Rita Braver is scheduled to interview E.L. Doctorow on CBS Sunday Morning this week.

Homer & Langley: E.L. Doctorow Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Random House – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 1400064945 / 9781400064946

Also in audio from Random House Audio:

• Unabridged edition, (September 1, 2009); ISBN-13: 978-0739334164; $32

And in large type:

• Large Print, (September 1, 2009); ISBN-13: 978-073932867; $26

Downloadable eBook and audio available from OverDrive.

The Washington Post reported that Ingram unintentionally revealed the Oprah Pick on Thursday and it’s what many Twitter speculators guessed it was. It’s also the one we’ve been rooting for – Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them.

The pick will be officially announced on Oprah’s show Friday (airing at 9 a.m. Central Time in Chicago; 4 p.m. in other markets).

We had high hopes for the book when it came out last year; it deserves the platform that Oprah will give it. It landed on several best of 2008 lists — NY Times, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly and the Amazon Editors’ list.

If you haven’t read the book (and good luck getting your hands on a library copy after the announcement!), two of the stories in the collection appeared in the New Yorker and are available on their site:

• An Ex-Mas Feast
• My Parents’ Bedroom

The Post‘s story does not explain how the pick was leaked.

Say You’re One of Them Uwem Akpan Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Back Bay Books – (2009-07-15) ISBN / EAN: 0316113956 / 9780316113953

Libraries used the following blind bibliographic information to order the book:

• Trade Paperback
• 978-0-316-08637-0
• $14.99

The downloadable eBook and audio are available from OverDrive.

Further evidence that the graphic format is gaining acceptance; Philadelphia has picked The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi as their 2010 One City Read. Five thousand copies of the book will be available through the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Inquirer describes the book as,

a riveting, deeply moving – and wildly humorous – memoir of the author’s experiences as a girl growing up in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the traumatic years she spent at an Austrian high school, and the growth of her political consciousness as a college student back in Iran.

It’s not the first time the book has been picked for a One City program. According to the Center for the Book’s database, at least five other communities have picked it, including Seattle in 2006.

The Complete Persepolis Marjane Satrapi Retail Price: $24.95 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Pantheon – (2007-10-30) ISBN / EAN: 0375714839 / 9780375714832

What a week — first Dan Brown, then the Oprah Book Club Pick.

More big-name releases hit in the upcoming week. In fiction, libraries are showing the greatest number of holds (as well as copies on order) for Diana Gabaldon’s An Echo in the Bone.

An Echo in the Bone: A Novel (Outlander) Diana Gabaldon Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 832 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2009-09-22) ISBN / EAN: 0385342454 / 9780385342452

Downloadable eBook available from OverDrive.

It is followed closely by Ted Kennedy’s autobiography, True Compass, which also shows the greatest number of holds per copy (as high as 18 to 1) for the week’s titles. We’re including it here, even though it came out on 9/14, because many libraries are still showing it on order.

Jonathan Karp, the book’s editor, spoke to Terry Gross about it on NPR’s Fresh Air on Monday.

The NYT‘s embargo-breaking review by the notoriously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani was strong. It is a “People‘s Pick,” this week (a distinction they bestow rarely), with four of a possible four stars.

True Compass: A Memoir Edward M. Kennedy Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 532 pages Publisher: Twelve – (2009-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0446539252 / 9780446539258

In nonfiction, Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth, lays out the evidence for evolution arrives just as the discovery of the “Tiny T. Rex” gives scientists new insight.

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution Richard Dawkins Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2009-09-22) ISBN / EAN: 1416594787 / 9781416594789

Below is the full list of titles coming this week (for all the big titles through January, check our Big Fall Fiction, Adult — Spreadsheet).

9/14 Nonfiction Kennedy, Ted  True Compass – most libraries show it still on order

9/21 Fiction Smith, Alexander McCall  The Lost Art of Gratitude (Isabel Dalhousie)

9/22 Short Stories McCorkle, Jill Going Away Shoes

9/22 Short Stories Ishiguro, Kazuo Nocturnes

9/22 Fiction Keillor, Garrison Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance

9/22 Fiction Atwood, Margaret Year of the Flood – has been getting strong reviews, including 3 of 4 stars in this week’s People. It’s featured title of the NYT Book Review.

9/22 Fiction Gabaldon, Diana An Echo in the Bone

9/22 Fiction Shreve, Anita A Change in Altitude

9/22 Mystery Paretsky, Sara Hardball (V.I. Warshowski)

9/22 Mystery Woods, Stuart  Hothouse Orchid (Holly Barker)

9/22 Biography Andersen  Christopher Barack and Michelle

9/22 Nonfiction Dawkins, Richard The Greatest Show on Earth

9/22  Nonfiction  Feruson, Craig   American on Purpose

9/22  Nonfiction  Beck, Glenn   Arguing with Idiots – Several libraries have not ordered.

9/22 Religion  Armstrong, Karen  The Case for God

9/23 Fiction Hicks, Robert A Separate Country

9/23   Nonfiction  Philips, Mackenzie   High on Arrival – Several libraries have not ordered

9/24 Fiction Dexter, Pete – Spooner

It’s always fun when librarians pick a winner early–and that’s the case with David Small’s graphic memoir of his unhappy childhood, Stitches, which has been getting some major media hits lately. It was a “Shout ‘n’ Share” pick at Book Expo, which many saw as a “gateway book” that could help bring graphic novels into the mainstream. And by the end of the show, it was the book everyone was talking about. (EarlyWord also had a stake in helping it along, and we also gave away some galleys last summer.)  Libraries we checked had between 1 and 40 copies on hand, and one library we checked had 64 reserves.

The New York Times recently interviewed David Small, a Caldecott-winning children’s book illustrator whose radiologist father experimented on him and gave him a cancer that had to be surgically removed, along with a vocal cord, leaving Small with 29 stitches from ear to collarbone, and without his voice. Meanwhile, his mother, who was unhappy in her marriage, exchanged “ecstatic backrubs” on the couch with her lesbian lover in Small’s presence.

The Los Angeles Times  reviews the book favorably, saying

“How David fights for his freedom and finds his voice, both literally and artistically, makes “Stitches” an engrossing story. But it is Small’s talent and empathetic treatment of a child’s perspective that elevate “Stitches” to great art.”

NPR also wrote about the book on their website, as a “Book We Like.”

And USA Today made it one of their fall picks, as we mentioned earlier.

The publisher has also created five short films, featuring scenes from the books. If you feature book videos on your web site, you can embed these videos. Below are two from the early part of the book:

Momma had her little cough (from David Small’s Stitches) from Stitches: A Memoir… on Vimeo.

———-

I had fallen in love with Alice (from David Small’s Stitches) from Stitches: A Memoir… on Vimeo.

Stitches: A Memoir David Small Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-09-08) ISBN / EAN: 0393068579 / 9780393068573

Tired of unrestrained, sensational memoirs?  Then consider Margaret Drabble’s The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History With Jigsaws, an unusual tribute to her lifelong fascination with jigsaw puzzles that doubles as a reserved account of her struggle with depression. While libraries we checked have up to 24 holds on modest numbers of copies, the book has sparked a sympathetic profile of the prolific fiction writer, biographer and literary and social historian in the New York Times Magazine, along with a review in the Los Angeles Times. The book is currently at #1039 on Amazon.

In her New York Times Magazine profile, Daphne Merkin recalls Drabble’s early years as a literary “it” girl in 1960s London and calls her ”a British prodigy. . .dedicated to the delineation of the provisional, the tentative, the nontriumphant — what life is rather than what it might be.” Drabble was introduced to jigsaw puzzles by her beloved aunt, who was childfree, and more fun than Drabble’s dour parents. “My mother used [depression] as a weapon to manipulate others,” she said. . . “It took the form of anger.”  Though Drabble found that the puzzles helped her combat her depression, she adds that she finds her dark moods can be “useful. . .for stripping off ways of getting through life that prevent you from having to think.”

 Writing in the LA Times, critic Richard Eder is more circumspect about Drabble’s book and its merits noting that Drabble’s history of jigsaw puzzles can be labored, and that she writes

“of her parents as if in a frozen state from which she still remains unthawed. A reference to her sister, the novelist A.S. Byatt, preserves the rancor that has long existed between these literary rivals. She draws a dolorous picture of the cancer afflicting her second husband, the biographer Michael Holroyd, with long confinement in hospitals and home and a diet whose bland whiteness suggests an endless arctic winter. And she writes of her own depressions, verging at one point on the suicidal.”

So Drabble’s more literary fans may find more to enjoy than jigsaw lovers who don’t already know Drabble.

The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws Margaret Drabble Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2009-09-16) ISBN / EAN: 0547241445 / 9780547241449

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol isn’t the only book in the news today. September 15 is also the release date of John Krakauer’s Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, about the undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety who walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army and died two months later in Afghanistan, a victim of friendly fire that the U.S. Army later admitted to covering up.

The much anticipated and long-delayed book rises to #7 on Amazon today, following coverage on NPR and Good Morning America, among others. There were substantial reserves on orders of between 1 and 40 copies at libraries we checked.

