We’re kicking off a new feature, EarlyWord Galley Chat. This is an opportunity for librarians to talk to each other about favorite galleys (we know you carried or shipped a boatload of them back from PLA). To find out more, click here.
Our many links on the far right offer useful tools for selection and readers advisory librarians. Get a head start on the Fall season by checking out the new Publisher’s Catalogs, view trailers for Movies Based on Books and identify Movie Tie-ins. If you need a librarian-friendly contact at publishing houses, check our listings under Publisher Contacts.
Speculation is rampant on who will play The Girl With the Dragon Tatto in the American version of the movies based on the Stieg Larsson trilogy.
In the UK, the tabloids are writing that Emma Watson (who has had some experience with a book series brought to the movies; she played Hermione in the Harry Potter films) has “hacked off” her hair to audition for the role.
The CBS Early Show reported on the “hot buzz” yesterday, mentioning Natalie Portman and Ellen Page (Juno, Inception), but holding out the idea that an unknown would be more interesting.
One of the early front-runners, Cary Mulligan, is no longer a candidate; some speculate that director David Fincher found her too “clean cut.”
Daniel Craig will play the lead, Mikael Blomkvist. Robin Wright is reportedly in negotiations to play Erika Berger, Blomkvist’s love interest.
On Friday, ABC’s Nightline interviewed Larsson’s real-life partner, the woman he lived with for 32 years, Eva Gabrielsson.
Meanwhile, critic Maureen Corrigan spoke about other Nordic mysteries on NPR’s Fresh Air last night, propelling titles by the writing team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo up the Amazon sales rankings.
“British writer Julia Stuart (The Matchmaker of Périgord) crafts a subculture that is so sweet and enchanting that the whole affair would be terribly twee were it not for the sense of heartbreak and longing that holds it all together.”
You Lost Me There by Rosecrans Baldwin (Riverhead) gets an A- from Entertainment Weekly, which calls it “beautiful, brainy, offbeat,” while praising the author’s “steadying compassion and literary flair in the dissection of miseries, identifying with equal compassion the dissatisfactions of a dead wife and the grief of a bewildered widower.”
But Kirkus, PW and Booklist were all underwhelmed by this debut, calling it “thinly plotted” and criticizing the main character’s “fundamental blandness” - so probably best to wait for more reviews.
Tough Customerby Sandra Brown (Simon & Schuster) tells the story of a private investigator whose estranged daughter is threatened by a stalker. Kirkus says “the narrative, slowed by too many talky scenes and descriptive filler, eventually rewards readers’ patience with a bang-up surprise ending.”
Cure by Robin Cook (Putnam) follows a couple, both medical examiners, who investigate a mob hit. PW says “Even devoted Cook fans may find that the crimes and subterfuges are resolved too swiftly and perfunctorily.”
Veil of Nightby Linda Howard is a romantic suspense novel about a wedding planner and the murder of her bridezilla client.
Death on the D-Listby Nancy Grace is the second Hailey Dean thriller by bestselling author, attorney, and TV personality Grace.
City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris (Little, Brown), is the author’s second literary mystery, set in Saudi Arabia and featuring the desert guide Nayir Sharqi and forensic scientist Katya Hijazi. The starred Booklist review calls it “a suspenseful mystery and a sobering portrait of the lives of Muslim women. Recommend this potent thriller as book-club reading.” It was also a pick on the LA Times summer reading roundup and the August Indie Next list. Libraries are showing modest reserves on modest orders.
Mary Roach was the big hit of this year’s BEA Librarian “Shout & Share,” getting votes from all the librarians on the panel for her book Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. She was also funny, enthralling and informative during a BEA author breakfast moderated by Jon Stewart (who was cracking up during most of her talk – watch it here). She was equally funny when she spoke to librarians at the AAP breakfast at PLA in March..
Word-of-mouth on the new book is good, but libraries we checked are well behind demand on this title.
Expect major media attention (no surprise, she will be on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday) for Roach’s look at some of the bizarre and uncomfortable realities facing future astronauts, as outlined in starred reviews from Library Journal (“While there are occasional somber passages, most of the descriptions of the many and varied annoyances of space travel are perversely entertaining.”) and Kirkus (“There is much good fun with – and a respectful amount of awe at – the often crazy ingenuity brought to the mundane matters of surviving in a place not meant for humans“).
The book trailer, already featured on BoingBoing, illustrates Booklist’s assessment that ”Roach brings intrepid curiosity, sauciness, and chutzpah to the often staid practice of popular science writing,” giving it YA crossover appeal
Though scheduled for release next week, Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton (St. Martin’s) was rushed to market this week because some the supposed revelations about the life and career of actress Angelina Jolie were leaking out.
