Libraries are still showing heavy holds on all formats of Laura Hillenbrand’s best selling Unbroken (Random House). It has been doing so well in hardcover, that the publisher has postponed the paperback reprint indefinitely, reports USA Today.

The traditional time for issuing reprints is a year after publication (which would be November for Unbroken), but publishers are rethinking those schedules. Just last week, the NYT reported that some titles are actually being released in paperback earlier.

Audio:  Books on Tape;  Random House Audio; Random House Large Print; Audio and ebook vailable on OverDrive.

Entertainment Weekly is all over the movie of Suzanne Collins’ YA novel, The Hunger Games. They’ve even created an online site, The Hunger Games Central.

The cover of the new issue features The Hunger Games guys (Katniss was featured back in May). Tom Cruise isn’t the only one getting grief over his physical size; there’s been online “hand-wringing”  from fans that Katiniss will “tower” over Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark. In the EW interview, he sets the record straight; she’s a mere half inch taller, if that.

The movie is scheduled to open March 23, 2012.

Join us for GalleyChat this coming Tuesday, Aug. 2, from 4 to 5 p.m. (Eastern) when we will be discussing galleys of books coming out in Sept. and beyond.

Below are ten fall titles that rose to the top of participants’ TBR piles during last month’s chat:

The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach, Little, Brown, 9/7
Hachette Large Print, 9780316204729
Comments — a “masterpiece” and “Baseball and Moby Dick–what a combination! ”

When She Woke, Hillary Jordan, Algonquin, 10/4
Audio, Highbridge, 9781611745702
Comments — “brilliant, disturbing, unexpected turn. Much more than 1984 meets The Scarlet Letter.” –” Made me think of Handmaid’s Tale ”

Forgotten Waltz, Anne Enright, Norton, 10/3
Thorndike, 9781410443243

Lots of interest, although nobody had read yet.

Lost Memory of Skin, Russell Banks, Ecco, 9/27
HarperLuxe, 9780062088857
This is one I’ve become an evangelist for  and I’m happy to report that those I’ve gotten to read it are glad they did. Some say it’s Banks’ best yet.

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern, Doubleday, 9/13
RH Audio, 9780307938909
Large Print, Center Point, 9781611732023

We hardly need to say more about this one. As we reported earlier, it  has already been compared to The Help and The Da Vinci Code, in terms of potential popularity (but not at all in terms of plot or style or setting!)

The Night Strangers, Christopher Bohjalian, Crown, 10/4
RH audio, 9780307940773
RH Large Print, 9780739378366

Not many in the group have read this yet, but one who did said she “Couldn’t put it down,” causing others to grab their copies

Rin Tin Tin, Susan Orlean, S&S, 10/4
S&S Audio, 9781442344969; Thorndike, 9781410443441
This one has all the elements of a hit; fascinating historical detail (for instance, the heavy reliance on animals during combat in WWI), show business, triumph over obstacles and, of course, Susan Orlean and the dogs that were Rin Tin Tin through the years.

The Stranger’s Child, Alan Hollinghurst, Knopf, 10/11
RH Audio, 9780307966582
Comment — “Reminded me of Downton Abbey and Kate Morton.” Just announced as one of the titles on the Booker longlist. If it wins, the timing couldn’t be better; the announcement will come the week after it is published here.

Those Across the River, Christopher Buehlman, Ace,  9/6
Blackstone Audio
One who picked it up via NetGalley said she “Had nightmares after only reading the 1st quarter of it.”

Triangles, Ellen Hopkins, Atria/S&S, 9781451626339, 10/18 [No cover art yet]
S&S Audio, 9781442345362
Hopkins’ first book for adults, using the free verse style that is familiar from her YA titles; Comment “it’s riveting… she packs punch!

The New York Times has fun today investigating the story behind Untitled by Anonymous coming with a “massive media rollout” and a one-day laydown on Nov. 14 from Little, Brown.

Turns out the book is by a woman who lived with Bernard Madoff’s son, Andrew. Bookstores are ordering it through sales reps; we have searched wholesaler databases and the Hachette web site, but have not found ordering information.

