Titles to Know and Recommend,
Week of Aug 10
YouTube stars had their day at the recently wrapped VidCon. A surprising number of them have ventured in the the old media of books. Coming next week, internet star Felicia Day‘s memoir impresses booksellers, who made it one of their Indie Next picks.
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 Aug. 10, 2015
Holds Leaders
Silver Linings: A Rose Harbor Novel, Debbie Macomber, (RH/Ballantine)
Gaining advantage by being published in the midst of season three of the Hallmark series based on Macomber’s Cedar Cove novels starring Andie McDowell, this is the holds leader for the week.
Who Do You Love, Jennifer Weiner, (S&S/Atria)
Kirkus calls this one, “Weiner at her heartstring-tugging best.”
Devil’s Bridge, Linda Fairstein, (Penguin/Dutton)
Featured in a full-page ad in this week;s NYT Sunday Book Review, PW calls it subpar while Booklist says it is “Another solid title … sure to follow its predecessors onto the best-seller lists.”
Media Attention
The tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is coming soon and this week’s NYT Sunday Book Review marks it with a roundup featured on the cover, including Katrina: After the Flood, by Gary Rivlin, (S&S). Closer to the actual anniversary, the author is set to appear on MSNBC-TV/Hardball with Chris Matthews, August 21 and NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, August 27.
Rivlin presents five surprising facts about the storm in the following video.
Reaching further back in history, the Today Show’s Al Roker is publishing The Storm of the Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America’s Deadlest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900, (HarperCollins/Morrow).
Consumer Media Picks
Days of Awe, Lauren Fox, (RH/Knopf)
People “Book of the Week”, Aug 17:
“You can do everything right, yet when tragedy hits, ‘you’re staring at the moonscape that used to be your life.’ Isabel Moore learns this when her best friend, ‘the glorious roller-coaster that was Josie,’ dies on an icy highway. Iz has a loving husband and a good job, but suddenly she’s fact-to-face with dark truths about Josie and herself. As Fox deconstructs the myths of perfect womanhood, her humor and humanity remind us that love’s the only lifeboat through grief.” It’s also reviewed in this week’s NYT Sunday Book Review.
Peer Picks
In the Dark Places: An Inspector Banks Novel, Peter Robinson, (HarperCollins/Morrow)
“In the Dark Places, Robinson’s 22nd Inspector Banks novel, is still rich in the landscape and culture of Yorkshire. Still populated with characters moving through their lives, reacting to events, reaching for experiences, skills, relationships — and justice for victims. Still ingeniously plotted, challenging even the astute reader to keep up through the nerve-racking suspense. Still flush with the musicality of Robinson’s prose and with the love of music that is so much a part of Banks’ personality. And still shaping the story with local history and landmarks so that In the Dark Places, like each Banks novel before it, is unique, yet contributing to a remarkable portrait of modern Britain in all its insularity and diversity.” —Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen, Scottsdale, AZ
The Race for Paris, Meg Waite Clayton, (HarperCollins/Harper)
“The Race for Paris is an action-packed tale of courage, friendship, and love during the grim, final days of World War II. Clayton’s triumphant new novel brings to life the intrepid female journalists who sought to break the limits of the times. While soldiers faced the brutal reality of war, women had to also overcome sexism and legal obstacles simply to do their jobs. Based on real characters and events, The Race for Paris brings a unique perspective to a little-known aspect of history. Gather your book club and prepare for an intense conversation as these characters will haunt you long after you turn the final page!” —Pamela Klinger-Horn, Excelsior Bay Books, Excelsior, MN
Multiply/Divide: On the American Real and Surreal, Wendy S. Walters, (Sarabande Books)
“In Multiply/Divide, Walters sifts through the weird, quietly horrifying wreckage that structural racism has left behind in everyday American life and presents something like a mythology, but stranger because, of course, it is real, and we have never known life without it. Her prose is as clear as day, her stories are candid, and only a poet could have written a book of essays like this. City by city, over radio waves and under the street, Walters beautifully maps for us what should have been obvious: that nearly all of our heartbreak — and even our joy — is rooted in this mythology.” —Daniel Poppick, BookCourt, Brooklyn, NY
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir, Felicia Day, (S&S/Touchstone)
A YouTube star featured at this year’s VidCon, this memoir is also an Indie Next Pick:
“Day has penned what is sure to be an instant cult classic. By turns funny, insightful, inspiring, and all-too-familiar, she maps her rise from lonely homeschooled girl to internet darling, along the way revealing her struggles, her insecurities, her stubbornness, and, most transparently, her utterly relatable story of finding her way while not fitting in. For anyone who has woken up to realize they are not where they wanted to be, Day’s honest book is for you!” —Anna Eklund, University Book Store, Seattle, WA
For more on YouTube stars and their books, see our earlier story.
Tie-ins
it’s a big week for adaptations in theaters. Finally debuting today is Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places (reviews are not strong, however) as well as The Diary Of A Teenage Girl and an animated version of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.
Oddly, both of the movie tie-ins coming out next week are for films that don’t yet have a release date.
A Woman in Arabia : The Writings of the Queen of the Desert, Gertrude Bell, Georgina Howell, (Penguin Classics)
Called “the “female Lawrence of Arabia.” Gertrude Bell was a Middle East expert who lived with Bedouin tribes and helped the British army find their way in the desert during the World War I. This is the latest of several collections of Bell’s writings is published to coincide with Werner Herzog movie Queen of the Desert, starring Nicole Kidman as Bell with James Franco, Robert Pattinson and Damian Lewis. The U.S. release date has not yet been announced.
The Dressmaker, Rosalie Ham, (Penguin Books)
Called a “revenge comedy,” the movie stars Kate Winslet, Judy Davis and Liam Hemsworth. It is adapted from a best selling Australian novel which is getting its first U.S. release. The film’s U.S. release date has not yet been set, however.
For our full list of upcoming adaptations, see our Books to Movies and TV and our listing of tie-ins.