A spot on yesterday’s CBS Evening News sent the debut middle-grade title, releasing today,  Just Jake (Penguin/Grosset & Dunlap) rising on Amazon’s sales rankings (it is now at #40). The hook? Author, Jake Marcionette, is just 13.

Prepub reviews are considerate of the author’s age. SLJ notes, “At times, Jake’s arrogance can be overwhelming, but readers will see through it and realize it is simply a yearning to be accepted” and PW, “Jake’s youthful exuberance shines through and keeps the story speeding ahead.”  Kirkus is a bit harsher, suggesting that “The novel would have benefited had Jake spent a little less time on his own awesomeness … It’s an eye-catching read without a whole lot of depth.”

Several libraries we checked have not ordered it; those that did ordered in modest quantities.

In the video of the segment, below, Jake says he is at work on a sequel:

Rising on Amazon’s sales rankings (currently at #24) is All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior (HarperCollins/Ecco), which was featured on the cover of Sunday’s NYT Book Review.

Reviewer Andrew Solomon, whose most recent book Far From the Tree, is also about parenthood, says this “trenchant and engrossing” book inspired him “to think differently about my own experience as a parent.”

When Senior published an essay, also called All Joy and No Fun in New York magazine in 2010, it caused a furor (which may have been generated by the subtitle,”Why parents hate parenting”). So far, reactions to the book have been positive and remarkably personal; Slate’s reviewer even comed close to saying it made her rethink her own decision to not have children.

Senior has several media appearances coming up — NPR’s Fresh Air on Tuesday, Comedy Central’s Colbert Report tonight and ABC’s Good Morning America, scheduled to Feb. 27.

Library holds are heavy where ordering is light.

As  book people know, it’s important tune in to major cultural events to see what book information they may convey.

What did yesterday’s Superbowl broadcast tell us about forthcoming books?

Unsurprisingly, books got scant attention on the field, so we had to turn to the commercials. At $4 million per 30-second spot, we didn’t expect an actual book ad, but there were a few for book adaptations, including the usual comics-based movie teaser; this time for two Marvel productions, Captain America: Winder Solder, coming April 4th, and  Amazing Spider-Man 2, which releases on May 2nd. Several children’s tie-ins are coming for each, which are listed on our Upcoming Movies Based on Book, with Tie-ins.

Also featured, a trailer for the already heavily-promoted FX TV series based on Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s vampire trilogy, The Strain, (HarperCollins/Morrow, 2009). This one has already appeared on the Web, so no surprises. The moody trailer seems to have mystified some and it still only gives “Summer” as the release date.

We did learn that Fox, in partnership with National Geographic, is putting marketing bucks behind their reboot of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by the world’s best-known astrophysicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, with the tagline, “14 billions years in 13 episodes.” It begins airing on March 9.

Tie-in:

Cosmos by Carl Sagan, Foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson

RH/Ballantine
December 10, 2013

9780345539434, 0345539435 $15.00

The star of several films based on books, actor Philip Symour Hoffman was found dead in his apartment yesterday,

His received strong reviews for his portrayal of a German spy in A Most Wanted Man, based on the 2008 novel by John LeCarre, which was shown at the recent Sundance Film Festival.

His most amazing transformation was as the author Truman Capote, in the film Capote, for which he won an Oscar. One of our favorites was his supporting role as the conniving Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley (based on the book by Patricia Highsmith). He recently shot scenes in Atlanta for the the two upcoming Mockingjay movies, in which he plays Plutarch Heavensbee (news sources say this will not cause a delay. Hoffman’s scenes for Part One are said to have been completed, but there is no information on how the studio will handle Part Two).

There’s no exact U.S. release date yet for A Most Wanted Man but it is expected later this year.