MP3 CD;$24.99; 140016169X 
• Unabridged CD; $69.99; 1400141699   
• Playaway; $69.99; 161545683X

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin tells the story of how in 1927, Henry Ford, the world’s richest man, tried to annex a piece of Amazon jungle the size of Connecticut and build a rubber plantation. “Two things keep you reading: curiosity over how long this harebrained scheme could go on, and Ford himself, who, in his later years, was less a visionary than a wack job.” The book also received a starred PW review.

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City Greg Grandin Price: $27.50 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Metropolitan Books – (2009-06-09) ISBN-10: 0805082360 ISBN-13: 9780805082364

In the Land of Invented Languages by Alicia Okrent is a survey of languages from Esperanto to Klingon, and the hilarious hubris of their creators, which New York called “a celebration of the power of natural languages” and also received a starred review from PW.

In the Land of Invented Languages Arika Okrent Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2009-05-19) ISBN-10: 0385527888 ISBN-13: 9780385527880

How to Sell, Clancy Martin’s tale of the diamond trade is praised for it’s “fun, flash and fakery,” and also for being a “capitalist satire.” (In addition to the other reviews mentioned here yesterday, it was also called also called “a good, pacey and ultimately unchallenging read” by the New York Times Book Review).

How to Sell: A Novel Clancy Martin Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2009-05-12) ISBN-10: 0374173354 ISBN-13: 9780374173357

Available from Blackstone Audio:

• 7 Tape; $59.95; 1-4332-7573-9
• 1 MP3CD; $29.95; 1-4332-7577-7
• 8 CD; $80; 1-4332-7574-6
• Playaway; $59.99; 1-4332-7581-4

Charlaine Harris’s new title, the ninth in her Southern Vampire series (aka “Sookie Stackhouse” series), Dead and Gone, hit the USA Today list at #2 last week, rising above that other vampire series, Twilight, which moved to the #3, 4, 5 and 7 spots.

Harris was shut out of the top spot by The Last Olympian (it takes a real heavy hitter like Patterson or Grisham to get an adult title to #1 on the USA Today list these days). Harris did capture the #1 spot on the NYT Fiction list, which doesn’t include childrens or YA titles.

This is quite a step up; Harris’s most recent title, From Dead to Worse, debuted much lower, at #24, its peak, on USA Today, staying on for 8 weeks.

Harris’s sudden success is a result of HBO’s True Blood series, based on the Stackhouse books, which put all eight of the paperbacks onto bestseller lists. The second season begins June 14:

The DVD of the first season releases today; it’s #1 on Amazon sales rankings for Movies & TV.

• Studio: HBO Home Video; $59.99
• DVD Release Date: May 19, 2009
• Number of discs: 5
• ASIN: B001FB4W0W

The next Harris book is a collection of Sookie Stackhouse stories:

A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories) Charlaine Harris Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: Ace – (2009-10-06) ISBN-10: 0441017835 ISBN-13: 9780441017836

Following closely behind is the fourth in Harris’s Harper Connelly mysteries, Grave Secret. The publisher is doing a big push on it, clearly hoping some Sookie magic will rub off on this series.

Grave Secret (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 4) Charlaine Harris Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Berkley Hardcover – (2009-10-27) ISBN-10: 0425230155 ISBN-13: 9780425230152

Also in audio from Penguin and in downloadable audio and eBook from OverDrive.

May 17 was a banner day for books on CBS Sunday Morning, which launched three featured titles into Amazon’s top 350 bestsellers. T.C. Boyle’s novel The Women, about the loves of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, moved to #100, while The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley jumped to #295, and organization guru Julie Morgenstern’s SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life: A Four-Step Guide to Getting Unstuck leapt to #336. 

Libraries we checked favored Morgenstein’s self-help guide, with an average of 10 copies and signficant reserves. Quantities were more mixed and reserves more modest on Boyle’s novel, which came out in February, and The Ashley Book of Knots.

The Women: A Novel T.C. Boyle Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2009-02-10) ISBN-10: 0670020419 ISBN-13: 9780670020416

An audiobook version is available in three formats from Blackstone Audio:

• 15 CDs; $100; ISBN 978-1-4332-6061-2 
• 2 MP3CD; $29.95; ISBN 978-1-4332-6064-3    
• Playaway; $69.99; ISBN 978-1-4332-6068-1

Ashley Book of Knots Clifford Ashley Price: $80.00 Hardcover: 640 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (1944-06-21) ISBN-10: 0385040253 ISBN-13: 9780385040259

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SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life Julie Morgenstern Price: $15.00 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Fireside – (2009-03-03) ISBN-10: 0743250907 ISBN-13: 9780743250900

An audiobook is available in three formats from Tantor Media

• 9 CDs; $24.99 (Retail Pkg); EAN: 9781400107872       
• 9 Audio CDs (Library Binder Pkg); $69.99; EAN: 9781400137879
• Mp3-CD; $24.99; EAN: 9781400157877

The following are titles new to the  NYT lists dated 5/24 (sales through 5/9) and the USA Today general list dated  5/14 (sales through 5/10).

#1 USA Today, general
#2 NYT Series Books (series has been on for 96 weeks)

The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5) Rick Riordan Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books for Children – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 1423101472 ISBN-13: 9781423101475

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#7 NYT Picture Books

Duck! Rabbit! Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Tom Lichtenheld Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Chronicle Books – (2009-03-11) ISBN-10: 0811868656 ISBN-13: 9780811868655

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#9 NYT Picture Books

Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully: A Freckleface Strawberry Story Julianne Moore Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books – (2009-04-27) ISBN-10: 1599903164 ISBN-13: 9781599903163

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#3 NYT Chapter Books

Airhead: Being Nikki Meg Cabot Price:   Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books – (2009-09-04) ISBN-10: 0230739377 ISBN-13: 9780230739376

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#6 NYT Chapter Books

Wings (Aprilynne Pike (Hardback) Aprilynne Pike Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: HarperTeen – (2009-05-01) ISBN-10: 0061668036 ISBN-13: 9780061668036

The following are titles new to the  NYT lists dated 5/24 (sales through 5/9) and the USA Today general list dated  5/14 (sales through 5/10).

#27 USA Today, general
#10 NYT Nonfiction

You can expect to see Resilience rise much higher next week; these lists only reflect the first days of sale.

Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities Elizabeth Edwards Price: $22.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2009-05-08) ISBN-10: 076793136X ISBN-13: 9780767931366

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#37 USA Today, general
#2 NYT Hardcover Advice

The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide Elisabeth Hasselbeck Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Center Street – (2009-05-04) ISBN-10: 1599951886 ISBN-13: 9781599951881

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#49 USA Today, general
#1 NYT Paperback Advice

Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutes Lifetime Television Price: $19.99 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Voice – (2009-04-28) ISBN-10: 1401341136 ISBN-13: 9781401341138

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#77 USA Today, general
#8 NYT Nonfiction

Pretty in Plaid: A Life, a Witch, and a Wardrobe, or, the Wonder Years Before the Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart Ass Phase Jen Lancaster Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: NAL Hardcover – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0451226801 ISBN-13: 9780451226808

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#87 USA Today, general

Paula Deen’s The Deen Family Cookbook Paula Deen Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2009-04-07) ISBN-10: 0743278135 ISBN-13: 9780743278133

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 #93 USA Today, general

#9 (tied with #8) NYT Nonfiction

A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez Selena Roberts Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-05-04) ISBN-10: 0061791644 ISBN-13: 9780061791642

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#114 USA Today, general

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite David Kessler MD Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Rodale Books – (2009-04-28) ISBN-10: 1605297852 ISBN-13: 9781605297859

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#8 NYT Paperback Advice

Emeril at the Grill: A Cookbook for All Seasons Emeril Lagasse Price: $24.99 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: HarperStudio – (2009-05-01) ISBN-10: 0061742740 ISBN-13: 9780061742743

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#13 NYT Nonfiction

Paul Newman: A Life Shawn Levy Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Harmony – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0307353753 ISBN-13: 9780307353757

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#15 NYT Nonfiction

Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend Bill Russell, Alan Steinberg Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-05-01) ISBN-10: 0061766143 ISBN-13: 9780061766145

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#16 NYT Nonfiction, Extended

Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace Ayelet Waldman Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0385527934 ISBN-13: 9780385527934

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#18 NYT Nonfiction, Extended

Featured  as the cover review for the NYT Book Review this week (5/17).

