Welcome to EarlyWord
Our luanch of EarlyWord YA GalleyChat on Feb. 14 was a rousing success. Join us for the second one on Tues., March 20 at 4 p.m. ET (a get-to-know-each-other social begins at 3:30). And, don't forget our adult GalleyChat, the first Tuesday of each month (info on how to join each, here).
Let us know what is happening in your library. Email me with information on books that are getting an unexpected number of holds and the titles you enjoy recommending.
Keep on reading,
NoraNora Rawlinson Co-Founder and Editor
This seems to be movie day at EarlyWord. We’ve made several additions to our Upcoming Movies — with tie-ins.
Here’s what’s new:
The movie tie-in edition of The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Movie opens 8/14.
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Plus in children’s movies, tie-in information is now available for the following:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs — 9/18
Astro Boy — 10/23
As well as both adult and children’s tie-ins to G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, opening 8/7.
Two movies based on books are opening tomorrow. Unfortunately they get tepid responses from the July 6 issue of People; 1.5 of a possible 4 stars each.
My Sister’s Keeper, opens wide — a “maudlin weepie” according to People. The Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer gives it a 69% approval from 13 published reviews. No matter, the tie-in editions are already bestsellers (#1 on the upcoming NYT Mass Market paperback list AND #2 on the Trade Paperback list).
Chéri, opens in a limited number of theaters — People says the “costumes are so sumptuous, multi-layered and colorful, they resemble walking parfaits.” How could that be bad? Unfortunately, “the movie in which they are worn is not nearly as delicious.” The Tomatometer gives it a 53% approval from 34 reviews.
For tie-ins, check our Upcoming Movies — with tie-ins listings.
For trailers, go to the “Books to Movies — Trailers” links at the right.
They must be dancing a jig at Variety; the Academy has doubled the number of Best Picture Nominees (from 5 to 10), meaning more “for your consideration” ads.
This undoubtedly makes predictions easier and the L.A. Times takes an early stab at it in Doing the new Oscar math. Four of their five leading contenders come from books; below are their picks, in order by release date:
The L.A. Times says, “Steven Soderbergh directs Matt Damon in a movie that has echoes of previous nominees Michael Clayton and The Insider.”
Based on:
| The Informant (Movie Tie-in Edition): A True Story |
| Kurt Eichenwald |
| Retail Price: | $17.00 |
| Paperback: | 656 pages |
| Publisher: | Broadway – (2009-08-11) |
| ISBN / EAN: | 0767931254 / 9780767931250 |
L.A. Times says, “Martin Scorsese re-teams with Departed star Leonardo DiCaprio. Need we say more?”
Based on:
| Shutter Island |
| Dennis Lehane |
| Retail Price: | $14.99 |
| Paperback: | 400 pages |
| Publisher: | Harper Perennial – (2009-09-01) |
| ISBN / EAN: | 0061898813 / 9780061898815 |
Also in mass market:
| Shutter Island |
| Dennis Lehane |
| Retail Price: | $7.99 |
| Mass Market Paperback: | 400 pages |
| Publisher: | Harper – (2009-09-01) |
| ISBN / EAN: | 0061703257 / 9780061703256 |
L.A. Times says, “The only thing academy members love more than director Clint Eastwood is an inspirational biopic, in this case about Nelson Mandela.”
Based on:
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L.A. Times says, “Peter Jackson, best known for his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, takes a more traditionally academy-friendly turn with this adaptation of Alice Sebold’s huge bestseller.”
Based on: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (no tie-in listed yet).
Even the non-book-based leading contender has a literary background, however distant. It’s based on the musical which was based on the play that inspired movie 8 1/2; Nine, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman and directed by Rob Marshall.
Other contenders include Amelia, Precious and Julie & Julia.
Tie-in information is available for those movies in our Upcoming Movies — with tie-ins listings.
As USA Today puts it in today’s Book Buzz column, “Teens rule,” with two new teen titles debuting in the top 20 of the paper’s bestseller list.
Sarah Dessen hits her highest spot to date on the list, with Along for the Ride at #11.
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Also available in audio:
Publisher: Penguin Audio (June 16, 2009); $34.95
ISBN-10: 0143144669
ISBN-13: 978-0143144663
And, downloadable eBook and audio from OverDrive.
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Also in audio:
Unabridged: $15
Publisher: HarperChildrensAudio; 6/16; $15
ISBN: 9780061803598
ISBN 10: 0061803596
And downloadable eBook and audio from OverDrive.
The lead review in the July 6 issue of People magazine, is of thriller Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo, making the switch from romance novels. People gives it 3.5 of a possible four stars. It features a “tough complicated cop,” a former Amish woman who becomes the police chief in the town she grew up in. People says that Castillo, who grew up near Amish country, balances “chilling suspense and a nuanced portrait of the English-Amish divide.”
Libraries show reserve ratios of 5 to 1 in some cases, against generally low orders.
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Also available in audio:
Publisher: Macmillan Audio; Unabridged (June 23, 2009). $39.95
ISBN-10: 1427206686
ISBN-13: 978-1427206688
And in large type:
Hardcover: $31.95; 620 pages
Publisher: Thorndike Press (June 23, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1410416615
ISBN-13: 978-1410416612
And, downloadable eBook and audiobook from OverDrive.
A lot of swooning is going on over the New Moon tie-in cover (E Online calls it the “Hottest. Book Cover. Ever.“)
The tie-in will be available in two formats, mass market and trade paperback, on September 15. The movie arrives in theaters two months later; Nov. 20 (check out the trailer in our “Books to Movies — Trailers” section at the right).
