EarlyWord

A debut dystopian YA title, Legend by Marie Lu (Putnam) arriving at the end of November, gets early attention from USA Today.

A movie is already in the works, with the producers who worked on the Twilight Saga. Author Marie Lu will appear at Comic-Con this week on a panel with several other women writers, about “kick-ass heroines” in science fiction and fantasy. Lu is the creator of a popular Facebook game, on which the book is based, also called Legend.

In the prepub media, the book has so far only been reviewed by Kirkus, which gave it a star. The first in a planned trilogy, it has an announced a 200,000 first printing.

Legend Marie Lu Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Putnam Juvenile – (2011-11-29) ISBN / EAN: 039925675X / 9780399256752

Penguin Audio; 9781611760088

You know you’ve arrived when your new book is heralded by a publication day sit-down with Matt Lauer on the Today Show. This is now a regular event for Daniel Silva, whose new book, Portrait of a Spy arrived yesterday (it also happens that his wife works for the show, but the fact that each of his last four books has gone to #1 on the NYT Best Seller list probably trumps nepotism). This is the eleventh title in the Gabriel Allon series.

Universal Studios recently acquired the film rights to the series. This is the first of Silva’s books published by HarperCollins after his switch from Putnam.

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Borders, the bookseller that invented the chain superstore concept, has not found a buyer and will ask for approval to liquidate its remaining 399 stores (at its height, Borders operated 1,300 stores), reports the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The company plans to be out of business by the end of September. Nearly 11,000 people will be laid off.

CEO, Mike Edwards, did not blame a history of swiftly changing management and direction, but “the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution and turbulent economy.” (Shelf Awareness published a more insightful analysis of Borders problems in February).

Reuters reports, however, that Books-A-Million may buy some of the stores (fewer than 50).

Beginning in September, DC Comics will relaunch its entire universe — all fifty-two running comic book series — with new number one issues, new character designs, and in some cases, drastic shifts in character origins and line-ups.

These comics will eventually be released in trade paperback. Below is some information to help you figure out which comics to follow and which to buy when they are issued in collections.

Skeptics question just how much reintroducing characters and their origins will draw in new readers. I’d guess not very much, especially since many readers have no idea that such a reboot is in the works (i.e. a significant majority of my library patrons.) Reboots succeed in creating a few fans from folks already frequenting comics shops (and also annoy long-time fans), but I’ve rarely seen such a reintroduction pull in a reader who isn’t already interested in superhero comics. The readers who are eagerly awaiting Craig Thompson’s Habibi or who delight in the gruesome procedural Chew are not going to be won over by shiny new costumes and a bit of new back story. Still, change is good for superhero tales that have gotten mired in relying on hundreds of previous issues for fans to follow along.

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A comment on page 3 the Boston Globe‘s story this Sunday about e-books leaps out,

A recent study by the Pew Internet Project…suggested that one of the groups adopting e-readers most enthusiastically is Hispanic adults. Why? No one is sure. [study is here].

Ownership of e-readers breaks down this way

Hispanic   —               15%
White         —               11%
African-American — 8%

Does this match your experience with your community? Any guesses as to why?

More was going on at the box office this weekend than the confrontation between the HP gang and Lord Voldemort. There was also a battle between the old-fashioned, hand-drawn 2-D animation of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh and the the 3-D live-action HP finale.

HP came out more than victorious, breaking box office records, including its own. The silly old bear? Way behind, in sixth place.

Why did Disney submit Pooh to this humiliation? It seems test marketing made the producers confident that Pooh could stand up to the competition. Don’t count him out yet, says the movie news site Thompson on Hollywood; word of mouth is likely to bring Pooh a wider audience, including adults nostalgic for their childhoods.

Several tie-ins are available:

Winnie the Pooh: A Day of Sweet Surprises Retail Price: $6.99 Paperback: 32 pages Publisher: Disney Press – (2011-05-03) ISBN / EAN: 1423135903 / 9781423135906

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Winnie the Pooh: Forever Friends (Disney Early Readers) Lisa Ann Marsoli Retail Price: $3.99 Paperback: 32 pages Publisher: Disney Press – (2011-05-03) ISBN / EAN: 1423135784 / 9781423135784

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Winnie the Pooh: Hundred-Acre-Wood Treasury (Disney Winnie the Pooh) Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 128 pages Publisher: Disney Press – (2011-05-03) ISBN / EAN: 1423135911 / 9781423135913

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Winnie the Pooh: The Essential Guide (Dk Essential Guides) DK Publishing Retail Price: $12.99 Hardcover: 48 pages Publisher: DK CHILDREN – (2011-06-20) ISBN / EAN: 0756672112 / 9780756672119

Sorry, folks, but the rumor has been confirmed. Tom Cruise will play Jack Reacher in the film, One Shot, based on Lee Child’s novel, according to Deadline.

Shooting will begin this fall.

As dozens of you have pointed out, the role will be a stretch for Cruise; Reacher is described in the novels as 6’5″ and 250 pounds. Child himself has endorsed Cruise, however, saying, “Reacher’s size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way.”

One Shot is the ninth novel in the  Reacher series. Coming this fall is #17, The Affair, (Delacorte, 9/27).

Even if you’ve read Sex on the Moon (Doubleday, 7/12), you still don’t know what motivated aspiring astronaut Thad Roberts to throw everything he achieved away on a crazy scheme to steal and sell moon rocks, a scheme that landed him in jail for six years.

Unfortunately, Mo Rocca’s interview with him on CBS Sunday Morning doesn’t add much insight. Also interviewed is the book’s author, Ben Mezrich, who admits that he still doesn’t understand it either and that Roberts is “the most complicated person I’ve ever written about and…I’ve written about Mark Zuckerberg [in Accidental Billionaires, the basis for the movie The Social Network].

Next week brings various views of the post-9/11 world, including a book that examines ten years worth of evidence about the attacks (The Eleventh Day) and another that looks at upheavals in the Middle East after bin Laden’s death (Rock the Casbah). In fiction, publishers continue to fill the beach reading pipeline.

Watch List

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) follows 11-year-old Harri Opuku, a recent Ghanaian immigrant in London’s housing projects, as he investigates the apparent murder of one of his classmates. LJ says, “If your patrons liked Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and if they rooted for Jamal Malik in Slumdog Millionaire, they will love Harri Opuku.”

Rising Star

Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill (Minotaur Books) launches a new mystery series featuring one of Thailand’s hottest crime reporters, who’s roped into running a down-at-the-heels resort purchased by her possibly senile mother and stumbles into murder. It has THREE starred reviews, from LJ, PW and Booklist, which says “Cotterill combines plenty of humor with fascinating and unusual characters, a solid mystery, and the relatively unfamiliar setting of southern Thailand to launch what may be the best new international mystery series since the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.” Librarians on GalleyChat agree that it’s a fun read.

Usual Suspects

Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons (Grand Central) explores a disintegrating marriage and familial betrayal in rural North Carolina. Kirkus says, “Siddons is at her usual incisive best at skewering the mores of socially pretentious Southerners, and her prose is limpid and mesmerizing, but the Grand Guignol denouement beggars belief.”

Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel (Delacorte) follows a mother-daughter duo—one a Martha Stewart-style lifestyle guru, the other a shy, gifted chef—both facing turning points, and each about to find love when she least expects it.

Justice by Karen Robards (Gallery Press) is the latest adventure featuring criminal attorney Jessica Ford, as she defends the victim of a rape case involving a sentor’s son.

Split Second by Catherine Coulter (Putnam) continues the FBI Thriller series with agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock, this time locking horns with a serial killer who has ties to Ted Bundy. Booklist says, “Told from several points of view, including the serial killer’s, the novel moves quickly, thanks to short chapters and numerous plot twists. One plot element, the appearance of a magic ring, requires significant suspension of disbelief and proves jarring in this otherwise realistic and, in the main, riveting story.”

Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva (Harper) is an espionage thriller whose protagonist is both an art enthusiast and secret agent.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Dominian by Eric Van Lustbader (Grand Central Publishing) continues Robert Ludlum’s story of Jason Bourne, a rogue secret agent who has lost his memory. Publishers Weekly says, “it’s a testament to Lustbader’s skills that he can keep everyone in place and blazing away without losing track of the ongoing plot. While one needn’t have read the earlier volumes, knowledge of the last two or three would help keep things straight.” This is the fourth in the Bourne series written by Lustbader. Of course, Ludlum’s Bourne titles have been made into successful movies, starring Matt Damon. The first of the series to be written by Lustbader, The Bourne Legacy, is currently in pre-production as a movie, but this time without Damon. The planned release date is Aug. 3, 2012.

Star Wars: Choices of One by Timothy Zahn (LucasBooks) is a new adventure for Luke Skywalker and friends set during the original trilogy.

Nonfiction

The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole who Infiltrated the CIA by Joby Warrick (Doubleday) is a Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post intelligence reporter’s investigation of the intelligence failures that allowed a suicide bomber to kill seven CIA agents in Afghanistan. LJ says, “Warrick’s straight journalistic report, without editorializing, is highly recommended both to those who follow the U.S. war on terror and to all readers of spy and espionage thrillers.”

The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan (Ballantine) uses a decade of new information to analyze the 9/11 attacks.

Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World by Robin Wright (Simon & Schuster) is look at the upheaval in the Middle East following Osama bin Laden’s death and the recent uprisings that delivers the stirring news that jihadism is fading, and Arab nations are finally entering the modern world. Kirkus ays that it is “more journalism than deep analysis, [and] paints a vivid portrait of dramatic changes in the Islamic world.”

Swing Your Sword: Leading the Charge in Football and Life by Mike Leach (Diversion) is a look at the unorthodox career path and coaching techniques that helped Leach take the Texas Tech Red Raiders to numerous bowl games, achieving the #2 slot in national rankings and being voted 2008 Coach of the Year before being unceremoniously fired at the end of the 2009 season.

The title of Brian Selznick’s book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret has been reduced to simply Hugo for the Martin Scorsese adaptation (that’s right, the director of Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Gangs of New York, goes family-friendly and 3-D this time).

It arrives in theaters this Thanksgiving. The first trailer has just appeared on the Web (watch the HD version here).

This Fall, Scholastic will publish The Hugo Movie Companion (Oct), and the Hugo Cabret Notebook (Nov), a facsimile of the notebook that Cabret uses in the movie. Both are by Brian Selznick.

Libraries reported unexpectedly heavy holds on several titles during this week’s GalleyChat. The following list is in order by the largest holds ratios in the libraries we checked.

Once Upon a River, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Norton, 7/5; Holds over 10:1

The author’s collection of short stories, American Salvage, was a surprise finalist for the 2009 National Book Award. After the NBA put the book on the map, it appeared on most of the end-of-the year best books lists. With one exception, the consumer reviews for Campbell’s new book have been very strong, with Ron Charles in the Washington Post describing the book’s appeal most clearly. Curiously, neither the daily NYT nor the Sunday NYT Book Review have covered it.

Sister, Rosamund Lupton, Crown, 6/7; Holds 8:1 where buying is light

A debut novel that the NYT BR describes as a “taut, hold-your-breath-and-your-handkerchief thriller,” which was a big success in the UK last year.

 
The Watery Part of the World, Michael Parker, Algonquin, 4/26; Holds 8:1 where buying is light

Prepub reviews for this historical novel set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina were very strong, with Kirkus giving it a star (“A vividly imagined historical tale”). Nancy Pearl calls it “transporting” and included it in her “10 Terrific Summer Reads” on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Iron House, John Hart, St. Martins, 7/12; Holds 3:1
Audio, Macmillan audio; Large print, Thorndike

Three to one holds may not be impressive, but this is likely to be just the start for two-time Edgar winner John Hart. This is his fourth book since 2006, giving him name recognition and a growing fan base. More attention will arrive soon; it is the #1 title on the August Indie Next List. Hart  writes mysteries that are both plot- and character-driven, as he describes in the following interview:

They must be high-fiving over at Knopf. Their big front-list title of the summer, The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan (Knopf, 7/12) gets the love from the Washington Post‘s Ron Charles, in a review studded with praise, for the language, chacterizations, plot and even the “hot werewolf sex scenes (which will tempt readers “to wander out under the full moon [themselves] next month.”)

Duncan was interviewed yesterday on Minnesota Public Radio. Interviewer Kerri Miller admits that she was wary of a book featuring a werewolf, but ended up loving it so much that she keeps pressing it on others. She was tipped off by Justin Cronin (author of The Passage), who says he is reviewing it for a “major daily.”

Unsurprisingly, given the enthusiastic coverage on Minnesota Public Radio, holds are building fast in Minnesota libraries. Libraries in other parts of the country are showing modest holds on light ordering (single copies for the larger branches). Time to order more; this kind of enthusiasm indicates word of mouth should be taking off soon.

Available in audio from RHAudio and as downloadable audiobook and eBook from OverDrive.

In yesterday’s post about the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie, we said that Noomi Rapace, who will stars as Lisbeth Salander in the English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, also appears in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. A comment pointed out that Rooney Mara is actually in the English-language version. Thinking we had the wrong actress, we made a correction.

Turns out we had the right girl, but the wrong movie. Rapace, starred in the Danish -Swedish language adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, and is also in Sherlock Holmes movie.

We’ve also learned that Penguin will release an anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories in September that includes The Final Problem, which Holmes 2 is loosely based on. A burst on the cover reads, “Inspiration for the Major Motion Picture.”

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Conan Doyle Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2011-09-27) ISBN / EAN: 0143120158 / 9780143120155

NYT reviewer Janet Maslin is not amused by Ben Mezrich’s new book Sex On the Moon (Doubleday, 7/12; Large Type, Thorndike; Audio, RH Audio), calling the author a “…baloney artist whose highly speculative, Peeping Tom version of the Facebook story (The Accidental Billionaires) became, through no apparent fault of Mr. Mezrich’s, the basis for a brilliant, razor-edged movie (The Social Network).” Throughout the rest of the review, Maslin is unequivocal in her dislike of both the author and his dozen books.

In The Miami Herald, reviewer Larry Lebowitz notes that other critics have raised serious questions about the Mezrich’s approach, saying he takes “…too many dramatic liberties, blending factual events and creating composite characters for the convenience of narrative flow and storytelling simplicity. Mezrich hasn’t helped his own cause, arguing in some interviews that he’s an entertainer creating a new genre of fact-based popular nonfiction.”

But, says Lebowitz, “If you’re willing to cast aside such questions and simply want to enjoy a rollicking summertime page-turner crackling with sex, astronauts, stolen dinosaur bones and international cyber-intrigue, then Sex on the Moon is your book.”

It is also one of five titles recommended as “Summer’s Biggest, Juiciest Nonfiction Adventures” on the NPR Web site.

What will Harry Potter fans do now that, as the posters for the movie starkly proclaim, “It all ends July 15”?

NPR asked one of their interns, who was 7 when HP began, to recommend books for others who grew up with Harry and are now ready for some adult titles.

Her top pick is The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Viking, 2009), “a heartrending, cathartic examination of the nature of magic and our relationship to the stories we wanted to live in as kids — required reading for anyone trying to recover from a lifelong love affair with a fictional world.”

That struck a chord; the book rose to #144 on Amazon’s sales rankings from #1,320 the day before.

For those who have already read that book, a sequel arrives next month.

The Magician King: A Novel Lev Grossman Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2011-08-09) ISBN / EAN: 0670022314 / 9780670022311