Critics have gotten a look the first episodes of HBO’s new series, Boardwalk Empire, based on the book by Nelson Johnson about Atlantic City during Prohibition (and, appropriately, published by a  New Jersey publisher, Plexus Publishing). The reaction, according to the Washington Post, is a “love fest.”

The series begins September 19, with a season of twelve episodes.

Based on this trailer, there may be a new catch phrase in the making.

Official Web site: HBO.com/Boardwalk-Empire

Based on: Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, Nelson Johnson

Tie-in:

Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City Nelson Johnson Retail Price: $17.95 Paperback: 296 pages Publisher: Plexus Publishing, Inc. – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0966674855 / 9780966674859

Fans can stop holding their breath; HBO confirmed that A Game of Thrones, based on the first book in George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, will debut this coming spring, according to several sources, including USA Today and the LA Times.

Below is a teaser:

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A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) George R.R. Martin Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 704 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2002-05) ISBN / EAN: 0553103547 / 9780553103540

Colbert tells Laura Ingraham that The Obama Diaries contains the most “hideous, hackneyed racial stereotypes…”

On The Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart introduced the author of Packing for Mars as “the hilarious Mary Roach” and her book rose to #41 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Warning: most of the episode deals with the problems of disposing of fecal material in space.

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Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Mary Roach Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 334 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2010-08-02) ISBN / EAN: 0393068471 / 9780393068474

Brilliance Audio:

• CD, $99.97; ISBN 9781441876638
• Playaway, $74.99; ISBN 9781441878960
• MP3, $39.97; ISBN 9781441876652

Monday

When Stewart introduced Mary Roach at the BEA Breakfast in May, he clearly felt she was the outsider in a panel that featured John Grisham and Condolezza Rice (watch the C-Span video here; 31:14 minutes in). Roach proceeded to crack Stewart up. Guess which of the three panelists is appearing on his show?

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Mary Roach Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 334 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2010-08-02) ISBN / EAN: 0393068471 / 9780393068474

Brilliance Audio:

• CD, $99.97; ISBN 9781441876638
• Playaway, $74.99; ISBN 9781441878960
• MP3, $39.97; ISBN 9781441876652

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Tuesday

The Colbert Report

The Obama Diaries Laura Ingraham Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Threshold Editions – (2010-07-13) ISBN / EAN: 1439197512 / 9781439197516

S&S Audio; UNABR; 9781442336452; $39.99

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Wednesday

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War Bruce Henderson Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-07-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061571369 / 9780061571367

Tantor Media; UNABR; 6/30/10; Narrated by Todd McLaren

9 Audio CDs (Retail Pkg); 9781400117024; $26.24
9 Audio CDs (Library Pkg); 9781400147021; $52.49
1 Mp3-CD (Retail Slimline Pkg); 9781400167029; $18.74

Does it have something to do with the new goatee that Jon Stewart is sporting? On the Daily Show this week, he featured two historians, sending both of their books up Amazon’s sales ranking.

Last night, it was Robert O’Connell on Hanniblal’s victory at the battle of Cannae. Sewart told him, “You bring this story to such great effective life. It’s really fascinating and, boy, is it sad to see all the paralells of modern warfare and society.”

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The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic Robert L. O’Connell Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-07-13) ISBN / EAN: 1400067022 / 9781400067022

On Monday,  Stewart told William Rosen, “You’ve written a barn burner about the steam engine; I didn’t think it could be done.”

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The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention William Rosen Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-06-01) ISBN / EAN: 1400067057 / 9781400067053

Get out the bleep machine; the twitter-based book, Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern (It Books/HarperCollins) is the basis for a series that will appear on CBS this Fall, as we noted earlier.

William Shatner is playing the trash-talking dad. The series is going through changes, however, Shatner told TVGuide. Since creating the pilot, he’s had a chance to read the book and plans to reshoot it, with a new actor playing the role of the son; Ryan Devlin (Cougar Town) is being replaced by Jonathan Sandowski (Friday the 13th). At this point, CBS is calling the series $#*! My Dad Says.

We’re curious how CBS will render Dad’s actual language.

How many martinis did advertising executives really drink in the heyday of Mad Men? According to Jerry Della Femina, one of the guys who lived to tell such tales, three before lunch, wine  with the meal and, rather than foregoing dessert for a cappuccino, some would order a double scotch. Then, it’s back to work.

Della Femina wrote a memoir about those days in 1970, From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor, that helped inspire the AMC series Mad Men, now in its fourth season.

The book has been republished by Simon and Schuster; Della Femina was interviewed on Weekend Edition Saturday. The title of the book, his suggestion for an ad for Panasonic, went right into the trash. The line he’s most proud of? One he wrote for McGraw Hill books, “Before Hitler could kill six million Jews, he had to burn six million books.” Not only did the company use it, Della Femina won a major award for it.

From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War Jerry Della Femina Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2010-07-20) ISBN / EAN: 1451609906 / 9781451609905

Monday

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention William Rosen Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-06-01) ISBN / EAN: 1400067057 / 9781400067053

The Colbert Report

Chastened: The Unexpected Story of My Year without Sex Hephzibah Anderson Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-06-24) ISBN / EAN: 0670021865 / 9780670021864

Wednesday

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic Robert L. O’Connell Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-07-13) ISBN / EAN: 1400067022 / 9781400067022

Heavy promotion is beginning for the Starz networks 8-part series based on Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, which begins Friday, July 23rd. The cast includes Ian McShane (Waleran) and Donald Sutherland (Bartholomew).

Official Web Site: Starz.com.Pillars

Tie in:

The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett Retail Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 983 pages Publisher: Signet – (1990-07-09) ISBN / EAN: 0451166892 / 9780451166890

The TV series, Rizzoli & Isles, based on Tess Gerritsen’s series of mystery novels, debuted on Monday night on TNT. It ranked as “the most watched ad-supported cable series launch of all time,” according to Deadline Hollywood.

We could have guessed as much from how well Gerritsen’s books did on Amazon yesterday. Sales rankings showed significant bumps for the titles in the series, lead by the newest, just out in hardcover, Ice Cold.

The pilot is based on the second book of the series, which now sports a tie-in jacket in mass market.

The Apprentice (Jane Rizzoli, Book 2) Tess Gerritsen Retail Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2003-07-29) ISBN / EAN: 0345447867 / 9780345447869

OverDrive, downloadable audio and ebook
Books on Tape; UNABR; 8CD’s; 9780736687638: $80

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The latest in the series, Ice Cold, features the TNT logo, as do the new mass market paperbacks of the series.

Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel Tess Gerritsen Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-06-29) ISBN / EAN: 034551548X / 9780345515483

Brilliance Audio

• UNABR; 9 CD’s; Read by Tanya Eby; 9781423392064;  $97.97
• UNABR; MP3-CD; 978-1-4233-9208-8; $39.97

OverDrive WMA Audiobook

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The series, in order:

1. The Surgeon (2001)
2. The Apprentice (2002)
3. The Sinner (2003)
4. Body Double (2004)
5. Vanish (2005)
6. The Mephisto Club (2006)
7. The Keepsake (2008)
8. Ice Cold (2010)

The Oprah Show will be leaving the networks in September, 2011, after 25 years.

But, we may be able to drown our sorrows with Oprah, the Miniseries. Producer Larry A. Thompson has purchased the rights to Kitty Kelley’s bio of the star and plans to produce either a TV movie, or miniseries to be aired the same month that The Oprah Show wraps, according to the movie news site, Deadline Hollywood.

Thompson says he is leaning towards tapping an unknown to play Oprah.

Guess that leaves Oprah herself out of the running.

Can the anti-diet book, Women Food and God reach an even wider audience? It’s already been on the NYT Hardcover Advice best seller list for 16 weeks, largely because Oprah has called it “the miracle we’ve been waiting for.”

Today, Oprah brings the author back to her show for a second session.

Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything Geneen Roth Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 1416543074 / 9781416543077

S&S Audio; UNABR; 9781442336605; $29.99

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man has received an enviable amount of press, but it took an appearance on the Today Show yesterday to move the sales needle on Amazon (to #84 from #446 yesterday).

Some libraries show growing holds.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir Bill Clegg Retail Price: $23.99 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-06-07) ISBN / EAN: 0316054674 / 9780316054676

Jon Stewart explores the political manipulations behind Prohibition with Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call.

At the end, Stewart used the magic words, “Fascinating story…You gotta run and grab it.” The book rose to #66 on Amazon from #377 yesterday.

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Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition Daniel Okrent Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 468 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-05-11) ISBN / EAN: 0743277023 / 9780743277020

S&S Audio; ABR; 9780743599214, CD, $39.99