Are two versions of Charles Dickens’ beloved classic, Great Expectations, too many in one year? Perhaps not, since 2012 is also the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth. The BBC series appeared earlier this year on PBS and the film version is about to be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. Both feature the youngest actresses to ever play Miss Havisham.

Called “a cougar rather than a crone,” the 43-year-old Gillian Anderson played the role for BBC. The film Havisham is portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, who is just two years older (Anderson in the role on the left, below; Bonham Carter on the right).

The international trailer has just been released, with German subtitles. No news yet on when it will appear in US theaters.

UPDATE: the trailer has been removed. Until it reappears, here is the one for the 1946, David Lean version.

Author Peter Heller knows what it’s like to jump into a kayak and wonder if he’ll live to do it again. No surprise, then, that he writes adventure pieces for magazines like Outside, National Geographic Adventure and Men’s Journal and that his nonfiction sports titles like Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave and Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet’s Tsangpo River. 

The Dog Stars Peter Heller Retail Price: Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: RH/Knopf – (2012-08-07) ISBN / EAN: 9780307959942, 0307959945

RH Audio

Sawyer interviewed Woodward for his 2010 book, “Obama’s Wars”

As is typical for celebrity journalist Bob Woodward, his next book has had no title or description until now, less than a month before publication, ensuring focused media attention.

The Price of Politics will be published on Sept. 11. It is described by ABC News, which has the first interview with Woodard about the book, as

…a sweeping you-are-there account of how President Obama and the highest profile Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States Congress attempted to restore the American economy and improve the federal government’s fiscal condition.”

The network will air Diane Sawyer’s “exclusive first interview”  the evening before publication, followed closely the next morning by Woodward’s sit-down with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America.

The race is now on to see which news source will manage to break the embargo first. The New York Times claimed that honor for Woodward’s most recent book, Obama’s Wars.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (HarperCollins/Ecco, 2008), may be one step closer to the screen. The best-selling, Oprah anointed title was acquired by Universal back in 2009, with Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey producing, in their first collaboration. A screenwriter was announced in 2010. Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Wentworth Miller may take over. Although he is best known as the star of Fox’s Prison Break, Wentworth also has a career as a screenwriter.

Meanwhile, another 2008 best selling book that involves dogs, The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper) by Garth Stein, is also in development. It has both a screenwriter and a star; Patrick Dempsey, of Grey’s Anatomy, is set to play the lead and a screenwriter was signed in December. Both the author and the star are racing buffs; Stein’s Web site pictures the two together at Daytona in February.

A Book Expo Editor’s Buzz Panel pick, In the Shadow of the Banyan (Simon & Schuster; Thorndike Large Print), Vaddey Ratner’s debut novel, is getting attention from a wide range of sources, from the New York Post, which calls it “required reading,” to a profile in USA Today, admiring reviews in the NYT Book Review, on NPR’s web site and in People magazine (which designated it a “People Pick”).

The novel is based on the author’s own experiences as a child in Cambodia, struggling to survive under the Khmer Rouge. Given its subject, the NYT Book Review marvels,

How is it that so much of this bleak novel is full of beauty, even joy? Deposited in a strange hamlet, Raami observes “flame trees in full bloom” and rice paddies with “knee-high stalks as supple as baby’s hair.” A sunrise registers as the sky’s “pinkish veil, borrowing the hue of the lotuses unfolding below.”

Julia Child would have been 100 on Wednesday. Celebrations of her legacy abound, including the just-released biography, Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz (RH/Knopf;Random House Audio).

In addition to uncovering dozens of fascinating anecdotes to add the Child canon, Spitz reveals how hard she worked to make her performances look natural and the lengths she would go to ensure that recipes would work for Americans, even contacting the US Department of Fisheries to find out what the equivalents were of those she was cooking in France.

You’ll find yourself reading sections aloud to anyone who will listen and running to the computer to find videos of Child in action. Luckily, WGBH has put together a Child mashup video (great for posting on the library Web page) as well as some longer segments on their “Celebrating Julia” page.

Watch Julia Child’s 100th birthday on PBS. See more from WGBH Specials.

Her keen sense of humor and fine timing is exhibited in this David Letterman segment (also available online is the Dan Akryod SNL skit. Don’t worry; it’s not irreverent to watch it during the Centenary. Spitz says Child loved it),

It’s probably no surprise that, of the titles arriving next week, the one with the heaviest holds is Rick Riordan’s next middle-grade title, The Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries. It may be surprising that the number two title is actually an older book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, the tie-in to the movie which arrives in theaters next month starring Emma Watson in her first post-Harry Potter role. Our Watch List includes a title librarians have buzzed as well as several that have received advance media attention.

Watch List

The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields (Penguin/Pamela Dorman)

Fields’s fourth novel was picked by most of the librarians on BEA’s Shout ‘n’ Share panel. Kansas City’s Kaite Stover book talks it this way,

Every summer there’s a juicy historical novel filled with passion, meticulous research and period detail, layered characters and a you-are-there tone. This year it’s The Age of Desire and unlike recent faves, The Paris Wife or Loving Frank, this novel focuses on the love and friendship of two women, Edith Wharton and her literary secretary Anna Bahlman.

During a few tumultuous years, Edith pens some of her most famous works as her lifeless marriage turns sour and she begins an affair with a younger man. Ann becomes Edith’s husband’s comfort, even as Anna begins to cultivate a relationship with a wealthy German shipping magnate and considers leaving Edith’s employ.

Anyone who recognizes the gilded webs Wharton weaves for society women in her own classics will spot the same in this book of two very real women trying to be independent individuals from society, family, and each other.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Thorndike Large Type in Dec.)

The NYT jumped the pub date to get in an early review, indicating that there is buzz (it was on nearly every summer reading list) and causing the book to rise on Amazon’s sales rankings. Entertainment Weekly follows with anther strong review; “a comic, often frustrating, but ultimately engrossing and whip-smart modern epistolary novel.” Will appeal to those who appreciate the cult TV series, Arrested Development, which Semple wrote for.

Motherland by Amy Sohn (Simon & Schuster)

There are those in what is called “Brownstone Brooklyn” who can’t wait to read the salacious details of life among what Sohn has dubbed “The Regressives,” 40-something moms who can’t figure out what to do with their lives, so regress to the bad behavior of their twenties. Entertainment Weekly makes this devastating comment, “If Motherland had a subtitle, it might be The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Bourgeois Brooklynite.” For a taste, read Sohn’s recent essay in The Awl. Unsurprisingly, holds are heaviest in NYC area libraries. Sohn is a media insider (she’s written columns for numerous magazines as well as TV and film), so expect media coverage.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (Perseus/Weinstein Books; original trade paperback; Ship Date, 8/14. Pub Date, 9/4)

The Malaysian author’s second title is also his second to be long-listed for the Booker. The Independent said of this book, “Tan’s story here is just as elegantly planted as his Man Booker-long listed debut The Gift of Rain, and even more tantalisingly evocative” and made a swipe at UK publishing by adding, “Tan writes with breath-catching poise and grace. That a novel of this linguistic refinement and searching intelligence should come from a tiny Newcastle imprint tells us a lot about the vulgarity of corporate publishing today.” In the US, it’s on a larger publisher’s list.

Usual Suspects

The Kingmaker’s Daughter by Philippa Gregory (S&S/Touchstone; S&S Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

The author of The Other Boleyn Girl moves to the court of Edward IV.

The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber (RH/Ballantine; Random House Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

Macomber switches publishers for the first book in the Cedar Cove series.

Middle Grade & Young Adult

The Templeton Twins Have an Idea: Book One by Ellis Weiner (Chronicle Books)

This first title in a new series is already a hit with prepub reviewers. Publishers Weekly writes, “The most prominent character is the self-satisfied and aggressively intrusive Narrator, whose banter with readers instantly sets a comedic, sarcastic tone.”  The Horn Book adds that the”Illustrations play up the story’s humor as well as highlighting the twins’ ingenuity.”

The Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan (Hyperion Books, Listening Library)

Features four original stories in which the heroes meet.

Michael Vey 2: Rise of the Elgen by Richard Paul Evans (Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink, Simon & Schuster Audio/Mercury Ink)

The second in the YA mystery series by the author of many best selling adult titles including The Christmas Box.

Movie Tie-in

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (MTV Books, trade pbk; Recorded Books)

Emma Watson stars in the movie version of the 1999 coming-of-age tale that has been embraced by teens. The original hardcover is also being re-released. The movie opens on 9/21. Official movie site: Perks-of-Being-a-Wallflower.com

Nonfiction

The New New Deal by Michael Grunwald (S&S)

Time magazine’s senior correspondent argues that the Obama stimulus bill is a “New Deal, larger than FDR’s and just as transformative.” It will be getting media attention, including a feature in the Washington Post on Sunday, coverage on NPR’s Marketplace and The Takeaway as well as on several MSNBC talk shows and on CNN.

Obama’s America by Dinesh D’Souza (Regnery)

The author’s followup to the best selling The Roots of Obama’s Rage. He claims a second Obama term will turn the US from the “shining city on a hill” to  “a shantytown in a rather dangerous global village.” No prepub reviews on this one, indicating it’s embargoed.

The new Indie Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list confirms the growing word of mouth for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by British author Rachel Joyce, which arrives at #7. It seems to be doing better with indies than with other sellers; it debuts in lower spot, at #107, on USA Today‘s list. Expect it to arrive on the lower rungs of the upcoming NYT main list, or on the Fiction Extended List.

Reviews have been generally stellar, with the marked exception of the NYT‘s Janet Maslin, who couldn’t get into the spirit of it, calling the simple premise — a retired Englishman learns that an old friend is dying and decides to walk 627 miles to see her — “twee.” More typical is Ron Charles in the Washington Post, who counters that the plot summary,

…sounds twee, but it’s surprisingly steely, even inspiring, the kind of quirky book you want to shepherd into just the right hands. If your friends don’t like it, you may have to stop returning their calls for a little while until you can bring yourself to forgive them.”

You might suspect that Charles wrote that as a direct rebuttal, but his review came out several days before hers.

People magazine gave it four stars last week and named it a People Pick, comparing it to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time; “Joyces’ beguiling debut is another modest seeming story of ‘ordinary’ English lives that enthralls and moves you as it unfolds.”

Librarians on this week’s GalleyChat said that they enjoy recommending it; “Everyone I give Harold to falls in love with him.” One librarian plans to use it with her book club, pairing it with a nonfiction title about a journey of self-discovery, Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

Harold Fry is on the UK’s Man Book prize longlist and currently shows odds of 6:1 at William Hill bookmakers, putting it just behind books by two already established authors, Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies and Will Self’s Umbrella.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Rachel Joyce Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Random House – (2012-07-24) ISBN / EAN: 0812993292 / 9780812993295

As predicted by library holds (see our first story July 23, thanks to Cuyahoga’s Wendy Bartlett; followed by another alert on 8/1), M.L. Stedman’s debut novel, The Light Between Oceans arrives on the USA Today Best Seller list at #22 and is called “August’s ‘it’ book” in the “Book Buzz” column. The publisher tells USA Today that booksellers are comparing it to Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Kim Edwards’ The Memory Keeper’s Daughter and predicts it will do as well as those books, indicating that it’s not too late to order more.

The book is the #1 IndieNext pick for August and was a big hit with librarians on BEA’s Shout ‘n’ Share panel. It was reviewed in a NYT  “Newly Released” roundup piece, which dunned it for “initial clunkiness” but concluded, “It’s a moving tale, regardless. Prepare to weep.” The 7/31 Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 newsletter featured it with the headline, “The One Book You Must Read Before Summer Ends, Plus 46 More,” linking to O‘s 2012 Summer Reading List.

Expect to see it on the upcoming NYT Best Seller list as well.

