EarlyWord

Now that the Oscars have wrapped, George Clooney is turning to his next film, The Monuments Men, based on the true story of a group of  museum directors and curators who, in the last days of WWII, were sent by FDR to retrieve stolen works of art from the Nazis before they are destroyed. It begins shooting in Berlin this month, according to an announcement from Columtia Pictures with the plan of opening in theaters in December.

The film is based on a book by Robert M. Edsel who, after selling his oil and gas exploration company, began researching the efforts of the group called “The Monuments Men,” (which, despite its name,  included at least one woman, Rose Valland, a French Resistance fighter).

Clooney directs and stars, along with Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and John Goodman.

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History Robert M. Edsel Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 513 pages Publisher: Hachette/Center Street – (2009-09-03) ISBN 9781599951492

There are several other books on the subject (see our earlier story). Edsel is also publishing new book, Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nations Treasures from the Nazis, this coming May.

Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis Robert M. Edsel Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2013-05-13) ISBN / EAN: 0393082415 / 9780393082418

The subtitle of the book Wave only hints at the heartache that lies within; A Memoir of Life After the Tsunami (Rh/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT). In it, Sonali Deraniyagala, a British citizen originally from Sri Lanka, recounts how she struggled to cope with the loss of her husband, two sons, ages 5 and 7, and both her parents to that catastrophic event.

The book is currently receiving a round of media attention, with glowing reviews from Laura Miller in Salon, “a spare, radiant book … The extremity of Deraniyagala’s story seizes the attention, but it’s the beauty of how she expresses it that makes it indelible,” the NYT and a feature on NPR Morning Edition. It is also the #1 Amazon Editors’s pick for the month and is even considered “required reading” by the NY Post.

In spite of the attention, however, library holds are relatively light. The story may be a difficult sell, but as Miller attests, the writer’s “extraordinary gifts” reward those who are willing to try it.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book about the challenges women face in trying  to climb the corporate ladder, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, (RH/Knopf; Random House Audio; BOT) doesn’t arrive until next week but there is already a backlash.

Now the backlash has its own backlash. The New Yorker published a long piece yesterday headlined, “Maybe You Should Read the Book.”

Some have taken heed; libraries are showing holds; some as a high as 10:1 on light ordering.

The news from Jeb Bush’s appearance on the Today Show this morning is what he refused to say — whether he plans to run for president in 2016.

Bush appeared on the show to talk about his new book, which releases tomorrow, Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, (S&S/Threshold; S&S Audio; also published in Spanish under the title, Las guerras inmigratorias: Forjar una solución estadounidense).

The Today Show‘s Matt Lauer noted that publishing a book can be a sign that a politician is gearing up for a run, but Bush refused to take the bait (he was given precious little time to talk about the actual subject of his book, even in a separate segment).

He’ll have more opportunities to dodge the 2016 question; several other appearances are scheduled for this week, including CBS this Morning,  NPR’s Morning Edition. and on Telemundo-TV.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Fulfilling rumors and fervent hopes, Shirley MacLaine will return for the fourth season of Downton Abbey, Deadline confirms.

That may make up for the loss of the Machiavellian maid, O’Brien.

The show’s creator, Julian Fellowes, recently signed to write and produce a new series for NBC called The Gilded Age, featuring the robber barons of 19th C New York City. It is being called, of course, “The American Downton.” Reportedly, Gwyneth Paltrow is being courted to star.

Fellowes made news in an NYT interview last  month by saying that, if the series goes forward, he would have to turn over the writing of Downton Abbey to others. The producers assured Deadline, however, that he has written all of the season four’s episodes.

It seems the U.S. isn’t the only country obsessed with quick-fix diets. In the U.K., the “Fast Diet” is the talk of the country, according to the New York Times. The book that started the craze has been #1 on Amazon UK since it came out in January. It’s poised to be a hit here as well. Libraries are showing holds on the U.S. edition, which arrived last week, and it is currently #1 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Also called the 5:2 diet, it recommends two days of “fasting” (consuming just 500 calories) for every five of eating normally.

