What’s New
While most people are still looking ahead to spring books, you can get an instant tan by looking at publishers’ summer catalogs -- links are to the right of this page, under “Publishers Catalogs.”
Now that ’09 is over, we’ve taken down our links to the various best books lists, but kept up the spreadsheets of the adult and children’s picks.
The Oscar season brings new attention to ’09 movies based on books; be sure to check out our links to the trailers and our list of new and upcoming moview with tie-ins.
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Nora Rawlinson
Co-Founder and Editor
Fred Ciporen
Co-Founder and Publisher
Alice, of Wonderland fame, is getting a mini-revival this year. As USA Today points out, in addition to the novel that imagines the life of the real-life model, Alice I Have Been, a new biography of Lewis Carroll is coming out next month, as well as the Tim Burton movie in March.
Alice-themed book clubs, anyone?
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When S&S’s conservative imprint, Threshold Editions, known for its fall bestseller, Obama Nation, signed up an unauthorized bio of Sarah Palin back in September, speculation was that the book’s success depended on whether she won her bid for the vice presidency.
The book, Trailblazer, was released this week and even though Palin is not the vp, it’s making headlines. The author, Lorenzo Benet, is Assistant Editor at People. This week’s issue features the book is a story about Bristol Palin and her new baby (the online version is the #1 most-read story of the week).
The big “news” in the book that’s making headlines? Palin kept her pregnancy with her son Trig a secret because she wanted to shield her daughters from media attention.
The book was embargoed, so it was not reviewed prepub and few libraries have it on order. It is currently at #1,056 on Amazon, making it unlikely to appear on weekly bestseller lists.
Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin
by Lorenzo Benet
Christopher Plummer may be getting late coverage by the Times, but he’s getting it in spades. His memoir came out in early November; this Sunday, the NYT Book Review features it on the cover. The daily Times reviews it in today’s issue.
The Book Review says Plummer “writes and reports almost as well as he acts.” The daily Times calls the book “long, but rarely boring.” It’s also received strong reviews in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
Most large libraries own it with comfortable holds to copy ratios.
In Spite of Myself: A Memoir
Christopher Plummer
The Last Lecture
By Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
In September of last year, Jeffrey Zaslow wrote a moving column in the Wall Street Journal about dying professor Randy Pausch’s last lecture — so moving that Oprah had Pausch reprise the lecture on her show in October, millions of people watched the video on the Web, and Hyperion paid a substantial advance for a book based on the story. We probably don’t need to remind you that Hyperion published the blockbuster Tuesdays with Morrie.
And then Zaslow and Pausch began a race against time to finish the book. Hyperion has just announced that the book will be published on April 10th. Happily, Pausch may live to see the publication.
By the way, in March last year, Zaslow wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal called “Of the Places You’ll Go, Is the Library Still One of Them?” In it, he talked about the library in his suburban Detroit community and his hope that his “girls would see the library as an oasis where they’d learn to understand themselves and the world.”
It’s as difficult to imagine Paul Giamatti playing John Adams as it is to imagine HBO doing a mini-series on the second president (isn’t this PBS territory?). Nevertheless, the HBO mini-series John Adams begins in March, based on David McCullough’s bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography. Produced by Tom Hanks it also stars Laura Linney as Abigail. Last Fall, the NY Times referred to it as “HBO’s most anticipated mini-series.”
Simon and Schuster is issuing a tie-in edition (the above is from S&S’s Summer catalog. The actual cover will be in color). It’s a good opportunity to replace worn-out copies.
On Sale: January 29, 2008
Paperback: $20
ISBN 13: 978-1-4165-7588-7
ISBN 10: 1-4165-7588-X
Breaking book news over the weekend is that Herschel Walker, 1982 Heisman Trophy winner, has multiple personality disorder, which he reveals in his upcoming book, Breaking Free. Several people close to Walker are quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution saying the news comes as a complete surprise to them. His former coach, Vince Dooley, added, “All I know is whatever personality he had when he had the football was the one I liked.”
Simon and Schuster is not releasing advance copy. A publicist is quoted by ABC News, saying “Everyone’s questions will be answered when the book comes out,” indicating that the it will be embargoed.
The above image is from p26 and 27 of the Summer ‘08 Touchstone/Fireside catalog, available on the Simon and Schuster Web site.
Twelve, the year-old imprint of Grand Central Publishing (a division of Hachette Book Group and formerly called Warner Books) announced today that they have acquired the rights to Senator Kennedy’s autobiography, with a release date of Fall, 2010. The Times estimates the advance at more than $8 million.
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