Good timing; Nicole Krauss’ Great House, was announced as a National Book Award finalist this week and is featured on the cover of Sunday’s NYT Book Review, with a rave.

How much does her new novel, Great House, resemble its predecessor [The History of Love]? The good news is: very much indeed. And the good news is also: not so very much.

Who is the perfect reviewer for the new bio of Mickey Mantle, The Last Boy? The Book Review picks Keith Olbermann, who was a sports caster before he moved into the game of politics. He says that author Jane Leavy’s novel approach, “…refreshes and underscores the facts and patterns of a life, and enables [her] to connect the dots in new and disturbing ways.” It’s now at #10 on Amazon sales rankings.

In Children’s Books, the review of Lane Smith’s It’s a Book carries the brilliant headline, iRead.

In best sellers, Michael Connelly’s The Reversal (also reviewed in Marilyn Stasio’s crime column in the same issue) shots to #1 on the Hardcover Fiction list, moving Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants to #2.

Helen Mirren goes “badass” (to quote the People review) in Red, the movie based on the relatively unknown comic series by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, opening today. “Red” stands for “Retired: extremely dangerous,” which gives fimmakers an opportunity to bring out some “aging actors” (quoting People again), like Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman (even Richard Dreyfuss makes an appearance).

Unfortunately, the reviews are pretty terrible; People gives it just 2.5 of a possible 4 stars and the NYT‘s A.O Scott says, “It is possible to have a good time at RED, but it is not a very good movie.” Sounds like it’s a watered down version of the original story; Ellis has the deserved reputation of gleefully offending anyone and everyone, but being so hardcore and entertaining that he makes you love it (see Transmetropolitan, now being printed in new editions, for a splendid case in point.)

Thanks to the movie, Red is now back to print and I am taking the opportunity to pick it up. Warren Ellis is still one of the top writers. His work always goes out from my collection, so it’s a good bet regardless of how well the movie does.

Red Warren Ellis Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: WildStorm – (2009-06-16) ISBN / EAN: 140122346X / 9781401223465

D.C. comics is producing a miniseries based on the movie. I won’t be buying those titles unless I get requests; I find most of the time my readers aren’t as interested in tie-ins as they are in the original source material.

Whatever the merits of the movie, it’s fun to watch Helen Mirren in “badass” mode in the trailer.
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It’s not easy for a debut novel to pick up buzz amid the cacophony of the fall season, but Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has done a good job of marshalling its enthusiasm for The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart.

This tale about the antipathy between a father and his fourth son, whose birth in 1895 Texas precipitated his mother’s death, is an Indie Next pick for October.  The author was also a featured speaker at the Mountains and Plains trade show. And the Wall St. Journal recently ran an excerpt.

Library Journal says this “intense, fast-paced debut novel is hard to put down. Machart’s hard-hitting style is sure to capture fans of Cormac McCarthy and Jim Harrison.”

Kirkus is slightly less enthusiastic, however, declaring that “the novel splinters into a variety of episodes, all of them rendered with flair. Though he navigates erratically within it, Machart has created a dense, vibrant world.”

On Goodreads, 56 reviewers gave it an average of 3.57 out of 5 stars.

Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest orders, but this looks like one to watch.

It arrives with an atmospheric book trailer.

The Wake of Forgiveness Bruce Machart Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade – (2010-10-21) ISBN / EAN: 0151014434 / 9780151014439

Large Type; Thorndike; 2/16/2011; 9781410435248; $30.99
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Actor James Franco also makes his debut next week with a story collection, Palo Alto, about an interconnected group of teenagers in the same zip code. The media has been making a big deal of it — though not all reviews are positive.

The hoopla began last March, when a story was excerpted in Esquire. An interview and excerpt ran on NPR last week. And this week, Franco is interviewed in the book section of People magazine (not online).

But the Los Angeles Times calls it “the work of an ambitious young man who clearly loves to read, who has a good eye for detail but who has spent way too much time on style and virtually none on substance.”

Half the libraries we checked did not have the book on order, while the other half had modest orders in line with modest reserves.

Palo Alto: Stories James Franco Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 1439163146 / 9781439163146

Usual Suspects On Sale Next Week

Worth Dying For by Lee Child (Delacorte) is the 15th novel starring ex-military cop Jack Reacher, which his publisher working to bring to a new level of sales. Child will appear on CBS Sunday Morning on Oct. 24 or Oct. 31.

Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen (St. Martin’s) follows a forensic sculptor’s attempts to help a CIA agent find her missing daughter.

The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury (Dutton) chronicles the quest over the centuries for a controversial document from early Christianity. Booklist calls it a “well constructed blend of historical mystery and present-day thriller. [Khoury] doesn’t break any new ground, but theres no denying he’s got the storytelling chops and the imagination to spin an exciting yarn.”

In the Company of Others by Jan Karon is the second installment in her Father Tim series, in which a long-awaited Irish vacation turns into a busman’s holiday. Kirkus says, “long journal entries do little to advance the present story but are sometimes a welcome diversion from it. Readers who are not devoted followers of Karon may be impatient with the glacial pace of this installment.”

Young Adult

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick is the sequel to the author’s young adult breakout, Hush Hush.

A recent Earlyword Galley Chat favorite goes on sale next week: Running the Books, Avi Steinberg‘s memoir of his adventures as a prison librarian and writing instructor in Boston, after graduating from Harvard.  As we’ve mentioned, he published an amusing essay in the New York Times magazine last week, which should help the book get more attention in other media.

PW called the memoir “captivating…. Steinberg writes a stylish prose that blends deadpan wit with an acute moral seriousness. The result is a fine portrait of prison life and the thwarted humanity that courses through it.”

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian Avi Steinberg Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2010-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 0385529090 / 9780385529099

Other Notable Nonfiction On Sale Next Week

Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook: Crazy Delicious Recipes that Are Good to the Earth and Great for Your Bod by Kim Barnouin (Running Press), more vegan dishes.

Final Verdict: What Really Happened in the Rosenberg Case by Walter Schneir (Melville House) contends that Ethel Rosenberg was not a Soviet spy and challenges enduring myths surrounding the case. The New York Times Book Review compares it favorably to another recent book on the Rosenberg case by Allen M. Hornblum.

My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy by Nora Titone (S&S) hinges on its portrait of the Booth family. Kirkus declares that “though some historical detail seems more tangential than pertinent, the multiple portraits display hidden facets of all the Booths.”

The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer by Jane Smiley is a biography of the brilliant but mostly forgotten physicist who created a protype for the computer. Kirkus raves, “As in her novels, the author displays a talent for keeping a dozen fully realized characters on stage…. Smiley takes science history and injects it with a touch of noir and an exciting clash of vanities.”

Children’s

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson, about a runaway slave who joins the Continental Army at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78, is the second installment in the author’s American Revolutionary trilogy, following the National Book Award finalist Chains. Kirkus praises its “vivid setting, believable characters both good and despicable and a clear portrayal of the moral ambiguity of the Revolutionary age. Not only can this sequel stand alone, for many readers it will be one of the best novels they have ever read.”

Bill Bryson tells Stephen Colbert what he doesn’t know about his own home.

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At Home: A Short History of Private Life Bill Bryson Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-10-05) ISBN / EAN: 0767919386 / 9780767919388

Also available as an unabridged audio CD, and in large print trade paperback.

Bill O’Reilly appeared on The View today. At one point, the discussion became so heated (good luck on hearing what was actually said) that Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off.

They returned a few minutes later.

O’Reilly’s new book is Pinheads and Patriots (Morrow, 9/14/10); Goldberg’s is, in a bit of foreshadowing, Is it Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There? (Hyperion, 10/5/10).

The NYT Baseball section features a profile of Jane Leavy, author of the new bio of Mickey Mantle, The Last Boy, released on Tuesday with a 200,000 copy printing.

Entertainment Weekly‘s review dismissed the book as having “little new” and recycling information that already appeared in Jim Bouton’s 1970 classic Ball Four. The New York Daily News begs to differ; headlining their excerpt, “Mickey Mantle finally opens up about childhood sexual abuse.” The NYT says Leavy, “delves further than other biographers have into Mantle’s alcoholism; the sexual abuse he suffered as a child and the sexual relationship with a teacher when he was a teenager; his philandering; the extent of his osteomyelitis; and the history of cancer in his family.”

Leavy tells the NYT that she was wanted to figure out “why men in their 50s and beyond still revere Mantle,” and finally decided that his is the “ultimate boomer entitlement.”

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood Jane Leavy Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0060883529 / 9780060883522

Larger Print; HarperLuxe, 9780060883522, $27.99

Audio; HarperAudio, 9780061767685, $49.99

Most libraries are still showing the Man Booker prize winner, Finkler’s Question, as being on order. Many are also putting in additional orders as holds mount. Publisher Bloomsbury has ordered a reprint, which is due to arrive 10/22. If you’re planning on ordering more, now is the time to get those orders in.

The book rose to #2 on Amazon sales rankings today (from #10 yesterday) and has since moved down to #4.

The Finkler Question Howard Jacobson Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA – (2010-10-12) ISBN / EAN: 1608196119 / 9781608196111

Featured on the front page of the Huffington Post Books section today is a stirring rebuttal of the NYT piece that claims childrens picture books are on the decline; Children’s Librarian Says Picture Books Still Thrive.

Hey, wait a minute — I think we know the author.

Ron Charles, as a professional literary critic, is hardly an unbiased source, but he effectively demonstrates in his latest Totally Hip Book Review the pitfalls of reviews from the unwashed herd.

Sun sets on Twilight, for now announces USA Today‘s “Book Buzz” column; for the first time since July 12, 2007, none of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books appear in the top 50 on the USA Today best seller list.

Breaking Dawn is close, though, at #54, and the only other Twilight title in the top 150 is the series “extra,” The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. But, as the column points out, there is likely to be a spike when the DVD of Eclipse is released in December, followed by the two movies based on Breaking Dawn, scheduled for 2011 and 2012.

The Help slides to #48, from #37 last week, after an amazing 73 weeks on the list. The paperback may finally be on its way.

Philip Roth’s new book Nemesis just squeaks on to the list at #150.

Jon Stewart opened his interview with Condoleezza Rice on the Daily Show last night by saying he heard her speak at BEA; “I was very charmed and very upset with you for charming me.”

Looks like she did it again. Her memoir of her early years, Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family, is now at #40 on Amazon sales rankings (Stewart’s book, Earth: The Book, is at #6).

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The book is available in two versions, one for young readers.

Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family Condoleezza Rice Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Crown Archetype – (2010-10-12) ISBN / EAN: 0307587878 / 9780307587879

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Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me Condoleezza Rice Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers – (2010-10-12) ISBN / EAN: 038573879X / 9780385738798

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Random House Audio; CD; Read by the author; 9780307750631 $ 35.00

Immediately after the National Book Award finalists were announced, the Twitter World was abuzz that Jonathan Franzen was snubbed by the National Book Awards (some think that’s not a bad thing), which also happens to the the title of  AP’s story (Jonathan Franzen SNUBBED By the National Book Award Committee).

Also on Twitter, St. John’s Knits announces they are partnering with the Daily Beast for National Book Awards After Party (St. John’s Knits is a sponsor of the Daily Beast‘s book coverage, which is the reason a beautifully clad model incongruously pops up in some of their stories). What a concept; could a Vanity Fair NBA party be next?

The NYT “Arts Beat” blog points out that 13 of the 20 finalists are women; the largest group ever.

I am happy to see Lionel Shriver’s So Much for That on the list. Most of the reviewers mischaracterized it as a novel about the cost of health care, but it deals with much deeper issues; deciding to ignore the advice of so-called authorities to follow your own instincts.

Two of the five fiction titles are from small independent presses. They have been below the radar to date and are therefore not owned widely in libraries.

Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule (McPherson); Kirkus, “Exceptional writing and idiosyncratic characters make this an engaging read”

Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel (Coffee House Press); received a starred review from Booklist

Winners will be announced on Nov. 17.

The list of NBA finalists has just been posted.

FICTION

Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America (Alfred A. Knopf)

Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule (McPherson)

Nicole Krauss, Great House (W.W. Norton)

Lionel Shriver, So Much for That (Harper)

Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel (Coffee House Press)

Fiction Judges: Andrei Codrescu, Samuel R. Delany, Sabina Murray,
Joanna Scott, Carolyn See

NONFICTION

Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (Spiegel & Grau/Random House)

John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq (W.W. Norton)

Patti Smith, Just Kids (Ecco/HarperCollins)

Justin Spring, Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward (FSG)

Megan K. Stack, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War (Doubleday)

Nonfiction Judges: Blake Bailey, Marjorie Garber, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Seth Lerer, Sallie Tisdale

POETRY

Kathleen Graber, The Eternal City (Princeton University Press)

Terrance Hayes, Lighthead (Viking Penguin)

James Richardson, By the Numbers (Copper Canyon Press)

C.D. Wright, One with Others (Copper Canyon Press)

Monica Youn, Ignatz (Four Way Books)

Poetry Judges: Rae Armantrout, Cornelius Eady, Linda Gregerson,
Jeffrey McDaniel, Brenda Shaughnessy

YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE

Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker (Little, Brown)

Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird (Philomel Books/Penguin Young Readers)

Laura McNeal, Dark Water (Alfred A. Knopf)

Walter Dean Myers, Lockdown (Amistad/ HarperCollins)

Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer (Amistad/ HarperCollins)

Young People’s Literature Judges: Laban Carrick Hill, Kelly Link, Tor Seidler, Hope Anita Smith, Sara Zarr

Now that Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) is in negotiations to direct Hunger Games, based on the first book in Suzanne Collins’ YA series, the rumor mill is turning its attention to who will be cast in the lead.

Entertainment Weekly‘s book blog, “Shelf Life” reports Kaya Scodelario and Lyndsy Fonseca receive ‘The Hunger Games’ script as well as Chloe Moretz. Here’s the basics on each actress:

Kaya Scodelario, appeared in the British teen series, Skins, appearing here in BBC America

Lyndsy Fonseca appeared in the movie Kick-Ass. She also appears on the CW series, Nikita, currently in its second season

Chloe Moretz also appeared in Kick-Ass