Six of the nine Academy Awards Best Picture nominations were adapted from books. In all, thirteen movies based on books received nominations. Two of those titles, Hugo and The Descendants, also received nominations for Best Director [NOTE: Thanks to those that pointed out that we overlooked the Best Picture nomination for Hugo in the earlier version of this story. We have now corrected that oversight].

Hugo is regarded as the film that stands to gain the most from winning. Worldwide box office so far is about half the movie’s $170-million production cost. The L.A. Times quotes Scorsese,  ”I think this could help the audience understand that it’s an enjoyable and very moving experience — that it has some depth to it.”

Below are the thirteen movies based on books that received major nominations, with links to an EarlyWord story about each. Full tie-in information is in our 2011 Books-to-Movies Archive (plenty of titles there for a book display, whether actual or online).

The Adventures of Tintin — Best Music (John Williams) – Tintin Teaser

Albert Nobbs – Best Actress (Glenn Close), Best Supporting Actress (Janet McTeer), Best Makeup – ALBERT NOBBS, The Book

The Descendants — Best Picture, Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Director (Alexander Payne), Best Editing (Kevin Tent), Best Adapted Screenplay – What Makes George Clooney Run?

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close — Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Max von Sydow) – INCREDIBLY CLOSE This Christmas

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  – Best Actress (Rooney Mara), Best Cinematography (Jeff Cronenweth), Best Editing (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall), Best Sound Editing – Still Talking about DRAGON TATTOO

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, Best Visual Effects

The Help – Best Picture, Best Actress (Viola Davis), Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Chastain), Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer) – Alternate Ending to THE HELP

Hugo — Best Picture, Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Best Art Direction, Best Costume, Best Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker), Best Music (Howard Shore), Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Adapted Screenplay – Behind the Scenes with Hugo and Martin

Jane Eyre – Best Costume – JANE EYRE At the Box Office

Moneyball – Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Best Editing (Christopher Tellefsen), Best Adapted Screenplay – MONEYBALL Is Rolling

My Week With Marilyn – Best Actress (Michelle Williams), Best Supporting Actor (Kenneth Branagh) – THE MARILYN OBSESSION

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Best Actor (Gary Oldman), Best Music (Alberto Iglesias), Best Adapted Screenplay – The Anti-Bond

War Horse  – Best Picture, Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Best Music (John Williams, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing – Spielberg’s WAR HORSE

Former President Bill Clinton and star of The Office, Mindy Kaling appeared on the Today Show to promote reading and their favorite books to give as gifts. Their lists are very different (although Clinton said he’d love to read the first four on Mindy’s list).

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Below are the lists featured on the show (each had a longer list, available on the web site)

Kaling’s List

#1 11/22/63, Stephen King, (S&S/Scribner)

#2 Bossypants, Tina Fey (Hachette/Little,Brown)

#3 Lady Gaga, Terry Richardson, (Hachette/Grand Central)

#4 My Father’s Daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, (Hachette/Grand Central)

#5 Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Andrew Bolton, (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Clinton’s List

#1 Jerusalem: The Biography, Simon Sebag Montefiore, (RH/Knopf)

#2 Lincoln, David Herbert Donald, (S&S)

#3 Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, (RH/Modern Library and others)

#4 The Way of the World, David Fromkin (RH/Knopf)

#5 The Cure at Troy, Seamus Heaney (S&S/FSG)

NPR’s All Things Considered takes a look at the new Sherlock Homes movie, Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows, starring Robert Downey Jr., through the lens of two recent books inspired by Conan Doyle’s master detective.

As a result, The House of Silk, rose on Amazon’s sales rankings. Libraries are showing moderate holds. In its review, PW said, “The hype surrounding what’s being billed as the first pastiche ever officially approved by the Conan Doyle estate is amply justified in this authentic, if melancholy, recreation of the beloved Baker Street characters by the creator of the acclaimed Foyles War TV series.”

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel Anthony Horowitz Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Mulholland Books – (2011-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316196991 / 9780316196994

The second book is a collection of short stories inspired by Conan Doyle, also released this fall.

A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon Laurie R King, Leslie S Klinger Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 250 pages Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press – (2011-10-25) ISBN / EAN: 1590585496 / 9781590585498

Of course, many other authors have carried on the Holmes tradition. Check this list from Wikipedia for the makings of an extensive book display.

The new movie, unlike the previous one, is based on a specific Holmes story,  “The Final Problem,” which is included in the re-released The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Penguin; other editions available in ePub and Kindle on OverDrive).

Sherlock Homes himself said (paraphrasing a famous British writer), “I trust that age will not wither, nor custom stale my infinite variety.” USA Today writes that the master detective is hot again after all these years, with movies, re-releases and a “new” Holmes novel.

The movie Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows, starring Robert Downey Jr., follows last year’s surprise hit and opens 12/16. It’s based on the story, “The Final Problem,” which is included in the re-released The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Penguin; other editions available in ePub and Kindle on OverDrive).

