Three books are the reviewers’ darlings of the moment. Oddly, they all have extremely short titles; Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee, Infinities by Jon Banville and The Ask by Sam Lipsyte.

Leading the pack in number of holds is The Ask. It was ordered in the lowest quantities, so it also has the highest ratio of holds, averaging 8:1 in libraries we checked. Booklist starred this “darkly humorous story.” It received equally strong reviews from Kirkus and PW, but LJ felt that, despite being a “A treasure trove of brilliant asides and one-liners,” it “never really comes together as a coherent novel.”

The consumer press is also divided,

• NYT BR, 3/7, Lydia Millett; “Lipsyte is not only a smooth sentence-maker, he’s also a gifted critic of power…What makes The Ask work so well is the way it dovetails its characters’ self-loathing with their self-consciousness…And that’s why this book is a success: not only the belly laughs but also the sadness attendant upon the cultural failure it describes.”

• LA Times, Misery loves company: Sam Lipsyte’s LipSite; “The Ask delivers its articulation of class rage in a sometimes mean-spirited package.”

The author is also being featured in interviews,

• WSJ, Slouching Toward Success; “Having made failure the signature theme of his fiction, Mr. Lipsyte seems especially unprepared for the critical success of his new novel, The Ask.”

• The Daily Beast, The Slacker Generation’s Swift

• New York magazine, “The Loser Chronicles: With his new novel, The Ask, Sam Lipsyte finds the funny in failure.”

The Ask: A Novel Sam Lipsyte Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0374298912 / 9780374298913

BBC Audio; UNABR; 9780792770794; 7 CD’s;  $89.95

Audio available from OverDrive

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The Surrendered is the second in number of holds, but, because of an average of twice as many copies on order, hold ratios are less than 3:1. Michiko Kakutani gives it a strong review in the NYT today, ending with a Michiko-style back-hand compliment,

If the reader stops and thinks about it, there are lots of infelicities of craft in this novel…But Mr. Lee writes with such intimate knowledge of his characters’ inner lives and such an understanding of the echoing fallout of war that most readers won’t pause to consider such lapses — they will be swept up in the power of The Surrendered and its characters’ aching and indelible stories.

The Surrendered Chang-rae Lee Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 1594489769 / 9781594489761

ebook available from OverDrive

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Infinities, by John Banville has been reviewed nearly everywhere but is described most memorably by Laura Miller in Sunday’s NYT BR,

If The Infinities has the bones of a novel of ideas, it’s fleshed out and robed as a novel of sensibility and style. Its drapery is velvet and brocade — sumptuous and at times over-heavy.

Other reviewers agree with her assessment that,

Fortunately, lavish demonstrations of literary virtuosity don’t bog down The Infinities, as they often did with The Sea, the novel that won Banville the Man Booker Prize in 2005.

Library holds, however, are modest.

The Infinities John Banville Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-02-23) ISBN / EAN: 0307272796 / 9780307272799

RH Audio; UNABR; 9780307706652; $35

Two novels going on sale next week — one by Lionel Shriver and the other by Danielle Trussoni — are getting early media attention from major critics, though there is only moderate library demand so far.  On the other hand, Alan Brantley’s second Flavia de Luce mystery doesn’t need media attention; customers are placing holds based on the success of the author’s debut last year, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Lionel Shriver’s exploration of the plight of middle-class Americans squeezed by the current health care system, So Much for That, will hit the ground running with a very positive early review from the notoriously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times, who says,

The author’s understanding of her people is so intimate, so unsentimental that it lofts the novel over [some] bumpy passages, insinuating these characters permanently into the reader’s imagination.

In a gossipy aside, freelance critic Mark Athitakas digests the recent flap in the UK over the ethics of Shriver’s decision to set a portion of her novel in a resort on Pemba Island in the Indian Ocean, and to list the owners in her acknowledgements, after having gone on a travel-writing junket there.

