Titles to Know and Recommend, Week of July 18, 2016
We have a new name among holds leaders for books arriving this week, Ruth Ware for her second novel, The Woman in Cabin 10 (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample). Refreshingly, this psychological thriller does not have a girl in the title. Ware’s first book, last year’s In A Dark, Dark Wood, was a LibraryReads pick, as is this one (see Peer Picks, below). Her debut also appeared on the NYT Hardcover Best Seller list for a week and has since developed a larger audience in trade paperback, currently on that NYT list at #6 after 7 weeks.
Ware follows authors with much longer track records, each of whom is releasing her seventeenth novel. The top title in holds for the week is Iris Johansen’s crime novel, Night and Day (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample), followed by Jane Green’s romance, Falling (Penguin/Berkley; Penguin Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample).
The titles covered here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet,EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of July 18, 2016
Consumer Media Picks
Not Pretty Enough, Gerri Hershey, (Macmillan/FSG).
People magazine’s “Book of the Week” — “This rollicking, Masterful biography celebrates a woman who had the audacity to tell us something we secretly knew already: Sex matters.” It is also reviewed in both the daily NYT and in the NYT Sunday Review, under the headline “Was She a Feminist? The Complicated Legacy of Helen Gurley Brown,” along with Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman by Brooke Hauser (HarperCollins/Harper; April). As the story points out much more will be coming on Brown, including a possible movie based on Enter Helen.
People also picks Delia Ephron’s Siracusa (PRH/Blue Rider Press; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample), a LibraryReads pick that we covered last week as well as Nina Stibbe’s Paradise Lodge (Hachette/Little Brown). Of the latter, People comments, “You won’t find a funnier, more original confidante than Lizzie Vogel, a teen who’s taken a job in a nursing home.” Stibbe is the author of Love, Nina, an early LibraryReads pick and Man at the Helm, in which Lizzie first appears.
Peer Picks
Two July LibraryReads titles hit shelves this week.
The Hopefuls, Jennifer Close (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio; OverDrive Sample).
“When Beth and Matt, an aspiring politician, move from NYC to DC, Beth initially hates it. But things start to turn around for her when they befriend another “transplant” couple, Ashleigh and Jimmy. Beth’s loyalty is tested when she is forced to admit to herself that Matt is just not quite as attractive, magnetic or charismatic as his rival-friend, Jimmy…..who harbors similar political aspirations. The Hopefuls is on point in its descriptions of young marriage, career ambition, and complicated friendships. The characters are completely compelling. I was overdue for a great read and this was it!” — Amy Lapointe, Amherst Town Library, Amherst, NH
It is a summer reading favorite from Entertainment Weekly, Elle, Glamour, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The Woman in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware (S&S/Gallery/Scout Press; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).
“An intruder in the middle of the night leaves Lo Blacklock feeling vulnerable. Trying to shake off her fears, she hopes her big break of covering the maiden voyage of the luxury cruise ship, the Aurora, will help. The first night of the voyage changes everything. What did she really see in the water and who was the woman in the cabin next door? The claustrophobic feeling of being on a ship and the twists and turns of who, and what, to believe keep you on the edge of your seat. Count on this being one of the hot reads this summer!” — Joseph Jones, Cuyahoga County Public Library, OH
It is also an August Indie Next pick as well as a summer reading selection by Entertainment Weekly and Amazon. EW said, “Call it THE GIRL ON THE BOAT.”
Another Indie Next pick out this week is The Secret Language of Stones, M. J. Rose (S&S/Atria Books), part of the Daughters of La Lune series.
“World War I Paris is a dangerous place for the young witch Opaline Duplessi. Still in denial about the true extent of her powers and hopelessly in love with a man she can never have, Opaline becomes caught up in a Russian émigré’s plan to save a Romanov from Bolshevik spies on the windswept English coast. Magic and intrigue collide in this captivating follow-up to The Witch of Painted Sorrows.” —Paula Longhurst, The King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, UT
Tie-ins
Two tie-ins come out this week, both connecting to revamps of older projects.
Suicide Squad Vol. 4: The Janus Directive, John Ostrander (PRH/DC Comics) is the next collected edition featuring the super villain strike team who serve as covert agents on specialized black op missions.
The comic series was originally created by Ross Andru and Robert Kanigher in 1959. The movie adaptation is based on the newer 1987 series by John Ostrander.
There have been three previous collections:
Vol 1: Trial by Fire (Sept. 2015 — 9781401258313)
Vol. 2: The Nightshade Odyssey (Dec, 2015– 9781401258337)
Vol. 3: Rouges (April, 2016 — 9781401260910)
The movie was featured on the cover of the July 15 issue of Entertainment Weekly and boasts a large ensemble cast including Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, and Cara Delevingne. It opens on Aug. 5.
Also pubbing is 
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, Carol Wallace (Tyndale House; also in trade paperback and in Spanish).
It is an adaptation of the 1880 novel, which has already served as the basis of several movies, including the Charlton Heston film from the late 50s.
This new version of the text is not the 1880’s edition but, as the publisher says, an update by “Lew’s great-great-granddaughter [who] has taken the old-fashioned prose of this classic novel and breathed new life into it for today’s audience.”
The film stars Jack Huston and Morgan Freeman and opens Aug. 19.
For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.