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Summaries of chats and announcements are posted to the right. Use them to add to your own TBR piles and for collection development.
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GalleyChatters
After all the rumors, the actual announcement of B&N’s eReader seems a bit anticlimactic.
But there is some drama — PC World is already calling the Nook the “Kindle Killer,” naming five ways it’s better than its competitor.
Reason Five — B&N has actual stores, where people can look at and try out the Nook.
Bricks and mortar finally has its day!
We saw a hint of controversy about the global warming chapter in SuperFreakonomics emerging last week. The book launches today and accusations are flying on the Web, including dueling NYT blogs.
Paul Krugman attacks the book in his NYT blog — SuperFreakonomics on Climate, Part 1
…the first five pages, by themselves, are enough to discredit the whole thing. Why? Because they grossly misrepresent other peoples’ research, in both climate science and economics.
Steven Levitt responds on his NYT blog — The Rumors of Our Global-Warming Denial Are Greatly Exaggerated
The critics are implying that we dismiss any threats from global warming; but the entire point of our chapter is to discuss global-warming solutions, so obviously that’s not the case.
Krugman expands on his points — Weitzman in context
Levitt now says that the chapter wasn’t meant to lend credibility to global warming denial — but when you open your chapter by giving major play to the false claim that scientists used to predict global cooling, you have in effect taken the denier side.
Co-author Stephen Dubner steps in — Global Warming in SuperFreakonomics: The Anatomy of a Smear
If everything they said was actually true, it would indeed be a damning indictment. But it’s not.
The global warming section is just one of five chapters. Some media outlets have focused on others:
A writer for Harvard Business Publishing feels there’s a problem with the premise of the entire book, saying the authors,
…are to economics what Friends is to culture: pop. And ultimately, though Levitt’s academic work is stellar, the Freakonomics genre represents the trivialization of a great system of thought. Instead of improving that system of thought, it applies already questionable assumptions to what are socially the lowest-value uses.
The book is currently at #8 on Amazon.
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HarperAudio: 9780060889357; $34.99
HarperLuxe: 9780061927577; $29.99
Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive
News sometimes comes from strange sources. The Wall Street Journal reports today that B&N is running an ad in the 10/25 NYT BR for their new eBook called the Nook (photos leaked last week showed the name “Athena” on the device).
As the WSJ points out, one of the Nook’s benefits touted in the ad is the ability to “Lend eBooks to friends.”
The price shown is $20 less than the newly-lowered price for Amazon’s Kindle.
B&N did not comment to WSJ, but they have a press event scheduled for later today.
There’s a book giveaway hidden in our top banner ad this week; if you click on it, you can enter to win five titles that fit in to YALSA Teen Read Week’s “Beyond Reality” theme. It’s part of Random House’s library marketing department’s “Shelf Help;” collection development “cheat sheets” aimed at helping librarians make sure they own essential titles in popular subject categories.
Many of you are already savvy to publisher’s library marketing departments. If not, you can think of them as your entry-way to publishing houses. They are happy to answer questions from when Nevada Barr’s next book is coming to how to get an author to speak at your One Community program (by the way, Random House has just created a new One Book guide with tips from the mother of all one-book programs, Nancy Pearl).
On EarlyWord, we maintain an up-to-date directory of library contacts for adult books at the various publishing house,s as well as links to their librarian newsletters, blogs, and even, in HarperCollins case, an online radio show for librarians.
Through the AAP, library marketing staff also organize various events for librarians at the BEA, ALA and PLA. This week, they are presenting their first “Librarians’ Spring 2010 Sneak Preview” here in New York.
Get to know these people; they are a key component in the publisher/librarian connection.
Many predicted that Americans would balk at a 560-page novel that requires some knowledge of British history and a 98-person character list just to keep all the players straight. But, since its release here shortly after winning the Booker, Wolf Hall has been in the top ten on Amazon. Holds have doubled in many libraries, with commensurate increases in orders.
In contrast, the National Book Award fiction finalists are not doing nearly as well. Below are current Amazon sales rankings and total holds and copies in four large libraries for the Booker winner and the NBA titles:
#9 Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
929 holds on 132 copies#259 Let The Great World Spin, Colum McCann
382 holds on 82 copies#1,481 American Salvage, Bonnie Jo Campbell
22 holds on 23 copies#1,807 In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin
13 holds on 61 copies#2,019 Far North, Marcel Theroux,
27 holds on 46 copies#5,179 Lark and Termite, Jayne Anne Phillips
7 holds on 65 copies
Wolf Hall has also enjoyed a wide range of reviews, from People (four out of a possible four stars and selected as a “People Pick”) to The New York Review of Books,. Most of them have been generous with praisel Only Entertainment Weekly held back, rating it a “B”.
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Downloadable eBook from OverDrive.
