Looks like #21 is lucky for author Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti mysteries. Beastly Things, (Atlantic Monthly; Thorndike Large Print; AudioGo), the 21st title   in the series, arrives at #9 on the Indie Bestseller list and at #10 on the NYT Fiction list; the first time Leon has broken in to the top ten.

For those not familiar with the series, long-time fan, NYT mystery columnist, Marilyn Stasio, offers a succinct readers advisory; “Donna Leon is the ideal author for people who vaguely long for a ‘good mystery’. That Leon is also a brilliant writer should only add to the consistently comforting appeal of her Venetian procedurals featuring Commissario Guido Brunneti. Leon allows her warmhearted detective to take what solace he can from the beauty of his city and the homely domestic rituals that give him the strength to go on.”

Leon has also written nonfiction about her adopted home, Venice; book about Venice’s myths and legends, Venetian Curiosities and a book on Venetian cooking, Brunetti’s Cookbook (her fictional detective is an avid cook).

Author’s Web Site: Grove Atlantic/Leon

The AuthorChat with Jean Zimmerman, author of The Orphanmaster is now archived here.

The Orphanmaster is a historical thriller, set in 17th C Manhattan (then New Amsterdam). It’s rich with historical detail that makes the period come alive, based on Jean’s research (she has written several nonfiction titles, including The Women of the House: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune and a Dynasty, Harcourt, 2006).

The Orphanmaster Jean Zimmerman Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2012-06-19) ISBN / EAN: 0670023647 / 9780670023646

If schedules hold, next year will be crowded with movies vying to follow in the footsteps of Harry Potter, Twilight or The Hunger Games. Release dates have been set for six new films (with a possible seventh, based on Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now) plus three sequels to established series, all based on books.

The early spring is particularly crowded, which may be the reason that Summit just moved Ender’s Game, based on the Orson Scott Card book, from March 15 to Nov. 1, 2013, putting it just a few weeks ahead of Catching Fire, the second in The Hunger Games franchise. As Entertainment Weekly comments, the studios apparently “think there’s room in the same month for two dystopian literary adaptations about a group of adolescent children rounded up by a totalitarian government to do battle with each other.”

After the jump, the schedule at this point (for a list of at all the upcoming movies based on books, click on Upcoming Movies Based on Books— with Tie-ins) :

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NPR’s Morning Edition kicks off a new series that takes a “fresh look at American political history,” with recommendations from  historians of the best books about Abraham Lincoln (listen here).

Eric Foner author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, (Norton), recommends:

Lincoln David Herbert Donald Retail Price: $20.00 Paperback: 720 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (1996-11-05) ISBN / EAN: 068482535X / 9780684825359

Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, (S&S) recommends:

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States) James M. McPherson Retail Price: $19.95 Paperback: 952 pages Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA – (2003-12-11) ISBN / EAN: 019516895X / 9780195168952

Hollywood is abuzz over news that Gary Ross, director of The Hunger Games, has bowed out of the sequel, Catching Fire, scheduled for release in November of 2013. In a statement, he says, “As a writer and a director, I simply don’t have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make because of the fixed and tight production schedule.”

The Hollywood Reporter speculated earlier that contract negotiations were not going well.

No replacement has been announced. Stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth will return for the sequel.

Filming for the second Percy Jackson movie, Sea of Monsters, based on Rick Riordan’s middle grade novel (Hyperion), will begin next week in Vancouver, Canada. It’s scheduled for release March 27, 2013.

Hunger Games actress, Leven Rambin, has just been tapped for the role of Clarisse, the daughter of Ares. Logan Lerman will return as Percy, Brandon Jackson as Grover,  and Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth. The director has changed, however. Thor Freudenthal (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hotel for Dogs) is in that role this time, replacing Chris Columbus, who is one of the producers.

A graphic novel version is coming in January.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Sea of Monsters, The: The Graphic Novel Rick Riordan, Robert Venditti Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 128 pages Publisher: Hyperion Book CH – (2013-01-08) ISBN / EAN: 1423145291 / 9781423145295

Many of Stephen King fans are eagerly awaiting his return to the horror genre in Dr. Sleep, the sequel to Carrie, [CORRECTION: As pointed out in comments, Dr. Sleep is the sequel to The Shining] scheduled to be released some time in 2013.

Neil Gaiman profiles him in a story called, of course, “The King and I,” in the Sunday Times Magazine of London (the story is behind their paywall — but it’s available in full here, for those who don’t mind violating copyright — via New York magazine’s “Vulture” blog).

According to Gaiman, King is now at work on a novel titled Joyland, about an amusement park serial killer.

John Grisham takes a break from legal thrillers with his new novel, Calico Joe,(RH/Doubleday), but sticks to the tradition of appearing on The Today Show on the day of the book’s publication (excerpt here). The Washington Post reviewed the book on Friday, calling it, ” a sweet, simple story, a fable really.”

