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Speaking of reading groups (see Reading Group Survey Results), BEA featured a “Book Club Brainstorming” panel, moderated by Carol Fitzgerald of ReadingGroupGuides.com.

Today’s Shelf Awareness pulls together tips from the booksellers on the panel, which can, of course, translate to libraries.

A podcast of the panel is also available on the Book Expo site, (or by clicking above), along with podcasts and videos of many of the other BEA-sponsored programs. In addition, Publishers Lunch has posted their own videos from BEA.

Do you remember the days when we bought dozens of cassettes of programs and lugged them home in our suitcases?

Just a reminder that Norton is offering copies of the galley of Stitches (THE Book of BEA) to EarlyWord readers. The deadline for entry is 11 pm, EST, today.

 Click here for full details.

Not content with all the BEA picks already published, BEA ran their own survey of media who regularly cover the book industry. Show Manager Lance Fensterman admits, “This is one of the most unscientific surveys that we could possibly initiate,” but says it’s important to identify a title or two that may have been overlooked by the others.

Indeed, among the nine titles is Elizabeth Kostova’s Swan Thieves, (Little, Brown, Jan) which, as we noted, was inexplicably missing from  other lists. On the other hand, the list includes a raft of titles that are by now the usual suspects: South of Broad, (Pat Conroy, Doubleday), Spooner (Pete Dexter, Grand Central) and David Small’s Stitches from Norton (how quickly one becomes a usual suspect!)

There IS one very unusual choice; a mass market paperback first novel about Victorian vampires, Soulless by Gail Carriger, described on the author’s Web site as “Jane Austen does paranormal, or PG Wodehouse does steampunk.” We suspect Ron Hogan, who has been touting it at Galley Cat, got it on the list.

So, OK, we’ll bite (sorry). It’s got a great cover, an inventive series title (the first in the “Parasol Protectorate Series”) and the author nearly convinced us that vampires affected Victorian fashion (cravats are great for covering neck marks!) on her web site.

Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate) Gail Carriger Retail Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Orbit – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316056634 / 9780316056632

I’m in danger of getting whiplash. After days of rounding up the Fall books from BEA, the Wall Street Journal dragged me back to summer with their “Best Reads of the Season;” fourteen fiction and 5 nonfiction titles (the accompanying article claims there are only 10 fiction titles; someone snuck a few more in!).

If you want to look at the various picks of the BEA, check our links to the right, including the full lists from the librarians at the “Shout and Share” panel, under “BEA ‘09 — Roundups.”

Like many of you, I’m just emerging from the whirlwind of BEA. Here’s my top-of-the-head impressions:

Leviathan Scott Westerfeld Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Simon Pulse – (2009-10-06) ISBN / EAN: 1416971734 / 9781416971733

From the guy who brought us The Uglies, this one is a no-brainer. I can’t wait to read it.

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Fire Kristin Cashore Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Dial – (2009-10-05) ISBN / EAN: 0803734611 / 9780803734616

You’ve heard me rave about this before. A companion volume to Graceling and every bit a compelling. Some are saying it’s better than the first. I couldn’t put it down.

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Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) Suzanne Collins Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0439023491 / 9780439023498

The sequel to the mesmerizing Hunger Games, as page-turning as the original although not as fresh, kids will be clamoring for this one.

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The Magician’s Elephant Kate DiCamillo Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Candlewick – (2009-09-08) ISBN / EAN: 0763644102 / 9780763644109

An original fairy tale of a boy, a lost sister, a magician who wants to do something spectacular, and, of course, an elephant. Lyrically written story of hope. 

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Million-Dollar Throw Mike Lupica Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Philomel – (2009-11-03) ISBN / EAN: 0399246266 / 9780399246265

Despite loving Heat, Travel Team and The Big Field, my eyes were rolling at this title. Hasn’t Lupica heard of Dan Gutman? Million Dollar Shot, etc? Yet, Lupica has made this well-used theme his own, weaving the story of a 13-year-old quarterback and his best friend a sight impaired girl with an undercurrent of the economic hardships facing current middle class families.

