After months of promotion, the English-language, David Fincher-directed version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens across the country tomorrow.

According to the site Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of the 34 “top critics” give it a favorable review (although a few are a bit grudging).

Many of the reviews compare it to the earlier Swedish-language film (Time‘s critic Richard Corliss, says, it’s “like getting a Christmas gift of a book you already have”). A few hark back to Stieg Larrson’s original:

L.A. Times 

One reason Salander is catnip on the page is that she is anything but in real life. Antisocial when she’s not downright furious… she is fierce, furtive and feral…..[but the movie's] cold, almost robotic conception of Salander as a twitchy, anorexic waif feels more like a stunt than a complete character, and so the best part of the reason we care enough to endure all that mayhem has gone away.

New York Times

Critic A.O Scott is also a fan of Lisbeth on the page, describing her as “Tiny as a sparrow, fierce as an eagle…one of the great Scandinavian avengers of our time, an angry bird catapulting into the fortresses of power and wiping smiles off the faces of smug, predatory pigs”  and believes that lead actress Rooney Mara, “…captures her volatile and fascinating essence beautifully.” He is not so enthusiastic about the book’s plot, however and feels ”Larsson’s heavy-footed clumsiness as a storyteller” harms the movie. The changes from the book to the screenplay just show “…how arbitrary some of Larsson’s narrative contrivances were in the first place”  and the movie suffers from “…long stretches of drab, hackneyed exposition that flatten the atmosphere.”

Whatever the critical verdict, the publicity surrounding the movie continues to bring new readers to the book. Libraries are still showing holds queues.

It’s not certain whether Fincher will direct the next movies in the trilogy. At a recent press conference, he said he hasn’t been signed yet; “Classically, movie studios don’t make deals with directors, even if there’s a hope that there’s going to be three [films], because they want to make sure you behave.” He did, however, go on to say that if he were to direct the next two films, he would shoot them both at once. He also noted that the Dragon Tattoo shoot was “incredibly draining” for Rooney Mara because of all the “naysayers” who thought she was the wrong choice for the role.

Below is the trailer for the Swedish-language version:

An eBook-only title appears at No. 8 on the current the NYT eBook Nonfiction list. It is just the second e-only title to hit that list, (after Sarah Burleton’s self-pubbed abuse memoir, Why Me?), according to tracking by Publishers Lunch.

The book, The POLITICO Playbook 2012: The Right Fights Back, by Mike Allen and Evan Thomas, is an instant digital book, the first in a series of four titles about the 2012 election to be published in a joint venture between the political news site, Politco and Random House. It is billed as “the first in-depth look inside the 2012 Republican race to the nomination.”

As with other Random House titles, it is available for library lending via OverDrive, in Kindle, ePub and audio formats. However, relatively few libraries seem to have ordered it, raising the question of how libraries discover and buy e-only titles.

Co-author Mike Allen, the chief White House correspondent for Politico, has promoted the book on several national television shows, including PBS’s Charlie Rose Show and  CBS Face the Nation (bringing a tongue-in-cheek protest from the site FishBowlDC.com that POLITICO’s constant promotion has reached the saturation point).

The film of The Help is true to most of Kathryn Stockett’s novel, but its version of the story of maid Minny Jackson ends on a more upbeat note. Tate Taylor directed a scene based on the darker story element, which did not make it to the final cut. It is included as bonus material on the DVD and Blu-ray editions, released yesterday.

Entertainment Weekly features the clip on their “Inside Movies” blog, along with a fascinating interview with actress Octavia Spencer, who talks about how she prepared the young actors playing her children for the scene.

Below is a still, click here to watch the scene and read the interview.

Cable channel TNT did so well with its Rizzoli & Isles series, based on Tess Gerritsen‘s mystery novels, that it returns for a second season, beginning Monday, Nov. 28.

Perhaps inspired by the success of that series, TNT is about to launch Mystery Movie Night, which features full-length movies based on best-selling mysteries by various authors. It kicks off on Nov. 29 with Scott Turow’s Innocent, starring Bill Pullman as Rusty Sabich. Pullman has big shoes to fill.  Harrison Ford played Sabich in the 1990 adaptation of Turow’s earlier title, Presumed Innocent. Below is the schedule of the five other movies in the series, with tie-ins (there is none for the Turow, which came out trade paperback in May, Grand Central, 9780446562416).

TNT clearly expects that Mystery Movie Night will be a success. Shooting is about to start in Wilmington, N.C. on the first in the spring series, an adaptation of Hornet’s Nest by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam/Penguin, 1996).

Ricochet – Wednesday, Nov. 30. — Set in Savannah, this is based on the 2006 book by romantic (more specifically, “steamy”) suspense writer Sandra Brown. Tie-in: Ricochet by Sandra Brown, Pocket Books/S&S, Nov, 9781451678574

Hide – Tuesday, Dec. 6 — Based on the second title in Lisa Gardner’s D.D. Warren series, featuring a female Boston detective. Tie-in: Hide by Lisa Gardner, Bantam/RH, 9780553588088

Silent Witness – Wednesday, Dec. 7 —  Dermot Mulroney plays a defense attorney based on Richard North Patterson’s 1997 legal drama, a follow-up to Private Screening. Tie-in: Silent Witness by Richard North Patterson, St. Martin’s/Macmillan, Oct., 978125001484-9

Good Morning, Killer – Tuesday, Dec. 13 — Based on the second book in April Smith’s series set in Montana and featuring iconoclastic FBI agent Ana Grey. Tie-in: Good Morning, Killer by April Smith, Vintage/RH, Nov, 9780307950345

Deck the Halls – Tuesday, Dec. 20 — Based on the first book in Mary Higgins Clark and daughter Carol Higgins Clark’s series of holiday mystery novels, this one stars Kathy Najimy as a cleaning-woman-turned-private-eye. Tie-in: Deck the Halls, Pocket Books, Nov, 9781451678581

Tim Burton will develop the surprise YA hit Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books, Jun, 2011) as a “potential directing project,” according to Deadline.

Riggs has the strange hobby of collecting old snapshots, he published highlights of his collection in his blog on the Mental Floss magazine site. For Miss Peregrine, he wove a story around some strange and haunting Victorian photos. It’s been on the NYT Children’s Hardcover list for 22 weeks, raching a high of #2.

An as-yet-untitled sequel to Miss Peregine is scheduled for Spring 2013.

Coming in April is a book that expands on Riggs’s Mental Floss series, called Talking Pictures.

Talking Pictures Ransom Riggs Retail Price: $13.99 Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: It Books/HarperCollins(2012-04-10) ISBN / EAN: 9780062099495, 0062099493

In today’s Washington Post, Ron Charles calls The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje, “a charming mixture of eccentricity, serendipity and impish fun.” The semi-autobiographical story of a boyhood journey that affected  the main character’s entire life, Charles says the novel’s “vignettes convey a delightful sense of the urgency and mystery of adolescence, their galloping imagination, thumping anticipation and assurance that every overhead whisper is a conspiracy, a forbidden tryst or a murder in the planning stages.”

The book is #4 on the new Indie best seller list, rising from #6 last week.

The Cat’s Table Michael Ondaatje Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2011-10-04) ISBN / EAN: 9780307700117/0307700119

RH Audio, 9780307943712; Center Point Large Print, 9781611732245

In its first week of publication, Michael Lewis’s Boomerang; Travels in the New Third World, (Norton, 10/3; S&S Audio) arrives at #1 on the Indie Hardcover Nonfiction List (we also hear that it will be at #2 on the upcoming NYT list).

After four weeks on the Indie Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list, the heavily-promoted debut, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 9/13; Audio, RH Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print,Center Point), moves back up to #1, after spending one week in the #2 position.

Also notable, The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf; Random House Audio; Books on Tape), arrives at #4  in its first week of publication.

It seems that Michael Lewis is everywhere. His new book, coming next week, Boomerang; Travels in the New Third World, (Norton, 10/3; S&S Audio), on the global financial crisis, gets strong praise today from Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times; “Michael Lewis possesses the rare storyteller’s ability to make virtually any subject both lucid and compelling.”

The movie based on his book about the Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, Moneyball, is number 2 at the box office, right after another surprise success, the 3-D rerelease of the 17-year-old Lion King  (get ready; now Star Wars, Top Gun and Titanic are all slated for 3-D rereleases).

Last year, the film of Lewis’s The Blind Side, (Norton, 2006) was also a success. Sensing a winner, Hollywood is now giving Lewis the opportunity to write the script for the long-dormant adaptation of his first book, the best-selling Liar’s Poker (Norton, 1989) about his time working as a bond trader at Salomon Brothers.

Also in development is an adaptation of Lewis’s best seller on the U.S. fiscal crisis, The Big Short (Norton, 2010), with Brad Pitt’s company producing.

Moneyball, the movie is quite different from the book. Entertainment Weekly urges “Love the movie? Read the book” and the L.A. Times offers a guide to how the film differs from real life.

Back in July, independent booksellers predicted that The Night Circus would be bigger, in terms of sales, than either The Help or The Da Vinci Code.

The new Indie Best Seller list indicates that they have been working to fulfill that prophecy; The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 9/13; Audio, RH Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print,Center Point), debuts at #1 in its first week on sale. But the indies aren’t the only ones selling it, we hear it will appear at #2 on the 10/2 New York Times list.

As a result, the other debuts have moved down one notch on the Indie list:

Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive; LT in Dec. from Thorndike) — showing great staying power for a debut as we move into the fall season, this one is at #6 after 8 weeks.

The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, (8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike) – #8, down from #7 after 4 weeks.

We The Animals, Justin Torres. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Blackstone Audio) — #10, moving down from #9 last week.

The Submission, Amy Waldman, (FSG; Audio, AudioGo; Large Type, Thorndike)  — falls off the list after appearing at  #14  last week.

Winning this fall’s Big First Novel Sweepstakes so far is The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, (Little, Brown; Hachette Large Print), a book we’ve been writing about since it was introduced at BEA. It rises to #3 on the 9/15 Indie Bestseller list, from #15 last week, its first week on sale. We hear it will  arrive at #6 on the 9/25 NYT list, coming out later today (the list dates are confusing, but both cover virtually the same time period).

The spoiler on next week’s lists could be The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 9/13; Audio, RH Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print, Center Point), published this week after much fanfare. It’s outselling the other big debuts on both Amazon and B&N.com. Holds are growing in libraries and are heavy where ordering is light.

Below are the rankings for the rest of the titles on the new Indie Fiction List, with links to our coverage:

Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive; LT in Dec. from Thorndike) — #5 after 7 weeks; technically this is not a fall title, since it came out the end of July, but it’s keeping some of the other titles out of the top 5. Libraries report that holds picked up after it was an Early Show on Saturday Morning book club pick.

The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, (8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike) – #7, down from #6 after 3 weeks; EarlyWord‘s coverage

We The Animals, Justin Torres. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Blackstone Audio) — #9, moving up from #14 last week; on our Watch List for the week of 9/5

The Submission, Amy Waldman, (FSG; Audio, AudioGo; Large Type, Thorndike)  — #13, first week; THE SUBMISSION — Michiko Likes It!

Vanessa Diffenbaugh, whose first novel, The Language of Flowers is at #6 on the the Indie Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list and debuted at #13 on the 9/18 NYT list, got a hearty new endorsement for her book in the form of a movie deal, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In a statement, the producers say,”Great characters make great movies and these are the most vivid and compelling women we have read in a long, long time.”

The book has been published in several other countries (the Australian cover is at the left, above and the British one at the right. The words on the cover, which don’t appear on the U.S. edition, are “Anyone can grow into something beautiful”). It has reached #1 on best seller lists in Italy and #5 in the U.K.

The novel explores the difficulty many foster children have in forming relationships. Diffenbaugh, who has raised foster children of her own, used her $1 million book advance, to set up the Camellia Network (in the language of flowers, camellias stand for “my destiny in in your hands”). Among other activities, the network asks book clubs to help raise money for the organization, with the opportunity to win a call-in or personal visit from the author.

The daily NYT is uncharacteristically late to the party in reviewing Ballantine’s big debut novel, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh,(8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike).

Janet Maslin’s review drips with sarcasm about the book’s potential for book clubs, which sounds curiously familiar:

The Language of Flowers, review by Janet Maslin, 9/8/11 – ”Ballantine is surely well aware that there are book clubs that have theme parties based on a literary work’s ambience. In this case the festive possibilities are mind boggling.”

The Help, review by Janet Maslin, 2/18/09 – ”Book groups armed with hankies will talk and talk about [the maids] quiet bravery and the outrageous insults dished out by their vain, racist employers.”

Despite her many reservations about The Help, Maslin rightly predicted that Kathryn Stockett’s “button-pushing book” would be “wildly popular.”

Maslin doesn’t make predictions for the popularity of The Language of Flowers, but it’s already showing signs of success. It moves up the Indie Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list today to #6, from #11 last week (we also hear it debuts at #13 on the 9/18 NYT list).

The Help arrived on the Indie list at #15 the week of its publication; it took six weeks for it to reach #5. It was a much slower journey on the NYT  list, taking 24 weeks before it climbed to #5.

Ballantine is publishing a companion to Diffenbaugh’s novel, a dictionary of flowers, which many libraries have not ordered.

A Victorian Flower Dictionary: The Language of Flowers Companion Mandy Kirkby Retail Price: $22.00 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2011-09-20) ISBN / EAN: 0345532864 / 9780345532862

In the category of memorable titles, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller’s 2001 memoir of growing up during the civil war in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, has to be on the top ten. The book features Fuller’s equally memorable mother, who objected that the book (“that Awful Book” as she calls it) gives the impression she’s an alchololic and a racist. Fuller responded, “But Mother, you are!” It went on to become a bestseller.

Fuller expands the story in a new memoir with another remarkable title, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgiveness, (Penguin, 8/23; Large Print, Thorndike; Audio, Recorded Books) which debuted at #4 on last week’s Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list and at #7 on the NYT list. In the NYT BR on Sunday, Dominque Browning (author of the memoir, Slow Love) says that Fuller’s mother who dominates this book, is “hilarious, creative, opinionated, ribald and tragic,” but the story that best captures the book’s appeal appears in The Huffington Post. Fuller was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition last month.

It is showing heavy holds in many libraries.

Holds are also heavy on Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Random House Trade Pbk, Audio, Recorded Books; Center Point Large Print, 9781611731125; epub on OverDrive).

The first major debut of the season, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, (Ballantine/RH, 8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike), hit the 9/1 Indie Hardcover Fiction list at #11. It’s also on the forthcoming 9/11 (yes, that is the date) NYT Print Fiction Hardcover list, but further down, at #19.

As we wrote last week, consumer reviews, while mixed, gave hints that it will be a hit.

Library holds are growing.

Also on the Indie list is Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton; Penguin Audio; Thorndike Large Print; audio & eBook, OverDrive), the first in the Danish bestselling author’s Department Q crime fiction series and the first of his books to be published in the US. It arrives at #9 and at #30 on the NYT list. PW gave this this one a starred review, saying “Stieg Larsson fans will be delighted.” Library holds are light so far.

Showing an even greater discrepency, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive) has been #4 on the Indie list for 4 weeks, but is at #17 on the NYT. Reviews have been strong. The San Francisco Chronicle best captures the book’s appeal, “Even the most jaded New Yorker can see the beauty in Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility, the antiqued portrait of an unlikely jet set making the most of Manhattan.”

Libraries are showing heavy holds.

The debut novel, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive), arrives on the 8/14 NYT Print Fiction best seller list at #16 (it’s tied with #15, so it’s on the main list rather than the extended).

Reviews have been strong. The San Francisco Chronicle captures the book’s appeal, “Even the most jaded New Yorker can see the beauty in Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility, the antiqued portrait of an unlikely jet set making the most of Manhattan.”