The third “meeting” of NPR’s Morning Edition Book Club was held today with Lauren Groff the author of  Fates and Furies (Penguin/Riverhead; BOT Audio; Overdrive Sample) fielding inquires about the story’s origins, character construction, her ambivalence about marriage, and female rage.

Author Richard Russo selected the book for the club saying, “The secrets here are character secrets, not plot secrets, and they are revealed in ways that sometimes take your breath away. You have to wait almost until the last page of the book to get to the last of the secrets.”

Groff said the novel was in part a chance to work out her uncertainty about being a wife, but admitted, “a novel does not answer any questions, it just raises a hundred other questions.”

Groff will appear on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday.

Next week sees the return of several powerhouse women thriller writers:

Depraved Heart, Patricia Cornwell, (HarperCollins/Morrow) — this Scarpetta Novel is being published to the tune of one million copies, and a one-day laydown.

Corrupted, Lisa Scottoline, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press) — also an Indie Next pick (see below).

Playing with Fire, Tess Gerritsen, (PRH/Ballantine) — in this new novel, the author steps away from her best selling Rizzoli & Isles series for a standalone thriller set in Rome and Venice.

The Theory of Death, Faye Kellerman, (HarperCollins/Morrow) — Continues the best selling Decker/Lazarus series.

In nonfiction, Stacy Schiff whose biography of Cleopatra received lavish attention and best seller status when it was published in 2010, turns her attention closer to home with The Witches: Salem, 1692.

In anticipation, an excerpt appeared in the New Yorker last month and the author is profiled in this week’s NYT Book Review.

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 Oct. 26, 2015

Media Magnets

Wildflower, Drew Barrymore, (PRH/Dutton; BOT Audio)

With the headline, “I Had the Weirdest Life Ever,” an excerpt from Drew Barrymore’s new memoir is featured on the cover of the new issue of People magazine. This is her second memoir, her previous, written in 1990 when she was just sixteen, was Little Girl Lost. The People story is making headlines because Barrymore admits that she suffered postpartum depression after her second child was born.

My Life on the Road, Gloria Steinem, (Random House; BOT Audio, read by Debra Winger)

The hot ticket at this year’s Annual ALA Conference was for Gloria Steinem’s speech. She rewarded the standing room only crowd by telling them, “Librarians saved my life.” In a seeming contradiction with her feminist values, one of the first interviews with Steinem for her new memoir is in Cosmopolitan magazine. Declaring that Cosmo‘s founder, Helen Gurley Brown was not her nemesis and that she “did something very interesting and important, which is she made it OK to be sexual in a women’s magazine,” she also says she was a “great girlfriend. We had each other’s backs.”

Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, Ted Koppel, (PRH/Crown; BOT Audio)

Former ABC Nightline anchor warns that terrorists could knock out the U.S. power grid. Media coverage is lined up:

Fox News Channel – O’Reilly Factor – interview, 10/27
CBS-TV – CBS Sunday Morning – airdate TBD
PBS-TV – Charlie Rose Show – airdate TBD

The Immortal Nicholas, Glenn  Beck, (S&S/Mercury Ink)

Another weapon in Beck’s war on the “War on Christmas,” this novel for adults attempts to turn “Santa himself back toward Christ.” We wonder if Beck realizes that his publisher calls this a “Holiday novel”?

Peer Picks

A Banquet of Consequences: A Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George (PRH/Viking; Penguin Audio and BOT; OverDrive Sample)

LibraryReads, Oct:

“Still reeling from a previous fall from grace, police detective Barbara Havers has a chance to redeem her standing–if she can unravel the very twisted threads that led to the murder of a prominent English feminist. Meanwhile, her superior officer Thomas Lynley pursues a love interest even as he keeps a sharp lookout for any slip-ups by Havers. This is the strongest addition to the series in years.” — Starr Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, Falls Church, VA

Slade House by David Mitchell (Random House; Random House Audio and BOT; OverDrive Sample)

Both an Indie Next and a LibraryReads pick for Oct:

“Every nine years, Slade House appears in a little alley in London, and every nine years, someone disappears into it, never to be seen again. Fans of The Bone Clocks will inhale this compact, six-part work that draws on Mitchell’s established mythology and reintroduces a familiar character or two. New readers, however, won’t be lost. Literary fiction, fantasy, and a dose of horror combine here to make a deeply satisfying book.” — Jenny Arch, Robbins Library, Arlington, MA

