EarlyWord

Two of what Deadline calls “the most coveted roles for young actors this season” have been filled. Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth will star opposite Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games, based on the book by Suzanne Collins and to be directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville). Hutceherson (The Kids are All Right), will play the baker’s son Peeta Mellark and Hemsworth (The Last Song) will be Gale Hawthorne.

The movie, expected to be the first in a trilogy, is scheduled for release on March 23, 2012.

Please join us for anther lively GalleyChat tomorrow, April 5, from 4 to 5 p.m. Tell us what galleys you’re loving and find out which ones to move to the top of your TBR pile (info. on how to join here).

Of the over 40 titles that were discussed GalleyChat in March, the following forthcoming debuts got the most mentions:

Before I Go To Sleep, S. J.  Watson, (Harper, May 25)
Described by one GalleyChatter as “…creepy and haunting, and yet not so scary you couldn’t read it before bed.” Another said it’s “almost as good as last year’s breakout thriller Still Missing.” (by the way, Chevy Stevens’ second book Never Knowing arrives in July)

Booksellers are also enthusiasts; it’s #17 on the most-ordered forthcoming fiction list from Edelweiss.

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern, (Doubleday, Sept, 13)
Several asked about this one, because of advance buzz. The description, “It’s a magical competition, with a love story and fascinating cast of characters,” plus that “it’s about two musicians and a circus that only appears at night” brought even more interest.

The book has been blurbed by a diverse range of writers — Tea Obreht, Brunonia Barry and Danielle Trussoni — indicating it walks the literary/commercial line. Arguing for the commercial side, it made movie news back in January, when a film deal was announced, and is backed by a 175,000-copy first printing. And on the literary, it’s a Barbara Hoffert Pick in LJ‘s Prepub Alert

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away, Christie Watson, (Other Press, May 10)
Advance buzz also brought interest in this debut set in contemporary Nigeria, but few had read it yet. Booklist has just reviewed it, saying it tells a story of “culture clash without heavy messages, but the issues are sure to spark intense discussion.”

The galley is available on NetGalley. We hope to hear more about it in tomorrow’s discussion.

Congrats to librarian favorite, Jacqueline Winspear. Her latest book, A Lesson in Secrets, the eighth in her Maisie Dobbs mysteries (and the second to be published by Harper), lands at #6 on the 4/10 NYT hardcover fiction list, her highest spot to date (Among the Mad arrived at #9).

Also, to C.J. Box, whose Cold Wind (Putnam/Penguin), the 11th book to feature Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, arrives at #10 on the list. Several in the series have been on the extended list, but this is the first to make the leap to the main list.

Universal has acquired the rights to Daniel Silva’s series of best selling thrillers featuring spy/art restorer Gabriel Allon. The producers anticipate that this will be a franchise, but they haven’t decided which book will be filmed first. (Deadline, 4/1/11)

Silva’s tenth book in the Allon series, Portrait of a Spy, (Harper) is coming in July.

Titles to Watch

Please Look After Mom by Kyung Sook-Shin (Knopf) marks the first U.S. publication by the author, who is popular in South Korea, where this book sold more than a million copies. It’s about the self-absorbed family of a woman who gets lost in a Seoul train station and never reappears, and dramatizes the contrast between rural and city values that have lead to the family’s neglect of this selfless mother. Janet Maslin’s New York Times review doesn’t make it sound like it will jump the cultural divide, though it may help spur further media attention.

Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman (Grove) is this accomplished novelist’s fiction tribute to the wife he lost in a swimming accident in Mexico in 2007, and was excerpted in the New Yorker. It’s been selected as the #1 pick by independent booksellers for the month of April.

 Usual Suspects

I’ll Walk Alone by Mary Higgins Clark (S&S) gets the full treatment by the Wall St. Journal, with a cover story on the veteran mystery writer’s thriving career at age 83, and her children’s resistance to bringing in ghost writers to continue her mega-bestselling legacy when someday she is gone.

44 Charles Street by Danielle Steel (Delacorte) is the story of a 30-something gallery owner who takes in boarders at her West Village brownstone in New York City after her boyfriend leaves. Kirkus calls it, “classic Steel, phoned in. Much repetitious ruminating and a stultifying, unmusical prose style too often obstruct the intended edgy escapism.”

Miles to Go: The Second Journal of the Walk Series by Richard Paul Evans (Simon & Schuster) is the second installment in a series about an executive who loses everything and decides to walk from Seattle to Key West. Library Journal says, “the first book in this five-parter left him in Spokane, so in his search for hope he has a long way to go. . . . for some readers this walk got off to a slow start, so you might want to gauge interest before deciding how many to order.”

Elizabeth I by Margaret George (Viking) depicts the Virgin Queen as an actual virgin married to England, whose interests she pursues with shrewdness, courage, and wisdom borne of surviving the deaths of her family. Library Journal says the writing is formal “neither cinematic nor intimately personal,” and that the plot is “plodding,” with a focus more on accurate history than fiction that may “try the patience of casual readers.”

The Silver Boat by Luanne Rice (Pamela Dorman Books) is a portrait of three far-flung sisters who come home to Martha’s Vineyard one last time.

Mobbed: A Regan Reilly Mystery by Carol Higgins Clark (Scribner) finds private investigator Regan Reilly and her husband, Jack, head of the NYPD Major Case Squad, in a case that takes them through key sites in New Jersey.

The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown) brings back the Lincoln Lawyer for a “satisfying” case that pits him against a real-estate foreclosure mill, according to Kirkus.

Once Upon a Time, There Was You by Elizabeth Berg (Random House) follows the journey of a couple who meet again after their divorce. Library Journal calls it “classic Berg, who’s always beloved if not always tip-top best seller.”

The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer (Riverhead) is about a town where the women pull away from their men, as the high school puts on a production of Lysistrata (in which the women of Greece refuse to have sex until the men end the Peloponnesian War). Publishers Weekly calls it “a plodding story with a killer hook.”

Young Adult

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Claire (Margaret K. Elderry) is the fourth book of the internationally bestselling series, and promises, love, temptation and betrayal.

Movie Tie-in

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Junior Novel (Disney Press) marks the return of Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), and other familiar faces in the film release on May 20.

Tina Fey‘s memoir Bossypants is set to dominate the media next week, after not just one but two excerpts in The New Yorker. The star of TV’s 30 Rock has also done an interview with In Style, in which she discusses how she juggles acting, screenwriting, producing and being a mother.

Reviewing the book in Slate, Katie Roiphe praises Fey for cutting her way through the male-dominated comedy world with “tough feminism” delivered with humor.

Holds are high at libraries we checked, any many libraries have more copies on order.

Bossypants Tina Fey Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books – (2011-04-05) ISBN / EAN: 0316056863 / 9780316056861

Large Print; Little, Brown, 9780316177894

Other Notable Titles on Sale Next Week

One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, A Marriage and the Language of Healing by Diane Ackerman (Norton) is the author and naturalist’s memoir of her husband’s battle to recover from a stroke. It’s eagerly awaited by librarians on GalleyChat and O Magazine made it one of “18 picks for April”. In a starred review, Booklist called it “A gorgeously engrossing, affecting, sweetly funny, and mind-opening love story of crisis, determination, creativity, and repair.”

Gangster Government: Barack Obama and the New Washington Thugocracy by David Freddoso (Regnery) is a critique of the President’s administration by the author of The Case Against Barack Obama.

I’m Over All That: And Other Confessions by Shirley MacLaine (Atria) shows the actress hasn’t changed her core beliefs. Booklist calls it “a witty little memoir” and sums up her stances: “Reincarnation, yes; against organized religion, yes; still interested in acting, mostly.” And sex? Not so much.

Libraries have long been frustrated by having to stick to on-sale dates. The issue is now entering public consiousness, with the controversy over David Foster Wallace’s highly-anticipated final novel, The Pale King, scheduled for publication on April 15 (Little, Brown’s countdown clock is shown at the left; stopped at the time we posted it).

