EarlyWord

[Note: we’ve made several additions to this story since we first posted it last night]

In the second year that American writers were eligible for the Booker, two made the shortlist, but ultimately did not win. The winner, however, lives in the U.S. and his books were originally published by U.S. publishing houses.

The winner is the first Jamaican writer to win the award, Marlon James for A Brief History of Seven Killings (Penguin/Riverhead; HighBridge Audio; OverDrive Sample, 2014; released in trade paperback, Sept. 8, 2015). He lives in Minneapolis and teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul.

In his remarks, James said he was shaped by reading previous Booker winners and noted that ten years ago he nearly gave up on writing, thanking Johnny Temple at independent publisher Akashic Books in Brooklyn for publishing his debut, John Crow’s Devil, (9781936070107). He also thanked his editors at the Riverhead imprint of Penguin U.S. (see him give his acceptance speech here — the second video).

A Brief History of Seven Killings, published last year in the US, appeared on many of the year’s best books lists and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

James is scheduled to appear on Monday at Minneapolis bookstore Magers & Quinn. He is also scheduled for appearances at Hennepin County Public Library at the end of the month.

In March, he was interviewed on Late Night with  Seth Meyers:

Reviews — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times; Washington Post; Wall Street Journal; NYT Sunday Book Review.

The Guardian calls the winning novel “an epic, uncompromising novel not for the faint of heart. It brims with shocking gang violence, swearing, graphic sex, drug crime but also, said the judges, a lot of laughs.”

UPDATE: The Booker Bump strikes again. By Wed. morning, Oct. 14, A Brief History of Seven Killings rose to #20 on Amazon sales rankings in paperback and #137 in hardcover.

President Barack Obama turns his hand to book discussion, conducting an interview with Marilynne Robinson for a piece published in the 11/5 issue of The New York Review of Books.

The President reveals that he read Robinson’s second novel, Gilead when he was on the 2004 campaign. In it, he discovered one of his  “favorite characters in fiction,” the pastor John Ames, whom he describes as “gracious and courtly and a little bit confused about how to reconcile his faith with all the various travails that his family goes through.”

The two go on to discuss faith, religion, creativity, small town values, American optimism and pessimism, and the “us versus them” tendency of politics.

In a brief segment the President asks Robinson how she developed such a wide perspective growing up in a small rural location.

… how do you think you ended up thinking about democracy, writing, faith the way you do? How did that experience of growing up in a pretty small place in Idaho, which might have led you in an entirely different direction—how did you end up here, Marilynne? What happened? Was it libraries?

Robinson’s immediately answers, “It was libraries.”

The conversation takes place in two parts. The first is available now and the second will be posted in the next issue. A free audio recording of the interview is available via iTunes.

Last month, NPR’s Morning Edition Book Club announced their third pick, Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies (Penguin/Riverhead), helping to propel it on to best seller lists. In two weeks the NPR show will host a conversation with the author.

In a short tee up to the discussion, the hosts of Morning Edition say the novel as a “story of a marriage in two parts” as both the wife and the husband have their due.

Groff quickly pushes back against that summary, saying “It’s not a book about marriage.”

Rather, she explains, marriage is how she talks about larger ideas concerning creativity, sex, time, and rage. She says marriage becomes a vehicle to dig into some of the things she resisted about the institution, and did not know she resisted, until she spent five years working on the novel.

Readers are invited to submit a smartphone voice memo. Groff will answer some of the queries on Morning Edition.

Fates and Furies is on the National Book Awards longst for fiction; the shortlist will be announced tomorrow.

The team at Slate are back with their next book club pick, this time it is the ongoing best seller and basis for the blockbuster movie, The Martian (Mass Market MTI; RH/Broadway; OverDrive Sample) by Andy Weir.

The discussion is wide ranging and at times persnickety as the three participants go back and forth with negative and positive responses.

Katy Waldman, Slate’s words correspondent, was “weirdly riveted” by the process of how astronaut Mark Watney works through the catastrophes involved in being abandoned on Mars, but she summarizes it as “nerd-wish fulfillment fantasy, the next wave of reality shows, like Survivor Mars” and in the end can only recommend it with reservations. However, she recommends the movie wholeheartedly.

Laura Miller, books and culture columnist for Slate, is the most positive on the book, offering some book-discussion worthy ideas, comparing it to several recent novels in which the protagonists work through complex processes to avert disasters, such as Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves.

November’s conversation will address one of the year’s most talked-about literary novels, Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life (RH/Doubleday), currently up for two major awards. It is the favorite among odds makers to win the Booker Prize, to be announced later today. On the National Book Awards longlist, we will learn if it makes the shortlist tomorrow.

The final book in Rick Yancey’s 5th Wave series, The Last Star, is set for publication on May 25, 2016 (Penguin/Putnam YR). The cover was revealed by USA Today.

The film adaptation of the first book in the trilogy, The 5th Wave was featured at New York Comic Con this weekend (tie-ins, in hardcover and trade pbk, Nov. 3).

The movie, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, arrives in theaters on January 15.

New trailers for several forthcoming adaptations made their debuts at at New York Comic Con over the weekend. In addition to MTV’s Shadowhunters, which we covered earlier, the following three were featured.

The Magicians, Syfy channel, 12 episodes, beginning January 15

Official Web site: www.syfy.com/TheMagicians

Based on: Lev Grossman, The Magicians, fantasy trilogy (The Magicians, 2009; The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land)

Tie-in: Lev Grossman, The Magicians (TV Tie-In Edition) (Penguin/Putnam, 11/24/15)

Shannara Chronicles,  MTV, 10 episodes beginning January 5

Official Web site: www.mtv.com/shows/shannara/

Based on: Terry Brooks, Shannara series (first in the series is Sword Of Shannara, but the first in the TV series is based on the second book Elfstones Of Shannara)

Tie-ins:

Terry Brooks, The Elfstones of Shannara (The Shannara Chronicles) (TV Tie-in Edition), (RH/Del Rey; mass market; 12/1/15)

Terry Brooks, The Wishsong of Shannara (The Shannara Chronicles) (TV Tie-in Edition) (RH/Del Rey; 12/1/15)

Outcast, Cinemax, 10 episodes begin 2016 (no exact release date yet)

Official Web Site: Cinemax.Outcasttvseries.com

Based on: Robert Kirkman comics, Outcast

Tie-ins: the series and the comics are being created simultaneously. The first collected edition of the comics was published earlier this year. Volume 2 arrives this week.(Image Comics).

As an indicator of the importance of  Stephen King to the Hollywood community, the movie trade site Deadline announces the title of the author’s next book, End Of Watch, (S&S/Scribner, 9781501129742, 6/7/16), the final volume in the trilogy which began with Mr. Mercedes (2014), currently being developed as a limited TV series, and Finders Keepers (2015).

In addition, Scribner has acquired the rights to King’s backlist formerly held by RH/Doubleday.

King’s short story collection The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams is set for release in print and audio on November 3.

Nixon is in the news again, most recently as the cover story on yesterday’s CBS Sunday Morning.

Reporter David Martin interviewed both Nixon’s Deputy Assistant to the President, Alexander Butterfield, the man who told the world about the White House taping system, and Bob Woodward, who along with Carl Bernstein, exposed Nixon’s crimes.

Woodward’s new book, The Last of the President’s Men (S&S; S&S Audio), is based on interviews with Butterfield and 20 boxes of papers (some of them classified as top secret) he carried out of the White House. The book details Butterfield’s role, outlines the political era of Nixon, and offers a candid view of Nixon himself.

Much of the CBS Sunday Morning report centers on Nixon’s handling of the Vietnam War – bombing even as he internally raged against its ineffectiveness and his determination to discredit witnesses of the My Lai massacre.

It also addresses what Woodward calls “a subversion of what the job of the presidency is.” For example, Nixon had the CIA, FBI, and the House Committee on Un-American Activities all look into a civil servant who had two pictures of President Kennedy in her office – an offense Nixon obsessed over and called an “infestation.”

While orders and holds are light at libraries we checked, Woodward’s book is currently #60 and rising on Amazon’s sales rankings.

This week two books get the Colbert treatment on The Late Show.

Tonight Elvis Costello, author of the new memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (Penguin/Blue Rider Press; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample) is a guest. In the book, Costello reflects on his career, details many of his most iconic songs, and muses on his musical coming of age.

Fan will recognize Costello’s voice as the narrator of the audiobook version

Also being released is an accompanying  soundtrack album, featuring 38 songs.

On Thursday, Colbert features Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor,  the creators of the popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast and a debut novel set in the same world as the show, Welcome to Night Vale (HarperCollins/Harper Perennial; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample). The audio version highlights Cecil Baldwin, the person who performs the podcast.

Desperate parents are flocking to The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep by Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin, illustrated by Irina Maununen (RH/Crown;Listening Library; OverDrive Sample).

PW reported last week that it sold 10,000 copies in two days. Ehrlin, a Swedish psychologist, originally self-published the bedtime story, which Random House acquired after its huge popularity over the summer and has just re-released.

It debuts at #3 on the NYT‘s Picture Book Best Seller list this week, sandwiched between Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers’s crayon books and a seasonal choice, Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins by James Dean.

It is also on the USA Today list, which includes titles in all formats and for all ages, now at #35  down from an earlier high of #6.

In August, NPR’s All Things Considered put it to the test on sleep adverse kids with less than convincing results.

In The Washington Post conducted their own test, with similar results.

Both testers qualified their findings by acknowledging the presence of cameras or microphones could not have helped create the necessary atmosphere.

For those still game to try it out, NPR reports sleep experts suggest that parents make it a constant routine at bedtime and practice delivering the story until they get the lulling rhythm down pat.

If all else fails, parents can at least get some comfort in knowing they are not alone in their bleary-eyed frustration and entertain themselves with the another best selling title about sleep and kids, Adam Mansbach’s Go the F**k to Sleep.

After several years in development, with multiple actresses announced for the lead (Natalie Portman — who eventually switched roles to become one of the producers — Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Mia Wasikowska and Rooney Mara), the trailer has been released  for the adaptation of the godmother of the mashup genre, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (Quirk Books, 2009), starring Lily James (Cinderella, Downton Abbey) as Elizabeth Bennett, Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy and Bella Heathcote as Elizabeth’s sister.

The movie is scheduled to open on Feb. 5, 2016.

A tie-in is scheduled for December:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Movie Tie-in Edition)
Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith
Quirk Books: December 15, 2015
Trade Paperback; 9781594748899, 1594748896
$14.95 USD, $16.95 CAD

For more books to movies and TV, see our list of upcoming book adaptations, as well as our list of tie-ins.

The TV series Shadowhunters will premiere on basic cable channel Freeform (formerly ABC Family) on Jan. 12, 2016, it was announced yesterday at New York Comic Con, along with the release of the first official trailer. It is based on Cassandra Clare’s popular YA series beginning with The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, (S&S/M.K. McElderry Books, 2007), which was made into a movie in 2013. After it flopped at the box office, the producers changed their plans of creating a film franchise and turned to TV, with a new cast of actors, all of whom are fairly new to the screen.

Tie-ins: see our movie and TV tie-ins.
Web site: Shadowhunterstv.com

Called the “Fall’s Buzziest Book”  in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, the title dominating the literary world’s attention is Garth Risk Hallberg’s big (900 plus pages) novel, City on Fire (RH/Knopf). One of the rare books to spark a bidding war, it ended up selling to Knopf for an estimated $2 million.

The country’s major literary critics are now weighing in. It’s on the cover of this week’s NYT Sunday Book Review, David Ulin reviews it in the LA Times as does Ron Charles in the Washington Post  (we’re still waiting for the daily NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani to post her verdict — CORRECTION, Kakutani actually reviewed the book earlier than anyone else, on Oct. 5, calling it a “big, stunning first novel and an amazing virtual reality machine, whisking us back to New York City in the 1970s”). While not venturing to guess whether the money is well spent, they agree that it’s worth the time it takes to read it.

We’re more impressed that it was made a number one pick for the month by a tougher audience, one that is closer to readers –librarians. They made it the #1 LibraryReads pick for the month. Booksellers also picked it for Indie Next.

Hallberg spoke at the Random House Librarians Breakfast held at Book Expo America in June.

Holds are light in most libraries so far, but enthusiasm from librarians and booksellers indicates that once it reaches readers, it will be propelled by word of mouth.

The holds leader of the week, is Nicholas Sparks’s next, See Me (HachetteGrand Central) about one of his favorite topics, second chances at love. It seems he’s had his own experiences in that arena, Sparks made news this week when it was announced that he is planning an ABC comedy series titled The Next Chapter, about, says the Hollywood Reporter, ” a top-selling romance novelist Ben Diamond, who goes through a divorce and not only begins to question his belief in love, but must also learn to date again and live on his own — all while dealing with the pressures of his public persona as the world’s most foremost ‘expert’ on love.” Yes, it is loosely based on the author’s own life.

Fans will welcome a new Stone Barrington novel by Stuart Woods, Foreign Affairs (Penguin/Putnam) and a new title by Elin Hilderbrand, who steps away from the beach for a Winter Stroll (Hachette/Little, Brown) in the sequel to last year’s Winter Street, her first Christmas novel.

Adriana Trigiani also makes a departure, setting her latest novel in a bygone glamor era of Hollywood. Titled All the Stars in the Heavens (Harper), it is based on the real life romance between Loretta Young and Clark Gable. it is People magazine’s pick of the week,  “Reading Trigiani’s latest is like settling in with a bag of popcorn and watching an old black-and-white movie.”

Trigiani has made her own foray into movies, directing a film based on her first novel, Big Stone Gap, which opens in theaters this week.

The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet ,EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Oct. 12, 2015

Peer Picks

Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator by Homer Hickam (HarperCollins/William Morrow; OverDrive Sample)

Indie Next: “This thoroughly delightful story chronicles Hickam’s parents’ road trip from their coal-mining town in West Virginia to Orlando, Florida, to return Elsie Hickam’s pet alligator, Albert, to a home in a more suitable climate. Along the way, the travelers — Homer Sr., Elsie, Albert, and an elusive rooster — encounter famous American authors, movie stars, and minor league baseball teams and become embroiled in union strikes and bank robberies. It’s hard to say what is true and what isn’t, but either way, Carrying Albert Home is a very enjoyable journey!” — Lori-Jo Scott, Island Bookstore, Kitty Hawk, NC

And West Is West by Ron Childress (Workman/Algonquin)

Indie Next pick: “Ethan is a young Wall Street quant who writes an algorithm that allows his company to profit from the financial upheaval caused by antiterrorist strikes. Jessica is a young Air Force drone pilot who is discharged because she has discussed a questionable UAV strike in a letter to her father. This book is a powerful wake-up call to understand how fear, greed, and war inform our technological advances. Childress has truly earned his PEN/Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.” — Karen Tallant, Booksellers at Laurelwood, Memphis, TN

Twain’s End by Lynn Cullen (S&S/Gallery Books; OverDrive Sample)

Indie Next: “Isabel Lyon, who was born to gentility, supported herself as a nanny and a secretary and is best known as secretary/companion to the family of Samuel Clemens. Her late marriage to Clemens’ business manager left her life in shambles, as afterwards both were fired and slandered. What led to those dramatic shifts is the premise behind Twain’s End. Mark Twain may be beloved beyond all American writers, but Cullen has crafted a well-researched tale supporting the view that a very manipulative, selfish, and distant Samuel Clemens and his family hid behind that façade. It is up to you to decide. A marvelous read!” —Becky Milner, Vintage Books, Vancouver, WA

Tie-ins

(For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins).

Hitting a select number of theaters today and expanding “everywhere” (a sweeping statement, but that’s what the studio claims) on Oct 23 is the movie Steve Jobs based on the book by Walter Isaacson (S&S, 2012). For children, it’s the live-action Pan, which, we can’t help saying, is getting panned by NPR, the NYT and by Entertainment Weekly. Set before J.M. Barrie’s book, there are no tie-ins.

Also opening is Adriana Trigiani’s directorial debut, Big Stone Gap, based on her own book.

On TV, BBC America begins The Last Kingdom, based on the first book in Bernard Cornwell’s series The Saxon Tales,  The L.A. Times says it “brings complexity and personality to the Middle Ages.”  On Sunday, the Hallmark Channel debuts the third in a series of movies based on Beverly Lewis’ Amish romances, Beverly Lewis’ The Reckoning.

New York Comic Con opens today featuring The Shannara Chronicles. In addition to a panel presentation, executive producer Terry Brooks will sign copies of an exclusive edition of The Elfstones of Shannara. The series is set to begin on Jan. 16.

Tie-ins scheduled for publication this week are:

Following up on his success with the Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman has started a new venture, Outcast. This time, however, the comics and the screen adaptations are being created simultaneously. The first collected edition of the comics was published in the spring. Volume 2 arrives this week.(Image Comics).

Beasts of No Nation Movie Tie-in by Uzodinma Iweala (HarperCollins/Harper Perennial; OverDrive Sample)
Netflix

Movie opens October 16.

Netflix made a splash by buying the rights to  Beasts of No Nation, a major new movie, directed by Cary Fugunaka and starring Idris Elba and based on the 2005 novel by Uzodinma Iweala about child soldiers in West Africa. There’s one catch. In order for it to be eligible for Oscar consideration, the movie has to open in theaters. Entertainment Weekly, which give the movie a solid A in the new issue, notes that the four largest theater chains have refused to show it, as “a sort of kamikaze stand against the encroachment of VOD.” It will, however appear in the smaller Landmark Theatres chain.

Truth: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power, Mary Mapes (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin; OverDrive Sample)

Movie opens October 16.

Based on the memoir by 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, the movie Truth tells the story of the scandal that caused  CBS News anchor Dan Rather to step down. Robert Redford stars as Rather.

The 33: Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free, Héctor Tobar (
Macmillan/Picador; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Movie opens November 13.

A best seller after it was picked as the first title in NPR’s Morning Edition Book Club, the film adaptation stars Antonio Banderas.

Also arriving is a raft of tie-ins  for the big Pixar childres animated movie, The Good Dinosaur,. Opening Nov. 25, it’s being hailed by the SF site i09 as a “stunning  nasterpiece“.

  . 

There’s been some major changes on the film adaptation of Kevin Powers’ 2012 National Book Award finalist, The Yellow Birds, (Hachette/Little, Brown). Benedict Cumberbatch, originally set to play the lead, has been replaced by Jack Huston, reports Deadline. The film also has a new director, Alexandre Moors, who replaces David Lowery.

Bringing some extra star power to the production, Jennifer Anniston is joining the cast.

All this activity indicates the project is closer to becoming a reality.

Tourists at Dealy Plaza in Dallas were treated to eerie reminders of the past, as filming for the Hulu series based on Stephen King’s novel 11/22/63 (S&S/Scribner, 2011) is wrapping up.

Produced by J.J. Abrams and starring James Franco, the series is expected to air next year.