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The Day of the Pelican Katherine Paterson Retail Price: $16.00 Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Clarion Books – (2009-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 0547181884 / 9780547181882

The moving story of a young teen girl and her family, Kosovar Muslims who are persecuted by the Serbs during the 1990’s. Although a familiar immigrant story, Paterson brings her gifts as a master story teller to life in the town, country and mountains, the suffering of relocation, the bitterness in loss, and the generosity of spirit.  Paterson takes us where we haven’t been before and we are grateful for the journey.

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The Amanda Project: Book 1: invisible I Stella Lennon Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: HarperTeen – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061742120 / 9780061742125

In this first title of a new teen series, charismatic genius Amanda is missing. Three friends from very different social cliques; the popular girl, the geek and the artist are forced to work together get to the bottom of Amanda’s machinations. A cross-platform book that will have an internet writing component (a site for The Amanda Project is coming soon). Might be a cool after-school activity for 12’s to 15’s.

Picture Books

Mystery Vine: A Pumpkin Surprise Cathryn Falwell Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: HarperCollins – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061771988 / 9780061771989

Rhyming text and bold collage illustrations make this garden tale perfect for preschool story time.

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The Lion & the Mouse Jerry Pinkney Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316013560 / 9780316013567

This  version of Aesop’s fable from its magnificent cover, a watercolor painting of a full-faced lion, to the sweetly delicate pink washed nose of the mouse that adorns the back-cover, is a masterpiece.

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When Stella Was Very, Very Small   Retail Price: $16.95 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: Groundwood Books – (2009-08-01) ISBN / EAN: 0888999062 / 9780888999061

Have you met Stella and her brother Sam? I am shocked that every one of the seven books hasn’t hit the bestseller lists. I love these books. They are age appropriate and exquisitely illustrated with witty, serene watercolor paintings. Here we witness Stella when she as a small child just discovering the world around her and exercising her robust imagination. These books are perennial story time favorites and I know that this latest in the series will be equally beloved.

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Harry and Horsie Katie Van Camp Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: HarperCollins – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061755982 / 9780061755989

A fabulous debut for both author and illustrator, a sweet imaginative bedtime story with retro Sunday-comic-like pictures.

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Wag! Patrick McDonnell Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316045489 / 9780316045483

What makes little dog Earl’s tail wag?  I KNOW!!!!!

Reminiscent of  the first Willems’ Pigeon book , children will rejoice in the interactive playful text and everyone will ohh, and ahh over the cutest pup ever.

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Robot Zot! Jon Scieszka Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing – (2009-09-22) ISBN / EAN: 1416963944 / 9781416963943

Well, its about time Jon turned his comic genius to robots. Robot Zot is a courageous, tiny interstellar sentient mechanism who is out to conquer the inanimate residents of an ordinary suburban home until he falls in love with a toy mobile phone. 

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Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies Julie Andrews, Emma Walton Hamilton, James McMullan Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316040495 / 9780316040495

Wow, just wow. This is the family gift book of the year. Well-selected classic texts paired with McMullan’s masterful paintings. For every collection.

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The Longest Night Marion Dane Bauer and Ted Lewin Retail Price: $17.95 Hardcover: 40 pages Publisher: Holiday House – (2009-08) ISBN / EAN: 082342054X / 9780823420544

Lewin’s dramatic paintings of winter forest creatures and landscape  are a perfect match to Bauer’s poetic text.

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Creature ABC

Andrew Zuckerman

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: $19.99; 120 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (September 1, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0811869784
• ISBN-13: 978-0811869782

Spectacular wildlife photographs are paired with capitol and lower case letters in with an often obvious B is for bear, E is for elephant sequence. What is U? Not so obvious; it’s for porcupine fish, goldfish, arowana and koi who live Underwater.

Small Press Discoveries

Life-Size Zoo: From Tiny Rodents to Gigantic Elephants, An Actual Size Animal Encyclopedia   Retail Price: $17.95 Hardcover: 48 pages Publisher: Seven Footer Press – (2009-04-07) ISBN / EAN: 1934734209 / 9781934734209

Breathtaking oversized photographs of zoo animals with fold out pages and bite-sized facts. Seven Footer Press is distributed by PGW.

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Classical Comics Teaching Resource Pack: Romeo and Juliet: Making Shakespeare Accessible for Teachers and Students Ian McNeilly, James Offredi, David Roach Retail Price: $22.95 Spiral-bound: 100 pages Publisher: Classical Comics – (2009-12-01) ISBN / EAN: 1906332746 / 9781906332747

Graphic format version of the classic tragedy, available from Ingram, Follet and Baker and Taylor. For the complete list of titles, check the Classical Comics site.

Below is a guest post from Barbara Genco, Brooklyn PL, on the BEA program about street lit. 

We have also posted a “Webliography” from the session, of sources useful for librarians developing collections in this area.

Every fall students in my Pratt SILS Collection Development and Management class present a final project which highlights collection trends, focusing on the ‘real life’ solutions that savvy librarians employ to assure that their collections actively reflect the needs and wants of their communities.

Last fall four early career librarian-trainees (list below) from the Brooklyn and New York Public Libraries chose to investigate current public library practice in collecting and offering street lit to teens. They cannily developed a survey using SurveyMonkey.com and distributed it widely among youth materials and public library list serves. They collected and highlighted their findings in an article in School Library Journal (”What Librarians Say about Street Lit“) earlier this year and presented a more ‘formal’ review to a packed-house panel at BEA this past weekend. They shared their  knock-out power point primer on the development of Street Lit as a genre and the results of their survey (see below). The panel was rounded out by an open and lively conversation between the “Queen of Hip-Hop Lit” Nikki Turner (author of the near classic street lit favorite—A Hustler’s Wife) and her current editor, the highly respected Melody Guy of Random House/Ballantine’s One World imprint. 

Some Street Lit Stats: 

• Of the 241 libraries reporting, a whopping 92.5% include Street Lit in their collections while 7.5% do not
• Of the 241 Libraries Responding: 49 % are Urban, 43 % Suburban; 8%  Rural
• Of those that do not include Street Lit, 11.1% were in urban settings.  
• Why do these libraries decline to collect Street Lit? 

11.1 % reported that Street Lit is “too controversial”
5.6%  described it as “poorly written”
11.1% cited “negative stereotypes”
50% No patron interest (emphasis ours) 

• Where are those street lit books in libraries? 

16.9% in Adult Fiction
14.6% in YA
68.5 % purchase for both Adults and YAs

• Where are they shelved? 

13.2% shelve them separately 
86.6 % interfile them in the Fiction collection

• How do teens request Street Lit Titles in the library? Teens most often ask for “real life”, “dramatic”, “urban” or “ “girlie” books…or  (sobering info here)  “The books where the guy meets the girl and then he beats her up.”

Thanks to Nina Emlem, (NYPL), Karen Grenke (NYPL), Christopher Lassen (BPL), Kristy Raffensberger (NYPL) for their hard work and creativity!

At BEA’s “Shout and Share,” a panel of librarians picked their favorite ARC’s from the show. Kaite Mediatore Stover (RA maven and Head of Readers’ Services, Kansas City PL) book talked her selections. This woman knows how to push a book (e.g., The Birthing House reads as if “Stephen King had been the architect, Joe Hill the realtor, and the Octomom the decorator”).  Even though I was scribbling madly, I couldn’t get the pithy phrases down fast enough.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to, because Kaite agreed to share her booktalks with EarlyWorders:

Sandman Slim Richard Kadrey Retail Price: $22.99 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Eos – (2009-08-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061714305 / 9780061714306

A heady combination of Warren Ellis’ cynical wit and Neil Gaiman’s imaginative world building. Recent Hell-dweller, James Stark is on a revenge-fueled prowl through Los Angeles. He’s looking for the dark magician who cursed him into the afterlife, murdered his girlfriend, and corrupted his livelihood. Stark is moving through the gritty streets with cheeky advice from a beheaded corpse, reluctant loyalty from a 200-year-old Frenchman, and a suspicious video store clerk with her own wise-crack for every occasion. This book is a glittering, darkly humorous, jet-propelled paranormal noir with unforgettable characters, bullet-speed dialogue, and a 3 am caffeine chaser of a story. Give this to all those twittering hipsters who have a fondness for Jim Butcher, Simon Green, and Kim Harrison.  

[Ed note: Libraries show light ordering]

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The Birthing House Christopher Ransom Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 0312385846 / 9780312385842

Perfect for Halloween; a dark and twisted story of a house that takes life to give birth. Returning from his father’s funeral in Chicago, Conrad detours to Black Earth, Wisconsin while en route to a bland life and career-driven wife in LA. Conrad is captivated by an old Victorian mansion, the “birthing house,” as the locals call it, which has provided shelter for many women over the past hundred or so years who have given birth to many babies—not all of them normal. Does this history make a house haunted? Or is haunting merely history roused from is rest? One week later, Jo and Conrad make the big move from urban LA to rural Black Earth.  A few days after the couple move in, Jo leaves for an eight-week training in Detroit. Conrad can feel the house closing in on him. It’s stalking him with mysterious blood stains on the floor, faceless wooden dolls that move unassisted and ghostly apparitions in windows and ancient photographs that bear an unsettling resemblance to Conrad’s thoroughly modern wife.    

If Stephen King had been the architect, Joe Hill the realtor, and the Octomom the decorator, you’d have The Birthing House. Who knew the heartland had a heart so full of darkness?  

[Ed note: Of the four, this one shows the highest total orders by the six large library systems we checked]

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While I’m Falling Laura Moriarty Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 1401302726 / 9781401302726

A personal and book group favorite for Ms. Moriarty’s local ties to the Kansas City area.   

Here’s a story of a normal Kansas City family that is quietly coming apart at the seams as its members go through typical life changes. Dependable mother Natalie is the first to experience transformation. Her throw-away affair with a roofer devastates her lawyer husband and coed daughter, Veronica. It doesn’t clearly dawn on Veronica that her life will never be the same until her mother arrives at her dorm, family dog in tow, claiming to be jobless, homeless, and penniless. Moriarty writes quiet domestic stories that are compelling as we watch realistic, yet not completely likeable characters, make the kinds of life errors we’d like to smack them for, but understand, because we’ve made the same mistakes, too. This is one of Moriarty’s strengths. She doesn’t want the reader to take the side of any of her characters, rather, Moriarty wants to provoke thought and conversation about what the characters are doing, why, and how they can learn to make do or do better.   

A great book for book groups and readers who enjoy Jodi Picoult, Jacquelyn Mitchard, and early Luanne Rice.  

[Ed note: Just two of the six libraries we checked have it on order, but those libraries have ordered more copies of this title than any of the others]

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Top Producer: A Novel of Dark Money, Greed, and Friendship Norb Vonnegut Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2009-09-15) ISBN / EAN: 0312384610 / 9780312384616

Librarians know times are tough. We’re seeing all kinds of new readers, some of them former financial industry employees. For all those patrons who spent their days wheeling and dealing on Wall Street, or in the banks’ counting house counting all the money, even those who thought Bernie Madoff got off light, comes a story set in the high-stakes world of finance written by one of its own. The novel opens with a grisly shark-infested murder at the Boston Aquarium which puts hero Grove O’Rourke’s life and career in jeopardy. As Grove scrambles to solve the murder by following the money, he uncovers scam after scam. A detailed ticker-tape quick thriller about where all the dollars go, what the money is hiding, and whose hand is in the till. 

[Ed note: a few libraries have ordered, in modest quantities ]

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Stitches: A Memoir David Small Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-09-08) ISBN-10: 0393068579 ISBN-13: 9780393068573

Caldecott winning artist David Small gives readers a profound work sure to be an essential addition to any graphic literature collection. Young David undergoes some medical experiments at age 6, all administered by his doctor father. At 14, David is diagnosed with, but never informed of, throat cancer and had one of his vocal chords removed. As the years go by, David struggles to find his voice and seek the truth from a family that habitually, relentlessly avoids it. This memoir is utterly compelling. It can be read in an hour but begs to be re-read. Moving, disturbing and redemptive, the grim tones are perfectly captured in pale-washed illustrations. I will be giving Stitches to readers who enjoy powerful memoirs as a gateway book to the graphic format.

As we noted earlier, Stitches by David Small, was such a hit at BEA (see our post, THE Book of BEA) that some of us were unable to get ARC’s (including me). 

