Archive for September, 2012

Russell & Holmes Rising

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

Hitting a series high on the new USA Today bestseller list is the 12th title in Laurie King’s Russell & Holmes mysteries, Garment of Shadows (RH/Bantam; Recorded Books; Thorndike large print).  It debuts at #59. The previous title, The Pirate King, was on the list for one week at #88.

King’s series features Mary Russell, who teams up with Sherlock Holmes in the first title in the series, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and later becomes his partner and wife.

Holmes has enjoyed a recent revival, with two hit films starring Robert Downey Jr.; Sherlock Holmes 3 is in development. A third season is also in the works for the BBC’s Sherlock, a co-production with PBS’Masterpiece.

This fall, CBS begins a new prime-time series, Elementary, which features Holmes as a 21st-century Manhattanite, played by Jonny Lee Miller, aided by Dr. Joan Watson played by Lucy Liu. It premieres Sept. 27.

NO EASY DAY for SHADES OF GREY

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

   

Fifty Shades of Grey has finally been pushed out of the #1 spot on USA Today‘s best seller list after 20 weeks. The feat was accomplished by the healine-making Navy SEAL book No Easy Day. USA Today‘s “Book Buzz” blog notes that Fifty Shades holds the record, just ahead of The Hunger Games, which spent 17 weeks in the top spot.

No Easy Day also arrives #1 on PW’s list. BookScan shows that it sold 253,000 copies in its first week on sale, nearly three times as many as Fifty Shades sold that week.

Although most libraries still have long hold lists for Fifty Shades in all formats (including the large print edition; we’ll leave you to figure out what that indicates), the number of new holds are slowing.

Team Attica Locke

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

We’re thrilled that so many libraries have answered our call to make Attica Locke’s The Cutting Season, (HarperCollins; HarperLuxe; Dreamscape Audio; audio and ebook on OverDrive) a best seller and to also prove that libraries build buzz.

A few other strong voices have joined Team Attica Locke. The NYT‘s Janet Maslin gave the book an outstanding review nearly two weeks before publication and Dennis Lehane has picked it as the first title in his imprint at HarperCollins.

But we think librarians have even more powerful voices.

If you haven’t joined Team Attica Locke yet, it’s time to get on board; The Cutting Season comes out next week. UPDATE: We now have a Team Attica Locke FaceBook page where we are gathering information on media coverage, as well as what libraries are doing. Please Like it.

The publisher is now out of print galleys, but you can still get an egalley from Edelweiss. Hurry; as of next week, when the book is released, the egalley will no longer be available (you will have until Oct. 3rd to read it).

The HarperCollins Library Marketing Team has set up an easy way to get The Cutting Season, as well as other HarperCollins titles, without having to wait for approval:

1) Register on Edelweiss

2) Send an email to librarylovefest@harpercollins.com to tell them you have registered.  You will receive a confirmation email that you are a VIP.

3) Go to The Cutting Season page on Edelweiss and hit “Download Review Copy” bar on the right. Follow the Edelweiss instructions to download it to your specific reading device.

The Cuyahoga Library staff is behind the book and have created the following poster at the request of their branch staff (click on the image for a larger version). Guess what? Holds are building there. They encourage you to create your own versions.

 

Embargoed Books Make Headlines

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

 

Two titles that were embargoed prior to release are currently dueling for headlines. The attention has propelled each title into top spots on Amazon’s sale rankings, even topping the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

At number one is  No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden (Penguin/Dutton; Penguin Audio). The full 60 Minutes coverage is available here, including several additional “Overtime” segments. This appears to be the first and last of the author’s appearances for the book. Remember, Mark Bowden’s The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden, also embargoed, is arriving soon (Grove/Atlantic, 10/2).

At number three on Amazon sales rankings is The Price of Politics by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster; S&S Audio). Following his interview with Diane Sawyer, Woodward has appeared on several shows, including today’s CBS This Morning.

Libraries are showing heavy holds on both titles and many have ordered additional copies.

Meanwhile, a recent headline-making embargoed title, Paterno, which hit #1 on the NYT best seller list, has dropped off precipitously in sales, says The Hollywood Reporter, in a story about a possible movie based on the book (weird alert; Al Pacino may star).

Booker Shortlist, Goodbye to HAROLD FRY

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

The titles shortlisted for the Booker were just announced in London. A word-of-mouth favorite from the longlist (it reached #7 on the Indie best seller list and is still on at #12), Rachel Joyce’s debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, (Random House; RH AudioBOT) did not make the transition

The two leading titles at British bookies are Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies and Will Self’s Umbrella. The winner will be announced on October 16.

Published in the US

   

Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies, Macmillan/Holt, 5/8/12; Review links; NYT best seller for 8 weeks; still on the extended list after 5 weeks

Will Self, Umbrella, Grove Press, 12/10/12; not yet reviewed in the US; British reviews,  The Independent; The Guardian; profile in The Economist

Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists, Perseus/ Weinstein Books, 8/14/12; reviewed in the NYT Book Review

Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis, Penguin Press, 4/12/12; Reviews, PWstarred;  The Millions

Deborah Levy, Swimming HomeAnd Other Stories, Macmillan/Bloomsbury, 10/16/12; Review, The Guardian — UPDATE, 9/13 — Bloomsbury US just announced they are publishing it here

Alison Moore, The Lighthouse, Salt Publishing (UK). UPDATE, 9/13 — Thanks to the comment, we learned this is available through Amazon Digital Services (but not for library lending)

New YA Best Sellers

Monday, September 10th, 2012

Two new titles hit the NYT Children’s Chapter Books best seller list this week.

At #2 is Unwholly, by Neal Shusterman, the second in a series that began with Unwind (both S&S Young Readers), which has won several state and national awards. The book trailer indicates movie ambitions; indeed, Unwind, like many of Schusterman’s other titles, has been optioned. It may actually make it to the screen, it has its own production blog.

At #9 is Every Day, the much-anticipated novel by David Levithan. Libraries are showing more holds on this one than on Unwholly.

New Title Radar: Sept 10 – 16

Friday, September 7th, 2012

No Easy Day, the book about the killing of Osama bin Laden that has been in headlines for days, is already facing media competition from Bob Woodward’s new book, an analysis of Obama’s efforts to restore the economy, which arrives on Tuesday. Two of the fall’s most anticipated novels also arrive – from Pulitzer Prize-winners Michael Chabon and Junot Diaz. There are also a handful of debuts to watch, including two that were featured on this year’s BEA Editor’s buzz panel. Usual suspects include Beverly Lewis, Richard Castle, J.D. Robb, Jamie Freveletti, Lee Child, and Michael Brandman.

Watch List

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (Hachette/Little, Brown; Thorndike Press; Hachette Audio) was pretty close to THE pick of BEA this year, based on publisher Michael Pietsch’s passionate promo during the Editors Buzz panel (he has a good track record with debuts; he promoted The Art of Fielding at last year’s BEA). One of many war novels this season, this one is by an actual veteran of the Iraq war. The title comes from a chillingly violent military marching song. It gets early reviews from NPR’s Alan Cheuse and from the NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani, who says it “stands with Tim O’Brien’s enduring Vietnam book, The Things They Carried, as a classic of contemporary war fiction.”

Those We Love Most by Lee Woodruff (Hyperion/Voice; Thorndike Press) is a debut novel that follows a family after the loss of its oldest child. LJ says, “surely some of this heartfelt, honest novel stems from the author’s own real-life journey with her husband [ABC News’ Bob Woodruff], who was severely injured while reporting on the war in Iraq [and with whom she co-wrote the memoir In an Instant]. Overall, this is solid contemporary fiction, sure to please readers who enjoy Sue Monk Kidd and Anna Quindlen.” It’s featured in today’s USA Today.

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu (RH/Crown/Hogarth) was another stand-out on the BEA Editor’s Buzz Panel. It’s a debut novel about three small-town, 18 year-olds in the Israeli Defense Forces, each young woman trying to balance teenage concerns with the continual threat of war. Kirkus is a little skeptical, “Not for the squeamish. Readers will either embrace the complexity of the writing or become maddeningly lost as the author meanders through a hot, dry country devoid of tenderness.”

The Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis (RH/Doubleday; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike) takes readers behind Machiavelli’s The Prince, as Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci join forces to stop a serial killer in  early 16th-century Italy. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+, saying, “Nothing says ‘back to school’ quite like … a hefty novel about the politics of 16th-century Italy. Luckily, this one reads like a pulpy mystery. Inspired by the real-life assassination of Juan Borgia, an illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI, and a series of serial-killer murders…”

Found: The Secrets of Crittenden County, Book Three by Shelley Shepard Gray (HarperCollins/Avon Inspire; Thorndike Large Print) is the conclusion to this Amish mystery trilogy and was a BEA Shout ‘n’ Share pick by Cuyahoga’s Wendy Bartlett: “If you only typically buy big Amish writers like Beverly Lewis[who also has a new book out this week, see below] and Suzanne Woods Fisher, you should add Shelley Shepard Gray to your top echelon of must-haves… This a mystery series, but each title is very much a gentle read.”

Returning Favorites

Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon (Harper; HarperLuxe) is a tale of a black family and a white family in Oakland, California that mines pop culture influences from Kung Fu and ’70s Blaxploitation films to vinyl LPs, jazz and soul music. On all the “big books of the fall” lists, it’s already getting heavy review attention; from Entertainment Weekly, the L.A. Times, Slate, and the Wall Street Journal. Expect many more.

This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz (Penguin/Riverhead; Penguin Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is a story collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, that explores passion, loss and human weakness. Also on every fall preview, it’s reviewed in this week’s Entertainment Weekly, the L.A. Times and The Economist (which begins, “Sraightforward writing about male lust is rare. Writing that reveals the price exacted by such lust is rarer still”).

Black Dahlia & White Rose by Joyce Carol Oates (Harper/Ecco; Dreamscape Audio) is a collection of short fiction from the National Book Award winner, and ranges from a tale of a friendship between two doomed women – Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Short – to an account of an otherworldly infidelity.

Usual Suspects

The Bridesmaid by Beverly Lewis (Bethany House; Bethany Large Print, Pbk; Thorndike Large Print, Hdbk) is the latest novel set in Amish country about a young woman in a secret courtship, by this internationally published author of Christian fiction. This one comes with a trailer. One-day laydown.

Frozen Heat by Richard Castle (Hyperion; Hyperion Audio) is the fourth novel in the series featuring NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat, in which her mother’s cold case finally thaws.

Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb (Putnam Adult; Wheeler Large Print; Brilliance Audio) is the 36th novel featuring Eve Dallas, of the New York Police and Security Department. This outing involves a home grown terrorist.

Robert Ludlum’s The Janus Reprisal by Jamie Freveletti (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Thorndike Large Print) stars Army microbiologist Lt. Jon Smith, who must identify and stop a biological warfare plot.

A Wanted Man by Lee Child (Delacorte Press; RH Large Print Publishing; RHAudio) is the 17th Jack Reacher novel. Kirkus says, “In this latest attempt to show Reacher enjoying every possible variety of conflict with his nation’s government short of outright secession, Child (The Affair, 2011, etc.) has produced two-thirds of a masterpiece.”

Robert B. Parker’s Fool Me Twice: A Jesse Stone Novel by Michael Brandman (Penguin/Putnam; Thorndike Press; Random House Audio) is the second Jesse Stone novel in which Bradman channels Robert B. Parker. PW says, “More is less as the unrelated story lines compete with each other for depth, even if the larger-than-life lead is able to take them all in stride.”

Childrens

The Secret of the Stone Frog by David Nytra (Candlewick/Toon) is a graphic fantasy that starts as Leah and Alan awaken in an enchanted forest and follows their journey home. Kirkus says, “Not much here for plot, but fans of the art of Tenniel and his modern descendants (Maurice Sendak, Charles Vess) will find much to admire in this U.S. debut.”