Published today is the first “new Sherlock Holmes novel,” authorized by Doyle’s estate, The House of Silk (Mulholland/Little, Brown; audio, Hachette Audio; Large Print, Little, Brown) by Anthony Horowitz, author of the popular Alex Rider series for teens and the writer for the PBS series Foyle’s War.

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel Anthony Horowitz Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Mulholland Books – (2011-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316196991 / 9780316196994

Of course, many other authors have carried on the Holmes tradition. Check this list from Wikipedia for the makings of an extensive book display.

Released last week, A Study in Sherlock is a collection of stories homages to the master by contemporary writers, including by Lee Child, Laura Lippman, Margaret Maron, Jacqueline Winspear and Neil Gaiman. It is available in hardcover (Poisoned Pen Press, 9781590585498) and in trade paperback:

A Study in Sherlock: Stories inspired by the Holmes canon Laurie R. King, Leslie S. Klinger Retail Price: $15.00 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2011-10-25) ISBN / EAN: 9780812982466/0812982460

Coming next month is a book on Holmes’s creator, by Washington Post book reviewer, Michael Dirda.

On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling (Writers on Writers) Michael Dirda Retail Price: $19.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Princeton University Press – (2011-10-30) ISBN / EAN: 0691151350 / 9780691151359

Earlier this week, we highlighted what we thought was one of the funnier of the Royal Wedding books, Knit Your Own Royal Wedding (Andrews McMeel).

Turns out it’s been one of the biggest-selling titles in the UK and is currently out of stock in the US. The staff the Everett Public Library in Washington State actually took up the challenge and knitted the entire wedding party. The resulting display gained coverage from the  local newspaper as well as CNN.

Compare the photos below — we think the Everett Public Library knitters’ results are even better than those in the book.

Photo Credit: Everett Library staff

Of course, it was tough to predict exactly what the family would wear, but the knitters got one thing right — Kate Middleton, confounding expectations, wore a tiara.

The heavily (and bloodily) promoted Showtime series The Borgias, starring Jeremy Irons, debuts on April 3.

USA Today offers a list of new and re-released titles about the family. Showtime is using Mario Puzo’s quote that they were the “original crime family.” His novel proving his case, which he was working on at his death, is being re-released.

The Family Mario Puzo Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Harper Paperbacks – (2011-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0062089153 / 9780062089151

Actually, we have two winners from yesterday’s book display contest. Within fifteen minutes of our posting the challenge, Lauri Wilson and Melissa DeWild both identified the unifying theme as books that are sources for movies that Tom Hanks is working on. Each will receive a copy of Knit Your Own Dog, published by Black Dog & Leventhal (thanks to Mike Rockliff, head of library marketing at Workman, for providing the prizes).

How did they guess so quickly? Both had also read Shelf Awareness yesterday and noticed that Hanks will star in a movie based on Richard Phillips’s memoir of his capture by Somali pirates, A Captain’s Duty.

It happens that we noticed the same story and it set us wondering about the other book projects Hanks has in the pipeline. Updates on them after the jump.

We’re hoping one of the winners knits us a dog — Lucy needs a new toy.

(more…)

[UPDATE: We Have A Winner]

Attention knitters and dog lovers!  What’s the unifying theme of the above book display?

The first person to accurately respond, in the comments section below, wins a copy of Knit Your Own Dog, published by Black Dog & Leventhal. (Hint: if you’re having trouble reading the covers, click on each one for more information).

And, don’t forget to enter Wiley’s Dummies contest — a chance to win every Dummies book in print.

The ability to slice and dice content digitally, giving new life to backlist titles, is often touted as a major advantage for publishers. Often touted, but so far, rarely used.

Simon and Schuster just announced that they are releasing an eBook called Truman Fires MacArthur, about the event that is the historical precedent of “Obama Fires MacChrystal.” The ebook is an excerpt of David McCullough’s 1992 Pulitzer Prize winning bio, Truman.

It appears the excerpt is not available to libraries. However, the full book is available electronically through OverDrive.

In her L.A. Times blog “Jacket Copy,” Carolyn Kellogg notes calls this a smart move by S&S’s brand-new publisher, Jonathan Karp, the former publisher and founder of the Grand Central imprint Twelve, and says it  bodes well for  his leadership of S&S.

By the way, for libraries that haven’t already done so, this is a good reminder to bring the book out of the stacks and display it.

Truman David McCullough Retail Price: $22.00 Paperback: 1120 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (1993-06-14) ISBN / EAN: 0671869205 / 9780671869205

The New Yorker has announced their picks of the best 20 writers under 40. This is the magazine’s first such list since 1999, when it identified several future literary successes, such as Junot Díaz and Jhumpa Lahiri. Stories by the authors will be featured in upcoming issues.

By the way, the list is evenly divided between women and men.

Several of the authors have new books coming this fall; all but one were featured at the recent BEA librarians’ Shout & Share program:

Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel Gary Shteyngart Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-07-27) ISBN / EAN: 1400066409 / 9781400066407

Also picked as a summer read by Time magazine, this is the author’s third book after The Russian Debutante’s Handbook (2003) and Absurdistan (2007).