[UPDATE: the on-sale date is not the issue in this case. While The Pale King‘s publication date is 4/15, when the promotion was scheduled to begin, the on-sale date was actually 3/22. That may be a moot point, however, since many stores and libraries have not yet received their copies].

Amazon and B&N.com released the book early, angering bricks and mortar stores, several of whom had midnight parties scheduled for 4/14, and making headlines in the NYT.

Adding insult to injury, reviews are also arriving early. Time magazine’s Lev Grossman calls it his “finest work.” The NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani says today that it’s “By turns breathtakingly brilliant and stupefying dull…”

The book has already risen to #10 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

We’ll have to wait to see how Katherine Heigl does playing female bounty hunter Stephanie Plum in the film version of Janet Evanovich’s One For the Money. Originally scheduled for this summer, the release has been put off until January.

The film site The Playlist sees this as a smart move. Although often regarded as “the wasteland of winter programming,” the lack of competition in that period worked well for some 2011 films, notably for No Strings Attached, starring Natalie Portman.

It’s been a long road; the book was originally optioned back in 1994, before it was published. At one point, Reese Witherspoon was attached to play Plum.

The movie tie-in (St. Martins, 9780312600730) has been postponed until November.

The next Stephanie Plum novel, Smokin’ Seventeen, is scheduled for release this June.

Smokin’ Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel Janet Evanovich Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2011-06-21) ISBN / EAN: 0345527682 / 9780345527684

Holy Appeal Factors; USA Today offers a rundown of new and forthcoming books to read if your interest in Nordic noir has been “stoked by Stieg.” (Click on titles above for full biblio. info.)

Each annotation includes the “Stieg factor,” such as this one for Hennig Mankell’s latest (and final) in his Kurt Wallander series, The Troubled Man, “The brooding Wallander makes Salander’s black moods feel like a sunny day in Miami.”

In a companion story, Dierdre Donahue looks at this spring’s Scandinavian invasion of authors on book tour in the US.

Co-founder  of Microsoft, Paul Allen’s forthcoming memoir, Idea Man (Portfolio/Penguin, 4/19), is making news, based on the excerpt in the new issue of Vanity Fair. The headlines reflect each publication’s orientation.

Microsoft’s local paper, the Seattle Times, sees it as personal “Paul Allen goes public with hard feelings toward Gates”

The Financial Times puts it in corporate terms, “Where Microsoft went wrong – by Paul Allen”

The L.A. Times follows the money, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen says Bill Gates schemed to dilute his share.

While the NY Times is more measured, Regrets and Resentment in Microsoft Partnership

Our “Book to Watch” this week is Lori Roy’s debut mystery Bent Road (Dutton/Penguin). It arrives with intense inhouse excitement, now being echoed by consumer reviews.

On the NPR Web site, Sarah Weinman warns,”Don’t be fooled by the novel’s apparent simplicity: What emerges from the surface is a tale of extraordinary emotional power, one of longstanding pain set against the pulsating drumbeat of social change…”

The 4/11 issue of People magazine (Elizabeth Taylor on the cover) bestows four stars on it (adding to the three it’s already received from the prepub reviewers), saying, “even the simplest scenes crackle with suspense.”

Poetry month officially begins this Friday, April 1st — time to get ready!

Instant Programs

Pull out all those 811’s and face them out…stack ‘em on tables. Mark your  favorite poems with sticky notes so you can spontaneously read them aloud. Copy them and put them a bulletin board.

• Pick a theme like haiku. Print and post instructions on how to create these short poems and ask staff to write a few to post. Leave markers hanging on a string with blank paper posted for instant inspiration.

• Enlist those teens who have been hanging out and “causing trouble” to copy their favorite poems on paper.

• Replace those falling apart copies of Jack Prelutsky’s Something Big Has Been Here (Greenwillow) and Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends (HarperCollins). Display the well-loved de-accessioned copies or (shoot me, I have done this) tear out the pages and post the poems. If you are still stamping books the long list of circ. dates are also fun to post.

• Pick an author to highlight…Prelutsky, Joyce Sidman, Doug Florian, Charles Smith, Kristine O’Conner George, Nikki Grimes, Maryann Hoberman, Karla Kuskin, Naomi Shihab Nye

• Host a Poetry Slam or open mike

What I Am Doing

1. Reading aloud my favorite short poems like “Florian’s Coyote” (Mammalabilia, Douglas Florian, HMH),  Kristine O’Connell George’s Little Dog Poems (Clarion), and Bank Street kid’s favorites from Patricia MacLachlan’s Once I Ate a Pie (Cotler/HarperCollins) and Jane Yolen’s Here’s a Little Poem, (Candlewick)
2. Asking children 8 years and up to copy their favorites on a half sheet of heavy stock paper in various pastel colors. Grown ups are participating and younger students can dictate their favorite rhymes.They write the poem, the author, the title and the book it came from. They may draw a picture and decorate if they wish. (most do not)
3. Collecting these poems. On Poem in Your Pocket Day, April 14^th, I will will paper our school hallways with poems for people to grab and put in their pockets.

Don’t Miss These New Poetry Books

Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems by Kristin O’Connell George, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, Clarion, 2/22/11

Having a four-year-old little sister isn’t all fun-and-games for fourth grader, Jessica. There is a lot to put up with like Emma always tagging along, getting into her stuff and embarrassing her at a soccer game. These short poems give us the good, the bad and the frustrating of the complications of sibling relationships.

Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raszka, illustrated by Peter Reynolds, HMH, 10/4/10

From last year, in case you missed it…Just what the title promises…haiku for guys.  Four seasons of short poems, funny, sweet and engaging. You will want to write your own.

Poem in Your Pocket for Young Poets, ed. by Bruno Navasky and the Academy of American Poets; Library Edition (nonperforated pages ISBN 9780810998827); Amulet/Abrams; 4/1/11

I bought the edition with the rip-out pages at a local bookstore before I discovered there was a non-perforated, library edition. A wide-ranging collection of poems from mostly well-known poets that would be perfect for adults and young adults.

I Am the Book, ed. by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Yayo, Holiday House, 3/15/11.

Hopkins has collected poems from masters like Jane Yolen, Naomi Shihab Nye, Karla Kuskin, and Kristine O’Connell George for this exuberant read-loud treasure. As they say in the review media…”an essential purchase.”

It’s an intriguing image; over 28,000 rubber ducks landing on beaches all over the world after being dumped from a ship in the North Pacific. Journalist Donovan Hohn was so taken with the story that he decided to follow the ducks. The resulting book hardly needs description; the incredibly long subtitle accomplishes that.

Featured on NPR’s Fresh Air last night, the book has also been widely reviewed. Libraries are showing heavy holds on modest orders.

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them Donovan Hohn Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2011-03-03) ISBN / EAN: 0670022195 / 9780670022199

Yesterday on the Today Show, Meredith Vieira interviewed JFK Jr’s ex-girlfriend, Christina Haag about her memoir, Come to the Edge. The interview did not address the issues that have made tabloid headlines (pot smoking, tantric sex), but instead focused on the book as a “beautiful tribute to John.”

Excerpted in the March issue of Vanity Fair, the book was also featured in USA Today and reviewed in the NYT last week. Libraries are showing light holds on modest ordering.

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

Another step has been taken in the often winding road from book to film; screenwriter Richard LaGravenese has been hired to create a script based on Laura Hillenbrand’s bestseller, Unbroken (Random House),  according to Deadline.

This story has had a particularly long history. Universal has been trying to produce a film about the book’s central figure, Louis Zamperini since the ’50′s, when the studio bought Zamperini’s “life rights” as a starring vehicle for Tony Curtis. More recently, Brad Pitt had plans to produce, with Nicolas Cage starring. No news on who may be chosen to star this time around.