Anne Lamott appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition today, to talk about her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. After the show aired, the book rose to #8 on Amazon sales ranking. Many libraries are showing heaving holds on modest orders.

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers Anne Lamott Retail Price: $17.95 Hardcover: 112 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2012-11-13) ISBN / EAN: 1594631298 / 9781594631290

Thorndike Large Print, Dec.

Photo of Tanis Rideout by Nikki Mills

As part of the ongoing Penguin First Flights program, Tanis Rideout, author of the upcoming debut novel, Above All Things (Putnam/Amy Einhorn) joined us for an online chat on November 16. Click below to read a transcript of the event.

This is the sixth episode in the program. To learn about upcoming titles, view previous chats, and to join the program, click here.

Live Chat with Tanis Rideout, ABOVE ALL THINGS

(11/16/2012)

  

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3:43

Nora - EarlyWord:  Hi Everyone; I see some folks gathering for our live online chat with the Tanis Rideout, author of ABOVE ALL THINGS, coming in February. Welcome! We’ll begin chatting at 4:00. While you are waiting, here’s a brief trailer for a National Geographic documentary about George Mallory whose ill-fated climb of Mt. Everest is the subject of the novel: Friday November 16, 2012 3:43 Nora - EarlyWord

3:43	Friday November 16, 2012 3:43

3:45	Nora - EarlyWord:  And here is the book trailer, featuring Tanis: Friday November 16, 2012 3:45 Nora - EarlyWord

3:45	Friday November 16, 2012 3:45

3:50	Nora - EarlyWord:  The book trailer features the Canadian jacket. Here is the American one: Friday November 16, 2012 3:50 Nora - EarlyWord

3:50	Nora - EarlyWord American Jacket Friday November 16, 2012 3:50

3:51	Nora - EarlyWord:  The following link takes you to a map of Everest, with the various base camps. Friday November 16, 2012 3:51 Nora - EarlyWord

3:52	Nora - EarlyWord:  George's Map of Mt. Everest Friday November 16, 2012 3:52 Nora - EarlyWord

3:53	Nora - EarlyWord:  By contrast, his wife Ruth's world in Cambridge was more circumscribed: Friday November 16, 2012 3:53 Nora - EarlyWord

3:53	Nora - EarlyWord:  Ruth's Map Cambridge Friday November 16, 2012 3:53 Nora - EarlyWord

3:58

Nora - EarlyWord:  We'll begin in just a few minutes. Chat participants -- you can send your questions through at any time. They'll go into a queue, and we'll submit as many of them as we can to Tanis before the end of the chat. Don’t worry about typos – and please forgive any that we commit! Friday November 16, 2012 3:58 Nora - EarlyWord

4:00	Tanis Rideout:  Hi, everyone! I'm really happy to be here chatting this afternoon! Friday November 16, 2012 4:00 Tanis Rideout

4:00	Nora - EarlyWord:  Welcome, Tanis. Love the setting of your book trailer -- looks familiar. Where was it? Friday November 16, 2012 4:00 Nora - EarlyWord

4:01	Tanis Rideout:  This fantastic French restaurant here in Toronto, called Le Select. Friday November 16, 2012 4:01 Tanis Rideout

4:01	Tanis Rideout:  It was my first time there, it definitely wasn't my last! Friday November 16, 2012 4:01 Tanis Rideout

4:01

Nora - EarlyWord:  Tanis, several of our participants sent in questions in advance. I'm going to start with some of them. I think many people will be curious about the following: You're not a climber. Have climbers given you positive feedback about how accurate your descriptions of climbing are? Friday November 16, 2012 4:01 Nora - EarlyWord

4:01	[Comment From Sue D. Sue D. : ]  Good afternoon from sunny St. Charles, MO Friday November 16, 2012 4:01 Sue D.

4:02	Nora - EarlyWord:  Welcome; thanks for joining, Sue Friday November 16, 2012 4:02 Nora - EarlyWord

4:02

Tanis Rideout:  I’ll admit there’s been some mix about that. One review on Amazon from a climber says that it’s pretty clear that I’m not a climber! But I have friends who climb that said they thought it was a good portrayal and I received an email from a high altitude climber who has been to the Himalaya half a dozen times and is going to Everest again next year applauding it. That was gratifying! Friday November 16, 2012 4:02 Tanis Rideout

4:03

Nora - EarlyWord:  There will always be nit-pickers! – I love this question: How did you manage to come up with so many fresh ways to say, "It's cold!"? This person also adds – “Did you do anything to increase your writing flow, such as turn off the heat and suck on ice in the winter?” Friday November 16, 2012 4:03 Nora - EarlyWord

4:03

Tanis Rideout:  Ha! Living in Canada helps I think. I really don’t like the cold and so when I’m out in it I tend to fixate on the discomfort – how there are certain areas of the body that feel it more or less, how sometimes it’s sharp and sometimes dull. I tried to imagine it so much worse than I’ve ever felt. And my editor was very very good at not letting me be repetitive – pushing me to come up with new ways to say it, describe it, so that hopefully readers felt it in their bones. Friday November 16, 2012 4:03 Tanis Rideout

4:03

Tanis Rideout:  Interestingly I wrote one whole draft of the novel while I was visiting California! In fact, I think sometimes being away from what I’m writing about can help me focus on it in some ways – I notice the absence, which makes me better able to articulate what it is. That having been said, I would definitely find when the weather turned in Ontario, and it started to get uncomfortable to be outside, I’d have a rush of inspiration! Friday November 16, 2012 4:03 Tanis Rideout

4:04

Nora - EarlyWord:  The following is more of a comment than a questiont: The way you interwove the chapters of the wife waiting at home with the mountain climb chapters was itself enlightening. I felt like rushing through the home chapters, as well written as they were and as much as I sympathized with Ruth, to get back to the real thrills. I guess that helped me understand some of the "why." Friday November 16, 2012 4:04 Nora - EarlyWord

4:05	Nora - EarlyWord:  Here's a photo of George and Ruth: Friday November 16, 2012 4:05 Nora - EarlyWord

4:05	Nora - EarlyWord Photo of George and Ruth taken during the war Friday November 16, 2012 4:05

4:05

Tanis Rideout:  It was really important to me to explore Ruth’s experience of the expedition as well – and it is much slower, sadder, I think. It provides, I hope, a break from the incessant climbing and cold, and shows us a different side of George. Hopefully, it helps with the understand of what George stands to lose, which should help to drive you back to the climb – the need to know. Friday November 16, 2012 4:05 Tanis Rideout

4:05	Tanis Rideout:  Gosh - they were both so stunning. Friday November 16, 2012 4:05 Tanis Rideout

4:05	Nora - EarlyWord:  There is something about the period that makes people look romantic. Friday November 16, 2012 4:05 Nora - EarlyWord

4:06	Tanis Rideout:  It's true - the soft focus helps too. Friday November 16, 2012 4:06 Tanis Rideout

4:06	Nora - EarlyWord:  While we're thinking about Ruth -- answer our poll: Friday November 16, 2012 4:06 Nora - EarlyWord

4:06	How would you respond if your partner wanted to do something as dangerous and as absent as George? Say no  ( 0% ) Say yes, of course  ( 38% ) Change their mind  ( 0% ) Offer a compromise  ( 63% ) Friday November 16, 2012 4:06

4:07

Nora - EarlyWord:  Here's another advance question: You could have left us readers hanging, so to speak, but you pulled off a great ending. Was that a huge challenge? And, a related question: In your novel, you allow Mallory to reach the summit. Many people believe that he did. Do you think Mallory actually reached the summit and would it change his legacy if he did? Friday November 16, 2012 4:07 Nora - EarlyWord

4:07	Tanis Rideout:  That's a hard one I think. Friday November 16, 2012 4:07 Tanis Rideout

4:07

Tanis Rideout:  Wow – the ending. Part of why I started to write this was, of course, because I wondered what had happened on that last climb. I think our imaginations are captured by those mysteries – it’s why we still wonder about Amelia Earhart as well. I didn’t want to make a definitive decision in the novel, but I also didn’t want to be coy. I didn’t want to shy away from choosing an ending, but I wanted the reader to have to decide what it is that George does. Clearly this reader read it that George succeeded, others read it that he didn’t. That is really interesting to me. Friday November 16, 2012 4:07 Tanis Rideout

4:08

Tanis Rideout:  The ending did change during the editorial process . Certainly, how he got to the moment where he makes the decision changed. Getting that beat right was difficult. It was a fine balance. I worked on it right up until the book was taken away from me to be published. Even at the last minute I was struggling with the exact wording to shape George’s decision. Friday November 16, 2012 4:08 Tanis Rideout

4:08	Nora - EarlyWord:  From the poll, it looks like our participants would try for a compromise. Friday November 16, 2012 4:08 Nora - EarlyWord

4:08	[Comment From Katie McKee Katie McKee : ]  Hi Tanis! Just curious how much of your story is based on fact, and how much is invention? Friday November 16, 2012 4:08 Katie McKee

4:08	Tanis Rideout:  Which seems fair, I think. The compromise. Friday November 16, 2012 4:08 Tanis Rideout

4:09	Tanis Rideout:  I let myself wander away from fact quite a bit. Friday November 16, 2012 4:09 Tanis Rideout

4:09	Nora - EarlyWord:  Our next poll question is about why George climbed Everest... Friday November 16, 2012 4:09 Nora - EarlyWord

4:09	What was George s LEAST important reason to climb Everest? To map it  ( 20% ) To build his career  ( 0% ) To find fossils  ( 80% ) Because it's there  ( 0% ) Test bodies at altitude  ( 0% ) Friday November 16, 2012 4:09

4:10	Tanis Rideout:  I knew I wanted to stick with what was known of the final climb as much as I could, a bit of mystery solving as it were, but other than that I really used the facts as a framework, or jumping off point. Friday November 16, 2012 4:10 Tanis Rideout

4:10	Tanis Rideout:  Some parts of it are utterly made up! Friday November 16, 2012 4:10 Tanis Rideout

4:10	Nora - EarlyWord:  Did you ever decide to ditch facts for a good story? Friday November 16, 2012 4:10 Nora - EarlyWord

4:10	Tanis Rideout:  Absolutely! Friday November 16, 2012 4:10 Tanis Rideout

4:11	Tanis Rideout:  I wouldn't be a very good nonfiction writer - story was the most important part to me. Friday November 16, 2012 4:11 Tanis Rideout

4:11	Tanis Rideout:  The biggest, I think, change was when and how George's brother dies in the novel, which is entirely different than in real life. Friday November 16, 2012 4:11 Tanis Rideout

4:11	Tanis Rideout:  But I think it makes the story stronger. Friday November 16, 2012 4:11 Tanis Rideout

4:11	Nora - EarlyWord:  Someone commented that INTO THE SILENCE: THE GREAT WAR, MALLORY AND THE CONQUEST OF EVEREST by Wade Davis just won Britain's Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction -- people could read the two together. Friday November 16, 2012 4:11 Nora - EarlyWord

4:11

Tanis Rideout:  – I have to admit I have Wade’s book sitting on my shelf – but I haven’t read it yet. It came out last year just as the final touches were being put on Above All Things and I couldn’t bring myself to read anything more about Mallory or Everest. I will read it. I’ve heard Wade speak about Everest and Mallory and his take on it. He’s very compelling. Someday when I have a little more distance I look forward to digging into it. I do know a couple of people have read them back to back, which I think is incredible. Friday November 16, 2012 4:11 Tanis Rideout

4:12	[Comment From Ann Ann : ]  I loved how Ruth's chapters listed time (hours of the day) as that was important to her the passing of the time. And George's were height - altitude as that was what was important ot him. Friday November 16, 2012 4:12 Ann

4:12	Tanis Rideout:  Thanks! It gave a nice structure to both of their stories and journeys, to have them charted in some way. Friday November 16, 2012 4:12 Tanis Rideout

4:13	Tanis Rideout:  But you're absolutely right, it focuses on what is demanding their attention. Friday November 16, 2012 4:13 Tanis Rideout

4:13	Nora - EarlyWord:  This is your first novel; why did you choose to deal with historical events? Friday November 16, 2012 4:13 Nora - EarlyWord

4:13	[Comment From Guest Guest : ]  I thought that would make a great book club meeting - your book and the Davis book. Friday November 16, 2012 4:13 Guest

4:13	Tanis Rideout:  I was just so captured by the story, and by George in particular! Friday November 16, 2012 4:13 Tanis Rideout

4:14	Tanis Rideout:  I've always loved history, I studied it for a while at university, and I love to read historically based work as well. Friday November 16, 2012 4:14 Tanis Rideout

4:14	Nora - EarlyWord:  "Compromise" is still winning in our poll, but I can't imagine what compromise Ruth might have offered. Everest strikes me as pretty much all or nothing. Friday November 16, 2012 4:14 Nora - EarlyWord

4:14	Tanis Rideout:  That being said, I'm not sure that novelists always choose their books, I think they choose you in some ways. It has to be something, for me anyway, that I can't get out of my head. Friday November 16, 2012 4:14 Tanis Rideout

4:15	Tanis Rideout:  I'll have to live with it for years. Friday November 16, 2012 4:15 Tanis Rideout

4:15	Tanis Rideout:  No, it's true, but perhaps it speaks a bit more to where relationships are now - the notion of compromising. Friday November 16, 2012 4:15 Tanis Rideout

4:16	[Comment From Janet Lockhart Janet Lockhart : ]  Hello! I was fascinated by the relationship between the Englishmen and the Sherpas. How did you research that particular aspect of the novel? Friday November 16, 2012 4:16 Janet Lockhart

4:17	Nora - EarlyWord:  While we're talking about the expedition group, here's a photo -- not sure if any sherpas are in it. Friday November 16, 2012 4:17 Nora - EarlyWord

4:17	Nora - EarlyWord One of the expedition photos Friday November 16, 2012 4:17

4:17	Tanis Rideout:  Writing the Sherpas was really difficult - I was pretty aware of wanting to depict them in a realistic light, of wanting them to have their place in the story - as they did in real life! Friday November 16, 2012 4:17 Tanis Rideout

4:17	Nora - EarlyWord:  Any sherpas in the photo? Friday November 16, 2012 4:17 Nora - EarlyWord

4:17	Tanis Rideout:  The attitude was pretty standard and colonial at the time - they were thought of by the English as children in so many ways. Friday November 16, 2012 4:17 Tanis Rideout

4:18	Tanis Rideout:  The documents at the Royal Geographic Society in London was really great for researching the Sherpas. Friday November 16, 2012 4:18 Tanis Rideout

4:18	Nora - EarlyWord:  I thought the relationship to the sherpas seemed realistic for the time, but it must have been difficult to not impose a modern sensibility on it. Friday November 16, 2012 4:18 Nora - EarlyWord

4:18	[Comment From gordie gordie : ]  the 20's were such a different time than contemporary times. how did you put yourself there for the small things we read about. did you immerse yourself in the music of the times? the art? Friday November 16, 2012 4:18 gordie

4:18	Tanis Rideout:  There was one detail in one of the manifests I remember stating that they had taken - 6 Hudson Bay Blankets - not to be used by coolies (as they called them.) Friday November 16, 2012 4:18 Tanis Rideout

4:19	Tanis Rideout:  And no - no sherpas in that photo. Friday November 16, 2012 4:19 Tanis Rideout

4:19	Nora - EarlyWord:  Looks like most people think the least important reason to climb Everest was to map it. Any comments on that, Tanis? Friday November 16, 2012 4:19 Nora - EarlyWord

4:19	Tanis Rideout:  The twenties were such a fascinating time, its true. And so different in the US than in England. I did read a lot of work from that era, listened to music, watched movies, looked at photos. Friday November 16, 2012 4:19 Tanis Rideout

4:20	Tanis Rideout:  Especially in the early part of the project. Friday November 16, 2012 4:20 Tanis Rideout

4:20	Nora - EarlyWord:  Here's another poll -- now that you've seen the photo of the group -- Friday November 16, 2012 4:20 Nora - EarlyWord

4:20	What is the best body build for climbing? Long and lean  ( 75% ) Short and story  ( 25% ) Muscular  ( 0% ) Some extra body fat  ( 0% ) Friday November 16, 2012 4:20

4:21	Nora - EarlyWord:  And, here's a photo of Mallory and Irvine -- Friday November 16, 2012 4:21 Nora - EarlyWord

4:21	Tanis Rideout:  It's so interesting - the notion of mapping the mountains - it's so incredible to me, that it wasn't mapped at the time - that there were still these vast blank spaces on the map. But that was certainly teh reason they went the first time. Friday November 16, 2012 4:21 Tanis Rideout

4:21	Nora - EarlyWord The last photo taken of George and Sandy Friday November 16, 2012 4:21

4:21	Nora - EarlyWord:  Love the oxygen tanks -- they must have been COLD. Friday November 16, 2012 4:21 Nora - EarlyWord

4:21	Tanis Rideout:  Yes! The cold. I can't imagine. Friday November 16, 2012 4:21 Tanis Rideout

4:22	Tanis Rideout:  And the tanks were so so heavy! Friday November 16, 2012 4:22 Tanis Rideout

4:22	Nora - EarlyWord:  Mallory's most famous comment was that he climbed Everest because it was there -- but he regretted that, right? Friday November 16, 2012 4:22 Nora - EarlyWord

4:22	Tanis Rideout:  Around 20 pounds or so I think. and that was after Sandy had rebuilt them so that they were more reliable and lighter. Friday November 16, 2012 4:22 Tanis Rideout

4:22	Tanis Rideout:  ... Friday November 16, 2012 4:22 Tanis Rideout

4:23	Tanis Rideout:  actually - George may never have said that! He always claimed he didn't remember saying it. Some people think it may have just been a frustrated or ambitious journalist. Another writer who didn't have much interest in facts, I guess. Friday November 16, 2012 4:23 Tanis Rideout

4:23	Nora - EarlyWord:  You note on the Everest map – “the siege style mentality that marked both the early expeditions and today’s Everest attempts." Was it thought of as a battle? Friday November 16, 2012 4:23 Nora - EarlyWord

4:23	Tanis Rideout:  I think absolutely it was - as a campaign. Friday November 16, 2012 4:23 Tanis Rideout

4:24	[Comment From Janet Lockhart Janet Lockhart : ]  I can't get over their clothes. So different from what we use now. I'm clutching my hot tea even tighter just looking at these guys. Friday November 16, 2012 4:24 Janet Lockhart

4:24	[Comment From Laura Laura : ]  The clothing looks so inadequate to the modern eye, as well - I can't even imagine how cold they would have felt, so well done to you for being so descriptive. Friday November 16, 2012 4:24 Laura

4:24	Tanis Rideout:  and this of course was being organized by men who had all been in the war. The comparisons must have been quite clear I think. Friday November 16, 2012 4:24 Tanis Rideout

4:24	Tanis Rideout:  just a different type of enemy. Friday November 16, 2012 4:24 Tanis Rideout

4:25	Tanis Rideout:  The clothing is just stunning isn't it? Friday November 16, 2012 4:25 Tanis Rideout

4:25	Nora - EarlyWord:  I love this photo of Sandy -- Friday November 16, 2012 4:25 Nora - EarlyWord

4:25	Nora - EarlyWord Photo of Sandy Friday November 16, 2012 4:25

4:25	Tanis Rideout:  There's a quote from George Bernard Shaw saying they looked like a group of picnickers caught out in weather at connemara. Friday November 16, 2012 4:25 Tanis Rideout

4:26	Tanis Rideout:  Most of us wouldn't go tobogganing in what they were wearing! Friday November 16, 2012 4:26 Tanis Rideout

4:26	Tanis Rideout:  Yes, Sandy was so handsome too. So young Friday November 16, 2012 4:26 Tanis Rideout

4:26	Nora - EarlyWord:  It's amazing to think of Shaw commenting on the photos -- George was well-connected with the intellectuals and artists of the time, right? Friday November 16, 2012 4:26 Nora - EarlyWord

4:26	[Comment From Ann Ann : ]  Agree on the clothing - thinking with my modern mind - I thought to myself how unprepared they were but it is the best we knew at the time Friday November 16, 2012 4:26 Ann

4:26	[Comment From Janet Lockhart Janet Lockhart : ]  Was Sandy's love affair based on fact? Friday November 16, 2012 4:26 Janet Lockhart

4:27	Tanis Rideout:  He was. He studied at Cambridge and that's where he fell in with some of who were to become the bloomsburies. He was pretty liberal in his beliefs and such as well. He might not have been as clever as them, but he would have fit in well. Friday November 16, 2012 4:27 Tanis Rideout

4:27	Tanis Rideout:  Sandy's affair was indeed based in fact! Friday November 16, 2012 4:27 Tanis Rideout

4:27	Nora - EarlyWord:  Sorry, Tanis -- threw two questions at you at once. Let's take time for another poll... Friday November 16, 2012 4:27 Nora - EarlyWord

4:27	After George s confrontation with his father what do you think he does? Turns back to Sandy  ( 50% ) Presses on to summit  ( 50% ) c) Turns back before top  ( 0% ) Friday November 16, 2012 4:27

4:28	[Comment From Sue D. Sue D. : ]  What does it say about these men that after fighting in a terrible war they feel they have to climb into the unknown? What were they looking for? Friday November 16, 2012 4:28 Sue D.

4:28	Tanis Rideout:  He was having an affair with his best friend's step mom. I don't know whether the friend knew of it at the time, or how it affected their relationship - but yes. Maybe he was a bit of a scoundrel. Friday November 16, 2012 4:28 Tanis Rideout

4:29	Tanis Rideout:  That's a good question - what were they looking for. Friday November 16, 2012 4:29 Tanis Rideout

4:29	Nora - EarlyWord:  I have to say -- Sandy is a soulful looking guy! I can see falling for him. Friday November 16, 2012 4:29 Nora - EarlyWord

4:29	Tanis Rideout:  I think, to my mind, that they were trying to make some amends - to prove they had survived for some reason, while so many others hadn't. Friday November 16, 2012 4:29 Tanis Rideout

4:30	Tanis Rideout:  And also - that the others had died for something. For their country which was powerful and far reaching and all of those kinds of things. Friday November 16, 2012 4:30 Tanis Rideout

4:30	[Comment From Lucy Lucy : ]  RE; comment from GB Shaw: Could the relaxed look be due to the previous experiences of the members of the climb? We've done this before, etc... OR is it just a British thing? :-) Friday November 16, 2012 4:30 Lucy

4:30	Tanis Rideout:  I suspect as well, to try and forget about the war a little bit Friday November 16, 2012 4:30 Tanis Rideout

4:30	[Comment From Laura Laura : ]  To me it's an extension of that colonial logic - to conquer the world, to do it for Britain, to win here where perhaps they had failed in the past. Friday November 16, 2012 4:30 Laura

4:31	[Comment From Ann Ann : ]  I thought each had their own reasons and were figghting theirown demons Friday November 16, 2012 4:31 Ann

4:31	Tanis Rideout:  I think it's all of those things - the relaxed look. the sense that they were at ease, they had done it before. All of it. Friday November 16, 2012 4:31 Tanis Rideout

4:31	Tanis Rideout:  And yes - the Colonialism can't be underplayed at all. This was about claiming and ownership for King and country. absolutely. Friday November 16, 2012 4:31 Tanis Rideout

4:32	Nora - EarlyWord:  Finding fossils is now winning in our poll for the least important reason to climb Everest -- what do you say, Tanis? Friday November 16, 2012 4:32 Nora - EarlyWord

4:32	Tanis Rideout:  The fossils piece is interesting. Friday November 16, 2012 4:32 Tanis Rideout

4:33

Tanis Rideout:  This was before there was still any real understanding of how the world had formed - the notion of plates colliding etc. hadn't been put forward. But Odell was indeed looking for fossils while he was there. And there are tons of them up on the high reaches of the mountain. Friday November 16, 2012 4:33 Tanis Rideout

4:33	Nora - EarlyWord:  We've got several more comments about motivation that I am about to post... Friday November 16, 2012 4:33 Nora - EarlyWord

4:33	Tanis Rideout:  I don't think George could really care less about the fossils though. Friday November 16, 2012 4:33 Tanis Rideout

4:33	Tanis Rideout:  sure. Friday November 16, 2012 4:33 Tanis Rideout

4:33	[Comment From Sue D. Sue D. : ]  To my thinking maybe these men were looking for atonement. Wasn't it the war to end all wars? Friday November 16, 2012 4:33 Sue D.

4:33	[Comment From Ann Ann : ]  there was also the belief that that England was unstoppable and would conquer all that the world had to offer Friday November 16, 2012 4:33 Ann

4:34	Tanis Rideout:  I think that's all part of it. It was interesting to me - I hadn't put the climbs in teh context of the war until a couple of drafts in. Friday November 16, 2012 4:34 Tanis Rideout

4:35	Tanis Rideout:  I hadn't connected the two things, but in light of the war they make so much sense. That's a great deal of what Wade's book deals with as well. Friday November 16, 2012 4:35 Tanis Rideout

4:35	Tanis Rideout:  I love that the poll on George going on or turning back is totally split! Friday November 16, 2012 4:35 Tanis Rideout

4:35	Nora - EarlyWord:  WW I was SO devastating -- we often forget about it because WW II is a more recent memory Friday November 16, 2012 4:35 Nora - EarlyWord

4:35	[Comment From Janet Lockhart Janet Lockhart : ]  Sandy definitely seems to have been a risk taker--even in his love life. I liked him very much, which is a tribute to how you wrote him---he seemed very real. Friday November 16, 2012 4:35 Janet Lockhart

4:35	Tanis Rideout:  I think so - and it seems so so long ago. Friday November 16, 2012 4:35 Tanis Rideout

4:36	Tanis Rideout:  A different type of war altogether. Friday November 16, 2012 4:36 Tanis Rideout

4:36	[Comment From Ann Ann : ]  I also liked how you wrote about the team dynamics - they were an interesting group of personalities Friday November 16, 2012 4:36 Ann

4:36	Tanis Rideout:  I admit it took me a while to come around to Sandy. Friday November 16, 2012 4:36 Tanis Rideout

4:37	Tanis Rideout:  I was so focused on George early on, it took me a while to get Sandy out from under his shadow, but it's Sandy's risk and ultimate end that I find much sadder now. Friday November 16, 2012 4:37 Tanis Rideout

4:37	Nora - EarlyWord:  It's interesting -- the group seems fascinated with him. Friday November 16, 2012 4:37 Nora - EarlyWord

4:37	Nora - EarlyWord:  Want to reveal how you would respond to the question about George and his father, Tanis? Friday November 16, 2012 4:37 Nora - EarlyWord

4:38

Tanis Rideout:  The team members all had to take on lives of their own, for sure. again George eclipsed them of a long time. I had to really figure out what each of them was risking, wanting, believed all of that. Once I knew that, I knew I could have them sit in a tent for hours and they'd be interesting. Friday November 16, 2012 4:38 Tanis Rideout

4:38	Tanis Rideout:  That confrontation was a great balancing point. I wanted it to be impossibly hard for George to make a choice, and yet he has to. Friday November 16, 2012 4:38 Tanis Rideout

4:39	Tanis Rideout:  Though I guess he could have just stayed there and died. But I'm going to play coy for now, and not say what I think he did! Friday November 16, 2012 4:39 Tanis Rideout

4:40	Nora - EarlyWord:  I'm curious if any of the readers were taken with Ruth -- she has such a difficult situation and it's tough to get at her personality. Friday November 16, 2012 4:40 Nora - EarlyWord

4:41	Tanis Rideout:  Ruth was difficult to write because her world is so small, and so controlled by the era she was in, the role she had to play. It took several attempts at giving her a day that was complicated enough to hold up next to George's. Friday November 16, 2012 4:41 Tanis Rideout

4:41	Tanis Rideout:  I always knew she'd be throwing a party though! That was one thing I knew women in her situation would be able to do. Friday November 16, 2012 4:41 Tanis Rideout

4:41	[Comment From Ann Ann : ]  I found the relationship between Will and Ruth interesting Friday November 16, 2012 4:41 Ann

4:42	Tanis Rideout:  Yes - Will and Ruth! Friday November 16, 2012 4:42 Tanis Rideout

4:42	Tanis Rideout:  I've taken some liberties there - to give a little more drama. Friday November 16, 2012 4:42 Tanis Rideout

4:42	Nora - EarlyWord:  Was there much information available about Ruth? Friday November 16, 2012 4:42 Nora - EarlyWord

4:43	Tanis Rideout:  Will was a great support to Ruth during George's absence. And they did in fact marry some years later. It's not an unusual story for climbers. When a climber dies, his widow quite often marries one of his climbing partners. Friday November 16, 2012 4:43 Tanis Rideout

4:43	Tanis Rideout:  Maybe not quite often - but it does happen. Friday November 16, 2012 4:43 Tanis Rideout

4:43	Tanis Rideout:  It's even mentioned in the National Geographic trailer. Friday November 16, 2012 4:43 Tanis Rideout

4:43	Nora - EarlyWord:  Now that you've written the book, would you ever go climbing? Friday November 16, 2012 4:43 Nora - EarlyWord

4:44	[Comment From Ann Ann : ]  I am not surprised that Will and ruth married Friday November 16, 2012 4:44 Ann

4:44

Tanis Rideout:  Ruth is mostly available through her letters to George and others after George's death. She was so honest and good, I think. And that's certainly what comes through in other books about Mallory - her goodness, but I thught she must have had some spunk and spirit to her too! Friday November 16, 2012 4:44 Tanis Rideout

4:45	Tanis Rideout:  I'd love to try some climbing! Friday November 16, 2012 4:45 Tanis Rideout

4:45	Nora - EarlyWord:  What's next for you -- more historical fiction? Friday November 16, 2012 4:45 Nora - EarlyWord

4:45	Tanis Rideout:  I'm actually planning on trying to climb a volcano in Hawaii in the January! Maybe two. If that goes well, then maybe I'll try something else. But not Everest, ever. Friday November 16, 2012 4:45 Tanis Rideout

4:45	Tanis Rideout:  Maybe the trek to base camp, but not the mountain itself. Friday November 16, 2012 4:45 Tanis Rideout

4:45	Tanis Rideout:  What's next... Friday November 16, 2012 4:45 Tanis Rideout

4:46	Tanis Rideout:  I'm finishing up a collection of poems that will be released here in Canada in the spring - they're based on Marilyn Bell's 1954 swim across Lake Ontario. Friday November 16, 2012 4:46 Tanis Rideout

4:46	Nora - EarlyWord:  Good for you -- i have to say the book convinced me that I NEVER want to climb a mountain! Friday November 16, 2012 4:46 Nora - EarlyWord

4:46	Tanis Rideout:  She as the first person to ever swim the lake. It took her 18 hours. Friday November 16, 2012 4:46 Tanis Rideout

4:46	Tanis Rideout:  clearly a connection Friday November 16, 2012 4:46 Tanis Rideout

4:46	Tanis Rideout:  with the physicality of everest there. Friday November 16, 2012 4:46 Tanis Rideout

4:47	Tanis Rideout:  ANd then, I"m just starting to scratch the surface of a new novel. Part of it will be historically based, part of it will take place here and now. There will be cell phones in it. Friday November 16, 2012 4:47 Tanis Rideout

4:48	Nora - EarlyWord:  I love to read about adventurous women. Why did you choose to turn to poetry? Friday November 16, 2012 4:48 Nora - EarlyWord

4:48	Tanis Rideout:  I was initially commissioned to write some of the poems for an environmental organization here in Toronto. Friday November 16, 2012 4:48 Tanis Rideout

4:48	[Comment From Sue D. Sue D. : ]  Maybe I missed this but how long did you do research before writing, and did you do more research as the book progressed? Friday November 16, 2012 4:48 Sue D.

4:48	Tanis Rideout:  And then when I did my MFA a couple of years ago I focused on poetry and on that collection. It seemed a good fit... Friday November 16, 2012 4:48 Tanis Rideout

4:49	Tanis Rideout:  I researched all the way along! and I started writing while I was researching as well. Friday November 16, 2012 4:49 Tanis Rideout

4:49	Tanis Rideout:  I wasn't able to get to England to do hands on research at Cambridge or London until I was about two drafts in or so. Friday November 16, 2012 4:49 Tanis Rideout

4:50	Tanis Rideout:  And then I went another time much closer to when the novel was coming out. Friday November 16, 2012 4:50 Tanis Rideout

4:50	Tanis Rideout:  I love that part though! reading and combing through information. Friday November 16, 2012 4:50 Tanis Rideout

4:50	Tanis Rideout:  That's the phase I'm in now for the new work. Friday November 16, 2012 4:50 Tanis Rideout

4:51	Nora - EarlyWord:  The moment in the National Geographic trailer when they find Mallory's body sends chills down my spine -- you had a similar experience in finding one of his letters -- in a LIBRARY, right? Friday November 16, 2012 4:51 Nora - EarlyWord

4:51	Tanis Rideout:  yes! several. Friday November 16, 2012 4:51 Tanis Rideout

4:51	[Comment From Sue D. Sue D. : ]  That is a problem for me. I love to do the research and then put off the actual writing bit. Friday November 16, 2012 4:51 Sue D.

4:52	Tanis Rideout:  one of the most surprising moments though, was meeting with the head librarian at Magdalen college. Friday November 16, 2012 4:52 Tanis Rideout

4:52	Nora - EarlyWord:  I agree, Sue -- it's the reason I became a librarian, not a writer! Friday November 16, 2012 4:52 Nora - EarlyWord

4:52	Tanis Rideout:  He interviewed me a while before he let me into the library and when he decided I had passed, he handed me a plastic envelope saying - I guess you want to see these. Friday November 16, 2012 4:52 Tanis Rideout

4:52	Tanis Rideout:  And they were the papers George had had on his body when he was found. Friday November 16, 2012 4:52 Tanis Rideout

4:53	Tanis Rideout:  I was stunned. I hadn't expected to see them, or hold them. and there they were. Friday November 16, 2012 4:53 Tanis Rideout

4:53	Nora - EarlyWord:  I just got a new set of chills! Friday November 16, 2012 4:53 Nora - EarlyWord

4:53	Tanis Rideout:  It was pretty surreal, a little heartbreaking. Friday November 16, 2012 4:53 Tanis Rideout

4:53

[Comment From Jennifer Jennifer : ]  Sorry to be late, but I wanted to make sure I got a chance to say how much I enjoyed this book. The detail that went into the narrative was wonderful and I enjoyed the author notes,(which I admit I read first) which connected Mallory to the Bloomsbury movement. Friday November 16, 2012 4:53 Jennifer

4:53	Tanis Rideout:  And at the RGS - I found the actual telegramme announcing their deaths. it was wild. Friday November 16, 2012 4:53 Tanis Rideout

4:54	Nora - EarlyWord:  Jennifer read the notes first -- that sounds like a librarian! Friday November 16, 2012 4:54 Nora - EarlyWord

4:54	[Comment From Laura Laura : ]  Can you tell us the setting/time period for the new work? Friday November 16, 2012 4:54 Laura

4:54	Tanis Rideout:  Thanks Jennifer - I do that too! read notes and acknowledgements first! Friday November 16, 2012 4:54 Tanis Rideout

4:54	Tanis Rideout:  Sure - the next work currently is set in Toronto in 2011 and London around 1850. Friday November 16, 2012 4:54 Tanis Rideout

4:55	Nora - EarlyWord:  We're getting close to the end of our chat. There's one more comment about Ruth... Friday November 16, 2012 4:55 Nora - EarlyWord

4:55	Tanis Rideout:  I"ve never written ANYTHING present day! I'm really excited to try my hand at it. Friday November 16, 2012 4:55 Tanis Rideout

4:55	[Comment From Janet Lockhart Janet Lockhart : ]  At first found Ruth distant but then realized what she was doing as almost as difficult as what George was doing--but she didn't have as much company and support. Friday November 16, 2012 4:55 Janet Lockhart

4:55	[Comment From Melanie Melanie : ]  I was glad I read the notes first. It gave more meaning to the point in the book when Ruth reads her current novel. Friday November 16, 2012 4:55 Melanie

4:55	Tanis Rideout:  Absolutely! Poor Ruth - and not even really able to complain. Friday November 16, 2012 4:55 Tanis Rideout

4:56	Tanis Rideout:  Just stiff upper lip and all that. it must have been really trying. and yet so many others around her had lost their husbands in the war. She must have been so caught. Friday November 16, 2012 4:56 Tanis Rideout

4:56	Nora - EarlyWord:  Let's answer the poll question about the best physique for climbing. Friday November 16, 2012 4:56 Nora - EarlyWord

4:56	Tanis Rideout:  I think long and lean - you want a good reach and not too much weight on you. Friday November 16, 2012 4:56 Tanis Rideout

4:56	Tanis Rideout:  George was pretty ideal for that/ Friday November 16, 2012 4:56 Tanis Rideout

4:57	Nora - EarlyWord:  But they also lost a lot of weight during the climb -- surely a LITTLE body fat would help? Friday November 16, 2012 4:57 Nora - EarlyWord

4:57	Tanis Rideout:  Yes - lots of climbers fatten up before they go. Friday November 16, 2012 4:57 Tanis Rideout

4:57	Nora - EarlyWord:  Do you have plans to tour for the book in the U.S.? Friday November 16, 2012 4:57 Nora - EarlyWord

4:58	Tanis Rideout:  you do lose so much weight at those altitudes - I think its thousands of calories an hour. Friday November 16, 2012 4:58 Tanis Rideout

4:58	Tanis Rideout:  Not yet! I think things are still being sorted out for what the plans are for when the book launches. I certainly hope I get to come and spend some time down there. There is so much to see. Friday November 16, 2012 4:58 Tanis Rideout

4:59	Nora - EarlyWord:  And a few things to climb! Friday November 16, 2012 4:59 Nora - EarlyWord

4:59	Tanis Rideout:  Hopefully I'll be able to travel around a little. It's been one of the fabulous things about having a book out here - is travelling and meeting people. Friday November 16, 2012 4:59 Tanis Rideout

4:59	Tanis Rideout:  There are! Friday November 16, 2012 4:59 Tanis Rideout

4:59

Nora - EarlyWord:  Thanks,Tanis, this has been fun. And, thanks to everyone who joined us. We hope you’ll enjoy recommending ABOVE ALL THINGS when it is published in February. This chat is now available in the archive; tell your colleagues to check it out. Friday November 16, 2012 4:59 Nora - EarlyWord

5:00	Tanis Rideout:  Thank you so much, Nora for hosting! And all of you for reading and chatting! It's a great end to a week. Friday November 16, 2012 5:00 Tanis Rideout

5:00	Nora - EarlyWord:  You're right -- a great end to the week. Friday November 16, 2012 5:00 Nora - EarlyWord

5:01	Nora - EarlyWord American Jacket Friday November 16, 2012 5:01

5:01	[Comment From Janet Lockhart Janet Lockhart : ]  Thanks Nora for hosting and good luck Tanis with the U.S. edition. Friday November 16, 2012 5:01 Janet Lockhart

5:01	Tanis Rideout:  Thank you, Janet! Friday November 16, 2012 5:01 Tanis Rideout

 

 

As we head into the all make-or-break gift-giving season, publishers are focusing on sure-bet hits, so we have only one title on our Watch List, a hotel business expose that reminds us of a certain bad-boy restaurant expose. Among the usual suspects are new novels from David Baldacci, Janet Evanovich and Glenn Beck. In Young Adult, Glee star Chris Colfer releases his second novel, Struck By Lightning, which arrives with the words “Now a Major Motion Picture” already emblazoned on the cover.

Watch List

Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality, Jacob Tomsky, (RH/Doubleday) has gotten quite a bit of advance publicity, including a NYT review by Janet Maslin (who is often the bellwether of books with high expectations). An expose of hotel practices, it’s reminiscent of an expose of restaurant practices, Anthony Bourdain’s Restaurant Confidential. Maslin’s description makes it sound like it lives up to the comparison; “Mr. Tomsky turns out to be an effervescent writer, with enough snark to make his stories sharp-edged but without the self-promoting smugness that sinks so many memoirs.” The NY Daily News adds to the author’s bad boy credentials, “Jacob Tomsky was once a resentful front-desk clerk at a luxury hotel in midtown Manhattan, forced to attend anger management classes.” Is a Travel Channel show in the offing?

Fan Favorites

The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron, (Hachette/Little,Brown; Thorndike Large Print) is the 18th title in the Judge Deborah Knott mystery series. One fan on GalleyChat called it “One of my favorites in the series.” Her paperbacks have been NYT best sellers; we’re hoping this will be her  hardcover breakout.

Young Adult

Struck by Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal, Chris Colfer, (Hachette/Little, Brown YR; Hachette Audio). Is this a novel that’s been adapted as a movie, or is it a novelization of a movie? The movie Struck by Lightning, starring Glee‘s Chris Colfer and written by Chris Colfer is scheduled for release on January 11. The novel, the second by Glee‘s Chris Colfer, arrives this week, with the words “Now a Major Motion Picture” on the cover. Kirkus comments, “This sophomoric sophomore effort reads like a rough draft for a screenplay.” But as the book’s cover notes, Colfer is a “#1 New York Times Bestselling Author.”

Usual Suspects

The Forgotten by David Baldacci, (Hachette/ Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print) is the second in the author’s new series of thrillers featuring Army Special Agent John Puller which began last year with Zero Day.

Notorious Nineteen, by Janet Evanovich, (Random House’ RH Audio; RH Large Print). Anyone want to guess which number this one is in the Stephanie Plum series?

Agenda 21, by Glenn Beck, with Harriet Parke, (S&S/Threshold; S&S Audio) is Beck’s fictional take on where America is headed, “There is no president. No congress. No Supreme Court.” But, hold on, doesn’t Beck want smaller government?  In this vision, the U.S. is now run by an even larger government, “the Authorities” who have been imposed by a UN-lead program called Agenda 21 and “Citizens have two primary goals in the new Republic: to create clean energy and to create new human life.” Beck’s fans have made it #2 on Amazon’s sales rankings. Libraries are showing 1:1 holds.

Nonfiction

Encyclopedia Paranoiaca by Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf, (S&S) is described by Kirkus as ““A whimsical collection of the sometimes-scary, sometimes-silly things that threaten our modern-day lives.”  With the name Christopher Cerf attached, who can resist?

Grace: A Memoir, Grace Coddington, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT Audio).  We jumped the gun by listing this memoir by the creative director of Vogue in last week’s “Radar.” It actually arrives next week. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-, noting that many more people now know who Coddington is because of the 2009 documentary, The September Issue, in which, “the Welsh-born Coddington delightfully stole the show” and says “she’s the bohemian big-haired yang to her boss’ [Anna Wintour’s] impeccably tailored bangs-and-bob yin.”

Tie-ins

Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America: A Companion Book for Young Readers to the Steven Spielberg Film by Harold Holzer, (HarperCollins/Newmarket for It Books) is the official young readers tie-in to the movie by a Lincoln scholar and includes photos from the film.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, (Penguin Classics Hardcover) is a new translation by Christine Donougher and Denny, Norman released for the 150th anniversary of classic. The Broadway musical adaptation is coming to movie theaters on Christmas in a new version starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Eddie Redmayne. Penguin is also publishing the official tie-in, translated by Norman Denny.

Lay the Favorite by Beth Raymer (RH/Spiegel & Grau) is the tie-in to the adaptation of the 2010 gambling memoir which arrives in theaters on Dec. 7 but is now available on demand. Directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity), it stars Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn and Catherine Zeta-Jones, which makes it sound promising, but it gets just a 26% positive rating from critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, (RH/Modern Library) is the first hardcover edition of the book that was published as an original trade paperback in the U.S. The movie, which released Oct. 26, is considered a major flop, but it’s brought renewed attention to the book, returning it to best seller lists.

The movie doesn’t arrive until Aug. 23, but publicity drums are already beating for the City of Bones movie adaptation. The first trailer premiered on Entertainment Tonight Wednesday. In print, Entertainment Weekly is doing a “first look” feature, which includes an interview with Cassandra Clare, the author of the YA series (the final title, City of Heavenly Fire is scheduled for May 8, 2014).

And, MTV’s “Hollywood Crush” steps in to tell you the ” 5 Things You May Have Missed” in the less-than-two minute trailer.

As her third novel, the psychological thriller Gone Girl, continues to ride best seller lists (and to generate heavy holds) five months after its release, Gillian Flynn’s publisher, Random House announces that she has signed for two more novels. Her fourth as yet unnamed adult title is scheduled for publication by the Crown imprint in 2015.

In addition, she will release a YA novel with Delacorte Press.

(via Entertainment Weekly).

01:0The National Book Awards, given last night went to (annotations are from the National Book Awards site):

Fiction

The Round House, Louise Erdrich, Harper

One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe.

Nonfiction

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Katherine Boo, Random House

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope: Individual stories of courage set against the backdrop of tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy.

Young People’s Literature

Goblin Secrets, William Alexander, S&S.Margaret K. McElderry

Rownie, the youngest in Graba the witchworker’s household of stray children, escapes and goes looking for his missing brother. Along the way he falls in with a troupe of theatrical goblins and learns the secret origins of masks.

Poetry

Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations, David Ferry, University of Chicago Press

The passionate nature and originality of Ferry’s poems modulates beautifully between plainspoken high eloquence and colloquial vigor, making his distinctive speech one of the most interesting and ravishing achievements of the past half century.
 

Videos of the event are available on the National Book Foundation’s web site.

Susannah Cahalan was a rising young NY Post reporter when she began to exhibit signs of schizophrenia. She was admitted to a hospital where a doctor finally diagnosed her as suffering from a rare brain disease that would have killed her if left untreated.

She talked about her experience two years ago on the Today Show, saying she hoped her story would help others. Indeed it did; the family of another young woman with similar symptoms was watching.

Susannah Cahalan published a memoir this week, Brain on Fire  (S&S/Free Press; Highbridge Audio), and appeared on the Today Show again this morning, this time with the young woman whose life was saved by her earlier appearance.

Additional interviews are scheduled this week for NPR’s Fresh Air and ABC’s Katie. The book is reviewed on the NPR web site.

Holds are heavy on light ordering in most libraries.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Last December, a biography of General David Petraeus, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, by Paula Broadwell (Penguin, Jan. 23) made headlines because the author was regarded as implying that Petraeus nearly quit as the commander of troops in Afghanistan over Obama’s plans for a drawdown.

That inference was quickly denied. Several reports, including Fox News’, noted how adulatory the author was about her subject; “The book unapologetically casts Petraeus in the hero’s role” and Broadwell says “his critics fault him for ambition and self-promotion,” but “his energy, optimism and will to win stand out more for me.”

Jon Stewart speaks for many when he upbraids himself on last night’s show for missing the real story.

Just in time to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the final Twilight saga movie, the first full trailer for The Host hits the interwebs.

It is the based on the only non-Twilight book by Meyer. She also gets a production credit, as she has for the last two Twilight Saga films.

The movie is scheduled for release on March 29, 2013, starring Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones).

The winners of the National Book Awards will be announced tomorrow night. As the New York Times details, efforts have been made to add some glitz to the event, such as moving the venue from the midtown Marriott to the “cavernously ornate Cipriani Wall Street” and announcing the finalists on TV this year.

Underlying the changes is a desire to make the American awards as influential as the U.K.’s Booker Award (we have often noted that the Bookers have a greater effect on book sales, even in this country).

After the jump, the current Amazon sales rankings for the finalists (as tracked on Publishers Marketplace), along with the highest rankings to date, for titles in the Fiction, Nonfiction and Young People’s categories. We’ll check them again after the winners are announced.

(more…)

After  Michiko Kakutani’s sour response  in the NYT to Ian McEwan’s new novel, Sweet Tooth (RH/Nan A. Talese; Thorndike large print; Recorded Books), the book is enjoying much better reactions from other quarters. In the Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley calls it a “delicious new novel [that] provides all the pleasures one has come to expect of [McEwan]: pervasive intelligence, broad and deep knowledge, elegant prose, subtle wit and, by no means least, a singularly agreeable element of surprise.” The Minneapolis Star predicts it will be “his biggest success since 2001’s Atonement, and deservedly so.”  NPR’s web site calls it a “Tootsie Roll Pop of a literary confection — hard-boiled candy enrobing a chewy surprise at its core.”

In another form of appreciation, the book has been optioned by Working Title Films (the company that adapted Atonement in 2007).

Also, holds are growing in libraries and are heavy in many.

Next week, James Patterson contributes to the ongoing deluge of Christmas-themed novels, with Merry Christmas, Alex Cross. Also arriving is the book we predict will be THE gift book of the season, The Chronicles of Downton Abbey, which gives Americans a foretaste of season three, debuting here in January. On our Watch List is a madness memoir that’s poised to take off.

Watch List

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan (S&S/Free Press; S&S Audio) is a memoir by a young journalist. At the height of her career, her behavior suddenly becomes erratic, turning into full-blown paranoia and seizures. She recounts,”It flipped my universe upside down and very nearly sent me to an asylum for life.” She doesn’t remember the month she was hospitalized, so she pieces it together through interviews with family and friends and by reviewing videos from the surveillance camera that was in her hospital room. Librarians on October GalleyChat raved about it. People magazine calls it “fascinating” and gives it  3.5 of 4 stars in the new issue. A Nov Indie Next Pick, the author is scheduled to appear on NBC’s The Today Show on Monday, NPR’s Fresh Air and ABC’s Katie on Wednesday.

Usual Suspects

Merry Christmas Alex Cross, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown; Hachette Audio). As Alex tracks down the robber of the church’s poor box and intervenes in a dangerous hostage situation, the Cross family Christmas is different from most.

The Last Man by Vince Flynn (S&S/Atria; S&S Audio). Series hero Mitch Rapp goes to Afghanistan to find an old friend, a CIA agent who may have been kidnapped in this 13th outing. In real life, Rapp is getting ready for his Hollywood debut. CBS Films has optioned the rights to the character and plans to begin with an adaptation of American Assassin. The lead was recently offered to Chris Hemsworth (Snow White and the Huntsman, Thor, The Cabin in the Woods). Production is set to begin in 2013.

Literary Favorites

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan, (Doubleday/Talese) has already received a number of reviews, including a sour one from the NYT‘s famously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani (see our earlier story). People follows up with 3 of 4 stars. Many more reviews are in the pipeline. McEwan is scheduled to appear on the upcoming NPR show, Weekend Edition Saturday.

The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín, (S&S/Scribner) is a  a novella that began life as a stage play called just Testament. In it, the author imagines the mother of Jesus tells two visitors about his life and death. Tóibín will be interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition, Nov. 13.

Dear Life: Stories by Alice  Munro, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio) is designated a People pick in the new issue; “A new Munro collection is always a treat, but there’s special cause for celebration here: Along with 11 stories…the 81-year-old has included three autobiographical pieces.”

Childrens and Young Adult

The Third Wheel (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 7) by Jeff Kinney (Abrams/Amulet) has been in the Top 100 on Amazon sales rankings since release was announced.

Reached (Matched Trilogy Book 3) by Ally Condie is the final in the popular YA dystopian romance series It foliows Matched (2010) and Crossed (2011).

Nonfiction

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Jon Meacham (Random House; RH Audio) is Meacham’s next book after winning a Pulitzer Prize for biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion. The #1 Indie Next Pick for Dec, it is scheduled for a great deal of media attention. Meacham appears on NBC’s Today Show this morning, 11/9 and as well as several more shows in the next week, including the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and PBS’s Charlie Rose Show.

Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die by Willie Nelson and Kinky Friedman (HarperCollins) is subtitled, “Musings from the Road.” The Boston Globe says it “collects Nelson’s observations, memories, anecdotes, lyrics, and assorted bits of philosophical this and biographical that, ranging in length from a few sentences to a few pages.”

Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon (S&S/Scribner). A segment from this book published in the NYT Magazine last Sunday as “How Do You Raise a Prodigy?” was the second most-emailed NYT story over the weekend (admittedly, the title is a sure bet for the magazine’s readership). The author appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday  and is scheduled for Fresh Air next week.

Grace: A Memoir, Grace Coddington, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT Audio) is by the creative director of Vogue. Her work was memorably described by Time magazine, “If Wintour is the Pope…Coddington is Michelangelo, trying to paint a fresh version of the Sistine Chapel twelve times a year.”

Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Scottoline Serritella (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio) is the third book by the mother/daughter team who write the “Chick Wit” column for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Capturing Camelot by Kitty Kelley, (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne). Known for her in-depth take downs of celebrated figures, Kelley takes a new tack in this collection of JFK photos that were left to her by her good friend, Stanley Tretick.

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott (Penguin/Riverhead). The novelist writes about her faith.

Tie-in

The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era, by Jessica Fellowes, Matthew Sturgis,(Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press) gives insights into the much-anticipated third season of the popular series, which begins airing on PBS in January. We expect it to be THE gift book of the season.

Early footage for director Marc Forester’s adaptation of World War Z starring Brad Pitt hit the Web yesterday (it’s just a teaser for the trailer which will debut on tomorrow’s Entertainment Tonight).

There’s not much for the book’s purist fans to go on, so judgment is being saved for the full trailer. The minimalist poster (above, right), however, is the butt of some derision.

The movie arrives in theaters this coming June 21.

UPDATE: Below is the full trailer.

Attention to the movie is bringing new readers to the book; it’s rising on Amazon’s sales rankings.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War Max Brooks Retail Price: $14.95 Kindle Edition: 352 pages Publisher: RH/Broadway – (2007-10-16) ISBN / EAN: 9780307346612, 0307346617

The tie-in trade paperback (RH/Broadway) and audio CD (RH Audio) arrive in April.

Attesting to strong word of mouth, further fueled by Oscar buzz, Ben Affleck’s Argo moved to #1 at the box office during it’s third week. About a crazy scheme to rescue a group of Americans from Teheran in the early ’80’s, using a made-up Hollywood production as its cover, the tagline is, “The Movie was Fake, the Mission was Real.”

How real was the mission? Slate looks at that question in detail in “How Accurate Is Argo?”

As source material, the movie credits “a selection from The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and the Wired Magazine article ‘The Great Escape,‘ by Joshuah Bearman.”

The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA is still in print in trade pbk from HarperCollins/Morrow, downloadable from Overdrive and available in the original 1999 hardcover in many libraries. In it, Tony Mendez, played by Affleck in the movie, writes, with co-author William McConnell, about his CIA career which began in 1965. The Booklist review said, “the reader receives a vivid sense of the clandestine world through [Mendez’s] part in the successful operations to extract a KGB defector from India and an Iranian spy from revolutionary Iran … he also divulges the hitherto-suppressed details of the [Argo] caper.”

Mendez again recounts that story, with a different co-writer, Matt Baglio, in Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History, released in September (Viking) to coordinate with the move. It’s also available in audio from Blackstone and downloadable audio through OverDrive.

Mendez met his wife Jonna when they worked together on another mission. Together, they wrote Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win The Cold War (S&S/Atria; still available in trade paperback).

But wait; there’s yet one more book association. The real script for the fake movie, Argo, was  based on Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light (Harper/Voyager). Try putting it on display, to see who catches the reference.

“For readers who liked Ian McEwan’s Atonement,” has become shorthand for novels that blend psychological suspense with a strong sense of the atmosphere of a particular time, deft writing and romance.

McEwan himself has to undergo that comparison. Atonement has become a modern classic (Time magazine included in its list of 100 all Time greatest novels), with every book he’s published since compared to it.

In today’s NYT the hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani, asks whether McEwan’s latest, Sweet Tooth (RH/Nan A. Talese), arriving next week, lives up to the “author’s dazzling 2001 masterpiece.” In a word, she says, “No.”

The book was released in the UK in August and British reviewers also made comparisons, with The Independent saying, “though this is his best book since Atonement, Sweet Tooth has none of the disquieting tragedy and dazzling technique of that novel, which remains perhaps the greatest in contemporary British literature.”

On the other hand, The Economist compares it to several other McEwan’s titles; “Sweet Tooth is not Mr McEwan’s finest book. It has neither the darkness of The Comfort of Strangers nor the passion of Enduring Love, nor even the forensic observation that made On Chesil Beach such an uncomfortable and memorable read. It is a clever book—ostensibly about spying, yet really about writers and the alchemy of fiction. But it is also curiously forgettable. What it lacks is not so much an animating spirit, as a heart.”

The Guardian, however, appraises Sweet Tooth on its own merits; “This is a great big beautiful Russian doll of a novel, and its construction – deft, tight, exhilaratingly immaculate – is a huge part of its pleasure.”