Archive for January, 2012

AN AVAILABLE MAN on Fresh Air

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Hilma Wolitzer’s new novel got a strong review from Fresh Air‘s Maureen Corrigan yesterday, calling it a “droll novel of manners” (the publisher compares it to the word-of-mouth success, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand). As a result, the book up to #381 (from #1,251) on Amazon sales rankings. Several libraries are showing holds as high as 10 to 1.

An Available Man
Hilma Wolitzer
Retail Price: $25.00
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: RH/Ballantine – (2012-01-24)
ISBN / EAN: 9780345527547/0345527542

AudioGo; ebook and audio on OverDrive

GalleyChatters at Midwinter

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

GalleyChat regulars sported their new GalleyChat buttons at ALA Midwinter. Below in the Macmillan booth,

Standing, from L to R — Talia Sherer, Macmillan Library Marketing, mugging for the camera; Stephanie Chase, Multnomah PL; Ali Fisher, Macmillan Library Marketing.

Seated, Alene Moroni, King County P.L.

Our next GalleyChat is Tues., Feb. 7 at 4 p.m., Eastern, (social networking begins at 3:30).

We’re also debuting a YA GalleyChat on Feb. 14 at 4 p.m., Eastern, with a get-to-know each other session at 3:30. How-to here.

If you join five or more sessions, you are eligible for your very own button.

JOHN CARTER Plays the Super Bowl

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Yesterday, we wrote that this year’s Super Bowl ads bring new twists; advertisers are using social media both to tease the ads and to make them interactive.

A good example of both trends just appeared on the interwebs; a teaser trailer for the longer Super Bowl teaser trailer (calling M. C. Escher!) of the movie John Carter (based on the first book in the classic series by Edgar Rice Burroughs). The interactive part is signaled by voice-over proclaiming, “For a chance to win tickets to next year’s Super Bowl, look for the exclusive code in the John Carter commercial at this year’s big game!” Viewers can then rush to their computers, pick up their tablets or smart phones to enter the code.

Clearly Disney is pulling out all the stops for John Carter. The first trailer had a “world premiere”  on Good Morning America, in early December.

The movie arrives on March 9, with a wide range of tie-ins. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic pulp fiction John Carter series, also referred to as the Barsoom series, predates his Tarzan series, and was the basis of several graphic novels. The series began with A Princess of Mars, which was first published as a book in 1917 and is the basis for the movie.

There are numerous movie tie-ins (including coloring and activity books, indicating it’s expected to attract kids).

Disney Book Group is releasing a novelization, which also includes the original text of A Princess of Mars, for ages 13 and up.

John Carter: The Movie Novelization: Also includes: A Princess of Mars
Stuart Moore, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Retail Price: $9.99
Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: Disney Editions – (2012-02-07)
ISBN / EAN: 1423165586 / 9781423165583

Marvel is releasing a “prequel” (ages “13 to 99” — if you’re 100 or over, you’re out of luck),

John Carter: World Of Mars
Peter David
Retail Price: $14.99
Paperback: 112 pages
Publisher: Marvel – (2012-02-15)
ISBN / EAN: 0785160418 / 9780785160410

Plus a new graphic novel version (also ages “13 to 99”),

John Carter: A Princess of Mars (John Carter of Mars)
Roger Langridge
Retail Price: $14.99
Paperback: 120 pages
Publisher: Marvel – (2012-02-15)
ISBN / EAN: 0785160426 / 9780785160427

Aimed at collectors, Marvel is also releasing a pricey omnibus of various classic 1970’s graphic novels based on the series, (ages “13 to 99”),

John Carter, Warlord of Mars Omnibus
Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, Peter Gillis, Bill Mantlo
Retail Price: $99.99
Hardcover: 632 pages
Publisher: Marvel – (2012-02-22)
ISBN / EAN: 0785159908 / 9780785159902

Disney Book Group is releasing collections of the original novels (the series is in the public domain, so there are several other editions as well as audio versions available. Ebook versions are available from OverDrive.)

