New Title Radar, Week of March 11
The lead in library holds among the titles arriving next week is Breaking Point, C. J. Box’s latest thriller featuring Joe Pickett. Trailing it is Terry Brooks’ Bloodfire Quest: The Dark Legacy of Shannara, the second in a new series. In the media, the majority of air time for books will be focused on Facebook COO’s Sheryl Sandberg’s controversial Lean In.
The titles highlighted here, and more, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of March 11
Media Magnets
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT)
Facebook COO Sandberg’s “sort of feminist manifesto” arrives after weeks of heated discussion; it’s been going on so long that the backlash has a backlash. If you’ve seen the author’s 2010 TED presentation (below), or her appearance on the PBS show Makers, you may wonder what all the fuss is about (and about the health of feminism in this country if a reasonable analysis of gender politics can still cause such a ruckus).
The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd dismissed Sandberg as the “PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle boots.” As if in response, Time magazine this week features Sandberg with the cover line, “Don’t Hate Her Because She’s Successful.” For women too busy having it all to read the book, the Washington Post offers a cheat sheet.
Much more attention is on the way, including appearances on CBS 60 Minutes this Sunday, followed by NPR’s Morning Edition, ABC’s Good Morning America, and Nightline.
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Until I Say Good-bye: My Year of Living with Joy, Susan Spencer-Wendel, (Harper)
Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, Susan Spencer-Wendel decided to live her life to the fullest, rather than follow doctors’ advice to conserve her energy. Along with her husband, Bred Witter (who was the co-author of the best-selling book that celebrated a small-town library and its resident cat, Dewey’s Nine Lives), she writes about what she experienced and produced a video for the book. A round of media attention begins with NPR’s Weekend Edition tomorrow, followed by the Today Show, Inside Edition with Deborah Norville, a feature in People and a USA Today “Life Section” cover story.
Traps, Mackensie Bezos, (RH/Knopf)
In promotional material, author Bezos bio is brief. She “studied creative writing at Princeton University … lives in Seattle with her husband and four children.” More is added in a feature on the author in Vogue this month, which makes no bones about the fact that her husband is the founder of Amazon. Prepub reviews, are generally positive, if not overly enthusiastic. Publishers Weekly says, “Bezos (The Testing of Luther Albright) has a knack for the slow-build. In her second novel she galvanizes the mundane with a sense of dread, presenting four women trapped by sad circumstances and their own fallibility, as they gradually make their way through four tense days during which their lives intersect.”
Watch List
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, Edward Kelsey Moore, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)
Four women (nicknamed “the supremes”) bond during get-togethers in a small-town Indiana diner. Shelf Awareness‘s book review editor Marilyn Dahl gives it a strong readers advisory hook; “it may not be considered a ‘great’ book, like Billy Lynn’s Long Half-time Walk, but it’s an absolutely delightful book that brought me great joy, and I recommend it to everyone I know.” Entertainment Weekly says that in this “kindhearted debut, Moore (can it be called chick lit if a man wrote it?) shows a seasoned ease with his funny, damaged subjects, including the tipsy ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt. You’ll be casting the movie by the second chapter.”
Dark Tide, Elizabeth Haynes, (Harper Pbk Original; HarperLuxe)
Haynes’s first book, Into the Darkest Corner, was popular with librarians on GalleyChat. This second is reviewed on Edelweiss by librarian Halle Eisenman (Beaufort County Library); “A compelling story and satisfying mystery. A good recommendation for fans of Gillian Flynn, although if readers haven’t picked up Haynes’ first book, I’d recommend that as the more suspenseful and intense read.”
Wool, Hugh Howey, (S&S; simultaneous trade paperback and hardcover release)
Called the “Sci-fi Fifty Shades of Grey” (as in, a self-published book that became such a hit that Hollywood came knocking — NOT a story about bondage in outer space), Wool began life as short story, followed by four more titles, collected in Wool – Omnibus Edition (Amazon/CreateSpace) owned by several libraries. Now it gets its traditional publishing debut (complete with a cover blurb from The Passage‘s Justin Cronin), via a deal with S&S, which the Wall Street Journal examines in detail today.