Trade paperback, with poster:
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Mass market paperback (sorry, no poster!):
| New Moon (The Twilight Saga) |
| Stephenie Meyer |
| Retail Price: | $7.99 |
| Mass Market Paperback: | 576 pages |
| Publisher: | Little, Brown Young Readers – (2009-11-01) |
| ISBN / EAN: | 0316075655 / 9780316075657 |
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And, as we mentioned earlier, Little Brown YR will also publish a movie companion (the art shown here is still TK):
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Over 40 UK libraries are now using Twitter to network and spread information among themselves, according to the Guardian (UK). To encourage more libraries to join, a “Twitter for librarians” course will be held by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in September.
More than 400 individual librarians are using the service in the UK, putting it behind the U.S., where are least 300 libraries (and many more librarians) use the social network to communicate with patrons. “Some authorities are getting on board in a more formal way [in the U.K.], but there also seem to be a lot of librarians who are trying Twitter out spontaneously and having fun with the system,” said Benedicte Page, libraries expert at the Bookseller.
The Daily Beast extolls Gregg Hurwitz as the “best thriller writer you never heard of,” calling his new book Trust No One “not only his best [book] yet, but one of the best thrillers of the year.” Libraries we checked had four or fewer copies of Trust No One, with up to 20 reserves.
Here’s what The Daily Beast liked most about the book:
Trust No One has action and suspense and all the good stuff readers look for in a thriller, but it also has smarts. Hurwitz clearly put a lot of thought into crafting his plot, and it pays off with a story that is satisfying on both a cerebral and visceral level. It combines the sharp political twists of a book like Robert Ludlum’s The Chancellor Manuscript or James Grady’s Six Days of the Condor with the white-knuckle pacing of a Joseph Finder thriller.
Hurewitz is the author of 2007′s The Crime Writer, which the reviewer also loved.
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Large Print available from Center Point, 7/01/2009
Audio available from Brilliance Corporation
Beacon Books has signed a deal with Dexter King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son and chief executive officer of King, Inc., to release new editions of four King books in 2010, according to an AP story that appeared in USA Today:
Under the agreement, Beacon will also compile King’s writings, sermons, lectures and prayers into new editions with introductions by leading scholars.
So far, it’s unclear whether this deal will reignite the objections of siblings Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, who have not settled three lawsuits related to their brother Dexter’s management of the King estate, and the control of their mother Coretta Scott King’s personal items, which caused a $1.4 million book deal to fall through last year, according to a previous AP story.
Dick Cheney has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to publish a memoir in Spring 2011, covering his past 40 years in Washington, D.C. and in the private sector, the New York Times reported today. The editor is Mary Matalin, his close friend and adviser, who founded the conservative Threshold Books imprint.
The Times notes that Cheney is joining numerous Bush administration figures writing memoirs, including:
President George W. Bush; his wife, Laura; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.; former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; and Karl Rove, the former presidential political adviser. Mr. Rove’s book will also be published by Threshold.
Cheney received a $2 million advance according to the Times. George Bush reportedly received $7 million from Crown, while Bill Clinton was said to have accepted $15 million from Alfred A. Knopf.
CNBC’s David Faber appeared this morning on the Today show with host Matt Lauer, sending his book, And the Roof Caved In: How Wall St. Greed and Stupidity Brought Capitalism to its Knees, to #12 on Amazon. None of the libraries we checked had copies.
On the show, Farber said that his book tries to connect the dots between the experience of individual Americans and the economic forces that created the collapse of the mortgage market. He also commented that President Obama’s proposed mortgage industry regulations leave too much discretion to the states; discussed the problem of companies that become “too big to fail;” and contrasted current levels of consumer spending with the views of financial experts who project recovery beginning in 2010 at the earliest.
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Just when the Twilight franchise seemed to be sagging slightly (meaning it no longer has a death grip on the top four spots of Amazon’s sales rankings), Little Brown YR unveils a tie-in edition to the upcoming movie of New Moon (scheduled for 11/20).
Entertainment Weekly (which has a Twilight Central site) was the first to get it. No bibliographic information yet, but we’ll keep our eyes out for it.
Little Brown YR will also publish a movie companion:
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Several organizations are rallying support for Ohio libraries, now facing a 50% budget cut (unlike libraries in the rest of the country, libraries in Ohio depend on state support for most of their funding).
The Save Ohio Libraries blog has information on how to get involved.
Library Journal has more details on the story and editor-in-chief Francine Fialkoff published an appeal today to Ohio’s governor, Dear Governor Strickland, which describes how important Ohio libraries are to their communities and to the rest of the country.
Vendors are also joining the fight (see Tutor.com’s blog).
To all our friends in Ohio libraries; you’ve created some of the most innovative library systems in the country and a huge base of loyal users, which gives us hope that they won’t let you down.
Let’s start a new award, for “The Review That Most Makes You Want to Read the Book.” It’s surprising how few would qualify.
My nominee this week comes from the NYT BR, in a special category, “Most Made Me Want to Read a Book about a Subject I’m Not Drawn to,” for Dwight Garner’s review of Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and its Aftermath by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman.
Library reserves are averaging 5 to 1 in six large systems we checked. It’s been moving up Amazon and is currently at #22, indicating it will appear on next week’s best seller lists.
What about you? Seen any reviews lately that made you say, “I’ve just gotta read that one”?
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Also in audio from Tantor:
Narrator: Michael Prichard
Commencement, the debut novel by J. Courtney Sullivan is being compared to Mary McCarthy’s classic The Group, in some cases favorably (Janet Maslin, NYT and Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly) and in other cases, not so favorably (Maria Russo, NYTBR and Marisa Meltzer, The Book Beast).
But the naysayers are not putting off library customers. Reserves are growing in all the libraries we checked, averaging ten to one. The book reached a high of #26 on Amazon last week and is now at #67, making it a likely candidate for the upcoming best seller lists.
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Also available as downloadable eBook from OverDrive.