Corrupted: A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel by Lisa Scottoline (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Indie Next:

“At 12, Jason is chubby, buck-toothed, and bullied every day by Ritchie. Philadelphia trial attorney Bennie Rosato tries to help Jason when he gets in trouble for fighting back. Thirteen years later, that same bully is dead, Jason appears to be the killer, and once again Bennie is called to help. As always, Scottoline’s dialogue is excellent, legal terms are made easy to understand, characters are richly drawn, trial scenes are vivid, and there are huge, well-hidden surprises. I enjoyed it immensely!” -—Susan Wasson, Bookworks, Albuquerque, NM

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir by Carrie Brownstein (Penguin/Riverhead Books; Penguin Audio and BOT)
The Portlandia star and Sleater-Kinney guitarist, Carrie Brownstein is universally recognized as cool, even by Brwonstein herself. Interviewed in this week’s New York Times Magazine, her memoir is excerpted in the New Yorker, and she has organized a posse of celebrity friends for her book tour (which, naturally, kicks off in the cool capital of the world, Brooklyn).

Indie Next
“Before Portlandia, before Sleater-Kinney, there was a girl living in the Pacific Northwest with big ambitions, desperately yearning for an identity all her own. In Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Brownstein strays from the normal parameters of memoir to give readers an insightful, raw look into the moments that shaped her into the person who would later co-found one of the world’s most influential rock bands. Navigating a past fraught with family turmoil, rejection from the music industry, and an unwavering determination to succeed, Brownstein shares the power of rock and roll, both as her catalyst to success and as a cultural barometer of our times.” —Zack Ruskin, Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA

After Alice, Gregory Maguire (HarperCollins/Morrow)

Indie Next: “Maguire, the fairy tale spin doctor, here takes on Wonderland. The heroine is not Alice, but rather her playmate Ada, a sheltered and lonely girl with a twisted spine. Ada inadvertently follows Alice into Wonderland, and her perceptions and experiences are marvelous and fresh, with her dry wit, pragmatism, and imagination enlivening and dominating the scene. Back at home, Alice’s sister Lydia offers readers a glimpse into Victorian times as Maguire’s prose gives a mystical glow to landscapes, personalities, and everyday life.” —Coleen Colwell, BookSmart, Morgan Hill, CA

Tie-ins

Below are the tie-ins scheduled for publication next week. For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV spreadsheet and link to our listing of tie-ins.

Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church: The Findings of the Investigation That Inspired the Major Motion Picture “Spotlight” (Hachette/Back Bay; originally pubbed in 2002)

Spotlight tells the story of the investigation by Boston Globe reporters into accusations of child molestation and its cover-up by the local Catholic church, winning them a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci, it opens 11/6/15.

The Danish Girl: A Novel (Movie Tie-In) by David Ebershoff (Penguin Books; OverDrive Sample)

Lest you think Caitlyn was the first, this adaptation of David Ebershoff’s novel is the story of one of the earliest transgender surgeries. Eddie Redmayne, who plays the lead is expected to pick up another Oscar for his startling physical transformation, adding to the one he received last year for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. The movie opens Nov. 27. See the trailer here.

Childhood’s End (Syfy TV Tie-in) by Arthur C. Clarke (PRH/Del Rey; Brilliance Audio)

SyFy TV series begins 12/15/15.

The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury (S&S/Howard Books; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Hallmark TV movie debuts 12/6/15.

Two bird specialists, each of whom has recently published a book, talked with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday.

Wildlife photographer Gerrit Vyn has been photographing birds and recording their calls for years. After contributing images to many other books, he has now released his own title, The Living Bird: 100 Years of Listening to Nature (Mountaineers Books). It includes over 250 photographs by Vyn as well as essays by noted birders and naturalists.

Scott Weidensaul, who contributed pieces for Vyn’s book, has also published his own book, Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean (HMH). Following the pattern of other Peterson reference guides, it includes an exhaustive catalog with detailed descriptions of the owls, habitat, and behavior.