Well, good news, Golda Rademacher, Library Marketing Manager at W.W. Norton is making a limited number of ARC’s available for EarlyWord readers. To enter to win a copy, just send an email to EarlyWord, with “Stitches, Please!” in the subject line, by 11:59 p.m, Monday, June 8 (only available to librarians residing within the 50 United States).

Don’t forget to include your mailing address, so Golda knows where to send your copy!

If your need for gratification is more immediate, you can view an excerpt of Stitches at Scirbd.com.

For those going to ALA, David Small is making two appearances. Put them on your calendar NOW:

Sunday, July 12th, 2:00-3:00 pm
Norton booth, #1616
ARC signing

Monday, July 13th, 10:30 am-12:00 pm
McCormick Place West, room W-194a
Small appears on the ALTAFF, ”Reflecting on the Past: Literary Memoirs” panel. Author signing will follow in the same room

Stitches: A Memoir David Small Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-09-08) ISBN-10: 0393068579 ISBN-13: 9780393068573

Below are the nonfiction titles included in various roundups from the show (full list of them, with links, on our previous post; The Big Books of BEA; Fiction

The following titles are  on most library catalogs:

• Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, The National Parks, (Knopf, 9/8);  companion to the fall PBS series
• Jon Krakauer, Where Men Win Glory, (Doubleday, 9/15); about Pat Tillman, the football star killed in Afghanistan. If you’re doing a double take, it’s because this book was announced last year, with the title, The Hero. Reports said that Krakauer put off the publication date because he was not happy with it.

The following are not showing on most of the catalogs we checked. Titles are in order by pub. date:

Zeitoun Dave Eggers Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 342 pages Publisher: McSweeney’s – (2009-07-15) ISBN / EAN: 1934781630 / 9781934781630

A true story about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. This is one of two books the L.A. Times mentioned in their story, BookExpo America reveals an industry in transition. The other is Michael Lewis’s Big Short (below).

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The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws Margaret Drabble Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2009-09-16) ISBN / EAN: 0547241445 / 9780547241449

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Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day Diane Ackerman Retail Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-09-28) ISBN / EAN: 0393061736 / 9780393061734

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Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith: The True Story of a Last Request

• Hardcover: $23.99; 208 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (September 29, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0786868724
• ISBN-13: 978-0786868728

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The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America Timothy Egan Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2009-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 0618968415 / 9780618968411

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Malcolm Gladwell,  What the Dog Saw

• Hardcover: $27.99
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (October 20, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0316078573
• ISBN-13: 978-0316078573

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True Compass: A Memoir Edward M. Kennedy Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Twelve – (2009-10-27) ISBN / EAN: 0446539252 / 9780446539258

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The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Michael Lewis Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-11-02) ISBN / EAN: 0393072231 / 9780393072235

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Mary Karr, Lit 

• Hardcover: $26.99; 400 pages
• Publisher: Harper (November 3, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0060596988
• ISBN-13: 978-0060596989

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It’s the cover to sigh for:

How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood William J. Mann Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2009-10-21) ISBN / EAN: 0547134649 / 9780547134642

Ironically, many media outlets complained about the focus on new media at the show and then went on to focus on it themselves, ignoring the books. The following, however, devoted at least part of their coverage to the major titles of the show:

• Publishers Weekly, BookExpo America 2009: The Big Books of the Show
• NYT Paper Cuts Blog, BookExpo America: What to Read
• The Daily Beast,  A Sneak Peek at Fall Books
• USA Today, Power of digital looms over BookExpo

Below are the fiction titles. Up next, we’ll wrap up nonfcition. On Wednesday, we will post a roundup of mentioned at the librarians’ “Shout and Share” program. 

Below are the titles most libraries already have on order:

• Nicholson Baker, The Anthologist, (Simon & Schuster, 7/31)
• Richard Russo, That Old Cape Magic (Knopf 8/4). Many are not showing the audio, however, from Books on Tape
• Dan Chaon, Await Your Reply, (Ballantine, 8/5)
• Pat Conroy,  South of Broad (Doubleday/Nan. A. Talese, 8/11), 
• Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol, (Doubleday, 9/15)
• Margaret Atwood The Year of the Flood, (Doubleday/Nan A.Talese, 9/22)
• Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry (Scribner, 9/29)
• John Grisham, Ford County (Doubleday, 11/3); short stories
• James Patterson,  I, Alex Cross (Little, Brown, 11/16)
• Michael Crichton, Pirate Latitudes (Harper, 11/24)
• Stephen King, Under the Dome, (Scribner, 11/10)
• Joshua Ferris, The Unnamed (Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur Books, 1/18/10)

Below are the titles that are not showing on most of the library catalogs we checked. The list is in order by pub. date:

This Is Where I Leave You Jonathan Tropper Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult – (2009-08-06) ISBN / EAN: 052595127X / 9780525951278

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Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs 

• Hardcover: $26; 336 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (September 8, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0375409289
• ISBN-13: 978-0375409288

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See our earlier story on this title, CSI Creator Launches ‘Digi-Novel’

Level 26: Dark Origins Anthony E. Zuiker Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult – (2009-09-08) ISBN / EAN: 0525951253 / 9780525951254

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Love and Summer William Trevor Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2009-09-17) ISBN / EAN: 0670021237 / 9780670021239

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Spooner Pete Dexter Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2009-09-24) ISBN / EAN: 0446540722 / 9780446540728

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 A.S. Byatt, The Children’s Book

• Hardcover: $26.96; 688 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (October 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0307272095
• ISBN-13: 978-0307272096

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Nine Dragons Michael Connelly Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 0316166316 / 9780316166317

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A new translation of Gunter Grass’s classic made Publishers Weekly’s list:

The Tin Drum Gunter Grass Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 592 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2009-10-08) ISBN / EAN: 0151014167 / 9780151014163

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Chronic City Jonathan Lethem Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 0385518633 / 9780385518635

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The Scarpetta Factor Patricia Cornwell Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2009-10-20) ISBN / EAN: 0399156399 / 9780399156397

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Invisible Paul Auster Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. – (2009-10-27) ISBN / EAN: 0805090800 / 9780805090802

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Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna

• Hardcover: $26.99; 464 pages
• Publisher: Harper (November 3, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0060852577
• ISBN-13: 978-0060852573

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The Roses by Leila Meacham was the only debut novel to appear on the lists and it got buzz from several sources. The Daily Beast says, it “reads like a high-end Thorn Birds,” a reference that will work only for those who remember the 1977 bestseller by Colleen McCullough (or the tv mini-series based on it). For the rest of you, check Wikipedia.

Roses Leila Meacham Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 624 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2010-01-06) ISBN / EAN: 0446550000 / 9780446550000

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Oddly, the following book wasn’t mentioned in the roundups, but surely there will be interest in this second book after Kostova’s 2005 blockbuster  (the only first novel to debut at #1 on the NYT bestseller list during its first week on sale), The Historian.

The Swan Thieves Elizabeth Kostova Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 560 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0316065781 / 9780316065788

Given the number of books published each season, it’s rare that a single book emerges as THE book of a particular show. This year’s BEA is the exception. Although the show had a particularly strong lineup of new offerings,  a single title was on everyone’s lips; Stitches, the graphic memoir by David Small. This might also be considered a watershed for the acceptance of the graphic format.

Barbara Hoffert, Book Review Editor for Library Journal, was one of the first to highlight it, as one of her “Six Must-Get BEA Giveaways.” It was the top pick by librarians at Saturday’s “Shout and Share” program (this new event brought libraians together to share their favorites from the show; we will have a complete roundup of the titles from the program, along with a spreadsheet you can use for ordering, on Wednesday).

By the time I made it to the Norton booth to try to snare a copy, they were long gone, so I have to rely on what others were saying about the book. RA maven, Kaite Stover, (Kansas City PL. She also writes for NoveList and Booklist and does frequent workshops on RA and book groups) could not stop talking about it. Caldecott medalist David Small writes about his own childhood in this book for adults, and what a childhood it was. His father, a radiologist, literally experimented on him. As a result, he contracted throat cancer. Surgery to remove the cancer resulted in his being unable to speak. Small left home at sixteen to escape his uncaring parents and to pursue his dreams of becoming an artist.

UPDATE: A preview of Stitches is available at Scirbd.com. Thanks, Steve, for pointing it out; now I see why people are raving about it and now I WANT THE WHOLE BOOK!

Stitches: A Memoir David Small Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-09-08) ISBN-10: 0393068579 ISBN-13: 9780393068573

If you’re packing for Book Expo you’ll want to bring with you LJ Book Review Editor, Barbara Hoffert’s list of “Six Must-Get BEA Giveaways,” with compelling arguments for each selection.

Below is ordering information for the titles:

War Dances Sherman Alexie Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Grove Press – (2009-10-06) ISBN-10: 0802119190 ISBN-13: 9780802119193

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Stitches: A Memoir David Small Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-09-08) ISBN-10: 0393068579 ISBN-13: 9780393068573

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The Cry of the Sloth Sam Savage Price: $14.95 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Coffee House Press – (2009-09-01) ISBN-10: 1566892317 ISBN-13: 9781566892315

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Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity G. A. Bradshaw Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 344 pages Publisher: Yale University Press – (2009-10-06) ISBN-10: 0300127316 ISBN-13: 9780300127317

You’ll also want Mike Rogers’s guide to programs for librarians.

Speaking of all those free Advance Readers Copies, be sure to come to this session, debuting this year:

Saturday, 3:30–5 p.m.

Librarian’s Book Shout and Share (AAP) (Rm. 1E14)

Mike describes it in his own inimitable way:

New this year, essentially a big gabfest where librarians can fill one another in on what they saw/heard during the show and what they think the top forthcoming books/authors are as opposed to what publishers are trying to foist on them. Panelists include RA expert and LJ columnist Neal Wyatt, Brooklyn PL’s Barbara Genco, Baltimore County’s Lila Wisotzki, and others. Not to be missed.

And, I hope to see you at the annual AAP Author Breakfast (Saturday, 8 to 9 a.m.), which I have the honor of moderating this year.

Those clever guys at Unshelved may have just topped themselves. For BEA, they’ve put together “Publisher Confidential,” an ebooklet of pet peeves from librarians, booksellers and readers.

Such as:

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For more on the project, check the Unshelved blog.

Reminder: if you don’t suffer from the above problem and are actually looking for catalogs, you can get PDF’s of publishers catalogs from our links to the right (under “Download Publishers Catalogs”).

Publishers Weekly has a roundup of the news on Catching Fire, the sequel to Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games, coming Sept. 1 (pub date was changed to accomodate booksellers who wanted it for the Labor Day weekend).

All I have to add is that galleys will be available at the upcoming Book Expo America.

Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: $17.99; 400 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press (September 1, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0439023491
• ISBN-13: 978-0439023498

We’re back from Book Expo where we met a bunch of amazing collection development librarians. We gave out hundreds of our brand-new flyers and generally talked up Early Word. So, if you’re new to Early Word, welcome and please take the time to check out what Early Word has to offer:

Links to download publisher catalogs — browse the fall catalogs to see what you missed at the show. You can download directly, from the links on the right, or go to a single list.

Publisher Contacts — links to publisher services created for librarians and to library marketing staff

Bestseller List — Highlighted on the right, links to current national and speciality lists

Consumer Reviews — find links to the latest reviews in one convenient place

Movies to Books — upcoming and current movies with tie-in title information

At BEA, I moderated two panels on libraries:

How Libraries Buy

What Librarians Wish Publishers Knew

The audience for each was standing room only, with a good mix of publishers, librarians, authors and vendors.

I’ll be posting more information on BEA later, but for now, I’d just like to mention a few observations:

1. Lincoln will be BIG this fall; the 200th anniversary of his birth is next year. It seemed every booth featured a new Lincoln title (no books on Lincoln’s dog, however).
2. The new Dennis Lehane, The Given Day (Sept, Morrow) is a departure for him into historical fiction. The publisher is promoting it heavily, to convince his fans to follow him into a new genre and to pick up new readers.
3. The first novel everyone was talking about? The Lace Reader (July 29, Morrow) by Brunonia Barry
   
4. My personal pick of the Fall? Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World (Sept. 24, Grand Central) by librarian (Spencer, Iowa) Vicki Myron. After so many dog books, it’s time for felines to get attention. The book’s completely charming and puts both cats and libraries in a good light.