We’ve just posted a full listing of the titles covered in the new issue of People (11/10) in our Weekly Reviews.

The highlights;

In features, an excerpt from Philip Norman’s John Lennon: A Life. It’s on order in moderate quantities in most libraries, with some holds. It was reviewed last week in USA Today.

John Lennon: The Life

Philip Norman

• Hardcover: $34.95; 864 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (October 28, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 006075401X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060754013

The People pick of the week is M.J. Rose’s The Memorist, the follow up to last year’s Reincarnationist. People says,

the novel nearly collapses from the strain of its many subplots, but Rose raises the stakes for her ensemble until events come to an excruciatingly tense crescendo…Exhausting, but entertaiing, too

The book is also an Indie Next pick for November,  

[Rose] interweaves a multiplicity of themes involving a quest to resolve issues from the past, the music of Beethoven, a secret society, and the threats of terrorism — bringing all the plot strands together for an incredible denouement.

In addition to books, M.J. Rose writes a blog on book marketing, Buzz, Balls and Hype, is the founder of “AuthorBuzz” (you’ve seen their ads on Shelf Awareness),  and teaches authors how to promote their books.

The Memorist

M.J. Rose

• Hardcover: $24.96; 464 pages
• Publisher: MIRA (November 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0778325849
• ISBN-13: 978-0778325840

We’re continuously updating the “Books in the Consumer Media” links (see listings at the right), to give you a convenient overview of titles getting attention. From the recent reviews, the following caught my eye:

Today, in the Washington Post, Patrick Anderson gives a strong thumbs up to Sean Chercover’s second thriller, Trigger City (his first, Big City, Bad Blood just won the Shamus 2008 “Best P.I. First Novel” award. It was also nominated for the Anthony Awards Best First Mystery).

It’s owned in small quantities by most libraries, with heavy reserve to copy ratios in several areas. Chercover lives in Chicago and Toronto.

Trigger City

Sean Chercover

• Hardcover: $23.95; 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (October 14, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0061128694
• ISBN-13: 978-0061128691

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On Friday, Carolyn See enthused in the Washington Post about Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain, a book she admits may not be to everyone’s taste:

These linked short stories take as their subject the sheer weirdness of the medical profession (mostly as it pertains to neuropsychiatric problems). They provide us with a history of mental ailments in America, how they went in and out of fashion according to the times in which we lived. They also give us a wonderful history of the city of New York, with all kinds of seamy and gruesome details thrown in. And they examine our unrelenting curiosity about what actually goes on underneath our skins.

Carolyn; your cup of tea sounds like mine.

The book is owned in very small quantities in libraries I checked, with light reserves at this point. The author, Kirsten Menger-Anderson lives in San Francisco.

Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain

Kirsten Menger-Anderson

• Hardcover: $22.95; 290 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (October 9, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1565125614
• ISBN-13: 978-1565125612

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The book that must hold the current record for number of reviews is the new bio. of Emily Post by Laura Claridge. Most recently the New York Times Book Review, covered it, not flatteringly; “Claridge hails from the leave-no-detail-undisturbed school of biography.”

This assessment that was shared by the Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Others, such as The New Yorker, were focused on how surprisingly interesting Post’s life was, which may be why library reserve ratios are fairly heavy.

Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners

Laura Claridge

• Hardcover: $30; 544 pages
• Publisher: Random House (October 14, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0375509216
• ISBN-13: 978-0375509216

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Also receiving wide review coverage (overwhelmingly positive in this case), is Factory Girls by Wall Street Journal writer Leslie T. Chang. The reserves range from People, which gave it 3.5 of 4 stars (current issue; not available online) to the New Yorker which praised Chang’s “fine prose and keen sense of detail.”

The subject, as described by The New York Times, is “ the invisible foot soldiers who made China’s stirring rise possible: the country’s 130 million migrant workers.” Most reviewers also praise Chang’s depictions of her own family’s Chinese background. The Washington Post says, “That story is almost like a book within a book, and it gives a poignant perspective to her accounts of the dislocated migrant workers she gets to know. More than that, it completes her portrait of China.”

