Each month, our GalleyChatter columnist Robin Beerbower rounds up the favorites from our most recent Twitter chat (#ewgc). Below is her post for March.

If you’ve missed Robin’s earlier columns, link below, for more  current and forthcoming titles:

February — GALLEYCHATTER, Heading into Summer

January — GALLEYCHATTER, Spring Announcements

December — GALLEYCHATTER Eyes 2016

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We know EarlyWord is a valuable tool for librarians, but it’s always great to hear it articulated. During our last GalleyChat, Darren Nelson, collection development librarian for Sno-Isle Libraries (Washington) mentioned how beneficial it was by saying, “Thanks to GalleyChat for the great recommendations! I have often increased order quantities and gone ahead and decided to order upcoming titles based on them and have never regretted it.”

Even if you can’t participate, all titles mentioned during the chat are compiled into an Edelweiss collection. The March list can be found here.

Of the many titles that came up during the March chat, some of the favorites will make the month of May even merrier. Unless otherwise noted, all titles are available as Digital Reading Copies on Edelweiss.

Tense Suspense

As usual, thrillers were on the tips of many tongues with favorite author Laura Lippman’s latest stand-alone, Wilde Lake (HarperCollins/William Morrow, May) at the top of the list. While preparing for a trial, Maryland state attorney Lu Brant finds herself reliving painful memories of a family occurrence in 1980. Janet Lockhart, Wake Co, NC, says, “We all think we know our family’s story, but do we, really?  Laura Lippman explores truth, lies and whether we ever know, or want to know, which is which.” This could be a prime choice for book groups.

Another top choice was City of the Lost (Macmillan/Minotaur, May; DRC for this one is only on NetGalley) by Kelley Armstrong, best known for her fantasy and paranormal novels . Elizabeth Kanouse from Denville Public Library (NJ) says of this first book in a new series, “What if there was a place you could go to start over, to run away and hide from your life. Well, Rockton is just such a place. Detective Duncan goes to Rockton to escape her past, and is immediately embroiled in the search for a killer. Fast-paced and mysterious, with a surprise ending, this is a new and fresh twist on the locked-room whodunit.”

It’s no surprise that film rights to  Before the Fall (Hachette/Grand Central, May) has already been acquired as the author is Noah Hawley, Emmy winner for the TV series Fargo. Poised to be a summer blockbuster, this slow-burn literary thriller about the aftermath of a private jet crash and the subsequent conspiracy theories raised by the quick-to-accuse news media didn’t have any big twists or surprises, but its unique storytelling kept me totally absorbed.

Pleasing Novels

Thorndike’s fiction selector Mary Smith reads a lot of novels, and one of her 2016 favorites is Phaedra Patrick’s Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper (HC/Harlequin/Mira, May). A year after the death of his beloved wife, Miriam, 69-year-old Arthur Pepper is cleaning out her closet when he finds an expensive bracelet hidden in a boot. Mary said, “I loved this charming, heartwarming story and enjoyed traveling with Arthur on his adventures searching for the meaning of the charms. Reminiscent of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, everyone I’ve handed this book to loves this sweet, poignant story.” It’s also a good readalike for The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin.

Swedish author Fredrik Backman’s Britt-Marie Was Here (S&S/Atria, May), the story of a socially inept and fussy woman who leaves her cheating spouse and finds her outlook changing after taking on the caretaking job at a local recreation center, has been quickly accumulating “much-love” votes on Edelweiss.  Vicki Nesting from St. Charles Parish Library (LA) also raved about it saying, “With its wonderful cast of oddball characters and sly sense of humor, this novel is sure to capture readers’ hearts. And who knew your favorite soccer team could say so much about your personality?”

Former reference librarian Camille Perry’s debut novel, The Assistants (PRH/GP Putnam’s, May) is delighting readers with its slyly funny plot of personal assistants discovering ways to pay off their student loans by siphoning funds from their one-percent bosses.  Adult services librarian Andrienne Cruz (Azusa City Library, CA) calls it, “An enjoyable read that you will zip through as Robin Hood Tina and her merry (wo)men find a way to set things right so they don’t end up in jail.” NOTE: This title was featured in First Flights, the Penguin Debut Author series. Read our chat with the author here.

