Gillian Flynn’s huge best seller, Gone Girl, did not make the cut from the longlist to the shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her name appears on the cover of one of the six finalists, however. In the single blurb on Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, (Hachette/Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur), Flynn calls it “One of the best novels I’ve read this century.”

Two previous winners are on the list for their new books, Zadie Smith for NW (Penguin/Viking) and Barbara Kingsolver for Flight Behavior, (Harper).

The Guardian picks Bring Up the Bodies, (Macmillan/Holt) by British author Hilary Mantel as the one to beat, having already won two major UK awards this year, the Booker and Costa prizes. No book has won all three in one year.

Also on the list are Americans Maria Semple for Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Hachette/Little, Brown) and A. M. Homes for May We Be Forgiven (Penguin/Viking).

Previous prize winners include Madeline Miller last year for her debut novel, The Song of Achilles, (Harper/Ecco), Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk about Kevin (Harper; 2005), Marilynne Robinson for Home (Macmillan/FSG; 2009) and Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (HarperCollins; 2002).

The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced on June 5th.

William Boyd, selected by Ian Fleming’s estate to write the next James Bond novel, announced on the opening day of the London Book Fair yesterday that the title will be simply Solo, explaining, “In my novel, events conspire to make Bond go off on a self-appointed mission of his own, unannounced and without any authorization – and he’s fully prepared to take the consequences of his audacity.” It will be released in the U.S. by HarperCollins on October 8.

Boyd, who has written several prize-winning novels, including A Good Man in Africa, follows in the footsteps of several others who have donned the Fleming mantle. Jeffery Deaver published Carte Blanche in 2011 (S&S). It was a NYT hardcover best seller for 4 weeks. Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care (S&S, 2008) also spent a few weeks on the hardcover list. Raymond Benson published 6 titles from 1997 to 2002; John Gardner, 14 (the same number as Fleming wrote himself), from 1981 to 1996. Kingsley Amis, under the name of Robert Markham, was the first, with Colonel Sun in 1968.

The eighth novel by British author Kate Atkinson, Life After Life, (Hachette/Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print), debuts on this week’s NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list at #3, the highest spot yet for the author. Her previous novel, Started Early, Took My Dog (2011) hit the extended list when it was published.

It has been reviewed widely in the U.S., including an early review by Janet Maslin in the daily New York Times, which states, “Life After Life is a big book that defies logic, chronology and even history in ways that underscore its author’s fully untethered imagination.” It is an IndieNext #1 pick for April and was much buzzed about by librarians on GalleyChat.

Before it was published in August of 2011, Tom Perrotta’s novel The Leftovers, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio) was acquired by HBO for a possible series.

Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) has just been named as director and shooting is expected to begin in June for a possible 2014 premiere, according to New York Magazine’s culture blog, “Vulture.” Co-writing the script with Perrotta is Damon Lindelof, who was a writer and producer for Lost. In an interview about the project last year, Lindelof indicated that the series would go beyond the book, saying it “probably only has enough content for two or three episodes.”

Below is a quick look at titles to know before you work the information desk today.

Media Attention

The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth, Mark Mazzetti, (Penguin Press) — NYT front page story, Washington Post book review, plus an appearance on Face the Nation, with much more coming this week (see our New Title Radar, Media Magnets).

Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story, Carol Burnett, (S&S; S&S Audio) — Carol Burnett was featured on CBS Sunday Morning, yesterday (see video).

Holds Alert

Life After Life, Kate Atkinson, (Hachette/Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print) is on the rise. It has been reviewed widely, most recently in the L.A. Times and the Seattle Times.

Expect to see it on next week’s best seller lists; it is currently at #4 on Amazon sales rankings and has been in the top 100 for 2 weeks.

NYT Notable Hardcover Best Seller Debuts

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, Therese Anne Fowler, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

The latest in the “Real Housewives of Historical Fiction” genre (recent titles include The Paris Wife, which continues as a best seller at #8 on the Trade Paperback list and The Aviator’s Wife, which is now on the extended hardcover list) follows in the footsteps the other titles’ footsteps, arriving on the NYT Fiction best seller list at #10. See our earlier coverage (also note that promotion for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby may bring additional interest).

World War II continues to be a strong interest in Nonfiction, with

Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941, (Random House) — #10 in nonfiction. It was featured on NPR at the end of March.

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, Denise Kiernan, (Touchstone, $27.) About the women who worked on a project was enriching uranium for the first atomic bomb. — at #14. The author appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The popularity of “bonnet fiction” continues with a new title by the “queen of the genre,”  Beverly Lewis’s The Guardian, (Baker/Bethany House). It debuts at #5 on Trade Paperback fiction list.

Childrens Books 

New to the NYT Children’s Picture Books best seller list:

Poems to Learn by Heart, collected by Caroline Kennedy, illus. by Jon J. Muth, (Disney/Hyperion, 3/26/13). arrives at #1. See our earlier story.

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, (Macmillan/Roaring Brook), the perfect title for spring,  debuts at #9  even though it has been out for a year. EarlyWord Kids contributor Lisa Von Drasek included it in her annual list of “Best Books To Give Younger Kids You Don’t Know Very Well.”  The book’s trailer shows off its clever cut-outs:

Nicole Kidman is “braving the cold” in London during production of the film adaptation of Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson, (Harper, 2011), according to UK news reports.

The book, a debut mystery, received early buzz from librarians on GalleyChat months before publication. It went on to hit best seller lists, rising to #7 on the NYT list for a week.

