It seems that Michael Lewis is everywhere. His new book, coming next week, Boomerang; Travels in the New Third World, (Norton, 10/3; S&S Audio), on the global financial crisis, gets strong praise today from Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times; “Michael Lewis possesses the rare storyteller’s ability to make virtually any subject both lucid and compelling.”

The movie based on his book about the Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, Moneyball, is number 2 at the box office, right after another surprise success, the 3-D rerelease of the 17-year-old Lion King  (get ready; now Star Wars, Top Gun and Titanic are all slated for 3-D rereleases).

Last year, the film of Lewis’s The Blind Side, (Norton, 2006) was also a success. Sensing a winner, Hollywood is now giving Lewis the opportunity to write the script for the long-dormant adaptation of his first book, the best-selling Liar’s Poker (Norton, 1989) about his time working as a bond trader at Salomon Brothers.

Also in development is an adaptation of Lewis’s best seller on the U.S. fiscal crisis, The Big Short (Norton, 2010), with Brad Pitt’s company producing.

Moneyball, the movie is quite different from the book. Entertainment Weekly urges “Love the movie? Read the book” and the L.A. Times offers a guide to how the film differs from real life.

Back in July, independent booksellers predicted that The Night Circus would be bigger, in terms of sales, than either The Help or The Da Vinci Code.

The new Indie Best Seller list indicates that they have been working to fulfill that prophecy; The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 9/13; Audio, RH Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print,Center Point), debuts at #1 in its first week on sale. But the indies aren’t the only ones selling it, we hear it will appear at #2 on the 10/2 New York Times list.

As a result, the other debuts have moved down one notch on the Indie list:

Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive; LT in Dec. from Thorndike) — showing great staying power for a debut as we move into the fall season, this one is at #6 after 8 weeks.

The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, (8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike) – #8, down from #7 after 4 weeks.

We The Animals, Justin Torres. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Blackstone Audio) — #10, moving down from #9 last week.

The Submission, Amy Waldman, (FSG; Audio, AudioGo; Large Type, Thorndike)  — falls off the list after appearing at  #14  last week.

Winning this fall’s Big First Novel Sweepstakes so far is The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, (Little, Brown; Hachette Large Print), a book we’ve been writing about since it was introduced at BEA. It rises to #3 on the 9/15 Indie Bestseller list, from #15 last week, its first week on sale. We hear it will  arrive at #6 on the 9/25 NYT list, coming out later today (the list dates are confusing, but both cover virtually the same time period).

The spoiler on next week’s lists could be The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 9/13; Audio, RH Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print, Center Point), published this week after much fanfare. It’s outselling the other big debuts on both Amazon and B&N.com. Holds are growing in libraries and are heavy where ordering is light.

Below are the rankings for the rest of the titles on the new Indie Fiction List, with links to our coverage:

Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive; LT in Dec. from Thorndike) — #5 after 7 weeks; technically this is not a fall title, since it came out the end of July, but it’s keeping some of the other titles out of the top 5. Libraries report that holds picked up after it was an Early Show on Saturday Morning book club pick.

The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, (8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike) — #7, down from #6 after 3 weeks; EarlyWord‘s coverage

We The Animals, Justin Torres. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Blackstone Audio) — #9, moving up from #14 last week; on our Watch List for the week of 9/5

The Submission, Amy Waldman, (FSG; Audio, AudioGo; Large Type, Thorndike)  — #13, first week; THE SUBMISSION — Michiko Likes It!

Vanessa Diffenbaugh, whose first novel, The Language of Flowers is at #6 on the the Indie Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list and debuted at #13 on the 9/18 NYT list, got a hearty new endorsement for her book in the form of a movie deal, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In a statement, the producers say,”Great characters make great movies and these are the most vivid and compelling women we have read in a long, long time.”

The book has been published in several other countries (the Australian cover is at the left, above and the British one at the right. The words on the cover, which don’t appear on the U.S. edition, are “Anyone can grow into something beautiful”). It has reached #1 on best seller lists in Italy and #5 in the U.K.

The novel explores the difficulty many foster children have in forming relationships. Diffenbaugh, who has raised foster children of her own, used her $1 million book advance, to set up the Camellia Network (in the language of flowers, camellias stand for “my destiny in in your hands”). Among other activities, the network asks book clubs to help raise money for the organization, with the opportunity to win a call-in or personal visit from the author.

The daily NYT is uncharacteristically late to the party in reviewing Ballantine’s big debut novel, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh,(8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike).

Janet Maslin’s review drips with sarcasm about the book’s potential for book clubs, which sounds curiously familiar:

The Language of Flowers, review by Janet Maslin, 9/8/11 — “Ballantine is surely well aware that there are book clubs that have theme parties based on a literary work’s ambience. In this case the festive possibilities are mind boggling.”

The Help, review by Janet Maslin, 2/18/09 — “Book groups armed with hankies will talk and talk about [the maids] quiet bravery and the outrageous insults dished out by their vain, racist employers.”

Despite her many reservations about The Help, Maslin rightly predicted that Kathryn Stockett’s “button-pushing book” would be “wildly popular.”

Maslin doesn’t make predictions for the popularity of The Language of Flowers, but it’s already showing signs of success. It moves up the Indie Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list today to #6, from #11 last week (we also hear it debuts at #13 on the 9/18 NYT list).

The Help arrived on the Indie list at #15 the week of its publication; it took six weeks for it to reach #5. It was a much slower journey on the NYT  list, taking 24 weeks before it climbed to #5.

Ballantine is publishing a companion to Diffenbaugh’s novel, a dictionary of flowers, which many libraries have not ordered.

A Victorian Flower Dictionary: The Language of Flowers Companion Mandy Kirkby Retail Price: $22.00 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2011-09-20) ISBN / EAN: 0345532864 / 9780345532862

In the category of memorable titles, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller’s 2001 memoir of growing up during the civil war in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, has to be on the top ten. The book features Fuller’s equally memorable mother, who objected that the book (“that Awful Book” as she calls it) gives the impression she’s an alchololic and a racist. Fuller responded, “But Mother, you are!” It went on to become a bestseller.

Fuller expands the story in a new memoir with another remarkable title, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgiveness, (Penguin, 8/23; Large Print, Thorndike; Audio, Recorded Books) which debuted at #4 on last week’s Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers list and at #7 on the NYT list. In the NYT BR on Sunday, Dominque Browning (author of the memoir, Slow Love) says that Fuller’s mother who dominates this book, is “hilarious, creative, opinionated, ribald and tragic,” but the story that best captures the book’s appeal appears in The Huffington Post. Fuller was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition last month.

It is showing heavy holds in many libraries.

Holds are also heavy on Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Random House Trade Pbk, Audio, Recorded Books; Center Point Large Print, 9781611731125; epub on OverDrive).

The first major debut of the season, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, (Ballantine/RH, 8/23; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape and OverDrive; Large Print, Thorndike), hit the 9/1 Indie Hardcover Fiction list at #11. It’s also on the forthcoming 9/11 (yes, that is the date) NYT Print Fiction Hardcover list, but further down, at #19.

As we wrote last week, consumer reviews, while mixed, gave hints that it will be a hit.

Library holds are growing.

Also on the Indie list is Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton; Penguin Audio; Thorndike Large Print; audio & eBook, OverDrive), the first in the Danish bestselling author’s Department Q crime fiction series and the first of his books to be published in the US. It arrives at #9 and at #30 on the NYT list. PW gave this this one a starred review, saying “Stieg Larsson fans will be delighted.” Library holds are light so far.

Showing an even greater discrepency, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive) has been #4 on the Indie list for 4 weeks, but is at #17 on the NYT. Reviews have been strong. The San Francisco Chronicle best captures the book’s appeal, “Even the most jaded New Yorker can see the beauty in Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility, the antiqued portrait of an unlikely jet set making the most of Manhattan.”

Libraries are showing heavy holds.

The debut novel, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (Viking, 7/26;  Books on Tape; Penguin Audio; audio on OverDrive), arrives on the 8/14 NYT Print Fiction best seller list at #16 (it’s tied with #15, so it’s on the main list rather than the extended).

Reviews have been strong. The San Francisco Chronicle captures the book’s appeal, “Even the most jaded New Yorker can see the beauty in Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility, the antiqued portrait of an unlikely jet set making the most of Manhattan.”

Libraries are still showing heavy holds on all formats of Laura Hillenbrand’s best selling Unbroken (Random House). It has been doing so well in hardcover, that the publisher has postponed the paperback reprint indefinitely, reports USA Today.

The traditional time for issuing reprints is a year after publication (which would be November for Unbroken), but publishers are rethinking those schedules. Just last week, the NYT reported that some titles are actually being released in paperback earlier.

Audio:  Books on Tape;  Random House Audio; Random House Large Print; Audio and ebook vailable on OverDrive.

Word of mouth is growing for S.J. Watson’s debut psychological thriller about a woman trying to piece together her life after losing her memory. Before I Go To Sleep (Harper. 6/14; HarperLuxe, 9780062060556) debuts on the 7/31 NYT Hardcover Fiction list at #7 (it’s been on the Extended list for four weeks). Libraries are showing heavy holds.

