Oprah Winfrey, who has made the career of many a memoirist, is set to finally come through on the promise of writing a memoir of her own.

Joining with Flatiron Books, a division of Macmillan, Winfrey is to pen The Life You Want, an inspirational memoir due out in January 2017 (no cover or ISBN yet).

According to her site, the book “reveals never-before told stories from Oprah’s experience and shines a light on how they can inform your life.”

Deadline Hollywood reports the memoir deal netted Winfrey an eight-figure payday.

It will follow Winfrey’s 2014 What I Know for Sure, a collection of her O magazine columns also published by Flatiron.

The memoir is not the only deal Winfrey has struck with the company.

She is also starting her own imprint and plans to hand-select several nonfiction titles each year.

In a press release quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, Bob Miller, president and publisher of Flatiron Books, said,

“We’re … thrilled to give a home to Oprah’s imprint titles. We all know how extraordinary Oprah’s instincts are when it comes to choosing books, instincts borne of her lifelong love of reading and the power of the written word.”

While these days it takes more than a nod from Oprah to make a book a sensation, her endorsements continues to spur sales, making hers an imprint to watch.

Dominating the books arriving next week are titles aimed at the concerns of the new year, weight loss and self improvement.

It’s odd, but not surprising to find that no titles from big-name authors arrive next week, when stores are occupied with selling, rather than unpacking boxes and stocking shelves. That leaves room for a some under-the-radar picks.

The titles covered here, and a few other notables arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord-New-Title-Radar-Week-of-12/21/15

Consumer Media Picks

Paradise City, Elizabeth Day, (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA; 12/9) — People magazine’ s Book of the Week is set in London,  “four desperate lives intersect in this moving novel about love and identity.”  It is also an Indie Next pick

People picks for the week also came out earlier this month, James Lee Burke’s House of the Rising Sun  (S&S, Dec. 1) and Ametora by W. David Marx (Perseus/Basic Books, Dec. 1) . The latter title is the Japenese word for “American traditional style.” ,The book is “a fascinating cultural history ]that] explores japan’s revival of classic styles in the U.S. (think Uniqlo) and evolution into a global fashion force”

This Raging Light, Estele Laure, *HMH Books for Young Readers)

On Entertainment Weekly‘s Must List at #9; “a 17-year-old’sfather goes crazy, her mother abandons her, ad she’s left to care for her young sister. The author explores the teen emotions, from loneliness to first love, with poetic insight.

Peer Picks

Year of the Goose by Carly J. Hallman (The Unnamed Press)

Indie Next Pick:

“Sometimes too much pineapple turns your tongue into a caterpillar, all that acid seeping through. Between detailing a government-sanctioned fat camp meant to ‘rehabilitate’ China’s morbidly obese children and the brutal assassination of China’s richest man — Papa Hui, CEO of Bashful Goose Snack Company, China’s most profitable corporation — Hallman’s Year of the Goose contains that same tartness. Snarky and sinister, this debut novel will make you both cackle and cringe.” —Annalia Linnan, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX

Tie-ins:

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks (Hachette/Grand Central Publishing; Hachette Audio).

An earlier Sparks novel (first published in 2007) makes it way to theaters on Feb. 2, 2016. The film stars Teresa Palmer and Tom Welling.

City of Bones: TV Tie-in by Cassandra Clare (S&S/Margaret K. McElderry Books; Simon & Schuster Audio).

The TV series Shadowhunters will premiere on basic cable channel Freeform (formerly ABC Family) on Jan. 12, 2016.

It is based on Cassandra Clare’s popular YA series beginning with The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, (S&S/M.K. McElderry Books, 2007), which was made into a movie in 2013. After it flopped at the box office, the producers changed their plans of creating a film franchise and turned to TV, with a new cast of actors, all of whom are fairly new to the screen.

(for our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our

Interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday, Neil Gaiman talked about his latest book, The Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition, (DC Comics/Vertigo) which has held the #1 spot on the NYT Hardcover Graphic Books since it’s release 4 weeks ago. It collects a 6-part prequel to his Sandman stories.

In the introduction to the interview, Terry Gross says that Norman Mailer called the series “a comic strip for intellectuals.”

