Titles to Know and Recommend, Week of January 30, 2017
The holds leader for the week, Lisa Gardner’s Right Behind You, (PRH/Dutton; RH Large Print; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample) marks the return, a welcome one, according to both PW and Booklist, of series characters last featured in 2008’s Say Goodbye.
Each week seems to bring a new Gone Girl/Girl on the Train contender. This week’s candidate is My Husband’s Wife, a debut by Jane Corry (PRH/Pamela Dorman; BOT; Thorndike; OverDrive Sample).
A best seller in the UK, it is showing high holds ratios in advance of its release here. Parade Magazine features it this week, predicting, “If you loved Gone Girl and The Talented Mr. Ripley, you’ll love My Husband’s Wife …It’s got every thriller’s trifecta: love, marriage and murder.” It received strong reviews from Booklist and PW, but Kirkus panned it. Note that holds are heavier, on another contender, The Girl Before by JP Delaney (PRH/Ballantine; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample), as we wrote last week.
The titles highlighted in this column, 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 Jan 30,2017
Media Attention
Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin, Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, (PRH/Spiegel & Grau; Random House/BOT Audio; OverDrive Sample)
The parents of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin, an African American high school student who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida in 2012, an incident that helped spur the Black Lives Matter movement, will appear on several shows this week.
USA Today – video interview, today
ABC Nightline – 1/27
ABC The View – 1/30
Comedy Central Daily Show w/ Trevor Noah – 1/30
ABC Good Morning America – 1/31
I Don’t Belong to You: Quiet the Noise and Find Your Voice, Keke Palmer (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample)
Actress (Scream Queens) and singer Palmer offers advice to young women. She is scheduled for appearances on the following shows
NBC Today Show — 1/31
ABC The View — 1/31
Fox Wendy Williams — 2/1
NBC Harry — 2/1
Peer Picks
One LibraryReads selection comes out this week, Behind Her Eyes: A suspenseful psychological thriller, Sarah Pinborough (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample).
“Louise meets a charming man in a bar and is smitten. The attraction is mutual, but David confesses he is married. They go their separate ways…until the next morning when Louise goes to work and realizes that the new psychiatrist who has been hired by the practice is David. Adele, David’s wife, is struggling to keep their marriage alive, but David has tired of her lies. A friendship begins between Adele and Louise. David and Louise are still attracted to each other and the triangle is complete. This is not your average thriller. It is absolutely riveting!” — Mary Vernau, Tyler Public Library, Tyler, TX
Additional Buzz: The Guardian includes it in a recent thrillers round up review, leading with a description of the author as a woman “prepared to move decisively beyond the parameters of the possible – but who somehow disable[s] our scepticism.” The paper continues, calling the book a “lively … Hitchcockian thriller.” The Stylist includes it on their list of the “Best New Books for 2017,” pointing out its most used hashtag is #WTFthatending. It is also an Indie Next February selection and a GalleyChat pick.
One additional Indie Next title arrives this week, 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster (Macmillan/Henry Holt; Macmillan Audio).
“I celebrate whenever there’s something new by Paul Auster. I wasn’t prepared, though, for just how moved, awed, and astonished I found myself while immersed in his inventive and grand novel 4 3 2 1. About a life lived fully, about possibility in love and finding a path to take that’s the right one, this is a large novel in all respects, but, most importantly, in spirit. In its writing, Paul Auster has created nothing short of a masterpiece.” —Mitchell Kaplan, Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL
Additional Buzz: The Guardian offers a review and interview. It is on BuzzFeed‘s list of “27 Brilliant New Books You Need To Read This Winter” and on The Millions “Most Anticipated” list. It is one of the five books LitHub say is “making news this week.” They write “Critics are intrigued, occasionally baffled.” Two examples of those reactions: The Washington Post calls it “a multitiered examination of the implications of fate” and says “what’s compelling always is its sense that the most important time exists within us, the time of memory and imagination, out of which identity is forged.” New York Magazine is not impressed, saying of the 900 page novel, “what really defeats Auster in 4321 is his decision to write against his strengths. His B-movie plots and narrative sleights of hand thrive on elision, and this book is overstuffed. The one thing he always seemed to know was the power of brevity.”
Tie-ins
Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast opens in theaters on March 17. The film stars Emma Watson as Belle, Luke Evans as Gaston, and Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens as the Beast. Ewan McGregor is Lumiere and Emma Thompson plays Mrs. Potts.
Variety reports the film is getting lots of buzz and Forbes predicts it will be one of the “three biggest domestic grossers of the year.”
Arriving this week are six tie-ins:
Beauty and the Beast Novelization, Disney Writers (Hachette/Disney Press)
Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney Beauty and the Beast (Updated Edition): Inside Stories from the Animated Classic to the New Live-action Film, Charles Solomon (Hachette/Disney Editions)
World of Reading: Beauty and the Beast Something More: Level 2, Eric Geron, illustrated by the Disney Book Group (Hachette/Disney Press)
Beauty and the Beast Read-Along Storybook and CD, Disney Book Group, illustrated by the Disney Storybook Art Team (Hachette/Disney Press)
Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, Jennifer Donnelly (Hachette/Disney Press)
Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Library: A collection of literary quotes and inspirational musings, Brittany Rubiano, illustrated by Jenna Huerta (Hachette/Disney Press)
The live-action version of the Archie comics, Riverdale, premiered last night on the CW.
In their rave review of the first four episodes, Den of Geek! calls the show “highly addictive” and writes “Yes, this is a show that mixes sex and murder and noir with Archie, but it does so in a way that is self-aware and instantly ready to shatter expectations … And you know what? It is magnificent.”
The tie-in comes out at the end of the month: Road to Riverdale, Mark Waid, Chip Zdarsky, Adam Hughes, Marguerite Bennett (PRH/Random House; OverDrive Sample).
Debuting in theaters on March 31 is The Ghost in the Shell, a SF film based on Masamune Shirow’s manga series of the same name, which Movie Pilot calls “a pioneer of cyberpunk.” Over a decade ago, it was adapted as an animated version, which IndieWire reports will run in a limited release this February.
The live-action adaptation stars Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, and Michael Pitt. It is already getting criticized for whitewashing, and TasteofCinema wonders if it will succeed.
The tie-in comes out on Jan 31: The Ghost in the Shell 1 Movie Tie-In Edition, Shirow Masamune (PRH/Kodansha Comics).
For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.