EarlyWord

The April Indie Next List features two #1 picks and they both have the same title; Life After Life. The one by Jill McCorkle will be published by Algonquin on March 26th (Thorndike large print). The one by Kate Atkinson will be published by Hachette/Little, Brown on April 2, six days later (Hachette Audio).

Making it an even odder coincidence, this is the first #1 tie in the history of the Indie Next List. Each book received the same number of nominations, reports Mark Nichols, Development Officer for the American Booksellers Association, adding, “My mandate as editor of the Indie Next LIst is to honor the wishes of the booksellers, so there was no recourse other than to have two # 1 picks.”

The natural question is whether there may have been some mistaken nominations. Nichols says he took extra precautions to make certain that booksellers knew exactly which book that they were supporting, and it was clear there had been no misidentifications.

The title works well for each book, even though they are quite different. McCorkle’s is set in the present day and features residents of a retirement community. Atkinson’s is set between the World Wars and features a woman who lives her life over and over.

It’s not unusual for two books to share the same title (and there’s at least one other Life After Life, a book about out-of-body experiences published in 2001 by HarperCollins). However, both publishers ruefully acknowledge that it’s not ideal to have to market two books with the same title, but say that by the time they realized the overlap, plans were already in motion and it was too late to make a change.

On the other hand, this may not be a liability; it’s beginning to appear that it may actually bring more attention to each book.

An emotional segment featuring Susan Spencer-Wendel, author of the memoir, Until I Say Good-bye: My Year of Living with Joy, (Harper) was broadcast on The Today Show this morning. She has also been featured in USA Today and on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Upcoming is a feature on Inside Edition with Deborah Norville and another  in People

The book rose to #6 on Amazon sales rankings today and holds are growing in libraries.

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Will Gone Girl “Rob Hilary Mantel of the Hat Trick?” asks The Independent, following yesterday’s announcement of the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (title changed from the Orange Prize after the telecom company decided to end its 17-year sponsorship). Mantel has already won two major UK awards this year, the Booker and Costa prizes, for her second Tudor novel Bring Up the Bodies, (Macmillan/Holt). No author has won all three in one year.

Gillian Flynn’s word-of-mouth phenomenon has appeared on many best books lists and is nominated for an Edgar, but a nomination for a literary prize is particularly sweet. As Flynn tells The Independent, “I was incredibly thrilled by the news. It’s really nice especially for someone who writes stories with mystery as they aren’t always recognised so widely. I feel really proud.”

Also on the list are Zadie Smith’s NW (Penguin/Viking) and Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, (Harper). Both authors have won the award before.

One of  the longlist titles is forthcoming in the U.S. but has already been called a favorite of 2013 by librarians on EarlyWord‘s GalleyChat (Gillian Flynn goes even further. In a blurb on the book’s cover, she calls it “One of the best novels I’ve read this century”), Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (Hachette/Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur, 4/2/13).

Previous prize winners include Madeline Miller last year for her debut novel, The Song of Achilles,(Harper/Ecco), Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk about Kevin (Harper; 2005), Marilynne Robinson for Home (Macmillan/FSG; 2009) and Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (HarperCollins; 2002). This is an opportunity to create a display of all the past winners, as well as this year’s nominees.

The shortlist will be announced on April 16th and the winner of the £30,000 on June 5th.

Our downloadable spreadsheet, Women’s Prize, Longlist, gives U.S. publication information, as well as notes on how the titles were received here.

The ruthless heart of Hilary Mantel’s Tudor series is Thomas Cromwell, who pulled the strings for a time in Henry VIII’s court. The BBC has found the actor to play that juicy role in a mini-series of 6 one-hour episodes based on Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (both Macmillan/Holt). Shakespearean actor Mark Rylance, according to The Daily Mail. He is familiar with the Tudor Court; he played another famous schemer of the period, Thomas Boleyn in the 2008 film of Phillipa Gregory’s book The Other Boleyn Girl (S&S/Scribner).

Unfortunately, this casting means production may be delayed a year, since Rylance has other commitments to complete, including an upcoming play, Nice Fish, at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.

Mantel is currently writing Mirror And The Light, the third book in the Tudor series (and fending off criticism for her misunderstood remarks about Kate Middleton).

The taboo-breaking 2006 memoir in graphic novel format, Cancer Vixen by New Yorker cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto (RH/Pantheon), is being set up at HBO for a series. Cate Blanchett will produce and star. Deadline reports that “the prospect of having the Oscar-winning actress in the lead role makes this a priority project. Blanchett has been sweet on the book for some time” (she bought the rights shortly after the book was published).

Marchetto survived her cancer and is now living in NYC with her husband, restaurateur Silvano Marchetto.

Joss Whedon, best known for as creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and  for his adaptation of The Avengers, turns next to a different source of material; Shakespeare.

Much Ado About Nothing opens in a limited run on June 7th and in more theaters on June 21.

As part of her interview with Judy Blume on Rock Center, Chelsea Clinton talks to Blume’s son about Tiger Eyes, the movie he adapted from his mother’s book.

The movie is set to debut in theaters and V.O.D. on June 7th, according to Entertainment Weekly‘s “Inside Movies” blog.

A trailer has not yet been released, but scenes from the movie are featured in the interview.

Don’t worry; this is a Fifty Shades title that libraries won’t have to fit into their budgets.

Vintage Books announced today that they are releasing Fifty Shades of Grey: Inner Goddess (A Journal) on May 1.

It combines the author;s writing advice with lined pages for readers to record their own “inner goddess” thoughts (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Taylor Swift may be on the cover of  the April issue of Vanity Fair, but  Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT) gets star treatment in the issue, profiled by celebrity author Michael Lewis, complete with photo by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. Her book is also featured on the cover of the NYT BR (in a review by Anne-Marie Slaughter, who has been portrayed as Sandberg’s chief critic. Their disagreement has even been characterized, in gratingly non-feminist terms, as a “cat fight.” In fact, the review is mostly positive and when critical, only mildly so).

She was featured on CBS 60 Minutes last night, followed today by NPR’s Morning Edition, three segments on ABC’s Good Morning America (one devoted to the controversy, the interview, and a”town hall” discussion coming tomorrow), and tonight on Nightline.

The book has been #1 on Amazon sales rankings since Friday.

Called “Oz: The Not-So-Great” by critics, Disney’s prequel to the classic is now being called “Oz the Great and the Profitable,” after pulling in over $80 million, making it the first official blockbuster of 2013. In anticipation, Disney has already green lighted a sequel (a sequel to a prequel? When does it merge with the original?)

Official Movie Site: Disney.com/TheWizard

Those looking for tie-ins will not be disappointed (for tie-ins to upcoming movies, check our Upcoming Movies with Tie-ins list):

The first two books in L. Frank Baum’s series have been re-released, featuring “beautifully repainted [cover art] and original Stromberg imagery.”

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, intro. by the film’s star, James Franco, Disney Press

The Marvelous Land of Oz, L. Frank Baum, intro. by the film’s screenwriter Mitchell Kapner, Disney Press

Audio: Dreamscape  has released new recordings of the first two Oz books (also on OverDrive).

  
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, read by Tara Sands (Jan 22)

The Marvelous Land of Oz read by Tara Sands (Feb 19)

Disney Press offers several tie-ins.

Oz The Great and Powerful, Elizabeth Rudnick — the junior novel adaptation

Oz The Great and Powerful: Land of Oz — Level 2 World of Reading title

Oz The Great and Powerful: Witches of Oz, Scott Peterson– picture book

The Art of Oz The Great and Powerful, Grant Curtis — behind-the-scenes book

Oz The Great and Powerful: The Movie Storybook, Scott Peterson — features movie stills.

In the upcoming Sunday NYT Book Review, Claire Messud begins her review of The Dinner (RH/Hogarth; AudioGo; Thorndike Large Print) by observing, “North American readers care inordinately that fictional characters be likable,” and warns that there “is a bracing nastiness to this book that grows ever more intense with the turning of its pages. It will not please those who seek the cozy, the redemptive or the uplifting.” She concludes with an arresting image; Koch “has created a clever, dark confection, like some elegant dessert fashioned out of entrails.”

Americans have demonstrated an appetite for more than the cozy and uplifting. The Dinner is now a verifiable success (3 weeks in the top ten on the NYT best seller list), so it’s no surprise to learn that Random House’s Hogarth Press, which published The Dinner here, plans to release another book by Koch next year, Summerhouse with Swimming Pool, originally published in Dutch in 2011.

The publisher describes it as, “set on the Mediterranean coast, where an acerbic doctor, his celebrity client, and their families spend an idyllic week that takes a sinister turn when the doctor’s teenage daughter is attacked, leading to an untimely death that may or may not be the doctor’s fault.”

A group of people, at least of one of whom has questionable motives, brought together in a single place for a limited period of time? Sounds like we are in for some more “bracing nastiness.”

The lead in library holds among the titles arriving next week is Breaking Point, C. J. Box’s latest thriller featuring Joe Pickett. Trailing it is Terry Brooks’ Bloodfire Quest: The Dark Legacy of Shannara, the second in a new series. In the media, the majority of air time for books will be focused on Facebook COO’s Sheryl Sandberg’s controversial Lean In.

The titles highlighted here, and more, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of March 11

Media Magnets

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT)

Facebook COO Sandberg’s “sort of feminist manifesto” arrives after weeks of heated discussion; it’s been going on so long that the backlash has a backlash. If you’ve seen the author’s 2010 TED presentation (below), or her appearance on the PBS show Makers, you may wonder what all the fuss is about (and about the health of feminism in this country if a reasonable analysis of gender politics can still cause such a ruckus).

The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd dismissed Sandberg as the “PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle boots.” As if in response, Time magazine this week features Sandberg with the cover line, “Don’t Hate Her Because She’s Successful.” For women too busy having it all to read the book, the Washington Post offers a cheat sheet.

Much more attention is on the way, including appearances on CBS 60 Minutes this Sunday, followed by NPR’s Morning Edition, ABC’s Good Morning America, and Nightline.

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Until I Say Good-bye: My Year of Living with Joy, Susan Spencer-Wendel, (Harper)

Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, Susan Spencer-Wendel decided to live her life to the fullest, rather than follow doctors’ advice to conserve her energy. Along with her husband, Bred Witter (who was the co-author of the best-selling book that celebrated a small-town library and its resident cat, Dewey’s Nine Lives), she writes about what she experienced and produced a video for the book. A round of media attention begins with NPR’s Weekend Edition tomorrow, followed by the Today Show, Inside Edition with Deborah Norville, a feature in People and a USA Today “Life Section” cover story.

Traps, Mackensie Bezos, (RH/Knopf)

In promotional material, author Bezos bio is brief. She “studied creative writing at Princeton University … lives in Seattle with her husband and four children.” More is added in a feature on the author in Vogue this month, which makes no bones about the fact that her husband is the founder of Amazon. Prepub reviews, are generally positive, if not overly enthusiastic. Publishers Weekly says, “Bezos (The Testing of Luther Albright) has a knack for the slow-build. In her second novel she galvanizes the mundane with a sense of dread, presenting four women trapped by sad circumstances and their own fallibility, as they gradually make their way through four tense days during which their lives intersect.”

Watch List

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, Edward Kelsey Moore, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)

Four women (nicknamed “the supremes”) bond during get-togethers in a small-town Indiana diner. Shelf Awareness‘s book review editor Marilyn Dahl gives it a strong readers advisory hook; “it may not be considered a ‘great’ book, like Billy Lynn’s Long Half-time Walk, but it’s an absolutely delightful book that brought me great joy, and I recommend it to everyone I know.” Entertainment Weekly says that in this “kindhearted debut, Moore (can it be called chick lit if a man wrote it?) shows a seasoned ease with his funny, damaged subjects, including the tipsy ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt. You’ll be casting the movie by the second chapter.”

Dark Tide, Elizabeth Haynes, (Harper Pbk Original; HarperLuxe)

Haynes’s first book, Into the Darkest Corner, was popular with librarians on GalleyChat. This second is reviewed on Edelweiss by librarian Halle Eisenman (Beaufort County Library); “A compelling story and satisfying mystery. A good recommendation for fans of Gillian Flynn, although if readers haven’t picked up Haynes’ first book, I’d recommend that as the more suspenseful and intense read.”

Wool, Hugh Howey, (S&S; simultaneous trade paperback and hardcover release)

Called the “Sci-fi Fifty Shades of Grey” (as in, a self-published book that became such a hit that Hollywood came knocking — NOT a story about bondage in outer space), Wool began life as short story, followed by four more titles, collected in Wool – Omnibus Edition (Amazon/CreateSpace) owned by several libraries. Now it gets its traditional publishing debut (complete with a cover blurb from The Passage‘s Justin Cronin), via a deal with S&S, which the Wall Street Journal examines in detail today.

Next week brings touching and humorous picture books and a new YA title by Sharon Draper. Series releases include the latest in L.J. Smith’s Secret Circle series, The Temptation and Kathy Reich’s third in her Virals series, Code. These, and more highlights, are included on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of March 11

Picture Books

Otis and the Puppy, Loren Long, (Penguin/Philomel)

In this new intallment of the series by best-selling author Loren Long, beloved big-eyed farm tractor, Otis faces his own fears to rescue his new friend, the puppy.

Poetry

World Rat Day: Poems About Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of, J. Patrick Lewis,  Anna Raff, (Candlewick)

If you’re suffering from Poetry Month fatigue, here’s the perfect pick-me-up, wacky holidays honored with humorous poems by the Children’s Poetry Laureate.

Young Adult

Panic, Sharon M. Draper, (S&S/Atheneum)

A teenage girl is abducted. Her story, told in alternating viewpoints, is frightening and believable, with a cover that  is creepy, compelling and beautiful all at the same time. Draper has won several awards, including the Coretta Scott King for both Copper Sun and Forged by Fire. Her most recent, Out of My Mind was NYT best seller and received the Josette Frank Award from the Bank Street College of Education.

Starstruck, Rachel Shukert,  Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Memoirist/actress, Shukert tries her hand at the YA genre with successful results. A mystery set in 1930’s Hollywood, Starstruck gives an inside look at the struggles of young actresses (think Pretty Little Liars with an earlier setting).

Author of The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin, Susan Orlean, has signed a deal to publish The Library Book, described on Publishers Marketplace as, “a love letter to an endangered institution, exploring their history, their people, their meaning, and their future as they adapt and redefine themselves in a digital world, told through the lens of the author’s quest to solve a crime that has gone unsolved since it was carried out in 1986: who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library, ultimately destroying 400,000 books, and why?”

It will be published by Simon & Schuster. There’s no word on expected publication date.

Is there such a thing as award fatigue? Not for me. Awards, especially those chosen by knowledgeable judges (full disclosure, I was on this particular committee), shine a light on titles that might otherwise have been lost in the crowd. The Ezra Jack Keats New Writer and New Illustrator Book Awards, which were just announced, recognize and encourage new talent.

The 2013 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award Winner Is:

Julie Fogliano for And Then It’s Spring, Illus. by Erin Stead, (Macmillan/Roaring Brook/Neal Porter)

The award citation reads, “First-time author Fogliano shares the excitement that goes hand in hand with planting the first seeds of spring. After months of snow, a boy and his dog agree that enough is enough, and decide to plant a garden. They dig, plant, play and wait…and wait…until at long last, shades of green begin to replace the brown. Spring is in the air!”

The 2013 Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award Winner Is:

Hyewon Yum for Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten!, (Macmillan/FSG/Frances Foster)

The award citation reads, “First day of kindergarten jitters may be nothing new, but in Yum’s book, it’s a parent who is frantic and needs reassuring! Playfully using color and size (Mom and son take turns appearing small and blue-tinted; large and rosy pink), this author-illustrator captures the emotional highs and lows of both parent and child around this milestone.”

The 2013 Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor Awards Go To:

Sanjay Patel for Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth, (Chronicle Books)

K.G. Campbell for Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters, (Kids Can Press)

The 2013 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor Awards Go To:

Mara Rockliff for My Heart Will Not Sit Down, (RH/Knopf BYR)

Jennifer Lanthier for The Stamp Collector, (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

Don Tate for It Jes’ Happened, (Lee & Low Books)