It’s impossible stay on top of all the books that are published, even just the popular ones; that’s why we’re always on the lookout for shortcuts. Newsweek and the Daily Beast both have columns that work as handy RA cheat sheets.

Newsweek gets right to the point with the title of their regular feature, “We Read it [So You Don't Have To].” The editors recently decided to create a book club around it, complete with Twitter and Facebook pages as well as its own archive on the Newsweek site. Currently, it includes 7 nonfiction titles, ranging from the current crop of political scandal books (The Politician by Andrew Young, Staying True by Jenny Sanford and The Death of American Virtue by Ken Gormley) to the sleeper success, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Click on each title and you’ll get a brief annotation, “Buzz Rating” and a critique to make your own.

The Daily Beast has been running a weekly column with a similar thrust, “Do I Have to Read…?” The columnist, “William Boot,” promises,

This isn’t your typical book-review column. I’m reading the bestsellers: the Grishams, the Cornwells, the Higgins Clarks. Moreover, I’ll render the kind of blunt verdict you get when reading about toasters in Consumer Reports… If you want a different approach, try The New York Review of Books.

Who is William Boot? Hard to know, since Boot is a pseudonymn (presumably to avoid hate mail from outraged publishers, agents and authors — when Boot hates a book, he sounds like Virginia Kirkus having a bad day), taken from the protagonist in Evelyn Waugh’s novel, Scoop (the Daily Beast itself takes its name from the fictional newspaper in that book).

Scoop Evelyn Waugh Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Back Bay Books – (1999-09) ISBN / EAN: 0316926108 / 9780316926102

Boot considers only about 38 of James Patterson’s I, Alex Cross readable. On the other hand, of the 279 pages of Anne Tyler’s Noah’s Compass, he recommends 285 of them (he went back and reread a section which he enjoyed the second time around).

He may be more of a populist than the crowd at the New York Review of Books, but not by much.

This week, Boot steps outside his brief and covers a book that’s not a current bestseller, Dick Francis’ Comeback.

The full list of titles Boot has considered is available here.

The tragedy in Haiti has brought new attention to Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003, Random House) about Dr. Paul Farmer’s work to solve the country’s public-health problems. It’s been in the top 100 on Amazon for the past 7 days. Farmer’s organization, Partners in Health is behind the Stand on Haiti relief effort (check out the video on the site by librarian Cliff Landis, who created a matching grant of $10,000 for the organization. Warning: don’t watch it if you don’t want to be caught crying in front of your computer).

It’s included in the Daily Beast’s list of  The Best Books on Haiti (one testy comment points out that it’s actually the best books in English on the country) and the more extensive list on the “Shelf Renewal” blog at Library Journal:

• Understanding Haiti, Part 1 — Nonfiction
• Understanding Haiti, Part 2 — Fiction

There will obviously be more books published on Haiti and specifically on the earthquake. Time magazine has already announced a book by their reporters and photographers; at least $75,000 of the profits will go to Haiti relief efforts. It will be released first as a “bookazine” on 1/29 and as a hardcover in February. Bibliographic information is not yet available.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World Tracy Kidder Retail Price: $18.00 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks – (2009-08-25) ISBN / EAN: 0812980557 / 9780812980554

Also in unabridged audio from Books on Tape

Book and audio available from OverDrive.

What’s the best one-line description you’ve ever heard, or used, for a book?

A friend of mine just described Larry McMurtry’s Rhino Ranch this way, “When I was done, I thought I’d grown up with all of his characters.”

Makes me want to pick it up.

Rhino Ranch: A Novel Larry McMurtry Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2009-08-11) ISBN / EAN: 1439156395 / 9781439156391

Before the Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall was published here, many felt that Americans would not be able to follow its story of Tudor palace intrigue.

A bit of help is on its way. Anne Weir’s forthcoming The Lady in the Tower serves as a “useful companion piece,” says Janet Maslin in the NYT, to Mantel’s “delectably arch portrait of Anne [Boleyn].”

The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn Alison Weir Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-01-05) ISBN / EAN: 0345453212 / 9780345453211

Audio; Recorded Books; Anticipated Release: Feb 13, 2010

• Unabridged CD; $123.75
• Unabridged Cassette; $113.75

Annual “best books” roundups always reflect a mix of love and duty, as any book reviewer or awards judge knows. On the theory that many of the lesser-known picks on these lists are actually the best-loved, we took another look at the year’s “Best Books,” trying to spot books with broad appeal that slipped under our radar this year, and perhaps yours, too. Some of these titles don’t have holds list, so you may actually find them on the new book shelves.

(Check out our list of Under-the-Radar Literary Picks too!)

The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C. E. Mayo

Library Journal chose this historical novel about the short-lived career of Austrian archduke Maximilian as Mexico’s emperor in the 1860s for their best books longlist. It also got a fair amount of coverage from book bloggers –  including Bookslut and others – after Unbridled Books sent the author on a lively blog tour. According to World Cat, 239 libraries have the book. Those we checked had 4-6 copies with no reserves.

The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire C. M. Mayo Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Unbridled Books – (2009-05-05) ISBN / EAN: 193296164X / 9781932961645

The Art Student’s War by Brad Leithauser

This paean to Detroit and one of its immigrant families in the decodes after WWII by a native son and author of five novels was a New York Times Notable Book and is available in 151 libraries in modest quantities with modest reserves. The full review in the Times called it

“One of the finest novels about Detroit’s history to come along in years. With its generous and cleareyed vision of the city’s grand past, it will particularly resonate with readers who remember the glory days of the American Rust Belt.”

The Art Student’s War Brad Leithauser Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-11-03) ISBN / EAN: 0307271110 / 9780307271112

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy

This story collection set in Montana about characters adept at creating misery for themselves was the only short story collection to appear on the New York Times Top 10 list for 2009, in a year the critics acknowledge was a superlative one for short stories. It’s in 558 libraries, says World Cat; those we checked had 20 or fewer copies, with up to twice as many reserves.

The full New York Times review praises Meloy’s wry humor and exceptional restraint,  while the Los Angeles Times review notes that “Meloy’s richest territory is the fork in the road at right and wrong, the moment when a person’s moral compass wavers.”

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It Maile Meloy Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2009-07-09) ISBN / EAN: 159448869X / 9781594488696

Big Machine by Victor LaValle

A Publishers Weekly Top 10 pick, Victor LaValle’s second novel is about about faith and the monsters and mental sustenance it can create, particularly among America’s underclass. World Cat says 401 libraries have it, some with modest reserves.

The Washington Post places LaValle’s work in an “increasingly high-profile and important cohort of writers who reinvent outmoded literary conventions, particularly the ghettos of genre and ethnicity that long divided serious literature from popular fiction.”

Big Machine Victor LaValle Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2009-08-11) ISBN / EAN: 0385527985 / 9780385527989

Lowboy by John Wray

This novel about a paranoid schizophrenic teenager who spends his days riding the New York City subways was on the Amazon.com editors’ Best Books longlist. More libraries have it than any other book on this list – 875 libraries, according to World Cat – yet reserves are low, despite solid coverage in highbrow print venues like the New York Times and New York magazine and hipster blogs like Largehearted Boy.

Lowboy John Wray Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2009-03-03) ISBN / EAN: 0374194165 / 9780374194161

If one of the functions of book awards is to bring attention to books that may not have received it otherwise, then the National Book Awards achieved that goal with one of the nonfiction nominees, The Poison King. In the Washington Post, Carolyn See reviewed it, saying,

I read this biography as a layperson, not a scholar, but I can say without reservation that it’s a wonderful reading experience, as bracing as a tonic, the perfect holiday gift for adventure-loving men and women…it’s drenched in imaginative violence and disaster, but it also wears the blameless vestments of culture and antiquity.

Put that in your nonfiction readers advisory bag.

