The number of big releases slows to a trickle next week. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child bring back their enigmatic hero, Aloysius Xingú Leng Pendergast in a new thriller; James Patterson continues to work the popular middle-school territory and, in Young Adult, Jessica Day George wraps up her Twelve Dancing Princesses trilogy.

Reviewer Favorite

Sebastian Faulks, A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts (Macmillan/Holt; Dreamscape Audio and OverDrive)

British reviewers quibbled with the author’s assertion in both the book’s subtitle and trailer, that this is a novel, not a set of long short stories. It appears the question hasn’t been settled; Vanity Fair‘s online interview opens with it. The book received strong reviews in the UK, with the Independent concluding that it is “probably Faulks’s most intriguing fictional offering.” Published in September there, it hit the top ten on the Times of London’s best seller list.

Usual Suspects

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Two Graves
(Hachette/Grand Central: Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print)

This completes a trilogy within the larger series. Referred to as the “Helen Trilogy,” beginning with Fever Dream and continuing last year with Cold Vengeance, it follows the erudite detective Pendergast search for his long-missing wife, Helen. Reviewers warn that reading the previous titles is a requirement.

Michael Palmer, Political Suicide (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press: Macmillan Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

The 18th thriller by Palmer is his second featuring Dr. Lou Welcome, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict (introduced last year in Oath of Office). Prepub reviews are less than admiring, but libraries are showing holds and it gets high marks on GoodReads.

Childrens

James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
I Funny: A Middle School Story (Hachette/Little, Brown YR; Hachette Audio)

This is the third in Patterson’s series aimed at a once overlooked age group, which is clearly called out in the titles, beginning with Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life, and followed by Middle School: Get Me out of Here! This one features Jamie Grimm, a wheelchair bound middle schooler whose goal is to become the world’s greatest standup comedian.

Young Adult

Jessica Day George, Princess of the Silver Woods (Bloomsbury USA)

The final title in the series that reworks classic fairy tales, beginning with Princess of the Midnight Ball, (based on the Grim tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses), and  followed by Princess of Glass (based, of course, on Cinderella). This one is based on the tales of two hoods —  Red Riding and Robin.

Movie Tie-in

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Art & Design (Harper Design)

This is the last of the tie-ins leading up to the Dec. 14 debut of the first in the series  of movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (you may have noticed promos nearly, well, everywhere). It is produced by the Weta Workshop, which designed the movie’s special effects and ends with a sneak peek at the second film in the series. Another behind-the-scenes book came out last month, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide.

The next title by the author of  The Hunger Games will be a picture book for ages 4 and up, The Year of the Jungle, (Scholastic, 9780545425162; 9/10/13). Based Collins’ experiences as a child when her father was serving in Vietnam, it will be illustrated by James Proimos.

The Scholastic press release also announces that the paperback edition of Catching Fire will be released next summer (Scholastic, 9780545586177, $12.99; 6/4/13) as well as redesigned paperback editions of the author’s middle grade series, The Underland Chronicles.

USA Today calls Matched, Ally Condie’s YA dystopian trilogy, “the most popular series of books for teens since The Hunger Games,” noting that Matched has “less violence and more poetry.”

The final title in the series, Reached (Penguin/Dutton) debuted at #6 on last week’s USA Today best seller list, a series high.

Condie tells USA Today that the idea for the series, which began with Matched (2010) and was followed by Crossed (2011), came from a discussion with her husband about what would happen if the government decreed who you would marry.

To what does Condie attribute the series’ growing populatiry? To “teachers and librarians who embraced it.”

And, no surprise, film rights have been sold to Disney. David Slade has signed as director. He has had some experience with teen movies; he directed Eclipsed, the third film in the Twilight Saga.

Several of the annual best books lists have appeared recently (see the links to the right). Again this year, we will collate the titles from various lists into one Excel file, with ISBNs, for your use in spending any left-over book funds.

First up is the 2012 — Childrens Best Books Collated, Excel File, with a total of 175 titles selected by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, the Washington Post as well as the New York Times Book Review’s selection of the Best Illustrated Books [UPDATE: The list is up to 275 titles, now that we’ve added the Horn Book and SLJ picks].

