New Title Radar, Media Hits, Week of Oct. 28
Leading in holds for the books arriving next week are the first in a new trilogy by Nora Roberts, Dark Witch (Penguin/Berkley Trade pbk original; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike), Danielle Steel’s Winners, in which she takes a bit of a departure from glamorous lives, with the story of a young woman paralyzed in a freak skiing accident (she also releases a nonfiction title, Pure Joy: The Dogs We Love, both from RH/Delacorte) and Lisa Scottoline’s Accused (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio; Wheeler Large Print), which returns to her Rosato & Associates series after the release of three standalones.
Also coming this week are more titles in the flood of books on JFK, anticipating the 50th anniversary of his assassination, several titles that relate to Downton Abbey, and Christmas-themed additions to favorite series. For ordering information on all the titles highlighted here and many others, with alternate formats, download our spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Oct. 28.
Hot Memoir
Pat Conroy’s beloved 1976 novel The Great Santini, based on the author’s troubled relationship with his abusive father, also became a beloved movie starring Robert Duvall. Conroy updates the story in his memoir, The Death of Santini, (RH/Nan A. Talese; RH Audio, BOT; RH Large Print) which the Washington Post has already declared “luminous, unsparing.” The author would like to see a re-teaming of the actors from the previous movie and has offered them the film rights for free. The book is also a LibraryReads title for November.
Special Note
S., Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams, (Hachette/Mulholland; Hachette Audio)
Librarians on the listserv Fiction_L expressed dismay this week about having taken a chance on ordering this new book based on online buzz. Unfortunately, they were rewarded for their efforts to stay ahead of the curve with a physical book that includes loose inserts, plus a slipcase that, when removed, reveals a different title and author, and is made to look like a stolen library book, with cataloging labels and circulation stamps, all of which spells a processing nightmare.
Dorst is the author of the novel Alive in Necropolis, a finalist for the 2008 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, but the buzz surrounds his collaborator, Lost creator, J.J. Abrams. A mysterious trailer set fan sites abuzz in August. Some digging lead to a Huffington Post article revealing that it is actually a book trailer.
UPDATE: Abrams is profiled in the NYT Sunday Book Review. He says that he is inspired by Chris Ware’s work (whose book Building Stories, also presented a challenge for library processing). He describes the many layers of the book; “there is the novel itself (Ship of Theseus), which stands alone as its own story, and then there are the notes in the margins: a conversation and investigation and mystery and love story between two people, which is both connected to and separate from the central text.”
On the movie fan site, ComingSoon.net, last month, he described it further;
It’s a book that, when you get it, comes out of this sleeve and looks like an old library book. When you open it, you see that not only is it an old library book, it’s a novel and that people have written in the margins. You realize that it’s two people writing to each other and that the book was used as a means of communication between these two. It’s an investigation into this mystery and also a love story. Kind of a play on top of a book. There are these pieces of ephemera. Postcards and photographs and maps and letters and things that are actually physical in the book and actually come out.
Library Reads Picks
The Cartographer of No Man’s Land, P.S. Duffy, (Norton/Liveright)
First novelist P.S, Duffy was so delighted that her book was picked for the LibraryReads November list, that she sent a special note to librarians (Norton’s Library Marketing Manager Golda Rademacher notes that there are no more print ARCs, but you can still request digital ARCs):
I’m so proud that The Cartographer of No Man’s Land was chosen for the November LibraryReads program and so very grateful for the early support it’s received from librarians around the country. On a local level, were it not for the Canadian source materials I received through international interlibrary loan at the Rochester Pubic Library here in Minnesota, it would have been difficult to conduct the research needed to write Cartographer. But my gratitude extends back further—to childhood and the countless times I heard these words from a librarian: “Well, if you liked that book, you might like this one …” What power those recommendations had, matched only by the heady thump-thump as my books were stamped and I marched off with newfound treasure. Upon entering the massive Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore for the first time when I was eight, my father leaned down and repeated Mr. Pratt’s decree that the library would be for “rich and poor without distinction of race or color.” It was 1956, and those words meant a great deal. They still do. The stamps and card catalogues are gone. Keeping up with the times, there are computers, online services, the new “e-library,” and books in multiple formats. But librarians have not changed. They’re still there generating new and vibrant programs, encouraging readers, creating new ones—and recommending books. I’m not only proud, I am honored to be on their list.
Parasite, Mira Grant, (Hachette/Orbit
With this clever cover, Orbit proves once again that science fiction can be packaged in a whole new way. The LibraryRead annotation — “Mira Grant’s first outing after the completion of the Newsflesh Trilogy lives up to the standard entirely. What a creepily plausible look at the medical industry and scientific experimentation. I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the sequel to this one.” — Emily Hartman, Spring Lake District Library, Spring Lake, MI
IndieNext
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened, Allie Brosh, S&S/Touchstone
The #1 Indie Next pick for November:
“Brosh has been an Internet sensation for years with literally thousands of fans following her scribbled illustrations on her blog. She has won over readers and stalkers alike with her honest and stark humor and her fun stories and rants. This book takes readers into not just the fun and fuzzy world of candied cakes and dumb dogs, but also into the brutally honest self-evaluation and exploration of its unique author. Always balancing the serious with the silly, the dark with the ridiculous, Brosh says the things we wish we could, admits the things we’re ashamed of, and explores what we’re afraid of, always with color and humor and, ultimately, with hope. And don’t forget the scribbles!” —Jocelyn Shratter, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Media Magnets
Coreyography: A Memoir, Corey Feldman, Macmillan/St. Martin’s
Actor Feldman, who, along with best friend Corey Helm (who died from a drug overdose), were teen stars in the ’80’s, writes about sexual predators in Hollywood. It is, of course, making headlines. He is scheduled to appear Monday on Good Morning America, Piers Morgan Live and The View. In a starred review Publishers Weekly said, “[Feldman] narrates in a straightforward, conversational style that spares no details when it comes to darker subject material….The book doesn’t sugarcoat, exposing the dark sides of Hollywood and child stardom.”
What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life, Tim Conway, Jane Scovell, Carol Burnett, (S&S/Howard Books; Brilliance Audio; Throndike)
Unsurprisingly, the Carol Burnett Show‘s funnyman will be getting lots of media attention ~Parade Magazine, October 27; Today Show, October 28; NBC-TV, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, October 29; FOX TV – Fox & Friends October 29; Huckabee, November 1st.
Book trailer below,
The Embassy House, Morgan Jones with Damien Lewis, (S&S/Threshold; S&S Audio)
An embargoed eyewitness account of the Libyan siege, it will be featured on CBS-TV, 60 Minutes, October 27; CBS-TV, CBS This Morning, October 28; FOX-TV, Hannity, October 29; FOX-TV, Fox & Friends, October 31; CNN-TV, Erin Burnett Outfront, October 31