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

.

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Mary Roach Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 334 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2010-08-02) ISBN / EAN: 0393068471 / 9780393068474

Brilliance Audio:

• CD, $99.97; ISBN 9781441876638
• Playaway, $74.99; ISBN 9781441878960
• MP3, $39.97; ISBN 9781441876652

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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 Today dissects 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.

Entertainment Weekly reads Morton’s bio so you don’t have to and the AP uses it as a springboard to opine that unauthorized celeb bios (such as Oprah by Kitty Kelley) are not doing well these days.

Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography Andrew Morton Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-08-03) ISBN / EAN: 031255561X / 9780312555610

Available from Blackstone Audio on 7/31/2010

CD LIB:; 9781441755124; $52.50
MP3CD LIB: 9781441755155; $14.98
Playaway; LIB; 9781441755186; $45.49
9 Tape LIB; 9781441755117; $36.48

Notable Kids & YA Fiction on Sale Next Week

I Am Number Four by 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 Time by 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 Queen by 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 Way by 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.”

Hannah Montana and Last Song star Miley Cyrus has been signed to star in the film of best-selling YA paranormal thriller, Wake by Lisa McMann, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

No director has been announced.

The Wake is the first in a trilogy about a girl who is cursed with the ability to inhabit other people’s dreams. Rights to the entire series have been acquired by Paramount and MTV Films, with the plan to create a franchise.

Wake Lisa McMann Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Simon Pulse – (2008-03-04) ISBN / EAN: 1416953574 / 9781416953579

Brilliance Audio; UNABR

• 4 CD’s; 9781441819901; $44.97
• MP3-CD;  978144181992-5; $39.97

Also on PlayAway

eBook available from OverDrive

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 author is also interviewed today on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Holds are edging up, but the libraries we checked have only a few copies.

Mr. Peanut Adam Ross Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-06-22) ISBN / EAN: 030727070X / 9780307270702

Other Major Fiction Titles on Sale Next Week

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.”

As Lisa Von Drasek wrote here in January, a series based on the hit TV show Glee (which wrapped its season last night), is coming this fall. The first book, a prequel, has been announced.

Glee: The Beginning: An Original Novel Retail Price: $9.99 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Poppy – (2010-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316123595 / 9780316123594

A second title, is coming in February.

Glee: Foreign Exchange: An Original Novel
Poppy/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Trade Paperback; 2/15/2011; 9780316123617; $9.99

After months of buzz leading up to Book Expo, where The Passage was dubbed “the book of the show,” Justin Cronin’s tale of a young girl who holds the power to save humanity from a plague of vampires arrives in stores next week. The media is giving it the full blockbuster treatment, while in most libraries we checked, holds are at about 10:1.

Was it worth the wait? Entertainment Weekly says yes, giving the novel an A-:

The Passage owes a substantial debt to both King’s [The Stand] and Cormac McCarthy’s [The Road], and he is not immune to some of the hoarier tropes of Armageddon fiction… but his bogeymen, the vampiric, blood-
hungry beasts known as ”virals,” are
 magnificently unnerving, and his power to compel readers to the next page seldom flags.

Time magazine’s Lev Grossman is all admiration, calling it a “magnificent beast of a new novel.” He gives Cronin props for combining his skills as a “literary” novelist (his first book, Mary and O’Neil, won the PEN/Hemingway award), his “extraordinary level of verbal craft and psychological insight” with strong pacing. “He lays out the ground rules, sets the initial conditions and then lets the machine run while you, the reader, claw helplessly for an off switch.”

People gives it the lead review, seconds the comparison to The Stand and adds The Andromeda Strain, but gives it only three out of four stars (review not online until next week):

“Unfortunately The Passage doesn’t quite live up to its forerunners. The first 200 pages are spectacular…Then the story jumps forward a century — and loses momentum… [the] books is bogged down by generic set pieces and color-by-numbers action sequences.”

The New York Times tells the backstory on how Cronin conceived the trilogy that begins wtih The Passage, which fetched a reported $3.75 million, and $1.75 for film rights. while USA Today offers snappy soundbites on the author and book, which was also selected by independent booksellers as the #1 Indie Next Pick for June.

The Passage Justin Cronin Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 784 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-06-08) ISBN / EAN: 0345504968 / 9780345504968

Other Major Fiction Titles on Sale Next Week

Vampire alert! In addition to The Passage, there are two other novels about the blood-loving breed landing next week. And let’s not forget the androids!

• Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown Teens) features a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits.
• Insatiable by Meg Cabot (Morrow) is a contemporary sequel to Dracula from the bestselling author of the Princess Diaries.
• Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books) is the latest in the Quirk Classics series.

These three Indie Next picks for June are also getting mentions in various summer reading roundups or were featured at BEA:

• Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson (Grand Central) is the #2 Indie Next pick after The Passage:  “Jackson writes like a woman on fire, hooking you in the very first sentence (‘It was an airport gypsy that told me I had to kill my husband’) and demanding total absorption straight through to the novel’s stunning conclusion,” says the blurb. Jackson was also one of the AAP Librarians Lunch speakers at BEA.
• A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Knopf) is a collection of layered stories about an aging record exec and his passionate, troubled employee.
• So Cold the River by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown) is about a floundering filmmaker who, in the course of making a documentary about a self-made millionaire, discovers abilities in himself that draw him to a powerful source of evil. “Koryta’s prose is fluid and masterful, making this a delightfully eerie and mesmerizing read,” according to Indie Next.

And here are some of the usual suspects for  summer reading:

• The Lion by Nelson DeMille (Grand Central) is a followup to The Lion’s Game and stars John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective and special agent for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force.
• Death Echo by Elizabeth Lowell (HarperCollins) is the fifth St. Kilda Consulting thriller (after Blue Smoke and Murder). According to PW, “Lowell’s primary focus on espionage rather than on romance is a major change from earlier novels, albeit a pleasing one.”

Arriving at #1 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list is the fifth volume in Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series, Spirit Bound, besting Lee Child’s 61 Hours, which debuts at #2.

This is Mead’s first time at #1; volume 4, Blood Promise, hit at #5 when it came out  at the end of August last year. It also hits the NYT Childrens Series Best Seller List at #1.

Meanwhile, Stephenie Meyer’s name is much further down the list, with Eclipse at #22. That will change when The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner releases next Saturday.

Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Book 5) Richelle Mead Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Razorbill – (2010-05-18) ISBN / EAN: 1595142509 / 9781595142504

Penguin Audio; UNABR; 9780143145271; $39.95

Adobe EPUB eBook, MP3 and WMA Audiobook from OverDrive

Clearly, publishers have stayed away from releasing big adult titles next week, since all the air will be sucked up by the release of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the third and final entry in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy. It’s true that a John Grisham title is coming this week, but it is for kids. There is also a Stephen King title, but it was already released earlier in a limited small press edition.

And, indeed, the review media is all over Girl.

In today’s New York Times, Michiko Kakutani, the least populist of the NYT reviewers, tries to explain why the series is so popular, and decides it’s not the gore, but the tatooed main character, Lisbeth Salander,

…a heroine who takes on a legal system and evil, cartoony villains with equal ferocity and resourcefulness; a damaged sprite of a girl who becomes a goth-attired avenging angel who can hack into any computer in the world and seemingly defeat any foe in hand-to-hand combat.

Sarah Weinman in The Barnes and Noble Review has a more interesting theory, the appeal is about information,

…Larsson’s enthusiasm for the information he spills out, be it on the annals of his country’s darkest political crimes or the specs of the computer Salander works with, is infectious. Did you know how cool this is? he asks. We did not, but now we do—and yeah, it is pretty cool.

Entertainment Weekly gives it at B+, saying:

Fans of the first two books might miss the Hollywood-blockbuster action sequences and wish Salander — the series’ most compelling character — were more of a presence, but Hornet’s Nest is still a satisfying finale to Larsson’s entertainingly suspenseful trilogy.

USA Today is less impressed:

Hornet’s Nest lacks the narrative drive, energy and originality of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. Those books, you inhaled. Reading this one feels like work. It’s more like a first draft than a polished novel.

Meanwhile, Time magazine delves into the intrigue surrounding Larsson’s estate, following his death in 2004.

The publisher is holding a Lisbeth Salander look-a-like contest.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Stieg Larsson Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-05-25) ISBN / EAN: 030726999X / 9780307269997

• UNABR CD from Random House Audio available May 25: $40; ISBN 9780739384190
• Large Print from Random House: $28; ISBN 9780739377710
• WMA Audiobook available from OverDrive

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham (Dutton) is the first in a series of books targeted at 8- to 12-year-olds, and focuses on a 13-year-old who becomes interwined in a murder trial. Dutton is offering a sneak peek of first chapter. Unsurprisingly, reserves are as high as 3:1 or more at libraries we checked.

Blockade Billy by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster) was released in the Spring in a limited edition from small press Cemetary Dance Publications, which most libraries own. The book is set in the spring of 1957, as an offbeat baseball player achieves stardom. The Los Angeles Times was less than impressed: “Like all King’s work, it has momentum, but reading it, ultimately, is like watching a big leaguer sit in with a farm team: interesting, perhaps, but without the giddy excitement, the sheer, explosive sense of possibility, that marks the highest levels of the game.”

Sidney Sheldon’s After the Darkness by Sidney Sheldon and Tilly Bagshawe (Morrow) is a tale of a New York socialite who marries an elderly hedge fund manager.

Infinity: Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon (St. Martin’s) is the author’s first novel for teens to feature the immortal vampire slayers of her bestselling Dark Hunter series.

The Necromancer by Michael Scott (Delacorte Books for Young Readers) is the fourth installment in the popular series about The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to learn to spell “Paolo Bacigalupi.” The author’s first book, The Windup Girl,  just won a Nebula from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America in the best novel category. It’s also nominated for a Hugo for Best Novel (it’s rare for a first novel to be nominated in this category) and a Locus for Best First Novel.

A recent proflie of the Bacigalupi in Denver WestWorld (he’s from Colorado) reveals his “fascination with the half-hidden horrors of contemporary life” (like the true contents of a PB&J sandwich) and how to pronounce his last name (BAH-cha-ga-loo-py).

The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 300 pages Publisher: Night Shade Books – (2010-04-20) ISBN / EAN: 1597801585 / 9781597801584

Brilliance Audio; UNABR; 9781441866875; 16 CDs; $99.97
MP3-CD; 9781441866899; $44.97

Bacigalupi’s just-released YA title, Ship Breakers had buzz at PLA in March. It also got this great mini-review on our latest Galley Chat from the Nile, Illinois PL,

…modern twist on Mad Max scenario; replaces nukes w/ global warming & trades truck-driving skinheads for boats & pirates

Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316056219 / 9780316056212

-
The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy went to an online  title, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, winning out over conventionally-published titles by established authors. An audio version will be available from Brilliance in April, 2011:

The Girl Who Circumnavigated the Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own
Valente, Catherynne
Read by the author
Brilliance Audio; UNABR; 1441877606; $29.99
Pub Date: April 01, 2011

The winning short story, Spar by Kij Johnson  and winning novelette Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast, by Eugie Foster are also free online. In both categories, there were other nominees that are online titles.  The full list of nominees for all categories is available here.

Among the many series titles coming out this week, is a notable debut mystery. Holds are rising for The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron, about a son on a manhunt for his fugitive father, which arrives with four starred advance reviews.

Library Journal calls it “a richly imagined portrait of the vanishing wilderness in New England’s farthest reaches… a taut thriller and a thoughtful examination of the complicated relationship between father and son.”

Kirkus sums up: ” C.J. Box goes East. Like Box, Doiron will have his hands full trying to top his accomplished debut.”

The Poacher’s Son (Mike Bowditch Mysteries) Paul Doiron Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2010-05-11) ISBN / EAN: 0312558465 / 9780312558468

Macmillan Audio; ISBN:9781427208965; $29.99
Available as a WMA Audio Book from Overdrive
Large Print from Center Point; ISBN 978160285756; $34.95
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Other Major Fiction Titles On Sale Next Week

61 Hours by Lee Child (Delacorte) is the 14th thriller with former military policeman Jack Reacher. In the NYT today, Janet Maslin calls it “the most highly evolved of Lee Child’s electrifying Jack Reacher books.” The new Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- and wonders why Reacher is not yet a household name. The review notes that, despite being part of a long series, the book stands on its own, “Everything you need to know about Jack Reacher is contained within its pages. And chances are you’ll want to seek out other Reacher adventures the moment you finish.”

Storm Prey by John Sandford (Putnam) is the 20th Lucas Davenport mystery.

Blood Oath: The President’s Vampire by Christopher Farnsworth (Putnam) is the first title in a new series featuring 160-year-old vampire Nathaniel Cade.

The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan (Penguin) is the eighth title in the Ranger’s Apprentice Series

Risk No Secrets by Cindy Gerard (Simon & Schuster) is the fifth romantic suspense novel in Gerard’s Black Ops, Inc. series

Young Adult series:

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead (Razorbill) is book five of the Vampire Academy series. It’s already been in the Amazon Top 100 for 43 days and is currently at #23.

Love Bites by Ellen Schreiber (HarperCollins) is the seventh title in the Vampire Kisses Series.

We haven’t heard any news about the movie based on Stephenie Meyer’s standalone title The Host, since the book was optioned in September. Yesterday, the sharp eyes over at the publishing blog Galley Cat noticed a casting call on an online actor’s site.

According to the site, shooting will begin in 2011. If you’re 40-year-old male with a “wild beard and eyes the colour of faded blue jeans,” you could qualify for the part of Uncle Jeb.

The book was released in trade paperback earlier this month.

The Host Stephenie Meyer Retail Price: $16.99 Paperback: 656 pages Publisher: Back Bay Books – (2010-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 0316068055 / 9780316068055

Hachette Audio; UNABR; $19.98

Books on Tape; UNABR; 9781415955864; $129

Large Print; Trade Pbk; Little, Brown; 9780316034111; $25.99

OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Proving she’s down with a younger audience (or, at least, their mothers), Oprah debuted the theatrical trailer for Eclipse on her show on Friday, giving fans more to go on than the teaser trailer that was released in March.

On May 13, Oprah will host the stars of the show, Robert Pattison, Kirsten Stewart and Taylor Lautner.

Below is the trailer from YouTube; link to the official Eclipse Web site to get the full effect.

Stephenie Meyer’s novella about a fledgling vampire who appears in Eclipse releases on June 5th.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Twilight Saga) Stephenie Meyer Retail Price: $13.99 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-06-05) ISBN / EAN: 031612558X / 9780316125581

It will also be available in Spanish from Alfaguara.

La segunda vida de Bree Tanner / The Short Second Life (Spanish Edition) Stephenie Meyer Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 232 pages Publisher: Alfaguara – (2010-06-05) ISBN / EAN: 1616051426 / 9781616051426

Among the just-announced nominees for the Hugo Award in the Best Novel category is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, which also appeared on several end-of-the-year best books lists. This is Bacigalupi’s first novel (he has written many short stories; several are in the collection, Pump Six and Other Stories, Night Shade, 2008); it is also a nominee for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America’s Nebula Award for Best Novel. The Windup Girl is published by independent Night Shade Books.

The galley of Bacigalupi’s next book, a YA title, Ship Breaker, to be pubbed by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers next month, made a splash at the recent PLA. Kirkus is the first to review it, calling it a “gripping futuristic thriller.”

The author is from Colorado.

Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316056219 / 9780316056212

Changes, the latest installment in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files (Ed. Note: we originally called this the Dexter Files — thanks to the commenter for catching our mashup) urban fantasy series, is in high demand at libraries. But several we checked are behind the curve – either without copies, or catching up on their orders. In libraries that do have it, holds run from 3:1 to as high as 11:1.

Booklist’s starred review says:

At more than 500 pages, this is one the longest books in the series, but it doesn’t move slowly; in fact, the entire novel takes place over only a few days as Harry races to rescue his daughter before she is sacrificed in a powerful black-magic rite. . . . A can’t-miss entry in one of the best urban-fantasy series currently being published.

Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12) Jim Butcher Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Roc Hardcover – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 045146317X / 9780451463173

Available from Penguin Audiobooks  on April 15, 2010

• CD: $49.95; ISBN 9780143145349

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Also set for release next week, Holly LeCraw’s debut novel, The Swimming Pool, could be a sleeper. Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest copies.

PW says: ”Strong writing keeps the reader sucked in to LeCraw’s painful family drama debut. . . . It is a story of deep and searing love, between siblings and lovers, but most powerfully, between parents and their children

Library Journal adds: ”LeCraw’s thoughtful debut novel tells of two families whose lives are entwined by tragedy, secrecy, and scandal.…An insightful piece, not just for beach or airplane reading. An author to watch.”

One book blogger was less sanguine, however, observing that the plot is heavy and lacks momentum.

The Swimming Pool Holly LeCraw Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0385531931 / 9780385531931

Also available as OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Elizabeth Berg’s The Last Time I Saw You (Random House), a tale of women and men reconnecting at their 40th high school reunion, is well stocked in libraries we checked; the highest holds are 4:1 in one case.

Sue Miller’s The Lake Shore Limited (Random House), about post-9/11 America, is “fascinating and perfectly balanced with [Miller's] writerly meditations on the destructiveness of trauma and loss, and the creation and experience of art,” according to PW.

Elizabeth Peters’s A River in the Sky (HarperCollins) elicits faint praise from Library Journal: “The plot is less riveting than many Peters mysteries, but series fans will enjoy [it]. Fans should note that this is out of chronological order from the rest of the saga.”

Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds (Riverhead) is the lead review in the new issue of People magazine (4/12), receiving 3 out of 4 stars. 

Jennifer Chiaverini’s The Aloha Quilt (Simon & Schuster) is one that ”series fans will enjoy,” according to PW, “and those new to the quilting bee should have no problem finding their groove.”

Richard Paul Evans‘ The Walk (Simon & Schuster), about a man who goes on a soul-searching cross-country trek,” is “intriguing” according to Booklist, which adds that “the pages turn quickly.”

Martha Grimes’s The Black Cat (Penguin) is the author’s “best book in years” according to PW’s Galley Talk column.

Raymond E. Feist’s At the Gates of Darkness (Demonwar Saga #2) (HarperCollins) doesn’t get highest marks from PW: “There’s an air of been there, done that to the familiar YAish fantasy plot, relegating it to the status of comfort reading for Feist’s longtime fans.”

E. O. Wilson’s Anthill (Knopf) gets a mixed review from Library Journal: “Though his characters come off as one-dimensional, Wilson excels at describing the pungent smells and tranquil silence of the disappearing wetlands of Alabama.”

Christopher Rice’s The Moonlit Earth (Scribner) also gets a mixed response from Booklist: “A bit contrived, but . . . the author pushes through those moments . . . sure to appeal to Rice’s fan base.”

It will come as no surprise to Twilight fans that yesterday’s announcement of the coming publication of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, a new Twilight novella, shot the book to #1 on both Amazon and B&N.com.

Bree Tanner, a new born vampire, appears briefly in Eclipse the book, but evidently has a larger role in the movie. Meyer says on her site that the screenwriter, director and all the lead actors read the novella before filming, so they’d better understand the characters.

Riding Bree’s coat tails is The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide. Author Stephenie Meyer noted in her announcement that Bree was originally meant to be part of the Guide, but the story turned out to be too long to include. The renewed attention to the Guide (not to be confused with the various official Twilight movie companions; the Guide is about the books) raised it to #102 on Amazon.

Originally announced in 2008 with a publication date of December that year, the Guide has been delayed ever since. The Little, Brown press release announcing Bree Tanner states, “Additionally, more information about the previously announced The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide, including publication date, will be released by the end of the year.”

Don’t cancel those orders.

The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide Stephenie Meyer Retail Price: $21.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers – (no date) ISBN / EAN: 0316043125 / 9780316043120

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The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella Stephenie Meyer Retail Price: $13.99 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: - (2010-06-05) ISBN / EAN: 031612558X / 9780316125581

In addition, an official movie companion to Eclipse (in theaters June 30th) will be released the day before the movie (no cover available yet; no doubt its unveiling will also be an event):

• The Twilight Saga Eclipse: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (June 29, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 0316087378
• ISBN-13: 978-0316087377

It’s not Midnight Sun, a retelling of the Twilight saga from Edward’s point of view, which Stephenie Meyer scrapped after it was leaked on the Web in 2008.

Clearly Meyer still feels the need to tell the story through someone else’s eyes. On her Web site today, Meyer announces that she’s written a novella from the perspective of Bree Tanner, one of the newborn vampires who appears in Eclipse and dies ten pages later.

The book, called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, will be published on June 5th (no ordering information is available yet) and will also be free on the Web from June 7th through July 5th at www.breetanner.com (Meyer says this is a thank you to her fans).

The burst on the cover declares that one dollar from the sale of each physical book will go to the American Red Cross. According to USA Today, the first printing will be 1.5 million copies and will sell for $13.99.

What about Midnight Sun? Meyer acknowledged to USA Today that fans are waiting for it, but that she’s “not writing about vampires right now.”