Many of you are already aware of Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan (Morrow), from the author’s appearances at BEA and ALA. It’s the story of 29-year-old Grennan’s transformative experience volunteering in a Kathmandu orphanage, and going above and beyond the call of duty to reunite children taken from their parents by war-profiteers. It’s received a strong recommendation from SLJ’s Adult Books for Teens blogger Angela Carstensen.

Of course, it is drawing comparisons to Three Cups of Tea, but Carstensen says, “Conor has a wonderful voice all his own: self-deprecating sense of humor, and a real affection for his young charges, combined with a story of survival and rescue in a civil-war torn country. Perfect for summer reading, all-school reading, and One Book, One Community Reads.”

You will be hearing about this book in the media. Reuters profiled Grennan this week (also featured on the Huffington Post), USA Today is planning a profile, and the book is the #2 Indie Next Pick for February and, it is Costco’s Book Buyer’s pick for February. Grennan he will be making several appearances in libraries as part of his book tour.

Libraries are already showing holds that triple the modest orders.

Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal Conor Grennan Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2011-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061930059 / 9780061930058

Thorndike; LP edition; 2/16; ISBN 9781410435279; $31.99

Other Notable Nonfiction On Sale Next Week

Live and Let Love: Notes from Extraordinary Women on the Layers, the Laughter, and the Litter of Love by Andrea Buchanan (Gallery) is a collection describing women facing various hardships. Buchanan will appear on Good Morning America on February 3.

Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age by Susan Jacoby (Pantheon) refutes the misconception of carefree old age usually perpetuated by sellers of “anti-aging” products. Kirkus calls it, “a cogently argued and well-written corrective to the fantasy of beating old age.”

Of the debut novels going on sale next week, Swamplandia!, by New Yorker “20 Under 40″ writer Karen Russell, looks like one of the most promising. It builds on a short story from her 2006 collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and tells the tale of the Bigtree family, operators of an alligator wrestling tourist attraction deep in the Everglades, after their star wrestler dies of cancer.

EW gives it an A- for “its effortless prose and its small, beautifully drawn cast of characters…while the novel deals in ghosts, whether actual ectoplasms or just unexorcisable memories, the characters, and their tale of family lost and found, remain triumphantly alive.”

Libraries we checked are showing orders in line with holds.

Swamplandia! Karen Russell Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2011-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0307263991 / 9780307263995

Usual Suspects

Deep Black: Death Wave by Stephen Coonts and William H. Keith (St. Martin’s) follows NSA operatives trying to stop a terrorist plot to cause a cataclysmic landslide in the Canary Islands. PW is not impressed: “Coonts and Keith employ a laundry list of familiar elements in their ho-hum third Deep Black thriller.”

Fatal Error: A Novel by J.A. Jance (Touchstone), the sixth mystery with journalist-turned-police officer Ali Reynolds, gets love from PW: “the plot never stalls and leads to a logical and exciting finale.”

In Fire Forged: Worlds of Honor V by David Weber (Baen) continues the science fiction Honor Harrington series.

Young Adult Novels

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (HarperCollins), the follow-up to the bestselling debut Before I Fall (2010), takes place in a dystopian near future where love is considered a disease and is erradicated by mandatory medical procedures. PW says, “Oliver’s nightmare future lacks a visceral punch, primarily because of the weakness of the world-building. Her America has undergone a seismic shift, but the economic, religious, and cultural ramifications are all but ignored.”

Silverlicious by Victoria Kann (HarperCollins) continues the Pinkalicious children’s book series. PW says, “ungrateful Pinkalicious eventually learns that real sweetness comes from inside, but readers may wonder why it takes so long for the heroine to change her tune.”

Also Worth Watching

Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur)  is the U.S. debut of one of Japan’s bestselling crime novelists, about a woman who kills her abusive ex-husband, and hides the body with her neighbor, while seeking the ultimate logical alibi. The Wall St. Journal says, “Whether it amounts to math, philosophy, psychology or cosmology, The Devotion of Suspect X is an elegant literary experiment. It suggests, among much else, that a lot of bad behavior is forgiven in the name of genius—and then even a genius can push the envelope just so far before it breaks.”

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas (HarperCollins) is a debut novel about a child prodigy in 19th century Turkey who has a profound effect on itspolitical and cultural leaders. Baker & Taylor included it in its Galley Mailing for November, and librarians are giving it enthusiastic early reads. LJ says “first novel by a promising young writer is both vivid historical fiction and a haunting fable. It will appeal to a wide range of readers.”

The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale (Twelve) is the fictional memoir of a talking, reading chimpanzee held for murder, who goes on the lam with a woman who becomes his lover. It was highlighted at the BEA Editors Buzz Panel by Associate Publisher Cary Goldstein. And despite the questionable premise, it gets an enthusiastic review in New York Newsday, which calls it “one rollicking story. Adventure tale, love story, science fiction, novel of ideas – this one’s got it all.”

Prayers and Lies by Sherri Wood Emmons (Kensington) is a debut novel about two young girls and a family secret, set in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia. LJ says it’s “a bit like a West Virginia version of the 1998 Todd Solondz film “Happiness”—technically good, but everyone will need a quick jolt of antidepressants afterward. Readable, but only for those with a penchant for realistic, dark stories.”

The number one book on Amazon at the moment is The Investment Answer by Daniel C. Goldie and Gordon S. Murray (Business Plus), which offers a conservative blueprint for average investors.

The hardcover publication coincides with the death of author Murray last Saturday. Originally self-published, it was picked up by the Business Plus imprint of Grand Central Publishing following coverage in a “Your Money” column by Ron Lieber in the New York Times.

Libraries we checked are behind the demand on this one – either they don’t have it, or have high holds on modest orders.

The Investment Answer Daniel C. Goldie, Gordon S. Murray Retail Price: $18.00 Hardcover: 96 pages Publisher: Business Plus – (2011-01-25) ISBN / EAN: 1455503304 / 9781455503308

Other Notable Nonfiction Coming Next Week

The Next Decade: Where We’ve Been… and Where We’re Going by George Friedman (Doubleday) is a Machiavellian analysis of possible near future geopolitical events by the author The Next 100 Years.

The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene (Knopf) explores the limits of modern cosmology’s understanding of the “multiverse.” PW says, “With his inspired analogies starring everyone from South Park’s Eric Cartman to Ms. Pac-Man and a can of Pringles, Greene presents a lucid, intriguing, and triumphantly understandable state-of-the-art look at the universe.”

Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer (Bantam) recounts the tumultuous experiences of the U.S. Navy in early battles against the Japanese during World War II. In a starred review, Booklist says, “as in his first two books, the author’s narrative gifts and excellent choice of detail give an almost Homeric quality to the men who met on the sea in steel titans.”

Among the new fiction arriving next week, the trade paperback original novel Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt looks like one worth watching. The story about the aftermath of a car collision between two women fleeing their marriages, which ends fatally for one of them, is an Oprah magazine pick for January, and a special pick of Costco buyer Pennie Ianniciello, a well-known market mover.

It’s often said that publishing original trade paperbacks is a risky business because reviewers tend to overlook them. This is clearly not the case for Pictures of You, which has already received admiring attention from the San Francisco Chronicle and from Carolyn See in today’s Washington Post.

Most libraries we checked had solid orders, with reserves of 3:1 or more. Take advantage of the less expensive format and buy extra copies for your readers advisors.

Pictures of You Caroline Leavitt Retail Price: $13.95 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2011-01-25) ISBN / EAN: 1565126319 / 9781565126312

OverDrive; Adobe EPUB eBook
Highbridge Audio; UNABR; 9781615736553; Library Edition, 9781611741025;

Also on Sale Next Week

O: A Presidential Novel by Anonymous (Simon & Schuster), a fictional vision of the 2012 presidential election written by an unnamed insider on the Obama team (how big of an insider is no defined; the person claims to have been “in the room” with him. Is that like being able to see Russia from your house?), has been getting the strong press coverage in the days leading up to publication. Reviews, however, have been tepid to disparaging. In its syndicated review, the Associated Press calls O “an enjoyable read for political junkies who can’t wait for the next campaign to start. But for readers not consumed with the granular detail of focus groups and ad buys, O falls short — especially in its portrayal of Obama, who remains as opaque in this book as he does real life.” Entertainment Weekly is even less charitable: “Short on character, short on plot — a hapless, poorly executed attempt at satire that’s missing literally everything that Primary Colors had going for it: the detail, the zing, the insidery knowledge, the humor. Let’s give S&S an A for marketing O so well. But let’s give the book itself a D.”

Tick Tock by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown) is the newest mystery featuring New York detective Michael Bennett.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman (Crown) chronicles the history of a Massachusetts town from pilgrim settlers through the modern day in a series of 14 stories. PW says, “Hoffman’s deft magical realism ties one woman’s story to the next even when they themselves are not aware of the connection. The prose is beautiful, the characters drawn sparsely but with great compassion.” Entertainment Weekly gives it a solid “A”.

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern (Harper) is the tale of a 16 year-old girl whose gilded life shatters with her father’s suicide, and has a 150,000-copy first printing. LJ says, “Ahern has made a definite change in her writing with her recent fiction, going from chick lit to modern fairy tales. The supernatural element doesn’t work well in this novel, however, with a buildup that falls slightly flat…. Still, Ahern has fans from her P.S. I Love You days, so purchase accordingly.”

A Cup of Friendship: A Novel by Deborah Rodriguez (Ballantine) follows a group of women who meet in a Kabul coffee shop owned by an American, by the author of The Kabul Beauty School. Kirkus says, “Rodriguez paints a vivid picture of Afghan culture and understands the uncomfortable role Americans play in political upheavals. But ultimately her cozy sentimentality undercuts the elements of harsh realism, as if Maeve Binchy had written The Kite Runner.”

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard (Ecco) is the story of the lasting effects of the disappearance of a teenage girl on the boys in her town, reminiscent of The Virgin Suicides. PW says “Though the truth about Nora remains tantalizingly elusive… the many possibilities are so captivating, and Pittard’s prose so eloquent, that there’s a far richer experience to be had in the chain of maybes and what-ifs than in nailing down the truth.”

Leave it to Ron Reagan, the late president’s son, to give us an unvarnished view of My Father at 100, published to coincide with the Reagan Sr.’s birth on February 6. The news media is ablaze with the information that the younger Reagan says his father showed signs of Alzheimer’s while he was still in office, causing his half-brother Michael to call him an “embarrassment.”

The L.A. Times review reveals more personal issues:

One of the lessons here is that no father can be an uncomplicated hero to his own son. . .  His book is less concerned with ideological differences than the pains and wonders of family entanglement. “You’re my son, so I have to love you. But sometimes you make it very hard to like you,” his father tells him.

By the end of this memoir, the son finds in his father,

…something carefully guarded, ice-cold yet unstoppable, fused together with a relentless self-mythologizing tendency: “He was the solitary storyteller whose great opus, religiously tended always, was his own self.”

Libraries we checked have orders in line with modest reserves to date.

My Father at 100 Ron Reagan Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2011-01-18) ISBN / EAN: 0670022594 / 9780670022595

• Large Print: Thorndike Press, ISBN 9781410434371; $32.99
• CD: Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 9781441771858; $32.95
• MP3: Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 9781441771865; $29.95
• Playaway: Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 9781441771896; $64.99

Other Notable Nonfiction on Sale This Week

The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960 by Douglas Brinkley (Harper) gets a good review from Kirkus: “Brinkley systematically works through the milestones of Alaskan preservation, including the moving paintings by Rockwell Kent and photographs by Ansel Adams, Adolph Murie’s fight for the wolves, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas’ position as the “leading light of the wilderness movement” during the New Deal, and writings by the Beats such as Gary Snyder.”

The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan’s Principles Can Restore America’s Greatness by Michael Reagan with Jim Denney (Thomas Dunne) outlines the elements of the former president’s political plan that his older son says is as relevant today as in 1976.

It’s always heartening to see a good short story collection generate some heat. Last week, New York Times critic Janet Maslin singled out Siobhan Fallon‘s tales of military families on the edge in Fort Hood, Texas, You Know When the Men Are Gone, calling it a ” brief, tight collection — and there’s not a loser in the bunch.”

Male soldiers and their families are at the center of most of the stories, punctuated by sharply observed detail. As Maslin observes, one character is “haunted by the Grimm fairy tales that his daughter reads because his own life is full of latter-day versions of them. Why is the story of starving Hansel and Gretel any worse than that of a young Army corporal killed three days before he was due to see his wife and newborn baby?”

At libraries we checked, orders are in line with modest holds.

You Know When the Men Are Gone Siobhan Fallon Retail Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam – (2011-01-20) ISBN / EAN: 0399157204 / 9780399157202

Usual Suspects

Call Me Irresistible: A Novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Morrow) follows the romantic and comedic fallout of a small town, high profile wedding canceled at the last minute. LJ raves: “Phillips has the ability to drill down into her characters’ motivations, while conveying their stories with sensitivity and laugh-out-loud humor. Consistently remarkable, she’s done it again.”  Phillips’s editor talks about it in Editors’ Book Buzz.

Strategic Moves by Stuart Woods (Putnam) is the 19th novel featuring quasi-secret agent and lawyer Stone Barrington. Kirkus says, “Woods, who evidently writes to a precise word length without bothering with beginnings and endings, delivers loads of juicy complications but no payoffs.”

Shadowfever (Fever Series #5) by Karen Marie Moning (Delacorte) is the latest in the bestselling romantic fantasy series. On Amazon, it’s currently #5 in Romance, #23 in Contemporary Fantasy, and #54 overall.

The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation Series #8) by Lauren Willig is the eight installment in the romantic spy series set in Napoleonic France. Booklist calls it “another delightfully delectable adventure from Willig, who expands her rich, appealing stable of characters with each entry.”

Sterling Publishing is pretty busy launching imprints this month. In addition to the new fiction imprint Silver Oak, the house is starting a YA imprint, Splinter, with the publication of Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck. The fantasy novel is the first in a trilogy about an 18-year-old girl and the Bengal tiger she encounters while working at a circus.

USA Today mentions the book in a roundup of spring titles that booksellers are excited about, quoting Barnes and Noble’s Patricia Bostleman saying the book “has it all: paranormal, romance, fantasy, adventure, historical fiction.” It’s also been picked by MTV as one of “11 YA Novels We Can’t Wait to Read in 2011.”

But PW says “the attractive premise is let down by wooden dialogue, excessive detail, and wobbly mechanics.”

Originally self-published in 2009, Houck’s trilogy will continue with Tiger’s Quest and Tiger’s Voyage, due later in 2011, according to the publishing blog Galley Cat.

At libraries we checked, modest orders were in line with modest reserves.

Tiger’s Curse (Book 1) Colleen Houck Retail Price: $17.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Splinter – (2011-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 1402784031 / 9781402784033

Usual Suspects:

Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer (Grand Central Publishing) will surely be helped by the December 2 debut of the author’s History Channel show, Brad Meltzer’s Decoded. However, PW is lukewarm, declaring that “a fascinating look at the hidden treasures of the National Archives is the one strength of this otherwise unsatisfying thriller.”

The Sentry by Robert Crais (Putnam) elicits divided opinions: PW says “heartbreaking ironies, frustrated desires, and violent nonstop action make this a standout.” Booklist say’s “longtime fans may find this one not quite up to the authors high standards, but the demand will still be there.”

Gideon’s War by Howard Gordon (Touchstone) is a debut thriller by the executive producer of TV’s 24.  PW says this “loosely plotted thriller… lurches unpredictably from backstory to frenzied present-day action, employing a 24-hour ticking clock for suspense.”

Border Lords by T. Jefferson Parker (Dutton) gets the thumbs up from PW: “Three-time Edgar-winner Parker, long a favorite of genre cognoscenti, is making the transition to widespread mainstream popularity. His latest, to receive best-seller-type promotion, will increase the pace.” LJ is also keen on it: “Parker’s dark and gritty series takes readers beyond the drug war headlines, personalizing the toll it’s taken on our souls. Series fans will devour this sequel to Iron River.“

Now that the gift-buying season is over (and the rush to redeem gift certificates begins), the flow of new releases begins to rev up.

The Gambles

The Radleys: A Novel Matt Haig Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2010-12-28) ISBN / EAN: 1439194017 / 9781439194010

The Radleys by Matt Haig (Free Press) was touted at BEA (and was one of Neal Wyatt’s Librarians Shout & Share picks). About a family of vampires trying to pass for normal in a British suburb, it comes from the UK with a plenty of great quotes. Prepub reviews here were also strong. The first consumer review, Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+, finding it charming but not a standout in the crowded field of vampire stories. The Dallas Morning News has this amusing take, “Haig effectively treats the unhinging, fiendish desire to feast on human blood as, well, just another unfortunate family dysfunction. Like alcoholism or drug addiction, only with hemoglobin.”

It also has backing from Hollywood; it was announced in April that Alfonso Cuarón acquired film rights. The director (Y Tu Mamá También and HP & The Prisoner of Azkaban) calls the book “funny, scary and wickedly familiar…On the one hand it’s a parochial comedy of manners in a dull suburban setting, but it quickly gathers poison and then effortlessly enters the supernatural without ever betraying its worldly concerns.”

This may have crossover appeal; in the UK, it was released as both adult and YA.
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American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee Karen Abbott Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-12-28) ISBN / EAN: 1400066913 / 9781400066919

American Rose by Karen Abbott (Random House); we’ve heard good things from people who have read the ARE’s of this new biography of Gypsy Rose Lee and RH is backing it with an announced 100,000 copy printing. The NYT‘s Janet Maslin, however, faults the book for focusing more Lee’s times than on Lee herself.

The Usual Suspects

What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz (Bantam) is a supernatural thriller about the murder of a family that reawakens an investigator’s memories of surviving a similar family massacre. PW carps that the terror level doesn’t get high enough, but Booklist gives it a star, noting that “Koontz worked out a family-at-risk scenario in last year’s Relentless; but whereas that book was breakneck-paced, science-fictional, riddled with screwball humor, and concerned about cultural politics, this novel is deliberate, highly supernatural, somber throughout, and motivated by religious dread of Koontz’s weightiest performances.”

In Too Deep by Jayne Ann Krentz (Putnam) is the first in the new Looking Glass trilogy, and also part of Krentz’s ongoing romantic suspense Arcane Society series, about a psychic detective agency. Booklist gives it a starred review: “Krentz’s flair for creating intriguing, inventive plots; crafting clever dialogue between two perfectly matched protagonists; and subtly infusing her writing with a deliciously tart sense of humor are, as always, simply irresistible.”

The Outlaws by W. E. B. Griffin & William Butterworth (Putnam) is the sixth military thriller in the Presidential Agent series, in which Lt. Col. Carlos “Charley” Castillo must face life after the disbandment of his secret organization, the Office of Organizational Analysis. PW says “Series fans who love these characters will find the novel fulfilling; newcomers and those expecting a big payoff will be disappointed.”

To Have and To Kill (Wedding Cake Mystery) by Mary Jane Clark is the first in a “promising new cozy series” (PW). Hear her editor, Carrie Feron, talk about Mary Jane’s transition from her harder-edge mysteries to this new series in HarperCollins Editors’ Buzz.

Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag (Dutton) is the second in the author’s Deeper Than the Dead series. Says PW, “Newcomers will have no trouble getting into this suspense novel rich in pre-DNA detecting methods.”

Young Adult Fiction

Bloody Valentine (Blue Bloods Series #7) by Melissa de la Cruz. Prolific author Cruz also begins a new adult fantasy series, Witches of East End this summer and is working on a Blue Bloods spinoff, Wolf Pack, coming April 2012.

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher (Penguin) is the sequel to Incarceron; Taylor Lautner has been signed to play the lead in the film adaptation of Incarceron, which appears on three Best Books lists; PW, SLJ, Washington Post and Hornbook.

It’s a slow week for book releases. During this big shopping season, publishers assume that booksellers are out front selling, rather than unpacking new shipments from publishers.

As a result, major releases are slim next week and are all for younger readers.

The Gift (Witch and Wizard Series #2) by James Patterson and Ned Rust (Little Brown Books for Young Readers), ages 10+, about teen sibling magicians, elicits utter contempt from Kirkus: “There are no characters that even rise to the level of stereotypes and no genuine emotions in this embarrassing attempt at a ‘fantasy’ series that insults both genre and audience at every turn… A new low in children’s publishing.”

Entice by Carrie Jones (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) is the latest book in the bestselling paranormal romance series. Kirkus says, “Fans of the first two will continue to swoon, enjoying prose that’s idiosyncratically casual and indulgently, oh-so-teen-like angsty.”

The Vixen by Julie Larkin (Delacorte for Young Readers) is the first in a new series, set in the 1920’s. Like the Luxe series, in which Gossip Girl meets Edith Wharton, this one could be considered Gossip Girl meets F. Scott Fitzgerald. PW called it a “frothy debut,” but felt “the plot doesn’t live up to scrutiny.”

Coming for adults is the followup to last year’s How to Sew On a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew (which is still showing holds in several libraries):

How to Build a Fire: and Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew, by Erin Bried, (Ballantine Books) imparts the skills the Greatest Generation supposedly knew, from chapters on “How to Buy Meat” to “How to Plan a Date.”

Next week, book lovers and Jackie Onassis fans may enjoy the first of two books looking at her career as an editor in the publishing industry: Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books by William Kuhn.

According to Kirkus, “Kuhn argues that Jackie touched on forbidden themes in her own life—her husband’s adultery, the humiliation of marriage, political machinations—only through her list, including such books as Barbara Chase-Riboud’s controversial novel Sally Hemings (1979) and Elizabeth Crook’s novel about Sam Houston and Eliza Allen, The Raven’s Bride (1991).

The New York Times Fashion section explores the rivalry (complete with trash talk) between author Kuhn and Greg Lawrence, whose Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis will arrive on January 4 from Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press.

Libraries we checked have modest orders in line with modest holds for both titles.

Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books William Kuhn Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2010-12-07) ISBN / EAN: 0385530994 / 9780385530996

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Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Greg Lawrence Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books – (2011-01-04) ISBN / EAN: 0312591934 / 9780312591939

Other Notable Nonfiction On Sale Next Week

Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find, Keep, and Understand a Man by Steve Harvey (Amistad) is the popular radio show host’s followup to his #1 New York Times bestselling book of relationship advice, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Lots of publicity is line up, including Good Morning America on Tuesday, publication day and a profile in the NYT Sunday Arts & Leisure section (tentatively scheduled for 12/19).

The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop by Dan Charnas (NAL Hardcover) chronicles the financial history of rap and hip-hop.

Fiction: Usual Suspects

Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy with Grant Blackwood (Putnam), the newest geopolitical military thriller with Jack Ryan, arrives with a 1.75 million printing.

Queen Hereafter: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland by Susan Fraser King (Crown) is historical fiction set in 11th-century Scotland. PW says, “Though clichés often plague the prose… King’s blend of historical figures and fictional characters turns a medieval icon into a believable mother, wife, and ruler.”

Buttons and Bones by Monica Ferris (Berkley Hardcover) follows Betsy Devonshire, amateur investigator and owner of Crewel World Needlework in investigating another mystery.

Young Adult

Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy Series #6) by Richelle Mead is the final installment in the bestselling Vampire Academy series.

If anyone has a crack at making a book of aphorisms a bestseller, it’s economist and philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Best known for his long-running business bestseller The Black Swan, he’s back with The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms. Among his  incisive pronouncements:

• “You will get the most attention from those who hate you. No friend, no admirer and no partner will flatter you with as much curiosity.”
• “You remember e-mails you sent that were not answered better than e-mails you did not answer.”

Janet Maslin in New York Times sums up the book’s appeal:

Mr. Taleb is so calculatedly abrasive in this smart, attention-getting little book that he achieves his main objective. “A good maxim,” he writes, “allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.”

Orders are modest at libraries we checked, but given Taleb’s track record, this could be one to watch.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms Nassim Nicholas Taleb Retail Price: $18.00 Hardcover: 128 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-11-30) ISBN / EAN: 1400069971 / 9781400069972

Other Notable Nonfiction On Sale Next Week

The Essential American by Jackie Gingrich Cushman (Regnery) is a collection of 25 documents and speeches that Newt Gingrich’s daughter considers critical to understanding United States history. She recently appeared on Fox News to promote it.

Make Miracles in Forty Days: Turning What You Have into What You Want by Melody Beattie (Simon & Schuster) outlines a program of self improvement via gratitude, surrender, and connecting with our essential power.

A Voice from Old New York: A Memoir of My Youth by Louis Auchincloss (Houghton Mifflin) explores the late author’s connection with New York City. Kirkus says, “the author’s prose is lapidary, graceful and eminently readable. In a world of postmodern letters, Auchincloss draws a curtain on a premodern, Whartonesque way of life.”

Next week, a new window opens on the Julia Child legend, with As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, edited by Joan Reardon, a collection of Child’s correspondence with her close friend and unofficial literary agent. The two women first encountered each other in 1952, when DeVoto responded to Child’s fan letter to her husband after reading an article he wrote about knives, and became soul mates as Childs was writing Mastering the Art of French Cooking (DeVoto is portrayed in the film Julie & Julia by Deborah Rush).

Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B”: “While their conversations can drag a bit — weather, health, and politics get too much space — the book is an absorbing portrait of an unexpected friendship.”

So far, library holds are in line with modest orders at libraries we checked – but that may change as more media arrives.

As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2010-12-01) ISBN / EAN: 0547417713 / 9780547417714

Usual Suspects On Sale Next Week

Rescue: A Novel by Anita Shreve (Little, Brown) follows a paramedic worried that his daughter is becoming an alcoholic, like his troubled ex-wife. Library Journal says, “a solid read, though not the author’s most compelling or dazzling work. Excellent fodder for book clubs; there is plenty to discuss in the protagonists’ motivations, decisions, and characterization.”

Of Love and Evil by Anne Rice (Knopf) is the second entry in the supernatural Songs of the Seraphim series, involving a divine vigilante dispensing justice in Renaissance Italy. Kirkus says, “The plot’s intense; equally so are Rice’s meditations, while never breaking the seamlessness of the story line, on the nature of love and evil. A bullet of a book—and an absolute bull’s eye.”

Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam) is the 18th novel with detective Kay Scarpetta.

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore (Twelve) finds a literary investigator caught up in a murder case. Library Journal says, “constant switching of narrators can be jarring, but Moore does an excellent job of making his characters and settings feel real, using his thorough knowledge of the Holmes stories to good effect.”

Clouds Without Rain by P. L. Gaus (Plume) is an Indie Next Pick for December that won bookseller praise for its slowly unravelling mystery set in Amish country, “with a good many surprises along the way. Another excellent entry in this series.”

Sarah Palin hits the road next week to promote her new compilation on American virtues, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag (Harper). Her tour starts on November 23 in Phoenix, Arizona at a Barnes & Noble at 6 p.m., according to the Daily Beast, which notes that she will appear on the busiest Christmas shopping days of the year, including Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Most libraries we checked had orders in line with substanial reserves.

America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag Sarah Palin Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-11-23) ISBN / EAN: 0062010964 / 9780062010964

Other Notable Nonfiction on Sale Next Week

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris (Random House) is the third volume in the landmark biography of Teddy Roosevelt, chronicling his return to politics after his presidency. Kirkus declares “Roosevelt never fails to fascinate, and Morris provides a highly readable, strong finish to his decades-long marathon.” It’s currently rising on Amazon (now at #143).

Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrews by Christian Lander (Random House Trade Paperbacks) is the followup to the humor hit Stuff White People Like. Although most libraries ordered the first book, several we checked haven’t ordered this one (unlike its predecessor, it wasn’t reviewed prepub).

Next week’s media darling is shaping up to be An Object of Beauty, the third novel by actor, author and art collector Steve Martin, which follows an ambitious young woman as she cuts a swath through the New York art world.

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-:

A dramedy of manners that doubles as an immersion course in the rarefied world of high-end art…. It takes a certain nimbleness to play the dual roles of proxy art-history professor and compelling storyteller without falling off the literary balance beam. Martin, wry, wise, and keenly observant, rarely misses a step.

The New York Times just ran a profile of Martin, noting that he received “a little pushback from Sotheby’s, which plays a small but slightly controversial role in the book, when one of the characters, a Sotheby’s employee, attempts a bidding scheme there. The people at the auction house were not pleased.” It just broke into the Top 100 on Amazon and is rising.