USA Todaydissects Jolie’s epic love life, and adds that the Jolie-Pitt household’s legion staff includes “nannies from Vietnam, the Congo, and the U.S.; four nurses, a doctor on permanent call; two personal assistants; a cook; a maid; two cleaners; a busboy; four bodyguards, and six French former army guards.”
New York Times critic Janet Maslin chastizes Morton for not citing sources and for his many frivolous details (e.g. the type face of a particular Jolie tattoo never seen in public), while praising him (sort of) for connecting the biographical dots of Jolie’s life.
I Am Number Fourby Pitticus Lore (HarperCollins) is a YA novel about nine alien refugee teenages who land on Earth. Three are already dead, and number four is next. As we mentioned earlier, Entertainment Weekly has been running exclusives about this title, including an interview with the author, who claims to be “an extraterrestrial Elder from Lorien named Pittacus Lore.”
Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer (Hyperion); this will be the next-to-last entry in the best-selling middle-grade fantasy series, as Colfer revealed this week to the UK’s Guardian.
Notable Fiction on Sale Next Week
My Hollywood by Mona Simpson (Knopf) is her first novel since Off Keck Road (2000), narrated in alternate chapters by Claire, a composer whose marriage is strained by her husband’s late hours as a TV writer, and Lola, the Filipina nanny she hires. Entertainment Weekly gives it an “A-”: “Claire, privileged and damaged, floats along in a daze of unfulfillment, while the ever-practical Lola observes her L.A. milieu with a realist’s eye in imperfect yet oddly poetic English… A character as rich as Lola won’t easily fade from anyone’s mind.” There’s also an interview with Simpson in the New York Times.
I Curse the River of Timeby Per Petterson, translated by Charlotte Barslund (Graywolf Press), from the author of the surprise hit Out Stealing Horses, is the story of a Danish communist who faces divorce and a dying mother. Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B,” saying: “A times it’ll feel alien to readers who’ve never been young Communists… (The translation can also be quite a rickety bridge.) But there’s no denying the novel’s Raymond Carver-like power as Arvid and his mother come to terms with how life hands you hope just before it hands you disappointment and tragedy.”
Hangman by Faye Kellerman (Morrow) is the newest mystery novel with spouses Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Booklist says Kellerman fans will be reasonably satisfied, but “if you’re new to Kellerman…this is not the place to start. Kellerman works primarily in dialogue, with very sketchy narrative support, which requires readers unfamiliar with the backstory to act as their own detectives, figuring out what the heck is going on in each scene.”
Burn by Nevada Barr (Minotaur Books) is the 16th book with National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon, though this time she is transplanted out of her element, to New Orleans. Booklist says, “Barr develops the narrative carefully, never letting the eerie black-magic elements overshadow her solid and suspenseful plotting. A definite winner.”
The Red Queenby Philippa Gregory (Touchstone) chronicles the War of the Roses through the perspective of Henry VII’s mother.
Scarlet Nights: An Edilean Novel by Jude Deveraux (Atria) follows a woman whose fiancé turns out to be a scheming criminal. Booklist says it’s ”another guilty-pleasure romance of suspense that will hook readers and leave them with a smile.”
In Harm’s Wayby Ridley Pearson (Putnam) is the fourth thriller with Idaho sheriff Walt Fleming. Booklist is not so impressed: “although this novel is sufficiently entertaining, it lacks both the taut plotting and intricate excitement of his best work.”
On the Today Show, Matt Lauer takes Daniel Silva to task about his book, The Rembrandt Affair, which was released yesterday. Silva says the book’s villain was inspired by Bernie Madoff.
This is the 10th in the author’s Gabriel Alon series. Alon, the former assassin for the Israeli secret service, is looking for peace and quiet on the Cornish coast, but, of course, trouble finds him as an art restorer is murdered while working on a recently discovered Rembrandt.
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Holds are also building for by Iris Johansen’s third outing with her son, Roy.
Coming in plenty of time for kids who will be heading off to college in the Fall, a new edition of the 2006 best seller, by the daughter of Memet Oz (who provides the forward). Most libraries have the earlier edition, but have not yet ordered the new one.
Geoffrey O’Brien’s The Fall of the House of Walworth is an L.A. Times summer reading pick; “O’Brien turns his acute eye onto a scandalous story of the 1870s, an act of patricide that destroyed a prominent family after the Civil War.” Booklist calls it a ” darkly mesmerizing true-crime tale.” A few libraries are showing holds. For those that don’t have holds, this sounds like a good readers advisory choice.
The TV series, Rizzoli & Isles, based on Tess Gerritsen’s series of mystery novels, debuted on Monday night on TNT. It ranked as “the most watched ad-supported cable series launch of all time,” according to Deadline Hollywood.
We could have guessed as much from how well Gerritsen’s books did on Amazon yesterday. Sales rankings showed significant bumps for the titles in the series, lead by the newest, just out in hardcover, Ice Cold.
The pilot is based on the second book of the series, which now sports a tie-in jacket in mass market.
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The series, in order:
1. The Surgeon (2001)
2. The Apprentice (2002)
3. The Sinner (2003)
4. Body Double (2004)
5. Vanish (2005)
6. The Mephisto Club (2006)
7. The Keepsake (2008)
8. Ice Cold (2010)
Tana French’s Faithful Place, which will be released tomorrow, is quickly becoming a reviewers’ darling. In addition to several strong reviews, the author, Tana French, was interviewed on NPR this weekend. Faithful Place is the author’s third mystery, following the well-received In the Woods and The Likeness.
NPR, All Things Considered, worth listening to just to hear French reading from the book, with her light Irish accent.
Wall Street Journal, Cityside Thrillers, Tom Nolan; reviewing the book along with The Wolves of Fairmount Park by Dennis Tafoya, Nolan says “Some thriller writers burst onto the scene in a sudden blaze of hype, while others bubble under the level of mass awareness for years before gaining a significant following. Two authors who have been steadily attracting fans—but not much fanfare—are Tana French and Dennis Tafoya. Both are likely only to widen their audiences with their latest work.” Library customers would be surprised by the idea that French is under the radar; they have place a significant number of holds in several libraries.
One of the summer’s much-anticipated thrillers, Lucy by Laurence Gonzales, arrives to discordant fanfare. But whatever the final critical consensus may be, the tale of a girl who’s half human and half bonobo chimpanzee is bound to get more media coverage.
Entertainment Weekly gives it an “A,” comparing Gonzales to a cross between Michael Crichton and Cormac McCarthy:
He’s got Crichton’s gift for page- turning storytelling, but also a vivid, literary-grade prose style, and a knack for getting inside his characters’ heads.”
Gonzales doesn’t manage to lend Lucy’s back story even the veneer of plausibility. . . The reader often has the sense that Mr. Gonzales is impatiently ticking off plot points on an outline, as if he were writing a movie treatment, not a novel.
Savages by Don Winslow (Simon & Schuster), a tale of the marijuana trade on the Mexican border, gets a rave review from Janet Maslin in the New York Times, who declares that “it will jolt Mr. Winslow into a different league….Its wisecracks are so sharp, its characters so mega-cool and its storytelling so ferocious that the risks pay off, thanks especially to Mr. Winslow’s no-prisoners sense of humor.” The novel is also a July Indie Next Pick and an ALA Shout and Share pick.
Faithful Placeby Tana French (Viking) is the story of an Irish cop on the trail his childhood sweetheart’s murderer. It’s also the #1 Indie Bookseller Pick for July. In Salon, critic Laura Miller says the novel is “wrenching to a degree that detective fiction rarely achieves: Frank — a cocky devil who prides himself on his skillful lying and ability to play other people — gets pulled apart psychologically as he pursues Rosie’s killer.”
Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman (Doubleday) is an Entertainment Weekly pick for summer. PW calls it ”a dense story of irreparable loss that tracks two families across four summers…. Though Waldman is often guilty of overwriting here, the narrative is well crafted, and each of the characters comes fully to life.”
Fly Away Homeby Jennifer Weiner (Atria) follows the wife and two daughters of a senator caught having an affair. It was a USA Today Summer Books pick, but PW pans it: “The lack of conflict and strong characters, and the heavy dose of brand names and ripped-from-the-headlines references, make this disappointingly disposable.”
Corduroy Mansionsby Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon), a new series by the prolific author, gets a starred review from Booklist: “Readers of McCall Smiths 44 Scotland Street novels will savor this new series set among a collection of flats in Londons lively Pimlico neighborhood.”
The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster), the 18th Dave Robicheaux novel, also gets a starred Booklist review: “superb suspense leading to a gripping, set-piece finale that is a masterpiece of texture and mood… Not to be missed by any follower of the landmark series.”
Live to Tellby Lisa Gardner (Bantam) investigates the murder of a family with Boston detective D.D. Warren. Booklist again hands out a starred revew: “Gardner never sensationalizes her story, and the book ends with a resolution that is creatively and emotionally appropriate. An excellent novel.”
Damaged: A Maggie O’Dell Mystery by Alex Kava (Doubleday) is “exciting if grisly . . . Maggie must venture into the eye of Hurricane Isaac as this intense thriller builds to an eye-popping revelation that will leave fans eager for the sequel,” says PW. Libraries we checked are well ahead of demand for this title, which was featured at Random House’s Librarian Author Breakfast at BEA.
NPR asks what scares thriller writer Karin Slaughter, whose new book Broken was just released.
This is the second in NPR’s new “Thrilled to Death” series, in which thriller authors talk about the books they love (Scott Turow kicked off the series, choosing Graham Greene’s The Power and The Glory).
Slaughter says, “There isn’t a better crime writer today than Denise Mina,” and recommends Garnethill, the first in a trilogy, which is followed by Exile and Resolution.
Two novels going on sale next week are showing heavy holds, with libraries ordering more copies to keep up with demand.
The Cookbook Collectorby Allegra Goodman is a tale of two sisters, set during the dot-com bubble, that was mentioned in many summer previews, including in the Los Angeles Times. It was also a Librarians Shout and Share pick at Book Expo, and a July Indie Pick.
In her sixth novel The Cookbook Collector, [Goodman] ups the stakes with a deft literary hat trick, expertly braiding disparate threads involving dotcom start-ups, environmental radicalism, and rare-book collecting into one consistently engrossing narrative.
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand (Little Brown/Reagan Arthur) is about a pre-wedding mother/daughter vacation that takes a dark turn.
Kirkus says “Hilderbrand’s portrait of the upper-crust Tate clan through the years is so deliciously addictive that it will be the ‘It’ beach book of the summer.”
The Search by Nora Roberts (Putnam) centers on a canine search-and-rescue trainer who survived a serial killer’s attack and now faces another. PW says, ” The serial killer plot is very familiar and without much to distinguish it, but the romance is finely done, with Roberts’s trademark banter lighting up the page.”
As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs (Scribner) follows a woman who seeks her husband’s killer after he is found dead in a prostitute’s apartment. Kirkus says: “The mystery is barely there, but Isaac’s fans will enjoy another sharp-tongued romp through the New York privileged classes and their foibles.” Library demand is 3:1 and higher at libraries we checked. Isaacs was featured at the AAP Librarian Lunch at Book Expo.
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin’s), a thriller about a woman who tries to put her life back together after a year in a mountain cabin with a psychopath, has been much-discussed on Earlyword’s Galley Chat on Twitter. It also gets a starred review from Booklist: “Relentless and disturbing, Stevens dark, mesmerizing character study follows a twisted path from victimhood toward self-empowerment. Sure to leave readers looking over their shoulders for a smiling stranger.”
Father of the Rain by Lily King (Atlantic Monthly), about a daughter torn between her dreams and helping her alcoholic father, gets an enthusiastic review from Elle: “King is brilliant when writing from the eyes of a tween, all self-conscious curiosity but bright and hopeful as a starry sky. And as Daley grows up and learns how to trust and to love in spite of herself, King cuts a fine, fluid line to the melancholy truth: Even when we’re grown and on our own— wives, mothers, CEOs—we still long to be someone’s daughter.” At libraries we checked, holds are rising for this Oprah Magazine summer pick and July Indie Pick.
What is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is the tale of a father who reaches out to his estranged daughter by confessing a long-kept secret. Entertainment Weekly gives it a full-blown A and Booklist gives it a starred review: “Norman’s piquant insights into life’s wildness, human eccentricity, and love’s maddening persistence are matched by rhapsodic and profound descriptions of everything from perfectly baked scones to pelting rain and the devouring sea, while anguish is tempered with humor, thanks to rapid-fire banter and marvelously spiky characters.”
This Must Be the Place by Kate Racculia (Holt) is a debut novel that gets 4 out of 4 stars in the new issue of People magazine, which calls it, “part romance, part mystery…Racculia’s whimisical details and flawed yet immensely likable characters make Place a magical journey.” It received strong reviews from all the trade magazines and was included in the Los Angeles Times‘ summer picks.
It All Began in Monte Carlo, by Elizabeth Adler (St. Martin’s), the author’s 24th novel, gets 3 of 4 stars in the new issue of People, saying the murder mystery’s plot is “…secondary to the lush surroundings, heady shopping sprees and over-the-top romance that make Monte Carlo a summer treat.”
The phenomenal success of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series in the U.S., has brought attention to other foreign crime writers. According to a story in today’s Wall Street Journal,
The flood of imported crime fiction is striking given American publishers’ longstanding resistance to works in translation. Newly translated books still make up just 3% of titles released in the U.S., according to Bowker…and translated fiction and poetry make up less than 1%. In many European countries, translated books account for 25% to 40% of titles.
Perhaps the best indicator of the trend is the fact that James Patterson has begun partnering with writers in other countries (covered in a separate WSJ story). His Postcard Killers is written with Swedish author Liza Marklund, who wrote a draft in Swedish, based on Patterson’s outline, which was then translated into English for Patterson to edit. The book was released in Europe first, where it did not appeal to Swedish audiences, who prefer more literary crime writing.
Patterson is also working on a new Private series, with authors in several other countries.
Minotaur Books, is particularly active in bringing in titles from abroad. The Wall Street Journal says that, until just a few years ago, the St. Martins imprint focused on British imports, but their list now features writers from Iceland, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa as well as Sweden. They are “betting big” this coming February, with a 75,000 copy first printing of The Devotion of Suspect X by Japanese best-selling writer, Keigo Higashino.
This August, Pantheon Books will publish another best-selling Japanese crime writer, Shuichi Yoshida, for the first time in the US. The WSJ says that Yoshida’s 2007 book, Villain, is a “moody narrative [that] unfolds from multiple characters’ perspectives.” Publishers Weekly calls it a “subtle but powerful novel.”
The pilot episode is based on the second book in the series. The new mass market pbk. cover features Angie Harmon as Detective Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander as medical examiner Maura Isles. Also in the cast is Lorraine Bracco as Jane’s mother.
Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross has been hyped as a summer reading breakout since last March, when Stephen King recommended it in Entertainment Weekly as “the most riveting look at the dark side of marriage since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”
But in a dissenting review, Tina Jordan at Entertainment Weekly gave a lowly grade “C” to this story of a marriage that ends with the investigation into how the wife’s body ended up on the kitchen floor:
The book fails completely as a police procedural. . . It’s as if there are two books here when there should be just one.
The Devil Amongst the Lawyers by Sharyn McCrumb (Macmillan) flashes back to Nora Bonesteeler’s first case, at age 12. Booklist says, “Loyal fans have been eagerly awaiting a new installment, so expect high demand. Discerning readers, however, will be sorely disappointed.” Holds are at 2:1 and higher, with more copies on order at several libraries we checked. McCrumb, a librarian favorite, will be speaking at the Altaff Tea at ALA.
Broken by Karin Slaughter (Delacorte) gets a rave from Library Journal: ”Move over, Catherine Coulter, Slaughter may be today’s top female suspense writer. Avid mystery and law-enforcement thriller fans as well as those who loved her series characters will devour Slaughter’s latest.” Slaughter also won some new librarian fans with her impassioned pitch for supporting libraries at the Random House Librarian Author Breakfast at BEA.
The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay by Beverly Jensen (Viking) was also touted by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly, who suggested that the author’s death of cancer at age 49, after writing her first and only book, was a greater loss than J.D. Salinger’s passing. PW was more equivocal about the book: “While the sisters troubled relationship rings true, the story-like chapters feel quite independent of one another, and the dialogue has a tendency to veer into forced colloquialisms and melodrama.”
Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum Series #16) by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s Press) is uneven, says PW: “Evanovich is at her best spinning the bizarre subplots involving Stephanie’s bail jumpers, but the larger story simply recycles elements from previous installments.”
Dark Flame (Immortals Series #4) by Alyson Noel (Griffin) is the latest installment in the YA vampire series.
Family Ties by Danielle Steel (Delacorte) follows a woman who raises her sister’s children after a tragic plane crash. In My Father’s House by E. Lynn Harris (St. Martin’s) is about the bisexual owner of a modeling agency who is disowned by his rich father. PW says: “Harris’s wry tale about second chances highlights what readers have long loved about his work: his ability to depict the pursuit of love and self-respect, regardless of societal and family pressures.”
That’s what Entertainment Weekly dubs The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Unfortunately, Entertainment Weekly does not post its features, so we’ll have to grab the magazine, on stands tomorrow, to find out more.
An EWteaser blog post, however, says that speculation about who will play the main characters in the English-language movie is just that; speculation. Rumor has it that Brad Pitt and Daniel Craig could play Blomkvist, and some are betting on Kristen Stewart, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, or Carey Mulligan for Lisbeth. Producer Scott Rudin will only say that casting should be complete in a month or two.
Meanwhile, we’re wondering how long it’s been since a book appeared on Entertainment Weekly’s cover.
Alan Furst, widely acknowledged as one of the best espionage writers today, appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition today to talk about his new thriller, Spies of the Balkans (listen here). As he notes, few people have written about Greece’s role in WWII; his research proved there was a good story to tell about Balkans Greece.
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