EarlyWord

Earlier, we wrote that a book by the son of one of the founders of Hamas was making headlines around the world in advance of publication. The book is published by the Christian press Tyndale House. The author, a convert to Christianity, writes in the book about his new faith, but what is making headlines is his claim that he fed Hamas secrets to the Israelis.

News stories continue to break now that the book has been released. An interview with Christine Amanpour is running on CNN today.

Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Mosab Hassan Yousef Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Tyndale House – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 1414333072 / 9781414333076

Tyndale Audio; 3/2; 9781414333090; $29.99

In the Washington Post this week, Patrick Anderson gave a glowing review to A Night Too Dark, by Dana Stabenow, the author’s 17th mystery, set in the wilds of Alaska.

He says that Stabenow “… is one of those regional crime novelists who too often don’t achieve national attention, ” adding, “Once you’ve met the strange characters who inhabit [these] novels, Sarah Palin becomes easier to comprehend.”

It’s clear that Stabenow is not unrecognized in libraries in the lower 48. It might surprise Anderson to learn that holds in libraries we checked are as high as 155 on 40 copies, with and additional 40 on 7 copies of the audio.

A Night Too Dark: A Kate Shugak Novel Dana Stabenow Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2010-02-16) ISBN / EAN: 0312559097 / 9780312559090

Macmillan Audio; UNABR CD; 9781427208880; $39.99
Audio available from OverDrive

The IACP (International Assoc. of Culinary Professionals) has just announced the finalists for their 2010 Awards.

Publishers Wiley and Oxmoor House were neck and neck, with five nominations each (Oxmoor received nominations for 3 of its books in the Williams-Sonoma series). They were closely followed Artisan, with 4 nominations.

Most of the titles will make your mouth water;

Category — Baking: Sweet or Savory

Rose’s Heavenly Cakes Rose Levy Beranbaum Retail Price: $39.95 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Wiley – (2009-09-22) ISBN / EAN: 0471781738 / 9780471781738

Category — Baking: Sweet or Savory

My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method Jim Lahey Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2009-10-05) ISBN / EAN: 0393066304 / 9780393066302

Category — International

Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way Francis Mallmann, Peter Kaminsky Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 278 pages Publisher: Artisan – (2009-05-12) ISBN / EAN: 1579653545 / 9781579653545

But one reminds us there is a serious side to food;

Category – Literary Food Writing

Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal Tristram Stuart Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-10-12) ISBN / EAN: 0393068366 / 9780393068368

Rising on Amazon; now at #24 is a new parenting book, Raising Happiness.

The book’s author, Christine Carter, writes the blog “Half Full: Science for Raising Happy Kids.”

The book wasn’t reviewed prepub (check to see if you’ve ordered it; several libraries we checked hadn’t yet). It’s covered in these consumer magazines:

• US News & World Report, “On Parenting” blog; Two Simple Ways to Be a Happier Parent, 3/2
• Globe and Mail, How to raise joyful kids: Reject perfection and let them fail, Q&A with author, 2/28.
• Psychology Today, How to Raise an Olympic Athlete (blog post by the author), 3/3.

Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents Christine Carter Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 0345515617 / 9780345515612

ebook available from OverDrive

Like the movie The Titanic, the ten-part HBO series The Pacific, beginning March 14, is likely to make bestsellers of dozens of books by many publishers (as some said about The Titanic‘s effect on publishing, “it raised all boats”).

The producers based their earlier series, Band of Brothers, on the book of the same title by Stephen Ambrose. But they couldn’t find one single volume that gave them a story line that worked for The Pacific. According to the L.A. Times, screenwriter Bruce McKenna came up with the idea of following several main characters. He interviewed dozens of veterans and read nearly 50 books; one of the titles that emerged was the 1957 memoir by Robert Leckie, Helmet for My Pillow.

Leckie, who was a writer before the war, became one of the main characters in the series. ABC News singles out Leckie’s role as “perhaps the most pivotal… because of the insight the character brings to so many situations,” and gives actor James Badge Dale special note for his portrayal, “Not once does Dale falter.”

In the following, Tom Hanks calls Helmet for My Pillow “a magnificient piece of prose… almost like a long poem.”

Helmet for my Pillow, is being released as a tie-in (see earlier post, with other tie-ins and related titles).

Leckie went on to write 30 more books, including Okinawa, an account of that battle, which Penguin books is re-releasing to coincide with the series.

Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II Robert Leckie Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (1996-07-01) ISBN 9780140173895

eBook available from OverDrive

DeCapo Press is also re-releasing his Strong Men Armed, which Library Journal described as his “carefully researched history of the Marines from Guadalcanal to Okinawa.”

Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines Against Japan Robert Leckie Retail Price: $17.95 Paperback: 600 pages Publisher: Da Capo Press – (2010-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0306818876 / 9780306818875

ebook available from OverDrive

HBO’s series, The Pacific, is based on memoirs that were published after the war.

A new memoir by a Marine who is featured in an episode of the series, was released yesterday.

It has not been reviewed. The publisher describes it as,

An unvarnished and moving memoir of a Marine veteran who fought his way across the Pacific Theater of World War II — whose story is featured in the upcoming HBO series The Pacific

This is an eyewitness — and eye-opening — account of some of the most savage and brutal fighting in the war against Japan, told from the perspective of a young Texan who volunteered for the Marine Corps to escape a life as a traveling salesman. R.V. Burgin enlisted at the age of twenty, and with his sharp intelligence and earnest work ethic, climbed the ranks from a green private to a seasoned sergeant. Along the way, he shouldered a rifle as a member of a mortar squad. He saw friends die-and enemies killed. He saw scenes he wanted to forget but never did-from enemy snipers who tied themselves to branches in the highest trees, to ambushes along narrow jungle trails, to the abandoned corpses of hara kiri victims, to the final howling banzai attacks as the Japanese embraced their inevitable defeat.

Burgin was one of the few surviving vets who attended the 2/24 premiere  in L.A. where he posed for photographers with actor Martin McCann, who portrays him on screen.

Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific R.V. Burgin, Bill Marvel Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: NAL Hardcover – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0451229908 / 9780451229908

Holt announced yesterday that they are ceasing publication of Charles Pellegrino’s Last Train to Hiroshima. Libraries can return copies and get refunds through their wholesalers; Macmillan’s sales department is sending a memo to wholesalers today on handling returns.

We checked with Tantor, the publisher of the audio version. They are also ceasing publication and distribution of the title and will issue refunds or credit for customers who wish to return their copies.

Questions about the book emerged last week, when it was discovered that one of the sources did not actually witness the events he claimed to have seen. Holt originally planned to make corrections in future editions. Things went from bad to worse, as Pellegrino was unable to answer questions about other sources as well as questions about the validity of his PhD, causing Holt to pull the book entirely.

Falling under the category of “Go Figure,” the book is rising on Amazon since the news broke; it’s now at #97 and several libraries are showing growing holds lists (it’s your choice whether to return them).

The story has appeared in many major news sources. Amusingly, the LA Times and other West Coast sources focus on the fall-out for James Cameron, who had optioned movie rights for the book.

The book received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, strong reviews in LJ, Booklist and  SLJ as well as praise from the Washington Post, the New York Times and People.

The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back (John MacRae Books) Charles Pellegrino Retail Price: $27.50 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. – (2010-01-19) ISBN / EAN: 0805087966 / 9780805087963

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Tantor Audio:
Trade; 9781400115631; 10 Audio CD; $37.99
Library; 9781400145638; 10 Audio CD; $75.99
MP3; 9781400165636; 2 MP3-CD; $24.99

It was nearly fifty years ago, but it still has immediacy.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy brought an outpouring of letters to his widow, 1.5 million in total. A representative sampling of 200,000 of them were saved in Boston’s Kennedy Library, where they remained in boxes until recently, when historian Ellen Fitzpatrick spent five months reading through them.

She chose 250 of them for a book, Letters to Jackie, which releases today. It was featured in USA Today on Friday and on CNN Monday. It rose to #306 on Amazon; half the libraries we checked have not ordered it yet (it was not reviewed prepub).

Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation Ellen Fitzpatrick Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Ecco – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061969842 / 9780061969843

ebook available from OverDrive.

This Thursday, Oprah spends the show’s full hour with the only survivor of a tragic boating accident. Personal trainer Nick Schuyler set out for a deep-sea fishing trip one year ago with four friends. The boat capsized in unexpected bad weather. Clinging to the boat in rough seas, the friends helped each other as much as they could, but after 40 hours only Nick was left.

Schuyler writes about the frightening story in his memoir, Not Without Hope. It was not reviewed prepub, so many libraries have not ordered it.

Schuyler will also make appearances on the Today Show and Larry King Live. The book will be featured in People magazine and in USA Today (in the Sports section; two of the friends played for the NFL).

Not Without Hope Nick Schuyler, Jere Longman Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061993999 / 9780061993992

HarperCollins Audio: UNABR; 9780061999413; $18.99
Audio and ebook available from OverDrive

It’s been a long and tortuous road, but it was announced today that Library Journal, School Library Journal and LJ Hotline have been sold to Media Source, which also owns The Horn Book and Junior Library Guild.

Horn Book Editor-in-Chief, Roger Sutton celebrated the acquisition by posting a photo of himself and LJ/SLJ Editorial Director, Brian Kenney at MidWinter with a typically wry Suttonesque headline, Many men have tried to mix us up but no one can.

Kenney continues as editorial director of both magazines, with Francine Fialkoff as editor-in-chief of Library Journal. Ron Shank continues as publisher.

LJ and SLJ were originally put up for sale, along with 45 other magazines, by owner Reed Business Information back in 2008. Unable to find buyers, in what is widely considered a bungled attempt, Reed took them off the table. This past July, they announced they were trying it again. Since then, they’ve sold off several magazines, including Electronic Design News (EDN) and Broadcasting & Cable, and closed others, including Video Business. The magazines were formerly part of Cahners, which published over 150 magazines at its height.

Noticeably missing from the sale is sister publication Publishers Weekly. Some news sources see this as a sign that Reed has been unable to find a buyer for the magazine and predict it will be closed, a step Reed said they would take with any magazines they were unable to sell by mid-year.

It would be a shame if PW was closed, not just because it’s been covering the publishing business since 1872, or because I am one of the former editors-in-chief. Despite a drastic reduction in staff over the past few years, it still has the largest number of reporters and editors focused on all aspects of the business, from printing to bookselling. Several online publications have challenged PW‘s coverage, most notably Publishers Marketplace and Shelf Awareness (which, ironically, had its first incarnation as PW Daily for Booksellers; when the management laid off editor John Mutter and closed the publication, they effectively set up a competitor), but PW still does more original reporting than any of them. Successful PW online publications Children’s Bookshelf and Cooking the Books point to opportunities to create other niche publications.

And, with all the magazines Reed is trying to sell off, they simply may not have had the time to work with potential buyers of single publications. The outlook may be murky, but don’t write PW off just yet.

The significant change to this week’s NYT Graphic Books Best Seller lists is the arrival of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman Volume 2 at #3 on the Paperback list. The teaming of this particular writer and penciler signal a stellar graphic novel; readers immediately know that a title by the two of them will be popular and, while even great creators have off days, of high quality. Superman, while still in the top pantheon of superheroes, has recently been lagging behind Batman in popularity, and All-Star Superman, free of the dense continuity that keeps new readers away, has been a strong step in bringing Superman back to the forefront.

Morrison and Quitely first paired up to create the praised JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel, astonished readers with the grim, wrenching standlone We3, and then shook up the status quo working on New X-Men, reinvigorating what many saw as a tired parade of expected storylines. They are currently endeavoring to do the same with DC’s Batman and Robin series.

To give you a better sense of Quitely’s distinctive style, we’re running a larger than usual version of the book’s cover.

Many librarians don’t realize how many people contribute to making a graphic novel. There are some creators who do everything themselves, such as Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and R. Crumb (whose Genesis is currently number one on the Hardcover List). Most graphic novels, however, are identifiable by two main creators, the writer and the penciler, with strong contributions from inkers, colorists, letterers, and editors. In this field, it’s equally important to recognize the top-name authors and pencilers; they are the Dan Brown’s and Michael Connelly’s of the format.

Grant Morrison, one of the British invasion of comics authors that also brought in Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, is best known for his work on Batman: Arkham Asylum and various series including Doom Patrol, Justice League of America and the current All-Star Superman. He is hailed as one of the best writers in the business.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition) Grant Morrison Retail Price: $17.99 Paperback: 216 pages Publisher: DC Comics – (2005-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 1401204252 / 9781401204259

Pencilers, as the artists who set the style and tone for the look of a graphic novel, are just as important in a format where art and writing have equal weight in storytelling. Readers used to straight prose think first and often only of the writer, but in graphic novels, the pencilers and other artists involved, from colorist to inker, are invaluable. Their style and layout gain fans just as much as an elegant turn of phrase.

Frank Quitely currently holds a lofty position among the main pencilers, having won four Eisner Awards and one Harvey Award, and has his pick of projects.  He is noted for his inventive and compelling layouts, and while his substantial figures take some getting used to, readers are won over by his obvious skill with pacing, tone, and visual storytelling.

