Ten Titles to Know and Recommend,
the Week of June 15
Amazingly, the holds leader for the week is not E. L. James’s Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian, (RH/Vintage original trade pbk) but Danielle Steel’s Country (RH.Delacorte; Brilliance Audio; RH Large Print) with Grey a close second. A more distant third is Elin Hilderbrand’s The Rumor (Hachette/Little, Brown), also a LibraryReads pick. Further down the list is Brad Meltzer’s The President’s Shadow (Hachette/Grand Central) and Jackie Collins’s The Santangelos (Macmillan/St. Martin’s),
The media will be busy with books by media personalities Judd Apatow and Aziz Ansari and several peer recommendations will make you an R.A. guru.
The titles covered here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed, with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of 6:15:15
Peer Picks
Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship, Robert Kurson, (Random House)
Both an Indie Next and a LibraryReads pick, it gets chilly shoulder from the Janet Maslin in today’s NYT. Comparing it unfavorably to the author’s earlier Shadow Divers, she goes so far as to say that the best pages of this book are the ones that summarize the previous one.
But our peers have no such issues with it. Indie Next recommendation:
“Kurson, the author of Shadow Divers, follows a team of treasure hunters on their quest for the ultimate bounty of the oceans — a sunken pirate ship from the Golden Age of Piracy — as they race against the clock of international legislation and rival hunters. It quickly becomes clear that these are men who share more than a little in common with the pirates for whom they search. Pirate Hunters reminds us that the daring and romance of piracy’s heroes was good cause to inspire centuries of boyhood daydreams, which are still alive and well today.” —Sara Hinckley, Hudson Booksellers, Marietta, GA
The Precipice, Paul Doiron, (Macmillan/Minotaur)
“When two women go missing while hiking a difficult part of the Appalachian Trail, Maine game warden Mike Bowditch helps in trying to determine where the women were last seen. Mike then discovers there is no shortage of people whose behaviors make them suspicious. With a puzzle that keeps the reader guessing, and a main character that you can’t help but empathize with, The Precipice is another home run for Doiron.” — Lora Bruggeman, Indian Prairie Public Library, Darien, IL
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Fredrik Backman, (S&S/Atria)
“From the author of one my favorite books of last year, A Man Called Ove, this book packs a similar emotional punch at the end, but has some significant differences. It is told from the point of view of Elsa, a seven-year-old child who loves Harry Potter, fairy tales, and her grandmother. Once I stopped trying to make the story fit my adult view of the world and entered into Elsa’s world, I had a whale of a time.” — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC
The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins, (RH/Crown)
“Mindblowing, outrageous, and visionary, this is without question the best fantasy I have read in many moons! Hawkins has penned a tale that both opens the reader up to new perceptions of the universe, its creation, and ascendency, and gives the adage ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ an entirely singular meaning. He has imagined characters who are simultaneously loveable and despicable and presents them in a way that is both terrifying and darkly funny. Whether or not fantasy is your genre of choice, The Library at Mount Char will amaze you!” —Lynn Riggs, Books & Company, Oconomowoc, WI
Upcoming Media Attention
Sick in the Head : Conversations About Life and Comedy, Judd Apatow, (Random House)
NYT Summer Picks, Maslin, 5/21/15, http://nyti.ms/1FqT4An
A collection of interviews with comedians that Judd Apatow, the producer of Lena Dunham’s show Girls, began doing when he was in high school, in turn it is generating interviews:
NPR/Fresh Air—6/15
Comedy Central/Daily Show with Jon Stewart—6/15
PBS/Charlie Rose—6/16
NPR/Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal—6/22
NPR/Weekend All Things Considered—TBA
Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg, (Penguin Press)
Ansari, a hit at Book Con, is primed for his upcoming appearances;
06/16 ABC Good Morning America
06/24 TBS Conan
At the Movies
The hit of this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, adapted from the book by Jesse Andrews (Abrams, 2012). Arriving in theaters today, it’s getting strong advance reviews.
Official Site: meandearlmovie.com
A “revised edition” of the audio is narrated by two of the movie’s stars:
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Revised Edition)
By: Jesse Andrews
Narrator: Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler and others
Listening Library
Grades: 9-12
6 Hours and 8 Minutes
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Movie Tie-in Edition)
Jesse Andrews
ABRAMS/Amulet Paperbacks: June 9, 2015
9781419719462, 1419719467
Trade Paperback, $9.95 USD, $11.95 CAD