Captivating Nonfiction

Betsy Lerner’s memoir The Bridge Ladies (HC/Harper Wave/May) is a winner according to Jennifer Dayton from Darien Library (CT). “When rebellious Betsy Lerner’s mom needs help after surgery, she finds herself back in New Haven chafing at decades old wounds. Enter the Bridge Ladies and their 50 year-old-game. Before you can say, ‘no trump,’ Betsy becomes enmeshed in their lives and fascinated by the ways that ritual can save. I loved this look at mothers and daughters, female friendship and the obsessive love bridge players have for the game.”

With endorsements from Cheryl Strayed and Ann Patchett, along with over 20 “much love” votes from Edelweiss readers, Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (PRH/Knopf, April) could be an unforeseen bestseller. Nonfiction collection development librarian for Wake County (NC), P. J. Gardiner, says this is her favorite so far this year. “Jahren’s back-to-back chapters of the plant world and her personal endeavors as a woman of science weave together in rich, powerful metaphors. Her symbiotic relationship with lab partner, Bill, and their passion for discovery is the heart of this splendid memoir.”

Please join us for another rousing GalleyChat April 5, from 4:00-5:00 ET, with virtual cocktails from 3:30-4:00.

To be added to my notification list of when lists and summaries are available, or to share how you use GalleyChat, email me at galleychatter@earlyword.com.

Author Helen Oyeyemi is in the NPR spotlight.

Yesterday Maureen Corrigan reviewed her newest collection of short stories, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours (PRH/Riverhead; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample), on NPR’s Fresh Air, praising the author’s “nouveau Gothic stories” as so memorable that they “leave a deep impression — like a scar that stubbornly refuses to fade.”

NPR’s Steve Inskeep interviewed Oyeyemi earlier in the week for Morning Edition. He asks her about her use of fairy tales and the way her imagination works.

Of fairy tales she says:

“I am trying to find out what endures — because these stories are so old, and have been retold by so many tellers, in so many different forms. There’s a way in which, when you retell a story, you’re testing what in it is relevant to all times and places. Bits of it hold up, and bits of it crumble and then new perspectives come through, and I like that the fairy tale is one of the only stories that can bear the weight of all that.”

When asked if books are more real than the actual world she replies:

“I think everything is equally real. … It’s just a question of different categories of reality, I guess, and not giving one greater precedence than the other.”

Earlier in the month reviewer Michael Schaub offered his take on the collection for NPR book reviews (web only). In his glowing appraisal he says:

“What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a lot of things: dreamy, spellbinding, and unlike just about anything you can imagine. It’s a book that resists comparisons; Oyeyemi’s talent is as unique as it is formidable. It’s another masterpiece from an author who seems incapable of writing anything that’s less than brilliant.”

Holds are high at several libraries we checked and even where systems have gotten on top of holds, circulation is brisk.

The film adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Live By Night, directed by Ben Affleck, has been set for release on Oct. 20, 2017. Affleck also stars, along with Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana and Chris Messina. Deadline calls the date a “prime fall spot.

This is Affleck’s fourth time directing. His first effort as a director was also an adaptation of a Lehane novel, 2007’s Gone Baby Gone.

Live by Night (Harper/ Morrow) is a crime novel set in the Prohibition era about the rise of an Irish-American gangster. Prophetically, when it came out, Entertainment Weekly, called it a “ripping, movie-ready yarn that jumps from a Boston prison to Tampa speakeasies to a Cuban tobacco farm.

Lehane is no stranger to Hollywood. In addition to Gone Baby Gone, films have been made of his novels Mystic River (2003) and Shutter Island (2010). He has also written for the TV series The Wire and Boardwalk Empire.

Affleck appears in theaters this week as Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

The chat has now ended. Read the transcript, below.

Among the many books cited as a worthy successor to Gone Girl, including The Girl on the Train, was a title that considered as better than either by several librarians on  GalleyChat, The Kind Worth Killing, by Peter Swanson (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe; OverDrive Sample).

It did not quite become a household name, but the rights were picked up for a film, which now has a director, Agnieszka Holland, according to Deadline.

Of the book, Holland says she was,

 “ … really intrigued by this story. It’s full of paradoxes and I love paradoxes. The main heroine is tough as steel, but also as fragile as glass. Is she a victim? A psychopath? An avenger? What a great role for a talented actress! The story line is unpredictable, the genre feels fresh. A psychological thriller, which sometimes veers off towards black comedy, mixing humor with gore, genuine emotions with a detective mystery. The Kind Worth Killing will be fun to shoot, but even more fun to watch!”

The world’s most prolific author has just figured out a way to publish even more titles. As reported by the New York Times, James Patterson plans to publish 3 to 4 “BookShots,” described as “short and propulsive novels” that are less than 150 pages long and sell for less than $5 each. He will write some himself, use co-authors on others and release some “James Patterson Presents” romances by other authors.

The first two will be published in June, reports the NYT, Cross Kill, featuring Alex Cross and  Zoo II, an SF novel with co-author Max DiLallo. Neither are yet listed on wholesaler or retailer catalogs.

The people who found TV series gold in the YA Gossip Girl books have turned their attention to books aimed at an older audience, the erotic romance series Calendar Girl.

About a woman who raises money to pay her father’s medical bills by becoming a high-priced escort, the twelve-book series is named for each month of the year. Each chronicles main character Mia’s relationship with a different client.

ABC Studio’s cable division has grabbed the rights to the series. reports  Deadline.

Several of the books hit the USA Today best seller list earlier this year, bringing attention to  author Audrey Carlan, who was profiled on the Today Show, with expectations that the series would follow in the footsteps of the Fifty Shades series.

The novels have been a boon for small independent publisher, Waterhouse Press, which currently has just three authors in its stable. In a Publishers Weekly profile of the company, CEO David Grishman attributes the success to his “heavily mathematical” approach to creating best sellers but declined to explain further. It might have to do with releasing the previously self-published titles very close together as $2.99 eBooks to seed combined best seller lists. The first, January, hit USA Today‘s list at #5, at the same time that four other in the series arrived in the top 50. The books have also been released in paperback, in four collected volumes.

The series has not followed the Fifty Shades of Grey continuous growth pattern, however. The titles have slid down the list since their initial success.

The Berlin International Film Festival does not get as much attention in the U.S. as does Cannes, but one of this year’s featured films, adapted from a book, is getting a bevy of press coverage.

Alone In Berlin stars Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson and is directed by Vincent Perez. For all accounts, it is a somber, quiet film with deft acting, not the kind of film that creates buzz.

But buzzy it is and one of the reasons it has become such a juicy topic is the book story behind it.

Alone in Berlin is an adaptation of Hans Fallada’s novel Every Man Dies Alone (Melville House, 2010; OverDrive Sample). Depicting the domestic resistance in Germany to Hitler, it was written just after the end of WWII and was based on Gestapo files kept on the real-life couple Otto and Elise Hampel. Deeply affected by the death of their son during the war, the Hampel’s began handwriting postcards with subversive messages such as “Mothers, Hitler Will Kill Your Son Too” and leaving them in public places around Berlin.

As NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday reports, Fallada was a best selling author between WWI and II, with his books picked as book-of-the-month-club selections and adapted into Hollywood films (which got him blacklisted by the Nazis).

However, Every Man Dies Alone wasn’t published in English until 2009, after Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson heard about the book from the fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg and tracked it down.

When it finally did come out here, it was a best seller and became a NYT‘s Notable Book and one of The New Yorker‘s Favorite Fiction Books of the year.

The film version does not yet have a U.S. distributor but check your copies. Circulation in strong in libraries we checked, with holds lists at many locations.

Charlie Rose featured the book previously:

The movie based on A. Scott Berg’s National Book Award-winning bio,  Max Perkins: Editor Of Genius, (Dutton, 1978; available in trade pbk. from PRH Berkley) with the title pared down to simply Genius, is set to open on June 10th.

The trailer just debuted online, to an apt comment by the Hollywood trade Deadline, “A movie about the work of a book editor seems on paper as promising as a movie about the drudgery of investigative reporting — until a Spotlight or an All The President’s Men comes along to challenge our preconceptions.”

It boasts a marquee cast, including Colin Firth as Perkins, Jude Law as writer Thomas Wolfe, Nicole Kidman as Wolfe’s lover Aline Bernstein and Laura Linney as Perkins’ wife. Other famous clients are Dominic West as Ernest Hemingway and Guy Pearce as F. Scott Fitzgerald.

ALA’s recently re-released David Bowie poster

In a refreshing change from the usual click bait stories, the website Bustle posts “6 Scientific Reasons Reading is Amazing For Your Health.”

We already knew that that reading is good for
our well being, reduces stress, is therapeutic
and increases attention spans. It turns out that
it is also improves memory, brain function, and longevity.

So, stop going to the gym and settle into your favorite reading spot.

In addition to her bestselling Neapolitan novels, the mysterious Elena Ferrante has written a book for children aged 6-10.

The Beach at Night (Europa Editions; ISBN 9781609453701; Dec. 6, 2016; it may not yet be on wholesaler sites), reports The Wall Street Journal, will hit shelves later this year,

“Star translator,” Ann Goldstein, who translated Ferrante’s blockbuster adult titles into English will translate this tale as well.

Previously published in Italy in 2007, sales were tepid, reports WSJ, but Ferrante’s U.S. publisher, Europa, says that was before she became a household name and booksellers were “perplexed” by how to position it.

All that has changed, prompting the re-release in America.

The Beach at Night is a spinoff of an earlier Ferrante novel, The Lost Daughter, which includes a scene of  an adult stealing a doll from a child during a seaside vacation. Abandoned rather than stolen in the new book, the doll is left alone to face the terrors of the night in Ferrante’s newest.

Is that a story that will work for young readers? According to the WSJ, Ferrante, known for her often dark adult novels, “doesn’t sugarcoat things for young readers.”

The British trade publication, The Bookseller offers this summary:

“Celina [the lost doll] is having a terrible night, one full of jealousy for the new kitten, Minù, feelings of abandonment and sadness, misadventures at the hands of the beach attendant, and dark dreams. But she will be happily found by Mati, her child, once the sun rises.”

The first in a new YA series by Cassandra Clare, Lady Midnight, (S&S McElderry; S&S Audio) arrives at #1 on the USA Today list, the author’s first time in that position with a new book. It is also at #1 on the NYT Young Adult Hardcover list.

It arrives just as the TV series Shadowhunters, based on Clare’s earlier series Mortal Instruments, nears its April 5 finale on the basic cable channel Freeform. Clearly considered a success by the network as it has been renewed for a second season. Lady Midnight, subtitled The Dark Artifices Book One, bears a further attribution that ties it in to the show, A Shadowhunters Novel (the main character in the new book appeared in the previous series).

The debut novel The Widow (PRH/NAL; BOT; OverDrive Sample) continues as a best seller after four weeks, moving up a bit on the USA Today list and down on others.

Moving to #8 on the USA Today list is a title that is doing well in ebook (it also moves up the WSJ eBook Fiction list, to #3), The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza, from British publisher, Bookouture. On his author page, Bryndza says that the is his first crime thriller after a several romantic comedies.

In nonfiction, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli is still at #5 in its second week on the NYT list, tied with #4 The Immortal Irishman, by Timothy Egan. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), about an Irish revolutionary who fled his home country and became the general of New York’s Irish Brigade during the Civil War. It received media attention in anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day (including an interview with the author on NPR’s Morning Edition).

“Highly anticipated” is a term that is loosely thrown around. In the case of the debut novel The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio), that claim can be documented, beginning with a major publishing auction that led to an estimated seven figure advance.

The plot is succinctly described by Kirkus in a starred review, “Dysfunctional siblings in New York wig out when the eldest blows their shared inheritance.” LJ comments that the story “typifies the Internet meme ‘white people problems’ even more than most current New York City-based literary fiction,” but concludes that the themes are nonetheless universal, “Anyone with siblings will appreciate the character dynamics at play here, although they may not care much for each character individually. A fun, quick read recommended for fans of Emma Straub and Meg Wolitzer.”

The author, who lives in L.A., clearly has Hollywood connections (her husband, as noted in a this week’s New York magazine profile, is Conan O’Brien’s head writer). The cover blurb is from Amy Poehler. “Intoxicating … I couldn’t stop reading or caring about the juicy and dysfunctional Plumb family” (no news yet on a film adaptation. Oddly, however, the latest Amy Poehler/Tina Fey film Sisters, was originally titled The Nest). A clever trailer released in January, stars several faces familiar from big and small screens (as well as author Susan Orleans), talking about their own sibling relationships.

