Titles to Know and More to Recommend, the Week of 8/11/14
In terms of big-name releases next week, just one title stands out as the leader in holds and copies ordered, Love Letters: A Rose Harbor Novel by Debbie Macomber, (RH/Ballantine; RH Audio; RH Large Print). It is part of a series that is a spin-off of the prolific author’s Cedar Cove books (recently adapted by the Hallmark Channel TV, starring Andie MacDowell and now in its second season). Most libraries have ordered enough copies to fill current holds.
The titles mentioned here and more notable books arriving next week, with alternate formats, are listed on our downloadable New Title Radar, Week of 8/11:\/14.
Literary Darlings
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; RH Large Print)
The hot literary novel of the season, Murakami’s latest is featured on the cover of this Sunday’s NYT Book Review. Salon calls it an understated triumph. Those who resisted reading his previous book, 1Q84, because of it nearly 1,000 page length, will be happy to know that this one is just 400 pages. Holds in libraries are not heavy, so you may have copies available to recommend.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan, (RH/Knopf)
Picked as one of the two most interesting books on the recently released Man Booker long list (the other was Richard Powers’ Orfeo, Norton), you can expect to see reviews. In the U.K. where you can bet on such things, it now ranks third to win the prize, with odds of 8/1.
More to Recommend
Small Blessings, Martha Woodroof, (Macmillan/ St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio)
Woodroof is the host of The Spark on NPR station WMRA in Harrisonburg, Virginia and has written about the publishing process for this, her debut novel, for NPR’s online pop culture column, Monkey See, so don’t be surprised if the book appears on an NPR show.
It is an Indie Next pick for August:
“A cast of quirky characters — a well-meaning but bumbling college professor, his agoraphobic wife, his sitcom-worthy mother-in-law, and a charming itinerant bookseller — is thrown into a whirl when a small ‘orphan’ boy appears in their midst. The power of love and caring lifts everyone above their flaws in a heartwarming story about finding love and family in unconventional ways.” —Jenny Stroyeck, The Homer Bookstore, Homer, AK
The House We Grew Up In, Lisa Jewell, (S&S/Atria)
This one ranks at #3 on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List — The Top Ten Things We Love This Weekmd,” with this recommendation, “It’s a subject more commonly found on A&E than in literary fiction: compulsive hoarding. In Jewell’s 11th novel, Lorelei Bird’s disorder frames this story of an English family, tracing how tragedy pulls them apart and eventually brings them together again.’
Isla and the Happily Ever After, Stephanie Perkins, (Penguin/Dutton Juvenile; BOT Audio)
If you can wrest this from the hands of your young adult readers, it’s prime for crossover. It brought raptures on YA GalleyChat as well as strong prepub reviews (Kirkus; “Engaging teen characters with page-turning love lives offer ample vicarious pleasures”) and the cover carries a lovely blurb by another crossover success, Rainbow Rowell, “Stephanie Perkins’s characters fall in love the way we all want to, in real time and for good.”
Note to Chris Bohjalian’s fans — his daughter, Grace Blewer, reads the audiobook (she is also the narrator for her father’s latest, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands).
Click on the orange arrow for a sample: