New books from award winners are big next week, from Caldecott medalists Jerry Pinkney and David Wiesner to the longlisted National Book Awards title from Meg Rosoff … Your next favorite read aloud, Snatchabook, focuses on the love of reading … In tie-ins, releases of Ender’s Game and Frozen signal two big fall movies arriving in November.

Titles mentioned here, and more arriving next week, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kid’s New Title Radar; Week of Sept. 30.

Picture Books

The Tortoise & the Hare, Jerry Pinkney, (Hachette/LBYR)

Caldecott-winning artist Pinkney, (The Lion And The Mouse) retells Aesop’s fable, set in the American Southwest. The illustrations are rich in detail, accurately displaying the flora and fauna of the region’s landscape. These animals are more anthropomorphic than his previous retelling, with the turtle sporting a train engineer’s cap (perhaps a nod to John Henry) and the rabbit in a checkered vest. Another winner.

Snatchabook, Thomas Docherty, Helen Docherty, (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky)

Looking for a new read aloud picture book so delightful that it sings? Look no further, it’s here.

Click on the title link to see some of the charming interior spreads.

Mr. Wuffles!, David Wiesner, (HMH/Clarion Books)

The world has gone cat crazy, from French video star, Henri, Le Chat Noir, who paces to an interior monologue of ennui, to  Grumpy Cat, who has his own bestselling book from Chronicle (and the longest lines at Book Expo).

Now there is Mr. Wuffles! Inventive, surprising, with sly humor and visual jokes, three-time Caldecott-winner David Weisner gives new life to the alien invasion trope.

Young Adult

Picture Me Gone, Meg Rosoff, (Penguin/Putnam)

Longlisted for the National Book Awards, this is a story that sneaks up on you. Written from the point of view of a very smart, very aware (think Sherlock Holmes) twelve-year-old, it is about a girl accompanying her father on a trip to the United States to search for his missing best friend.

Movie Tie-ins

Ender’s Game (Movie Tie-In), Orson Scott Card, (Macmillan/Tor Teen; also in trade pbk)

Whatever you think of Orson Scott Card’s politics or point of view, when Enders Game was published in 1985, it brought a new vision to speculative fiction with its intergalactic power plays and the fate of the human race resting on the gaming skills of children. The book has reappeared on best seller lists as attention is gearing up for the movie, which open Nov. 1, starring Harrison Ford as Col. Hyrum Graff and Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin.

New TV spot below:

Frozen Tie-ins

Disney’s big animated feature for the winter, opening Nov. 27, is appropriately titled Frozen, which is oosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen,

In addition to the novelization (pictured), several tie-ins are being published.

See our downloadable spreadsheet, Kid’s New Title Radar; Week of Sept. 30, for the full list.

Two titles on just-announced longlist for the National Book Awards for Young People’s Literature arrive tomorrow; The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond Press) and Kate DiCamillo’s Flora and Ulysses (Candlewick). On our Watch List is the next title in one of my favorite new middle grade series and a title that’s been buzzed on YA GalleyChat. With all the ads out there for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, we probably don’t need to remind you that it opens this weekend. For those who want to read ahead, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 3 : Planet of the Pies came out last month.

See our downloadable spreadsheet with the movie tie-ins, the titles highlighted here, and many more  coming this week, Kids New Title Radar — Wk. of Sept 23.

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, Kate DiCamillo, illus. by K.G. Campbell, (Candlewick)

It’s no surprise that the latest by award winning author Kate DiCamillo is a delight to hold. Those who read it digitally will miss the beautiful bookmaking, the heft, the delicious paper stock and the shiny embossed red detail that dances across the cover, even landing on the tiny letters on the comic that Flora is hugging. DiCamillo and her partners-in-crime the creative team at Candlewick, fearlessly experiment with a hybrid graphic format telling the quiet, funny and sometimes sad tale of self-proclaimed cynic Flora and her superhero squirrel companion Ulysses.

The review in the New York Times Book Review  is particularly insightful. Christine Scheper, Children’s Materials Specialist, Queens Library, NYC gives the ultimate librarian recommendation “As a children’s librarian I am always thinking ‘who is this book for?’ I would give this book to everyone! It’s hysterically funny.”

As a special gift from the publisher and School Library Journal, you are invited to join a Livestream Event featuring Kate DiCamillo and Jon Scieszka live from Bank Street College of Education on Monday October 21st. Set up an assembly so all of your students, parents, and teachers can share the belly laughs with these two hilarious authors. It’s the school visit to end all school visits!

Watch List

Good Night, Zombie, James Preller, illus. by Iacopo Bruno, (S&S/Feiwell & Friends, simultaneous paper and hardcover)

AsI said about the earlier titles in this series, I am thrilled with these early chapter books that are just scary enough for newly fluent third graders. Lots of dark scratchboard illustrations, and a flip animation spider that crawls down the margin, adds visual interest. Happily, at least three more titles are planned in the series.

Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson, (Delacorte Press; Brilliance Audio)

As proclaimed on the cover, Sanderson is a NYT best selling author, but for adult titles (he completed Robert Jordan’s fantasy series The Wheel of Time). He has also published a series of YA novels (beginning with the marvelously-titled Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians) and the standalone YA/middle grade novel, The Rithmatist, which came out in May. This beginning of a new series is called by SLJ a “fun, fast-paced, futuristic science-fiction superhero story.” Librarians on YA GalleyChat report that kids are eagerly awaiting this one.

This is the week, or perhaps, the entire season of Stephen King. Arriving on Tuesday is Doctor Sleep, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; Thorndike), the sequel to his nearly 40-year old horror classic, The Shining, Featured on the cover of this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, it gets literary cred from Margaret Atwood, who asserts, “Some may look skeptically at ‘horror’ as a genre, but it’s one of the most literary of all forms.” With all this attention to The Shining, it’s no surprise that holds are building on it (Penguin/Anchor released a new trade paperback edition last month).

An adaptation of another King classic from the 1970’s, Carrie, arrives in theaters on Oct. 18. Tie-ins to that film are being released this week (see below, under Movie Tie-ins).

Also arriving is the title that rivals Doctor Sleep for appearing on the most “fall picks” lists, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; RH Large Print). It has TWO major awards nominations; the UK’s Booker and the US National Book Awards and is reviewed in today’s NYT by the redoubtable Michiko Kakutani.

The books highlighted here, and more arriving next week, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Sept 23.

Watch List

Cartwheel, Jennifer duBois, (Random House; RH Audio)

Also on several fall previews, this novel which echoes a high-profile murder case, is a departure for the author, whose debut, A Partial History of Lost Causes was a literary phenomenon, drawing award nominations and gaining the author a spot on the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” list. This, her second novel, is a LibraryReads pick for October:

“College student Lily Hayes is an accident waiting to happen. While studying abroad in Buenos Aires, she becomes the prime suspect in her roommate Katy’s murder. DuBois’s haunting story captures a family shattered by their young daughter’s imprisonment. A well-written novel highly recommended for book clubs.” — Karen Kilbride, Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis, MN

Hawthorn & Child, Keith Ridgway, (New Directions)

This trade paperback original is also a LibraryReads pick for October:

“Ridgway has taken the ‘partner cops’ and ‘troubled cops’ sub-genres to new levels. Hawthorn is a haunted man with a callous worldview. Child is his apt foil: humane, funny and insightful. Set in contemporary London, the story draws readers quickly and completely into a complex, seedy world of crime, madness and despair.”  — Margaret Donovan, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, MA

The Dead Run, Adam Mansbach, (HarperVoyager)

Mansbach, best known for his inspired faux children’s book, Go the F**k to Sleep, is also the author of several adult novels. A scary, if a bit opaque book trailer for this one  is featured as one of Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” blog’s “exclusives” today. Prepub reviews are strong, with Kirkus judging it,  “certifiably some Weird Stuff … A head-spinning mashup of genres, with a cast that includes bikers, hookers, demons and corrupt cops. It works.”

Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris, Ann Mah, (Penguin/Pamela Dorman Books)

We’ve been told that the French raise their children better, that French women don’t get fat and the French just generally do everything better. Now it’s time to stop flagellating ourselves and just enjoy all things French. In this memoir of her time in France, American  Ann Mah explores the signature dish of each region, resulting in a “honest, funny, and eloquent memoir is sure to delight lovers of France, food, or travel,” (Library Journal), Learn more about it, and the other books that Pamela Dorman is publishing this season, on Penguin’s Editor’s Buzz.

Cookbooks 

That’s right,  Martha Stweart’s Cakes (RH/Clarkson Potter) and Skinny Bitch Bakery (HarperCollins/HarperOne) are coming out on the very same day.

Media Magnets

An Appetite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio)

NPR’s Web site calls this memoir by lightning rod Dawkins, “funny and modest, absorbing and playful … a marvelous love letter to science.”

Movie Tie-ins 

Parkland (Movie Tie-In Edition), Vincent Bugliosi, Trade paperback: $16.95, (Norton)

The 50th anniversary of  JFK’s assassination is bringing a raft of books and a movie based on a book, Parkland, about the chaos that ensued at Parkland Hospital in Dallas when the staff discovered that their incoming patient was the president. Just a few days later, they had to treat Oswald. Based on Vincent Bugliosi’s exhaustive 1,612 page book on the assasination, Reclaiming History, (Norton, 2007; it was released the following year in a shorter, 688 page trade paperback, Four Days in November; the tie-in is the shorter version).

Produced by Tom Hanks’ Playtone Partners and starring Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, Billy Bob Thornton, Jacki Weaver and Paul Giamatti (as Abraham Zapruder, the man in the crowd who captured the assassination on his home movie camera), it is considered an Oscar contender.Vanity Fair recently interviewed the filmmaker, Peter Landesman. It arrives in theaters on Oct. 4.

Below is the trailer:

Carrie, Stephen King, Movie Tie-in Edition:

Trade pbk, (RH/Anchor)
Mass Mkt. pbk.  (RH/Anchor)
Books on Tape and RH Audio (read by Sissy Spacek)
Spanish Movie Tie-in Edition,(RH/ Vintage)

This, the second adaptation of the Stephen King classic, is directed by Kimberly Peirce, (Boys Don’t Cry), who has said her Carrie is not  a remake of De Palma’s version, but a return to King’s original (see MovieWeb‘s on-set interview with the director for more insight on Peirce’s approach to the novel,). Link here for the trailer: Carrie-Movie.com. It opens on Oct. 18.

Aftershock (Inequality for All—Movie Tie-in Edition), Robert B Reich, (Vintage paper original)

Reich appeared on the Daily Show on Monday to promote this movie, which was an unexpected hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It is being rolled out in a limited number of theaters beginning next week.

Leading in library holds of the books releasing next week are Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts, (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance Aucdio; Thorndike), followed closely by Catherine Coulter’s The Final Cut, her first book with a co-author and the first in a new series (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike Large Print), and Nicholas Sparks next sure-to-be-a-major-motion-picture, The Longest Ride, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print).

Also among the big names next week is Nelson DeMille, taking a bit of a detour into Dan Brown territory with a novel featuring characters in search of  the Holy Grail.

All titles highlighted here and more coming next week, are available on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Sept 16.

The Quest, Nelson DeMille, (Hachette/Center Street; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print)

There are no prepub reviews on this one because it was already published in paperback in 1975. This is a revised hardcover, with DeMille’s current signature cover treatment, of a book the author wanted to return to. As he as he told PW‘s BEA Show Daily, “I think a lot of authors would like the opportunity to take one of their earlier books which are good, but not as good as they could do after all the years of working in the trenches. Authors do become better writers.”

Watch List

Seven for a Secret, Lyndsay Faye, (Penguin/Putnam/Amy Einhorn; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike)

The first in Lyndsay Faye’s series, The Gods of Gotham, came out last year to a great deal of fanfare (NPR’s Fresh Air reviewer Maureen Corrigan called it “one of the worthiest successors yet” to Caleb Carr’s The Alienist). Librarians have praised the sequel on GalleyChat, saying they liked it even better than the first. Clearly, the publisher feels there is a need for a rebranding, giving this one a new cover style. The cover blurb, from Gillian Flynn, is a single word, “Amazing.”

Help for the Haunted, John Searles, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe)

Excitement began building for this title on GalleyChat and was then sealed when librarians were charmed by the author at the AAP librarians dinner at BEA. It is a Sept. LibraryReads pick:

“Fourteen-year-old Sylvia slowly unravels deep family secrets after her demonologist parents are gunned down in a deserted church. Creepy, disturbing, and compelling, with gothic overtones and well-drawn characters, Help for the Haunted is definitely one of my favorite suspense novels of the year. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to older teens, and it would also make a terrific movie.” — Robin Beerbower, Salem Public Library, Salem, OR

This is the second of two books this week with a cover blurb from Gillian Flynn; “Dazzling … a novel both frightening and beautiful.”

The Big Crowd, Kevin Baker, (HMH)

In this coming Sunday’s of the New York Times Book Review, author Scott Turow gives this title a strong full-page review, ending with, “I’ve read few other novels that portray in such a nuanced way the temptations of power, the complex division of control in a great metropolis and the perils of political deal-making in that environment.” Kevin Baker, the author of the City of Fire trilogy: Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Strivers Row,   has recently been writing about politics for Harper’s Magazine and the New York Observer. This one seems to have fallen below the prepub radar; only Booklist covered it, lso very positively, but library orders are   light.

Media Magnets 

Command And Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Eric Schlosser (Penguin Press; RH/BOT; Thorndike)

Yes, the Fast Food Nation guy now takes on a new subject,  the dangers of storing nuclear weapons, beginning with a near-disaster in Damascus, AR.  It is reviewed in this week’s NYT Book Review, and the author is scheduled for several shows, including CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, PRI’s To the Point. Reviews are expected from many consumer sources, including The Rolling Stone.

Simple Dreams, Lind Ronstadt, (S&S; S&S Audio)

The 60’s singer has been much in the news for her announcement that she is suffering from Parkinson’s and can no longer sing. Next week, she is scheduled to appear on ABC/ World News with Diane Sawyer; ABC/Good Morning America; ABC/Nightline and NPR’s Fresh Air. Entertainment Weekly gives the book a B, saying she does not mention her Parkinson’s, diagnosed as the book was going to press,  and that, although she “writes evocatively about growing up in the Arizona desert and her musical collaborations, this is a largely scuttlebutt-free zone. That’s her right, but the few tales of excessive behavior by the likes of Jim Morrison and Gram Parsons do leave you wanting more.”

Kate: The Future Queen, Katie Nicholl, (Weinstein Books; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike)

This one was embargoed so that Vanity Fair, where the author is a contributor, could have the exclusive, with an excerpt in the Oct. issue . After all, they had to protect the hot news that the future queen eats muesli bars and smoothies for breakfast.

The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski, Samantha Geimer, (S&S/Atria)

A memoir by the woman Roman Polanski was convicted of raping as a girl. She is set  to appear next week on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s The View, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Movie Tie-ins

A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips, (Hyperion)

Advertising is heavy and early reviews are strong for this adaptation of Captain Richard Phillips’ memoir, A Captain’s Duty, which opens Oct 11, starring Tom Hanks. Phillips became a national hero in 2009 when he courageously led his crew to safety after Somali pirates hijacked his unarmed merchant marine ship. There’s no tie-in, but the paperback now features a sticker, “The Inspiration for the Major Motion Picture.”

Adore: A Novella, Doris Lessing, (HarperPerennial)

Based on Doris Lessing’s novella, titled The Grandmothers, this is a reminder that fiction about older women sleeping with teen age boys was not invented by Alissa Nutting in Tampa. The “grandmothers” in Lessing’s book are childhood best friends who had affairs with each other’s teenage sons. The movie, titled Adore, starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, is in a limited number of theaters and on VOD (reviews have not been kind — see the NYT, and NPR’s web site, while Entertainment Weekly was somewhat more positive).

Leading the pack in holds next week is Sue Grafton’s 23nd title, W is for Wasted (Penguin/Putnam/Marian Wood; RH/BOT Audio; Thorndike), reminding us that she has only three letters left for this series. It’s always fun to see what dog-related pun Spencer Quinn will come up with for the next in his Chet and Bernie series; the new one is The Sound and the Furry (S&S/Atria). Tom Perrotta uses an attention-getting title for his new collection of short stories, Nine Inches, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio).

But this week is less about recognizable names than a wide range of intriguing debuts and narrative nonfiction vying for attention; check our downloadable spreadsheet New Title Radar, Week of Sept 9, with notes on why they caught our interest and ordering information. Below are some highlights:

Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin; Listening Library)

This has been THE top favorite on both our adult and YA Galleyhats, so we weren’t surprised when it was chosen as the #1 LibraryReads pick for the inaugural, September LibraryReads list. It gets a two-page centerfold ad, highlighting the selection, in the upcoming 9/8 NYT Book Review. Published as a YA title, it was chosen for it’s strong crossover appeal:

“At turns funny, sweet, smart, and sad, Fangirl traces Cath’s journey to independence as she begins college, struggles to have an identity separate from her twin sister, find her voice and passion as a writer and fall in love, maybe, for the first time. As sharp and emotionally resonant as Rowell’s previous novel, Eleanor & Park.” — Stephanie Chase, Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, Sheri Fink, (RH/Crown; RH Audio/BOT)

About the heart-wrenching decisions that had to be made after Hurricane Katrina devastated Memorial Hospital in New Orleans, this is another LibraryReads pick and is connecting with the media. It’s reviewed in the 9/8 New York Times Book Review, and will be featured next week on Comedy Central’s Daily Show as well as NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet, John Bradshaw, (Basic Books)

The author of the best-selling Dog Sense now turns to the world’s most popular pets. This was already featured yesterday on NPR’s Fresh Air.

The leader in library holds for books arriving next week is Lee Child’s Never Go Back, (RH/Delacorte; RH Audio; RH Large Print). It seems readers were able to overcome the shock of Tom Cruise starring in Jack Reacher, the movie based on One Shot (there may actually be a sequel. Although the movie didn’t do well here, it was a success internationally). Child is scheduled to appear on MSNBC ‘s Morning Joe on publication day.

Dystopian trilogies aren’t just for YA authors; Margaret Atwood finishes hers with MaddAddam, (RH/Doubleday/Nan A. Talese; RH Audio; RH Large Print). The Wall Street Journal‘s “Speakeasy” blog has been running a serialization of it all week.

Titles highlighted here, plus several more arriving next week, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, with ordering information and alternate formats, New Title Radar, Week of 9/2/13.

Watch List

Alex, Pierre Lemaitre, trans. by Frank Wynne, (Quercus/MacLehose Press)

Quercus, founded in the U.K. in 2004, has grown into one of the largest independent publishers there, helped in no small part by its acquisition of the English-language rights to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy (published here by RH/Knopf). Just launching in the U.S., this is their lead title, a translation of a French best selling crime novel, acquired by Christopher MacLehose, who also acquired Larsson’s books. It’s no  surprise, then, that librarians on GalleyChat saw similarities to Larsson’s twists and turns, with one calling the book “crazy creepy; you don’t know what is REALLY happening until the very end.” Another loaned her ARC to her adult son who “immediately wanted to read something else by the author.” No worries; this is the first in the Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy.

It’s also an IndieNext pick for September:  “A beautiful woman is kidnapped after leaving a Paris shop and is brutally beaten and suspended from the ceiling in a wooden crate in an abandoned warehouse by a man who tells her he wants to watch her die. Police Commander Camille Verhoeven is assigned to the case after eyewitnesses report the abduction. Verhoeven is a detective whose tragic past has crippled him, but he is able to use his extraordinary investigative abilities to understand the victim. Alex is chilling and frequently horrifying as the plot twists catch the reader by surprise at every turn.” —Fran Keilty, The Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington Depot, CT

Margot, Jillian Cantor, (Penguin/Riverhead trade pbk original)

Librarian interest in this LibraryReads pick, a debut published as a trade paperback original, began building at BEA when Angela Carstensen, SLJ‘s “Adult Books 4 Teens” columnist presented it during the librarian’s Shout ‘n’ Share panel, saying it’s the imagined “story of Anne Frank’s sister who survived the war and moved to Philadelphia. It is 1959, Margot is working as a law secretary, and no one knows she survived the camps. The writing is very readable, and Margot’s situation sympathetic.” That was followed by enthusiasm on GalleyChat, and its selection as one of ten on the LibraryReads inaugural list:

“Can you hide from your past and change who you are? If you try, what do you risk losing? This delicately written novel proposes an alternate fate for Anne Frank’s sister: Margot Frank survives the war, moves to Philadelphia, finds work as a law secretary and assumes the identity ‘Margie Franklin.’ But when the movie version of The Diary of a Young Girl is released and the law firm takes on the case of a Holocaust survivor, Margot’s past and Margie’s carefully constructed present collide. This great book will appeal to reading groups and fans of alternative history, what-if novels and character-centered fiction.” — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Cain’s Blood,(S&S/Touchstone; Brilliance Audio) and Project Cain (S&S Books for Young Readers), both by Geoffrey Girard

This dystopian story about a deranged geneticist who creates multiple clones of real-life serial killers (Jeffrey Dahmer and others) comes in two versions — the adult thriller and a YA companion, told from the perspective of one of the teenage clones. Booklist gave it a strong assessment; “This must be the highest-concept, most movie-ready idea of the year …  an updated The Boys from Brazil that ably mixes nature-versus-nature dilemmas with horrifying scenes of slasherdom.” On that latter note, Kirkus warns, “With a majority of the horrific acts depicted in gory detail, including thrill murder, rape, torture, necrophilia, etc., committed by and upon teens and young children, this book isn’t for every horror fan.” Reviews of  Project Cain are pretty damning. Says Kirkus, it “pales in comparison to the similarly themed novels of Dan Wells and Barry Lyga. Stick with Wells and Lyga; this muddle is just plain insulting.”

Media Magnet 

Salinger, by David Shields, Shane Salerno, (S&S)

Media coverage for this look at the world’s most reclusive author began this week and will continue next week with appearances on PBS’s Charlie Rose show, Comedy Central’s Colbert Report and NPR’s Weekend Edition. A documentary will also appear in theaters (to be aired on PBS in January). Entertainment Weekly gives the book a B- and a lower grade to the movie, a middling C, saying, “Like the book, it suffers from its creators’ obsessive zeal. Only here, you can’t page ahead to the next chapter. ”

Movie Tie-in

12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup. (Penguin Books; Tantor Audio)

The movie based on this 1853 memoir has been widely picked as a major Oscar contender.

Official Movie Site: 12YearsASlave.com

See trailer below:
 

Arriving next week are new titles by several favorite mystery authors, led by Louise Penny, whose previous Inspector Gamache title, The Beautiful Mystery, hit new highs for her on best seller lists, debuting at #2 on the NYT  list. The new novel, How the Light Gets In receives 4 of 4 stars in the new issue of People, saying. “Penny delivers a masterful, nuanced suspense novel in which tone and setting are just as riveting as the murder’s who and why.” It is featured on the inaugural LibraryReads list. Also arriving are new titles by Diane Mott Davidson, Kathy Reichs, and the mother/son writing team of Charles Todd.

Below are several titles to keep your eye on; all the titles highlighted here and more coming next week are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, with ordering information and alternate formats, New Title Radar, Week of 8/26/13.

Watch List

The Returned, Jason Mott, (Harlequin/MIRA; Brilliance; Thorndike)

Book trailers are so yesterday. This debut has one, but it also arrives with a trailer for an ABC series based on it. Inexplicably renamed Resurrection, it begins in March.

This debut engendered  big buzz at BEA this year and was a favorite among librarians on the Shout ‘n’ Share panel. It’s on the inaugural LibraryReads list, with this compelling annotation:

Around the world, people are coming back from the dead and trying to reunite with their loved ones. In a tiny Southern town, Harold and Lucille Hargrave are astonished to have their son Jacob come back to them fifty years after he died. A global government agency at first works to reunite “The Returned” with their families, then later confines them as more and more people come back from the dead. A beautifully written exploration of love and family, community and responsibility, and a perfect book group selection. – Vicki Nesting, St. Charles Parish Library, Destrehan, LA

It’s received 4 starred reviews from the pre-pub sources and Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+.

ABC series trailer:

The Affairs of Others, Amy Grace Loyd, (Picador)

This debut gets an A- from Entertainment Weekly, which calls it mesmerizing. It is also an IndieNext pick for September;

“With elements of both Alfred Hitchcock and Ian McEwan, this gorgeously written novel seduces the reader into a fascinating world with its own vortex. Celia, the young widow who keeps careful tabs on her Brooklyn apartment building, is drawn deeply into her tenants’ lives after the sensuous Hope takes a sublet. Peopled with intriguing characters — the elderly ferry boat captain who doesn’t mind climbing four flights to his room with a water view, the disappearing cleaning woman — and infused with the sights and sounds of the perpetually mysterious New York City, this book unfolds with stunning momentum and reverberates long after the reader has turned the final page.” —Jaime Clarke, Newtonville Books, Newton Centre, MA

Early Decision, Lacy Crawford, (HarperCollins/Morrow)

Entertainment Weekly gives this a B+, but it may rate an A+ among certain audiences, based on the following; “Overbearing moms and dads scheming to secure their kid a place at Harvard will find this novel more helpful than any nonfiction book on the market. But everyone else can enjoy Early Decision for what it is: a sweetly sharp modern-day comedy of manners about the brutally competitive college-admissions ordeal.”

Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, Sarah Weinman, (Penguin Books)

As the NYT noted last week, “readers looking for ‘the next Gillian Flynn’ would be smart to consider her predecessors,“ featured in this anthology by the most insightful writer on mysteries today, Sarah Weinmen. The intro alone should be required reading for all reader’s advisors (and Penguin is offering a chance to win a copy).

Nonfiction

War Dogs, Rebecca Frankel, (S&S/Atria)

Rebecca Frankel is the “Chief Canine Correspondent” for “Best Defense,” on Foreign Policy‘s web site. Her column, “War Dog of the Week” gets millions of hits (unsurprisingly, it’s the most popular section of Foreign Policy‘s site). Other books on dogs at war, such as Maria Goodavage’s Soldier Dogs (Penguin/Dutton; 2012) and Trident K9 Warriors (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; April, 2013) have hit best seller lists. You don’t need to know all that to bet this will be popular; just look at that cover.

Among the titles we’re watching next week is a book that has had so much attention it seems to be causing a backlash among reviewers, Night Film by Marisha Pessl (Random House). Author James McBride publishes his first book in four years, a novel with a surprising twist and newly minted best seller JoJo Moyes follows up last year’s word of mouth hit.

All of the books highlighted here and more coming next week, are also listed on our downloadable spreadsheet with ordering information and alternate formats, New Title Radar, Week of Aug 19

Best Selling Authors

After publishing ten novels, British romance author Jojo Moyes became a best seller last year with Me Before You, a book that added a Jodi Picoult type poignancy to the author’s usual style, featuring the relationship between a quadriplegic and  his caregiver. This step away from the romance genre was signaled by a distinctive all-type cover. The Girl You Left Behind (Penguin/Pamela Dorman; Thorndike) continues that cover style (now that Moyes is a best selling author, her name migrates into large letters above the title). The novel follows two love stories, 90 years apart linked by a painting. This is more familiar territory for Moyes; Last Letter From Your Lover, 2011, also features a double love story, set years apart and linked by a letter. Entertainment Weekly gives the new book an A-.

The Good Lord Bird, James McBride, (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape audio; Thorndike)

Speaking of covers, at first glance, does the one at the left look like a novel by James McBride, or a new book by Alexander McCall Smith?

Clearly something is afoot. McBride, author of the memoir, The Color of Water, a NYT bestseller for over two years, and two novels based on events in African American history, Miracle at St. Anna (2002) and Song Yet Sung (2009) again turns to history . This time, it’s the abolitionist John Brown. The twist signaled by the cover is that this one, amazingly, is a comedy. It is featured on the cover of the upcoming NYT Sunday Book Review, which applauds the book for its “countless uproarious moments,” and says McBride is “like a modern-day Mark Twain: evoking sheer glee with every page.”

Watch List 

 Night Film, Marisha Pessl, (Random House; RH Audio)

After a remarkable amount of prepub attention, including a feature on last week’s CBS Sunday Morning, which included the book’s eerie trailer, Marisha Pessl’s novel broke in to the top 100 on Amazon sales rankings with growing holds in libraries.

Now come the backlash. Janet Maslin reviews it in the NYT on Thursday and is definitely not a fan. Author Joe Hill, reviewing it in the upcoming NYT BR also rains on the parade and the L.A. Times critic, David Ulin finds it problematic, saying the book held him “hostage” (and not in a good way). Even Entertainment Weekly, for all the attention the “Shelf Life” blog lavished on the book, gives it just a B. Several librarians on GalleyChat reported they were grabbed by the first half, but let down by the second. All said they were enthralled by the integration of images and text (the Wall Street Journal looks at the lengths the author went to in creating the visual elements. A free app is included in the book to explore more).

The book is on the inaugural LibraryReads list, with this convincing annotation:

Scott McGrath has it all — a successful career in journalism, a beautiful wife, and an adorable daughter — until his impulsive, possibly libelous comment about the mysterious film director Stanislav Cordova causes everything to fall apart. Five years later, Cordova’s talented daughter, Ashley, dies from an apparent suicide — or is it? A giant, delicious, juicy read in the noir tradition that cuts across genres.

Elizabeth Olesh, Nassau Library System, Uniondale, NY

The Bone Season, Samantha Shannon, (Macmillan/Bloomsbury)

The 21-year-old novelist is profiled in New York magazine ahead of publication, noting that the author has been ” lauded as ‘the next J. K. Rowling, a comparison that both thrills and rankles,” the author who was six years old when the first Harry Potter was published and a big fan. But, she says her story about a clairvoyant who is shipped off to a penal colony in a future Great Britain which outlaws such powers, is “much darker.” It is an Indie Next title for Sept:  “Shannon has created a world that will set your imagination on fire and lure you in so absolutely that you will forget your surroundings.” The book is also considered a strong YA crossover title.

Media Magnet 

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong – and What You Really Need to Know (Penguin Press, 8/20; Blackstone Audio)

We’ve had our eye on the controversy this book has been getting, expecting it to take off a la Tiger Mom. We’re surprised to find, however, in spite of all  the attention, holds are still low in libraries.

Among the books arriving next week with waiting holds queues, is Debbie Macomber’s next, Rose Harbor in Bloom, (RH/Ballantine; RH & BOT Audio; RH Large Print), released in time to take advantage of the Hallmark series based on Macomber’s earlier books, starring Andie MacDowell.

Those who enjoy a bit of torture with their serial killers, will be looking forward to the next Chelsea Cain title featuring the ultimate mean girl, Gretchen Lowell in Let Me Go (Macmillan/Minotaur; Thorndike) as well as Swedish author Arne Dahl’s Bad Blood, (RH/Pantheon; BOT Audio), about a literary critic  whose tortured dead body is found in Newark airport (is this an author’s revenge fantasy?). It’s starred by Booklist: “Dahl has established himself as one of the leading voices in Scandinavian crime fiction.”

Titles highlighted here are also listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Aug 12

Watch List

Women of a Dangerous Age, Fanny Blake, (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne)

Former British publisher Fanny Blake’s second novel about two women who meet on a trip to India, each of them pondering major shifts in their romantic lives, got just one prepub review, from Booklist, which deems it merely a “pleasantly diverting read” for fans of JoJo Meyers. Wendy Bartlett at Cuyahoga P.L. is buying more than that review would warrant. She sees it this way, “Think Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Library’s power customers are women between 45-70. I am always on the lookout for books that target this audience. It’s chic lit for cynical older women like me who know shopping actually doesn’t solve anything, but leaving your husband may. I’m betting they’ll grab this one.”

Awards Contender 

The People in the Trees, Hanya Yanagihara, (RH/Doubleday; Dreamscape Audio)

In a starred review, Kirkus calls this title part of  “that rare subgenre of literature, the anthropological novel, ” (drawing comparisons to Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, and Peter Matthiessen’s At Play in the Fields of the Lord). PW also stars it; “Driven by Yanagihara’s gorgeously complete imaginary ethnography on the one hand and, on the other, by her brilliantly detestable narrator, this debut novel is compelling on every level—morally, aesthetically, and narratively.”

Librarian Favorite

The Color Master: Stories, Aimee Bender, (RH/Doubleday)

Libraries are credited with making Bender’s novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, a best seller (former RH library marketer, Marcie Purcell was a major and effective proponent). Fans of that book, about a girl who tastes the emotions of the person who created the food she eats, will recognize similar elements in the title story about an apprentice who learns how to create clothing that looks like natural objects, a feat she can only achieve this when she allows her emotions free reign. Entertainment Weekly aptly says that reading Bender is “like having a very clever, very melancholy friend describe their dreams to you in vivid, fantastical detail. ”

Timely Topics

The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age, Catherine Steiner-Adair, Teresa H.  Barker,  (Harper)

Author Steiner-Adair was  quoted recently in a USA Today story about Anthony Weiner’s sexting behavior. Given the media’s fascinated with the shifts brought about by the digital revolution, we can expect attention for this book that uses cautionary real-life tales to show that today’s families “are embracing technology at the expense of face-to-face engagement.” PW prescribes it as “required reading for all parents.”

The Smartest Kids in the World, Amanda Ripley, (Simon & Schuster)

Here’s a clue: the smartest kids aren’t Americans. Parents will be clamoring to read this examination of how other countries educate better. Kirkus calls it, “A compelling, instructive account regarding education in America, where the arguments have become ‘so nasty, provincial, and redundant that they no longer lead anywhere worth going” and PW says,  ‘This timely and inspiring book offers many insights into how to improve America’s mediocre school system.”  Media attention is beginning; the Daily Beast covers it today and the Wall Street Journal published a story by the author last week.

Unbeatable: Notre Dame’s 1988 Championship and the Last Great College Football Season St. Martin’s Press

We may not know much about football, but we do know that Notre Dame fans give new meaning to the word, so we’ll go out on a limb  and suggest you increase your order for this book that details the team’s stellar 1988 comeback year. PW notes it is,  “A mostly pedestrian sports book that will appeal to Notre Dame’s legions of fans.”  The emphasis needs to be on the latter point.

Let Freedom Ring: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the March on Washington, Kitty Kelley, (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne Books)

Known for her muck-raking books on celebrities, Kelley has recently abondoned that to publish books based on the photos left to her by her close friend, Stanley Tretick. Last year, she published Capturing Camelot, a collection of his photos of the Kennedys. This book contains his photos of the March on Washington. The fiftieth anniversary of that historic event  will be commemorated at the end of this month,

Of the titles releasing next week (downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of Aug. 5), below are a few that should be particular hits with kids.

NG Kids Ultimate Weird But True 2: 1,000 Wild & Wacky Facts & Photos! (National Geographic)

This is the second in a high-interest reading series that appeals to kids who can read, but choose not to. Each page is a glossy color photo with fun facts. The first one flew off the shelves and this one will too.
 

Robots, Robots Everywhere!  Sue Fliess, illus. by Bob Staake (RH/Little Golden Books)

Short rhyming text perfectly supported by Staake’s primary colored graphic images demonstrate why “Golden Books” is a go-to brand for preschool story time.

The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett: An Origami Yoda Book, Tom Angleberger, (Abrams/Amulet)

The first title in this series, The Strange Case Of Origami Yoda was a best seller and for good reason. It was a terrific school story, told from different points of view, formatted in the style of Wimpy Kid. We all know series that peter out after the 2nd or 3rd book. Angleberger demonstrates in this 4th book that he has hit the mark in portraying contemporary middle school life.

Llama Llama And The Bully Goat, Anna Dewney, (Penguin/Viking)

Llama Llama Red Pajama continues to be be one of my favorite read alouds for the pre-school set. Anna Dewney continues the series that and helps children manage “big feelings.” In previous books we learned that sharing is hard and it’s okay to get angry. Now she tackles teasing with just the right light touch.

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales Donner Dinner Party, Nathan Hale, (Abrams/Amulet)

Thanks to one of my trusted sources, Susan Faust, school librarian and children’s book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, for recommending this one. She says,

“Heading up to Tahoe on Interstate 80? A tidy graphic novel recounts the mess at the summit in the winter of 1846-47. Quick summary: Things go from bad to worse for a wagon train headed from Illinois to California, and there is nothing left to eat but each other. The narrator is Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, who foresees another gruesome chapter in American history right before the British hang him in 1776. (With the same name as the real-life author, he ties together the Hazardous Tales series.) Although it’s based on somber truths, irreverence rules with Mad Magazine edge and snarky asides. Still, the main themes are intact: arduous journey, bad choices, hubris, hunger, cold and an infamous end.”

James Patterson releases his 115th title next week, Mistress, (Hachette/Little, Brown), putting him on track to match last year’s record output of 13 titles (5 of them children’s). This is his second title with David Ellis, following Guilty Wives. Ellis released a title of his own just last week, The Last Alibi (Penguin/Putnam; Thorndike).

Other usual suspects arriving next week are Faye Kellerman with The Beast (HarperCollins/Morrow), W.E.B. Griffin and son William E. Butterworth’s next in the “Badge of Honor” series The Last Witness, (Penguin/Putnam), Julie Garwood’s Hotshot (Penguin/Dutton; Thorndike) and Erica Spindler’s  Justice for Sara, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press).

In an unusual move, Dorothy Garlock’s Under a Texas Sky (Hachette/Grand Central; Thorndike) is being released simultaneously in hardcover and trade paperback.

All the titles highlighted here are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Aug. 5. Some are still available as digital ARC’s on Edelweiss and/or NetGalley, but hurry, they are generally removed once the books are published.

Watch List

Sandrine’s Case (Perseus/Mysterious Press; HighBridge Audio)

With the number of titles he’s published and the awards he’s won, Thomas Cook can be considered a “usual suspect” but he is an author that still deserves to be introduced to a broader audience, according to many librarians. Booklist calls him a “master plotter” and this psychological courtroom drama “another fine effort from the always insightful Cook.”

Brewster, Mark Slouka, (Norton)

Lots of excitement surrounds this one. Librarians on GalleyChat have been talking about it for months and it was also A. Carstensen’s Shout ‘n’ Share Pick:

“One of the most beautiful books of the year. Set in Brewster, NY, in the late 1960s, this is the story of four young people, but especially Jon and his friend Ray. Jon’s parents were destroyed by his younger brother’s death. To escape, Jon takes up track where he makes a friend, Ray. Ray is always getting into fights, but when it is just them, he is insightful and honest. There is real darkness in their town, and it seems to collect around Ray’s father, a bigoted man. The writing is extraordinary, especially the way the author uses metaphors and the music of the era.”

A quick, evocative description comes from Norton’s Library Marketing Manager Golda Rademacher —  “It’s like entering a Bruce Springsteen song.”

Booksellers agree. It’s an IndieNext pick for August; “Raw and brutal at times, the well-drawn characters of this poignant story stay with you well after the book is closed.”

This Sunday’s New York Times Book Review calls it an “intense and elegiac novel … Slouka’s storytelling is sure and patient, deceptively steady and devastatingly agile.” Lots more reviews are coming — People, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the Boston Globe.

Babayaga, Toby Barlow, (Macmillan/FSG)

Another GalleyChat favorite that is also resonating with independent booksellers who made it an IndieNext Pick for August. The author’s debut,  Sharp Teeth, was described as “Romeo and Juliet, werewolf-style.” It was an Alex Award-winner as well as on the RUSA’s Best Adult Genre Fiction Reading List. It was written in verse, but the new book is straightforward prose.

The Realm of Last Chances, Steve Yarbrough, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio)

This is one of the titles Wendy Bartlett, Cuyahoga P.L. is betting on, buying extra copies for browsing. She calls it “a cheatin’ book for people who think they’re too smart to ruin their lives by cheating .. for the strong literary crowd who were not quite satisfied by Gone Girl. This has that same frisson of danger in a tamer setting that book clubs will secretly tell each other about … The author has literary credentials (a PEN/Faulkner finalist) and he writes like a  modern day Flaubert about a morally conflicted modern Emma Bovary. Unfortunately, the cover doesn’t do much for it, but  if that gets in the right reviewer’s hands (the two prepub reviewers are diametrically opposed; LJ was lukewarm and Kirkus red hot), it will be very strong.”

The Rathbones, Janice Clark, (RH/Doubleday)

A debut set in a whaling community in 1850’s Connecticut, with elements of the supernatural, which Booklist says is “a dark combination of fairy tale and fever dream, replete with reality-bending, dark secrets, and a fascinating, multigenerational family.” It is on The Millions‘ list of most-anticipated titles, with this description, “Think Moby-Dick directed by David Lynch from a screenplay by Gabriel Garcia Marquez …with Charles Addams doing the set design and The Decembrists supplying the chanteys.”

It comes with a cover blurb from Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus) “A remarkable tale, both  epic and intimate. Beautifully crafted and elegantly told A siren song of a story.” The author spoke to librarians at the Random House BEA Breakfast.

The Ghost Bride: A Novel, Yangsze Choo, (HarperCollins/Morrow)

Word must be getting out about this big debut from Morrow (listen to the description from HarperCollins Buzz session at ALA); it is already showing holds in many libraries. Another IndieNext Pick for August, “Set on the Malay Peninsula in the late 19th century, this debut novel tells the story of Li Lan, whose father promises her in marriage to the recently deceased son of a wealthy local family as a means of discharging his considerable debt. When the dead son begins visiting Li Lan in her dreams, she becomes increasingly desperate to escape him. After an accidental overdose of a sleeping draught separates her soul from her body, Li Lan must navigate the world of the dead with the aid of two allies — Fan and Er Lang — neither of whom are what they appear to be. Full of danger, romance, and eerie beauty, this is the tale of a young girl’s quest to find her own destiny and choose love over duty.” —Billie Bloebaum, Powell’s Books at PDX, Portland, OR

Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, (S&S)

Independent booksellers have made this insider’s look at publishing their #1 pick for August of titles they plan to handsell. As fascinating as the book sounds (“scintillating history… [of] a cosmopolitan, intellectual, if shabby kingdom where sex was the currency of the realm” Booklist), it’s hard to imagine it reaching a wide audience and, indeed, library ordering is very light. The Entertainment Weekly review in the new issue, is generally positive, but gives it a B+, marking it down because, “Kachka labors too long over the minutiae of contracts and deals.”  The author is a contributing editor at New York magazine, which will guarantee a certain amount of attention.

Queen’s Gambit, Elizabeth Fremantle, (S&S; Thorndike)
This debut historical novel arrives with an unusual number of positive pre-pub reviews (only Kirkus manages to rain on this parade). About Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, it’s drawing comparisons to Hilary Mantel’s critical and popular successes, Wolf Hall, and Bring Up the Bodies.

Hungry: What Eighty Ravenous Guys Taught Me about Life, Love, and the Power of Good Food, Darlene Barnes, (Hyperion)

Who can resist a memoir by a woman who had the cajones to try to introduce a bunch of frat boys to a decent diet? Read the Kirkus review; it will convince you even if the cover and subtitle don’t.

Media Magnets

Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, Jeff Guinn, (S&S)

It’s been over 25 years since Vincent Bugilosi’s major best seller, Helter Skelter (Norton; amazingly still in print) examined the lurid 1969 Hollywood murders committed by Manson and his band of followers. Attention is building for this new look at the case; USA Today interviewed the author this week. Entertainment Weekly gives it B, saying, “If the result is low on flair, Guinn gets high marks for diligence.” More media is coming, including NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, and TV’s Inside Edition.

These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie, Christopher Andersen, (S&S/Gallery)

The author, a former senior editor for People magazine, has written over a dozen best-selling bios of well-known figures. He is scheduled to appear on NBC’s Today Show next week. The upcoming 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination will bring increased interest in the Kennedys, which will be fed by more books and  the movie Parkland, opening Sept. 20, about the chaotic hours after the dying JFK was brought to the Dallas hospital of the title.

Best Seller Followup

Clark Howard’s Living Large for the Long Haul: Consumer-Tested Ways to Overhaul Your Finances, Increase Your Savings, and Get Your Life Back on Track, Clark Howard, Mark Meltzer, Theo Thimou, (Penguin/Avery; Tantor Audio)

Howard has a show on CNN’s Headline News. His previous title, was on the NYT Pbk. Advice best seller list for 21 weeks, hitting #1 in it’s third week. You can expect that he will be promoting this new book on his show.

There are no prepub reviews, so several libraries have not ordered it.

A few highlights of the titles coming out next week are below. All of these, and more, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of 7/29

Picture Books

Good Night, Sleep Tight, Mem Fox, Judy Horacek, Orchard Books

Picture book master, Mem Fox (Time for Bed) again teams up  with the illustrator of Where Are The Green?  creating the perfectly rhyming text for  story that will become another bedtime favorite.

Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song , Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney, (Hachette/Little, Brown BYR)

“They were each born with the gift of gospel./Martin’s voice kept people in their seats, but also sent their praises soaring. /Mahalia’s voice was brass-and-butter – strong and smooth at the same time. /With Martin’s sermons and Mahalia’s songs, folks were free to shout, to sing their joy.”

Coretta Scott King winner Pinkney brings her storytelling voice to expressing the passion and commitment of two civil rights icons.

NOTE: The University of Minnesota, Children’s Literature Research Collections has been named the site for Andrea Davis Pinkney’s Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, which will be given on Saturday May 3rd, 2014.

Middle Grade

Goosebumps Most Wanted #4: Frankenstein’s Dog, R.L. Stine, Scholastic Paperbacks

Since Scholastic re-launched the Goosebumps series with fresh packaging, the it has flying off the shelves.

The Hypnotists: Book 1, , Gordon Korman, Scholastic Press

This prolific author of high interest series provides fast-paced reads. This is the first in a new series.

Guardians of Ga’Hoole: The Rise of a Legend, Kathryn  Lasky, Scholastic Press

Prequel to the popular series.

Young Adult

Earthbound, Aprilynne Pike, Penguin/Razorbill

The perfect summer read, a supernatural romance that is the first in a new series from the  best-selling author of the Wings series.

The Lying Game #6: Seven Minutes in Heaven, Sara Shepard,

I know it sounds crazy, but this is the series that has librarians fighting over who gets the galley first. Addictive reading for the Pretty Little Liars fans.

We’re light on brand names next week, but heavy on titles that arrive with high hopes (see our Watch List, below). In the former category, C.J. Box abandons his series character, Joe Pickett, for a moment, for a standalone titled The Highway, (Macmillan/Minotaur). Most of the prepub reviewers love it (Kirkus, PW, LJ, which gives it a star), with one holdout (Booklist; “the usually sure-handed author never quite gets our hearts racing”). Also pre-ordained as a best seller is the 15th in Linda Fairstein’s series, Death Angel.

All the titles highlighted here and several more, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of July 29

If you are interested in reading any of these titles, many of them are available as digital ARC’s on Edelweiss and NetGalley, but hurry, they are generally  removed on publication date.

Watch List

The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese, Michael Paterniti, (RH/Dial; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike)

Chosen as a hot book of the summer by USA Today back in May and by librarians on the BEA Shout ‘n’ Share panel, (Doug Lord, LJ‘s “Books for Dudes” columnist went so far as to call it a “Gorgeously sexy story about a guy tracking down a magical cheese”), this is set to enjoy some major publicity; on NPR’s upcoming Weekend Edition Saturday and a major feature in the New York Times Magazine. Entertainment Weekly gives it an unequivocal A.

The Wicked Girls, Alex Marwood, (Penguin Books, Original Trade Pbk)

On the list of the Millions Most Anticipated titles,this novel is about two eleven-year-old girls who are involved in the death of a younger child and meet again as adults. The annotation notes,  “Alex Marwood is the pseudonym of British journalist Serena Mackesy, and The Wicked Girls is her dark and beautifully executed first novel.” It’s also a hit among librarians on GalleyChat; “very intriguing. Reminded me a little of the Anne Perry story.”

The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarty, (Penguin/Putnam/Amy Einhorn; Thorndike)

The new title by author of book-club favorite What Alice Forgot, gets  an A-  from Entertainment Weekly, which says “Despite its awkwardly soapy title and pink-petaled cover, The Husband’s Secret is a sharp, thoughtful read — a sneaky sort of wolf in chick-lit clothing. It’s also darker and less whimsical than the twinkly, rom-comish Alice,” but adds, “Moriarty ultimately can’t resist wrapping up her story lines with a bow that will probably feel too shiny and pink-petal neat for some. But you don’t need a husband or a secret to feel for her characters’ very real moral quandaries, and to want that shiny bow for them a little bit, too.”

The Skull And The Nightingale, Michael Irwin, (HarperCollins/Morrow)

Entertainment Weekly is big with the accolades this week, handing out another A-  for this one and saying this “raunchy novel of sex and manipulation — set in 18th-century England — evokes Tom Jones, The Crimson Petal and the White, and Les Liaisons Dangereuses.”

Sea Creatures, Susanna Daniel, (Harper)

Daniel impressed GalleyChatters with her debut, Stiltsville, a quiet story about a marriage that managed to seem very real. The book also won the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and was a Barnes and Noble Discover pick. The author’s new book, set in the same area of South Florida, where the home are on stilts,  is again drawing raves from GalleyChatters for its “really complex and interesting” characters.

The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, Emily Croy Barker, (Penguin/Pamela Dorman)

An August IndieNext pick,which calls it “a beautifully written first novel [that] reverberates with echoes of fairy tales and fantasy literature from Narnia to Harry Potter,” this was one of our Penguin First Flights titles (see our online chat with the author here).

A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life, James Bowen, (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne; Thorndike).

A best seller in the UK, this is a memoir by a London street musician, recovering from a heroin addiction, who rescues an ailing cat, which in turn, rescues him. If you want your heart warmed, check the photos from the story in London’s Daily Mail and the following book trailer (a movie deal has been discussed).

Going Deep: How Wide Receivers Became the Most Compelling Figures in Pro Sports, Cris Carter, (Hyperion)

Believe it or not, football season is around the corner. Carter is ESPN’s NFL analyst, so you can expect coverage on the network, beginning with Carter’s preview on the ESPN site.

Tie-ins

The Butler: A Witness to History, Wil Haygood, (S&S/37 Ink)

The movie, which opens August 16, is based on Haygood’s Washington Post story, now released as a book. The movie, which stars  Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker (plus Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan!) will be getting plenty of media attention, beginning with this week’s Washington Post Magazine cover story, written by Haygood.

Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love, Thomas Maier, (Basic Books)

A Showtime series, beginning Sept. 29, is based on Maier’s book, which received praise when it was released, particularly for bringing deserved attention to Virginia Johnson’s role in the groundbreaking research into human sexuality.

Paranoia, Joseph Finder, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s;  Trade pbk;  Mass Mkt pbk; Macmillan/Audio)

Opening August 16, the movie ada[tatopm of Finder’s thriller stars Harrison Ford, Liam Hemsworth, and Amber Heard.

Among the new titles in series arriving next week, is the next in Philippa Gregory’s Cousins War series, The White Princess, (S&S/Touchstone; S&S Audio; Thorndike) which was moved from its original pub. date to arrive closer to the start of the BBC/STARZ White Queen series, based on the first four books, debuting on Aug. 10.

The twentieth Dave Robicheaux novel, Light of the World by James Lee Burke (S&S; S&S Audio; Thorndike) also arrives, but despite the number of books in the series, it seems they  just keep improving. It’s starred by Booklist and  Kirkus adds, “Pruning away the florid subplots that often clutter his heaven-storming blood baths, Burke produces his most sharply focused, and perhaps his most harrowing, study of human evil, refracted through the conventions of the crime novel.”

David Rosenfelt rleases the eleventh in his Andy Carpenter series, Unleashed (Macmillan/Minotaur; Thorndike) as well as a second title, a memoir, about moving from California to Maine with his large crew of rescued golden retrievers, Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, and 3 RVs on Our Canine Cross-Country Adventure, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Thorndike ).

The titles highlighted here, and more coming next week, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of 7/22

Watch List

Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West’s Greatest Escape, Mark Lee Gardner, (HaperCollins/Morrow)

Cuyahoga PL’s Wendy Bartlett promoted this bio, which is also an IndieNext pck for August, on the local NPR station. Below is her annotation:

“If you or your customers are History Channel buffs, this one’s for you! Mark Lee Gardner, who is frequently featured on the History Channel’s shows about Western history, has written a terrific page turner about the James’ gang’s last raid. For years, loyal friends and neighbors the James gang provided them with alibis and Gardner explains why. When the gang headed north to Minnesota, they got a very different reception in a bank robbery that went very wrong. The book is the perfect summer read–relatively short,and totally entertaining. Fans of true crime and historical fiction of this period might also like this very readable account of one of the most recognizable names in the history of the Wild West.”

The Secrets of Lost Cats: One Woman, Twenty Posters, and a New Understanding of Love, Dr. Nancy Davidson, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s)

Who hasn’t wondered about the stories behind lost cat posters? Therapist Davidson decided to do more than wonder  and came up with the 20 true stories that are the core of this book. Says PW, “each of the brief glimpses into cat owners’ lives proves captivating.”

And Sons, David Gilbert, (Random House)
Considered a candidate for “the literary novel of the summer” by  Entertainment Weekly’s “Shelf Life” blog. which also ran  an “exclusive … star-studded trailer” fot this novel about a reclusive writer named A.N. Dyer, this title comes from RH’s tony new Hogarth imprint.  Proving its literary bona fides, a full review is scheduled to run in the New Yorker by the formidable critic James Wood. The author was also profiled in USA Today this week and is scheduled to appear on NPR’s Fresh Air next week.

A Dangerous Fiction: A Mystery, Barbara Rogan, (Penguin/Viking)

This thriller set in the NYC publishing world  offers insidery bits for book fans and gets high praise from Booklist, “Boasting an exciting pace, well-constructed scenes, and inside information about the publishing world, this engaging mystery will attract readers of P. D. James’ similar Original Sin (1995).”

The Panopticon, Jenni Fagan, (RH/Hogarth)

Also from RH’s Hogarth line (see And Sons, above) this debut gets the full treatment from the NYT; it is featured as the cover of this Sunday’s NYT Book Review. and got a mostly positive review in the daily NYT by Michiko Kakutani. The author is also scheduled for an appearance on NPR’s All Things Considered

Media Magnet

Shirley Jones: A Memoir, Shirley Jones and Wendy Leigh, (S&S/Gallery Books; Tantor Audio)

Before she became the mother of The Partridge Family, Shirley Jones had a fairly full  life, starring in Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Music Man, and winning an Oscar for  Elmer Gantry. The publisher promises that her memoir will reveal all — the infidelities, the costar crushes, the sexual experimentation” — but there are no prepub reviews, so we will have to wait to see how forthcoming she actually is. Publicity is lined up; People magazine, the moning shows, Katie Couric, FOX and Friends, and more.

How time flies. Next week brings the fiftieth in the now classic series, Magic Tree House #50: Hurry Up, Houdini! (Random House BYR). Also cause for celebration is another new title in a series, My Weird School Special: It’s Halloween, I’m Turning Green! (HarperCollins), the perfect early chapter books for newly fluent readers.

Below are some other titles to on our radar for next week. All the titles highlighted here, plus many more, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of 7/22.

Picture Books

The Case of the Missing Donut, Alison Mcghee, Isabel Roxas, (Penguin/Dial)

This one leapt instantly to the top of the must-read pile on the basis of Alison McGhee’s name alone. Love her picture books, A Very Brave Witch and Countdown to Kindergarten illustrated by Harry Bliss and her gently lyrical books with Peter Reynolds. We adore her partnership with Kate DiCamillo, in the award winning series, Bink and Golly. Her middle grade Julia Gillian trilogy is an under-the-radar gem.

She has broken out new illustrators like Taeeun Yoo who was perfectly matched in her Only a Witch Can Fly. Now we have this lovely picture book illustrated by Isabel Roxas in her U.S. Debut. McGhee’s dry humor is perfectly matched with these “pictures that tell more than the words.”

Kirkus concurs; “Roxas’ charming illustrations are drawn with graphite and colored digitally in subtle but appealing hues. A hint of sepia echoes the faux homespun language and Western theme. They showcase a clean, friendly small town of leafy streets and small shops, populated with perky cartoon-style characters.”

Planes Fly!, George Ella Lyon, Mick Wiggins, (S&S/Atheneum BYR)

An exuberant celebration of nearly everything about flight, from the plane parts to the thrill of being in the air (of course, there’s nothing about long security lines or lost luggage). The bouncing verse mimics the exhilaration of flying and the retro illustrations do what early travel posters were designed to do; make you want to be a part of the fun (check out the spreads on Edelweiss).

Middle Grade

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Kathi Appelt, (S&S/Atheneum BYR)

Kathi Appelt is a singular voice and got raves for The Underneath, but that story of darkness and betrayal cloaked in lyrical language was not my cup of tea. For those, who, like me turned the pages of The Underneath with trepidation, fear not. As librarians often say, every book is not for every child. This one is, as I write in my review  in last Sunday’s NYT BR.

Binny for Short, Hilary McKay, (S&S/Margaret K. McElderry)

If you haven’t discovered Hilary McKay, her humor, her characters and her ability to express children’s “big feelings” within the context of family life, you are in for a treat. Do not miss Saffy’s Angel, the beginning of the Casson family series. Binny for Short introduces us a strong, sensitive and expressive little girl in the midst of big changes and developing friendships.

Bluffton: My Summer with Buster Keaton, Matt Phelan, (Candlewick)

Matt Phelan takes us to places that we have never been and may never have experienced except through his exquisite visual storytelling. In this case, it’s a little-known artist’s colony on the shores of Lake Michigan in 1908.

Young Adult

The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong, L. Tam  Holland, (S&S BYR)

Vee Crawford-Wong has been assigned to write his family history. Only as he tells it, in his family “We didn’t like to upset each other. That’s why we couldn’t talk about anything. That’s why I didn’t know anything. That’s why I couldn’t do my homework which is why I was going to flunk history. It was all my parents’ fault.” Debut author Holland has captured the authentic snarky voice of this high-schooler delving into his families secrets.