Both men communicate their fascination with birds, including the “tremendous of diversity of calls that owls make,” with samples that capture the feeling of being near the birds.

Welcome to Night Vale (HarperCollins/Harper Perennial; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample) is having its weird, subversive, addictive moment.

It is currently occupying the #59 spot on Amazon’s sales rankings and holds are growing at several libraries we checked.

As we reported, authors Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor were guests on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last week (time mark 36:24).

This week they are the subjects of a Books section feature in The New York Times., which summarizes their “show’s eerie existential themes” as “Don’t panic, but we’re all going to die,” and says “With its uncanny blend of the macabre and the mundane, the news out of Night Vale sounds like what might occur if Stephen King or David Lynch was a guest producer at your local public radio station.”

The feature details the history of the podcast and its move to print books, reporting publisher Harper Perennial has three more books in the works from Fink and Cranor and that the pair found an agent through the assistance of author John Green, who is a big fan of the show.

In a heads-up service to librarians, the paper also discusses other podcasts coming to print, “including The WTF Oral History, based on the comedian Marc Maron’s podcast, and Adnan’s Story, a book by Rabia Chaudry that is based on the murder case that inspired the wildly successful podcast Serial. It will contain new information about the case and will be published by St. Martin’s Press.”

Yesterday was a three-book extravaganza for CBS’s venerable Sunday Morning magazine show.

The Dogist by Elias Weiss Friedman (Workman/Artisan) was featured in a charming and smile-inducing report, sending the book racing up the Amazon sales charts where it is currently occupying the #62 spot.

The book is based on Friedman’s blog and Instagram accounts of the same name, which have done for dogs what Humans of New York and The Sartorialist have done for people and fashion. In the process Friedman has gathered over a million followers.

CBS posted a photo gallery in addition to the video segment.

Also featured were Erica Jong, whose new book Fear of Dying (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample) rose to #148 on the Amazon chart as a result, and singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, for his new memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (PRH/Blue Rider Press; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample) who comes to CBS fresh off of his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last week.

Robert Durst is the subject of books, films, and documentaries, perhaps most famously HBO’s The Jinx in which he seems to confess to multiple murders, saying to himself while wearing a microphone, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

Add another book to the list. Author Jeanine Pirro, a former district attorney involved in one of the Durst murder cases, featured in The Jinx, is publishing a new title, He Killed Them All: Robert Durst and My Quest for Justice (S&S/Gallery Books; S&S Audio). According to the publisher summary, Pirro reveals “stunning, previously unknown secrets about the crimes.”

The book is creating its own controversy. The New York Times reports that Pirro’s former collaborator on the project has filed suit against her, accusing Pirro of knowingly stretching the truth and aggrandizing her role in the matter. The lawsuit further claims that her editor at S&S told her not to “allow ‘concerns about facts’ to impede her from turning in drafts of the book.” Pirro’s agent has scoffed at the charges and S&S disputes the claims.

Holds are slight thus far but that will change if media attention continues.

The biggest book of the fall in terms of holds, even outstripping James Patterson’s Cross Justice coming in early Nov, arrives next week, John Grisham’s Rogue Lawyer, (PRH/Doubleday). It gets an early welcome from Maureen Corrigan in the Washington Post, calling it a “terrific new thriller.”

Also arriving is the latest in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling), Career Of Evil, (Hachette/Mulholland). The BBC is set to adapt the entire series, with production expected to begin this fall. Broadcast dates have not yet been announced.

Also arriving are Host by Robin Cook, (PRH/Putnam) and Golden Age by Jane Smiley, (PRH/Knopf)

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 Oct. 19, 2015

Media Magnets 

The Explorers Guild: Volume One: A Passage to Shambhala, Kevin Costner, Jon Baird, Rick Ross, (S&S/Atria)

Yes, the co-author is THAT Kevin Costner. When when the project was announced in 2012, the plan was also to turn it in to an animated series and a film. For now at least, the book stand alone. Kirkus sees merit in “its colorful cast, exotic locales, and intertwined fates” and as a result,  “the book slowly addicts. A rousing throwback whose spinning plates never stop, even at the end.” PW was less impressed, calling it a “massive doorstop of a volume is a curious, over-stuffed throwback … What could have been rousing becomes tedious as the authors pile on endless detail, delivered in densely worded prose sections that read like stage directions in a script.”