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan Doug Stanton Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 1416580514 ISBN-13: 9781416580515

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#27 NYT Nonfiction, Extended

Eye of My Heart: 27 Writers Reveal the Hidden Pleasures and Perils of Being a Grandmother Barbara Graham Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-04-01) ISBN-10: 0061474150 ISBN-13: 9780061474156

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#28 NYT Nonfiction, Extended

Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life Winifred Gallagher Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-04-16) ISBN-10: 1594202109 ISBN-13: 9781594202100

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#31 NYT Nonfiction, Extended

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen Christopher McDougall Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0307266303 ISBN-13: 9780307266309

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#32 NYT Nonfiction, Extended

The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. Daniel Coyle Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2009-04-28) ISBN-10: 055380684X ISBN-13: 9780553806847

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#35 NYT Nonfiction, Extended

Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress Lee Woodruff Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Random House – (2009-04-21) ISBN-10: 1400067316 ISBN-13: 9781400067312

Former Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, who was dethroned for trying to stop the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and bringing other liberal changes, offers a fresh look at the motives of the country’s ruling elite in Prisoner of the State. Set for release tomorrow, the book is already at #17 on the Amazon bestseller list, thanks to an excerpt in the New York Times, a review in the Washington Post  and an interview by NPR’s All Things Considered with one of the book’s editors, Bao Pu. Three of the four libraries we checked did not carry it.

The book is based on about 30 audiotapes that Zhao discreetly recorded at his home while on house arrest in 1999 and 2000, which were smuggled out of the country (Zhao died in 2005). “The up-close-and-personal tone of the present book stands out,” according to the review in the Washington Post by Perry Link, an academic at the University of California, Riverside, who also noted that Zhao’s material is consistent with previous reports.

In Zhao’s portrait, Deng Xiaoping appears as “a Godfather figure,” according to Link. “Other leaders jockey for access to [Deng], dare not contradict him and use his words to attack one another. Yet even Deng seeks to avoid responsibility for difficult decisions. The group has dictatorial power, yet is rife with insecurity.”

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang Zhao Ziyang Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2009-05-19) ISBN-10: 1439149380 ISBN-13: 9781439149386

The debut novel How to Sell, a noir tale of the jewelry trade by Clancy Martin, a philosophy professor who cut his teeth hiding the flaws in diamonds and watches, hits #226 on Amazon today, following admiring attention from The Daily Beast, Newsweek, Esquire, GQ and Elle. Libraries we checked had up to seven copies, with up to 25 holds.

Describing the novel as a tale of “Russian mobsters, Rolex hucksters—and the lies that bind them,” the Daily Beast declared, “where the goods are extravagant and flashy, the characters are there to match. There is great people-watching to be had in this book—quirky backroom handlers and middlemen; gun-toting vigilantes; gruff, able-handed repairmen; and, of course, the sellers in all their unctuous, deal-making splendor.”

Newsweek’s haunting author profile reveals that after leaving high school for seven boozy and drug-riddled years in the bling business, author Clancy Martin overcame suicidal feelings by going to college and writing a dissertation on deception. Now teaching at the University of Missouri and specializing in 19th- and 20th-century continental philosophy and business ethics, Martin told Newsweek, “I would say that, unfortunately, most of the book is lifted directly from my life—with some exaggeration and lots of omission.”

The book, which is set in Dallas, drew a more sanguine response from the Dallas Morning News. While acknowledging that How to Sell “holds a series of crackling-good moments, most of them, not surprisingly, sales pitches,” the reviewer also found that “Martin keeps most of his characters teasingly opaque.”

