Of the titles I’ve been checking on library catalogs this week, the one that has the most holds per copy (an average of 14) is Richard Price’s Lush Life.

Richard Price, Lush Life

• Hardcover: $26.00
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (March 4, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0374299250
• ISBN-13: 978-0374299255

• Audio CD, Unabridged: $44.95
• Reader: Bobby Cannavale
  
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio (March 4, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1427203202
• ISBN-13: 978-1427203205

Libraries had reason to be cautious in buying this title:

It’s too New York centric.

That doesn’t seem to be a problem, it’s #1 on both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Northern California Independent Booksellers lists and West coast libraries show long reserve lists.

Price’s last book came out ten years ago, so there might be concern about whether there’s a waiting fan base.

The fan base was waiting. It went to #6 on Amazon on the day of release and is now at #18. It’s one of the few fiction titles to break into the top twenty on Amazon’s list recently — and from a guy who hasn’t even been on Oprah.

The secret to it’s success may be that it’s being reviewed as crime fiction, not as “littrachure.” The reviews make the book sound accessible and they’re some of the best-written reviews I’ve read in a while (perhaps Price inspired the critics).

Besides the usual suspects (the NY Times, Sunday and Daily, the Boston Globe, The Washington Post, and eleven other newspaper review sections), it’s been reviewed in places that cater to more popular interest:

USA Today review

Newsweek profile

Entertainment Weekly review

Time listed it as number 1 in the “5 Things You Should Know About,” calling it the “best crime novel of the year, guaranteed.”

Many libraries don’t have the book on the shelves yet, even though it’s been out for nearly two weeks. So, get the book out there and consider ordering more copies (the wholesalers have inventory).

Tony Earley’s Blue Star will be the featured cover review of the NYT Book Review this Sunday. Blue Star is the sequel to the author’s 2000 bestseller, Jim the Boy.

• Hardcover: $23.99
• Publisher: Little, Brown/Hachette (March 10, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0316199079
• ISBN-13: 978-0316199070

The book was “Enthusiastically recommended” by Library Journal’s reviewer (Jan. 15), who feels it lives up to Jim the Boy. The only newsstand review so far (pub date is next week) is from the Kansas City Star. The reviewer manages to elegantly explain why the author’s simple prose style is so satisfying. The Times will have a long way to go to top it.

It’s common to parse a first novel to see if it’s based on the author’s life. Now it seems we have to do the same with memoirs. Today’s New York Times reports that Margaret Jones has admitted that her memoir of life as a gang member, Love and Consequences, is fabricated.

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Riverhead/Penguin (February 28, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1594489777
• ISBN-13: 978-1594489778

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged; Unabridged edition (February 28, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1423360575
• ISBN-13: 978-1423360575

The book received a starred review in LJ (no fault there; it’s not up to the reviewer to determine if a memoir is what it purports to be). The review said “This conversationally written, exquisitely detailed book is as close to a living experience of the American ghetto as one can get.” Most libraries have both the book and the audiobook, from Brilliance, on order. Riverhead/Penguin is recalling the book and canceling the author’s book tour.

The NY Times gave the book a strong review and profiled the author last Thursday. The Times reports that the author’s sister saw the article and called publisher with the news that Jones (real name: Seltzer) did not grow up in a gang, but with her family in a middle-class section of LA.

Libraries that have received the book may be wondering if they have to return it. This isn’t quite like a meat recall. While the publisher might prefer that the book is not in circulation, libraries who hang on to it are not risking law suits.

The Web is often blamed for taking people away from reading books, but it may also offer new opportunities to lead people back to them. Oprah is doing a Webinar series for her current book club selection. In a similar approach, but with much different books, Dan Maneker, former editor in chief of Random House, launched an “online salon” today, Titlepage.tv.

The authors and titles featured on the first show are:

Richard Price, Lush Life

• Hardcover:$26.00
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (March 4, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0374299250
• ISBN-13: 978-0374299255

Colin Harrison, The Finder

• Hardcover:$25.00
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (April 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0374299498
• ISBN-13: 978-0374299491

Susan Choi, A Person of Interest

• Hardcover:$24.95
• Publisher: Viking (January 31, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0670018465
• ISBN-13: 978-0670018468

Charles Bock, Beautiful Children

• Hardcover:$25.00
• Publisher: Random House (January 22, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1400066506
• ISBN-13: 978-1400066506

The TitlePage blog offers further book picks.