In upcoming posts, we’ll be writing about other important names in the field.

Two stellar reviews brought attention to Mark Mills’ third book, The Information Officer, propelling it to #79 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

The mystery is set in Malta during WWII. The L.A. Times calls it a “…novel so triumphantly old-fashioned, so double-upholstered with the stuff of classics, it reads like the story of Casablanca revisited, like a vanished Graham Greene.”

In the NYT BR, Marilyn Stasio says, “…the sense of immediacy Mark Mills brings to The Information Officer is so intense that this breathtaking novel reads more like a memoir than a wartime thriller.”

And, in fact, the book has its origins in a memoir, as the author reveals,

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The Information Officer Mark Mills Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 1400068185 / 9781400068180

Blackstone Audio
Read by Robin Sachs; Unabridged

7 Tapes; 1441721259; $65.95
1 MP3CD; 1441721297; $29.95
8 CD; 1441721266; $100.00

Audio and ebook available from OverDrive

Chef Marcus Samuelsson  was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, and is best know for introducing Swedish cuisine to Americans as the chef at Manhattan’s Aquavit.

In his 2006 book The Soul of a New Cuisine, he explored the cuisines of Africa. Recently, he has become interested in American regional cooking and plans to open a restaurant in Harlem which will focus on fresh local food, as featured in the NYT last month. According to the story, Samuelsson is “trying to become a brand in American popular food culture.”

And, what brands a chef better than a book and TV appearances? Samuelsson will appear on The Early Show (CBS) on Wednesday to talk about his latest book The New American Table.

New American Table Marcus Samuelsson Retail Price: $40.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Wiley – (2009-10-26) ISBN / EAN: 047028188X / 9780470281888

Breaking onto the 3/7 NYT Nonfiction Hardcover bestseller list at #15, after two weeks on the extended list, is The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It by Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson

The title refers to quantitative strategists, who employed new financial techniques that made them incredible amounts of money, but also brought about several major meltdowns, including the credit crisis of 2007.

Patterson was interviewed on Fresh Air last month (listen here), along with the “godfather” of quantitative finance, Edward Thorp, who first used the theory to win at blackjack.

The book is also reviewed the current issue of Business Week.

The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It Scott Patterson Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Crown Business – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 0307453375 / 9780307453372

Random House Audio; ABR; 9780739385067; $32eBook and Unabridged audio available from OverDrive

Next week is filled with new books about dogs.

One Good Dog Susan Wilson Retail Price: $22.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0312571259 / 9780312571252

Macmillan Audio; UNABR; 9781427209238; $22.99
BBC Audio; 9780792770312; $74.95
Audio available from OverDrive

Wilson, known for her romantic fiction, here turns to the love story of an unlikely couple; a man who has fallen off the corporate ladder and a dog from a homeless shelter. The story is told in alternating chapters from each of their points of view. All four prepub reviews were strong, with only Kirkus adding a sour note; “irresistible, if one dimensional.” It’s an Indie Next Pick for March.

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Love Is the Best Medicine: What Two Dogs Taught One Veterinarian about Hope, Humility, and Everyday Miracles Nicholas Trout Retail Price: $23.99 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0767931971 / 9780767931977

Random House Audio; UNABR; 9780307707420; $30
Audio available from OverDrive

Veterinarian Trout follows up his successful Tell Me Where it Hurts with a story about what he learned from two of his patients.

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Saving Gracie: How One Dog Escaped the Shadowy World of American Puppy Mills Carol Bradley Retail Price: $21.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Howell Book House – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0470447583 / 9780470447581

eBook available from OverDrive

People magazine usually sticks to books from major trade publishers, so something special must have brought their attention to this book by niche pet book publisher Howell (now owned by Wiley). Not only do they review it in the new issue, they give four of four stars to this “scorching investigations of puppy mills,” which follows the rescue of Gracie, a sickly dog that would otherwise have been forced to breed until she died.

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But cats may have the last laugh; Oscar lands on the 3/7 NYT best seller list at #14 after some media attention, including strong reviews in USA Today and People and even a mention on Saturday Night Live, a sure sign of making it into the pop culture lexicon.

Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat David Dosa Retail Price: $23.99 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 1401323235 / 9781401323233

Blackstone Audio

5 Tape; 9781441721174;$54.95
1 MP3CD;9781441721211; $29.95
6 CD; 9781441721181;$76.00