Also a hit with booksellers and librarians, it is the #1 Indie Next title for April and on the March LibraryReads list. It is this week’s “Book of the Week” in People magazine and gets a strong review from Entertainment Weekly.

Many libraries are showing holds that outstrip cautious ordering.

Usual Suspects

Leading in holds for the week is Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once, also a LibraryReads pick (see below).

Another week brings another new book by James Patterson. This time, he is targeting Dork Diaries fans, with a middle-grade novel featuring a girl called Jacky Ha-Ha (Hachette/ Jimmy Patterson; Hachette Audio) because she just can’t stop cracking jokes.

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 March 21, 2016

Media Magnets

Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening, John Elder Robison, (PRH/Spiegel & Grau; RH and  BOT Audio)

Known for his  2007 memoir Look Me in the Eye, about living with Asberger’s, Robison is also the brother of another famous memoirist, Augusten Burroughs, who also has a new memoir, arriving just a week later, Lust & Wonder. In this book, Robison writes about undergoing a treatment to reverse his condition. The title of his essay in today’s New York Times “An Experimental Autism Treatment Cost Me My Marriage” indicates that  the outcome was not completely what he wished for. On Tuesday, Robison is scheduled to appear on NPR’s All Things Considered and on PBS’s NewsHour.

Back from the Dead, Bill Walton & John Papanek, (S&S; S&S Audio)

Basketball legend Walton suffered multiple sports injuries, including one that left him paralyzed. Now recovered, he recounts his experiences in this memoir. He is scheduled for appearances next week on Good Morning America as well as several ESPN shows and NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Peer Picks

The Nest, covered above, is a favorite of both booksellers and librarians, who are also in agreement about a several other titles arriving next week.

The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson, (PRH/Random; Random House Audio; OverDrive Sample), is the #1 LibraryReads pick for March and on the Indie Next list for April.

Paulette Brooks, of Elm Grove Public Library, Elm Grove, WI offers this warm invitation to start reading:

“Fans of Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand have reason to rejoice. She has created another engaging novel full of winsome characters, this time set during the summer before the outbreak of World War I. Follow the story of headstrong, independent Beatrice Nash and kind but stuffy surgeon-in-training Hugh Grange along with his formidable Aunt Agatha. Make a cup of tea and prepare to savor every page!”

Jane Steele, Lyndsay Faye (PRH/G.P. Putnam’s Sons; OverDrive Sample).
Abbey Stroop, of Herrick District Library, Holland, MI says:

“Jane Steele is a great read for lovers of Victorian literature who especially love their characters to have a lot of pluck! Jane Steele is the adventurous, irreverent, foul-mouthed broad that I so often loved about Jane Eyre, but in more wily circumstances. Remember that fabulous scene in Jane Eyre when she stands up to her aunt for the first time, and how you wanted to stand up from your comfy reading chair and cheer for her? Imagine an entire book just of those sorts of scenes. Absolutely fabulous fun!”

Faye’s clever take on Brontë is getting attention from other quarters. An April Indie Next pick, it is also  People pick this week and a favorite among GalleyChatters. USA Today featured the novel in a story on literary mashups. UPDATE: 3/21/16, Film rights were acquired by Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures.

Fool Me Once, Harlan Coben (PRH/Dutton; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Lisa Sprague, of Public Services Librarian, Enfield Public Library, Enfield, CT writes:

“Coben has made me lose more sleep over the years than all my other favorite authors combined. Joe Burkett has been murdered in front of his wife Maya. They have a two year old daughter who has a nanny. After the funeral, a friend gives her a picture frame that hides a camera so she can check on the care the nanny is providing her daughter. She watches the recording. Can she believe what she saw? Is she going crazy? Both? Buy a ticket for the coaster and find out for yourself. Keep your hands inside the car; it’s going to be a wild ride.”

Dimestore: A Writer’s Life, Lee Smith (Workman/Algonquin; OverDrive Sample).

Lois Gross, of Hoboken Public Library, Hoboken, NJ says of Smith’s memoir:

“Evenly divided between a book about Smith’s process and her life, first as a Southern mountain child and, later, as the parent of a schizophrenic child, this book is interesting and compelling. Despite being surrounded by loving family and being blessed with an active imagination, Lee copes with a mentally ill mother. Later, her son’s mental illness and early death brings her to the breaking point but she is saved by her writing. This is a read-alike for Karr’s The Liars Club. It desperately needs a cinematic translation for it’s elegant and evocative writing.”

One final bookseller pick, from the Indie Next April list, comes out this week. The Charm Bracelet, Viola Shipman (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“This is the story of three women slowly losing themselves until they are reunited in Scoops, Michigan, at the beginning of summer: Arden, working at a job that gives her nothing but a paycheck; Lauren, becoming sadder as she moves farther from doing what she loves most; and Lolly, gradually forgetting all the things in her life that brought her joy and happiness. Linked together like the charms on their wrists, Arden, Lauren, and Lolly will remind each other of times gone by, how to appreciate the present, and how to embrace whatever the future brings. Reading this sweet story reminded me how lucky we are if we are close to those who share our history.” —Sylvia Smith, Bookmiser, Roswell, GA.

Tie-ins

There are no tie-ins publishing this week. For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins).

Fulfilling hints last week that the film adaptation of Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, Allegiant, would open to some hard critical hits, The Guardian gives it two stars (out of five), saying “All types of people will find something that irks them in the penultimate part of the Divergent franchise,” while A.V. Club gave it a C+, under the headline “Allegiant is the best Divergent yet, and still not good enough.”

The news for The Little Prince was even worse, it was yanked from distribution just a few days before it was due to open. UPDATE: Netflix has since picked up the rights with plans to stream it “later this year.”

Whether or not it does well at the box office, Miracles from Heaven, starring Jennifer Garner opening today has already propelled the tie-in onto best seller lists. It moved to #20 on the week’s USA Today list.

On to next week. Viewers will have a chance to re-visit a number of favorite characters from the past.

The biggest movie opening is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Starring Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. It opens March 25th.

Anticipation is high for the iconic smackdown as Batman decides Superman is a bit out of control. Deadline reports advanced ticket sales are outpacing those for Deadpool, Avengers, and Furious 7.

A junior novel tie-in came out last month. It was billed as a companion novel and riffs off the movie, Cross Fire: An Original Companion Novel (Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice), Michael Kogge (Scholastic Inc.; OverDive Sample).

I Saw The Light also opens on the 25th. It tells the story of country-western singer Hank Williams and stars Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen.

A tie-in came out last November: I Saw the Light: The Story of Hank Williams, Colin Escott with George Merritt and William MacEwen (Hachette/Back Bay Books; OverDrive Sample).

In TV-land PBS fans mourning the end of Downton can console themselves with the start of the second season of Grantchester, starring the dishy village vicar who loves jazz music and a married woman. It will run from March 27 until May 1.

These slightly less than cozy tales are adapted from the books by James Runcie, which collect a series of short mystery stories into several volumes. A tie-in edition, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA; OverDrive Sample), comes out March 22.

Fans of The Bridge get ready for part 2. Hallmark fast tracked it after the success of part one which aired in December.

A tie-in edition came out in October 2015, The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury (S&S/Howard Books; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Over on NBC Heartbeat begins. The show is loosely based on the real life story of Dr. Kathy Magliato, one of the nation’s few women heart surgeons. She wrote a medical memoir, Healing Hearts, which was reissued as Heart Matters: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon (PRH/Harmony; OverDrive Sample) back in 2011. It now bears the sticker, “The Book That Inspired Heartbeat Now on NBC.”

The show begins airing on March 23.

The hosts of HTGV’s popular design show Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna Gaines, have teamed up with New York Times bestselling collaborator Mark Dagostino on a memoir.

The Magnolia Story (Thomas Nelson) is due out on Oct. 18 (Magnolia is the name of their various businesses).

People offered a “first look” at the cover and reports the memoir starts long before the couple became famous for their 360-degree restorations of houses in need of repair.

Casual viewers of Fixer Upper may be surprised that the book is published by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, not known for design books. Although they don’t talk about it on the show, the Gaines have a strong Christian faith (the Billy Graham web site published a story last fall titled, “How God Used Billy Graham to Influence Fixer Upper Family“) and The Magnolia Story is primarily a memoir.

Joanna Gaines is also working on a design book, as noted in a press release, to be published by Thomas Nelson Gift Books in early 2017.

Expect an extensive media campaign for the memoir closer to pub. date.