Although the next program is not listed on the site, a January New York Times article said the next show will follow in two weeks and will feature first-time authors:

Sloane Crosley, I Was Told There’d Be Cake

• Paperback Original: $14.00
• Publisher: Riverhead/Penguin (April 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 159448306X
• ISBN-13: 978-1594483066

Please Excuse My Daughter, Julie Klam

• Hardcover:$22.95
• Publisher: Riverhead/Penguin (March 27, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1594489807
• ISBN-13: 978-1594489808

Blood Kin, Ceridwen Dovey

• Hardcover:$23.95
• Publisher: Viking/Penguin (Feb 28, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0670018562
• ISBN-13: 978-0670018567

All the Sad Young Literary Men, Keith Gessen

• Hardcover: $24.95
• Publisher: Viking/Penguin (April 10, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0670018554
• ISBN-13: 978-0670018550

According to Time magazine, Anne Rice has another vampire novel coming. Rice, whose recent return to religion made her swear off the blood suckers, says she just couldn’t quit Lestat. The book, her last in the series, will be a vampire story with a twist. She tells Time that it will have Christian framework.

The second novel in her series on the life of Jesus, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, starred by PW, will be pubbed this coming Tuesday. She will publish one more in that series, before returning to the Vampire Chronicles. Based on her history of publishing a book every 15 months, Time estimates it will be at least 3 years before the final Vampire Chronicle title.

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (March 4, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1400043522
• ISBN-13: 978-1400043521

Vindicated:

Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball

• Hardcover: $25.95
• Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment (March 31, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1416591877
• ISBN-13: 978-1416591870

Speculation is building about who will be named in Canseco’s second book (after Juiced, 2005) for using steriods. The book is set for release on March 31st, following a change in publisher and allegations that Canseco offered to not name a player in exchange for investment in a movie project.

Of the ten libraries I track, only one has it on order. All of them own the earlier title.

As if it’s not difficult enough to untangle garbled title requests, this season there are three titles, each featuring a variation on a similar theme:

• Beautiful Children, Charles Bock
• The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, Robert Leleux
• Beautiful Boy, David Sheff

Perhaps the following will help untangle requests:

Beautiful Children, Charles Bock

• Hardcover: $25.00
• Publisher: Random House (January 22, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1400066506
• ISBN-13: 978-1400066506

So far, this one has received the most attention. The author was profiled by former NYTBR editor-in-chief, Charles McGrath, in the Times Sunday Magazine 1/27. It received a cover review in the NYTBR (unusual for a novel and particularly, for a debut novel). The day after the review appeared, the book went up to #23 on Amazon and stayed in double digits for the next week. It is now at #134. It was also reviewed, far less favorably, by Janet Maslin in the daily Times and has been reviewed by nearly every outlet that still has a book review section, including Entertainment Weekly (where it got a solid B).

In fact, the book has received so much attention that the New York Post got into the act, trying to imply some sort of conspiracy (”Engineering a Bestseller“). The story’s “revelation”? An enthusiastic publicist and a few vintage postcards can do wonders.

An early damning PW review resulted in libraries buying few copies (although, six weeks later, LJ starred it). Check to see if reserves are building.

Short take: the season’s literary darling, a novel about a lost kid in Las Vegas.

The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, Robert Leleux

• Hardcover: 23.95
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (January 8, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0312361688
• ISBN-13: 978-0312361686

Reviewed by Janet Maslin in the daily NY Times, as well as in the Seattle Times, the Rocky Mountain News.

Current Amazon ranking: #16,088

Short take: Funny/sad memoir about growing up gay in Texas with a flamboyant mother (when he tells his mother he’s gay, she replies, “How could you be my child and not be gay?”)

Beautiful Boy, David Sheff

• Hardcover: $24.00
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (February 26, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0618683356
• ISBN-13: 978-0618683352

An expansion of Sheff’s 2005 New York Times story, “My Addicted Son,” the book was reviewed, last April in LJ (its pub date was postponed to coincide with its Starbucks pick). It has not been reviewed in the consumer press yet.

Current Amazon ranking: #8,353

Short take: painful memoir of a father dealing with his son’s addiction to meth, set in California

Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, Nic Sheff

• Hardcover:$16.99
• Publisher: Ginee Seo Books (S&S) (February 19, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1416913629
• ISBN-13: 978-1416913627

Amazon ranking: #15,498

Although this one won’t be confused with the previous titles, it actually is the memoir of the beautiful boy from the book above. Nic Sheff, David’s son, writes about his addiction. It’s being published as a Y.A. title and has been reviewed in SLJ.

Ever wonder why publishers keep creating new imprints and what their names signify?

Earlier this week, NPR’s All Things Considered took a look at Twelve, an imprint launched last year by Grand Central (formerly Warner Books, part of Hachette, which was formerly Time Warner Book Group). It’s worth listening to the piece (don’t rely on the overview; it manages to miss the best bits) for insights on the publishing process.

It’s useful to get to know imprints and their characteristics. To see how an independent bookstore buyer uses such knowledge, check out this post on the blog “Kash’s Corner.”

As NPR points out, Twelve has had a remarkable ability to publish bestsellers (6 out of 9 of the titles they’ve released became bestsellers. By contrast, NPR says the industry average is one book in ten becoming a hit. I think that figure is high).

NPR also quotes the Bowker statistic of 290,000 new titles published a year. I always grind my teeth when I hear this figure quoted. It includes on-demand titles, every new edition, technical manuals, and titles from extremely small publishers (83,000 publishers are represented). A large percentage of those titles will never reach the radar of bookstores and public libraries. My own guess (which I checked out with some knowledgable industry observers, so it’s not completely out of thin air) is that the number of commercially viable titles is more like 30,000 to 50,000 each year.

NPR also featured a Twelve title that’s about to be released:

Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee

• Hardcover: $24.99
• Publisher: Twelve (March 3, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0446580074
• ISBN-13: 978-0446580076

It received a starred review (a “delightful first book on the origins of the customary after-Chinese-dinner treat by New York Times reporter Lee…There are satisfying minihistories on the relationship between Jews and Chinese food and a biography of the real General Tso”) in Publishers Weekly, 12/3/07. the author was also interviewed in PW (but no explanation of her middle initial).

Twelve’s Web site announces titles through August, and also lists those coming in the more distant future, from authors such as Christopher Buckley, Po Bronson and Ted Kennedy.

The Compassionate Samurai:

Being Extraordinary in an Ordinary World

• Hardcover: $24.95
• Publisher: Hay House (January 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1401920446
• ISBN-13: 978-1401920449

Here’s a title I bet you don’t have on your catalog, even though it’s #1 on the new Wall Street Journal list of bestselling business books and is also at #3 on their nonfiction list.

I can’t identify what made this book debut at the top spot. On Amazon, its sales rank is #4,071, while the second book on the WSJ list (StrengthsFinder 2.0, Tom Rath, Gallup Press) is at #49. A call to the publisher was inconclusive — the marketing department is unavailable because of a company meeting. I’ll let you know when I have more information.

• Hardcover: $23.95
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (February 5, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0312362293
• ISBN-13: 978-0312362294

Lipstick Jungle doesn’t start until next week and it’s months until Sex and the City, The Movie opens. Meanwhile, how about a book video?

Several bloggers this week have been going nuts for three videos created to promote Celebutante by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khaligi Hopper. The book’s authors are connected in Hollywood (Ruthana is Dennis Hopper’s daughter; Amanda’s father is a producer), so they were able to get an actual Hollywood director, McG (Charlie’s Angels) and some recognizable actors (the biggest name is Autumn Reeser from the O.C.).

Even more amusing than the videos is the way Hollywood types look at the book world. Entertainment Weekly’s “PopWatch” blogger is gob-smacked by McG’s “unlikely new directing task: crafting four [sic -- there seem to be only three] short trailers to promote a new book. That’s right. A book” and compares them to “all those awful TV commercials with James Patterson woodenly touting his new title.” (Hopper and Goldberg can only hope to sell as many books as Patterson regularly does).

So, take a much-needed Friday break and check the videos out for yourselves. One of the blogs warns that they are NSFW; “Not Suitable For Work.” I assume that means corporate environments, not libraries. On the other hand, they may be NSFPOLWS (”Not Suitable for Posting On Library Web Sites”).

The book was reviewed in the 11/15 LJ. The reviewer called it a “fun first novel,” although, “Tolerance for Hollywood excess… is necessary to enjoy this book.” It’s on all library catalogs that I checked.