Superman is back, with a hoodie and a cellphone, flashing a fresh smile for the Twilight generation, and the media is eating it up. The graphic novel relaunch by DC Comics, Superman : Earth One by J. Straczynski and Shane Davis (Illustrator) first gained traction at the New York Post, leading to news coverage and an excerpt in USA Today, an AP wire story, and blog mentions from CBS News anchor Katie Couric and NPR’s Monkey See pop culture blog, among others.

At libraries we checked, reserves are in line with modest orders – but more media is likely to be on the way when the book goes on sale next week.

Superman: Earth One J. Michael Straczynski Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 136 pages Publisher: DC Comics – (2010-11-02) ISBN / EAN: 1401224687 / 9781401224684

Usual Suspects on Sale Next Week

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane (Morrow) forces Boston PI Patrick Kenzie to face the mistakes he made in a 1998’s Gone, Baby, Gone. New York Times critic Janet Maslin gives the book an early review, saying it gives “Mr. Lehane many occasions to write acid-etched dialogue and show off his fine powers of description.”

Happy Ever After, (Bride Quartet #4) by Nora Roberts (Berkley) is the final title in the paperback series. Says PW, “Roberts’s delicious ode to weddings and happy endings, the charming conclusion of the Bride Quartet.”

Indulgence in Death by J.D. Robb (Putnam) is the 32nd future cop thriller with NYPD Lt. Eve Dallas.

Edge by Jeffery Deaver (Simon & Schuster) pits an interrogator against a government agent trying to protect his target. PW says, “Deaver unveils some nifty new tricks in this edge-of-your-seat thriller . . . Deaver’s first first-person narrator, Corte, is an exciting new weapon in the author’s arsenal of memorable characters.”

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor) is the second novel based on work left unfinished by Jordan before his death in 2007.

Mary Ann in Autumn: A Tales of the City Novel by Armistead Maupin (HarperCollins) stars Mary Ann Singleton, who returns to San Francisco at the ripe age of 57, twenty years after leaving the city. Kirkus calls it “agreeable entertainment until the ridiculous denouement.”

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Houghton Mifflin) re-imagines Henry James’s The Ambassadors. Kirkus raves, “This is superb, dazzling fiction. Ozick richly observes and lovingly crafts each character, and every sentence is a tribute to her masterful command of language.”

It’s working; a group of “web comic geeks” (according to the SF and science blog, io9, part of the Gawker network) wanted to make their self-pubbed title, Machine of Death: A collection of stories about people who know how they will die, a top best seller on Amazon’s sale rankings; it is now all the way to #2 (from a lowly #6,588). UPDATE: The book hit #1 and is at #4, but moving down, after 3 days.

More on the book here.

How many orders does it take to move a title into the Amazon top five? Based on this experience, say the authors, just a few hundred a day.

Given that, how much attention should you pay to titles moving up Amazon’s sales rankings? Obviously, there are flashes in the pan (we sometimes see an odd title, like a biology text book, suddenly rise, which tells us that class assignments have been handed out). EarlyWord uses Amazon sales rankings to identify rising demand, but we only report on titles that look like they will continue to rise, or to show the direct impact of recent media attention.

Machine of Death: A collection of stories about people who know how they will die Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, David Malki ! Retail Price: $17.95 Paperback: 468 pages Publisher: Bearstache Books – (2010-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 0982167121 / 9780982167120

Genres, other than mysteries, don’t get much attention from mainstream reviews, so it’s amusing to see Michael Dirda write about “the fabulous and always entertaining realm of classic steampunk” in the Washington Post, specifically The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, by Mark Hodder, the first in a new series from Pyr, the five-year-old speculative fiction imprint of  independent publisher, Prometheus Books.

The book received a starred review in Booklist. However, Publishers Weekly was not as positive.

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne) Mark Hodder Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 373 pages Publisher: Pyr – (2010-09-07) ISBN / EAN: 1616142405 / 9781616142407

John Grisham‘s new legal thriller, The Confession, is his first to be released in the fall instead of his usual February slot. Another tale of innocence on death row, The Confession involves a guilty man paroled because of an inoperable brain tumor, who decides to confess to a crime he committed for which another man is about to be executed. Libraries we checked have plenty of books on order to meet the voracious demand.

Few publishers are brave enough to put their major titles in direct competition with his – so otherwise it’s a sparse week for major fiction.

The Confession John Grisham Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-10-26) ISBN / EAN: 0385528043 / 9780385528047

• CD: Random House Audio: $45; ISBN 9780739376195
• Large Print: Random House; $29; ISBN 9780739377895
• Playaway: $59.99; ISBN 9781616572488

Other Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Roc) is a collection of short stories related to bestseling urban fantasy series featuring wizard/private investigator Harry Dresden. PW says fans will “probably want to skip ahead to the last of this collection’s 11 stories, “Aftermath,” set just hours after the end of [the 2010 book Changes]. . . .  The rest of the book is a mixed bag.”

Then, there is the HOT category of Amish fiction, combined with Christmas:

An Amish Christmas by Cynthia Keller (Ballantine)

And, simply, Christmas themed fiction:

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas (St. Martin’s) explores the sudden fatherhood of a bachelor after he becomes the guardian of his deceased sister’s daughter

A Christmas Odyssey by Anne Perry (Ballantine) is another Victorian mystery featuring the distinguished mathematician Henry Rathbone.

The Mischief of the Mistletoe: A Pink Carnation Christmas by Lauren Willig (Dutton) is the seventh installment in the Regency romantic suspense series, which moves away from espionage and toward Jane Austen, in a “refreshing” update on the series formula, according to Kirkus.

Young Adult
Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck (Dial Books)  is a young adult ghost story by the Newbery Medalist and Edgar Award-winning author. Horn Book says, “Peck’s message about the power of the peer group could easily have been more didactic, but wrapping the story in the shrouds of a ghost story was a stroke of genius, making it a creepy tale middle school girls will die for…if they put down their cell phones long enough to read it.”

Childrens

The 39 Clues: The Black Book of Buried Secrets Intro by Rick Riordan (Scholastic) is the latest entry in the series for young readers.

The word got out quickly that the pseudonymn Pittacus Lore, author of the YA title I Am Number Four, hid the identities of co-authors, James Frey and Jobie Hughes.

News also arrived quickly that Hollywood, always on the look out for a successful YA series (I Am Number Four is the first in a projected trilogy) had snapped up the film rights. The book came out in August; the movie is coming February 18.

Below is the just-released trailer.

Official Web site: FindNumberFour.com

…………………………
I Am Number Four Movie Tie-in Edition
Pittacus Lore
Retail Price: $17.99
Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins – (2011-01-01)
ISBN / EAN: 0062026240 / 9780062026248

Fans of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series have been eagerly awaiting HBO’s series based on the first book, A Game of Thrones. A new trailer and a “making of “video were featured before the season finale of True Blood last night.

The series will begin in the spring of 2011.

Behind the Scenes:

Franzen’s isn’t the only novel to be aware of next week:

Fiction Watch List

The Gendarme by Mark Mustain (Putnam) is a first novel about a 92-year-old Turkish American who suddenly comes face-to-face with his part in the Armenian genocide. It comes from the Amy Einhorn imprint at Putnam/Penguin – and as one bookseller put it, “Our staff has come to expect at least one blockbuster every season from Amy Einhorn Books.” Her first list, Winter 2009 included The Help, followed by The Postmistress this year.

This one may be the breakout for Putnam’s Fall list. Einhorn presented it at BEA during LJ‘s Day of Dialog and said it’s a Penguin sale rep’s pick. Prepub reviews, however, are mixed.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Farrar Straus & Giroux), a novel set in a Catholic boy’s boarding school in Dublin that made the Booker long list and is being made into a movie directed by Neil Jordan, gets a flat-out “A” from Entertainment Weekly: Murray’s humor and inventiveness never flag. And despite a serious theme — what happens to boys and men when they realize the world isn’t the sparkly planetarium they had hoped for — Skippy Dies leaves you feeling hopeful and hungry for life.”

Holy Thief by William Ryan (Minotaur) is a debut mystery set in Stalinist 1936 Moscow. This one got starred reviews in Library Journal and PW, and several mentions in a recent EarlyWord Galley Chat. Talia Sherer, of Macmillan LibraryMarketing, calls it a “book to read in one sitting without taking a single breath.”  LJ said, “In his solitude and resolve, Ryan’s Korolev evokes Martin Cruz Smith’s fierce Arkady Renko, while the period detail and gore call to mind Tom Rob Smith. Ryan’s first novel will be released with a tsunami of marketing, so readers in public libraries will be lengthening the reserve lists for this remarkable thriller.” However, Kirkus says “the pacing is at times a bit slow, and the mystery holds few surprises.” Orders and reserves are light at this point in the libraries we checked.

Sure Bets

Body Work by Sara Paretsky (Putnam) is the 14th mystery starring private investigator V.I. Warshawski, and is set in Chicago’s avant garde scene. PW calls it “superb” and declares: “This strong outing shows why the tough, fiercely independent, dog-loving private detective continues to survive.”

Lost Empire by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood (Putnam) is the second adventure with married treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo. PW isn’t impressed, calling it “a standard chase thriller” with “uninspired dialogue.”

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie (St. Martin’s) is a romantic comedy about a woman trying to fix the problems of a family in a haunted house. PW says, “Crusie’s created a sharp cast of lonely souls, wacky weirdos, ghosts both good and bad, and unlikely heroes who are brave enough to give life and love one more try. You don’t have to believe in the afterlife to relish this fun, bright romp.”

Dark Peril by Christine Feehan (Berkley) is a new entry in the Carpathian fantasy series.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Tor) is the first volume of a planned 10-part fantasy series by the author best known for his efforts to complete the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.  PW is optimistic: “Sanderson’s fondness for misleading the reader and his talent for feeding out revelations and action scenes at just the right pace will keep epic fantasy fans intrigued and hoping for redemptive future installments.”

Mary Roach was the big hit of this year’s BEA Librarian “Shout & Share,” getting votes from all the librarians on the panel for her book Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. She was also funny, enthralling and informative during a BEA author breakfast moderated by Jon Stewart (who was cracking up during most of her talk – watch it here). She was equally funny when she spoke to librarians at the AAP breakfast at PLA in March..

Word-of-mouth on the new book is good, but libraries we checked are well behind demand on this title.

Expect major media attention (no surprise, she will be on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday) for Roach’s look at some of the bizarre and uncomfortable realities facing future astronauts, as outlined in starred reviews from Library Journal (“While there are occasional somber passages, most of the descriptions of the many and varied annoyances of space travel are perversely entertaining.”) and Kirkus (“There is much good fun with – and a respectful amount of awe at – the often crazy ingenuity brought to the mundane matters of surviving in a place not meant for humans“).

The book trailer, already featured on BoingBoing, illustrates Booklist’s assessment that  “Roach brings intrepid curiosity, sauciness, and chutzpah to the often staid practice of popular science writing,” giving it YA crossover appeal

.

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

——————————–

Though scheduled for release next week, Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton (St. Martin’s) was rushed to market this week because some the supposed revelations about the life and career of actress Angelina Jolie were leaking out.

USA Today dissects Jolie’s epic love life, and adds that the Jolie-Pitt household’s legion staff  includes “nannies from Vietnam, the Congo, and the U.S.; four nurses, a doctor on permanent call; two personal assistants; a cook; a maid; two cleaners; a busboy; four bodyguards, and six French former army guards.”

New York Times critic Janet Maslin chastizes Morton for not citing sources and for his many frivolous details (e.g. the type face of a particular Jolie tattoo never seen in public), while praising him (sort of) for connecting the biographical dots of Jolie’s life.

Entertainment Weekly reads Morton’s bio so you don’t have to and the AP uses it as a springboard to opine that unauthorized celeb bios (such as Oprah by Kitty Kelley) are not doing well these days.

Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography Andrew Morton Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-08-03) ISBN / EAN: 031255561X / 9780312555610

Available from Blackstone Audio on 7/31/2010

CD LIB:; 9781441755124; $52.50
MP3CD LIB: 9781441755155; $14.98
Playaway; LIB; 9781441755186; $45.49
9 Tape LIB; 9781441755117; $36.48

Notable Kids & YA Fiction on Sale Next Week

I Am Number Four by Pitticus Lore (HarperCollins) is a YA novel about nine alien refugee teenages who land on Earth. Three are already dead, and number four is next. As we mentioned earlier, Entertainment Weekly has been running exclusives about this title, including an interview with the author, who claims to be “an extraterrestrial Elder from Lorien named Pittacus Lore.”

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer (Hyperion); this will be the next-to-last entry in the best-selling middle-grade fantasy series, as Colfer revealed this week to the UK’s Guardian.

Notable Fiction on Sale Next Week

My Hollywood by Mona Simpson (Knopf) is her first novel since Off Keck Road (2000), narrated in alternate chapters by Claire, a composer whose marriage is strained by her husband’s late hours as a TV writer, and Lola, the Filipina nanny she hires. Entertainment Weekly gives it an “A-“: “Claire, privileged and damaged, floats along in a daze of unfulfillment, while the ever-practical Lola observes her L.A. milieu with a realist’s eye in imperfect yet oddly poetic English… A character as rich as Lola won’t easily fade from anyone’s mind.”  There’s also an interview with Simpson in the New York Times.

I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson, translated by Charlotte Barslund (Graywolf Press), from the author of the surprise hit Out Stealing Horses, is the story of a Danish communist who faces divorce and a dying mother. Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B,” saying: “A times it’ll feel alien to readers who’ve never been young Communists… (The translation can also be quite a rickety bridge.) But there’s no denying the novel’s Raymond Carver-like power as Arvid and his mother come to terms with how life hands you hope just before it hands you disappointment and tragedy.”

Hangman by Faye Kellerman (Morrow) is the newest mystery novel with spouses Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Booklist says Kellerman fans will be reasonably satisfied, but “if you’re new to Kellerman…this is not the place to start. Kellerman works primarily in dialogue, with very sketchy narrative support, which requires readers unfamiliar with the backstory to act as their own detectives, figuring out what the heck is going on in each scene.”

Burn by Nevada Barr (Minotaur Books) is the 16th book with National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon, though this time she is transplanted out of her element, to New Orleans. Booklist says, “Barr develops the narrative carefully, never letting the eerie black-magic elements overshadow her solid and suspenseful plotting. A definite winner.”

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone) chronicles the War of the Roses through the perspective of Henry VII’s mother.

Scarlet Nights: An Edilean Novel by Jude Deveraux (Atria) follows a woman whose fiancé turns out to be a scheming criminal. Booklist says it’s “another guilty-pleasure romance of suspense that will hook readers and leave them with a smile.”

In Harm’s Way by Ridley Pearson (Putnam) is the fourth thriller with Idaho sheriff Walt Fleming. Booklist is not so impressed: “although this novel is sufficiently entertaining, it lacks both the taut plotting and intricate excitement of his best work.”

In an interview in Sunday’s NYT, Sarah Lyall says China Miéville’s science fiction “stands out from the crowd for the quality, mischievousness and erudition of his writing.”

Other critics agree; he is the only author to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award three times. Last year’s City and the City was on several best books lists (a lofty #8 on Amazon’s Top 100 Editor’s Picks, as well as appearing on the L.A. Times — Fiction Favorites and PW Best Books — Adult).

A Socialist who ran for Parliament in 2001, he was dubbed “the sexiest man in British politics” by the Evening Standard.

His new book  is reviewed in the Seattle Times; “Kraken proves once again that Miéville’s reputation as the author of books readers obsess over is well and truly deserved.”

Prepub reviews were not so positive; most were variations on PW‘s assessment,  “Even Miéville’s eloquent prose can’t conceal the meandering, bewildering plot, but his fans will happily swap linearity for this dizzying whirl of outrageous details and fantastic characters.” Many libraries are showing heaving holds where ordering was light.

Where did the author get the name “China”? According to the NYT, it’s Cockney rhyming slang for “mate.” In an earlier interview, Miéville elaborated, saying his parents were hippies who searched the dictionary to find a beautiful name for him. The nearly named him “Banyan,”

“…but flipped a few pages on and reached “China,” thankfully. The other reason they liked it is that “china” is Cockney rhyming slang for “mate.” People say “my old china,” meaning “my old mate,” because “china plate” rhymes with “mate.”

Kraken China Mieville Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 528 pages Publisher: Del Rey – (2010-06-29) ISBN / EAN: 034549749X / 9780345497499

It’s not coming until next Spring, at the earliest, but “fans are already in lust” with the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on the first book in The Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin, says the L.A. Times.

Feeding that lust is this 22 second-long video, which was aired on Sunday during the debut of season 3 of True Blood.

The fourth volume in the planned seven volume series was published in 2005. Fans are impatiently awaiting volume five, A Dance with Dragons, so much so that  Martin issued a statement last year, asking fans to give him a break,

Some of you are angry that I watch football during the fall. Some of you don’t want me attending conventions, teaching workshops, touring and doing promo … After all, as some of you like to point out in your emails, I am 60 years old and fat, and you don’t want me to ‘pull a Robert Jordan’ on you and deny you your book. OK, I’ve got the message. You don’t want me doing anything except A Song of Ice and Fire. Ever. (Well, maybe it’s OK if I take a leak once in a while?)

After months of buzz leading up to Book Expo, where The Passage was dubbed “the book of the show,” Justin Cronin‘s tale of a young girl who holds the power to save humanity from a plague of vampires arrives in stores next week. The media is giving it the full blockbuster treatment, while in most libraries we checked, holds are at about 10:1.

Was it worth the wait? Entertainment Weekly says yes, giving the novel an A-:

The Passage owes a substantial debt to both King’s [The Stand] and Cormac McCarthy’s [The Road], and he is not immune to some of the hoarier tropes of Armageddon fiction… but his bogeymen, the vampiric, blood-
hungry beasts known as ”virals,” are
 magnificently unnerving, and his power to compel readers to the next page seldom flags.

Time magazine’s Lev Grossman is all admiration, calling it a “magnificent beast of a new novel.” He gives Cronin props for combining his skills as a “literary” novelist (his first book, Mary and O’Neil, won the PEN/Hemingway award), his “extraordinary level of verbal craft and psychological insight” with strong pacing. “He lays out the ground rules, sets the initial conditions and then lets the machine run while you, the reader, claw helplessly for an off switch.”

People gives it the lead review, seconds the comparison to The Stand and adds The Andromeda Strain, but gives it only three out of four stars (review not online until next week):

“Unfortunately The Passage doesn’t quite live up to its forerunners. The first 200 pages are spectacular…Then the story jumps forward a century — and loses momentum… [the] books is bogged down by generic set pieces and color-by-numbers action sequences.”

The New York Times tells the backstory on how Cronin conceived the trilogy that begins wtih The Passage, which fetched a reported $3.75 million, and $1.75 for film rights. while USA Today offers snappy soundbites on the author and book, which was also selected by independent booksellers as the #1 Indie Next Pick for June.

The Passage Justin Cronin Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 784 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-06-08) ISBN / EAN: 0345504968 / 9780345504968

Other Major Fiction Titles on Sale Next Week

Vampire alert! In addition to The Passage, there are two other novels about the blood-loving breed landing next week. And let’s not forget the androids!

• Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown Teens) features a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits.
• Insatiable by Meg Cabot (Morrow) is a contemporary sequel to Dracula from the bestselling author of the Princess Diaries.
• Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books) is the latest in the Quirk Classics series.

These three Indie Next picks for June are also getting mentions in various summer reading roundups or were featured at BEA:

• Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson (Grand Central) is the #2 Indie Next pick after The Passage:  “Jackson writes like a woman on fire, hooking you in the very first sentence (‘It was an airport gypsy that told me I had to kill my husband’) and demanding total absorption straight through to the novel’s stunning conclusion,” says the blurb. Jackson was also one of the AAP Librarians Lunch speakers at BEA.
• A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Knopf) is a collection of layered stories about an aging record exec and his passionate, troubled employee.
• So Cold the River by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown) is about a floundering filmmaker who, in the course of making a documentary about a self-made millionaire, discovers abilities in himself that draw him to a powerful source of evil. “Koryta’s prose is fluid and masterful, making this a delightfully eerie and mesmerizing read,” according to Indie Next.

And here are some of the usual suspects for  summer reading:

• The Lion by Nelson DeMille (Grand Central) is a followup to The Lion’s Game and stars John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective and special agent for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force.
• Death Echo by Elizabeth Lowell (HarperCollins) is the fifth St. Kilda Consulting thriller (after Blue Smoke and Murder). According to PW, “Lowell’s primary focus on espionage rather than on romance is a major change from earlier novels, albeit a pleasing one.”

Clearly, publishers have stayed away from releasing big adult titles next week, since all the air will be sucked up by the release of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the third and final entry in Stieg Larsson‘s Millennium trilogy. It’s true that a John Grisham title is coming this week, but it is for kids. There is also a Stephen King title, but it was already released earlier in a limited small press edition.

And, indeed, the review media is all over Girl.

In today’s New York Times, Michiko Kakutani, the least populist of the NYT reviewers, tries to explain why the series is so popular, and decides it’s not the gore, but the tatooed main character, Lisbeth Salander,

…a heroine who takes on a legal system and evil, cartoony villains with equal ferocity and resourcefulness; a damaged sprite of a girl who becomes a goth-attired avenging angel who can hack into any computer in the world and seemingly defeat any foe in hand-to-hand combat.

Sarah Weinman in The Barnes and Noble Review has a more interesting theory, the appeal is about information,

…Larsson’s enthusiasm for the information he spills out, be it on the annals of his country’s darkest political crimes or the specs of the computer Salander works with, is infectious. Did you know how cool this is? he asks. We did not, but now we do—and yeah, it is pretty cool.

Entertainment Weekly gives it at B+, saying:

Fans of the first two books might miss the Hollywood-blockbuster action sequences and wish Salander — the series’ most compelling character — were more of a presence, but Hornet’s Nest is still a satisfying finale to Larsson’s entertainingly suspenseful trilogy.

USA Today is less impressed:

Hornet’s Nest lacks the narrative drive, energy and originality of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. Those books, you inhaled. Reading this one feels like work. It’s more like a first draft than a polished novel.

Meanwhile, Time magazine delves into the intrigue surrounding Larsson’s estate, following his death in 2004.

The publisher is holding a Lisbeth Salander look-a-like contest.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Stieg Larsson Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-05-25) ISBN / EAN: 030726999X / 9780307269997

• UNABR CD from Random House Audio available May 25: $40; ISBN 9780739384190
• Large Print from Random House: $28; ISBN 9780739377710
• WMA Audiobook available from OverDrive

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham (Dutton) is the first in a series of books targeted at 8- to 12-year-olds, and focuses on a 13-year-old who becomes interwined in a murder trial. Dutton is offering a sneak peek of first chapter. Unsurprisingly, reserves are as high as 3:1 or more at libraries we checked.

Blockade Billy by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster) was released in the Spring in a limited edition from small press Cemetary Dance Publications, which most libraries own. The book is set in the spring of 1957, as an offbeat baseball player achieves stardom. The Los Angeles Times was less than impressed: “Like all King’s work, it has momentum, but reading it, ultimately, is like watching a big leaguer sit in with a farm team: interesting, perhaps, but without the giddy excitement, the sheer, explosive sense of possibility, that marks the highest levels of the game.”

Sidney Sheldon’s After the Darkness by Sidney Sheldon and Tilly Bagshawe (Morrow) is a tale of a New York socialite who marries an elderly hedge fund manager.

Infinity: Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon (St. Martin’s) is the author’s first novel for teens to feature the immortal vampire slayers of her bestselling Dark Hunter series.

The Necromancer by Michael Scott (Delacorte Books for Young Readers) is the fourth installment in the popular series about The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to learn to spell “Paolo Bacigalupi.” The author’s first book, The Windup Girl,  just won a Nebula from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America in the best novel category. It’s also nominated for a Hugo for Best Novel (it’s rare for a first novel to be nominated in this category) and a Locus for Best First Novel.

A recent proflie of the Bacigalupi in Denver WestWorld (he’s from Colorado) reveals his “fascination with the half-hidden horrors of contemporary life” (like the true contents of a PB&J sandwich) and how to pronounce his last name (BAH-cha-ga-loo-py).

The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 300 pages Publisher: Night Shade Books – (2010-04-20) ISBN / EAN: 1597801585 / 9781597801584

Brilliance Audio; UNABR; 9781441866875; 16 CDs; $99.97
MP3-CD; 9781441866899; $44.97

Bacigalupi’s just-released YA title, Ship Breakers had buzz at PLA in March. It also got this great mini-review on our latest Galley Chat from the Nile, Illinois PL,

…modern twist on Mad Max scenario; replaces nukes w/ global warming & trades truck-driving skinheads for boats & pirates

Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316056219 / 9780316056212

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The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy went to an online  title, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente, winning out over conventionally-published titles by established authors. An audio version will be available from Brilliance in April, 2011:

The Girl Who Circumnavigated the Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own
Valente, Catherynne
Read by the author
Brilliance Audio; UNABR; 1441877606; $29.99
Pub Date: April 01, 2011

The winning short story, Spar by Kij Johnson  and winning novelette Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast, by Eugie Foster are also free online. In both categories, there were other nominees that are online titles.  The full list of nominees for all categories is available here.

Among the many series titles coming out this week, is a notable debut mystery. Holds are rising for The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron, about a son on a manhunt for his fugitive father, which arrives with four starred advance reviews.

Library Journal calls it “a richly imagined portrait of the vanishing wilderness in New England’s farthest reaches… a taut thriller and a thoughtful examination of the complicated relationship between father and son.”

Kirkus sums up: ” C.J. Box goes East. Like Box, Doiron will have his hands full trying to top his accomplished debut.”

The Poacher’s Son (Mike Bowditch Mysteries) Paul Doiron Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2010-05-11) ISBN / EAN: 0312558465 / 9780312558468

Macmillan Audio; ISBN:9781427208965; $29.99
Available as a WMA Audio Book from Overdrive
Large Print from Center Point; ISBN 978160285756; $34.95
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Other Major Fiction Titles On Sale Next Week

61 Hours by Lee Child (Delacorte) is the 14th thriller with former military policeman Jack Reacher. In the NYT today, Janet Maslin calls it “the most highly evolved of Lee Child’s electrifying Jack Reacher books.” The new Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- and wonders why Reacher is not yet a household name. The review notes that, despite being part of a long series, the book stands on its own, “Everything you need to know about Jack Reacher is contained within its pages. And chances are you’ll want to seek out other Reacher adventures the moment you finish.”

Storm Prey by John Sandford (Putnam) is the 20th Lucas Davenport mystery.

Blood Oath: The President’s Vampire by Christopher Farnsworth (Putnam) is the first title in a new series featuring 160-year-old vampire Nathaniel Cade.

The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan (Penguin) is the eighth title in the Ranger’s Apprentice Series

Risk No Secrets by Cindy Gerard (Simon & Schuster) is the fifth romantic suspense novel in Gerard’s Black Ops, Inc. series

Young Adult series:

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead (Razorbill) is book five of the Vampire Academy series. It’s already been in the Amazon Top 100 for 43 days and is currently at #23.

Love Bites by Ellen Schreiber (HarperCollins) is the seventh title in the Vampire Kisses Series.

Changes, the latest installment in Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files (Ed. Note: we originally called this the Dexter Files — thanks to the commenter for catching our mashup) urban fantasy series, is in high demand at libraries. But several we checked are behind the curve – either without copies, or catching up on their orders. In libraries that do have it, holds run from 3:1 to as high as 11:1.

Booklist‘s starred review says:

At more than 500 pages, this is one the longest books in the series, but it doesn’t move slowly; in fact, the entire novel takes place over only a few days as Harry races to rescue his daughter before she is sacrificed in a powerful black-magic rite. . . . A can’t-miss entry in one of the best urban-fantasy series currently being published.

Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12) Jim Butcher Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Roc Hardcover – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 045146317X / 9780451463173

Available from Penguin Audiobooks  on April 15, 2010

• CD: $49.95; ISBN 9780143145349

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Also set for release next week, Holly LeCraw‘s debut novel, The Swimming Pool, could be a sleeper. Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest copies.

PW says: “Strong writing keeps the reader sucked in to LeCraw’s painful family drama debut. . . . It is a story of deep and searing love, between siblings and lovers, but most powerfully, between parents and their children

Library Journal adds: “LeCraw’s thoughtful debut novel tells of two families whose lives are entwined by tragedy, secrecy, and scandal.…An insightful piece, not just for beach or airplane reading. An author to watch.”

One book blogger was less sanguine, however, observing that the plot is heavy and lacks momentum.

The Swimming Pool Holly LeCraw Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0385531931 / 9780385531931

Also available as OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Elizabeth Berg‘s The Last Time I Saw You (Random House), a tale of women and men reconnecting at their 40th high school reunion, is well stocked in libraries we checked; the highest holds are 4:1 in one case.

Sue Miller‘s The Lake Shore Limited (Random House), about post-9/11 America, is “fascinating and perfectly balanced with [Miller’s] writerly meditations on the destructiveness of trauma and loss, and the creation and experience of art,” according to PW.

Elizabeth Peters‘s A River in the Sky (HarperCollins) elicits faint praise from Library Journal: “The plot is less riveting than many Peters mysteries, but series fans will enjoy [it]. Fans should note that this is out of chronological order from the rest of the saga.”

Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds (Riverhead) is the lead review in the new issue of People magazine (4/12), receiving 3 out of 4 stars. 

Jennifer Chiaverini‘s The Aloha Quilt (Simon & Schuster) is one that “series fans will enjoy,” according to PW, “and those new to the quilting bee should have no problem finding their groove.”

Richard Paul Evans‘ The Walk (Simon & Schuster), about a man who goes on a soul-searching cross-country trek,” is “intriguing” according to Booklist, which adds that “the pages turn quickly.”

Martha Grimes‘s The Black Cat (Penguin) is the author’s “best book in years” according to PW‘s Galley Talk column.

Raymond E. Feist‘s At the Gates of Darkness (Demonwar Saga #2) (HarperCollins) doesn’t get highest marks from PW: “There’s an air of been there, done that to the familiar YAish fantasy plot, relegating it to the status of comfort reading for Feist’s longtime fans.”

E. O. Wilson‘s Anthill (Knopf) gets a mixed review from Library Journal: “Though his characters come off as one-dimensional, Wilson excels at describing the pungent smells and tranquil silence of the disappearing wetlands of Alabama.”

Christopher Rice‘s The Moonlit Earth (Scribner) also gets a mixed response from Booklist: “A bit contrived, but . . . the author pushes through those moments . . . sure to appeal to Rice’s fan base.”