Following closely on the heels of a chorus of praise for Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies (Penguin/Riverhead; BOT Audio; Overdrive Sample), publishing today, NPR announces that it is the third pick in the Morning Edition Book Club.

The previous picks for the program, Deep Down Dark and A God in Ruins enjoyed dramatic sales and holds increases as a result.

Each title in the club is picked by another author. Doing the honors this time is Richard Russo.

A different kind of self-help book raced up Amazon rankings to #21 over the weekend.

F*ck Feelings: One Shrink’s Practical Advice for Managing All Life’s Impossible Problems (S&S; Tantor Audio) by Michael Bennett MD and Sarah Bennett forthrightly tells readers life is unfair, pop psychology is bogus, and they should stop focusing so much on their feelings.

The father-daughter writing team consists of a Harvard trained therapist and a comic. Their book is hitting a nerve and has received attention from The Atlantic, Harper’s Bazaar, and Refinery29 with headlines such as “A New Book Gives the Middle Finger to the Self-Help Genre.”

Like a modern-day and iconoclastic version of Dear Abby, the Bennett’s also run a website where they answer reader questions such as how to “Recover After Getting Screwed” and not so subtly call out doctors who go by their first name, such as Phil and Drew.

Orders are light to nonexistent at libraries we checked.

As predicted, Harper Lee’s “new” novel was the book of the summer, hitting number one on the NYT Hardcover Fiction best seller list in its first week of publication and remaining there for 6 weeks, only slipping to #2 last week, when Sue Grafton’s X hit that spot.

This week, titles from the fall previews fulfill predictions. The Girl In The Spider’s Web, by David Lagercrantz (RH/Knopf) and Purity by Jonathan Franzen (Macmillan/FSG) arrive at #1 and #2, moving Watchman to #3.

Another title that appears on all the fall previews, Elena Ferrante’s The Story of the Lost Child,  (Europa Editions) arrives on the Paperback Trade Fiction list at No. 3. Indicating that the heavy coverage has brought new readers to the author’s Neapolitan series, the first title in the series, My Brilliant Friend makes its debut  at #8, tied with Celste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You (Penguin Books) at #7, after 16 weeks. [Ng was one of the authors in our Penguin Debut Authors series.]

One of the most anticipated children’s books of the fall arrives next week, Brian Selznick’s The Marvels (Scholastic). The book’s trailer was created by Selznick himself. A former professional puppeteer, he created the scenes and acted out the story in a month-long process that was featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Selznick isn’t the only one to translate one of his books to the screen. His first, The Invention of Hugo Cabret was adapted by Martin Scorsese for the big screen and Todd Haynes is set to direct the second, Wonderstruck. No news yet on whether The Marvels will follow that path.

On the adult side, marquee authors with books arriving next week are J. D. Robb, Janet Evanovich and Catherine Coulter.

Memoir fans will have a range of titles from well-known names to choose from. One of the inventors of the modern memoir, Mary Karr, is publishing a book about the genre, The Art of Memoir (Harper), Song writer Jewel writes about her troubled past in Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story (Penguin/Blue Rider). On a lighter note, Mindy Kaling takes a humorous look at herself in her second book, Why Not Me? (RH/Crown).

Young adults will receive inspiration from Chelsea Clinton’s It’s Your World : Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going! (Penguin/Philomel Listening Library).

For adults, WM. Paul Young, who took an unconventional approach to religion in The Shack, follows up with a novel that is a new take on a Biblical story Eve (S&S/Howard). He is scheduled for The Today Show on September 22.

The titles covered here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Sept. 14, 2015

Media Attention

How’s Your Faith?: An Unlikely Spiritual Journey. David Gregory, (S&S)

Former Meet the Press moderator David Gregory writes about his faith in a book which will be getting a to of media attention, on a wide range of shows, from Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live  with Andy Cohen, an odd venue since the show is generally a Real Housewives celebfest, and CBS Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The media, of course, will be less interested in his faith than finding out more about his ouster from Meet the Press, as evidenced by his interview this week on CBS This Morning.

Peer Picks

Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff, (Penguin/Riverhead)

It seems everyone is on board with this book. People names it their “Book of the Week” in the new issue (“a playful and riveting read that questions whether love can be true when it’s wrapped in falsehoods.”) it is also featured on the upcoming NYT Sunday Book Review cover, (“Lauren Groff is a writer of rare gifts, and Fates and Furies is an unabashedly ambitious novel that delivers — with comedy, tragedy, well-deployed erudition and unmistakable glimmers of brilliance throughout.”)

