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.

Even long-term marriages can end in divorce, which was the subject of the Diane Rehm Show on NPR yesterday. As evidenced by the many comments about the show on the Web site, this is a hot-button issue.

As is the case with nearly any legal situation, there is a NOLO Press book on the subject and the author, attorney Janice Green joined the discussion.

Divorce After 50: Your Guide to the Unique Legal & Financial Challenges Janice Green Retail Price: $29.99 Paperback: 370 pages Publisher: NOLO – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1413310818 / 9781413310818

Also featured was Andrew Cherlin Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University and author of The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family Today.

The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today Andrew J. Cherlin Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0307386384 / 9780307386380

The most emailed and viewed story on the NYT Web site currently is “The Science of a Happy Marriage,” by Tara Parker-Pope on the Well blog.

Parker-Pope has just released a book with a similar subtitle, For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage. Newsweek says it “may be the most credible and interesting marital self-help book of all time.” The book has received considerable attention; a long piece in the New Yorker, and reviews in the L.A. Times,  San Francisco Chronicle and one by Susan Jane Gilman on NPR (naturally, the author of the brilliantly titled Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress has an inspired headline, “Chemistry Set for The Science of a Good Marriage”). Those who are skeptical about scientific studies of something as elusive as happy marriages, will be amused by Carolyn See’s contrarian review in The Washington Post.

For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage Tara Parker-Pope Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 356 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult – (2010-05-06) ISBN / EAN: 0525951385 / 9780525951384

HighBridge Audio; UNABR; 9781615730940; $26.95

WMA Audiobook from OverDrive

Rising on Amazon; now at #24 is a new parenting book, Raising Happiness.

The book’s author, Christine Carter, writes the blog “Half Full: Science for Raising Happy Kids.”

The book wasn’t reviewed prepub (check to see if you’ve ordered it; several libraries we checked hadn’t yet). It’s covered in these consumer magazines:

• US News & World Report, “On Parenting” blog; Two Simple Ways to Be a Happier Parent, 3/2
• Globe and Mail, How to raise joyful kids: Reject perfection and let them fail, Q&A with author, 2/28.
• Psychology Today, How to Raise an Olympic Athlete (blog post by the author), 3/3.

Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents Christine Carter Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 0345515617 / 9780345515612

ebook available from OverDrive

It seems like another sign of the times; How to Survive the End of the World is at #7 on Amazon, after 7 days in the Top 100.

The book is by John Wesley Rawles, whose first novel, Patriots, which came out in April, was called a survivalist manifesto by the Daily Beast. It was in the top 100 on Amazon for several weeks, but did not appear on any other lists (it’s from a very small publisher and may not have had bookstore distribution). The new book is published by Plume, an imprint of Penguin.

None of the libraries we checked have it on their catalogs.

How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times James Wesley Rawles Retail Price: $17.00 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Plume – (2009-09-30) ISBN / EAN: 0452295831 / 9780452295834

Brilliance Audio:

• CD Unabridged Lib Ed; 978-1-4418-3060-9; $87.97
• MP3-CD Unabr Lib Ed; 978-1-4418-3062-3; MSRP $39.97

In mid-September, Marcus Buckingham, business guru and co-author of several bestsellers, including First, Break All the Rules and Discover Your Strengths, published an article in the Huffington Post, called What’s Happening To Women’s Happiness?

In it, Buckingham examined the results of the General Social Survey conducted annually since 1972 by professors at Wharton. It shows that women’s level of happiness has dropped steadily since the study began, while men’s has risen.

Buckingham promised solutions, in both his next book Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently, and as a regular blogger for the Huffington Post.

The book is based on a Buckingham workshop which was sponsored by Oprah; the results were then presented on the show (Buckingham’s program is currently featured on the Oprah site, along with a free download of one of the book’s chapters).

Libraries we checked do not have the book on their catalogs.

Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently Marcus Buckingham Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Thomas Nelson – (2009-09-29) ISBN / EAN: 1400202361 / 9781400202362

Audio Brilliance:

• CD Lib Ed; Unabridged;978-1-4418-0725-0; $87.97
• MP3-CD Unabr Lib Ed; 978-1-4418-0727-4 $39.97

Audio downloadable from OverDrive

Last year, we were treated to a scary book titled How Not to Look Old. After years of being told we could be “fabulous at any age,” this book dared to say that looking younger is necessary for “personal and financial survival…people who are better-looking, younger, and slimmer are more likely to get a job and keep it.”

Naturally, it was a best seller.

Now we have a book that takes a humorous approach to the issue, with a slightly different title; How Not to Act Old: 185 Ways to Pass for Phat, Sick, Hot, Dope, Awesome, or at Least Not Totally Lame by Pamela Redmond Satra.

It looks like it may be a best seller, too. It came out a few days ago and rose to #364 on Amazon today. The Wall Street Journal covered it on Friday; A Dose of Behavorial Botox.

One of the hottest tips?  The best way to get a young person to return your cellphone call is ” to hang up without leaving a message.”

The book cover is a visual lesson in itself, but there are also several online video lessons, such as this one:

Most libraries do not own the book.

How Not to Act Old: 185 Ways to Pass for Phat, Sick, Hot, Dope, Awesome, or at Least Not Totally Lame Pamela Redmond Satran Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Harper Paperbacks – (2009-08-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061771309 / 9780061771309

This fall, there will be a teen twist on Rhonda Byrne’s blockbuster self-help phenom, The Secret, which has sold millions of copies. The new book, The Secret to Teen Power, will be written by Paul Harrington, producer of The Secret DVD, with a bullish first printing of 500,000 copies. The new book will show “how teens can transform their own lives and live their dreams, by understanding and using the power they have in their hands,” according to publisher Simon Pulse, as quoted by the Associated Press.

No exact pub date, jacket or ISBN yet, but we’ll keep you posted.

Today’s NYT Science section wades into the controversial world of archeology. “Scientist Tries to Connect Migration Dots of Ancient Southwest” explores the theories of Stephen Lekson, who believes the various Anasazi sites were not separate entities, but linked by migrations, despite their distances from each other.

Lekson’s new book, A History of the Ancient Southwest argues for this ‘big picture’ archaeology. Another scientist, who completely disagrees with Lekson’s ideas, still says,

Steve is possibly the best writer in Southwest archaeology…Our academic writing has this inherent gift of taking something interesting and making it dull and boring. And Steve doesn’t have that problem. He thinks outside the box, and the rest of us comb through his ideas.

Most libraries have not ordered the book.

History of the Ancient Southwest Stephen H. Lekson Retail Price: $39.95 Paperback: 452 pages Publisher: School for Advanced Research Press – (2009-06-15) ISBN / EAN: 1934691100 / 9781934691106

These days anyone who dares to complain about work adds “But at least I have a job.”

Yet, as evidenced by what we’re reading, Americans are not fulfilled by their work. Alain de Botton’s The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work has been widely reviewed and is on waiting lists in most libraries. Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class as Soul Class, which argues against the white-collar life and for working with your hands, is at #34 on Amazon.

It seems everywhere you turn, you find new books on chucking it all and raising goats (Brad Kessler’s Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese, Scribner, 6/23; featured on Salon today) or leaving a solid career to move as far away from what you know as possible (Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island, Lucinda Fleeson, Algonquin, 6/16; I spent my weekend enchanted with this book), or staying put, but changing your life completely (Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, Novella Carpenter, Penguin, 6/11).

If you’re hearing echos of the ’60’s, you won’t be surprised to learn that a book called Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment rose to #14 on Amazon over the weekend (it’s now at #42).

Author Dave Romanelli is co-founder of a Phoenix AZ yoga studio and teaches “Yoga+Chocolate” and “Yoga+Wine” courses. Of the book, PW said, “This lighthearted overview of awareness should provide seekers many ideas; accomplished yogis probably need not apply…”

Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment: Getting to Ecstasy Through Wine, Chocolate and Your iPod Playlist David Romanelli Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2009-03-17) ISBN / EAN: 0767929489 / 9780767929486

Fueled by Wayne Dyer’s appearances on PBS pledge drives since mid-May, Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits is back at #1 on Amazon, and has spent 17 days in the Top 100. Libraries we checked are catching up to heavy reserves, with copies on order. 

Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits Wayne W. Dyer Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Hay House – (2009-05-26) ISBN / EAN: 1401921736 / 9781401921736

However, none of the libraries we checked had copies of Dyer’s related children’s book, now up to #88 on Amazon: No Excuses!: How What You Say Can Get In Your Way, written with Kristina Tracy and illustrated by Stacy Heller Budnick.

No Excuses!: How What You Say Can Get In Your Way Wayne W. Dyer, Kristina Tracy Retail Price: $14.95 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: Hay House – (2009-06-01) ISBN / EAN: 1401925839 / 9781401925833

Dyer’s publisher, Hay House, is also promoting two related adult books to his readers on Amazon:Virus of the Mind and The Biology of Belief. Both have spent nine days in Amazon’s Top 100, probably helped by the discount Amazon offers for buying the books together with Dyer’s. We’re not sure if this activity will stimulate library demand, but just in case, read on for more info about the books. And please use our comments are to alert us to any related activity you find in your library! 

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme by Richard Brodie, currently at #21 on Amazon, is a hardcover reissue of the book, which was first published in 1995 by Integral Press. One library has 32 holds on a single copy, but none of the others we checked had it. The book ”builds on the work of scientists Richard Dawkins, Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett,” according to the publisher, and describes how “mind viruses have already infected governments, educational systems, and inner cities, leading to some of the most pervasive and troublesome problems of society today.” It was featured on Oprah in the late 90’s, after its original publication.

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme Richard Brodie Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Hay House – (2009-05-15) ISBN / EAN: 1401924689 / 9781401924683

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles by Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D. is currently # 19 on Amazon. Libraries have up to 39 holds on modest numbers of copies, in several cases the 2005 edition published by Mountain of Love/Elite Books. According to Hay House, the book “shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology, that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts.”

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D. Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Hay House – (2008-09-15) ISBN / EAN: 1401923119 / 9781401923112

Audio available from Sounds True

• $24.95; 9781591795230 

Also available on Playaway

• $59.99; 978160812778

The current most-emailed article from the NYT is “The Case for Working With Your Hands,” by Matthew B. Good, an essay in the NYT Magazine, which is adapted from the author’s book, Shop Class as Soulcraft. The book, which has been rising on Amazon, as we noted last week, jumped from #73 to #32 as a result.

It is also featured in the June 1 issue of Newsweek, along with Alain de Botton’s The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work.

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work Matthew B. Crawford Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-05-28) ISBN-10: 1594202230 ISBN-13: 9781594202230

Available from Brilliance Audio (May, 2009)

• MP3 CD; $39.97; 1441800115 
• CD; Unabridged; $82.97; 1441800093

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The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work Alain De Botton Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Pantheon – (2009-06-02) ISBN-10: 037542444X ISBN-13: 9780375424441

Maybe the times are right for a new Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A good candidate just might be Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford, which has risen to #77 on Amazon with the help of a recent review in Slate. No libraries we checked had copies on hand, though several had some on order.

Crawford finished his doctorate in political philosophy at the University of Chicago, took a job at a Washington think tank, then quit five months later and began repairing motorcycles. His defense of the satisfactions and security of having a skill that can’t be exported overseas, done with an algorithm, or downloaded – and his thoughtful critique of cubicle culture - was published as a much-discussed essay in the New Atlantis in 2006, before he landed a book deal with Penguin Press.  

Calling Shop Class as Soul Craft ”the best self-help book that I’ve ever read,” the Slate reviewer characterizes Crawford’s advice this way: “Strive not for flimsy new economy “flexibility” but for real, handy expertise in a chosen field. The point is to achieve mastery, which in turn gives you a skill not subject to the whims of office politics. Finally, think about how your work affects others. This is a hedge against both narcissistic creativity and doing actual harm.”  That’s not a message you hear every day.

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work Matthew B. Crawford Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-05-28) ISBN-10: 1594202230 ISBN-13: 9781594202230

Available from Brilliance Audio (May, 2009)

• MP3 CD; $39.97; 1441800115 
• CD; Unabridged; $82.97; 1441800093

May 17 was a banner day for books on CBS Sunday Morning, which launched three featured titles into Amazon’s top 350 bestsellers. T.C. Boyle’s novel The Women, about the loves of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, moved to #100, while The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley jumped to #295, and organization guru Julie Morgenstern’s SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life: A Four-Step Guide to Getting Unstuck leapt to #336. 

Libraries we checked favored Morgenstein’s self-help guide, with an average of 10 copies and signficant reserves. Quantities were more mixed and reserves more modest on Boyle’s novel, which came out in February, and The Ashley Book of Knots.

The Women: A Novel T.C. Boyle Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2009-02-10) ISBN-10: 0670020419 ISBN-13: 9780670020416

An audiobook version is available in three formats from Blackstone Audio:

• 15 CDs; $100; ISBN 978-1-4332-6061-2 
• 2 MP3CD; $29.95; ISBN 978-1-4332-6064-3    
• Playaway; $69.99; ISBN 978-1-4332-6068-1

Ashley Book of Knots Clifford Ashley Price: $80.00 Hardcover: 640 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (1944-06-21) ISBN-10: 0385040253 ISBN-13: 9780385040259

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SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life Julie Morgenstern Price: $15.00 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Fireside – (2009-03-03) ISBN-10: 0743250907 ISBN-13: 9780743250900

An audiobook is available in three formats from Tantor Media

• 9 CDs; $24.99 (Retail Pkg); EAN: 9781400107872       
• 9 Audio CDs (Library Binder Pkg); $69.99; EAN: 9781400137879
• Mp3-CD; $24.99; EAN: 9781400157877

Oprah has another obsession besides her weight — clutter.

Clutter expert Peter Walsh kicks off the next leg in his “Oprah’s Clean up Your Messy House Tour” — which may be coming to a home your neighborhood in the next few months (not Brooklyn, PLEASE) — not on Oprah’s show, but on Good Morning America, coinciding with the release of Walsh’s new book, Enough Already!

Above is a shot from the promo for the tour. We’re presuming that the Rockettes are with Walsh because they are an example of perfect order.

Walsh’s 2006 title, It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff was on the NYT Hardcover Advice bestseller list for 3 weeks. His book from last year, Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? was also on that list for 3 weeks.

Libraries are showing heavy holds against light ordering of Walsh’s new book:

Enough Already!: Clearing Mental Clutter to Become the Best You Peter Walsh Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2009-03-03) ISBN / EAN: 1416560181 / 9781416560180

Last week, we wrote about Oprah’s show, What Can You Live Without?, which featured “reformed shopaholic” Mary Carlomango and her new book, Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less. I commented that due to the spiral binding, it isn’t owned in libraries. Several of you wrote to point out that is WRONG and you don’t have a problem with that format, and, in fact, WorldCat shows that 26  U.S. public libraries own the book. Our post even prompted a discussion on  LIS News about spiral bindings (some would never buy that format, others see no problem and some recommend adding library binding).

We were talking in a vacuum, since none of us had the book in hand, so I went to my local B&N where I found three copies on the shelf. The spiral binding is actually what the publisher calls a “semi-concealed Wire-O binding,” which means the heavy paper cover goes over the wire binding, reinforcing it. The problem for libraries may not be the binding so much as the workbook format, with lots of checklists and fill-in sections (rough guess is that they take up about 1/3 of the book). 

Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less
Mary Carlomagno

• Spiral-bound: $19.95; 143 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; Spi edition (December 3, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0811863948
• ISBN-13: 978-0811863940