EarlyWord is the home of GalleyChat, monthly online discussions where library staff share excitement about upcoming books. More information here.
Summaries of chats and announcements are posted to the right. Use them to add to your own TBR piles and for collection development.
Links on the far right of the site offer information useful to readers advisors.
Hope to see you during our next chat,
GalleyChatters
Many of you heard Marilyn Johnson speak at MidWinter about her book on the importance of librarians in the digital age.
Good news; the book will also be avaiable in audio from Tantor. Link here to a PDF of the sell sheet. Release date is set for 2/22.
Publisher: Tantor
Read by: Hillary Huber
Running Time: 8 hrs – Unabridged
Trade: 9781400116348; 7 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146345; 7 CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166343; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99
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Wench by Dolan Perkins-Valdez has “sleeper success” written all over it, with a fascinating story line about an Ohio resort where slave masters brought their slave mistresses and rapturous early reviews, including one in People, calling it a “devastating beautiful account of a cruel past.”
The author appeared on NPR’s Tell Me a Story yesterday and added a third element to the list of pros; an author who can sell her book. She tells how she learned the story about the real resort that is the backdrop for her book, in a biography of W.E.B. Du Bois. Images of the actual resort are available on the author’s Web site.
Click here to listen to the story.
Location information: the real resort was in Xenia, in southwest Ohio near Dayton.The author was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee and now splits her time between Washington, DC and Seattle.
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Unabridged Audio: Book on Tape Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive |
Perkins-Valdez learned about the real resort in this bio of W.E.B. Du Bois, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Biography:
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As we noted yesterday, Robert Parker, whose recent death is being widely mourned by the reading community, has several more books coming. In addition to the two scheduled for release this year, his agent tells Entertainment Weekly that “a couple more” are in the pipeline and he was “30-40 pages into” a new Spenser novel when he died.
Below are the titles scheduled for this year:
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Random House Audio; UNABR; 2/23/10; 9780739357484; $32
Thorndike Large Print; 2/1/10; 9781410421876; hdbk; $35.95
Audio available from OverDrive
Coming in May is the fourth in Parker’s Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch western series, following Appoloosa, Resolution and Brimstone.
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Random House Audio; UNABR; 5/4/10; 9780307735478; $32
The wife of Appalachian Trail fan, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, will appear on national shows to promote her forthcoming book, Staying True, originally announced for a May publication date, but recently moved up to February 5.
Some of her scheduled appearances and coverage include:
February 5th — Barbara Walters interview on ABC’s 20/20
February 8th
Little information has leaked about this embargoed title, but Sanford is also scheduled appear on the Christian Broadcasting Networks’ The 700 Club, indicating it will be short on salacious details. As Politics Daily puts it, “With other stories rapidly feeding the public appetite for scandal, is there still interest in Jenny Sanford’s tale before, during and after a South American trip made her famous?”
Libraries we checked are currently showing light reserves on light to moderate ordering.
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Random House Audio; UNABR; simultaneous; 9780307736284; $25
The tragedy in Haiti has brought new attention to Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003, Random House) about Dr. Paul Farmer’s work to solve the country’s public-health problems. It’s been in the top 100 on Amazon for the past 7 days. Farmer’s organization, Partners in Health is behind the Stand on Haiti relief effort (check out the video on the site by librarian Cliff Landis, who created a matching grant of $10,000 for the organization. Warning: don’t watch it if you don’t want to be caught crying in front of your computer).
It’s included in the Daily Beast‘s list of The Best Books on Haiti (one testy comment points out that it’s actually the best books in English on the country) and the more extensive list on the “Shelf Renewal” blog at Library Journal:
There will obviously be more books published on Haiti and specifically on the earthquake. Time magazine has already announced a book by their reporters and photographers; at least $75,000 of the profits will go to Haiti relief efforts. It will be released first as a “bookazine” on 1/29 and as a hardcover in February. Bibliographic information is not yet available.
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Also in unabridged audio from Books on Tape
Book and audio available from OverDrive.
Thought the Twilight franchise had ended? Ah, ye of little faith; the graphic novel will be released March 16th from Yen Press, the manga imprint of Hachette, which also owns Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, publisher of the Twilight book series. First printing is 350,000 copies. A second volume is planned.
Entertainment Weekly has posted one of the panels from the book and a segment of an interview with Meyer on their Shelf Life blog (an exclusive ten-page excerpt, and the full Q&A will be in this Friday’s issue of Entertainment Weekly).
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I vividly remember Robert Parker from hearing him speak at an ALA. Very likely, it was an ALA held in Boston, a city I know more through his books than from personal experience. At that event, Parker made gentle but uproarious fun of a bit of library pomposity that went on before he spoke; he was totally charming and had the audience eating out of his hand.
And, now, upon returning from an ALA in Boston, I learn that Parker has died. He was 77 and, according to reports, he died at his desk in his home in Cambridge.
