Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; Thorndike, Dec. 10), a LibraryReads pick for September, is getting enviable media attention. It is People magazine’s “Book of the Week” in the new issue; “Though it centers on civilization’s collapse in the aftermath of a devastating flu, this mesmerizing novel isn’t just apocalyptic fantasy — it’s also an intricately layered character study of human life itselff,” gets an A from Entertainment Weekly and the author was profiled by the  New York Times last week.

LibraryReads recommendation:

An actor playing King Lear dies onstage just before a cataclysmic event changes the future of everyone on Earth. What will be valued and what will be discarded? Will art have a place in a world that has lost so much? What will make life worth living? These are just some of the issues explored in this beautifully written dystopian novel. Recommended for fans of David Mitchell, John Scalzi and Kate Atkinson. — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC

OverDrive Sample

Fans have waited a long time for a movie adaptation of the 1997 novel, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, which has been in development at Lifetime since 2011. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly, (9/19) features a first look at a still from the movie (not online yet) and announces that the two-part miniseries will air on that channel Dec. 7 and 8.

The book had  slow word-of-mouth growth, finally hitting best seller lists four years after publication, in 2001. Independent booksellers, who were recognized as key to that success, made it the “Booksense Book of the Year 2001”

When the series got the green light in May, Deadline saw it as part of a trend, “following the blockbuster success of The Bible miniseries on Lifetime sibling History.” But if the series sticks to the spirit of the book, it is unlikely to be simply “a tableau of great biblical moments” as the NYT called the Roma Downey and Mark Burnett series.

Diamant’s novel is not just a retelling of the Old Testament story of Leah and Rachel, two of four sisters who married Jacob. Its in-depth examination of women’s lives in that period, and of the power of female relationships, has kept it an enduring reading group favorite. Read an excerpt on OverDrive.

Minnie Driver plays Leah; Iain Glen, Jacob; Morena Baccarin (Homeland), Leah’s sister, Rachel and Debra Winger, Jacob’s mother Rebecca.

Lifetime Network Red Tent Promo from NITROUS Ltd on Vimeo.

Tie-ins (for tie-ins to all upcoming movies and TV see our catalog on Edelweiss):

The Red Tent
Anita Diamant
Macmillan/Picador: November 4, 2014
9781250066619, 1250066611
Trade Paperback
$16.00 USD / $17.50 CAD

Mass Market
9781250067999, 1250067995
$9.99 USD / $11.99 CAD

Anita Diamant’s next book, her fifth novel and twelfth book,The Boston Girl, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio) will be published December 9, 2014.

Yes, it’s true. He was interviewed about both roles on the Today Show:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

His new book, the children’s title, Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar which came out yesterday, is now at #8 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar

Theodora Richards, Keith Richards

Hachette/ Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

As we reported earlier, Cuyahoga Public Library’s Wendy Bartlett increased her orders for The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperLuxe) after it received an enthusiastic review in the locally influential Cleveland Plain Dealer,

After reading it herself, she reported to staff:

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Oh, wait. Similar plot, different book. Instead of the 20th century England of Rebecca, we’re in the 17th century Amsterdam of The Miniaturist. If your readers like a strong sense of place and a highly readable book, they’ll love this one.

I read The Miniaturist in two sittings, even though I figured out the family secrets in the first 100 pages (Jessie Burton could take some pointers on suspense from DuMaurier). However, the pacing is unusually strong for a historical novel, the mystery surrounding The Miniaturist holds up throughout, and you really do feel like you’re in 17th century Amsterdam, which is no small feat.

Holds are building, and I think this one will continue to have strong word of mouth, so it will behoove you to give it a look.

Happy Reading!

If you can’t get your hands on a copy, you can read a sample via OverDrive.

It is an August LibraryReads pick, gets an  A-, in Entertainment Weekly. The author was profiled in The Wall Street Journal.

Check your holds; they are heavy in some areas.

It’s brief, but here it is:

Three clips are also available.

The 4-hour series, which was a hit with critics at the Venice Film Festival, will begin airing on HBO on Sunday, Nov. 2.

