Titles to Know and Recommend, Week of October 24, 2016
The latest John Grisham thriller, The Whistler (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio/BOT), arrives this week. As a result, it’s a week avoided by most other big name authors. Even James Patterson has only one title arriving and it’s for kids, Middle School: Dog’s Best Friend (Hachette/jimmy patterson; Blackstone; OverDrive Sample), which hits shelves while the film adaptation of the first book is still in theaters. Grisham will appear on the upcoming CBS Sunday Morning and, on the day of publication, on CBS This Morning.
Grisham hasn’t scared off Iris Johansen, publishing the fourth in her Kendra Michaels series, Night Watch (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; OverDrive Sample), or the queen of Christian fiction, Karen Kingsbury, releasing another Christmas novel, A Baxter Family Christmas (S&S/Howard Books; S&S; OverDrive Sample).
In picture books, Nanette’s Baguette by the Caldecott-honor recipient Mo Willems (Hachette/Disney-Hyperion), is set in a French village, where a young frog is entrusted with buying bread for her mother for the first time. Expect a host of rhymes on the title, of course.
In kids graphic novels, Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) takes on an iconic superhero in Iron Man: The Gauntlet (Hachette/Marvel Press; OverDrive Sample), part of Marvel’s series that enlists well-known children’s authors to create books based on their characters. Kirkus says Colfer “successfully captures the vulnerability and infuriatingly seductive arrogance of Stark, who polices the world to atone for his father’s sins. Ideal for readers who are breathlessly awaiting the next film in the Marvel superhero franchise.”
These titles, and those highlighted below, along with other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Oct. 24.
Media Attention
Wild And Precious Life, Deborah Ziegler (S&S/Atria/Emily Bestler Books; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).
When Brittany Maynard, who was suffering from terminal brain cancer, wrote an op/ed piece in 2014 titled “My right to death with dignity at 29,” the story was heavily covered by the news media. It was just announced that her husband is working with a film company on a movie about her life. Her mother is publishing a book next week, and was interviewed by Katie Couric on Yahoo News. The author is also scheduled to appear on CBS Inside Edition on Oct. 31.
Not Dead Yet, Phil Collins (PRH/Crown/Archetype; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).
The musician will be profiled on the upcoming CBS Sunday Morning. He is also set for appearances next week on The View, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Daily Show w/ Trevor Noah as well as on NPR’s All Things Considered (date not yet set).
A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life, Pat Conroy (PRH/ Nan A. Talese; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).
A collection of pieces by the author who died earlier this year, it is a Parade Pick, with an online excerpt.
Fall Cookbooks
It’s the big cookbook season and several titles featured in the “Best of the Rest” addendum to the NYT‘s The Best Cookbooks of Fall 2016 arrive. Ina Garten will receive media attention for Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (RH/Clarkson Potter; OverDrive Sample) including appearances on the Today Show and even Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Anthony Bourdain releases his first cookbook in over ten years, Appetites (HC/Ecco) and Dorie Greenspan turns her attention to a deceptively simple delicacy in Dorie’s Cookies (HMH/Rux Martin; OverDrive Sample).
French Country Cooking: Meals and Moments from a Village in the Vineyards, Mimi Thorisson (PRH/Clarkson Potter; OverDrive Sample).
Popular food blogger Mimi Thorisson lived out many people’s fantasies by restoring a large house in the French countryside and creating a life that allows Thorisson and her husband to pursue their passions, hers for cooking, his for photography and their shared passion for restoring old houses. This book, which follows last year’s A Kitchen in France, is as much a travel book as a cookbook, will be featured in the NYT Travel section. She has already been profiled in the Wall Street Journal [subscription maybe required].
Peer Picks
After last week’s many titles, comes a quieter period with only four peer picks forthcoming, all of them Indie Next selections for November.
The Terranauts, T.C. Boyle (HC/Ecco; Harper Audio).
“In the early 1990s, a grand experiment began in the Arizona desert to determine if human life could be sustained in an engineered, sealed ecological system. The mission failed spectacularly, but fiction gives it another chance in this riveting story of eight scientists who commit to live under glass for two years. They battle hunger, fatigue, and isolation, but the real drama is personal. The story is told through the voices of three distinct narrators — two heating things up on the inside and one nursing resentments outside the glass walls. Master storyteller Boyle entertains, but never slips into schlock. He writes with wit and perspicacity on both human relations and ecology, and this novel is among his best.” —Sharon Flesher, Brilliant Books, Traverse City, MI
Additional Buzz: It is a Fall Reading choice from the Amazon Editors, io9, New York Magazine, and WSJ. The Washington Post compares the novel to the actual Biosphere 2 experiment and BuzzFeed includes it among the “24 Brilliant Books You Must Read This Autumn.” Boyle stops by The New Yorker Radio Hour to “pick three” things he is interested in right now – a musician, a YouTube series, and the book Winter World by Bernd Heinrich.
You Will Not Have My Hate, Antoine Leiris (PRH/Penguin; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).
“This slender tome began as a social media viral sensation. Shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, a husband and father wrote an open letter to the perpetrators of those attacks, stating time and again that they would not have his hate, despite the fact that he lost his wife and the mother of their infant son. This memoir closely follows the hours after the attack, chronicling Leiris’ thoughts and emotions for the next several days up through the funeral for his wife. Though brief, this is a powerful meditation on grief and resilience and the importance of building a legacy of forgiveness for his son.” —Emily Crowe, Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA
Additional Buzz: Elle picked it as a Fall Reading choice, calling it a “bracing, courageous, and utterly beautiful book.” The Guardian calls it a book of “exceptional grace.” Vogue offers an excerpt.
The Education of Dixie Dupree, Donna Everhart (PRH/Kensington; Tantor; OverDrive Sample).
“This debut novel is a page-turner from the very beginning. In a story of a family filled with pain, deceit, lies, and dark secrets across generations, Everhart allows readers to feel everything her young narrator, Dixie, must endure. For me, the mark of a good book is that I find myself thinking about it after I have finished reading, and The Education of Dixie Dupree will be with me for a long while.” —Mary O’Malley, Anderson’s Bookshop, Naperville, IL
Additional Buzz: Bustle counts it as one of their “21 Novels By Women To Add To Your TBR Pile This Fall.”
Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live, Peter Orner (Catapult).
“From beloved novelist and short-story writer Peter Orner comes a collection of essays on the reading life. Orner considers Chekhov in a hospital cafeteria, Welty on a remote island. He also throws Julian Barnes out the window of a moving car — after all, who would trust a man who only talked about what he loved? Behind and around and between these meditations flit the ghosts of the author’s life: his late father, his lost marriage, his self-deprecating take on his own career. The result is a book overflowing with charm — wry, delectable, and laugh-out-loud funny. Orner is a writer’s writer, but he is also a reader’s reader. Am I Alone Here? is an absolute treasure.” —Mairead Staid, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI
Tie-ins
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, Stephen King (S&S/Pocket Books; OverDrive Sample), a tie-in edition for the upcoming film, hits shelves this week.
Nikolaj Arcel directs the adaptation of Stephen King’s epic dark fantasy series, which stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.
The film opens on February 17, 2017. As of yet, there is no preview or official film poster. There is, however, a great deal of buzz. See our additional coverage here, here, and here.
A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life, James Bowen (Macmillan/A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin’s Griffin; OverDrive Sample) is the tie-in edition for the film adaptation of the same name.
The story follows a homeless man who adopts a street cat. In turn, the cat helps him turn his life around. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Bob the cat along with Luke Treadaway, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey), and Anthony Head, it opens Nov. 11, 2016.
For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.