Last week, a whopping two weeks ahead of next Tuesday’s release of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, reviewers broke ranks to be among the first to deliver their verdicts on his tale of an upper-middle class Midwestern family. (Michiko Kakutani at the New York Times was first out of the gate, calling it “an indelible portrait of our times,” followed by the NYTBR cover review dubbing it “a masterpiece,” while Franzen himself appeared on the cover of Time.)

This week, it was a People pick, but Entertainment Weekly gives it a somewhat less stellar “A-“:

Freedom isn’t flawless: [the wife’s] journal reads more like Franzen than his character, and he gets sidetracked by quirky tangents. But this is a deep dive into a fascinating family that feels very real, and fully grounded in our time.

A backlash also began this week, with novelists Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner charging in an interview in the Huffington Post that.

…it’s a very old and deep-seated double standard that holds that when a man writes about family and feelings, it’s literature with a capital L, but when a woman considers the same topics, it’s romance, or a beach book – in short, it’s something unworthy of a serious critic’s attention.

Next week will bring the book itself, at last. Unsurprisingly, holds are  growing (though they’re not nearly as high as those for a certain YA dystopian novel).

Freedom: A Novel Jonathan Franzen Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 0374158460 / 9780374158460

Franzen’s isn’t the only novel to be aware of next week:

Fiction Watch List

The Gendarme by Mark Mustain (Putnam) is a first novel about a 92-year-old Turkish American who suddenly comes face-to-face with his part in the Armenian genocide. It comes from the Amy Einhorn imprint at Putnam/Penguin – and as one bookseller put it, “Our staff has come to expect at least one blockbuster every season from Amy Einhorn Books.” Her first list, Winter 2009 included The Help, followed by The Postmistress this year.

This one may be the breakout for Putnam’s Fall list. Einhorn presented it at BEA during LJ‘s Day of Dialog and said it’s a Penguin sale rep’s pick. Prepub reviews, however, are mixed.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Farrar Straus & Giroux), a novel set in a Catholic boy’s boarding school in Dublin that made the Booker long list and is being made into a movie directed by Neil Jordan, gets a flat-out “A” from Entertainment Weekly: Murray’s humor and inventiveness never flag. And despite a serious theme — what happens to boys and men when they realize the world isn’t the sparkly planetarium they had hoped for — Skippy Dies leaves you feeling hopeful and hungry for life.”

Holy Thief by William Ryan (Minotaur) is a debut mystery set in Stalinist 1936 Moscow. This one got starred reviews in Library Journal and PW, and several mentions in a recent EarlyWord Galley Chat. Talia Sherer, of Macmillan LibraryMarketing, calls it a “book to read in one sitting without taking a single breath.”  LJ said, “In his solitude and resolve, Ryan’s Korolev evokes Martin Cruz Smith’s fierce Arkady Renko, while the period detail and gore call to mind Tom Rob Smith. Ryan’s first novel will be released with a tsunami of marketing, so readers in public libraries will be lengthening the reserve lists for this remarkable thriller.” However, Kirkus says “the pacing is at times a bit slow, and the mystery holds few surprises.” Orders and reserves are light at this point in the libraries we checked.

Sure Bets

Body Work by Sara Paretsky (Putnam) is the 14th mystery starring private investigator V.I. Warshawski, and is set in Chicago’s avant garde scene. PW calls it “superb” and declares: “This strong outing shows why the tough, fiercely independent, dog-loving private detective continues to survive.”

Lost Empire by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood (Putnam) is the second adventure with married treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo. PW isn’t impressed, calling it “a standard chase thriller” with “uninspired dialogue.”

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie (St. Martin’s) is a romantic comedy about a woman trying to fix the problems of a family in a haunted house. PW says, “Crusie’s created a sharp cast of lonely souls, wacky weirdos, ghosts both good and bad, and unlikely heroes who are brave enough to give life and love one more try. You don’t have to believe in the afterlife to relish this fun, bright romp.”

Dark Peril by Christine Feehan (Berkley) is a new entry in the Carpathian fantasy series.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Tor) is the first volume of a planned 10-part fantasy series by the author best known for his efforts to complete the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.  PW is optimistic: “Sanderson’s fondness for misleading the reader and his talent for feeding out revelations and action scenes at just the right pace will keep epic fantasy fans intrigued and hoping for redemptive future installments.”

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair‘s memoir, A Journey: My Political Life, goes on sale next week. Excitement is high in the UK, as expressed by The Independent yesterday,

The mere prospect of Blair’s memoirs is already generating a response that borders on the hysterical. Labour’s leadership candidates speculate nervously in private about what might be in it. The BBC will broadcast an hour-long interview. Newspapers plan extensive coverage. The financial arrangements for the narrative are a source of raging controversy [After much criticism, Blair announced that he will donate his £4.6m advance and royalties to a sports center for badly injured soldiers].

But will Americans care? Holds are negligible in the libraries we checked.

A Journey: My Political Life Tony Blair Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 720 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-09-02) ISBN / EAN: 0307269833 / 9780307269836

HBO has its book-based vampire series (True Blood). The CW has its YA-book-based vampire series (Vampire Diaries; new season begins 9/9).

And, now for something completely different, on Halloween, AMC is launching The Walking Dead, a series about flesh-eating zombies. Hotly anticipated by comics fans, it’s based on the Robert Kirkman series. The first trailer has just appeared online.

Don’t watch it on an empty stomach.

The series is available in five hardcover compilations:

The Walking Dead, Book 1 Robert Kirkman Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Image Comics – (2006-07-19) ISBN / EAN: 1582406197 / 9781582406190

Book Two: 978-1582406985
Book Three: 9781582408255
Book Four: 9781607060000
Book Five: 9781607061717

The grandmother of all One City/One Book programs in the US, Seattle Reads, has chosen Chris Cleave’s Little Bee as their 2011 selection. The author, who lives in London, will come to Seattle for an appearance at the library in mid May.

Santa Monica selected the book in February of this year for their 2010 program (there’s an EarlyWord connection; Robert Graves, Public Services Librarian at Santa Monica Public Library generously credits EarlyWord as being the first place he heard about the book); the entire program, including a visit from Cleave, was a resounding success.

It hardly seems a coincidence that the trade paperback edition of the book went on the NYT best seller list the next month, where it’s remained in the top 4 ever since, rising to #1 for three weeks. The Seattle program may be having a similar effect; yesterday, the day after the announcement, the book  jumped up the Amazon sale rankings to #32, from #79 the day before.

Little Bee: A Novel Chris Cleave Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2010-02-16) ISBN / EAN: 1416589643 / 9781416589648

The audio, from Tantor, was on the “Best Audiobook of 2009” lists from both Library Journal and AudioFile.

Trade; 9781400111718; 9 Audio CD; $34.99
Library; 9781400141715; 9 Audio CD; $69.99
MP3; 9781400161713; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

Chicago has also announced their pick, Toni Morrison’s A Mercy (opening event, 9/7). San Francisco, has chosen Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (runs Sept thru Oct).

Like many of you, I grabbed a copy of Mockingjay yesterday and dove right in. The third and concluding volume in the Hunger Games series is a roller-coaster, video game ride from the let’s-recap-what you-may-not-recall beginning to its shocking climax.

Of the reviews to date, I feel Jenny Brown nailed it on Shelf Awareness,

Sometimes what moves us to survive also causes our downfall, and sometimes what causes our downfall moves us to compassion. [Mockingjay] leaves us with haunting questions: Can individuals survive as a collective? Or will a united cause subsume the individual? And how much of what makes us individuals are we willing to sacrifice.

Set aside a few hours; you won’t want to put this one down.

Kudos to the cover designers. As we look at the three books on the shelf, the first one is black with the mockingjay symbol radiating dystopia; the second, burning red like “Katniss, the girl on fire” plunged back into the games, and the last, an optimistic light blue with a naturalistic mockingjay breaking free.

It looks like this one is truly a crossover title. On the listserv CCBC-Net yesterday, Alison Hndon, Youth Selection Team Leader for Brooklyn Public Library noted that about 2/3 of the 300 holds were placed by adult patrons.

By the way, that other book getting big coverage this week, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen? it’s lagging well behind Mockinjay in holds.

The book trade eNewsletter Shelf Awareness published a dedicated issue on graphic novels today, offering an overview of the format. We’re delighted to see librarians featured, and partcularly our own Robin Brenner, who writes the weekly EarlyWord “Go Graphic!” column (see her latest here), as well as her friend and colleague, Eva Volin, supervising children’s librarian at the Alameda (CA) Free Library.

Robin reveals that, in the Brookline (MA) Public Library, circ of graphic novels has now surpassed DVD’s. Just goes to show what effect a knowledgeable selector can have. A story on indie bookstores reveals that they, too, often need an evangelist to get them to try the format.

Rounding out the issue is an overview of popular novelists adopting the format (Jodi Picoult does Wonder Woman) and interviews with Dark Horse editor Sierra Hahn as well as wife and husband comics creators, Kathryn and Stuart Immonen Patsy Walker: Hellcat.

Cover of Time magazine, the cover of the upcoming NYT BR, and now…Franzen’s Freedom wins top honors in the new issue of People (9/6/10). Of his first book in ten years ago, People says, “In its humanity, depth, dry comic observations and World According to Garp-like evoking of unspeakable sorrows and indelible bonds, it proves well worth the wait.”

It gets four of a possible four stars, as does another quite different book, a “hilarious love story,” The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Juliet Stewart. It has also been receiving strong reviews elsewhere and has been called the next Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Holds in libraries, although not nearly as high as those for the Franzen title, are growing.

Thorndike is releasing the book in large type in January (details below).

The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise: A Novel Julia Stuart Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-08-10) ISBN / EAN: 0385533284 / 9780385533287

Large Type; Thorndike; 1/5/2011; 9781410432827; $34.99

The man who has the temerity to call Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom less than the Great American Novel in today’s Washington Post, Ron Charles, also steps from behind the curtain with a video review of a book he looks on much more kindly, Mona Simpson’s My Hollywood (Knopf, 8/3/10).

He also reviewed it in print in the Washington Post.

The showdown has been coming for years. Voracious comics fans want access to each week’s installments as soon as possible. Others helpfully scan issues and put them online for free (called “scanlation”). Superhero fans, if they are even remotely savvy, can sign up for a weekly  link to download every single comic issue released each Wednesday. Japanese manga fans had it even easier, with sites like OneManga that allowed them to easily browse through and read thousands of titles for free. Comics publishers say this practice is  slowly eroding their business both here and in Japan.

None of these practices were legal; in May, the FBI shut down one of the biggest comics sites aggregating old and new comics, HTMLComics. Publishers both here and in Japan have started aggressively going after Japanese manga scanlation sites. At the recent San Diego Comic Con, a panel of publishers, creators, and industry watchers discussed potential solutions for digital piracy (link here for a smart breakdown of this complex problem).

The fans have raised a substantial outcry, dismayed over the loss of free comics (many of them argue that scanlation sites are just like getting free comics from libraries; see my own take on why this is not at all the case over at About.com). This blindness to the actual economics of running a business and unwillingness to acknowledge that artists deserve payment for their work boggles the mind, but an entire generation of readers are now used to reading online, and expect free access to hundreds if not thousands of titles. What happens to them now?

New business models are emerging. Fans may be willing to pay a minimal amount, à la the iTunes model, and they may be willing to pay a subscription fee, like the currently successful online anime service Crunchyroll or Netflix. Comics publishers like Netcomics and DMP Manga, with their eManga site, are already testing out the viability of this approach, but since they are limited to one publisher’s titles they are less attractive than the aggregator sites. ComiXology is gaining a strong reputation as a model for releasing content online from the major U.S. comics publishers. Most appealing? Getting access to comics via a site like Hulu, where fans may have to put up with ads but will have that great price tag: free.

What about libraries? Tokyopop, announced at San Diego Comic-Con that they are making a variety of their titles available via Overdrive. More recently, they announced that the fan favorite title Hetalia: Axis Powers will be released immediately via ereader Zinio and Overdrive, even though the US paper street date is not until September 21st (I’ve already asked our collection development team to snap up the title for our Overdrive collection).

Hetalia is an example of the problem we all face in trying to meet fan interest. As Deb Aoki points out at the Digital Piracy panel, Hetalia is a property that is already astronomically popular here in the US. Every major convention over the past year has been flooded with fans dressed as Hetalia characters, long before the series’ release date. Clearly, these fans have read Hetalia illegally online. Tokyopop’s release, via Overdrive or in print is already behind that market.

Providing Hetalia via OverDrive is a great solution for libraries serving casual fans, but it won’t allow us to keep up with the ravenous demand of fans who were raised on reading unlimited scans.

We hope the Tokyopop deal is just the beginning and that other publishers will see the advantage of working with Overdrive. It would be even better if they could provide titles as soon as they are available in Japan. If we truly want to compete, we need to figure out ways to meet demand quickly.

If you’re coming to this the first thing in the morning, fair warning, it may be a bigger jolt to the system than your double decaf latte.

Filmmaker Danny Boyle, Oscar winner for Slumdog Millionaire, directs 127 Hours based on mountain climber Aron Ralston’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place, (Atria, 2004; original cover at left), his memoir of being trapped by a boulder in a canyon for five days. To save himself, he finally had to cut off his own arm.

Rising star James Franco (he’s Julia Robert’s younger lover in Eat Pray Love and was recently profiled in New York magazine),  plays Ralston.

The movie is scheduled for release on Nov. 5.

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Tie-in pbk:
127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston
Pocket, October 2010; Mass Market Paperback, 448 pages; $7.99
ISBN-13: 9781451617702

Tie-in Abridged Audio:
Read by: Aron Ralston
Simon & Schuster Audio, October 2010;  5 CD’s $14.99
ISBN-13: 9781442340015

Agh! The President got ahold of an ARC of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, which is not supposed to go on sale until next Tuesday, supposedly unleashing “a small panic in the publishing world.” (NYT Arts Beat Blog).

It seems that news sources made it sound like he bought a finished copy while vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, causing booksellers around the country to be beseiged with requests for copies. Apparently, they are sticking to the strict on-sale date (is there some irony in the fact that the book is titled Freedom?).

Some libraries are showing the book as being “in process,” with holds ranging from 4:1 to 10:1 in systems we checked.

Already a critical success here, reviews are beginning to break in the UK, with the Telegraph saying Franzen is “almost alone in his willingness to tackle America’s big issues.” The Guardian calls it the “novel of…the century.”

At left, the UK cover.

Now that Mockingjay is officially released, reviews are breaking. In USA Today, Bob Minzesheimer’s efforts to avoid spoilers make his review a bit opaque. This was not the case for the L.A. Times, which is being roundly criticized for both breaking the embargo and revealing key plot elements. On the Web, Entertainment Weekly posted a review at 8 a.m., with a “Spoiler Alert!” warning and give it a B+.

The AP ran a story about midnight launches in bookstores.

Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) Suzanne Collins Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2010-08-24) ISBN / EAN: 0439023513 / 9780439023511

Last night, Stephen Colbert grilled journalist Leslie Kean about her ten-year investigation into UFO’s. The book rose to #92 on Amazon sales rankings.

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UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record Leslie Kean Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-08-10) ISBN / EAN: 0307716848 / 9780307716842

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On Wednesday, Colbert interviews author Heidi Cullen on climate change.

The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet Heidi Cullen Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-08-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061726885 / 9780061726880

New York magazine lists 20+ most anticipated books of the fall.

For an in-depth look at the upcoming season, crafted particularly for librarians, check out HarperCollins’ Fall Buzz presentation on our site.

Looking further ahead, publishers that have three seasons are beginning to release their Winter/Spring ’11 catalogs.

The new Penguin, Harper and Random House catalogs have recently been added to Edelweiss (make sure to take advantage of their nifty “GeoSearch” feature  that lets you identify books about your area or by local authors). Other publishers, such as Macmillan and Simon & Schuster offer e-catalogs on their own sites (links are available at the right, under “Publishers Catalogs”).