EarlyWord

We’re fans of author Francisco Goldman, so we’re excited to hear that Monday’s New Yorker will feature a piece adapted from Goldman’s forthcoming book, Say Her Name, to be published by Grove Press in April 2011. Below is  the publisher’s description,

In the summer of 2007, acclaimed writer Francisco Goldman’s young wife Aura Estrada died from injuries sustained in a surfing accident on a beach in Mexico. Blamed for Aura’s death by her family and blaming himself, Goldman wanted to die too. But instead, he wrote Say Her Name–a deeply personal novel about Aura and his life with her, weighing the glorious gifts of their shared journey against its heavy costs.

Several librarians were attended special dinners that Grove Atlantic gave for Goldman (the one in San Francisco was co-sponsored by EarlyWord).

Copies of the book as an eGalley are available on NetGalley.

Say Her Name: A Novel Francisco Goldman Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Grove Press – (2011-04-05) ISBN / EAN: 0802119816 / 9780802119810

Fans have a little over a year to wait for the movie version of Hunger Games; the release was just scheduled for March 23, 2012. Production is set to begin later this spring.

Director Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) has not yet cast the lead. Currently, speculation is focused on Hailee Steinfeld, just nominated for an Oscar for True Grit.

Time magazine confirms that the anonymous author of O: A Presidential Novel is Mark Salter (as guessed by Page Six).

Both Salter and S&S Publisher Jonathan Karp declined to comment, but Time says the identity has been confirmed “by sources.”

Maybe:

A recent tweet about Tiger Mother — “In China, Amy Chua is ‘American Mom.'”

On Colbert last night, Chua said that she thinks the values she tries to instill in her children are fundamental American values.

Jonathan Karp on the Today Show:

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

In this age of text messaging, it’s comforting to know that the book How to Write a Sentence can become a best seller.

Stanley Fish’s book rose to #15 on Amazon’s sales rankings after he appeared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation yesterday (listen here).

Fish lists his top five favorite sentences on Slate yesterday (does it say something that the most recent one is from 1935?). Slate is also running a contest; readers list their favorite sentences and Fish will pick the best one. The contest runs through midnight, Eastern on Thursday; let’s see a librarian win this one.

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One Stanley Fish Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Harper – (2011-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061840548 / 9780061840548

One of the most reviewed books recently is David Vann’s Caribou Island, which arrives with high expectations, as signaled by an author profile by Charles McGrath featured on the Jan. 15 cover of the NYT‘s Arts section.

McGrath says that the book had already been “enthusiastically” reviewed in the Washington Post, a strange description for a review that begins by suggesting the reader, “Approach David Vann’s first novel the way you would a fresh grave – with a mixture of fascination and fear,” and concludes with,

…is the ending too much, too Gothic, too masochistic in its determination to make these hapless characters pay for surviving, for imagining that hope isn’t a cheat? As the final pages rise into the piercing registry of Cormac McCarthy… some readers may spot Vann’s thumb on the scale, making sure every drop of agony is paid. But just wait: For a few moments after this perfectly choreographed horror, it’s impossible to say anything at all.

It’s a curious dilemma; how do you recommend a book about a disintegrating marriage that ends with little hope? It’s echoed in subsequent reviews:

NYT BR; Caribou Island gets to places other novels can’t touch. By the end, I felt the senseless logic of the dream. Though it wears the clothes of realism — the beautiful exactness of the language, the unerring eye for detail — it takes us someplace darker, older, more powerful than the daylit world.

Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered; NPR, Despite multiple story lines, which…appear somewhat badly nailed together, Caribou Island builds to an horrific climax and stands as an engrossing and disturbing work of art.

Seattle Times; a beautifully gloomy debut novel.

San Francisco Chronicle; David Vann portrays a failing marriage with stinging precision. The slow boil of pent-up resentments rang so true, I found myself wanting reassurance from my own spouse that all was well…Abounding in language that heightens our senses for the next evocative metaphor, Caribou Island gives us a climax as haunting and realized as any in recent fiction.

Cleveland Plain Dealer;  Vann… tips his book into horror, and then grinds out the last ember like a cigarette butt. It burns for a long, queasy time.

It seems readers are not put off; many libraries are showing high hold ratios on light ordering.

Caribou Island: A Novel David Vann Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Harper – (2011-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061875724 / 9780061875724

Blackstone Audio;UNABR; read by Bronson Pinchot
OverDrive; Adobe EPUB eBook; OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Leading the Oscar nominations, announced this morning, is The King’s Speech. It received 12 nominations, including best picture, best director and best actor. It is based on historical events, not on a book. However, a book by Mark Logue, the grandson of the king’s speech therapist draws on the same historical material and was published as a tie-in.

The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy Mark Logue, Peter Conradi Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Sterling – (2010-11-26) ISBN / EAN: 140278676X / 9781402786761

Four of the other nine nominees for Best Picture are book adaptations;

• 127 Hours — based on mountain climber Aron Ralston’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Atria
• The Social Network, based on Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
• True Grit, based on the 1968 novel by Charles Portis, Overlook Press
• Winter’s Bone, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell, Back Bay

True Grit, which the NYT regards a the “biggest surprise,” came in second, with ten nominations.

Once considered the front runner, The Social Network, came in at third place, with eight nods.

Winter’s Bone, which came out in June, received three other nominations in addition to Best Picture — Actress (Jennifer Lawrence); Supporting Actor (John Hawkes) and Adapted Screenplay.

The full list is here. The other nominations for movies based on books are:

It’s no news that many libraries across the country have reduced book purchases because of budget cuts. A few have even stopped purchasing books altogether, hoping that funds will be restored before the public notices.

Queens Borough Public Library CEO, Tom Galante, however, is making no bones about his library’s decisions. Last week, he told the local NPR station, WNYC (via Publishers Lunch Automat, subscription only), that they chose to maintain hours rather than buy books,

Galante said the mission of the library has shifted subtly, from lending books to providing English lessons, aiding job seekers and providing Internet access.

“It really comes down to libraries being about community — being a place for seniors in the morning, kids after school,” Galante said.

Amy Chua’s book has been out for less than two weeks, but already “Tiger Mother” has passed into the lexicon. She appears on the Colbert Report tomorrow night.

Holds are rising quickly; several libraries have reordered aggressively.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Amy Chua Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2011-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 1594202842 / 9781594202841

Penguin Audio; UNABR; 6 Hours; 5 CDs; ISBN 9780142429105; $29.95

Director Catherine Hardwicke’s next film after the first in the Twilight series is Red Riding Hood, coming to theaters March 11.

As the new trailer makes clear, it draws more on Twilight than on the fairy tale.

Hardwicke contributed an intro. to the novelization, which releases tomorrow.

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

Hardwicke’s upcoming projects include two YA titles; James Dasher’s Maze Runner, now in the scripting stage, and James Patterson’s Maximum Ride.

The number one book on Amazon at the moment is The Investment Answer by Daniel C. Goldie and Gordon S. Murray (Business Plus), which offers a conservative blueprint for average investors.

The hardcover publication coincides with the death of author Murray last Saturday. Originally self-published, it was picked up by the Business Plus imprint of Grand Central Publishing following coverage in a “Your Money” column by Ron Lieber in the New York Times.

Libraries we checked are behind the demand on this one – either they don’t have it, or have high holds on modest orders.

The Investment Answer Daniel C. Goldie, Gordon S. Murray Retail Price: $18.00 Hardcover: 96 pages Publisher: Business Plus – (2011-01-25) ISBN / EAN: 1455503304 / 9781455503308

Other Notable Nonfiction Coming Next Week

The Next Decade: Where We’ve Been… and Where We’re Going by George Friedman (Doubleday) is a Machiavellian analysis of possible near future geopolitical events by the author The Next 100 Years.

The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene (Knopf) explores the limits of modern cosmology’s understanding of the “multiverse.” PW says, “With his inspired analogies starring everyone from South Park’s Eric Cartman to Ms. Pac-Man and a can of Pringles, Greene presents a lucid, intriguing, and triumphantly understandable state-of-the-art look at the universe.”

Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer (Bantam) recounts the tumultuous experiences of the U.S. Navy in early battles against the Japanese during World War II. In a starred review, Booklist says, “as in his first two books, the author’s narrative gifts and excellent choice of detail give an almost Homeric quality to the men who met on the sea in steel titans.”

Among the new fiction arriving next week, the trade paperback original novel Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt looks like one worth watching. The story about the aftermath of a car collision between two women fleeing their marriages, which ends fatally for one of them, is an Oprah magazine pick for January, and a special pick of Costco buyer Pennie Ianniciello, a well-known market mover.

It’s often said that publishing original trade paperbacks is a risky business because reviewers tend to overlook them. This is clearly not the case for Pictures of You, which has already received admiring attention from the San Francisco Chronicle and from Carolyn See in today’s Washington Post.

Most libraries we checked had solid orders, with reserves of 3:1 or more. Take advantage of the less expensive format and buy extra copies for your readers advisors.

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;

Also on Sale Next Week

O: A Presidential Novel by Anonymous (Simon & Schuster), a fictional vision of the 2012 presidential election written by an unnamed insider on the Obama team (how big of an insider is no defined; the person claims to have been “in the room” with him. Is that like being able to see Russia from your house?), has been getting the strong press coverage in the days leading up to publication. Reviews, however, have been tepid to disparaging. In its syndicated review, the Associated Press calls O “an enjoyable read for political junkies who can’t wait for the next campaign to start. But for readers not consumed with the granular detail of focus groups and ad buys, O falls short — especially in its portrayal of Obama, who remains as opaque in this book as he does real life.” Entertainment Weekly is even less charitable: “Short on character, short on plot — a hapless, poorly executed attempt at satire that’s missing literally everything that Primary Colors had going for it: the detail, the zing, the insidery knowledge, the humor. Let’s give S&S an A for marketing O so well. But let’s give the book itself a D.”

Tick Tock by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown) is the newest mystery featuring New York detective Michael Bennett.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman (Crown) chronicles the history of a Massachusetts town from pilgrim settlers through the modern day in a series of 14 stories. PW says, “Hoffman’s deft magical realism ties one woman’s story to the next even when they themselves are not aware of the connection. The prose is beautiful, the characters drawn sparsely but with great compassion.” Entertainment Weekly gives it a solid “A”.

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern (Harper) is the tale of a 16 year-old girl whose gilded life shatters with her father’s suicide, and has a 150,000-copy first printing. LJ says, “Ahern has made a definite change in her writing with her recent fiction, going from chick lit to modern fairy tales. The supernatural element doesn’t work well in this novel, however, with a buildup that falls slightly flat…. Still, Ahern has fans from her P.S. I Love You days, so purchase accordingly.”

A Cup of Friendship: A Novel by Deborah Rodriguez (Ballantine) follows a group of women who meet in a Kabul coffee shop owned by an American, by the author of The Kabul Beauty School. Kirkus says, “Rodriguez paints a vivid picture of Afghan culture and understands the uncomfortable role Americans play in political upheavals. But ultimately her cozy sentimentality undercuts the elements of harsh realism, as if Maeve Binchy had written The Kite Runner.”

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard (Ecco) is the story of the lasting effects of the disappearance of a teenage girl on the boys in her town, reminiscent of The Virgin Suicides. PW says “Though the truth about Nora remains tantalizingly elusive… the many possibilities are so captivating, and Pittard’s prose so eloquent, that there’s a far richer experience to be had in the chain of maybes and what-ifs than in nailing down the truth.”