No surprise, the media is lining up for  Costner:

• ABC Good Morning America, October 20
• Fox-TV Access Hollywood, October 20
• ABC The View, October 20
• ABC Entertainment Tonight, October 20
• NPR Diane Rehm, October 21

Charlie Mike: A True Story of Heroes Who Brought Their Mission Home, Joe Klein, (S&S)

Joe Klein, Time magazine’s political columnist, tells the story of two soldiers who founded The Mission Continues, an organization that helps veterans adjust to life as civilians through community service. The book will be featured on NPR’s Diane Rehm, October 21 and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, October 22.

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, Sarah Vowell, (PRH/Riverhead)

Vowell got very early coverage for her latest, as one of Jon Stewart’s final guests on the Daily Show. For the audiobook, she is joined by some famous friends, John Slattery (as the Marquis de Lafayette), Nick Offerman (George Washington), Bobby Cannavale (Benjamin Franklin), John Hodgman (John Adams), and Patton Oswalt (Thomas Jefferson).

Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family, Amy Ellis Nutt, (PRH/Random House)

Featured on Good Morning America today, this book also profiled in this week’s People magazine in an article titled, “How Identical Twin Boys Became Brother and Sister: One Family’s Courageous Transgender Story” and is scheduled for coverage on NPR’s Fresh Air on Monday.

The Arab of the Future: A Graphic Memoir, Riad Sattouf (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books)

Reviewed in the New Yorker and the upcoming
NY Times Sunday Book Review.

Peer Picks

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (HarperCollins/Harper Perennial; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample)

LibraryReads, Oct — “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.” Debra Franklin, York County Public Library, Rock Hill, SC

Indie Next – “Welcome to Night Vale meshes the uncanny with the mundane in a way that doesn’t so much elevate the mundane as it illuminates life’s strangeness. For all its weirdness, Fink and Cranor’s work rings true. Like the best metaphors, the novel makes its reader think ‘Wait, what?’ and ‘Oh. Yes!’ in quick succession. New visitors to Night Vale will be as entertained and absorbed by the story and characters as longtime listeners of the duo’s popular podcast. Simply delightful!” —Amber Reed, Copperfield’s Books, Petaluma, CA

Last night, Stephen Colbert featured the founders of the podcast on the Late Show, forcing him to face the challenge featuring an audio medium on a visual one. When he mentioned the guests in the opening monologue, the crowd cheered and Colbert congratulated them for being a “hip audience”

Home Is Burning: A Memoir by Dan Marshall (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Indie Next –“Emotionally devastating and also somehow incredibly funny, this memoir left me feeling grateful for the bonds of family. Marshall’s mother has been fighting cancer — and winning! — since he was a kid, but when his father is diagnosed with ALS, Marshall moves home to help battle this new medical challenge. It might have gone better if Marshall was at all the responsible, mature, and resourceful person the situation called for. Instead he flails and fails and acts wildly inappropriately — because what else can you do as your dad wastes away? Sometimes there’s nothing more important than looking mortality in the face, admitting we’re scared, and making a fart joke.” — Nichole McCown, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

A film adaptation is in the works, with Miles Teller as the star, directed by Jonathan Levine for New Line Cinema.

The Lake House by Kate Morton (S&S/Atria Books; Bolinda Audio)

Indie Next – “The Lake House explores an unsolved kidnapping that occurred between the World Wars at an isolated country house in England. Morton here continues to do all the things she does so well: weaving together a multi-generational family story from numerous perspectives; showcasing different facets of the same events; and bringing a wonderfully complex plot together in a kaleidoscopic web of uncovered secrets, past and present. With delightful characters, fascinating settings, and a captivating mystery, Morton draws us into a world we’re sorry to leave. Highly recommended!” —Carol Schneck Varner, Schuler Books & Music, Okemos, MI

We Were Brothers: A Memoir by Barry Moser (Workman/Algonquin Books)

LibraryReads, Oct –  “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.” PJ Gardiner, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Tie-ins

It’s a big week at the multiplex for movies based on books (tie-ins for these have been released and our listed in our catalog of movie tie-ins).

Goosebumps — based on characters from R.L, Stine’s books for kids, it expected to do well at the box office. In addition to the movie tie-ins, several of the original books have been reissued as Classic Goosebumps (with the line “Now a Major Motion Picture” on the covers).

Room — #1 pick of the week by People, “Of all the important, buzzy films his season, this is the one you won’t be able to shake,” it is  based on the novel by Emma Donoghue.

Beasts of No Nation — #5  People pick of the week — Based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala, this will be released simultaneously on Netflix and in the Landmark Theatres chain, so it can qualify for the Oscars.

Truth — Based on the memoir by 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, Truth And Duty: The Press, The President, And The Privilege Of Power, with Robert Redford playing Dan Rather in a scary wig, this one has not been playing well with the critics.

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

Last month, NPR’s Morning Edition Book Club announced their third pick, Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies (Penguin/Riverhead), helping to propel it on to best seller lists. In two weeks the NPR show will host a conversation with the author.

In a short tee up to the discussion, the hosts of Morning Edition say the novel as a “story of a marriage in two parts” as both the wife and the husband have their due.

Groff quickly pushes back against that summary, saying “It’s not a book about marriage.”

Rather, she explains, marriage is how she talks about larger ideas concerning creativity, sex, time, and rage. She says marriage becomes a vehicle to dig into some of the things she resisted about the institution, and did not know she resisted, until she spent five years working on the novel.

Readers are invited to submit a smartphone voice memo. Groff will answer some of the queries on Morning Edition.

Fates and Furies is on the National Book Awards longst for fiction; the shortlist will be announced tomorrow.

The final book in Rick Yancey’s 5th Wave series, The Last Star, is set for publication on May 25, 2016 (Penguin/Putnam YR). The cover was revealed by USA Today.

The film adaptation of the first book in the trilogy, The 5th Wave was featured at New York Comic Con this weekend (tie-ins, in hardcover and trade pbk, Nov. 3).

The movie, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, arrives in theaters on January 15.

As an indicator of the importance of  Stephen King to the Hollywood community, the movie trade site Deadline announces the title of the author’s next book, End Of Watch, (S&S/Scribner, 9781501129742, 6/7/16), the final volume in the trilogy which began with Mr. Mercedes (2014), currently being developed as a limited TV series, and Finders Keepers (2015).

In addition, Scribner has acquired the rights to King’s backlist formerly held by RH/Doubleday.

King’s short story collection The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams is set for release in print and audio on November 3.

Nixon is in the news again, most recently as the cover story on yesterday’s CBS Sunday Morning.

Reporter David Martin interviewed both Nixon’s Deputy Assistant to the President, Alexander Butterfield, the man who told the world about the White House taping system, and Bob Woodward, who along with Carl Bernstein, exposed Nixon’s crimes.

Woodward’s new book, The Last of the President’s Men (S&S; S&S Audio), is based on interviews with Butterfield and 20 boxes of papers (some of them classified as top secret) he carried out of the White House. The book details Butterfield’s role, outlines the political era of Nixon, and offers a candid view of Nixon himself.

Much of the CBS Sunday Morning report centers on Nixon’s handling of the Vietnam War – bombing even as he internally raged against its ineffectiveness and his determination to discredit witnesses of the My Lai massacre.

It also addresses what Woodward calls “a subversion of what the job of the presidency is.” For example, Nixon had the CIA, FBI, and the House Committee on Un-American Activities all look into a civil servant who had two pictures of President Kennedy in her office – an offense Nixon obsessed over and called an “infestation.”

While orders and holds are light at libraries we checked, Woodward’s book is currently #60 and rising on Amazon’s sales rankings.

This week two books get the Colbert treatment on The Late Show.

Tonight Elvis Costello, author of the new memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (Penguin/Blue Rider Press; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample) is a guest. In the book, Costello reflects on his career, details many of his most iconic songs, and muses on his musical coming of age.

Fan will recognize Costello’s voice as the narrator of the audiobook version

Also being released is an accompanying  soundtrack album, featuring 38 songs.

On Thursday, Colbert features Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor,  the creators of the popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast and a debut novel set in the same world as the show, Welcome to Night Vale (HarperCollins/Harper Perennial; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample). The audio version highlights Cecil Baldwin, the person who performs the podcast.

Desperate parents are flocking to The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep by Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin, illustrated by Irina Maununen (RH/Crown;Listening Library; OverDrive Sample).

PW reported last week that it sold 10,000 copies in two days. Ehrlin, a Swedish psychologist, originally self-published the bedtime story, which Random House acquired after its huge popularity over the summer and has just re-released.

It debuts at #3 on the NYT‘s Picture Book Best Seller list this week, sandwiched between Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers’s crayon books and a seasonal choice, Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins by James Dean.

It is also on the USA Today list, which includes titles in all formats and for all ages, now at #35  down from an earlier high of #6.

In August, NPR’s All Things Considered put it to the test on sleep adverse kids with less than convincing results.

In The Washington Post conducted their own test, with similar results.

Both testers qualified their findings by acknowledging the presence of cameras or microphones could not have helped create the necessary atmosphere.

For those still game to try it out, NPR reports sleep experts suggest that parents make it a constant routine at bedtime and practice delivering the story until they get the lulling rhythm down pat.

If all else fails, parents can at least get some comfort in knowing they are not alone in their bleary-eyed frustration and entertain themselves with the another best selling title about sleep and kids, Adam Mansbach’s Go the F**k to Sleep.

Called the “Fall’s Buzziest Book”  in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, the title dominating the literary world’s attention is Garth Risk Hallberg’s big (900 plus pages) novel, City on Fire (RH/Knopf). One of the rare books to spark a bidding war, it ended up selling to Knopf for an estimated $2 million.

The country’s major literary critics are now weighing in. It’s on the cover of this week’s NYT Sunday Book Review, David Ulin reviews it in the LA Times as does Ron Charles in the Washington Post  (we’re still waiting for the daily NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani to post her verdict — CORRECTION, Kakutani actually reviewed the book earlier than anyone else, on Oct. 5, calling it a “big, stunning first novel and an amazing virtual reality machine, whisking us back to New York City in the 1970s”). While not venturing to guess whether the money is well spent, they agree that it’s worth the time it takes to read it.

We’re more impressed that it was made a number one pick for the month by a tougher audience, one that is closer to readers –librarians. They made it the #1 LibraryReads pick for the month. Booksellers also picked it for Indie Next.

Hallberg spoke at the Random House Librarians Breakfast held at Book Expo America in June.

Holds are light in most libraries so far, but enthusiasm from librarians and booksellers indicates that once it reaches readers, it will be propelled by word of mouth.

The holds leader of the week, is Nicholas Sparks’s next, See Me (HachetteGrand Central) about one of his favorite topics, second chances at love. It seems he’s had his own experiences in that arena, Sparks made news this week when it was announced that he is planning an ABC comedy series titled The Next Chapter, about, says the Hollywood Reporter, ” a top-selling romance novelist Ben Diamond, who goes through a divorce and not only begins to question his belief in love, but must also learn to date again and live on his own — all while dealing with the pressures of his public persona as the world’s most foremost ‘expert’ on love.” Yes, it is loosely based on the author’s own life.

Fans will welcome a new Stone Barrington novel by Stuart Woods, Foreign Affairs (Penguin/Putnam) and a new title by Elin Hilderbrand, who steps away from the beach for a Winter Stroll (Hachette/Little, Brown) in the sequel to last year’s Winter Street, her first Christmas novel.

Adriana Trigiani also makes a departure, setting her latest novel in a bygone glamor era of Hollywood. Titled All the Stars in the Heavens (Harper), it is based on the real life romance between Loretta Young and Clark Gable. it is People magazine’s pick of the week,  “Reading Trigiani’s latest is like settling in with a bag of popcorn and watching an old black-and-white movie.”

Trigiani has made her own foray into movies, directing a film based on her first novel, Big Stone Gap, which opens in theaters this week.

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 Oct. 12, 2015

Peer Picks

Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator by Homer Hickam (HarperCollins/William Morrow; OverDrive Sample)

Indie Next: “This thoroughly delightful story chronicles Hickam’s parents’ road trip from their coal-mining town in West Virginia to Orlando, Florida, to return Elsie Hickam’s pet alligator, Albert, to a home in a more suitable climate. Along the way, the travelers — Homer Sr., Elsie, Albert, and an elusive rooster — encounter famous American authors, movie stars, and minor league baseball teams and become embroiled in union strikes and bank robberies. It’s hard to say what is true and what isn’t, but either way, Carrying Albert Home is a very enjoyable journey!” — Lori-Jo Scott, Island Bookstore, Kitty Hawk, NC

And West Is West by Ron Childress (Workman/Algonquin)

Indie Next pick: “Ethan is a young Wall Street quant who writes an algorithm that allows his company to profit from the financial upheaval caused by antiterrorist strikes. Jessica is a young Air Force drone pilot who is discharged because she has discussed a questionable UAV strike in a letter to her father. This book is a powerful wake-up call to understand how fear, greed, and war inform our technological advances. Childress has truly earned his PEN/Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.” — Karen Tallant, Booksellers at Laurelwood, Memphis, TN

Twain’s End by Lynn Cullen (S&S/Gallery Books; OverDrive Sample)

Indie Next: “Isabel Lyon, who was born to gentility, supported herself as a nanny and a secretary and is best known as secretary/companion to the family of Samuel Clemens. Her late marriage to Clemens’ business manager left her life in shambles, as afterwards both were fired and slandered. What led to those dramatic shifts is the premise behind Twain’s End. Mark Twain may be beloved beyond all American writers, but Cullen has crafted a well-researched tale supporting the view that a very manipulative, selfish, and distant Samuel Clemens and his family hid behind that façade. It is up to you to decide. A marvelous read!” —Becky Milner, Vintage Books, Vancouver, WA

Tie-ins

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

Hitting a select number of theaters today and expanding “everywhere” (a sweeping statement, but that’s what the studio claims) on Oct 23 is the movie Steve Jobs based on the book by Walter Isaacson (S&S, 2012). For children, it’s the live-action Pan, which, we can’t help saying, is getting panned by NPR, the NYT and by Entertainment Weekly. Set before J.M. Barrie’s book, there are no tie-ins.

Also opening is Adriana Trigiani’s directorial debut, Big Stone Gap, based on her own book.

On TV, BBC America begins The Last Kingdom, based on the first book in Bernard Cornwell’s series The Saxon Tales,  The L.A. Times says it “brings complexity and personality to the Middle Ages.”  On Sunday, the Hallmark Channel debuts the third in a series of movies based on Beverly Lewis’ Amish romances, Beverly Lewis’ The Reckoning.

New York Comic Con opens today featuring The Shannara Chronicles. In addition to a panel presentation, executive producer Terry Brooks will sign copies of an exclusive edition of The Elfstones of Shannara. The series is set to begin on Jan. 16.

Tie-ins scheduled for publication this week are:

Following up on his success with the Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman has started a new venture, Outcast. This time, however, the comics and the screen adaptations are being created simultaneously. The first collected edition of the comics was published in the spring. Volume 2 arrives this week.(Image Comics).

Beasts of No Nation Movie Tie-in by Uzodinma Iweala (HarperCollins/Harper Perennial; OverDrive Sample)
Netflix

Movie opens October 16.

Netflix made a splash by buying the rights to  Beasts of No Nation, a major new movie, directed by Cary Fugunaka and starring Idris Elba and based on the 2005 novel by Uzodinma Iweala about child soldiers in West Africa. There’s one catch. In order for it to be eligible for Oscar consideration, the movie has to open in theaters. Entertainment Weekly, which give the movie a solid A in the new issue, notes that the four largest theater chains have refused to show it, as “a sort of kamikaze stand against the encroachment of VOD.” It will, however appear in the smaller Landmark Theatres chain.

Truth: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power, Mary Mapes (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin; OverDrive Sample)

Movie opens October 16.

Based on the memoir by 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, the movie Truth tells the story of the scandal that caused  CBS News anchor Dan Rather to step down. Robert Redford stars as Rather.

The 33: Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free, Héctor Tobar (
Macmillan/Picador; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Movie opens November 13.

A best seller after it was picked as the first title in NPR’s Morning Edition Book Club, the film adaptation stars Antonio Banderas.

Also arriving is a raft of tie-ins  for the big Pixar childres animated movie, The Good Dinosaur,. Opening Nov. 25, it’s being hailed by the SF site i09 as a “stunning  nasterpiece“.

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A year after receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Obama and after changing publishing houses, Isabel Allende has published what looks to be her next big book, The Japanese Lover (S&S/Atria Books; S&S Audio). Both ibrarians and booksellers have embraced it, making it the #1 LibraryReads pick for November as well as an Indie Next pick.

Ellen Firer, Merrick Library, Merrick, NY says:

“Irina is a young Moldavian immigrant with a troubled past. She works at an assisted living home where she meets Alma, a Holocaust survivor. Alma falls in love with Ichi, a young Japanese gardener, who survived Topaz, the Japanese internment camp. Despite man’s inhumanity to man, love, art and beauty can exist, as evidenced in their beautiful love story.”

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild (RH/Knopf), a debut novel by one of the richest and most powerful women in the art world is also a LibraryReads pick. It’s been translated into six languages and a battle broke out for film rights.

Heather Bistyga, Anderson County Library, Anderson, South Carolina offers this annotation:

“The engaging, totally unexpected story of Annie, a lonely young woman who wanders into a junk shop and buys a painting. The painting turns out to have a long and storied past, with powerful people searching high and low for it. Unpredictable and fascinating; I loved the peek into the cutthroat art world and watching Annie blossom as she discovers her true calling.”

Nonfiction breaks onto the list with Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living by Jason Gay (RH/Doubleday; Random House Audio), a mix of essays, humor, and rules for living.

Lindley Homol, Chesterfield County Public Library, Chesterfield, VA says:

“This was a quick, enjoyable read that offers a refreshing perspective on some of the trivialities we all find ourselves caught up in. I enjoyed the tone and humor throughout. A standout for me was Gay’s list of recommendations for his child’s future baseball team. His open letter to this imagined future team envisions a team that can just let kids be kids. My only disappointment with this book was that there wasn’t more of it–it seemed to end all too soon.”

Riveting suspense also gets librarian attention, with the latest in the Agent Pendergast series, Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (Hachette/Grand Central; Grand Central Audio).

Shari Brophy, Timberland Regional Library, Tumwater, WA offers:

“In the latest installment in the Special Agent Pendergast series, Pendergast and Constance Greene investigate a theft of a wine cellar in an ancient village on the coast north of Salem, only to discover during their investigation the entombed remains of a tortured man.”I always thoroughly enjoy the Pendergast novels, and the interaction between Pendergast and Constance in this book was very intriguing.”

The Muralist by B. A. Shapiro (Workman/Algonquin; HighBridge Audio), another novel based in the art world, tops the Indie Next List and is also a LibraryReads pick.

Amanda Monson, Bartow County Library System, Cartersville, GA says:

“This art-filled story following the young life and disappearance of Alizee Benoit is heartbreaking and thoughtful. Not only does the novel give an entertaining education on the WPA and abstract artists, but it also gives eerily relevant commentary on refugees and the cold-heartedness of government. Alizee’s story will pull you along as you try to grasp how this bright light of the art community vanished.”

Other overlapping titles between librarians and booksellers include Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams (PRH/G.P. Putnam’s Sons; Penguin Audio)

and Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio).

Beth Mills, New Rochelle Public Library, New Rochelle, NY says of Williams’s novel:

“When Pepper Schuyler–on the run from a powerful politician and desperate to protect her unborn child–sells her newly restored classic car to an enigmatic and very wealthy woman, she not only finds unexpected refuge but also tantalizing hints of a mystery. With vivid European settings, colorful characters and intricate plotting that skillfully weaves past and present together, Along the Infinite Sea is a treat for fans of Beatriz Williams.”

PJ Gardiner, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, NC offers the following about actress Parker’s debut:

“Parker has created a unique and poetic memoir through a series of letters–some of appreciation, some of apology, some simply of acknowledgement–to the men in her life. Ranging from a taxi driver to a grandfather she never knew, each man has left an imprint and shaped her into the person she has become. Full of feeling, growth, and self-discovery, Parker’s book has left me longing to write my own letters.”

Science Fiction and Mystery round out the remaining choices as well as a new take on fairy tales, A Wild Swan: And Other Tales by Michael Cunningham, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio).