What’s New
We’re kicking off a new feature, EarlyWord Galley Chat. This is an opportunity for librarians to talk to each other about favorite galleys (we know you carried or shipped a boatload of them back from PLA).
To find out more, click here.
Our many links on the far right offer useful tools for selection and readers advisory librarians. Get a head start on the Fall season by checking out the new Publisher’s Catalogs, view trailers for Movies Based on Books and identify Movie Tie-ins. If you need a librarian-friendly contact at publishing houses, check our listings under Publisher Contacts.
For more on EarlyWord,
click here.
Nora Rawlinson
Co-Founder and Editor
Fred Ciporen
Co-Founder and Publisher
Chris Kahn
Ad Sales Director
The death of Coach John Wooden brought renewed attention to his many books published by McGraw Hill, all of which rose on Amazon’s best seller list over the weekend.
Coming in July is Coach Wooden’s final book, The Wisdom of Wooden: A Century of Family, Faith, and Friends. The publisher describes it as “a commemorative of his life…Filled with fond personal memories, warm fatherly advice.” (McGraw Hill press release, via Publishers Marketplace)
 |
|
Weeks ahead of its release next Tuesday, The Facebook Effect by Fortune magazine’s David Kirkpatrick has received hundreds of mentions across the web in virtually every news article about Facebook’s latest adjustments to its privacy policy as it nears the milestone of 500 million worldwide members. The book is already at #409 on Amazon, and libraries are showing growing holds on light orders.
This is the Facebook that Facebook wants you to see — both the glamorous and the ugly sides of one of the most successful, fastest-growing companies in recent memory… It’s fascinating. It’s well-written and masterfully reported. Still, one is left wondering if anything more sordid was missed.
 |
|
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain (Ecco) offers an unvarnished look at young superstar chef David Chang, the revered Alice Waters, “Top Chef” winners and losers, and more.
The Only Game in Town: Sportswriting from the New Yorker edited by David Remnick (Random House) collects pieces from Roger Angell, A.J. Liebling, John Updike, Don Delillo and others.
David Cross, who was on the TV series, Arrested Development, appeared on the Daily Show last night to promote his book, I Drink for a Reason. As a result, it rose from #3,001 to #101 in Amazon sales rankings. Libraries are showing one to one reserves on modest orders.
You won’t learn much about the book from this interview. Publishers Weekly said that Cross is “one of the few comedians working today with an easily identifiable comic voice, and his authorial debut ensures that his voice is heard on every page. Mixing bitterness and absurdity, the result is often piercing sarcasm.”
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| David Cross | ||||
|
||||
-
 |
|
-
Also in unabridged audio from Hachette:
The audio is downloadable from OverDrive.
————-
Appearing on the show tonight is Christopher McDougall author of Born to Run, which has been widely reviewed in the consumer press and on the NYT Hardcover and Hardcover extended list since the end of May (it’s currently at #17). Libraries are showing heavy holds, as high as 230 on 30 copies.
 |
|
Also in unabridged audio from Random House:
Both book and audio are downloadable from OverDrive.
Amazon preorders have shot The Beckham Experiment, to #243 (from #13,878), likely because of an excerpt, titled “How Beckham Blew It,” in the July 6th Sports Illustrated. According to author Grant Wahl, soccer star David Beckham’s move to the LA Galaxy team, which was supposed to bring new American fans to the sport, has been a “soccer fiasco.”
The book’s release, originally scheduled for October, has been moved up to July 14th. According to WorldCat, only Seattle & Gwinnett County, GA, have it on order.
 |
|
It will also be downloadable from OverDrive beginning July 14.
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.
|
An audiobook version is available in three formats from Blackstone Audio:
|
-
 |
|
An audiobook is available in three formats from Tantor Media
In the Sunday NYT’s sports section, the story Powerful Agent’s Blunt Warning About Future of the N.B.A. is about the new book, The Bald Truth by David Falk. It was not reviewed prepub and most libraries have not ordered it.
The Bald Truth
David Falk
Two sports books in the headlines this week are predicted to be losers:
Who has it right? It looks like NPR is the best predictor; Amazon shows the just-released Radomski book at #952, while the Torre book is at #6 even though it isn’t available yet.
Library hold patterns in four large library systems also back up NPR:
(Yes, that’s right, the total copies add up to exactly the same number, even though the individual libraries ordered different quantities of each title.)
Getting attention in the sports pages is a dispute over claims in a coming out next week about steroid use in the major leagues, Bases Loaded.
Of seven large libraries I checked, five have it on order. Reserves are light.
Among today’s stories are the following;
New York Times, For Second Time in 2 Days, Mitchell Disputes Part of Radomski’s Book
USA Today, Radomski backs former Clemens’ trainer McNamee in new book
Sporting News, Radomski sides with McNamee over Clemens
Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report
Radomski, Kirk
Reviewed in the new issue of Sports Illustrated (Dec. 15) is a biography of Benny Friedman, the now-forgotten 1920’s sports icon who revolutionized football by inventing the forward pass.
Friedman, an Orthodox Jew from Cleveland was one of the few (VERY few, see The God Blog from L.A.’s Jewish Journal) Jews to excel in football, making this worth owning if only for school assignments (a book longer than 100 pages that can be cited in a bibliography; outstanding!). SI calls it “a rich, well-researched narrative.”
The book was reviewed pre-pub only by Kirkus and it is owned lightly in libraries.
Passing Game: Benny Friedman and the Transformation of Football
Murray Greenberg
Vindicated:
Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball
Speculation is building about who will be named in Canseco’s second book (after Juiced, 2005) for using steriods. The book is set for release on March 31st, following a change in publisher and allegations that Canseco offered to not name a player in exchange for investment in a movie project.
Of the ten libraries I track, only one has it on order. All of them own the earlier title.
See All Listings »