Titles to Know and Recommend, Week of May 30, 2016
Among the repeat authors returning with new books this week are two co-authors whose book always has the same title, the new edition of the book that revolutionized pregnancy guides.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting (5th Edition), Heidi Murkoff, Sharon Mazel, (Workman; also trade pbk)
New editions of this book remind us of changes in the culture since the previous one. Information on how a changing body may affect piercings and tattoos, covered earlier, is now old hat. This time, according to the publisher, the new edition incorporates current lifestyle trends such as “juice bars, raw diets, e-cigarettes, push presents, baby bump posting …”
The media is already giving attention to memoirs by two very different people. Among bookseller picks are titles that have shown up on many consumer summer reading previews.
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 May 30, 2016
Advance Attention
The Long Game: A Memoir, Mitch McConnell, (PRH/Sentinel; Penguin Audio)
The Senate Majority Leader began promotion for his memoir with an appearance on yesterday’s CBS This Morning There were no prepub reviews, indicating this book is embargoed. As a result, many libraries have not ordered it.
Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China, Eddie Huang, (PRH/Spiegel & Grau)
Celebrity bad boy chef Huang’s previous memoir was the basis for the ABC TV series Fresh off the Boat. The ground-breaking show just aired its second season final episode and has been renewed for a third, making this a good moment for the author to release his second book (even though he has complained openly that TV sanitized his book). He is profiled in the New York Times and on NPR.
Peer Picks
Four June Indie Next selections arrive this week, two fiction and two nonfiction.
Modern Lovers, Emma Straub (PRH/Riverhead Books; Penguin Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample).
“Set in trendy Brooklyn, Straub’s latest novel follows the lives of former bandmates Zoe, Elizabeth, and Andrew and their teenage children, Ruby and Harry. When Ruby and Harry begin a relationship, their parents are forced to face and reveal long-buried tensions and secrets. Straub’s spot-on depictions of middle-age suburban life and teenage angst are alternatively searing and hilarious. This book is the ultimate literary beach read!” —Alexis Jason-Mathews, Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Washington, DC
Entertainment Weekly picked Straub’s newest as one of the Hottest Fiction titles of the year, saying “The author of 2014’s summer hit The Vacationers focuses on a tight-knit set of college pals who now have college-age kids themselves.”
Before the Fall, Noah Hawley (Hachette/Grand Central Publishing; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample).
This is the author’s fifth novel, but in between he’s done a few other things, like create the TV series Fargo, becoming, as Vanity Fair claims. “the future of Hollywood.”
“When a private plane plunges into the ocean off Martha’s Vineyard, the media and the government want answers. The two survivors — a middle-aged artist along for the ride and the four-year-old son of a prominent and powerful family — have little to say. Before the Fall takes the reader on a thrilling ride through the past lives of the other passengers and the aftermath of the crash. As the deepest secrets of the wealthy and those who surround them surface, no one is safe. A brilliant and relentless thriller.” —Geoffrey Jennings, Rainy Day Books, Fairway, KS
The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction, Neil Gaiman (HC/William Morrow; Harper Audio).
“I must be one of the few people to love Neil Gaiman most for his nonfiction. Over the years, I’ve scoured the shelves and online for his speeches, his introductions, his forewords, even his tweets and blog posts, so this book is a thing of wonder. Filled to bursting with his humor, wisdom, and hope, all articulated in the thoughtful, generous prose we know and love, The View From the Cheap Seats will keep you company, give you solace, and help you think deeper, smile harder, and breathe easier.” —Serena Longo, Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, Terry Tempest Williams (Macmillan/Sarah Crichton Books; OverDrive Sample).
“Terry Tempest Williams’ latest book, published for the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, is personal, political, and profound. Her examination of 12 national parks is much more than a guide to the history and landscape of those places. It is a guide to the heart and soul of the entire National Park system, whose depth is exceeded only by its beauty.” —Chuck Robinson, Village Books, Bellingham, WA
Tie-ins
Typically a UK show running on ITV lands in the US on Masterpiece Theater but Amazon nabbed Doctor Thorne, the newest Julian Fellowes uppercrust drama, and will start airing the 3-part mini series this Friday. In something of a bid to out do Masterpiece, or at least evoke its Alistair Cooke heyday, Fellowes introduces each episode, sitting in an arm chair, as Slate puts it very “cozy highbrow … that velvet! That fireplace!”
The Guardian was not impressed when it aired in the UK in March, writing, “let’s take a memory drug to forget this disgrace … Pointless to the point of excruciating.”
The tie in, Doctor Thorne: The Chronicles of Barsetshire, Anthony Trollope (Oxford University Press), comes out June 1.
The Secret Life of Pets is an animated film from Universal detailing the adventures of pets. It stars Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, and Kevin Hart and opens July 8.
Two titles support its release thus far: the storybook The Secret Life of Pets Big Golden Book (Secret Life of Pets), David Lewman, illustrated by Craig Kellman (PRH/Golden Books) and the level reader Meet the Pets (Secret Life of Pets), Random House (PRH/Random House Books for Young Readers).
Coming out on May 31st is The Bye Bye Man: And Other Strange-but-True Tales, Robert Damon Schneck (PRH/TarcherPerigee). It is the tie-in for the horror movie of the same name, based on Schneck’s short story “The Bridge to Body Island.”
The film has been moved from its expected June 3rd opening to December release, but it appears the tie-in date has not been changed.
For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.