EarlyWord

It sounds like a headline from The Onion, but “Richard Nixon Had Gay Affair” comes from The Huffington Post, based on a more detailed story in the Daily Mail, a London tabloid. The allegations come from a book that will be published at the end of January, Nixon’s Darkest Secrets by the former UPI White House correspondent, Don Fulsom.

It was reviewed earlier this month by Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Both say that most of the revelations are based on unreliable sources.

Nixon’s Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America’s Most Troubled President Don Fulsom Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books – (2012-01-31) ISBN / EAN: 0312662963 / 9780312662967

Former Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter’s forthcoming memoir, Life Among the Cannibals is getting attention in his home state. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a story about both Specter and the book, which follows his previous memoir, Passion for Truth, (via Publishers Marketplace). The “cannibals” in the title are,

…the political extremists of both parties whose influence [Specter] blames for an overall erosion in public life and the ability of the federal government to function. He counts his successor, Mr. Toomey, as among that group for his efforts, allied with his former organization, the Club for Growth, to purge the GOP of the endangered species of middle-of-the-road, moderate lawmakers.

Most libraries have not ordered it yet.

Life Among the Cannibals: A Political Career, a Tea Party Uprising, and the End of Governing As We Know It Sen. Arlen Specter, Charles Robbins Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Macmillan/St. Martin’s – (2012-03-27) ISBN / EAN: 1250003687 / 9781250003683

After dozens of Best Books of 2011 lists, the Atlantic looks ahead to fifteen titles to look forward to in 2012, January through the early fall.

Next year brings not only dueling adaptations of Snow White, but of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, in the form of a BBC TV miniseries and a movie.

The miniseries stars Gillian Anderson (she’s had experience with Dickens, having starred in the BBC’s Bleak House in 2005) as Miss Havisham and Ray Winstone as Magwitch. The movie, currently being filmed, stars Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch.

Both the movie and the miniseries dare to depart from Dickens and give the story a new ending (but then, Dickens himself provided two), which has caused a bit of controversy in Great Britain (the American press has so far been silent on that issue).

The two-part miniseries was broadcast in Great Britain over Christmas and will appear on PBS Masterpiece beginning April 1.

At 43, Gillian Anderson is the youngest ever to play Miss Havisham. The Telegraph quotes a Dickens expert who calls her “a cougar rather than a crone.”

But then, the movie Miss Havisham, Helena Bonham Carter is just two years older (Anderson in the role on the left, below; Bonham Carter on the right).

The actor who plays Pip in the movie, Jeremy Irvine, is currently receiving attention for his starring role in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.

Expect to hear much more about Dickens next year, the 200th anniversary of his birth, including a BBC production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which premieres on PBS on April 15.

After many delays, it now looks like Orson Scott Card’s 1985 science fiction classic Ender’s Game will make it to the big screen.

Variety reports that Harrison Ford has signed to play Colonel Hyrum Graff. He joins a cast that included Asa Butterfield (Hugo) as Ender Wiggin, Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), as Ender’s friend, Petra Arkanian, Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) as his sister, Valentine, and Ben Kingsley as Mazer Rackham.

Gavin Hood  (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Tsotsi) is the director. The film is scheduled for release on March 15, 2013.

Season two of the BBC series, Downton Abbey, debuts on PBS on January 8. The return is heralded on NPR’s All Things Considered.

NPR talks to Jessica Fellows, the author of a companion book, The World of Downton Abbey. She describes the extraordinary changes that occurred during the period of the show, just before and during WW I. She says part of the fascination of  this era is the remarkable changes it brought for women, “So many men got called up to war, far more than ever before…girls [like those in the series] had had a very mapped out future — they’d be at home, have the coming-out season, then they would be debutantes, then they would find the right man and go off  to run a country house somewhere. Suddenly, that all changed.”

The World of Downton Abbey Jessica Fellowes Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Macmillan/ St. Martin’s – (2011-12-06) ISBN / EAN: 1250006341 / 9781250006349

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Watch Downton Abbey I Wonder Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

It’s like a national Library Staff Picks display. For eleven days, librarians are tweeting their eleven favorite books of 2011 (thanks to GalleyChat regulars Stephanie Chase, Multnomah County Library and Robin Beerbower, Salem, OR., Public Library who organized it). Today is day eight of the challenge, but it’s not too late to add your favorites (use #libfavs2011 — don’t worry, they’re not doctrinaire about posting just one a day; you can jump in at any time).

There’s not much consensus, but the fun of the exercise is seeing how many books get mentioned (over 90 in the first three days, many of them debuts). In the first days, Ready Player One got several shout outs (see earlier story). Stephanie reports some of yesterday’s leads were:

Before I Go to Sleep, S. J. Watson (Harper); this psychological thriller has received strong support from librarians throughout the year, who made it a BEA Librarians Shout & Share pick and talked it up during GalleyChat sessions.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. The story of a relationship-adverse former foster child who has the strange ability to change people’s lives through her knowledge of the Victorian language of flowers, is described by one librarian as, ” Beautifully written, heartwrenching, unforgettable.”

The YA debut, Hourglass by McIntyre (Egmont USA) has been mentioned by someone every day of the past three days (note to Hollywood: it’s a series! The second book, Timepiece, is coming in June). This unuusual blend of genres is described as, “Inventive, smart, funny, and action-packed. Could not put it down!”

It’s tough enough to portray a well-known person on the screen. Julianne Moore, who plays Sarah Palin in the HBO movie Game Change, faces the additional burden of competing with Tina Fey’s well-known impersonation of the vice presidential candidate.

Below is a glimpse of how she does.

Ed Harris plays John McCain and Woody Harrelson is the campaign strategist Steven Schmidt. The movie, based on the best selling book by Time magazine’s Mark Halperin and New York magazine’s John Heilemann, airs on HBO in March.

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime John Heilemann, Mark Halperin Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 0061733636 / 9780061733635

The two-hour series premiere of The Firm arrives on NBC on January 8th. Below, it’s introduced by author John Grisham, the producer and members of the cast.

The series begins ten years after the book. The original book is being released as a tie-in. It was made into a movie in 1993, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Sydney Pollack.

The Firm (Movie Tie-in Edition) John Grisham Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2012-01-03) ISBN / EAN: 0345534964 / 9780345534965

John is not actually leaking, but his upcoming book is. The Fault in Our Stars is scheduled for release on January 10th, but some copies were mistakenly shipped from BN.com, according to John on his Tumblr site.

As with any news about this book, it resulted in a rise on both Amazon and B&N’s sales rankings.

The Fault in Our Stars John Green Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Dutton Juvenile – (2012-01-10) ISBN / EAN: 0525478817 / 9780525478812

Two of our GalleyChat regulars have started a hashtag for librarians to list their top 11 favorite books from 2011, #libfavs2011. It runs through Dec. 31, so head on over to Twitter and join in. (Thanks to Robin Beerbower, Salem [OR] Library and Stephanie Chase, Multnomah County Library, for starting and shepherding this project).

So far the title with the most mentions is the debut, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (RH/Crown). Librarians backed it early on (it was BEA Shout & Share pick). Try it on readers who claim to hate science fiction. USA Today put it this way, “This unabashedly geeky view of a 2044 dystopia provides an enchanting escape from today’s economic crisis, dreary politicians and international turmoil,” adding, “Few novels set up an engaging plot as fast as this one.” Check your holds; some libraries are showing a significant number.

Publisher Broadway Books is treating the trade paperback, coming in June, as a relaunch, with a new cover.

Ready Player One Ernest Cline Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2012-06-05) ISBN / EAN: 0307887448 / 9780307887443

RH Audio/BOT; Audio and eBook on OverDrive

Former President Bill Clinton and star of The Office, Mindy Kaling appeared on the Today Show to promote reading and their favorite books to give as gifts. Their lists are very different (although Clinton said he’d love to read the first four on Mindy’s list).

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

Below are the lists featured on the show (each had a longer list, available on the web site)

Kaling’s List

#1 11/22/63, Stephen King, (S&S/Scribner)

#2 Bossypants, Tina Fey (Hachette/Little,Brown)

#3 Lady Gaga, Terry Richardson, (Hachette/Grand Central)

#4 My Father’s Daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, (Hachette/Grand Central)

#5 Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Andrew Bolton, (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Clinton’s List

#1 Jerusalem: The Biography, Simon Sebag Montefiore, (RH/Knopf)

#2 Lincoln, David Herbert Donald, (S&S)

#3 Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, (RH/Modern Library and others)

#4 The Way of the World, David Fromkin (RH/Knopf)

#5 The Cure at Troy, Seamus Heaney (S&S/FSG)

We’re happy to announce that our annual spreadsheets, rounding up all the titles in the national best books lists, with ISBN’s and information on additional formats — audio, large print, and eformats from OverDrive — are now available for downloading and checking against your collections.

• 2011 Adult Fiction
• 2011 Adult Nonfiction
• 2011 Childrens and Young Adult

Above are the top books on each list, by number of selections.

The fourth title in NPR’s Backseat Book Club for kids is The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis, (RH/Delacorte), winner of both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King award. On NPR’s Web site, All Things Considered host Michelle Norris describes it as “a modern classic…the story of a hilarious 10-year-old named Kenny whose family is quirky, proud and loving” and their journey from Flint, Michigan to Birmingham, Alabama in the summer of 1963, where they encounter a critical turning point in the Civil Rights movement, the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th St. Baptist Church. Norris, whose family is from Birmingham, says this choice is perfect for January because the book will “entertain and inform young readers as the country remembers the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. for the national holiday in his name.”

The December pick, Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu was featured on All Things Considered last night. As a result, it rose on Amazon’s sales ranking to #293 from #1,152. Published this year, it was on both PW and SLJ‘s Best Books lists (see our spreadsheet which rounds up the major 2011 Childrens and Young Adult best books picks for the year).

Breadcrumbs Anne Ursu Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Walden Pond Press – (2011-09-27) ISBN / EAN: 0062015052 / 9780062015051

It’s a year before the movie is to be released, but the first trailer for The Hobbit, directed by Peter Jackson and based on the book by JRR Tolkien, arrived online last night (the 3-D film opens next Dec. 14). It will be shown in theaters before screenings of Steven Spielberg’s The Advntures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.

A few movie sites are complaining that it looks too much like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, also directed by Jackson and also based on a book by Tolkien, while others found it to be just what they wanted. The most exhaustive examination of  the trailer and what it reveals about the final film is on CinemaBlend.com, “The Hobbit Trailer In Detail: 5 Things We Learned.”

For those of you not up on your Middle Earth timelines, the film is the first in a two-part adaptation of Tolkien’s renowned novel which was the precursor to his Lord of the Rings trilogy. They were made into films, the first of which, The Fellowship of the Rings, came out ten years ago. Thus, the returning actors, like Ian MacKellen, are playimg characters who are  supposed to be younger than they were ten years ago.

The second film in the series, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, which was shot back-to-back with the first, will be released in December, 2013.