It’s become predictable that a new title in the Diary of A Wimpy Kid series (Abrams/Amulet) will be released in November.

News sources quote today’s press release confirming that expectation. There’s no title or cover yet (they will be unveiled on April 28, as a capper to “the third annual Wimpy Kid Month“) but the pub date is Nov. 1.

Author Jeff Kinney states that he was not so sure there would be an eleventh book in the series,

“After the tenth book, I found myself at a crossroads in my career, I wasn’t sure if I should continue writing Diary of a Wimpy Kid books or go down a different path. I had the opportunity last year to travel all over the world and meet fans of the series in places like China, Brazil, and Romania. The trip was incredibly energizing, and made me feel certain that there is a demand for more stories about Greg Heffley for years to come. This book is really special to me, because it reflects a renewed commitment to the series and a plan for the future.”

The book is not yet listed on wholesaler catalogs.

How does literature change and shape lives? What are the best ways to share the empowerment of reading with teens? Those questions are dear to librarians, and also to a staff writer for The New Yorker.

David Denby wondered if kids were still reading books in an age of Twitter and Snapchat. To find out he spent a year embedded in a 10th grade English class and then another year in several other schools researching how teachers teach kids to appreciate literature. The result is Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives (Macmillan/Henry Holt; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample).

The book has received the glowing attention of USA Today, The Washington Post. Somewhat less enthusiastic, the New York Times calls it a “a lively account” but fears that “it isn’t clear whether the students are getting as much out of the books as [Denby] believes they are.” 

NPR just posted a web-only interview with Denby, who says of reading literature:

“It’s an enormously powerful critical tool … It’s not simple lessons, of course. And it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s incremental. It happens over your entire life.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and author of the best selling The Power of Habit, follows up with a new book, this time with a focus on productivity, Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business (Random House; BOT).

Using the approach that made his previous book accessible, Duhigg incorporates management science and personal stories designed to teach readers how to re-think their approach to being busy.

His book is soaring up the Amazon sales charts after a feature on the Today show, part of a planned series.

Even after the great success of The Power of Habit and the Today show push, holds are still modest on moderate orders for Duhigg’s newest. Like his previous book, we’re betting this one will be a slow build.

Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice, Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House; BOT; April 19) is the #1 pick on the April LibraryReads list.

Part of The Austen Project, Sittenfeld recasts Elizabeth as a magazine editor and Darcy as a neurosurgeon. The novel has made many “most anticipated lists” including those by Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, and The Washington Post. It was also a favorite of Galleychatters.

Leslie DeLooze, of Richmond Memorial Library, Batavia, NY offers this annotation:

“Love, sex, and relationships in contemporary Cincinnati provide an incisive social commentary set in the framework of Pride and Prejudice. Sittenfeld’s inclusion of a Bachelor-like reality show is a brilliant parallel to the scrutiny placed on characters in the neighborhood balls of Jane Austen’s novel, and readers will have no question about the crass nature of the younger Bennets, or the pride—and prejudice—of the heroine.”

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts, Joshua Hammer (Simon & Schuster; April 19) made the list with its account of a literary “Ocean’s Eleven” – the heist of centuries-old Arabic manuscripts under threat from Al Qaeda.

Marika Zemke, of Commerce Township Public Library, Commerce Township, MI shares this summary:

“For centuries, Arabic manuscripts were collected by private households in Mali, particularly Timbuktu: gilded manuscripts painted with real gold, showing vibrantly colored illustrations of nature. These highly valued manuscripts were handed down within families who acted as caretakers. As radicalized Muslim leaders came into power, the manuscripts were seen as corruptions of true Islam, requiring intervention. History and adventure at its best.”

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire (Macmillan/Tor.com; Macmillan Audio; April 5) explores the other side of portal fantasy stories. Jennifer Kelley, of Kershaw County Library, Camden, SC invites readers to wonder:

“What happens to children who find a doorway into a fantasy land, and then come back into the mundane world? It’s certainly not a happily ever after scenario for these children, but those that find their way to Eleanor West’s school are learning to cope. Shortly after Nancy comes to the school, a series of horrific events occur. It’s up to her and others at the school to figure out who is committing these atrocities. This book is so wonderfully written.”

Three debuts make the list, including Tuesday Nights in 1980, Molly Prentiss (Gallery/Scout Press; April 5) which explores the NYC art world of the 80s.

Diane Scholl, of Batavia Public Library, Batavia, IL says:

“Following the lives of three individuals in New York on the cusp of 1980, this book was structured in such a unique and original way. Lucy is in her early twenties, experiencing life in a big city; James who after college finds himself the reigning critic of the art world and Raul, escaping the post Peron Dirty War in Argentina will find himself the art world’s new favorite; these three will find their lives entwined in many ways. A tragic accident will change all these characters and others close to them. This is a wonderful book that I wasn’t ready to finish.”

Librarians also selected the next books by several big names, including Nora Roberts, Amanda Quick, and Laurie R. King.

The full list is available now.

HBO has released a full-length trailer for the sixth season of Game of Thrones, premiering April 24.

As we reported earlier, this is the first season without a tie-in book. The first four seasons were fairly faithful to George R.R. Martin’s novels and all were released as tie-ins. Season five deviated from the book, but nonetheless A Dance with Dragons was released in mass market and trade paperback tie-in editions.

As Martin has famously not written beyond the current point of the HBO show, this season carries the story line beyond what readers know. That does not mean, however, that there are no book connections. The show runners are turning back to previous story lines in the books for at least some of this season’s events.

Both Vanity Fair and The Atlantic have snooped out the threads based on scenes unveiled in the trailer.

It seems parts of the known story surrounding the Greyjoy’s will play out. Vanity Fair spots trailer scenes depicting “the Kingsmoot, an epic-length event for the Ironborn, that sees them try to find a replacement king of the Iron Islands.”

The magazine also notes Ned Stark’s return via flashbacks that tell the story of Robert’s Rebellion and Ned’s battle to free his sister from the Tower of Joy.

The Atlantic picks up on the “power struggle among the Iron Islanders” as well as pointing out that a lot of book material supports “Arya’s continued life in the guild of assassins.” The magazine also reminds readers that Martin has supplied story outlines to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. So while they are definitely working without a net, they are not totally without guidance.

The PEN America Center offers so many awards that they can begin to blur, especially since many of the finalists have already appeared on end-of-the year best books lists, or have won other major national awards.

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction shortlist offers two correctives this year, bringing attention to a pair of titles that have slipped under most radars.

Despite glowing praise in the NYT comparing her work to George Eliot, Elizabeth Tallent’s short story collection, Mendocino Fire (Harper, Sept. 2015), received scant additional attention. The same holds for Julie Iromuanya’s debut novel, Mr. and Mrs. Doctor (Coffee House Press, May 2015), which received little notice beyond a mention in the NYT Sunday Book Review’s debut title round-up. As previously announced, it is also a finalist for the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.

The other PEN/Faulkner finalists fared better in the PR stakes.

Luis Alberto Urrea’s short story collection The Water Museum (Hachette/Little, Brown. April 2015) was on both the Washington Post ‘s and NPR’s best of the year lists. Urrea is well-known for his many other works, including Into the Beautiful North, one of 34 titles on NEA’s Big Read list. Showing particular relevance to today’s political discussions, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer says, The Water Museum “mines the tragedy, the dark comedy and the ultimate futility of erecting walls between cultures.”

The other two books on the short list are true literary darlings. James Hannaham’s Delicious Foods (Hachette/Little, Brown, March 2015) and The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Press, April 2015).

Both won major awards, or were on award short lists, and were on many end-of-year “best” lists. Showing remarkable range, The Sympathizer, called a “cerebral thriller about Vietnam and its aftermath” by the Washington Post, is also a nominee for a 2016 Edgar for Best First Novel as well as on the shortlist for the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. Earlier this year, it won ALA’s Carnegie Medal for Fiction.

The winners of the PEN/Faulkner Awards will be announced on April 5th.

The headline of this post may seem odd, but it refers to the title of a book featured on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday, an historical account of what author Adam Cohen considers “one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in American history,” Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck (PRH/Penguin; OverDrive Sample).

It recounts the 1927 case in which the Supreme Court voted 8-1 to uphold a state’s right to forcibly sterilize a citizen deemed “unfit” to procreate. The case grew out of the eugenics movement, which Cohen details as well.

Holds are light thus far but the title zoomed up the Amazon sales rankings to #72 after Fresh Air, making it a candidate to hit best seller lists next week.

If so, it won’t be Cohen’s first best seller. He is the author of Nothing to Fear: FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America which hit the NYT‘s Nonfiction Hardcover list in 2009.

The first photos from Tim Burton’s adaptation of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children have been released, causing some of the book’s fans to go all atwitter over certain changes to the characters.

But author Ransom Riggs says he is pleased with the result:

*exhales after one year*
FINALLY I CAN SHOW YOU THE BEAUTIFULNESS https://t.co/PxJM5Ra5F6

— Ransom Riggs (@ransomriggs) March 4, 2016

The movie, starring Asa Butterfield as 16-year-old Jacob with Eva Green as Miss Peregrine and Chris O’Dowd, Ella Purnell, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp, Judi Dench and Samuel L. Jackson, opens.on Sept. 30.

There’s no full trailer yet. The following teaser was released last September:

No tie-ins have yet been announced.

Tim Burton is also the producer, but not the director, of a movie arriving May 27, Alice Through the Looking Glass (see our earlier coverage for more, including tie-ins). A new trailer was released last month.

The holds leaders this week all feature the return of favorite characters.

Clawback: An Ali Reynolds Novel, J.A. Jance, (S&S/Touchstone; S&S Audio; Thorndike)

Off the Grid: Joe Pickett Novel #16, C.J. Box (Penguin/Putnam; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample)
Starred PW, “With this exceptional entry, Box solidifies his place at the upper level of the crime fiction pantheon.”

The Steel Kiss: Lincoln Rhyme Novels. Jeffery Deaver (Hachette/ Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print; OverDrive Sample)
If you have a fear of escalators, look away. The cover and title refer to a key plot element, a man is gruesomely mangled when one of them malfunctions in a Brooklyn department store..

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 7, 2016.

Media Magnet

Love, Loss, and What We Ate, Padma Lakshmi, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio)

As the former wife of Salman Rusheie and the co-host of Top Chef, Lakshmi’s story has appeal for a wide range of media, including NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday and People magazine.

And, yes, she spills the beans about her marriage.

Peer Picks

The March LibraryReads selections arriving this week include a literary psychological suspense novel which has been highly praised in the trade reviews and the next in a popular urban fantasy series.

All Things Cease to Appear, Elizabeth Brundage (PRH/Knopf; BOT; OverDrive Sample).

Also a People magazine “Book of the Week,” called  an “insightful, evocative thriller”

Jennifer Dayton, of Darien Library, Darien, CT offers this annotation:

“When the Clare family purchases a ramshackle farmhouse at a foreclosure auction, it appears that all is well in their world, until George comes home one evening from his job as an Art History Professor at the local private college and finds his wife murdered and their three-year-old untended yet unharmed. Told through the eyes of the townspeople and the families involved, this is a gorgeously unsettling look at a marriage and what happens to a community in the process of change.”

A GalleyChatter favorite, Brundage earned All Stars status for the novel as well, racking up starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

Marked In Flesh: A Novel of the Others, Anne Bishop (PRH/Roc; BOT).
Emily Peros, of Denver Public Library, Denver, CO gives her take on the fourth of the Courtyards of the Others series:

“In this thrilling installment, Bishop continues to explore the relationships of The Others and the humans who live at the Lakeside compound. Meanwhile, Humans First and Last organization has been making themselves known, after the attacks in the previous book that killed numerous Others along with their “Wolf Lover” friends, they are not backing down. Little do they know it’s not the Others humans need to be wary of but the Elders for which the Others act as a buffer. This is an excellent installment in the novels of the Others, exciting, heart-wrenching and suspenseful.”

Four Indie Next March picks also arrive.

Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens, Steve Olson (W. W. Norton; OverDrive Sample).

“Eruption is everything a nonfiction book should be: Marvelous storytelling mixed with a great cast of characters, fascinating science, and little-known history. Anyone with even a passing interest in the Pacific Northwest or volcanoes will love this book. I read it in three long, satisfying gulps, and, like all great books, its stories linger in the mind long after you’ve read the last page.” —Tom Campbell, The Regulator Bookshop, Durham, NC

The Travelers, Chris Pavone (PRH/Crown; BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Full of twists and turns, secrets and lies, and enough misdirection to keep you guessing, Pavone’s third novel delivers everything readers have come to expect from his thrillers. As in his previous work, the world of publishing takes a central role: This time it’s a fading travel magazine and its companion travel agencies in the midst of an acquisition. Will and Chloe are a young married couple dealing with a home in need of extensive repairs so Chloe decides to take a less active role at Travelers magazine after Will is brought on board as the European correspondent. When Will meets an alluring woman while on assignment, she will change his life in ways he never could have foreseen.” —Billie Bloebaum, A Children’s Place, Portland, OR

This third thriller by Pavone struck GalleyChatters as a “sure fire hit.”

Spill Simmer Falter Wither, Sara Baume (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; OverDrive Sample)

“Baume’s debut novel is a heartbreaking story of loneliness and friendship, depression and pure joy, as revealed through the relationship between a man and the dog he rescues. Baume’s transcendent use of language and utterly original voice had me stopping to read whole sentences — even entire paragraphs — aloud. Spill Simmer Falter Wither is an amazing achievement by a writer who makes her work seem effortless.” —Mary Wolf, Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse, Santa Fe, NM

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, Helen Oyeyemi (PRH/Riverhead Books; OverDrive Sample).

“There is magic in Helen Oyeyemi’s writing. There is magic in the settings, which shift between the conventional and the fantastic as readers devotedly follow her characters down any path they please. There is magic in the tales themselves, as readers recognize a situation only to have it bloom into a flower they have never imagined before, full of beauty or of dread. And, most certainly, there is magic in such breathtaking prose and unimaginable characters. This is a captivating story collection, filled with both fairy tale whimsy and dark, complicated mystery. Highly recommended!” —Luisa Smith, Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA

Tie-ins

Only one tie-in this week, but it is a biggie. As we reported earlier, the PR surrounding the second season start of Outlander is growing in advance of the April 9th premiere date.

Now comes the tie-in release of the novel that will power the next set of Jamie and Claire’s adventures, Dragonfly in Amber (Starz Tie-in Edition), Diana Gabaldon (PRH/Bantam; OverDrive Sample; also in Mass Market).

The cover art was tweeted by Gabaldon. It keeps with the lush yet dangerous tone of the trailer and supports the series new tag line, “The Etiquette of War.”

For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.

Book adaptations did not fare well this week as reviews are mixed for Tina Fey’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle, Kim Barker, (PRH/Doubleday, 2011), tie-in: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (The Taliban Shuffle MTI): Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, (PRH/Anchor, 2/23/16).

Variety calls it “haphazard and often misguided” while Entertainment Weekly gives it a B-, starting the review with “;War zone rom-com’ is one of those movie concepts that, like ‘incest Western’ or ‘Holocaust farce,’ sounds like an idea maybe better left untapped.” Rolling Stone, however, praises Fey’s performance, as does Vanity Fair.

Audiences turned a cold shoulder to it. According to Entertainment Weekly, it performed “well under expectations of a double-digit opening”

Fulfilling and even exceeding expectations is the kids blockbuster Zootopia, now “the biggest Walt Disney Animation Studios opening of all time” surpassing even Frozen. It’s not based on a book, but there are tie-ins (see our listing).

Two adaptations hit screens small and large in the upcoming week; Season 2 of Amazon’s Bosch and The Young Messiah.

Bosch is one of Amazon Prime’s original series and is based on the detective novels by Michael Connelly. Titus Welliver stars as LA homicide detective Harry Bosch.

Season one was immediately successful with viewers (critics were warm) and became the only Amazon dramatic series renewed for a second season, according to the LA Times.

The first season drew from the novels City of Bones, Echo Park and The Concrete Blonde. The second season will rest on Trunk Music, The Last Coyote, and The Drop.

Timed for the run-up to Easter is the Biblical movie, The Young Messiah, starring Sean Bean, David Bradley, and Jonathan Bailey.

It is based on the Anne Rice novel originally published as Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (PRH, 2005). Rice’s second volume in the life of Christ came out in 2008, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana (PRH).

Tie-in editions of the first volume came out in late January and featured both the book and the movie title on the cover. The Young Messiah (Movie tie-in) (originally published as Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt), Anne Rice (PRH/Ballantine Books; OverDrive Sample – also in mass market).

Both adaptations hit screens on March 11.

Fans are mourning the end of Downton Abbey this Sunday, March 6. The series has encouraged many to look into the history of the time and has made best sellers of tie-ins, including the latest,  Downton Abbey – A Celebration: The Official Companion to All Six Seasons by Jessica Fellowes, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press. 11/10/15) as well as a book about one of the series’ inspirations, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by The Countess of Carnarvon, (PRH/Broadway).

Solace may be found in news that those associated with Downton will live on in other shows.

Showrunner Julian Fellowes follows up with an adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s Doctor Thorne starring Ian McShane in the title role, Alison Brie and Tom Hollander, along with Cressida Bonas making her TV debut (Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend, she brings an added element of media excitement). It begins in the U.K. this Sunday, but there is no news on when it will appear in the U.S.

Fellowes is also working an NBC series The Gilded Age, switching locales to New York in the late 19th century. Set to air later this year, Fellowes tells Parade magazine that he was attracted to the time and place, because, “you find this extraordinary renaissance period of artistic patronage and moneymaking, and a sort of development of a European aristocratic way of life, but in an American style … The Old World was dying, and America was just getting ready to fly!”

He will also publish a serialized novel Belgravia, beginning in April. According to Deadline, it is “Modeled along the lines of Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers” and will be delivered weekly in text and audio versions. A hardcover of the entire series, as well as an audio, is set for July.

Favorite actors from the series also have new projects on their agendas. The New York Post offers a rundown, which includes the following;

Hugh Bonneville (Lord Robert Crawley) joins Gillian Anderson in the film The Viceroy’s House where he will play Lord Mountbatten (with Anderson as Lady Mountbatten).

Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates) changes her goody two shoes and follows the footsteps of a serial killer. She will star in the ITV production Dark Angel, a miniseries about Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton,  playing the lead.  It will air on PBS Masterpiece some time this year..

Penelope Wilton (Isabel Crawley) got nabbed by Steven Spielberg for his adaption of Roald Dahl’s The BFG. She will co-star with Rebecca Hall and Bill Hader this July. As the New York Post puts it, “If the first director who hires you after Downton is Steven Spielberg, you can rest on your laurels.”

On its first week of publication, PAX by Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Jon Klassen (Harper/Balzer + Bray; OverDrive Sample) hit the NYT‘s Children’s Middle Grade Hardcover best seller list at #2 and shot up to #1 the week after, where it has ruled for the last four weeks.

About a twelve-year-old boy who is separated from his pet fox named Pax, it has received media attention from NPR, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and SLJ.

Word has reached Hollywood. It has been acquired by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment in a bidding war for film rights. Deadline reports it will be produced as a live-action feature.

Pat Conroy, who once told CBS News that “I always thought that if I told the story of the South, I would tell the history of the whole world,” has died of pancreatic cancer.

Conroy wrote The Prince of Tides, which dominated best seller lists for close to a year, The Great Santini, Beach Music, South of Broad, and several other novels and works of nonfiction, several of which were adapted into successful films.

Upon his death on March 4, the NYT wrote that Conroy’s books,

“captivated readers with their openly emotional tone, lurid family stories and lush prose that often reached its most affecting, lyrical pitch when evoking the wetlands around Beaufort, S.C.”

The paper further reports that Conroy was at work “on both a novel and a memoir about living in Atlanta in the 1970s” when he died. There is no news on whether or not those works will be completed. When he announced his condition on Facebook a few weeks ago, Conroy said “I owe you a novel and I intend to deliver it.”

The USA Today obituary features an illustrated tribute with clips from the films adapted from Conroy’s novels. The Washington Post provides segments of Conroy talking about his career, readers, and luck as a writer. The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR all offer tributes as well.

Based on James Patterson’s 2011 novel for kids, the movie Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life is set for release on October 7th, 2016. The first trailer has just been released.

Director Steve Carr (Paul Blart: Mall Cop), comparing this movie to his earlier family films (Daddy Day Care, Dr. Dolittle 2), tells Entertainment Weekly, “This book came along and I found it’s a better version of the movies that I’ve been making,”

Tie-ins:
Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life
Chris Tebbetts, James Patterson, Laura Park
Hachette/jimmy patterson; Hardcover, August 23, 2016

Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life
Chris Tebbetts, James Patterson, Laura Park
Hachette/jimmy patterson; Paperback; August 23, 2016