In an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, Krakauer focused on new details about the Army’s cover-up:

“When a soldier is killed in combat, you should put his uniform, his weapon, everything — anything that can be considered forensic evidence should be sent back to the States with the body, so the medical examiners could determine the cause of death. In the case of Tillman, none of that happened.”

Tillman’s uniform and body armor were burned, says Krakauer, and his weapon, helmet, even a part of his brain, which fell to the ground after the attack, disappeared. Army officials told the medical examiners that Tillman had been killed by the Taliban — and they stuck by this story when they reported the death to his family.

“The Army intentionally lied,” Krakauer says. “They just broke regulation after regulation.”

Good Morning America‘s interview with Krakauer delved into Tillman’s conflicted feelings about joining the fight against the Taliban, and his involvement in the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch. Tillman believed the Lynch rescue was a “publicity stunt” at the time, although he was also concerned about Lynch’s situation, according to Krakauer.

And in a Q&A on The Daily Beast, Krakauer revealed more about his experiences in writing the book:

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman Jon Krakauer Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-09-15) ISBN / EAN: 0385522266 / 9780385522267

Also available from:

Random House Audio

• CD, $40; ISBN 9780739357842

Random House Large Print Publishing

• $28; ISBN 9780739327630

Today, of course, is Dan Brown Day, not only here, but around the world; The Guardian reports that people began queuing for the book at 4 am outside of Waterstone’s in London today. American bookstores were gearing up for the onslaught yesterday, reports the Wall Street Journal, (Booksellers See Savior in ‘Symbol’ ).

Brown may escape the curse of being hated by reviewers for being popular. Both the NYT and the LA Times broke the embargo on reviews yesterday with surprisingly positive assessments (it was the populist Janet Maslin, NOT the famously difficult-to-please Michiko Kakutani, who reviewed it for the NYT).

Louis Bayard gives the book a less enthusiastic, but still positive review in The Washington Post today; he’s a bit bothered by lapses in logic, but entertained overall. He does worry that the book will “turn our city into a minefield of occultism,” as Brown’s earlier books did for Paris, London and Rome.

Libraries are showing the heaviest holds on a title to date; four large libraries have a total of 6,038 holds on 1,607 copies, tripling the number of holds that were waiting for James Patterson’s Alex Cross’s Trial when it was released. And that’s only for the print book; holds on the audio and large type editions are also heavy.

Many are already sick of the endless promotion of the book.  Oh, please. Try to enjoy this moment before you return to grumbling that reading is on the decline  and publishers don’t know how to market.

The Lost Symbol Dan Brown Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 528 pages Publisher: Doubleday Books – (2009-09-15) ISBN / EAN: 0385504225 / 9780385504225

Also in unabridged audio:

• CD: $50
• Publisher: Random House Audio; (September 15, 2009);
• ISBN-10: 0739319175
• ISBN-13: 978-0739319178

Also from Books on Tape:

• CD: $100; 9780307704054
• Narrator: Paul Michael
• Release Date: 9/15

And large type:

• Paperback: $31.00
• Publisher: Random House Large Print; (September 15, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0375434526
• ISBN-13: 978-0375434525

Both the book and audio will be downloadable from OverDrive.

This pop-up greets people who log on to the Free Library of Philadelphia’s web site.

The “Learn About Our Closings” link leads to specifics,

• All branch and regional library programs, including programs for children and teens, after school programs, computer classes, and programs for adults, will be cancelled
• All Parkway Central Library programs, including children programs, programs to support small businesses and job seekers, computer classes and after school programs, will be cancelled. We are exploring the possibility of relocating the Philadelphia Author Series programs to other non-library facilities.
• All library visits to schools, day care centers, senior centers and other community centers will cease.
• All community meetings at our branch and regional libraries, and the Parkway Central Library, will be cancelled.
• All GED, ABE and ESL programs held at Free Library branches will be discontinued, students should contact their teacher to see if other arrangements are being made.

But the library is also holding out hope that the Pennsylvania State Legislature will pass the budget necessary to keep the libraries open and urges citizens to get involved.

Meanwhile, this serves as a stark reminder of what could happen.

Library customers no longer need to be at their computer to download titles from OverDrive, if they are on the Windows Mobile platform. OverDrive’s new media console allows users to wirelessly download audio, video and music.

OverDrive says in its press release that this is “the first in a series of free mobile applications” and it “sets the stage for future support on additional platforms including iPhone and BlackBerry.”

The full press release is available here.

The Lost Symbol is under strict embargo and not supposed to be released until midnight tonight.

However, two major newspapers are running reviews today. Janet Maslin in the New York Times, in a review aptly titled Fasten Your Seatbelts, and Nick Owchar in the L.A. Times agree that the book won’t disappoint fans of The Da Vinci Code, although Owchar says,

And yet, it’s hard to imagine anyone, after reading The Lost Symbol, debating about Freemasonry in Washington, D.C., the way people did Brown’s radical vision of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in “Code.” That book hit a deep cultural nerve for obvious reasons; The Lost Symbol is more like the experience on any roller coaster — thrilling, entertaining and then it’s over.

The Lost Symbol Dan Brown Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 528 pages Publisher: Doubleday Books – (2009-09-15) ISBN / EAN: 0385504225 / 9780385504225

Also in unabridged audio:

• CD: $50
• Publisher: Random House Audio; (September 15, 2009);
• ISBN-10: 0739319175
• ISBN-13: 978-0739319178

Also from Books on Tape:

• CD: $100; 9780307704054
• Narrator: Paul Michael
• Release Date: 9/15

And large type:

• Paperback: $31.00
• Publisher: Random House Large Print; (September 15, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0375434526
• ISBN-13: 978-0375434525

Both the book and audio will be downloadable from OverDrive.

If bestseller lists were determined by library holds, the top new title this week would be Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs, which is showing a total of 964 holds on 89 copies in four large libraries. It debuts on this week’s NYT Fiction list at #10.

Only two of the four libraries have bought it in audio, which also shows heavy holds.

A Gate at the Stairs Lorrie Moore Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0375409289 / 9780375409288

BBC Unabridged Audio:

• ISBN: 1602837163; 9/1/09; $29.95

Downloadable from OverDrive in both eBook and audio.

————————–

A few rungs up the bestseller list, E.L. Doctorow’s Homer & Langley arrives at #7. It’s drawing fewer holds than Moore’s title; 361 on 252 copies in the same four large libraries.

Homer & Langley: A Novel E.L. Doctorow Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Random House – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 1400064945 / 9781400064946

Random House Audio; ISBN: 0739334166 $32.00; September 01, 2009

Downloadable from OverDrive in both eBook and audio.

————————

But holds are running higher on titles that have been on the list much longer. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett is at #5 on the list after 23 weeks. The four library catalogs show 2,371 holds on 429 copies.

The trade paperback edition is many months off; it has been rescheduled from February to June 1, 2010.

The Help Kathryn Stockett Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2009-02-10) ISBN / EAN: 0399155341 / 9780399155345

Penguin Audio; ISBN: 9780143144182 $39.95
Downloadable from OverDrive in both eBook and audio

————————

Holds are also high for The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson — 2,051 on 474 copies and on the list at #9 after 6 weeks.

The first book in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is close behind, with 1,824 holds on 462 copies (a few of the libraries have bought additional trade paperback copies). It is on the NYT Trade Paperback list at #3 after 11 weeks.

The Girl Who Played with Fire Stieg Larsson Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-07-28) ISBN / EAN: 0307269981 / 9780307269980

Random House Audio; ISBN: 0739384171; $39.95

Downloadable from OverDrive in both eBook and audio

-

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage) Stieg Larsson Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 608 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2009-06-23) ISBN / EAN: 0307454541 / 9780307454546

Random House Audio; ISBN: 0739370642; $29.95

Downloadable from OverDrive in both eBook and audio

We’re pleased to see that Jerry Pinkney’s beautiful The Lion and the Mouse debuts on the NYT Children’s Picture Book Best Seller List at #5 during its first week on sale, a first for Jerry.

The Lion & the Mouse Jerry Pinkney Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316013560 / 9780316013567

Close behind is the children’s version of Dewey by Vicki Myron, at #8.

Dewey: There’s a Cat in the Library! Vicki Myron, Bret Witter Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers – (2009-09-15) ISBN / EAN: 0316068748 / 9780316068741

And, no surprise, Catching Fire is at #1 in Chapter Books

Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) Suzanne Collins Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0439023491 / 978043902349

The NYT BR calls The Strangest Man, a biography of Paul Dirac, a mathematical physicist and the youngest theoretician to receive the Nobel Prize, “a gift,” saying it is both “wonderfully written” and “a thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations and the relations between the two.”

Booklist, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly were all equally rhapsodic. The book is on order in small quantities in most large libraries, with some holds.

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom Graham Farmelo Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 560 pages Publisher: Basic Books – (2009-08-25) ISBN / EAN: 0465018270 / 9780465018277

Downloadable ebook available from OverDrive.