Books continue to rule at the box office this weekend; Where the Wild Things Are was #1. Does this mean Warner Brothers was wrong to worry that the movie wouldn’t appeal to kids? Not exactly; according to Variety, 43% of the audiences were over 18 and only 27% were families.
Unfortunately, if filmgoers feel as lukewarm about what they saw as the critics did, strong ticket sales may not continue.
Youth in Revolt has been moved from an October release date to January 8th.
The movie of the superhero comic, The Green Lantern was going to be shot in Australia, but has been pulled because of the weakening of the US dollar against the Australian dollar. Production may be moved to Louisiana. It is now scheduled for a 2011 release.
However, the third in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, will continue shooting down under, with a release date of Dec., 2010.
FEB 5, 2010
Dear John, based on the book by Nicholas Sparks
The official web site is now up.
FEB 12, 2010
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Official web site now up.
Here at EarlyWord, we’re suckers for cat stories, but we’re not impervious to the charms of canines, so when we saw this book about rescue dogs rising on Amazon over the weekend, we just had to take a look. It won our hearts.
It appears that most libraries have not ordered it.
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To the Rescue is the third in a series; the other titles appear on just a few catalogs.
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Just as some libraries are beginning to get out from under their holds lists on the new-widow-confronts-dead-husband’s-mistresses memoir, Perfection by Julie Metz, the author will be featured on Oprah on Thursday.
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Downloadable eBook from OverDrive
Sad news arrives at the beginning of Teen Read week — one of Norma Fox Mazer’s colleagues, on her Web site Jacket Knack reports that Mazer died over the weekend after a battle with brain cancer (via Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind).
On her own site, Mazer wrote about how she devloped a love of reading. Of course, libraries were a key element and she asked, “Am I prejudiced or is it a fact that people who work in libraries are among the friendliest and most helpful you’re ever going to meet?”
Return the compliment; check to see if you need to replace worn or missing copies of Mazer’s titles.
Below are titles that have been featured in the fall previews.
10/19 Paterson, Katherine; Day of the Pelican
Lisa Von Drasek said here, ” you should be uncharacteristically selfish and grab this one first. It is a story of the Kosovo civil war, a refugee story, and a post-9/11 story. Because it is Paterson, the parts add up to more than the whole. Read it.”
The official pub date is 10/19, but most libraries have received their copies.
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Audio: Brilliance; 9781441802064; Read by Tavia Gilbert; $24.99
Audio downloadable from OverDrive.
10/19 Crumb, R. Book of Genesis Illustrated
L.A Times — “An honest, powerful, violent rendering of the Bible’s first book.”
Featured on NPR’s All things Considered — an “Awesome, Affecting Take On Genesis”
Many libraries don’t have it on their catalogs — Hennepin shows it on order, with 33 holds.
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10/20 Cornwell, Patricia; The Scarpetta Factor
Unsurprisingly, of the titles coming out this week, this one has the highest number of holds. Libraries have also ordered the most copies, so holds are running 2 to 1.
10/20 Klosterman, Chuck; Eating the Dinosaur
While Kirkus found this to be “Klosterman at his best” since his bestselling Sex, Drugs and Coco Puffs, Entertainment Weekly gives it just a B+, saying Klosterman is “stuck a bit too much in his own head” this time out, although he is still “witty and clever.”
10/20 Pamuk, Orhan; Museum of Innocence
10/20 Kingsbury, Karen; Shades of Blue
10/20 Pearlman, Ann; The Christmas Cookie Club
One of the few big commercial debuts this fall. Variety reported in May that film rights were sold to the two-year-old CBS Films, which has been set up to release “mid-range films” (costing $50 million or less). Wendy Finerman (The Devil Wears Prada; Forrest Gump) is producing.
Entertainment Weekly gives it the first consumer review, rating it a C+
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Audio: S&S Audio; 9780743598286; $29.99
Large Print: Wheeler Publishing; 9781410420329; $34.95
10/20 Steel, Danielle; Southern Lights
10/20 Mayle, Peter; The Vintage Caper
10/20 Vonnegut, Kurt; Look at the Birdie
A collection of Vonnegut’s early stories, never before published. The Huffington Post reviewer says, “Usually, I’m wary of posthumous collections of an author’s early work, it seems like they’d just be scraping the bottom of the barrel, but this collection is really a work of art.”
10/20 Gladwell, Malcolm; What the Dog Saw
10/20 Keegan, John; American Civil War; Just reviewed in the NYT
10/20 Keller, Timothy; Counterfeit Gods
10/20 Levitt, Steven; SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
The authors of the bestselling Freakonomics are raising hackles because of their take on global warming; Paul Krugman, in today’s “Conscience of a Liberal” column, takes them to task, calling their ideas dangerous and “just plain wrong.”
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HarperAudio: 9780060889357; $34.99
HarperLuxe: 9780061927577; $29.99
Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive
10/19 Egan, Timothy; The Big Burn:Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America
Most libraries have received this title. Author was winner of the National Book Award for The Worst Hard Time.
Christian Science Monitor — “what makes The Big Burn particularly impressive is Egan’s skill as an equal-opportunity storyteller… he recounts the stories of men and women completely unknown to most of us with the same fervor he uses to report the stories of historic figures.”
Seattle Post Intelligencer also writes about it.
10/19 Gordon, Linda; Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits
10/20 Shawcross, William; The Queen Mother
The British Press desperately tried to find news in this 1,000 page authorized biography, running headlines like “TV Sit-Coms Tickled Queen Mum.” British reviewers found it too full of detail and too short on interest.
Telegraph — “…in [Shawcross’] zeal for comprehensiveness, he has created a text awash with details of menus consumed, clothes embroidered, presents received, places visited, and foundation stones laid that only a reader with a Queen Mother-sized sense of duty is likely to wade through to the finish line.
Guardian — “indulgent and overlong.”
10/21 Mann, William J, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood
The British press found this Elizabeth much more interesting than the Queen Mum:
The Times of London:…wisely eschews the blow-by-blow approach and many of the time-honoured anecdotes about Taylor and Burton, instead “zooming in on key periods,” drawing on new interviews with the star’s colleagues and friends, and meticulous research in the MGM archives. While hardly earth-shattering, what emerges is a richly enjoyable biography.
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Jon Stewart asks the author of a new book on Ayn Rand whether members of the right, who often tout her, have noticed that she was an atheist and an intellectual.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Jennifer Burns | ||||
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The book rose to #232 on Amazon sales rankings after the show aired.
However, it didn’t rise as high as two books by the Daily Show staff, that Stewart pitched at the end of the show:
#179 (from #3,520)
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Penguin Audio: 9780143145066; $29.95
Audio downloadable from OverDrive
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#181 (from #291)
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Dave Eggers was interviewed on NPR’s All things Considered last night about the process of working with Spike Jonze on the screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are.
In the intro, the hosts mention Eggers’ new book, The Wild Things, and call it “novelization” of the movie. Good thing Eggers didn’t hear that; he has described it as distinct from the movie, saying The Wild Things is his version of Sendak’s book, just as the movie is Spike Jonze’s version.
Aside from Eggers’ own descriptions, there has been little information available about the book; there were no prepub reviews and it wasn’t even clear what age group it’s aimed at. Libraries that bought it have classified it as adult.
Two reviews that appeared this week are diametrically opposed on both the book’s quality and its potential audience.
Eggers has written a book for readers of all ages, without dumbing down his prose. But his highest achievement is in having found a fresh way to tell us a story we already know so well, about the monstrous forces of love and hate that mark every childhood – and pursue us howling into adulthood.
Washington Post, Michael Dirda
[Eggers has] turned a timeless picture-book classic into a contemporary problem novel for children 8 to 12. Of course, its marketers hope that grown-ups — racked with nostalgia or fans of Eggers’s popular earlier work — will read The Wild Things as a kind of enriched version of their long-ago bedtime favorite.
…All in all, [the book] is intermittently amusing but far more conventional than it should be. Eight- to 12-year-olds will like the book, but older readers — those “children of all ages” — won’t be starting a wild rumpus over it.
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The audio version uses the art from the movie:
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Blackstone: 5 Tapes; 9781433297328; $29.98 1 Playaway; 9781433297397;11/01/09 ;$59.99 1 MP3CD; 9781433297366; $14.98 5 CDs; 9781433297335; $45.00 |
Audio is downloadable from OverDrive
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A book on the making of the movie is also available:
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Many feel that Spike Jonze’s movie of Where the Wild Things Are will scare children. Even so, it is expected to lead at the box office this weekend (predictions range from $25 to $40 million in ticket sales).
The New York Times review says the film “startles and charms and delights largely because Mr. Jonze’s filmmaking exceeds anything he’s done in either of his inventive previous features.”
If you don’t want to fight the crowds at the cineplex tonight, you can stay home and watch the HBO documentary by Jonze about Maurice Sendak, Tell Them Anything You Want.
Thanks to a feature in the NYT “Dining & Wine” section today, the University of California’s English-language version of The Pasta Encyclopedia, rose to #24 on Amazon’s sales rankings. Libraries we checked are not showing it on their catalogs.
In addition to demystifying pasta, like “Julia Child demystified French food,” the author attacks some long-held myths. She claims that Italians were eating pasta 200 years before Marco Polo supposedly brought the staple back to his homeland from China.
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If being told to “have a nice day” makes your skin crawl, you’ll love hearing Barbara Ehrenrich on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart about the downside of our culture of positive thinking.
After the appearance, her book Bright-sided rose to #40 on Amazon (from #95). Holds in libraries have been growing since the book was released.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Barbara Ehrenreich | ||||
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BBC Audio; ISBN-13: 978-0-7927-6669-8; $64.95
Audio downloadable from OverDrive