Originally scheduled for late 2013, reports now say it’s due in 2014. Directed by Rowan Joffe (28 Weeks Later, The American, Brighton Rock), it also stars Colin Firth and Mark Strong.

“People’s eyes are going to bug out of their heads,” predicts Stephen King, about the CBS series based on his book, Under the Dome, for which he is also executive producer. The series doesn’t begin until June 24, but the “first look” trailer has just been released. The L.A. Times speculates that CBS released the promo early because they are “wisely taking advantage of the apocalyptic mania stoked by Sunday’s season finale of The Walking Dead.”

The producers told a crowd at WonderCon on Saturday that the series may deviate from the book, with King’s blessing, “He told us, ‘Really use the book as a jumping off point. Use the characters, use the themes, but don’t be afraid to go to new places.’ ”

It stars Mike Vogel, Dean Norris, and Rachelle Lefevre.

Tie-in:

Under the Dome, Stephen King
Trade paperback; 9781476735474, 1476735476
On Sale Date: May 14, 2013

It seems that CBS was also wise to go straight to series with this one, keeping it out of the network pilot season pile-up.Vulture writes that networks are dealing with over 100 shows, some scrambling for name actors (Christina Ricci recently walked away from the lead in Girlfriend in a Coma, based on Douglas Coupland’s book, delaying that project as NBC tries to find a replacement).

See our updated round-up of the pilots based on books.

The New Yorker‘s august literary critic James Wood gives Rachel Kushner a rave for her new book, The Flamethrowers, (S&S/Scribner; Brilliance Audio), just don’t be put off by the opeining paragraph which begins “Put aside, for the moment, the long postwar argument between the rival claims of realistic and anti-realistic fiction.”

He calls the book, “scintillatingly alive. It ripples with stories, anecdotes, set-piece monologues, crafty egotistical tall tales, and hapless adventures: Kushner is never not telling a story.”

Equally enthusiastic, but without the academic trappings, is Sherryl Connelly in the New York Daily News; “The Flamethrowers slowly and seductively becomes a novel you just can’t quit.”

Airing just before last night’s premiere of the new season of Game of Thrones was the promo teaser for another HBO book series adaptation, True Blood, season six, which debuts on June 16.

The trailer for Game of Thrones used the voice over, “Will it never end?” This one seems to address that question, warning, “…it is the beginning of the end.”

In a sense it is, since this is the first season without show creator Alan Ball at the helm. Not to worry, however, although HBO has made no official announcement, a casting call has gone out for season seven.

There is a definitive end to the book series, however. Charlaine Harris announced that the upcoming 13th title will be the final one, Dead Ever After (Penguin/Ace Hardcover, May 7).

The new HBO series is based on book six in the series, Definitely Dead. The tie-in edition arrives June 4 (Penguin/Ace, mass mkt pbk).

The first poster for the forthcoming movie of Orson Scott Card’s SF novel, Ender’s Game (Macmillan/Tor, first pubbed, 1985), debuted online late yesterday and already fans are piling on to identify differences from the book. The appearance also caused the book to rise on Amazon’s sales rankings

The movie, directed by Gavin Hood and starring Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, and Viola Davis, arrives in theaters on Nov. 11.

The author of Eat, Pray, Love, asked her  fans to help choose the US cover for her forthcoming novel The Signature Of All Things, (Penguin/Viking, Oct. 11).

The results are in and the one on the right, which we were betting on, came in DEAD LAST (click on image to see a larger version).

Below, Gilbert talks about the aspects of the book that each cover represents and why she is delighted that the middle cover won.

A new trailer for the film adaptation of Max Brook’s zombie apocalypse novel, World War Z (RH/Crown, 2006), was released today. The movie was originally scheduled to arrive in theaters last December, but was pulled to re-shoot some scenes and is now scheduled for June 21.

The movie tie-ins include an entirely new audio with an enormous cast, featuring Martin Scorsese (yes, the director), Alfred Molina (Spiderman), Frank Darabont (creator of The Walking Dead), the author’s father, Mel Brooks, David Ogden Stiers, and John Turturro. Max Brooks returns as The Interviewer.

The novel is written in the form of first-person stories about the Zombie War. Unlike the movie, which is entirely from the point of view of Brad Pitt’s character, the audio stays true to the original. Many fans, who are already raising concerns about changes from the book, may find this a preferable take.

World War Z: The Complete Edition (Movie Tie-In Edition): An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks, RH Audio/BOT, 9780449806951, 0449806952

World War Z (Mass Market Movie Tie-In Edition) : An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks, RH/Broadway, May 21, 2013, Mass market paperback

You know that erotic romance has gone mainstream when it’s covered by Bill Geist on CBS Sunday Morning.

Talk about making the world your focus group. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, has invited fans to help choose the US cover for her forthcoming novel The Signature Of All Things, (Penguin/Viking, Oct. 11), by voting, today through Sunday, on one of three choices on her Facebook page:

The winner will be announced on Monday in USA Today.

Our bet, based on studies that show readers respond best to covers that feature people and give a sense of story, is that it will be the one on the right.

Harlan Coben has honed his ability to hook readers. He begins his Today Show interview with the opening line of  his new book, the “romantic thriller” Six Years (Penguin/Dutton; Thorndike Large Print), released this week,

“I sat in the back pew and watched the only woman I would ever love marry another man.”

Separately, The Hollywood Reporter writes that Hugh Jackman is set to star in a movie of the novel. There’s no news yet on when filming will begin. This may be the first English-language film of a Coben novel; Tell No One was adapted as a French-language film in 2006. Ben Affleck has been attached to direct an English-language remake.

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