The book is owned in small quantities, with high reserves per copy in many areas. Chang lives in Colorado.

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

Leslie T. Chang

• Hardcover: $26; 432 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau (October 7, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0385520174
• ISBN-13: 978-0385520171

A few weeks ago, we mentioned The Oxford Project, a book of portraits of the members of one small town, today and as they were twenty years ago, plus stories of what happened to them in the intervening years. The gallery of some of the photos demonstrates just how fascinating the result is (warning; if you go to the gallery, you may find yourself poring over these images for quite some time). 

CBS Sunday Morning is fascinated by the result, too, and will feature the project on this week’s show. Here’s how they describe the segment:

If you have ever gone up to the attic or searched in a closet and found a treasure trove of old photos, you probably have sat in amazement looking at family and friends from years earlier.  When you see them today, it almost seems as if they have traveled in a time warp. And that is exactly what the people of Oxford, Iowa, experienced after a university professor came to town in 1984 and took individual snapshots of them. He returned 20 years later to see how things have changed with the town folk. Needless to say, as correspondent Josh Landis finds out, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

 

The Oxford Project
Stephen G. Bloom and Peter Feldstein

• Hardcover: $50; 264 pages
• Publisher: Welcome Books (September 16, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1599620480
• ISBN-13: 978-1599620480

A Platter of Figs is shaping up as THE cookbook of the season. Both today’s New York Times and the new People magazine (11/4) include it in their seasonal cookbook roundups. It was also featured in the LA Times list of standouts in what they call a “dazzling season” of cookbooks.

Julia Moskin, NYT  “Dining” section reporter, calls it the “most alluring and useful” of all the books discussed (or coming out this season, it’s not entirely clear). 

The book went from #862 on Amazon to #117. Several libraries have not ordered it; those that do own it show reserves.

A Platter of Figs

Tanis, David

• Hardcover: $35
• Publisher: Artisan (September 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1579653464
• ISBN-13: 978-1579653460

Several books from high-profile chefs are out this season, some with high-end price tags to match (but, at $250, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook still costs less than a meal at London’s Fat Duck restaurant). Recognizing that most of these books are beyond the skills of even the best home cooks, Moskin says you should think of them as “art books, deluxe professional manuals and creative memoirs that happen to be in recipe form.” After all, you wouldn’t expect to be able to paint a masterpiece after reading a Jackson Pollock memoir.

Of the high-end books, Moskin says she would choose Alinea, from the award-winning Chicago restaurant (tasting menu, $125), because of the book’s “relatively reasonable” price and “seductive photography.” 

It rose from #209 to #126 on Amazon. It’s owned in small quantities by some libraries and is showing holds.

Alinea

Achatz, Grant 

• Hardcover: $60; 416 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (October 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1580089283
• ISBN-13: 978-1580089289

John Grogan’s The Longest Trip Home, his memoir of life before Marley, releases on Tuesday. Sister publications Entertainment Weekly and People (both owned by TimeWarner) have diametrically opposing views of the book:

Entertainment Weekly — gives it a “C.” The reviewer liked Marley, but says this one‘”feels more like an uneventful 334-page back-jacket author bio than a book.” Ouch! That comment makes the “C” rating sound like “grade creep.”

People (reviews not available online) — on the opposite end of the spectrum, People gives it four out of four possible stars; “As he did in Marley, Grogan makes readers feel they have a seat at the family dinner table.”

Library ordering and holds are surprisingly light for the followup to such a major bestseller. Orders for four major systems total just 61 copies in all formats, with 113 holds (one of the systems hasn’t ordered it at all). In contrast, these libraries have over 500 copies of Edgar Sawtelle, with reserves totaling over 2,000 at one point.

Also surprising, the book not among Amazon’s most popular pre-orders or in its Top 100 (it’s currently at #436 in Amazon’s sales ranking, which is respectable, but doesn’t indicate a blockbuster).

The Longest Trip Home: A Memoir
John Grogan

• Hardcover: $25.95; 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (October 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061713244
• ISBN-13: 978-0061713248

Dewey rose to #2 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction list this week, after three weeks on the list. If you haven’t caught Dewey Fever yet (and even if you have), check out the recent review by Christian Science Monitor Books Editor Marjorie Kehe. Dewey reminds her of a friend’s advice about the difference between dogs and cats, “A dog leaps immediately into your heart. A cat arrives with a slow crawl”;

I picked this book up dubiously, expecting a big, gooey cinnamon roll of a read – way too sticky-sweet to merit more than a few bites.

Instead, I made it to the last page and I was crying when I got there. Sure enough, the little guy had crawled his way right into my heart.

Reserves are piling up (ten to one in some areas); consider buying more copies.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Vicki Myron

• Hardcover: $19.99
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (September 24, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0446407410
• ISBN-13: 9780446407410

• Audio CD: Unabridged, $22.98
• Publisher: Hachette Audio, (September 24, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1600243827
• ISBN-13: 9781600243820

• Large Print Hardcover: $22.99
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, (September 24, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0446541192
• ISBN-13: 9780446541190

This week, a book called The Oxford Project rise to #46 on Amazon.

Twenty years ago, Peter Feldstein decided to photograph each one of his neighbors in the small town of Oxford, Iowa (pop. 676). Recently, he photographed the same people again. He convinced a friend, a University of Iowa journalism professor, to interview the subjects about their lives in the intervening years. The side-by-side photos of the subjects from then and now, along with their stories became The Oxford Project.

How interesting can intimate portraits of strangers be? The answer is “very,” as evidenced by stories on CNN.com (Mom pinned note on me, gave me away) and the Washington Post (Time and Again).

Only one of 9 large library systems I checked have the book on order, with 47 holds on 6 copies.

The book is currently at #222 on Amazon.

The Oxford Project 
Stephen G. Bloom and Peter Feldstein

• Hardcover: $50; 264 pages
• Publisher: Welcome Books (September 16, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1599620480
• ISBN-13: 978-1599620480

…read Carolyn See’s amusing review of Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream by Steven Watts in today’s Washington Post. See manages to write a fascinating review of a book she considers “incredibly boring.” 

USA Today’s review in the current issue consists mainly of a list of the “most interesting parts” of the book.

Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream

Steven Watts

The title may be the most haunting of the season. I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass is the “People Pick” this week, with 3.5 stars (for the other titles featured in People, check our Weekly Magazines listings).

In a sidebar, People reminds readers that Glass’s first novel, Three Junes, won the 2002 National Book Award for fiction and has become a book club favorite. Opening with a description that makes you want to grab the author’s three books instantly, reviewer Adriana Leshki says, “One doesn’t read so much as sink into a Julia Glass novel..”

I See You Everywhere is also the top pick for the November IndieNext List, and it was featured in multiple fall book previews.

Libraries are showing heavy holds; most have not ordered the audio or large type editions.

I See You Everywhere 

Julia Glass

• Hardcover: $24.95; 304 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (October 14, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0375422757
• ISBN-13: 978-0375422751

The PBS show Bill Moyers Journal often makes bestsellers, e.g., The Limits of Power by Andrew Bacevich and Bad Money by Kevin Phillips.

This Friday, billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros is scheduled to appear. His most recent book, published in May, was prophetically titled, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means. 

The book was also featured in an annotated list of twenty titles that Shelf Awareness put together last week, based on the recommendations of booksellers and librarians; Meltdown Lit: Recommended Books for the Wall Street Debacle. 

The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means
George Soros

• Hardcover: $22.95; 208 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (May 5, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1586486837
• ISBN-13: 978-1586486839