EarlyWord

The first person to guess the name of the man on the street at the end of this video (around time stamp 1:47) wins any ARC they have been hankering for (if available, contest open only to librarians in the 50 states. If you are not hankering for an ARC, the next person wins, but you will have bragging rights).

Enter guesses in the comments section (with name of the ARC you are hankering for).

Casting is moving forward for the ABC series based on The Astronaut Wives Club, Lily Koppel’s best-selling book  (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio and Large Print), about the wives of  of the first U.S. astronauts, published last summer (see our earlier coverage). Currently on board are:

Odette Annable —  Trudy Cooper

Bret Harrison — Gordon “Gordo” Cooper

Dominique McElligott — Louise Shepard

Desmond Harrington — Alan Shepard

JoAnna Garcia Swisher — Betty Grissom

Azure Parsons — Annie Glenn

Zoe Boyle — Jo Schirra

The 10-episode series, to be directed by Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook, My Sister’s Keeper)  is set to begin shooting this fall, to debut midseason, 2014/15.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert get their book grooves back this week, as each of them features authors on 3 of their 4 shows.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Elizabeth Warren appears on The Daily Show tonight for A Fighting Chance, (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books; Macmillan Audio), as we noted earlier. We’re betting Stewart will ask about her about an incident she recounts in the book, throwing up the first time she was on the show. Published today, it is already at #24 on Amazon’s sales rankings as the result of previous media attention.

The next day, Wednesday, Stewart features another high-profile author, Good Morning America host, Robin Roberts whose new memoir is titled Everybody’s Got Something, (Hachette/ Grand Central; Hachette Audio).

On Thursday, he turns to a book that hasn’t received as much media attention, Ramachandra Guha’s Gandhi Before India, (RH/Knopf).

The Colbert Report

Tonight, Colbert interviews George Will about his new book, A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred, (RH/Crown Archetype). He sticks with the sports theme on Wednesday with basketball coach, John Calipari and his new book, Players First.

Revealing his more literary side, Colbert declared himself a fan of George Saunders back in 2007 (while claiming he’d never read anything by him), long before the NYT Magazine made him a best seller.

He brings the author back to the show on Thursday for his newest book, Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness, (RH/Knopf), an extended version of his 2013 Syracuse University graduation speech.

Mo Willems thinks deep thoughts in Paris, the kind that are so important to kids, as the CBS Sunday Morning profile explores:

His latest Pigeon book is:

The Pigeon Needs a Bath! (I Do Not!)

Mo Willems

Hachette,/Disney-Hyperion

Articles We Love — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Esquire on how to understand women. How? By reading novels by women, of course.

Among his six recommendations is a summer title we’ve been hearing about on GalleyChat, Rufi Thorpe’s The Girls from Corona del Mar, (July; RH/Knopf; RH Audio; e-galley available). Jabbar recommends men read it to learn about female friendships, adding he was “was blown away by the poetic prose and depth of characterization. The blunt honesty of the women’s perspective will be a revelation for many men.”

There’s still time to reserve your free tickets to hear Andrea Davis Pinkney give this year’s Arbuthnot Lecture on Saturday, May 3rd at the University of Minnesota.

RSVP here, or by calling 612-626-9182.

An accompanying exhibit, Rejoice the Legacy! is open through May 14, 2014.

More information here.

Recovered from the remake of Flowers in the Attic? Prepare for another blast from the past. Ira Levin’s 1967 novel Rosemary’s Baby is coming to NBC as a two-part series, which begins Sunday, May 11.

The book was famously adapted in 1968 by director Roman Polanski, with Mia Farrow as Rosemary and John Cassavetes as her husband. This time, however, the story is set in Paris, rather than in New York’s Dakota Building.

