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
Jon Stewart’s second author interview of the week also struck gold, moving Peter Laufer’s The Dangerous World of Butterflies (much Stewart guffawing about that title) to #92 on Amazon sales rankings.
The Mad Ones, featured on The Daily Show on Tuesday, continues to rise on Amazon and is now at #30.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Peter Laufer | ||||
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Did you hear Nancy Peal presenting her summer picks on NPR’s Morning Edition today? If not, click here.
Nancy had Steve Innskeep in the palm of her hand with the following suggestions, beginning with the teen National Book Club Finalist and Printz Honor Book:
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And moving on to titles written for adults:
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A longer list of suggestions, with Nancy’s annotations, is available on the NPR site.
How Shall I Tell the Dog: And Other Final Musings by Miles Kington, a wry memoir in letters by a British newspaper columnist about his last six months of battling pancreatic cancer, is starting to find fans on the book media circuit. USA Today gave it a mention in it’s “Book Buzz” column, and the Daily Beast’s Sara Nelson mentions a recent media luncheon she attended with the author’s agent standing in for the author, who died in 2008 at age 66. It has also become Newmarket Press’s very first IndieNext pick by independent booksellers, on the list for July, 2009. Most libraries we checked don’t have any copies.
How Shall I Tell the Dog was also one of the few galleys I took home from Book Expo, after the Newmarket Press publisher pressed it into my hands, saying it was a big UK bestseller and the only book her husband would take to his chemotherapy appointments. I was immediately absorbed by it on the way home (it starts with a witty riff on how annoying the author found Patricia Shultz’s fat book 1000 Places to See Before You Die after his cancer diagnosis). That night, I mentioned it to my partner, who immediately started reading it and wouldn’t give it back. I still want to finish it, even though I know how it ends!
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New York Times book critic Janet Maslin brings out the laurels for Ron Currie Jr.’s debut novel Everything Matters! It’s an unusual title and prepub reviewers clearly didn’t get it. The book follows a strange young man from his Maine childhood, in which other kids and his teachers shun him, to his Forrest Gump-like adulthood wandering perilously close to places like Oklahoma City around the timing of the bombing. Libraries show modest reserves against low numbers of copies, but several libraries have up to 20 copies on order.
Maslin calls Currie,
“a startlingly talented writer whose book will pay no heed to ordinary narrative conventions. His thoughts on cosmic doom somehow take the form of a joyride. He survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice of his own. He seems equipped to succeed at almost anything, in fact, except giving his books decent titles.”
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Atria (S&S) came up with a brilliant solution for those who weren’t able to get their galleys at BEA; a “Galley Grab” Web site, where librarians, booksellers and reviewers can request ARC’s of upcoming books.
Good news for those of you hoping for a followup to Dog On It, Spencer Quinn’s charming book about detetective Bernie Little and his partner, Chet (who happens to be a dog); one of the ARC’s being offered is the next title in the series, Thereby Hangs a Tail, coming in January.
And, yes, the author is at work on a third Chet and Bernie title.
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If you can get through all the hunks in People‘s “Summer’s Hottest Bachelors” issue to the books section, you’ll find that Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck, is a “People Pick,” an honor they bestow infrequently.
People says that Adichie “writes with wisdom and compassion about her countrymen’s experiences as foreigners, both in America and in their changing homeland. Hers is one of fiction’s most compelling new voices.”
Most prepub reviews were very positive (with the notable exception of Publishers Weekly, who felt that, while each story is illuminating on its own, when read together, they “…take on a repetitive slice-of-life quality, where assimilation and gender roles become ready stand-ins for what could be more probing work”).
Adichie’s previous book, her first [note; thanks for the correction from Beth Morrill; Purple Hibiscus was Adichie's first book, which Beth recommends highly], was the critically-acclaimed novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, published in 2006.
The Thing Around Your Neck is on order in small quantities in most large libraries, with a few reserves.
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Last night, Jon Stewart bestowed the magic words, “This book is great” on Tom Folsom’s The Mad Ones, about mobster Joey Gallo in the early ’60′s. It rose to #69 (from #10,134 on Amazon).
No wonder; it’s a great interview. At the end, Stewart notes The Mad Ones would make a great movie and Folsom admits that he is working with Harvey Weinstein on that very thing (the book is published by Weinstein Books). Stewart tries to pitch himself for the lead, but an earlier story on the MTV site reports that Weinstein is considering Twilight star Rob Pattinson for the role (although Leo diCaprio is Folsom’s top choice). Weinstein also attended a star-studded reading from the book in NYC’s Soho a couple of weeks ago. That event was mobbed, according to the New York Observer. As further evidence of the book’s high profile, Womens Wear Daily interviewed the author prior to the reading.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Tom Folsom | ||||
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The trailer for Time Travelers Wife has appeared on line over the weekend.
The movie arrives in theaters on August 14.
To view a full-screen version of the trailer, go to the official movie site – TheTimeTravelersWifeMovie.com.
Entertainment Weekly‘s PopWatch blog says it looks like The Notebook crossed with Benjamin Button.
No word on a tie-in yet.
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Also available in audio from HighBridge:
The Time Traveler’s Wife,
Unabridged Edition: 17¾ hours on 16 CDs
Read by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow
978-1-59887-737-3 (CD) * $39.95
AudioFile Earphones Award winner
Listen to a sound clip here
Many of you wrote to thank Lisa Von Drasek, our own EarlyWord Kid, for her excellent rebuttal of Katie Roiphe’s recent piece in the Wall Street Journal on YA literature.
So, we thought you’d like to know that Lisa also sent a protest to the WSJ, which published it today — Grimm Stories for Youth Are Not New.
Go, Lisa!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaking of reading groups (see Reading Group Survey Results), BEA featured a “Book Club Brainstorming” panel, moderated by Carol Fitzgerald of ReadingGroupGuides.com.
Today’s Shelf Awareness pulls together tips from the booksellers on the panel, which can, of course, translate to libraries.
A podcast of the panel is also available on the Book Expo site, (or by clicking above), along with podcasts and videos of many of the other BEA-sponsored programs. In addition, Publishers Lunch has posted their own videos from BEA.
Do you remember the days when we bought dozens of cassettes of programs and lugged them home in our suitcases?
The L.A. Times compares Attica Locke’s debut thriller, Black Water Rising, to Dennis Lehane and Scott Turow; “a near-perfect balance of trenchant social commentary, rich characterizations and an action-oriented plot that, after it kicks in, moves rapidly toward some explosive revelations.”
Locke honed her skills as a screenwriter; she is currently adapting Taylor Branch’s books on the civil-rights movement for HBO and has written scripts for several studios.
Sarah Weinman, who writes insightfully about mysteries for many publications, (including her own blog, “Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind,” a must-read for readers advisors) says in the Canadian National Post, “This debut thriller charges out of the gate, boldly establishing Locke as a name to look out for in years to come,” although she warns, “This is an ambitious, at times messy novel that swings for an outfield one worries it may not reach. But Locke is a young slugger, capable of smacking the hanging curve ball right out of the park.”
Attica Locke is profiled by Celia McGee in the Daily Beast today.
In preoub reviews, Booklist starred it; LJ and Kirkus were both positive, but PW ‘s review was mixed, finding it a “compelling if unwieldy debut…Locke…steers a gritty drama to a satisfying end, though a sluggish subplot involving labor union issues undermines the novel’s grander ambitions. A leaner, meaner version was an opportunity missed, yet Locke remains an author to watch.”
Large libraries own it in modest quantities.
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Also in audio:
And downloadable eBook from OverDrive.
Today and tomorrow, Jon Stewart will interview two authors, each of whom has a book about criminal subcultures.
Today, June 16:
Peter Laufer, The Dangerous World of Butterflies
A journalist who has written about the war in Iraq and the immigration debate decided to take on a lighter subject, butterflies, and discovered that world has its own controversies. LJ recommended it for people who like Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief.
Most large libraries own it in small quantities.
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Tomorrow, June 17:
Tom Folsom, The Mad Ones
The Daily Show describes the book’s subject as “the clash between the underworld and counterculture in 1960′s New York City.”
PW Annex: “chronicle of the infamous Gallo brothers who ruled Red Hook, Brooklyn in the 1950s and 60s…In crisp prose that can veer into the tabloid, Folsom expertly captures the color of Crazy Joey and his times.”
Most libraries own it in small quantities.
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Today at 3 p.m., EST, on BlogTalkRadio, Virginia Stanley, head of library marketing at HarperCollins, interviews Mary Kay Andrews (her new book, The Fixer Upper pubs in July) for ”Library Love Fest.”
You can call in questions — the phone number is displayed on the site, or you can type a question on the “Chat” section. If you ask a question, you may win a copy of The Fixer Upper.
If you can’t listen at 3 p.m., EST, you can listen to the interview later, from Library Love Fest archives (but, obviously, you won’t be able to ask questions!)
Virginia and the HarperCollins library marketing team also have a Library Love Fest blog, which featrues news about HarperCollins titles and regular giveaways.
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One of our favorite sites, ReadingGroupGuides.com, has just released the results of an extensive survey of reading groups from around the country. Nearly 8,000 people filled out a 62-question survey. Thanks to all you EarlyWorders who heeded our call to be part of the study!
Reading group organizers will smile with recognition at some of the responses. What’s the biggest complaint about reading groups? “Not staying on track” (36.7%). What else? “One person dominates the conversation” (12.2%).
One of the changes that groups say they have instituted recently is “limiting selections to books found in the library.” (12.7%)
In fact, as you read through the study, it is clear that libraries are an extremely important part of the reading group community. Libraries are the top of the list of places where group members go to get their books. Library “bags of books” are mentioned often as well as librarians as good sources for book recommendations and 14% of the groups meet in libraries (53.6% meet in member’s homes and 11.5% in cafes or restaurants).
As to the use of technology, 14.5% use a website for organizing the group and another 16.7% would like to set one up. Over half use Facebook.
What would they like to see in the future? By a huge margin, they would like a place online to find out what other groups are reading.
Link here to read the full report. Share it with your reading group members (especially that person who dominates conversation!)
Great news for Pride Prejudice and Zombies fans; you can soon get your zombies on audio.
Entertainment Weekly‘s PopWatch blog is offering the first chapter free right now, via audible.com.
Brilliance will be releasing the unabridged audio on Oct. 15, simultaneously with a “deluxe heirloom” hardcover edition of the original paperback, including a new preface and “additional scenes of zombie mayhem.”
The publisher’s sell sheet also mentions that a movie is planned for release in Fall 2010.
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