Lawrence Lessig, best known to librarians for his work on copyright, also founded RootStrikers.org (previously, Fix Congress First!), a web site aimed at reducing the influence of money on politics. His latest book is Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–And a Plan to Stop It, (Hachette/Twelve, Oct). He will appear on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Tuesday.

On a quite different note, Food Network host, Anne Burrell (Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and Worst Cooks in America) and author of Cook Like a Rock Star: 125 Recipes, Lessons and Culinary Secrets (RH/Clarkson Potter, Oct) appears on the show tonight.

On Tuesday, Comedy Central’s Colbert Report features journalist Mark Whitaker, author of My Long Trip Home, (S&S, Oct), a memoir that examines his parent’s lives and marriage. Whitaker describes the marriage as “doubly scandalous;” they were not only an interracial couple in the 1950’s, but the relationship began when Whitaker’s white mother was his African-American father’s professor at Swarthmore. Below, Whitaker describes the book.

Among the few books that land next week, there’s a debut thriller by the creators of the TV show ER, Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene, plus new titles from Jo Nesbo and Tom Clancy, and a memoir by U.S. Marine Mike Dowling about his patrols on the streets of Iraq with his bomb-sniffing dog.

Watch List

Kill Switch by Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene (Kensington; Blackstone Audio) is a debut thriller by the Emmy Award-winning creators of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and ER. The protagonist is New York City forensic psychiatrist Claire Waters, who has always been drawn to “untreatable” patients seemingly without conscience or fear. Kirkus says, “The investigative narrative is workmanlike but tolerable, much like the rerun of a TV serial. It’s toward the end, as Claire confronts the killer who abducted her childhood friend and the primary plot becomes a Fugitive-style medical mystery, that this novel starts to lose its edge.”

Usual Suspects

The Leopard by Jo Nesbø (Knopf; Random House Large Print; Random House Audio) finds Inspector Harry Hole deeply traumatized by the Snowman investigation and lost in the squalor of Hong Kong’s opium dens. But when a series of women are murdered in a mountain hostel, he agrees to return to Oslo to investigate. Kirkus says, “Nesbø’s formula includes plenty of participation by Kaja, a very capable woman, and plenty of current geopolitical backdrop, making Nesbø a worthy mysterian-cum-social-critic in the Stieg Larsson tradition… taut, fast-paced thriller with wrenching twists and turns.”

Locked On by Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney (Putnam; Thorndike Press Large Print; Brilliance Audio) brings together Jack Ryan, his son, Jack Jr., John Clark Ding Chavez and the rest of the Campus team as Jack Sr. runs for President of the United States again. But he doesn’t anticipate the treachery of his opponent.

Nonfiction

Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog by Mike Dowling (Atria Books) is the true story of a U.S. Marine and his German Shepherd Rex, a bomb-sniffing dog on the streets of Iraq’s most dangerous city. PW says, “Despite some tense moments and close calls, this deeply affecting tale of courage and devotion in the cauldron of war has a happy ending.”

The ninety-something P.D. James decided to take a break from her Adam Dalgliesh novels and try her hand at a murder mystery featuring characters by her favorite novelist, Jane Austen. She spoke to NPR this morning about the resulting book, Death Comes to Pemberley, (RH/Knopf; RH Large Print; RH Audio).

The book has been enjoying strong reviews. Says USA Today, “Countless authors writing in a plethora of genres have tried to re-create Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, but James’ new novel is incomparably perfect.” Michael Dirda, in the Washington Post, calls it “a solidly entertaining period mystery and a major treat for any fan of Jane Austen.”

Libraries are showing heavy holds in some areas. The book came out on Tuesday and has already risen to #20 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

New information about Austen has come to light in the last week. An Austen scholar is pursuing a hypothesis that arsenic poisoning was the cause of Jane’s early death (it was an element in several medications at the time).  Also, a previously unidentified portrait recently emerged, which may be of Austen. The Telegraph, reports the story with the upbeat headline, “Jane Austen wasn’t as ugly as people think.”

Hollywood is wringing its hands over recent box office results. According to the AP, last weekend was “dreary” and was made even worse because it came “after a relatively quiet Thanksgiving holiday at movie theaters, despite analysts’ predictions of potential holiday records because of a great lineup of films.”

Martin Scorsese’s first family movie, Hugo, based on Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret, opened on Thanksgiving and ranked only third last weekend. It was in a limited number of theaters, however. According to the L.A. Times, Paramount is “rolling out the movie slowly in hopes of capitalizing on the movie’s stellar critical reviews and awards buzz.”

Opening this weekend, also with an eye towards the Oscars, is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. While the movie is bringing renewed attention to John le Carre’s famous spy novel, it’s bringing even more to the six-hour 1979 BBC miniseries, starring Alec Guiness, now on DVD (Acorn Media). On Countdown last night, Keith Olbermann raved about it, saying he’s watched at least once every year. Not only does he love it, but, “It is to some degree playing on a permanent loop in my brain.” It also won the recommendation of critic Bob Mondello NPR’s All Things Considered Tuesday.

Libraries show growing holds on the book, and heavier holds on the video.

Surprisingly, Olbermann, says the movie lives up to his beloved BBC version; no mean feat since the film has much less time to present the story.

Olbermann has the advantage of knowing that story so well. The movie news site IndieWire warns that the movie can be confusing and suggests “Befuddled audiences may want to take a second look.”

On the other hand, they could try reading the book.

Official Web site: Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy.com

Tie-in:

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel John le Carre Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2011-10-05) ISBN / EAN: 014312093X / 9780143120933

Continuing my series to help you with the challenge of recommending kids books for holiday gifts, below are my picks of short story collections (what an amazing year it’s been for them), books for Wimpy Kid lovers and some middle grade and YA sleepers.

Coming soon; nonfiction and holiday books.

Short Story Collections

Ages 9 and Up

Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka, illustrations by Brett Helquist, HarperCollins/Walden Pond, $16.99

The Guys Read series is back with a compilation of mystery stories by rock-star authors including M.T. Anderson, Gennifer Choldenko, Bruce Hale, Anthony Horowitz, and James Patterson. These are page-turning tales of pirates, smugglers, and detectives.

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, HMH, $24.99; Brilliance Audio

For a weirdly compelling collection, look no further than The Chronicles of Harris Burdick. In 1984, Van Allsburg produced a book of 14 captioned illustrations, titled The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, using the conceit that each drawing came from a different story. The illustrations are humorous, mysterious, whimsical and at times absurd, with images like a wallpaper bird coming to life and flying out a window. The idea comes full circle in The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, a book of stories inspired by the pictures, written by fourteen authors including Kate DiCamillo, Gregory Maguire, Stephen King, Lois Lowry and Cory Doctorow. Or, maybe not. According to the introduction by Lemony Snicket, the writers will confirm or deny their involvement.

Young Adult

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, includes stories by Garth Nix, Holly Black, Cory Doctorow and Cassandra Clare, Candlewick, $22.99

For Young Adult readers, there’s no better introduction to steampunk than this collection. How do we define this science fiction sub-genre? Is it fantasy set in a parallel world? Or is it science fiction with Victorian manners and modern technologies based on steam engineering? These stories of mad inventors, child inventors, mysterious murders and steampunk fairies are the perfect entry into this fascinating world.

Wimpy Kid Lovers

Tale of a Sixth Grade Muppet by Kirk Scroggs, Hachette/LBYR, $12.99

The Wimpy Kid kids who have already glommed onto The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and its sequel, Darth Paper Strikes Back, (Abrams/Amulet) by Tom Angleberger, will also love Tales of a Sixth Grade Muppet by Kirk Scroggs with the author’s cartoons generously embedded in text.

Middle Grade Sleepers

Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick, Scholastic, $29.99

OK, OK, this is not a sleeper. In fact, it’s on most of the year’s best books lists, but I am including it because it may be overshadowed by Hugo, Scorsese’s movie based on Selznick’s previous title, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. In Wonderstruck, Selznick once again sails into uncharted territory and takes readers on an awe-inspiring journey. Readers young and old will enjoy spotting the inter-textual references to  E. L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

The Falcon Quinn series, Jennifer Finney Boylan, HarperCollins, $16.99

The perfect choice for fans of Harry Potter who think they have read “everything.”  The first title in the series, Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror,  supplies this crowd with everything they want. Protagonist with hidden talent/curse? Check. Strange secluded boarding academy? Check. Developing loyalties? Check. Frighteningly powerful nemesis? Check. Slyly subversive humor? Check. The second volume, Falcon Quinn and the Crimson Vapor arrived in May and the 4th graders are now haunting my doorway for number three.

Ashtown Burials #1: The Dragon’s Tooth, by N. D. Wilson, RH/Random House, $16.99

If I could pick just one title from the avalanche of fantasy novels for ages 10 and up, this would be it. The story centers on twelve-year-old, Cyrus who lives with his sister and teenage brother in a run-down motel. When a mysterious tattooed stranger visits the siblings, the plot takes off like a roller-coaster ride.

YA Sleepers

Blood Red Road, by Moira Young, S&S/McElderry, $17.99; S&S Audio

A mash-up with the heart-pounding violence of Road Warrior crossed with the romance of Fire and Hunger Games, this fat read is for those teens who need to be swept away.

12 Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn, by James Proimos, Macmillan/Roaring Brook, $14.99

David Mitchell’s 2004 novel Cloud Atlas (RH/Doubelday) is so complex that many considered it unfilmable. Financing the film’s $100 million budget is also complex, as explored in by the New York Times on Monday. It’s described as an  “epic independent film too complicated, too expensive and perhaps too risky for any conventional studio to have backed.”

The film has three directors, two separate production crews and the actors play multiple roles. Halle Berry who plays both a Jewish woman in the 1930’s and an “old tribal woman,” admits it is confusing and adds, “It’s sort of like guerrilla filmmaking…Even though there seems like there’s a lot of money, it’s not opulent. All the money’s going into the screen.”

The ensemble cast also includes Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Jim Sturgess and Hugo Weaving. IMDB lists the opening date as Oct. 26, 2012, but that is not confirmed elsewhere.

The surprise YA hit Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books, Jun, 2011) just took one step closer to the big screen. Deadline reports that X-Men screenwriter Jane Goldman will adapt the novel. Tim Burton is still in talks to direct.

Riggs used his personal collection of spooky Victorian photos as an inspiration for the novel. An as-yet-untitled sequel is scheduled for Spring 2013.

In April, HarperCollins will publish selections from Riggs’s collection of antique found photographs, annotated with evocative comments by their original owners.

Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past Ransom Riggs Retail Price: $13.99 Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: It Books/HarperCollins(2012-04-10) ISBN / EAN: 9780062099495, 0062099493

The film of The Help is true to most of Kathryn Stockett’s novel, but its version of the story of maid Minny Jackson ends on a more upbeat note. Tate Taylor directed a scene based on the darker story element, which did not make it to the final cut. It is included as bonus material on the DVD and Blu-ray editions, released yesterday.

Entertainment Weekly features the clip on their “Inside Movies” blog, along with a fascinating interview with actress Octavia Spencer, who talks about how she prepared the young actors playing her children for the scene.

Below is a still, click here to watch the scene and read the interview.

In a statement yesterday, St. Martin’s Press defended The Raven’s Bride by Lenore Hart, which they published in February of this year, from accusations that it plagiarizes passages from Cothburn O’Neal’s 1956 novel, The Very Young Mrs. Poe. They said that any similarities are a result of the fact that both novels are about Edgar Allan Poe’s child bride, Virginia Clemm (via the Associated Press). WorldCat shows that nearly 500 libraries own The Raven’s Bride.

Questions about the two books were raised by British author Jeremy Duns on his blog last month.

Earlier in November, Duns pointed out similarites between Q.R. Markham’s Assassin of Secrets and several other titles, resulting in that book being pulled by Little, Brown a few days after publication. That action was taken before most libraries had received it, so it is available only a few. The New Yorker’s “Book Bench” blog points out that Assassin of Secrets lifts so many passages from other sources that the book is more of a “pastiche or collage, rather than a ‘novel,’ as we properly understand the word” and that Q.R. Markham (the pseudonym for Quentin Rowan), who is a poet and part owner of a bookstore in Williamsburg, a section of Brooklyn, may have consciously perpetrated an elaborate hoax. Markham, himself, blames his actions on his need “to conceal my own voice with the armour of someone else’s words.”

There may be one lesson in the earlier case; the attention caused the book’s sales to skyrocket prior to it being recalled.

Welcome to part three of my annual “Books to Give Kids You Don’t Know Very Well” list, created to help answer perennial questions like, “What should I give my eight-year-old niece in Kansas?” On Friday, I suggested titles for the youngest children and as well as kids who just don’t like books. On Monday, I listed my picks of new picture books. Below are chapter book and family read aloud suggestions. Coming tomorrow, middle grade sleepers.

Chapter Books for Elementary Kids

If you asked the 4th graders at my school for their recommendations, they would encourage you to give series books. Boxed sets are a thrill because children read through these titles like peanuts. The list prices may look daunting, but shop around. They are heavily discounted by many online retailers.

Ages 7 and Up

My Weird School 21-Book Box Set, by Dan Gutman, illustrations by Jim Paillot, HarperCollins, list price $80.

For the kids who are looking for silly fun, these are the books. They are one step up from Captain Underpants. If a kid has already read through these, suggest a move up to the Louis Sachar’s Sideways School series (Scholastic).

Ages 8 and Up

The Secret Series Complete Collection by Pseudonymous Bosch, Little Brown, $80.00.

The readers who have just graduated from Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, have a real treat is in store with this series. You just can’t go wrong with a good mystery, mind-bending puzzles and a snarky narrator.

Ages 9 and Up

Kate McMullan’s Mythomania. Capstone/Stone Arch Books, $5.95 each.

Are the kids wild about Rick Riordan’s Lightning Thief? Give them this series of fractured Greek myth retellings, told from point of view of Hades. Now back in print after an almost ten year absence, they are therefore new to today’s kids. They’re not available as a boxed set, so suggest making their own, starting with Have a Hot Time In Hades!, Phone Home, Persephone!, Say Cheese, Medusa!, and Nice Shot, Cupid!

Family Read Alouds

Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists, Macmillan/First Second, $18.99.

The book’s editors have gathered traditional rhymes like Hickory Dickory Dock, Pat-a-Cake, and the Itsy Bitsy Spider, pairing them with famous graphic artists like Jules Feiffer, George O’Connor and Roz Chast.

Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver, HarperCollins, ages 7 and up, $16.99.

This is an old-fashioned tale of two orphans reminiscent of classics like Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess and Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Liesl must escape the clutches of her evil stepmother and Po is a ghost who is trying to become human. A mystery and a ghost story carefully wrought with deliberate pacing perfect for family read aloud time.

The Flint Heart: a fairy story by John Barstow, retold by Katherine and James Paterson, Candlewick, $19.99.

Originally published in 1910, this humorous fairytale adventure  was almost forgotten because of its archaic language and references. The Patersons rescued it from obscurity with their updated adaptation. John Rocco’s sumptuous art makes this a volume sure to become a family treasure.

Toys Come Home: Being the Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-New Someone Called Plastic, by Emily Jenkins, RH/Schwartz and Wade. Ages 5 and up, $16.99.

Our pals from Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party are back in this prequel where we find out how they all came together with The Girl. As we all know, toys have very busy lives when we aren’t looking. This satisfying story stands alone but once readers have entered its magical world they won’t want to stop until they have read all three books.

With the wide range of books, as well as readers tastes out there, it’s a challenge to pick the top 10 or even the top 100 books of the year. An intrepid few have dared to name ONE book as the best of the year.

The book lovers’ social network site, Good Reads, polled their users for the Goodreads Choice Awards. The YA dystopian novel, Divergent by Veronica Roth, (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegan; Dreamscape audio), is the Favorite Book of 2011, with over 10,000 votes. That must be good news to Summit, the studio currently developing it for the big screen (a rundown of the many dystopian books to movies in the works is available at NextMovie.com). A sequel, Insurgent, is coming in May.

Esquire Magazine singles out The Submission, by Amy Waldman, (FSG; Audio, AudioGo; Large Type, Thorndike) as the Best Book of the Year  from their list of ten. It appears on the NYTs Top 100, but didn’t make the cut to their Top Ten.

We’ve set up links to the major best book lists on the right of the site. For and exhaustive (not to mention exhausting) list of links to hundreds of others, including British lists, check the Largehearted Boy.

This just may make me feel a bit better about some of my own typos:

As always when John Green mentions his upcoming book on his vlog to his brother Hank, it rose to #124 on Amazon’s sales rankings, from #367.

It seems it had no affect on the sales of The Pasta Bible, (JG Press).

The Fault in Our Stars John Green Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Dutton Juvenile – (2012-01-10) ISBN / EAN: 0525478817 / 9780525478812

It seems the movie industry hasn’t gotten the memo that embargoes are meant to be broken. The movie news site, Thompson on Hollywood, reports that “Scott Rudin is pissed. And so is Sony,” because The New Yorker film critic David Denby reviews The Girl with the DragonTattoo, in the current issue, a week ahead of the Dec. 13 embargo.

He calls it a “a bleak but mesmerizing piece of filmmaking [that] offers a glancing, chilled view of a world in which brief moments of loyalty flicker between repeated acts of betrayal.” Just the thing for the holidays.

A new eight-minute trailer for the movie was released on Friday (see it below, or watch a high-res version free at the iTunes store). It opens on 12/21.

Released on the web late yesterday is the second trailer for the film based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s 9/11-themed novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (above, L to R, the movie poster, original and tie-in jackets).

The trailer includes some actual 9/11 footage. The LA Times, reports there are more such scenes in recent test screenings of the movie, as well as an image of Tom Hanks falling through the air. If they make it to the final film, it will be “one of the very few Hollywood productions to deal with the events of Sept. 11, 2001, let alone show scenes from that day.” The two that did — Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center and Paul Greengrass’ United 93, both from 2006 — were not commercial successes.

Starring Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks, with newcomer Thomas Horn as the 9-year-old lead,  Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliott, The Hours and The Reader). It opens on Christmas Day, in an Oscar-qualifying limited run and will open more across the country on January 20th. Max Von Sydow, featured prominently in the trailer, is getting buzz for Best Supporting Actor.

Official Movie site: ExtremelyLoudandIncrediblyClose.WarnerBros.com

Tie-in:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Movie Tie-in Jonathan Safran Foer Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: Mariner Books – (2011-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0547735022 / 9780547735023

UPDATE, 12/21

We’re happy to announce that our annual spreadsheets, rounding up all the titles in the national best books lists, with ISBN’s and information on additional formats — audio, large print, and eformats from OverDrive — are now available for downloading and checking against your collections.

• 2011 Adult Fiction
• 2011 Adult Nonfiction
• 2011 Childrens and Young Adult