Ten Titles to Know and Recommend, The Week of 9/15/14
[NOTE: If you landed here from our 9/19 newsletter — sorry for the incorrect link — the correct one is 8 Titles To Make You An R.A. Guru, Week of 9/22/14]
Get ready next week for a title expected to be the first blockbuster of the fall (B&N’s CEO has his fingers crossed for it) … Two LibraryReads picks are ripe for recommending … Stephen King plays readers advisor for Lauren Beukes’s followup to her much discussed 2013 title, The Shining Girls.
All the titles listed here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed, with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of 9:15:14
Heavy Holds
Edge of Eternity: Book Three of The Century Trilogy, Ken Follett, (Penguin/Dutton; Penguin Audio; Vintage Espanol), OverDrive Sample
Here’s an odd, but probably welcome bit of advance publicity. In a conference call with stock market analysts last week, Barnes and Noble’s CEO cited The Edge of Eternity as one of the books that makes him ”excited about the title lineup that will lead us in to the holiday season” (i.e., he’s expecting it will make cash registers ring) along with George W. Bush’s 41 : A Portrait of My Father, Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Patton and John Grisham’s Gray Mountain.
Another indicator of big expectations for this, the final (and longest; the audio is 36 hours long) book in the author’s twentieth-century trilogy; Janet Maslin reviewed it a full two weeks prior to publication and Follett was profiled in the 9/4 NYT Book Review (his take on Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch? “Reading a novel about people taking drugs is like being at a party where everyone else is stoned.”).
The Golem of Hollywood, Jonathan Kellerman, Jesse Kellerman, (Penguin/Putnam; coming from BOT Audio), OverDrive Sample
Kellerman has written two books with his wife Faye. This is his first collaboration with his son, Jesse, who has published several books of his own. Prepub reviews go from dismal (PW, a “muddled supernatural thriller:) to strong (Booklist, “Combining the procedural structure of Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels with the character-driven plotting of son Jesse’s fiction, the novel is a solidly plotted thriller”). A sequel is in the works.
The Infinite Sea: The Second Book of the 5th Wave, Rick Yancey, (Penguin/Putnam Juvenile; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike), OverDrive Sample
Holds are heavy for this sequel to a best selling Y.A. title. Adding more interest, production has begun in Atlanta for the movie adaptation of the first book in the series, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, who also stars in a film currently in theaters, the adaptation of Gayle Forman’s YA title, If I Stay.
Library Reads
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory, Caitlin Doughty, (Norton; Recorded Books audio coming in March)
The number one LibraryReads title for September:
“Part memoir, part exposé of the death industry, and part instruction manual for aspiring morticians. First-time author Doughty has written an attention-grabbing book that is sure to start some provocative discussions. Fans of Mary Roach’s Stiff and anyone who enjoys an honest, well-written autobiography will appreciate this quirky story.” — Patty Falconer, Hampstead Public Library, Hampstead, NH
The author is scheduled for an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air on Oct. 1.
The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters, (Penguin/Riverhead; BOT), OverDrive Sample
LibraryReads recommendation:
You can almost bet that a situation with long-term guests–paying or not–is not going to turn out well. This novel by Waters, who many know from her earlier books Tipping the Velvet and The Little Stranger, will keep you turning the page to see just how tense things can get, and how far fear and passion can push someone. — Elizabeth Angelastro, Manlius Library, Manlius, NY
Also #3 on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List” of “The Top 10 Thing W Love This Week” which calls it, “One of the year’s most engrossing and suspenseful novels.” In the review section, the magazine gives it an A. Also, the NYT profiles the author. Waters’ name recognition is growing in Hollywood as well, Oldboy director Park Chan-wook plans to adapt Waters’ 2002 novel, Fingersmith, as a feature film.
Hard to Call
Broken Monsters, Lauren Beukes, (Hachette/Mulholland Books), OverDrive Sample
Stephen King tweeted:
BROKEN MONSTERS, by Lauren Beukes: Scary as hell and hypnotic. I couldn’t put it down. Next month. I’d grab it, if I were you
Entertainment Weekly blogs that it is “What We’re Reading Now,” but gives it a left-handed compliment, “If, however, the grotesque and a perpetual sense of doom sound oddly appealing — you have most likely just found the perfect book for you!” In the magazine’s review section, it gets a B+.
In the Media
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, Naomi Klein, (S&S; S&S Audio), OverDrive Sample
Social activist Klein, author of the anti-globalization manifesto, No Logo, has been a favorite with the media. Her new book takes on climate change and will get the Colbert bump on 9/23. She is also scheduled to appear on HBO’s RealTime with Bill Maher, September 26.
Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David, Lawrence Wright, (RH/Knopf; BOT), OverDrive Sample
One of three titles on the cover of this week’s New York Times Book Review, Joel Klein says this “is a magnificent book with an unusual provenance. It began as a play called Camp David.” It’s also reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, which gives it an solid A.
The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan, Jenny Nordberg, (RH/Crown; RH Audio), OverDrive Sample
Will be featured on next week’s NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.
Tie-In
Raging Heat, Richard Castle, (Hachette/Disney; Hachette Audio)
Is it a tie-in, or a spin-off? On TV, Richard Castle, co-star of the ABC series, Castle, is a mystery writer. In the show, which begins its seventh season on Sept. 29th, he writes about a female NYC cop, Nikki Heat. In print, a team of writers is behind the pseudonym, “Richard Castle” whose books feature a female NYC cop, Nikki Heat. All five of the previous titles in the series have hit best seller lists, some at #1. This one has multiple holds in most libraries.