Entertainment Weekly hands out two high grades to novels going on sale next week.

The Tower, The Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart (Doubleday) is the tale of how a Beefeater, his wife and their menagerie cope with modern life in the Tower of London. Entertainment Weekly gives it a solid A:

“British writer Julia Stuart (The Matchmaker of Périgord) crafts a subculture that is so sweet and enchanting that the whole affair would be terribly twee were it not for the sense of heartbreak and longing that holds it all together.”

It’s also the #2 Indie Next pick for August.

This could be one to keep an eye on – libraries we checked show modest holds on modest orders.

The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise: A Novel Julia Stuart Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-08-10) ISBN / EAN: 0385533284 / 9780385533287

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You Lost Me There by Rosecrans Baldwin (Riverhead) gets an A- from Entertainment Weekly, which calls it “beautiful, brainy, offbeat,” while praising the author’s “steadying compassion and literary flair in the dissection of miseries, identifying with equal compassion the dissatisfactions of a dead wife and the grief of a bewildered widower.”

But Kirkus, PW and Booklist were all underwhelmed by this debut, calling it “thinly plotted” and criticizing the main character’s “fundamental blandness” – so probably best to wait for more reviews.

You Lost Me There Rosecrans Baldwin Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2010-08-12) ISBN / EAN: 1594487634 / 9781594487637

Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

Tough Customer by Sandra Brown (Simon & Schuster) tells the story of a private investigator whose estranged daughter is threatened by a stalker. Kirkus says “the narrative, slowed by too many talky scenes and descriptive filler, eventually rewards readers’ patience with a bang-up surprise ending.”

Cure by Robin Cook (Putnam) follows a couple, both medical examiners, who investigate a mob hit. PW says “Even devoted Cook fans may find that the crimes and subterfuges are resolved too swiftly and perfunctorily.”

Veil of Night by Linda Howard is a romantic suspense novel about a wedding planner and the murder of her bridezilla client.

Death on the D-List by Nancy Grace is the second Hailey Dean thriller by bestselling author, attorney, and TV personality Grace.

City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris (Little, Brown), is the author’s second literary mystery, set in Saudi Arabia and featuring the desert guide Nayir Sharqi and forensic scientist Katya Hijazi. The starred Booklist review calls it “a suspenseful mystery and a sobering portrait of the lives of Muslim women. Recommend this potent thriller as book-club reading.” It was also a pick on the LA Times summer reading roundup and the August Indie Next list. Libraries are showing modest reserves on modest orders.

The Romance Writers of America named their RITA Awards, for best published romance novels and novellas and their Golden Heart Awards, for best manuscripts, this weekend. Harlequin nabbed the largest number, winning four of twelve RITA’s.

The winner in the hot paranormal category is Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole, part of the best-selling Immortals After Dark series. Earlier this year, the creators of the web site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, told NPR that the series is the best representative of the genre, “full of Norse mythology and the women are just incredibly empowered and fascinating characters.”

Kiss of a Demon King (Immortals After Dark, Book 6) Kresley Cole Retail Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Pocket – (2009-01-20) ISBN / EAN: 1416580948 / 9781416580942

The association also gives a Librarian of the Year Award, to “a librarian who demonstrates outstanding support of romance authors and the romance genre.” This year’s winner is Jennifer Lohmann from Durham County Library, Durham, North Carolina.

Mary Roach was the big hit of this year’s BEA Librarian “Shout & Share,” getting votes from all the librarians on the panel for her book Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. She was also funny, enthralling and informative during a BEA author breakfast moderated by Jon Stewart (who was cracking up during most of her talk – watch it here). She was equally funny when she spoke to librarians at the AAP breakfast at PLA in March..

Word-of-mouth on the new book is good, but libraries we checked are well behind demand on this title.

Expect major media attention (no surprise, she will be on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday) for Roach’s look at some of the bizarre and uncomfortable realities facing future astronauts, as outlined in starred reviews from Library Journal (“While there are occasional somber passages, most of the descriptions of the many and varied annoyances of space travel are perversely entertaining.”) and Kirkus (“There is much good fun with – and a respectful amount of awe at – the often crazy ingenuity brought to the mundane matters of surviving in a place not meant for humans“).

The book trailer, already featured on BoingBoing, illustrates Booklist’s assessment that  “Roach brings intrepid curiosity, sauciness, and chutzpah to the often staid practice of popular science writing,” giving it YA crossover appeal

.

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Mary Roach Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 334 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2010-08-02) ISBN / EAN: 0393068471 / 9780393068474

Brilliance Audio:

• CD, $99.97; ISBN 9781441876638
• Playaway, $74.99; ISBN 9781441878960
• MP3, $39.97; ISBN 9781441876652

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Though scheduled for release next week, Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton (St. Martin’s) was rushed to market this week because some the supposed revelations about the life and career of actress Angelina Jolie were leaking out.

USA Today dissects Jolie’s epic love life, and adds that the Jolie-Pitt household’s legion staff  includes “nannies from Vietnam, the Congo, and the U.S.; four nurses, a doctor on permanent call; two personal assistants; a cook; a maid; two cleaners; a busboy; four bodyguards, and six French former army guards.”

New York Times critic Janet Maslin chastizes Morton for not citing sources and for his many frivolous details (e.g. the type face of a particular Jolie tattoo never seen in public), while praising him (sort of) for connecting the biographical dots of Jolie’s life.

Entertainment Weekly reads Morton’s bio so you don’t have to and the AP uses it as a springboard to opine that unauthorized celeb bios (such as Oprah by Kitty Kelley) are not doing well these days.

Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography Andrew Morton Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-08-03) ISBN / EAN: 031255561X / 9780312555610

Available from Blackstone Audio on 7/31/2010

CD LIB:; 9781441755124; $52.50
MP3CD LIB: 9781441755155; $14.98
Playaway; LIB; 9781441755186; $45.49
9 Tape LIB; 9781441755117; $36.48

Notable Kids & YA Fiction on Sale Next Week

I Am Number Four by Pitticus Lore (HarperCollins) is a YA novel about nine alien refugee teenages who land on Earth. Three are already dead, and number four is next. As we mentioned earlier, Entertainment Weekly has been running exclusives about this title, including an interview with the author, who claims to be “an extraterrestrial Elder from Lorien named Pittacus Lore.”

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer (Hyperion); this will be the next-to-last entry in the best-selling middle-grade fantasy series, as Colfer revealed this week to the UK’s Guardian.

Notable Fiction on Sale Next Week

My Hollywood by Mona Simpson (Knopf) is her first novel since Off Keck Road (2000), narrated in alternate chapters by Claire, a composer whose marriage is strained by her husband’s late hours as a TV writer, and Lola, the Filipina nanny she hires. Entertainment Weekly gives it an “A-“: “Claire, privileged and damaged, floats along in a daze of unfulfillment, while the ever-practical Lola observes her L.A. milieu with a realist’s eye in imperfect yet oddly poetic English… A character as rich as Lola won’t easily fade from anyone’s mind.”  There’s also an interview with Simpson in the New York Times.

I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson, translated by Charlotte Barslund (Graywolf Press), from the author of the surprise hit Out Stealing Horses, is the story of a Danish communist who faces divorce and a dying mother. Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B,” saying: “A times it’ll feel alien to readers who’ve never been young Communists… (The translation can also be quite a rickety bridge.) But there’s no denying the novel’s Raymond Carver-like power as Arvid and his mother come to terms with how life hands you hope just before it hands you disappointment and tragedy.”

Hangman by Faye Kellerman (Morrow) is the newest mystery novel with spouses Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Booklist says Kellerman fans will be reasonably satisfied, but “if you’re new to Kellerman…this is not the place to start. Kellerman works primarily in dialogue, with very sketchy narrative support, which requires readers unfamiliar with the backstory to act as their own detectives, figuring out what the heck is going on in each scene.”

Burn by Nevada Barr (Minotaur Books) is the 16th book with National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon, though this time she is transplanted out of her element, to New Orleans. Booklist says, “Barr develops the narrative carefully, never letting the eerie black-magic elements overshadow her solid and suspenseful plotting. A definite winner.”

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone) chronicles the War of the Roses through the perspective of Henry VII’s mother.

Scarlet Nights: An Edilean Novel by Jude Deveraux (Atria) follows a woman whose fiancé turns out to be a scheming criminal. Booklist says it’s “another guilty-pleasure romance of suspense that will hook readers and leave them with a smile.”

In Harm’s Way by Ridley Pearson (Putnam) is the fourth thriller with Idaho sheriff Walt Fleming. Booklist is not so impressed: “although this novel is sufficiently entertaining, it lacks both the taut plotting and intricate excitement of his best work.”

BusinessWeek, of all places, looks at developing subgenres of romance; quilting, Amana (ultraconservative Amish) and military romances. Says one agent, “Such substratification might suggest… that readers have gone insane,” but Harlequin’s Katherine Orr says that readers are looking for tight-knit communities; “There is a tremendous desire for community. Somehow in this world, where everyone is constantly communicating, people have lost real friendships.”

Examples of the subgenres include:

The True Love Quilting Club (Avon Romance) Lori Wilde Retail Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Avon – (2010-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061808903 / 9780061808906

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The Bridge of Peace: A Novel (An Ada’s House Novel) Cindy Woodsmall Retail Price: $13.99 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: WaterBrook Press – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 1400073979 / 9781400073979

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Moonlight Road (Virgin River) Robyn Carr Retail Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Mira – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 077832768X / 9780778327684

Two novels going on sale next week are showing heavy holds, with libraries ordering more copies to keep up with demand.

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman is a tale of two sisters, set during the dot-com bubble, that was mentioned in many summer previews, including in the Los Angeles Times. It was also a Librarians Shout and Share pick at Book Expo, and a July Indie Pick.

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-:

In her sixth novel The Cookbook Collector, [Goodman] ups the stakes with a deft literary hat trick, expertly braiding disparate threads involving dotcom start-ups, environmental radicalism, and rare-book collecting into one consistently engrossing narrative.

The Cookbook Collector: A Novel Allegra Goodman Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: The Dial Press – (2010-07-06) ISBN / EAN: 0385340850 / 9780385340854

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The Island by Elin Hilderbrand (Little Brown/Reagan Arthur) is about a pre-wedding mother/daughter vacation that takes a dark turn.

Kirkus says “Hilderbrand’s portrait of the upper-crust Tate clan through the years is so deliciously addictive that it will be the ‘It’ beach book of the summer.”

It was also singled out in USA Today’s feature on  Summer Books.

The Island: A Novel Elin Hilderbrand Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books – (2010-07-06) ISBN / EAN: 0316043877 / 9780316043878

Other Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

The Search by Nora Roberts (Putnam) centers on a canine search-and-rescue trainer who survived a serial killer’s attack and now faces another. PW says, ” The serial killer plot is very familiar and without much to distinguish it, but the romance is finely done, with Roberts’s trademark banter lighting up the page.”

As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs (Scribner) follows a woman who seeks her husband’s killer after he is found dead in a prostitute’s apartment. Kirkus says: “The mystery is barely there, but Isaac’s fans will enjoy another sharp-tongued romp through the New York privileged classes and their foibles.” Library demand is 3:1 and higher at libraries we checked. Isaacs was featured at the AAP  Librarian Lunch at Book Expo.

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin’s), a thriller about a woman who tries to put her life back together after a year in a mountain cabin with a psychopath, has been much-discussed on Earlyword’s Galley Chat on Twitter. It also gets a starred review from Booklist: “Relentless and disturbing, Stevens dark, mesmerizing character study follows a twisted path from victimhood toward self-empowerment. Sure to leave readers looking over their shoulders for a smiling stranger.”

Father of the Rain by Lily King (Atlantic Monthly), about a daughter torn between her dreams and helping her alcoholic father, gets an enthusiastic review from Elle: “King is brilliant when writing from the eyes of a tween, all self-conscious curiosity but bright and hopeful as a starry sky. And as Daley grows up and learns how to trust and to love in spite of herself, King cuts a fine, fluid line to the melancholy truth: Even when we’re grown and on our own— wives, mothers, CEOs—we still long to be someone’s daughter.” At libraries we checked, holds are rising for this Oprah Magazine summer pick and July Indie Pick.

What is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is the tale of a father who reaches out to his estranged daughter by confessing a long-kept secret. Entertainment Weekly gives it a full-blown A and Booklist gives it a starred review: “Norman’s piquant insights into life’s wildness, human eccentricity, and love’s maddening persistence are matched by rhapsodic and profound descriptions of everything from perfectly baked scones to pelting rain and the devouring sea, while anguish is tempered with humor, thanks to rapid-fire banter and marvelously spiky characters.”

This Must Be the Place by Kate Racculia (Holt) is a debut novel that gets 4 out of 4 stars in the new issue of People magazine, which calls it, “part romance, part mystery…Racculia’s whimisical details and flawed yet immensely likable characters make Place a magical journey.”  It received strong reviews from all the trade magazines and  was included in the Los Angeles Times‘ summer picks.

It All Began in Monte Carlo, by Elizabeth Adler (St. Martin’s), the author’s 24th novel, gets 3 of 4 stars in the new issue of People, saying the murder mystery’s plot is “…secondary to the lush surroundings, heady shopping sprees and over-the-top romance that make Monte Carlo a summer treat.”

The British best seller One Day recently drew news attention when Anne Hathaway signed to star in the movie version. Released as an original trade paperback in the US, it hits the new USA Today best seller list at #38 in it’s first week on sale. It is the seventh adult trade paperback fiction title on the list; expect to see it on the forthcoming NYT list and in many beach bags.

Library holds are growing quickly. Ordering was generally modest, but many libraries have recently added a significant number of copies.

One Day (Vintage Contemporaries Original) David Nicholls Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 448 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2010-06-15) ISBN / EAN: 0307474712 / 9780307474711

The  CBS Early Show‘s annual look at the hot books of summer includes many familiar titles, some that have already been riding best seller lists for a while. The one surprise is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, which John Searles calls a “perfect book club pick.”

David Nicholls’ One Day is singled out as the favorite. As we noted earlier, holds are heavy and growing. It’s now at #7 on Amazon’s sales rankings; looks like it will become THE book of the summer.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

One Day (Vintage Contemporaries Original) David Nicholls Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 448 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2010-06-15) ISBN / EAN: 0307474712 / 9780307474711

As we noted earlier, British import, One Day by David Nicholls, just published in original trade paperback here last week, has been picking up strong reviews and perhaps the ultimate accolade; Anne Hathaway has signed to star in the movie version.

Now it picks up one more accolade; the new issue of People (which we get early from our secret source) gives it four of a possible four stars, also designating it a People Pick and calling it an “instant classic…and one of the most hilarious and emotionally riveting love stories you’ll ever encounter.”

We’re thinking this may be a British-to-US phenomenon along the lines of Bridget Jones; someone is probably  kicking themselves for not pubishing One Day in hardcover here.

On the other hand, the lower trade pbk. price may give the book additional legs.

One Day (Vintage Contemporaries Original) David Nicholls Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 448 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2010-06-15) ISBN / EAN: 0307474712 / 9780307474711

David Nicholls’ third novel, One Day came out in the US last Tuesday. That also happens to be the day news broke that Anne Hathaway has signed to play the lead in a movie based on the book. The director is Lone Scherfig, who was nominated for an Oscar last year for An Education.

One Day begins with two people who end up in bed together on the night they graduate from university. They are obviously wrong for each other, but there is chemistry. Over the next twenty years, they keep running in to each other. The story unfolds by showing where the characters are on a single day, July 15, of each of those twenty years.

Are you thinking When Harry Met Sally? You’re not the only one, Entertainment Weekly‘s review begins, “David Nicholls owes a plot finder’s fee to When Harry Met Sally…”

The book, released in last year in the UK, was a #1 best seller there and has received a warm welcome on this side of the Atlantic. The author was interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, by an obviously charmed Scott Simon. Entertainment Weekly, which gives it an A- (with no clear reason for withholding a full A), calls it an “irresistible way-we-were novel …the perceptive English novelist and screenwriter has a gift for zeitgeist description and emotional empathy that’s wholly his own…a nuanced love 
 story disguised as a beach read.” The NYT Book Review is equally smitten.

The Boston Globe, however, feels the author suffers from being too “risk-averse to veer too far from… safe and recognizable convention,” but ends up being won over because, “despite the story at times feeling predictable, merely readable, something happens toward the end that changes things…in its final pages…it has taken your heart and crushed it.”

The book rose to #21 on Amazon this weekend; libraries are showing holds of 10:1 on light ordering.

One Day (Vintage Contemporaries Original) David Nicholls Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 448 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2010-06-15) ISBN / EAN: 0307474712 / 9780307474711

Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross has been hyped as a summer reading breakout since last March, when Stephen King recommended it in Entertainment Weekly as “the most riveting look at the dark side of marriage since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

But in a dissenting review, Tina Jordan at Entertainment Weekly gave a lowly grade “C” to this story of a marriage that ends with the investigation into how the wife’s body ended up on the kitchen floor:

The book fails completely as a police procedural. . . It’s as if there 
are two books here when there should be just one.

The author is also interviewed today on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Holds are edging up, but the libraries we checked have only a few copies.

Mr. Peanut Adam Ross Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-06-22) ISBN / EAN: 030727070X / 9780307270702

Other Major Fiction Titles on Sale Next Week

The Devil Amongst the Lawyers by Sharyn McCrumb (Macmillan) flashes back to Nora Bonesteeler’s first case, at age 12. Booklist says, “Loyal fans have been eagerly awaiting a new installment, so expect high demand. Discerning readers, however, will be sorely disappointed.” Holds are at 2:1 and higher, with more copies on order at several libraries we checked. McCrumb, a librarian favorite, will be speaking at the Altaff Tea at ALA.

Broken by Karin Slaughter (Delacorte) gets a rave from Library Journal:  “Move over, Catherine Coulter, Slaughter may be today’s top female suspense writer. Avid mystery and law-enforcement thriller fans as well as those who loved her series characters will devour Slaughter’s latest.” Slaughter also won some new librarian fans with her impassioned pitch for supporting libraries at the Random House Librarian Author Breakfast at BEA.

The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay by Beverly Jensen (Viking) was also touted by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly, who suggested that the author’s death of cancer at age 49, after writing her first and only book, was a greater loss than J.D. Salinger’s passing. PW was more equivocal about the book: “While the sisters troubled relationship rings true, the story-like chapters feel quite independent of one another, and the dialogue has a tendency to veer into forced colloquialisms and melodrama.”

Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum Series #16) by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s Press) is uneven, says PW: “Evanovich is at her best spinning the bizarre subplots involving Stephanie’s bail jumpers, but the larger story simply recycles elements from previous installments.”

Dark Flame (Immortals Series #4) by Alyson Noel (Griffin) is the latest installment in the YA vampire series.

Family Ties by Danielle Steel (Delacorte) follows a woman who raises her sister’s children after a tragic plane crash.

In My Father’s House by E. Lynn Harris (St. Martin’s) is about the bisexual owner of a modeling agency who is disowned by his rich father. PW says: “Harris’s wry tale about second chances highlights what readers have long loved about his work: his ability to depict the pursuit of love and self-respect, regardless of societal and family pressures.”

After months of buzz leading up to Book Expo, where The Passage was dubbed “the book of the show,” Justin Cronin‘s tale of a young girl who holds the power to save humanity from a plague of vampires arrives in stores next week. The media is giving it the full blockbuster treatment, while in most libraries we checked, holds are at about 10:1.

Was it worth the wait? Entertainment Weekly says yes, giving the novel an A-:

The Passage owes a substantial debt to both King’s [The Stand] and Cormac McCarthy’s [The Road], and he is not immune to some of the hoarier tropes of Armageddon fiction… but his bogeymen, the vampiric, blood-
hungry beasts known as ”virals,” are
 magnificently unnerving, and his power to compel readers to the next page seldom flags.

Time magazine’s Lev Grossman is all admiration, calling it a “magnificent beast of a new novel.” He gives Cronin props for combining his skills as a “literary” novelist (his first book, Mary and O’Neil, won the PEN/Hemingway award), his “extraordinary level of verbal craft and psychological insight” with strong pacing. “He lays out the ground rules, sets the initial conditions and then lets the machine run while you, the reader, claw helplessly for an off switch.”