Collected John Carter of Mars, The (A Princess of Mars, Gods of Mars, and Warlord of Mars)
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Retail Price: $16.99
Paperback: 768 pages
Publisher: Disney Editions – (2012-02-07)
ISBN / EAN: 1423154266 / 9781423154266

Other volumes in the series are:

Collected John Carter of Mars, The (Swords of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, Llana

Collected John Carter of Mars, The (Thuvia, Maid of Mars; The Chessmen of Mars

Disney is also realeasing an “art of the movie” tie-in,

Art of Disney John Carter, The (Introduction by Andrew Stanton / Afterword by Ryan Church): A Visual Journey
Josh Kushins
Retail Price: $50.00
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Disney Editions – (2012-03-06)
ISBN / EAN: 1423154924 / 9781423154921

Terry Brooks’ LANDOVER Series to Movies

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Terry Brooks announced on his blog yesterday that Warner Brothers has optioned his Magic Kingdom of Landover series. He cautions, however, that he’s been down this route before with no result. As he said in his 2009 holiday letter, Universal had the rights to the series until April of 2010, but it went nowhere. Warner has had an option on his Shannara series for a while. In that case, a director was hired, but then moved on.

He seems more hopeful about Warner’s plans for The Magic Kingdom. He says there has been interest from “a major actor” and a screen writer is working on the adaptation, giving  “reason to believe after talking to the principals that this time we have more than words to suggest something might really happen.”

The first book in the series is Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! (RH/Del Rey, 1986).

Pennie Picks THE SNOW CHILD

Monday, January 30th, 2012

One of our New Title Radar “Watch Titles” for this week, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, just received an influential endorsement; the Costco book buyer, Pennie Clark Ianniciello, features the debut novel as her pick in the February newsletter, saying the author has “found a lovely balance between the harsh reality of life in 1920s Alaska and the lush dreaminess of a fairy tale.”

It also received a bookseller endorsement in the UK. It is one of  bookstore chain Waterstones’ annual pick of forthcoming debut titles expected to win literary prizes and large sales. According to the Guardian, the most talked-about book on that list is Chad Harbach’s Art of Fielding, which was just released in the UK, despite concern that British readers will have difficulty with the book’s baseball references.

The Snow Child
Eowyn Ivey
Retail Price: $11.99
Hardcover: 401 pages
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books – (2012-02-10)
ISBN / EAN: 0316175676/9780316175678

Thorndike Large Print

 

No HUNGER GAMES at the Super Bowl

Monday, January 30th, 2012

UPDATE: Lionsgate will air a new Hunger Games teaser — not during the Super Bowl, but during the pregame (it’s so much fun trying to keep up with this).

Here’s the teaser for the teaser:

Did you know that the Super Bowl ads are a predictor of the economy? According to the San Francisco Chronicle, there will be more automobile ads this year and the first real estate ad in two decades, indicating that advertisers, at least, think consumers are ready to spend on big-ticket items. And social media has taken hold. No longer content to just create and run a memorable spot, advertisers are leaking teasers online and embedding URL’s so viewers, with tablets, laptops and iPhones in hand as they watch the game, can join contests and share favorite clips with friends.

But one business seems to be pulling back. Last year, movie studios ran ads for 15 films, including 5 based on books or comic books. The L.A. Times‘ roundup of studio advertising this year mentions only 4 spots, with just one based on a book (Disney may use its spot to promote John Carter, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, RH/Modern Library).

Lionsgate is sitting out this Super Bowl, so fans of Hunger Games will not be treated to a new trailer (the latest one, below, was released in mid November). That may be a good thing. Promotion via social media, has been so heavy that some media observers wonder if all that bloggingTweeting, FacebookingGoogling, and YouTubing is just too much.

Sex in Old Hollywood

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Rising on Amazon’s sales rankings (now at #30) as a result of a story in the “Fashion and Style” section of Sunday’s New York Times is a book by a man who reportedly ran, “a type of prostitution ring for gay and bisexual men in the film industry, including A-listers like Cary Grant, George Cukor and Rock Hudson, and even arranged sexual liaisons for actresses like Vivien Leigh and Katharine Hepburn.” Now 88 years old, Scotty Bowers is about to release his “ribald memoir,” Full Service.

Turned down by most of the large NY publishers, it is being published by Grove Press, which has a history of publishing books others wouldn’t (fifty years ago, Grove’s published Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, as noted in a review of a book about Miller in Sunday’s NYT Book Review).

Full Service was not reviewed pre-pub and just a handful of libraries own it.

Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars
Scotty Bowers
Retail Price: $20.00
Hardcover: 305 pages
Publisher: Grove Press – (2012-02-14)
ISBN: 9780802120076

No Morning TV for Newbery/Caldecott Winners

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

A long-standing tradition was broken last year. The winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Awards were not invited to appear on the Today Show the day after the announcements. They were snubbed again this year, despite ALA’s efforts to reach out to the shows, as reported by Publishers Weekly.

