Next week brings three debuts to watch – about the Korean immigrant experience, an Alaskan couple longing for a child in 1920, and a Romanian Jewish village in 1939 – plus two well-reviewed thrillers by authors steadily building their audiences, Daniel Palmer and William Landay. Usual suspects include Robert Harris, Kristin Hannah and Shannon Hale  - while Elizabeth George delivers a Christian devotional for moms.

Debuts to Watch

Drifting House by Krys Lee (Penguin/Viking; Thorndike Large Print) is a debut novel portraying the Korean immigrant experience from the postwar era to contemporary times. Library Journal says, “Readers in search of exquisite short fiction beyond their comfort zone—groupies of Jhumpa Lahiri (Unaccustomed Earth) and Yoko Tawada (Where Europe Begins) — will thrill to discover Lee’s work.”

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (Hachette/Little,Brown/Reagan Arthur; Thorndike Large Print) is a debut novel about a couple struggling in their marriage, who arrive in Alaska in 1920. Longing for children, they build a child out of snow that’s gone the next morning, though they glimpse a small girl running through the trees. Kirkus calls it “a fine first novel,” saying ”the book’s tone throughout has a lovely push and pull–Alaska’s punishing landscape and rough-hewn residents pitted against Faina’s charmed appearances–and the ending is both surprising and earned.”

No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (Penguin/Riverhead) is set in a remote Jewish village in Romania in 1939, as war closes in. At the suggestion of an 11-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. Library Journal says “debut novelist Ausubel has written a riveting, otherworldly story about an all-too-real war and the transformative power of community.”

Rising Thrillers

Helpless by Daniel Palmer (Kensington; Brilliance Audio) is the followup to the author’s acclaimed debut Delirious, the story of an award-winning coach accused of murder. (Palmer, by the way, is the son of bestselling author Michael Palmer.) LJ says, “Palmer scores again with a terrific thriller that has it all—murder, drugs, kidnapping, techno-mayhem, romance, manly ex-Navy SEAL exploits, and a burgeoning father-daughter relationship.”

Defending Jacob by William Landay (RH/Delacorte; Blackstone Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is the latest from the author of The Strangler and the award-winning Mission Flats. It features Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber, who is shocked to find his 14 year-old son Jacob charged with the murder of a fellow student. Library Journal raves, “this brilliant novel …  is equal parts legal thriller and dysfunctional family saga, culminating in a shocking ending. Skillful plotting and finely drawn characters result in a haunting story reminiscent of Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent.”

Usual Suspects

The Fear Index by Robert Harris (RH/Knopf; Random House Audio). Author Harris has successfully moved from alternate history to ancient history to WWII thrillers and contemporary stories and now a techno-thriller about an artificial intelligence project with a mind of its own. Library Journal says this “outstanding thriller… will kindle readers’ minds from the first page. Get ready to enjoy a brilliant integration of fascinating research, compelling themes, and vivid characterization.” It will be in the media next week, including a feature on NPRs “Morning Edition.” A movie is in the works, directed by Paul Greengrass, with Harris writing the screenplay.

Home Front by Kristin Hannah (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Center Point Large Print; Macmillan Audio) is the story of a couple whose growing distance is twisted by the wife’s unexpected deployment to Iraq. Publishers Weekly says “by reversing traditional expectations, Hannah calls attention to the modern female soldier and offers a compassionate, poignant look at the impact of war on family.”

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury) is a sequel to the bestselling Austenland (2007 ), in which another contemporary American plays Regency heroine at Pembrook Park. PW says, “though a tacked-on romance and some flimsy plot twists strain credibility… Hale provides a welcome, witty glimpse of a side of Austen rarely explored in the many contemporary riffs on her work.”

Nonfiction

A Mom After God’s Own Heart Devotional by Elizabeth George (Harvest House Publishers) draws from the author’s bestselling books, radio spots and podcasts, along with scripture, to provide devotionals to guide mothers in parenting.

Next week, look out for Lou Beach‘s quirky debut story collection based on Facebook posts, along with a new novel from Anita Desai and the relaunch of an old one by Paul Theroux. Veteran  P.D. James delivers a murder mystery in the form of a sequel to Pride and Prejudice that is already getting attention. In nonfiction, there’s an original title from the Dalai Lama, along with Richard Bonin‘s look at Ahmed Chalabi’s role in shaping contemporary Iraq.

Watch List

420 Characters by Lou Beach (Houghton Mifflin) is a collection of very short stories that originally appeared as Facebook status updates. Library Journal says, “there are some books you like, others that you don’t, and that rare book that you like in spite of yourself. This book fits into the latter category… Like a tasting menu, these stories add up to something wonderful.”

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James (RH/Knopf; Random House Large Print; Random House Audio) subjects the characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to a murder mystery. It’s set in 1803, six years after Elizabeth and Darcy began their life together at Pemberley, when their idyll is shattered by Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who announces that her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been murdered. NPR’s Fresh Air featured it on Tuesday, calling it “a glorious plum pudding of a whodunit,” adding  James “ferrets out the alternative noir tales that lurk in the corners of Pride and Prejudice, commonly thought of as Austen’s sunniest novel. Ruinous matches, The Napoleonic Wars, early deaths, socially enforced female vulnerability: Austen keeps these shadows at bay, while James noses deep into them.” We’ve put this on our “Watch List” because it may bring James a whole new audience.

Returning Literary Lions

The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai (Houghton Mifflin) includes three novellas about characters struggling with modernization and Indian culture, by the author thrice shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Kirkus says, “reading Desai’s poignant and wry new effort offers a modest pleasure that suits its fragile characters. A deft exploration of the limits people place on themselves by trying to cling to the past.”

Murder in Mount Holly by Paul Theroux (Grove/Atlantic/Mysterious Press) is a caper novel set in the 1960s and first published in the U.K. in 1969, which follows a draftee, his mother and her amateur criminal lover in the small American town of Mount Holly. Booklist says “its a slim twig of a book, but it’s howlingly funny and will stay with readers for a long time,” but PW finds it “subpar” for the writer best known for his travel books.

Usual Suspects

Red Mist by Patricia Cornwell (Penguin/Putnam; Thorndike Press; Penguin Audio) finds Kay Scarpetta’s former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, has been murdered, and she wants to know why. It began rising on Amazon 10/25/11, and is at #78 as of 12/1/11. Publishers Weekly says, “As in other recent work, Cornwell overloads the plot, but Scarpettas tangled emotional state and her top-notch forensic knowledge more than compensate.”

Children’s & Young Adult

Witch & Wizard: The Fire by James Patterson and Jill Dembowski (Little, Brown; Hachette Audio) is the climax of the Witch & Wizard fantasy series, in which sister and brother battle a merciless totalitarian regime.

Ruthless by Sara Shepard (HarperTeen) is book ten of the Pretty Little Liars series. High school seniors Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer are back – and this time must face a ruthless stalker who wants to make them pay for their darkest secret. The new season of the ABC TV Family series based on the books begins on January 2.

Movie Tie-in

Big Miracle (originally, Everybody Loves Whales) by Tom Rose (Macmillan/St. Martin’s/Griffin; Dreamscape Audio) is the story of a reporter and a Greenpeace activist who enlisted the Cold War superpowers to help save a whale trapped under Arctic ice in 1988, written by a conservative talk show host. This edition ties in to the movie adaptation opening February 3, starring John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore. PW says, “the book is most compelling when it focuses on the simple drama of the whales plight and the extraordinary lives the people of Barrow eke from the harsh elements; its less interesting when it strays into antibig government polemics and caricatures of limousine liberal environmentalists.”

Nonfiction

Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World by His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Alexander Norman (Houghton Mifflin; Brilliance Audio) continues the Dalai Lama’s case for a universal ethics rooted in compassion. PW says, “This wise, humane book, an original work rather than a collection of talks, is an incisive statement of His Holinesss’s thinking on ways to bring peace to a suffering world.”

Arrows of the Night: Ahmad Chalabi’s Long Journey to Triumph in Iraq by Richard Bonin (RH/Doubleday; Random House Audio) examines an Iraqi exile’s ultimately successful attempts to have Saddam overthrown. Kirkus says that ”the book occasionally suffers from myopia as all of the events are seen through the lens of Chalabi,” and predicts that ”this crisp, clean book won’t be the last word on the perplexing events in Iraq, but for now it’s one of the better ones.”

Inside SEAL Team Six: My Life and Missions with America’s Elite Warriors by Don Mann and Ralph Pezzullo (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio) chronicles the service of a SEAL team member and instructor.

On Good Morning America yesterday, George Stephanopoulos talked to Rob Bell about his “Provocative take on heaven and hell,” in his new book, Love Wins. Bell, the pastor of a mega church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is being accused of heresy by evangelicals.

The book has been in the top fifteen on Amazon for the last week. It moved in to the top five after the appearance.

Bell was also profiled in USA Today on Monday.

Audio from Books on Tape; 9780307940568

Thanks to a controversial video trailer for Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell, the book’s publication date has been pushed up by a week. In the video, the Grand Rapids, Michigan mega-church pastor and bestselling author of Velvet Elvis leans toward “universalism ─ a dirty word in Christian circles that suggests everyone goes to heaven and there is no hell,” as CNN.com’s “Belief Blog” puts it.

On March 14, Bell will be the subject of a New York Times profile, and will appear on Good Morning America and Nightline.

Several libaries we checked did not have copies on order. Others showed holds of up to 10:1 on light ordering.

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived Rob Bell Retail Price: $22.99 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: HarperOne – (2011-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 006204964X / 9780062049643

Other Notable Nonfiction On Sale Next Week…

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If you lived through the 80′s, you may remember televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Their son, Jay, is now a pastor himself, but with a very different approach. He writes about his beliefs in his book Fall to Grace and was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered (listen here) on Saturday.

Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self & Society Jay Bakker Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: FaithWords – (2011-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0446539503 / 9780446539500

If you need a reminder of who the Bakkers were, the Jan. 12th Today Show gave a quick history prior to Matt Lauer’s interview with Jay.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It’s a title that pulls no punches, Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body.

The author, Missy Buchanan, spoke with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America yesterday, sending the book up Amazon’s sales rankings to #57. It’s published by Christian publisher, Upper Room.

Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults Missy Buchanan Retail Price: $12.00 Perfect Paperback: 96 pages Publisher: Upper Room – (2008-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 083589942X / 9780835899420

The clip being that’s  all over the Web today is Jon Stewart’s show intro last night, a send up of Rick Sanchez, who was fired over the weekend by CNN for calling Stewart a bigot during a radio interview.

At least a few people stuck around to hear Stewart interview the man he calls a “professional atheist,” Sam Harris, author of The Moral Landscape. The book rose to #12 on Amazon (from #53).

The book is also featured on The Book Beast and reviewed in the Wall Street Journal.

The Harris interview is the hottest segment of the show (“anyone in this room could improve the ten commandments in five seconds”), but if you really want to see Stewart on Sanchez, link here.

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The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values Sam Harris Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2010-10-05) ISBN / EAN: 1439171211 / 9781439171219

S&S Audio; UNABR; Read by the Author

Next week brings three female authors with fresh takes on topical subjects.

Big commercial expectations accompany The Wave: In Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean, by O magazine editor-in-chief Susan Casey, about rogue waves exacerbated by global warming (the largest was taller than the Empire State Building) and the extreme surfers who chase them. It is listed in USA Today’s fall books roundup. A review is scheduled for the upcoming NYT BR and it will be featured on Good Morning America on Monday, followed by The Daily Show the next evening.

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean Susan Casey Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0767928849 / 9780767928847

Promise Me: How a Sister’s Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer by Nancy Brinker, is a memoir by the woman who founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which has raised more than a billion dollars for breast-cancer research.  Kirkus finds it “touching and inspring.” Library holds are growing, and it has been rising on Amazon too.

Promise Me: How a Sister’s Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer Nancy G. Brinker Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Crown Archetype – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0307718123 / 9780307718129

Big Girls Don’t Cry by Salon.com staff writer Rebecca Traister is a nuanced look back at the election of 2008, arguing that it changed the role of women in national politics. She spoke to librarians earlier in the year at the S&S editors’ Fall books presentation (the next one is Fri., Sept 24 from 9 to 12:30 at the S&S offices in NYC; email Michelle Fadlalla to RSVP or for more information). Traister is thoughtful, dynamic and passionate; sure to be on many talk shows.

PW says that “Traister does a fine job in showing that progress does not proceed in straight lines, and, sometimes, it’s the unlikeliest of individuals who initiate real change.”

Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women Rebecca Traister Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 1439150281 / 9781439150283

Other Notable Nonfiction on Sale Next Week

Pinheads & Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama by Bill O’Reilly (Morrow) is another round of liberal bashing from the Fox News pundit.

Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind by Joyce Meyer (Faithwords) is the TV preacher’s followup to her bestseller Battlefield of the Mind. PW says “critics of Meyer will say she sounds like an infomercial (‘You will see amazing results’). Yet her many fans will continue to appreciate her upbeat attitude and her ability to offer practical tips on the toughest topics.”

Two women’s memoirs are likely to get significant media attention next week.

Rosanne Cash‘s Composed, about her music career and life as Johnny Cash’s daughter, is already getting admiring attention, though holds are modest on light ordering at libraries we checked.

The Los Angeles Times calls it “one of the best accounts of an American life you’ll likely ever read. Yes, Cash comes from a well-known family and makes her living in the entertainment business, but ‘Composed’ is really about her spiritual growth as a daughter, a sister, a mother, a lover, a wife and an artist.”

New York Magazine profiles Cash and O, the Oprah Magazine selects it as one of 10 Books to Pick Up in August 2010.

Composed: A Memoir Rosanne Cash Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-08-10) ISBN / EAN: 0670021962 / 9780670021963

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Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell is the Boston Globe book critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist’s account of her deep friendship with writer Caroline Knapp. Like Caldwell, Knapp was single by choice, dedicated to her writing and recovering from alcoholism, before she died of cancer in 2002.

Laura Miller in Salon calls it

…a slender and beautiful book… [Caldwell] never stoops to tear-jerking or sentiment. Which is not to say she won’t make you cry. It might be something as simple as her first-page description of love’s tempo that does it: “For years,” she writes, “we had played the easy daily game of catch that intimate connection implies. One ball, two gloves, equal joy in the throw and return.”

It was also a LA Times summer reading pick, and the #3 Indie Next pick for August .

Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship Gail Caldwell Retail Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-08-10) ISBN / EAN: 1400067383 / 9781400067381

Other Notable Nonfiction On Sale Next Week

Hollywood: A Third Memoir by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster) is a new series of reminiscences from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and screenwriter. Booklist says the chapters are “disconnected,” and “his descriptions are not always charitable, but they are consistently sharp, interesting, and enjoyable.”

Where There Is Love, There Is God: A Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others by Mother Teresa (Doubleday) offers more wisdom from Mother Teresa culled from private lessons she gave to fellow nuns.

The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases by Michael Capuzzo (Gotham) is about the Vidocq Society, a real-life crime-solving group.  USA Today has a Q&A with the author. This one’s also an August Indie Next pick.

Among the nonfiction titles going on sale next week, War by Sebastian Junger is poised to get the lion’s share of media attention. Holds are mounting at libraries we checked, undoubtedly helped by the advance publicity for this account of a platoon fighting in Afghanistan, which includes a New York Times op-ed by Junger and an excerpt from the book in Newsweek.

Junger will kick off his media tour with an interview on Good Morning America next Tuesday, May 11.

PW says that ”Junger mixes visceral combat scenes raptly aware of his own fear and exhaustion with quieter reportage and insightful discussions of the physiology, social psychology, and even genetics of soldiering. The result is an unforgettable portrait of men under fire.”

Kirkus finds the book “often harrowing, though mostly conventional.”

WAR Sebastian Junger Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Twelve – (2010-05-11) ISBN / EAN: 0446556246 / 9780446556248

Large Print; Hachette; hardcover; ISBN 9780446566971; $28.99
Hachette Audio; UNABR CD; ISBN 9781607881988; $29.98
BBC Audio; UNABR; 9781607885344; 10 CD’s; $74.99
Adobe EPUB eBook and WMA Audiobook from OverDrive

Other Major Titles on Sale Next Week

Storm Warning: Whether Global Recession, Terrorist Threats, or Devastating Natural Disasters, These Ominous Shadows Must Bring Us Back to the Gospel by Billy Graham is the Christian evangelist’s latest examination of America’s problems. Though it’s the top pick on B&N.com’s “Coming Soon” list for next week, three out of four libraries we checked do not have it.

Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World’s Religions Can Come Together by the Dalai Lama (Doubleday) advocates peaceful coexistence based on shared human experience. Not all libraries we checked had this one either.

The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies and a Company Called DreamWorks by Nicole LaPorte (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is a behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood studio formed in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Entertainment Weekly gives it a B-, saying that “LaPorte offers sharp critiques of business blunders made by DreamWorks’ founders… but with her blow-by-blow tale running well over 400 pages, it’s clear that she could learn a thing or two from the man about storytelling.”

Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance by Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm (Penguin) gets a positive review from hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani at the New York Times: “Roubini, a professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business, uses his gifts as a teacher to give the lay reader a succinct, lucid and compelling account of the causes and consequences of the great meltdown of 2008.”

Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball by Bill Madden (Harper) gets thumbs up from Kirkus: “Having covered the Yankees for 30 years, and with access to previously unavailable material, Madden provides a definitive and captivating biography of ‘The Boss.’ “

Rising on Amazon is a book that claims the popular view that all religions are one dangerously obscures the important differences between them. God is Not One is currently at #180, rising from #413 yesterday.

Few libraries have ordered the book. It received its first prepub review in the 4/15 issue of Booklist; “Provocative, thoughtful, fiercely intelligent and, for both believing and nonbelieving, formal and informal students of religion, a must-read.”

The author, Boston U. professor Stephen Prothero, is making use of social media to promote the book. He’s currently in the middle of a virtual book tour, with dozens of religion-focused blogs reviewing the book. On Twitter, he’s created “Religion 140,” a 140-character “mini-course” (perhaps that should be called a “micro-mini” course) on the great religions.

He’s also created a book trailer, which is refreshingly free of tricks,

Old-school media is involved, too, with essays by the author in the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe.

Prothero’s 2007 title, Religious Literacy made it on to the bottom rungs of the NYT Nonfiction list for 3 weeks and on the extended list for two more weeks.

Two books released on the same day, make quite different cases; the atheist Richard Dawkins makes the case for evolution in The Greatest Show in Earth, while Karen Armstrong makes The Case for God.

Armstrong’s book was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered last night; Dawkins is scheduled for the Colbert Report tomorrow night.

Both are showing heavy holds (Dawkins is running ahead of Armstrong) on light ordering.

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution Richard Dawkins Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2009-09-22) ISBN / EAN: 1416594787 / 9781416594789

Unabridged Audio:
Simon & Schuster Audio; 9780743579278 $ 39.99; 9/1/09

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The Case for God Karen Armstrong Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-09-22) ISBN / EAN: 0307269183 / 9780307269188

Unbridged Audio:

• Random House Audio; 9780307702371; $50.00; 9/1/09
• Books on Tape; 9780307702395; $100; 9/22/09

Large Type:

Thorndike Press; 9781410421531; $ 32.95; 11/1/09

Downloadable audio and eBook from OverDrive

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of Civilization of Love by Carl Anderson and Eduardo Chavez has remained in Amazon’s top 100 over the past week and now appears at #137 on the USA Today list.  The book traces the ways that the Catholic Virgin has been a catalyst for relgious and cultural transformation from the sixteenth century to the present. None of the libraries we checked had any copies.

The book’s rise is clearly tied to Anderson’s role as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of the Knights of Columbus – the world’s largest Catholic organization. Our Lady of Guadalupe was prominently featured at the first international Marian conference and the Guadalupe Festival - attended by thousands in early August in Phoenix, Arizona – both of which came on the heels of the 127th Annual Knights of Columbus convention.

Co-author Chavez is an expert on Guadalupe apparitions and the first Dean of the Catholic University Lumen Gentium of the Archdiocese of Mexico. He and Anderson created a video for the book, hosted on their website.

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love Carl Anderson, Eduardo Chavez Retail Price: $22.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Doubleday Religion – (2009-08-04) ISBN / EAN: 0385527721 / 9780385527729

Beacon Books has signed a deal with Dexter King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son and chief executive officer of King, Inc., to release new editions of four King books in 2010, according to an AP story that appeared in USA Today:

• Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story – The story of the 1955-56 bus boycott organized by King
• Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? – King’s penultimate book, written in 1967, on combatting poverty and responding to the Black Power movement
• Trumpet of Conscience: A collection of speeches King delivered in November and December 1967
• Strength to Love: A collection of King’s sermons

Under the agreement, Beacon will also compile King’s writings, sermons, lectures and prayers into new editions with introductions by leading scholars.

So far, it’s unclear whether this deal will reignite the objections of siblings Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, who have not settled three lawsuits related to their brother Dexter’s management of the King estate, and the control of their mother Coretta Scott King’s personal items, which caused a $1.4 million book deal to fall through last year, according to a previous AP story.

Last week, in our roundup of titles new to the USA Today bestsellers list, we noted the following, at #94:

The Love Dare, Stephen Kendrick, Alex Kendrick, B&H, pbk, $14.99; The companion volume to the Christian-themed film, Fireproof, which is a surprise box-office success. The star of the movie, Kirk Cameron, who played Mike Seaver on the TV series Growing Pains, appeared on the Today Show recently, promoting both the book and the movie. Libraries have not ordered it.

The book is now at #9 on Amazon and the movie was #8 on Variety‘s weekly box office rankings.

On Monday, the NYT ran a story on the movie’s success;

An almost all-volunteer cast and crew, including a star who was an ’80s teen heartthrob, and a plot about a firefighter who saves his marriage by turning to God — it hardly sounds like a recipe for box office success, let alone a best-selling book. But that’s what the film “Fireproof” has spawned.

In addition to The Love Dare, a paperback novelization of the film has been published by Thomas Nelson and an inspirational book by the film’s executive producer.

The Love Dare
Stephen Kendrick and Alex Kendrick

• Paperback: $14; 224 pages
• Publisher: B&H Books (September 28, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0805448853
• ISBN-13: 978-0805448856