The staff of NPR are major books fans, from those whose specific focus is books, like Fresh Air‘s book critic Maureen Corrigan to those with broader beats, such Edith Chapin, executive editor for NPR News.

Drawing on that enthusiasm, NPR again this year features the Book Concierge app, with staff recommendations of 250 titles, complete with filters to focus on particular interests (as specific as a Graphic Novel for Music Lovers).

On Fresh Air, Maureen Corrigan talks about her eleven picks. She is not a fan of some of the “big books” of the year, including critical favorite Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies, Jonathan Franzen’s literally big 500-plus page Purity or Garth Risk Hallberg’s even bigger City on Fire.

The rest of the NPR staff generally agree. The first two titles are not included in the app, although the latter is. Weekend Edition staffer Barrie Hardymon sidesteps whether City on Fire was worth its $2 million advance, but declares, “I can assure you that it is certainly worth reading all 944 pages. Hallberg is incapable of writing a boring sentence, and the story, set in 1977 New York City, has multiple narrators and myriad threads — but each piece fits together so tightly, you’ll actually want to read to the end to see how the whole picture develops.”

Corrigan says that this year, she prefers smaller bites,”Short stories and fragmented, intense memoirs dominate my best books list, along with the incredible true story of a short-haired dog.”

That book is Robert Weintraub’s No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII.

Kirkus released their picks of the 100 best nonfiction titles of the year on Monday, and we have updated our downloadable spreadsheet with their picks, raising the total to 252 titles.

• Best Books, Adult Nonfiction, Collated (downloadable spreadsheet), V3

For information on upcoming titles, and to sign up for the program, click here.

There continues to be very little consensus among the critics, with only 24 titles picked by 3 or more sources, which  makes the two front-runners all the more remarkable for being selected by 9 of the 11 sources.

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (RH/Spiegel & Grau; OverDrive Sample)
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Grove Press; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample) — Time magazine selects this as the number one of the year’s Ten Best Nonfiction. Coates’s book is also on the list, but further down, at #9.

When asked the secret of her long and active career, Julia Child replied, “Well, I have been known to eat well.”

The same could be said of her friend, Chuck Williams, the founder of Williams-Sonoma and prolific cookbook author who died in his sleep on Saturday in his San Francisco home. He was 100 years old.

As the New York Times obituary puts it, before Williams discovered the amazing range of cookware available in France, inspiring him to open his first store in Sonoma, California, in 1956, U.S. kitchens were drab affairs, stocked with “pots, pans and knives from a department store.”

The obituary also credits him with writing over 200 cookbooks, the latest of which is Cooking at Home, (Weldon Owen, dist. by S&S) re-released in September to celebrate Williams’ 100th birthday. It was originally published in 2010 when Williams was  a mere 95.

The output of titles slows down considerably this week, as stores move into high gear for the big holiday season. Even so, two big-name titles arrive to strong holds lists.

Secret Sisters, Jayne Ann Krentz, (PRH/Berkley)
A People pick this week, called  “suspenseful, romantic escape,” LJ picked it as one of the best Romance novels of the year. Booklist stars it, saying, “the doyenne of sophisticated romantic suspense serves up another irresistible combination of sharply etched characters, suspenseful plotting, smoldering sexual chemistry, and wonderfully written dialogue that snaps, crackles, and pops with the author’s distinctive wit.”

Ashley Bell, Dean Koontz, (PRH/Bantam)
Further behind in holds, this is People magazine’s “Book of the Week,” described as “a mind-bender filled with satisfying surprises.” Booklist predicts, “Koontz hits the canny nexus of horror, mystery, and fantasy here, which should drive demand even higher than normal.”

The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of 12/7/15.

Media Attention

The Relic Master, Christopher Buckley,  (Simon & Schuster)

Buckley moves his brand of satire from the present back to the Holy Roman Empire in 1517. PW calls the result “part Monty Python and part Ocean’s 11. The clever narrative is filled with laugh-out-loud one-liners but, amazingly, doesn’t stint on the suspense.”

The author is set to appear Dec. 8th on CBS This Morning and Dec. 12th on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Peer Picks

Paradise City by Elizabeth Day (Bloomsbury USA; OverDrive Sample).

A December Indie Next selection:

“When I was young, one of my favorite toys was my dollhouse. It looked just like a regular house from the front, but the back was open with all the rooms exposed. That’s what Paradise City reminded me of, with each chapter narrated by a different character, all inscrutable to the people around them, but giving the reader glimpses into their inner lives. Every character is richly detailed and Day’s clear, sharp prose had me relating to their every feeling from wild, unexpected happiness to deep, thudding sadness. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book this much!” —Lauren Peugh, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ

Tie-ins

Last week Nexflix began streaming a series based on the Marvel superhero comic Jessica Jones. Four books collect the original comics. Released earlier this fall were  Jessica Jones: Alias Vol. 1 and Volume 2 (Marvel).

Coming next week is  Jessica Jones: Alias Vol. 3 and  in January, Jessica Jones : Alias Vol. 4.

Starring Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad) as Jones, a character with superhuman strength, The Guardian says the show explores “the after-effects of trauma, exploitation and abuse, with smart and subtle things to say about the way guilt affects the lives of the victims, and how exploitation corrupts the exploiter.”

The Disney film The Finest Hours, starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck. coming Jan. 29th, is based on the middle-grade title,  The Finest Hours: The True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman (Macmillan/Holt, 2014)

In addition to the children’s tie-in (Macmillan/Square Fish, trade pbk), it is being released as an adult title (S&S. Scribner; mass market edition S&S/Pocket, 12/29).

The true story of the US Coast Guard’s efforts to rescue two tanker ships during a 1952 monstrous nor’easter  was revisited recenty in a story in The Washington Post.

Debuting in theaters today is a new version of Macbeth, with Michael Fassbender as Shakespeare’s troubled king and Marion Cotillard (Inception) as his wife, Lady Macbeth. The Guardian calls a “noir-thriller soaked with operatic verve.”  People magazine lists it as a pick of the week, “this gruntingly powerful version tells the tale with… coiled fury.” Entertainment Weekly lauds Fassbender’s acting, but ultimately gives it a B grade, because “the rest of the movie isn’t nearly as interested in playing as many nuanced notes as its star.”

There is no specific tie-in edition (image above is of the poster).

Premiering Sunday on the Hallmark Channel is The Bridge, based on Karen Kingsbury’s novel, part of Hallmark’s deal with “the queen of Christian fiction.”

A tie-in edition came out in October, The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury (S&S/Howard Books; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

The first teaser for the next season of HBO’s Game of Thrones has just arrived, along with the news that it will debut in April.

Those 41 seconds are bringing much speculation on what will happen this season (see Rolling Stone, the Telegraph, and Wired).

There is no tie-in to turn to because George RR Martin has not yet completed the sixth in the book series, Winds of Winter, although he recently dropped hints about what to expect. In the past, he declared it was his goal was to finish it before the HBO series begins. That window is now getting shorter.

On President’s Day, 2016, we will travel back in time to 11/22/63, the date John F. Kennedy was assassinated, via an 8-part series based on the novel by Stephen King. Produced by J.J. Abrams, it will stream on Hulu and feature James Franco as a teacher going back in time to stop the assassination.

The first trailer was recently released. No tie-ins have been announced.

The first trailer for new season of Outlander on STARZ was just released.

Based on the second novel in the book series, Dragonfly In Amber (PRH/Delacorte, 1992; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample), it follows Jamie and Claire as they escape to France and try to stop the Jacobite rising. This moves the action from the Scottish Highlands to upper-class life in France.

Once again, it spans multiple time periods and also introduces new characters, including Jamie and Claire’s adult daughter Brianna, Fergus, Jamie’s spy and one-day-adopted son, and a young Lord John Grey.

Season two is slated to air some time this spring.

Tie-ins (Season 2 Cover Art to Come):

Dragonfly in Amber (Starz Tie-in Edition) ,  Diana Gabaldon
PRH/Delta, March 8, 2016
Trade Paperback

National Book Award Winner, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s next project is to create a Black Panther comic for Marvel. Set to be published next spring, Coates gives a sneak peek at the work in progress in The Atlantic and promises more updates to come.

Black Panther, the first black superhero, was introduced in 1966. He will also be seen in two upcoming movies, as a character in Captain America: Civil War to be released May 6, 2016 (the trailer for it, released this week, broke viewing records) and as the lead in a film scheduled for 2018, He is played in both by Chadwick Boseman.

Admitting that this kind of writing is much different than his usual form, Coates explains why he accepted this challenge, “I took it on for the same reason I take on new stories—to grow intellectually and artistically. In this case it’s another genre—fictional, serial story-telling—one a good distance away from journalism, memoir, and essays.”

The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante, Europa Editions

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates, PRH/Spiegel & Grau

The Door, Magda Szabo, New York Review Books

Outline, Rachel Cusk, Macmillan/FSG

Empire of Cotton, Sven Beckert, PRH/Knopf

H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald, Grove Press.

The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf, PRH/Knopf

One of Us, Asne Seierstad, Macmillan/FSG

The Sellout, Paul Beatty, Macmillan/FSG

A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin, Macmillan/FSG

Following the release of their selection of the 100 Notable Books of 2015, the New York Times Book Review today announces which are in the Top 10.

Several other sources have picked some of the titles, such as The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante (Europa Editions), the last in the series of novels that have quickly risen from cult favorites to universally recognized and, in nonfiction, the National Book Award Winner, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (RH/Spiegel & Grau).

But, amazingly, given the numerous  Best Books picks to date, the NYT Book Review still managed to include three titles in their top ten that were not picked by any other sources, proving once again how difficult it is for critics to agree:

Outline: A Novel, Rachel Cusk, (PRH/FSG)

The Door, Magda Szabo, (NYRB Classics)

Empire of Cotton: A Global History, Sven Beckert, (PRH/Knopf; HighBridge Audio)

Three new childrens best books list have been released since our last roundup, the New York Times Book Review‘s Notable Childrens Books (25 titles), Horn Book Fanfare 2015 (25 titles), and Kirkus Middle Grade (50 titles). Below is the updated downloadable spreadsheet:

2015 Best Books Childrns and YA V2

With selections from six review sources, we can now assess the leading titles by number of picks in the Middle Grade and Picture Books categories (we’ll be able to assess YA when Kirkus releases their Teen picks on Dec. 14).

There’s very little agreement among the critics. Of the 217 titles, none were picked by all of the sources and over 86% were picked by two or fewer.

In Middle Grade titles, two of the finalists for the National Book Award were also hits with review editors, picked by 5 of the 6 sources (the Award winner, Brendan Shusterman’s Challenger Deep, a YA title, was picked by 3 sources).

In Picture Books, there is total disagreement between the New York Time Book Review’s Best Illustrated judges and the editors, as demonstarted by thier choices of the Most Notable Picture Books. None of the titles appear on both lists.

Middle Grade Leaders

Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish (Hachette/Little, Brown) — The Amazon’s editors rated this National Book Award Finalist as not only a Top Childrens Book, but one of the Top 100 overall. It was also picked by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal and the New York Times Book Review, which calls it, “A shattering debut novel about a grieving, lonely girl, stung by the treachery of middle-school social alliances, who tries to use the scientific method to explain her former best friend’s death by drowning.”

Steve Sheinkin, Most Dangerous, (Macmillan/Roaring Brook) — In addition to being a National Book Award Finalist, this title also received 5 more picks. The NYT  BR calls it, “A riveting and remarkably effective account of Ellsberg’s life, his release of the Pentagon Papers and America’s tragic history in Vietnam.”

Rebecca Stead, Goodbye Stranger (RH/Wendy Lamb) — Five picks, including the NYT BR, “A seventh grader recovering from a near-fatal accident navigates changes in herself and her tight group of friends in this moving novel, which our reviewer, Meg Wolitzer, called ‘masterly.”

Victoria Jamieson, Roller Girl (Penguin/Dial) — Five picks. Says the NYT BR, “In this spiky, winning graphic novel, a summer at roller-derby day camp helps a 12-year-old girl learn to rechannel her anger and let go of her former, more uncertain self.”

Leading Picture Books

Kevin Henkes  Waiting (HarperCollins/Greenwillow) — Six picks, including the NYT BR Notable, (but not the NYT BR Best Illustrated);  “Five toys wait on a window ledge, each for something different, in this profound and beautiful take on patience and perspective from the matchless Henkes.”

JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith,  Sidewalk Flowers (Groundwood) — Five picks, including the NYT BR Best Illustrated (but not the NYT BR Notable).

Below is an archived version of the December chat.

Join us for the next GalleyChat on Tuesday, Jan 5th, 4 to 5 p.m. ET (3:30 for virtual cocktails)

The Dec. 6 “Holiday Books” issue of the New York Times Book Review is nearly 100 pages long, filled with roundups from photography books to books about Hollywood, full-page ads, and the annual editors’ picks of 100 Notable Books (47 fiction, 3 poetry and 50 nonfiction titles) and Notable Children Books (25 titles).

Today, LibraryReads released a list of the “Favorites of Favorites,” titles most loved by librarians this year.

Below are our downloadable lists of all the adult best books selections to date:

2015 Best-Books-Fiction–V2

2015 Best-Books-Nonfiction–V1

2015 Best Books Poetry V1

Watch for our updated Childrens and YA list next.