Below are links to some of the first tributes:
The most recent Spenser novel, The Professional, came out in October, 2009. His next novel, in the Jesse Stone series, is coming next month.
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Random House Audio; UNABR; 2/23/10; 9780739357484; $32
Thorndike Large Print; 2/1/10; 9781410421876; hdbk; $35.95
Audio available from OverDrive
Coming in May is the fourth in his Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch western series, following Appoloosa, Resolution and Brimstone.
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Random House Audio; UNABR; 5/4/10; 9780307735478; $32
Since the Newbery and Caldecott winners were announced yesterday, the books have reached their highest positions to date on Amazon’s sales rankings:
#21 (from #631), When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead, (Wendy Lamb) — 2,904% increase
#48 (from #1,187), The Lion & The Mouse, Jerry Pinkney, (Little, Brown) — 2,372% increase
In addition, one of the Newbery Honor Books received a significant bump:
#230 (from #3,255) — 1,315% increase
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Libraries and booksellers will not have to scramble to find copies of the Newbery and Caldecott winners this year; both are on bestseller lists and in stock at wholesalers.
For all the winners, including Honor books and other awards, see the official press release.
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EarlyWord Kid’s contributor, Lisa Von Drasek was an early proponent; see her review on The Barnes and Noble Review.
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Charles R. Smith for:
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See Lisa Von Drasek’s essay about Langston Hughes’ books for children. It includes both the winner and the Honor book, The Negro Speaks of Rivers.
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There’s a theme to the books that Jon Stewart will be featuring on The Daily Show this week:
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Audio: Books on Tape
eBook and audio available from OverDrive
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Unabridged Audio: S&S; 9781442305090
At #3 on the NYT Nonfiction bestseller list, where it debuted this week, and #17 on Amazon sales rankings and rising is Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto.
The book was propelled by an NPR interview. It was reviewed in the Washington Post on Sunday and earlier in the New York Times. Gawande spoke yesterday at ALA MidWinter.
Several libraries are showing heavy holds.
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Macmillan Audio: UNAB CD; 9781427208989; $29.99
Revelations from the book Game Change has been much discussed in the media, but we haven’t heard much about the actual experience of reading it. In the new Entertainment Weekly, book review editor Tina Jordan, calls it a “riveting read” that is “more bodice ripper than Beltway.”
More media is coming up, including NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
Unfortunately, the publisher is currently out of stock and working furiously on a reprint.
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HarperLuxe; 9780061945991; $27.99
eBook downloable from OverDrive beginning 2/23
The new issue of People (1/25) gives publisher Grand Central’s big novel of the season, the debut Roses, 4 of a possible 4 stars and makes it a People pick, saying, “Like Gone with the Wind, this 600-page, multigenerational epic is as gloriously entertaining as it is vast.”
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USA Today asks booksellers what new voices they’re most looking forward to in the upcoming season.
Among the fiction picks are several that are just out now, or about to be released.
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Simultaneous Unabridged Audio: 9780143145448; $39.95 Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive |
Bookseller Elaine Petrocelli from Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA thinks this debut will have “the kind of following that The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society had.” The author will be at MidWinter, signing at the Penguin booth, #1324, on Sunday, 1:30 to 2:30.
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Unabridged Audio: Book on Tape Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive |
This debut novel is about slave owners who vacationed with their black mistresses at a summer resort in Ohio. “Almost every copy we had pre-ordered was spoken for by the time it came in,” says a bookseller from Cincinnati, where the local setting may have particular appeal. All four prepub sources are enthusiastic about it; PW calls it “heart-wrenching, intriguing, original and suspenseful.” People gave it 3.5 of 4 stars, calling it a “devastating beautiful account of a cruel past.”
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Audio from Hachette: CD: $39.98; ISBN 9781600247453 Large Print:Little Brown: $28.99; ISBN 9780316043663 Book and audio downloadable from OverDrive |
The Swan Thieves is getting considerable attention, largely because of the huge success of the author’s 2005 debut title, The Historian. Borders tells USA Today that they are throwing support behind it. This week, rival B&N.com published Laura Miller’s intriguing review of the book in The Barnes and Noble Review.
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Petrocelli is also excited about a book we’ve been hearing advance reader buzz for, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s One Amazing Thing. PW and Kirkus are both lukewarm about this story of seven people trapped in an American consulate after an earthquake, but Booklist calls it a “a suspenseful, astute, and unforgettable survivors tale.”
In a sure sign that a new publishing season is upon us, USA Today has posted its interactive calendar of the major titles coming out through April. It includes covers, annotations and pub dates — great for reminding yourself of what’s upcoming. You could think of it as flashcards for readers advisory work.
And, hurrah, This Book is Ovedue! is one of the selected titles.
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We’ve set up a new section for links to the season’s previews (on the right, under “Books of Winter/Spring ’10 — Previews.”)