The FastDiet Michael Mosley, Mimi Spencer Retail Price  $24.00 Hardcover 224 pages Publisher: S&S/Atria Books – (2013-02-26) ISBN / EAN: 9781476734941, 1476734941

Get ready for more. The article notes that a “slew of fasting diet books” have come out in the U.K. in the recent weeks.

Martin Scorsese’s next film, The Wolf Of Wall Street was just given a release date of November 15, 2013. Based on the 2007 memoir of the same title by former high-flying investment firm honcho Jordan Belfort, who was indicted in 1998 for securities fraud and money laundering, it also stars Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, Margot Robbie and Jon Bernthal.

DiCaprio stands a chance of going up against himself in the next Oscar race; he also stars  in Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby, which arrives on May 10.

Just revealed, the cover of Doctor Sleep, coming Sept. 24 (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio), Stephen King’s follow-up to The Shining.

Synopsis from StephenKing.com:

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.

The talk shows will be humming next week with with appearances by Jeb Bush, for his new book on immigration reform, and Sandra Day O’Connor, for hers about the Supreme Court. On our Watch list is Mohsin Hamid’s new book, arriving just before the movie of his previous title, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and a Dan Brown-want-to-be that  fills the gap until The Inferno arrives this summer.

The following plus more highlights from next week are available on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of March 5.

Media Magnets

Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, Jeb Bush, Clint Bolick (S&S/Threshold; S&S Audio; also published in Spanish under the title, Las guerras inmigratorias: Forjar una solución estadounidense) — Embargoed

Plenty of media attention is lined up for this book on a hot-button topic by the son of one president and brother of another. Expect him to be asked if he is planning to run for president. Given the embargo, there’s not much information on what the book contains. He has a strong personal connection with the subject, not only as the former governor of Florida, but through his wife, who was born in Mexico. To be featured heavily on TV on Monday, beginning with NBC’s Today Show followed by CBS this Morning the next day as well as NPR’s Morning Edition. Bush will also appear on Telemundo-TV.

Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT)

O’Connor’s appearances will include CBS This Morning and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show as well as NPR’s Fresh Air, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart. There’s no pre-pub reviews, so this one may also have been embargoed. As evidence of the level of the level of interest among politicos, her scheduled appearance at D.C. indie bookstore Politics and Prose sold out in record time.

The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power, Kim Ghattas, (Macmillan/Times Books)

In advance of Hillary Clinton’s own much-talked about memoir, which hasn’t even been sold yet, comes this biography by the BBC’s State Department correspondent who has travelled with the Secretary. The L.A. Times calls it a “vivid peek at the complex maneuverings and personalities behind Clinton’s foreign policy decisions.”

Watch List

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid, (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape Audio)

Advance attention began with an unusually glowing review from the NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani. It  continues with Ron Charles in the Washington Post and Alan Cheuse on NPR’s web site.

Ghana Must Go, Taiye Selasi, (Penguin Press)

Part of the Penguin Debut Author Program, this title is an IndieNext Pick for March: “Readers know when they are in the presence of something special and brilliant. It is a voice familiar and kind, a plot careful and unraveling, a set of characters whose hearts pound between the covers. Selasi delivers a powerful debut about family, race, and the nature of story in this contemporary novel, set in neighborhoods from Brookline, Massachusetts, to Lagos, Nigeria. A literary descendant of Zadie Smith and Arundhati Roy, Selasi is a new force in the global community of readers.” —Nicole Magistro, The Bookworm of Edwards, Edwards, CO

The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper, (Simon & Schuster; S&S Audio)

An IndieNext Pick for March: “Renowned Milton scholar David Ullman is offered a huge sum to travel abroad to document a phenomenon. With his personal life in tatters, he and his daughter, Tess, fly to Venice for a brief vacation and this one small project. David returns alone, caught up in the battle of a lifetime to rescue Tess from an enemy he can’t touch or see. Following clues from Paradise Lost, the book on which he built his reputation, David undertakes a desperate search to solve the puzzle and fight the unknown powers. Pyper combines non-stop action, metaphysical questions, a touch of conspiracy, and poetic references in a story that leaves readers breathless.” —Becky Milner, Vintage Books, Vancouver, WA. Entertainment Weekly gives it just a C+, calling it “simultaneously more and less than a Dan Brown rip-off … it’s tough to have faith in Pyper’s plotting when he depends so much on inexplicable coincidences and silly clues,” an issue that doesn’t seem to put readers off Mr. Brown. Also note the cover blurb from Gillian Flynn, “Smart, thrilling and utterly unnerving.”

Movie Tie-in

The Company You Keep (movie tie-in), Neil Gordon, (Penguin Books; Dreamscape Audio)

The movie, directed by Robert Redford, in which he also stars along with Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte and Julie Christie, arrives in theaters on April 5.
&nsbp;

Next week, middle grade kids will be fighting over the next titles in two ongoing series, the sixth in The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers series (Scholastic), this one by best selling adult author David Baldacci, and a new series about the warrior cats, Dawn of the Clans #1: The Sun Trail, by Erin Hunter (HarperCollins). In Young Adult, the popular Delirium series comes to a close and another new series begins. These are just a few of the titles highlighted below and on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of March 4.

Young Adult — Series

   
Requiem, Lauren Oliver, (HarperCollins; Listening Library)

The heavily anticipated conclusion to the trilogy (Delerium, Pandemonium), the first of which is currently in development for a possible FOX TV series. It does not disappoint, it’s a Spring 2013 Kids’ Indie Next List pick: “In the final book of the Delirium trilogy, Lena is in an impossible place — and it only gets worse. Oliver uses the points of view of Lena and her best friend, Hana, to give the reader perspective inside and beyond the wall, making the tale all the more interesting when their stories converge. Alex’s indifference pains Lena but she must stay strong for Julian who is quickly falling in love with her. As much as she tries to deny it, her heart will always belong to Alex — if only he would realize that. Oliver ties up all the loose ends in this thrilling conclusion.” —Alexis Duell, Market Block Books, Troy, NY

Also in print for the first time next week is the Delirium Stories (HarperCollins), which features the novellas Hanna, Annabel, and Raven, originally published as ebooks.

Unremembered, Jessica Brody, (Macmillan/FSG BYR)

First in a series, about a girl who wakes up from plane crash with no idea who she is. She’s become famous for surviving, but only one strange boy claims he knows her. Prepub reviews are mixed, but I found this one a compelling, suspenseful read and am looking foward to book 2.

Middle Grade — Series

Cal Ripken, Jr.’s All-Stars: Wild Pitch, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Kevin Cowherd, (Hyperion)

The third book in Ripken’s All-Star series captures the excitement and drama of baseball as well as the interpersonal relationships of the team members and coaches. Next reads for Jake Maddox and Matt Christopher fans.

Middle Grade — Stand Alones

The Center of Everything, Linda Urban, (Harcourt Children’s Books)

From the author of two of the best middle grade novels of the last ten years, A Crooked Kind of Perfect and Hound Dog True,  another gem, a satisfying story of community and family, friends and relationships. And donuts. Also a Spring 2013 Kids’ Indie Next List pick: “Everything in Ruby Pepperdine’s life has been wrong since her beloved grandmother died. Even her two best friends aren’t talking to her anymore. With the town gearing up for Bunning Day — the annual celebration of the invention of the doughnut — Ruby knows she has just one chance to make things right. But what if she makes the wrong wish? Ruby will win your heart as she navigates the rough waters of grief and friendship and growing up.” —Sandy Scott, The Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, VT

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, Charles Vess, Illus. by Charles de Lint, (Hachette/Little, Brown YR)

Children’s librarians might remember the picture book Circle of Cats by the same team. This lushly illustrated expanded chapter book edition of the out-of-print original will capture the middle grade fantasy readers.

Picture Books

A Little Book of Sloth, Lucy Cooke, (S&S Margaret K. McElderry)

Cute Overload is positively dark and depressing compared to this factual picture book account of a sloth rescue center located in Costa Rica (see if you can resist this video from the sanctuary). Adorable Mona-Lisa smiling sloth faces with sleepy eyes, cuddling, hugging, hanging and napping. Irresistable.

Busy-Busy Little Chick,  Janice N. Harrington, Illus. by Brian Pinkney, (Macmillan/FSG BYR)

Just when librarians are bemoaning the dearth of picture book folktales, Harrington (The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County, an Irma Black Honor Award, 2006) gives us this deliciously read-aloudable version of The Hen’s House told by the Nkundo people of Central Africa.

“Mama Nsoso’s chicks shivered in their cold, damp nest”

“Peo-peo, Mama, Peo-peo. We’re chilly-cold. Our tummies are chilly-cold. Our feet are chilly-cold We’re chilly-cold all over.”

Little Chick notes that even his bottom is “chilly-cold.“

Although Mama has promised to build a new house for her chicks, she is easily distracted by tasty treats…”crunchy-munchy, sweety-meaty, big fat worms!” Tomorrow she will work; today she and her chicks will eat big fat worms.
And so it goes, yet Little Chick is not eating the “ crunchy-munchy, jumpy-jumpy, cricky-cracky crickets.” He is hard at work creating their new home. Pinkney has hit his stride as he confidently renders the chicken family in broad strokes, filling the pages with color, light and movement. We feel the chicks shivering in the damp mud of their leaky hut. We bounce along with Little Chick on a stark white background as he gathers materials for building. The rhythm of his brushstrokes make real the wind that “swooshed and made them cold.”

Flood, Alvaro F. Villa, (Capstone)

This timely wordless picture book speaks volumes about coming of a storm and the resulting flood. A family’s idyllic farmhouse surrounded by nature -a river and green fields is threatened by the impending weather. We witness the family prepare, then leave their home as the rain begins pounding down. In two dramatic double page spreads, the house is front and center as floodwaters wash through the interior walls. There is hope as the waters recede and although adults will shake their heads at the seemingly “easy” cleanup and restoration, children will find comfort in the sunny end.

Exclamation Mark  Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Illus. by Tom Lichtenheld (Scholastic)
From the team that created  Duck! Rabbit!. Need I say more? Already has an SLJ star.

Lottie Paris and the Best Place Angela Johnson, Illus. by Scott M. Fischer (S&S Books for Young Readers)
Second in the Lottie series takes this imaginative energetic child to the “best place to be” — the library, of course. Perfect for pre-library visits.

Cable and PBS have led the way with successful TV series based on books. The networks are  following suit this pilot season, ordering what Deadline refers to as “a slew” of projects based on books. That’s a bit of an overstatement — of the over 100 pilots that have been green lighted, only a dozen are based on books and only a handful of those are familiar to readers. The real news will be which make it to series and, for book people, which bring new readers to the books.

Among those with a built-in audience are two based on YA titles:

The Selection —  CW — based on the first book in the best-selling dystopian trilogy by Kiera Cass (HarperTeen), in show biz speak, it is described as a “cross between The Bachelor and Hunger Games,” as young women in the future compete for the chance to marry the Prince. The pilot is finally moving ahead, after the script was sent back for a rewrite last year. UPDATE: Pilot rejected

Delirium — FOX — based on the first book in another best selling dystopian trilogy (HarperCollins), this one by Lauren Oliver. Set in the future, a young woman defies the order that she be treated for an outlawed condition, love (“the delirium”). The two leads have been cast; Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew, Scream 4, and Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous) and Daren Kagasoff (Secret Life).

A few are based on well-known adult titles:

About a Boy — NBC — may be based more on the movie, starring Hugh Grant, than the book by Nick Hornby (Penguin/Riverhead). Minnie Driver and David Walton (New Girl) cast as leads.  UPDATE: On MidSeason schedule, Tuesdays at 9 p.m.

Girlfriend in a Coma — NBC — Christina Ricci has been cast in the lead of this pilot about a woman who wakes up from a coma to discover that she has a 17-year-old daughter. It is based on Douglas Coupland’s 1998 novel (HarperCollins). UPDATE: Ricci walked away from the lead, delaying the project.

Stephen King’s Under the Dome — CBS — this one skipped the pilot stage and is already scheduled to premiere on June 24. Expectations are high, as evidenced by the network’s investment in a SuperBowl ad. First look released, 4/1/13. UPDATE: to premiere on CBS on Monday, June 24 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT

Cable — we’re focusing on the network pilots, but should also note the high-profile adaptations in progress for cable. A pilot has been ordered by FX for The Strain, based on the first book in the vampire trilogy by director Guillermo Del Toro and co-author Chuck Hogan (HarperCollins). HBO is moving forward with The Leftovers, based on Tom Perrota’s novel and Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

Two are based on books by Scandinavian writers that have not yet been published here:

I Am Victor — NBC — features a high-powered divorce lawyer, based on Jo Nesbo’s upcoming book. UPDATE: Rejected

Backstrom — CBS — based on  a series by Leif G.W. Persson about an overweight detective.   UPDATE: Pilot rejected by CBS — picked up by Fox, Deadline, 1/7/14

Two are based on comics/graphic novels:

S.H.I.E.L.D. — ABC  —  Stands for the Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistic Directorate, a secret intelligence organization that has appeared in various Marvel series, including Iron Man, Captain America and The Ultimates. Began shooting, Jan, 2013. Title changed to MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.UPDATE: Scheduled for Tuesdays at 8 p.m.

The Sixth Gun — NBC — Based on the Oni Press graphic novel, a supernatural Western series that follows the story of six mythical guns, the sixth being the most powerful and dangerous. UPDATE: Rejected

Three are modern-day interpretations of classics that might not even be recognized by their original authors:

Venice — ABC — about a forbidden romance between the offspring of two rival families in Venice, California. UPDATE: Not mentioned in Upfronts, so may be rejected

Wonderland — NBC — in which a girl named Clara wages war in Wonderland against an evil Queen once known as Alice. UPDATE: Production pushed back. However, debuting on ABC is the similarly-titled Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, a spinoff of the Once Upon a Time series.

Sleepy Hollow — FOX — a time warp lands a captain from the Revolutionary War named Ichabod into the present day, where he becomes a detective. UPDATE: Series scheduled for Mondays at 9 p.m. in the fall.

In an amazing stroke of good timing, Vatican reporter John Thavis just published The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church (Penguin/Viking).

He appears on NPR’s Fresh Air today, sounding as surprised as anyone by Pope Benedict’s resignation; “most people around the Vatican, including journalists, are a little bit disoriented … It almost seems as if Benedict made his decision without necessarily scripting the entire process in advance and leaving his Vatican aides to scramble for answers. … no one here really knows what’s going to happen next.”

Making the dramatic argument that the food industry has consciously hooked consumers on junk food, much as the tobacco industry hooked people on nicotine, Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT)  appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air  yesterday. Among his many stunning anecdotes, he describes how food scientists developed the “bliss point,” the precise amount of sugar to make consumers want more, without crossing the line to overly sweet.

The book is excerpted as the cover story for this week’s New York Times Magazine (the author is a NYT reporter who won a Pulitzer for reporting on E. coli in beef), as “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food.“

It is currently at #3 on Amazon’s sales rankings; libraries are showing heavy holds on modest orders.

What is she thinking?  E.L. James told The New York Post that her next book will contain less sex.

She spoke to the Post at Vanity Fair‘s Oscar party and also addressed progress on filming her Fifty Shades trilogy — well, actually lack of progress. No director or actors have yet been signed.

For those who want more in the vein of the original E.L. James, read-alikes are in the works. Penguin/NAL recently acquired the rights to The Submissive trilogy, which claims to be “The Original Trilogy that Inspired a Genre” by American author Tara Sue Me (we’d love to know the origin of that pseudonym). Currently available in ebook, print editions of the first in the series will be released on June 4th (via The Guardian; Penguin press release here).

Look up “Whitey Bulger” in library catalogs and you will get multiple hits. A Boston gangster who is the stuff of legend, he is featured in books as well as movies (one of the characters in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is based on Bulger). It was recently announced that Johnny Depp may play him in the Barry Levinson film Black Mass and two other projects are in the works.

Now 82, he was captured in 2011 and goes to trial in June, accused of 19 murders. A new book about him, Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice by Boston Globe reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy (Norton, 2/11/13) was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday and was described as not only a fascinating story, but “just a great read.”

Author Michael Connelly blurbed the book, saying, “As much social documentary as riveting crime story, the book is a masterwork of reporting by Cullen and Murphy. I couldn’t put it down.”