Archive for February, 2012

ABE LINCOLN VAMPIRE HUNTER Leaked

Monday, February 13th, 2012

As part of CBS Saturday Morning‘s tribute to Abraham Lincoln on his 203rd birthday, they leaked a bit of the film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s mashup, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Hachette/Grand Central), scheduled to open June 22. The segment begins 1:25 minutes into the video, below.

Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln, based on the final section of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, with Daniel Day-Lewis in the lead, debuts next fall, according to the story (all other sources list it as coming this December, so we’re sticking with that).

FAVORED DAUGHTER Visits Jon Stewart

Monday, February 13th, 2012

On The Daily Show tonight, Jon Stewart interviews Fawzia Koofi, Afghanistan’s first female deputy speaker of parliament (2005 to 2007) and a candidate for her country’s 2014 presidential elections. Her book, The Favored Daugher, was released early this year.

The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future
Fawzia Koofi, Nadene Ghouri
Retail Price: $26.00
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan – (2012-01-03)
ISBN / EAN: 0230120679 / 9780230120679

Holds Alert: DEFENDING JACOB

Monday, February 13th, 2012

William Landay’s thriller, Defending Jacob, landed at #4 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction best seller list on Sunday, after its first five days on sale.

Playing a bit of catchup, Janet Maslin reviews it in today’s NYT. She presents the review as its own mystery; whether Landay, “a former district attorney with two well-received novels behind him, has developed the chops to catapult himself into the Scott Turow tier of legal-eagle blockbuster writers.”

While she doesn’t definitively answer that question, she comes close to saying “yes,” giving Landy kudos for “creating a clever blend of legal thriller and issue-oriented family implosion,” calling the result “ingenious.”

Libraries are showing heavy holds (as high as 35:1) on modest orders. Those that own the audio (Blackstone) are showing heavy holds on that format. Ebook and downloadable audio are available via OverDrive.

Defending Jacob
William Landay
Retail Price: $26.00
Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: RH/Delacorte – (2012-01-31)
ISBN : 978-0-385-34422-7

Blackstone AudioThorndike Large Print

Betty White Wins Grammy

Monday, February 13th, 2012

Betty White has another Grammy Award to add to her large trophy case (her first was in 1975 for her supporting role on The Mary Tyler Moore). She won best Spoken Word Album last night for If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t), Penguin Audio.

 

 

The other nominees were:

Bossypants, Tina Fey, Hachette Audio

Fab Fan Memories – The Beatles Bond; Nathan Burbank, Bryan Cumming, Dennis Scott & David Toledo, producers, WannaBeats Records

Hamlet, William Shakespeare; Dan Donohue & Various Artists – Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Blackstone Audio

The Mark Of Zorro, Val Kilmer & Cast, Blackstone Audio

THE VOW Tops Box Office

Monday, February 13th, 2012

In the weekend leading up to Valentine’s Day, the top box-office draw was the romantic movie, The Vow, starring Rachel McAdams as a woman who is left with no memory after a car accident. Her husband, played by Channing Tatum has to work to rebuild their marriage.

The movie is based on a true story. A book by the real-life couple is being re-issued as a tie-in by Christian publisher, B&H Publishing Group. The couple appeared on the Today Show this morning.

The book is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings. Holds are growing at several libraries.

The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie
Kim Carpenter, Krickitt Carpenter, Dana Wilkerson
Retail Price: $14.99
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: B&H Books – (2012-02-10)
ISBN / EAN: 143367579X / 9781433675799

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Inside A Book Auction

Monday, February 13th, 2012

The NYT takes a look at the auction for a book by Amanda Knox, who spent four years in an Italian jail for a sexually violent murder. The conviction was overturned on appeal and she was released in October.

Is it worth spending a potential seven figures for the book? It all depends on factors that nobody can safely predict at this point; whether she is appealing to the American public and what she is willing to reveal in the book.

The Times notes that several books have already been published about the case and all have “sold only modestly.”  None of those books, however, are by an author that news shows like 60 Minutes is “drooling over.” UPDATE: HarperCollins won the auction, for a reported $4 million. They plan to release it in early in 2013.

Co-Author of THE LAST LECTURE Dies

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Jeffrey Zaslow co-author with Randy Pausch of The Last Lecture, (Hyperion, 2008) and author of several other best sellers, including The Girls from Ames, (Penguin/Gotham, 2009) died in a car accident on Friday morning while touring for his latest book, The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters, according to a report by Detroit’s local Fox station (via Publishers Marketplace’s Automat). He was 53.

UPDATE: NYT Obituary

The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters
Jeffrey Zaslow
Retail Price: $27.00
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Penguin/Gotham – (2011-12-27)
ISBN / EAN: 1592406610 / 9781592406616

In the book’s trailer, Zaslow describes The Magic Room as a tribute to his three daughters.

Stephenie Meyerland

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

     

On the weekend before the first day of filming the adaptation of her book The Host, Stephenie Meyer updates her “awesome” fans on her last year of movie making.

About the director of The Host, Andrew Niccol, she says,

It’s somewhat of a dream to have the creator and director of my favorite sci-fi film (Gattaca) helming this movie. I love the script he’s written, I love his beautiful vision, and I love working with him.

She is also producing an adaptation of Austenland, which wrapped this summer. It seems it was a totally enjoyable experience. She lived in the English countryside, worked with her “bestie” as well as many other “sweet and lovely” and “unbelievably funny” people who continually made laugh herself “into hysterics.”

The movie is now in post-production but no release date has been set. It is based on the Shannon Hale’s first book for adults, Austenland, (Bloomsbury USA, 2007) about a woman (played in the movie by Keri Russell) who tries to overcome her debilitating infatuation with Mr. Darcy (specifically, Colin Firth’s version in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) by going to an English resort that caters to the Austen-obsessed. Keri Russell stars, with JJ Field (as a Mr. Darcy stand-in), Jennifer Coolidge (as Miss Elizabeth Charming, another Austenland guest) and Jane Seymour (Austenland’s hostess).

A sequel, Midnight in Austenland (Bloomsbury USA), was released on Jan 31.

Meyer also writes about the 101 days she spent on the set of Breaking Dawn, Parts One and Two (or, “BD 1&2”), for which she also plays producer. It’s refreshing to hear that, while  most of the experience was “magic”  and “amazing,” there were a few rough patches.

New Title Radar – Feb. 13 -19

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Next week, watch for Lauren Fox‘s delicious new chick lit novel, David Rosenfelt‘s clever legal thriller-cum-mystery and Tatiana de Rosnay’s latest historical novel. Usual suspects include Anne Rice, Sophie Kinsella, James Patterson and Michael Palmer. And in nonfiction, there’s a new biography of founding father James Madison.

Watch List

Friends Like Us by Lauren Fox (RH/Knopf; Dreamscape Audio) focuses on two close girlfriends, one of whom falls in love with the other’s oldest (male) friend. Booklist gives it a starred review: “the plot is pure Emily Giffin, but Fox tackles quarter-life angst with the honesty of Ann Packer’s The Dive from Clausen’s Pier (2002). The hard emotional truths go down easily amid the smart, rapid-fire wit. A pure if heartbreaking pleasure.”

Heart of a Killer by David Rosenfelt (Macmillan Minotaur Books; Listen & Live Audio) begins as a legal thriller about an underachieving lawyer assigned a case in which a convicted murder demands to end her life so she can donate her heart to her daughter. Then it becomes a murder mystery and finally a suspense novel. Kirkus calls it “warmhearted, satisfyingly inventive and almost too clever for its own good. Why isn’t Rosenfelt a household name like Michael Connelly and Jeffery Deaver?”

The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Wheeler Large Print; Macmillan Audio) is set in Paris in the 1860s, as a woman fights the destruction of her home as hundreds of houses are being razed – and is written by the author of the popular book and film Sarah’s Key. PW says “though this epistolary narrative is slow to build, its fraught with drama… In Rose, one gets the clear sense of a woman losing her place in a changing world, but this isnt enough to make up for a weak narrative hung entirely on the eventual reveal of a long-buried secret.”

Usual Suspects

The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice (RH/Knopf; RH Large Print; RH Audio) marks Rice’s return to the dark side – this time it’s werewolves – after her recent fictional flights with the angels. Kirkus says, “despite some of the creakiness of the machinery, Rice finds new permutations in an old tale.”

I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella (Dial Press; Thorndike Large Print; RH Audio) is about Poppy, who’s on the verge of marrying her ideal man, until she loses her engagement ring and her phone, finds another phone in a trash can, and begins an unpredictable exchange with the phone’s owner, Sam. Booklist gives it a starred review: “Readers will know that Poppy and Sam are destined to be together, but getting there is a delightful and exciting ride. One of Kinsella’s best.”

Private Games by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio) is set in the world’s most renowned investigation firm, Private, which has been commissioned to provide security for the 2012 Olympic Games in London – and suddenly must track the killer of a high-ranking member of the games’ organizing committee.

Robert Ludlum’s The Janson Command by Paul Garrison (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio) finds Paul Janson rescuing a doctor abducted in international waters by African pirates, as the situation goes haywire. Kirkus says “there’s sufficient knife work, sniper shots, RPGs, private jets, helicopters, betrayals and corporate machinations to satisfy every armchair covert agent. Formulaic yet entertaining.”

Oath of Office by Michael Palmer (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio) begins as respected doctor John Meacham goes on a shooting spree. The blame falls on Dr. Lou Welcome the counselor who worked with Meacham years before. Looking into the story, he discovers Meacham’s connection to a conspiracy that may lead to the White House. Kirkus says, “this thriller raises compelling issues and features a likable hero, but the plot is dragged out and undercooked and the White House scenes ring false.”

Movie Tie-in

Being Flynn by Nick Flynn (Norton) was originally published as Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, and is the story of how Nick Flynn met his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet, while Nick was working as a caseworker in a homeless shelter in Boston. This retitled edition ties in to the movie starring Robert De Niro and Paul Dano, set for release March 2.

Nonfiction:

James Madison and the Making of America by Kevin R. C. Gutzman (Macmillan/St. Martin’s) is a portrait of this influential Founding Father and the sometimes contradictory ways in which he influenced the spirit of today’s United States. Kirkus deems it “a well-considered and -written biography of this gifted Founding Father’s many contributions to the early republic.”

Penguin Decides Against Library Lending of eBooks

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Late last year, the Penguin Group suspended libraries’ ability to lend the company’s new ebooks and audio downloads, pending evaluation. The evaluation is now complete and the news is not good. Yesterday, the company announced that they have terminated their contract with OverDrive. For the titles that libraries have already purchased, Library Journal reports OverDrive is negotiating a “continuance agreement,” to allow ongoing access.

The Penguin Group imprints include NAL, Berkley, Dutton, Riverhead, Viking, Dial Young Readers, Philomel, Putnam, and Speak.

The LJ story concludes with this chilling scenario;

…publishers [may] demand a business model in which they will only make their ebooks available to public libraries if they are used in the library or if a patron is required to bring their device to the library and load the title onto the device in the library, then bring it home.

 

CUTTING FOR STONE Moves Closer to Screen

Friday, February 10th, 2012

It’s been a year since the news that Abraham Verghese’s long running best seller Cutting for Stone had been optioned for a movie.

Yesterday, news arrived that Danish director Susanne Bier (In A Better World, winner of an Oscar last year for Best Foreign Language Film )  has been signed for the adaptation. There’s no start date yet and Bier has another movie in the queue, but Playlist notes that, after releasing six films in the last ten years, Bier “shows no signs of slowing down.”

Librarians embraced the book, beginning with Verghese’s appearance at ALA Midwinter 2009 in Denver, where he spoke at the Breakfast and BookTalk sponsored by the AAP Trade Libraries Committee.

Cutting for Stone
Abraham Verghese
Retail Price: $15.95
Paperback: 688 pages
Publisher: Penguin/Vintage – (2010-01-26)
ISBN / EAN: 0375714367 / 9780375714368

Al Roker Loves WILD THING

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

On the Today show yesterday, Al Roker declared his love for Josh Bazell’s new book, Wild Thing(Hachette/Little,Brown/Reagan Arthur; Hachette Audio), the sequel to his debut, the darkly comic Beat the Reaper.

Someone on the show may have handed Roker the book; Josh’s father, Bob Bazell is Today‘s chief medical correspondent.

HBO has optioned Beat the Reaper for a series, with Leonardo DeCaprio as executive producer.
 

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French Lessons

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting (Penguin, Feb.7). continues to get attention. It was featured on the Today Show yesterday and on NPR’s All Things Considered.

It’s the lead book review in new issue of People (Feb 20), which gives it 3.5 of a possible 4 stars, and calls it an “engaging memoir-cum-sociological study.”

The NYT is not buying it. Reviewing it yesterday, Susannah Meadows, says “Much of the so-called French child rearing wisdom compiled here is obvious.” She also notes that the amount of support French mothers receive from the government (national paid maternity leave, free pre-school, subsidized nannies) would make anyone more relaxed about parenting.

Entertainment Weekly finds it a “fun read,” but gives it only a “B” because “Druckerman seems to draw all her anecdotal evidence from a mere handful of upper-middle-class Parisians.”

Several reviewers are comparing this book to last years’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Both were excerpted in the Wall Street Journal. The L.A. Times notes,

Chua’s excerpt, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” almost instantly went viral, whereas Druckerman’s “Why French Parents Are Superior” is trending a little slower. Druckerman’s a bit more circumspect than Chua, a technique that tends not to attract as many eyeballs…while Bringing Up Bébé may wind up a hit, it’s unlikely to be a sensation of Tiger Mom proportions.

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BOURNE LEGACY Trailer Debuts

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

The Bourne series is back, with a new director (Tony Gilroy, who wrote the screenplays for the first three movies) and a new star (Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker). The first trailer appeared yesterday and fans of the originals, starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass, have their knives drawn.

The original movies were loosely based on the trilogy by Robert Ludlum (in fact, Deadline reports that Gilroy famously didn’t even read the first Ludlum book. He just used the book’s basic concept). After Ludlum’s death, Eric Van Lustbader continued the series, with the blessing of Ludlum’s estate. The first was appropriately named The Bourne Legacy. Lustbader has now written six Bourne novels, with a seventh, The Bourne Imperative, (Hachette/Grand Central), coming in July.

Is this movie based on the book? Following in the footsteps of the previous “adaptations,”  it only takes its title from the novel, as Lustbader says in his blog. Officially described as, “A story centered on a new CIA operative in the universe based on Robert Ludlum’s novels,” the movie introduces a new character. Instead of the amnesiac David Webb, who takes on the identity of a ruthless CIA assassin, “Jason Bourne,” a new character joins the Treadstone program as “Kenneth Kitson.” As the trailer puts it, “there was never just one.” Cleverly, this leaves open the possibility of Damon returning to future movies in the series.

Even though it bears little resemblance to the movie, the book will be released as a movie tie-in by St. Martin’s on June 2. The movie arrives August 3.

FANCY NANCY to Make Film Debut

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

On the heels of the arrival of the latest in the Fancy Nancy series yesterday, comes the news that Tina Fey is in talks to join Shawn Levy in producing a live-action movie based on the series, for Fox.

Levy directed Fey in Date Night. He’s also had experience with family fare as director of the two Night at the Museum movies.

Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet
Jane O’Connor
Retail Price: $17.99
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins – (2012-02-07)
ISBN / EAN: 0061703818 / 9780061703812