Large type coming in November from Thorndike

The Light Between Oceans ML Stedman Retail Price:  $25 Hardcover: 369 pages Publisher: S&S/Scribner – (2012-07-31) ISBN / EAN: 1451681739/9781451681734

In My Father’s Country, Saima Wahab’s memoir about growing up in Afghanistan rose to #60 on Amazon’s sales rankings after the author appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night. It’s no wonder; Stewart was clearly smitten with her story.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

In My Father’s Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate SAIMA WAHAB Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-04-24) ISBN / EAN: 0307884945 / 9780307884947

The most-cited title on summer 2012 book previews, Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple comes out next week and gets an early plug from the NYT‘s Janet Maslin. It’s done the trick; the book rose to #113 on Amazon’s sales rankings, its highest point so far.

Maslin often jumps the pub date to be the first to review a book that is likely to be talked about. In this case, however, Glenn Young of Michigan’s Petosky News beat her to it, with a review that is the polar opposite of Maslin’s. It seems you need to be a fan of the cult TV show Arrested Development (which Semple wrote for) to get the book’s humor. Young acknowledges that he is not.

Maslin, however, says that Semple’s writing for TV was a great background for this “divinely funny, many-faceted novel.”

Expect to see many more reviews next week. Libraries are showing holds ratios ranging from 3:1 up to 12:1 on light ordering.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette Maria Semple Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2012-08-14) ISBN / EAN: 0316204277 / 9780316204279

Hachette Audio; Thorndike Large Type in Dec.

The current media frenzy about Kristen Stewart may make promotions for the next Twilight movie awkward, but IFC seems to feel it’s a fine time to introduce a new trailer for her more sexually explicit performance in the adaptation of On the Road, based on Jack Kerouac’s seminal beat generation novel.

Although Stewart is the main focus of stories about the new trailer, her role is secondary. The movie, like the book, focuses on Sal Paradise, played by Sam Riley and his relationship with Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund). Stewart plays Moriarty’s 16-year-old wife, Marylou.

It was also announced that the release date will be December 21st. The movie tie-in, is scheduled for Oct. 30.

Official Site: OnTheRoad-TheMovie.com

Speculation is rife about why Warner Bros. suddenly decided to move Baz Luhrmann’s 3-D film of The Great Gatsby from Christmas Day (qualifying it for the Oscars) to some time next summer.

Is it because there is so much competition towards the end of 2012 — The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Misérables, Jack Reacher, This is 40, Zero Dark Thirty,  and Django Unchained?

Or, is it just a more “appropriate” time, since the movie is set in the summer, as actor Joel Edgerton, who plays Tom Buchanan, tells Entertainment Weekly?

Or, does the L.A. Times have the scoop, reporting that “two people close to the picture not authorized to speak publicly” say Luhrmann needs the time to finish the 3-D effects and the soundtrack (like the director’s Moulin Rouge, it will be filled with songs by major contemporary artists)?

The good news — they’ve managed to fix that typo in the sign above Times Square.

Official Movie Site: TheGreatGatsby.WarnerBros.com

The tie-ins are scheduled for October.

Trade pbk, S&S/Scribner, 9781451689433, Oct.23

Mass Market Pbk, S&S/Pocket, 9781476711546, Oct.23

The first trailer  for Killing Them Softly, is based on Cogan’s Trade by George V. Higgins (RH/Knopf, 1974), has just been released. Brad Pitt plays Jackie Cogan, a professional “enforcer” who prefers to kill his victims from a distance, so the they are unaware of what is happening. Pitt is joined by Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, Sam Shepard and Richard Jenkins. This will be Pitt’s second film with director Andrew Dominik, who also directed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

It was also announced that the release date has been changed to Oct 19. The movie tie-in is coming Sept. 25 (RH/Vintage Crime/Black Lizard).

The trailer doesn’t hint at the rich dialogue that Higgins is known for. As we noted earlier, Higgins has influenced many of today’s writers, among them Elmore Leonard who has said he often re-reads a portion of Higgins’ debut, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, before beginning his work day; “The book set me free. I saw, this was how you do it. I learned so much about dialogue and cadence from this book.’’

Official Facebook Page: Facebook.com/KillingThemSoftly.twc

Killing Them Softly – Trailer No. 1