EarlyWord

Jodi Picoult achieves a new landmark today. Her latest book, Sing You Home, arrives at #1 on the USA Today best seller list, her first time debuting in that position on that list.

Two of Picoult’s previous titles, Nineteen Minutes and Change of Heart, debuted at #1 on the NYT Fiction list, but the USA Today‘s list tracks all books, regardless of category or format. Both of those titles were beat out on the USA Today list by Oprah selections…

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Who’s going to play Sarah Palin in the HBO adaptation of Game Change?

No, not Tina Fey.

According to Entertainment Weekly, that role just went to Julianne Moore.

No news yet on who will play John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.

NPR inaugurated a social networking book club experiment in January with Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken.

For March, they turn to a book that has been a long-lasting trade paperback best seller (currently at #2 after 57 weeks), Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Adding a new twist, NPR invites books clubs to apply for the opportunity to receive a personal call or videochat from the author.

Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghese Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 688 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2010-01-26) ISBN / EAN: 0375714367 / 9780375714368

OverDrive, Adobe EPUB eBook; Mobipocket eBook; WMA Audiobook
Audio; Books on Tape

Suze Orman’s four-part PBS series, The Money Class, began last night. The tie-in book rose to #7 on Amazon.

The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream Suze Orman Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 1400069734 / 9781400069736

Orman also appeared on the Today Show.

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

Coming in second at the box office last weekend is The Adjustment Bureau (after the children’s animated feature, Rango) based on Philip K. Dick’s short story, “The Adjustment Team.”

The love interest, played by Emily Blunt in the film, was not in the original story. In the L.A. Times blog, Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg explores the differences between the two versions.

Many successful films have been adapted from Dick’s novels and stories, including Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and Total Recall (a full list is available here).

The story “The Adjustment Team” is available in various anthologies, including the following and as an audio tie-in.

Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick Philip K. Dick Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Pantheon – (2002-11-05) ISBN / EAN: 0375421513 / 9780375421518

Audio tie-in: Brilliance Audio; under the title “The Adjustment Bureau”; Read by Phil Gigante; $39.97

OverDrive; Selected Stores available in Adobe EPUB eBook

We predicted that The Paris Wife would land in the top five on the 3/13 NYT Print Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list. It didn’t; it debuted at #9 after its first week on sale, which is still a good showing for a debut title (and, it arrived at #1 on the National Indie Bestsellers list).

There are just two other debuts on the list: A Discovery of Witches, now at #4 after 3 weeks and The Help at #8, marking its 100th week on the list (the NYT BR offers a chart of some of the books that stayed on their lists for over 100 weeks; Scott Peck’s ’90’s hit, The Road Less Traveled tops them at 694 weeks). The Help, by the way, entered the list at a lowly #16 (it was tied with Christopher Moore’s Fool at #15).

According to the movie news site, Deadline, books are “the most ubiquitous source material among this year’s crop of broadcast pilots.”

Several are based on public domain titles; fairy tales (ABC’s Once Upon a Time and NBC’s Grimm), a drama about Edgar Allan Poe, and one that sets The Count of Monte Cristo in the present…

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Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first Twilight movie, releases her next film, Red Riding Hood on Friday. The tie-in novelization has been on the NYT children’s paperback bestseller list since it came out in January, debuting at #1. The L.A. Times today gives the back story on how the book came to be. Far more than just writing the introduction, Hardwicke was the moving force behind the book.

The ebook version “includes video interviews with Hardwicke and her many collaborators, an animated short film, audio discussion about the set design and props, costume sketches and Hardwicke’s hand-drawn maps of the world where Red Riding Hood takes place, among other things.”

Unfortunately, it is not available for library lending.

Red Riding Hood Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, David Leslie Johnson Retail Price: $9.99 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Poppy/Little Brown  (2011-01-25) ISBN / EAN: 0316176044 / 9780316176040

The latest incarnation of Newsweek, under the editorship of Tina Brown, arrives on newsstand today. In her introductory editorial, Brown makes a valiant effort to explain why a print weekly still matters today.

Our focus is more narrow; what about books? In recent years, the weekly news magazines have cut back their review sections. On the other hand, Brown’s online publication, The Daily Beast, launched a book section early in 2009. We heard that the new Newsweek would include a book section in each issue, so we had hopes.

