Titles to Know and Recommend, Week of Oct. 20

THE big title of the fall arrives next week, John Grisham’s Gray Mountain … George R.R. Martin fans will have something to tide them over until The Winds of  Winter arrives … and several titles are already getting media bumps.

All the titles covered here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed, with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of 10/20/14

Holds Leaders

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Gray Mountain, John Grisham, (RH/Doubleday; RH Audio; RH Large Print), OverDrive Sample

Grisham’s latest is not only the holds leader for the week, but for the entire season. The protagonist is a young lawyer, Samantha Kofer, who, after her cushy corporate job is ended by the collapse of Lehman Bros., takes on pro bono work in a small Appalachian coal town. There she learns, up close and personal, how people’s lives are ruined by the machinations of big companies. PW suggests this “may be the debut of a series character.”

Shopaholic to the Stars, Sophie Kinsella, (RH/Dial; RH Audio, BOT; Thorndike, 11/1), OverDrive Sample

A distant second to the Grisham in holds for the week, but still strong, this is the first new title in the series in four years. A relocation to Hollywood offers shopaholic Becky the opportunity to fulfill what seems to be her ultimate destiny as a celebrity stylist. The author is scheduled to appear on CBS This Morning on Wednesday.

George R.R. Martin Teases 

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Game of Thrones fans will soon be teased by two “new” books by George R.R. Martin (the eagerly anticipated next book in the series, The Winds Of Winter, is expected in 2015, but no pub date has been announced). Coming next week, is a Y.A. title, The Ice Dragon, (Macmillan/Tor Teen). Originally published as part of the 1980 anthology of stories, Dragons of Light, edited by Orson Scott Card, it was then republished as a stand-alone book in 2007, now out of print. The new edition features artwork by Spanish artist Luis Royo. Entertainment Weekly previewed it in August, saying “the book’s themes more resemble those of a children’s fable than HBO-ready sex-and-gore fare.”  OverDrive Sample

Arriving next week is The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones
by George R.R. Martin, Elio Garcia, Linda Antonsson (RH/Bantam), which gives further background on the series to insatiable fans.

In the Media

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Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Bryan Stevenson, (RH/Spiegel & Grau; RH Audio),  OverDrive Sample

Audio sample:

Nicholas Kristof in a column in the NYT Book Review last week notes that Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, as “America’s young Nelson Mandela.” In the long blurb on the cover, John Grisham says that Stevenson is  “… doing god’s work fighting for the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless, the vulnerable, the outcast and those with no hope. Just Mercy is his inspiring and powerful story.”

Stevenson appeared on the Daily Show last night and is scheduled for NPR’s Fresh Air on Monday.

 

The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books. Azar Nafisi, (Penguin/Viking)

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This week brought a rare occurrence, an author featured on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Not only that, Meyers called Asar Nafisi, “cool”  (Part One, Part Two). In this book, she attempts to answer the question of whether books can be as meaningful to Americans as they were to her Iranian students in her best seller, Reading Lolita in Tehran.

Food: A Love Story, Jim Gaffigan, (RH/Crown; BOT, read by author)

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In the follow-up to his bestseller Dad Is Fat, comedian Jim Gaffigan writes about his favorite topic, food. He will be featured in a cover story in Parade Magazine, and on the Today Show on Monday.

Rosewater: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, Maziar Bahari, Aimee Molloy, (Random House Trade Paperbacks; Tantor Audio), OverDrive Sample

Tie-ins rarely get featured in the media, but this case is different:

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