In USA Today, Jack Murnighan, author of Beowulf on the Beach, shows his readers advisory chops by making the case for the classics as the best beach reading (but, not Proust, actually; Remembrance of Things Past takes too much concentration).
Murnighan will make you want to pack Moby Dick in your beach bag (”one of the funniest books of all time”).
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Did you hear Nancy Peal presenting her summer picks on NPR’s Morning Edition today? If not, click here.
Nancy had Steve Innskeep in the palm of her hand with the following suggestions, beginning with the teen National Book Club Finalist and Printz Honor Book:
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And moving on to titles written for adults:
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A longer list of suggestions, with Nancy’s annotations, is available on the NPR site.
You didn’t think Oprah was going to let you laze around on the beach all summer, did you? Not only is there a 2009 Summer Reading List in July issue of O, the Oprah Magazine; she also created a Summer Reading Calendar , in printable book mark form, with an assignment per week:
June 19 – June 26
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June 26 – July 3
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July 3 – July 10
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July 10 – July 17
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July 17 – July 24
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July 24 – July 31
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July 31 – August 7
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If you want extra credit, Oprah lists an additional 18 titles on the Reading List. For those who insist on the beach, she also has a list of “20 Tantalizing Beach Reads.”
Podcast: Play on page | Play in new window | Download
[Click above, for a sample of the audio of Darling Jim from Tantor]
EarlyWord was an early fan of Darling Jim, by Christian Moerk. It’s a perfect book for RA; you can pitch it as horror, mystery, psychological thriller, and storytelling. The Irish setting and story that unfolds via double diaries, adds extra appeal. People magazine may have put it best, “a chilling bedtime story for adults.”
More than two months after the book’s publication, today’s Washington Post gives it a rave. The fact that it’s being reviewed now is remarkable in itself, since newspapers generally run reviews around publication date. With so many books clamoring for attention at the beginning of the summer season, someone must have presented a strong case for reviewing an “older” book.
The Post’s reviewer, Daniel Mallory, a researcher in modern literature at Oxford, say it’s a
…spellbinding new novel…Aglow with fairy-tale inflections, this hypnotic, neo-Gothic suspense story unfolds like a hothouse bloom, lush and pungent; it’s a sprig of nightshade, all petals and poison. And it heralds the arrival of an astonishingly gifted storyteller.
Most libraries have bought modest quantities. In those that own more copies (an average of 4 per branch), the copies are turning over rapidly.
Do your RA staff a favor and buy more; it’s not too late.
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Tantor released Darling Jim in audio on 5/4 [link to sample, above], narrated by Stephen Hoye and Justine Eyre.
It is also downloadable from OverDrive.
On the Book Beast this week, Charlaine Harris recommends her favorites. She is an “ardent fan” of Robert Crais and she guarantees that you’ll be hooked if you read 20 pages of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (the first in Laurie King’s Mary Russell novels; the most recent, The Language of Bees, went on the NYT bestseller list at #9 last week; it is currently on the extended list at #29).
No surprise, she is also a fan of Laurell K. Hamilton.
Check out all her picks at Charlaine Harris’s Book Picks.
In the new Entertainment Weekly, (5/22), Stephen King picks seven books for summer reading and one of them is Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (”as easy to read as any current bestseller” — wonder if that blurb will appear on future editions?).
Another unexpected pick is Jodi Picoult’s newest, Handle With Care,
You men out there who think Ms. Picoult is a chick thing need to get with the program. Her books are an everyone thing, and the current offering — about a little girl whose bones are so brittle that they break almost at a puff of wind — is her best since My Sister’s Keeper.
The other five titles, from Michael Robotham’s Shatter to Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, may be less surprising, but it’s fun to read King’s short takes on each one.
In Sunday’s NYT BR, Marilyn Stasio gives a stellar review to a book we love at EarlyWord (Lisa Von Drasek even took off her kids hat to rave about it), Darling Jim by Christian Moerk (Uses of Enchantment, NYT BR, 5/3). It gets an equally strong review in South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel (Oline Cogdill, Darling Jim) and a review in the 4/20 issue of People called it “a chilling bedtime story for adults.”
