The founder of the indie rock band The Mountain Goats, John Darnielle, was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday. He is also the author of Wolf in White Van, (Macmillan/FSG), released on Monday and just announced as one of the titles on the National Book Awards longlist. The interview begins with Darnielle reading from the opening of the book. Listen here.

The book is also reviewed on NPR’s web site.

The author is also interviewed in the new issue of  New York Magazine.

OverDrive Sample

Note: Some sources say this is Darnielle’s first novel, but it’s actually his second, after Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, (2008), which is still available from Bloomsbury/Continiuum and is on several library catalogs.

The National Book Awards today announces the final of the four longlists, the fiction nominees.

Four of the titles are LibraryReads picks and six are IndieNext picks (updated from earlier story; which didn’t include the IndieNext picks for October).

As on the nonfiction list, independent presses make a good showing, with three of the ten titles; one from Grove Atlantic and two from W.W. Norton (the latter had three titles on the nonfiction lists).

There’s little crossover with the Man Booker Award. Of the four Americans on that longlist, only one appears on this one, Richard Powers, Orfeo (Norton), which did not make it to the shortlist.

Finalists will be announced on Oct. 15. Winners in all categories will be announced at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 19 hosted by Daniel Handler, (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket).

Links, in the list below, are to the National Book Award annotations.

Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman (Grove Atlantic/ Grove Press)

Molly Antopol, The UnAmericans (Norton); An IndieNext pick

John Darnielle, Wolf in White Van (Macmillan/ FSG); published this week; An IndieNext pick

Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See (S&S/Scribner) — Both a LibraryReads and an an IndieNext pick

Phil Klay, Redeployment (Penguin Press)

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven (RH/Knopf) — LibraryReads pick

Elizabeth McCracken, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (RH/Dial)

Richard Powers, Orfeo (Norton) — Both a LibraryReads and an an IndieNext pick

Marilynne Robinson, Lila (Macmillan/FSG) — IndieNext pick

Jane Smiley, Some Luck (RH/Knopf) — LibraryReads & IndieNext picks — to be published, 10/7/14

We had to invent a new category, “Hard to Call,”  for Lauren Beukes’s new title, Broken Monsters, (Hachette/Mulholland Books) in our look-ahead to books arriving this week. Its graphic murder scenes and “grotesque and perpetual sense of doom,” as Entertainment Weekly says, may put off readers.

NPR’s reviewer has no such problem saying, “You could say that she’s as edgy as James Ellroy, as creepy as Stephen King and as darkly funny as Kurt Vonnegut, but Beukes is an author whose work is resistant to easy comparisons. Broken Monsters is one of the most remarkable books of the year, and one of the best suspense novels you’ll read in quite some time.” Stephen King himself tweeted that it’s “Scary as hell and hypnotic. I couldn’t put it down.”

Buekes’s 2013 title, The Shining Girls, (Hachette/Mulholland), was dubbed  “a strong contender for the role of this summer’s universal beach read,”  by the NYT‘s Janet Maslin. While it didn’t achieve that status, it received some strong reviews and hit #13 on the L.A. Times best seller list.

If you want to judge this one for yourself, you can read the grisly first chapter in the OverDrive Sample. Tell us what you think in the comments.

Following yesterday’s announcement of the poetry longlist, the National Book Awards today announces the nonfiction nominees.

The titles include one that hasn’t been published yet, Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, (Simon & Schuster, Oct 7; Vintage Espanol, 11/4; Thorndike, 1/7/15).

The list is dominated by weighty tomes, so it is refreshing that it also includes Roz Chast’s graphic memoir, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA).

Continuing a family tradition, Evan Osnos, son of Peter Osnos, former Washington Post reporter and founder of Public Affairs (now an imprint of Perseus), is nominated for his book, based on his reporting on China for the New Yorker, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China, (Macmillan/ FSG)

In this age of large corporate publishing, independent publisher W.W. Norton published 3 of the ten titles on the list, tying with Macmillan.

Links, in the list below, are to the National Book Award annotations.

Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA)

John Demos, The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic
(RH/ Knopf)

Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
(Macmillan/Holt)

Nigel Hamilton, The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941 – 1942 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Walter Isaacson, The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (Simon & Schuster)

John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh (Norton)

Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China (Macmillan/FSG)

Ronald C. Rosbottom, When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944
(Hachette/ Little, Brown)

Matthew Stewart, Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic (Norton)

Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence (Norton/Liveright)

After several teasers, the first full trailer has arrived (Forbes analyzes Lionsgate’s spoiler-free advertising campaign). Released Monday, it’s already been viewed over 7 million times.

Entertainment Weekly analyzes what the 1:48 minutes reveal.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, releases on Nov. 21. Part 2 arrives a year later.

Tie-in (for other upcoming movie tie-ins, check our catalog on Edelweiss)

Mockingjay: Movie Tie-In Edition
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic: September 30, 2014
9780545796682, 0545796687
$12.99 USD

Model/actress Cara Delevingne is in talks to star as Margo, the mysterious girl next door, in the adaptation of  John Green’s novel Paper Towns, (Penguin/Dutton, 2008)

Nat Wolff, who played a supporting role in TFIOS, will star as Quentin “Q” Jacobsen, who has been in love with her from afar for years.

Green, who is an executive producer on the film, tweeted yesterday, “Cara Delevigne’s audition blew everyone away (including me!) and she understands Margo profoundly. I am so excited!”

The movie is scheduled for theatrical release on 7/31/15.

In other Y.A. adaptation news, a new version of Lois Duncan’s I Know What You Did Last Summer (1973) is in the works. The 1997 adaptation starred Jennifer Love Hewitt. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Anne Heche. No stars or director have been named for this version. Duncan’s Down a Dark Hall (1972) is also in the works and is being proceeded by Stephenie Meyer. Lionsgate recently acquired the rights.

We report on only the most significant adaptation stories here. Our database of adaptations in the works, Books to Movies and TV now includes information on over 300 titles, with more than 80 updated in the last month.

Beth Macy’s nonfiction debut, Factory Man, (Hachette/Little, Brown, 7/15), which received media attention when it was published this summer, is being developed by Tom Hanks’s production company, Playtone, for an HBO mini-series, reports Deadline.

The book’s subtitle outlines the story, How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local–And Helped Save An American Town. It received strong support from the NYT‘s Janet Maslin, who called it “in a class with other runaway debuts like Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit and Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers … Ms. Macy writes so vigorously that she hooks you instantly. You won’t be putting this book down.”  The author was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air in July (read the first three chapters via OverDrive).

The book debuted at #10 on the New York Times Hardcover Non-fiction Best Sellers list during its first week on sale, remained on the main list for 3 weeks, and continued on the extended list for 4 more weeks.

Playtone is also producing the upcoming Olive Kitteridge miniseries for HBO, to debut Nov. 2, and is set to begin production on another mini series adaptation, based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s book about Lewis and Clark, Undaunted Courage, (S&S, 1997), with Casey Affleck in the role of  Meriwether Lewis.

Many were surprised that David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, (Random House, 9/2/14; Recorded Books) didn’t make the transition from the Booker longlist to the shortlist, but Mitchell can take solace in the fact that it debuts at #3 on the 9/21 NYT Hardcover Fiction best Seller list, the highest spot so far for any of the published longlist titles.

Wendy Bartlett, head of collection development at Cuyahoga P.L, Ohio, is a fan. She alerted branch staff last week,

I love it when the customers are ahead of me! David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) has come roaring back with yet another spendidly written, mind-bending read. I thought The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet was brilliant, but this book is astounding, and the customers have snatched every last copy.

The heroine — if you can call her that — is Holly Sykes (Holly, as in GoLightly? Sykes as in Bill Sykes from Oliver Twist?) David Mitchell loves nothing more than to keep you wondering, and wonder you will. He’s also one of the most evocative writers I’ve ever read, literally painting pictures with words — it’s no wonder Hollywood is tempted to make films of his books. To say he enjoys playing with the timeline, and your reality, is an understatement, and of course, that’s his plan. It’s your job to relax and enjoy the ride.

You don’t really read Mitchell, so much as experience him. If you haven’t read Mitchell, this is the perfect novel with which to start.

Happy Experiencing!

You can read the first chapter via OverDrive.

The National Book Awards long lists are being announced this week.

First up is the Young People’s Literature list. It will be followed by poetry tomorrow, nonfiction on Wednesday and, finally, fiction on Thursday.

Most of the names on this list are already award-winning authors and many have had titles on the longlist before (although none have won). The two relative newcomers are Kate Milford, author of Greenglass House, and Gail Giles, Girls Like Us.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 19 hosted by Daniel Handler, (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket).

Links are to the National Book Foudation annotations:

The Impossible Knife of Memory
Laurie Halse Anderson
(Viking/ Penguin Group USA)
Speak was a 1999 finalist

Girls Like Us
Gail Giles
(Candlewick Press)

Skink-No Surrender
Carl Hiaasen
(Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers/ Random House)
Hoot, was a  Newbery Honor title.

Greenglass House
Kate Milford
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Clarion Books)

Threatened
Eliot Schrefer
(Scholastic Press)
The author’s previous book, Endangered, was a 2012 finalist

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Steve Sheinkin
(Roaring Brook Press/ Macmillan Publishers)
Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon was a 2012 finalist

100 Sideways Miles
Andrew Smith
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers/ Simon & Schuster)
Grasshopper Jungle, won the 2014 Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Award

Noggin
John Corey Whaley
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers/ Simon & Schuster)
Where Things Come Back, was a Printz Award Winner

Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two
Deborah Wiles
(Scholastic Press)
Each Little Bird That Sings, was a National Book Award Finalist

Brown Girl Dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson
(Nancy Paulsen Books/ Penguin Group (USA))
The author was a finalist for both Locomotion and Hush

A new Fox TV series, The Red Band Society is the #1 People Pick of  the week, which describes the pilot as “a small miracle — warm, intelligent, sympathetic and offbeat without being jarring … If you can imagine a show that somehow combines The Fault in Our Stars and Glee, that would be this one.”

Entertainment Weekly, features it in their Fall TV preview, with a slightly different description, “The Breakfast Club meets The Fault in Our Stars.”

Set in a pediatric hospital, about a group of kids with life-threatening diseases, it shares another characteristic with The Fault in Ours Stars that is rarely mentioned; it is based on a book, El mundo amarillo, (2008),  Spanish author Albert Espinosa’s memoir of his ten years undergoing cancer treatments. In 2011, he adapted it into a successful Catalan TV series titled Polseres vermelles (The Red Band Society). Last year, Steven Spielberg bought the rights to produce a U.S. version.

Espinosa explains that the book “is about my life when I was very young. I had cancer from the age of fourteen to twenty-four, and during those ten years I lost a leg, a lung, and part of my liver, but it was also a happy time for me. In The Yellow World I do not talk about cancer, I talk about what I learned from cancer  and everything it taught me about everyday life.” He uses the term “Yellow World” to signify a happy place, the color of the sun. “Red Band Society” refers to the bracelets the kids wear in the show.

When it was published in 2012 in the U.K., The Guardian noted that in Spain, it was  “A word-of-mouth sensation … sold more than a million copies and … published in 20 other countries.”

It will be published in print in the U.S, for the first time tomorow as a tie-in, in both the original Spanish and in English (interestingly, the Spanish language edition currently is higher on Amazon’s sales rankings than the English translation).

Several libraries own the original Spanish language edition as well as a U.K. translation from Penguin.

Tie-ins:

The Yellow World  How Fighting for My Life Taught Me How to Live, OverDrive Sample
Albert Espinosa
RH/Ballantine: September 16, 2014
9780345538123, 0345538129
Trade Paperback
$16.00 USD / $19.00 CAD

El mundo amarillo (Movie Tie-in Edition): Como luchar para sobrevivir me enseñó a vivir, OverDrive Sample
Albert Espinosa
RH/Vintage Espanol: September 16, 2014
9781101873762, 1101873760
Trade Paperback
$14.00 USD / $17.00 CAD

Official Web Site: Fox.com

Author site: AlbertEspinosa.com

“Mary Downing Hahn is the Stephen King of late middle grade fiction. Her haunting chilling tales are just right for those 4th graders who have outgrown Goosebumps and sophisticated enough to surprise the most jaded 7th grader,” says EarlyWord Kids Correspondent, Lisa Von Drasek.

A former school librarian from Maryland, Hahn has written dozens of novels for young readers.  Wait Till Helen Comes, (HMH Books for Young Readers; Brilliance Audio), has been continuously in print since 1986 and is now set for its screen debut, reports Variety. Maria Bello will star, with sisters Sophie Nelisse (The Book Thief) and Isabelle Nelisse (Mama). Shooting is set to begin at the end of the month in Winnipeg, Canada.

In March 2012, right after Silver Linings Playbook wrapped, stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper joined forces again for another book adaptation, Serena, based on the novel by Ron Rash, (HarperCollins/Ecco, 2008).

Over two years later, the movie has yet to be released, even though Lawrence has since become a major star via The Hunger Games and the Lawrence/Cooper combo proved to be magic in both Silver Linings and the subsequent American Hustle.

A spokesperson for the production company has said not to worry, however, the delay is simply a result of Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier’s perfectionism. The L.A. Times takes that with a grain of salt, “Bier took a year and a half to complete the film, and protracted productions rarely bode well for the final product.”

It is finally set to premiere at the BFI London Film Festival next month and will open in the U.K. on Oct. 24. Magnolia Pictures has the U.S. distribution rights, but doesn’t seem to be in a hurry, planning to release it “sometime next year.”

At this point, a movie based on another book by Rash, The World Made Straight, (Macmillan/Holt, 2006), which was shot a year later, may beat it. It’s scheduled for release some time in February.

Meanwhile, a trailer has just been released:

Tie-in:

Rash’s next novel, Above the Waterfall, (HarperCollins/Ecco) is scheduled for publication next year.

[NOTE: If you landed here from our 9/19 newsletter — sorry for the incorrect link — the correct one is 8 Titles To Make You An R.A. Guru, Week of 9/22/14]

Get ready next week for a title expected to be the first blockbuster of the fall (B&N’s CEO has his fingers crossed for it) … Two LibraryReads picks are ripe for recommending … Stephen King plays readers advisor for Lauren Beukes’s followup to her much discussed 2013 title, The Shining Girls.

All the titles listed here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed, with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of 9:15:14

Heavy Holds

Edge of Eternity: Book Three of The Century Trilogy, Ken Follett, (Penguin/Dutton; Penguin Audio; Vintage Espanol), OverDrive Sample

Here’s an odd, but probably welcome bit of advance publicity. In a conference call with stock market analysts last week, Barnes and Noble’s CEO cited The Edge of Eternity as one of the books that makes him ”excited about the title lineup that will lead us in to the holiday season” (i.e., he’s expecting it will make cash registers ring) along with George W. Bush’s 41 : A Portrait of My Father, Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Patton and John Grisham’s Gray Mountain.

Another indicator of big expectations for this, the final (and longest; the audio is 36 hours long) book in the author’s twentieth-century trilogy; Janet Maslin reviewed it a full two weeks prior to publication and Follett was profiled in the 9/4 NYT Book Review (his take on Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch? “Reading a novel about people taking drugs is like being at a party where everyone else is stoned.”).

The Golem of Hollywood, Jonathan Kellerman, Jesse Kellerman, (Penguin/Putnam; coming from BOT Audio), OverDrive Sample

Kellerman has written two books with his wife Faye. This is his first collaboration with his son, Jesse, who has published several books of his own. Prepub reviews go from dismal (PW, a “muddled supernatural thriller:) to strong (Booklist, “Combining the procedural structure of Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels with the character-driven plotting of son Jesse’s fiction, the novel is a solidly plotted thriller”).  A sequel is in the works.

The Infinite Sea: The Second Book of the 5th Wave, Rick Yancey, (Penguin/Putnam Juvenile; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike), OverDrive Sample

Holds are heavy for this sequel to a best selling Y.A. title. Adding more interest, production has begun in Atlanta for the movie adaptation of the first book in the series, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, who also stars in a film currently in theaters, the adaptation of Gayle Forman’s YA title,  If I Stay.

Library Reads

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory, Caitlin Doughty, (Norton; Recorded Books audio coming in March)

The number one LibraryReads title for September:

“Part memoir, part exposé of the death industry, and part instruction manual for aspiring morticians. First-time author Doughty has written an attention-grabbing book that is sure to start some provocative discussions. Fans of Mary Roach’s Stiff and anyone who enjoys an honest, well-written autobiography will appreciate this quirky story.” — Patty Falconer, Hampstead Public Library, Hampstead, NH

The author is scheduled for an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air on Oct. 1.

