New Title Radar; Week of Sept. 2
The leader in library holds for books arriving next week is Lee Child’s Never Go Back, (RH/Delacorte; RH Audio; RH Large Print). It seems readers were able to overcome the shock of Tom Cruise starring in Jack Reacher, the movie based on One Shot (there may actually be a sequel. Although the movie didn’t do well here, it was a success internationally). Child is scheduled to appear on MSNBC ‘s Morning Joe on publication day.
Dystopian trilogies aren’t just for YA authors; Margaret Atwood finishes hers with MaddAddam, (RH/Doubleday/Nan A. Talese; RH Audio; RH Large Print). The Wall Street Journal‘s “Speakeasy” blog has been running a serialization of it all week.
Titles highlighted here, plus several more arriving next week, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, with ordering information and alternate formats, New Title Radar, Week of 9/2/13.
Watch List
Alex, Pierre Lemaitre, trans. by Frank Wynne, (Quercus/MacLehose Press)
Quercus, founded in the U.K. in 2004, has grown into one of the largest independent publishers there, helped in no small part by its acquisition of the English-language rights to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy (published here by RH/Knopf). Just launching in the U.S., this is their lead title, a translation of a French best selling crime novel, acquired by Christopher MacLehose, who also acquired Larsson’s books. It’s no surprise, then, that librarians on GalleyChat saw similarities to Larsson’s twists and turns, with one calling the book “crazy creepy; you don’t know what is REALLY happening until the very end.” Another loaned her ARC to her adult son who “immediately wanted to read something else by the author.” No worries; this is the first in the Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy.
It’s also an IndieNext pick for September: “A beautiful woman is kidnapped after leaving a Paris shop and is brutally beaten and suspended from the ceiling in a wooden crate in an abandoned warehouse by a man who tells her he wants to watch her die. Police Commander Camille Verhoeven is assigned to the case after eyewitnesses report the abduction. Verhoeven is a detective whose tragic past has crippled him, but he is able to use his extraordinary investigative abilities to understand the victim. Alex is chilling and frequently horrifying as the plot twists catch the reader by surprise at every turn.” —Fran Keilty, The Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington Depot, CT
Margot, Jillian Cantor, (Penguin/Riverhead trade pbk original)
Librarian interest in this LibraryReads pick, a debut published as a trade paperback original, began building at BEA when Angela Carstensen, SLJ‘s “Adult Books 4 Teens” columnist presented it during the librarian’s Shout ‘n’ Share panel, saying it’s the imagined “story of Anne Frank’s sister who survived the war and moved to Philadelphia. It is 1959, Margot is working as a law secretary, and no one knows she survived the camps. The writing is very readable, and Margot’s situation sympathetic.” That was followed by enthusiasm on GalleyChat, and its selection as one of ten on the LibraryReads inaugural list:
“Can you hide from your past and change who you are? If you try, what do you risk losing? This delicately written novel proposes an alternate fate for Anne Frank’s sister: Margot Frank survives the war, moves to Philadelphia, finds work as a law secretary and assumes the identity ‘Margie Franklin.’ But when the movie version of The Diary of a Young Girl is released and the law firm takes on the case of a Holocaust survivor, Margot’s past and Margie’s carefully constructed present collide. This great book will appeal to reading groups and fans of alternative history, what-if novels and character-centered fiction.” — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, NC
Cain’s Blood,(S&S/Touchstone; Brilliance Audio) and Project Cain (S&S Books for Young Readers), both by Geoffrey Girard
This dystopian story about a deranged geneticist who creates multiple clones of real-life serial killers (Jeffrey Dahmer and others) comes in two versions — the adult thriller and a YA companion, told from the perspective of one of the teenage clones. Booklist gave it a strong assessment; “This must be the highest-concept, most movie-ready idea of the year … an updated The Boys from Brazil that ably mixes nature-versus-nature dilemmas with horrifying scenes of slasherdom.” On that latter note, Kirkus warns, “With a majority of the horrific acts depicted in gory detail, including thrill murder, rape, torture, necrophilia, etc., committed by and upon teens and young children, this book isn’t for every horror fan.” Reviews of Project Cain are pretty damning. Says Kirkus, it “pales in comparison to the similarly themed novels of Dan Wells and Barry Lyga. Stick with Wells and Lyga; this muddle is just plain insulting.”
Media Magnet
Salinger, by David Shields, Shane Salerno, (S&S)
Media coverage for this look at the world’s most reclusive author began this week and will continue next week with appearances on PBS’s Charlie Rose show, Comedy Central’s Colbert Report and NPR’s Weekend Edition. A documentary will also appear in theaters (to be aired on PBS in January). Entertainment Weekly gives the book a B- and a lower grade to the movie, a middling C, saying, “Like the book, it suffers from its creators’ obsessive zeal. Only here, you can’t page ahead to the next chapter. ”
Movie Tie-in
12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup. (Penguin Books; Tantor Audio)
The movie based on this 1853 memoir has been widely picked as a major Oscar contender.
Official Movie Site: 12YearsASlave.com
See trailer below: