After a string of reviews, Anglo Files: a Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyle is piling up holds in some areas (over 70 on 4 copies in one library).

Library purchasing was light, which is odd given the innate appeal of poking fun at the Brits. The PW review probably put buyers off, saying the author’s observations of the British are “neither overly perceptive nor interesting and much of her material is creakingly familiar.”

The consumer reviews have essentially agreed with that assessment, but less harshly. The most recent, in Sunday’s NYT BR says,

Throughout her frequently amusing account of living in England as a reporter for The New York Times, Ms. Lyall takes refuge in roomy generalizations that are hard to refute while at the same time being, at best, half true.

“Frequently amusing” applied to a book on life among the Brits may be all readers need to hear.

Tantor has just released an audio verison which is not yet on order in the libraries I checked.

The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British

 Sarah Lyall

• Hardcover: $24.95; 256 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton (August 18, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0393058468
• ISBN-13: 978-0393058468

The finalists for the 2008 Thurber Prize for American Humor (for books published in CY 2007) have been announced:

Larry Doyle for I Love You, Beth Cooper, HarperCollins

Judge Firoozeh Dumas (Laughing Without an Accent and Funny in Farsi) says,

Clearly Larry Doyle was not the BOMC (“Big Man on Campus” for those of you who have suppressed the Eighties.) Had Larry been cool, he could have never written I Love You, Beth Cooper, a hilarious yet painfully accurate account of high school in all its pimply glory.

Patricia Marx for Him He Him Again The End of Him, S&S

Judge Robert Kaplow (The Cat Who Killed Lillian Jackson Braun: A Parody, and Me and Orson Welles: A Novel, among others) says,

…the care and exactness of language itself elevates the story into something more artful than simply a comic novel. There is a real sense of a complicated and contradictory human being, and it infuses every page of the novel.

 

Simon Rich for Ant Farm, Random House

Judge Christopher Buckley says the book is notable “for its youth and freshness and impertinence,” and Jon Stewart, the 2006 winner, called the book “hilarious.”

The winner will be announced Oct. 6.

Previous winners are:

• 1997  Ian Frazier for Coyote vs. Acme
• 1999  The editorial staff of The Onion for Our Dumb Century
• 2001  David Sedaris for Me Talk Pretty One Day
• 2004  [prize became annual] Christopher Buckley for No Way to Treat a First Lady
• 2005  Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin and David Javerbaum for America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction.
• 2006  Alan Zweibel for The Other Shulman
• 2007  Joe Keenan for My Lucky Star

Not only is a movie of  Elizabeth Gilbert’s long-running betseller, Eat, Pray, Love, in the works, but also a movie of the parody.

The Hollywood Reporter announced yesterday that Warner Bros. has acquired rights to the forthcoming book Drink, Play, F@#K: A Jilted Man’s Quest for Nirvana in Dublin, Vegas and Bangkok.

The book is by Andrew Gottlieb, one of the creators of “Z Rock,” a satire to debut on IFC this month. It’s about a man who, seeking solace after his wife leaves him, drinks his way through Dublin, gambles through Las Vegas and, well, does the third activity in the title, through Bangkok. The book comes out in January.

Gilbert’s memoir is being developed by Paramount, starring Julia Roberts, It’s scheduled for release in 2010. No timeline was announced for the parody.

Drink, Play, F@#K: A Jilted Man’s Quest for Nirvana in Dublin, Vegas and Bangkok

Andrew Gottlieb

• Paperback: $12.95
• Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat (January 13, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0802170528
• ISBN-13: 978-0802170521

Kansas City, MO, Public Library ends its ORDER UP! Tales from the Dining Room series of programs with an appearance tomorrow evening by the author of Waiter Rant. The series  “celebrates the triumphs and trials of service industry employees (waiters, waitresses, and cohorts) as well as the people who love them.” 

The book, which began as the blog WaiterRant.net, has received strong media attention, sending it to #43 on Amazon over the weekend (it’s now at #65). Libraries show light ordering and heavy reserves (12 to 1 in some areas). Most do not own the audio.

Wall Street Journal, 8/1.  “Take Your Own Damn Order“

   “acerbic, biting and often hilarious accounts of

    life behind the scenes at the front of the house.”

Today Show, 7/31, ‘Waiter Rant’: How to avoid spit in your food

USA Today, 7/30/08, “Waiter leaves dining tips“

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip — Confessions of a Cynical Waiter

by The Waiter 

• Hardcover: $24.95
• Publisher: Ecco (July 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0061256684
• ISBN-13: 978-0061256684

We’ve noted the appearance of Goodnight Bush on bestseller lists, beginning in mid-June on the Indie and San Francisco Chronicle lists and on the current NYT Hardcover Advice and USA Today lists.

Last night, the book was featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Addressing the criticism that the book is a sacrilege to the beloved Goodnight Moon, co-author Golan replies, “I think people really understand there’s a real poignancy to many of those images, and that’s the way it was intended.”

Goodnight Bush: A Parody

Gan Golan and Erich Origen

• Hardcover: $14.99
• Publisher: Little, Brown, (May 27, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 031604041X
• ISBN-13: 9780316040419

Iranian-American humorist Firoozeh Dumas appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition on Saturday to discuss her new book, Laughing Without an Accent. As a result, it rose to #117 on the Amazon rankings, and her first book, Funny in Farsi rose to #208.

Funny in Farsi appeared on the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Indie bestseller lists when it was published in paperback.

Reserves are building in several libraries.

Laughing Without an Accent

Firoozeh Dumas

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Villard (April 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0345499565
• ISBN-13: 978-0345499561

Funny in Farsi

Firoozeh Dumas

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Villard (April 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0345499565
• ISBN-13: 978-0345499561

Talk about a long-lead bestseller. Artie Lange’s Too Fat to Fish hit the Amazon list at #27 this moning and it won’t be out for five months (Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn still holds the record. It went on at #10, six months before its Aug. 2 pub date).

Lange is a regular on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite radio. According to the publisher, Stern wants to show his clout by making the book a bestseller and has already begun plugging it.

To get the flavor of the book, check out Lange’s appearance on David Letterman last week. If you don’t have time for the entire nine minutes, pick it up 8 minutes in, when Artie explains the book’s title. I laughed out loud, but then I’m married to an a guy from New Jersey who had an Italian American mother. Lange is spot on.

The book was originally planned as a Spring ‘09 release, but was recently moved up to November. No cover available yet.

Too Fat to Fish

Artie Lange

• Hardcover: $24.95
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau (November 11, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0385526563
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526562

• Audio CD: Abridged, $29.95
  
• Publisher: Random House Audio (November 11, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0739381962
• ISBN-13: 978-0739381960

We’ve just added the Indie Bestsellers to our links (see list at right). Created by the American Bookseller Association, the list reflects sales in independent bookstores nationwide.

The Indie list sometimes includes titles you don’t see everywhere else. This week, for instance, Goodnight Bush: An Unauthorized Parody debuts at #9 on the Hardcover Nonfiction list (the only other list it appears on is the San Francisco Chronicle Non-fiction at #7).

Goodnight Bush: A Parody

Gan Golan and Erich Origen

• Hardcover: $14.99
• Publisher: Little, Brown, (May 27, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 031604041X
• ISBN-13: 9780316040419

The SF Chronicle’s recent review says, “Goodnight Bush stands to become a popular American political parody.” How could it not, with lines like these:

Goodnight Constitution

And goodnight evolution …

Goodnight contractor beheading

Goodnight innocent bloodshedding …

The Indie lists adds valuable perspective on what customers are seeking. Thanks to Barbara Genco, Collection Development Director for Brooklyn Public (my local library), for the suggesting we add it.

Today’s Christian Science Monitor looks at the memoir flap, with this quote from David Sedaris:

What’s interesting to me is that we live in a time when our government is telling us some pretty profound lies. And then James Frey writes a book and it turns out some of it’s not true. No one asked for their vote back, but everyone wanted back the money they’d spent on that book. We’re in the shadow of huge lies and getting angry about the small ones.

Sedaris’s next book, coming in early June, includes a short preface, calling it “real-ish.”

Jesh, have we come to this, humor has to be factual, too?

When You Are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris

• Hardcover: $25.99
• Publisher: Little, Brown, (June 3, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0316143472
• ISBN-13: 978-0316143479

• Audio CD: Unabridged, $34.98
  
• Publisher: Hachette Audio; (June 3, 2008)
• Reader: David Sedaris
• ISBN-10: 1600241824
• ISBN-13: 978-1600241826

• Audio Cassette: Unabridged, $34.98
  
• Publisher: Hachette Audio (June 3, 2008)
• Reader: David Sedaris
• ISBN-10: 1600242316
• ISBN-13: 978-1600242311

• Large Type: $25.99
• Publisher: Little, Brown. (June 3, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0316024597
• ISBN-13: 978-0316024594