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Grisham returns to the legal thriller in the fall, with The Racketeer, about the murder of a federal judge (note; the cover below is not final).

The Racketeer John Grisham Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: ? pages Publisher: RH/Doubleday – (2012-10-23) ISBN / EAN: 0385535147 / 9780385535144

Carole King wrote her first hit song at age 17 (“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” sung by the Shirelles). She recently turned her writing talents to a longer form, her memoir, A Natural Woman, releasing today. She was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition today as well as on The Today Show (book excerpt here).

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A Natural Woman: A Memoir Carole King Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Hachette/Grand Central – (2012-04-10) ISBN / EAN: 1455512613 / 9781455512614

Thorndike Large Print; Hachette Audio

We don’t often see an art book zoom up Amazon’s sales rankings, so the rise of Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Ito Jakuchu from #1,376 to #109, is remarkable.

The book is the illustrated catalog of an exhibition of the revered 18th C Japanese artist’s work at the National Gallery of Art, featured on the PBS NewsHour last night. The paintings on silk are so fragile that they are rarely displayed.

Watch 18th Century Japanese Scrolls Make Rare U.S. Appearance on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Ito Jakuchu Yukio Lippit Retail Price: $50.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: University Of Chicago Press – (2012-04-15) ISBN / EAN: 0226484602 / 9780226484600

Amazingly, there are no full-length biographies of Mike Wallace, the ground-breaking 60 Minutes journalist who died on Saturday at 93, other than his own two memoirs (Close Encounters, Morrow, 1984 and Between You and Me, Hyperion, 2005).

In a stroke of great timing, an unauthorized biography is on the way. Originally scheduled for publication on April 24th, the publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of Macmillan/St. Martin’s, announced that it will be released early,  this coming Friday, April 14 (via The Hollywood Reporter).

The Daily Beast today offers a summary, “Mike Wallace Reconsidered: 6 Revelations From a New Biography.”

It was reviewed favorably by Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, which concluded,

Rader’s revelations about Wallace go to some pretty impressive psychological depths…[his] portrait is of the classic American workaholic, one whose burning ambition and freakishly tireless work ethic were fueled by massive insecurities and existential crises. Bold, well-crafted biography of a long-elusive and controversial public figure.

Mike Wallace: A Life Peter Rader Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books – (2012-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 0312543395 / 9780312543396

Thorndike large print

Greg Mortenson, the author of Three Cups of Tea, will step down from his position as executive director of the charity he founded, the Central Asia Institute, and will repay $1 million, as a result of a  yearlong investigation by the Montana attorney general. The Associated Press reports that the attorney general found “Mortenson had little aptitude for record keeping or personnel management.” He will continue to work for the organization and to speak on its behalf.

Questions about Mortenson’s running of the charity were first raised by CBS 60 Minutes and author Jon Krakauer.

CBS Sunday Morning celebrates the 50th anniversary of the classic children’s title, The Phantom Tollbooth, with a profile of the author and the illustrator.

The segment, which aired yesterday, sent various editions of the book up the Amazon’s sales rankings. The hardcover rose to #12.

A fiftieth anniversary edition was published recently, with essays of appreciation, including one by Suzanne Collins. It’s currently at #22 on Amazon.

The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition Norton Juster Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers – (2011-10-25) ISBN / EAN: 0375869034 / 9780375869037

Ron Rash’s The Cove, goes on sale next week, but critics have already been vying to review the latest novel from the author of the acclaimed Serena. Two buzzed-about debuts will also arrive: Regina O’Melveny‘s historical novel The Book of Madness and Cures and Patrick Flanery‘s exploration of contemporary South Africa Absolution, plus a new novel from Katherine Howe.  Usual suspects include John Grisham, Seth Grahame-Smith and Barbara Taylor Bradford. In nonfiction, there are new books from economist and foodie Tyler Cowen, Brad Meltzer and Edward O. Wilson.

BOOK OF THE WEEK

The Cove by Ron Rash (Harper/Ecco; Thorndike Large Print) features a love affair doomed by the turmoil of WWI, set in Appalachia. Critics have been competing to review it early: People gives it 4 out of 4 stars, saying “In Rash’s skilled hands, even farm chores take on a meditative beauty” and Entertainment Weekly gives it a straight A. However, the Washington Post‘s Ron Charles expresses disappointment: “Maybe anything Ron Rash published after Serena would seem pale… Only at the very end do these pages ignite, and suddenly we’re racing through a conflagration of violence that no one seems able to control except Rash.” The New York Times‘ Janet Maslin also doesn’t find it as good as the ” dazzling” Serena. In any case, the attention offers readers advisors the opportunity to lead people to the earlier book, which is being made into a movie, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

WATCH LIST

The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O’Melveny (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is a debut novel about a female doctor in 16th-century Italy that is one of BookPage’s most-buzzed about releases. As the Boston Globe‘s early review notes: “Women physicians playing the sleuth in hostile terrain have been a burgeoning club in the recent field of fiction, led by popular new works from Ann Patchett and Téa Obreht…. [This] story makes for a confounding hybrid, one that speaks to devotees of high-end historical romance from one side of its mouth and the fan base of Dr. Oliver Sacks from the other.”

Absolution by Patrick Flanery (Penguin/Riverhead) is a debut about a celebrated novelist in contemporary Cape Town, South Africa who believes she betrayed her anti-apartheid activist sister. It’s part literary detective story, part portrait of an uncertain society new to freedom. LJ notes that the author, an American living in London, has been called “the next J.M. Coetzee,” and declares that this “assured, atmospheric novel perfectly reflects the tenuous trust being forged among South Africans as they look to the future.”

The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe (Hyperion Books; Hyperion Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is a historical mystery with a romantic twist by the author of the 2009 debut hit The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Set in Boston in 1915, Boolklist says, “it offers a poignant look at spiritualism during the Great War and the comfort it brought to people who had lost loved ones.” LJ recommends it  for fans of Tracy Chevalier and Diana Gabaldon.

USUAL SUSPECTS

Calico Joe by John Grisham (RH/Doubleday; Random House Large Print; Random House Audio) is a baseball-themed book timed for the opening of the season.  Booklist calls it  “a solid baseball story but one that never delivers the emotional payoff readers will expect.”

Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio) is the latest from the “master of the mashup,” as the Wall Street Journal calls him in a long feature today. Not so much a mashup, this new title plays with history, turning the Three Kings into escaped thieves who happen upon the manger and reluctantly help the Holy family escape to Egypt.  Entertainment Weekly calls it “a fantasy action-adventure akin to fusing Game of Thrones with the Gospel of Luke…Grahame-Smith’s depiction of sacred figures as flawed humans that makes the book feel like a secret account of events that have been sanitized by legend.” Following in the footsteps of the author’s other books, this one has been optioned for the movies. The 3-D film based on his Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter arrives in theaters in June.

Letter from a Stranger by Barbara Taylor Bradford (St. Martin’s Press; Center Point Large Print; Macmillan Audio) is another of the author’s signature multigenerational novel. PW says, “Gardens, food, clothing, and accessories – everything in Bradford’s world shows taste. If the plot turns simplistic at times, loyal fans will still tear up at the descriptions of enduring friendship and familial love.”

YOUNG ADULT

The Calling (Darkness Rising Series #2) by Kelley Armstrong (HarperCollins) is the second installment in a teen fantasy series. Booklist says, “the lightning-fast plot leaves little room for character development, and Armstrong keeps the focus on the motion rather than the emotion while paving the way for the series finale. Fans of the first book, The Gathering (2011), won’t find any reason not to stay on board.”

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (Mysterious Benedict Society Series) by Trenton Lee Stewart (Hachette/LBYR; Listening Library) is a prequel to the popular series, focusing on the backstory of the narcoleptic genius founder of the Mysterious Benedict Society. Booklist says, “The novel is long, true, but many readers will find themselves reluctant to reach the end; and while Stewart leaves an opening for sequels about Nicholas as a child, this invigorating novel stands on its own.”

NONFICTION

An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies by Tyler Cowen (RH/Dutton) is a gastronomic treatise by an economist best known for The Great Stagnation. PW says, “Cowen writes like your favorite wised-up food maven, folding encyclopedic knowledge and piquant food porn… into a breezy, conversational style; the result is mouth-watering food for thought.” According to Forbes, Cowen is “America’s hottest economist” (remember when that would have been an oxymoron?). Maybe it’s true; he’s spoken at TED. FastCompany recently listed a few of his intriguing “new rules.”

Heroes for My Daughter by Brad Meltzer (Harper) is a compilation by the popular thriller author, of stories of 55 people who dedicated their lives to improving the world, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Amelia Earhart, Anne Frank to Randy Pausch, Theodore Roosevelt to Lucille Ball, Rosa Parks to the passengers on United Flight 93. His Heroes for My Son was published in 2010.

The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson (Norton) is the Pulitzer Prize winning Harvard scientist’s answer to life’s big questions; “Where did we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” Kirkus says, “Group selection–as opposed to kin selection, i.e., the ‘selfish gene’ a la Richard Dawkins–is the author’s big idea…Wilson succeeds in explaining his complex ideas, so attentive readers will receive a deeply satisfying exposure to a major scientific controversy.”

It’s been on-again, off-again for the movie of City of Bones, the first book in YA series, Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. A release date of Aug, 23, 2013 was just announced, signaling that the project is finally moving forward.

Lily Collins (daughter of singer Phil Collins and now starring in Mirror Mirror) has signed to play teenager Clary Fray, directed by Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid).