Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy has been getting applause from critics at the Venice film festival. In the following “featurette,” various people, (including author John le Carré) explain why George Smiley (played by Gary Oldman) is cool even though he is the “anti-Bond.”

The movie opens in theaters in U.S. on Dec. 9th.

As a reviewer, the Washington Post‘s Ron Charles has a unique ability to make you want to read a book, as he does in this week’s review of  Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber (Norton, 9/6; author’s backlist on OverDrive).

Diana Abu-Jaber’s delicious new novel weighs less than two pounds, but you may gain more than that by reading it. If you know her cream-filled work — especially Crescent and The Language of Baklava — you’re already salivating. This Jorda­­nian American author writes about food so enticingly that her books should be published on sheets of phyllo dough. Birds of Paradise contains her most mouthwatering writing ever, but it’s no light after-dinner treat. This is a full-course meal, a rich, complex and memorable story that will leave you lingering gratefully at her table.

Need more? People magazine gives it 4 of 4 stars in the 9/19 issue.

People are talking about Chad Harbach’s debut novel, The Art of Fielding, (Little, Brown, 9/7, Hachette Large Print, 9780316204729).

It debuts on this week’s Indie Best Seller list at #15, just behind another strong, but less-hyped literary debut, We The Animals by Justin Torres (HMH; Blackstone Audio).

Here’s the buzz:

• Bloomberg News ran this hilarious headline about it, “Unemployed Harvard Man Auctions Baseball Novel for $650000 …” (Harbach, the co-editor of the literary magazine, n+1, is unpaid), followed by the equally hilarious one today, “Shortstop Genius Hits Ugly Slump in $650000 Novel Optioned by HBO …“

• In a move M.C. Escher would envy, Harbach’s co-editor at n+1, has written an article about the “making of the book” that appears in the October issue of Vanity Fair. It is also being released as an “expanded ebook” (dying to read it, since it’s supposed to be filled with industry gossip, but the article is not available on VF‘s Web site. I am watching my mailbox for my oh-so-19th C print copy of the magazine to arrive).

• It’s the New Yorker‘s September Book Club pick (featuring a live chat with the author at the end of the month). It’s also on nearly every fall book preview.

• Michiko likes it — a lot. In the daily NYT, Kakutani says it ” is not only a wonderful baseball novel — it zooms immediately into the pantheon of classics, alongside The Natural by Bernard Malamud and The Southpaw by Mark Harris — but it’s also a magical, melancholy story about friendship and coming of age that marks the debut of an immensely talented writer.”

• But let’s not trust Kakutani just because she’s so hard to please (and she has a Pulitzer Prize). On GalleyChat, librarians have been enthusiastic about it for months.

• It’s difficult to tell how library users are responding to all the talk; holds are heavy in some libraries, but not at all in others. It’s one to keep your eye on.

The daily NYT is uncharacteristically late to the party in reviewing Ballantine’s big debut novel, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh,(8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike).

Janet Maslin’s review drips with sarcasm about the book’s potential for book clubs, which sounds curiously familiar:

The Language of Flowers, review by Janet Maslin, 9/8/11 — “Ballantine is surely well aware that there are book clubs that have theme parties based on a literary work’s ambience. In this case the festive possibilities are mind boggling.”

The Help, review by Janet Maslin, 2/18/09 — “Book groups armed with hankies will talk and talk about [the maids] quiet bravery and the outrageous insults dished out by their vain, racist employers.”

Despite her many reservations about The Help, Maslin rightly predicted that Kathryn Stockett’s “button-pushing book” would be “wildly popular.”

Maslin doesn’t make predictions for the popularity of The Language of Flowers, but it’s already showing signs of success. It moves up the Indie Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list today to #6, from #11 last week (we also hear it debuts at #13 on the 9/18 NYT list).

The Help arrived on the Indie list at #15 the week of its publication; it took six weeks for it to reach #5. It was a much slower journey on the NYT  list, taking 24 weeks before it climbed to #5.

Ballantine is publishing a companion to Diffenbaugh’s novel, a dictionary of flowers, which many libraries have not ordered.

A Victorian Flower Dictionary: The Language of Flowers Companion Mandy Kirkby Retail Price: $22.00 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2011-09-20) ISBN / EAN: 0345532864 / 9780345532862

With the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 pervading the news, librarians who work with children, are faced with special challenges in helping them understand the tragedy.

My school, the Bank Street College School for Children, has provided some guidelines for teachers that may be adapted for the rest of us who work with children, especially young children.

• We can focus on the good rather than the horrific; the bravery of individuals, the people who were heroic, the focus going forward on security and public safety.

• We can assure children that we are together in a safe place and a caring community, in which adults take good care of children

Language for our teachers and families has been adapted from the NYU Child Study Center. What we discuss with children may include:

• It was a terrible thing that happened on September 11, ten years ago

• Before you were born, a small group of people who did not like our country did a very bad thing. They hijacked four airplanes, which means that they forced the pilots to let them fly the planes. Instead of landing the planes, they made them crash into the Twin Towers in New York, a building called the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania. None of this usually happens when people travel on airplanes.

• Lots of people escaped the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and were helped by many rescuers. Sadly, some people did not escape and died that day.

• Adults and older children who were living when it happened might feel sad when they remember that day.

• It is okay to feel sad and to talk about and ask questions about what happened.

• Since then, many people in the United States and around the world have been working hard to keep everyone safe and to make airports, airplanes, and buildings safer.

• Many people have been working together to make the world better and to take care of other people. These are good things.

Tips for Parents and Caregivers

Please do not interpret these talking points to mean that everyone must sit down with a child and tell him/her about 9/11. Each family decides how and what to share with their child about this or any subject. Instead, here are some general thoughts in preparation for the anniversary:

• Be prepared to be present for your children more than usual. More than words, your presence is the most reassuring thing they can have.

• Tune in to coverage of the anniversary only when you know your child is asleep or not home. Even if it looks like they’re busy playing in another room, they hear everything! Keep newspapers and other sources of images out of view.

• Listen to your child. Answer the questions they ask, trying not to give them more information than they need.

• Turn their questions back to them. You can find out more about what they’re thinking. (It also buys you time to think!)

• Say you don’t know, if you don’t. You can think about it together.

• Say you’d like to talk about it with them, but you need time to think first. Set a time to talk—make sure you return to it. In between, seek out resources if you feel nervous or worried about what to say.

• Telling your own story as one way to address your child’s questions and curiosity: Where were you and what were you doing on Sept 11, 2001? How did you find out what happened? What did you think, feel, and do? How do you think and feel about the anniversary? Without graphic or inappropriate information, your personal story can be more meaningful than the overwhelming big ideas and horrific facts. Additionally, since it’s your story, it can be easier for you to answer questions your child might have.

• Avoid speaking over children’s heads to other adults assuming that the child won’t understand or isn’t listening to grownup conversations.

Other Resources

For Parents and Teachers

At the Bank Street Library website, you will find a useful link to Teaching through a Crisis: September 11 and Beyond. Published in 2003, this collection of essays was fueled by a desire to provide a vehicle through which educators could share their experiences of those events. Contributors wanted to know how teachers were addressing the questions raised by the tragedy: What kinds of conversations had been sparked among children, teachers and parents?

For Older children ages 8 and up

America Is Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day the Towers Fell (Actual Times) Don Brown Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 64 pages Publisher: Flash Point – (2011-08-16) ISBN / EAN: 1596436948 / 9781596436947

A dispassionate accounting of that day illustrated and age appropriate giving an easy to understand timeline of the events, includes an author’s note, sources and brief bibliography. America is Under Attack teachers’ guide written by Emily Linsay, a Bank Street School for Children teacher can be downloaded here.

14 Cows for America Carmen Agra Deedy Retail Price: $17.95 Hardcover: 36 pages Publisher: Peachtree Publishers – (2009-08-01)

Storyteller Deedy collaborated with Kenyan, Kimeli Naiyomah who tells of returning home to his Maasai village after 9/11 and related the events that he had witnessed to his community. The elders decided that to ease the sorrow of the citizens of New York, they would provide fourteen cows to comfort them in their loss. The herd exists to this day. Gonzalez’s vibrant paintings draw the audience into this picture book bringing the reader into a very different community than their own.

In the category of memorable titles, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller’s 2001 memoir of growing up during the civil war in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, has to be on the top ten. The book features Fuller’s equally memorable mother, who objected that the book (“that Awful Book” as she calls it) gives the impression she’s an alchololic and a racist. Fuller responded, “But Mother, you are!” It went on to become a bestseller.

Fuller expands the story in a new memoir with another remarkable title, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgiveness, (Penguin, 8/23; Large Print, Thorndike; Audio, Recorded Books) which debuted at #4 on last week’s Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list and at #7 on the NYT list. In the NYT BR on Sunday, Dominque Browning (author of the memoir, Slow Love) says that Fuller’s mother who dominates this book, is “hilarious, creative, opinionated, ribald and tragic,” but the story that best captures the book’s appeal appears in The Huffington Post. Fuller was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition last month.

It is showing heavy holds in many libraries.

Holds are also heavy on Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Random House Trade Pbk, Audio, Recorded Books; Center Point Large Print, 9781611731125; epub on OverDrive).

After a long and winding journey, British director Andrea Arnold‘s film of Wuthering Heights finally premiered at the Venice Film Festival yesterday. Reactions were mixed as were the perceptions of those reactions. The UK’s Independent claims it was “met with befuddlement from the press,” while the Guardian reports that “critics lined up to praise the film’s radical disregard for the usual conventions of the costume drama.”

It may be “Bella & Edward’s favorite book” as the HarperTeen edition at left reminds readers, but it’s doubtful they would embrace this adaptation, which, says The Guardian, has “completely deprived the story of any romance.” The Independent describes it derisively as “a defiantly art-house adaptation…from the school of Robert Bresson rather than Merchant Ivory.”

Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff, a “dark-skinned gypsy” has been transformed into a runaway slave rescued from the Liverpool streets in this version which stars mostly unknown actors, a far cry from where it began. At one point, Lindsay Lohan and Keira Knightley were reported to be “battling” for the role of Catherine. Natalie Portman eventually won, only to turn around and drop out.

Clips are available on YouTube. One of the scenes might be considered Not Safe for Work, if it weren’t so difficult to see due to the jerkiness of the hand-held camera and reliance on natural lighting.

The film has not been scheduled for a U.S. release.

NBC’s The Today Show leads the other morning shows in the amount of time they devote to books. The Early Show on Saturday Morning, challenges them with the new “R&R Book Club,” featuring monthly picks from the show’s co-anchors Russ Mitchell and Rebecca Jarvis.

One of Rebecca’s picks is a book that we’ve been writing about on EarlyWord, Amor Towles’s debut novel,  Rules of Civility (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive).

Librarian favorite Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers is one of the six books on the shortlist for the Booker Prize, announced this morning in London. In reporting on the selections, The Guardian calls it, “a darkly comic wild west odyssey of two cowboy assassins,” and “the strongest wild card on the list,” but manages to insult both U.S. and Canadian authors by saying, “American novels are, controversially, excluded from the Booker – deWitt is Canadian – but juries have a weakness for their grand, sometimes lurid, horizons.” DeWitt currently lives in the grand, but hardly lurid, Oregon.

The judges celebrated the fact that four of the titles on the list are published by smaller independent U.K. houses; that is not true in the U.S., where three are from divisions of Random House, one is from HarperCollins, one from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and one does not yet have a U.S. publisher.

The winner of the £50,000 prize will be announced on Oct. 18.

The Sisters Brothers Patrick Dewitt Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Ecco – (2011-04-26) ISBN / EAN: 9780062041265/ 0062041266

Audio, Dreamscape; Large Print released in Aug. by Thorndike.

Below are the other five titles on the list, with U.S. publication information:

The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes Retail Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2012-01-24) ISBN / EAN: 0307957128 / 9780307957122

The Sense of an Ending is considered the favorite. It is scheduled to appear in the U.S. three months after the award is announced.

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Jamrach’s Menagerie: A Novel Carol Birch Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2011-06-14) ISBN / EAN: 9780385534406 / 038553440X

The Guardian reporter notes, “I’m still carrying my torch for Carol Birch’s Jamrach’s Menagerie; she’s an underrated author with an impressive backlist, and this tale of 19th-century naturalism and danger at sea is in some ways classic Booker material. She brings a freshness and vibrancy to the historical novel that is a pleasure to behold.” Few of Birch’s eleven novels have been published in the U.S. The  Washington Post‘s Ron Charles says that is unfortunate, since the glimpse we get from this one is of an accomplished author. He calls the book, “a moving, fantastically exciting sea tale that takes you back to those great 19th-century stories that first convinced you ‘there is no frigate like a book.’ ”

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Pigeon English Stephen Kelman Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2011-06-27) ISBN / EAN: 9780547500607 054750060

The Guardian points out that Pigeon English is the most currently relevant of the titles; “narrated by an 11-year-old Ghanaian immigrant on a south London estate, [it] brings a comic tone (and an ill-advised talking pigeon) to its child’s-eye view of gang violence. The recent riots give it added bite.” It was reviewed warmly in most of the prepub review media, but got scant attention from the consumer press here, with a review in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, followed by another in the Cleveland Plain Dealer after the longlist announcement. It fared much better with reviewers in the U.K. Rights have been sold to Ridley Scott to develop it into a BBC TV movie.

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Snowdrops: A Novel A.D. Miller Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2011-02-22) ISBN / EAN: 9780385533447 0385533446

This debut is compared by the publisher to The Talented Mr. Ripley and Gorky Park. The Boston Globe reviewer sniffed, “If that comparison is apt, I won’t bother reading the former and the latter isn’t as good a book as I remember. Snowdrops has its strengths. But in spite of a compelling narrative voice, the book has no emotional core. In precisely the parts where it’s supposed to be most wrenching, there’s nothing.”

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Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues, (Serpents Tail), has not yet been published in the U.S. The Guardian ‘s reporter dismissed it, saying, “I’m surprised to see the other Canadian on the shortlist, Esi Edugyan; our reviewer thought Half Blood Blues, the story of a black jazz musician in Nazi Germany, fascinating material but a missed opportunity.” But Jonathan Ruppin from the independent book chain Foyles said it would be a particularly deserving winner.

Another librarian favorite, Alan Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child, (Knopf, 10/11/11; RH Audio) was dropped from the list. Once regarded as the top runner to win the award, The Guardian says of its elimination, “We knew from the longlist that this was a Booker keen on surprises, but with the shortlist omission of Alan Hollinghurst the judges have sprung their biggest surprise yet.”

The Stranger’s Child Alan Hollinghurst Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2011-10-11) ISBN / EAN: 0307272761 / 9780307272768

Also considered a notable absence from the shortlist, is Sebastian Barry’s On Canaan’s Side, (Viking,  9/8/11; Large Print, Thorndike, Dec., ISBN 9781410443465; Blackstone Audio),  is coming out here this week. The Minneapolis Star Tribune calls it “a wonderful introduction” to this important Irish writer’s work. (This is a good opportunity to bring more attention to the books on the longlist through a display; a list of all the titles, with U.S. publishing information, is available here).

On Canaan’s Side: A Novel Sebastian Barry Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2011-09-08) ISBN / EAN: 0670022926 / 9780670022922

Several favorites from Book Expo’s Editor’s Buzz Panel will be released next week with enviable media fanfare, including debuts from Chad Harbich and Justin Torres. Plus there’s Simon Toyne‘s debut thriller, which has been sold in 27 countries, and National Book Award winner Lily Tuck‘s new novel. Usual suspects include Jacqueline Mitchard, Christine Feehan and Clive Cussler. And Thomas Friedman tops our nonfiction list with his look at four unresolved problems holding back the U.S. from supremacy, along with WWII historian Ian Kershaw‘s latest and a new memoir from Lucette Lagnado.

Watch List

Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (Little, Brown; Hachette Large Print) is the tale of a high school shortstop destined for greatness, until he mysteriously starts to choke – a reversal that affects the fates of four others at his school. This title has been on nearly every Fall preview list, helped no doubt by a strong pitch at Book Expo’s Editor’s Buzz Panel. It was also a GalleyChat Pick of ALA – librarians who joined our post-show tweetfest said it’s “phenomenal” and  ”not to be missed.” Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+, saying that although the characters feel “underdrawn,” Harbach has “a talent for atmosphere, drawing you into his portrait of campus angst.” It’s also a Oprah Book to Watch for in September, and a September Indie Next Pick.

We The Animals by Justin Torres (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Blackstone Audio) is a much-praised debut novel about three biracial brothers and a dueling husband and wife who are bound by poverty and love. It was also featured on the Editors Buzz Panel at Book Expo, and was a GalleyChat Pick of ALA. In an early review, the New York Times says, ” a sense of lives doomed to struggle and disappointment pervades the writing without dragging it into lugubrious or melodramatic territory. Scenes that thrum with violence can suddenly turn tender too.”  It’s also a Oprah Book to Watch for in September, and a September Indie Next Pick.

Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber (Norton; author’s backlist on OverDrive) is the story of a damaged family grappling with the implications of the teenage daughter’s decision to run away at age 13. This was another Book Expo Editors Buzz panel book that became a GalleyChat favorite – librarians said it may be Abu-Jaber’s breakout. It’s also a September Indie Next Pick. Early reviews are uniformly positive. PW says, ” Abu-Jaber’s effortless prose, fully fleshed characters, and a setting that reflects the adversity in her protagonists’ lives come together in a satisfying and timely story.”

Sanctus by Simon Toyne (HarperCollins; Blackstone Audio Books; HarperLuxe) is the first in a projected trilogy of thrillers in the Dan Brown tradition, about an ancient sect of monks on a mountain near the fictional Turkish city of Ruin, who have been protecting a secret since before the Christian era. Kirkus says, “One hopes for a more tightly structured narrative next time around, but the right ingredients are all here.” The announced first printing is 100,000 copies.

Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman (Ace; Blackstone Audio) is a debut horror novel about a college professor-turned-would be author who comes face to face with his past and a violent family secret at his family’s rural Southern estate. Library Journal‘s Barbara Hoffert was strong on this one in her BEA summary, and the LJ review calls it “a creepy, suspenseful, and well-crafted debut.”

I Married You for Happiness  by Lily Tuck (Atlantic Monthly; author’s backlist on OverDrive) is a wife’s reflections on her 42 years of marriage to her mathematician husband, set on the night of his death. It’s Tuck’s first book since she won the National Book Award in 2004 for The News from Paraguay. Kirkus says, “Does the couple’s mutual happiness provide a Hegelian synthesis? Not quite, though Tuck’s crisp writing is a joy.”

Usual Suspects

Second Nature: A Love Story by Jacquelyn Mitchard (Random House; Center Point Large Print; author’s backlist on OverDrive) explores the tumultuous life of a woman whose beauty is lost–then restored–after a fire.

Prey: A Novel by Linda Howard (Ballantine; Random House Audio; Thorndike; author’s backlist on OverDrive) follows rival Montana wilderness guides forced to cooperate against a killer on their trail.

Dark Predator by Christine Feehan (Berkley; Penguin Audiobooks; author’s backlist on OverDrive ) continues the supernatural Carpathian series.

The Race: An Isaac Bell Adventure by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott (Penguin; Penguin Audiobooks; Thorndike; author’s backlist on OverDrive) is a mystery set in the early days of aviation featuring Bell, chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency.

Young Adult

Shelter: A Mickey Bolitar Novel by Harlan Coben (Putnam Juvenile; author’s backlist on OverDrive) takes place after Mickey witnesses his father’s death, his mom goes to rehab, and he’s forced to live with his estranged uncle Myron and switch high schools. This is Coben’s first YA novel.

Nonfiction

That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Macmillan Audio; Thorndike Large Print) outlines the four major problems the U.S. is not grappling with: globalization, infotech shake-up, out-of-control energy consumption, and lasting deficits.

Living Beyond Your Feelings: Controlling Emotions So They Don’t Control You by Joyce Meyer (FaithWords; Hachette Audio; author’s backlist on OverDrive) is a Biblical take on managing emotions. PW says, “Meyer focuses on learning to think biblically, speak biblically, and then see lives and emotions transformed. Her many fans will not feel disappointed in her latest work.”

The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944-1945 by Ian Kershaw (Penguin Press; author’s backlist on OverDrive) is an examination of the last year of the Third Reich as it struggled to survive the dual challenge of defeating the Soviets coming from the East and the Allies advancing from the West, by one of the foremost experts on WWII, Hitler and Nazism. PW says, “Kershaw’s comprehensive research, measured prose, and commonsense insight combine in a mesmerizing explanation of how and why Nazi Germany chose self-annihilation.”

The Arrogant Years: One Girl’s Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn by Lucette Lagnado (Ecco) is the author’s exploration of her mother’s upbringing in Cairo and her own in Brooklyn, New York. In a starred review, Booklist said, “Lagnado is spellbinding and profoundly elucidating in this vividly detailed and far-reaching family memoir of epic adversity and hard-won selfhood.” This one was also presented at the Editors Buzz Panel at ALA Annual New Orleans. A section about Lagnado’s mother working in the cataloging dept of Brooklyn P.L. is poignant. In the beginning, the work gives her a liberating new sense of self, but a new supervisor removes all the joy from the job.

The first major debut of the season, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, (Ballantine/RH, 8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike), hit the 9/1 Indie Hardcover Fiction list at #11. It’s also on the forthcoming 9/11 (yes, that is the date) NYT Print Fiction Hardcover list, but further down, at #19.

As we wrote last week, consumer reviews, while mixed, gave hints that it will be a hit.

Library holds are growing.

Also on the Indie list is Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton; Penguin Audio; Thorndike Large Print; audio & eBook, OverDrive), the first in the Danish bestselling author’s Department Q crime fiction series and the first of his books to be published in the US. It arrives at #9 and at #30 on the NYT list. PW gave this this one a starred review, saying “Stieg Larsson fans will be delighted.” Library holds are light so far.

Showing an even greater discrepency, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive) has been #4 on the Indie list for 4 weeks, but is at #17 on the NYT. Reviews have been strong. The San Francisco Chronicle best captures the book’s appeal, “Even the most jaded New Yorker can see the beauty in Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility, the antiqued portrait of an unlikely jet set making the most of Manhattan.”

Libraries are showing heavy holds.

If today’s date isn’t enough of a hint, USA Today’s fall books preview makes it clear that publishing’s biggest season is around the corner.

Below are links to the various features in the section (also check our  links on the right side of the page, for fall books previews from other sources):

Fall Books Calendar — jackets of the “season’s notable books,” by pub date (flash cards for readers advisors!)

Buzz Books — USA Today‘s editors’ picks, by category (but, don’t believe them that Gregory Maguire’s Out of Oz, Morrow, 11/1 one-day laydown, is “Kid’s Stuff”).

Plus stories about specific titles:

Wondrous world of Wonderstruck — It’s a big fall for Brian Selznick, with his new book, Wonderstruck (Scholastic, 9/13) and the release of Martin Scorsese’s first family film, Hugo, based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It arrives in theaters on 11/23. VIDEO: 5 questions with Brian Selznick

From orchids to Rin Tin Tin — What a combination; Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief and the world’s most beloved dog. We’ve said it before, Rin Tin Tin (S&S, 9/27) will be THE narrative nonfiction title of the fall. An excerpt appears in the 8/25 issue of The New Yorker.  VIDEO: Susan Orlean chats about her work

Reaching back in new thriller — Oy; that headline is SUCH a terrible pun. Lee Child talks about his next Jack Reacher title, The Affair, (Delacorte/RH, 9/27) which explores the character’s backstory. He again defends the choice of  Tom Cruise as Reacher in the movie of One Shot (we’re guessing that Cruise is hating the new attention this is bringing to his height). We have a while to see how that pans out; the movie is scheduled for 2/8/2013. More on that issue on Child’s web site.

He’s in the zombie Zone — Colson Whitehead does zombies? USA Today says his Zone One (Doubleday, 10/18) is a “a subtle meditation on loss and love in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan.” VIDEO: 5 questions with Colson Whitehead.