THE biography catching reviewers’ attention this month is Joan Schenkar’s The Talented Miss Highsmith.

Highsmith’s books have had an enduring appeal, but were brought to a greater audience through recent movies based on the Ripliad, five novels featuring the charming sociopath Tom Ripley.

In the Washington Post, Jonatham Lethem’s review of the bio. is not as laudatory as others have been. Instead, he encourages readers to turn to the novels themselves.

As Lethem says, “The antidote to literary biography is literature.”

The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith Joan Schenkar Retail Price: $40.00 Hardcover: 704 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2009-12-08) ISBN / EAN: 0312303750 / 9780312303754

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The following are the Highsmith titles that Lethem recommends.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game (Everyman’s Library) Patricia Highsmith Retail Price: $27.50 Hardcover: 880 pages Publisher: Everyman’s Library – (1999-10-12) ISBN / EAN: 0375407928 / 9780375407925

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The Cry of the Owl Patricia Highsmith Retail Price: $12.00 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press – (1994-01-18) ISBN / EAN: 0871132907 / 9780871132901

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The Blunderer Patricia Highsmith Retail Price: $11.95 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2001-11) ISBN / EAN: 0393322440 / 9780393322446

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This Sweet Sickness Patricia Highsmith Retail Price: $13.95 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2002-10) ISBN / EAN: 0393323676 / 9780393323672

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The Tremor of Forgery Patricia Highsmith Retail Price: $12.00 Paperback: 264 pages Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press – (1994-01-14) ISBN / EAN: 0871132583 / 9780871132581

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Deep Water Patricia Highsmith Retail Price: $13.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2003-07) ISBN / EAN: 0393324559 / 9780393324556

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A Dog’s Ransom Patricia Highsmith Retail Price: $12.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2002-08-17) ISBN / EAN: 0393323366 / 9780393323368

If you just can’t get enough of best children’s books lists, rejoice. Horn Book has named their top picks of the year, 27 in all. The Barnes & Noble Review enlisted Lisa Von Drasek to pick her favorite Picture Books and Liz Rosenberg for the Best Chapter Books. The dearly departed Kirkus managed to get their lists of the Best Children’s and YA Books out in the knick of time.

We’ve updated our spreadsheet of all the picks, so you can check holdings, test your book knowledge, and identify titles you might have missed. The list includes ISBN’s for your ordering pleasure.

So, which titles seem to be on everyone’s list? Jerry Pinkney’s beautiful The Lion the Mouse got the most nods, with seven picks. The only list it’s not on is the NYT BR Notable Children’s Books, but it is on the NYT BR‘s Best Illustrated.

The NBA Winner, Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose was on every list it was eligible for, six in total, except the NYT Notable.

Following it are Francisco X. Stork’s Marcelo in the Real World, tied with Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, which each got five picks (this time, BOTH are on the NYT Notable list). Two picture books also got five picks; Moonshot by Brian Floca and Yummy by Lucy Cousins.

What books get the fewest consumer reviews?

No, not midlist titles — books by bestselling authors. Most reviewers feel they don’t need the attention (with the notable exceptions of People and Entertainment Weekly).

The Daily Beast is jumping into the breach. William Book has begun a new column that sorts through the bestsellers to identify “which, if any, are readable” (I guess that assumes people buy the books, but don’t read them?)

Here’s how he describes his brief:

I’ll render the kind of blunt verdict you get when reading about toasters in Consumer Reports. I’ll tell you which of the bestsellers, if any, are readable. If they’re semi-readable, I’ll tell you which pages to skip. With any luck, you’ll know which one to pack for the flight to Jakarta. If you want a different approach, try The New York Review of Books.

The first up is Sue Grafton’s U is for Undertow. True to his word, he recommends that if you want to “cut straight to the whodunnit … skip over pages 25-26, 226-233, and 253-260,” although, “that’s not recommended, because U is for Undertow isn’t much of a mystery.”

Does he recommend reading it, “Absolutely,” although he doesn’t present a convincing case for doing so.

It’s a good idea for a column, but, generally, the prepub reviewers, who are not allergic to covering potential bestsellers (all four reviewed this one), were more articulate in their recommendations.

U is for Undertow (Kinsey Millhone Mystery) Sue Grafton Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2009-12-01) ISBN / EAN: 039915597X / 9780399155970

Random House Audio, UNABR CD; 9780739323212; $45
Large Print; Thorndike; 9781410420374
Book and audio downloadable from OverDrive

From the Boston Globe today:

I worry that libraries, even the newest ones, risk becoming fortresses buttressed by books, protecting Gutenberg’s technology for reasons of principle rather than pragmatism. Librarians need to educate themselves, and us, about the possibilities and limitations of digital books.

Columnist Alex Beam goes on to acknowledge that libraries are not totally clueless about the digital revolution. After all, the Boston Public Library, “can hook you up to a website called Overdrive” to download books.

Beam feels that “every large library in the state – heck, in the country – should buy 10 electronic book readers and allow patrons to check them out for two weeks, just like real books.” His not-so- “secret agenda” is to let people test drive them. He thinks they will discover that “to know and use e-books is not necessarily to love them.”

Never mind that lots of libraries are already lending reading devices or that there was a flurry of protest in the Boston Globe itself when the newspaper reported that Cushing Academy in Massachusetts had ditched its entire library for electronic books.

Oddly, after urging libraries to educate themselves about eBooks, Beam concludes, “The revolution may be digitized, but not anytime soon. Support your local library and their dowdy – but essential – collection of dead-tree lit.”

As good as it is to see someone urge library support, it would better if he understood more about what libraries are already doing and the challenges they face (and, we admit, it can be complicated — we’re tempted to quote George Clooney in Up in the Air, “Now this is going to be a little difficult, so stay with me.”)

We invite Mr. Beam to learn more about libraries in the digital world; an excellent beginning is Marilyn Johnson’s This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (Virginia Stanley at HarperCollins Library Marketing is sending him a galley, but meanwhile, he can read the first chapter online).

Mr. Beam also has the opportunity hear author Marilyn Johnson speak at ALA MidWinter, held conveniently in his hometown next month:

Mon., Jan. 18, 2–4 p.m.

ALTAFF Gala Author Tea (tickets are $35; buy them when registering for the conference. If you have already registered, you can call (800) 974-3084 to add tickets):

• Marilyn Johnson, This Book Is Overdue! How Libraries and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
• Holly LeCraw, The Swimming Pool
• Janice Y.K. Lee, The Piano Teacher
• Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn
• Teri Woods, Dutch II: Angel’s Revenge

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This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Marilyn Johnson Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061431605 / 9780061431609

The teaser trailer for the forthcoming Alice in Wonderland à la Tim Burton did not include a scene Alice fans adore; the Queen of Hearts (in this case, Helena Bonham Carter) screaming, “Off with their heads!” (it seems Burton has renamed her the Red Queen, who is actually in Through the Looking-Glass, but this is not a literal interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s books. Burton’s film is about a 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the lands she visited as a young girl).

A new trailer addresses includes the beloved pronouncement and adds another catch phrase for the Queen, one which may eclipse the original.

Still no caterpillar, however.

To see a larger (and somewhat longer version) go to the Web site.

The movie opens March 5, 2010.

How do I buy a book for a kid I don’t know well?

It’s a common question and our own Lisa Von Drasek bravely offers answers over at the Barnes and Noble Review. She suggests dozens of kid pleasers for every age range, while avoiding top sellers that kids might already own.

For instance, what kid wouldn’t be fascinated by the following title, written by the executive director of the International Spy Museum?

The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming a Spy Peter Earnest, Suzanne Harper Retail Price: $16.95 Hardcover: 144 pages Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 081098329X / 9780810983298

A book described as “the first definitive history” of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal won’t be released until mid-February, but news sources are already leaking tidbits.

According to the New York Times, The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, by Ken Gormley, a law professor at Duquesne University and author of Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation (1997),  “adds new details…Mr. Gormley secured unusual cooperation from nearly all of the main players, including Mr. Clinton, Mr. Starr and Ms. Lewinsky.”

The first news story about the book came from Politico, under the headline “Monica’s back – says Clinton lied.” It details the book’s revelations, including Gormley’s assertion that Clinton had an affair with Susan McDougal, who went to jail rather than testify against him about Whitewater.

The AP also reports on the story, saying they “obtained a copy” of the book. That probably wasn’t difficult, since the publisher sent out galleys; both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus reviewed it.

Kirkus warned that most American might find it too soon to revisit events from ten years ago, but “for those wishing to understand exactly what happened during this confusing, dismal time, Gormley’s informed reporting and evenhanded analysis is the place to start.”

Libraries we checked have not ordered copies yet.

The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr Ken Gormley Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 800 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-02-16) ISBN / EAN: 0307409449 / 9780307409447

None of the titles on Time magazine’s list of the five best business books of the year will be a surprise.

More useful from a library standpoint is 1-800-CEO-READ’s Best Business Book Awards of 2009, because it includes books on practical subjects people are looking for these days, like how to run a small business, management and salesmanship (here’s a title that speaks to our times — How to Sell When Nobody’s Buying).

800-CEO-READ was founded as the corporate sales division of  the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee. The retail stores were closed March 31, but CEO-READ continues to operate. They  run a monthly list of their top sellers and published The 100 Best Business Book of All Time this year.

Number one on Stephen King’s Top Ten Books of the year is Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger, which has appeared on several other lists and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year.

King’s list appears in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. Since King draws from the books he read during the year, it includes older titles, like Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road (#2), Salman Rushdie’s Midnights Children (#4) and last year’s literary superstar, 2666 by Roberto Bolano (#5).

At #6 is a title that hasn’t appeared on other lists, a book that King says is “The most suspenseful book I read all year,” Michael Robotham’s Shatter.

Kirkus said of the Australian author’s fourth thriller, “Robotham sharpens the conventional horrors with his unerring eye for psychological detail, his mastery of pace and his spooky villain, a manipulator as monstrous as Hannibal Lecter.”

Shatter Michael Robotham Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-03-17) ISBN / EAN: 0385517912 / 9780385517911

Audio; Recorded Books

• UNABR CD; 9781436174541; $123.75
• UNABR Cass; 9781436192651; $64.75

Book downloadable from OverDrive.

A Single Man, based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel, opened in a few theaters last week and will roll out nationally on Christmas Day. Fashion designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut has received generally admiring reviews as well as three Golden Globe nominations:

• Colin Firth, Best Actor
• Julianne Moore, Best Supporting Actress
• Best Original Score

In its review of the movie, the NYT describes the book as,

…a foundational text in modern gay literature. The novelist Edmund White, for one, called the book “the first truly liberated gay novel in English.”

and,

An intensely, at times uncomfortably, intimate work of fiction, A Single Man condenses [the main character] George’s story — much of his very life — into one emotion- and event-charged day. What makes the day special, and the book too, is George’s existential condition. George is single. And he is a man. But he is also a homosexual, which helps set him and his lusting, fading body apart from almost everyone in his life.

Given the gay theme, there have been accusations that promoting the movie with an image of Colin Firth and Julianne Moore sharing a pillow is, at the least, misleading.

[To see the trailer in a full-screen version, go to the movie Web site.]

The University of Minnesota Press, which owns the rights to many of Isherwood’s titles, is releasing the tie-in. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the press originally planned to include Moore on the cover, but Ford “nixed the idea.”

The U. of Minn. Press also created a Web site for the book, that includes an excerpt, reading group guides and information on other Isherwood titles in their catalog.

A Single Man Christopher Isherwood Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 186 pages Publisher: University of Minnesota Press – (2001-04) ISBN / EAN: 0816638624 / 9780816638628

HighBridge is releasing a new audio version, with tie-in art:

A Single Man Christopher Isherwood Audio CD: $24.95 Publisher: HighBridge Company – (2009-12-22) ISBN / EAN: 1615730583 / 9781615730582

Audio Excerpt

Audio also downloadable from OverDrive

Before the Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall was published here, many felt that Americans would not be able to follow its story of Tudor palace intrigue.

A bit of help is on its way. Anne Weir’s forthcoming The Lady in the Tower serves as a “useful companion piece,” says Janet Maslin in the NYT, to Mantel’s “delectably arch portrait of Anne [Boleyn].”

The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn Alison Weir Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-01-05) ISBN / EAN: 0345453212 / 9780345453211

Audio; Recorded Books; Anticipated Release: Feb 13, 2010

• Unabridged CD; $123.75
• Unabridged Cassette; $113.75

The movie based on Alice Sebold’s 2002 bestseller The Lovely Bones opened in select theaters last week to generally bad reviews (with the notable exception of Time magazine).

Early audience research shows that the movie plays well with a group the producers did not expect, teen and college-aged women, according to the L.A. Times.

Paramount is now aiming its marketing at the same demographic that made Twilight a hit.

The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: Back Bay Books – (2009-09-30) ISBN / EAN: 0316044938 / 9780316044936

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The Lovely Bones: Deluxe Edition Alice Sebold Retail Price: $16.99 Paperback: 328 pages Publisher: Back Bay Books – (2007-09-17) ISBN / EAN: 0316001821 / 9780316001823

The year is winding down, with just a few big titles this week.

12/22 Nonfiction

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right Atul Gawande Retail Price: $24.50 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Metropolitan Books – (2009-12-22) ISBN / EAN: 0805091742 / 9780805091748

Macmillan Audio: UNAB CD; 9781427208989; $29.99

Surgeon and writer Gawande’s 2007 title, Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Perfomance was on the NYT bestseller list for 6 weeks. His first book, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, was a finalist for the National Book Award. In The Checklist Manifesto, he argues that a seemingly mundane checklist can go a long way preventing mistakes in the operating room, a subject he wrote about in a 2007 in the New Yorker.  He will appear at ALA Midwinter in the Sunrise Speaker Series on 1/17, 8 to 9 a.m.

12/24 Nonfiction

Your Kids Are Your Own Fault: A Guide For Raising Responsible, Productive Adults Larry Winget Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Gotham – (2009-12-24) ISBN / EAN: 1592404952 / 9781592404957

Audio and ebook downloadable from OverDrive

Another slap upside the head from Winget, “The Pitbull of Personal Development,” who’s already told you to Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life, that You’re Broke Because You Want to Be and It’s Called Work for a Reason!: Your Success Is Your Own Damn Fault.

12/22 Fiction

Hidden Empire Orson Scott Card Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Tor Books – (2009-12-22) ISBN / EAN: 0765320045 / 9780765320049

Macmillan Audio: UNAB CD; 9781427207777; $39.99

Audiobook downloadable from OverDrive

The sequel to Empire

12/22 Childrens

A Whole Nother Story Dr. Cuthbert Soup Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books – (2009-12-22) ISBN / EAN: 1599904357 / 9781599904351

Vying for a place alongside Lemony Snicket, this is the debut of a new series. Booklist said, “Any story elements that feel derivative will likely only attract the book’s target readers, who will eagerly embrace the entertaining narration of Dr. Cuthbert Soup, Founder of the National Center for Unsolicited Advice.”  Kirkus called it “Great fun.”

12/22 Young Adult

Hearts at Stake: The Drake Chronicles Alyxandra Harvey Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers – (2009-12-22) ISBN / EAN: 0802798403 / 9780802798404

Before you roll your eyes at yet another YA vampire series, consider that  Booklist says it’s “Fun, funny, and a relief from Twilight wannabes, this first installment in the Drake Chronicles has lots to offer for savvy readers and gives vampire addicts a nice twist on their usual fare.”

2009 was the year of “the sudden and splendid blossoming of the short story,” declared the Guardian, observing that women have picked up three major UK prizes this year. Two of the three have been published in the U.S.

Why would women’s work stand out in this short form, when women are less often awarded major prizes for their novels? Guardian critic Sarah Crown speculates that

Short stories…are famously uncommercial; that, coupled with the perceived exactingness of the form and its heavyweight literary lineage, means that short stories by women are taken seriously – and awarded accordingly.

Most recently, Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah claimed the Guardian‘s First Book award for fiction, for her collection, An Elegy for Easterly. “Gappah’s deep well of empathy and saber-sharp command of satire give her collection a surplus of heart and verve,” said the PW review. According to World Cat, 336 libraries have it, with those we checked showing modest numbers of copies.

An Elegy for Easterly: Stories Petina Gappah Retail Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Faber & Faber – (2009-05-26) ISBN / EAN: 0865479062 / 9780865479067

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Last May, Alice Munro won the £60,000 Man Booker International prize, for a body of work the judges described as “practically perfect.”  The Canadian author’s most recent collection is Too Much Happiness, which up to seven holds per copy on hand, or more, in several libraries we checked.

Too Much Happiness: Stories Alice Munro Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-11-17) ISBN / EAN: 0307269760 / 9780307269768

Available in Large Print from Center Point Platinum Fiction on January 1, 2010

• $34.95; ISBN 9781602856462

Also available from Random House Audio

• CD: $40; 9780307576736

Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was an international hit before it caught on in the US (in fact, at one time, many thought that American would turn a cold shoulder to the book’s dark themes). A Swedish movie of the title has also been a success in Europe and is now the highest-grossing Swedish film of all times. It’s due to hit screens here in March.

But Sony Pictures has decided there needs to be an American version and is signing up the English-language rights to the entire Millennium series, with Scott Rudin, famous for producing many successful book-based films (The Hours, Revolutionary Road, The Other Boleyn Girl) as producer.

It can be a long road from option-signing to the silver screen. Meanwhile, here’s the trailer for the Swedish movie, with English subtitles.