As we’ve learned to expect, there’s very little concensus. Just two titles were picked by all four sources:

Wonder, R. J. Palacio, (RH/ Knopf BYR)

Son, Lois Lowry, (HMH)

Even the National Book Award finalists aren’t shoe-ins; the only one selected as a Best Book is Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin (Macmillan/ Flash Point), a Washington Post pick. Even the winner, Goblin Secrets by William Alexander (S&S/ Margaret K. McElderry) wasn’t picked by any other source.

More best books lists are coming. As they appear, we will add the titles to the file.

Look for the collated spreadsheet for adult titles later this week.

Thanks to Edelweiss Tags and Custom Exports features, compiling the lists was much easier this year. Also, for the first time, we were able to include links to publisher descriptions of each title, which often include valuable selection information, such as views of interior pages (for instance the recently-release, This Moose Belongs to Me).

The second trailer for Disney’s Oz The Great and Powerful, arrived last week (see video, below).

James Franco stars as the Wizard with Rachel Weisz as the Wicked Witch of the East, Mila Kunis as the Wicked Witch of the West, and Michelle Williams as the Good Witch, Glinda.

The movie is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 8, 2013.

The Disney Book Group will, of course, publish several tie-ins, including a junior novelization, an early reader, a storybook and a behind-the-scenes book. They are also republishing the first two titles in L. Frank Baum’s series, The Wonderful World of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz.

As we head into the all make-or-break gift-giving season, publishers are focusing on sure-bet hits, so we have only one title on our Watch List, a hotel business expose that reminds us of a certain bad-boy restaurant expose. Among the usual suspects are new novels from David Baldacci, Janet Evanovich and Glenn Beck. In Young Adult, Glee star Chris Colfer releases his second novel, Struck By Lightning, which arrives with the words “Now a Major Motion Picture” already emblazoned on the cover.

Watch List

Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality, Jacob Tomsky, (RH/Doubleday) has gotten quite a bit of advance publicity, including a NYT review by Janet Maslin (who is often the bellwether of books with high expectations). An expose of hotel practices, it’s reminiscent of an expose of restaurant practices, Anthony Bourdain’s Restaurant Confidential. Maslin’s description makes it sound like it lives up to the comparison; “Mr. Tomsky turns out to be an effervescent writer, with enough snark to make his stories sharp-edged but without the self-promoting smugness that sinks so many memoirs.” The NY Daily News adds to the author’s bad boy credentials, “Jacob Tomsky was once a resentful front-desk clerk at a luxury hotel in midtown Manhattan, forced to attend anger management classes.” Is a Travel Channel show in the offing?

Fan Favorites

The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron, (Hachette/Little,Brown; Thorndike Large Print) is the 18th title in the Judge Deborah Knott mystery series. One fan on GalleyChat called it “One of my favorites in the series.” Her paperbacks have been NYT best sellers; we’re hoping this will be her  hardcover breakout.

Young Adult

Struck by Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal, Chris Colfer, (Hachette/Little, Brown YR; Hachette Audio). Is this a novel that’s been adapted as a movie, or is it a novelization of a movie? The movie Struck by Lightning, starring Glee‘s Chris Colfer and written by Chris Colfer is scheduled for release on January 11. The novel, the second by Glee‘s Chris Colfer, arrives this week, with the words “Now a Major Motion Picture” on the cover. Kirkus comments, “This sophomoric sophomore effort reads like a rough draft for a screenplay.” But as the book’s cover notes, Colfer is a “#1 New York Times Bestselling Author.”

Usual Suspects

The Forgotten by David Baldacci, (Hachette/ Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print) is the second in the author’s new series of thrillers featuring Army Special Agent John Puller which began last year with Zero Day.

Notorious Nineteen, by Janet Evanovich, (Random House’ RH Audio; RH Large Print). Anyone want to guess which number this one is in the Stephanie Plum series?

