PBS calls their upcoming season the strongest fall schedule in years. This weekend brings the debut of two of the programs in the lineup, both based on books, Call the Midwife (see earlier story) and Half the Sky, which runs on Oct 1 and Oct 2.

You may also get demand from the schools; Random House Academic Marketing is making a push to high schools and colleges, including screenings of the documentaty at the upcoming National Council of Teachers of English and National Council of Social Studies. Online teaching resources will also be available

The PBS seal appears on new printings of the book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (RH/Vintage).

The DVD will be released in November.

It is also available in audio from HighBridge Audio.

[NOTE: If you linked here from the 10/5 newsletter, we posted the wrong one. The correct one is New Title Radar: October 8 – 14]

Politics rules nonfiction this week, with a memoir by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and new books by political pundits Stephen Colbert, Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter. In fiction, returning favorites include Mark Helprin and Per Patterson, plus there’s a charming debut by Robin Sloan. Usual suspects include Dennis Lehane, John Sandford, Nora Roberts, Christine Feehan and Sylvia Day. In YA, Rick Riordan returns with much anticipation and adult author Jasper Fforde starts a fantasy series.

Watch List

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (Macmillan/FSG) is a modern fantasy about a laid off web designer turned bookstore clerk in San Francisco who uses old and new media to crack a variety of codes. Kirkus says, “Sloan’s debut novel takes the reader on a dazzling and flat-out fun adventure, winding through the interstices between the literary and the digital realms.” It was a BEA Librarian’s Shout ‘n’ Share pick and continues as a favorite on GalleyChat. That cover glows in the dark.

Returning Favorites

In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Blackstone Audio) gets the thumbs up from People magazine, which gives it 4 of 4 stars and designates it a People Pick in the new issue: “Helprin’s delightful new novel is a 705-page mash note to Manhattan in the years immediately following World War II. Like Winters Tale, the 1983 bestseller that made his name, it’s a paean to women and their beauty… Helprin paints a dazzling portrait of the city… and evokes the universal, dizzy delight of falling head over heels in love.” NPR’s All Things Considered also gave it a strong review. The film of Helprin’s Winter’s Tale, to begin production in Manhattan on October 27, stars Colin Farrell, Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findlay, William Hurt, Will Smith and Russell Crowe.

It’s Fine By Me by Per Patterson (Graywolf Press) explores the youth of Arvid Jensen, last seen in Patterson’s I Curse the River of Time (2010). This book is a reissue of a 1992 novel by Norwegian author Patterson, who first broke out with Out Stealing Horses, which won the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. LJ calls this one “Essential for upmarket readers.”

Usual Suspects

Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (Harper/ Morrow; Harperluxe; HarperAudio) is a crime novel set in the Prohibition era about the rise of an Irish-American gangster. It gets a B+ in Entertainment Weekly, which calls it a “ripping, movie-ready yarn that jumps from a Boston prison to Tampa speakeasies to a Cuban tobacco farm.”

Mad River by John Sandford (Penguin/Putnam; Center Point Large Print; Penguin Audiobooks) is the fifth novel featuring Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent Virgil Flowers, who investigates an armed rampage by three teens in rural Minnesota. It was featured on NPR’s Weekend edition Saturday.

The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts (Penguin/Berkley; Thorndike Large Print; Brilliance Audio) is the final installment in the Inn Boonsboro trilogy.

Dark Storm by Christine Feehan (Penguin/Berkley; Thorndike Press; Penguin Audiobooks) is the latest in the Carpathian series of paranormal romances.

Reflected in You by Sylvia Day (Berkley; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike Large print) — is the second in the Crossfire series, which began with the self-published Bared to You, widely regarded as a successor to Fifty Shades of Grey (and with covers that underscore the similarity). UPDATE: We had the wrong pub. date. It’s actually Oct. 23, which means you still have time to request the digital ARC via Edelweiss and NetGalley.

Young Adult

The Mark of Athena:(Heroes of Olympus, Book 3) by Rick Riordan (Hyperion Books; Thorndike Press; Listening Library) has been right behind J.K. Rowling’s new book on Amazon’s sales rankings and rivals the Nora Roberts title for the most holds on this list.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (Harcourt Children’s Books; Brilliance Audio) is a YA fantasy novel by the British author of the fanciful Thursday Next literary mysteries and the Nursery Crime series. PW says, “There’s a lot of setup for later books in Fforde’s Chronicles of Kazam, but it’s so inventive and charming that readers will happily stick with it (though the tragic death of a major character will hit some of them hard) and be impatient for the next episode.”

Movie Tie-Ins

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (Random House Trade) is one of two titles, long considered unfilmable, that will actually be released this fall. News of the movie sent Mitchell’s 2004 title back to best seller lists (the regular trade paperback edition is at #5 on the 10/7 NYT best seller list, after 8 weeks). Starring Tom Hanks, Jim Sturgess, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant, the movie arrives in theaters on Oct. 26.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (HMH; Random House Large Print Publishing; HighBridge Audio) is the second of the two titles coming out this fall that were long considered unfilmable. Directed by Ang Lee, it releases on Nov. 21. The Making of Life of Pi : A Film, a Journey by Jean-Christophe Castelli will be released on 10/30.

Nonfiction

Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Simon & Schuster; Thorndike Press; Simon & Schuster Audio)  is a memoir by the former California governor about his rise from Austrian bodybuilder to Mr. Universe, business man, movie star, Kennedy family member via marriage to Maria Shriver, Republican leader, and his affair and child with a longtime family employee. It will be featured on 60 Minutes on Sunday, Sept. 30, and has been promoted in advance on CBS This Morning

America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t by Stephen Colbert (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio) is the latest political satire from the host of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report.

Call the Midwife, the BBC series that, incredibly, beat the UK ratings for Downton Abbey‘s second season, debuts on PBS this Sunday.

People calls it ” the soppily tender story of ’50s midwives in London’s East End” and gives it 3.5 of a possible 4 stars.

The UKs Telegraph wonders “Will Downton Abbey’s stateside fans stomach the Call the Midwife crises?” and warns that, “with recent UK period drama focusing on upper-class glamour … US viewers … may be in for a bit of a shock – despite PBS’s carefully describing the drama as ‘colourful’ (as in blood-drenched).” Adding that “close-ups … will support the US view of the lamentable state of British dentistry.”

But US critics are won over. The Washington Post ranks it as one of the best of the new season, saying,

The cast is marvelous, the gritty, post-war set pieces are meticulously recreated and, even with all the warm-water enemas and splattered afterbirth, the story always has its eye on uplift and good cheer.

Watch Call the Midwife – Preview on PBS. See more from Call the Midwife.

The series is based on Jennifer Worth’s memoirs, released as a tie-in edition in August. In addition, there is a companion volume and an audio from HighBridge.

The Life and Times of Call the Midwife: The Official Companion to Season One and Two Heidi Thomas Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper Design – (2012-10-23) ISBN / EAN: 0062250035 / 9780062250032

Taylor Swift has signed on to play Joni Mitchell in Sony Pictures’ adaptation of Sheila Weller’s Girls Like Us (S&S; Atria, 2008), which chronicles the lives of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon.

Up for the part of Carly Simon are Allison Williams (Marnie in Girls), Jessica Pare (Megan Draper in Mad Men), and Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love).

Reportedly under consideration for Carole King are Alison Pill (Newsroom‘s Maggie Jordan), Olivia Thirlby (Juno),  Ari Graynor (For a Good Time Call…), and Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks).

Girls Like Us was praised by the NYT BR for “Weller’s skills as a storyteller and her understanding of the musical traditions that inspired each of her subjects.”

One of the titles shortlisted for the Booker will be released in the US on Oct. 16, the very day the winner will be announced.

Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home is published in the UK by And Other Stories, a publisher that is trying an unusual model, selling their books through annual subscriptions with the aim of helping writers whose books are not considered commercial enough to be published by mainstream houses. It is being published in the US by Bloomsbury.

The UK’s Observer reviewed Swimming Home last week and called it “dazzling.”

In betting at the UK bookmaker Ladbroke’s, Levy’s novel is currently the fifth of the six shortlisted titles

Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies, Macmillan/Holt — 9 to 4

Will Self, Umbrella, Grove Press, (US pub date: Dec. 10th) — 11 to 4

Alison Moore, The Lighthouse, Salt Publishing, available in the US through Amazon Digital Services — 5 to 1

Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists, Perseus/ Weinstein Books — 5 to 1

Deborah Levy, Swimming Home,
Macmillan/Bloomsbury  (US pub date: Oct. 16th) — 6 to 1

Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis, Penguin Press– 8 to 1

Moving up all the Best Seller lists this week, after three weeks on sale, is How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough (HMH; 9/4/12; Tantor Audio). The author’s previous book was a look at the Harlem Children’s Project, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America.  In this new book, reviewed in the 8/22 NYT BR, he argues that character traits, rather than IQ, determine success in life.

Most libraries are showing  holds of 10:1.

Time’s book critic, Lev Grossman (also the author of The Magician and The Magician King, which has been called “Harry Potter for grownups”) may be the only reviewer who is a fan of J.K. Rowling’s new book, The Casual Vacancy, released today.

It’s a big, ambitious, brilliant, profane, funny, deeply upsetting and magnificently eloquent novel of contemporary England, rich with literary intelligence and entirely bereft of bullshit, and if it weren’t for Rowling’s stringent security measures it would or at least should have contended for the Booker Prize.

The AP review, syndicated in many local newspapers, is one of the few that is mostly positive  — “what could have been an unreadable story becomes something else in Rowling’s hands, thanks to her gift of being able to make her characters complex and really, just human.”

The majority of  critics, however,  are not in love with it:

The New York Times brings out its big gun, Michiko Kakutani, to weigh its merits. Characteristically, she doesn’t like it — “The reader can only hope [Rowling] doesn’t try to flesh out the Muggle world of Pagford in any further volumes, but instead moves on to something more compelling and deeply felt in the future.”

The L.A. Times critic, David Ulin, dislikes everything about the book, from the male characters (“One of the particular pathologies of the novel is that nearly every adult male, with the exception of the sainted Barry, is brutal or weak”) to the plot (“unsatisfying” and “convoluted”) to its exploration of issues (that “requires nuance, which is what The Casual Vacancy lacks”).

Entertainment Weekly gives it an unimpressive B-  — “When the novel finally arrives at its predictable and heavy-handed ending, what started as a lively comedy of manners has turned into an overwrought slog.”

The New York Daily News’ review begins,”J .K. Rowling has gone from Potter to potty-mouth,” and then damns it with faint praise — it “isn’t dreadful. It’s just dull.”

The UK’s Guardian is a bit more positive — “The Casual Vacancy is no masterpiece, but it’s not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, and often funny. I could imagine it doing well without any association to the Rowling brand … The fanbase may find it a bit sour, as it lacks the Harry Potter books’ warmth and charm; all the characters are fairly horrible or suicidally miserable or dead. But the worst you could say about it, really, is that it doesn’t deserve the media frenzy surrounding it. And who nowadays thinks that merit and publicity have anything do with each other?”

What ultimately matters is the response from general readers, who have made it #1 on Amazon in pre-sales. As to what they think of the book, the majority of the Amazon “reviews” are actually complaints about the Kindle prices; the single review gives the book 5 of 5 possible stars. No reviews have appeared on GoodReads yet.

Speculation continues on how many copies J.K. Rowling’s first adult title, The Casual Vacancy, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print) will sell after it releases tomorrow.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in today, saying, the author’s “Harry Potter magic will be challenged in one particularly Hogwartzian way: Can she disappear the book’s entire U.S print run of two million copies?” That should not be a problem, however, since as they note, “…the final Harry Potter novel sold 11.5 million copies in its first 10 days on sale in the U.S. in 2007.”

Early this morning, the book rose to #1 on Amazon’s sales rankings (from #3 yesterday). It is #5 on the BarnesAndNoble.com rankings. Library holds are still relatively light compared to Fifty Shades of Grey or Gone Girl and have not increased significantly since yesterday.

An interview with Rowling will be featured on Nightline tonight; a portion of that interview was aired on Good Morning America today. Tomorrow she will read from the book on GMA.

Don’t weed those copies just yet. Reports of possible leads for Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse, based on last year’s novel by Daniel H. Wilson (RH/Doubleday; BOT), indicate that the movie is on track for a planned release date of April 25, 2014.

Anne Hathaway and Chris Hemsworth are in talks to star, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Written as an oral history of a robot uprising against humans, the book was heavily promoted at BEA in 2011 and landed on the NYT best seller list at #13 for one week. It won a 2012 Alex Award and has been used in STEM programs, gaining it the distinction of an attempted ban, due to its use of certain colorful language.

A second trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, emerged online last week. According to those who track such things, it offers “the most detailed glimpse yet at Peter Jackson’s return to the world he created in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.”

The movie, which releases this Dec. 14, will be followed by two others in the series:

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug — Dec. 13, 2013

The Hobbit: There And Back Again — July 18, 2014

In addition to the trade paperback tie-in edition of the novel, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will release several related titles, including a behind-the-scenes book.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide Brian Sibley Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Mariner Books – (2012-11-06) ISBN / EAN: 054789855X / 9780547898551

The trailer for Ang Lee’s 3-D adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker Award winning novel, Life of  Pi, has just been released online. The movie opens on Nov. 21.

Official movie site: LifeOfPiMovie.com

In addition to a trade paperback movie tie-in and the audio CD (HighBridge), there will also be a behind-the-scenes book:

The Making of Life of Pi: A Film, a Journey Jean-Christophe Castelli Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Harper Design – (2012-10-30) ISBN / EAN: 0062114131 / 9780062114136

As multiple media outlets speculate on whether J.K. Rowling’s first book for adults, The Casual Vacancy (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print) releasing on Thursday, will be as big a hit as her Harry Potter franchise, library holds indicate that it will not. Most libraries have ordered heavily, but not as heavily as they would an HP title, with holds ratios at 3:1 or less.

In Britain, it’s being called “one of the biggest releases of the 21st century,” but not one that will top the final Harry Potter title, which sold 2.5 million in its first 24 hours in the UK alone (the Telegraph).

Currently, it is #3 on Amazon’s US sales rankings, below the account of the killing of Osama bin Laden, No Easy Day, and Rick Riordan’s latest in his middle grade Heroes of Olympus series.

The book is under heavy embargo, but the New Yorker’s Ian Parker was given an early look, for his profile of Rowling in this week’s issue. His assessment is lukewarm:

…whereas Rowling’s shepherding of readers was, in the Harry Potter series, an essential asset, in The Casual Vacancy her firm hand can feel constraining. She leaves little space for the peripheral or the ambiguous; hidden secrets are labelled as hidden secrets, and events are easy to predict. We seem to watch people move around [the town of] Pagford as if they were on Harry’s magical parchment map of Hogwarts.

If you don’t have time to read the full 9,000-word-plus profile, GalleyCat gives a handy synopsis of what it reveals about the book’s plot, along with the necessary spoiler alert.

Rowling also tells Parker that she is working on two books “for slightly younger children” than her Harry Potter readers as well as another one for adults.

Believe it or not, J.K. Rowling‘s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, is not the only book going on sale next week, though it will surely get a lion’s share of media attention. The other lion of the week is rocker Neil Young, who delivers his first memoir. Other noteworthy nonfiction includes a compilation of President John F. Kennedy’s audio tapes and transcripts, put together by the John F. Kennedy Library and historian Ted Widmer. In adult fiction, there’s a debut novel from popular memoirist J.R. Moehringer, and a BEA Buzz panel pick by Antoine Wilson. Usual suspects include Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall and Deepak Chopra – and in YA fiction, there’s a mystery from adult author Francine Prose.

Major Comeback

EMBARGOED: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (Little Brown; Hachette Audio) comes with a big question: does J.K. Rowling’s first book for adults have a fair chance at success, given the wildly outsized expectations that come with being the author of the Harry Potter series? Her first and only U.S. interview about the book will be on September 26, on ABC’s Good Morning America (7:00-9:00 AM), World News with Diane Sawyer (6:30 PM), and Nightline (11:35 PM-12:00 AM), and will re-air on Good Morning America on September 27.

Watch List

Sutton by J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion; Hyperion Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is a debut novel about the bank robber and folk hero Willie “The Actor” Sutton, by the author of the popular memoir The Tender Bar. It begins in 1969, after Sutton’s release from Attica prison at age 68, as he looks back on stealing more than $2 million over 40 years (often in costume) and his three impressive prison breaks. Entertainment Weekly‘s review begins, “There’s a quality to J.R. Moehringer’s writing that makes you feel you aren’t stepping into a book so much as a dimly lit but welcoming bar…He brings a raconteur’s grace and rhythm to his first novel.” The reviewer admits that the ending is unsatisfying, “But isn’t closing time always a bit of a letdown when you don’t want an entertaining night to end?”

Panorama City by Antoine Wilson (HMH; Blackstone Audio) was a BEA Editors Buzz Panel pick about a self-described “slow-learner” recovering from a traumatic accident, who composes a letter about what it takes to be “a man of the world” to his unborn son and pregnant wife. Booklist says, “Readers who enjoy Mark Haddon and Greg Olear will appreciate Wilson’s authorial voice, which blends Oppen’s good-natured naiveté and humorous asides with incisive cynicism.”

The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo by F. G. Haghenbeck (S&S/Atria) is a fictional biography of the beloved Mexican painter’s life, chronic illness and many loves, based on Kahlo’s unpublished notebooks, including actual recipes tied to her most important moments and relationships. Kirkus says, “despite the repetitiousness and pretentious hyperbola that drags on this novel, Kahlo remains a rich character and inevitably irresistible.”

Love Anthony by Lisa Genova (S&S/Gallery; S&S Audio; Thorndike Large Print) follows two grieving mothers who meet by chance in Nantucket, and help each other heal and move on. Kirkus says, “There’s a point in the narrative where one of the characters becomes so engrossed in reading a book that she loses track of time. Readers of Genova’s latest excellent offering might very well find the same happening to them.”

Usual Suspects

Brink of Chaos by Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall (Zondervan; Zondervan Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is the third installment in The End series of political apocalyptic thrillers.

God: A Story of Revelation by Deepak Chopra (HarperOne) is a “teaching novel” by the popular author of Jesus and Buddha, that aims for a better understanding of God by profiling 10 historical figures: Job, Socrates, St. Paul, Shankara, Rumi, Julian of Norwich, Giordano Bruno, Anne Hutchinson, Baal Shem Tov and Rabindranath Tagore. Kirkus says, “Of particular interest are the humorous, humble Baal Shem, the brilliant, witty Shankara and the visionary Julian, a man Chopra calls ‘the most touching figure in this book’.”

Young Adult

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by Maxine Paetro  and James Patterson (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio) begins a new teen mystery series from the team behind the Women’s Murder Club series for adults. PW is not impressed: “The intriguing setup loses cohesion… For writers with their crime-writing experience, Patterson and Paetro show little interest in common sense, motivation, or believable storytelling.”

The Turning by Francine Prose (Harper Teen) is the story of a teen who takes on a spooky summer job caring for two orphans on a remote island, inspired by Henry James’s Turn of the Screw. PW says, “Remaining true to the ambiguous nature of the original, Prose (Touch) masterfully builds suspense. Like Adele Griffin’s Tighter (2011), this spin on the classic tale is an enticing blend of gothic elements and psychological complexities.”

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray) is the story of a 15 year-old whose parents take away his role-playing game guides and send him to camp to get socialized by the author of It’s a Funny Story. Kirkus says, ” Though the world building is thin at times, there are some moments of genuine pathos and terror, with the final climactic fight scene leaving plenty of room for sequels. Great geeky fun.”

Nonfiction

Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy, selected and with introduction by Ted Widmer, foreword by Caroline Kennedy (Hyperion) makes available for the first time selections from the 256 hours of JFK’s presidential conversations that were taped on hidden recording systems in the Oval Office and in the Cabinet Room. It includes two 75-minute CDs and covers decisions related to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race, Vietnam, and the arms race, compiled by John F. Kennedy Library and historian Widmer.

Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young (Penguin/Blue Rider; Penguin Audiobooks) is  a memoir by the iconic rocker, whose career spans 50 years, from playing with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, & Nash to Crazy Horse and becoming the “godfather of grunge.”

One Last Strike: Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season by Tony La Russa (Harper/ Morrow; HarperLuxe) is the story of the St. Louis Cardinals unusual end-of-season run and victory in the 2011 World Series, by their manager.

The Chew: Food. Life. Fun. by The Chew with contributions from Mario Batali, Gordon Elliott, Carla Hall, Clinton Kelly, Daphne Oz and Michael Symon (Hyperion) is a companion cookbook to The Chew, a daytime show on ABC-TV.

Safari: A Photicular Book by Dan Kainen, text by Carol Kaufmann (Workman) recreates a Kenyan safari featuring eight animals portrayed with a new technology that resembles a 3-D movie on the page, in the next leap after the publisher’s best selling Gallop.

Movie Tie-in

Killing Them Softly (Cogan’s Trade Movie Tie-In Edition) by George V. Higgins (RH/Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) ties in to the movie starring Brad Pitt from the Weinstein Company, which was recently rescheduled to the end of November, to move it into consideration for an Oscar. (Deadline, 9/11/12)

The trailer for the adaptation of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s best selling YA title, Beautiful Creatures, has just arrived online. The movie doesn’t debut until February, but the Hollywood Reporter has been speculating since March that it will be the next Hunger Games.

How about Emma Thompson’s Southern accent?

The movie site Collider offers stills from the set.

Official Movie Site: BeautifulCreaturesMovie.com

As they did for the Twilight series, Little, Brown YR is publishing an “official illustrated movie companion” as well as trade paperback and mass market tie-ins.