The fourth volume in Bob Woodward’s series on the Bush presidency is embargoed until Monday.

According to Editor and Publisher, the trade journal on the newspaper business, the Washington Post had a deal to run a four-part excerpt beginning on Sunday. Fox News posted a story on the book late yesterday, saying  “an advance copy was obtained exclusively by FOX News.” 

As a result of Fox breaking the embargo, the Washington Post, put up a detailed story about the book less than two hours later on their Web site, which also appears on the front page of the Post today. Both the Fox and the Post stories have now been picked up by news agencies all over the world.

The book is considered one of the major titles of the Fall, but library holds are surprisingly light at this point. At the four large libraries I checked, there are a total of 231 holds on 177 copies; a ratio of 1.31 holds per copy. 

Woodward will appear on 60 Minutes on Sunday.

The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008

Bob Woodward

• Hardcover: 512 pages; $32.00
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 8, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1416558977
• ISBN-13: 978-1416558972

It’s my personal indicator that the Fall is upon us; USA Today’s Fall Books Calendar has just been posted, listing 150 titles.

It feels like they created this one just for me, since my personal pick of the Fall, Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World is the opening image. But, I’m not the only one who’s been smitten by this kitten; USA Today featured the book back in June. And who could resist that face?

Have fun browsing the listings; for both collection development and readers advisory staff, it’s interactive format, including excerpts, covers and annotations, makes it a convenient way to brush up on what may be the big titles of the fall (they included the then little-known Story of Edgar Sawtelle in their summer list).

In addition, USA Today editors have picked ten titles consider “talkers;” books you want to talk about.

We’re at work putting together a mashup of all the fall picks, similar to the one we did for the summer titles. This time, since we often hear how frustrating it can be to hunt down various formats for a title, we’re including ISBN’s for audio and large type editions.

Since People does not put its reviews online and, since it reaches so many, well, people and is often a good source of RA material, we take a look at their lead book coverage each Wednesday, when the new issue hits the newsstands. We also include a full list of the titles reviewed in our Consumer Book Coverage.

This week (9/15, double issue; “Sarah Palin’s Family Drama” shares cover with “66 Celebrity Babies”) the book coverage includes:

Book Feature:

Fitting in with the issue’s baby theme, People features “vegan gurus” Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman on the newest in the Skinny Bitch series, Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven. The book was pubbed on Monday, but all libraries I checked are still showing it on order.

Lead Review:

Curtis Sittenfeld’s American Wife gets 3 1/2 out of a possible four stars. Unprophetically, People declares the book will “set tongues wagging” (they’ve been wagging for quite some time now). Library holds have nearly doubled since the last time we checked. It’s been in the teens on Amazon most of the week, which means it will appear on next week’s print bestseller lists.

Four-star titles:

Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl

Stacey O’Brien

• Hardcover: $23; 240 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (August 19, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1416551735
• ISBN-13: 978-1416551737

Cal-Tech biologist adopts baby owl; “her portrait of the complex and unforgettable animal she grew to love is irresistible.” So is the accompanying photo of the author, cuddling Wesley. Libraries have ordered lightly and have comfortable holds to copy ratios.

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Map of Home, Randa Jarrar

• Hardcover: $24.95; 304 pages
• Publisher: Other Press (September 2, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1590512723
• ISBN-13: 978-1590512722

Novel about a girl who escapes with her family from Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion, “Depictions of her hilarious family…are punchy and vibrant. Jarrar’s lack of sentimentality and her wry sense of humor make Home a treasure.”

——————

Book tie-ins:

The new HBO series (debuting Sunday), True Blood gets 3 out of four stars, but the review reads more like a single star; Anna Paquin’s “refreshingly direct, simple performance lights up this nutty, boddy production…without her, it might seem like the hell spawn of Anne Rice and Dexter.” The series is based on Charlaine Harris’s Dead Until Dark.

A new PBS series (begins Sept 20) features Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali (don’t roll your eyes; they’re “pals”, even though she doesn’t eat meat and he emphatically does; she clearly diets and he…), Spain…On the Road Again runs for 13 weeks.

Most libraries I checked have not ordered it.

Spain: A Culinary Road Trip

Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow

• Hardcover: $34.95; 384 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (October 21, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0061560936
• ISBN-13: 978-0061560934

We should have guessed; the Vanity Fair excerpt of Michael Wolff’s book on Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News, has generated dozens of articles, proving once again that the media is obsessed with itself.

Reuters headline is Murdoch yearns to buy New York Times; New York Magazine likes the part about Rupert’s dye job, The Aubergine-Haired Mogul and the Girl From Shandong Province (the Financial Times, which has a “People” Column, who knew?, gets all NY Posty with Do or dye for Rupert Murdoch). Most, however, ran with the revelation that Obama, Murdoch and Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes had a sit-down (e.g., Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post, Obama Met With Fox News Executives). That story dovetails nicely with news that Obama will appear on the O’Reilly Factor on Fox tomorrow night.