How to Sell: A Novel Clancy Martin Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2009-05-12) ISBN-10: 0374173354 ISBN-13: 9780374173357

An audio version of the book is available from Blackstone Audio, in various formats:

• 7 Tape; 1-4332-7573-9; $59.95
• 1 MP3CD; 1-4332-7577-7; $29.95
• 8 CD; 1-4332-7574-6; $80.00

Also available on Playaway; 1-4332-7581-4; $59.99

The following are titles new to the  NYT lists dated 5/24 (sales through 5/9) and the USA Today general list dated  5/14 (sales through 5/10):

Hardcover

#2 USA Today, general
#1 NYT Fiction

Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9) Charlaine Harris Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Ace Hardcover – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0441017150 ISBN-13: 9780441017157

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#23 USA Today, general
#3 NYT Fiction

Pygmy Chuck Palahniuk Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0385526342 ISBN-13: 9780385526340

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#83 USA Today, general
#10 NYT Fiction

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun J.R.R. Tolkien Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0547273428 ISBN-13: 9780547273426

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#125 USA Today, general
#11 NYT Fiction

Brimstone Robert B. Parker Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0399155716 ISBN-13: 9780399155710

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#17 NYT Fiction, Extended

Brooklyn Colm Toibin Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 1439138311 ISBN-13: 9781439138311

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#30 NYT Fiction, Extended

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet Reif Larsen Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 1594202176 ISBN-13: 9781594202179

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#31 NYT Fiction, Extended

Sag Harbor Colson Whitehead Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-04-28) ISBN-10: 0385527659 ISBN-13: 9780385527651

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#35 NYT Fiction, Extended

This is Flynn’s second novel and her first time on the NYT list.

Dark Places Gillian Flynn Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0307341569 ISBN-13: 9780307341563

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Paperback Originals

#66 USA Today, general
#14 NYT Mass Market Paperback

Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang: A Dark Ones Novel Katie MacAlister Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Signet – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0451226720 ISBN-13: 9780451226723

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#122 USA Today, general

Guardian: The Time Hunters Angela Knight Price: $7.99 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0425224503 ISBN-13: 9780425224502

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#122 USA Today, general

Six Ways From Sunday (Pinnacle Western) William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone Price: $5.99 Mass Market Paperback: 332 pages Publisher: Pinnacle – (2009-05-01) ISBN-10: 0786019980 ISBN-13: 9780786019984

The movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road was originally scheduled for Nov. ’08 and then was delayed indefinitely. Now, it’s back on the schedule with what looks like a firm date, Oct 16th, and a shot at the Oscars.

The movie stars Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron and Robert Duvall.

Esquire, which seems to have had an exclusive viewing of the film, reviews it on their site, calling it “the most important movie of the year”:

You should see it for the simplest of reasons: Because it is a good story. Not because it may be important. Not because it is unforgettable, unyielding. Not because it horrifies. Not because the score is creepily spiritual. Not because it is littered with small lines of dialogue you will remember later. Not because it contains warnings against our own demise. All of that is so. Don’t see it just because you loved the book. The movie stands alone. Go see it because it’s two small people set against the ugly backdrop of the world undone. A story without guarantees. In every moment — even the last one — you’ll want to know what happens next, even if you can hardly stand to look.

Phew!

The trailer also appeared online this week.

Unlike the film, the movie tie-in came out as originally scheduled last October and became an NYT bestseller even without the film.

The Road (Movie Tie-in Edition)  Cormac McCarthy Price: $14.95 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2008-10-14) ISBN-10: 0307455297 ISBN-13: 9780307455291

[Ed Note: Many thanks to the people who wrote in to alert us to our typo on Lee Child's name -- now fixed. We HATE it when that happens, but appreciate the corrections!]

New York Times book critic Janet Maslin wrote a love letter to mystery author Lee Child yesterday, in advance of the May 18 arrival of his new book, Gone Tomorrow.  On Amazon, preorders for the novel have shot up to #38. Libraries we checked show large reserves on widely varied numbers of copies.

Child, whose real name is Jim Grant, is currently president of the Mystery Writers of America and sold about 6 million copies of his books around the world last year. He is also older brother to another British thriller writer, Andrew Grant, who will appear with Child on some tour stops to promote his new novel, Even. Libraries we checked are carrying Even in varying numbers, from zero or 1 copy to 165 copies.