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy Adrienne Mayor Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 472 pages Publisher: Princeton University Press – (2009-10-18) ISBN / EAN: 0691126836 / 9780691126838

[UPDATE: No more copies left! Thanks to Talia Sherer, Macmillan Library Marketing, for making copies of Blame available to EarlyWord readers, but they are all gone now. Subscribe to her e-newsletter here.]

Reviewers have been giving the love to Michelle Huneven for her new book, Blame. This week, Laura Miller declares it a “Must Read,” in Salon.

Apologizing for revealing the book’s crucial plot twist, Miller notes that she feels less guilty about doing so because the publisher did it first and further justifies the transgression with this trenchant comment,

…there’s a difference between mere plot and story, the latter of which consists of a sensation of irresistible forward movement created in the mind and emotions of a reader.

That’s as good an explanation as any I’ve heard for why people sometimes enjoy a movie or a book when they already know the ending.

Stripping Blame’s plot down to the bare minimum, it’s about a woman who is jailed for killing two people while driving drunk, does jail time, gets out and spends the next twenty years trying to rebuild her life, only to find out, as the publisher says, “her life has been based on wrong assumptions.”

It’s worth reading all the reviews, because each reviewer sees the book differently; a story of sin and atonement, of people trying to create ad hoc families, of learning to live with regret and moral ambiguity. The book gives no easy answers, as Entertainment Weekly puts it,

Readers looking for a drum-tight denouement won’t find one here; for Huneven, the blame of the title isn’t some black-and-white object to explain or assign so much as it is something to explore in countless shades of gray.

All of which makes it sound like an ideal candidate for reading groups.

Consider buying extra copies, not for holds, which are modest, but for RA purposes.

Other reviews:

• Washington Post — Written by Carolyn See, this review is another example of why See should get an award for being a book lover’s reviewer, as opposed to a “critic.”
• Wall Street Journal
• Kansas City Star

Blame: A Novel Michelle Huneven Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0374114307 / 9780374114305

Unabridged audio from Blackstone

• Read by Hillary Huber
• 8 Tapes; 9781433293320; $32.98
• Playaway; 9781433293399; $59.99
• 1 MP3CD; 9781433293368;$14.98
• 9 CD; 9781433293337; $50.00

Large Type:
Thorndike; Hdbk; 12/1/09; 9781410420930; $31.95

Downloadable audio from OverDrive

The Indie Next list for November is up, and though the first three picks come from major imprints, seven out of the 20 titles are from independent presses - an interesting twist in a fall season that’s already rich with major authors from big houses.

The #1 pick is Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City, the story of a friendship between a former child star and a writer, set in the author’s New York City home turf – but we have to wonder how much the book will widen his audience.  Reserves are relatively modest at libraries we checked.

Chronic City Jonathan Lethem Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-10-13) ISBN-10: 0385518633 ISBN-13: 9780385518635

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The #2 pick is Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen, which has steadily been picking up buzz and blog mentions in advance of publication. Reserves were solid in libraries we checked, but relatively few libraries have the book, according to WorldCat.

Bookseller Kerry Hartwick, The Velveteen Rabbit Bookshop, Fort Atkinson, WI says

“Poet Rhoda Janzen has an intriguingly honest and witty way with language, and a personality and unique story to match. This insightful memoir is simultaneously humorous and touching — a rare combination you certainly don’t want to miss.”

More magazine also included the book on a list of 21 fall books to watch out for, and the reader site Libarything.com has singled out the book for early reviews by readers, who have given the book a rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home Rhoda Janzen Retail Price: $22.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 080508925X / 9780805089257

Also available from Highbridge Audio, 10/13/09

• CD: $29.95; ISBN 9781598879070

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The # 3 pick, The Financial Lives of the Poets by cult favorite Jess Walters, is available in 181 libraries according to WorldCat, with an order ratio of 10 to 1 in one library we checked. His new book satirizes the economic meltdown, just as his novel The Zero satirized the aftershocks of 9/11.

Janet Maslin gave it a strong review in the New York Times, saying that “combining the elements of tragedy with a sitcom sensibility is a good one. And it’s what Jess Walter continues to do best.”

The Financial Lives of the Poets Jess Walter Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061916048 / 9780061916045

Here are the indie press fiction highlights of the list:

A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein – a novel about a successful suburban doctor, and about the lengths to which a father will go to protect his child.

The Evolution of Shadows by Jason Quinn Malott – the story of a love strong enough to endure the ravages of war in Sarajevo.

The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam -a tale of the marriage of an English couple in the Far East, written in stylish prose that gets to the heart of their relationship.

The Vows of Silence: A Simon Serrailler Mystery by Susan Hill - a character-driven suspense novel that will appeal to fans of Elizabeth George, Reginald Hill, and Ruth Rendell.

The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville – a gripping, well-written, hard-boiled debut thriller.

Soul of Wood by Jakov Lind, translated by Ralph Manheim – a novella and stories that careen through the rattled soul of mid-20th century Europe.

In this season of literary bounty, Julia Glass reached all the way back to January of 2008 to pick a title for her  ”You Must Read This” segment on NPR’s All Things Considered.

Glass, the 2002 NBA winner in fiction for Three Junes, chose Love Warps the Mind a Little, a novel by John Dufresne, saying,

Rarely have I laughed so often while reading a book or, coming to the end, cried so hard. Love Warps the Mind a Little is a masterpiece of the genre that writers call the “funny-sad novel,” where humor both defies and gives shape to grief. It is rich entertainment, sheer lunacy, moonshine for the wounded heart.

Her comments lifted the book from #335,327 in Amazon sales rankings to #86.

Love Warps the Mind a Little: A Novel John Dufresne Retail Price: $13.95 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2008-01-17) ISBN / EAN: 0393330958 / 9780393330953

In case you missed it, Nancy Pearl was on NPR’s Morning Edition on Thursday, talking about mysteries you might have missed.

Listen and/or read it here.

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”).

Beowulf on the Beach: What to Love and What to Skip in Literature’s 50 Greatest Hits Jack Murnighan Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Three Rivers Press – (2009-05-19) ISBN / EAN: 0307409570 / 9780307409577

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:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks E. Lockhart Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Hyperion Book CH – (2008-03-25) ISBN / EAN: 0786838183 / 9780786838189

And moving on to titles written for adults:

The Color of Lightning Paulette Jiles Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2009-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061690449 / 9780061690440

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A Far Cry from Kensington Muriel Spark Retail Price: $12.95 Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation – (2000-09) ISBN / EAN: 0811214575 / 9780811214575

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The Gone-Away World Nick Harkaway Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2008-09-02) ISBN / EAN: 0307268861 / 9780307268860

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  

Yes, My Darling Daughter Margaret Leroy Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2009-04-14) ISBN / EAN: 0374126011 / 9780374126018

June 26 – July 3 

Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Random House – (2009-06-23) ISBN / EAN: 1400063736 / 9781400063734

July 3 – July 10 

Heroic Measures Jill Ciment Retail Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Pantheon – (2009-06-30) ISBN / EAN: 0375425225 / 9780375425226

July 10 – July 17 

What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir Alice Eve Cohen Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2009-07-09) ISBN / EAN: 0670020958 / 9780670020959

July 17 – July 24 

Dreaming in Hindi Katherine Russell Rich Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co – (2009-07-07) ISBN / EAN: 0618155457 / 9780618155453

July 24 – July 31 

Essential Pleasures: A New Anthology of Poems to Read Aloud   Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 528 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0393066088 / 9780393066081

July 31 – August 7 

A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Ernest Hemingway Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2009-07-14) ISBN / EAN: 1416591311 / 9781416591313

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 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.

Darling Jim Christian Moerk Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. – (2009-03-31) ISBN-10: 0805089470 ISBN-13: 9780805089479

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.

• 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

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.