If so much news can be generated from a short excerpt, you’ve got to wonder what will happen when the book comes out in February.

As we mentioned in our story yesterday, the book has not yet been reviewed by prepub sources and is not on order in any of the libraries we checked.

The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch

Michael Wolff

• Hardcover: $27.95; 320 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (February 17, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0385526121
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526128

After a string of reviews, Anglo Files: a Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyle is piling up holds in some areas (over 70 on 4 copies in one library).

Library purchasing was light, which is odd given the innate appeal of poking fun at the Brits. The PW review probably put buyers off, saying the author’s observations of the British are “neither overly perceptive nor interesting and much of her material is creakingly familiar.”

The consumer reviews have essentially agreed with that assessment, but less harshly. The most recent, in Sunday’s NYT BR says,

Throughout her frequently amusing account of living in England as a reporter for The New York Times, Ms. Lyall takes refuge in roomy generalizations that are hard to refute while at the same time being, at best, half true.

“Frequently amusing” applied to a book on life among the Brits may be all readers need to hear.

Tantor has just released an audio verison which is not yet on order in the libraries I checked.

The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British

 Sarah Lyall

• Hardcover: $24.95; 256 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton (August 18, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0393058468
• ISBN-13: 978-0393058468

The October Vanity Fair features an excerpt from VF columnist Michael Wolff’s forthcoming book on Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News.

It has not yet been reviewed by prepub sources and is not on order by any of the libraries I checked.

The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch

Michael Wolff

• Hardcover: $27.95; 320 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (February 17, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0385526121
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526128

Currently, the third most emailed article from the New York Times is Economic View: Is History Siding With Obama’s Economic Plan?, from Saturday’s Business Section.

Examining the differences in economic policies between Democrats and Republicans, the article is based on the book Unequal Democracy by Larry M. Bartels. According to the article, understanding these differences, “brilliantly delineated” in Bartels’s book, “might help voters see what could be at stake, economically speaking, in November.”

As a result of the article, Unequal Democracy rose to #196 (from #4,936) in Amazon’s sales rankings. It is owned by 3 of the 7 libraries I checked.

Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age

Larry M. Bartels

• Hardcover: $29.95; 328 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (April 27, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0691136637
• ISBN-13: 978-0691136639

Following a string of reviews, Joyce Carol Oates takes on American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld in Sunday’s NYT BR. The book has since risen to #16 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Holds in libraries have also increased significantly.

Like the other reviewers, Oates finds the portrait of Alice/Laura  more compelling than that of Charlie/George W. 

Unlike other reviewers, she sees a metaphor in the book (which she says Sittenfeld surely did not intend);

the “American wife” is in fact the American people, or at least those millions of Americans who voted for a less-than-qualified president in two elections — the all-forgiving enabler for whom the bromide “love” excuses all.

 

American Wife

Curtis Sittenfeld

• Hardcover: $26.00
• Publisher: Random House (September 2, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1400064759
• ISBN-13: 978-1400064755

• Audio CD: Abridged, $34.95
• Reader: Kimberly Farr
• Publisher: Random House; (September 2, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0739323865
• ISBN-13: 978-0739323861

Your first question after hearing that McCain had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate was undoubtedly, “Is there a book about her?”

The answer is “yes, and it’s now #12 on Amazon.”

Published with uncanny foresight in April by Alaska’s Epicenter Press, the book is partisan towards its subject (as is clear from its subtitle). 

According to Publishers Weekly.com the publisher is out of stock and is working with Lightning Source to meet demand until it can do another reprint. 

Joe Biden’s book, Promises to Keep went to #8 on Amazon after his nomination last week. It is now at #246.

The libraries I checked do not own it.

Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment on Its Ear 
by Kaylene Johnson

• Hardcover: $19.95; 159 pages
• Publisher: Epicenter Press (April 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0979047080
• ISBN-13: 978-0979047084

In his review of Louis Bayard’s The Black Tower in today’s Wall Street Journal, Robert Hughes says the author “has emerged as a writer of historical thrillers in the vein of Caleb Carr.”

The current Entertainment Weekly calls it “delicious.” Set in Paris in 1818, the book concerns a “sad-sack hero” whose life is changed by a flamboyant figure,  based on the legendary French detective Eugène François Vidocq. Marilyn Stasio, in her 8/22 NYT review says,

The real-life Vidocq was unmatched as a figure of romantic legend. On the run as a thief, he offered his services to the law, becoming so adept at catching criminals that in 1811 he was named the first chief of the Sûreté, whose detective ranks he filled with former miscreants like himself.

Vidocq is determined to figure out if Marie Antoinette’s son really died in prison, or if he can still find him alive.

There are few holds showing in libraries I checked, so readers advisory librarians may actually have an opportunity to put the book into customer’s hands.

• Hardcover: $24.95
• Publisher: William Morrow (August 26, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0061173509
• ISBN-13: 978-0061173509