Next Week Big for Fiction
Changes, the latest installment in Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files (Ed. Note: we originally called this the Dexter Files — thanks to the commenter for catching our mashup) urban fantasy series, is in high demand at libraries. But several we checked are behind the curve – either without copies, or catching up on their orders. In libraries that do have it, holds run from 3:1 to as high as 11:1.
Booklist‘s starred review says:
At more than 500 pages, this is one the longest books in the series, but it doesn’t move slowly; in fact, the entire novel takes place over only a few days as Harry races to rescue his daughter before she is sacrificed in a powerful black-magic rite. . . . A can’t-miss entry in one of the best urban-fantasy series currently being published.
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Available from Penguin Audiobooks on April 15, 2010
- CD: $49.95; ISBN 9780143145349
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Also set for release next week, Holly LeCraw‘s debut novel, The Swimming Pool, could be a sleeper. Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest copies.
PW says: “Strong writing keeps the reader sucked in to LeCraw’s painful family drama debut. . . . It is a story of deep and searing love, between siblings and lovers, but most powerfully, between parents and their children
Library Journal adds: “LeCraw’s thoughtful debut novel tells of two families whose lives are entwined by tragedy, secrecy, and scandal.…An insightful piece, not just for beach or airplane reading. An author to watch.”
One book blogger was less sanguine, however, observing that the plot is heavy and lacks momentum.
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Also available as OverDrive WMA Audiobook
Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week
Elizabeth Berg‘s The Last Time I Saw You (Random House), a tale of women and men reconnecting at their 40th high school reunion, is well stocked in libraries we checked; the highest holds are 4:1 in one case.
Sue Miller‘s The Lake Shore Limited (Random House), about post-9/11 America, is “fascinating and perfectly balanced with [Miller’s] writerly meditations on the destructiveness of trauma and loss, and the creation and experience of art,” according to PW.
Elizabeth Peters‘s A River in the Sky (HarperCollins) elicits faint praise from Library Journal: “The plot is less riveting than many Peters mysteries, but series fans will enjoy [it]. Fans should note that this is out of chronological order from the rest of the saga.”
Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds (Riverhead) is the lead review in the new issue of People magazine (4/12), receiving 3 out of 4 stars.
Jennifer Chiaverini‘s The Aloha Quilt (Simon & Schuster) is one that “series fans will enjoy,” according to PW, “and those new to the quilting bee should have no problem finding their groove.”
Richard Paul Evans‘ The Walk (Simon & Schuster), about a man who goes on a soul-searching cross-country trek,” is “intriguing” according to Booklist, which adds that “the pages turn quickly.”
Martha Grimes‘s The Black Cat (Penguin) is the author’s “best book in years” according to PW‘s Galley Talk column.
Raymond E. Feist‘s At the Gates of Darkness (Demonwar Saga #2) (HarperCollins) doesn’t get highest marks from PW: “There’s an air of been there, done that to the familiar YAish fantasy plot, relegating it to the status of comfort reading for Feist’s longtime fans.”
E. O. Wilson‘s Anthill (Knopf) gets a mixed review from Library Journal: “Though his characters come off as one-dimensional, Wilson excels at describing the pungent smells and tranquil silence of the disappearing wetlands of Alabama.”
Christopher Rice‘s The Moonlit Earth (Scribner) also gets a mixed response from Booklist: “A bit contrived, but . . . the author pushes through those moments . . . sure to appeal to Rice’s fan base.”
April 1st, 2010 at 11:39 am
I think it’s Dresden Files, not Dexter Files. You must have Dexter on your mind.