This week’s “Watch List” is in the previous post.

Reviewer Favorite

Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories, Karen Russell, (RH/Knopf; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)

Russell’s novel, Swamplandia! was on most of the Best Books lists for 2011 and was one of three finalists for the 2012 Pultizer Prize in fiction, a year when the Academy infamously chose not to award a winner. Expect many reviews for this one,  beginning with the NYT‘s formidable Michiko Kakutani, who says that Russell can “make magic ” of any subject. A feature is planned for the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

Media Magnets

Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World, Phil McGraw, (Bird Street Books)

It happens that the publisher of TV talk show host McGraw’s latest book is owned by his son, Jay McGraw. Also available is a companion DVD, Beyond Life Code. Both will, of course, be promoted on The Dr. Phil show next week. They are also being advertised in People magazine and USA Today.

Coolidge, Amity Shlaes, (Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe)

Surprised that a biography of a president who is generally known only as the butt of jokes is hot? The interest has more to do with the author than the subject. Amity Shlaes’ recent book, The Forgotten Man, has been called  the bible of the conservative, anti-Obama, free-market movement. Unsurprisingly, The Wall Street Journal and Fox News are big supporters. UPDATE: It is scheduled for the cover of the Feb. 17 NYT Book Review.

Living and Dying in Brick City: An E.R. Doctor Returns Home, Sampson Davis, (RH/Spiegel & Grau; Blackstone Audio)

Media attention for this memoir by a doctor who returned to his hometown of Newark to help the city’s poor and forgotten begins with a four-star review in People magazine. It is also scheduled for a feature on the NPR’s upcoming Weekend Edition Saturday.

      

Drinking and Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders, Brandi Glanville, (S&S/ Gallery Books) — One of the “Real” House Wives of Beverly Hills dishes on her life, loves, etc. The tabloid press can’t get enough.

Long Shot, Mike Piazza, (Simon & Schuster) — A memoir by “the greatest hitting catcher in the history of baseball.”  He’s scheduled for appearances on the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition and to do BOTH Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart’s shows next week.

Days That I’ll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Jonathan Cott, (RH/Doubleday; Tantor Audio; Center Point Large Print) — By a contributing editor at the Rolling Stone, who knew the couple since 1968.

These titles, and more, including “Usual Suspects” on our downloadable Excel spreadsheet.

So many titles are arriving next week, that we are publishing the Watch List separately. We will post the rest of New Title Radar later in the day.

Watch List

The Dinner, Herman Koch, (RH/Hogarth; AudioGo; Thorndike Large Print)

The Wall Street Journal heralds this as the next big thing with the headline “A European Gone Girl.” They’re not the only fans. Librarians have been enthusiastic about it on our GalleyChat, it’s on the February IndieNext list and the Huffington Post picked it as a Best of 2013; ” This barbed tale of two families is entirely set over one evening in an expensive restaurant. A smash hit overseas, Gillian Flynn called it ‘chilling, nasty, smart, shocking and unputdownable,’ and she ought to know. We enjoyed it a lot.”

ARC readers say the comparison to Gillian Flynn works in a some ways; both stories are told by unreliable narrators, dirty scerets are revealed and it’s “terrific page-turner.” The subject is quite different, however, and has more in common with Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin or William Landay’s Defending Jacob.

New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin is the one holdout, saying the story is “executed with a joylessly heavy hand.”

Ghostman, Roger Hobbs, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)

This debut from 24-year-old Hobbs arrives with much prepub attention and a movie deal. It is an IndieNext pick for February, a Costco Buyers Pick for Feb, a PW “Most Anticipated for Spring” title in the Crime/Mystery/Thriller, as well as an Oprah Must-Read; “In this stylishly gritty and fast-paced thriller, a career criminal is summoned from his off-the-grid hiding place to assist in an Atlantic City casino robbery that goes awry.” Check your holds; the libraries we checked already showed growing queues. UPDATE: Michiko Kakutani reviews it in Monday’s New York Times, calling it “smoking fast.”

The House Girl, Tara Conklin, (HarperCollins/Morrow; Thorndike Large Print)

This debut is the #1 IndieNext pick for February. Former lawyer Conklin’s protagonist is also a lawyer, working on a class-action suit that involves slavery reparations. In her research, she discovers the story of a slave who may be the real artist behind the paintings attributed her white owner. The novel unfolds in alternating narrations that reveals hidden similarities in lives separated by time and class.

Calling Me Home, Julie Kibler, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Thorndike Large Print)

Another debut novel that contrasts the lives of two women; one balck and one white. In this case, the setup is a long car journey during which the two women open up about their lives. Prepub reviews say, “Kibler’s unsentimental eye makes the problems faced unflinchingly by these women ring true” (Kirkus) and “Kibler relays a familiar story in a fresh way” (PW).

We Live in Water: Stories, Jess Walter, (Harper Perennial Original Trade Paperback)

Following quickly on Walter’s comtinuing word-of-mouth success, Beautiful Ruins (Harper, June, 2012), comes the author’s first collection of short stories. Kirkus says it proves that Walter is “as skilled at satire and class commentary in the short form as in his novels.” PW puts it simply, “if you like to read, you’ll like this book.”

The audio of Beautiful Ruins (HarperAudio) has had an unprecedented level of sales in relation to the print. Salon’s Laura Miller named it the best audiobook narration of 2012. AudioFile says, “As the sole voice for a veritable smorgasbord of characters, time periods and plotlines, Edoardo Ballerini works magic with this audio production.” The author is also a fan; listen here as he talks about the book’s genesis and describes why he loves Ballerini’s narration.

The 2006 YA/crossover phenomenon, The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak (RH/Knopf Young Readers), is scheduled to make its film debut almost a year from now, on Jan. 17, 2014.

Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson will play the foster parents of Lisel, a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany, according to the Hollywood Reporter. French-Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse will make her English-language film debut as Lisel. Production is expected to begin this month in Berlin.

The film will be directed by Brian Percival, who directed the series pilot, and several episodes of Downton Abbey (including the first two of season three).

The book is still on the NYT Young Adult Best Seller list, at #8, as of the current list and was a 2007 Printz Honor book.

Shirley MacLaine had “no comment” for ABC’s 20/20 Show on Friday’s interview with her daughter Sachi Parker about her book, Lucky Me: My Life With–and Without–My Mom, Shirley MacLaine, (Penguin/Gotham), which releases tomorrow.

It seems she’s changed her mind. A story in Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” about some of the book’s “weirdest moments” includes this update:

EW has received a statement from MacLaine in response to allegations from the memoir: ‘It’s a painful moment for me as a mother and as someone who values the truth. I’m shocked and heartbroken that my daughter would make statements about me that are virtually all fiction. I’ve praised her lovingly and truthfully in my own autobiographies. I’m sorry to see such a dishonest, opportunistic effort from my daughter for whom I’ve only ever wanted the best.”

UPDATE: after reports that the video of the interview caused problems for those trying to browse using Internet Explorer, we have taken it down. Link to it here.

After the publisher-supported site Bookish.com delayed its summer, 2011 launch date  and changed management several times, many in the book business wondered if it would ever arrive. Just as rumors had begun to die down, the site launched last night.

Aimed at consumers, it’s a Johnny-come-lately to online book merchandising. As Ron Charles of the Washington Post notes with tongue-in-cheek, “If you’re one of the countless people wondering, ‘Why isn’t there anywhere to buy books online?’ we’ve got good news: Bookish went live last night.” The press release offers details on what is billed as a “one-stop, comprehensive online destination designed to connect readers with books and authors.

The site is sponsored by publishers Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group and Penguin Group, with participation from 16 other publishers.

Users can buy books directly from Bookish, with B&T handling fulfillment. There are also links to online retailers, including ABA’s IndieBound.

The site will include author interviews (a conversation between Michael Koryta and Michael Connelly is currently featured), book excerpts and reviews.

It also aims to provide a “state- of-the-art recommendation tool…from a proprietary algorithm that factors in editorial themes, professional and consumer reviews, publishing house editor insights, awards and more.”

At this point, it’s not working that well. Entering The Power Trip by Jackie Collins brings up the following results. Hemingway might be pleased with the comparison.

In an unusual blend of page and screen, the stars of the upcoming adaptation of Beautiful Creatures joined authors Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl and director Richard LaGravenes for a book signing at an L.A. Barnes& Noble on Saturday, (photos of the event are posted here).

The cast members at the event were Alice Englert (Lena), Alden Ehrenreich (Ethan), Zoey Deutch (Emily) and Thomas Mann (Link).

The movie premieres in Hollywood tonight and opens in theaters a week from Thursday, on Valentine’s Day.

Official Movie Site: BeautifulCreatures.WarnerBros.com

The fourth and final title in the series, Beautiful Redemption, (Hachette/Little, Brown YR), was published in October.

The trailer is light on humor, but Alden indicates the film may be different. He tweeted during a live Q&A on the movie’s Twitter site,  “Alice and I from the beginning wanted to make this film as funny, offbeat, and unusual as possible.”

If your first thought after hearing that Richard III’s bones were found beneath a parking lot in England, was “Josephine Tey,” you’re in good company. Her 1951 mystery, The Daughter of Time, which investigates whether the Shakespearean portrayal of Richard as an evil hunchback was accurate, is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings and is currently at #374 (from #20,117).

The book is also available in audio, narrated by Derek Jacobi, from AudioGo.

The bones reveal that Richard suffered from severe scoliosis.

“One side of my family had owned another, and that that was as bleak and as straightforward as it got,” Andrea Stuart, author of Sugar in the Blood (RH/Knopf), tells Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday.

Stuart is descended from a Barbados slave owner and an unknown slave, a reality she wasn’t able to accept until four years into research for her book.

As a result of the show, the book is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings and is currently at #174. Library holds are in line with orders.

Stephen King is making news this week. In an interview on Entertainment Weekly, he talks about Doctor Sleep, (S&S/Scribner; 9/24/13; S&S Audio), his eagerly anticipated followup to The Shining, which answers the question, “Whatever happened to Danny?”

And, a SuperBowl ad ran yesterday for a CBS series based on another of his books, Under the Dome, which begins this summer. The tie-in will be published May 14 (S&S/Gallery).

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The rom com zombie novel, Warm Bodies (S&S/Atria/Emily Bestler) broke onto the new NYT Paperback fiction list at #14, after three weeks on the extended list. The movie adaptation, which opened this weekend, beat out its more violent competition, Sly Stallone’s Bullet to the Head, and topped the box office (industry watchers note that this may reflect the fact that movie audiences are dominated by teen girls on SuperBowl weekend).

Several libraries are showing heavy holds.

Yesterday, Ayana Mathis, author of Oprah Book Club 2.0 selection, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, (RH/Knopf), sat down for a thoughtful interview on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday. Among the highlights, a tour of the Iowa Writers Workshop, how Mathis was influenced by Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, (Random House, 2010), books that “wreck you,” and a special segment at the end with Ann Patchett celebrating her store, Parnassus Books, in Nashville. Oprah did not announce a new title for the club.

The full interview is on the Oprah site.

This week is all about series; all but one of the titles we’re featuring below are either continuations or the beginning of series. Please note that Maurice Sendak’s final completed book, My Brother’s Book, featured on NPR’s Morning Edition today, was covered in New Title Radar, as were the children’s tie-ins to the forthcoming Disney movie Oz the Great and the Powerful.

You can download an Excel spreadsheet here, listing the following titles and even more arriving this week.

Young Adult

The Kiss (Witch and Wizard series), James Patterson and Jill Dembowski, (Hachette/Little, Brown Young Readers; Hachette Audio), ages 12 and up

Patterson’s books are catnip to kids who need a high-interest read. The cover of this, the fourth title in the series, features a new look for the series (which began with the paperback edition of The Fire in November).

Scarlet, Marissa Meyer, (Feiwel & Friends; Macmillan Young Listeners), ages 12 to 17

The first title in the Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder, was on my list of top ten YA novels last year. As Cinder was a futuristic take on Cinderella, it is not much of a stretch to see Red Riding Hood in this one with a very scary wolf.

Hysteria, Megan Miranda, (Walker Childrens), Ages 14 to 19

When the galley came out of the box our hip, cool, fabulous cataloger Abbey Chapel snatched it from my hands. I need not say more, but I will quote YA GalleyChatters who say this is a great suspense story about a girl who has apparently killed her boyfriend but is not sure what happened.

Etiquette & Espionage, Gail Carriger, (Hachette/Little, Brown BYR), ages 7 to 17

Carriger already has a strong following for her Parasol Protectorate steampunk novels. With this, the first in the Finishing School series, she steps into YA,. The school is housed in a massive airship and is not what the mothers who send their daughters there expect; in this case “finishing” means “finishing people off” (those scissors on the cover are not for cutting silk). It was the title that came up most when I asked people at MidWinter what I should be reading. Don’t miss it.

Middle Grade

Big Nate Flips Out , Lincoln Peirce, HarperCollins, Ages 8 to 12

Big Nate….seriously, any children’s librarian who doesn’t automatically buy this series should be put out to pasture . This is for the Wimpy Kid crowd, as underscored in the  blurb from Jeff Kinney on the cover; “Big Nate is funny, big time.” Here, Nate tries to become a neat freak.

Seven Wonders Book 1: The Colossus Rises,  Peter Lerangis and Torstein Norstrand, (HarperCollins), ages 8 to 12

Lerangis wrote two of the books in the  39 Nine Clues series, and here begins a new series, with a different publisher, which features an unexplored theme in children’s books, with four kids on a life-or-death mission to find seven orbs, hidden in the ruins of antiquity’s seven wonders of the world.

The Fourth Stall Part III, Chris Rylander, (HarperCollins/Walden Pond Press), ages 8 to 12
Funny and a little wacked. Rylander is a unique voice in series fiction.
 

Better Nate Than Ever, Tim Federle, (S & S Books for Young Readers), Ages 9 to 13
There’s another Nate in Town, as I found out when someone handed this to me as I roamed the aisles of ALA, and I am so glad they did. Smart and funny, first time author, Federle takes us behind the scenes into the world of working child actors in Broadway musicals.

Treasure on Superstition Mountain, Elise Broach, Antonio Javier Caparo, (Macmillan/Holt BYR), ages 8 to 12

Elise Broach knows how to tell a story. She especially knows how to keep those middle grade readers on the edge of their seats. This is the continuation of the Superstition Mountain series. If you didn’t read the first title, Missing on Superstition Mountain, pick it up now and count your lucky stars that you don’t have to wait for the second.

Picture Books

Follow Follow, Marilyn Singer, illus. by  Josee Masse, (Dial), ages 6 & up

Singer stunned the picture book world with Mirror, Mirror, her first book of clever reworkings of fairytales in reverso poetry format (the poem is presented forward and then backward using the same text in reverse order). If you own the first (as you should), you won’t want to be without the second one.

Froggy’s Worst Playdate, Jonathan London, illus. by Frank Remkiewicz, (Penguin/Viking Juvenile), ages 3 to 5

London kills me. No kidding. From the first Froggy Gets Dressed, he reflects back the everyday lives of young children and finds humor in seemingly disastrous circumstances. This series is read-aloud gold.

Chris Kyle, whose autobiography, American Sniper  (HarperCollins/Morrow) was a #1 NYT best seller last year, was killed at a Texas gun range over the weekend, according to news reports. Kyle, who was 38 years old, claimed that as a sniper for the military, he had killed over 150 people.

Kyle founded an organization to help veterans with PTSD; his suspected killer is a former Marine. He had also recently come out against President Obama’s gun control initiatives.

The mass market pbk of his book just released and is currently #1 on Amazon’s sales rankings. Many other titles on the SEALS are also rising, including No Easy Day by Mark Owen (Penguin/Durron), Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell (Hachette/Little,Brown) and Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown
by Eric Blehm (RH/Waterbrook).

Topping the March IndieNext List is the forthcoming book by Kent Haruf, Benediction (RH/Knopf, 2/26; RH Audio; BOT)

Says Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ,

Any new novel by Haruf is cause for celebration, but for those of us who have been waiting patiently to reconnect with the Front Range of Colorado and its quirky inhabitants since reading Plainsong and Eventide, Benediction is the answer to our literary prayers. The main character is dying, but that doesn’t set a tone of great remorse or regret for a life in its last stages on Earth. Instead, it becomes a reflection of a family, of the place where they live, of the forces that formed them and made them into the strange, angry, resourceful, and engaging people who they have become. Haruf is a wonderful writer, and I can’t wait to celebrate the publication of this book with him and with our customers.