Archive for June, 2010

Ugh…

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Fox News Chicago asked “do we still need public libraries?” (via GalleyCat). Despite the oh-my-god-look-how-much-libraries-cost (all of 2.5% of annual property taxes in Chicago) tone, most of the interviewees and email responses are pro libraries

HP and the Deathly Hallows Trailer

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

The full-length trailer for the next Harry Potter movie hit the Web on Monday.

HP and the deathly Hallows was filmed in two parts. The first arrive in theaters on November 19th; the second next July.

It is definitely dark. The NYT critic David Itzkoff writes on his blog, “…muggles, it is not for the children. (Let them see the new “Twilight” movie instead.) There are some scary moments, with imperiled young British actors; evil Lord Voldemort, who evokes Patrick Stewart after a plastic surgery disaster…”

The official Web site is here.

CBS Hot Summer Reads

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

The  CBS Early Show‘s annual look at the hot books of summer includes many familiar titles, some that have already been riding best seller lists for a while. The one surprise is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, which John Searles calls a “perfect book club pick.”

David Nicholls’ One Day is singled out as the favorite. As we noted earlier, holds are heavy and growing. It’s now at #7 on Amazon’s sales rankings; looks like it will become THE book of the summer.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

One Day (Vintage Contemporaries Original)
David Nicholls
Retail Price: $14.95
Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Vintage – (2010-06-15)
ISBN / EAN: 0307474712 / 9780307474711

Celia Foote Cast in THE HELP

Monday, June 28th, 2010

The movie of The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett best selling novel, is moving along. Actress Jessica Chastain’s publicist confirmed to the movie news blog TheWrap that she will play Celia Foote.

Chastain has apopeared in various TV series, including ER and Law and Order.

David Mitchell’s Mixed Reception

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Best known for his 2004 breakout Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell returns with The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which is on several summer reading roundups (it’s one of five books on Time Magazine’s Summer Entertainment list, which calls the author, “The most consistently interesting novelist of his generation…”), was a BEA Librarian Shout & Share selection, as well as a July Indie Pick. As the media coverage begins, libraries we checked had enough copies to respond to the modest holds for this historical novel about a clerk for the Dutch East Indies Company’s outpost in Japan.

Following a profile in the New York Times Magazine, David Mitchell’s Genre-Bending Fiction, The Thousand Autumns rose to #32 on Amazon salea rankings and Cloud Atlas to #50.

Recently, Production Weekly reported that Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen and Natalie Portman have been offered roles in the movie of Cloud Atlas, being produced by the Wachowski brothers (the Matrix trilogy) and directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run).

Entertainment Weekly gave the new book a B-:

Despite some magnificent narrative set pieces. . . .  the book feels diffuse, with too little forward momentum. Japan may be the land of one thousand autumns, but Mitchell sometimes seems intent on raking the leaves of every last one.

But Salon‘s Laura Miller was more sympathetic, deeming it

…less successful than [Mitchell’s previous novel], Black Swan Green, but eminently worth reading all the same . . . . [although] the first part, some 170-plus pages, feels like a worthy but not especially exciting historical novel.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel
David Mitchell
Retail Price: $26.00
Hardcover: 496 pages
Publisher: Random House – (2010-06-29)
ISBN / EAN: 1400065453 / 9781400065455

Other Major Titles on Sale Next Week

Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown) follows an investigation run by a former CIA agent.

Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel by Tess Gerritsen (Ballantine) has “the taut suspense and vivid depictions that are hallmarks of Gerritsen’s writing,” according to Library Journal, “although this one feels a bit stretched, with one too many plot twists and one too many villains.” As we mentioned earlier, cable channel TNT’s new series based on Gerritsen’s female buddies, Rizzoli & Isles, premieres on July 12.

In the Name of Honor by Richard North Patterson (Holt) is a military courtroom drama involving a lieutenant accused of murdering his commanding officer.

Inside Out by Barry Eisler (Ballantine) “drives this locomotive of a story full speed into the façade on the war on terror. . . . One sex scene fits neither the story nor the characters, and the violence may make even the most jaded reader uncomfortable, but this is a relentless and revelatory look into the human cost of those who torture on behalf of their country,” says Library Journal.

Work Song by Ivan Doig (Riverhead) was a Buzz Title at PLA, where Doig also appeared, highlighting his move to Penguin. A July Indie Pick, the novel has holds ranging from 2:1 to 4:1 in libraries we checked. Library Journal says that “Doig’s eagerly awaited sequel to The Whistling Season (2006) begins ten years later in 1919, when Morrie Morgan gets off the train in Butte, MT, “the richest hill on earth,” run by Anaconda Copper. . . . Doig delivers solid storytelling with a keen respect for the past and gives voice to his characters in a humorous and affectionate light.”

Mining the Backlist

Friday, June 25th, 2010

The ability to slice and dice content digitally, giving new life to backlist titles, is often touted as a major advantage for publishers. Often touted, but so far, rarely used.

Simon and Schuster just announced that they are releasing an eBook called Truman Fires MacArthur, about the event that is the historical precedent of “Obama Fires MacChrystal.” The ebook is an excerpt of David McCullough’s 1992 Pulitzer Prize winning bio, Truman.

It appears the excerpt is not available to libraries. However, the full book is available electronically through OverDrive.

In her L.A. Times blog “Jacket Copy,” Carolyn Kellogg notes calls this a smart move by S&S’s brand-new publisher, Jonathan Karp, the former publisher and founder of the Grand Central imprint Twelve, and says it  bodes well for  his leadership of S&S.

By the way, for libraries that haven’t already done so, this is a good reminder to bring the book out of the stacks and display it.

Truman
David McCullough
Retail Price: $22.00
Paperback: 1120 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (1993-06-14)
ISBN / EAN: 0671869205 / 9780671869205

Friday, June 25th, 2010

There He Goes Again

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Glenn Beck raised another book at the top of the Amazon best seller list. On his show yesterday, he featured M. Stanton Evans, author of Blacklisted by History, a book that defends Sen. Joseph McCarthy (view the segment on YouTube here).

Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies
M. Stanton Evans
Retail Price: $18.00
Paperback: 672 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press – (2009-11-24)
ISBN / EAN: 1400081068 / 9781400081066

Also getting a boost are two books about Soviet esponiage in the U.S. during the McCarthy era.

The Venona Secrets rose to #125, from #139,845 yesterday.

The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors
Herbert Romerstein, Eric Breindel
Retail Price: $19.95
Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Regnery Publishing, Inc. – (2001-10)
ISBN / EAN: 0895262258 / 9780895262257

———–
And, Venona, rose to #289 from # 277,924 yesterday. It was highly recommended by Library Journal in 1999.

Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (Yale Nota Bene)
John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr
Retail Price: $22.50
Paperback: 504 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press – (2000-08-11)
ISBN / EAN: 0300084625 / 9780300084627

——————–

FIERCE RADIANCE, Shining Bright

Friday, June 25th, 2010

USA Today calls Lauren Belfer’s second book, A Fierce Radiance, (after her successful 1999 debut, City of Light), a “… love story and murder mystery rolled into panoramic family saga and industrial-espionage thriller.” The story of how penicillin was developed is told through the eyes of a photojournalist working for Life magazine. USA Today lauds both Belfer’s ability to render place (WW II era NYC) and characters,

A Fierce Radiance resonates precisely because the characters Belfer creates, and the ones she borrows from history, feel real — as organic and natural as the molds from which these miracle drugs come.

A Fierce Radiance
Lauren Belfer
Retail Price: $25.99
Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Harper – (2010-06-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0061252514 / 9780061252518

Another ALA Galley to Grab

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Just received Mike Rockliff’s always informative and interesting “Workman Update,” with the list of authors and galleys at Workman’s booth, #2701. They will have Advance Readers Copies of the book he’s been raving about for months (and, yes, I do always believe what Mike says about books), West of Here, by Jonathan Evison. The book’s editor is Chuck Adams, who also edited Water for Elephants and A Reliable Wife.

West of Here
Jonathan Evison
Retail Price: $24.95
Hardcover: 496 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2011-02-15)
ISBN / EAN: 1565129520 / 9781565129528

Fall Galleys to Grab at ALA

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Our Galley Chat last week turned into a discussion of galleys to grab at ALA. Below are highlights, but for a longer rundown of titles to look for, check out the picks from the Librarians Shout & Share program at BEA as well as the longer list of all the titles that were mentioned.

Several people recommended the following on Galley Chat:

Juliet
Anne Fortier
Retail Price: $25.00
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-08-24)
ISBN / EAN: 0345516109 / 9780345516107

RH Audio; UNABR; 9780739384954; $40

A debut novel that comes with great expectations on the publisher’s part, after pre-empting the book prior to what was shaping up to become a heated auction. This is the story of a young woman who travels to Siena and delves into the story of her ancestors, Romeo and Giuletta (wait; didn’t they die in Verona? Appears there may be a twist here), just received a starred review in PW.

————————————

Cleopatra: A Biography
Stacy Schiff
Retail Price: $29.99
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-11-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0316001929 / 9780316001922

Hachette LARGE PRINT; Hdbk; 9780316120449; $31.99
Hachette Audio; UNABR; 9781607887010; 34.98

The bio of the Egytian queen and renowned beauty now has the added interest that the rights have been bought for a movie, with the possibility of Angelina Jolie playing Cleopatra.

————————————

One Galley Chatter mentioned that The Room was “all over BEA.” We’ve been hearing great things about it from librarians who have read the galley.

Room: A Novel
Emma Donoghue
Retail Price: $24.99
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-09-13)
ISBN / EAN: 0316098337 / 9780316098335

————————————

My own recommendations are on an earlier post, but I want to give special attention to Up From the Blue, a debut by Susan Henderson. Just check out these amazing quotes; I agree with every one of them. Since it’s being published in trade paperback, you can take a risk and buy a few extra copies for your readers advisors.

Up from the Blue: A Novel
Susan Henderson
Retail Price: $13.99
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks – (2010-10-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0061984035 / 9780061984037

The Death of Fiction

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

On her L.A. Times book blog, Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg refutes the New York Observer story that claims “Fiction has become culturally irrelevant.”

EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Rising on Amazon as a result of an interview (listen here) on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, is Empire of the Summer Moon, a book about the life of the last chief of the Comanches, Quanah. It also tells the fascinating story of Quanah’s mother, a white woman, who was captured by the Comanches and became famous for not wanting to return to her former life. The book is now at #10 on Amazon.

It was also recently reviewed in the NYT Book Review, along with Nathaniel Philbrick’s book about Custer and Sitting Bull, The Last Stand.

While Summer Moon currently outranks The Last Stand on Amazon, libraries are showing many more holds, and on more copies, of the Philbrick title.

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
S. C. Gwynne
Retail Price: $27.50
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Scribner – (2010-05-25)
ISBN / EAN: 1416591052 / 9781416591054

Tantor Audio; Read by David Drummond; Unabridged

Trade; 9781400116553; 12 CD’s; $39.99
Library; 9781400146550; 12 CD’s; $79.99
MP3; 9781400166558; 2 MP3-CD; $29.99

Marilyn Johnson at ALA

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

We just learned that Tantor Audio will be hosting Marilyn Johnson, author of This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All at booth #2853 on Saturday, 4 to 5 p.m. during ALA.

MARILYN JOHNSON
This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

Read by Hillary Huber
Running Time: 7 hrs 30 min – Unabridged
Trade; 9781400116348; 6 Audio CDs; $34.99
Library; 9781400146345; 6 Audio CDs; $69.99
MP3; 9781400166343; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

ONE DAY Is PEOPLE PICK

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

As we noted earlier, British import, One Day by David Nicholls, just published in original trade paperback here last week, has been picking up strong reviews and perhaps the ultimate accolade; Anne Hathaway has signed to star in the movie version.

Now it picks up one more accolade; the new issue of People (which we get early from our secret source) gives it four of a possible four stars, also designating it a People Pick and calling it an “instant classic…and one of the most hilarious and emotionally riveting love stories you’ll ever encounter.”

We’re thinking this may be a British-to-US phenomenon along the lines of Bridget Jones; someone is probably  kicking themselves for not pubishing One Day in hardcover here.

On the other hand, the lower trade pbk. price may give the book additional legs.

One Day (Vintage Contemporaries Original)
David Nicholls
Retail Price: $14.95
Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Vintage – (2010-06-15)
ISBN / EAN: 0307474712 / 9780307474711