Heavy Reserve Alert — Little Bee
Several libraries are showing heavy holds (120 on 20 copies in one instance) on Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It’s rising on the Indy Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list, where it is at #22, up from #29 after two weeks, but hasn’t shown up on others.
Prepub reviews were very strong. Library Journal declared, “Book clubs in search of the next Kite Runner need look no further,” and Booklist starred it.
It had great reviews in the UK, where is was originally published as The Other Hand. American consumer reviews echoed those in the UK:
- The Washington Post— it “will blow you away”
- Seattle Times— “Every now and then, you come across a character in a book whose personality is so salient and whose story carries such devastating emotional force it’s as if she becomes a fixed part of your consciousness.”
- Kansas City Star— “a smart, topical novel about notions of community and family and about various kinds of violence, including the violence engendered by neglect.”
Cleave will be appearing bookstores in March.
In a video made for the UK audience, Cleave talks about something not mentioned in the reviews; the book’s humor (please ignore the cheesy opening).
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March 10th, 2009 at 11:34 am
[…] Bee, which Misha posted about last month, is getting lots of notice. Nora Rawlinson did a heavy reserve alert for it on her Early Word blog, and one reviewer called it the next Kite Runner. It was also […]