It’s beginning to seem that the 2009 appearance, below, will be the last one.

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

The winners were not overlooked by NPR, however, which featured an interview with Caldecott medalist Chris Raschka on All Things Considered. Newbery medalist Jack Gantos appeared on NPR’s comedy show, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! on Saturday.

As for the Today Show, it did feature a children’s title this week. On Wednesday, Henry Winkler talked about the debut of Zero to Hero, (Scholastic, Jan 1)the first book in his new Ghost Buddy series. Despite the attention, it currently falls far below the Newbery and Caldecott medalists on Amazon sales rankings.

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

NPR’s Backseat Book Club Feb Pick

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Author Christopher Paul Curtis appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered to discuss his book, The Watson Go to Birmingham – 1963, (RH/Yearling, 1995), the January pick for The Back Seat Book Club (a club for the kids who hear NPR from that spot as they are being ferried from place to place).

For February, the Club is featuring two titles, published over fifty years apart, but with a similar theme; the prejudice that kids from other countries face from their American school mates.
 
The classic The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (HMH), about a young Polish girl who is mercilessly teased, was published in 1944 and won a Newbery Honor. Shooting Kabul  by N. H. Senzai, (S&S, Paula Wiseman), the story of an 11-year-old who moves to California from Kabul, came out in 2010.
 
In addition to inviting questions from kids, NPR also invites them to send in photos of the places and people they love (the boy in Shooting Kabul finds solace in photography). Selected photos will be featured on the NPR web site.

 

John Green on NPR

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

YA author John Green, currently in the midst of a 17-city book tour, was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, talking about his new book, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton; Brilliance Audio), which debuted at #1 on the NYT children’s chapter books best seller list in its first week on sale.

If you’ve heard Green speak, or watched his frenetic vlog, you’ll wonder who suggested that he slow down for NPR.

During his tour, he appeared at ALA Midwinter and at the Dallas Public Library, as part of a fundraiser for the Freedom to Read Foundation, saying controversial things like  people should pay taxes, teachers should be allowed to teach and librarians to select books.

More Flavia de Luce

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

   

Fans of Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series were treated to two new titles last year (A Red Herring Without Mustard and a Christmas title, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows). A short story by Bradley was also included in the collection, A Study in Sherlock.

So, it may seem like a wait until the next book — no new titles are listed for either spring or summer. However, Bradley’s web site indicates that two titles are in the works (Seeds of Antiquity and The Nasty Light of Day). Publishers Marketplace reports that an additional book, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, is scheduled for 2013 and four more titles about the eleven-year-old British sleuth have just been signed by Kate Miciak at Bantam.

The first title in the series appeared just two years ago, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. It was chosen by independent booksellers as their top title on the May Indie Next list of that year. It went on to appear on the NYT extended bestseller list.

Reviewers have said Bradley has the ability to make each new book at least as good as the one before. They will have many more opportunities to test that theory.

KAYAK MORNING on PBS News Hour

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Roger Rosenblatt appeared on PBS NewsHour last night to talk about his new book, Kayak Morning, (HarperCollins/Ecco, trade pbk original, Jan 3), the follow-up to his moving memoir, Making Toast, about picking up the pieces after his daughter’s sudden death at 38.

Watch Conversation: Roger Rosenblatt’s ‘Kayak Morning’ on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Morpurgo to Give Arbuthnot Honor Lecture

Friday, January 27th, 2012

The book War Horse by Michael Morpurgo is now a best seller, thanks to the long-running play in London and on Broadway, and Steven Spielberg’s movie. Today’s NYT Arts Beat blog quotes the author saying that before the adaptations, “It simply was not a book that anyone really knew about or cared about,” selling just 25,000 copies in its first 25 years. The play brought sales of 950,000 copies and the movie put it at #1 on the NYT Children’s paperback list, where it has remained for the last seven weeks (it rose as high as #17 on the USA Today general list).

Now Morpurgo and his book are getting even more attention. ALA has announced that the author, who is the Children’s Laureate in the UK, will deliver the 2013 Arbuthnot Lecture. Applications for hosting the lecture will be available this spring on the ALSC Web  site.

War Horse: (Movie Cover)
Michael Morpurgo
Retail Price: $8.99
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2011-11-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0545403359 / 9780545403351

New Title Radar – Week of Jan 30

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Next week brings three debuts to watch – about the Korean immigrant experience, an Alaskan couple longing for a child in 1920, and a Romanian Jewish village in 1939 – plus two well-reviewed thrillers by authors steadily building their audiences, Daniel Palmer and William Landay. Usual suspects include Robert Harris, Kristin Hannah and Shannon Hale  – while Elizabeth George delivers a Christian devotional for moms.

Debuts to Watch

Drifting House by Krys Lee (Penguin/Viking; Thorndike Large Print) is a debut novel portraying the Korean immigrant experience from the postwar era to contemporary times. Library Journal says, “Readers in search of exquisite short fiction beyond their comfort zone—groupies of Jhumpa Lahiri (Unaccustomed Earth) and Yoko Tawada (Where Europe Begins) — will thrill to discover Lee’s work.”

 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (Hachette/Little,Brown/Reagan Arthur; Thorndike Large Print) is a debut novel about a couple struggling in their marriage, who arrive in Alaska in 1920. Longing for children, they build a child out of snow that’s gone the next morning, though they glimpse a small girl running through the trees. Kirkus calls it “a fine first novel,” saying “the book’s tone throughout has a lovely push and pull–Alaska’s punishing landscape and rough-hewn residents pitted against Faina’s charmed appearances–and the ending is both surprising and earned.”

No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (Penguin/Riverhead) is set in a remote Jewish village in Romania in 1939, as war closes in. At the suggestion of an 11-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. Library Journal says “debut novelist Ausubel has written a riveting, otherworldly story about an all-too-real war and the transformative power of community.”

Rising Thrillers

Helpless by Daniel Palmer (Kensington; Brilliance Audio) is the followup to the author’s acclaimed debut Delirious, the story of an award-winning coach accused of murder. (Palmer, by the way, is the son of bestselling author Michael Palmer.) LJ says, “Palmer scores again with a terrific thriller that has it all—murder, drugs, kidnapping, techno-mayhem, romance, manly ex-Navy SEAL exploits, and a burgeoning father-daughter relationship.”

Defending Jacob by William Landay (RH/Delacorte; Blackstone Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is the latest from the author of The Strangler and the award-winning Mission Flats. It features Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber, who is shocked to find his 14 year-old son Jacob charged with the murder of a fellow student. Library Journal raves, “this brilliant novel …  is equal parts legal thriller and dysfunctional family saga, culminating in a shocking ending. Skillful plotting and finely drawn characters result in a haunting story reminiscent of Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent.”

Usual Suspects

The Fear Index by Robert Harris (RH/Knopf; Random House Audio). Author Harris has successfully moved from alternate history to ancient history to WWII thrillers and contemporary stories and now a techno-thriller about an artificial intelligence project with a mind of its own. Library Journal says this “outstanding thriller… will kindle readers’ minds from the first page. Get ready to enjoy a brilliant integration of fascinating research, compelling themes, and vivid characterization.” It will be in the media next week, including a feature on NPRs “Morning Edition.” A movie is in the works, directed by Paul Greengrass, with Harris writing the screenplay.

Home Front by Kristin Hannah (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Center Point Large Print; Macmillan Audio) is the story of a couple whose growing distance is twisted by the wife’s unexpected deployment to Iraq. Publishers Weekly says “by reversing traditional expectations, Hannah calls attention to the modern female soldier and offers a compassionate, poignant look at the impact of war on family.”

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury) is a sequel to the bestselling Austenland (2007), in which another contemporary American plays Regency heroine at Pembrook Park. PW says, “though a tacked-on romance and some flimsy plot twists strain credibility… Hale provides a welcome, witty glimpse of a side of Austen rarely explored in the many contemporary riffs on her work.” A movie of the first title wrapped filming this summer, with Stephenie Meyer (Twilight Saga) producing.

Nonfiction

A Mom After God’s Own Heart Devotional by Elizabeth George (Harvest House Publishers) draws from the author’s bestselling books, radio spots and podcasts, along with scripture, to provide devotionals to guide mothers in parenting.

 

 

 

NERDS To the Movies

Friday, January 27th, 2012

    

Elton John’s production company, Rocket Pictures, has purchased the best selling children’s fiction series, Nerds (Abrams/Amulet), reports Deadline. The books are about five nerdy kids who happen to be secret agents (or, as author Michael Buckley describes the characters, “James Bond with asthma”) .

The most recent title in the series, NERDS Book Three: The Cheerleaders of Doom came out in September. Elton John’s company has had experience with adaptations, having produced Gnomeo and Juliet.