We must be suffering from Hunger Games fatigue, a phenomenon identified by the L.A. Times. We didn’t post the admittedly cool flaming movie poster that appeared on the Web yesterday or the countdown widget (as of now, just 245 more days until the movie’s release on March 23).

Nevertheless, we were interested to learn that Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence may have another book-related project in the works. Deadline reports she is the leading contender for a coveted role in The Silver Linings Playbook, opposite Mark Wahlberg. The movie is based on the debut novel by Matthew Quick (one of Nancy Pearl’s picks for summer reading, 2009).

Production is set to begin this fall.

Making its debut on the USA Today best seller list at #43 after a week on sale is Booker shortlisted title Room by Emma Donoghue. It’s the 9th best-selling hardcover fiction title on the list, which means it should hit the NYT Hardcover Fiction somewhere around #9 this week; no mean feat in a season crowded with big name authors.

Of the titles on the Booker shortlist, it is currently selling the most in the US. The same is true in the UK, according to an analysis by The Bookseller.

The book has received many strong reviews in the U.S., including the cover of the NYT Book Review and a People pick. Library holds are growing quickly.

Room: A Novel Emma Donoghue Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-09-13) ISBN / EAN: 0316098337 / 9780316098335

Hachette Audio; UNABR; 9781607886273; $29.98
Hachette Large Print; 9780316120579; Trade Pbk; $24.99

TheBookseller notes that in the UK, sales of all the shortlist titles are outstripped by a title that didn’t make it from longlist to short,  The Slap by Australian Christos Tsiolkas. The book has not had the same level of success in the U.S. However, a strong review in the Washington Post, indicates that it is a candidate for both reading groups and readers advisory (and, it’s in trade paperback).

The Slap Christos Tsiolkas Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 496 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2010-04-27) ISBN / EAN: 0143117149 / 9780143117148

Gossipmongers have been riveted all week by revelations from the book Game Change, keeping it at #1 on Amazon sales rankings. Sarah Palin, the Clintons, the McCains and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have all various amounts of dirty laundry aired. But some of the most eyebrow-raising sections are about John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth, excerpted in this week’s New York magazine; far from being the humble man of the people, John Edwards developed into a megalomaniac, Elizabeth was an “abusive, intrusive, paranoid, condescending, crazy woman”, and campaign workers agonized over Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter.

And, John Edwards’ $400 haircut? It really cost $1,250.

There’s more to come.  Andrew Young, the Edwards’ aide, who pretended to be the father of Rielle Hunter’s baby to protect his boss, is publishing his own tell-all, The Politician. He is scheduled to get some serious air time:

1/29 — 20/20 begins a multiple-part interview with Bob Woodruff
2/1 — Book will be featured on World News with Diane Sawyer
2/2 — Interview with George Stephanopolous on Good Morning, America
2/2 — Nightline appearance

Few libraries have ordered The Politician; it was not reviewed prepub.

UPDATE: Unabridged audio will be available from Tantor:

Publisher: Tantor
Read by: Kevin Foley
Trade: 9781400116508; 10 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146505; 10  CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166503; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down Andrew Young Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 031264065X / 9780312640651

Number one on Stephen King’s Top Ten Books of the year is Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger, which has appeared on several other lists and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year.

King’s list appears in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. Since King draws from the books he read during the year, it includes older titles, like Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road (#2), Salman Rushdie’s Midnights Children (#4) and last year’s literary superstar, 2666 by Roberto Bolano (#5).

At #6 is a title that hasn’t appeared on other lists, a book that King says is “The most suspenseful book I read all year,” Michael Robotham’s Shatter.

Kirkus said of the Australian author’s fourth thriller, “Robotham sharpens the conventional horrors with his unerring eye for psychological detail, his mastery of pace and his spooky villain, a manipulator as monstrous as Hannibal Lecter.”

Shatter Michael Robotham Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-03-17) ISBN / EAN: 0385517912 / 9780385517911

Audio; Recorded Books

• UNABR CD; 9781436174541; $123.75
• UNABR Cass; 9781436192651; $64.75

Book downloadable from OverDrive.

President Obama’s gotten caught reading by the press fairly consistently since May 2008 – though more often during the campaign than during the first six months of his presidency. Rather handily, the Daily Beast has recapped his reading picks, which shows “a predilection for presidential profiles, a weakness for explain-it-all bestsellers, and the occasional hankering for literary fiction.”

There are 12 entries so far – that’s a year’s supply of reading for enterprising book clubs!

What Is the What Dave Eggers Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback Edition: 560 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2007-11-13) ISBN / EAN: 0676979491 / 978-0676979497 /

Also available from BBC audio:

• 17 CDs $39.95; 978-1-60283-262-6

Library editions:

• 17 CDs $124.95; 9780792748953
• 2 MP3 CD’s  $74.95; 978-0-7927-4916-5

Netherland (Vintage Contemporaries) Joseph O’Neill Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2009-05-07) ISBN / EAN: 0307388778 / 9780307388773

Also available from Recorded Books

• CD: #34.99; ISBN 9781436155427

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet Jeffrey D. Sachs Retail Price: $17.00 Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2009-02-24) ISBN / EAN: 0143114875 / 9780143114871

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Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer Fred Kaplan Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Harper – (2008-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0060773340 / 9780060773342

Available from Brilliance Audio

• CD: $34.99; ISBN 9781423370994
• MP3 CD: $24.95;  ISBN 9781423371014

The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope Jonathan Alter Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2007-05-08) ISBN / EAN: 0743246012 / 9780743246019

Available from BBC Audiobooks America

• CD: $19.95; ISBN 9781572705531

FDR Jean Edward Smith Retail Price: $20.00 Paperback: 880 pages Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks – (2008-05-13) ISBN / EAN: 0812970497 / 9780812970494

Available from Random House Audio

• CD: $34.95; ISBN 9780739343449

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 Steve Coll Retail Price: $18.00 Paperback: 738 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2004-12-28) ISBN / EAN: 0143034669 / 9780143034667

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Collected Poems, 1948-1984 Derek Walcott Retail Price: $20.00 Paperback: 516 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (1987-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0374520259 / 9780374520250

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Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America Thomas L. Friedman Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 480 pages Publisher: Picador – (2009-11-24) ISBN / EAN: 0312428928 / 9780312428921

Also available from BBC Audio:

• 17 CD’s $124.95; 9780792754756

Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age Larry M. Bartels Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 328 pages Publisher: Princeton University Press – (2008-04-07) ISBN / EAN: 0691136637 / 9780691136639

Available in large print paperback:

• $17.99; ISBN 9781594133350

And from MacMillan Audio

• CD: $59.95: ISBN 9781427204585

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Doris Kearns Goodwin Retail Price: $21.00 Paperback: 944 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2006-09-26) ISBN / EAN: 0743270754 / 9780743270755

Available from Simon & Schuster Audio

• CD: $39.95; ISBN 9780743539135

The Post-American World Fareed Zakaria Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-05-04) ISBN / EAN: 0393334805 / 9780393334807

Available from Simon & Schuster Audio

• CD: $39.95; ISBN 9780743576857

USA Today announces that a new, heavily-illustrated book about Michael Jackson is coming in December, priced at $165. The first title sanctioned by the estate, it is published by Kraken Opus, a UK-based publisher of titles that often go for $2,000 or more.

Originally planned to include Jackson’s London concerts, the company was still in negotiations with Jackson when the singer died. The book will be published on Dec. 7 and is now available for pre-order through TicketMaster.

Also coming, is an October reprint of Jackson’s book, Moonwalk. According to Robert Hilburn, who says he worked on the first version of the book, Jackson wasn’t pleased with the final version and blocked the publisher from reprinting it after the initial printing of 500,000 (via GalleyCat).

Original 1988 editions are being offered on Amazon for $85 to $675.

On Amazon, the publisher’s note says that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Shaye Areheart (who now has an imprint under Crown; Harmony, the publisher of the reprint, is also an imprint of Crown) were Jackson’s original editors.

Moonwalk Michael Jackson Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Harmony – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 0307716988 / 9780307716989

We’ve been writing here since February about  a classic word-of-mouth sleeper, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.

It’s now been crowned by the consumer media; the current issue of USA Today proclaims it “the hot book this summer.”  After publication in February, it went on the May 28 USA Today list at #149  and has risen every week since. It is now at #31, making it the #7 fiction hardcover on the list. On the NYT Fiction list, it rose to #5 spot last week. We hear it continues in that spoton the upcoming list, after a total of 17 weeks in the top 15.

That’s no news to independent booksellers; it’s been #1 on the Indie Fiction Best Seller list for three weeks and in the top five for thirteen weeks.

Stockett appeared at the ALTAFF Gala Author Tea during ALA and signed copies of her book at the Penguin booth.

As USA Today notes, this may be just the beginning; the trade paperback is coming in February and is likely to follow other Penguin successes in that format, such as Eat, Pray, Love, The Kite Runner and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

The Help Kathryn Stockett Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books – (2009-02-10) ISBN / EAN: 0399155341 / 9780399155345

Also on audio:

• Audio CD: $39.95, Unabridged
• Publisher: Penguin Audio;  (February 10, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0143144189
• ISBN-13: 978-0143144182

Large Type:

• Hardcover: $32.95; 721 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (May 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1410415538
• ISBN-13: 978-1410415530

NPR’s “Books We Like” picked Kathryn Stockett’s The Help yesterday.

As we mentioned earlier, the book recently broke into Amazon’s top ten. It’s also climbing print lists, rising to its peak position after six weeks on the new USA Today list (#94). We hear it also rises on the 7/12 NYT Hardcover Fiction list to #12 (from #15).

Such slow-building titles are rare these days. Generally, books hit their peak in their first week on sale and then begin to slide, sometimes precipitously.

Reminder: Stockett will be at ALA, appearing at the ALTAFF Gala Author Tea (Monday, 2 to 4 p.m.) along with Lisa Scottoline, Jill McCorkle, Gillian Flynn and Jane Stanton Hitchcock.

She will also be at the Penguin booth, #2020 on Monday, July 13th, from 11:00 to noon. For the many authors appearing at the Penguin booth, check their full schedule.

We’ve been writing about The Help for quite a while, so we were pleased to see it break in to the top ten on Amazon this week, almost five months after publication.

Several libraries are showing heavy holds. Given the book’s slow and steady climb, it looks like word of mouth is still building, so it may not be too late to order more copies.

Those of you going to ALA will have a chance to hear from author Kathryn Stockett, who will be at the ALTAFF Gala Author Tea (Monday, 2 to 4 p.m.) along with Lisa Scottoline, Jill McCorkle, Gillian Flynn and Jane Stanton Hitchcock.

The Help Kathryn Stockett Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books – (2009-02-10) ISBN / EAN: 0399155341 / 9780399155345

Also on audio:

• Audio CD: $39.95, Unabridged
• Publisher: Penguin Audio;  (February 10, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0143144189
• ISBN-13: 978-0143144182

Large Type:

And downloadable eBook and audio from OverDrive.

These days anyone who dares to complain about work adds “But at least I have a job.”

Yet, as evidenced by what we’re reading, Americans are not fulfilled by their work. Alain de Botton’s The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work has been widely reviewed and is on waiting lists in most libraries. Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class as Soul Class, which argues against the white-collar life and for working with your hands, is at #34 on Amazon.

It seems everywhere you turn, you find new books on chucking it all and raising goats (Brad Kessler’s Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese, Scribner, 6/23; featured on Salon today) or leaving a solid career to move as far away from what you know as possible (Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island, Lucinda Fleeson, Algonquin, 6/16; I spent my weekend enchanted with this book), or staying put, but changing your life completely (Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, Novella Carpenter, Penguin, 6/11).

If you’re hearing echos of the ’60’s, you won’t be surprised to learn that a book called Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment rose to #14 on Amazon over the weekend (it’s now at #42).

Author Dave Romanelli is co-founder of a Phoenix AZ yoga studio and teaches “Yoga+Chocolate” and “Yoga+Wine” courses. Of the book, PW said, “This lighthearted overview of awareness should provide seekers many ideas; accomplished yogis probably need not apply…”

Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment: Getting to Ecstasy Through Wine, Chocolate and Your iPod Playlist David Romanelli Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2009-03-17) ISBN / EAN: 0767929489 / 9780767929486

Thanks to a review in today’s New York Times, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday, Neil MacFarquhar’s new book of reportage on the Middle East, is up to #328 on Amazon.com. Libraries we checked had fewer than eight copies, with up to 38 holds.

The book”s title gives a hint of its unexpected point of view: MacFarquhar is an American who speaks Arabic, grew up in a Libyan oil town, worked for more than 13 years as a correspondent in the Middle East and is now The New York Times’ United Nations bureau chief. The Times review praises his grasp of history, and declares,

MacFarquhar writes most passionately about the activists and intellectuals struggling to liberalize their societies and Islam as a whole. These reformers — many of whom espouse an Islamic vision of democracy and human rights — are caught between religious zealots and repressive regimes that are often backed by the United States.”

The Washington Post also weighed in on the book back in May, calling it “an intelligent and fascinating romp full of anecdotes, acid asides and conversations with everyone from dissidents to diplomats and liberal religious sheikhs, and even a Kuwaiti woman with a sex-advice column.”

The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday Neil MacFarquhar Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 359 pages Publisher: PublicAffairs – (2009-04-27) ISBN / EAN: 1586486357 / 9781586486358

[Click above, for a sample of the audio of Darling Jim from Tantor]

EarlyWord was an early fan of Darling Jim, by Christian Moerk. It’s a perfect book for RA; you can pitch it as horror, mystery, psychological thriller, and storytelling. The Irish setting and story that unfolds via double diaries, adds extra appeal. People magazine may have put it best, “a chilling bedtime story for adults.”

More than two months after the book’s publication, today’s Washington Post gives it a rave. The fact that it’s being reviewed now is remarkable in itself, since newspapers generally run reviews around publication date. With so many books clamoring for attention at the beginning of the summer season, someone must have presented a strong case for reviewing an “older” book.

The Post‘s reviewer, Daniel Mallory, a researcher in modern literature at Oxford, say it’s a

…spellbinding new novel…Aglow with fairy-tale inflections, this hypnotic, neo-Gothic suspense story unfolds like a hothouse bloom, lush and pungent; it’s a sprig of nightshade, all petals and poison. And it heralds the arrival of an astonishingly gifted storyteller.

Most libraries have bought modest quantities. In those that own more copies (an average of 4 per branch), the copies are turning over rapidly.

Do your RA staff a favor and buy more; it’s not too late.

Darling Jim Christian Moerk Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. – (2009-03-31) ISBN-10: 0805089470 ISBN-13: 9780805089479

Tantor released Darling Jim in audio on 5/4 [link to sample, above], narrated by Stephen Hoye and Justine Eyre.

It is also downloadable from OverDrive.

• 9 Audio CDs (Library Binder Pkg)    EAN: 9781400141982 $55.99
• 1 Mp3-CD (Retail Slimline Pkg)        EAN: 9781400161980 $19.99
• 9 Audio CDs (Retail Unikeep Pkg)    EAN: 9781400111985 $27.99

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie gets admiring reviews in both the current USA Today mystery column and in Marilyn Stasio’s “Crime” column in the NYT BR, adding to the chorus already building for what USA Today calls a “scrumptious first novel.”

Libraries are showing heavy reserves on moderate ordering (112 reserves on 16 copies in one large system).

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie Alan Bradley Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2009-04-28) ISBN-10: 0385342306 ISBN-13: 9780385342308

Also from Random House Audio

• Unabridged  (April 28, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0739384309
• ISBN-13: 978-0739384305

New York magazine points to nine nonfiction books and realistic novels, apparently anticipating a sober summer. The piece begins with the elephant in the room, Thomas Pynchon’s new novel Inherent Vice—“part noir, part psychedelic romp” and a “mere 400 pages”– which gets a brief mention, but no critical verdict.

Inherent Vice Thomas Pynchon Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Penguin Press (2009-08-04) ISBN-10: 1594202249 ISBN-13: 9781594202247

Available from Penguin Audio (8/4/09)

• Unabridged edition; $39.95;  978-0143144762

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn’s second novel, receives praise for the author’s skill in making a “caustic, self-loathing, unpleasant protagonist into someone you can come to root for, even if you never entirely like her.” The book is already on the extended NYT Fiction bestseller list at #35. It’s also discussed on the ARRT wiki — and the author will be at ALA in Chicago.

Dark Places: A Novel Gillian Flynn Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books – (2009-05-05) ISBN-10: 0307341569 ISBN-13: 9780307341563

Mark Kurlansky’s The Food of a Younger Land is dubbed “a thoroughly entertaining” collection of American Depression-era recipes, like ‘Squirrel Mulligan’  from the never-completed WPA project that sent depression era writers on the road in search of regional specialties. ” This one’s already at #400 on Amazon.

The Food of a Younger Land Mark Kurlansky Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2009-05-14) ISBN-10: 1594488657 ISBN-13: 9781594488658

Available from Tantor Media (05/09):

• MP3 CD;$24.99; 140016169X 
• Unabridged CD; $69.99; 1400141699   
• Playaway; $69.99; 161545683X

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin tells the story of how in 1927, Henry Ford, the world’s richest man, tried to annex a piece of Amazon jungle the size of Connecticut and build a rubber plantation. “Two things keep you reading: curiosity over how long this harebrained scheme could go on, and Ford himself, who, in his later years, was less a visionary than a wack job.” The book also received a starred PW review.

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City Greg Grandin Price: $27.50 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Metropolitan Books – (2009-06-09) ISBN-10: 0805082360 ISBN-13: 9780805082364

In the Land of Invented Languages by Alicia Okrent is a survey of languages from Esperanto to Klingon, and the hilarious hubris of their creators, which New York called “a celebration of the power of natural languages” and also received a starred review from PW.

In the Land of Invented Languages Arika Okrent Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2009-05-19) ISBN-10: 0385527888 ISBN-13: 9780385527880

How to Sell, Clancy Martin’s tale of the diamond trade is praised for it’s “fun, flash and fakery,” and also for being a “capitalist satire.” (In addition to the other reviews mentioned here yesterday, it was also called also called “a good, pacey and ultimately unchallenging read” by the New York Times Book Review).

How to Sell: A Novel Clancy Martin Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2009-05-12) ISBN-10: 0374173354 ISBN-13: 9780374173357

Available from Blackstone Audio:

• 7 Tape; $59.95; 1-4332-7573-9
• 1 MP3CD; $29.95; 1-4332-7577-7
• 8 CD; $80; 1-4332-7574-6
• Playaway; $59.99; 1-4332-7581-4

May 17 was a banner day for books on CBS Sunday Morning, which launched three featured titles into Amazon’s top 350 bestsellers. T.C. Boyle’s novel The Women, about the loves of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, moved to #100, while The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley jumped to #295, and organization guru Julie Morgenstern’s SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life: A Four-Step Guide to Getting Unstuck leapt to #336. 

Libraries we checked favored Morgenstein’s self-help guide, with an average of 10 copies and signficant reserves. Quantities were more mixed and reserves more modest on Boyle’s novel, which came out in February, and The Ashley Book of Knots.

The Women: A Novel T.C. Boyle Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2009-02-10) ISBN-10: 0670020419 ISBN-13: 9780670020416

An audiobook version is available in three formats from Blackstone Audio:

• 15 CDs; $100; ISBN 978-1-4332-6061-2 
• 2 MP3CD; $29.95; ISBN 978-1-4332-6064-3    
• Playaway; $69.99; ISBN 978-1-4332-6068-1

Ashley Book of Knots Clifford Ashley Price: $80.00 Hardcover: 640 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (1944-06-21) ISBN-10: 0385040253 ISBN-13: 9780385040259

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SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life Julie Morgenstern Price: $15.00 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Fireside – (2009-03-03) ISBN-10: 0743250907 ISBN-13: 9780743250900

An audiobook is available in three formats from Tantor Media

• 9 CDs; $24.99 (Retail Pkg); EAN: 9781400107872       
• 9 Audio CDs (Library Binder Pkg); $69.99; EAN: 9781400137879
• Mp3-CD; $24.99; EAN: 9781400157877