In comparing the two books, Maslin says:

While  Gone Tomorrow and Even leave no doubt about which of these writers is the rock star and which the tyro, the books overlap in ways sure to raise interest in the family’s DNA. The plot and style similarities are that much more remarkable considering that Jim and Andrew grew up barely knowing each other because of their age disparity

Gone Tomorrow winds up taking the Reacher franchise to a wild extreme. That this Reacher is so effortlessly larger than life is evidence of how intense the overall series has become. Even is in the same vein, if not the same league. It would bring Mr. Child’s style to mind whether or not the authors were brothers. 

Maslin also noted that Lee Child’s next Jack Reacher novel, 61 Hours, is finished and slated for publication in 2010.

The audiobook is available from Books on Tape (May 18, 2009)

• Unabridged; 12 CDS; $100
• ISBN: 9781415962886

Even Andrew Grant Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2009-05-12) ISBN-10: 0312540264 ISBN-13: 9780312540265

Reviews for Elizabeth Edwards’ Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities are trickling in. Entertainment Weekly gave the book an A-, saying

It isn’t an angry book, or a bitter one. But make no mistake about it, as she talks about the crises of her life and how she has tried to get past them, she disembowels her Ken doll of a husband with steely Southern precision…Revenge is sweet, especially when you’ve got 241,000 copies of your book in print.”

The book has been rising on both Amazon (currently at #18) and BarnesandNoble.com (currently #10). Libraries show heavy reserving, 15 to 1 in several cases.

Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities Elizabeth Edwards Price: $22.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2009-05-08) ISBN-10: 076793136X ISBN-13: 9780767931366

Also in audio from Random House:

• ISBN-10: 0307577198
• ISBN-13: 978-0307577191

Precious, an upcoming film based on Sapphire’s 1996 novel Push, got a big boost yesterday when Oprah interviewed Mo’Nique, the actress who plays the snarling mother of the movie’s tragically abused 16 year-old protagonist. “I saw Mo’Nique’s performance in this film and was so blown away,” Oprah said. “She is giving the performance of a lifetime.”

Set for release November 6, the film has already won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. On viewing the trailer, Entertainment Weekly declared:

Precious actually looks like it’s about something. Namely, a teenage girl (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) wrestling with pregnancy, economic hardships, and a monstrous mother (Mo’Nique) who berates her every chance she gets. This is a side of America most of us rarely see, especially in the movies.”

Libraries we checked showed reserves on Push, with fewer than 10 copies on hand. But here’s some justification for buying more: Oprah is likely to continue her drumbeat for the film, which will be distributed in cooperation with her own Harpo Productions and Tyler Perry’s 34th Street Productions.

 Here’s the trailer:

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Push: A Novel Sapphire Price: $12.95 Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Vintage – (1997-04-29) ISBN-10: 0679766758 ISBN-13: 9780679766759

A movie tie-in edition is also forthcoming from Vintage, but the jacket art is not yet available.

An audiobook version will be released on July 28, 2009 by Books On Tape :

• Narrator: Bahni Turpin
• ISBN: 9781415967171
• $60; 6 CDS; Unabridged

Michael Ondaatje’s 1987 novel In the Skin of a Lion is #58 on Amazon today, courtesy of an impassioned review by author Kamila Shamsie on NPR’s All Things Considered last night. Though less well known than Ondaatje’s The English Patient, the earlier novel features younger versions of several characters in that Booker Prize-winning book, including the nurse, Hana, and the wounded thief, Caravaggio. Although The Skin of a Lion is a short novel of fewer than 300 pages, it has a “gorgeous writing style [that] is so condensed,” according to Shamsie, ”that it has a degree of richness that few books can match.”

As part of “You’ve Got to Read This,” an occasional feature on All Things Considered in which one author hails the work of another, Shamsie called The Skin of a Lion “a book of many moods.”

There is real anger in it about the way the powerful take advantage of those who work the hardest; there is incredible tenderness between friends and lovers; there are flashes of unexpected humor; and there are some truly heart-stopping moments. Binding it all together is writing filled with the most glorious, startling images. When I read it, every nerve ending that has been de-sensitized by an onslaught of news and facts in the “real world” suddenly starts to feel love and anger, terror and wonder more passionately than before.”

Shamsie is an intriguing author in her own right. Her latest novel, Burnt Shadows, chronicles the impact of the bombing at Nagasaki on two families over two generations and has been highly recommended by Library Journal.

Libraries own a small number of both Ondaatje’s and Shamsie’s novels.

In the Skin of a Lion Michael Ondaatje Price: $13.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Vintage – (1997-01-14) ISBN-10: 0679772669 ISBN-13: 9780679772668

Burnt Shadows Kamila Shamsie Price: $14.00 Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Picador – (2009-04-27) ISBN-10: 0312551878 ISBN-13: 9780312551872

Elizabeth Edwards’s recent appearances on Oprah and the Today Show have made her the author of the moment. But the media speculation about her motives for writing Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities has largely obscured the question of whether her memoir is actually a good read.

Now, a book review from the Los Angeles Times says the strength of her memoir about facing the loss of her 16-old son, resurgent cancer and marital betrayal by former Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards lies in “how little of it actually has to do with John Edwards’ caddish behavior.” Noting that Edwards emerged from her husband’s shadow in the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns “on the power of her personality” and her willingness to take her own positions, such as her support of gay marriage, the review calls Resilience ”short but surprisingly deep… And when you finish it you have not just a deeper understanding of Elizabeth Edwards but also a better appreciation for the strength of will it can take to survive.”

For those who missed it, here’s a quick recap of the previous coverage. Edwards began her tour with an appearance Oprah, in which she said her feelings for her husband were “complicated,” and later appeared on the Today Show, where Matt Lauer quoted criticism of her book by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times (“it’s just a gratuitous peek into their lives, and one that exposes her kids”) and Sally Quinn in the Washington Post  (who suggests Edwards enabled her husband to cheat).  Tina Brown in The Daily Beast also weighed in; “If she had stuck with her health and her loss, Edwards might have held on to our sympathy. But her insistence on belittling to Oprah the dreaded ‘other woman,’ Rielle Hunter…was so embarrassingly self-righteous it almost made me feel sorry for the Democratic twinkie John.”

The book has been rising on both Amazon (currently at #12) and B&N.com (currently at #12). Libraries show heavy reserving, 15 to 1 in several cases.

Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities Elizabeth Edwards Price: $22.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2009-05-08) ISBN-10: 076793136X ISBN-13: 9780767931366

Also in audio from Random House:

• ISBN-10: 0307577198
• ISBN-13: 978-0307577191

Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours in the Toughest Firm on Wall St. by Kate Kelly has risen to #37 on Amazon, but none of the major library systems we checked had it in stock (it may have been embargoed, preventing prepub reviews). 

Released May 12, the Wall St. Journal reporter’s book is riding a publicity wave that began with yesterday’s New York Post report on Kelly’s revelation that Bear Stearns rebuffed last minute aid by rival investment bank Goldman Sachs shortly before its collapse last spring. Other major media hits include an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air and a rave Los Angeles Times review, which described Kelly’s look at the firm’s final 72 hours as “brilliantly reported” and “grippingly propulsive,” with well-sketched portraits of Bear’s upper ranks, “where executives were fiercely territorial and oddly inattentive to even critical operational questions. Bear Stearns was, in the end, an institution where denial was the executive suites’ emotion of first resort.”

Librarians may have skimped on Kelly’s book in favor of William D. Cohan’s book about Bear Stearns, House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street, which beat Kelly’s book to market by two months and is currently #4 on the New York Times bestseller list. That book, which focuses on the firm’s final 10 days, received a rave review from Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times. Now #117 on Amazon, Cohan’s book is better represented in the libraries we checked, although the ratio of holds to available copies is high – ranging from 117 to 158 holds on 4 – 39 copies. 

Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street Kate Kelly Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover – (2009-05-12) ISBN-10: 1591842735 ISBN-13: 9781591842736

House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street William D. Cohan Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-03-10) ISBN-10: 0385528264 ISBN-13: 9780385528269

House of Cards is available in audio:

• Publishers: Tantor Media.
• ISBN: 9781400141685
• $54.95; unabridged; 20 discs

There is also an e-book version:

• Overdrive Adobe ePub eBook; $27.95