Agenda 21, by Glenn Beck, with Harriet Parke, (S&S/Threshold; S&S Audio) is Beck’s fictional take on where America is headed, “There is no president. No congress. No Supreme Court.” But, hold on, doesn’t Beck want smaller government?  In this vision, the U.S. is now run by an even larger government, “the Authorities” who have been imposed by a UN-lead program called Agenda 21 and “Citizens have two primary goals in the new Republic: to create clean energy and to create new human life.” Beck’s fans have made it #2 on Amazon’s sales rankings. Libraries are showing 1:1 holds.

Nonfiction

Encyclopedia Paranoiaca by Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf, (S&S) is described by Kirkus as ““A whimsical collection of the sometimes-scary, sometimes-silly things that threaten our modern-day lives.”  With the name Christopher Cerf attached, who can resist?

Grace: A Memoir, Grace Coddington, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT Audio).  We jumped the gun by listing this memoir by the creative director of Vogue in last week’s “Radar.” It actually arrives next week. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-, noting that many more people now know who Coddington is because of the 2009 documentary, The September Issue, in which, “the Welsh-born Coddington delightfully stole the show” and says “she’s the bohemian big-haired yang to her boss’ [Anna Wintour’s] impeccably tailored bangs-and-bob yin.”

Tie-ins

Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America: A Companion Book for Young Readers to the Steven Spielberg Film by Harold Holzer, (HarperCollins/Newmarket for It Books) is the official young readers tie-in to the movie by a Lincoln scholar and includes photos from the film.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, (Penguin Classics Hardcover) is a new translation by Christine Donougher and Denny, Norman released for the 150th anniversary of classic. The Broadway musical adaptation is coming to movie theaters on Christmas in a new version starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Eddie Redmayne. Penguin is also publishing the official tie-in, translated by Norman Denny.

Lay the Favorite by Beth Raymer (RH/Spiegel & Grau) is the tie-in to the adaptation of the 2010 gambling memoir which arrives in theaters on Dec. 7 but is now available on demand. Directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity), it stars Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn and Catherine Zeta-Jones, which makes it sound promising, but it gets just a 26% positive rating from critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, (RH/Modern Library) is the first hardcover edition of the book that was published as an original trade paperback in the U.S. The movie, which released Oct. 26, is considered a major flop, but it’s brought renewed attention to the book, returning it to best seller lists.

The movie doesn’t arrive until Aug. 23, but publicity drums are already beating for the City of Bones movie adaptation. The first trailer premiered on Entertainment Tonight Wednesday. In print, Entertainment Weekly is doing a “first look” feature, which includes an interview with Cassandra Clare, the author of the YA series (the final title, City of Heavenly Fire is scheduled for May 8, 2014).

And, MTV’s “Hollywood Crush” steps in to tell you the ” 5 Things You May Have Missed” in the less-than-two minute trailer.

As her third novel, the psychological thriller Gone Girl, continues to ride best seller lists (and to generate heavy holds) five months after its release, Gillian Flynn’s publisher, Random House announces that she has signed for two more novels. Her fourth as yet unnamed adult title is scheduled for publication by the Crown imprint in 2015.

In addition, she will release a YA novel with Delacorte Press.

(via Entertainment Weekly).

Michelle Hodkin’s second YA novel, The Evolution of Mara Dyer (S&S YR, 10/23), is her first best seller. It arrives at #8 on the NYT Children’s Chapter Books list this week.

As Hodkin writes on her blog, she is clearly thrilled,

This is especially astonishing to me because The Unbecoming [of Mara Dyer,  S&S YR, 2011] was not a “big” book. There was no major deal. No fortune to fuel the hype machine … A book that many people, if not most, still don’t know how to categorize. I still have trouble describing what it’s about. The odds of a book hitting the New York Times list is low to start, but the odds of books like mine hitting it? Even slimmer.

The LA Times called the first book, an “unsettling paranormal romance [in which] a young girl survives a trauma but discovers she may be going insane.”

The third book in the trilogy will be The Retribution of Mara Dyer, planned for fall, 2013.

Below, Dyer talks about her rapid path to becoming a published author, how the internet has changed that process and the joy she gets from contact with fans through social media.

A side note; the story on her blog about rescuing her beloved dog Maggie, is harrowing, but uplifting.

Headlines are doing little to dispel rumors that Stephenie Meyer plans to continue the Twilight saga.

At a press conference for Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (which, need we remind you, is the final movie in the series), Meyer was cagey about the question, but the headlines are less so:

IndieWire —‘Twilight’ Author Stephenie Meyer Says She Has More Stories Planned

ABC News — Stephenie Meyer Not Ruling Out More ‘Twilight’ Stories

Entertainment Weekly — Stephenie Meyer says more ‘Twilight’ books a possibility, but not today

The actual quotes, from the Entertainment Weekly story, are more along the lines of “Who knows? Stranger things have happened.”

In response to a question about what happens to Jake (Taylor Lautner in the films), and Renesmee, (Mackenzie Foy):

I planned out where [the story] would go for a couple more books. So, I knew exactly what  would happen.

Will those books see the light of day?

Maybe someday, I’ll write it out just for myself. We’ll see.

It seems nobody asked, however, if they might become movies instead.

There’s no official release date yet for the film adaptation of G. P. Taylor’s Mariah Mundi and the Midas Box, but its sequel already has the green light. Producer Peter Bevan told The Northern Echo, that the decision “has been very much based upon how happy we are with the first movie as it comes together, and reactions from test audiences.”

The budget for the British production is estimated at $25 million and is expected to be released in 2013.

The author, a former vicar, self-published his first novel Shadowmancer. Word of mouth took off and British publisher, Faber and Faber bought the rights to it as well as Taylor’s next ten books, for £3.5million. It was published here by Penguin/Putnam in 2004 and spent ten weeks on the NYT Children’s Hardcover list, two of them at #1.

The Midas Box was considered a successor to the Harry Potter series in the U.K., but it was not as successful in the U.S. as Shadowmancer. Two more titles in Mariah Mundi series, The Ghost Diamonds and  Ship of Fools, have been released in the U.K., but not here.

Author Veronica Roth writes on her blog that she has spoken to Neil Burger, the director of the adaptation of her book Divergent  (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books) and now feels her work is in “good good hands” because, “Neil knew the books remarkably well, and asked some amazing questions about the world and the story, and generally demonstrated tremendous respect for the books and for my answers.”

Roth says she is also confident in the casting choices Burger will make. Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager, The Descendants) is currently in talks to play the 16-year-old lead. Entertainment Weekly writes why this is good news.

Meanwhile, Roth is hard at work on the final novel in the trilogy, which does not yet have a title, to be released sometime in the fall of 2013. The second book in the series, Insurgent, came out in May.

What was Sex and the City‘s Carrie Bradshaw like as a teenager? Candace Bushnell has already explored that question in The Carrie Diaries and its sequel, Summer and the City (both HarperTeen/Belzer + Bray).

Following in the footsteps of the grownup version, The Carrie Diaries is poised to become a TV series, beginning in January on the CW. The pilot premiered on the opening night of the New York Television Festival on Monday. Star AnnaSophia Robb (Soul Surfer, Bridge to Terabithia), producer Amy B. Harris and Bushnell were on hand for a Q&A session after the screening.

Naturally, the younger Carrie has a circle of friends, but thy are not named Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha. Her practice friends are Maggie, Walt and The Mouse.

Official Web site: CWTV.com/Shows/The-Carrie-Diaries.

A tie-in edition of The Carrie Diaries will be published on Dec 5.

A live-action movie based on Judith Viorst’s 1972 hit children’s Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Atheneum) has just been picked up by Disney, according to Deadline. It will be directed by Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) from a script she wrote with Rob Lieber (Septimus Heap: Magyk). Steve Carrell is set to star as Alexander’s father.

Illustrator Jon Klassen’s first effort as both author and illustrator, the deceptively simple but enchanting, I Want My Hat Back (Candlewick), became one of the NYT‘s ten Best Illustrated Books of 2011 and has been on the Indie best seller list ever since.

This week, it appears on the list just below Klassen’s next title, This Is Not My Hat, (Candlewick) which arrives at #5.

Klassen was recently interviewed by the L.A. Times “Jacket Copy” blog.