Starred by all four prepub sources — PW, Kirkus, Booklist, LJ — it is a#1 Indie Next pick and a LibraryReads pick:

“Fates and Furies is a modern portrait of marriage. Lotto Satterwhite is the center, the hub around which all the characters revolve in the first half of the book. In the second half of the book, the lens turns to Lotto’s wife Mathilde, and her side of the lopsided partnership gives us a totally different view. Groff is a master of language. It’s not a gentle read. But it’s magnificent.” — Kelly Currie, Delphi Public Library, Delphi, IN

House of Thieves  Charles Belfoure (Sourcebooks Landmark)

Starred by PW and Booklist, this is both an Indie Next and LibraryReads pick:
“Belfoure’s intriguing novel is set in Gilded Age New York City. John Cross, head of the family, finds an unexpected talent for planning robberies, while his wife and children also discover their inner criminals. The historical details and setting evoke old New York. I enjoyed every minute of their escapades.” — Barbara Clark-Greene, Groton Public Library, Groton, CT

The Scribe, Matthew Guinn (Norton)

LibraryReads:

“A shunned detective is pulled back to Atlanta to solve some brutal murders that seem to be the work of a serial killer. Political intrigue, a fascinating time in this country’s history, and a good old-fashioned murder mystery make this one fascinating read. This book asks the question: when a man has had everything taken away, will he still fight for what is right?” — Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, Austin, TX

Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay, William Boyd, (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA)

Indie Next:

“Boyd’s new novel is the story of Amory Clay, whose father, a troubled World War I veteran, is absent. Amory’s Uncle Greer gives her a camera and teaches her about photography, and it is this gift that allows her to make her own way in the world. As a young woman, she goes to Berlin in the ‘20s, New York in the ‘30s, and then to France during World War II, where she makes her mark as one of the first female war correspondents. Later in life, Amory continues to pursue her passions and dreams as she experiences love, marriage, children, and yet another war. Boyd employs actual photos to accentuate this sweeping tale of a life lived to the fullest, and demonstrates yet again why he is one of our greatest chroniclers of the human heart.” —Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, MS

Tie-ins

Hitting theaters today is the movie adaptation of 90 Minutes In Heaven (Revell, 2004) promoted yesterday by Hoda and KLG on the Today Show, and based on the book by Don Piper.

Also debuting is Wolf Totem by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud. Based on the controversial Chinese novel by Rong Jiang, Wolf Totem, (Penguin Press, 2008), it is reviewed in the NYT today. The NYT also reviewed the book when it was published.

Returning to the small screen next week is the Longmire series, picked up by Netflix after it was dropped by A&E. Based on the character in Criag Johnson’s Longmire Mystery Series, beginning with The Cold Dish (Penguin), the Netflix incarnation is reviewed in the NYT.

This week a new paperback edition of Walter Isaacson’s lengthy bio, Steve Jobs is being released. It is called the “inspiration” for the movie that releases October 16, starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels and directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak told the BBC this week that he is satisfied with the result (although earlier he objected to his portrayal by Seth Rogen in the movie’s trailer).

For a full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV spreadsheet and link to our listing of tie-ins.

Many have wondered if readers will be put off by the length of Garth Risk Hallberg’s City on Fire (RH/Knopf; Random House Audio; Oct. 13). Just shy of 1,000-pages long, the novel was the focus of a 2-day bidding war in 2013, with publisher Knopf anteing up nearly 2 million dollars for the rights to publish it. Hollywood was high on it, too. Producer Scott Rudin picked up the movie rights before the book deal was completed. Unsurprisingly, Knopf promoted the book heavily at this year’s BEA.

Librarians have embraced it, making it the number one October LibraryReads pick and so have booksellers, making it an October Indie Next pick.

Racine Zackula, Wichita Public Library, describes it:

“WOW! An excellently executed work with intricate plot lines and fascinating characters. It’s a story of how the stories of many different people of New York City in the late seventies crash into each other like waves on rocks. This work may encapsulate the whole of New York City, as it has wealth, love, filth, passion, aimless angst, and the myriad of other aspects of humanity swirling in that amazing city.”

