Two glowing early reviews have rolled in for How Shall I Tell the Dog: And Other Final Musings, the memoir in letters by Miles Kington, one of Britain’s most popular newspaper columnists. It’s good to see that several libraries have ordered it since we mentioned it last week as a possible sleeper.

Publishers Weekly gives it a starred review, praising the book as “a witty, bittersweet slice of meta-nonfiction” about Kington’s struggle with pancreatic cancer, “or, more precisely, his struggle to write a book about it: ‘phrases like ‘cashing in on cancer’ give quite the wrong impression. What I mean is, ‘making cancer work for its living.’” 

The bookseller newsletter Shelf Awareness declares that Kington “effortlessly takes the reader from sadness to laughter” and relishes the part where Kington thinks  

he might make a good assassin, offering his services as his last useful act on earth: “People who look at my hangdog expression and my air of lingering malady would never dream that underneath it all simmers a potential killer.” And he’s after big game, too–Robert Mugabe or a”‘public nuisance’ like Jeffrey Archer or Victorla Beckham.”

How Shall I Tell the Dog?: And Other Final Musings Miles Kington Retail Price: $19.95 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Newmarket Press – (2009-07-07) ISBN / EAN: 155704841X / 9781557048417

How Shall I Tell the Dog: And Other Final Musings by Miles Kington, a wry memoir in letters by a British newspaper columnist about his last six months of battling pancreatic cancer, is starting to find fans on the book media circuit. USA Today gave it a mention in it’s “Book Buzz” column, and the Daily Beast’s Sara Nelson mentions a recent media luncheon she attended with the author’s agent standing in for the author, who died in 2008 at age 66. It has also become Newmarket Press’s very first IndieNext pick by independent booksellers, on the list for July, 2009. Most libraries we checked don’t have any copies.

How Shall I Tell the Dog was also one of the few galleys I took home from Book Expo, after the Newmarket Press publisher pressed it into my hands, saying it was a big UK bestseller and the only book her husband would take to his chemotherapy appointments. I was immediately absorbed by it on the way home (it starts with a witty riff on how annoying the author found Patricia Shultz’s fat book 1000 Places to See Before You Die after his cancer diagnosis). That night, I mentioned it to my partner, who immediately started reading it and wouldn’t give it back. I still want to finish it, even though I  know how it ends!

How Shall I Tell the Dog?: And Other Final Musings Miles Kington Retail Price: $19.95 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Newmarket Press – (2009-07-07) ISBN / EAN: 155704841X / 9781557048417

Opening tomorrow in NYC, LA and San Francisco is the documentary, Food, Inc., featuring interviews with Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma). It will be opening in about a dozen more cities in the following weeks, including Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Seattle.

The movie is receiving kudos from many media outlets, including this week’s Entertainment Weekly, which gives it an “A” rating and says it is “more than just a terrific documentary — it’s an important movie.”

Unsurprisingly, the National Corn Growers Association has issued a protest, saying, in part,

This film’s producers don’t like the steps government, the food industry and commodity groups like NCGA have taken to keep food prices low and help feed the world’s hungry. We have the least expensive food of any nation, and for that we’re grateful.

The tie-in book has been rising on Amazon (it went to #140 this week) and is owned in quantity by most libraries.

Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do About It Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: PublicAffairs – (2009-05-04) ISBN / EAN: 1586486942 / 9781586486945

On NPR’s “Morning Edition” this Memorial Day, a story with a shocking headline, “Let Them Eat Sugar: A New Guide for Feeding Kids.” 

The book, Hungry Monkey, by Matthew Amster-Burton, is described as a “memoir-style cookbook.” It suggests that parents needn’t worry about “scary” books that “warn against giving kids certain foods because of the risk of creating allergies, choking hazards and an unbalanced diet.”

Regarding sugar, the author says, “If you’re brave enough to let it be, it’s kind of self-regulating. Efforts to restrict sugar in kids tend to backfire and tend to make kids look for sugar anytime the parents aren’t looking.”

Is this just the information that parents want? Evidently, since the book made a precipitous leap from #5,417 to #61 on Amazon today. One large library system (admittedly an anomaly) shows 101 reserves on 13 copies. Many libraries have not ordered it.

Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater Matthew Amster-Burton Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co – (2009-05-19) ISBN-10: 0151013241 ISBN-13: 9780151013241

Note from Nora:

With this post, we’re happy to welcome a new voice and an old friend, Charlotte Abbott. 

Charlotte’s career has been in the publishing business, as a book editor in several publishing houses, and as a columnist and book review editor for Publishers Weekly (she wrote the popular “Book News” column for many years and introduced regular features such as “Galleys to Grab” and the “On-sale Calendar”). In addition to her strong knowledge of publishing, she has an appreciation of libraries (she works on author programming for the Brooklyn Public Library) and looks forward to getting to know the EarlyWord readers.

Charlotte will be sharing the day-to-day coverage with me, freeing me up to develop new features for the site. 

———————————————-

Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutes lands in the top spot on Amazon’s bestseller list today, thanks to last night’s premiere of a new Lifetime TV show by the same name.  But a quick check of several major library systems shows no copies on order.

The book includes low-calorie versions of favorite recipes and a guide to healthy alternatives to common foods. Typical tips include mashing potatoes with the skins to make them taste more buttery, and adding cauliflower and scallions to reduce the calories in each serving.

On the show, three chefs advise a dieter on how to cut calories in familiar recipes and follow up six months later to check their progress. The book and series are based on British versions with the same name.

Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutes Lifetime Television Price: $19.99 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Voice 04-28-09 ISBN-10: 1401341136 ISBN-13: 9781401341138

Former FDA Chairman David Kessler spent the last seven years trying to figure out why Americans eat so much. He believes “constant exposure to fat, sugar and salt” has lead to “conditioned hyper-eating.”

Kessler appeared on a range of shows last week, from Stephen Colbert to the CBS Early Show to discuss what he describes in his new book, The End of Overeating, as “the next great public health campaign…changing how we view food.” The book rose to #12 on Amazon sales rankings and is showing heavy reserves on light ordering.

Additional media coverage:

• Huffington Post, Sunday, May 3, Our Brains on Food & Other Tales of Modern Life
• Minneapolis Star Tribune, Saturday, May 2, Sweet, salty and fatty foods: A new form of mind control?
• Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO, Friday May 1 (episode not available online)
• CBS Early Show, Tues., 4/28, Are Americans Seasoned To Eat?
• Wall Street Journal, Interview, 4/28, The Science and Psychology Behind Overeating
• Miami Herald, AP Story, 4/28, When unhealthy foods hijack overeaters’ brains

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite David Kessler MD Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Rodale Books – (2009-04-28) ISBN-10: 1605297852 ISBN-13: 9781605297859

Also available in audio:

• Simon & Schuster Audio (April 28, 2009), $29.99
• ISBN-10: 074359679X
• ISBN-13: 9780743596794

We know that milions of women aspire to Skinny Bitchdom, but will guys want to be Skinny Bastards?

Running Press is betting they will, with a 100,000 copy print run of the vegan manifesto, rewritten for men.

Will men buy? Perhaps that’s not a problem. According to a piece in today’s NYT, “both the publisher and the authors assume that mostly women will buy Skinny Bastard.” 

The book releases on Monday. It apears that only a few libraries have ordered it.

Skinny Bastard Rory Freedman, Kim Barnouin Price: $14.95 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Running Press – (2009-04-27) ISBN-10: 0762435402 ISBN-13: 9780762435401

The girl is coming back…and she’s doubly hungry!

Following up on the success of last year’s Hungry Girl, (it was on the NYT Paperback Advice bestseller list for over 20 weeks, five of them in the top five; many of you are still working through your reserves), is Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200 (that’s “200 Recipes Under 200 Calories”). It’s already at #27 on Amazon sales rankings, even though it’s not due for another month. Only a few libraries have it on order. 

But there’s more; coming in audio, is the Hungry Girl, Official Survival Guides.

Hungry Girl: 200 under 200: 200 Recipes under 200 Calories

Lisa Lillien

• Paperback: $19.95; 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (April 14, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0312556179
• ISBN-13: 978-0312556174

Hungry Girl, Official Survival Guides

Lisa Lillien

• Audio CD:  $17.95
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio; (April 14, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1427207526
• ISBN-13: 978-1427207524

Currently, the most emailed health article from the New York Times is Babies Know – A Little Dirt Is Good for You … by Jane Bordy. It features the book Why Dirt Is Good, by Mary Ruebush, which is owned by less than 1/3 of the large libraries I checked. It appears to not have been reviewed prepub.

The libraries that own it show brisk circulation and some holds.

Why Dirt Is Good

Ruebush, Mary 

• Hardcover: $19.95; 208 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing;  (January 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1427798044
• ISBN-13: 978-1427798046

The next title in the Eat This, Not That franchise hit the Amazon Top Ten shortly after it was published and is now at #13. The libraries that have ordered it are showing heavy reserves (9 to 1 in one large system).

Eat This Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution 

David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books, (December 30, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1605298387
• ISBN-13: 978-1605298382

In the Ultra series, The UltraMind Solution is now at #3 on Amazon. Most libraries aren’t showing it on their catalogs.

The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First 

Mark Hyman

• Hardcover: $27.50; 464 pages
• Publisher: Scribner, (December 30, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1416549714
• ISBN-13: 978-1416549710

According to Baker and Taylor’s “Fast Facts,” the junior edition of a bestselling diet book will be featured on the 8/25 Today Show. Eat This Not That! for Kids will be pubbed by Rodale next week.

The earlier title, Eat This Not That! has been on the USA Today bestseller list since the end of December. It doesn’t show up on any of the New York Times lists, because they consider it a calorie counting book, which they do not track.

Most libraries I checked own the first book, but don’t have the second one on order. 

Eat This Not That! For Kids

David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding

• Paperback: $19.95
• Publisher: Rodale Books (August 19, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 160529943X
• ISBN-13: 978-1605299433

The media has already taken note of the fact that even an Oprah re-run can put books back on bestseller lists.

This was proved again this week, when You: Staying Young zoomed from a very respectable #349 to #5. What Oprah rerun aired yesterday? Yup; “Dr. Oz on Aging, How to Turn Back Time.” Library reserves shot up, too.

Last week’s rerun of a show with another Oprah regular, Dr. Christiane Northrup, sent her book The Wisdom of Menopause, up Amazon’s list to #21. The second edition of this title was released in 2006, but many libraries still own the 2001 edition. Given the number of changes in thinking about menopause, I wondered if that edition should be a candidate for withdrawal. I checked with the publisher, who provided this information on the updates:

The 2006 edition includes new information from the massive Women’s Health Initiative Study published in 2002. That study caused millions of women to abandon Prempro and other synthetic hormones. The new edition also includes information from another study released in early 2006 on the cardiovascular effects of HRT.

Other specific new features in the revised and updated edition include:

• Programs for enhancing sexuality and breast health and the reasons why sex can get better after menopause.
• Nutritional approaches to preventing osteoporosis and heart disease.
• Why maintaining a healthy insulin level is key to women’s health.
• The latest research on breast cancer and what you can do to prevent it.
• New ways to avoid hysterectomy, including innovative fibroid treatments.
• Understanding the hormone replacement controversy, how to take hormones safely, and a wealth of alternatives.
• New information on how to prevent dementia.

Rather than rely on old editions to help fill demand, it’s time to get rid of them and replace them with the new edition (the publisher says there are no immediate plans for a third edition).

The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change, 2nd Edition

Christiane Northrup

• Paperback: $20.00
• Publisher: Bantam; 2nd edition (October 31, 2006)
• ISBN-10: 0553384090
• ISBN-13: 978-0553384093

Today’s NY Times article on Lyme’s disease features two new books on the disease. Several of the libraries I checked do not own them.

Beating Lyme

Constance A. Bean and Dr. Lesley Ann Fein

• Paperback: $15.95
• Publisher: AMACOM (June 25, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 081440944X
• ISBN-13: 978-0814409442

Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic

Pamela Weintraub

• Hardcover: $27.95
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press; (June 10, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0312378122
• ISBN-13: 978-0312378127

Currently, the most emailed article from the NY Times is based on the book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why. The title of the blog, pubbed on Wednesday, is “The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating”

The book, which has averaged 1,908 in Amazon rankings, is now at 317. Libraries own it, with comfortable holds to copy ratios at this point.

The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why

Jonny Bowden

• Paperback: $24.99
• Publisher: Fair Winds Press, (January 1, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 1592332285
• ISBN-13: 978-1592332281

According to the publisher’s web site, the author has a new book coming in January:

(The listed title differs from the one on the cover image):

150 Most Effective Ways to Boost Your Energy: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About How to Banish Fatigue and Stay Energized All Day

Jonny Bowden

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Fair Winds Press ( January, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1592333419
• ISBN-13: 978-1592333417

She will if Kathy Freston has anything to do with it. The “vegan spiritual counselor” was featured on Oprah’s makeover show yesterday. No surprise, then, that her book Quantum Wellness sprang to #2 on Amazon where it’s remained (after the #1 title, The Last Lecture, and ahead of Oprah Book Club Selection, A New Earth).

Most libraries have ordered modestly (a few not at all). Significant levels of holds are building.

Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness

Kathy Freston

• Hardcover: $23.95
• Publisher: Weinstein Books (May 20, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1602860181
• ISBN-13: 978-1602860186

• Audio CD: listed as “currently unavailable” on Amazon
  
• Publisher: Weinstein Books (May 20, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1602860270
• ISBN-13: 978-1602860278