The book “positioned to be the big literary read of the summer,” according to the Wall Street Journal, Philipp Meyer’s second novel, The Son (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe) has been a big success with critics and now arrives at #10 on the 6/16 NYT hardcover best seller list during its first week on sale. Some libraries are showing heavy holds on modest orders.

The book has been praised by national newspaper critics Ron Charles at The Washington Post and Bob Minzesheimer USA Today (the NYT hasn’t weighed in yet) as well as by many of their colleagues at local newspapers:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Kansas City Star

The author was profiled in Texas Monthly recently (the Baltimore native now lives in Texas, the setting for The Son), in a story with an attention-getting headline, “Hog Hunting With Texas’s Next Literary Giant” (Meyer tells the article’s author that hunting and writing are the two most important activities in his life). The article quotes “one of the foremost scholars of Texas literature,” calling The Son, “the most ambitious Texas novel in thirty years—since at least Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian or Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.”

The second week in the month, the traditional release period for children’s titles, brings a flood of new books to our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of June 10, including the conclusion to actress Lauren Conrad’s Fame Game series. For those who buy movie tie-ins, we’ve listed the titles that are based on the animated Dreamworks movie, Turbo, about a garden snail and his dreams of becoming the fastest being on earth. It hits theaters on July 17, with a Netflix series following in December.

Last week’s Book Expo had us distracted, so we didn’t post the downloadable Kids New Title Radar, Week of June 3. It happens that two of the week’s most-anticipated books were also big at the show. Sarah Dessen was there, about to begin her book tour for The Moon and More (Viking/Penguin), which has been praised by YA GalleyChatters for showing a new level of maturity, focusing more on character than the author’s earlier, but nonetheless very popular titles.

The first in a new dystopian series, The Testing just arrived and ARC’s for the sequel, Independent Study coming in January (both from HMH) were already being handed out at the show (see previous post).

Also arriving this week is a book that mimicks the form of the still-popular nearly 45 year-old title, Go Ask Alice, a cautionary tale in the form of an anonymous diary. This one about anorexia, Letting Ana Go, (Simon Pulse) and even refers to its predecessor in the cover line (“In the tradion of…”). It cleverly begins as a high school sophomore’s food diary that gradually slides towards obsession. Kirkus calls it “A disturbing tale that feels meant to titillate rather than caution.”

If you weren’t already aware of it, your middle graders have probably let you know that Dork Diaries 6: Tales from a Not-So-Happy Heartbreaker, (S&S/Aladdin) was also released this week.

Author Mo Willems signing at BEA, pictured with his editor Tracy Keevan

The longest line for a kids book author signing at BEA (although it did not beat the two-hour wait to gaze upon the latest internet sensation Tartar Sauce, aka Grumpy Cat) was for Mo Willems signing his two spring titles, the 19th Elephant and Piggy book, A Big Guy Took My Ball! (Disney/Hyperion) and  That Is Not a Good Idea!, (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray).

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Mo Willems’ award-winning Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Disney published It’s a Busload of Pigeon Books!, a boxed set of three classic Pigeon titles with a smaller trim size and featuring an original poster illustrated by Willems.

Also, Don’t Pigeonhole Me!, (Disney Editions), available on June 18, gives adults a rare glimpse at Willems’ early self-published Pigeon illustrations, along with two decades’ worth of cartoons and sketches.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, will be unveiling their newest exhibition Seriously Silly: A Decade of Art and Whimsy by Mo Willems on Saturday June 22nd.

Our Summer Beach Read Challenge, asks whether you agree that Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls, (Hachette/Mulholland), is, as the NYT‘s Janet Maslin says, “a strong contender for the role of this summer’s universal beach read.”

USA Today is not so sure, saying that Beukes needs to hone her craft before, like Gillian Flynn, she achieves “universal beach read” status. This book, says reviewer Charles Finch author of six mysteries, the latest, A Death in the Small Hours, “feels as if it’s the book before The Book. It is not entirely successful in its execution, but its author is so profusely talented – capable of wit, darkness, and emotion on a single page – that a blockbuster seems inevitable. Here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor.”