There have been several efforts to turn the books into a movie or TV series. Currently a film version is in the works and may begin shooting next year (Fox’s upcoming series Lucifer is based on one of the Sandman characters, featured in a spin-off written by Mike Carey).

In the interview, Gaiman declares that comics are no longer a “gender-determined medium, which always seemed completely barking mad to me.”

The slowdown in release of titles continues next week, which is dominated by the Star Wars tie-ins (see previous post). As a result, we can round up the other titles in one short paragraph.

James Patterson publishes the next in his middle-grade series,
I Funny TV: A Middle School Story (Hachette/LittleBrown; Hachette Audio) as well as the next in the Manga version sof his YA series, Maximum Ride: The Manga, Vol. 9, (Hachette/Yen Press). In adult titles, the next in James Rollins’s  Sima Force series arrives, The Bone Labyrinth.(HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio).

The titles covered here, s well as the week’s tie-ins, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of 12/14/15.

On Broadway, The Color Purple opened yesterday and is getting kudos from coast to coast. The New York Times calls it “a glory to behold” and the L.A. Times says it is “a spiritually transcendent theatricalization of the tale.” The latter review also notes that the production “relies to an extent on the audience having some understanding of the basic story.”

Fortunately, there is a tie-in, The Color Purple (Musical Tie-In) by Alice Walker (HMH/Mariner Books).

..
Two film adaptations open today, including Ron Howard’s long anticipated adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea.(poster at left).

Unfortunately, despite early Oscar buzz, Variety predicts, based on the overseas box office where it opened last week, that it will be  “one of the biggest flops of director Ron Howard’s career and will serve as a painful coda to what has been a devastating year for Warner Bros.” Reviews are not helping, exemplified by NPR’s headline, “There’s Entirely Too Much Melville In The Heart Of The Sea”

But unsuccessful movies sometimes bring readers to the books they are based on. The trade paperback edition has been rising on Amazon’s sales rankings,

Tie-ins include one for adults and another for young readers:

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (Movie Tie-in),  Nathaniel Philbrick (Penguin; Penguin Audio)

In the Heart of the Sea (Young Readers Edition), Nathaniel Philbrick (Penguin/Puffin Books; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Another hotly anticipated adaptation The Big Short, based on Michael Lewis’s best seller he housing and credit bubble, opens in a limited number of theaters today. Says Variety, “Paramount will try to exploit the empty playing field this weekend by launching The Big Short, a comic look at the financial crisis, in limited release. The subject matter is dense, terms like collaterized debt obligations are bandied about, so it will fall to an all-star ensemble of Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Steve Carell to bring in audiences. The Big Short debuts on seven theaters before going wide on Dec. 25.”

The NYT is much more positive, calling it “A true crime story and a madcap comedy, a heist movie and a scalding polemic, [that] will affirm your deepest cynicism about Wall Street while simultaneously restoring your faith in Hollywood.”

The tie-in edition was published a few weeks ago, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (Norton; OverDrive Sample).

Three TV events occur this week.

Hallmark continues its string of Christmas book adaptations on Sunday with Debbie Macomber’s Dashing Through the Snow (RH/Ballantine), the story of two strangers trying to make it to Seattle in the holiday rush.

There is not a specific tie-in edition, but as we noted the book was one to watch when it came out this past October.

In a three-night event the Syfy channel brings Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 novel, Childhood’s End, to the small screen.

A tie-in edition came out in October, Childhood’s End (Syfy TV Tie-in) by Arthur C. Clarke (PRH/Del Rey; Brilliance Audio).

About an an alien invasion, the take over of the planet begins Dec. 14.

Also coming from the Syfy channel is The Expanse, a new space-set series based on the Hugo and Locus nominated book Leviathan Wakes (which is the first book in The Expanse series).

A tie-in edition came out in early November, Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (Hachette/Orbit; OverDrive Sample).

The series begins Dec. 14.

Lines began forming for the 7th installment of Star Wars:The Force Awakens, as early as last Saturday, 12 days ahead of its Thursday midnight opening.

There’s is a raft of Star Wars branded products to occupy them. As the Seattle Times points out, this is the first Star Wars movie “from merchandise-driven Disney.” following their acquisition of Lucasfilm.

You can get Death Star shoes and even Star Wars mascara and, of course, a wide range of collectibles, introduced earlier this year. Lucas film president Kathleen Kennedy comments in brand-speak, “Star Wars toys have always played an important role in how our fans interact with the Saga.”

