EarlyWord is the home of GalleyChat, monthly online discussions where library staff share excitement about upcoming books. More information here.
Summaries of chats and announcements are posted to the right. Use them to add to your own TBR piles and for collection development.
Links on the far right of the site offer information useful to readers advisors.
Hope to see you during our next chat,
GalleyChatters
Food guru Michael Pollan appears on the Oprah show on Wednesday. His most recent book is currently at #1 on the NYT paperback bestseller list.
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ebook available from OverDrive
Ethan Watters will appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Wednesday night.
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The only H1N1 novel for the Wimpy Kid crowd. Writing and drawing in his English assignment journal, the snarky narrator observes the over-reaction of his family to the announced pandemic.
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Meryl Streep signed to star in the movie of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, back in November of 2008. Since then, there hasn’t been much news.
Dewey author and former library director, Vicki Myron’s hometown newspaper, the Spencer (Iowa) Daily Reporter was on the scene at a recent Spencer Chamber Tourism Committee meeting where Myron revealed that the movie is now “hanging in the air,”
Screenwriter Pamela Gray, who toured Spencer in May, submitted a second script to five producers recently. Once studio executives accept it, Myron said they’ll return to actress Meryl Streep, who had already signed on to star in the adaptation of her book, to see if she’s still interested in portraying her. If Streep decides to not pursue the role, the movie’s current director and budget will also go with her, Myron said.
“[The studio] is not planning anything until they have her signed and have a director,” Myron added.
This is just another reminder that it’s often a long way between a movie being signed and its appearance in theaters.
Meanwhile, Myron is moving ahead with plans for a Dewey Readmore Books bookstore in Spencer.
The Edgar Nominees have been announced. Winners will be announced on April 29th in NYC.
The nominees for Best Novel are below. The full list of all categories, including First Novel, YA and Juvenile, available on the Edgar site.
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Coming in trade pbk; 3/9/10; 9780307454683; $15
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Coming in trade pbk.; 3/10/10; 9780312642365; $14.99
UNABR. audio; Macmillan Audio; 9781427206664; $39.95
Audio available from OverDrive
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Now available in trade pbk; 9780345501127; $15
Audio and eBook available from OverDrive
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Now in trade paperback; 9780061655517; $14.99
Audio and eBook available from OverDrive
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Also available in trade pbk; 9781416586210; $15
This is clever; Frommer’s is running a photo contest. The winner will have his or her photo featured on the cover of a Frommer’s book and will win $5,000 (contest ends 3/31).
How appropriate it would be if a librarian won, given what great travelers we are and how many Frommer’s titles libraries buy.
I’m no photographer, but just looking at the hundreds of photos that have already been entered serves as a mini-vacation.
This Sunday, Jan. 24th, I’ll be conducting a live interview with the always engaging and hilarious John Scieszka (author of The Time Warp Trio series and the modern classic The Stinky Cheese Man) at Symphony Space in NYC. The event includes a discussion with the audience, a creative writing project, and a book signing. Click here for tickets.
Also coming up is my online course, Children’s Book Publishing 101, offered through the Bank Street School. It runs January 29th through February 12th. Deadline for registration is today.
Kitty Kelley, who looks for people who are “lightning rods” as subjects of her biographies has found her next one; Oprah.
Entertainment Weekly‘s blog Shelf Life reports that Crown is planning a 500,000 copy first printing. The publisher is mum on details other than “[the book] will reveal Oprah as she has never been seen before.”
Years ago, Oprah was set to write her autobiography, but backed out.
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Random House Audio; 9780307749246; $50
Crown Large Print; Pbk; 9780739377857; $30
In an effort to “get ahead” of a tell-all book being released the week after next by a former aide, John Edwards has admitted that he is the father of Rielle Hunter’s daughter Quinn.
The aide, Andrew Young, had claimed he was the father to protect his boss. His book, The Politician, due on Feb. 2, rose to #117 on Amazon after the news broke.
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Unabridged audio will be available from Tantor:
Publisher: Tantor, 2/22/10
Read by: Kevin Foley
Trade: 9781400116508; 10 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146505; 10 CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166503; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99
Currently at #11 on Amazon sales rankings after 3 days in the top 100, is a book that argues near-death experiences are proof of an afterlife.
Several libraries that own the book are showing heavy holds; 67 on 6 copies in one instance.
The book was featured on the Today Show and in the new issue of Time magazine.
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eBook available from OverDrive
Two movies based on books open this weekend. Links to the trailers are to the right of the site, under “Books to Movies — Trailers”.
Creation explores how the death of Darwin’s 10-year daughter influenced his view of evolution and religion. It’s based on the book Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution by Randal Keynes (the tie-in uses the movie title).
The author was interviewed last night on Fresh Air with Terry Gross (listen to it here).
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JAN 22, 2010
Movie Title: Creation
Director: Jon Amiel
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Northam
Based on: Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution by Randal Keynes
Official Web Site: CreationTheMovie.com
Tie-in:
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eBook available from OverDrive (under the title Creation)
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Been hearing the phrase “I ALREADY work around the clock!” a lot recently? It’s not just a reflection of how pressured people are feeling; it’s a quote from the new Harrison Ford/ Brendan Fraser movie Extraordinary Measures, based on the book The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million–and Bucked the Medical Establishment–in a Quest to Save His Children.
If you want to drive yourself nuts, listen to it on its own soundboard; if not, you can hear it in context in the movie trailer.
JAN 22, 2010
Movie Title: Extraordinary Measures
Director: Tom Vaughan
Starring: Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, Keri Russell
Based on: The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million–and Bucked the Medical Establishment–in a Quest to Save His Children, by Geeta Anand
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eBook available from OverDrive.
The RUSA Reading List Awards are unusual for ALA; rather than literary fiction, they focus on genres, most of which are overlooked when best books awards are being handed out.
The awards were announced at MidWinter. Adriana Trigiani won in the Women’s Fiction category and did what any bestselling author would do in her situation; she called her mom (who is a librarian).
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Winners are below, the full lists, with runners-up and readalikes (this is RUSA, after all!) is available here.
(Action, Thrillers and Adventure)
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Fox’s high school musical comedy Glee just won a Golden Globe for best TV musical or comedy series. I just learned that Little Brown Books for Young Readers will be publishing Glee books in the fall; original stories featuring our show favorites. Whoo, hooo!
Also coming is a Ghost Hunters series for middle grade readers, based on the Syfy series.
No bibliographic information yet; we’ll let you know when it’s available.
One of every 17 novels purchased in the US since 2006 was written by James Patterson. Of course, this is due not only to his popularity, but to his prodigious output.
The upcoming NYT Magazine features the author and describes how focused he is on the marketing of his books; not surprising from the former head of a major advertising agency. In the article, Patterson is matter-of-fact about his efforts to woo his audience, saying,
If you want to write for yourself, get a diary. If you want to write for a few friends, get a blog. But if you want to write for a lot of people, think about them a little bit. What do they like? What are their needs? A lot of people in this country go through their days numb. They need to be entertained. They need to feel something.
The article answers the question of why he produces so many books a year (up to seven hardcovers now). It’s because he learned,
Not only did more books mean more sales, they also meant greater visibility, ensuring that Patterson’s name would almost always be at the front of bookstores, with the rest of the new releases.
In fact, he publishes so many titles in so many formats that he keeps a full-time “brand manager” busy trafficking them through the production process.
And he never misses an opportunity:
…last year, after noticing he wasn’t selling in Scandinavia, he invited Sweden’s best-selling crime writer, Liza Marklund, to collaborate with him on an international thriller. Their novel, The Postcard Killers, is just being published in Sweden and will be out in the U.S. this summer.
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Last season was about big-name authors; this one is about debuts, so we’re keeping our eyes out for titles that may hit (remember; The Help came out on 2/10 last year; we first highlighted it in a post on 2/12; it debuted on the 3/29 NYT Fiction bestseller list)
This week, Entertainment Weekly goes nuts for the debut Bloodroot by Amy Greene,
Some novels are so powerful, so magical in their sweep and voice, that they leave you feeling drugged. Close the pages and the people in them keep right on talking to you. Amy Greene’s debut novel, Bloodroot, set in the bone-poor hollows of the eastern Tennessee mountains, is such a book.
Needless to say, they give it an unqualified A.
The prepub reviews, however, were divided.
Booklist — starred review — “With a style as elegant as southern novelist Lee Smiths and a story as affecting as The Color Purple, this debut offers stirring testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.”
Kirkus — “…bound to be a big hit”
Library Journal — “Fans of Appalachian culture and/or family chronicles may find something to take pleasure in here; casual popular fiction readers should likely pass.”
PW — “Despite a few vivid moments, this uneven debut, a four-generation Appalachian family epic, loses sight of the intriguing mythology it lays out early on.”
Location: Setting is the author’s native Tennessee Smoky Mountains.
It’s an Indie Next pick for January. Bookseller Janel Feierabend from Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA describes it;
The isolated Appalachian setting in Bloodroot is a powerful, realistic, and truly American stage on which basic human traits emerge under the heavy hand of hardship and poverty. This multi-generational story is a must-read for those who wish to expand their horizons, experience a part of our country often ignored, and face challenges head-on through honest and sparse prose. I’m still reeling.
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UNABR Simultaneous Audio: Random Audio; 9780307713230; $40
eBook available from OverDrive
Many of you heard Marilyn Johnson speak at MidWinter about her book on the importance of librarians in the digital age.
Good news; the book will also be avaiable in audio from Tantor. Link here to a PDF of the sell sheet. Release date is set for 2/22.
Publisher: Tantor
Read by: Hillary Huber
Running Time: 8 hrs – Unabridged
Trade: 9781400116348; 7 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146345; 7 CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166343; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99
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