The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters, (Penguin/Riverhead; BOT), OverDrive Sample

LibraryReads recommendation:

You can almost bet that a situation with long-term guests–paying or not–is not going to turn out well. This novel by Waters, who many know from her earlier books Tipping the Velvet and The Little Stranger, will keep you turning the page to see just how tense things can get, and how far fear and passion can push someone. — Elizabeth Angelastro, Manlius Library, Manlius, NY

Also #3 on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List” of “The Top 10 Thing W Love This Week” which calls it, “One of the year’s most engrossing and suspenseful novels.” In the review section, the magazine gives it an A. Also, the NYT profiles the author. Waters’ name recognition is growing in Hollywood as well, Oldboy director Park Chan-wook plans to adapt Waters’ 2002 novel, Fingersmith, as a feature film.

Hard to Call

Broken Monsters, Lauren Beukes, (Hachette/Mulholland Books), OverDrive Sample

Stephen King tweeted:

BROKEN MONSTERS, by Lauren Beukes: Scary as hell and hypnotic. I couldn’t put it down. Next month. I’d grab it, if I were you

Entertainment Weekly blogs that it is “What We’re Reading Now,” but gives it a left-handed compliment, “If, however, the grotesque and a perpetual sense of doom sound oddly appealing — you have most likely just found the perfect book for you!” In the magazine’s review section, it gets a B+.

In the Media

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, Naomi Klein, (S&S; S&S Audio), OverDrive Sample

Social activist Klein, author of the anti-globalization manifesto, No Logo, has been a favorite with the media. Her new book takes on climate change and will get the Colbert bump on 9/23. She is also scheduled to appear on HBO’s RealTime with Bill Maher, September 26.

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David, Lawrence Wright, (RH/Knopf; BOT), OverDrive Sample

One of three titles on the cover of this week’s New York Times Book Review, Joel Klein says this “is a magnificent book with an unusual provenance. It began as a play called Camp David.” It’s also reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, which gives it an solid A.

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan, Jenny Nordberg, (RH/Crown; RH Audio), OverDrive Sample

Will be featured on next week’s NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

Tie-In

Raging Heat, Richard Castle, (Hachette/Disney; Hachette Audio)

Is it a tie-in, or a spin-off? On TV, Richard Castle, co-star of the ABC series, Castle, is a mystery writer. In the show, which begins its seventh season on Sept. 29th, he writes about a female NYC cop, Nikki Heat. In print, a team of writers is behind the pseudonym, “Richard Castle” whose books feature a female NYC cop, Nikki Heat. All five of the previous titles in the series have hit best seller lists, some at #1. This one has multiple holds in most libraries.

The number one LibraryReads pick for next month is Garth Stein’s novel, A Sudden Light (S&S; S&S Audio; 9/30). The author has a lot to live up to. His earlier title, The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper, 2008) was a word-of-mouth hit that became a long-running best seller.

Librarian Whiney Gayle makes you want to start reading it right now (and you can, it’s available from Edelweiss and NetGalley until the end of the month):

“Garth Stein has given us a masterpiece. This beautiful story takes readers on a thrilling exploration of a family estate brimming with generations of riveting Riddell family ghosts and secrets. This is a true exploratory novel, taking readers through secret passageways, hidden rooms, and darkened corridors that engage all of the senses.” — Whitney Gayle, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; Thorndike, Dec. 10), a LibraryReads pick for September, is getting enviable media attention. It is People magazine’s “Book of the Week” in the new issue; “Though it centers on civilization’s collapse in the aftermath of a devastating flu, this mesmerizing novel isn’t just apocalyptic fantasy — it’s also an intricately layered character study of human life itselff,” gets an A from Entertainment Weekly and the author was profiled by the  New York Times last week.

LibraryReads recommendation:

An actor playing King Lear dies onstage just before a cataclysmic event changes the future of everyone on Earth. What will be valued and what will be discarded? Will art have a place in a world that has lost so much? What will make life worth living? These are just some of the issues explored in this beautifully written dystopian novel. Recommended for fans of David Mitchell, John Scalzi and Kate Atkinson. — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC

OverDrive Sample