Several Force Awakens branded titles were released in September and a whole new set is scheduled  for release next Friday. However, the print novelization is being held off until January, to avoid spoilers (that does not apply to the eBook edition, scheduled for release the same day as the movie).

StarWars.com lists and annotates the books and PRH/Del Rey has a Facebook page for their titles, including the recent “official cover reveal” of Chuck Windig’s sequel,  Aftermath: Life Debt, May 31, 2016. For ordering information, check our listing of tie-ins (minus library-unfriendly merch. items, like sticker books and those that include light sabers).The title currently highest on Amazon’s sales rankings is Pablo Hidalgo’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary (Penguin/DK).

If you had any doubts, there will be more Star Wars movies. Wired predicts “You Won’t Live to See the Final Star Wars Movie” and JJ Abrams, director of the current movie, is touting Selma director Ava DuVernay for future iterations.

Other tie-in arriving this week follow the normal pattern of being pubished months in advance of the movies:

Snowden (The Snowden Files Movie Tie In Edition): The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man, Luke Harding (PRH/Vintage).

Oliver Stone is taking on the Snowden story in a film set for release on May 15, 2016. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as  Snowden, along with Shailene Woodley and Nicholas Cage. The script is based on Harding’s nonfiction account, which published as an original trade paperback in the U.S. in February 2014.

For a while there was a duel going on for film dominance.

Sony bought rights to Glenn Greenwald’s No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books) in 2014 (see our story here on the rivalry between Harding and Greenwald). However, Greenwald’s own website reports, relying ironically on leaks from the Sony email hack, that the film based on No Place to Hide is likely dead in the water, quoting an email from a Sony executive as saying the Stone film “will beat our Snowden project to market and therefore ours is unlikely to happen … We ended up passing after seriously considering the project.”

A teaser trailer has been released:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Movie Tie-in Edition) by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith (Quirk Books).

The godmother of the mashup genre, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, finally makes it to the screen, beginning Feb. 19 in a film starring Lily James (Cinderella, Downton Abbey and the upcoming BBC adaptation of War and Peace) as Elizabeth Bennett and Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy.

As we reported earlier, many leading ladies have been rumored or announced, including Natalie Portman, Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Mia Wasikowska and Rooney Mara.

Topping the LibraryReads list for January, released today, is a book that has been popular on our GalleyChats, Elizabeth Strout’s latest, My Name Is Lucy Barton, (PRH/ Random House; Jan 12). Catherine Coyne, Mansfield Public Library, Mansfield, MA writes the annotation,

Set in the mid-1980s, Lucy Barton, hospitalized for nine weeks, is surprised when her estranged mother shows up at her bedside. Her mother talks of local gossip, but underneath the banalities, Lucy senses the love that cannot be expressed. This is the story that Lucy must write about, the one story that has shaped her entire life. A beautiful lyrical story of a mother and daughter and the love they share.

It is also picked by booksellers for the Indie Next January list. the recommendation credits Strout with “the incredible ability to take ordinary, even mundane situations and use them to make acute observations on the human condition.”

Topping the Indie Next list is a book that was heavily promoted at BEA, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald (Sourcebooks Landmark; Jan 19). Also on the LibraryReads list, it is describes by Barbara Clark-Greene, Groton Public Library, Groton, CT:

Sara arrives in the small town of Broken Wheel to visit her pen pal Amy, only to discover Amy has just died. The tale of how she brings the love of books and reading that she shared with Amy to the residents of Broken Wheel is just a lovely read. Any book lover will enjoy Sara’s story and that of the friends she makes in Broken Wheel. If ever a town needed a bookstore, it is Broken Wheel; the healing power of books and reading is made evident by this heartwarming book.

There’s little crossover between the rest of  the titles on the lists, giving readers advisors 29 titles to know and recommend (check for digital galleys on Edelweiss and NetGalley).

For those whose lives have not yet been changed by the magic of tidying up, another opportunity is on its way.

Arriving in January is Marie Kondo’s  Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up (Ten Speed Press; RH Large Print) and The New Yorker takes it as an opportunity to examine  “The Origin Story of Marie Kondo’s Decluttering Empire,”

The story mentions her stance on keeping books, “still-unread means never will be read, and that, once read, books shouldn’t be retained for rereading.” That got us wondering, have libraries seen an uptick in donations since the first book was published?

What does a MacArthur Genius Fellow do when he appears on The Late Show? Sing a childrens song in a duet with Stephen Colbert, of course, even though it makes him nervous. As he admits, having to perform in front of the Late Show band is like “having sex in front of porn stars.”

Quotable line from the interview, “Novels are training wheels for empathy.”

George Saunders is currently on tour for the re-release of his childrens book, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, illustrated by Lane Smint, (Random House, 11/24/15; originally published in 2006).

Not mentioned in the interview, the book is set to be adapted as a movie by MGM, with Saunders producing.

Saunders also read a bedtime story to Colbert.

When asked the secret of her long and active career, Julia Child replied, “Well, I have been known to eat well.”

The same could be said of her friend, Chuck Williams, the founder of Williams-Sonoma and prolific cookbook author who died in his sleep on Saturday in his San Francisco home. He was 100 years old.

As the New York Times obituary puts it, before Williams discovered the amazing range of cookware available in France, inspiring him to open his first store in Sonoma, California, in 1956, U.S. kitchens were drab affairs, stocked with “pots, pans and knives from a department store.”

The obituary also credits him with writing over 200 cookbooks, the latest of which is Cooking at Home, (Weldon Owen, dist. by S&S) re-released in September to celebrate Williams’ 100th birthday. It was originally published in 2010 when Williams was  a mere 95.

The output of titles slows down considerably this week, as stores move into high gear for the big holiday season. Even so, two big-name titles arrive to strong holds lists.

Secret Sisters, Jayne Ann Krentz, (PRH/Berkley)
A People pick this week, called  “suspenseful, romantic escape,” LJ picked it as one of the best Romance novels of the year. Booklist stars it, saying, “the doyenne of sophisticated romantic suspense serves up another irresistible combination of sharply etched characters, suspenseful plotting, smoldering sexual chemistry, and wonderfully written dialogue that snaps, crackles, and pops with the author’s distinctive wit.”

Ashley Bell, Dean Koontz, (PRH/Bantam)
Further behind in holds, this is People magazine’s “Book of the Week,” described as “a mind-bender filled with satisfying surprises.” Booklist predicts, “Koontz hits the canny nexus of horror, mystery, and fantasy here, which should drive demand even higher than normal.”

The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of 12/7/15.

Media Attention

The Relic Master, Christopher Buckley,  (Simon & Schuster)

Buckley moves his brand of satire from the present back to the Holy Roman Empire in 1517. PW calls the result “part Monty Python and part Ocean’s 11. The clever narrative is filled with laugh-out-loud one-liners but, amazingly, doesn’t stint on the suspense.”

The author is set to appear Dec. 8th on CBS This Morning and Dec. 12th on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Peer Picks

Paradise City by Elizabeth Day (Bloomsbury USA; OverDrive Sample).

A December Indie Next selection:

“When I was young, one of my favorite toys was my dollhouse. It looked just like a regular house from the front, but the back was open with all the rooms exposed. That’s what Paradise City reminded me of, with each chapter narrated by a different character, all inscrutable to the people around them, but giving the reader glimpses into their inner lives. Every character is richly detailed and Day’s clear, sharp prose had me relating to their every feeling from wild, unexpected happiness to deep, thudding sadness. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book this much!” —Lauren Peugh, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ

Tie-ins

Last week Nexflix began streaming a series based on the Marvel superhero comic Jessica Jones. Four books collect the original comics. Released earlier this fall were  Jessica Jones: Alias Vol. 1 and Volume 2 (Marvel).

Coming next week is  Jessica Jones: Alias Vol. 3 and  in January, Jessica Jones : Alias Vol. 4.

Starring Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad) as Jones, a character with superhuman strength, The Guardian says the show explores “the after-effects of trauma, exploitation and abuse, with smart and subtle things to say about the way guilt affects the lives of the victims, and how exploitation corrupts the exploiter.”

The Disney film The Finest Hours, starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck. coming Jan. 29th, is based on the middle-grade title,  The Finest Hours: The True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman (Macmillan/Holt, 2014)

In addition to the children’s tie-in (Macmillan/Square Fish, trade pbk), it is being released as an adult title (S&S. Scribner; mass market edition S&S/Pocket, 12/29).

The true story of the US Coast Guard’s efforts to rescue two tanker ships during a 1952 monstrous nor’easter  was revisited recenty in a story in The Washington Post.

National Book Award Winner, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s next project is to create a Black Panther comic for Marvel. Set to be published next spring, Coates gives a sneak peek at the work in progress in The Atlantic and promises more updates to come.

Black Panther, the first black superhero, was introduced in 1966. He will also be seen in two upcoming movies, as a character in Captain America: Civil War to be released May 6, 2016 (the trailer for it, released this week, broke viewing records) and as the lead in a film scheduled for 2018, He is played in both by Chadwick Boseman.

Admitting that this kind of writing is much different than his usual form, Coates explains why he accepted this challenge, “I took it on for the same reason I take on new stories—to grow intellectually and artistically. In this case it’s another genre—fictional, serial story-telling—one a good distance away from journalism, memoir, and essays.”

Among the old reliables hitting shelves next week, is Daniel Steel’s latest,  Precious Gifts (PRH/Delacorte). Tom Clancy returns, in name only, with a new Jack Ryan novel, written by Mark Greaney, Tom Clancy Commander in Chief. (PRH/Putnam). Martha Stewart Weddings may seem to be arriving in the wrong season, but it many will consider it the perfect gift for those in the throes of planning their events.

The titles highlighted here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Nov. 30, 2015.

Peer Picks

The #1 December 2015 Indie Next pick is a poetry collection. The first time, as we previously reported, that poetry has topped the list.

The Selected Poems of Donald Hall by Donald Hall (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; OverDrive Sample)

“This is a gift of honesty, intimacy, and the pure genius that is Donald Hall, as he hand-picks what he considers to be the best of his poetry from more than 70 years of published works. From this former U.S. Poet Laureate comes one essential volume of his works, where ‘Ox-Cart Man’ sits alongside ‘Kicking the Leaves’ and ‘Without.’ As he is no longer writing poetry, this ‘concise gathering of my life’s work’ is the perfect introduction to Hall’s literary contributions, as well as closure for his many ardent followers.” —Katharine Nevins, MainStreet BookEnds of Warner, Warner, NH

A number of other Indie Next Picks come out this week as well:

What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan (HarperCollins/William Morrow Paperbacks; OverDrive Sample) — also a People Pick of the Week.

“This is the story of a mother’s anguish and desperation when her eight-year-old son runs ahead on an ordinary Sunday afternoon walk in a park and vanishes. It is the story of the lead detective, told partly in sessions he has with a psychologist because of the toll the case is taking on his personal life. It is the story of family and friends and the secrets they have been keeping that are slowly revealed. And it is the story of how the media and the public are quick to point fingers and assign blame. But, most of all, it is the story of a mother’s love and her strength and will to push everything aside and do anything to bring her son home.” —Nancy McFarlane, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton (Penguin; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample)

NOTE: See our recent chat with the author as part of the Penguin Debut Author series.

“An intimate look at the devastating effect of the bombing of Nagasaki on one family, this is a story of love — parental and sexual, selfless and selfish, and, in the end, healing. Amaterasu Takahashi opens the door of her home in the U.S. to a badly scarred man claiming to be her grandson, who supposedly perished along with her daughter during the bombing nearly 40 years earlier. The man carries a cache of letters that forces Ama to confront her past and the love affair that tore her apart from her daughter.” —Sandi Torkildson, A Room of One’s Own, Madison, WI

First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson (Perseus/Basic Books)

“Food scholar Wilson explores not only how our food habits are shaped and the origins of our tastes, but also the problems we have with our present diet and how we can change our palates to lead healthier lives. Entertaining, informative, and packed with food wisdom, First Bite belongs on the shelves of food lovers, history buffs, and all fans of good writing.” —Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA

Like Family by Paolo Giordano, Translated by Anne Milano Appel (Penguin/Pamela Dorman Books; Dreamscape Media; OverDrive Sample)

“This short, spare, beautifully evocative novel becomes a major meditation on the mystery of life, with all of its attendant joy and sorrow. The story of Anna — caretaker, nanny, and confidant — becomes the tale of all families with the extremes of happiness and sadness inherent in every situation. Like Family is poignant, sure to stir emotions in any reader and, in the end, a paean to living the life that is given.” —Bill Cusumano, Square Books, Oxford, MS

Time of Departure by Douglas Schofield (Macmillian/Minotaur; OverDrive Sample)

“Claire Talbot has a lot to prove in the misogynistic legal world in which she has immersed herself, but she puts it all on the line when Marcus Hastings enters her life with an old case that stirs an ominous feeling in the pit of Claire’s stomach. Though the string of missing girls occurred before she was born, Claire senses a familiarity with the case, and with Marcus, that she can’t explain. What begins with an ambitious young female prosecutor, a mysterious cold case, and an intriguing ex-cop who knows too much about both ends in a series of twists that readers won’t see coming.” —Rachel Kelley, Sunriver Books, Sunriver, OR

His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison (Soho Crime; OverDrive Sample)

“In this riveting and compassionate mystery, beloved counselor Carl Ashby is found dead at church, leaving the Mormon community devastated. But when Linda and Kurt Wallheim learn that Carl was originally a female the news turns their world inside out, directing their focus away from the bigger issues at hand. In a community that is so set with its gender roles, can the Wallheims look past that to discover who killed Carl and why?” —Rachael Drummond, Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI

Tie-ins

The most anticipated Oscary-buzzy film opening today is The Danish Girl, based on David Ebershoff’s debut novel.

The film stars Eddie Redmayne, who has already won an Oscar for his startling physical transformation as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. As we wrote earlier, many expect Redmayne to do it again in for his portrayal of a man who, in the 1930’s, had one of the earliest transgender surgeries.

The movie-tie in edition came out in late October.

Victor Frankenstein opened in wide release on Wednesday. The film is based very loosely on the classic SF/Horror tale by Mary Shelley. It stars James McAvoy as Victor and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor.

No specific tie-in edition has been released and it is iffy whether the film will send fans racing towards the classic. For those who do, there’s a wide range of editions to suggest, including the Penguin edition with cover art by Daniel Clowes (PRH/Penguin Classics).

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

Tie-ins scheduled for publication next week:

The Elfstones of Shannara (The Shannara Chronicles) (TV Tie-in Edition) by Terry Brooks (PRH/Del Rey), released in both a trade edition and a mass market version. The Wishsong of Shannara (The Shannara Chronicles) (TV Tie-in Edition) by Terry Brooks (PRH/Del Rey) also appear this week.

Both titles tie in to MTV’s adaptation Terry Brooks’s modern classic fantasy series which is scheduled to begin airing on Jan. 5, 2016.

As we wrote earlier, MTV is trying to position the series as the heir to Game of Thrones. Based on Terry Brooks’ Shannara series, the first in the book series is Sword Of Shannara, but the first in the TV series will be based on the second book Elfstones Of Shannara.

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

As a Thanksgiving treat, a new trailer was released for Star Wars.

The Guardian mines the short video for plot clues.

Others are mining even flimsier material. According to NPR News, fans are even analyzing tie-in toys for what they reveal about the movie. The soundtrack is also being examined for spoilers. One enterprising super-fan has pulled all the spoilers together to create an plot outline.

No wonder LucasFilms was so paranoid about spoilers that they forced the publisher to put off the publication date of both the adult and junior novelization until well after the movie’s 12/18/15 release (this only applies to the print versions; the adult ebook isscheduled for release the same date as the movie).

Spoiler-free childrens books are rising on Amazon’s sales rankings, The Star Wars Little Golden Book Library, released in September, is currently at #13 (PRH/Little Golden Book). Each volume in the series retells the previous six Star Wars movies. Much further down in the rankings is the forthcoming  Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo (PRH/DK Children, Dec. 18), now at #381.

A rundown of all the books coming at the time of the release of the movie is available and Listening Library provides a list of their audios for Middle Graders.

We’ve added the library-friendly titles (no stickers or light sabers), to our listing of tie-ins to upcoming movies.

Featured on CNN under the headline, “Could This Quran Curb Extremism?” The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary (HarperCollins/HarperOne; OverDrive Sample) rose to #142 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Passed over by trade reviews thus far, this new edition has received a great deal of attention from the scholarly community. It is, however, designed for all interested readers.

The CNN report also links to Christiane Amanpour in a long conversation with the book’s co-editor earlier this month about public perceptions of Islam.