EarlyWord

The latest trailer for Beastly, based on the YA novel by Alex Flinn, has just been released.

The male lead is played by heart-throb-in-the-making Alex Pettyfer, who starred as Alex Rider in Operation Stormbreaker, based on the novel by Anthony Horowitz. He will also star in the Steven Spielberg-produced I Am Number Four (based on the YA novel by James Frey, writing as Pittacus Lore), coming February 18.

The female lead is Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) who also appears in another highly-anticipated film, Sucker Punch (which is NOT based on a book), also coming in March.

How time marches on; Mary-Kate Olsen is one of the “other actors” in the film.

A movie tie-in has been available since July, when Beastly was originally scheduled for release. The film was then moved to March 18 to make room for another teen movie based on a book, Charlie St. Cloud (based on The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, by Ben Sherwood). The tie-in is being re-released in February with a new cover.

Beastly Movie Tie-in Edition Alex Flinn Retail Price: $8.99 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: HarperTeen – (2011-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061963283 / 9780061963285

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Beastly Movie Tie-in Edition Alex Flinn Retail Price: $8.99 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: HarperTeen – (2010-07-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061963283 / 9780061963285

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Sweeping the British Indie Awards last week, The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush, has also been a hit in the six U.S. theaters in which it is currently showing.

Firth stars as King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II, who overcame a debilitating speech impediment with the help of therapist Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush). He went on to be beloved for his ability to boost morale in his countrymen during WWII.

The story is also told in book form by the grandson of Lionel Logue and Sunday Times of London journalist, Peter Conradi.

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

We challenged you to tell us about your favorite 2010 books to recommend, along with your own passionate annotations, and you came through, making every one sound irresistible.

Please, check out the suggestions and add your own.

Below are the covers of some of the titles:

Oprah and Jonathan Franzen went from estranged to potential BFF’s on her show yesterday (New York magazine’s “Vulture” blog describes the sit down, along with video clips).

The greatest excitement, however, came when Oprah gave everyone in the audience a Kindle (hey, guys, it’s not a car!) Ironically, that moment came right after Oprah talked about the beauty of the “special, deluxe” Penguin edition of the next Book Club pick, Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, and declared, “You can pass it on to your grandchildren, because books DO matter. We’re still going to be holding books in our hands for years to come.”

The actual book discussion was reserved for the after show interview, featuring an all-male book club (Oprah claimed she’d never heard of such a thing, but Franzen said they aren’t that rare).

The winner of the Booker Prize, Howard Jacobson, got more attention from NPR on last night’s All Things Considered. This is the second time he’s been featured on the show.

The Finkler Question Howard Jacobson Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA – (2010-10-12) ISBN / EAN: 1608196119 / 9781608196111

The winner of the National Book Award, Jaimy Gordon hasn’t received much attention from NPR so far. However, her book, Lord of Misrule, is beginning to catch up in reviews; it was reviewed admiringly by the Susan Salter Reynolds in the L.A. Times.

Lord of Misrule Jaimy Gordon Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 296 pages Publisher: McPherson – (2010-11-15) ISBN / EAN: 0929701836 / 9780929701837

Librarians aren’t the only ones in the best books mashup business. The Huffington Post has put together a slide show of the Best Cookbooks for Giving. Each had to be chosen by at least two of  eight sources (four got by with just one pick — from the Huffington Post’s own Food Editors).

We’re pleased to see Brooklyn well-represented. The Frankies Spuntino’s cookbook (it’s by two Frankies and “spuntino” means “a little snack” in Italian), from EarlyWord‘s neightborhood restaurant, came in with 5 picks:

The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual Frank Falcinelli, Frank Castronovo, Peter Meehan Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Artisan – (2010-06-14) ISBN / EAN: 1579654150 / 9781579654153

And, slightly further afield, but within walking distance of EarlyWord headquarters, the bakery Baked got two picks for its innovative approach to American standards in Baked Explorations. Below, the author/owners talk about a recipe they picked up while touring for their first book:

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Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Chang – (2010-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 1584798505 / 9781584798507

We buckled under pressure. After the great reception for our Childrens Best Books Mashup downloadable spreadsheet, we put together one for Adult Books (if you have any trouble downloading either, or have any suggestions for making them more useful, email me).

As with the children’s lists, there is very little agreement. Of the 250 titles, only three were selected by all four sources (LJ, PW, NYT BR and the daily NYT reviewers).

We’ve focused on the library review sources and the major national lists (we’ll add more as they appear). Neil Hollands at the Booklist blog, “Book Group Buzz,” is is working on a more comprehensive list. We’ll let you know when it’s available.

Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first in the Twilight series (as well as Lords of Dogtown and Thirteen), has just finished Red Riding Hood, a movie that looks like it will have as much in common with the folktale as the song by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs.

Little, Brown’s Poppy imprint is doing a novelization.

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 next project will be based on James Dashner’s first book in the Maze Runner trilogoy, according to The Wrap.

Meanwhile, another dystopian YA book, The Hunger Games. is being adapted by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit), with plans to begin shooting in 2011.