Tie-in:

Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Random House Trade Paperbacks, 10/28/14

Oscar predictions are in rolling in for Julianne Moore’s starring role in the film adaptation of Still Alice by Lisa Genova (S&S/Gallery, 2009). Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, Moore is lauded for her understated portrayal of a woman dealing with early onset Alzheimers.

Variety praises the directors for refusing “to milk the family’s situation for easy tears. Instead, the idea is to put us inside Alice’s head. We experience disorientation as she would, suggested by a shallow depth of field where things shown out of focus appear to be just beyond her comprehension.”

The Hollywood Reporter acknowledges that some might be put off by the subject, but that “word of mouth should provide the strongest incentive for audiences leery of the topic.”

Also starring in the film are Alec Baldwin as Alice’s husband with Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish as their three grown children.

No clips are available yet and a theatrical release has not yet been announced.

The book, originally self-published through iUniverse, was picked up by Simon and Schuster and went on to a long run on the New York Times trade paperback best seller list. Genova, a neuroscientist, has published two novels since, both dealing with brain disorders. Left Neglected is about the results of a brain injury and Love Anthony, about autism,. Her next book, Inside the O’Briens, (S&S/Gallery” S&S Audio, 4/7/14) is about a man dealing with Huntington’s Disease.

The Man Booker shortlist was announced today. This is the first year that authors from the U.S. qualify. Far from dominating the shortlist, as some had feared, only two made the transition, Joshua Ferris and Karen Fowler.

Three are British (Howard Jacobson, Ali Smith, and Calcutta-born Neel Mukherjee) and one is Australian (Richard Flanagan).

The list is male-dominated, with only two women, Ali Smith and Karen Fowler (hello, Bailey’s Women’s Prize For Fiction, there is still a need for you).

 Shortlist

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, Joshua Ferris (Hachette/Little,Brown, 5/13/14)

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan (RH/Knopf. 8/12/14)

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Penguin/Putnam/Marian Wood; 5/30/13; also in trade pbk)

J, Howard Jacobson, (RH/Crown/Hogarth, 10/14/14, moved up from 3/10/15)

The Lives of Others, Neel Mukherjee (Norton; 9780393247909; recently acquired to be released, 10/1/14)

How to be Both, Ali Smith (RH/Pantheon; 12/2/14)

One of the big surprises is that David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, called by Ursula K Le Guin, “600 pages of metafictional shenanigans in relentlessly brilliant prose” and leading odds in U.K betting, did not move to the short list.

Longlist Only

    
The Blazing World, Siri Hustvedt (S&S; 3/11/14; Thorndike)

The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth (Unbound) — published via the crowd-funded site Unbound; available as an ebook on Axis 360

The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell (Random House, 9/2/14; Recorded Books)

Us, David Nicholls (Harper, 10/8/14; HarperAudio)

The Dog, Joseph O’Neill (RH/)Pantheon, 10/9/14; RH Audio)

Orfeo, Richard Powers (Norton, 1/20/14; Thorndike; Recorded Books)

History of the Rain, Niall Williams (Macmillan/Bloomsbury, 5/6/14)

The film adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns already has a release date, July 31, 2015. Now it has a director, as Green announced on Twitter last week.

It will be Jake Schrieber’s second feature film, after Robot & Frank.

Nat Wolff, who had the supporting role of Isaac in The Fault in Our Stars, will play Paper Town‘s lead, Quentin “Q” Jacobsen. Green will act as executive producer. Love interest Margo has not yet been cast.

There is a little geek in all of us.  I was a liberal arts major who did the happy dance when that last required physics class was over, but Randall  Munroe’s What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (HMH; Blackstone Audio; 9/2/14) is so laugh aloud funny, I almost did a spit take with my coffee while reading it this morning.

The book is a collection of the most popular answers to crazy science questions posed by readers of Munroe’s XKCD webcomic, with additional new “out of the box” questions.

For example “What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity?”

Munroe’s answer begins, “Nearly everyone would die. Then things would get interesting,” and leads us through the science of the situation in cartoon format, interrupted occasionally by a wise-cracking stick figure.

Published as an adult book What if? is the very definition of the crossover. I can imagine an 8th grade teacher posing one of these questions a day, using them to lead humorously engaging discussions that help to develop critical thinking.

Check your holds; you will probably find you need more copies.

Note: Cory Doctorow is also a fan and notes on BoingBoing that What If? is available as an audiobook, “which is a weird idea, given how much the explanations rely on Munroe’s charming diagrams. But the book is read by Wil Wheaton, who is, for my money, the best audiobook narrator working today, and it was produced by Blackstone audio and recorded at Skyboat in Los Angeles, who do outstanding work, and they all labored mightily with Munroe to turn the diagrams into spoken word (and there’s an accompanying PDF, which also helps).”

Is reading aloud only for little kids?

No, says the new Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Kate DiCamillo. Older kids deserve to be read to as well.

In the following conversation, Kate and Lisa Von Drasek, head of the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries (and EarlyWord kids Correspondent), give tips on choosing titles and demonstrate the joy of reading aloud.

Eat your hearts out, Americans — season 5 of Downton Abbey begins in the U.K. in  a few weeks, but won’t hit these shores until January 4.

The first full trailer was released last week.

And  this tasty clip appeared yesterday:

Meanwhile, colonists will have to content themselves with the tie-ins:

A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes
Jessica Fellowes, Julian Fellowes
Macmillan/St. Martin’s: October 28, 2014
9781250065384, 1250065380
Hardback / With dust jacket
$29.99 USD / $34.50 CAD

Downton Abbey: Rules for Household Staff
by “Carson” (the show’s head butler )
Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin: November 25, 2014
9781250066329, 1250066328
Hardback / Paper over boards
$14.99 USD / $17.50 CAD

Among the usual suspects next week, J.D. Robb’s Festive in Death (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance; Wheeler), a Christmas-themed story featuring  detective Eve Dallas, leads in number of holds and copies ordered by libraries.  OverDrive Sample

A distant second is Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot by Reed Farrel Coleman, (Penguin/Putnam; RH Audio; Thorndike) the first in a four-book deal by the Edgar nominee with Parker’s estate. The books feature Parker’s other detective (not the more popular Spenser), Jesse Stone. Coleman is the second author to write Stone novels, Michael Brandman wrote three previous titles. The publisher claims that the Coleman ” takes Jesse Stone back to his introspective roots—restoring some of the contemplative melancholy that first made the Jesse Stone series a hit” but Booklist says this book is more Coleman than Parker and that’s a good thing. OverDrive Sample

Close on Parker’s heels is The King’s Curse by Philippa Gregory, which concludes the Cousins’ War series, the basis for the Starz miniseries The White Queen. The producer hinted in January that it might be followed by a sequel, based on The White Princess. OverDrive Sample

The books mentioned here, plus several other notable titles arriving next week, with ordering information and alternative formats, are listed on our donwloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Sept 8, 2014

Literary Hits

The Children Act, Ian McEwan, (RH/Doubleday/Nan A. Talese; Recorded Books: Wheeler), OverDrive Sample

There’s already a great deal of critical attention for the latest by the author of Atonement. It’s a People “Best Book of the Week” and  #3 on Entertainment Weekly “Must List,” reviewed by Mona Simpson in the L.A. Times and by Ron Charles in the Washington Post. The author also has a full round of publicity coming, including interviews on the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

It is also a LibraryReads pick:

“Judge Fiona Maye is at a difficult point in her marriage. Taking refuge in addressing other people’s problems in family court, Fiona extends herself more than usual, meeting a boy whose future is in her hands. McEwan is a masterful observer of human distress. With a simple story and flawed, genuine characters, this novel is poignant and insightful.” — Jennifer Alexander, St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO

The Dog, Joseph O’Neill, (RH/Pantheon; RH Audio),  OverDrive Sample

After his 2008 literary breakthrough, Netherland. Like that book, this one is also on the Book long list (although the odds are not in its favor. It is currently 12:1). It us the cover of the upcoming New York Times Book Review, “With a consummate elegance, The Dog turns in on itself in imitation of the dreadful circling and futility of consciousness itself. Its subplots go nowhere, as in life. But, unlike life, its wit and brio keep us temporarily more alive than we usually allow ourselves to be.”

In the daily NYT, however, Michiko Kakutani has no patience for it, saying the novel “remains parked inside its sullen narrator’s head — which, we soon realize, is a suffocating place to be.”

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-.

The author is scheduled to appear on the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

LibraryReads Picks

In addition to The Dog, three more September LibraryReads picks arrive next week.

Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; Thorndike, Dec. 10), OverDrive Sample

“An actor playing King Lear dies onstage just before a cataclysmic event changes the future of everyone on Earth. What will be valued and what will be discarded? Will art have a place in a world that has lost so much? What will make life worth living? These are just some of the issues explored in this beautifully written dystopian novel. Recommended for fans of David Mitchell, John Scalzi and Kate Atkinson.” — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC

The New York Times plans to profile the author next week.

The Distance: A Thriller, Helen Giltrow, (RH/Doubleday; RH Audio),  OverDrive Sample

“Imagine a modern-day Robin Hood who deals not in money, but identity. Karla, the protagonist of The Distance, is a tech guru with a conscience, and the security of several nations dependent on her. This nuanced book kept me on the edge of my seat. I cannot wait until the next one comes out.” — Cathy Scheib, Indianapolis Public Library, Indianapolis, IN

The Witch with No Name, Kim Harrison, (Harper Voyager),  OverDrive Sample

“In this book, Harrison ends her long-running Hollows series, featuring witch Rachel Morgan, vampire Ivy, and pixy Jenks. Rachel’s come a long way; now, she and her friends attempt the impossible and face their toughest battle yet. Harrison skillfully wraps up many plot points, leaving readers sad that the series is over but satisfied by its ending. Fans will surely cheer Rachel on and shed a tear or two.” — Ilene Lefkowitz, Denville Public Library, Denville, NJ

Potential Sleeper Hit

Neverhome, Laird Hunt, (Hachette/ Little Brown; Blackstone Audio), OverDrive Sample

A hit on GalleyChat, this is also one of three “Sleeper Hit” predictions in USA Today‘s roundup of bookseller’s predictions for the fall.  Wendy Bartlett, head of collection development at Cuyahoga P.L, Ohio, recently recommended it to staff, buying extra copies for browsing:

You simply must read this slim and brilliant novel–but read slowly and savor. It’s a subtle story, but a very powerful one that will linger long after you’ve read it. To describe the plot as one in which a woman disguises herself as a Civil War soldier and goes to war is to do it a great disservice. This book is so much more.

With a nod to Gilman’s Yellow Wallpaper, a touch of both Middlesex and Cold Mountain, Neverhome is a pitch perfect symphony—or maybe jazz rendition—about identity, war, and fate. And it’s gorgeously written. Book discussion and prize winner heaven right here.

Media Hits

Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World, Kirsten Gillibrand, (RH/Ballantine; RH Audio), OverDrive Sample

Listening to the advice in her book’s title, the U.S senator from New York raised her voice this week about sexism in Washington (inspiring a great bit by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show). Gillibrand will appear on Stewart’s show on Tuesday, as well as on several other shows:

NBC Today Show – 9/9
NPR Diane Rehm – 9/10
MSNBC Morning Joe
PBS Charlie Rose –  9/10

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns, (RH/Knopf)

The companion book to the PBS series which begins 9/14.

Burns is scheduled for appearances on:

NPR All Things Considered – 9/10
NPR Diane Rehm – 9/11
Comedy Central The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – 9/15

Just as we welcomed USA Today‘s annual fall books forecast, with Bob Minzesheimer’s roundup of bookseller predictions of which ones will be hits, we learned that, after 17 years on the newspaper’s book beat, Minzesheimer is one of the victims of a new round of layoffs. This follows on the heels of the loss last year of Deirdre Donahue and Carol Memmot to early retirement packages.

At that time, USA Today made the following statement to Publishers Weekly;

“While we’re sorry to lose Deirdre and Carol, USA Today‘s commitment to books coverage remains unwavering. Later this year we’ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of our famous book list with a host of new coverage, both print and online. Books editor Jocelyn McClurg and reviewer Bob Minzesheimer remain committed to books coverage and, with senior editors, will be actively recruiting new book reviews both inside the staff and outside.”

Bob tweeted the following yesterday:

On day my kids begin high school, I’m among 25 staffers laid off at USA Today. I’ll keep reading & writing. New email:bookbobminz@yahoo.com

Follow him on Twitter: @bookbobminz

As a form of protest, click as many times as you can on Bob’s Booksellers pick potential hits for fall

The new issue of Entertainment Weekly challenges readers with the question, “Do YOU Know Elena Ferrante?” (story not online yet).

If you don’t, you’re in good company. It turns out the author of this “rare interview” with Ferrante (Vogue also has one this month) hadn’t heard of her either until this summer, although “the Italian author’s urgent, blistering fiction has made her something of a cult sensation here in America.”

Attesting to that cult status, the New Yorker‘s redoubtable critic James Wood profiled Ferrante last year calling her “one of Italy’s best-known least-known contemporary writers … Compared with Ferrante, Thomas Pynchon is a publicity profligate.” Just last week, the New York Times Magazine asked three authors to address the question, “Who is Elena Ferrante?”

Entertainment Weekly goes on to call her Neapolitan series of novels, the third of which, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, was just released, “an intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends Lila and Elena, Bright and passionate girls from a raucous neighborhood in world-class Naples. Ferrante writes with such aggression  and unnerving psychological insight about the messy complexity of female friendship that the real world can drop away when you’re reading her,”

In the U.S., Ferrante is published by  Europa Editions.

The Neapolitan series:

#1  My Brilliant Friend, 2012  — OverDrive Sample

#2 The Story of a New Name, 2013 — OverDrive Sample

#3 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, 9/2/14 — OverDrive Sample

Other titles available in the U.S, (all also from Europa Editions):

The Days of Abandonment, 2005 — OverDrive Sample

Troubling Love,  2008 — OverDrive Sample

The Lost Daughter, 2008 — OverDrive Sample

Books are big this fall, at least on movie screens. As USA Today notes, in a feature headlined, “Hollywood Hits The Books Hard This Fall,” over two dozen book adaptations will arrive in September and October. By our count, over a dozen more arrive by the end of the year (see our listing and check on the links to the right of this page for trailers).

Which adaptations will cause the books to rise? Judging from USA Today‘s own best seller list, it doesn’t matter how well the films are received. Both The Book Thief and The Giver were regarded as box office failures, but the books they were based on enjoyed unprecedented success. In many cases, the marketing of a movie alone can make the book soar, as in the case of The Maze Runner, which has been steadily rising on best seller lists, weeks in advance of the movie’s Sept. 19 release. It seems that name recognition is key; like the old adage about how to make $2 million, more success comes to those books that have had it already.

To help you prepare for the fall onslaught, we’ve created an Edelweiss collection of over 70 tie-ins to upcoming movies & TV.

It contains plenty of titles with major name recognition, led by Gone Girl and Unbroken, and, of course, Mockingjay, all of which continue to be such big sellers that we may not even notice a bump from the movies.  Attention will also return to previous long-running best sellers Wild, American Sniper and Before I Go to Sleep, and we expect HBO’s Olive Kitteridge to remind people that they meant to read Elizabeth’s Strout’s book when it won a Pulitzer.

Among kids tie-ins, however, a relative unknown may dominate. The team behind Disney’s phenomenon Frozen has created Big Hero 6, releasing in November, based on a Marvel comic series that is no longer in print. Many tie-ins, however, are coming from Random House/Disney. Hachette’s Yen imprint made a stir this week when they announced they will publish an English-language version of the Kodansha manga series, Haruki Ueno’s Baymax, which features the robot from the movie.

Come Christmas, we look to the more familiar, as a new incarnation of Paddington hits the screens (sorry, he is not voiced by Colin Firth who was deemed too “mature” for the part).

Later this month, we’ll see if the Boxtrolls brings more readers to Alan Snow’s nearly 550-page book, Here Be Monsters! (Atheneum, 2008, rereleased 8/5/14), or if attention will be focused on the much short tie ins.

Happy ordering.