Sequels to beloved books are often viewed with trepidation, but Jojo Moyes scores with librarians with After You (Penguin/Pamela Dorman; Penguin Audio), the followup to her beloved Me Before You. The movie adaptation of the first book is set for release next year, starring Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games). Directed by Thea Sharrock, this will be her first feature film, after directing the BBC miniseries The Hollow Crown and Call The Midwife. as well as several theatrical productions.

Says Joseph Jones, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland, OH:

“I loved Me Before You and thought it ended in the perfect place, but any doubts I had about continuing the story were quickly erased when I started this sequel. Jojo Moyes is a master at tugging on your heartstrings. I laughed, I cried, and I nearly threw my Kindle against the wall at one point. Give this to anyone in your life who has experienced a tragic loss. With a box of tissues.”

Welcome to Night Vale (Harper Perennial; HarperAudio; Oct. 20) by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor also makes the LibraryReads list. An extension of the podcast of the same name, a tag line of the audio version is “Turn on your radio and hide.”

Librarians are featured in the podcast and the authors were featured at this year’s ALA.

Debra Franklin, York County Public Library, Rock Hill, SC says:

“This is classic Night Vale in written form. It’s an absolute must for Night Vale fans, and will possibly provide an introduction for those who haven’t found this snarky little podcast yet.”

Also featured at ALA, in the Opening General session, was Roberta Kaplan co-author with Lisa Dickey of  Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA (W.W. Norton; Oct. 5).

Darren Nelson, Sno-Isle Libraries, Marysville, WA, says of this timely title:

“The attorney who argued before the Supreme Court for the plaintiff in this landmark case gives the story behind the headlines. Kaplan integrates personal narrative with legal strategy throughout, combining her own struggles with a fascinating look at the brave and unconventional life led by her client. This is a heartwarming and inspiring account of one widow’s pursuit of justice and dignity.”

Another nonfiction title on the list is We Were Brothers: A Memoir (Algonquin; Oct. 20) by Barry Moser. He spoke at the AAP Librarians lunch at BEA and is the well-known illustrator who runs Pennyroyal Press.

PJ Gardiner, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, NC says:

“Moser’s deeply personal memoir of his volatile relationship with his brother in the segregated south is thoughtful and beautifully written. Strong differences of opinions divided the brothers. Late in life, reconciliation came, but only after years of heartache. There is much to ponder from this work, which is timely given current racial tensions.”

New and highly anticipated novels by Jojo Moyes, Elizabeth George, David Mitchell, Margaret Atwood, and Geraldine Brooks round out the picks.

Do all those Fall book previews look the same to you?

You’re not alone, says Slate’s “Words Correspondent” Katy Waldman, “The mechanics of the books industry make it difficult to escape the sense of literary groupthink … the system’s imperfect, but I’m not sure what a good alternative would look like.”  Thus the lists end up repeating the names Jonathan Franzen,  Margaret Atwood, Patrick DeWitt, Mary Gaitskill, Gregory Maguire, Sloane Crosby [oops — we meant Crosley — thanks for the correction!], and Salman Rushdie.

To add to those, Waldman offers a list of seven mostly titles that “sound good” (that is the problem with these previews; they end up being based on how things sound or the reputations of the authors) but haven’t made it onto other lists.

Most of the titles will appeal to more literary tastes, but she does include one popular author, Judith Viorst’s Wait for Me: And Other Poems About the Irritations and Consolations of a Long Marriage, (S&S, Oct), a “lovely collage of cartoons and poems from the author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day [that] follows Viorst through more than 50 years of matrimonial commitment to her husband.”

Analyzing what Michael D’Antonio’s new biography of Donald Trump, Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne Books; Macmillan Audio; Sept. 22) indicates about his potential as a political candidate, The New York Times notes that it includes “candid and sometimes unflattering assessments of Mr. Trump by co-workers, friends, enemies and, most entertainingly, his former wives.”

D’Antonio also interviewed Trump, but says that those sessions ended abruptly after Trump discovered that the author had interviewed one of his enemies.

On the touchy subject of the military, the bio says that Trump, who never served, having received multiple deferments during the Vietnam War, claims he nevertheless “always felt that I was in the military” due to the character of the military-themed boarding school he attended as a teenager.

He tells Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist D’Antonio that the school provided “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

With great glee the NYT also reports on the more grandiose of Trump’s past public statements, saying “Mr. Trump is a veritable factory of boorish put-downs, laugh-out-loud exaggerations and self-aggrandizing declarations. But Never Enough unearths decades-old gems that might otherwise be lost to history.”

The publisher’s promo includes a list of “Ten Facts” from the book, including that he once hoped to date Princess Diana and that Richard Nixon urged him to run for office.

Originally scheduled for release in January, publication was moved up due to “high demand and heightened interest” in Trump after he announced he was running for president. Library orders and holds are light, however.

UPDATE: Never Enough is also reviewed in the NYT Sunday Book Review by James B. Stewart, NYT columnist and author of Den of Thieves.

Topping the WSJ ‘s list of  “15 Books to Read This Fall” is, unsurprisingly, The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz (RH/Knopf; RH Audio). Most of the rest of the titles are also no surprises, including Jonathan Franzen’s Purity (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample) and Patti Smith’s M Train (RH/Knopf; RH Audio).

Elena Ferrante’s The Story of the Lost Child (Europa Editions; OverDrive Sample) also makes the cut. With her fourth novel in the Neapolitan series, the author has moved rapidly from Who IS Elena Ferrante? to usual suspect, appearing on all the fall previews, the cover of last week’a NYT Sunday Book Review. and reviewed this week in the L.A. Times, The New Yorker, and Entertainment Weekly, and by Michiko Kakutani in the NYT.  In libraries we checked, holds are heaviest for the first book in the series, My Brilliant Friend, which makes sense since many readers are still be new to the author.

Isabel Allende, Salman Rushdie, John Banville, John Irving, Geraldine Brooks, and Lauren Groff (whose Fates and Furies also just announced as the #1 pick for October’s Indie Next list) round out the expected selections.

The list also includes a few buzzy debuts such as Garth Risk Hallberg’s big-ticket 900-page City on Fire (RH/Knopf; Random House Audio) and Chinelo Okparanta’s novel Under the Udala Trees, About a young Nigerian girl discovering she is gay under a repressive society, it has also been included in previews by Bustle, BookRiot, The Millions, and BuzzFeed.

Reminding us that these previews lack the benefit of hindsight, an article accompanying the WSJ list declares Hanya Yanagihara’s  A Little Life (RH/Doubleday) “the sleeper hit of the summer.” (BuzzFeed, however, spotted it in January “27 Of The Most Exciting New Books Of 2015” as did the B&N Review, “Anticipations: Coming in Early 2015“).

The holds leader for next week is the next in Lee Child’s series.

Make Me, Lee Child, (RH/Delacorte Press; BOT)

On the eve of the release of the 20th book in the series, news broke that the second Jack Reacher movie starring Tom Cruise is moving ahead and is now scheduled to premiere in Oct. 2016.

Janet Maslin, who has reviewed many of Child’s books in the daily NYT, considers this one of his best. It is also a LibraryReads pick:

Jack Reacher is back. Jack gets off a train at an isolated town. Soon, he is learning much more about the town, and its residents are learning not to mess around with Jack Reacher. Readers new to this series will find this book a good starting point, and fans will be pleased to see Jack again. — Jenna Persick, Chester County Library, Exton, PA

The titles covered here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Sept. 7, 2015

Advance Attention

Bream Gives Me Hiccups, Jesse Eisenberg, (Grove Press)

This debut short story collection features a 9-year-old restaurant critic and is getting attention largely as a result of the author’s other career as an actor. A profile of the author/actor in the NYT Sunday Book Review reveals that he is reader.

This book may cross over to the small screen. In January, it was announced that Eisenberg had made a deal with Amazon Studios to adapt the stories into a half-hour comedy.

Eisenberg narrates the audio. Below, he reads one of the stories.

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie, (Random House)

From The Tonight Show to a profile in the New York Times, Rushdie is getting attention for his latest, reviewed in the L.A. Times.

 Peer Picks

The Art of Crash Landing, Melissa DeCarlo, (Harper Paperbacks)

This original trade paperback is the #1 LibraryReads pick for the month,

“At once tragic and hilarious, this book is a roller coaster of a read. You’ll find yourself rooting for the snarky and impulsive but ultimately lovable Mattie. At the heart of this tale is a beautifully unraveled mystery that has led Mattie to her current circumstances, ultimately bringing her to her first real home.” — Patricia Kline-Millard, Bedford Public Library, Bedford, NH

This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, Jonathan Evison, (Workman/Algonquin)

Librarians have been fans of Evison ever since his first book and they made this his fourth a LibraryReads pick for the month:

“Harriet Chance receives word that her recently deceased husband, Bernard, has won an Alaskan cruise. Deciding to go on the trip, she is given a letter from her close friend Mildred, with instructions not to open it until she is on the cruise. The contents of this letter shatter Harriet and she begins to reevaluate her life and her relationships.” — Arleen Talley, Anne Arundel County Public Library Foundation, Annapolis, MD

It is also an Indie Next pick.

Black Man in a White Coat : A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine, Damon Tweedy, M.D, (Macmillan/Picador)

A BEA Editors’ Buzz title, this is on Entertainment Weekly “Must List” in the current issue, “This riveting memoir chronicles Tweedy’s rise from wide-eyed med student to practicing physician, as he’s forced to consider the ways race and health intersect in his patients’ lives — and his own.”

it is also an Indie Next pick:

“Black Man in a White Coat would be an important book no matter when it was published, but in this season of Ferguson and Charleston, when we must assert more loudly and clearly than ever that black lives matter, the book is essential reading. Dr. Tweedy reflects on the issues faced by black professionals as they confront racism in their careers and black patients as they face the inequities of our health care system. This book is introspective and inspiring in a way that a less personal narrative could not be. We owe the author our gratitude for shining a spotlight on these important issues.” —Carole Horne, Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA

The Hummingbird, Stephen P. Kiernan, (HarperCollins/Morrow)

Indie Next:

The Hummingbird is a powerful story about the critical role of human empathy in dealing with two important contemporary issues: hospice care and post-traumatic stress disorder. Kiernan’s characters are well-drawn and give unique perspectives on death, trauma, and providing care in difficult times. The Hummingbird is a must-read for all who want to help loved ones die with dignity as well as for those helping veterans achieve normalcy after serving our country. —Phyllis K. Spinale, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, MA – See more at:

Tie-ins

Getting a jump on the holiday weekend, the movie adaptation of A Walk in the Woods starring Robert Redford, Nick Nolte and Emma Thompson opened on Wednesday. New York magazine’s review will disappoint those hoping for a movie that was as funny as Bryson’s 1008 book.

As we head to the fall movie season, several tie-ins are scheduled for publication next week. Movie inks are to our coverage, with trailers.

The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, John Pearson, (HarperCollins/William Collins); Movie opens 10/2/15

Room, Emma Donoghue (Hachette, trade pbk, mass mkt., audio);  Movie opens 10/16/15

Trumbo (Movie Tie-In Edition), Bruce Cook, (Hachette/Grand Central);  Movie opens 11/6/15

Brooklyn, Colm Toibin,  (S&S/Scribner); Movie opens 11/6/15

For a full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.

NPR,org  is on something of a Fantasy spree, devoting stories to Terry Pratchett’s last novel and, in what seems like a direct response to both the Hugos and the We Need Diverse Books campaign, offering two reviews that highlight the diversity of the genre, its authors, and its characters.

One is Bradley P. Beaulieu’s newest novel, Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (Penguin/DAW; Brilliance Audio), a Silk Road Fantasy, set not in the fantasy genre’s  familiar quasi-medieval world of Western Europe but in locales inspired by and situated within Eastern cultures. For Beaulieu that means Islamic and Ancient Egyptian influences fill this first of a new series.

NPR.org’s reviewer Jason Heller sings the novel’s praises noting its “intricate, suspenseful” plot, the female “gladiator by trade” central character who is “fierce…dynamic, multilayered, utterly fascinating,” and a setting created out of a “fabulist mix of cultures.”

In recommending readers dive in he offers this ready-made RA annotation:

Fantasy and horror, catacombs and sarcophagi, resurrections and revelations: The book has them all, and Beaulieu wraps it up in a package that’s as graceful and contemplative as it is action-packed and pulse-pounding. As fantasy continues to diversify and open itself up to a more vibrant representation of cultures and possibilities, Twelve Kings in Sharakhai should rank among the most satisfying.

The second of NPR’s most recent picks is Zen Cho’s debut novel Sorcerer to the Crown (Penguin/Ace; OverDrive Sample).

Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar says it nods towards Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in its settings and blend of real world and magic, but that it “actively exploits gaps and shortcomings in” Clarke’s modern classic.

In a packed and multifaceted review, El-Mohtar neatly explains the many-threaded plot:

When Sir Stephen Wythe, England’s Sorcerer Royal, dies in mysterious circumstances, his adopted black son Zacharias takes up the Sorcerer’s staff amid malicious mutterings that he murdered his guardian for the position. The timing is terrible: Besides being in disgrace with Fairyland, England is enmeshed in non-magical war with France and in tense diplomatic talks with the Sultan of Janda Baik over the matter of witches and snake-women. Zacharias must contend with an overreaching government, assassination attempts, the decline of magic — and, most unexpectedly, with Prunella Gentleman, a dark-skinned young Englishwoman of uncertain parentage who wishes to escape her magical school and enter society.

And then heaps praise on Cho for her approach and execution:

Cho foregrounds characters that are usually treated as curiosities and set pieces in Regency fiction giving them complex inner lives and thoroughly enriching her world-building as a result… Cho’s achieved something remarkable in making corrupt bureaucracy more terrifying than dragons; ambitious baronets more dangerous than vampires. I was genuinely chilled by the depiction of powerful men’s whims where magic and the Sorcerer Royal’s position were concerned: Dragons can be fought and beaten, but white supremacy and institutional oppression are as atmospheric as the magic in Cho’s world.

Lest she leave readers thinking that Cho’s novel is a slog, El-Mohtar is also quick to point out

Absolutely everything about this book is delightful. I can’t remember the last time I read a fantasy novel that made me laugh so much — and as often as I laughed, I gasped, I shouted rude words at offending characters, and just generally fell over myself with admiration for Cho’s dextrous depiction of Regency manners and wit.

There is plenty of Lee Child in this week’s New York Times 

For the cover of the Sunday Book Review, he offers his opinion of The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz (RH/Knopf; RH Audio) and today, in the daily NYT, reviewer Janet Maslin offers her take on Child’s newest Reacher novel Make Me (RH/Delacorte Press; BOT).

First, Child on Lagercrantz.

While he admires some of what Lagercrantz has done with the story itself, which he deems “a fine plot,” in the end he decides the task of bringing back Lisbeth Salander was impossible:

And what of Lisbeth Salander? Given that Lagercrantz knows she’s what ­readers want, her long and suspenseful introduction is masterful. It’s a striptease. She’s mentioned in the prologue (“One Year Earlier”), and then she’s not in the story at all, and then she is, maybe, purely by inference, and then we get a brief glimpse of her, and then another, and then some longer scenes. But it’s not until Page 216 that she actually speaks to Blomkvist. “Lisbeth,” he asks, answering her phone call, “is that you?”  “Shut up and listen,” she replies, and he does. And we’re off to the races. Or are we? Does she spark to life and get up off the slab?

No decides Child, she does not, “The sublime madness of Larsson’s original isn’t quite there.”

It is another story for Maslin’s reaction to Make Me.

She likes it, a lot, calling it “a hot one” and going on to say “Lee Child’s Reacher series has hit Book No. 20 with a resounding peal of wisecracking glee… Everything about it, starting with Reacher’s nose for bad news, is as strong as ever.”

Without spoilers, she hints to readers that the book marks a turning point in the series while giving a sense of its gritty core:

… this book’s spectrum of good and evil is so wide, and its depths of horror so extreme, that it seems impossible for even Jack Reacher to come away from it unchanged. Usually he walks away from one novel and into the next without even getting his hair mussed. Maybe not this time…[the book] takes Reacher from the kind of cracking wise his fans love and the violence that he understands into the eerie realities of 2015, not the ones Reacher learned in the last century as part of his military training.

News also just arrived that the second Jack Reacher movie will arrive next fall, again starring Tom Cruise.

Noted science writer and WIRED reporter Steve Silberman appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday, sending his new book NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity (Penguin/Avery; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample) rocketing up Amazon’s sales rankings.

A history of autism, its evolution, and the way the scientific world has approached its diagnosis, NeuroTribes is changing the conversation
on the subject.

Jennifer Senior, who says the book is “beautifully told, humanizing, important” in her piece on it in the NYT Sunday Book Review, highlights just one of the ways Silberman shines new light on the very definition of autism:

The autism pandemic, in other words, is an optical illusion, one brought about by an original sin of diagnostic parsimony. The implications here are staggering: Had the definition included Asperger’s original, expansive vision, it’s quite possible we wouldn’t have been hunting for environmental causes or pointing our fingers at anxious parents…This is, without a doubt, a provocative argument that Silberman is making, one sure to draw plenty of pushback and anger. But he traces his history with scrupulous precision, and along the way he treats us to charming, pointillist portraits of historical figures who are presumed to have had Asperger’s, including Henry Cavendish and Nikola Tesla.

Likely to become a classic in the field, it is already listed along with works by Andrew Solomon and Temple Grandin and comes with a forward by Oliver Sacks.

Holds are exceeding a 3:1 ratio across the country in libraries we checked.

For its Labor Day weekend issue, arriving when subscribers are likely to have more time to read it than usual, Sunday’s NYT Magazine profiles an author few readers know, Joy Williams. Her new book, arriving next week, The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories (RH/ Knopf), writes Dan Kois, culture editor at Slate, “cements her reputation as not merely one of the great writers of her generation, but as our pre-eminent bard of humanity’s insignificance.”

A reminder, the magazine has done this before, featuring another author greatly admired but largely unknown short story writer, George Saunders, making his book The Tenth of December a long-running best seller.

Kois lavishes Williams with praise, saying, “To call her 50-year career that of a writer’s writer does not go far enough. Her three story collections and four darkly funny novels are mostly overlooked by readers but so beloved by generations of fiction masters that she might be the writer’s writer’s writer.”

The list of authors lining up to sing her praises is a modern who’s who of greats. Don DeLillo, George Saunders, and Karen Russell are quoted, with Russell saying Williams is “a visionary” and “resizes people against a cosmic backdrop.’’

In a few share-worthy lines Kois offers a quick introduction:

Her stories often reveal themselves as parables, and her writing on the environment is equal parts fire, brimstone and eulogy…The typical Williams protagonist is a wayward girl or young woman whose bad decisions, or bad attitude, or both, make her difficult to admire: She drives away while her husband is paying for gas, or ransacks a houseguest’s room to read her journal.

Orders are very light (or nonexistent) in libraries we checked.

Amy Stewart’s Girl Waits with Gun (HMH; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample) is gathering velocity.

Stewart spoke with Steve Innskeep on NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday. The charming interview sent her debut novel (after successful nonfiction titles) racing up Amazon’s sales rankings.

Separately, Girl Waits with Gun was also reviewed on NPR by author Genevieve Valentine. “Charming” is a word that comes up frequently there as well, with Valentine saying “It might seem odd to be reading about an old-fashioned farmstead shootout and thinking about how charming it is, but if you’re reading Girl Waits With Gun, you might as well get used to it. You’ll be thinking that a lot.”

As we reported in the look ahead to books coming out this week, Stewart’s novel has four prepub stars and is both an Indie Next and a LibraryReads pick.

Holds are topping a 3:1 ratio at some libraries and are strong everywhere we checked. Don’t be surprised if it shows up on best seller lists next week.

NPR posted a sneak peek of Terry Pratchett’s The Shepherd’s Crown (HarperCollins; HarperCollinsAudio and Blackstone Audio) last week and on its heels comes Michael Dirda’s RA-friendly review and very helpful summary of the entire Tiffany Aching story arc.

Writing in The Washington Post, Dirda guides readers through Tiffany’s adventures, starting with The Wee Free Men (2003) and continuing through A Hat Full of Sky (2004), Wintersmith (2006) and I Shall Wear Midnight (2010). He explains both the story arc and the point of the adventures.

Dirda clearly admires Pratchett and adores Tiffany, sharing an excerpt from The Wee Free Men:

“Another world is colliding with this one,” said the toad. . . . “All the monsters are coming back.”

“Why?” said Tiffany.

“There’s no one to stop them.”

There was silence for a moment.

“There’s me,” said Tiffany.

Writing about his feelings when reading, re-reading, and thinking of that passage, Dirda says, “Even now, I feel a thrill just typing those words.”

Readers’ advisory librarians in search of a quick catchup will be happy not only with Dirda’s summary but the way he shares his joy in the entire series.

The review ends with a quick summary:

The Shepherd’s Crown is certainly a worthy crown to Terry Pratchett’s phenomenal artistic achievement, though sharp readers will recognize that some elements… are never fully developed. Moreover, anyone expecting lots of laughs will need to revisit some of the other books set on Discworld… much of this novel concerns itself with death and life’s purpose, while also examining the claims of tradition against the need for change and progress. Above all, though, The Shepherd’s Crown — like all of Pratchett’s fiction — stresses the importance of helping others.