Rosemary’s Baby
Ira Levin, Intro by Otto Penzler
Pegasus (dist by W.W. Norton)
May 5, 2014
9781605981109, 1605981109
Paperback $14.95
 

Below is the trailer for the original (it seems trailers were longer in those days):

New information has appeared about Hillary Clinton’s next book, to be published on June 10. Announced several months ago, as Hillary Rodham Clinton New Memoir, the actual title was just revealed this morning, Hard Choices. Simon & Shuster describes it as an “inside account of the crises, choices and challenges she faced during her four years as America’s 67th secretary of state, and how those experiences drive her view of the future.”

Some wags suggest that one of those “hard choices” might be whether to run for president in 2016.

The news arrives as Senator Elizabeth Warren is about to release her book, A Fighting Chance, (Macmillan/ Metropolitan; Macmillan Audio) fueling rumors that she might run for president in 2016.

How about an all-female ticket?

Headed for a top position on best seller lists after its release next week is David Baldacci‘s third novel featuring CIA hit man Will Robie, The Target (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Blackstone Audio). He appeared on CBS This Morning yesterday to describe it.

Also arriving is a new thriller by Andrew Gross, Everything to Lose, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe; Blackstone Audio) which follows a struggling single mother faced with overwhelming temptation when she discovers a half million dollars at the scene of an accident and a posthumous book by Maeve Binchy, a collection of linked short stories about the residents of Dublin’s imaginary Chestnut Street, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; Thorndike).

Below are several other titles to be ready for next week. Ordering information for these and other titles arriving next week is available on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of 4/21.

Making Headlines

A Fighting Chance, Elizabeth Warren, (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books; Macmillan Audio)

The news media has been all over this book, both for its skewering “of the White House Boys Club” (The Huffington Post) and speculation that its very publication indicates Warren will run for President in 2016.  The embargo was broken yesterday by the Boston Globe, followed closely by the Washington Post (conveniently offering “Everything you need to know from Elizabeth Warren’s new book”) and Politico. Official publicity starts Friday with an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air,  followed by one on CBS Sunday Morning.After that, expect to see Warren nearly everywhere, including stints on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, ABC’s The View, and NPR’s Morning Edition.

Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality, Jo Becker, (Penguin Press)

Some gay activists are already taking issue with this book, claiming that the author leaves out important figures in the marriage equality movement. Becker responds to the Huffington Post, “My book was not meant to be a beginning-to-end-history of the movement. It’s about a particular group of people at an extraordinary moment in time, and I hope that people will be moved by their stories.” An excerpt is the cover story of this Sunday’s NYT Magazine (the author is an NYT reporter), with the headline: ‘Mr. President, How Can We Help You Evolve More Quickly.’ Becker will  appear on NPR’s Fresh Air. Expect it to be reviewed widely.

Everybody’s Got Something, Robin Roberts, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio)

Roberts is on the cover of the upcoming issue of People magazine and the subject of a “By the Book” profile in the NYT Book Review. In this, the second memoir by the popular host of Good Morning America, Roberts writes about overcoming breast cancer only to discover five years later that she has rare blood disorder.

Notable Paperback Release 

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, (RH/Broadway Books)

We don’t normally list paperback reprints, but this one is particularly timely. It comes just as a the first full trailer for the movie is released amid buzz about an altered ending, which will likely draw even more people to read the book first. The tie-in paperbacks won’t be released until Aug. 26.  The movie is scheduled for Oct. 3.

Advance Review Attention

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, Francine Prose, (Harper)

Edmund White’s cover review of Prose’s new novel for Sunday’s NYT Book Review, should draw in readers, both for its headline, “Divine Decadence” and for its opening lines saying that evil characters are often the most fun and that the one created by the “subtle psychologist,” Prose is “a genuinely evil character … a cross-dressing French race car driver who collaborate with the Nazis.” After praising the book’s style and ability, “like all great novels,”  to make the reader symphasize with even a repugnant character, White spends several paragraphs taking issue with aspects of the book, which he then annoyingly dismisses as a mere “quibble” and ends by calling this a “novel of great power and reach.” In the daily NYT, Janet Maslin begins her review with, “The breadth, nerve and intricacy of Francine Prose’s big new novel should surprise even her most regular readers. A bona fide page turner, Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 unfolds over 20 years, across an increasingly ominous Europe, among thugs and artists and poseurs who share only the danger that threatens to cramp their partying style.” She has her “quibble,” too wishing that the book  had been “slightly tighter.” Ignore the quibbles, this one sounds fascinating.

Readers Advisory 

Take a cue from fellow librarians, who picked the following titles as two of the ten LibraryReads titles for April.

Love, Nina, Nina Stibbe, (Hachette/Little, Brown)
“With a unique voice, Stibbe brings 1980s literary Camden back to life in this delightful epistolary memoir. The letters that Stibbe writes to her sister are a hoot, featuring unexpected cooking advice from the great Alan Bennett, and droll commentary on just about everything from Mary-Kay Wilmers.” — Jennifer Estepp, Queens Library, Jamaica, NY

On the Rocks, Erin Duffy, (HarperCollins/ Morrow)

“After her fiance dumps her on Facebook, Abby retreats to her apartment until her best friend invites her to spend the summer in Newport. This book is for every woman who’s been determined to put things back together after finding herself on the wrong side of social media, in the aftermath of a bad breakup, or elbow deep in Ben & Jerry’s when things fall apart.” — Sara Grochowski, Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, Alpena, MI

Many news sources are reporting that Gabriel García Márquez has died at 87, calling him everything from a “literary pioneer” to a “giant.”

Many obituaries will be publised, below are some of the first:

The New York Times

The Washington Post

The Guardian

[Ed. Note] We love that so many of you are reading ARC’s (aka, galleys), to find titles to nominate for LibraryReads, to be the first to discover the next big thing, and to make ordering decisions. Now that so many ARC’s are also available as e-galleys from Edelweiss and NetGalley, the selection is greater than ever.

There is a downside. Choice can be overwhelming, as evidenced by our own teetering tower at the left.

How do you pick what to push to the top of your virtual as well as actual TBR piles? And, when you fall in love with a book that won’t be published for several months, who can you talk to about it?

GalleyChat to the rescue; our monthly discussions of galleys fellow librarians are loving can help you tame your piles (adult GalleyChat is the first Tuesday of the month and YA/Middle Grade is the third Tuesday).

In addition, our own GalleyChatter, Robin Beerbower (Salem P.L.) gives us her take on what she’s learned from the adult edition (see her second roundup, below). Between chats, you can keep up with what other GalleyChatters are reading via postings on the Edelweiss community board (be sure to friend us).

The following is Robin’s April roundup:

The April Galleychat’s pace was its normal fast and furious self, with suspense thrillers dominating the discussion. Below are several of the titles that rose to the top. All are available as e-galleys from Edelweiss unless otherwise noted.

When it’s only April and a voracious reader tells you she’s already found one of her top ten books of the year, you take notice. The dark thriller The Distance, (Doubleday, September) by former bookseller Helen Giltrow, is already on Jane Jorgenson’s list of favorite books of the year. Continuing the dark and moody theme, Lori Rader-Day’s The Black Hour (Seventh Street Books, May) was on two chatters’ list and has also received “much love” from 3 peers on Edelweiss. On Goodreads Jorgenson calls it “A fascinating mystery that looks backwards and forwards” and “this is a great debut.”

Sharon (the author formerly known as “S. J.”) Bolton’s fourth Lacey Flint mystery, A Dark and Twisted Tide, (Macmillan/Minotaur, June; e-galley on NetGalley) is receiving many  raves. While it can be read alone, those who haven’t read Bolton’s previous titles will have a creepy good time reading the books in order, beginning with Now You See Me.

Also mentioned was J. A. Jance’s newest Joanna Brady novel, Remains of Innocence (HarperCollins/ Morrow, July), always a treat; The Bishop’s Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison (Soho Press), was called “nice twisty mystery, well-developed characters.” And, talk about being ahead of the curve, it doesn’t arrive until December. W.W. Norton’s Golda Rademacher, whose taste we’ve come to trust, cites as one of her favorites  Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman (July), a gritty mystery set in rural northeastern Pennsylvania. She was seconded by a librarian who gave it the ultimate accolade from a knowledgeable mystery reader; the ending was not at all what she expected.

My own favorite book this month was The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker (Penguin, May), which just became available as an e-galley. This 600-plus-page suspense thriller with its knot of unreliable narrators twisted and turned so much I felt like I was on both a roller coaster and a tilt-a-whirl. This will be a great read alike for Dennis Lehane’s  Shutter Island and yes, even the book everything seems to be compared to these days, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. I am predicting big things for HQ.

It’s fun to see the return of authors whose debuts we first discovered through other GalleyChatters. Daisy Goodwin grabbed many of us with The Heiress, so there was excitement from those who have just received her new one,  The Fortune Hunter, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s, July). One GalleyChatter who has already dived in reports she is loving it.

We’re as susceptible as anyone to a beautiful cover and this one not only features an arresting image, but it pops with raised and embossed details and lettering (an extra printing expense); a good indicator of a the package to come.

Remember to friend me if you want to keep up with what I’m anticipating on Edelweiss and please join us on May 6 for our next GalleyChat.

Politicians often announce ambitions for higher office by publishing a memoir, which gives potential voters two ways to get to know the candidate, via the book itself and personal appearances to promote it.

The announcement that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, Mass.) is publishing her memoir, A Fighting Chance, (Macmillan/ Metropolitan; Macmillan Audio) has fueled rumors that she will run for president in 2016.

The book is embargoed in advance of its release next week (although a few libraries show they have received it). The Boston Globe is the first to break the embargo, saying that Warren “portrays herself as an idealistic outsider, persistently fighting the excesses and political power of Wall Street” and that, “Even though Warren has insisted she will not run for president in the next election, the book and her heavy promotional tour will keep her in the national spotlight.”

The book rose to #230 on Amazon’s sales rankings as a result of the attention.

As movie audiences will discover this summer, there is much more to YA adaptations than kids fighting kids in dystopian battles.

Following the release in June of The Fault in Our Stars, based on the John Green novel, comes the film adaptation of Gayle Forman’s If I Stay, (Penguin) on August 22. The first trailer, below, was just released.

Actress Chole Moretz stars as Mia, a 17 year-old cellist, who is given the choice whether to live or die, while in a coma after a car accident that killed her family. Jamie Blackley (Snow White And The Huntsman, The Fifth Estate) plays her boyfriend Adam, Mirella Enos and Denny Hall,  her parents and Stacy Keach, Gramps. It is directed by R. J Cutler, known for his documentaries, including the Emmy-award-winning American High.

BuzzFeed creates those annoyingly effective numerical lists, such as:

17 Baby Elephants Learning How To Use Their Trunks

24 Things Everyone Experiences On A One Night Stand

71 Thoughts Every Woman Has While Bra Shopping

In a change of pace, they offer one for National Library Week, a good inspiration for book displays, 11 Literary Librarians Who Smash Stereotypes.

(Image via BuzzFeed and Flickr: 10409977@N06)

Last year’s National Book Award winner, The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike) may be heading to the big screen. Liev Schreiber and Jaden Smith (The Karate Kid, After Earth) have signed to star, with author McBride taking on a role as producer. Smith will play Henry “Onion” Shackleford with  Schreiber in the role of abolitionist John Brown.

McBride’s’ Miracle At St. Anna (Penguin/Riverhead, 2002) was adapted by Spike Lee in 2008. An FX series based on the author’s book Song Yet Sung, (Penguin/Riverhead, 2008), about Harriet Tubman, was announced last fall.