The movie of Lee Child’s One Shot, starring Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher is moving closer to reality. It now has a release date of Feb. 8, 2013. For all of you who can’t believe that the Cruise was chosen to portray the 6’5″, 250 pound Reacher, get ready.  Paramount is hoping One Shot will launch a series based on the novels (strange that they decided to begin with the ninth title in the series).

The 17th Reacher novel, The Affair (Delacorte)  is coming in September.

What writer wouldn’t love this opening section from the Washington Post ‘s review,

You’re unlikely to find a wittier, more ingenious, more compulsively readable novel this year than Tom Carson’s latest, a satiric revue of the dearly departed American Century starring an 86-year-old woman who saw it all. The daughter of that charmer whose “voice is full of money,” as gold-hatted Gatsby said of Daisy, Pamela Buchanan tells what happened after the last mournful pages of The Great Gatsby.

The book is Daisy Buchanan’s Daughter, published by the Washington DC-area small independent, Paycock Press.

It was also reviewed in the 6/26 NYT BR, where it didn’t get as strong a reception. It seems the editors disagreed with that assessment; it is listed as “Editors’ Choice” title in the 7/3 issue.

A limited number of libraries have ordered it.

Daisy Buchanan’s Daughter Tom Carson Retail Price: $24.95 Paperback: 628 pages Publisher: Paycock Press – (2011-06-22) ISBN / EAN: 0931181348 / 9780931181344

Kristin Scott Thomas, who stars in the film Sarah’s Key, based on Tatiana de Rosnay’s novel, was interviewed on Fresh Air yesterday. She talked about her personal relationship to the little-known story of the roundup and killing of French Jews during WWII that inspired both the book and the movie.

The film is showing in a limited number of theaters; check the film’s Web site to find theaters in your area.

Tie-in:

Sarah’s Key Tatiana de Rosnay Retail Price: $13.99 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin – (2011-07-05) ISBN / EAN: 1250004349 / 9781250004345

Rights to he best selling oral history of the all-sports network, ESPN, Those Guys Have All The Fun are in the process of being sold to 20th Century Fox, according to Deadline.

Coincidentally, today’s NYT story about early release of paperback reprints mentions that the book will arrive in paperback on Dec. 1, just over six months after the hardcover release.

Libraries are showing heavy holds.

After the author’s appearance on the Rachel Ray Show yesterday, Syndrome W: A Woman’s Guide to Reversing Weight Gain, by Harriette R. Mogul, rose to #18 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Syndrome W: A Woman’s Guide to Reversing Midlife Weight Gain Harriette R. Mogul Retail Price: $16.95 Paperback: 280 pages Publisher: M.Evans & Company – (2010-07-25) ISBN / EAN: 1590771613 / 9781590771617

Good news for books groups. Publishers are speeding up the release of paperback reprints, which traditionally arrive a year after the hardcover, reports the New York Times. The wait for Room by Emma Donoghue took only eight months. Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! (Vintage Contemporaries) arrives in trade paperback this week, with new cover art, a mere five months after its hardcover publication in February.

When a book is doing well in hardcover, however, publishers still hold off. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest has been out for a year and is not yet in paperback. It was more than two years before The Help arrived in softcover.

Librarian favorite Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers is one of the thirteen books on the longlist for the Booker Prize, just announced in London. The author currently lives in Oregon, but was born in Canada, making him eligible for the prize.

The short list will be announced on Sept. 6th and the winner on Oct. 18.

The Sisters Brothers Patrick Dewitt Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Ecco – (2011-04-26) ISBN / EAN: /

Audio, Dreamscape; Large Print edition from Thorndike in August. ISBN 9781410439567, $30.99.

Below are the other twelve titles on the list, with U.S. publication information:

Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending, Knopf, 1/24/12

Sebastian Barry, On Canaan’s Side, Viking,  9/8/11; Large Print, Thorndike, Dec., ISBN 9781410443465; Blackstone Audio

Carol Birch, Jamrach’s Menagerie, Doubleday, 6/14/11; UPDATE: Thanks to AudioFile for pointing out that BOT has the audio of this title.

Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues, Serpents Tail in the UK; no listing for the U.S. yet

Yvvette Edwards, A Cupboard Full of Coats, Oneworld, 6/16/11; Debut

Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child, Knopf, 10/11/11; RH Audio

Stephen Kelman, Pigeon English, HMH, 7/19/11; Debut

Patrick McGuinness, The Last Hundred Days, Seren Books in the UK; no listing for the U.S. yet; Debut

A.D. Miller, Snowdrops, Doubleday, 1/22/11, Anchor Pbk, 2/7/12; Debut

Alison Pick, Far to Go, Harper Perennial, Orig. Trade Pbk, 3/31/11

Jane Rogers, The Testament of Jessie Lamb, Headline Review in the UK; no listing for the U.S. yet

D.J. Taylor, Derby Day, Chatto & Windus in the UK; no listing for the U.S. yet

USA Today quotes Kansas bookseller Vivien Jennings about Doubleday’s big debut novel of the fall, The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (9/13),

Let’s say The Help and The Da Vinci Code were high-water marks in our bookselling history. My prediction is The Night Circus is the 200-year flood. I loved (those books), but this is better…It’s a whole different level of writing…this book is going to be a best seller right out of the shoot.

Hollywood is also a believer. Summit, which produced the Twilight movies, bought the rights in January and is in talks with David Heyman (Harry Potter) to produce. The over-the-top success of the final Harry Potter movie has studios rushing to find more fantasy titles; A Discovery of Witches, (Viking, Feb) last season’s big debut, has been signed by Warner Bros. Deadline reports that the studio plans to put a writer on it immediately. Discovery is the first in a trilogy. Author Deborah Harkness is at work on the second book, Shadow of Night, coming from Viking next summer (no ordering information available yet).

EarlyWord GalleyChatters have been excited about the The Night Circus since galleys began appearing in March (if you didn’t get one, digital copies are available through NetGalley or Edelweiss).

Will it be as big as The Help or The Da Vinci Code? Collection Development Coordinator Wendy Bartlett at Cuyahoga is dubious. While she thinks it will be a best seller, she’s putting her money on another major debut, The Language of Flowers, ordering ten times more copies of it than of The Night Circus.

The Language of Flowers: A Novel Vanessa Diffenbaugh Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2011-08-23) ISBN / EAN: 034552554X / 9780345525543

Large Print; Thorndike, ISBN: 9781410441713, $34.99, 9/7/2011

No less a critic than the Washington Post‘s Jonathan Yardley calls Turn Right at Machu Picchu, (Dutton, June 30) an “entirely delightful book.” Author Mark Adams decided to celebrate the centenary of the “discovery” of Machu Picchu by following the trek himself, a challenge he was not fully prepared for.

He was interviewed on NPR Weekend Edition Sunday. The book is also on NPR’s list of the “Summer’s Biggest, Juiciest Nonfiction Adventures,” which calls it, “as close to an armchair vacation as you’ll get all summer long.”

Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time Mark Adams Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult – (2011-06-30) ISBN / EAN: 0525952241 / 9780525952244

Dorothy Wickenden, author of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West (Scribner, 6/21) was interviewed on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday.” The book has been receiving a steady stream of attention since its publication last month, including this assessment from the 6/24 NYT Book Review,

At its best, this book can recall Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s classic A Midwife’s Tale, [Vintage, 1990] which pioneered the method of teasing out an expansive story from the record of “unremarkable” women’s daily lives. Individual scenes emerge with a lovely, almost pointillist clarity — like a Christmas party at the schoolhouse in the midst of a blizzard, with rustic dancing and gifts for the dazzled children sent by Dorothy’s and Ros’s families — while we never lose track of the larger forces at work, including the removal of the Indians and the brutal fights for mining and railroad riches.

Holds are heavy in many libraries. Nothing Daunted is one of O magazine’s “16 Books to Watch for in August 2011“

Holds are 10:1 in many libraries on the debut Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante (Atlantic Monthly, 7/5; Audio, Brilliance; Large Print, Thorndike). Yesterday’s L.A.Times echoes a string of other strong reviews:

Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t seem like a great subject for a page-turner…And yet a page-turner is exactly what Alice LaPlante has crafted.

It’s the #1 Indie Next selection for July and one of O magazine’s “16 Books to Watch for in August 2011.”