NPR’s All Things Considered interviewed children’s book author Kevin Henkes on Tuesday about his new book Waiting (Harper/Greenwillow Books), causing the book to rise to #22 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Henkes says reading is important for creating a sense of the world. “I think books … can open one’s eyes to what else is in the world, but it’s also nice if one can see oneself. I think as a boy I liked both kinds of books — I liked books that let me see that the world was wide and large but I also loved books where a character might have the same feeling that I had about something — that makes one feel like one is not alone in the world.”.

National Book Award nominee Ta-Nehisi Coates is a comic book superfan, particularly of the Marvel Comics universe.

According to The New York Times, it has been a childhood dream of Coates to write comics and he gets his chance with Black Panther, the first black superhero, introduced in 1966. T’Challa, Black Panther’s real name, was born in Wakanda, a fictional African country. According to the Marvel site, his superhuman powers were enhanced by a heart-shaped herb. Coates’s version is expected next spring.

As Entertainment Weekly reports, diversity is a focus of Marvel and the new Black Panther series “will launch as part of the All-New All-Different Marvel initiative, which promises to bring changes and shake-ups with numerous new titles, including an Sam Wilson as Captain America, Kamala Khan as an Avenger, and the recently announced Asian-American Hulk by Greg Pak and Frank Cho.”

Axel Alonso, the editor in chief of Marvel, told the NYT that Black Panther “has the baddest costume in comics and is a dude who is smarter and better than everyone.”

Not only is the comic being written by a National Book Award nominee, but it may be the first comic inspired by a Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, a history of the black political struggle in the U.S., A Nation Under Our Feet by Steven Hahn (Belknap Press).

“It’s going to be a story that repositions the Black Panther in the minds of readers,” Mr. Alonso told the NYT, “It really moves him forward.”

Black Panther will also be seen in two upcoming movies, as a character in Captain America: Civil War to be released in 2016 and as the lead in a film scheduled for 2018.

USA Today bestows one of its rare negative reviews on the just-released Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (Macmillan/Henry Holt; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample), calling it a “misfire for franchise.”

Reviewer Ray Locker points out that, although it is part of O’Reilly’s Killing series no one is actually killed in this one and points to Del Quentin Wilber’s Rawhide Down as a more detailed account of the assassination attempt.

Locker says that Killing Reagan:

… deals more with Reagan’s gradual descent into dementia … the authors contend, contrary to the claims by Reagan loyalists, that Reagan exhibited signs of the illness during his presidency … [they] delve into his extramarital affairs in Hollywood, indifferent parenting, disputes with his second wife, Nancy, and the multiple instances in which Reagan appeared to be not quite there.

The negative review aside, The National Geographic Channel and Ridely Scott’s Scott Free Productions are partnering once again on the TV adaptation.

According to Variety, “The Scott Free-produced versions of the three previous books in the series — Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy and Killing Jesus — were the network’s three most-watched programs in history. Both “Kennedy” and “Jesus” received Emmy nominations for outstanding TV movie.”

Lauren Groff’s new novel Fates and Furies (Penguin/Riverhead; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample) has gotten a landslide of glowing pre-pub press and made the NBA fiction longlist.

So, a slight adjustment might be expected. NPR critic Maureen Corrigan says it is a “marvel” but “could be better.”

Speaking on Fresh Air, she begins by lavishing praise, saying the novel:

… vacuum packs so many complex narratives between its covers that you feel like you’re reading one of those plot-heavy Victorian door stoppers …What starts off as a fairly realistic novel about domestic life digresses into chapters that read like plays and eventually morphs into a dark fairy tale that also borrows heavily from the conventions of the classic psychological suspense story. Wow. … it is a marvel of language and design … Fates And Furies is alive with wit, with language capable of shifting in the space of a sentence from the snappy to the tragic.”

But then comes the hit. Corrigan could not remember the characters shortly after closing the covers for a final time. They failed to resonate or take fully dimensional shape.

That is a failing Corrigan cannot get over, saying “without the presence of compelling characters at its core, Groff’s novel ends up being an austere, architectural achievement. There are certainly worse things for a novel to be, but there are also better.”

Corrigan’s extraordinarily high bar will not stop Fates and Furies from being a best seller — currently at #58 on Amazon sales rankings, it’s sure to show up on this week’s lists.

Set to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight, Donald Trump may announce that he has a new book coming on Oct. 27, on the heels of his update of Time to Get Tough: Making America Great Again (Regnery Publishing).

Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint of S&S that also publishes works by Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and Lynne Cheney, will release the as yet untitled book (S&S/Threshold Editions; 240 pages; ISBN 9781501137969; October 2015; $26.00).

Quoting from a statement by S&S, Vanity Fair reports the book will:

“… outline how a crippled America could be restored to greatness [and] explore Trump’s view on key issues including the economy, big CEO salaries and taxes, healthcare, education, national security, and social issues. Of particular interest will be his vision for complete immigration reform, beginning with securing the borders and putting American workers first.”

Included in the same statement is Trump’s own take on his newest offering:

“I am excited to announce that work on my new bestseller is almost done and I’ll have a new book out from Threshold Editions and Simon & Schuster later this year. Not since The Art of the Deal have I had this much fun writing a book.”

The Washington Post’s nonfiction critic, Carlos Lozada, earlier offered a round-up of some of Trump’s other bestsellers, experienced via a massive binge-reading session.

From our previous story on Lozada’s reactions, he “encountered a world where bragging is breathing and insulting is talking, where repetition and contradiction come standard, where vengefulness and insecurity erupt at random.” He doubts Trump would be satisfied if he actually became President, quoting him on what makes him happy, “The same assets that excite me in the chase, often, once they are acquired, leave me bored … For me, you see, the important thing is the getting, not the having.”

Nadia Bolz-Weber’s third book, Accidental Saints: Finding God in all the Wrong People (RH/Convergent Books; Random House Audio), just hit the NYT Bestseller list and is getting widespread attention, with holds rising as a result.

Bolz-Weber spoke with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air last week, giving a sense of both her book and her approach, saying “Some churches might have a hard time welcoming junkies and drag queens; we’re fine with that.”

The Atlantic and The Huffington Post have also posted features with Huff Post saying Bolz-Weber is:

“… one of the most important Christian voices around — not because she has come up with some catchy, easy new way to do faith, but because when she talks about the destructive power of sin, as well as redemption and grace, she knows of what she speaks.”

Like her memoir’s title, Bolz-Weber is an accidental pastor. She found her path in the Lutheran church only after working as a standup comic with a heavy drinking problem. Her book is inviting, profane, and big hearted.

Holds are exceeding a 3:1 ratio in many libraries we checked. Some libraries have yet to place orders.

Next week is a big one for YA and Middle Grade titles. In a strange coincidence, four of the ten titles on the longlist for the National Book Award Young People’s Literature will be published on the same day (our look at the full list here).

Familiar names appearing next week include Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert with a nonfiction title, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (an Indie Next pick), former GMA host Joan Lunden with a memoir about surviving breast cancer, Had I Known (Harper), Jan Karon’s next Mitford novel, Come Rain or Come Shine (Penguin/Putnam) and Ransom Riggs’ third Miss Peregrine book, Library of Souls (Quirk Books . NOTE: Tim Burton’s movie of the first book is scheduled for release on March 4 next year) and Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Reagan (Macmillan/Holt).

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 21, 2015

National Book Award YP Longlist Titles, Arriving Next Week

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson (Harper/Greenwillow Books; HarperCollins Publishers and Blackstone Audio)

Steve Sheinkin, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War (Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press)

M.T. Anderson, Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad (Candlewick Press)

Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Media Attention

Mycroft Holmes,  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse  (Titan Books; OverDrive Sample)

As Esquire writes, Abdul-Jabbar has had a 45-year obsession with Sherlock Holmes. In this, his first novel for adults, he focuses on Sherlock’s older brother in a prequel to Arthur Conan Doyle’s series.

He is scheduled for several TV appearances:

MSNBC-TV – Morning Joe – 9/21
NBC-TV – Today Show – 9/21
Comedy Central  – The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore – 9/24

Peer Picks

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson  (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample) – LibraryReads (sept)

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.

Librarian Nancy Pearl, who has often recommended Beryl Markham’s West with the Night (Macmillan/North Point Press; Blackstone Audio; eBook from OpenRoad Medic; OverDrive sample), interviews author Paula McLain as part of the Book Lust series airing on the Seattle channel. McLain’s  fictional take on Markham’s life, Circling the Sun (RH/Ballantine; BOT and RH Audio; OverDrive Sample) has been a NYT best seller since its publication at the end of July.

The two discuss how McLain came to focus on Markham after her success writing about Hemingway’s first wife in the novel The Paris Wife (RH/Ballantine; BOT and RH Audio; OverDrive Sample). It turns out that McLain struggled after the publication of that breakout book, spending years searching for a subject.

She wrote hundreds of pages on both Georgia O’Keeffe and Marie Curie only to have both projects fail to take off. Finally, while on vacation with her sister and brother-in-law she stumbled across West with the Night, Markham’s vivid memoir (which even Hemingway, who hated Markham, praised to the skies). McLain’s brother-in-law was reading it poolside and told her it was going to be important in her life. She ignored him and it for a year longer before picking up the story and getting swept away.

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.