EarlyWord

As of today, Harry Potter ebooks are available for consumer purchase exclusively via the Pottermore.com shop.

As of tomorrow at 9 a.m., ET, the entire series will be available for checkout from OverDrive, according to an email sent by the company earlier today. Pre-orders, which had been temporarily halted, have now been restored (and the 10% discount extended through 4/30). The company also says that all holds place on earlier ordering will be honored.  The HP books are available in EPUB, Kindle and MP3 audio formats.

Washington Post book critic Ron Charles finds the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka, “a disappointing choice from a list of finalists that gave strong preference to short fiction… [with the one exception of] Russell Banks’s grim Lost Memory of Skin.” He blames the oversight on the makeup of the jury, “As writers and teachers of writing, the judges have a professional interest in the craft of storytelling, which attracts them, I suspect, to perfectly cut miniatures as opposed to the rock and flow of a great novel.”

He wishes the jury had been more sympathetic to “long, fully developed stories we can sink into for days,” and lists the following as the year’s prime examples (none of which were on the PEN/Faulkner short list):

Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, (Harper)

Mary Doria Russell’s Doc (Random House) 

Bonnie Jo Campbell’s Once Upon a River,  (Norton)

David Vann’s “devastating” Caribou Island, (Harper)

Alex Shakar’s “demanding” Luminarium, (Soho Press)

The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka Retail Price: $22.00 Hardcover: 144 pages Publisher: RH/Knopf – (2011-08-23) ISBN: 9780307700001

RH Audio/BOT; Thorndike; Overdrive, audiobook and ebook

Previous honors:

National Book Awards Finalist
Library Journal Top Ten of 2011
New York Times Book Review Notables, 2011
Women’s National Book Assn. Great Group Reads

Now that it’s a bona fide hit, speculation is rife on what will be the “next Hunger Games.”

The Playlist examines fifteen properties that could fill the bill, with pros and cons for each. Three are scheduled for release next spring:

Beautiful Creatures (based on the first in a series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, published by Hachette/LBYR, 2009) — Feb. 1

The Seventh Son (based on the middle-grade title, Revenge of the Witch, the first in The Last Apprentice series, Joseph Delaney, published by HarperCollins/Greenwillow, 2005. In the UK, the book is titled The Spook’s Apprentice and the series is called The Wardstone Chronicles) — Feb 15

Ender’s Game (based on the sci fi novel by Orson Scott Card, Macmillan/Tor, 1991) — March 15

Lionel Shriver first tried to get publishers interested in her book, The New Republic, in 1998, but her “lousy sales record” was going against her. The subject matter, terrorism, was also a problem. At that point, it wasn’t much on Americans minds. The events of 9/11 changed that, but The New Republic is darkly humorous and Americans were not ready for terrorism humor (Kurt Anderson famously said 9/11 marked “the death of irony.”)

The book finally releases tomorrow. Both the LA Times and Entertainment Weekly praise the satire, but not so much the plot. As the latter puts it,

The story is baggy and idling, with an ending that thuds.  The dialogue zings, though, and the writing is jazzy…The author can toss off a sharp sketch of a passing character in a phrase, and she’s got a gimlet eye for what’s phony, or affected, or even touchingly vain in human behavior.

By the way, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence, tells O magazine that We Need to Talk about Kevin is one of the “books that made a difference” in her life. Her range is broad; she also includes The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory and J.D. Salinger’s Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.

The New Republic Lionel Shriver Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover 400 pages Publisher: Harper – (2012-03-27) ISBN 9780062103321

Thorndike Large Type; Dreamscape Audio

The Today Show site offers “The Draper Papers,” a list of six titles that give a sense of that era, including two by ad execs. The contrast between the period covers and the updated versions demonstrates how much the show has stylized the past. (See also our earlier roundup of new titles by some other real mad men, and one woman.)

From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front Line Dispatches from the Advertising War, Jerry Della Femina (S&S)

“For a nonfiction take on Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce’s three-martini lunches, office dalliances, and innovative ad campaigns, Della Femina’s frank and funny book is just the ticket. “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner even cites the memoir as an inspiration for the series.”

Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy, (current edition, Southbank Publishing)

“Unlike Della Femina’s book, Confessions of an Advertising Man is more of an advertising handbook, dispensing advice and wisdom from Madison Avenue wunderkind David Ogilvy. Regarded as the father of modern advertising, Ogilvy lays down some mind-blowing concepts that can benefit many industries and business professionals.”

CBS Sunday Morning‘s profile of Bell Labs, draws on Jon Gertner’s book, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (Penguin, 3/15). After the show aired, the book rose to #36 on Amazon’s sales rankings (as of this post, it’s moved down a bit to #63). Several libraries are showing heavy holds on light ordering.

Reviewing it in the NYT last week, Michiko Kakutani said,

Mr. Gertner’s portraits of … the cadre of talented scientists who worked at Bell Labs are animated by a journalistic ability to make their discoveries and inventions utterly comprehensible — indeed, thrilling — to the lay reader. And they showcase, too, his novelistic sense of character and intuitive understanding of the odd ways in which clashing or compatible personalities can combine to foster intensely creative collaborations.

Hollywood enjoys playing with numbers.

Deadline reports that, as of Friday night, Hunger Games brought in $68.25 million at North American box offices.

That puts the film on track for a $140 million opening weekend. While many thought it would have the highest opening weekend ever, that number puts it behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 3 and The Twilight Saga: New Moon. [UPDATE: The movie actually took in $155 million, putting it behind just the first two movies]

However, it is set to achieve several other milestones:

• Highest non-sequel opening weekend ever
• Highest debut single day for a non-sequel ever
• Highest March opening ever
• 5th highest opening day ever

Deadline also reports that, “Between the release of the first Hunger Games trailer in November 2011 and January 2012, the number of Collins’ books sold nearly doubled”

Jennifer Lawrence, once considered an imperfect fit for the role of Katniss (so much so that author Suzanne Collins felt the need to publicly defend the choice), is now being hailed for carrying the movie.

Lawrence is scheduled to appear in two more movies this year, including the horror movie, The House as the End of the Street, in September. She switches to an older role for a film based on The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick (Macmillan/FSG/SarahCrichton, 2008), playing a widow in her 30s’s, obsessed by the character played by Bradley Cooper. It is scheduled for release on Nov. 21 of this year.The book is a favorite of Nancy Pearl’s.

She has also signed to play the title role in the movie Serena, based on the acclaimed novel by Ron Rash (HarperCollins/Ecco; 2009). It is currently in pre-production.

British author Grace McCleen gets major early reviews, but a mixed reaction to her much-anticipated fiction debut with The Land of Decoration, while Nobel-winner Nadine Gordimer probes the lives of a biracial couple in post-Apartheid South Africa and National Book Award finalist Lioner Shriver delivers a satire about terrorism. Usual suspects include James Patterson & David Ellis, and Danielle Steel. Plus there’s a memoir by New York Mets starting pitcher and former English major R.A. Dickey.

WATCH LIST

The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen (Macmillan/Holt) focuses on a 10 year-old daughter of Armageddon-fearing Christian fundamentalists, who starts to believe in her own omnipotence and becomes bolder as her efforts seem to work. In a New York Times review that ran this week, slightly ahead of the book’s publication on 3/27, Janet Maslin says that young Judith’s “voice of God evolves into a slangy, wise cracking, child’s-eye version of divinity, and that the book’s tensions mount in a simple and schematic way.” Ron Charles, reviewing it in the Washington Post on Tuesday, saying, “alas, The Land of Decoration is not in the same room as Donoghue’s great novel [Room]. ” The book is getting a better reception in the UK, where the Times of London picked it as one of four “must-read titles of 2012” and the Waterstones bookstore chain tagged it as one of 11 debuts expected to win awards.

The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. by Carole DeSanti (HMH) is a historical novel by a Penguin Group USA vice president and editor at large, about a woman who follows her love to Paris, only to find herself marooned, pregnant, penniless and trying to survive in France’s Second Empire. PW says, “though its hard to care for such a self-centered heroine, the sweeping, fascinating epic is full of drama and beauty.”

LITERARY FAVORITES

No Time Like the Present by Nadine Gordimer (Macmillan/FSG) focuses on Steve and Jabulile, an interracial couple living in a newly, tentatively, free South Africa. In a starred review, Booklist says, “Gordimer dramatizes with acute specificity, wit, and sympathy the mix of guilt and conviction her freedom-fighter characters experience as they admit, The Struggle is not over. Still, isn’t it time to simply live their lives and give up the fight? Literary warrior Gordimer writes, There is only one time, all time, for principles you live by.”

The New Republic by Lionel Shriver (HarperCollins; HarperLuxe; Dreamscape Media) is the National Book Award finalist’s fictional exploration of the intimate relationship between terrorism and cults of personality. People magazine says, “dramatically different from her chilling 2003 bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin…Shriver’s new novel is a blowsy, cynical romp about journalists sent to cover a mysterious terrorist movement…While Shriver’s urge to entertain can be exhausting, her whip-smart observations… are funny and on the mark.”  LJ was more sanguine: “While the characters are forgettable and the satire doesn’t go quite far enough, this is still an interesting read that might appeal to fans of Tom Perrotta.”

USUAL SUSPECTS

Guilty Wives by James Patterson and David Ellis (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio) is a thriller in which the family vacation of a lifetime becomes the fight of a lifetime–for survival.

Betrayal by Danielle Steel (RH/Delacorte Press; RH Large Print; Brilliance Audio) focuses on an eccentric movie director who falls prey to a sociopath sidekick and a feckless producer/lover. Kirkus call it “a methodical Hollywood morality tale.”

Elegy for Eddie: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear (HarperCollins) is the ninth novel featuring London investigator and psychologist Maisie Dobbs, who investigates the brutal killing of a street peddler that will take her from the working-class neighborhoods of her childhood into London’s highest circles of power. Kirkus says, “Certainly not Winspear’s strongest mystery. But newcomers will enjoy the exploration of class-bound Britain between the wars, and fans will relish the continued development of Maisie’s complicated character.”

NONFICTION

Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball by R.A. Dickey (Penguin/Blue Rider Press) is a memoir by the starting pitcher for the New York Mets – and a former English major. PW says, “The author emerges as one of baseball’s good guys, and someone who can write as well as he pitches. Dickey has set a new standard for athlete autobiographies.” The publisher offers this hook; “The Glass Castle meets Ball Four as Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey weaves searing honesty and baseball insight in this memoir about his unlikely journey to the big leagues.”

CHILDRENS

Chomp by Carl Hiassen (RH/Knopf Young Readers; Listening Library; Audio on OverDrive); Hiasson’s fourth book for kids is a guaranteed best seller. In a starred review, Booklist says its the author’s “best for a young audience since Newbery Honor Hoot (2002)” and Hornbook couldn’t resist saying,  “Chomp is a story for readers to sink their teeth into.”

With the launch of The Hunger Games movie this week, Hollywood is in full publicity mode to remind viewers that more dystopian sci-fi is coming their way. The production blog for the film adaptation of  Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game launched this week. It hits screens next year, on March 15, starring Hailee Steinfeld, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin. The publicity is already giving a sales boost to the book, which moved up the Amazon’s rankings, from #351 to #199.

Also released this week, the teaser trailer for Stephenie Meyer’s adult sci-fi title, The Host (with Meyer in the production role); it will be shown before screenings of The Hunger Games this weekend. Audiences may be baffled by it. In terms of how little it gives away about the movie, it rivals the first John Carter trailers.

It’s scheduled to open two weeks after Ender’s Game, on March 29, 2013. Stills of the movie, starring Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) and Max Irons (Red Riding Hood), are featured in the new issue of People.

Featuring appropriately bright colors (the book is set in Miami), the cover of Tom Wolfe’s next, Back to Blood, was unveiled this week. With this title, Wolfe leaves  his long-time publisher, FSG to move to Little, Brown. He returns, however to editor Pat Strachan, who worked with Wolfe at FSG on several books, including Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff and is now at Little, Brown.

Below is the publisher’s description of the book scheduled for release is October.

As a police launch speeds across Miami’s Biscayne Bay-with officer Nestor Camacho on board-Tom Wolfe is off and running. Into the feverous landscape of the city, he introduces the Cuban mayor, the black police chief, a wanna-go-muckraking young journalist and his Yale-marinated editor; an Anglo sex-addiction psychiatrist and his Latina nurse by day, loin lock by night-until lately, the love of Nestor’s life; a refined, and oh-so-light-skinned young woman from Haiti and her Creole-spouting, black-gang-banger-stylin’ little brother; a billionaire porn addict, crack dealers in the ‘hoods, “de-skilled” conceptual artists at the Miami Art Basel Fair, “spectators” at the annual Biscayne Bay regatta looking only for that night’s orgy, yenta-heavy ex-New Yorkers at an “Active Adult” condo, and a nest of shady Russians. Based on the same sort of detailed, on-scene, high-energy reporting that powered Tom Wolfe’s previous bestselling novels, Back to Blood is another brilliant, spot-on, scrupulous, and often hilarious reckoning with our times.

Back to Blood: A Novel Tom Wolfe Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 608 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2012-10-23) ISBN / EAN: 0316036315 / 9780316036313

Hachette Audio

In the following video, librarians present the case for  ebooks in libraries to major publishers at last week’s Association of American Publishers annual meeting (via Publishers Marketplace). The speakers are ALA President Molly Raphael; Jim Neal, Columbia University libraries; and Tony Marx, NYPL. In the audience  are the heads of most of the largest houses in publishing, including many that do not sell ebooks to libraries.

Video streaming by Ustream

Hunger Games is already expected to be a huge success when it opens tomorrow.The Hollywood Reporter says it “has the potential to score one of the top debuts of all time at the domestic box office.”  Rotten Tomatoes shows a 90% approval rating from critics — holdouts include Time magazine and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

 Slate jumps ahead to the final book in the trilogy, Mockingjay, warning it will “force filmmakers to turn massacre and despair into blockbuster entertainment.”

That trouble could be double; the third book in the series may be split in to two films. No release dates have been announced, but the second in the series, Catching Fire, is scheduled for Nov. 23, 2013.

Jeff Kinney and Abrams’ Amulet Book announced at  the Bologna Children’s Book Fair yesterday that the next Diary of a Wimpy Kid is coming on Nov. 13. It’s listed simply as Book 7, with the tagline “Love is in the Air.”

Love may be in the air, but, based on the cover (click on it to see a larger version), it seems Rodrick isn’t having much luck with it.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 7 Jeff Kinney Retail Price: $13.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Abrams/Amulet- (2012-11-13) ISBN / EAN: 1419705849 / 9781419705847

On NPR’s Fresh Air, reviewer Maureen Corrigan says she is often asked to recommend a suspense story like Caleb Carr’s The Alienist. Nearly twenty years after that book was a best seller, she has finally discovered “one of the worthiest successors yet,” Lyndsay Faye’s The Gods of Gotham.

The NYT review notes, this is the “riveting first installment of a planned series of crime thrillers.”

It is also available on audio from Dreamscape, which is downloadable from OverDrive.

The Gods of Gotham Lyndsay Faye Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Penguin/Putnam/Amy Einhorn Books – (2012-03-15) ISBN / EAN: 0399158375 / 9780399158377

Washington Post journalist Liza Mundy’s new book, The Richer Sex, asserts that women will soon inherit that title.

PW‘s prediction that the book “is sure to create a stir”  is coming true; it’s received major media attention; the cover of the new issue of Time magazine, a feature on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday and an appearance on CBS This Morning last week.

Holds in libraries are modest, but all copies are circulating.

The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family Liza Mundy Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2012-03-20) ISBN / EAN: 1439197717 / 9781439197714

Tantor Audio