Most libraries are showing low holds, but one has ten to one holds; it’s likely the staff got the word of mouth going.
As the reviews indicate, Darling Jim has appeal for readers of many different genres, since it combines “murder mystery, romantic suspense, psychological thriller, [and] folk legend.”
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Tantor will be releasing Darling Jim in audio in May, narrated by Stephen Hoye and Justine Eyre. It will also be available on OverDrive.
9 Audio CDs (Library Binder Pkg) EAN: 9781400141982 $55.99
1 Mp3-CD (Retail Slimline Pkg) EAN: 9781400161980 $19.99
9 Audio CDs (Retail Unikeep Pkg) EAN: 9781400111985 $27.99
Podcast: Play on page | Play in new window | Download
This week, Nancy Pearl recommends (listen above) two somewhat-below-the-radar titles, each of which has been out for several months (and is releasing in paperback ina few weeks), so may actually be available on new book shelves.
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Also available in audio from Tantor Media and as a downloadable audiobook from OverDrive.
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In these uncertain times, there is one thing I can say with confidence. However many copies you’ve ordered of A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick, it’s not enough.
I read the book in manuscript several months ago and it has stayed vividly in my mind ever since. In the past week, it suddenly seems that I see mentions of it everywhere I turn. The LA Times featured it in their blog, “Jacket Copy” on Friday, Dave Welch of Powell’s bookstore in Oregon makes an interesting prediction,
Come a day, you might get sick of hearing about A Reliable Wife – so many people will have read it and raved to you about it. Here’s some preventative medicine: read it first.
And, on Friday, the ABA’s Indie Next picks for April came out. The number one pick? A Reliable Wife.
On Monday, Reading Group Guides.com featured a team review of the book, along with reading group questions by three librarians from the Salem OR Library (a brilliant idea; Reading Group Guides will feature this librarian trio every couple of months, with their picks of forthcoming titles that are great for reading groups). They describe the book’s appeal perfectly,
[A Reliable Wife] engages from the first lines, which describe wealthy small-town magnate Ralph Truitt as he stands waiting, surrounded by the whispers of his neighbors, for a woman to arrive by train. The woman, Catherine, is someone he has ordered up by placing an ad, seeking a “reliable wife.” He implies that he simply wants a steady companion after years of loneliness. She accepts, implying that she’s a plain woman ready to accept the job. Since they’re both lying elaborately, it’s quickly clear their relationship will be a good deal more complicated than initially advertised.
Also, on Monday, the Hollywood Reporter announced that Columbia has bought the film rights.
A Reliable Wife is set in Wisconsin in 1907. As I read it, I kept thinking of a book from the 1970’s that I’d adored; The Wisconsin Death Trip. It’s a book a librarian can’t help but love. Through newspaper articles and images from the archives of one small town in 19th C Wisconsin, it creates a fascinating narrative. I still have my copy.
Guess what? I later learned that Goolrick was influenced by that very book.
I’m looking forward to reading Goolrick’s earlier book, the 2007 memoir, The End of the World as We Know It. I have a feeling many other Reliable Wife readers will want to go back to the earlier title as well. It was released in trade paper last year.
Many of you may have picked up A Reliable Wife at the Algonquin/Workman booth at MidWinter, or had it forced into your hands by Worman’s Mike Rockliff. If you haven’t read it yet, take heed of the LA Times warning and do so now.
On Twitter, people are now saying that Algonquin is out of galleys, but I have a secret; I happen to have a very limited number of copies. If you want one, send an email to EarlyWord, with “A Reliable Wife Galley” in the subject line, by 11:59 p.m, Friday, March 13th (we’re running this for only a few days because I have so few copies). We will randomly select winners. Don’t forget to include your mailing address, so they know where to send it!
This giveaway is only available to librarians residing within the 50 United States.
A Reliable Wife
Robert Goolrick
The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life
Robert Goolrick
Brian Gruley is the Chicago bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, which may explain why this debut novelist is featured in a video interview on the WSJ site, along with an excerpt of his book, Starvation Lake. He also happens to have received great prepub reviews (LJ; “Full of insider knowledge about hockey and great local color, this is not to be missed.”) and comparisons to Dennis Lehane.
The Chicago Tribune has published the first consumer press review, also making the Lehane comparison, especially to Mystic River,
The mood in Starvation Lake is similar: ordinary people living up to their failures, trying to balance dreams and reality when tragedy strikes too close to home.
The book was selected by independent booksellers for the March Indie Next list;
Small towns love their sports teams as much as they love taking swipes at their local newspaper, but they also love their secrets. A secret lies frozen at the bottom of Starvation Lake, and the ice is starting to melt. Dripping with atmosphere and pitch-perfect dialog, Gruley captures the heart and hardships of small-town life.
It could be the only mystery that involves amateur hockey in Northern Michigan. It’s a trade paperback with a $14.95 list price, making it easier to take a chance on a first-timer.
Starvation Lake
Bryan Gruley
It may be the perfect choice for the current climate; the cover of the upcoming New York Times Book Review is dedicated to ”an entertaining chronicle of sleaze and vapidity” — Steven Gaines’s book on South Beach, Fool’s Paradise: Players, Poseurs, and the Culture of Excess in South Beach.
In an inspired pairing, Carl Hiaasen is the reviewer.
Libraries have ordered Fool’s Paradise in small quantities and reserve ratios are comfortable. But keep it in mind — it may be the perfect antidote to all those depressing books on the economy.
Fool’s Paradise: Players, Poseurs, and the Culture of Excess in South Beach
Steven Gaines
I’ve been wondering why Tina Brown’s news site, The Daily Beast doesn’t have a book section. Brown, former editor of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair and founder of the short-live Talk magazine, has always had a keen interest in books, or at least, authors and the site’s very name is a somewhat obscure literary reference, so it seemed odd that it didn’t have a section devoted to books.
This week, the other shoe drops as The Book Beast debuts.
But, oh, that name! Wasn’t he a Muppet’s character?
How influential the section will be may be a function of how well the overall Daily Beast does (on the other hand, as NPR discovered, the book section is their site’s biggest draw, so maybe this is being added to help the overall site). A New York Observer piece yesterday, works hard to prove that the Beast is not doing as well as Michael Wolff’s Newser, but real stats seem hard to come by.
In comparison to other online book sections, The Book Beast is already more lively than most and takes a greater advantage of what the Web offers. Since it’s not based on a print model, it doesn’t have to be beholden to the print source, like the New York Times site, with its confusing mix of the daily reviews and the Sunday Book Review (never recognizing that the same book is often reviewed in each and quite differently).
Of the newspaper online sections, the Wall Street Journal site tries the most consistently to add new elements beyond the print, like slide shows and video author interviews, but the section ends up feeling tacked together, with no overall editorial strategy.
The Book Beast is much more coherent, with various formats well integrated. It gives the sense that books are relevant and even, gasp, fun. I like the “Xtra Insight” post-its next to the articles. It’s a device the Beast uses for other sections, but it seems to work particularly well for books. Take a look, for instance, at the Cheat Sheet on the “hot debut novel,” The Vagrants, by Yiyuan Li.
In just a few lines, it makes the case for the book’s hotness, while the “post-it” lets you link to the reviews. The post-its aren’t limited to print sources; many include links to online video and audio.
How “hot” The Vagrants will be with readers is another question. Library ordering for the book, which PW called a ”magnificent and jaw-droppingly grim novel,” is light, with holds ranging from none to 24 in large libraries I checked.
