Welcome to EarlyWord
We're happy to announce our latest addition -- EarlyWord YA GalleyChat. Please join us the second Tuesday of every month at 4 p.m. Eastern (mark your calendars for Feb. 14. Yes, we heart YA) for a lively discussion of the new galleys grabbing readers' attention. And, don't forget our adult GalleyChat, the first Tuesday of each month (info on how to join each, here).
Let us know what is happening in your library. Email me with information on books that are getting an unexpected number of holds and the titles you enjoy recommending.
Keep on reading,
NoraNora Rawlinson Co-Founder and Editor
The second trailer for HBO’s Game Change, based on the book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (Harper), has just been released, giving us a longer look at Julianne Moore’s portrayal of Sarah Palin. The movie debuts on cable March 10. It also stars Woody Harrelson as campaign strategist Steve Schmidt and Ed Harris as John McCain.
The book was a best seller in 2010; many libraries have copies on their shelves.
Stephen Colbert bravely sat down with Maurice Sendak, who repaid him by calling him a “man of little imagination” (and Newt Gingrich an “idiot”).
Part One:
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Part Two (in which Sendak calls Colbert an “idiot” — watch to the end to find out what he thinks of eBooks):
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
We’ve missed Jon Stewart’s attention to books while his show has been on hiatus. But he came back last night, interviewing Elizabeth Dowling Taylor about her book, A Slave in the White House, (Macmillan/Palgrave). As a result, the book rose on Amazon sales rankings, to #220 (from #29,478).
Tonight, Stewart features Craig Shirley, author of the forthcoming authorized bio of Newt Gingrich. UPDATE: the book that Stewart and Shirley discussed was the author’s earlier title, December, 1941. The following title appears to have been delayed.
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Season two of the BBC series, Downton Abbey, debuts on PBS this Sunday. In addition to the companion book, The World of Downton Abbey, by Jessica Fellowes, (Macmillan/ St. Martin’s,12/06; more on it here), fans can read about Highclere Castle, the setting for the series in Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey (more about it in the Daily Beast).
Take a tour of the castle, below (if this whets your appetite, more videos are available on YouTube).
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For a look at how the other half lived, there’s a reissue of Below Stairs by Margaret Powell. James Fellows, the creator of Downton Abbey blurbs the new edition, saying,
Margaret Powell was the first person outside my family to introduce me to that world, so near and yet seemingly so far away, where servants and their employers would live their vividly different lives under one roof. Her memories, funny and poignant, angry and charming, haunted me until, many years later, I made my own attempts to capture those people for the camera. I certainly owe her a great debt.
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Next year brings not only dueling adaptations of Snow White, but of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, in the form of a BBC TV miniseries and a movie.
The miniseries stars Gillian Anderson (she’s had experience with Dickens, having starred in the BBC’s Bleak House in 2005) as Miss Havisham and Ray Winstone as Magwitch. The movie, currently being filmed, stars Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch.
Both the movie and the miniseries dare to depart from Dickens and give the story a new ending (but then, Dickens himself provided two), which has caused a bit of controversy in Great Britain (the American press has so far been silent on that issue).
The two-part miniseries was broadcast in Great Britain over Christmas and will appear on PBS Masterpiece beginning April 1.
At 43, Gillian Anderson is the youngest ever to play Miss Havisham. The Telegraph quotes a Dickens expert who calls her “a cougar rather than a crone.”
But then, the movie Miss Havisham, Helena Bonham Carter is just two years older (Anderson in the role on the left, below; Bonham Carter on the right).
The actor who plays Pip in the movie, Jeremy Irvine, is currently receiving attention for his starring role in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.
Expect to hear much more about Dickens next year, the 200th anniversary of his birth, including a BBC production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which premieres on PBS on April 15.
Season two of the BBC series, Downton Abbey, debuts on PBS on January 8. The return is heralded on NPR’s All Things Considered.
NPR talks to Jessica Fellows, the author of a companion book, The World of Downton Abbey. She describes the extraordinary changes that occurred during the period of the show, just before and during WW I. She says part of the fascination of this era is the remarkable changes it brought for women, “So many men got called up to war, far more than ever before…girls [like those in the series] had had a very mapped out future — they’d be at home, have the coming-out season, then they would be debutantes, then they would find the right man and go off to run a country house somewhere. Suddenly, that all changed.”
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Watch Downton Abbey I Wonder Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.