Libraries we checked had orders in line with substantial reserves.

An Object of Beauty Steve Martin Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2010-11-23) ISBN / EAN: 0446573647 / 9780446573641

Ususal Suspects on Sale Next Week

The Athena Project by Brad Thor (Atria) is the debut of a new thrille rseries about an elite all-female counter-terrorism unit. Deadline reports that Warner Bros. just picked up the film rights.

The Emperor’s Tomb (Cotton Malone Series #6) by Steve Berry finds ex-federal agent Cotton Malone and old heartthrob Cassiopeia Vitt “on a dangerous mission to retrieve a priceless Chinese lamp from the third century B.C.E. in Berry’s rousing fifth thriller…. A goose-pimpleraising showdown in a remote monastery–is worth the wait.”

Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card (Simon Pulse) gets a starred review from Booklist: “Card’s latest title has much in common with his Ender Wiggins books: precocious teens with complementary special talents, callously manipulative government authorities, endlessly creative worlds, and Card’s refusal to dumb down a plot for a young audience.”

Night Whispers by Erin Hunter (HarperCollins) is book three in the feline fantasy Warriors: Omen of the Stars series.

Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, about a WWII hero who survived being shot down and drifting on a life raft in the open ocean, only to endure two years in a brutal Japanese POW camp, is poised to be next week’s biggest nonfiction release. As we wrote earlier, it’s a People Pick, was featured on the cover of USA Today‘s “Life” section, and is excerpted in the December issue of Vanity Fair. Hillenbrand’s appearances next week include the Today Show and NPR.

It also made PW and the Amazon Editors Top Ten lists for 2010. Today’s Wall Street Journal profiles the subject of the book, Louis Zamperini, and quotes a buyer for B&N, “We’re positioning it as the big book for the holidays.”

The one naysayer so far is Entertainment Weekly which gives the book a “B”:

Hillenbrand is a better writer than a lot of historians and biographers. At times her prose even veers toward the poetic. But… she gives this story a chronological structure that frankly gets a little plodding…. Also, as inspiring as Zamperini’s tale is, his ordeal isn’t exactly a joy to experience on the page.

Nevertheless, the book is rising on Amazon, reaching #11 this morning (making it the fifth highest nonfiction title on the list). We’ll see how it fares with word of mouth after its release.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption Laura Hillenbrand Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-11-16) ISBN / EAN: 1400064163 / 9781400064168

RH Large Print; 9780375435010
RH Audio; 9780739319697

Other Notable Nonfiction on Sale Next Week

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda (HarperCollins) is a biography by the veteran publisher. PW says “Korda perhaps exaggerates the novelty and significance of Lawrence’s military exploits and makes an unconvincing stab at framing him in Joseph Campbell-inspired heroic archetypes. Still, Korda’s vivid portrait of Lawrence and his warring impulses captures the brilliance and charisma of this fascinating figure.”

My Passion for Design by Barbra Streisand (Viking) is an illustrated tour of the great star’s homes and art collections – and her first book. Streisand will appear for a full hour on the Oprah Winfrey Show on November 16.

Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama (Knopf Books for Young Readers) explores the characteristics of 13 important figures in American history through a letter to the President’s daughters.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner) chronicles the history of cancer, cancer treatments and new research into the disease. Reviewing the book in the  New York Times, yesterday, Janet Maslin objects that it is “transparently glib” to call the book a “biography,”  but that, “With objectives so vast, and with such a beautiful title, The Emperor of All Maladies is poised to attract a serious and substantial readership.” While the tone of the review is generally negative, it’s clear that Maslin is fascinated by much of it, underscoring her assessment that it will attract readers.

Decoded by Jay-Z (Spiegel & Grau) is part memoir, part tribute to the genre of hip-hop by the superstar. Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-: “The memoir’s chief theme is Jay-Z’s obsession with words…. He situates his work in the English canon, comparing his chosen form to the sonnet and crediting favorite authors (”Shout-out to Alfred, Lord Tennyson”). After reading Decoded, you won’t doubt for a second that he deserves the same level of respect as any of those great scribes.”