EarlyWord

Next week, look out for 80-year-old Pakistani debut novelist and international publishing discovery Jamil Ahmad, plus new novels from Jeffrey Eugenides and Allan Hollinghurst. In nonfiction, there are memoirs from Harry Belafonte and Ozzie Osbourne, and a fresh look at the Jonestown massacre.

Attention Grabber

via @PeterLattman

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Macmillan Audio; Thorndike Large Print). Visitors to Times Square may be startled by the unfamiliar phenomenon of a giant billboard featuring an author. Pictured is Jeffrey Eugenides, in full stride, a la the Marlboro Man. Anticipation is high for the release on Tuesday of his new book, The Marriage Plot  (FSG), the first since his 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex. Even Business Week gives it an early look. Set during the 1980s recession, it follows three disillusioned college students caught in a love triangle. The Los Angeles Times compares it favorably to Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, calling it “sweeter, kinder, with a more generous heart. What’s more, it is layered with exactly the kinds of things that people who love novels will love.” Michiko Kakutani says in the NYT, “No one’s more adept at channeling teenage angst than Jeffrey Eugenides. Not even J. D. Salinger” and NPR interviewed the author on Wednesday. Holds are heavy in most libraries.

Watch List

The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad (Riverhead; 10/13) is a series of fictional sketches about a family on the harsh border region between Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan that has become a literary sensation in Pakistan and has received positive coverage in the UK. The author is a Pakistani writer who is now 80 years old, and was engaged in welfare work in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas for decades. According to a Los Angeles Times interview, Penguin India picked up the book in 2008 after  it was submitted for a contest, 37 years after London publishers had originally rejected it.  U.S. trade reviews are mixed, with PW calling it a “gripping book, as important for illuminating the current state of this region as it is timeless in its beautiful imagery and rhythmic prose,” while Kirkus says it’s “fascinating material that’s badly in need of artistic shaping.”

Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst (Knopf; Random House Audio) is a social satire about the legacy of a talented and beautiful poet who perishes in WWI, in the vein of E.M. Forster and Evelyn Waugh – written by the 2004 Booker prize winner for the Line of Beauty. The Washington Post says it “could hardly be better,” and PW calls it “a sweet tweaking of English literature’s foppish little cheeks by a distinctly 21st-century hand.”

Usual Suspects

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Grand Central Large Print) explores the decades of fallout caused by a misguided high school romance.

Snuff (Discworld Series #39) by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins) brings back fan favorite Sam Vimes, the cynical yet extraordinarily honorable Ankh-Morpork City Watch commander as he faces two weeks off in the country on his wife’s family’s estate. There are more than 65 million copies of the series out there.

Young Adult

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Mass Market; Trade Paper) is back in a movie tie-in edition, in advance of the film opening November 18. Beginning Nov. 1, theaters will feature “Twilight Tuesday” showings of the entire series, including new  interviews with the cast and behind the scenes footage.

The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Mark Cotta Vaz (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Memoirs

My Song: A Memoir by Harry Belafonte and Michael Shnayerson (Knopf; Random House Audio; Random House Large Print ) is the memoir of the music icon and human rights activist.

Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy: Advice from Rock’s Ultimate Survivor by Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Ayres (Grand Central; Hachette Audio) is a humorous memoir mixed with dubious medical advice.

Nonfiction

Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam by Lewis Sorley (Houghton Mifflin) argues that much of the fault for losing the Vietnam War lies with General William Westmoreland. Kirkus says, “The general’s defenders will have their hands full answering Sorley’s blistering indictment.”

A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown by Julia Scheeres (Free Press) follows the experiences of five Peoples Temple members who went to the Jonestown farm in Guyana to sacrifice their lives to the vision of a zealous young preacher. Scheeres draws on thousands of recently declassified FBI documents and audiotapes, as well as rare videos and interviews. PW says, “Chilling and heart-wrenching, this is a brilliant testament to Jones’s victims.”

Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible: The New Classic Guide to Delicious Dishes with More Than 300 Recipes by Paula Deen and Melissa Clark (Simon & Schuster) is a collection of Southern recipes. PW says it’s “not quite as comprehensive as it could be, [but] certainly an honorable addition to the field.”

