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
The winners are:
Young Peoples Literature
Kadohata, Cynthia, The Thing About Luck, Ages 10 to 14, (Atheneum)
Poetry
Szybist, Mary, Incarnadine, (Graywolf Press)
Nonfiction
Packer, George, The Unwinding, (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio)
Fiction
McBride, James, The Good Lord Bird, (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike)
Awards ceremony, below.
Deadline announces that Bill Murray has joined the cast of the HBO series based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Olive Kitteridge (Random House) by Elizabeth Strout. His role is unspecified. UPDATE: Word and Film reports that he will play Jack Kennison, a widower befriended by Olive.
Filming began in Massachusetts in October. The book is set in Maine, but Massachusetts may have been chosen for its favorable tax incentives to filmmakers.
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), with Tom Hanks and Frances McDormand producing, the following roles have already been cast:
Frances McDormand … Olive Kitteridge
Richard Jenkins … Henry Kitteridge (Olive’s husband)
John Gallagher Jr. … Christopher Kitteridge, (Olive and Henry’s son)
Cory Michael Smith … Kevin Coulson, (Olive’s former student)
Zoe Kazan … Denise Thibodeau, (works with Henry at the pharmacy)
Brady Corbet … Henry Thibodeau, (married to Denise)
Rosemarie DeWitt … Rachel Coulson
For several months on GalleyChat, we’ve been hearing about a book with a memorable title, No Good Duke Goes Unpunished by Sarah MacLean (HarperCollins/Avon; Brilliance Audio), so it’s no surprise to learn that it’s the #1 LibraryReads pick for December.
Published as a mass market paperback, this may put to rest one of the old fables about libraries; that they don’t buy paperbacks.
It’s a good week for Maclean; her previous title in the Rule of Scoundrels series, One Good Earl Deserves A Lover, (HarperCollins/Avon) was selected by Kirkus as one of the 100 best fiction titles of the year.
We hope you’re already familiar with LibraryReads, the nationwide “library staff picks” program that identifies ten favorite titles each month. Here’s how you can be part of it:
1) Nominate your favorite forthcoming books – info. on how, here
2) Promote the LibraryReads picks in your library, through your web site and newsletters by using the downloadable LibraryReads Marketing Materials
3) Read the LibraryReads picks and recommend the ones you like (many of the December titles are still available as e-galleys through Edelweiss and NetGalley)
Click here for our downloadable list of LibraryReads Dec titles, with ordering information and alternate formats. A list of all the titles to date is downloadable here; LibraryReads All Picks To Date.
Thomas Pynchon has given the National Book Awards a gift in the form of a publicity hook. He will not appear at the ceremony tomorrow night, even though his book, Bleeding Edge, (Penguin Press; Penguin Audio) is one of the five finalists, giving both the New York Times and the Washington Post a headline.
Tomorrow night, BookTV.org will stream coverage of “red carpet arrivals and interviews,” live on their Web site at 6 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony, hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, broadcast on C-SPAN2 beginning at 7:40.
For an insider’s look at the crazy process of creating the P&L for one of the fiction finalist’s books, George Saunders who is up for Tenth of December, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT), read Dan Menaker’s “What Does the Book Business Look Like on the Inside?,” New York magazines’s excerpt from his memoir, published today, My Mistake, (HMH). In the Daily Beast, he writes about the most under-appreciated books he’s edited, (not mentioning that the Saunders title received more attention than anticipated, beginning with the NYT Magazine cover story, “George Saunders Has Written The Best Book You’ll Read This Year“).
Washington Post critic Ron Charles, says his money for tomorrow night’s winner, is on Rachel Kushner’s “brilliant” novel, The Flamethrowers, (S&S/Scribner; Brilliance Audio).
In case you missed the livestream of the L.A. premiere of Catching Fire, you can watch it below. It seems that Hutcherson’s pronunciation of Peetniss, the fan name for Peeta/Katniss, got nearly as much attention as Jennifer Lawrence’s dress.
The stars return to NYC today to continue the promotional tour for the movie which opens this Friday. Lawrence appears on the Daily Show tomorrow and on Letterman tonight.
Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins, (Harper, 2012) appeared on most of the best books lists last year. The audio was also picked as one of the year’s best and a film is in the works.
Imogen Poots has signed on to star, reports Deadline. Directed by Todd Field, who won acclaim for the film version of Tom Perotta’s Little Children, production is set to begin in Italy in May. Author Walter and director Field are co-writing the screenplay.
It’s a week of mourning for the book world. Among the greats who died are Doris Lessing, whose The Golden Notebook was embraced by the 70’s feminist movement (she told NPR that she found that notion “stupid”), Louis Rubin, who as founder of Algonquin Press (acquired in 1989 by Workman) nurtured a generation of southern writers and published several titles himself and Barbara Park, who fulfilled her seemingly modest goal of giving readers “nothing more than a smile or two” through her many books for children, including the Junie B. Jones series.
Below are links to some of tributes:
How Writer Doris Lessing Didn’t Want To Be Remembered, Vicki Barker, NPR
Doris Lessing dies aged 94, The Guardian
Doris Lessing reveled in her status as a contrarian, David Ulin, L.A. Times
Louis Rubin, monumental voice in Southern literature, dies, Raleigh News Observer
Louis D. Rubin, Jr., man of letters, dies at 89, Hillel Italie, Associated Press
Currently filming in London, the live-action film Paddington “inspired by” the classic children’s book series, which began with the 1958 A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond (50th anniversary edition published here by HMH in 2008), has been announced for release on Dec. 12 next year.
The computer-generated Paddington is voiced by Colin Firth. Featured in live roles are Nicole Kidman, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, and Julie Walters. Directed by Paul Smith, it is being produced by David Heyman, who also produced Gravity and Harry Potter.
Four Top Ten Best Books lists are now available, giving us an opportunity to see if there is any critical mass. Library Journal released theirs yesterday, following Publishers Weekly‘s and the Amazon editors‘ lists. In addition, the National Book Award’s 5 fiction and 5 nonfiction finalists can be considered a top ten (winners will be announced Wednesday night).
Reflecting a diversity of tastes, a total of 35 titles get nods and no title appears on all or even three of the lists.
Two titles received two picks each. Anthony Marra’s debut A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, (RH/Hogarth) is a top ten for both LJ and PW (it was on the NBA long list, but is not a finalist). James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird, (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike) is a PW Top Ten and a National Book Award Award finalist.
Author Rainbow Rowell is having quite a year. Her Y.A. debut, Eleanor & Park, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s), which came out in February, is a Top Ten pick for both PW and Amazon (as a YA title, it is ineligible for LJ‘s list). Her second book, Fangirl, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s), which followed in September was chosen as the #1 LibraryReads title for the inaugural September list. 
UPDATE: Thanks to Sarah for pointing out in the comments that Elearnor & Park is Rowell’s debut YA title. Her first novel, published as an adult title, was Attachments, (Penguin/Dutton, 2011). We’ve corrected the post to reflect that. We should also note that Rowell’s next book, Landline (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press), coming in July, is also an adult title (or, as the author says on her blog, it’s adult “To the extent that it’s about people in their 30s“).
The smallest press to appear on the top ten lists is McPherson & Co. which PW recognizes for Sea of Hooks by Lindsay Hill, a debut they’ve championed throughout the year, featuring it as one of their “Big Indie Books of Fall 2013,” giving it a starred and boxed review, calling it “The Most Underrated Book of 2013,” and interviewing the author. McPerson has received national recognition before. In 2010, Lord of Misrule, by Jaimy Gordon made a sensation as the dark horse winner of the NBA in fiction.
See if your favorites made any of the lists, download our 2013 Top Ten Picks.
It’s actually happening. V. C. Andrews’ 1979 novel, Flowers in the Attic (S&S) has been adapted as a Lifetime movie, to air on January 18.
Ellen Burstyn looks like she’s enjoying her role in the trailer, below, of the evil matriarch who abuses her four grandchildren hidden in the attic of her mansion, but Entertainment Weekly reports that she found it exhausting.
Heather Graham plays the childrens’ mother. The older daughter Cathy is played by Kiernan Shipka, who got her start in acting as Sally Draper on AMC’s Mad Men.
Entertainment Weekly dares to ask the question that will be on many minds; “Will there be incest?” Mason Dye, who plays the older brother Chris says they will go there, “We stay very true to the book.”
That subject was only hinted at in the earlier 1987 adaptation, starring Louise Fletcher as the grandmother, Kristy Swanson as Cathy, and Victoria Tennant as the mother. Universally regarded as a flop in its time, it has gone on to become a camp favorite.
The two stars are featured on the cover of the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, but the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey has been delayed.
Rather than releasing this coming August, it has been moved to February 2015 (ugh; are they thinking “perfect date movie”?).
Looks like you can go ahead and weed those copies.
The first “official trailer” for the film adaptation of Veronica Roth’s YA novel Divergent was released at a live event on studio Summit’s YouTube channel yesterday. While remarkably similar to the “exclusive first look” trailer shown during the MTV Video awards in August, this one adds several new scenes.The movie releases on March 21.
Summit has also released is a featurette, “Factions,” that explains an important element of the story.
The tie-in editions will be published in February:
Divergent Movie Tie-in Edition
Veronica Roth
HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books
On Sale Date: February 11, 2014
Hardcover: 9780062289841, 0062289845
$17.99 US / $21.00 Can.
Paperback: 9780062289858, 0062289853
$9.99 US / $11.99 Can
The year-end best books lists are rolling in, beginning with PW‘s list of 101 (including a Top Ten) and Amazon’s ranked Top 100 (97 of which are adult, 2 YA and 1 picture book).
As we’ve come to expect, there’s little agreement between the lists. Just 5 nonfiction titles and 10 fiction titles were picked by both.
The National Book Awards winners will be announced next week. Only one nonfiction NBA finalist is on either best books list, George Packer’s The Unwinding, (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio), which is on both.
Among the NBA fiction finalists, just two titles get nods. George Saunders’ book of short stories, The Tenth of December, (Random House; BOT; Thorndike) is #7 on the Amazon editors list and on the PW list, but not in the Top Ten. On the other hand, McBride’s The Good Lord Bird, (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike) is on the PW Top Ten, but comes in at a middling #44 on Amazon’s list.
What about the Booker? Amazon picked all but one of the titles on the short list, while PW didn’t pick any of them, not even the winner, Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Brilliance Audio).
As we have for several years, we will compile all the major lists into spreadsheets, convenient for checking against your collections, for creating displays, virtual and actual, and for placing end-of-the-year orders. You can dowload the adult lists below (and from the links at the right, under “Best Books, Spreadsheet”:
As part of the full-court press to promote Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks, “based on the untold true story” of the making of the movie, Mary Poppins, a video has been released with commentary by Tom Hanks, who plays Walt Disney, and Emma Thomspon, who plays PL Travers, the author of Mary Poppins, the book.
This is the first time that the iconic Disney has been portrayed in a movie. Since the studio behind it is the one that bears his name, that leads to the question posed by BuzzFeed, “Did Disney Make An Honest Movie About Walt Disney?”
As they point out, the movie had to be made with Disney, a company notoriously fanatic about controlling rights. Any other studio would have had to figure out how to make a movie about Mary Poppins, without using images or music from the film. Says BuzzFeed,
Consider the irony here: If [scriptwriter Kelly] Marcel wanted to see her work on the big screen, she had to sell Disney her movie about an author who didn’t want to sell her book to Disney … In a way, it was just as Travers predicted: Mary Poppins became a property of Disney, even if she created the character.
BuzzFeed goes on to applaud the movie for being honest about Disney’s vices; he drank and smoked three packs a day and eventually died of lung cancer.
What they don’t mention is that, as Caitlin Flanagan wrote in “Becoming Mary Poppins,” published in the New Yorker in 2005, far from the movie’s portrayal of Disney using his personal charm to woo Travers, the real-life person didn’t even meet with her at first. Instead, he left town, palming her off on the two songwriters he had hired for an agonizing, week-long story meeting.
When Travers confronted Disney after the movie’s premiere, to which she hadn’t even been invited, and demanded some changes, says Flanagan,
Disney looked at her coolly. “Pamela,” he replied, “the ship has sailed.” And then he strode past her, toward a throng of well-wishers, and left her alone, an aging woman in a satin gown and evening gloves, who had travelled more than five thousand miles to attend a party where she was not wanted.
That hardly sounds like the warm-hearted conclusion promised in previews.
The movie arrives in selected theaters on Dec. 13, rolling out nationwide on Dec. 20.
The tie-in is a re-release of a biography of Travers, published in Australia in 1999 and released here in 2006, Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers, by Valerie Lawson (S&S).
Lawson is quoted in Entertainment Weekly’s 11/15 “Holiday Movie Preview” issue, describing how Travers felt about the movie, “She’d written Mary Poppins as a way of healing the wounds of her own childhood, so to have [the character] turned into someone rather more sprightly and cheerful than she desired was very difficult.”
Official Movie Site: Movies.Disney.com/Saving-Mr-Banks
New Zealand author Eleanor Catton, winner of the 2013 Man Booker Award for The Luminaries, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Brilliance Audio), is currently making appearances in the U.S.
On PBS NewsHour last night, Jeffrey Brown gave her a chance to explain her novel, which she herself calls a “publisher’s nightmare,” one that, says Brown, “all the reviewers [are] trying to figure out and explain to their readers.”
The book is currently at #19 and rising on Amazon’s sales rankings and, as we noted previously, holds are rising in libraries.
Link here for a video of the NewsHour interview. Listen to Catton read from the book here.