Talk about “Hot Dudes Reading,” the Washington Post‘s book critic Ron Charles proves that being a hot dude during Summer Reading season is not as easy as it looks (happily, Ron’s tongue-in-cheek series, “Totally Hip Video Book Reviews” has returned)

It’s part of the Post‘s “Summer Reading” section, which includes a mid-year assessment, “37 Books We’ve Loved So Far In 2016,” featuring some unusual  under-the-radar picks, like Knitlandia, (Abrams, Feb. 14, the Post‘s full review, here).

Looking ahead, the editors choose the “10 Novels We’re Looking Forward To This Summer And Fall,” with titles from June through November.

Read all those picks and you can do a victory lap with Ron.

The books are hot, too:

The book:

Hot Dudes Reading
S&S/Atria
April 26, 2016

And, coming in July,

the Wall Calendar, (Chronicle)

Elle and Glamour, staples of the fashion magazine world, have both issued summer reading lists. Each offers multiple titles no other round-up has included (Vogue has a list, too, but since it consists of picks by celebrities of older titles and classics, we’re not counting it as a true summer list).

It is surprising that Elle is alone in mentioning The Muse by Jessie Burton (HC/Ecco). It follows on the heels of Burton’s bestselling debut The Miniaturist and again features a mysterious story of art and history.

Elle also features a true fashion read, the debut An Innocent Fashion, R.J. Hernández (HC/Harper Perennial), a coming of age story about a Yale grad taking up his longed for post at a fashion magazine.

Another debut is Break in Case of Emergency, Jessica Winter (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio), also about working the job, but this time the protagonist is a 30-somthing woman, who, on top of office issues, is feeling the inadequacy of comparisons and is desperate to have a child.

Glamour magazine offers six unique picks, including The Assistants, Camille Perri (PRH/Putnam; OverDrive Sample), a timely debut that has already received attention but not from summer reading list makers [read our online chat with the author here].

Two nonfiction titles round out the list. I’m Just a Person, Tig Notaro (HC/Ecco; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample), a memoir by the Transparent star and The Girl Who Escaped ISIS: This Is My Story, Farida Khalaf and Andrea C. Hoffmann (S&S/Atria) the account of a young woman who managed to survive and escape after being sold into sexual slavery by ISIS.

Both magazines also overlap on a number of titles making other lists as well, including the Amazon pick (and LibraryReads selection) We Could Be Beautiful, Swan Huntley (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio).

Robin Beerbower, who writes our GalleyChatter column, warns not be put off by Elle‘s description that this is yet another book about the “exquisitely rich life of an Upper East Side lady being rocked by a mysterious figure out of her past.” Robin says that while such characters “have so many first world problems that it’s hard to relate,” this novel is “fascinating, especially because the author gets into the head of someone who is totally wealthy and has absolutely no clue what real life is like. It’s psychological suspense, but also a character study.”

See our catalog for a running list of all summer picks. Links to each of the summer previews are in the column to the right.

The #1 LibraryReads pick for July is Dark Matter, Blake Crouch (PRH/Crown; RH Audio):

“Once on the fast-track to academic stardom, Jason Dessen finds his quiet family life and career upended when a stranger kidnaps him. Suddenly Jason’s idle “what-ifs” become panicked “what-nows,” as the humble quantum physics professor from a small Chicago college gets to explore the roads not taken with a mind-bending invention that opens doors to other worlds. This fun science fiction thriller is also a thoughtful page-turner with heart that should appeal to fans of Harlan Coben.” — Elizabeth Eastin, Rogers Memorial Library, Southampton, NY

Readers might know Crouch from his Wayward Pines trilogy, the basis of Fox’s TV series of the same name, produced by M. Night Shyamalan. Dark Matter is on several consumer summer reading lists as well, selected by Entertainment Weekly (not online) and the Amazon Editors.

Below, some of the other titles in the list of ten getting additional buzz:

The Woman in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware (S&S/Gallery/Scout Press; S&S Audio):

“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

ADDITIONAL BUZZ: This is Ware’s second novel, after the buzzy In A Dark, Dark Wood, which was also a LibraryReads selection when it debuted in August 2015. Ware’s newest is also a summer reading pick, catching the eye of Entertainment Weekly and the Amazon Editors. EW summarizes it as, “THE GIRL ON THE BOAT.”

Among the Wicked, Linda Castillo (Macmillan/Minotaur):

“In the small Amish locale of Painters Mill, police chief Kate Burkholder decides to take an undercover assignment in a community where the death of a young girl was reported. Her long time love, Agent John Tomasetti, is reluctant with her decision because of the lack of communication he will have with her. Burkholder begins to unfold the true horrors on the local farm and unearths the dangers the town officials suspected. She finds herself trapped in a life threatening cat and mouse game. This ongoing series is a true gem and a personal favorite.” — KC Davis, Fairfield Woods Branch Library, Fairfield, CT

ADDITIONAL BUZZ: This eighth outing in the Amish-set thriller series marks the first time Castillo has been selected as a librarian favorite. Her bestselling series made it to Lifetime TV with 2013’s An Amish Murder.

The full list of librarian favorites is available today.

A million dollar debut, won in a ten-bidder auction, is on the verge of becoming the literary hit of the summer, Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample).

It is featured on multiple seasonal reading lists including those by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, B&N, and BuzzFeed and is both an Indie Next selection and a LibraryReads selection, with this recommendation from Amanda Monson, of the Bartow County Library System, Cartersville, GA:

“An engaging family saga following two half-sisters – one who marries into privilege and one sold into slavery – and their descendants as they navigate the politics of their separate countries and their heritage. Each is directly affected in some way by the choices of the past, and finding the parallels in the triumphs and heartbreak makes for an engrossing read.”

The novel is gaining serious and thoughtful review coverage as well, in pieces that note Gyasi’s achievements while pointing out perceived lapses. NPR’s Maureen Corrigan reviewing it on Fresh Air yesterday, says Gyasi “pulls her readers deep into her characters’ lives through the force of her empathetic imagination,” but adding, “Homegoing would have been a stronger novel if it had ended sooner .. As the novel moves forward into our own time the pressure to wrap up the two storylines intensifies, and contrivance comes to the fore.”  NPR also interviewed Gyasi for Weekend Edition Saturday.

Slate‘s books and culture columnist, Laura Miller, writing for The New Yorker, says that the novel “shows the unmistakable touch of a gifted writer, and Homegoing is a specimen of what such a writer can do when she bites off more than she is ready to chew” adding, “Taken in as a panorama, Homegoing can be breathtaking.”

Reviewing for the upcoming NYT Sunday Book Review, Isabel Wilkerson, author of the nonfiction title,  The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, says, barring some troubling clichés, the novel is a work of “beauty” and “The narrative unfolds through self-­contained stories, some like fables, others nightmares, that shift between the family lines in West Africa and America, each new protagonist a limb of the disrupted family tree. Characters reappear in dreams or retellings as the action moves from the Cape Coast to Kumasi to Baltimore to Harlem.”

The WSJ profiles the author and offers a review [subscription may be required], saying “Ms. Gyasi doesn’t always make it work … Yet it’s refreshing to read a novel with a sense of historical imminence. Contemporary American fiction frequently seems to exist in blank isolation from world events. Not so Homegoing, where wars and laws directly shape the characters’ destinies, often across generations.”

The million-dollar advance serves as a hook for media attention, catching the eye of high circulation magazines such as Vogue, which runs a double profile of Gyasi and Emma Cline, author of another big-ticket summer debut, The Girls, complete with a photo of the two together in designer outfits, because they “bear comparison for more than the ambition and incisiveness of their prose, imaginative risk-taking, and seven-figure book deals.” Of Homecoming, Vogue says, “No novel has better illustrated the way in which racism became institutionalized in this country.”

Reviewed in Sunday’s NYT Book Review, Alan Furst’s latest historical spy thriller, A Hero of France (PRH/Random House; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample), is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Novelist Sara Paretsky notes that Furst is “known for his detailed research into both cat-and-mouse sides of occupied Europe” and offers this plot summary:

“[the thriller] which follows five months in the life of a particular Resistance cell, begins in March 1941, nine months into the German occupation. The hero of the novel’s title, code-named Mathieu, is escorting a downed R.A.F. airman from the countryside to Paris so that he can be smuggled back to England.”

The Washington Post calls it “emotionally gripping and hugely satisfying” and pointing out that it  makes an excellent entry point into Furst’s oeuvre, as it is “the first one to deal directly with the occupation. And it is the first to feature the deeply appealing protagonist … Mathieu.”

NPR praises Furst’s ability to create setting and character.

Furst’s popularity is growing. His last three titles landed in the top ten on the NYT bestseller list. He has also been gaining media attention (interviews in the NYT, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, among others).

Furst publishes a new title every two years, around Fathers Day, making it appear that his audience is mostly male, but the Newsweek interview notes that many of his fans are women.

Holds are strong across the board with several libraries showing reserve lists well above a 3:1 ratio.  Check your standing order quantities, it may be time to increase them.

The latest of the summer reading picks comes from People magazine (the list is not currently online so we created a spreadsheet with ordering details, People Summer Reading, 2016).

Even in the face of all the seasonal titles offered thus far, People manages to find three titles not featured by the others, a novel, a YA title, and a work of nonfiction:

The Children, Ann Leary (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample). People says the blended family story is “Great fun” and follows what happens when a new fiancée is added to the family mix , “who may not be all she seems.”

Highly Illogical Behavior, John Corey Whaley’s YA title (PRH/Dial Books; Listening Library; OverDrive Sample) tells the story of a child with agoraphobia who might be cured by a “know-it-all with control issues” classmate. People says it is “Tender and funny.”

In the Darkroom, Susan Faludi (Macmillan/Metropolitan; OverDrive Sample) is a timely memoir about transgender. People says that Faludi offers a “fascinating” exploration of her father’s sex-reassignment surgery and his effect on her life.

Also featured are titles that have appeared on many other lists:

The Girls by Emma Cline — this one has become the consensus “must read” of the summer. On nearly every summer preview to date,  it is People‘s lead title.

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson,

You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein,

Siracusa by Delia Ephron

I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan

See our catalog for a running list of all summer picks. Links to each of the summer previews are in the column to the right.

Below is the archived version of the latest GalleyChat. Watch for our summary of top titles in the next two weeks.

Please join us for the next GalleyChat, Tuesday, July 5, 4 to 5 p.m., Eastern (3:30 for virtual cocktails).

More information on how to join here.

The holds leaders arriving this week are:

End of Watch, Stephen King, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio)

Stephen King is poised to join his son on best seller lists. Joe Hill’s The Fireman, arrived at #1 on the NYT list last week and is currently at #8. King’s new title completes the trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes and continued in Finders Keepers.

Dishonorable Intentions, Stuart Woods, (PRH/Putnam; Penguin Audio; BOT)

The House of Secrets, Brad Meltzer, Tod Goldberg, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print)

With co-author Tod Goldberg Meltzer introduces a new series that will appeal to the conspiracy-minded.

The is also the week when James Patterson ups his output with the first two titles in his new trade paperback original series, BookShots (see earlier story).

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 June 6, 2016

Peer Picks

Three LibraryReads titles come out this week,

 Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, Mary Roach (Norton; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample), a quirky, funny, nonfiction foray that looks at science and warfare. Expect a wave of publicity with excerpts, interviews, and reviews in major sources.

“With courageous curiosity, journalistic persistence, and a wry empathetic sense of humor, Roach once again delves into a fascinating topic few of us would openly explore. She writes about the issues confronting the military in its attempt to protect and enable combat troops. Roach brings to our attention the amazing efforts of science to tackle all the challenges of modern warfare. Grunt is another triumph of sometimes uncomfortable but fascinating revelation.” — Darren Nelson, Sno-Isle Libraries, Marysville, WA

It is a summer reading pick by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a list widely syndicated in regional newspapers.

Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“An engaging family saga following two half-sisters – one who marries into privilege and one sold into slavery – and their descendants as they navigate the politics of their separate countries and their heritage. Each is directly affected in some way by the choices of the past, and finding the parallels in the triumphs and heartbreak makes for an engrossing read.” — Amanda Monson, Bartow County Library System, Cartersville, GA

Gyasi earned a $1 million advance for her debut, which gives it a publicity hook, but it is also appealing to reviewers. It addition to being a LibraryReads pick, it is an Indie Next selection and is on four summer reading lists: The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly‘s top 10 choices, B&N, and  Buzzed. It is reviewed today on the NYT site (in print, it will appear in the upcoming NYT Sunday Review)

Lily and the Octopus, Steven Rowley (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample)

“Rowley has lovingly captured what it is like to be totally invested in caring for another life, another heart. This book is a true gift for anyone who has experienced the loss of a dog, but especially for those of us who have nursed a beloved dog through an illness even though you both knew it was going to be a losing battle. A special bond is formed there, and the story of Lily and Ted illustrates it so perfectly.” — Mary Coe, Fairfield Woods Branch Library, Fairfield, CT

It is also an Indie Next pick and a B&N summer reading list selection.

Four additional Indie Next picks hit the shelves as well, two of which are also on the widely-syndicated  St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s summer reading list, Marrow Island and Wintering.

Marrow Island, Alexis M. Smith (HMH; RH Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“After an earthquake destroyed the oil refinery on Marrow Island and killed her father, Lucie Bowen left. Twenty years later, she returns to the Puget Sound and discovers her friend Kate is now living on this toxic island with members of ‘The Colony.’ Set in the Pacific Northwest, Marrow Island is a mystery/thriller that encompasses communal living, natural and man-made disasters, and what can happen when we tinker with the ecosystem and try to play a larger role.” —Tracy Taylor, The Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA

Wintering, Peter Geye (RH/Knopf; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“It is tempting to inhale Wintering in a great rush because it is such a suspenseful, wild, and dangerous survival story. That would be a mistake. Geye magically conveys the starkness, beauty, and despair of the northern Minnesota borderlands in prose that deserves to be savored. He gives us characters with deep, complex interior lives who struggle with secrets, love, and damaged relationships. A powerful father-son story and a landscape revealed in breathtaking detail make this a novel to read with care and wonder.” —Tripp Ryder, Content Bookstore, Northfield, MN

Goodnight, Beautiful Women, Anna Noyes (Perseus/PGW/Legato/Grove Press/Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample).

“These interconnected stories set in Maine and around the Northeast coast announce a startling new writer of strong literary fiction. Noyes’ women yearn, stumble, get back up, make terrible mistakes, strive, keep dark secrets, take off, come back again, and fumble toward love. An extraordinarily raw voice that will remind readers of Rebecca Lee and Elizabeth Strout.” —Melanie Fleischman, Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter (Macmillan/Graywolf Press; OverDrive Sample).

“This novel in verse begins with the death of a wife and mother told through the eyes of her husband, her two sons, and, unexpectedly, a crow. Crow — one part trickster-god, one part guardian, and wholly unpredictable — descends upon this fractured family to watch over them in their grief and guide them back to the land of the living. Porter’s phrases and descriptions startled me with their clarity, and undid me with their simple and unexpected poignancy.” —Emily Crowe, Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA

Tie-ins

Star Trek Beyond opens on July 22, 2016, marking the 50th anniversary of the first Star Trek TV broadcast. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto return as Captain Kirk and Commander Spock and Idris Elba comes aboard as well.

Two tie-ins are available thus far, both supporting the franchise rather than serving as direct adaptations of the movie.

Star Trek The Official Guide to Our Universe: The True Science Behind the Starship Voyages, Andrew Fazekas (PRH/National Geographic)

The Star Trek Book, Paul Ruditis (PRH/DK; OverDrive Sample).

It is a busy year for le Carré adaptations. After the success of The Night Manager comes the feature film Our Kind of Traitor. Starring Ewan McGregor, Damian Lewis, Stellan Skarsgård, it opens July 1.

The tie-in is Our Kind of Traitor: A Novel (Movie Tie-In), John le Carré (PRH/Penguin Books; OverDrive Sample).

Thus far the movie is getting mixed reviews. The Hollywood Reporter says it is “High-toned but ho-hum,” The Independent calls it “entertaining but very lightweight,” but the UK version of Den of Geek says it is “a breath of fresh air. Warmly recommended.”

For those who want to know more about the author, PRH/Viking will publish le Carre’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life, in Sept.

The next Ice Age animated film, opening July 22, brings three tie-ins starting with Ice Age: Collision Course: The Junior Novel, J.E. Bright (S&S/little bee books).

The fifth movie in the series features all the usual characters, plus a few more, as they try to save the world from an asteroid collision. Also out is the storybook Volcano to the Rescue!, Mike Teitelbaum (S&S/little bee books) and two leveled readers by Suzy Capozzi: Scrat’s Space Adventure (S&S/little bee books; also in paperback) and Welcome to Geotopia (S&S/little bee books; also in paperback).

Finally, there is a new Warcraft, tie-in, Warcraft Official Movie Novelization, Christie Golden (PRH/Titan Books; OverDrive Sample).

This is in addition to Warcraft: Durotan: The Official Movie Prequel, Christie Golden (PRH/Titan Books), which we wrote about in early May.

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

The adaptations that debuted last week did quite well. Deadline reports that the remake of Roots wrapped “respectably,” despite competition from basketball. It’s a sign of the changing media landscape that the series was not expected to do nearly as well as the original, which dominated the airwaves in 1977 when there were only a few network TV stations to choose from.

On the other hand,ratings were soft for Cinemax’s Outcast, based on the comics by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. Reviewers have also not been kind.That won’t have any effect on the potential for a second season. It’s already been renewed.

On the big screen, Me Before You went beyond analysts predictions.

Coming this week:

Monday, June 6, TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles begins its 7th and final season, in a show ending 13 episodes run.

Variety reports the series was canceled in January, saying it had “faded since its very strong first two seasons in 2010 and 2011, but remains among the most popular cable programs.”

The show, a mix of police procedural and forensic medical thriller, is based on the popular mystery series by Tess Gerritsen. Publisher PRH/Ballantine is issuing a new set of mass market paperbacks with covers linking the books to the TV series. The most recent is The Mephisto Club: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel.

The film Blackway opens on June 10, starring Anthony Hopkins, Julia Stiles, Ray Liotta, and Alexander Ludwig,  tells the story of a woman stalked by a small town thug who has scared off the police. She turns to an old logger and his side kick for help.

It is based on the novel Go With Me, Castle Freeman, Jr. (Steerforth, 2009; HarperPerennial), which The Wall Street Journal said had “echoes of Deliverance and Cormac McCarthy.”

Also opening on June 10 is Genius, a literary bio-pic featuring an all-star cast including Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Dominic West, and Guy Pearce. Firth plays Max Perkins, Law, the writer Thomas Wolfe, West stars as Ernest Hemingway, and Guy Pearce plays F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The film is based on Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, A. Scott Berg (PRH/NAL; OverDrive Sample). As we wrote last week, a tie-in is available.

Arriving tomorrow is the first in James Patterson’s new original trade paperback series, titled BookShots. The first in the series features his most popular character, Cross Kill: An Alex Cross Story (Hachette/BookShots; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample), it is just 144 pages long. [UPDATE: a second BookShot will also be released tomorrow, Zoo 2 : A Zoo Story, James Patterson, Max DiLallo. The series will release 2 to 4 titles the first week of each month, see list below].

CBS Sunday Morning featured an interview with Patterson yesterday [Note: the video of the interview is no longer available]. He explains the idea behind BookShots,

“This is a little bit of a revolution … unfortunately for a lot of people …books [have become] just too long for them to deal with … [BookShots] are very, very fast-paced. They’re like reading a movie.”

CBS correspondent Anthony Mason is surprised to learn that Patterson writes books in longhand, rather than using a computer, to which the author replies “Yeah, well, thank God I don’t work on a computer because then I’d be really prolific!”

Twenty-three BoosShots will be released in 2016. Mason says that Patterson, who is famous for using co-authors, is “involved in every single one of them” and Patterson adds for “80% of ’em I did the outline.”

Included are titles that appear distinctly non-Pattersonesque, listed as “James Patterson’s BookShots Flames.”

Below are the titles scheduled through the end of the year.

The Trial: A BookShot : A Women’s Murder Club Story, James Patterson, Maxine Paetro, July 5

Little Black Dress, James Patterson, Emily Raymond, July 5

Learning to Ride , Erin Knightley, James Patterson (Foreword by), July 5

The McCullagh Inn in Maine , Jen McLaughlin, James Patterson (Foreword by), July 5

Chase: A BookShot : A Michael Bennett Story, James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge, Aug. 2

Let’s Play Make-Believe, James Patterson, James O. Born, Aug 2

113 Minutes : A Story in Real Time, James Patterson, Max DiLallo, Sept. 6

Hunted, James Patterson, Andrew Holmes, Sept. 6

Sacking the Quarterback, Samantha Towle, James Patterson (Foreword by), Sept. 6

The Mating Season, Laurie Horowitz, James Patterson (Foreword by) Sept. 6

$10,000,000 Marriage Proposal, James Patterson, Hilary Liftin,  Oct. 4

French Kiss : A Detective Luc Moncrief Story, James Patterson, Richard DiLallo, Oct. 4

Killer Chef, James Patterson, Jeffrey J. Keyes, Nov. 1

Dazzling: The Diamond Trilogy, Part I, Elizabeth Hayley, James Patterson (Foreword by), Nov. 1

Bodyguard, Jessica Linden, James Patterson (Foreword by), Nov. 1

The Christmas Mystery : A Detective Luc Moncrief Story, James Patterson, Richard DiLallo, Dec. 6

Black & Blue, James Patterson, Candice Fox (With), Dec. 6

Radiant: The Diamond Trilogy, Part II, Elizabeth Hayley, James Patterson (Foreword by)

Another in a line of books aimed at discrediting Hillary Clinton received attention yesterday from the Drudge Report. The exclusive sent Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate, Gary J. Byrne (Hachette/Center Street; 6/28/16) racing to the top of Amazon’s sales rankings (jumping from 48,237 to #1).

Byrne, a former Secret Service officer assigned to the White House, offers a tell-all about what he saw during the Clinton years, including what he observed of Monica Lewinsky and his take on Hillary Clinton.

The book has been embargoed but Drudge has the exclusive, claiming that the book is “causing deep concern inside of Clinton’s campaign” and quoting Byrne as saying “What I saw in the 1990s sickend me … I want you to hear my story.”

The UK conservative tabloid, Daily Mail, also has the story and Politico included it in their “Playbook” section of what is driving the day in D.C.

Byrne made news back in the late 90s, getting attention in the NYT‘s for his reporting to the White House deputy chief of staff about Lewinsky’s appearances in the West Wing without, he believed, authorization. The Lewinsky story was originally broken by the Drudge Report, bringing it to national attention.

As a result of the embargo, there were no prepub reviews and, as a result, only a few libraries we checked have ordered copies.

The newest pick from Costco book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello is far from new, but it is certainly all the rage: Ron Chernow’s biography, Alexander Hamilton (PRH/Penguin, 2004).

In making her choice Ianniciello says:

“From mentions on podcasts to small talk at the salon, that name is on many people’s lips. So, I thought I’d go back to the book responsible for all the hubbub … What I love most about the rekindled popularity of this book is that its brains and newly found street cred make it a book the whole family can enjoy.”

In a feature  in the Costco Connection, Chernow recounts his meeting with the Broadway sensation’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, saying he was “flabbergasted” when Miranda told him “that as he was reading my book, ‘hip-hop songs started rising off the page.’ ”

Chernow also describes what it is like to live in the wake of the Broadway hit: “Every time I see the show and these enormous crowds, I pinch myself with wonder that I somehow triggered off this Hamilton mania.”

The award-winning historian (who trained as an English major) has been experiencing that wonder often, as we wrote earlier, he told the The Wall Street Journal “I never dreamed that I would be autographing Playbills … [this year has been] a biographer’s wish-fulfillment fantasy.”

Also featured this month is Annie Proulx’s Barkskins (S&S/Scribner, S&S Audio), which Costco calls “her magnum opus, a literary force majeure.”

The glowing review tracks the long germination of the novel, begun 30 years ago and mulled over and researched for decades. The writing of it, according to The Wall Street Journal, took close to a decade as well. The end result is, says the Costco reviewer,a “novel that howls, grieves, lilts and erupts with urgency, authority and something that looks a lot like hope.”

It is also the pick of several summer reading lists, catching the eye of Amazon’s Editors, B&N, Buzzfeed, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and USA Today. Canadian librarians agree, selecting it as the #1 title in their June Loan Stars picks.

Consumer media attention began months ago for Emma Cline’s debut The Girls (PRH/Random House; RH Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample),

when Random House bought it in a three-book deal with the 25-year-old for a rumored $2 million. Film rights were also purchased by producer Scott Rudin.

Due for release on June 14, eager reviewers have jumped on it a full two weeks in advance of publication (now that consumers can pre-order titles, reviewers seem less bound by publication dates).

The NYT Sunday Review posted theirs on Monday. Reviewer Dylan Landis, herself the author of a debut novel that was well-reviewed in the NYT BR, likes Cline’s book, a lot, calling it “a seductive and arresting coming-of-age story hinged on Charles Manson, told in sen­tences at times so finely wrought they could almost be worn as jewelry.”

Even the New Yorker‘s esteemed critic James Wood takes it on, beginning his review by piling on praise, averring that he doesn’t “mean this as the critic’s dutiful mustering of plaudits before the grim march of negatives,” but still, even with that, by the end he is not fully impressed, saying “Despite these many qualities, The Girls never entirely succeeds in justifying itself.”

The Washington Post‘s critic Ron Charles acknowledges that “The hubbub around The Girls threatens to trample what’s so deeply affecting about it,” and seeks to cuts through the buzz to say the book really is as good as its hype, noting “The most remarkable quality of this novel is Cline’s ability to articulate the anxieties of adolescence in language that’s gorgeously poetic without mangling the authenticity of a teenager’s consciousness.” and ending, “debut novels like this are rare, indeed.”

The chat has now ended. Read the archive version, below.

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