EarlyWord

World War II era debut novel The Postmistress has been racking up some strong reviews and comparisons to other blockbuster debuts, like The Help and Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.

The new issue of People (3/1/10) gives it 3 of 5 stars, saying “…it’s a slam-dunk for book groups and readers who savor shifting through what-ifs.” Why not four stars, then? The reviewer feels there are flaws; “Blake works hard to set up situations involving moral questions and the effort shows.”

What about our prediction that it will appear in the top five on the 2/28 NYT Hardcover Fiction list?

We were wrong, but not by much. Advance word says it lands at #8.

By comparison, The Help first landed on the 3/1/09 NYT list at #29. It was 20 weeks before it rose into the top ten, hitting #9 on the 7/19/10 list. It gradually climbed into the top five, hitting #1 last month.

The Postmistress Sarah Blake Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam – (2010-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0399156194 / 9780399156199

Audio from Blackstone Audiobooks

• CD: $100; ISBN 9781441725714
• MP3 CD: $29.95; ISBN 9781441725745
• Cassette: $65.95; ISBN 9781441725707

Audio and e-book available from OverDrive

One of the ten nominees for Best Picture in the Oscar race is An Education. Carey Mulligan, who plays the 16-year-old lead, has also been nominated for Best Actress and Nick Hornby up for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Hornby wrote the screenplay based on the first chapter of a memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber, a fascinating and well-known figure in the UK, where she is called “The Demon Barber” for her no-holds-barred interviews. The screenplay is the official tie-in to the movie, but the full memoir was not available in the U.S.

That was rectified last month when Atlas & Co. published it in the U.S. for the first time. Editor James Atlas describes it on the publisher’s web site,

…when I got my hands on the book, which was published in England last year to great critical acclaim, I was surprised to discover how much more there was to it than the story of a bookish adolescent seduced—and “educated”—by an older man. The memoir, by the fearsome journalist Lynn Barber, whose acerbic profiles have made the teeth of the chattering classes chatter, tells her story from beginning to . . . well, not end, but what is now tactfully called late middle age. Along the way are stints at Penthouse and (ill-fatedly) Vanity Fair; cameo appearances on a TV show called Grumpy Old Women; and a complex marriage that endures. It’s a classic British memoir, and we’re proud to bring it to an American audience.

As a further inducement, the publisher has also made a sample chapter available:

Download a sample chapter [pdf]

An Education Lynn Barber Retail Price: $13.00 Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Atlas – (2010-01-29) ISBN / EAN: 1934633852 / 9781934633854

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No surprise, Library Journal‘s annual analysis of library materials budgets shows they are down; “This year, think Edvard Much’s The Scream” the article says.

One third of the libraries surveyed report budget cuts, and another half say their budgets are flat. The overall 5% reduction may not seem that bad, but it’s the largest since the survey began and the story is likely to be worse next year.

The “bright side” is that library circulation is up, with its highest increase ever.

LJ goes on to look at how libraries are dealing with cuts in the face of increased circulation.

ALA’s survey, A Perfect Storm Brewing also attests to the fact that libraries are having to do more with less. On the bright side, newspaper reporters like Bob Hoover at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are using the study results to point out what local citizens are losing as libraries are forced to cut services (Nation’s libraries get more use, less funding, 2/15).

The media appetite for political scandals, even ten-year-old ones, continues unabated.

Last night on NPR’s Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviewed Ken Gormley, whose book, The Death of American Virtue, recounts the Clinton impeachment (listen here). Gormley also appeared on the Today Show.

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

The book rose to #52 on Amazon, but library holds are light in most places.

It has also been reviewed widely in newspapers, including the following.

Wall Street Journal — a scrupulously even-handed and exhaustively reported book

New York Times — so exhaustive that some of it raises doubts about the value of Mr. Gormley’s exertions…. But by and large Mr. Gormley has packed his narrative with intense, overdue and definitive testimony about the still-surprising investigation of Mr. Clinton’s activities spearheaded by Kenneth W. Starr.

The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr Ken Gormley Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 800 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-02-16) ISBN / EAN: 0307409449 / 9780307409447

The Oscar race now has a narrative that the organizers can only dream of; the two leading contenders for Best Picture, Avatar and The Hurt Locker, are directed by former spouses.

The current issue of the New Yorker assesses each movie’s chances. Conclusion; don’t overlook the much lower-grossing Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron’s former wife. There are a lot of ex-wives in Hollywood, who may be voting.

We probably don’t need to point out that, if Hurt Locker wins, it will be the first time a movie directed by a woman wins Best Picture.

Neither movies are based on books (although MTV News reports that Cameron plans to write an Avatar prequel – not as a script, as a novel), but there are tie-ins.

Abrams published a companion book to Avatar.

The Art of Avatar: James Cameron’s Epic Adventure Lisa Fitzpatrick Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 108 pages Publisher: Abrams – (2009-11-30) ISBN / EAN: 0810982862 / 9780810982864

And Newmarket has the shooting script for The Hurt Locker:

The Hurt Locker: The Shooting Script Mark Boal Retail Price: $19.95 Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: Newmarket Press – (2009-12-22) ISBN / EAN: 1557049092 / 9781557049094

The next big kid’s movie is around the corner, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, opening March 19th.

Rather than a traditional tie-in, author Jeff Kinney is releasing a “diary” of the making of the movie, which includes storyboard sketches, costume designs (that t-shirt, shorts and back pack must have been a stretch), script pages and photos.

The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary Jeff Kinney Retail Price: $14.95 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Amulet Books – (2010-03-16) ISBN / EAN: 0810996162 / 9780810996168

Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill, is hailed in the current issue of Time magazine as “as one of America’s finest horror writers,” based on “the strength of two masterly thrillers–2007’s Heart-Shaped Box and his newest, Horns.”

Despite his pedigree, it wasn’t an easy road, says Time, “Hill, 37, spent more than a decade trying his hand at a variety of genres (a thriller in the vein of Cormac McCarthy, a children’s tale, a 900-page fantasy novel) with no bites from publishers.”

Library customers may not have caught on; holds are less than 1:1 on modest ordering in large library sytems (two copies or fewer for the largest branches).

As is clear from the cover, the title refers to the Devil.

Horns Joe Hill Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-02-16) ISBN / EAN: 0061147958 / 9780061147951

HarperLuxe – (2010-03-01);  9780061945663; Paperback; $25.99

Audio CD; HarperAudio – (2010-03-01); 9780061768026; $39.99

It may come as a surprise that the Oscar-nominated movie Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, is based on a book. Director Scott Cooper had been planning to make a biopic about Merle Haggard, but couldn’t get the rights. So, he turned to “an obscure novel” (The Salt Lake Tribune), Crazy Heart by Thomas Cobb, published in 1987.

Cooper was going to debut the movie at last month’s Sundance festival, but distributor Fox Searchlight decided to try for an Oscar nomination and released it in a limited number of theaters in December (those with a cynical streak will enjoy New York magazine’s article “The Red Carpet Campaign“, which begins by detailing the studio’s effort to get the nods from Oscar).

HarperCollins released a tie-in edition of the book this month (with an audio coming in a couple of weeks). How does it compare to the movie? Dwight Garner wrote about it on the NYT Arts Beat blog, saying,

It’s not the great country music novel the world’s been waiting for – well, I’ve been waiting for it, anyway – but it’s got a deep kind of weatherbeaten charm that can’t be faked, and the love story at its core is genuinely moving. I was sorry when the thing was over…[it] has an amiable, crooked charm that is impossible to deny.

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Crazy Heart tie-in Thomas Cobb Retail Price: $13.99 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Harper Perennial – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 0060915196 / 9780060915193

Unabridged Audio, Harper Audio, 3/16; 9780062006226; $24.99

Do reviews sell books? Not as often as publishers would like, but this week’s NYT BR cover review of The Three Weissmanns of Westport, by Cathleen Schine moved the the book to #9 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

The NYT BR calls it “sparkling, crisp, clever, deft, hilarious and deeply affectiing,” and says that, in the crowded field of Jane Austen wannabes, “Schine’s homage has it all: stinging social satire, mordant wit, delicate charm, lilting language and cosseting materialistic detail.”

Several libraries are showing heavy holds; 103 on 11 copies in one large system.

UPDATE:  It’s the little book that could — USA Today and People have reviews scheduled and NPR’s Fresh Air is considering an interview.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport Cathleen Schine Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 0374299048 / 9780374299040

Unabridged Audio from Blackstone:

8 CD; 1-4417-2515-8; $90.00
Tape; 1-4417-2514-1; $65.95
MP3CD; 1-4417-2518-9; $29.95

Audio downloadable from OverDrive

Dick Francis, a successful jockey who had an even more successful career as a writer, producing over 40 books, died at his home on Grand Cayman island on Sunday.

According to the The Guardian, Francis had an unusual arrangement with his British publisher; as long as he wrote a book a year, all of his books would remain in print. His final novel, Crossfire, written with his son Felix, will be released in August.

The New York Times obituary quotes critic John Leonard who said, “Not to read Dick Francis because you don’t like horses is like not reading Dostoyevsky because you don’t like God.”

Three booksellers used their print-on-demand Espresso Book Machines to create copies of the Haitian Creole (Kreyol) Pocket Medical Translator for relief workers in Haiti. According to a report in the Grand Rapids Press (the local Schuler Books & Music is one of the participating stores), the project was originated by Google, which waived the fee for accessing the title and is underwriting shipping costs.

During a panel at the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute last week, booksellers talked about their experiences with the machines. Shelf Awareness reports today that they are popular for self-published works. One bookseller said people get very excited about finally seeing their book in print; “I go downstairs when I know an author is coming in so I can witness that exchange.”

This week; The Christian Science Monitor ran a post on about two Seattle-area stores that have installed the machine. One of them, Third Place Books, has a blog devoted to the store’s experiences in on-demand printing, including a visit from a group of librarians from Bainbridge Island, who “thoroughly grilled [the staff] on the EBM’s promise to books, retailing, and libraries.”

For those of you not able to grill the Third Place Books staff, they have provided a helpful FAQ on the machine. You may also want to check the  list of Espresso Book Machine locations to find one near you. The only public library on that list is New Orleans (NYPL exhibited the machine in 2007).

For the past week, middle school boys have been haunting the doorway to my office, hoping for an advance copy of Havoc by Chris Wooding, the second in the Malice series.

My advice? Order now and go in big.

Havoc Chris Wooding Retail Price: Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Scholastic – (2010-05-03) ISBN / EAN: 1407105116 / 9781407105116

We hope you’ve been enjoying “Buzz on Your Desktop,” the HarperCollins’ library Marketing Team’s sneak preview of summer titles. If you haven’t looked at it yet, check it out here.

You can sign up to win a set of 5 HarperCollins’s Advance Readers Editions of summer titles. The deadline for the first month’s drawings is tomorrow midnight (EST), so now’s the time (sign up by going here).

The HarperCollins’ folks are updating the site as new information arrives. For instance, they’ve just posted this haunting jacket for The Eyes of Willie McGee (learn more about it here):

The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South Alex Heard Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061284157 / 9780061284151

The title of the third and final volume in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series is announced in the current issue of USA Today.

It’s not The Victors, but Mockingjay and it will be published on Aug. 24th. USA Today explains,

In the series, mockingjays are offspring of mockingbirds and jabberjays, a government-bred mutant designed to spy on rebels. Mockingjays become symbols of resistance.

Collins is at work on the screenplay for The Hunger Games (Lionsgate bought the rights last year; no cast or director announced yet).

On the Scholastic blog, Scholastic Executive Director David Levithan spills the beans on…what’s NOT in the book.

The Hunger Games: Book 3 Suzanne Collins Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2010-08-24) ISBN / EAN: 0439023513 / 9780439023511