People gives it the lead review, seconds the comparison to The Stand and adds The Andromeda Strain, but gives it only three out of four stars (review not online until next week):

“Unfortunately The Passage doesn’t quite live up to its forerunners. The first 200 pages are spectacular…Then the story jumps forward a century — and loses momentum… [the] books is bogged down by generic set pieces and color-by-numbers action sequences.”

The New York Times tells the backstory on how Cronin conceived the trilogy that begins wtih The Passage, which fetched a reported $3.75 million, and $1.75 for film rights. while USA Today offers snappy soundbites on the author and book, which was also selected by independent booksellers as the #1 Indie Next Pick for June.

The Passage Justin Cronin Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 784 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-06-08) ISBN / EAN: 0345504968 / 9780345504968

Other Major Fiction Titles on Sale Next Week

Vampire alert! In addition to The Passage, there are two other novels about the blood-loving breed landing next week. And let’s not forget the androids!

• Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown Teens) features a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits.
• Insatiable by Meg Cabot (Morrow) is a contemporary sequel to Dracula from the bestselling author of the Princess Diaries.
• Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books) is the latest in the Quirk Classics series.

These three Indie Next picks for June are also getting mentions in various summer reading roundups or were featured at BEA:

• Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson (Grand Central) is the #2 Indie Next pick after The Passage:  “Jackson writes like a woman on fire, hooking you in the very first sentence (‘It was an airport gypsy that told me I had to kill my husband’) and demanding total absorption straight through to the novel’s stunning conclusion,” says the blurb. Jackson was also one of the AAP Librarians Lunch speakers at BEA.
• A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Knopf) is a collection of layered stories about an aging record exec and his passionate, troubled employee.
• So Cold the River by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown) is about a floundering filmmaker who, in the course of making a documentary about a self-made millionaire, discovers abilities in himself that draw him to a powerful source of evil. “Koryta’s prose is fluid and masterful, making this a delightfully eerie and mesmerizing read,” according to Indie Next.

And here are some of the usual suspects for  summer reading:

• The Lion by Nelson DeMille (Grand Central) is a followup to The Lion’s Game and stars John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective and special agent for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force.
• Death Echo by Elizabeth Lowell (HarperCollins) is the fifth St. Kilda Consulting thriller (after Blue Smoke and Murder). According to PW, “Lowell’s primary focus on espionage rather than on romance is a major change from earlier novels, albeit a pleasing one.”

Clearly, publishers have stayed away from releasing big adult titles next week, since all the air will be sucked up by the release of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the third and final entry in Stieg Larsson‘s Millennium trilogy. It’s true that a John Grisham title is coming this week, but it is for kids. There is also a Stephen King title, but it was already released earlier in a limited small press edition.

And, indeed, the review media is all over Girl.

In today’s New York Times, Michiko Kakutani, the least populist of the NYT reviewers, tries to explain why the series is so popular, and decides it’s not the gore, but the tatooed main character, Lisbeth Salander,

…a heroine who takes on a legal system and evil, cartoony villains with equal ferocity and resourcefulness; a damaged sprite of a girl who becomes a goth-attired avenging angel who can hack into any computer in the world and seemingly defeat any foe in hand-to-hand combat.

Sarah Weinman in The Barnes and Noble Review has a more interesting theory, the appeal is about information,

…Larsson’s enthusiasm for the information he spills out, be it on the annals of his country’s darkest political crimes or the specs of the computer Salander works with, is infectious. Did you know how cool this is? he asks. We did not, but now we do—and yeah, it is pretty cool.

Entertainment Weekly gives it at B+, saying:

Fans of the first two books might miss the Hollywood-blockbuster action sequences and wish Salander — the series’ most compelling character — were more of a presence, but Hornet’s Nest is still a satisfying finale to Larsson’s entertainingly suspenseful trilogy.

USA Today is less impressed:

Hornet’s Nest lacks the narrative drive, energy and originality of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. Those books, you inhaled. Reading this one feels like work. It’s more like a first draft than a polished novel.

Meanwhile, Time magazine delves into the intrigue surrounding Larsson’s estate, following his death in 2004.

The publisher is holding a Lisbeth Salander look-a-like contest.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Stieg Larsson Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-05-25) ISBN / EAN: 030726999X / 9780307269997

• UNABR CD from Random House Audio available May 25: $40; ISBN 9780739384190
• Large Print from Random House: $28; ISBN 9780739377710
• WMA Audiobook available from OverDrive

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham (Dutton) is the first in a series of books targeted at 8- to 12-year-olds, and focuses on a 13-year-old who becomes interwined in a murder trial. Dutton is offering a sneak peek of first chapter. Unsurprisingly, reserves are as high as 3:1 or more at libraries we checked.

Blockade Billy by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster) was released in the Spring in a limited edition from small press Cemetary Dance Publications, which most libraries own. The book is set in the spring of 1957, as an offbeat baseball player achieves stardom. The Los Angeles Times was less than impressed: “Like all King’s work, it has momentum, but reading it, ultimately, is like watching a big leaguer sit in with a farm team: interesting, perhaps, but without the giddy excitement, the sheer, explosive sense of possibility, that marks the highest levels of the game.”

Sidney Sheldon’s After the Darkness by Sidney Sheldon and Tilly Bagshawe (Morrow) is a tale of a New York socialite who marries an elderly hedge fund manager.

Infinity: Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon (St. Martin’s) is the author’s first novel for teens to feature the immortal vampire slayers of her bestselling Dark Hunter series.

The Necromancer by Michael Scott (Delacorte Books for Young Readers) is the fourth installment in the popular series about The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.

Among the many series titles coming out this week, is a notable debut mystery. Holds are rising for The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron, about a son on a manhunt for his fugitive father, which arrives with four starred advance reviews.

Library Journal calls it “a richly imagined portrait of the vanishing wilderness in New England’s farthest reaches… a taut thriller and a thoughtful examination of the complicated relationship between father and son.”

Kirkus sums up: ” C.J. Box goes East. Like Box, Doiron will have his hands full trying to top his accomplished debut.”

The Poacher’s Son (Mike Bowditch Mysteries) Paul Doiron Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2010-05-11) ISBN / EAN: 0312558465 / 9780312558468

Macmillan Audio; ISBN:9781427208965; $29.99
Available as a WMA Audio Book from Overdrive
Large Print from Center Point; ISBN 978160285756; $34.95
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Other Major Fiction Titles On Sale Next Week

61 Hours by Lee Child (Delacorte) is the 14th thriller with former military policeman Jack Reacher. In the NYT today, Janet Maslin calls it “the most highly evolved of Lee Child’s electrifying Jack Reacher books.” The new Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- and wonders why Reacher is not yet a household name. The review notes that, despite being part of a long series, the book stands on its own, “Everything you need to know about Jack Reacher is contained within its pages. And chances are you’ll want to seek out other Reacher adventures the moment you finish.”

Storm Prey by John Sandford (Putnam) is the 20th Lucas Davenport mystery.

Blood Oath: The President’s Vampire by Christopher Farnsworth (Putnam) is the first title in a new series featuring 160-year-old vampire Nathaniel Cade.

The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan (Penguin) is the eighth title in the Ranger’s Apprentice Series

Risk No Secrets by Cindy Gerard (Simon & Schuster) is the fifth romantic suspense novel in Gerard’s Black Ops, Inc. series

Young Adult series:

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead (Razorbill) is book five of the Vampire Academy series. It’s already been in the Amazon Top 100 for 43 days and is currently at #23.

Love Bites by Ellen Schreiber (HarperCollins) is the seventh title in the Vampire Kisses Series.

The Romance Writers of America have announced the finalists for awards in 12 categories. Just a few of their covers are pictured above; over 90 books were nominated (a good opportunity for a display):

• Best First Book
• Contemporary Series Romance
• Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure
• Contemporary Single Title Romance
• Historical Romance
• Inspirational Romance
• Novel with Strong Romantic Elements
• Paranormal Romance
• Regency Historical Romance
• Romance Novella
• Romantic Suspense
• Young Adult Romance

In addition, Jennifer Lohmann of Durham County (NC) Library has been named the RWA Librarian of the Year.

The awards will be presented on July 30, 2010 at the association’s annual conference in Nashville.