Arriving at #28 on the 3/21 Extended NYT Fiction best seller list is Heresy by S.J. Parris, a pseudonym for Stephanie Merritt. It’s her first outing under this name, her first time writing an historical thriller, and her first time on the best seller list. The Washington Post recently pegged The Heresy as part of a subgenre they call “the religious thriller”:

If proliferation is a sign of health, then the most vigorous member of the historical novel species must surely be the religious thriller. We know what to expect of these ecclesiastical romps: Sadistic clerics, heroic visionaries, ancient texts, torture chambers and a sprinkling of Latin are guaranteed whether the turmoil being depicted is the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Inquisition or some obscure schism.

Set in the 16th C. the book is about a real-life Italian monk who was excommunicated for believing that the earth revolves around the sun. Escaping to Oxford, he was recruited as a spy for Elizabeth I and become involved in trying to solve some grisly murders. Heresy was acquired as the first in a trilogy

Merritt/Parris recently wrote in the Guardian that she enjoyed writing this book more than any of her others,

The best crime and thriller novels, though they may work within certain parameters, can offer just as much scope for psychological depth, tenderness and a critical perspective on society as “serious” novels, and writers such as Robert Harris and Matthew Pearl prove that you don’t have to compromise on prose style to create a cracking plot.

Heresy S.J. Parris Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-02-23) ISBN / EAN: 0385531281 / 9780385531283

Random House audio; ABR; 9780307714299; $30
ebook available from OverDrive

USA Today asks the burning question of the hour  – with all the literary mashups already published and more on the way, will readers lose interest?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, released last year from small publisher Quirk Books seemed, pardon the expression, like a quirk, but it now has over a million copies in print. Author Seth Grahame-Smith just released his second monster mash-up, this time with publisher Grand Central and using a historical figure, rather than a classic novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The L.A. Times reviews it today and is wowed, saying that, freed from updating “a revered literary gem, the writer delivers a well-constructed, surprisingly satisfying narrative.”

It was announced this week that Honest Abe, V.H, is on the road to the big screen.

Below is USA Today’s selection of forthcoming titles; several publishers have followed Quirk Books in to the genre, including Del Rey, Pocket and HarperTeen.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (Quirk Classics) Jane Austen, Steve Hockensmith Retail Price: $12.95 Paperback: 287 pages Publisher: Quirk Books – (2010-03-24) ISBN / EAN: 1594744548 / 9781594744549

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Jane Slayre Sherri Browning Erwin, Charlotte Bronte Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Pocket – (2010-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 1439191182 / 9781439191187

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Little Women and Werewolves Louisa May Alcott, Porter Grand Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 416 pages Publisher: Del Rey – (2010-05-04) ISBN / EAN: 0345522605 / 9780345522603

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Android Karenina Ben H. Winters Retail Price: $12.95 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Quirk Books – (2010-05-26) ISBN / EAN: 1594744602 / 9781594744600

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The current edition of my new favorite column, Newsweek’s “We Read It [So You Don't Have To]” doesn’t live up to its name. It features The Poisoner’s Handbook and, rather than serving as a substitute for the book, it makes me want to get my hands on it as soon as possible.

In most libraries, that will be a while, since holds are heavy.

By Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, Deborah Blum, The Poisoner’s Handbook is about the dawn of forensic chemistry in New York City in the 1920’s (when, as the author says, “a wealth of modern poisons [created] new opportunities for the clever poisoner.”) Kirkus called it “caviar for true-crime fans.”

The Sunday Washington Post calls it “immensely entertaining.” and recommends it for fans Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, Jefferson Bass, and forensic TV shows.

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Deborah Blum Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2010-02-18) ISBN / EAN: 1594202435 / 9781594202438

Large Print, Thorndike; 9781410425126; $30.95

Audio; Tantor; UNABR; Available now

Trade; 9781400115501; 8 Audio CD; $34.99

Library; 9781400145508; 8 Audio CD; $69.99

MP3; 9781400165506; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

Trade 9781400115501 8 Audio CD $34.99Library 9781400145508 8 Audio CD $69.99MP3 9781400165506 1 MP3-CD $24.99

Why are vampires so popular right now and what does that say about our culture?

NPR’s Margot Adler set off to answer these questions. As research, she read 75 currently-popular vampire titles (full list, with annotations, on the NPR site, where you can also listen to the full story, which was on All Things Considered on Thursday, 2/18).

New York, with the highest concentration of large book publishing houses, ranks way down at #29 on the just-released list of the most literate U.S. cities, below Lexington-Fayette, KY (#15) and New Orleans (#17).

This is the fifth year of the study. Seattle has been #1 for three of those years. It lost out to Minneapolis in 2007 and tied with that city last year.

The rankings are based on the following per capita factors:

• Number of booksellers
• Education level
• Number of internet book orders and visitors to the city’s newspaper Web site
• Number of libraries, volumes held, circs and library professional staff
• Newspaper circulation
• Number of magazine publishers

The top five cities in terms of libraries are:

1. Cleveland, OH
2. St. Louis, MO
3. Pittsburgh, PA
4. Seattle, Wa
5. Cincinnati, OH

Lizzie Skurnick, author of Shelf Discovery, takes a jaundiced and very funny look at the “rush of literary fathers gushing about how to raise their perfect children,” in The Book Beast, focusing on,

Eating Animals Jonathan Safran Foer Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2009-11-02) ISBN / EAN: 0316069906 / 9780316069908

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Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son Michael Chabon Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061490180 / 9780061490187

The essay may send you scurrying to read Skurnick’s book, if you haven’t already. You probably won’t find a copy on the shelves, but you can get a good sample of it with Browse Inside.

Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading Lizzie Skurnick Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 448 pages Publisher: Avon A – (2009-08-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061756350 / 9780061756351 Browse Inside

You can also hear Lizzie in conversation with Nancy Pearl and Virginia Stanley, head of library marketing for HarperCollins, on Library Love Fest.

Two names you may not have expected to hear in the same sentence — Glenn Beck and Oprah Winfrey. Nonetheless, Motoko Rich’s headline in the NYT today says that “Glenn Beck Is Becoming New Oprah.”

But a Beck book is quite different from an Oprah book. Beck likes thrillers, especially ones that reflect his own political stances (Brad Thor, James Rollins, Vince Flynn). He’s also picked some authors who, as Beck delicately puts it, are “on the liberal side of things, which is, you know fine.”

Andrew Gross, for instance, tells Rich that the Beck attention gives with one hand and takes away with the other; conservatives who bought the book based on Beck’s recommendation are angry that they were duped into buying a “bunch of lefty” garbage. Meanwhile, his liberal fans are suspicious of his association with Beck.

Many years from now, some cultural historian will come up with a plausible theory about why vampires are so popular right now.

For now, the Philadelphia Inquirer observes that today’s vampires are quite different from your father’s; once inherently evil, now they can be lovable heroes.The theme of morality runs through many current popular vampire movies and novels.

To fully explore this subject, the article suggests the huge vampire anthology, The Vampire Archives.

The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) Retail Price: $25.00 Paperback: 1056 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2009-09-29) ISBN / EAN: 0307473899 / 9780307473899

Nathaniel Rich, editor of the Paris Review, recently read nearly thirty Scandinavian crime novels, to try to discern “why the most peaceful people on earth write the greatest homicide thrillers” for Slate — Scandinavian Crime Wave.

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

The Wall Street Journal identified the trend, (Bad Parents and Proud of It), but our friends at Shelf Awareness gave it the moniker, ‘Bad Parent Lit.”

Not only are new and forthcoming books part of the trend, but also Web sites (Babble.com’s “Bad Parent” — a compilation of essays from it will be pubbed in the fall) and TV (a new ABC sitcom, “In the Motherhood“).

Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace Ayelet Waldman Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0385527934 ISBN-13: 9780385527934

Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood Michael Lewis Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-05-18) ISBN-10: 039306901X ISBN-13: 9780393069013

It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita Heather Armstrong Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment – (2009-03-24) ISBN-10: 1416936017 ISBN-13: 9781416936015

True Mom Confessions: Real Moms Get Real Romi Lassally Price: $14.00 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Berkley Trade – (2009-04-07) ISBN-10: 0425226042 ISBN-13: 9780425226049

The NYT  just discovered that the romance is hot, at least in books.

We all know that, but it is amusing to read the article to see how difficult it can be to get real figures in this business.

Recession Fuels Readers’ Escapist Urges, by Motoko Rich

Ann Patchett is a “dutiful member” of the Nashville Public Library Foundation Board, as she admits in the opening line of her Wall Street Journal piece on Saturday, The Triumph of the Readers. After presenting a “dismal report” on the state of the library’s endowment, Director Donna Nicely announces that the library’s new customer survey shows that the #1 reason people come to the library is not for the computers, not to check out videos, but for books.

She goes on to point out that, in the recent NEA study, the biggest increase in reading of fiction is among 18 to 24 year olds,

But doesn’t it make sense? This is the first crop of newly minted adults who were raised up on Harry Potter novels. They came of age attending midnight release parties at their local bookstores [EarlyWord Ed. Note; and libraries!] and then faking mysterious illnesses the next day for the absolute necessity of staying in bed to read.

As part of a litany about what to do to encourage reading, Patchett says, “ If you’ve got a little extra money you might think of giving it to your public library as most of their operating budgets have been trimmed beyond recognition.”

Already, questions are being raised about whether the new NEA study, which shows a rise adult reading of literature, is truly comparable to the 2002 study. Michael Cader in the online newsletter, Publisher’s Lunch suggests that the outgoing head of the NEA, Dana Gioia, is using the report to show that under his leadership, the NEA’s efforts (such as The Big Read) have had been successful. Cader indicates that the rise is more likely due to the fact that the new study includes reading online. He quotes the report,

…eighty-four percent of adults who read literature (fiction, poetry, or drama) on or downloaded from the Internet also read books, whether print or online. Nearly 15 percent of all U.S. adults read literature online in 2008.

According to the NYT report, Gioia discounts the impact of the change in the study,

Mr. Gioia said that Internet reading was included in the 2008 data, although the phrasing of the central question had not changed since 1982. But he said he did not think that more reading online was the primary reason for the increase in literary reading rates overall.

The text of ”Reading on the Rise” is downloadable here.

A report released today by The National Endowment for the Arts indicates that the 25-year decline in fiction reading has reversed. The report,  titled “Reading on the Rise: A new Chapter in American Literacy,” is based on a survey conducted by the  Census Bureau. 

Adults reporting that they read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous year declined from a high of 56.9% in 1982 to 46.7% in 2002. The 2008 figure moved up  a notch to 50.2%.

The story is being reported by several news agencies, including The New York Times, Washington Post and the AP.