In a thoughtful essay in Sunday’s NYT BR, children’s editor, Julie Just points out that bad parents (rather than simply absent ones) are making their way in to children’s books,

…some of the most sharply written and critically praised works reliably feature a mopey, inept, distracted or ready-for-rehab parent, suggesting that this has become a particularly resonant figure.

She sees the trend in best selling fantasy series such as  Twilight, Shiver and The Hunger Game and in several well-reviewed YA titles such as,

Once Was Lost Sara Zarr Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316036048 / 9780316036047

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How To Say Goodbye In Robot Natalie Standiford Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0545107083 / 9780545107082

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Wintergirls Laurie Halse Anderson Retail Price: $9.99 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Speak – (2010-02-23) ISBN / EAN: 014241557X / 9780142415573

And younger readers are treated to distracted parents in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

Fictional parents in current literature  are being presented with very real flaws, making them vivid and believable. That’s one of the reasons I was so taken with Shiver and How to Say Goodbye in Robot.

I love this video created by Dorling Kindersley in the UK.

Trust me, watch the whole thing.

NPR’s monthly You Must Read This series on NPR’s All Things Considered, presents authors passionately recommending books they love.

Last night, Heidi Durrow, whose first novel The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is heavily reserved in many libraries, talked about one of her favorites, Passing, by Nella Larsen, a prominent writer during the Harlem Renaissance, who later died in obscurity.

Durrow, who is the daughter of an African American father and a Danish mother, says,

Passing is among my favorite books because it’s about being defined by what other people see and the desire to transcend that.

You may not identify with being a light-skinned African-American, but you have probably felt at some point that what was most important about you wasn’t visible.

The book is available in several editions, including this mass market paperback with a strikingly modern cover:

Passing Nella Larsen Retail Price: $6.99 Paperback: 84 pages Publisher: Wilder Publications – (2010-02-25) ISBN / EAN: 1604599944 / 9781604599947

And a trade paperback from Penguin, with a cover more reflective of the harlem Renaissance:

Passing (Penguin Classics) Nella Larsen Retail Price: $11.00 Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: Penguin Classics – (2003-02-04) ISBN / EAN: 0142437271 / 9780142437278

Former skinhead Frank Meeink was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air last night (listen here).

Meeink once recruited kids to be skinheads and even had a cable access talk show called The Reich. Imprisoned at 18, his exposure to people with other backgrounds caused him to begin questioning his beliefs. He now lectures on racial acceptance for the Anti-Defamation League. Working with the Philadelphia Flyers (Meeink grew up in South Philadelphia), he created a hate prevention program called “Harmony Through Hockey.” His memoir, Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead was published recently.

The book rose to #112 (from #14,721) on Amazon.

Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story as Told to Jody M. Roy, Ph.D. Frank Meeink, Jody M. Roy Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 316 pages Publisher: Hawthorne Books – (2010-03-16) ISBN / EAN: 097901882X / 9780979018824

Penguin Group announced yesterday that they are publishing a new Tom Clancy thriller on Dec. 7th under their Putnam imprint. The news has picked up by the press around the world, from The Guardian to ABC News

Titled Dead or Alive, the book brings “the combined forces of a crew of Tom Clancy’s toughest characters, from Jack Ryan to John Clark” (The Guardian) together to fight “the terrorists who threaten western civilisation” (Putnam press release).

It’s the first book Clancy has published in 7 years. Most recently, he’s developed videogames and a Clancy-branded series of original paperbacks.

The AP reports that Putnam will release 1.75 million copies.

Dead or Alive Tom Clancy Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 848 pages Publisher: – (2010-12-07) ISBN / EAN: 0399157239 / 9780399157233

Sarah Weinman is one of the few people writing thoughtfully about mysteries in the mainstream media these days (as well as on her own site, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind). This week, in the L.A. Times, she explores the appeal of the unreliable narrator, pointing out some classics (Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying, Dorothy Hughes’ In a Lonely Place and Patricia Highsmith’s books).

She also chooses two newly-published titles.  She describes Jesse Kellerman’s prose as a “silken sheen covering deep existential skeletons” in his new book The Executioner as well as his earlier works.

The Executor Jesse Kellerman Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 039915647X / 9780399156472

Audio; UNABR; Penguin Audio; 11 Hours | ISBN 9781101154779

The second book may have the best title and cover of the season, Hello Kitty Must Die, which refers to the main character’s efforts to escape the stereotype of the well-mannered Asian American girl. A first novel, it’s available in paperback and hardcover from indie crime fiction publisher Tyrus Books, in Madison Wisconsin. It’s been well-reviewed in both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Weinman is a fan, but admits that the book’s audience may be limited to those who,

…cackle and gasp at the book’s opening line — “It all started with my missing hymen” — and are compelled to move on. For those who recoil, well, that’s your loss, but Fiona Yu doesn’t really care what you think or if she’s offended anyone.

Hello Kitty Must Die Angela S. Choi Retail Price: $14.95 pbk/ $24.95 hdbk Publisher: Tyrus Books – (2010-04-01) ISBN: 9781935562023; pbk/ 9781935562030; hdbk

As part of his high-profile media tour, Richard Phillips, the captain of the boat that was held hostage by Somali pirates last year, was interviewed last night by obvious fan, Jon Stewart. Phillips’ book, A Captains Duty, was released yesterday.

The Captain was also interviewed  on NPR’s Fresh Air (listen here) last night.

The book rose to #135 on Amazon.

A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea Richard Phillips, Stephan Talty Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1401323804 / 9781401323806

Tantor Audio; UNABR

On Sale Date: 04/26/2010
Trade 9781400116867 8 Audio CDs $29.99
Library 9781400146864 8 Audio CDs $59.99
MP3 9781400166862 1 MP3-CD $19.99

Adobe EPUB eBook available from OverDrive

Proving the many nay-sayers in the press wrong, Reed Business has found a buyer for Publishers Weekly.

The new owner, George Slowik, is familiar to several on the PW staff; he was the publisher from 1990 to 1993.

Slowik outlined his vision for the magazine in interviews with Crain’s New York Business and the New York Times “Media Decorder” blog. He plans to digitize the PW archives, particularly the reviews (which now go back to 1997). The magazine licenses its current reviews to various companies such as Amazon and book wholesalers; he sees an opportunity in the older reviews when Google clears the way to publishing digitized OP titles. He also plans to sell versions of the magazine in other languages, using Google’s translation tool and some human intervention, to further reach the international audience.

He did not directly address whether the magazine would continue as both a print and digital publication, but presumably it will, since he said that all art and editorial staff will make the transition, as well as sales staff.

The magazine will be transferred to the new ownership beginning June 1 (UPDATE: The new ownership is effective immediately. Publishers Weekly will be moving to new offices effective June 1).

Among the just-announced nominees for the Hugo Award in the Best Novel category is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, which also appeared on several end-of-the-year best books lists. This is Bacigalupi’s first novel (he has written many short stories; several are in the collection, Pump Six and Other Stories, Night Shade, 2008); it is also a nominee for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America’s Nebula Award for Best Novel. The Windup Girl is published by independent Night Shade Books.

The galley of Bacigalupi’s next book, a YA title, Ship Breaker, to be pubbed by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers next month, made a splash at the recent PLA. Kirkus is the first to review it, calling it a “gripping futuristic thriller.”

The author is from Colorado.

Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316056219 / 9780316056212

Geneen Roth’s Women, Food, and God, is hitting #1 in many places:

Just hit #1 on Amazon

#1 on B&N.com

#1 on the 4/11 NYT Hardcover Advice best seller list, rising from #3 last week)

Libraries are showing heavy reserves; an average of 10:1 on modest ordering.

What’s fueling it? Perhaps it’s a little help from Oprah, who interviews the author in April issue of O, the Oprah Magazine; the promo for the issue calls it “the book Oprah’s telling everyone to read”; the cover headline proclaims, “The Battle is Over!”

Could an appearance on The Oprah Show be far behind?

Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything Geneen Roth Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 1416543074 / 9781416543077

Remember the pirate hostage situation in 2009? If not, your memory will have plenty of opportunity to be refreshed this week.

The captain of the boat that was seized, Richard Phillips, has written a book about the ordeal. He was interviewed by Matt Lauer on Dateline last night and on the Today show this morning.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The book, which releases tomorrow, is reviewed in today’s USA Today.

The author will also appear on Larry King Live tonight, as well as the following shows tomorrow,

• NPR, Fresh Air
• CNN, American Morning
• FNC, Fox & Friends
• Comedy Central, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea Richard Phillips, Stephan Talty Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1401323804 / 9781401323806

Tantor Audio; UNABR

On Sale Date: 04/26/2010
Trade 9781400116867 8 Audio CDs $29.99
Library 9781400146864 8 Audio CDs $59.99
MP3 9781400166862 1 MP3-CD $19.99

Adobe EPUB eBook available from OverDrive

Atlantic Monthly pulled out all the stops for their big Vietnam novel, Matterhorn, and it has paid off; the book lands at #7 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list and is featured on the cover of the NYT Book Review. Reviewer Sebastian Junger  calls it “a raw, brilliant account of war that may well serve as a final exorcism for one of the most painful passages in American history.”

As a result, Matterhorn moved to #15 on Amazon, its highest spot to date. At B&N.com, which features it on their home page, it moved to #9.

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War Karl Marlantes Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 592 pages Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press – (2010-03-23) ISBN / EAN: 080211928X / 9780802119285

Blackstone Audio; UNABR

17 CDs; 1-4417-4228-5; $123.00
2 MP3CDs; 1-4417-4231-5;$44.95
Playaway;1-4417-4234-6; $79.99
15 Tapes; 1-4417-4227-8; $105.95

Audio available from OverDrive