So Much for That Lionel Shriver Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061458589 / 9780061458583

Available from Brilliance Corporation  03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $36.99; ISBN 9781423360995

Large Print from HarperLuxe

• $25.99; ISBN 9780061946134

Overdrive WMA Audiobook: ISBN 9780061977510

Playaway: $74.99; SKU 11733

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Danielle Trussoni’s debut thriller, Angelology, about a nun descended from elite angelogist who solves a puzzle reminiscent of the Da Vinci Code, is a People Pick in the 3/15 issue. The review bestows 3.5 of a possible 4 stars, but reads like a 4-star review:

…breathtakingly imaginative…[the] story is over the top. But aren’t all sweeping thoroughly entertaining tales of the supernatural? In fact, once you’ve entered Angelology’s enthralling world…you’ll be thinking, “Vampires? Who cares about vampires?”

It gets less favorable coverage from Janet Maslin in the New York Times:

Angelology is so prettily written that it takes a while for the clumsiness to show… Ms. Trussoni does not even tie up this book’s loose ends. She leaves her story in virtual midair, set up for a sequel and mightily confused as to angelology’s future.

Library demand is relatively light, but given the heated auction for this book and the positive early reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, there’s bound to be more coverage. There’s also a movie in the works from Sony.

Angelology Danielle Trussoni Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 0670021474 / 9780670021475

Available from Penguin Audiobooks: 03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $39.95; ISBN 9780143145264

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In libraries, next week’s most anticipated new fiction title is Alan Bradley’s The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, featuring the dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce.  This young English girl’s passion for chemistry and solving murders helped septagenarian Bradley win many fans for his debut, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009). Libraries we checked are largely on top of the demand, with up to 50 copies on hand.

Library Journal says that “while the plot at times stretches credulity, with some characters veering close to Agatha Christie stereotypes, Flavia is such an entertaining narrator that most readers will cheerfully go along for the ride.”

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 0385342314 / 9780385342315

Available from Random House Audio:  03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $35; ISBN 978030757641535

Other Fiction with Buzz Coming Next Week:

Chang-Rae Lee’s The Surrendered (Riverhead), a story of war and survival that focuses on a Korean orphan and the American veteran and missionary who try to care for her, received a favorable review from Laura Miller in Salon and a glowing review in Elle,  and was also on O magazine’s list of Seven Books to Watch for in March.

Clive Cussler and Jack De Brul’s The Silent Sea (Putnam) is the ”winning seventh entry in the Oregon Files nautical adventure series… [in which] Juan Cabrillo, the heroic skipper of the ‘Oregon’, a state-of-the-art warship disguised as a tramp steamer, faces a multitude of difficulties and challenges,” according to Publishers Weekly.

Although February is typically a quiet month for general fiction, some booksellers are talking about Heidi Durrow’s The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, a debut novel about a biracial girl whose mother jumped to her death after apparently pushing her children off a rooftop. Libraries are showing holds of 1:1 on modest orders.

Durrow’s novel, which goes on sale next week, won the 2008 Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice. It’s also an Indie Next Pick for Feb, and was touted at the American Bookseller Association’s Midwinter Institute (as reported by Daniel Goldin of Boswell & Books in Milwaukee).

You will be hearing more about the book; on tap is a profile in USA Today, an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, a review in the NYT BR, the Washington Post and several other consumer magazines.

PW praises The Girl Who Fell From the Sky for its “taut prose, a controversial conclusion and the thoughtful reflection on racism and racial identity.”

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky Heidi W. Durrow Retail Price: $22.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2010-02-19) ISBN / EAN: 1565126807 / 9781565126800

Audio from Highbridge:

• CD: $29.95; ISBN 9781598879230

Audio available from OverDrive

Among next week’s releases are two much-buzzed-about debuts. Library demand is highest for The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, with holds of  6 to one or higher on modest orders.

The tale of an American radio reporter in WWII London, the novel is winning comparisons to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society from booksellers, one of whom touted The Postmistress in PW’s Galley Talk column, and also in a USA Today story on breakthrough winter titles. The book also carries a blurb from Kathryn Stockett, author of the runaway bestseller, The Help.

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- in the new issue, saying “There’s both exquisite pain and pleasure to be found in these pages, which jump from the mass devastation in Europe to the intimate heartaches of an American small town.”

The Postmistress Sarah Blake Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam – (2010-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0399156194 / 9780399156199

Available from Blackstone Audiobooks

• CD: $100; ISBN 9781441725714
• MP3 CD: $29.95; ISBN 9781441725745
• Cassette: $65.95; ISBN 9781441725707

Audio and e-book available from OverDrive

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Union Atlantic, the first novel by Adam Hazlett, author of the bestselling story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here, is also attracting 2:1 hold ratios in libraries we checked. The novel explores the gilded age of the last decade, centering on a land dispute between a young banker and a retired schoolteacher, and was chosen as a #1 Indie Next Pick for February.

New York magazine profiles Hazlett this week, as did PW earlier, both noting that the book, which Hazlett began writing ten years ago, foretells the recent financial crisis and even the bailout. He tells New York that when he began writing it, he feared readers might not know, or even care, what the Fed is.

Libraries have ordered it in similar quantities to The Postmistress, with one-fifth the number of holds.

Union Atlantic Adam Haslett Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2010-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0385524471 / 9780385524476

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Adriana Trigiani’s Brava Valentine (HarperCollins), the second in her Valentine trilogy about a loving but fiery Italian American family, is showing reserves of 6:1 at one library we checked, making it the most-anticipated fiction title of the week.

Alex Berenson’s The Midnight House (Penguin), the fourth in a series featuring superspy John Wells,  is also much in demand, though not available at all libraries we checked.

Peter Straub’s A Dark Matter (Knopf Doubleday) “ranks as one of the finest tales of modern horror,” according to PW.

Chuck Hogan’s Devils in Exile (Simon & Schuster) is “a compelling portrait of a good man who makes bad choices and in the end must battle his way out of a destructive and deadly life,” PW said.

2009 was the year of “the sudden and splendid blossoming of the short story,” declared the Guardian, observing that women have picked up three major UK prizes this year. Two of the three have been published in the U.S.

Why would women’s work stand out in this short form, when women are less often awarded major prizes for their novels? Guardian critic Sarah Crown speculates that

Short stories…are famously uncommercial; that, coupled with the perceived exactingness of the form and its heavyweight literary lineage, means that short stories by women are taken seriously – and awarded accordingly.

Most recently, Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah claimed the Guardian’s First Book award for fiction, for her collection, An Elegy for Easterly. “Gappah’s deep well of empathy and saber-sharp command of satire give her collection a surplus of heart and verve,” said the PW review. According to World Cat, 336 libraries have it, with those we checked showing modest numbers of copies.

An Elegy for Easterly: Stories Petina Gappah Retail Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Faber & Faber – (2009-05-26) ISBN / EAN: 0865479062 / 9780865479067

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Last May, Alice Munro won the £60,000 Man Booker International prize, for a body of work the judges described as “practically perfect.”  The Canadian author’s most recent collection is Too Much Happiness, which up to seven holds per copy on hand, or more, in several libraries we checked.

Too Much Happiness: Stories Alice Munro Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-11-17) ISBN / EAN: 0307269760 / 9780307269768

Available in Large Print from Center Point Platinum Fiction on January 1, 2010

• $34.95; ISBN 9781602856462

Also available from Random House Audio

• CD: $40; 9780307576736

PW’s provocative cover image and title for its annual African American feature stirred up plenty of controversy on Twitter and blogs yesterday – and now the book blogs at the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune are asking their readers to weigh in.

African American novelists Carleen Brice and Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant were among the first to criticize the cover for presenting the work of black authors in the context of a negative stereotype. PW editor Calvin Reid explained that he’d chosen the cover image from the book Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, edited by Deborah Willis. “While it never occurred to me that anyone would be offended by these images, I was very wrong and I have to acknowledge that,” he wrote. For a full summary of the debate, check out blogger and Examiner.com writer Nordette Adams’s post about it.

Many are arguing that the cover controversy distracts from the PW feature itself, which reviews the impact of the recession on the African American book market. It includes the disturbing news that there appears to be less serious fiction by black authors entering the marketplace, according to Jabari Asim, editor-in-chief of the Crisis and a former editor at the Washington Post Book World. In the article, book editors confirm that they are increasingly cautious about acquiring books by black authors at a time when chain bookstores are cutting back their orders, black bookstores have difficulty competing on price, consumers are extremely price-sensitive, and the popularity of street lit category is slowing.

Also included in the feature is a list of notable African-American titles slated for Fall 2009 and Winter 2010. Here are a few of the key fiction picks on the list:

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow is a “much-touted debut novel” about the biracial daughter of a black G.I and a Danish mother. In some libraries, there are already holds on this book, which is coming in February 2010.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky Heidi W. Durrow Retail Price: $22.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2010-02-16) ISBN / EAN: 1565126807 / 9781565126800

Audio also available from Highbridge on February 1, 2010

• CD: $26.95; ISBN 9781598879230

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Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is set before the Civil War at a free-territory resort in Ohio that attracts four white female friends, as well as slaveholding men and their enslaved mistresses. Most libraries we checked had 10 or fewer copies on order, and a few holds.

Wench Dolen Perkins-valdez Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Amistad – (2010-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 006170654X / 9780061706547

Audio also available from Books on Tape in January 2010

• Unabridged CD (7 discs): $70; ISBN 9780307713704

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Best African American Fiction 2010, edited by Gerald Early is the second volume in an annual short fiction series. Libraries we checked have 10 or fewer copies.

Best African American Fiction 2010 Gerald Early Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: One World/Ballantine – (2009-12-29) ISBN / EAN: 0553806904 / 9780553806908

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Gloryland by Shelton Johnson is the story of a black man born on emancipation day in 1863 who joins the U.S. Cavalry and is posted to the newly created Yosemite National Park in 1903 – and it’s written by a modern day Yosemite Park ranger. World Cat says 179 libraries have it. Those we checked had modest holds on modest numbers of copies.

Gloryland Shelton Johnson Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Sierra Club/Counterpoint – (2009-09-08) ISBN / EAN: 1578051444 / 9781578051441

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And here is the book that is the source of the controversial cover image:

Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present Deborah Willis Retail Price: $49.95 Hardcover: 244 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2009-10-05) ISBN / EAN: 0393066967 / 9780393066968

The Lovely Bones movie opens this weekend, and the reviews are…rough. Peter Jackson, the director of Heavenly Creatures and Lord of the Rings, gets flack for being too faithful to the novel, and for going astray with special effects in his depiction of heaven, where the teenage protagonist ends up after she is murdered.

But remember – newly-jacketed tie-in editions displayed front-of-store in bookstores can remind readers of books they always meant to read. It’s worked in this case; the tie-in rose to #18 on last week’s USA Today bestseller list.

Newsweek calls The Lovely Bones an awkward mix of thriller, police procedural, family melodrama and mystical fantasy that lacks Sebold’s skill in holding its disparate elements.

By remaining faithful to Sebold’s myriad flights of fancy… [Jackson] has inadvertently highlighted the book’s vulnerabilities. When The Lovely Bones loses its grip on you, its momentousness turns into silliness.

People magazine gives the movie a dismal 1.5 of possible 4 stars in the 12/21 issue. The review is even more scathing (not available online): Jackson has made “a gallon-size, candy-colored margarita, but it contains only a thimble-full of actual tequila,” it says. “How much you like Bones may depend on how strongly you believe in a neon-bright afterlife.”

The Associated Press review is only slightly more tempered, praising Jackson’s striking imagery, but calling the resulting spectacle “showmanship, not storytelling, [that distracts] from the mortal drama of regret and heartache he’s trying to tell.”

The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: Back Bay Books – (2009-09-30) ISBN / EAN: 0316044938 / 9780316044936

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The Lovely Bones: Deluxe Edition Alice Sebold Retail Price: $16.99 Paperback: 328 pages Publisher: Back Bay Books – (2007-09-17) ISBN / EAN: 0316001821 / 9780316001823

Yann Martel’s new novel, Beatrice and Virgil, is set for publication in April 13, 2010, Random House announced today on its library marketing blog. (It’s a drop-in, meaning that it’s not listed in Random House’s Spring 2010 catalog).

And yes, Martel’s first book since The Life of Pi, his huge international bestseller which won the Man Booker Prize, has at least two animals in it. Here’s how Amazon describes it:

A famous author receives a mysterious letter from a man who is a struggling writer but also turns out to be a taxidermist, an eccentric and fascinating character who does not kill animals but preserves them as they lived, with skill and dedication — among them a howler monkey named Virgil and a donkey named Beatrice….

Galleys may be available at ALA Midwinter or PLA in Portland – so check the Random House booth if you’re there. There’s no jacket available yet, but here are the rest of the details:

On this week’s New York Times bestseller list, Sherrilyn Kenyon lands in the #1 spot with Bad Moon Rising, her eighth title to achieve that position, according to her website. However, libraries are not so high on her – those we checked have only 12 -48 copies, with holds ranging from 34 to 123.

Bad Moon Rising: A Dark-Hunter Novel (Dark-Hunter Novels) Sherrilyn Kenyon Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 0312369492 / 9780312369491

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo rises to #2, helped by intense review coverage and some critical controversy, as we mentioned in an earlier post. Libraries we checked have received their orders (from 29 to 206 copies), and show substantial holds (from 200 to 250).

That Old Cape Magic Richard Russo Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 0375414967 / 9780375414961

Available from Random House Audio

• CD $40; ISBN 9780739318928

Random House Large Print

• $26; ISBN 9780739328613

Kathleen Stockett’s debut novel, The Help, rises to #3. We’ve written about the book several times, but libraries we checked still have heavy holds (from 107 to 595) on anywhere from 64 to 129 copies. Given the demand, and the book’s upward trajectory (last week it was at #4) perhaps it’s time to order even more (libraries have been steadily adding copies, but demand continues to outstrip supply). It’s a long wait for the paperback; scheduled for release February 2, 2010.

The Help Kathryn Stockett Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books – (2009-02-10) ISBN / EAN: 0399155341 / 9780399155345

Also on audio:

• Audio CD: $39.95, Unabridged
• Publisher: Penguin Audio;  (February 10, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0143144189
• ISBN-13: 978-0143144182

Large Type:

• Hardcover: $32.95; 721 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (May 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1410415538
• ISBN-13: 978-1410415530

Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice lands at #5, helped by last week’s major reviews, with holds and copies lower than for Russo’s That Old Cape Magic in the libraries we checked (orders ranged from 9- 29 copies, with holds from 17 to 145).

Inherent Vice Thomas Pynchon Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 1594202249 / 9781594202247

Also available from Penguin Audiobooks

• CD: $39.95; ISBN 9780143144762

And finally, Winds of Dune appears at #15. Libraries we checked are in good shape, with few reserves on modest orders.

The Winds of Dune Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Tor Books – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 0765322722 / 9780765322722

Also on Macmillan Audio

• CD: $59.99; ISBN  9781427207630

President Obama’s gotten caught reading by the press fairly consistently since May 2008 - though more often during the campaign than during the first six months of his presidency. Rather handily, the Daily Beast has recapped his reading picks, which shows “a predilection for presidential profiles, a weakness for explain-it-all bestsellers, and the occasional hankering for literary fiction.”

There are 12 entries so far – that’s a year’s supply of reading for enterprising book clubs!

What Is the What Dave Eggers Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback Edition: 560 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2007-11-13) ISBN / EAN: 0676979491 / 978-0676979497 /

Also available from BBC audio:

• 17 CDs $39.95; 978-1-60283-262-6

Library editions:

• 17 CDs $124.95; 9780792748953
• 2 MP3 CD’s  $74.95; 978-0-7927-4916-5

Netherland (Vintage Contemporaries) Joseph O’Neill Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2009-05-07) ISBN / EAN: 0307388778 / 9780307388773

Also available from Recorded Books

• CD: #34.99; ISBN 9781436155427

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet Jeffrey D. Sachs Retail Price: $17.00 Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2009-02-24) ISBN / EAN: 0143114875 / 9780143114871

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Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer Fred Kaplan Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Harper – (2008-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0060773340 / 9780060773342

Available from Brilliance Audio

• CD: $34.99; ISBN 9781423370994
• MP3 CD: $24.95;  ISBN 9781423371014

The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope Jonathan Alter Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2007-05-08) ISBN / EAN: 0743246012 / 9780743246019

Available from BBC Audiobooks America

• CD: $19.95; ISBN 9781572705531

FDR Jean Edward Smith Retail Price: $20.00 Paperback: 880 pages Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks – (2008-05-13) ISBN / EAN: 0812970497 / 9780812970494

Available from Random House Audio

• CD: $34.95; ISBN 9780739343449

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 Steve Coll Retail Price: $18.00 Paperback: 738 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2004-12-28) ISBN / EAN: 0143034669 / 9780143034667

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Collected Poems, 1948-1984 Derek Walcott Retail Price: $20.00 Paperback: 516 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (1987-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0374520259 / 9780374520250

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Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America Thomas L. Friedman Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 480 pages Publisher: Picador – (2009-11-24) ISBN / EAN: 0312428928 / 9780312428921

Also available from BBC Audio:

• 17 CD’s $124.95; 9780792754756

Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age Larry M. Bartels Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 328 pages Publisher: Princeton University Press – (2008-04-07) ISBN / EAN: 0691136637 / 9780691136639

Available in large print paperback:

• $17.99; ISBN 9781594133350

And from MacMillan Audio

• CD: $59.95: ISBN 9781427204585

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Doris Kearns Goodwin Retail Price: $21.00 Paperback: 944 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2006-09-26) ISBN / EAN: 0743270754 / 9780743270755

Available from Simon & Schuster Audio

• CD: $39.95; ISBN 9780743539135

The Post-American World Fareed Zakaria Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-05-04) ISBN / EAN: 0393334805 / 9780393334807

Available from Simon & Schuster Audio

• CD: $39.95; ISBN 9780743576857

Day After Night by Anita Diamant is the top choice on the independent booksellers’ Indie Next list for September. At one library we checked, reserves were as high as 106 on 38 copies, but World Cat shows that only 53 libraries have it.

Here’s how Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books, Saint Louis, MO pitched the novel:

“Four women with four different stories of surviving the European Jewish Holocaust find themselves in an internment camp run by the British military in Palestine as illegals, Jews without papers. Based on the true story of a dramatic rescue in 1945 of more than 200 prisoners at the Atlit internment camp, this extraordinary novel is equal parts history, adventure, and celebration of the profound determination of the human psyche. I loved this book and will recommend it for reading groups.”

Day After Night: A Novel Anita Diamant Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2009-09-08) ISBN / EAN: 0743299841 / 9780743299848

Also available from Simon & Schuster Audio on Sept. 1

• CD $29.99; ISBN 9780743598392

The Indie Next #3 pick for September, Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin, is a debut novel that’s a strong favorite of Jen Childs, over at Random House’s library marketing department, and was also picked by librarians at the BEA “Shout and Share” panel. World Cat shows that 93 libraries have it, but libraries we checked show only modest reserves - though it’s still early.

Here’s a pitch from Sandy Scott at The Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, VT:

“Cake maker Angel Tungaraza lives in a multicultural community in Rwanda, where she finds healing after the losses of her two grown children as she helps others solve their own problems with equal doses of common sense and kindness. Tragedy and humor find balance in this thoroughly enjoyable novel.”

Baking Cakes in Kigali: A Novel Gaile Parkin Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2009-08-18) ISBN / EAN: 0385343434 / 9780385343435

While Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played with Fire is now #1 on the USA Today bestseller list (as we reported earlier), it’s worth noting that the U.S. is not the only place the Swedish author is popular. The second volume in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy (after The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) is also blowing out in Spain, where our former colleague Adriana Lopez reports for Publishing Perspectives that she’s spotted the book everywhere from remote beaches to the cities to the airport, and that the trilogy has sold an eye-popping 3.4 million copies in Spanish, with another 300,000 in Catalan.

This could be interesting news for Spanish language readers in the U.S. - except that almost no libraries own the available Spanish import editions, according to WorldCat.

Grupo Editorial Planeta’s Ediciones Destino has published hardcover and paperback editions of the first book in the series, Los hombres que no amaban a las mujeres, translated by Martin Lexell and Juan José Ortega Román (which returns the original Swedish title, Men Who Hate Women). Yet World Cat says that only one U.S. public library owns it.

Los Hombres Que No Amaban a las Mjures LARSSON STIEG Retail Price:   Hardcover: 640 pages Publisher: DESTINO – (2009) ISBN / EAN: 950732111X / 978-9507321115

The second book, La chica que soñaba con una cerilla y un bidón de gasolina (The Girl Who Dreamed about a Match and a Can of Gasoline) is also available from Ediciones Destino, but no U.S. libraries own it, according to World Cat.

As we mentioned before, the critical consensus leans toward the second book as better than the first, though many say that you need to read the first book to fully appreciate the second.

La chica que soñaba con una cerilla y un bidón de gasolina (Spanish Edition)  LARSSON STIEG Retail Price:   Paperback: 736 pages Publisher: DESTINO – (2009) ISBN / EAN: 950732111X / 9789507321115

It’s a busy week for big league book critics – on the heels of reviewing Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, they’re quickly turning to Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Russo’s That Old Cape Magic, about a middle-aged college writing professor and screenwriter who struggles to deal with his father’s death, the dissolution of his marriage and the stress of his daughter’s wedding. As the reviews proliferate, libraries are showing widely varying reserves – from 5 to 160 – on anywhere from 5 to 53 copies.

But guess what?  While the guys like it, at least one female critic is skeptical of how Russo treats his women.

In Newsweek, Jennie Yabroff comes right out and asks, Is Richard Russo a Misogynist?, declaring  

“One would expect a writer of such celebrated humanism to treat his female characters with as much compassion as his male ones. But Russo simply doesn’t.  . . . [His] novels and stories contain multitudes, yet only two types of women: perfect bitches and perfect angels. Either way, these women are like smooth, shiny ball bearings, their interiors impenetrable and unknowable. None of them seems at all conflicted about who she is or what she wants.”

However, critic and online chat host Bethanne Patrick of The Book Studio.com disagrees with Yabroff:

“Where she sees foils, I see detailed portraits of women whose lives have been forever changed and sometimes ruined by the actions of men they’ve chosen to love and live with. . . . Where Yabroff sees men simmering with resentment towards women, I see men who can’t live without women and know it – they’re trying mightily to figure out what lack in themselves causes them to need women yet also not treat them on an equal level.”

Meanwhile, The Washington Post’s Ron Charles calls the book a “dyspeptic romantic comedy” that’s more intimate and written on a smaller canvas than his recent sprawling epics, but which

“makes up for it with psychological nuance about the ties that bind — and snap. It’s a marvelous portrayal of the strands of affection and irritation that run through a family, entangling in-laws and children’s crushes and even old friends.”

The Wall St. Journal interviews Russo, who reveals that he “worked on the novel while he was mourning the death of his mother and marrying off his two daughters. (His marriage of 37 years is doing just fine, he says.)” He’s also working on an HBO pilot about the conflict between failing dairy farmers and people with second homes over the discovery of natural oil deposits in the Catskills and Western Pennsylvania, with a woman as the central character.

That Old Cape Magic Richard Russo Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 0375414967 / 9780375414961

Available from Random House Audio

•  CD $40; ISBN 9780739318928

Random House Large Print

• $26; ISBN 9780739328613

Mixed reviews of Thomas Pynchon’s much-anticipated new detective novel, Inherent Vice, are rolling in as the book goes on sale. Some bookstores in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Manhattan even hosted midnight parties so that fervent fans could purchase it at the first possible moment, according to Galley Cat. Yet reserves are light in libraries we checked.

New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani calls it “Pynchon lite.” She doesn’t hate it as much as Pynchon’s Against the Day, (which she refers to as “bloated and pretentious”), instead calling Inherent Vice

“a simple shaggy-dog detective story that pits likable dopers against the Los Angeles Police Department and its ‘countersubversive’ agents, a novel in which paranoia is less a political or metaphysical state than a byproduct of smoking too much weed.”

The Wall Street Journal gives the opposite spin, wondering if this new novel could actually be

“a classic Pynchon opus masquerading as a light read.”

Then again, New York magazine reviewer Sam Anderson confesses that he categorically hates Pynchon’s books, and savages Inherent Vice as 

“a manically incoherent pseudo-noir hippie-mystery that should fit in nicely with the author’s recent series of quirky late-career non-masterpieces (Mason & Dixon, Against the Day).”

And finally, the Los Angeles Times defends the novel’s climax, its “cushy denouement” and its willingness to tie up loose ends: 

“If this stands in counterpoint to Pynchon’s most acclaimed work, perhaps we should pay heed to the novel’s title: ‘Inherent Vice’ refers to a hidden defect that undermines a property’s worth… it could refer to the author’s work itself: With Pynchon’s brilliance comes readability.”

See Flavorwire for a more detailed review roundup.

Inherent Vice Thomas Pynchon Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 1594202249 / 9781594202247

Also available from Penguin Audiobooks

• CD: $39.95; ISBN 9780143144762

The longlist for the Booker Prize, a major UK literary prize, was announced today. As the New York Times points out, it includes several authors who have previously won the Booker, including J.M. Coetzee and A.S. Byatt, and who have been nominated before, including William Trevor, Colm Toibin and Sarah Waters. The Guardian handicaps the nominees in more detail. The winner, who will receive $82,500, will be announced October 6.

Four of the 13 titles on the list are available in the U.S., while six more are currently scheduled to arrive later this year or spring of 2010.

Me Cheeta: My Life in Hollywood Cheeta Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Ecco – (2009-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 006164742X / 9780061647420

The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

The Wilderness: A Novel Samantha Harvey Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2009-02-17) ISBN / EAN: 0385527632 / 9780385527637

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Brooklyn: A Novel Colm Toibin Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2009-05-05) ISBN / EAN: 1439138311 / 9781439138311

Also available on Playaway:

• $59.99; ISBN 9781433291944

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger Sarah Waters Retail Price: $26.95 Kindle Edition: 480 pages Publisher: Riverhead hardcover (2009-03-31) ISBN / EAN: 1594488800/978-1594488801

How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall, coming September 9, 2009

How to Paint a Dead Man: A Novel (P.S.) Sarah Hall Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Harper Perennial – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061430455 / 9780061430459

Love and Summer by William Trevor, coming September 17, 2009

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

The Children’s Book, A.S. Byatt, coming October 6, 2009

The Children’s Book A.S. Byatt Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 688 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-10-06) ISBN / EAN: 0307272095 / 9780307272096

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, coming October 13, 2009

Summertime by J.M. Coetzee, coming December 24, 2009

Not Untrue and Not Unkind, by Ed O’Loughlin, scheduled for April 2010

Titles not yet scheduled for US publication:

Adam Foulds, The Quickening Maze

Simon Mawer, The Glass Room

James Scudamore, Heliopolis