And, according to Deadline, the search is on for a British kids fantasy franchise to replace Harry Potter. Among the candidates are Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking series and  Joseph Delaney’s The Spook’s Apprentice. Unfortunately, Artemis Fowl, is hung up in legal issues.

Steve Martin jokes on Twitter. “CBS demands refund for my appearing on CBS Sunday Morning,” referring to his recent appearance at New York’s 92nd St Y and subsequent ticket refunds (he spoke more about it in a funny segment on the online “Later on Sunday Morning“).

The CBS appearance, even though it also focused on art, rather than his career, did sell books. As a result of the show, Object of Beauty, rose to #31 from #64.

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An Object of Beauty: A Novel Steve Martin Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2010-11-23) ISBN / EAN: 0446573647 / 978

OverDrive WMA Audiobook; BBC Audio America
Hachette Audio, UNABR, Campbell Scott Narrator, 9781607886129, $34.98
BBC Audio; UNABR; Campbell Scott, Narrator, 9781607889403; $74.99

It’a not just one classic, but two this time, both by Charles Dickens; A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, bound into one 800 page special edition for the club.

The AP’s book publishing reporter, Hillel Italie, broke the news, saying that he purchased a copy of the volume with the logo on the cover.

The official announcement will be made on the show today.

We’ve just added the NYT Book Review‘s Notable Children’s Books to our spreadsheet of the children’s best books selections from the national review media.

Also, we’ve added age ranges for each title.

We will continue updating the spreadsheet as new picks arrive. You can always find the latest version, to the right, under Best Books ’10, Childrens Best, Collated (Downloadable Spreadsheet). If you have any trouble downloading it, or have any suggestions for making it more useful, email me.

Thanks for you enthusiastic response — we’ve had nearly 1.300 downloads of the spreadsheet since we put it up yesterday.

Next week, book lovers and Jackie Onassis fans may enjoy the first of two books looking at her career as an editor in the publishing industry: Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books by William Kuhn.

According to Kirkus, “Kuhn argues that Jackie touched on forbidden themes in her own life—her husband’s adultery, the humiliation of marriage, political machinations—only through her list, including such books as Barbara Chase-Riboud’s controversial novel Sally Hemings (1979) and Elizabeth Crook’s novel about Sam Houston and Eliza Allen, The Raven’s Bride (1991).

The New York Times Fashion section explores the rivalry (complete with trash talk) between author Kuhn and Greg Lawrence, whose Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis will arrive on January 4 from Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press.

Libraries we checked have modest orders in line with modest holds for both titles.

Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books William Kuhn Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2010-12-07) ISBN / EAN: 0385530994 / 9780385530996

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Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Greg Lawrence Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books – (2011-01-04) ISBN / EAN: 0312591934 / 9780312591939

Other Notable Nonfiction On Sale Next Week

Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find, Keep, and Understand a Man by Steve Harvey (Amistad) is the popular radio show host’s followup to his #1 New York Times bestselling book of relationship advice, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Lots of publicity is line up, including Good Morning America on Tuesday, publication day and a profile in the NYT Sunday Arts & Leisure section (tentatively scheduled for 12/19).

The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop by Dan Charnas (NAL Hardcover) chronicles the financial history of rap and hip-hop.

Fiction: Usual Suspects

Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy with Grant Blackwood (Putnam), the newest geopolitical military thriller with Jack Ryan, arrives with a 1.75 million printing.

Queen Hereafter: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland by Susan Fraser King (Crown) is historical fiction set in 11th-century Scotland. PW says, “Though clichés often plague the prose… King’s blend of historical figures and fictional characters turns a medieval icon into a believable mother, wife, and ruler.”

Buttons and Bones by Monica Ferris (Berkley Hardcover) follows Betsy Devonshire, amateur investigator and owner of Crewel World Needlework in investigating another mystery.

Young Adult

Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy Series #6) by Richelle Mead is the final installment in the bestselling Vampire Academy series.

On NPR’s Morning Edition today, Nancy Pearl recommended several memoirs. She says that The Hare with Amber Eyes is the best work of nonfiction she read this year.

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss Edmund de Waal Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 0374105979 / 9780374105976

Top Kids Picks

The Best Books lists have been rolling in and we have posted links to them on the right, under “Best Books ’10”. We’ve also put together an Excel spreadsheet of all the childrens picks from the national review media so far, so you can easily check the titles against your collection (it’s sorted by number of picks, but you can sort it any way that works best for you). If you have any trouble downloading it, or have any suggestions for making it more useful, email me.

Among the five sources (Kirkus, PW, SLJ, the NYT BR Best Illustrated Books, plus EarlyWord picks by Lisa Von Drasek), there is very little agreement. Just two titles were selected by four sources. Nine were picked by three; thirty-eight by two. The majority, 120, were picked by just one source.

We will add Booklist and Horn Book‘s picks when they are announced.

For adult titles, Neil Hollands at the Booklist blog, “Book Group Buzz,” is compiling a spreadsheet. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.

On the Daily Show last night,  Jon Stewart gave Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life what may be his strongest endorsement yet, “F—-n’ awesome. I tell you man, a really awesome read.”

The book, already a best seller, rose from #16 to #11 on Amazon sales rankings as a result.