John Hart achieves new heights with Iron House  (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s St. Martins, 7/12; Macmillan Audio; Large print, Thorndike), which arrives on the list at #10 in its first week of publication.

The heavily promoted and well-reviewed The Last Werewolf  by Glen Duncan (Knopf, 7/12) just makes the Extended List at #32 in its first week. Word of mouth may yet work its magic on this one.

A Dance With Dragons, by George R. R. Martin. (Bantam, $35; RH Audio and BOT Audio) debuts at #1, proving that the fantasy category is stronger than many realized. The first in the series, Games of Thrones is #1 on Mass Market Fiction list and #6 on Trade Fiction, due to the HBO series.

Coming to theaters on August 12 is the adaptation of the mega-best seller, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Einhorn/Penguin). Below are a behind-the-scenes video, the trailer and the tie-in, which releases tomorrow.

Behind the scenes:

The trailer:

The tie-in:

The Help (Movie Tie-In) Kathryn Stockett Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 544 pages Publisher: Berkley Trade – (2011-06-28) ISBN / EAN: 0425245136 / 9780425245132

The poster girl for self-publishing, Amanda Hocking (her ten YA urban fantasy and paranormal romances have grossed around $2 million since she began publishing them through Amazon’s CreateSpace last year), was profiled in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.

But she recently abandoned her self-pubbed status for a major deal with St. Martin’s. Why? She tells the NYT Magazine that she wants “…to reach as many people as possible among the 85 percent or so of the population who don’t have e-readers yet. For me to be a billion-dollar author…I need to have people buying my books at Wal-Mart.” Also, there is a concern that major retailers will not want to stock books published by their competitor, Amazon.

St. Martin’s will publish Hocking’s Trylle trilogy (already in paperback by CreateSpace and on Kindle) in August, 2012. The original Watersong series begins Fall 2012.

Trylle trilogy

Switched 9781250006318; January 8, 2012 (currently available from CreateSpace, pbk, July 5, 2010; 9781453688939)

Torn 978125000632; February , 2012 (currently available from CreateSpace, pbk, Nov. 15, 2010, 2010; 9781456355791)

Ascend 9781250006332; April 2012 (currently available from CreateSpace, pbk, Jan. 11 2011, 2010; 9781456541286)

Watersong (exact pub dates not set for later titles in the series)

Wake 9781250008121; August 2012

Lullaby 9781250008107; (Fall 2012)

Tidal 9781250005663 (Winter 2013)

Elegy 9781250005670 (Spring/Summer 2013)

Yesterday, Amazon announced that another self-published author, John Locke, has joined their “Kindle Million Club,” for authors who have sold over 1 million paid copies in the Kindle Store. The author of mysteries and westerns, Locke publishes his paperbacks through self-publisher Telemachus Press and uses Kindle Direct Publishing for his ebooks.

If Amazon authors choose to do so, they can make their eBooks available to libraries through OverDrive; but neither Hocking nor Locke are listed on OverDrive’s database.

After publishing 9 books in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series as original mass market paperbacks, Berkley decided to release the tenth title in the series, Kiss of Snow, in hardcover. The gamble has paid off; the book landed at #9 on the 6/19 NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list.

It received a starred review from Booklist ; “Singh proves she’s the alpha author of paranormal romance… Even readers who have not previously followed the series will be thrilled with Singh’s tale.”

We can’t help being amused by the difference between the American and British covers (American on the left, if you hadn’t guessed already).

Congratulations to Lisa See; her book Dreams of Joy debuted on the 6/19 NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list at #1. It is the sequel to Shanghai Girls, which was on the NYT list in paperback for 23 weeks, reaching a high of #22.

It’s quite a summer for See; the movie based on her novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, directed by Wayne Wan, opens July 15.

Movie tie-in:

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel (Random House Movie Tie-In Books) Lisa See Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks – (2011-05-31) ISBN / EAN: 0812982711 / 9780812982718

Two books we issued Heavy Holds Alerts for recently are now official USA Today best sellers and headed for the NYT lists.

Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts, enters the list at #12, indicating it will land in the top five on the upcoming NYT nonfiction list (dated 5/29). As USA Today notes in the Book Buzz column, this is the highest position yet for the author on their list.

Jo Nesbo’s The Snowman, considered a leading contender for the Stieg Larsson mantle, enters the USA Today list at #51; expect to see it in the NYT fiction top ten (just below the last in the Larsson trilogy).

Back in September of 2008, we issued a Heavy Holds Alert for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The next week, it hit the USA Today list, but a bit higher, at #34, proving yet again that library hold patterns are predictors of success.