EarlyWord is the home of GalleyChat, monthly online discussions where library staff share excitement about upcoming books. More information here.
Summaries of chats and announcements are posted to the right. Use them to add to your own TBR piles and for collection development.
Links on the far right of the site offer information useful to readers advisors.
Hope to see you during our next chat,
GalleyChatters
News for Collection Development and Readers Advisory Librarians
December 3rd, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
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.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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December 2nd, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
It will come as sad news to libraries trying to keep up with the demand for The Autobiography of Mark Twain that it was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air last night.
Libraries aren’t the only ones behind the curve; the book’s publisher, University of California Press, is working to get more copies into the pipeline and booksellers are kicking themselves for not seeing it coming.
One of the elements fueling the demand is the often-repeated story that it was suppressed for 100 years, according to Twain’s desire to not offend the people mentioned in it. However, as we’ve pointed out before, this is not completely true, since most of the autobiography has already been published (in the current issue of the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik says only 5% of this edition is new material).
So, why the embargo myth? Bob Hirst, director of the Mark Twain Project, who has been working on Twain’s papers for 30 years joked to NPR in an earlier interview,
…can you spell marketing plan? If you say here’s a little bit of the autobiography, but you can’t see the whole thing for a hundred years, you’re gonna sell a book. Mark Twain knew how to sell a book.
Gopnick puts it more pointedly, calling this version of the material, which has been edited and published three times before,
If not exactly a deliberate swindle, it is an endlessly repeated put-on, a shaggy-dog story without a punch line…[that] keeps getting replayed for credulous audiences.
He finds very little to admire in the book, calling it, “…slack and anti-rhythmic. Scarcely a single sentence in the whole thousand pages stands out to be admired.”
Does he recommend reading any of the other versions? No, he finds Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It far superior (try that out on customers demanding the Autobiography).
Bookseller Arsen Kashkashian, (Boulder Book Store) calls the phenomenon The Absurdity of Twain Fever and predicts that “many copies of the Autobiography now in the hands of gleeful customers will end up, after great disappointment, flooding back into the bookstore in 2011 as forgotten used tomes.”
December 2nd, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
For the winner of one of the country’s major book awards, Jaimy Gordon’s Lord of Misrule has received remarkably little attention. Remedying that a bit, Janet Maslin reviews it in today’s New York Times, following the Washington Post review by Jane Smiley, and those in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and The Daily Racing Form.
The latter publication is the only one (with the exception of the prepub review media; Booklist gave it a star and Kirkus called it “an engagaing read”) that is completely enthusiastic about the book. Maslin, too, is drawn by the writing and the characters, but finds the Lord of Misrule to be, “more of a short-story cycle than a full-fledged novel.”
A few libraries have received their initial orders, but most are still waiting for copies (the book’s publisher, McPherson, is very small. As Maslin says, it’s “a company with a post office box for a mailing address.”)
Holds, while greater than the number of copies in libraries, still lag significantly behind the Booker Prize winner, The Finkler Question.
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December 1st, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
Last night, Jon Stewart said the magic words about Susan Casey’s The Wave, “I’m telling you man, I really love this book.”
As a result, it shot up Amazon’s sale rankings to #40 (it was on the NYT Nonfiction Hardcover list for most of October, but slid to the extended list in the last few weeks).
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Susan Casey | ||||
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December 1st, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
As we noted earlier, Oprah will be announcing the next title for her book club on Monday.
Obviously, the book club and Oprah’s show in general, have been very, very good for the publishing industry. Will she continue to promote books on her cable network, OWN, scheduled to debut on New Years Day? It has been rumored that she will take the book club to OWN, but nothing is official so far.
The announced OWN programming is what you might expect, drawing heavily on Oprah protégés — Peter Wash, Dr. Laura Berman, Lisa Ling and best buddy Gayle King, plus reruns of Dr. Phil. There are signs that Oprah is not happy with that lineup; today, The New York Post reports that she is bringing in a new head of programming (an Oprah spokesperson denies the story).
The only announced book-related fare is a series, The Miracle Detectives, co-hosted by Randall Sullivan and inspired by his book, The Miracle Detective (singular), about his own investigations into claims of miracles. It is scheduled to premier on Wednesday, January 5th at 10pm. In a bit of synergy, Randall is scheduled to appear on the Oprah Show on December 30th.
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December 1st, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
Oprah announces her next pick on Monday, the same day that Jonathan Franzen appears on the show to discuss the current one, Freedom.
According to industry news site, Publishers Lunch, “It’s a big fat paperback from Penguin, with an unknown page count but a listed shipping weight of 1.9 pounds. The print book has a list price of $20, but the ebook currently has an agency price of only $7.99.”
Could it be the new edition of Madame Bovary, translated by Lydia Davis?
No, its list price is $27.95 and the weight is 1.4 pounds.
Any ideas?
December 1st, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
She may have traded in her “black heels for tractor wheels,” but Ree Drummond (who blogs at ThePioneerWoman.com) has not lost any of her L.A. style marketing skills.
After she chucked her career to move to a working Oklahoma cattle ranch (a “rugged and virile cowboy” was involved, of course), she began blogging about her new life. Then she published The Pioneer Woman Cooks (some of you still have holds on it) and became a best selling author (ten week in the top five on the NYT Hardcover Advice list).
Yesterday, she announced on her blog that her next book is coming in February and it jumped to #56 on Amazon’s sales rankings.
Libraries we checked have not ordered it.
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November 30th, 2010 By: Lisa Von Drasek
We want to give books this holiday season. We want to give books because we want to share the joy of perfectly written, joyous-to-read-aloud picture books. We want to give books because childhood memories are made when we settle into the big armchair and share the adventures of a fearless mouse (The Tale of Despereaux). We want to give books because we want to be the ONE who introduced that seven-year-old to Clementine.
Specifically, I want to be the cool godmother who slipped a teen Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You. I also want to be the goddess who gave the perfect book to the kid who “doesn’t read.” I also want to give books because I want to support the “content providers.” I want my gift giving money to go to children’s book writers and artists.
Out of the thousands of new children’s books published this year, which ones will make the perfect gift?
Allow me; making the match is the most exciting moment for the children’s librarian or bookseller.
The following recommendations are sorted by age of recipient and topic.
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(Ages 6 months and up)
From the genius who created Moo Baa La La La, a delicious bebop board book rhyming romp of buoyant pink piggies paired with a cuddly soft stuffed toy.
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(Ages 3 and up)
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(Ages 4 and up)
Is there an older sibling? Time to emphasize that the older brother and/or sisters are big, smart, and fabulous. Both of these give a humorous take on the uncertainty and terror that the impending infant can instill in the first child. No sugar coating and plenty of fun.
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(Ages 2 and up)
The biggest, fattest, bluest number one stands out sharply out from a background of solid yellow. Lift the page and underneath swims a fish with scales in tones of blue that range from sky to gray to almost purple. We count the sets of animals up to ten yellow ducks. No reason not to count right back down again.
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(Ages 5 and up)
In this punny retelling of the Brementown Musicians, the chicken (a pint-sized Henny Youngman…get it?) leaves the farm to become a comedian and avoid getting cooked on “Fry-day.” Along the road she picks up the usual suspects; an unwanted dog, a cat who would rather sing than catch mice, and a cow with jokes on the brain, all done in detailed pen-and-ink illustrations with color wash.
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(Ages 4 and up)
A cohort of cuddly critters, softly rendered in pencil sketches demonstrate the various forms of quiet, from “First one awake” to “Don’t scare the robin” quiet. As we read between the lines with hints from the illustrations, big feelings of embarrassment, sadness and joy emerge in the telling.
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(Ages 4 and up)
It may seem strange to recommend a summery garden book in the dead of winter but I would be remiss not to recommend one of the best books of the year in a gift-giving round-up. Caldecott-winning picture book creator, Henkes begins the story subtly with a little girl helping her mother in the garden then takes off in a flight of fancy as the child imagines if this was her garden, the flowers would re-appear instantly after being picked… there would be no rabbits eating the crops because the rabbits would be chocolate and she would eat them!
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(Ages 6 and up)
Is there a really smart six-year old in your life? One who takes joy in teasing out puzzles or figuring out logic problems? This is THE book. Gravett in the form of a monthly calendar graphically renders the Fibonacci problem “If a pair of baby rabbits are put in a field, how many pairs will there be: a) at the end of each month? b) After one year?“ We follow the progress of January’s one lonely rabbit through the humorous interactive lift-the-flap, pop-up pages, containing February’s knitting pattern for a lovely striped hoodie to a very crowded December that explodes rabbits off the page.
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(Ages 6 and up)
Do you know a family with a snarky sense of humor? One with a fine appreciation of the absurd? The deadpan narrator assures us that although we may think a parade made up of a lot of pigs would be a lot of fun; it is assuredly a bad idea. Perhaps we were not aware that pigs do not want to wear snappy uniforms, tend to shuffle rather than march and do not appreciate rousing marching tunes, preferring sad country ballads. Oh, and the only floats pigs would enjoy are the ones with root beer and ice cream. Artist Hawkes conjures up cute cartoony pigs as well as realistically rendered decidedly sticky ones for our enlightenment.
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(Ages 5 and up)
Rocket, a spotted fuzzy dog had no interest in reading until a tiny yellow bird flew into his life. She read aloud to him, taught him the glories of the “wondrous, mighty, gorgeous alphabet” and how to spell words like grrrr and whoosh. The passage of time as fall turns to winter is exquisitely portrayed as the bird leaves for the winter and Rocket practices what he had learned.
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(Ages 5 and up)
Jack has been invited to the Princess’s birthday party. Although he is poor, he uses his wits to gather the resources to make her present, a two-layer cake with candles and a ripe succulent strawberry. On the way to the festivities he encounters aggressive blackbirds, an ogre at a toll bridge and a greedy bear, all who whittle away the cake. What will the princess think if he arrives empty-handed?
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(Ages 5 and up)
An overly enthusiastic school librarian oppresses our droll narrator. To make matters worse the student must select a book to present for Book Week. “I ask my mother if we can move to a new town. My mother says there’s a librarian in every town. I ask if she wants to do my assignment for me. ‘I’ve already been to first grade,’ says my mother.” It’s a pitch perfect read aloud.
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(Ages 5 and up)
Jenkins cut-paper collage art never ceases to amaze. Here he looks at bones… animal bones, mammal bones, bird bones and frog bones. Fact-filled and endlessly fascinating; did you know that there are 206 bones in the adult human body? That a stork has thin, hollow bones to make to light enough to fly? That bugs have their skeletons on the outside, an exoskeleton?
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(Ages 4 and up)
This is the book for the kid that is crazy about animals. Here is a perfect compendium of facts and photographs about tigers, dolphins, turtles woves and pandas to peruse. The animal profiles contain thumbnail sketches that show where they live, what they eat as well as some snapshots of typical development or how they communicate. AND……a stunning pop-up life-size photograph of the animal.
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(All Ages)
Yes this is the most unexpected pick of the list. Rinzler was the sound engineer for the Star Wars movies. In this oversized encyclopedic volume, he describes how the movie’s sounds were crated. Press 003 on the digital audio box to hear the robot’s voice, the sound of the light sabers, and the “growls” of baby Emma that became the basis for sound of the Sando aqua monster. Over three hundred pages of movie stills and archival photos, 256 sound bites; the perfect gift for the geek in all of us.
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(Ages 6 and up)
Two best friends, one short, one tall, one impulsive, one deliberate are introduced in this limited language chapter book. I could try but nobody says it better than Sarah Ellis in the New York Times Book Review.
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(Ages 6 and up)
These identical twin sisters are not so identical since Ling sneezed during a haircut. Newbery Honor author, Lin, presents two distinct girls with different strengths, likes and dislikes in a brightly colored early chapter book.
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(Ages 4 and up)
From the author of the award-winning Elephant and Piggie and the Knuffle Bunny series, a new cast of characters is introduced in the simplest of language for our brand new reader buddies. The repetitious language, quiet humor and plots that turn on early childhood issues make these instant classics. Give the whole set.
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(Ages 5 and up)
“There once was a girl named Lulu, and she was a pain. She wasn’t a pain in the elbow. She wasn’t a pain in the knee. She was a pain – a very big pain – in the b u t t.”
Viorst’s entertaining storyteller voice paired with Smith’s humorous pencil sketches, packaged in an old-fashioned cloth bound irregularly shaped vertical volume, give us a story that begs to be read aloud. Every child will recognize Lulu who gets what she wants, when she wants or throws a fit and then gets what she wants. We heave a sigh of relief when she gets her comeuppance in a most unexpected way.
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(Ages 9 and up)
Better known to kids for his Little Vampire series, Joann Sfar tackles adapting this beloved classic of the downed pilot and his mysterious friend, a small boy from another planet who tells tales of his travels. This illustrated edition perfectly captures the tone of the original as well as illuminating the characters such as the dashing pilot, the selfish rose and the geographer with no interest in exploration.
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(Ages 10 and up)
“Yet another Troll-Fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish Girl” says the tag line and basically that’s all you need to know. Part fairytale, part fantasy/quest tale unusually set in an observant family, we know immediately that Mirka is not like all the other girls at school. Due to a complicated set of mishaps, our protagonist finds herself stalked by a pig, hounded by a bully and enthralled by the prospect of fulfilling a greater destiny. Nothing is as it seems in this compelling volume, the first of the series.
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(Ages 10 and up)
The story unfolds as individual students in alternating chapters relate the mysterious ability of a folded paper finger puppet named Yoda to give sage advice to a class of sixth graders. Not the usual school story of friendship, bullies, and first girlfriends told in journal entries, cartoons, and doodles.
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(Ages 9 and up)
The non-event of the swine flu epidemic seems long ago, but this extremely funny story of a kid whose teachers, friends and family begin dropping like flies is perfect for the kid who has run out of Wimpy Kid books and refuses to touch anything else. Gross humor abounds as Finn becomes the last kid standing.
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(Ages 10 and up)
Imagine if you had no control of your body, that although you had plenty to say about almost everything, all anyone heard is grunts and groans. We hear Melody’s voice in her head as she navigates the world of typical students and finds a way to let everyone know what is inside her mind.
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(Ages 10 and up)
It was the summer of the Black Panthers, when three sisters are shipped west to spend time with the mother who abandoned them when the youngest was still an infant. Delphine, only eleven, is charged with being responsible for the younger two as their mother continues to neglect their care. Should she call her dad? Will her mother ever BE a mother?
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(Ages 10 and up)
For the kids who loved Harry Potter and the The Lightning Thief, comes this excitingly original fantasy quest tale of a little girl, Eva Nine who was raised in an underground residence with only the company of a many-armed robot caretaker named Muthr. Abundantly illustrated with obvious references to Baum’s Wizard of Oz, readers can delight in sinking into a whole new world filled with magical creatures, heart stopping adventure scenes and sly embedded humor.
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(Ages 10 and up)
This would be the under-the-radar book. Who is this book for? For the kid ready to graduate from Goose Bumps, for the kid who wants a really scary book, for the kid looking for action but also for the thoughtful kid. This book is a well-crafted retelling of classic (read bloody, gory, not-cleaned-up, not Disney) Grimm’s Tales with the construct that Hansel and Gretel were actually the main characters of all the stories. Gidwitz knows his tales and provides pitch perfect pacing. We can imagine him as the charming narrator reminding us again and again to take the little ones out of the room. Follow that advice.
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For the young adults who have already gobbled up the Hunger Games series, a new fantasy adventure set in an alternative London. Reeve, a pioneer of the Steam Punk genre presents Fever Crumb, who is the only female member of the Order of Engineers. Fever’s past is a mystery and her future is in jeopardy as she tries to survive in the dangerous streets. e are pleasantly surprised when at the very end this fast-paced tale is revealed as a prequel to the Hungry City Quartet (HarperCollins).
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For those supernatural romantics, here is one just for them.
Donnelly, whose previous novel was the critically acclaimed and award winning A Northern Light, weaves the popular culture of present day Brooklyn Heights with the terror of Paris during the French Revolution. Part mystery, part romance and part fantasy, we witness Andy Alpers is a high school senior as she is breaking down, not just because of her mother’s erratic behavior but also in response to her younger brother’s death. She is going to be kicked out of her competitive private school if she doesn’t complete her senior project (which she hasn’t even started). Can it get worse? Her father arrives to intervene and forces her to relocate to Paris. Can she make her escape? Does she really want to?
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The co-authors have written a coming of age novel in the voices of two high-school students who meet accidently and coincidentally have the same name. This is as much a book about friendship as it is about finding one’s place in the world. What does it mean to acknowledge and support a friend who is gay? And of course there is a musical.
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(Ages 12 and up)
While every one was going crazy over Mockingjay, I was relishing the final (UPDATE: Good news! It’s been pointed out that is is NOT the final installment. The author herself said in an interview that she’s planning two more books in the series. Thanks for the link, Susan Cassidy) in The Queen’s Thief series, set in a fantasy kingdom built of palace intrigue, mistaken identities and romance. The first, The Thief, was a Newbery Honor. This volume is just as satisfying as the previous three.
November 30th, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
It took a while, and a couple of hints, but we have two correct answers to our pre-holiday quiz.
We asked what would tie together a list of 35 titles in a book display and why this display would be particularly relevant right now.
Most of you figured out that all books on the list have been made in to movies, or have been optioned for movies.
However, the correct answer is that producer Scott Rudin was involved in all of them. Rudin, who has been called “The Godfather of the Literary Adaptation” will receive the David O. Selznick Award from the Producers Guild of America on January 22nd.
The winner is J.P. Johnson, Adult Services, the Lexington (KY) Public Library. The runner-up is Sallie Swank of the Fort Worth (TX) Library. No prizes offered for this one, but they now have bragging rights to all their friends.
The rest of you may have been thrown off by a few of the titles.
Some of the books ended up with different names on the screen:
Jane Austen’s Emma was the basis for Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone.
Upton Sinclair’s Oil! became There Will be Blood.
Ben Mezrich, Accidental Billionaires is now in theaters as The Social Network and is an Oscar contender.
The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz is The Way Back, recently released in a limited run to qualify for the Oscars. It will expand to more theaters in January.
Three of the titles are often thought of as remakes of earlier movies:
The Stepford Wives, 1972 book by Ira Levin. The 1975 movie starred Katherine Ross; Nicole Kidman took on the role in the 2004 version.
Shaft, Ernest Tidyman adapted his novel into the movie starring Richard Roundtree in 1971. “The Theme from Shaft” by Isaac Hayes won an Oscar for Best Original Song. The 2000 version starred Samuel L. Jackson.
True Grit, Charles Portis. It may seem ridiculous, but there’s at least one writer who appears to have no idea that this was a more intersting book than the 1969 John Wayne vehicle. The new version, directed by the Coen Brothers, is supposed to be truer to the original.
A few of the movies have not yet gone in to production:
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian — in fact, this one may never see its name in lights; in a recent interview, William Monahan said that although it’s the best script he’s ever written, it’s unlikely to get made because it is too violent.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close — this one is also iffy. In August, Deadline reported that Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks were interested, but that the book is “not the easiest film adaptation.”
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff — Angelina Jolie has been flirting with this one for months.
One is currently filming — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (English-language version), directed by David Fincher, who also directed The Social Network.
Two have not been released:
True Grit — Directed by the Coen brothers, starring Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges. However, it sounds like the real star will be the young actress playing the lead, Hailee Steinfeld. It is scheduled for release on 12/22.
Moneyball — Based on the best selling book about baseball by Michael Lewis is scheduled for 9/23/2011, starring Brad Pitt.
November 30th, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
Will David Mitchell’s 2004 Booker Prize finalist, Cloud Atlas, be made into a movie?
In June, Production Weekly reported that offers had been made to several actors, including Halle Berry, Natalie Portman, Tom Hanks, James McAvoy and Ian McKellen, for a movie version produced by the Wachowskis, but there has been little news since.
In a recent interview, Halle Berry indicates that the film is a go, saying she’s,
…going to do a movie probably in the summer with the Wachowskis…..A really interesting movie; sort of what they did for The Matrix. They have another really amazing idea that’s gonna stretch our brains even further… that’s with Tom Hanks and Natalie Portman.” (Film, via Word and Film)
November 30th, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
The most unusual art book of the season may be Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century. The NYT features it today (complete with stunning slide show on the Web site), saying it is filled with “gorgeous imagery, from the first delicate depictions of neurons sketched in prim Victorian black and white to the giant Technicolor splashes the same structures make across 21st-century LED screens.”
The book was not reviewed prepub and few public libraries own it.
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November 29th, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
It’s years in the making and it seems it will also be months in the promoting. Last night, HBO presented the newest teaser trailer for Game of Thrones, based on the first book in George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Ice and Fire. The series begins some time in 2011 (some say it will be Spring). HBO aired an earlier trailer back in June.
Official Web Site: HBO.com/GameofThrones
November 29th, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
It’s official; Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is now a best seller, arriving on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction (list dated 12/05) at-#2 (after Bush’s Decision Points).
The USA Today list shows that it is at #6 in overall sales, after:
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, Jeff Kinney, Amulet Books
2. Decision Points, George W. Bush, Crown
3. Cross Fire, James Patterson, Little, Brown
4. The Confession, John Grisham, Doubleday
5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, Vintage trade pbk
Library holds are also growing. All of this is to be expected, given the heavy media attention the book has received. The question now, as we’ve written here before, is how word of mouth will treat it. Will readers be put off by the book’s realistic portrayal of the horrors Louis Zamperini endured in WWII, or will they embrace its ultimately positive message?
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RH Large Print; 9780375435010
RH Audio; 9780739319697
November 29th, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
Running the Books, prison librarian Avi Steinberg’s memoir gets an additional dose of press attention (see earlier stories) from USA Today, which calls it “a smart new memoir” and says it is “about the ways in which the library provided refuge, companionship and solace to the people [Steinberg] met,” and praises the author for “leaven[ing] his often-grim memoir with unexpected bits of comedy and insight, weaving his family’s story into the narrative.”
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November 29th, 2010 By: Nora Rawlinson
CBS Sunday Morning featured a book about an anonymous philanthropist who offered to gave money to people in need during the Depression, in the form of just $5 each, and the profound effect it had on the recipients. The story was reported last month New York Times.
As a result of yesterday’s coverage, the book rose to #80 on Amazon sales rankings and library holds are growing.
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Large Print; Center Point; 9781602859258; 12/01/10
Random House Audio; 9780307578037; 11/09/10