The book was released today. One large library system has a holds ratio of 6:1 on modest ordering.

Meanwhile, Hollywood has given its accolade. Leonardo Dicaprio has bought the rights and may adapt it as a TV series.

If you’ve read The Shining Girls, be sure to let fellow librarians know if it’s time to order more, or if they should hold off, in the comments section of the earlier post. Opinions are fifty-fifty at this point.

Fairyland, the title of journalist Alysia Abbott‘s memoir, is an ironic comment on her childhood; she was raised in San Francisco in the 1970’s by her gay father, sometimes sharing an apartment with drag queens. Interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday, she expressed sympathy for her father, juggling the exhilaration of the newly liberated gay lifestyle in San Francisco while raising a young daughter.

The book is now rising on Amazon’s sales rankings (currently at #127, up  from #2,311

The often hard-to-please NYT book reviewer, Michiko Kakutani, is won over by debut novelist Anton DiSclafani’s The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls (Penguin/Riverhead), released today. About a teenaged girl who is sent away to a riding camp for mysterious reasons, Kakutani says, “By cutting back and forth between the events that took Thea to Yonahlossee and her experiences in school, Ms. DiSclafani methodically builds suspense … Some of these developments may feel like plot twists from a sepia-toned soap opera, but the reader’s attention rarely wavers, thanks to Ms. DiSclafani’s knowledge of how to keep her foot on her story’s gas pedal, and her sympathy for her spirited, unbridled heroine.”

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is part of First Flights, the Penguin Debut Author program for librarians (read the author’s chat with librarians here and learn more about the program here).

After all the buzz programs, author presentations, and hours walking the floor at BEA, what impressed librarians most? The Librarians’ Shout ‘n’ Share panel, organized by the AAP and Library Journal is a good indicator. In just one hour, librarians buzzed nearly 75 titles. Many of them are available on Edelweiss or NetGalley, so you can play along at home. Below are titles that were on many librarians’ lips (a full list of all the titles from Shout ‘n’ Share, including ordering information and which are currently available as digital ARCs, through Edelweiss and/or NetGalley, is on our downloadable spreadsheet Shout-n-Share-BEA 2013).

Bringing cheers from the audience when it was mentioned was The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic (Penguin/Dorman, Aug. 1), a debut by Emily Croy Barker. Angela Carstensen, SLJ‘s “Adult Books For Teens” columnist noted, “Pamela Dorman’s pitch at LJ‘s Day of Dialog was incredibly persuasive. She called it The Magicians for girls and Jane Eyre crossed with Harry Potter.” Digital ARC’s are availalble on Edelweiss and on NetGalley (the book is also part of First Flights, the Penguin Debut Author program — more information is here).

John Searles clearly won fans during the AAP librarian’s dinner. His Help for the Haunted, (HarperCollins/Morrow, Sept. 17) was mentioned wherever librarians gathered. Kaite Stover, the female half of Booklist‘s described its appeal; “Deftly shifting between a traumatic past and present, Help for the Haunted delivers the gripping story of recently orphaned Sylvie Mason,whose parents aided souls with paranormal afflictions before their sudden death in an abandoned church. Immediately prior to their deaths, Sylvie’s parents were searching for her sister, Rose, who later becomes Sylvie’s guardian and may even have had a hand in their parents’ death. The novel explores the tension between the two sisters as Sylvie with the help of a detective struggles to remember what exactly happened the night of her parents’ death. Murky, and yet straightforward, Help for the Haunted haunts the reader from cover to cover, drawing her deeper into the investigation as the detective and Sylvie circle the conclusion of the case.” Download Kaite’s full presentation here: BEA Shout n Share – K. Stover

Among Alene Moroni picks was  Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (RH/Crown), which explores what happened to many of the patients and the heart-breaking decisions the staff of a New Orleans hospital had to make after Katrina.  It was also one of the titles featured in the closely-watched “Edtiors’ Buzz Panel,” (see USA Today story).

Doug Lord, LJ‘s “Books for Dudes” columnist was enthusiastic about The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay (RH/Doubleday, Sept. 10), a memoir by an Iranian-American who not only decided to move to Tehran during a particularly turbulent year, but also brought his blonde, blue-eyed wife and young son with him.

Robin Nesbitt of Columbus [OH] Metropolian Library said her collection development goal this year is to raise circulation through books, (not DVD’s), so she is searching out titles that will connect with her public. Thus, Night Film, by Marisha Pessl, (Random House, Aug. 20) is on her radar. The author, whose 2007 debut, Special Topics In Calamity Physics was structured around a syllabus for a college literature course, switches focus to a different art form in a literary thriller about a reclusive movie director.

Librarians were also buzzing about a novelty board book they discovered in the aisles, Little Penis, which incorporates a puppet (the subtitle; A Finger Puppet Parody Book). Published in January, it will be followed this fall by “the perfect stoccking stuffer,” Little Penis Santa Clause, (both by Craig Yoe, published by S&S/Cider Mill Press). For some reason, neither was picked by the panel, although Stop Tweeting Boring Sh*t: The New Rules of Work (Chronicle, July 23) was. It just may be more workplace appropriate.

The NYT‘s Janet Maslin has declared The Shining Girls, (Hachette/Mulholland) by Lauren Beukes “a strong contender for the role of this summer’s universal beach read” (i.e., the next Gone Girl). Cuyahoga P.L. buyer Wendy Bartlett is a bit skeptical. Cautioning that she’s not yet read it, she says, “as cool as the plot sounds, it involves a killer who time travels and for most of our customers, time travel is an acquired taste.”

She’s issued a challenge to the Cuyahoga staff to read the galley and let her know whether she’s right or she needs to buy additional copies (she’s ordered a modest 19 copies for Cuyahoga’s 28 branches; most libraries around the country have also placed modest orders).

We’re inviting you to join in. E-galleys are on Edelweiss and NetGalley. Request the book (but hurry, e-galleys will only be available through Monday), read it and tell Wendy what you think in the comments section below.

If you’re not convinced that this is the Book of the Summer, which one are you betting on?’

Interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday, Stephen King explained why he chose a small independent publisher for his next book, Joyland, arriving on Tuesday,

Hard Case Crime is a throwback to the books that I loved as a kid. We lived way out in the country, and my mother would go once a week shopping, and she would go to the Red & White or the A&P to pick up her groceries. And I would immediately beat feet to Robert’s Drugstore, where they had a couple of those turn-around wire racks with the hard-boiled paperbacks that usually featured a girl with scanty clothing on the front. … The teaser line that I always loved the most was for a novel called Liz where it said, “She hit the gutter and bounced lower.” … I loved that, and the one on the front of Joyland says, “Who dares enter the funhouse of fear?”

This is the second book King has published with Hard Case Crime, after 2005’s The Colorado Kid. In addition to original titles, Hard Case is known for bringing back to print crime novels from the ’40’s and ’50’s, with the kind of covers King remembers so fondly.

Reviewing Joyland in the new issue, Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+, marking it down for  being “really an overgrown short story,” but adding that it “features some of King’s most graceful writing … a relatively straightforward story of a young man’s adventure … it’s written in the complicated voice of a much older man’s memory: ruminative, amused, digressive, marvelously unaffected, and finally, devastatingly sad.”

Coming this fall is King’s Doctor Sleep, (S&S/Scribner), the sequel to The Shining.

Janet Maslin declares Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls, (Hachette/Mulholland), “a strong contender for the role of this summer’s universal beach read,” in Tuesday’s NYT, narrowly avoiding the cliche of  “this summer’s Gone Girl.”

On the Salon site Laura Miller, has no such compunction, counting it as one of seven titles worthy of that mantle, occupying the “sweet spot where literary quality mingles freely with crackerjack storytelling.” She notes that Beukes has brought together two favorite fictional themes, time travel and serial killers into “a soulful puzzle novel with an evocative final twist.”

Beukes’s earlier books have ben have been “closer to hard-core science fiction” says Maslin (Zoo City won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2011), but this one is a “pure thriller …an expert hair-raiser.”

