People magazine’s 3.5 (of a possible 4) star review of the debut Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26; Penguin Audio) begins with this irresistible invitation,

Put on some Billie Holiday, pour a dry martin ig and immerse yourself in the eventful live of Katy Kontent, as smart you woman trying to fin herself in Manhattan in the lat 1930’s.

It is also one of O magazine’s “16 Books to Watch for in August 2011.” Holds are growing in libraries.

Word of mouth is growing for S.J. Watson’s debut psychological thriller about a woman trying to piece together her life after losing her memory. Before I Go To Sleep (Harper. 6/14; HarperLuxe, 9780062060556) debuts on the 7/31 NYT Hardcover Fiction list at #7 (it’s been on the Extended list for four weeks). Libraries are showing heavy holds.

John Hart achieves new heights with Iron House  (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s St. Martins, 7/12; Macmillan Audio; Large print, Thorndike), which arrives on the list at #10 in its first week of publication.

The heavily promoted and well-reviewed The Last Werewolf  by Glen Duncan (Knopf, 7/12) just makes the Extended List at #32 in its first week. Word of mouth may yet work its magic on this one.

A Dance With Dragons, by George R. R. Martin. (Bantam, $35; RH Audio and BOT Audio) debuts at #1, proving that the fantasy category is stronger than many realized. The first in the series, Games of Thrones is #1 on Mass Market Fiction list and #6 on Trade Fiction, due to the HBO series.

We must be suffering from Hunger Games fatigue, a phenomenon identified by the L.A. Times. We didn’t post the admittedly cool flaming movie poster that appeared on the Web yesterday or the countdown widget (as of now, just 245 more days until the movie’s release on March 23).

Nevertheless, we were interested to learn that Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence may have another book-related project in the works. Deadline reports she is the leading contender for a coveted role in The Silver Linings Playbook, opposite Mark Wahlberg. The movie is based on the debut novel by Matthew Quick (one of Nancy Pearl’s picks for summer reading, 2009).

Production is set to begin this fall.

NYT reviewer Janet Maslin proved herself a fan of crime writer Colin Cotterill in 2007, when she praised his Dr. Siri Paiboun books set in Laos during the turbulent 1970’s for their “wry, seasoned, offhand style…the secret weapon of this unexpectedly blithe and charming series.”

She is also a fan of the first book in Cotterill’s new Killed at the Whim of a Hat (featured on our Watch List for this week; coming in Large Print from Thorndike in Nov; ISBN 9781410441270), the first in a new series and the author’s first book with Minotaur. Set in southern Thailand, where Cotterill lives, it features  “sardonic, self-important” female crime reporter, Jimm Juree.

Where does the title come from? A George Bush speech from 2004,

Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat.

Killed at the Whim of a Hat Colin Cotterill Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2011-07-19) ISBN / EAN: 0312564538 / 9780312564537

Highbridge Audio

Soho will publish the eighth and final book in the Dr. Siri series, Slash and Burn, (9781616951160) in December. The full backlist is available in pbk. from Soho and Blackstone Audio is in the process of bringing out all the titles. Ebooks of the backlist are shown as “coming soon” on OverDrive.

Director Peter Jackson just released a video from the set of The Hobbit, which recently wrapped the first few months of shooting in New Zealand.

In the video, a cast member predicts that the movie will bring beards back in a big way. Get ready to see these on the street:

You have a while to prepare; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is scheduled for release on December 14, 2012 and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the following year, on December 13, 2013.

Below is the YouTube version of the vlog; watch the HD version here.

Parade Magazine weighed in with their 12 picks for summer reading last week (distinguishing themselves by being the only ones to select Bonnie Jo Campbell’s Once Upon a River, getting strong critical acclaim and showing heavy holds in libraries). With the country in the midst of a seemingly endless heat wave, it seems appropriate to now call the summer reading lists of 2011 a wrap.

On the right side of the site, we’ve linked to the major lists, under “Previews — Summer ’11.” Browsing through the various list serves as a quick R.A. refresher.

For an exhaustive (and exhausting) list of nearly every guide, check out the blog Largehearted Boy. It’s interesting if your curious what books more specialized sources, like what Ad Age recommends.

Since it’s instructive to see how others hand-sell books, below are Harlan Coben and Jennifer Weiner (who is on several reading lists herself, for Then Came You, Atria, out this week), presenting their top picks on the Today Show earlier this month.

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A debut dystopian YA title, Legend by Marie Lu (Putnam) arriving at the end of November, gets early attention from USA Today.

A movie is already in the works, with the producers who worked on the Twilight Saga. Author Marie Lu will appear at Comic-Con this week on a panel with several other women writers, about “kick-ass heroines” in science fiction and fantasy. Lu is the creator of a popular Facebook game, on which the book is based, also called Legend.

In the prepub media, the book has so far only been reviewed by Kirkus, which gave it a star. The first in a planned trilogy, it has an announced a 200,000 first printing.

Legend Marie Lu Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Putnam Juvenile – (2011-11-29) ISBN / EAN: 039925675X / 9780399256752

Penguin Audio; 9781611760088

You know you’ve arrived when your new book is heralded by a publication day sit-down with Matt Lauer on the Today Show. This is now a regular event for Daniel Silva, whose new book, Portrait of a Spy arrived yesterday (it also happens that his wife works for the show, but the fact that each of his last four books has gone to #1 on the NYT Best Seller list probably trumps nepotism). This is the eleventh title in the Gabriel Allon series.

Universal Studios recently acquired the film rights to the series. This is the first of Silva’s books published by HarperCollins after his switch from Putnam.

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Borders, the bookseller that invented the chain superstore concept, has not found a buyer and will ask for approval to liquidate its remaining 399 stores (at its height, Borders operated 1,300 stores), reports the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The company plans to be out of business by the end of September. Nearly 11,000 people will be laid off.

CEO, Mike Edwards, did not blame a history of swiftly changing management and direction, but “the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution and turbulent economy.” (Shelf Awareness published a more insightful analysis of Borders problems in February).

Reuters reports, however, that Books-A-Million may buy some of the stores (fewer than 50).

A comment on page 3 the Boston Globe‘s story this Sunday about e-books leaps out,

A recent study by the Pew Internet Project…suggested that one of the groups adopting e-readers most enthusiastically is Hispanic adults. Why? No one is sure. [study is here].

Ownership of e-readers breaks down this way

Hispanic   —               15%
White         —               11%
African-American — 8%

Does this match your experience with your community? Any guesses as to why?

More was going on at the box office this weekend than the confrontation between the HP gang and Lord Voldemort. There was also a battle between the old-fashioned, hand-drawn 2-D animation of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh and the the 3-D live-action HP finale.

HP came out more than victorious, breaking box office records, including its own. The silly old bear? Way behind, in sixth place.

Why did Disney submit Pooh to this humiliation? It seems test marketing made the producers confident that Pooh could stand up to the competition. Don’t count him out yet, says the movie news site Thompson on Hollywood; word of mouth is likely to bring Pooh a wider audience, including adults nostalgic for their childhoods.

Several tie-ins are available:

Winnie the Pooh: A Day of Sweet Surprises Retail Price: $6.99 Paperback: 32 pages Publisher: Disney Press – (2011-05-03) ISBN / EAN: 1423135903 / 9781423135906

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Winnie the Pooh: Forever Friends (Disney Early Readers) Lisa Ann Marsoli Retail Price: $3.99 Paperback: 32 pages Publisher: Disney Press – (2011-05-03) ISBN / EAN: 1423135784 / 9781423135784

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Winnie the Pooh: Hundred-Acre-Wood Treasury (Disney Winnie the Pooh) Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 128 pages Publisher: Disney Press – (2011-05-03) ISBN / EAN: 1423135911 / 9781423135913

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Winnie the Pooh: The Essential Guide (Dk Essential Guides) DK Publishing Retail Price: $12.99 Hardcover: 48 pages Publisher: DK CHILDREN – (2011-06-20) ISBN / EAN: 0756672112 / 9780756672119

Sorry, folks, but the rumor has been confirmed. Tom Cruise will play Jack Reacher in the film, One Shot, based on Lee Child’s novel, according to Deadline.

Shooting will begin this fall.

As dozens of you have pointed out, the role will be a stretch for Cruise; Reacher is described in the novels as 6’5″ and 250 pounds. Child himself has endorsed Cruise, however, saying, “Reacher’s size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way.”

One Shot is the ninth novel in the  Reacher series. Coming this fall is #17, The Affair, (Delacorte, 9/27).

Even if you’ve read Sex on the Moon (Doubleday, 7/12), you still don’t know what motivated aspiring astronaut Thad Roberts to throw everything he achieved away on a crazy scheme to steal and sell moon rocks, a scheme that landed him in jail for six years.

Unfortunately, Mo Rocca’s interview with him on CBS Sunday Morning doesn’t add much insight. Also interviewed is the book’s author, Ben Mezrich, who admits that he still doesn’t understand it either and that Roberts is “the most complicated person I’ve ever written about and…I’ve written about Mark Zuckerberg [in Accidental Billionaires, the basis for the movie The Social Network].

The title of Brian Selznick’s book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret has been reduced to simply Hugo for the Martin Scorsese adaptation (that’s right, the director of Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Gangs of New York, goes family-friendly and 3-D this time).

It arrives in theaters this Thanksgiving. The first trailer has just appeared on the Web (watch the HD version here).

This Fall, Scholastic will publish The Hugo Movie Companion (Oct), and the Hugo Cabret Notebook (Nov), a facsimile of the notebook that Cabret uses in the movie. Both are by Brian Selznick.

Libraries reported unexpectedly heavy holds on several titles during this week’s GalleyChat. The following list is in order by the largest holds ratios in the libraries we checked.

Once Upon a River, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Norton, 7/5; Holds over 10:1

The author’s collection of short stories, American Salvage, was a surprise finalist for the 2009 National Book Award. After the NBA put the book on the map, it appeared on most of the end-of-the year best books lists. With one exception, the consumer reviews for Campbell’s new book have been very strong, with Ron Charles in the Washington Post describing the book’s appeal most clearly. Curiously, neither the daily NYT nor the Sunday NYT Book Review have covered it.

Sister, Rosamund Lupton, Crown, 6/7; Holds 8:1 where buying is light

A debut novel that the NYT BR describes as a “taut, hold-your-breath-and-your-handkerchief thriller,” which was a big success in the UK last year.

 
The Watery Part of the World, Michael Parker, Algonquin, 4/26; Holds 8:1 where buying is light

Prepub reviews for this historical novel set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina were very strong, with Kirkus giving it a star (“A vividly imagined historical tale”). Nancy Pearl calls it “transporting” and included it in her “10 Terrific Summer Reads” on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Iron House, John Hart, St. Martins, 7/12; Holds 3:1
Audio, Macmillan audio; Large print, Thorndike

Three to one holds may not be impressive, but this is likely to be just the start for two-time Edgar winner John Hart. This is his fourth book since 2006, giving him name recognition and a growing fan base. More attention will arrive soon; it is the #1 title on the August Indie Next List. Hart  writes mysteries that are both plot- and character-driven, as he describes in the following interview: