Michael Pollan appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night. The appearance sent his new book, Food Rules, to #5 on Amazon sales rankings.

Libraries that own the book show heavy holds. Several do not; it was not reviewed prepub.

An original paperback, the book is described by the publisher as a “pocket compendium of food wisdom.” Some of the pieces of wisdom? “Avoid foods you see advertised on television” and “Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.”

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Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual Michael Pollan Retail Price: $11.00 Paperback: 112 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2009-12-29) ISBN / EAN: 014311638X / 9780143116387

eBook downloadable from OverDrive

The New York Times Science section calls Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle, “an exquisite picture guide to the universe,” adding, “Actually ‘exquisite’ does not really do justice to the aesthetic and literary merits of the book…”

Online, the NYT offers a slide show of some of the book’s amazing images.

The book is owned by most large libraries. Today, it rose from #29,203 on Amazon sales rankings to #18.

Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle Michael Benson Retail Price: $55.00 Hardcover: 328 pages Publisher: Abrams – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0810949482 / 9780810949485

One of the biggest gainers on Amazon sales rankings today is not owned by most libraries (it wasn’t reviewed prepub); Stop Getting Ripped Off by Bob Sullivan rose to #18 from a lowly #10,432 after an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air last night. Sullivan is a reporter for MSNBC.com covering computer crime and consumer affairs.

Confusing title alert: Fight for Your Money: How to Stop Getting Ripped Off and Save a Fortune, by David Bach came out in March and is owned by most libraries.

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Stop Getting Ripped Off: Why Consumers Get Screwed, and How You Can Always Get a Fair Deal Bob Sullivan Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2009-12-29) ISBN / EAN: 034551159X / 9780345511591

eBook available from OverDrive

Pilots always run through a checklist before a flight. On the other hand, surgeons don’t, relying instead on their considerable knowledge, training and instinct. Harvard Medical School surgeon Atul Gawande, wondered if checklists might be useful in medicine. He tested the idea and found it produced not only better results, but “massively better results.”

Something as simple as making sure everyone in the operating room knew each other’s names resulted in a 35% reduction in the number of complications and deaths. Why? Because once everyone introduced themselves, they were more likely to speak up if they saw a problem.

Gawande, who besides being a surgeon, also writes for the New Yorker, discusses his findings in The Checklist Manifesto. He was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition today. As a result, the book rose to #57 from #245 on Amazon sales rankings. Holds are heavy in many libraries.

NOTE: Gawande is Sunday’s Sunrise Speaker at the upcoming ALA MidWinter in Boston; Jan. 17, 8 to 9 a.m, Grand Ballroom, Boston Convention Center.

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The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right Atul Gawande Retail Price: $24.50 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Metropolitan Books – (2009-12-22) ISBN / EAN: 0805091742 / 9780805091748

Macmillan Audio: UNAB CD; 9781427208989; $29.99

Katherine Paterson takes the helm as the new Ambassador for Young People’s Literature today. She’s the second to hold that position and the first woman (Jon Scieszka filled the post admirably last year).

The position was created “to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature,” so it is fitting that the New York Times‘ publishing reporter, Motoko Rich, interviews Paterson today.

Paterson tells Rich,

I want people to be reading about children of other places and other races and religions. I think novels are a wonderful way to do that because you get in somebody else’s psyche and you see things quite differently than the way you see things simply through your own eyes.

What’s the best one-line description you’ve ever heard, or used, for a book?

A friend of mine just described Larry McMurtry’s Rhino Ranch this way, “When I was done, I thought I’d grown up with all of his characters.”

Makes me want to pick it up.

Rhino Ranch: A Novel Larry McMurtry Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2009-08-11) ISBN / EAN: 1439156395 / 9781439156391

Tracy Chevalier talks about the true story behind her book Remarkable Creatures on NPR’s All Things Considered.

The book is being released this week.
NOTE: Chevalier will be speaking at MidWinter, as part of the ALA/ERT Author Forum, “From Book to Big Screen” (Fri., Jan. 15, 4–5:15 p.m.)