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Great House: A Novel Nicole Krauss Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2010-10-04) ISBN / EAN: 0393079988 / 9780393079982

This is the third novel by Krauss, who is married to another author on the list, Jonathan Safron Foer. Her History of Love (Norton, 2005) received acclaim and was a fixture on several best seller lists in paperback.

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How to Read the Air Dinaw Mengestu Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2010-10-14) ISBN / EAN: 1594487707 / 9781594487705

Mengestu’s first book, The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, won many awards

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The only one of the group not mentioned during Shout & Share is a title coming out in March, 2011.

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The rest of the authors have published books that are well-represented in libraries; a good opportunity for a display. The list below shows each author’s latest titles; links are to EarlyWord coverage.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32 — The Thing Around Your Neck, Knopf, 6/10

Daniel Alarcón, 33 — Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook, Holt, 4/10

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38 — Ms. Hempel Chronicles, Holt, 9/08

Joshua Ferris, 35 — The Unnamed, 1/10

Jonathan Safran Foer, 33 — Eating Animals, Little, Brown, 11/09

Nell Freudenberger, 35 — The Dissident, Ecco, 8/06

Rivka Galchen, 34 — Atmospheric Disturbances, 5/08

Yiyun Li, 37 — Vagrants, 3/09

Philipp Meyer, 36 — American Rust, Spiegle & Grau, 2/09

C.E. Morgan, 33 — All the Living, FSG, 3/09

ZZ Packer, 37 — Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, Riverhead, 3/03

Karen Russell, 28 — St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Knopf, 9/06

Salvatore Scibona, 35 — The End, Graywolf Press, 10/09; was a surprise nominee for the National Book Awards in ’09, but lost out to Peter Matthiessen’s Shadow Country

Wells Tower, 37 — Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, FSG, 2/10 — was on several Best Books lists last year.

For a roundup of books being released for Mother’s Day gift giving, check out the BookReporter.com’s special section, promoted on EarlyWord’s top banner this week. You can also win one of 15 special Mother’s Day Gift Baskets, including 12 of the 36 book selections.

It’s interesting to see the range of titles, from Janice Y.K. Lee’s The Piano Teacher to How Never to Look Fat Again (we want to meet the people willing to give their mothers the latter).

Included is a title that may look like a new book by Ruth Reichl, For You Mom, Finally. It’s actually the paperback edition of last year’s Not Becoming My Mother. Yes, the friendlier title works better for Mother’s Day (imagine giving the original title along with How Never to Look…), but according to the Washington Post‘s food blog, Reichl never liked the original title anyway.

For You Mom, Finally Ruth Reichl Retail Price: $13.00 Paperback: 144 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0143117343 / 9780143117346

If you’re looking for a quick reminder of favorite winter-themed titles for a book display, check out my article in the new Nick Jr. on “Books that Celebrate Winter.”

If you’re experiencing a sudden run on Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, it may be because Stephenie Meyer, in her “Behind the Scenes” Oprah interview, said it’s the book she’s reading now and can’t wait to get back to. Amazon’s editors chose it for their Top 100 of 2009, at #63. It also got strong reviews in the L.A. Times, and the NYT.

Summarizing the book is next to impossible, as Library Journal demonstrated in their review:

This book is difficult to categorize. It’s a comedy, but it’s not particularly funny. It’s a novel of ideas, but it mocks intellectualism. It’s a fantasy, but it includes a cameo appearance by Sen. Olympia Snowe. This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea…

Everything Matters! Ron Currie, Jr. Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2009-06-25) ISBN / EAN: 0670020923 / 9780670020928

As most of her fans already know, she loves Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. Shakespeare is a “foundation block” of her first reading experiences. Among YA authors,  she likes Scott Westerfeld and loves Shannon Hale. Science fiction is a favorite; Orson Scott Card is her “personal hero.”

Newsweek‘s book coverage had become a bit sporadic (also true, sadly, for most of the weeklies, with the notable exceptions of People, Entertainment Weekly and The New Yorker).

The current issue (July 13; Michael Jackson on the cover, of course) makes up for that with a feature on the 50 books that are not “best books,”  but books that “open a window on the times we live in.” Who needs “another list telling you how great The Great Gatsby” is, they say (nonetheless, online, perhaps as a form of self-protection, they also provide a best list – Newsweek‘s Top 100 Books).

It’s interesting to see the mix of older and contemporary books on the list; number one is Trollope’s 1875 masterpiece, The Way we Live Now. Newsweek says,

Trollope’s satire of financial (and moral) crisis in Victorian England even has a Madoff-before-Madoff, a tragic swindler named Augustus Melmotte.

Harry Potter doesn’t make the cut, but Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series does.

This list is more fun than the over-familiar “bests” lists. It would make a great book display or a reading group discussion (“What books would you choose?”)

This is off topic, but we thought you’d like to know:

Maybe it’s not completely off topic, though; how about a memorial display, featuring the book:

Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids’ Letters to the First Pets
by Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Unfortunately, no longer in print.

Buddy, who did not get along with Socks (which is the reason that Socks went to live with President Clinton’s secretary, Betty Currie, when the Clintons moved to Chappaqua, NY) died after he was hit by a car in 2002.