We haven’t gotten our hands on the print version yet, but in the online version, the book section is rather meager and buried. The only book feature is “Bookbag: Jodi Picoult’s Picks,” in which the bestselling author shines her light on three novels;  Allison Pearson’s I Think I Love You (Knopf; Feb), Benjamin Hale’s The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore (Twelve/ Grand Central; Jan) and Caroline Leavitt’s Pictures of You (Algonquin; Jan).

Picoult calls Leavitt an “undiscovered jewel.” While not exactly “undiscovered” (Pictures of You was a Costco Pick and it was on the extended NYT Paperback Fiction list), Leavitt does deserve a broader audience (check out Carolyn See’s review in the Washington Post).

Pictures of You Caroline Leavitt Retail Price: $13.95 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2011-01-25) ISBN / EAN: 1565126319 / 9781565126312

OverDrive; Adobe EPUB eBook
Highbridge Audio; UNABR; 9781615736553; Library Edition, 9781611741025

In a time when Alzheimer’s is considered an epidemic, it’s no surprise that a book about memory fascinates people. After covering the U.S.A. Memory Championship, journalist Joshua Foer became so enamored of his subject that he spent a year working with a memory coach. He won the next event and wrote a book about the experience, with the memorable title Moonwalking with Einstein. It is drawing holds; one large library system shows 215 on 15 copies.

In the NYT yesterday, Michiko Kakutani practically sputters well-known comparisons in her review,

…Joshua Foer tackles the subject of memory the way George Plimpton tackled pro football and boxing…[his book] has a lot in common with Malcolm Gladwell’s best sellers…His narrative is smart and funny and, like the work of Dr. Oliver Sacks, it’s informed by a humanism that enables its author to place the mysteries of the brain within a larger philosophical and cultural context.

The author appeared on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report last night.

And, yes, he is the younger brother of Jonathan Safran Foer.

Jeff Greenfield is the Chief Political Correspondent for CBS News, so it’s no surprise that he was featured on the CBS Early Show today for his book on what might have happened if not for some simple twists of fate. If it had rained in Dallas when JFK was there in 1963, he would not have traveled in an open car and may not have been shot (curiously, Stephen King’s next book, titled 11/22/63 is about time travelers who try to prevent the Kennedy assassination).

Greenfield will also appear on The Colbert Report on Thursday.

…

Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan Jeff Greenfield Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 0399157069 / 9780399157066

Mon., March 7
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

The Tea Party Goes to Washington Rand Paul Retail Price: $21.99 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Center Street – (2011-02-22) ISBN / EAN: 1455503118 / 9781455503117

The Colbert Report

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything Joshua Foer Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2011-03-03) ISBN / EAN: 159420229X / 9781594202292

Tues., March 8
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive Brian Christian Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2011-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0385533063 / 9780385533065

Wed, March 9
The Colbert Report

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement David Brooks Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Random House – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 140006760X / 9781400067602

Thurs., March 10
The Colbert Report

Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan Jeff Greenfield Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 0399157069 / 9780399157066

The writer Trevanian spoofed the spy genre in the 1970’s with a series of four novels; The Eiger Sanction, The Loo Sanction, The Main and Shibumi.

Nicholai Hel, a handsome and charming assassin who is fascinated with Eastern culture, is the main character in the cult classic Shibumi. He reappears today in a prequel, Satori by Don Winslow (Savages). The Wall Street Journal interviews Savage about reimagining this classic.

Satori Don Winslow Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2011-03-07) ISBN / EAN: 0446561924 / 9780446561921

The earlier book was re-released in 2005.

Shibumi: A Novel Trevanian Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 480 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2005-05-10) ISBN / EAN: 1400098033 / 9781400098033

Publishers have been searching for him all over Scandinavia, but maybe the next Stieg Larsson actually resides on this continent, in Dallas, Texas. And, maybe he’s a she.

USA Today thinks so. Reviewer Carol Memmot (who, back in January, called Three Seconds by Scandinavians Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom a worthy Larsson successor. It then hit the NYT Hardcover Fiction list) says that the main character in American Taylor Stevens’ debut thriller The Informationist, “evokes the spirit and intelligence of th gutsy, damaged Salander, but she’s far from derivative.”

She adds, “Thank goodness a sequel to this fiery novel is in the works.”

The Informationist: A Thriller Taylor Stevens Retail Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Crown – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 0307717097 / 9780307717092

Large Type: Thorndike; 9781410438027; June 2011; $31.99