 

Nonfiction

The Price of Politics by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster; S&S Audio) is described by ABC News, which has the first interview with Woodard for the book, as “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.” ABC is scheduled to air Diane Sawyer’s “exclusive first interview” on Monday, followed on Tuesday by Woodward’s sit-down with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America and dozens of other appearances, culminating with Meet the Press a week from Sunday. The book is embargoed, but details are being reported widely, some by ABC News itself. Nancy Pelosi has already responded to Woodward’s claim that she sometimes hit mute during Obama’s phone calls. The New York Times, the Daily Beast and Politico have all managed to find copies and report extensively it. Because Woodward is an editor at  the Washington Post, they an early look and will publish excerpts on Sunday.

The End of Men and the Rise of Women by Hanna Rosin (Penguin/Riverhead) follows up on this Atlantic magazine senior editor’s story of two summers ago, about how women are more likely to succeed than men in the modern workforce. An excerpt, “Who Wears the Pants in This Economy” was featured on the cover of last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.

Louise Penny Hits #2

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

Hitting new highs, Canadian Louise Penny’s eighth title in her beloved Inspector Gamache series, The Beautiful Mystery (Macmillan/Minotaur Books, Macmillan Audio; Thorndike Large Print), arrives at #2 on the Indie Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list and at  #12 on USA Today‘s list.

Designated a People Pick in the 9/3 issue, in this outing inspector Gamache of the Quebec Surete investigates the murder in a monastery, and in the process unearths painful truths behind the calm facade. Says People, “With enormous empathy for the troubled human soul — and an ending that makes your blood race and your heart break — Penny continues to raise the bar of her splendid series.”

This is the second of the series to arrive on best seller lists. Her previous title in the series, A Trick of the Light, debuted on the NYT list at #4 and stayed on for two weeks, and two more on the extended list.

THE SECRET RACE

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

The embargoed book about the Tour de France, The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton (RH/Bantam), contains accusations of doping among riders, including Lance Armstrong. It is being featured on many news outlets, including the Today Show this morning:

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

Booker Shortlist Next Week

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

The titles that have made the transition to the Booker shortlist, whittled down from the longlist, will be announced this coming Tuesday.

Currently, in the lead at UK bookies is Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies, with 7/2 odds at Ladbrokes. Close behind is Well Self’s Umbrella at 4/1. It will be published by Grove in the US on 12/10 (see our full list of titles, with US publishers).

In third place, with 8/1 odds is a relative unknown to American readers, Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists (Perseus/Weinstein Books; original trade paperback). The author’s second book, it is also her second to appear on a Booker longlist. It was just released in the US and is reviewed in the NYT Book Review.

In the UK, it was published by a small publisher, causing the Independent to scold, “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.”

The novel’s main setting is a Japanese garden that haunts the main character, who has just learned that she is losing her memory. Appropriately, Dominique Browning, who writes eloquently about gardens in her blog, SlowLoveLife.com, reviews it for the NYT. Clearly a fan, Browning says, “The beautiful garden referred to in the title plays host to the intertwining of several lives at a period cursed with being, so the saying goes, an ‘interesting time’ [World War II and its aftermath in Malaysia].”

Literary Traffic Jam

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

The NYT claims that this fall, we will witness, “one of the most crowded literary traffic jams in recent memory … crammed with writers who are both household names and have not released a book in several years.”

In addition, most of the books are being published early in the season, to avoid the attention deficit brought on by the November election.

Because of the glut and the length of some of these novels, Ron Charles, reviewer for the Washington Post, tells the NYT that he will just not be able to get to some other books, such as Justin Cronin’s The Twelve, the second book in the trilogy which began with The Passage in 2010. None of the paper’s own reviewers are quoted in the story.

It may not need the attention; most libraries are showing more holds on it than on the other major literary titles he may review instead.

The titles are listed below by publication date (we’ve added Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, which we think is qualified to be on the list):

September Titles

    

  

Out Now (Sept 4)

NW,  Zadie Smith (Penguin Press; Penguin Audiobooks)

Sept 11

Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon, (Harper; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio) – Digital ARC on Edelweiss

This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz, (Penguin/Riverhead; Penguin Audio)

Sept 18

Joseph Anton: A Memoir, Salman Rushdie, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT)

Sept 27

The Casual Vacancy, J. K. Rowling, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print)

October/November

    

Oct 23

Back to Blood, Tom Wolfe, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print)

Nov 6

Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver, (Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuse)  – Digital ARC on Edelweiss — not on the NYT list, but we feel it should be. Kingsolver’s last book, The Lacuna, came out in 2009.

Nov 13

Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan, (RH/Doubleday/Talese) — digital ARC on Edelweiss

Uneasy Times For NO EASY DAY

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

New controversy has surfaced about No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden (Penguin/Dutton; Penguin Audio), which releases today.  A group of Special Operations veterans released an ebook yesterday that suggests the pseudonymous author, Mark Owen, was motivated to write the book by anger against his former employers. According to quotes from the book by The Daily Beast, Owen,

 …was treated very poorly … once he openly shared that he was considering getting out of the Navy to pursue other interests…What do you do when you find yourself pissed off at your former employer, out of a job, and in need of a paycheck? You start cashing in chips.

According to the Daily Beast, the book is sympathetic to Owen and says the author does not reveal the most confidential information about the raid.

The ebook, No Easy Op, is written by a group of Special Operations veterams and published by SOFREP.com, through Amazon Digital Services. It is exclusively available on the Kindle and  is not available for library lending.

An interview with Owen is scheduled to air on Sixty Minutes this Sunday.

A Close Look At CLOUD ATLAS

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

The cast of the film version of David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas is so impressive, it’s enough to fill the entire movie poster (click on it for a larger version).

In an 8-page feature, in this week’s New Yorker, writer  looks at how the book, which was widely considered unfilmable, finally made it to the screen (and nearly didn’t).

The sibling filmmakers, Lana and Andy Wachowski, first learned about the novel in 2004 while working on V for Vendetta. They noticed Natalie Portman reading the novel obsessively between takes. It took many years to figure out how to film it, and, perhaps more importantly, how to finance it.

In reporting on the film’s first screening, Hemon gives  the first review, “…the movie carefully guided the viewer through its six story lines with just enough intriguing unfamiliarity, while succeeding — nearly miraculously — in creating a sense of connectedness among the myriad characters and retaining Mitchell’s idea of the unviversality of love, pain, loss and desire… In addition to applause at this screening, there were tears and triumphant hugs.”

The film premieres at the Toronto Film Festival this month and opens in teathers on Oct. 26.

Official Web Site: CloudAtlasMovie.com

The tie-in arrives in early October. Meanwhile, the paperback reprint of the original has been in the Amazon Top 100 for over two months (it is now at #21). Holds are heavy in many libraries.

Cloud Atlas: Movie Tie-in
David Mitchell
Retail Price: $15.00
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks – (2012-10-02)
ISBN / EAN: 0812984412 / 9780812984415

Peter Brown on CREEPY CARROTS

Monday, September 3rd, 2012

Carrots may be creepy, but Peter Brown has never met an eggplant he didn’t like.

Creepy Carrots (S&S Young Readers), Brown’s first collaboration with picture book author, Aaron Reynolds, debuts on the NYT Children’s Best Seller list at #7 this week.

New Best Seller: William Kent Krueger

Monday, September 3rd, 2012

Mystery writer William Kent Krueger’s previous book came tantalizingly close to hitting the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list, spending one week at #18 on the extended list. Appropriately, the twelfth title in his Cork O’Connor series, Trickster’s Point (S&S/Atria; Thorndike Large Print), lands solidly on the  list at #12 this week.

Krueger’s main character is a rural Minnesota P.I. who is half-Ojibwa Indian and half Irish. The author is known for the northern Minnesota settings. He clearly loves the region, as expressed in the trailer for his previous title, Northwest Angle.

In a recent post on is blog, God Bless Librarians, Krueger gives tribute to the person who turned him into a reader.