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books) is at #4 on the NYT Print Children’s Best Seller list after 17 weeks, so we were curious if there will be a sequel to this wonderfully peculiar novel that features strange and creepy old photographs.

We’re not the only ones. Back in August, author Ransom Riggs responded to numerous fan inquiries with the news that a sequel is in the works:

I just got back from a whirlwind trip around the country to hunt down a new crop of peculiar photos for book 2. I scored lots of great images — now I just have to figure out how to use them! But that, as they say, is the fun part.

The publisher, Quirk Books, adds that the as-yet-untitled sequel is scheduled for Spring 2013. There might also be a movie; rights were sold to 20th Century Fox in May.

In late August, when Walter Isaacson’s bio of Steve Jobs was moved from a release date of March 6, 2013 to Nov. 21 of this year, it made headlines as observers speculated on the reasons for the change (As tech journalist Nicholas Thompson said, “who really finishes a book early, particularly when the subject is someone as irascible and complex as Steve Jobs?”).

With the death of Jobs yesterday, the news that the book will appear even earlier, on Oct. 24, is no surprise.

Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 656 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2011-10-24) ISBN / EAN: 1451648537 / 9781451648539

Unabridged Audio; S&S Audio. Large Type, Thorndike, 9781410445223

At least you can credit the Nobel committee with consistency. Again, the committee passed on American writers (a Nobel judge said in 2008, Americans are “too insular” to be worthy of the award; Toni Morrison was the last American to win, in 1993). A late surge in betting at Ladbroke’s in the UK gave Americans brief hope that Bob Dylan might be the winner.

This year’s winner, Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer, at least has some connection to the US. The Guardian, in reviewing a new collection of his poetry earlier this year, called him, “…that rare thing: a non-English-language poet who has been fully accepted into British and US poetry in his own lifetime. In the 60s he became associated with Robert Bly and the Deep Image school of US poetry.”

For Americans not familiar with him, the AP story provides helpful information on the pronunciation of his name; TRAWN-stroh-mur.

Transtromer’s latest, New Collected Poetry hasn’t been published in the US yet, but three earlier collections are available and in many library collections.

The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems Tomas Transtromer Retail Price: $17.95 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: New Directions – (2006-10-17) ISBN / EAN: 0811216721 / 9780811216722

..

Tomas Transtromer: Selected Poems, 1954-1986 Tomas Transtromer Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 208 pages Publisher: Ecco – (2000-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0880014032 / 9780880014038

…

The Half-Finished Heaven: The Best Poems of Tomas Tranströmer Tomas Transtromer, Robert Bly Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 122 pages Publisher: Graywolf Press – (2001-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 1555973515 / 9781555973513

Last year’s announcement that Michelle William would star as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, based on the book of the same title, set off a round of “who could do it better,” including MTV’s review of actresses who have portrayed the icon in various magazine photo shoots, from Lindsay Lohan to Nicole Kidman.

With the release of the movie trailer, debates are beginning again. So far, reactions are good, with the Huffington Post declaring that, even if Williams doesn’t completely embody the look or the voice, she portrays “the desperation, fear and playfulness that made Monroe perhaps the most famous woman on the 20th century.”

The book, which was published in the UK in 2000, is being released for the first time in the U.S. as a tie-in (also on audio from Dreamscape and on OverDrive).

My Week with Marilyn Colin Clark Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Weinstein Books – (2011-10-04) ISBN / EAN: 1602861498 / 9781602861497

Two other adaptations of books about Monroe were announced last year. Angelina Jolie was slated for an adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s The Life And Opinions Of Maf The Dog, And Of His Friend Marilyn Monroe (HMH, 2010) with George Clooney as Frank Sinatra.  Naomi Watts was set to play her in Blonde, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates (HarperCollins, 2000; now in trade pbk). No news since; both projects seem to be on the back burner.

The Oliver Stone film of Don Winslow’s thriller, Savages has finished shooting and is set for release on 9/28/12. It features a remarkably high-profile cast, including Benecio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Emile Hirsch, John Travolta, and Uma Thurman.

Buzz must be good. Warner Bros. just purchased the rights to another title by Winslow, Satori (Grand Central, 3/7/11), with the intent of starring Leonardo DiCaprio in a multi-film series, similar to the successful Bourne franchise the studio developed for Matt Damon, based on the books by Robert Ludlum.

Following his best-selling book, Savages, Winslow was commissioned to write Satori as a prequel to the 1979 best-seller, Shibumi, by Trevanian (the pseudonym for film scholar, Rodney William Whitaker, who died in 2005). Both books feature the handsome mystic and renowned lover, Nicholai Hel, who also happens to be the world’s most accomplished assassin. When Satori was published earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal called Hel “one of the singular figures of 20th-century espionage fiction.”

The prequel shows Hel at the age of 26, years before we see him in Shibumi, which begins with the character in his late fifties. DiCaprio is in his mid thirties, giving him several years to catch up the Trevanian version of Hel. If Satori is a successful film, expect to hear that Winslow has been tapped to write more prequels.

DiCaprio is currently in Australia, where Baz Luhrmann has just begun filming The Great Gatsby. The movie is already having an effect on fashion.

On The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, Michael Lewis freely admitted that he wasn’t excited about the prospect of a movie version of his book, Moneyball.

Given the author’s recent success with Hollywood, Stewart opened the interview by asking who he would pick to play Ben Bernanke in the movie version of his new book on the world financial crisis, Boomerang; Travels in the New Third World, (Norton, 10/3; S&S Audio). The book is currently at #4 on Amazon sales rankings; expect to see it on upcoming best seller lists. Several libraries are showing heavy holds.

Hmmm, Dustin Hoffman? Paul Giamatti?

Tom Cruise with a beard?

The first full-length trailer for Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, based on the book by Michael Morpurgo (Scholastic, 2007), has just hit the interwebs.

A teaser trailer was released in June. This new, longer version has considerably more emotional impact (warning: tears my be jerked).

The book was also adapted as a play that has been a hit both here and in the U.K., where it’s been running for four years. The Guardian published a piece yesterday on why it has been so successful and whether it will be hurt by the competing film version. The writer thinks not, because theater has its own special magic. We think not because both the play and the book will gain from the publicity.

The tie-in is coming next month:

War Horse: (Movie Cover) Michael Morpurgo Retail Price: $8.99 Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2011-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0545403359 / 9780545403351

Official Movie Site: WarHorseMovie.com

Spielberg has two family films competing for attention during the Christmas holiday. The animated, 3-D adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin opens on 12/21. War Horse follows on Christmas Day.

The director’s next two films are also based on books. This month, he begins filming Lincoln, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals (S&S, 2005). It stars Daniel Day Lewis in the title role and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln.

In an interview in the current issue of the UK film magazine, Empire, Spielberg says that Teams of Rivals is,

…much too big a book to be a movie, so the Lincoln story only takes place in the last few months of his Presidency and life. I was interested in how… he passed the 13th Amendment into constitutional law. The Emancipation Proclamation was a war powers act and could have been struck down by any court after the war ended…But what permanently ended slavery was the very close vote in the House of Representatives over the 13th Amendment – that story I’m excited to tell.

Following Lincoln, he turns to quite different subject matter with Robopocalypse, based on the novel by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday, June, 2011), a debut thriller set in the near future, about technology uniting and turning against us. Heavily promoted at BEA this year, it landed on the NYT best seller list at #13 for one week and is still on hold in some libraries. Spielberg signed it before it was published, based on a 100-page sample. He tells Empire that it reminded him of Michael Chrichton (Spielberg’s hit Jurassic Park was based on his 1990 novel) and he hopes to begin shooting some time next year, with a release date some time in the summer of 2013.

In her monthly appearance on Seattle’s NPR station, KUOW, librarian Nancy Pearl talked about her favorite titles of the current season. In addition to several major adult releases, she picks a debut YA novel.

The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach, (Little, Brown, 9/7; Hachette Large Print) — “the one I am most excited by.”

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard, (Random House, 9/20; RH Audio; BOT Audio) — About one of our least-remembered presidents, James Garfield, so the subject is not what will draw in readers, but, says Nancy, “a wonderful author like Candice Millard can make you interested in everything.”

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend , Susan Orlean, (S&S, 9/27; S&S Audio; Large Type, Thorndike) — Nancy loves the details, including “how the character of Rin Tin Tin changed from silent movies to the TV show.”

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 9/13; Audio, RH Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print,Center Point) — Nancy says it’s for people who liked The Time Travelers Wife.

Legend by Marie Lu (Putnam. 11/29)  — a forthcoming teen fantasy novel that Nancy calls ” just terrific.” It received early attention back in July from USA Today. The first in a planned trilogy of dystopian YA novels, it’s catnip for Hollywood. No surprise, rights were snapped up in February. Director Jonathan Levin (his 50/50 has just been released) was attached to it in May, moving it another step along the process. VOYA just reviewed the book (5Q 5P J S), saying, “Debut author Lu has managed a great feat—emulating a highly successful young adult series while staying true to her own voice.” Kirkus gave it a star.

Make a space next to your Nancy Pearl action figure for “The Men of the Stacks” 2012 calendar, featuring that rare breed, male librarians (Mr. January is to the left of Nancy).

The library profession doesn’t often get attention in Entertainment Weekly, but this project is currently featured in EW’s “Shelf Life” blog.

The calendar is dedicated to Locke Jeffries Morrisey, former Head of Reference and Research Services at the University of San Francisco Library, and one of the driving forces behind the project. Proceeds from its sales go to the It Gets Better Project.

If you’re curious about the guy in the photo (we’re not showing the full shot — he is holding a book in his right hand — we’re dying to know what it is, but the cover is difficult to read), he is listed as Zack, New York City. Originally from Nebraska, he is 6′ 5″, plays rugby and works as an EMT on weekends (“Working at emergency medicine in New York City relaxes him, compared to the library business), but no word on what library he works in.

The Nobel Prizes are being announced this week, with the Prize for Literature coming on Thursday, so betting is on in the UK. Japanese writer Haruki Murakami is currently #3 at bookmaker Ladbroke’s, with odds of 9:1. If he wins, it would put American libraries in the unfamiliar position of already owning the books by a new Nobel laureate, since he has been widely published here. It would also be perfect timing for the Oct, 25 release of the author’s 900-page novel in the U.S, 1Q84, (Knopf; Brilliance Audio).

Murakami’s publisher has been beating the publicity drum for what they call the author’s “long-awaited magnum opus,” by giving away a chapter to those who “like” the book on Facebook and releasing an excerpt in New Yorker in September. The book has been in the top 100 on Amazon for 21 days, rising to #47 today.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the race to translate the book to meet “pent-up demand” (it was published two years ago in Japan in and has sold over 4 million copies there), describing it as

…a twist on George Orwell’s 1984, which Mr. Murakami frequently references. (In Japanese, the word for ‘nine’ is pronounced ‘kyu’). Rather than an Orwellian dystopian future, Mr. Murakami paints an alternate past. In his characteristically stark, unadorned prose, Mr. Murakami tells an epic love story set in Tokyo in 1984. Aomame, a young female hired assassin, and Tengo, an aspiring novelist, are separately drawn into a parallel reality where some people have two souls, two moons hang in the sky and mysterious ‘little people’ wield power.

Don’t rush to place your bets, however. The winner of the Prize is notoriously difficult to predict; last year’s winner, Herta Muller was given odds of 50:1.

On the Pittsburgh set of the movie version of Lee Child’s book, One Shot, (Delacorte, 2005), Tom Cruise practiced some extreme driving. Celebrity news sites are noting that he’s also cut his hair for the role as Jack Reacher.

Reacher fans have been unhappy about the choice of Cruise, complaining that he is too short (by about ten inches) and too handsome for the role. Lee Child again defends the choice in an interview with the British film magazine, Empire, out this week, saying, “the movie is not going to match the book anyway. If you look at what [screenwriter/director Christopher] McQuarrie and Cruise have done before [McQuarrie wrote the screenplay for Valkyrie, in which Cruise starred], I think this Reacher will be more clinical – the scalpel rather than the sledgehammer. What people forget is that Tom Cruise is quite possibly the best actor of his generation.”

Unlike height, however, talent is debatable.

The movie is scheduled for release in early 2013. The most recent Reacher novel, The Affair (Delacorte/RH; RH Audio and Books on Tape;  RH Large type) came out last week and is currently at #13 on Amazon sales rankings.

In an interview in the Daily Mail, Child says that he never expected the books to be popular with women, but “Women are fanatically keen on the series, and I’ve spent 15 years trying to find out why…it may be that the lack of commitment, the walking away from relationships is just as much a female fantasy as a male one, perhaps more so. Reacher is the kind of man women might like to have walk up to their door and stay a couple of days, and then leave. Also, Reacher likes and respects women, and that comes through. He doesn’t patronize them. There’s no hint of sexism.”

But the real reason may be that he writes strong female characters, “I don’t see why they should always be the bimbo who twists her ankle and needs rescuing. I write women as strong creatures every bit as competent as Reacher, and sometimes more so.”

As Janet Maslin notes in her NYT review of The Affair, the title refers Reacher’s relationship with a beautiful sheriff, who “acts just like a she-Reacher; she can match him quip for quip, leap for leap, burger for burger. Whether motivated by creative fervor or commercial instinct, Mr. Child has at long last given Reacher sex scenes, but they are stealthily funny: Reacher’s idea of sex, like his idea of everything else, is filled with precise calculation.

Next week holds many riches: Michael Lewis‘s follow up to The Big Short, Susan Orlean‘s much anticipated Rin Tin Tin bio, a new novel from Michael Ondaatje that’s said to be his most engaging since The English Patient, and Jose Saramago‘s final work, plus a new novel from Booker Prize-winner Anne Enright.

Watch List

The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Norton, Thorndike Large Print) is the story of an ill-fated affair that leads to the collapse of two marriages, set in Ireland as the Celtic Tiger wanes into recession. It follows Gathering, Enright’s Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller (for more than five months). Kirkus says Enright “once again brings melancholy lyricism to a domestic scenario and lifts it into another dimension.” It was also a pick on our own Galley Chat.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (Algonquin; Highbridge Audio; Large Type, Thorndike, 9781410445063) is a dystopian take on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, in which Hannah Payne wakes up after having been injected with a virus to turn her skin red, punishment for aborting her unborn child. Library Journal says, “Jordan offers no middle ground: she insists that readers question their own assumptions regarding freedom, religion, and risk. Christian fundamentalists may shun this novel, but book clubs will devour it.” It was a GalleyChat Pick of ALA, in which one reader called it a “brilliant, disturbing, unexpected turn. Much more than 1984 meets The Scarlet Letter.”

Eagerly Awaited

The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf; Random House Audio; Books on Tape) is the author’s “best novel since his Booker Prizewinning The English Patient,” according to Publishers Weekly. It starts with an 11 year-old boy’s voyage from Ceylon to London to live with his divorced mother, getting up to all sorts of mischief with two other children on the ship, in adventures that color his life for years to come.

Night Strangers by Christopher Bohjalian (Crown; Random House Audio; Books on Tape; Random House Large Print) is the story of a traumatized pilot – one of nine plane crash survivors – who retreates with his family to a New Hampshire town, but doesn’t find much peace. Library Journal calls it a “genre-defying novel, both a compelling story of a family in trauma and a psychological thriller that is truly frightening. The story’s more gothic elements are introduced gradually, so the reader is only slightly ahead of the characters in discerning, with growing horror, what is going on.”  It was also got some enthusiastic mentions on GalleyChat last July.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman (Scribner) is historical fiction centering on four powerful women, set during the Roman siege of the Judean fortress on Masada. It’s a librarian favorite.

Young Adult

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (Random House Audio; Books on Tape) is the second book in the Heroes of Olympus series.

The Lost Stories (Ranger’s Apprentice Series #11) by John Flanagan (Philomel/Penguin) is a collection of “lost” tales that fill in the gaps between Ranger’s Apprentice novels, written in response to questions his fans have asked over the years.

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick (S & S Books for Young Readers) is the conclusion to the Hush Hush saga, in which Patch and Nora, armed with nothing but their absolute faith in each other, enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything.

Usual Suspects

Nonfiction

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis (Norton; S&S Audio) is a follow up to The Big Short, in which the bestselling author visits societies like Iceland, which transformed themselves when credit was easy between 2002 and 2008, and are paying the price. As we’ve mentioned, Michiko Kakutani has already given the book a glowing review in the New York Times, which caused the book to rise to #17 on Amazon’s sales rankings. Lewis will appear on NPR, CBS radio and TV, and on MSNBC.

Seriously… I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres (Grand Central; Hachette Audio) is a collection of humorous musings by the afternoon talk show host, that comes eight years after her last bestseller. Kirkus says, “though DeGeneres doesn’t provide many laugh-out-loud moments, her trademark wit and openness shine through.”

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True by Richard Dawkins (Free Press; S&S Audio) finds the master science writer and author of The God Delusion teaming up with a master of the graphic novel to create a new genre: the graphic science book that considers the universe in all its glory, magical without creator or deity. Kirkus says, “watch for this to be mooted and bruited in school board meetings to come. And score points for Dawkins, who does a fine job of explaining earthquakes and rainbows in the midst of baiting the pious.”

The Price of Civilization by Jeffrey Sachs (Random House; Random House Audio; Books on Tape) is the blueprint for America’s economic recovery by the well-known economist, who argues that we must restore the virtues of fairness, honesty, and foresight as the foundations of national prosperity. Kirkus says, “A lucid writer, the author is refreshingly direct—tax cuts for the wealthy are ‘immoral and counterproductive’; stimulus funding and budget cutting are ‘gimmicks’—and he offers recommendations for serious reform.” He will appear on NPR’s Morning Edition and on several TV news shows.

Movie Tie-ins

The Descendants: A Novel (Random House Trade Paperback) ties into the movie starring George Clooney, which opens 11/18. A dark comedy about a dysfunctional family in Hawaii, it received raves at the Toronto Film Festival (Variety: “one of those satisfying, emotionally rich films that works on multiple levels.”) By director Alexander Payne, whose earlier movie Sideways increased tourism to Napa Valley, this may do the same for Hawaii; it is also a good opportunity to reintroduce readers to the book, the first novel by Hawaiian Kaui Hart Hemmings, which came out to strong reviews in 2007 (as exemplified by this one in the NYT Book Review). Trailer here.

The Rum Diary: A Novel by Hunter S. Thompson (S&S) is the tie-in to the film adaptation of the only published novel by the gonzo journalist, starring Johnny Depp (who played Thompson in the poorly received Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). The movie, opening Oct 21, has a strong cast, but it’s based on one of Thompson’s weakest works, so it may do more for rum sales than for the book. Trailer here,

The coming fiftieth anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death in 2012 is fueling even more Marilyn Obsession (as it was described last week in the NYT Fashion & Style section).

The October Vogue cover story features a photo shoot by Annie Liebowitz of Michelle Williams as Marilyn, the role she plays in the upcoming movie My Week with Marilyn. About her performance, the article says Williams “brings Monroe to life with heartbreaking delicacy and precision without resorting to impersonation or cliché.”

The movie premieres as the centerpiece of the NY film festival and begins its theatrical release on Nov. 4. In addition to Williams as Monroe, Kenneth Branagh plays Sir Laurence Olivier, Eddie Redmayne is Colin Clark and Emma Watson appears in her first post-Harry Potter role, as a wardrobe assistant.

Based on a book that will be published for the first time in the U.S. next week, it’s about the friendship between Marilyn and Colin Clark, the son of Sir Kenneth Clark (most well-known to Americans for his 1969 BBC series, Civilization), that developed during the troubled shooting of The Prince and the Showgirl. Clark wrote two memoirs about that time, both of which caused a sensation when they were published in the UK over ten years ago.

My Week with Marilyn is also being released in audio (Dreamscape and on OverDrive), featuring Simon Prebble, one of AudioFile’s Best Voices of 2009, who takes on the challenge of reproducing Monroe’s breathy voice (listen to a clip here).

My Week with Marilyn Colin Clark Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Weinstein Books – (2011-10-04) ISBN / EAN: 1602861498 / 9781602861497

In 2004, Colin Clark made his own, charmingly retro, documentary film based on his memoirs.

Also coming next week is a book of previously unpublished photos of Marilyn. It is featured in Vanity Fair.

Marilyn: Intimate Exposures Susan Bernard Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Sterling Signature – (2011-10-04) ISBN / EAN: 140278001X / 9781402780011