Readers will have to wait a bit, however. The book isn’t due to be published until June 4. Librarians can get a jump on it by requesting e-galleys through Edelweiss and NetGalley.

Eyes Wide Open, an erotic romance by Raine Miller, debuts on the USA Today Best Seller list at #6, on the 6/2 NYT E-Book Only list at #2 and at #3 on the NYT Combined Print & E-Book list.

It’s the third in a series, which was originally self-published, with rights later acquired by S&S’s Atria imprint. Currently only available in e-book, the paperback edition will be released in August.

Several libraries own print copies of the first two titles in the series, but in Spanish, published by Santillana.

The NYT Magazine profiles author Jeannette Walls this week. Her 2005 memoir, The Glass Castle, an “instant classic … has sold 4.2 million copies and been translated into 31 languages.” Her second, a novel based on the story of her grandmother’s hard-scrabble life in the West, Half Broke Horses, was also a best-seller, even if it did not achieve quite the level of an instant classic.

Her third book, a novel, The Silver Star,(S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; Thorndike Large Print) deals with a theme familiar from her previous books, children growing up with parents who are, at best, neglectful. It’s a subject she knows well, having overcome a childhood that the NYT says would “have flattened others.”  As she says in the interview, “One of the blessings of my childhood was being a fighter and a scrapper.” Appropriately, the title of the profile is “How Jeannette Walls Spins Good Stories Out of Bad Memories.”

The Silver Star is an IndieNext Pick for June. The author is scheduled to appear on CBS This Morning on June 11, the book’s release date.

“Positioned to be the big literary read of the summer,” according to Wall Street Journal, Philipp Meyer’s second novel, The Son, (Harper/Ecco; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe), which arrives next week, is currently at #41 and rising on Amazon’s sales rankings.

The author’s first book, American Rust, received an enviable level of attention when it was published in 2009. It was on Newsweek’s list of “Best. Books. Ever,” named one of five best novels of the year by the Washington Post, and a New York Times Notable Book. In addition, the New Yorker hailed the author as one of the 20 best writers under 40. If that wasn’t enough, Patricia Cornwell gave it the ultimate product placement; it appears at the crime scene in her novel, Scarpetta.

In the Washington Post. Ron Charles says those accolades were not premature.

What a pleasure it is now to see Meyer confirm all that initial enthusiasm with a second book that’s even more ambitious, even more deeply rooted in our troublesome economic and cultural history. With its vast scope — stretching from pre-Civil War cowboys to post-9/11 immigrants — The Son makes a viable claim to be a Great American Novel of the sort John Dos Passos and Frank Norris once produced.

Booksellers have made it the #1 IndieNext Pick for June.

Two Big Names return next week with titles destined for best seller lists; Clive Cussler with  Zero Hour (Penguin/Putnam), as well as Dean Koontz with the new Odd Thomas novel, Deeply Odd (RH/Bantam). Followups to previous successful debuts include Beatriz Williams next after Overseas and Beth Hoffman’s after  Saving Cee Cee HoneyCutt.

These and more titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of 5.27.13.

Although it is being mentioned in the publicity for the sixth Odd Thomas novel, Odd Thomas, the movie, starring Anton Yelchin and Willem Dafoe, is still in limbo. The release has been held up as the producers sue over marketing costs.

The film is finished; Koontz himself raves about it on his site, while being vague on release date. A trailer appeared online recently, so there may still be hope:

Follow-ups

Beatriz Williams, who made a splash with the the time-traveling romance Overseas, publishes her second novel,  A Hundred Summers, (Penguin/Putnam) set in Seaview, Rhode Island, in 1938, with a cover that screams “beach read.”

Beth Hoffman follows up her 2010 debut, Saving Cee Cee HoneyCutt, with a new novel that is an IndieNext pick for June — “Looking for Me [Penguin/Dorman] grabs the reader from the first paragraph as Hoffman weaves a magical tale of the love of family and nature, the loss of innocence, and the hope that in the future all will be revealed. Set in rural Kentucky and Charleston, South Carolina, this is the story of the gifted and determined Teddi Overman, a furniture restorer, and her missing brother. Teddi’s courage and belief both in herself and in her vanished brother, Josh, inspire all who come in contact with her. Enter the world of the Overmans and emerge with a new perspective on hope and love!” —Lynne LeBlanc, The Fountainhead Bookstore, Hendersonville, NC

Several Y.A. titles arrive next week with advance buzz about their new takes on the subjects of gay identity, bullying and coming-of-age (with a female protagonist called one of the “most memorable since Holden Caufield”). In picture books, a Sesame Street favorite gets renewed life and Amelia Bedelia experiences a significant first.

All the titles highlighted here, plus many more arriving next week, are listed with ordering information, on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of May 27.

Picture Books

Sing, Joe Raposo, Tom Lichtenheld, (Macmillan/Henry Holt, CD included)

EarlyWord Kids Correspondent, Lisa Von Drasek writes:

If I had to put my money on one spring title this would be it. Raposo’s song, originally written for Sesame Street, strikes a chord in memory but is as timely now as when it debuted 40 years ago. The lyrics build confidence by urging kids to be themselves — trying, failing, then doing it anyway — and are put to a hypnotically cheerful tune. No wonder it’s been beloved ever since its debut in 1971.

Tom Lichtenheld’s pictures do more than illustrate, they illuminate. He tells a story without words of a bird without song. The reader finds herself as an accompanist, singing the song as though it were a soundtrack to the ‘real’ story in pictures. What could have been a saccharine greeting card of a picture book is anything but. This edition contains the original bilingual, Spanish and English lyrics as well as a CD. Not a false note.

WARNING: If songs tend to stick in your head, do NOT press the play button below.

—

Amelia Bedelia’s First Library Card, (HarperCollins/Greenwillow)

What took her so long? Amelia Bedelia gets her first library card in the sixth title of this new series by Herman Parish, nephew of the character’s originator, Peggy Parish, in which he portrays the literal-minded Amelia Bedelia as an energetic child experiencing important firsts.

Young Adult

Wild Awake, Hilary T. Smith, (HarperCollins/Tegen Books)

Arriving with buzz from YA GalleyChat, this debut is also a top ten Summer ’13 Kids’ Indie Next pick. Featuring 17-year-old Kiri Byrd, called “one of the most memorable characters in young adult literature since Holden Caulfield.” As Kiri begins to realize that her sister’s recent death was not accidental, her own mental health deteriorates. Horn Book says, “Most fascinating in this stirring coming-of-age novel are the blurred lines between perception and reality, genius and madness, peace and turmoil. Debut author Smith embraces the complexities of grief, family dynamics, creativity, mental illness, and love.”

Openly Straight, Bill Konigsberg, (Scholastic; Scholastic Audio)

As the title suggests, this novel from the author of the Lambda Literary Award for Young Adult fiction, Out Of The Pocket (Dutton, 2008) takes a new approach to gay issues. Teen Rafe is tired of being the gay poster child in his school, so when he transfers to a new one, he decides to take on a new persona. Horn Book notes, “For a thought-provoking, creative, twenty-first-century take on the coming-out story, look no further.” Readers on GalleyChat called it, “Truthful, sweet, heartbreaking, funny,” with “broad appeal, like Will Grayson, Will Grayson.”

Twerp, Mark Goldblatt, (RH BYR; Listening Library)

On the top ten Summer ’13 Kids’ Indie Next list, this YA debut by an adult authors gets a strong recommendation, “In 1960s New York, sixth-grader Julian ‘Twerp’ Twerski has just returned to school after a weeklong suspension, when his English teacher offers him a deal. If he writes a journal about the incident that got him suspended, Julian can get out of writing a report on Shakespeare. At the beginning of the book it’s unclear why Julian and his friends were suspended, but more details come to light as the journal entries progress. The book’s greatest strength is that it calls attention to the important issues of friendship, peer pressure, and bullying without preaching or talking down to the reader. Julian is a flawed character, but he’s someone you can’t help but root for.” —Caitlin Ayer, Books Inc., San Francisco, CA