EarlyWord

Proving the many nay-sayers in the press wrong, Reed Business has found a buyer for Publishers Weekly.

The new owner, George Slowik, is familiar to several on the PW staff; he was the publisher from 1990 to 1993.

Slowik outlined his vision for the magazine in interviews with Crain’s New York Business and the New York Times “Media Decorder” blog. He plans to digitize the PW archives, particularly the reviews (which now go back to 1997). The magazine licenses its current reviews to various companies such as Amazon and book wholesalers; he sees an opportunity in the older reviews when Google clears the way to publishing digitized OP titles. He also plans to sell versions of the magazine in other languages, using Google’s translation tool and some human intervention, to further reach the international audience.

He did not directly address whether the magazine would continue as both a print and digital publication, but presumably it will, since he said that all art and editorial staff will make the transition, as well as sales staff.

The magazine will be transferred to the new ownership beginning June 1 (UPDATE: The new ownership is effective immediately. Publishers Weekly will be moving to new offices effective June 1).

Among the just-announced nominees for the Hugo Award in the Best Novel category is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, which also appeared on several end-of-the-year best books lists. This is Bacigalupi’s first novel (he has written many short stories; several are in the collection, Pump Six and Other Stories, Night Shade, 2008); it is also a nominee for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America’s Nebula Award for Best Novel. The Windup Girl is published by independent Night Shade Books.

The galley of Bacigalupi’s next book, a YA title, Ship Breaker, to be pubbed by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers next month, made a splash at the recent PLA. Kirkus is the first to review it, calling it a “gripping futuristic thriller.”

The author is from Colorado.

Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316056219 / 9780316056212

Geneen Roth’s Women, Food, and God, is hitting #1 in many places:

Just hit #1 on Amazon

#1 on B&N.com

#1 on the 4/11 NYT Hardcover Advice best seller list, rising from #3 last week)

Libraries are showing heavy reserves; an average of 10:1 on modest ordering.

What’s fueling it? Perhaps it’s a little help from Oprah, who interviews the author in April issue of O, the Oprah Magazine; the promo for the issue calls it “the book Oprah’s telling everyone to read”; the cover headline proclaims, “The Battle is Over!”

Could an appearance on The Oprah Show be far behind?

Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything Geneen Roth Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 1416543074 / 9781416543077

Remember the pirate hostage situation in 2009? If not, your memory will have plenty of opportunity to be refreshed this week.

The captain of the boat that was seized, Richard Phillips, has written a book about the ordeal. He was interviewed by Matt Lauer on Dateline last night and on the Today show this morning.

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

The book, which releases tomorrow, is reviewed in today’s USA Today.

The author will also appear on Larry King Live tonight, as well as the following shows tomorrow,

• NPR, Fresh Air
• CNN, American Morning
• FNC, Fox & Friends
• Comedy Central, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea Richard Phillips, Stephan Talty Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1401323804 / 9781401323806

Tantor Audio; UNABR

On Sale Date: 04/26/2010
Trade 9781400116867 8 Audio CDs $29.99
Library 9781400146864 8 Audio CDs $59.99
MP3 9781400166862 1 MP3-CD $19.99

Adobe EPUB eBook available from OverDrive

Atlantic Monthly pulled out all the stops for their big Vietnam novel, Matterhorn, and it has paid off; the book lands at #7 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list and is featured on the cover of the NYT Book Review. Reviewer Sebastian Junger  calls it “a raw, brilliant account of war that may well serve as a final exorcism for one of the most painful passages in American history.”

As a result, Matterhorn moved to #15 on Amazon, its highest spot to date. At B&N.com, which features it on their home page, it moved to #9.

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War Karl Marlantes Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 592 pages Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press – (2010-03-23) ISBN / EAN: 080211928X / 9780802119285

Blackstone Audio; UNABR

17 CDs; 1-4417-4228-5; $123.00
2 MP3CDs; 1-4417-4231-5;$44.95
Playaway;1-4417-4234-6; $79.99
15 Tapes; 1-4417-4227-8; $105.95

Audio available from OverDrive

Among next week’s nonfiction releases, The End of Wall Street by New York Times magazine contributor Roger Lowenstein is picking up the biggest media buzz so far. Three out of four libraries we checked have it, though orders are low, and at two libraries, holds were at 6:1.

Several days ahead of publication, Janet Maslin reviewed it positively in The New York Times, saying

His is not a story of blowhard personalities, even if it is filled with C.E.O.’s and financial regulators who arguably control the future of global finance. Instead it is a coherently issue-oriented book that frames each stage of the crisis in terms of the real world’s ability to confound theorists, number-crunching quants, economic historians and other putative experts.

The End of Wall Street Roger Lowenstein Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1594202397 / 9781594202391

OverDrive WMA Audiobook

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Though it has fewer library holds, David Remnick’s The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama will also get media play. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly reviews it, giving it a B. They say that the level of interest depends on one’s appetite for detail (the book is 621 pages long).

It recently got a rave review in the Los Angeles Times from author Douglas Brinkley, who called it a “brilliantly constructed, flawlessly written biography.”

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama David Remnick Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 672 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1400043603 / 9781400043606

Also available from Random House Audio

• CD: $50; ISBN 9780307734327

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A possible sleeper is In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time by Peter Lovenheim (Perigee).

Library orders are much more modest, but USA Today just gave a sympathetic review to this account of how lawyer and freelance writer Lovenheim invited members of the 35 families on his street to sleep over at his home in a wealthy Rochester, New York suburb, in order to find out more about his community. Julia Roberts has also bought film rights to the book.

In The Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time Peter Lovenheim Retail Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Perigee Trade – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0399535713 / 9780399535710

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Paula Deen’s Savannah Style (Simon & Schuster) gets a positive from review from PW: “the prose is friendly, and the volume offers a warm invitation to those who want a peek at how Deen and her fellow Savannahans live.”

Mario Batali‘s Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking at Home (HarperCollins) is “great for dinner parties and family get-togethers,” according to Library Jounal.

Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners (Simon & Schuster) “more than lives up to the promise of its title and will delight the legions of Moulton fans, earning her more than a few new ones,” says PW.

Carol Burnett‘s This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection (Harmony Books) is the comedian’s second book, in which she looks back on her long and successful career in “short, easily digestible chapters that part the curtain on her private life,” according to Booklist.

Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic‘s Mike and Mike’s Rules for Sports and Life (ESPN Books) is the first book by these two ESPN sports radio commentators, who have three million listeners.

On Sunday, April 11, a two-hour British version of The Diary of Anne Frank premieres on PBS. The new issue of People magazine (4/12) says it presents Anne as “a very real teenage girl: brash, flirty, moody” and gives it 4 of a possible 4 stars.

PBS is also inviting “the next generation of independent media makers and storytellers ages 13 and up to create [their] own diary online, using video, audio or still images.” The deadline is May 31st. More information is available here.

This is a good opportunity to revive interest in Francine Prose’s fascinating look at Anne Frank as a writer and how the 1959 movie managed to make her more famous, but less interesting than she appears in the Diary.

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife Francine Prose Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 006143079X / 9780061430794

Adobe EPUB eBook available from OverDrive.

Changes, the latest installment in Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files (Ed. Note: we originally called this the Dexter Files — thanks to the commenter for catching our mashup) urban fantasy series, is in high demand at libraries. But several we checked are behind the curve – either without copies, or catching up on their orders. In libraries that do have it, holds run from 3:1 to as high as 11:1.

Booklist‘s starred review says:

At more than 500 pages, this is one the longest books in the series, but it doesn’t move slowly; in fact, the entire novel takes place over only a few days as Harry races to rescue his daughter before she is sacrificed in a powerful black-magic rite. . . . A can’t-miss entry in one of the best urban-fantasy series currently being published.

Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12) Jim Butcher Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Roc Hardcover – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 045146317X / 9780451463173

Available from Penguin Audiobooks  on April 15, 2010

• CD: $49.95; ISBN 9780143145349

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Also set for release next week, Holly LeCraw‘s debut novel, The Swimming Pool, could be a sleeper. Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest copies.

PW says: “Strong writing keeps the reader sucked in to LeCraw’s painful family drama debut. . . . It is a story of deep and searing love, between siblings and lovers, but most powerfully, between parents and their children

Library Journal adds: “LeCraw’s thoughtful debut novel tells of two families whose lives are entwined by tragedy, secrecy, and scandal.…An insightful piece, not just for beach or airplane reading. An author to watch.”

One book blogger was less sanguine, however, observing that the plot is heavy and lacks momentum.

The Swimming Pool Holly LeCraw Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0385531931 / 9780385531931

Also available as OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Elizabeth Berg‘s The Last Time I Saw You (Random House), a tale of women and men reconnecting at their 40th high school reunion, is well stocked in libraries we checked; the highest holds are 4:1 in one case.

Sue Miller‘s The Lake Shore Limited (Random House), about post-9/11 America, is “fascinating and perfectly balanced with [Miller’s] writerly meditations on the destructiveness of trauma and loss, and the creation and experience of art,” according to PW.

Elizabeth Peters‘s A River in the Sky (HarperCollins) elicits faint praise from Library Journal: “The plot is less riveting than many Peters mysteries, but series fans will enjoy [it]. Fans should note that this is out of chronological order from the rest of the saga.”

Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds (Riverhead) is the lead review in the new issue of People magazine (4/12), receiving 3 out of 4 stars. 

Jennifer Chiaverini‘s The Aloha Quilt (Simon & Schuster) is one that “series fans will enjoy,” according to PW, “and those new to the quilting bee should have no problem finding their groove.”

Richard Paul Evans‘ The Walk (Simon & Schuster), about a man who goes on a soul-searching cross-country trek,” is “intriguing” according to Booklist, which adds that “the pages turn quickly.”

Martha Grimes‘s The Black Cat (Penguin) is the author’s “best book in years” according to PW‘s Galley Talk column.

Raymond E. Feist‘s At the Gates of Darkness (Demonwar Saga #2) (HarperCollins) doesn’t get highest marks from PW: “There’s an air of been there, done that to the familiar YAish fantasy plot, relegating it to the status of comfort reading for Feist’s longtime fans.”

E. O. Wilson‘s Anthill (Knopf) gets a mixed review from Library Journal: “Though his characters come off as one-dimensional, Wilson excels at describing the pungent smells and tranquil silence of the disappearing wetlands of Alabama.”

Christopher Rice‘s The Moonlit Earth (Scribner) also gets a mixed response from Booklist: “A bit contrived, but . . . the author pushes through those moments . . . sure to appeal to Rice’s fan base.”

It may seem anti-climactic, after all the hoopla preceding its announcement back in January, but the iPad arrives in stores on Saturday.

Many have predicted it will be “the Kindle killer,” but in the NYT today, David Pogue’s review indicates otherwise,

There’s an e-book reader app, but it’s not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries (sorry, media pundits). The selection is puny (60,000 titles for now). You can’t read well in direct sunlight. At 1.5 pounds, the iPad gets heavy in your hand after awhile (the Kindle is 10 ounces). And you can’t read books from the Apple bookstore on any other machine — not even a Mac or iPhone.

In USA Today, tech columnist, Edward C. Baig, likes how books appear on the iPad,

Judged solely from a sizzle standpoint: There’s no contest. Titles on the iPad such as Winnie the Pooh (which comes preloaded on the iPad) boast colorful illustrations. The 6-inch Kindle screen is grayscale.

But, like Pogue, he objects to the weight of the device, “Curling up in bed was more comfortable with a 10.2-ounce Kindle than with the weightier iPad,” and the backlit screen, which may prove tiring when reading a long book. He also points out that the Kindle is much cheaper (he suggests that they will need to drop the price even further) and has longer battery life.

The following video from USA Today demonstrates the device (ironically, this video cannot be viewed on an iPad; it doesn’t play Flash).

On  NPR’s Fresh Air last night, Terry Gross interviewed an American woman who was imprisoned in Iran for several months. Listen here.

Roxana Saberi grew up in Fargo, ND. Her father’s from Iran and her mother, from Japan. She’s reported for NPR, BBC, Fox News.

Several libraries haven’t ordered the book yet. It received  just one prepub review, a starred Booklist,

Saberi tells the chilling story of her 100 harrowing days in Evin Prison with finely etched detail and heroic candor in an unforgettable chronicle of an all-too-common assault against universal human rights, justice, and truth.

You can browse inside the book here.

Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran Roxana Saberi Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061965286 / 9780061965289

Audio from Tantor Media, read by the author

Trade 9781400116959 8 Audio CDs $37.99
Library 9781400146956 8 Audio CDs $75.99
MP3 9781400166954 1 MP3-CDs $24.99

Ebook available from OverDrive

It will come as no surprise to Twilight fans that yesterday’s announcement of the coming publication of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, a new Twilight novella, shot the book to #1 on both Amazon and B&N.com.

Bree Tanner, a new born vampire, appears briefly in Eclipse the book, but evidently has a larger role in the movie. Meyer says on her site that the screenwriter, director and all the lead actors read the novella before filming, so they’d better understand the characters.

Riding Bree’s coat tails is The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide. Author Stephenie Meyer noted in her announcement that Bree was originally meant to be part of the Guide, but the story turned out to be too long to include. The renewed attention to the Guide (not to be confused with the various official Twilight movie companions; the Guide is about the books) raised it to #102 on Amazon.

Originally announced in 2008 with a publication date of December that year, the Guide has been delayed ever since. The Little, Brown press release announcing Bree Tanner states, “Additionally, more information about the previously announced The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide, including publication date, will be released by the end of the year.”

Don’t cancel those orders.

The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide Stephenie Meyer Retail Price: $21.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers – (no date) ISBN / EAN: 0316043125 / 9780316043120

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The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella Stephenie Meyer Retail Price: $13.99 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: – (2010-06-05) ISBN / EAN: 031612558X / 9780316125581

In addition, an official movie companion to Eclipse (in theaters June 30th) will be released the day before the movie (no cover available yet; no doubt its unveiling will also be an event):

• The Twilight Saga Eclipse: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (June 29, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 0316087378
• ISBN-13: 978-0316087377