It’s tough enough to portray a well-known person on the screen. Julianne Moore, who plays Sarah Palin in the HBO movie Game Change, faces the additional burden of competing with Tina Fey’s well-known impersonation of the vice presidential candidate.
Below is a glimpse of how she does.
Ed Harris plays John McCain and Woody Harrelson is the campaign strategist Steven Schmidt. The movie, based on the best selling book by Time magazine’s Mark Halperin and New York magazine’s John Heilemann, airs on HBO in March.
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The two-hour series premiere of The Firm arrives on NBC on January 8th. Below, it’s introduced by author John Grisham, the producer and members of the cast.
The series begins ten years after the book. The original book is being released as a tie-in. It was made into a movie in 1993, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Sydney Pollack.
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The HBO series Game of Thrones brought a whole new audience to George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books. Get ready for season 2, based on the second title in the book series, A Clash of Kings, (RH/Ballantine, 1999).
It’s not coming until April, but HBO’s promotion machine (the second teaser trailer has already hit the screen) will keep it in on people’s radar.
Tie-in editions in trade pbk (9780345535412), mass market (9780345535429) and audio (9780449011102) are scheduled for late February.
Lawrence Lessig, best known to librarians for his work on copyright, also founded RootStrikers.org (previously, Fix Congress First!), a web site aimed at reducing the influence of money on politics. His latest book is Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–And a Plan to Stop It, (Hachette/Twelve, Oct). He will appear on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Tuesday.
On a quite different note, Food Network host, Anne Burrell (Secrets of a
Restaurant Chef and Worst Cooks in America) and author of Cook Like a Rock Star: 125 Recipes, Lessons and Culinary Secrets (RH/Clarkson Potter, Oct) appears on the show tonight.
On Tuesday, Comedy Central’s Colbert Report features journalist Mark Whitaker, author of My Long Trip Home, (S&S, Oct), a memoir that examines his parent’s lives and marriage. Whitaker describes the marriage as “doubly scandalous;” they were not only an interracial couple in the 1950′s, but the relationship began when Whitaker’s white mother was his African-American father’s professor at Swarthmore. Below, Whitaker describes the book.
Stephen King fans have been busy unearthing Easter eggs in the unusual online promo for A&E’s two-night, four-hour mini series based on his novel Bag of Bones, starring Pierce Brosnan. The site, billed as a prequel to the series, features creepy black and white photos laden with King references.
A more traditional, but equally creepy, trailer is also online.
The tie-in is available in mass market and trade editions.
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TNT kicked off a series of movies based on popular novels last night with an adaptation of Scott Turow’s Innocent (full line-up, with tie-ins, here).
The cable channel just announced that the series will continue in the spring, beginning with an adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s Hornet’s Nest, (Penguin/Putnam, 1996), the first in the three-book Andy Brazil novels. In this title, two detectives, played by Virginia Madsen and and Sherry Stringfield (ER), investigate a serial killer and are joined by young reporter Brazil, played by Robbie Amell.
It began filming in Wilmington, NC this week.
The other two books Andy Brazil books are Southern Cross (Penguin/Putnam, 1999) and Isle of Dogs (Penguin/Putnam, 2001). They were not as well-received as Cornwell’s series featuring the forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta (the latest in that series, Red Mist, is coming next week).
Fiction rarely gets attention on the political talk show, Face the Nation. Breaking precedent, Kathryn Stockett (The Help) was the featured in discussion about race in the South, along with three other authors who grew up in the south, Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs), Michael Lewis (Boomerang) and Condoleeza Rice (No Higher Honor).
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
The first full-length trailer for The Hunger Games is set to debut on Good Morning America Monday during the 8 a.m. hour. It will also be displayed on GMA‘s jumbotron in Times Square.
Josh Hutcherson, who plays Peeta Mellark in the movie, will introduce the trailer. The movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen is based on the first book in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy and is scheduled for release on 3/23/12.
The second in the series, Catching Fire is scheduled for Nov. 22, 2013. In keeping with the traditions set by the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, the final book in the series, Mockingjay, may be divided into two films, but no announcements have been made about that yet.
Co-starring in the film are:
Liam Hemsworth … Gale Hawthorne
Stanley Tucci … Caesar Flickerman
Woody Harrelson … Haymitch Abernathy
Elizabeth Banks … Effie Trinket
Donald Sutherland … President Snow
Two tie-ins are being released; an Official Illustrated Movie Companion as well as a regular tie-in edition. Both will be released by Scholastic on Feb. 7.