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Remarkable Creatures Tracy Chevalier Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult – (2010-01-05) ISBN / EAN: 0525951458 / 9780525951452

Audio from Penguin Audiobooks (01/01/2010)

• Compact Disc: $ 39.95; ISBN 9780143145301

Large Print from Thorndike Press (01/01/2010)

• $33.95; ISBN 9781410422880

In the past week, Amazon has managed to capture headlines for the Kindle, with announcements such as,

• the device is the most “gifted” item ever on Amazon
• “for titles that have a Kindle edition, Kindle book sales are 48 percent of the physical sales,” Jeff Bezos, inteviewed in Newsweek
• on Christmas day, eBooks outsold physical books on Amazon’s site

Most media have taken these claims at face value and have gone on to opine about the future of book publishing, reading, and even writing.

There’s one problem — Amazon’s claims are long on comparisons, but very short on actual numbers.

This was pointed out by Bobbie Johnson, the Guardian‘s technology correspondent on Monday. Johnson doesn’t accuse Amazon of lying, exactly, but of using “carefully chosen language.”

The blog “The eBook Test,” is not so polite. In an article headlined, Is The Amazon Kindle An Outright Fraud?, blogger Mike Cane challenged publishers to put Amazon to the test by revealing actual numbers for their bestselling eBook titles.

Figures from the Association of American Publishers show a different picture from Amazon’s. According to their latest stats (unfortunately, only through Oct. of this year), trade market eBooks account for only 3% of sales.

It is difficult to get real figures in book publishing. Sarah Weinman demonstrates this as she gamely tries to make sense of Amazon’s claims at the Daily Finance. As she points out, to understand how important Kindle downloads are to the entire business, we first need to know how many physical books Amazon sells and we don’t even know that.

An anonymous commenter on the eBook Test site gives an insider’s view (assuming, of course, that this person is who he or she claims to be),

I work for a trade house, and while I am not going to reveal my identity or that of my employer, I can tell you that our top Kindle sales of any one title are in the range of about 1000 downloads life to date. I am someone who receives the sales numbers for our titles directly from Amazon and I look at them every week; and, I agree that the actual sales numbers are much LOWER than anyone is pretending to have achieved.

There’s the added question of what do “sales” really mean when applied to eBook downloads. On the Kindle books “bestseller” list, 9 of the top 10 are free. For the entire list at this point (it’s updated hourly), 66 of 100 are free.

The tipping point for eBooks may be further off than Amazon’s announcements would make you think.

On the other hand, all the publicity that Amazon is generating may bring it closer.

A collection of scholarly essays zoomed from #19,238 on Amazon sales rankings all the way up to #359 today.

Of course, the subject is not what you might expect for a scholarly work; the 29 essays are about the Coen brothers’ cult film, The Big Lebowski. And, unlike most academic collection of essays, it’s reviewed in the New York Times.

The Year’s Work in Lebowski Studies Retail Price: $24.95 Paperback: 512 pages Publisher: Indiana University Press – (2009-10-27) ISBN / EAN: 0253221366 / 9780253221360

According to WorldCat, the book is only owned by university libraries.

In the final week of the year, NPR’s Morning Edition is featuring the stories of various American lives.

Today, T. J. Stiles, author of the National Book Award winner for The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, talked about the man who controlled 5% of the U.S. economy in his time, despite his lack of education.

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The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt T.J. Stiles Retail Price: $37.50 Hardcover: 736 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-04-21) ISBN / EAN: 0375415424 / 9780375415425

Books on Tape; UnAbr; 9781415965917; $100
Audiobook and eBook downloadable from OverDrive
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Tomorrow, the show will feature boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson Wil Haygood Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 1400044979 / 9781400044979

eBook downloadable from OverDrive.

Despite the reduction in book review staffs and pages in the consumer media over the past few years, there is no dearth of best books lists, as you can see from the links at the right.

We’ve rounded up the major general lists, but there are dozens of other specialty lists, especially for mysteries. Fortunately, Janet Rudolph has rounded up the lists on her blog Mystery Fanfare.

• Mystery Roundup — Part One — Mystery Fanfare
• Mystery Roundup — Part Two — Mystery Fanfare

With the press of thousand of new books released each week, the consumer media rarely reaches back to cover titles that came out months earlier. But on NPR’s Weekend Edition yesterday, Liane Hansen featured the debut title in a new detective series that came out back in July.

Since it is set in Africa, you might be tempted to think of a certain Scottish writer, but Kirkus said of it,

Quartey’s approach to detective work is less charming and more sociological than McCall Smith’s, his setting more rural and susceptible to the ways of magicians. There’s plenty of room for them both, and the newcomer is most welcome.

The title refers to girls who are “given over to a type of priest to atone for the crimes of their families.” Says Quartey, “They do a lot of hard work for him and once they’ve reached puberty, he has sex with them.”

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Wife of the Gods Kwei Quartey Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Random House – (2009-07-14) ISBN / EAN: 1400067596 / 9781400067596

Audio: Tantor

Plenty of new fiction by big-name authors is hitting bookstore shelves, ready for those cashing in their gifts cards or returning unwanted gifts).

12/29 Fiction

Fired Up: Book One of the Dreamlight Trilogy (Arcane Society Dreamlight Trilogy) Jayne Ann Krentz Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2009-12-29) ISBN / EAN: 0399155961 / 9780399155963

Brilliance Audio

• UNAB. CD; Lib Ed; 978-1-4233-2644-1 $92.97
• UNAB. MP3-CD; Lib Ed; 978-1-4233-2646-5 $39.97

Audiobook and eBook downloadable from OverDrive.

Starred review from Booklist for this “…first in a trilogy connected to her brilliantly original Arcane Society series [which] displays all the signature Krentz elements her readers prize, from witty prose to a fast-paced plot rich in danger and intrigue to superheated chemistry between two perfectly matched protagonists”
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The 13th Hour: A Thriller Richard Doetsch Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Atria – (2009-12-29) ISBN / EAN: 1439147914 / 9781439147917

This thriller, told in reverse, is getting some extra attention because it is also being released as a Vook (today, the Washington Post took a look at it and other efforts to combine text and video).

Of the prepub reviewers,  Booklist was the most enthusiastic, giving it a star. LJ‘s verdict was that  “Suspending disbelief is worth every moment of Doetsch’s (The Thieves of Heaven; The Thieves of Faith) thrill ride through time, which tantalizingly reveals the true nature of all the characters involved.”

The book does have an intriguing premise, as outlined by the author:

Other big-name titles releasing on 12/29:

• Stephen Hunter I, Sniper, Simon & Schuster
• Jude Deveraux Days of Gold, Atria
• Julie Garwood Sizzle, Ballantine
• Mary Balogh, A Matter of Class, Vanguard

In preparation for all those New Year’s resolutions, the annual flood of self-help titles begins this week.

Several franchises are releasing new titles. The Eat this! Not That! guys have already tackled restaurants and supermarkets and now they take on the scariest place of all for dieters — Cook This! Not That!: The Kitchen Survival Guide. Unmarried, self-supporting “real” New York “housewife,” Bethenny Frankel has a new book in her Skinnygirl line, The Skinnygirl Dish and You: on a Diet is coming out in a new edition.

Our money is on The High School Reunion Diet: Lose 20 Years in 30 Days, for title alone.

The High School Reunion Diet: Lose 20 Years in 30 Days David A., M.D. Colbert Retail Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2009-12-29) ISBN / EAN: 1439182558 / 9781439182550

Some wimps make once-a-year resolutions, but for her “Happiness Project,” Gretchen Rubin lived a resolution a month and blogged about it (Happiness-Project.com).

The site is a model for making use of every possible form of social networking; there’s even a Happiness Project Toolbox, for people who want to create their own Happiness Project Groups. Now comes the old media version; a book. Rubin’s a library lover and includes Kansas City P.L. in her upcoming tour.

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun Gretchen Rubin Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061583251 / 9780061583254

HarperAudio: 9780061996924; 12/29/2009; $24.99

eBook downloadable from OverDrive.

Premiering tonight on PBS’s American Masters is Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. It was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition today.

Clips from the film:

• Little Women
• Louisa in Paris
• Louisa’s Pulp Fiction
• Civil War

The movie is based on a biography by Harriet Reisen, who is the writer/producer of the film.

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women ) Harriet Reisen Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. – (2009-10-27) ISBN / EAN: 0805082999 / 9780805082999

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One of the commentators featured in the film is Geraldine Brooks, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for her novel, March, which imagines the Civil War experiences of the fictional Mr. March, the father of the “little women” of the book.

March Geraldine Brooks Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2006-01-31) ISBN / EAN: 0143036661 / 9780143036661