Titles to Know and Recommend, Week of September 19, 2016
Both of the week’s holds leaders are by authors returning to popular series after a pause.
Harlan Coben again features sports agent Myron Bolitar in Home, (PRH/Dutton; Brilliance Audio; RH Large Type; OverDrive Sample) which gets a 2-page ad in this week’s NYT BR. Bolitar’s last outing as the main character was in 2011’s Live Wire,
After two standalone, Karin Slaughter returns to Will Trent, agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, in Kept Woman, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe) which gets a starred review from Booklist. It is also a an Indie Next bookseller pick (see “Peer Picks” below).
Library ordering is low for Atlas Obscura (Workman; OverDrive Sample). So far, holds are also minimal, but in this case we think you should ignore holds. This title is sure to do well from the new book shelves and is likely to pick up media attention. Entertainment Weekly features it on their “Must List” at #3, writing,”In this gorgeous collection, the celebrated Atlas Obscura website is condensed into 480 pages of awe-inspiring destinations. For lovers of history and exploration, the striking color photographs will spark immediate wanderlust.”
The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar Week Of Sept 19, 2016.
Media Attention
A Truck Full of Money: One Man’s Quest to Recover from Great Success, Tracy Kidder, (PRH/Random House; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample)
The author writes that this book about the founder of the travel site Kayak.com is “a sequel of sorts” to his 1981 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Soul of the New Machine. Jennifer Senior questions that in her advance review in Monday’s NYT, but says it is actually more fascinating as a portrayal of a man with bipolar disease. Of course, with Kidder’s reputation, it will receive more media attention, including reviews in the Washington Post and the Sunday New York Times Book Review.
Believing in Magic: My Story of Love, Overcoming Adversity, and Keeping the Faith, Cookie Johnson, Denene Millner (S&S/Howard Books; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample)
It’s been 25 years since Magic Johnson revealed that he is HIV-positive. The British tabloid, the Daily Mail got its hands on this embargoed memoir by his wife and blares, “EXCLUSIVE: Wife reveals the night basketball superstar Magic Johnson locked himself in a room after HIV diagnosis to call his ex-lovers because he always had unprotected sex.” The author is scheduled to be interviewed next week by Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, on The View, and Nightline.
Peer Picks
Four LibraryReads selections arrive this week.
Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, Patrick Phillips (W. W. Norton; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).
“Phillips digs into the history of a series of events in his hometown in Georgia. After a series of crimes were blamed on some of the area’s young black men, the citizens of the town saw fit to run off the entire African American population. Phillips researches the crimes and the mob mentality that followed, and shows how certain citizens of Forsyth County continued to intimidate and assault African Americans who wandered across their border for almost eighty years. This is the type of history that is far too important ever to forget.” — Amy Hall, Jefferson County Public Library, Wheat Ridge, CO
Additional Buzz: An early NYT review calls it an “involving” work of “moral force.” Starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly. Yesterday it was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air.
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d, Alan Bradley (RH/Delacorte Press; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).
“Flavia deLuce has returned from Canada to find her father in the hospital and her sisters distant. When she is sent to deliver a message for the vicar’s wife, she steps into another mystery – one she is determined to solve, preferably before Inspector Hewitt can do the same. Flavia is once again a fun, science-loving protagonist. Flavia arrives at a turning point in her life and how she handles what happens next will tell much about the path that she will take into adulthood. This series entry ends on a note that begs for the next story.” — Chris Andersen, Stow Munroe Falls Public Library, Stow, OH
Additional Buzz: The eighth Flavia De Luce mystery is one of the Amazon’s Editors Fall Reading picks.
The Bookshop on the Corner, Jenny Colgan (HC/William Morrow; HC Audio; OverDrive Sample).
“Despite losing her job as a librarian who liked to put the right book into a patron’s hands, Nina continues her mission by moving to rural Scotland, purchasing a van, converting it into a bookmobile, and taking to the road. The plot revolves around the romance of the road, the romance of books and reading, and just plain old romance. Another marvelous book by Colgan! A gem of a book!” — Virginia Holsten, Vinton Public Library, Vinton, IA
Additional Buzz: Calling it a “a sweet read for all bibliophiles,” PopSugar picked it as one of “The 25 Books You’re Going to Want to Curl Up With This Fall.”
Daisy in Chains, Sharon Bolton (Macmillan/Minotaur Books; OverDrive Sample).
“Another great book from Bolton! Convicted serial killer Hamish Wolfe has proclaimed his innocence from the beginning and has solicited the help of lawyer Maggie Rose who is known for her ability to get convictions overturned. The story unfolds in alternating chapters from the past to the present and keeps readers on the edge of their seats with a twist you won’t see coming! Highly recommended!” — Karen Zeibak, Wilton Library Association, Wilton, CT
There are five Indie Next picks coming out this week.
The Wonder, Emma Donoghue (Hachette/Little, Brown and Company; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample).
“Lib Wright, a protégé of Florence Nightingale and a nursing veteran of the Crimean War, is dispatched from London to a remote Irish village to keep watch on Anna O’Donnell, a young girl who is rumored to have refrained from eating for four months yet continues to thrive. Miracle or hoax? Lib is determined to uncover the truth, but the truth is never simple. In this beautiful, haunting novel, Donoghue weaves a tale of misguided faith and duty, exploited innocence, and redemptive love. What is the secret behind Anna’s mysterious ability to survive? The truth is uncovered as The Wonder propels readers to a shocking conclusion.” — Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, CO
Additional Buzz: Starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Fall Reading selections by New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Amazon’s Editors, and USA Today. A new review in The New Yorker called Donoghue “a writer of great vitality and generosity.”
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill, Candice Millard (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio/BOT).
“No one was more certain that he was destined for greatness than Winston Churchill and he let nothing deter or discourage him from achieving that goal. The young Churchill saw his path to prominence and power through fearless exploits in the British Army and as a war correspondent. England’s brutal war with the Boer rebels in southern Africa would prove to be his crucible. Millard’s exciting chronicle of Churchill’s experiences there, both daring and humbling, is a fitting tribute to a man whose early dreams of glory proved to be a self-fulfilling prophesy.” — Alden Graves, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT
Additional Buzz: Starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Library Journal. Fall Reading: Amazon’s Editors, WSJ, and USA Today. The Wall Street Journal offers an interview and an excerpt. (subscription may be required). Reviews are upcoming from the Washington Post, the daily New York Times and USA Today.
The Kept Woman, Karin Slaughter (HC/William Morrow; Blackstone Audio).
“The Kept Woman features Georgia detective Will Trent in a compelling mystery involving a superstar sports figure, his wife, and a rape. The athlete had already been cleared of the rape allegations when a dead man is found in a building he is making into a high-end club with other wealthy investors. At the scene, blood is found that doesn’t match that of the dead man, indicating that there is a second victim — a woman — in dire trouble. Another suspenseful tour de force from Slaughter.” —Barbara Kelly, Kelly’s Books To Go, South Portland, ME
Additional Buzz: Fall Reading: Amazon’s Editors. PopSugar suggested it as one of “13 Books to Binge On Before the Girl on the Train Movie,” saying it drips with “psychological thrill” and “is a risqué dive into the fallacies of police procedures.”
Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . . . and Why, Sady Doyle (PRH/Melville House; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).
“At its best, pop culture criticism forces us to reconsider a familiar product by placing it in a new context and, in doing so, imbuing it with new meaning. Trainwreck is just that. Doyle effectively and entertainingly litigates her case: that Western culture’s fascination with ‘fallen’ female starlets — aka trainwrecks — is simply a modern form of the patriarchal silencing and marginalization of women that has been going for centuries. With sly humor and lively prose, Doyle systematically punches through all the familiar straw-man arguments and convincingly illustrates that the ‘harmless fun’ of Internet clickbait and TMZ gossip are merely modern forms of public shaming. A must-read.” — Matt Nixon, The Booksellers at Laurelwood, Memphis, TN
Additional Buzz: Fall Reading: Amazon’s Editors. New York Times Book Review, 9/25.
Reputations, Juan Gabriel Vásquez (PRH/Riverhead Books; OverDrive Sample).
“With direct and forceful narrative and a translation as smooth and peaceful as the quiet narrator himself, this book takes the reader on a days-long search for the past and the present in modern day Bogotá. A prominent political cartoonist is shaken when a forgotten uncertainty from the past resurfaces. This psychological study of the concept that what we believe makes us who we are is a masterpiece!” — Nicole Magistro, The Bookworm of Edwards, Edwards, CO
Tie-ins
Only one tie-in this week but it is a big one, the 
Inferno (Movie Tie-in Edition), Dan Brown (PRH/Anchor; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample; also in Mass Market and Spanish Language; OverDrive Sample).
The movie opens on October 28th. As we pointed out when the trailer ran during the Olympics, causing the book to jump on Amazon, the novel spent five straight weeks at #1 on the NYT hardcover bestseller list and an additional 13 weeks in the top five. It’s the fourth of the Robert Langdon novels but the third film adaptation, after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.
Ron Howard again directs, with Tom Hanks starring as Langdon, a Harvard symbologist constantly embroiled in trouble. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Rogue One), Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi), Omar Sy (The Intouchables), and Ben Foster (Lone Survivor) also join the cast. David Koepp (Indiana Jones/Crystal Skull, Angels & Demons, Jurassic Park) wrote the screenplay.
For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.