The Vagrants
Li, Yiyun
Today’s New York Times coverage of Bright Young People by D.J. Taylor, adds to a growing number of enthusiastic reviews. Library ordering is light and so are reserves. This is a title to consider buying extra copies for your readers advisors.
NPR, in its “Books We Like” column, describes the book as being about the “Young, Idle And Terribly Jaded In The Jazz Age.” Add “British” to that string of adjectives and you have to wonder why this would appeal to Americans facing what is nicely termed “the current economic downturn.” The NYT Book Review tries to answer the question by saying it “…may be the ideal escapist fantasy for these sober economic times.” And the Wall Street Journal, after dithering that we should care because many of the Bright Young People,
…came from the aristocracy and families prominent in government …[and] they were part of what decades later would come to be termed the “establishment.”
finally admits, “It is simply interesting to know what they were getting up to.”
Carolyn See, who is generally able to zero in on a book’s appeal, in her review in the Washington Post, comes up with as good a readers advisory line as any by saying it’s,
Jampacked and delicious, crammed with a cast of selfish, feckless, darling, talented, almost terminally eccentric, good-looking men and women.
Not all the reviews are completely positive, however. The NYT BR reviewer, while cleary captivated by the book, carps,
Taylor, a novelist and the respected biographer of Thackeray and Orwell, is so intent on his “morality play” that he nearly loses sight of why his characters were a source of fascinated delight and sniping in the first place….[but] His moralizing tone is lightened by the book’s beautiful design, laced with mordant period quotations and delicious satiric cartoons from newspapers and magazines.
The book offers an opportunity to recommend some older classics. Every review mentions Evelyn Waugh’s “hysterical” 1930 novel, Vile Bodies, which is based closely on actual Bright Young People (Waugh was one of them). The WSJ also mentions that,
V.S. Naipaul lived for some time at Wilsford, the estate of the effete Stephen Tennant, one of the last surviving bright young people, who is portrayed in Mr. Naipaul’s The Enigma of Arrival.
Anthony Powell’s twelve volume, Dance to the Music of Time also portrays the period.
Reviews:
Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London’s Jazz Age
Vile Bodies Waugh, Evelyn
The Enigma of Arrival, Naipaul, V.S.
The twelve volumes of Dance to the Music of Time have been collected into four. Below is the bibliograpic information on the first volume.
A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement, Powell, Anthony
Attention has been growing quietly for the brief (128 page) November original trade paperback, the second novel by Australian author, Julia Leigh, Disquiet.
Liesl Schillinger, regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, told the Huffington Post that it was one of two books she most wanted to “gift” at Christmas, calling it,
…a dark jewel of a novella…about a woman who returns (uninvited) to her mother’s French chateau, children in tow, fleeing her brutish Australian husband (I wish Edward Gorey were still alive to illustrate the story–it cries out for sinister animation)
Entertainment Weekly picked it as one of their ten favorite fiction titles of the year, saying “ Leigh’s memorably creepy novella is as potent as it is petite.”
Reviews continue to appear, two months after publication date (USA Today reviewed it last week. The New Yorker reviews it this week; one of the few dissenting voices, but it’s significant that they felt they had to cover it).
Libraries own it in small quantities (one copy for the largest branches) and reserves are building (eight to one in some cases).
Disquiet
Leigh, Julia
Following on the heels of Janet Maslin’s strong review in the NYT of Charlie Huston’s crime novel, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Patrick Anderson in today’s Washington Post says,
Charlie Huston has for several years been one of the best-kept secrets in American fiction; this novel might move him into the mainstream…[it] had me laughing out loud many times, but of course, like all the best comic fiction (Catch-22 and Portnoy’s Complaint come to mind), at bottom it is deadly serious. Life is violent, messy and all too short, and laughter is the best revenge.
Anderson warns that readers need strong stomachs and a tolerance of frequent profanity to enjoy the book.
Black humor meets the mystery novel? Sounds a bit like another January title with building buzz, Beat the Reaper. Find us a third one and we’ll call it a trend.
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
Charlie Huston
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