There’s a common theme among big titles arriving next week; many are aimed at Father’s Day gift giving (don’t panic, fellow procrastinators, it’s not until June 20th).

Media is lined up for The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me by Bruce Feiler. It was already in USA Weekend, featuring interviews with the men Feiler chose to take on a parenting role to his two girls, in the event he succumbed to the cancer that was successfully removed from his body in 2008. Upcoming coverage includes a profile in People (May 10; on newsstands next week), an appearance on the Today Show and The Glenn Beck Show on Fox News.

The Council of Dads: My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me Bruce Feiler Retail Price: $22.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061778761 / 9780061778766

HarperAudio; UNABR; 9780061988493; $29.99
Adobe EPUB eBook from OverDrive.
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The leadup to Father’s Day is also considered good timing for history titles. Heading that group is Hellhound On His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by historian Hampton Sides. Libraries we checked have ordered solid quantities.

In Salon, critic Laura Miller praises the book as “a genuine corker”:

Sides’ meticulous yet driving account of James Earl Ray’s plot to murder King and the 68-day international manhunt that followed is in essence a true-crime story and a splendid specimen of the genre.

The Los Angeles Times adds that this “taut, vibrant account. . . shows the synchronicity of movements as King and his colleagues plot political strategy and follow his speaking itinerary, while Ray draws ever closer.”

Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin Hampton Sides Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-04-27) ISBN / EAN: 0385523920 / 9780385523929

Random House Audio; UNABR; 978-0-7393-5892-4; $45
OverDrive WMA Audiobook

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Other Major Titles on Sale Next Week

The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern by Victor Davis Hanson (Bloomsbury) is an anthology of previously published essays that, according to PW, are “well written, sometimes elegantly so, and closely reasoned. They address familiar material from original and stimulating perspectives. Hanson’s arguments may not convince everyone, but cannot be dismissed.”

Paradise General: Riding the Surge at a Combat Hospital in Iraq by Dave Hnida (Simon & Schuster) is a physician’s account of serving in Iraq that’s “realistic, gritty and full of black humor,” according to Kirkus, but “surrenders to mawkishness and, worst of all, bad puns, seemingly in an effort to be the Patch Adams of Baghdad.”

Winston’s War: Churchill, 1940-1945 by Max Hastings (Random House) is “a joy to read,” says Library Journal. “Despite other works examining this subject, libraries and readers of many persuasions will want this massive and detailed examination of the prime minister and his personal war.”

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore (Random House) is the account of an investment banker, Rhodes scholar and former aide to Condoleezza Rice who investigates the life of another Wes Moore, his age and from the same area of Greater Baltimore, who was wanted for killing a cop. In a starred review, PW says:

“Moore writes with subtlety and insight about the plight of ghetto youth, viewing it from inside and out; he probes beneath the pathologies to reveal the pressures… that propelled the other Wes to his doom. The result is a moving exploration of roads not taken.”

Next week marks the release of two titles that picked up buzz at the recent Public Library Association conference in Portland.

Guy Gavriel Kay‘s Under Heaven, a historical fantasy set in a land resembling Tang Dynasty China, was endorsed by PLA buzz panel moderator Nancy Pearl. “It has everything in that made me such a fan of his in the first place,” she said. “Golly, I thought the new one was perfect.” Libraries we checked are on top of demand, as holds rise.

Library Journal called Kay’s novel “meticulously researched yet seamlessly envisioned, the characters and culture present a timeless tale of filial piety and personal integrity. Highly recommended for all collections and particularly for fans of the author’s distinctive approach to fantasy.”

Under Heaven Guy Gavriel Kay Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 592 pages Publisher: Roc Hardcover – (2010-04-27) ISBN / EAN: 0451463307 / 9780451463302

At the PLA buzz panel, librarians were also talking about The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas‘s brilliantly titled novel about the social fallout from an adult’s rash punishment of a wayward child at an Australian barbeque. This winner of the 2009 Commonwealth prize is being pubbed as a paperback original here and may be a good candidate for book clubs and readers advisors. Most libraries we checked had at least a few copies.

Library Journal said, “While there is not a lot to admire about most of the players in this exceptionally well-written story, their intertwined lives and slowly revealed connections make for a singular reading experience.”

The Slap: A Novel Christos Tsiolkas Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 496 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2010-04-27) ISBN / EAN: 0143117149 / 9780143117148

Major Fiction Titles On Sale Next Week

James Patterson and Maxine Paetro‘s The 9th Judgment (Grand Central) reveals the authors “at their best,” according to Bookreporter.com, “in a series that shows no signs of fatigue or flagging.” No surprise, it’s already at #8 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Debbie Macomber‘s Hannah’s List (Mira), a tale of a Seattle widower’s pursuit of love, is “charming enough,” according to PW, “though Hannah’s cancer battle is glossed over, and the conceit of Michael considering marriage so soon is a little unrealistic.”

Nora Roberts‘s Savor the Moment (Nora Roberts’ Bride Quartet Series #3) (Penguin). Library Journal calls it “funny, sweetly sexy, as bubbly as champagne, and as addictive as chocolate, this thoroughly readable follow-up to Vision in White and Bed of Roses is one to savor.”

Isabel Allende‘s Island Beneath the Sea (Harper) received a starred review from Booklist: “Allende is grace incarnate in her evocations of the spiritual energy that still sustains the beleaguered people of Haiti and New Orleans. Demand will be high for this transporting, remarkably topical novel of men and women of courage risking all for liberty.”

Laurie R. King‘s The God of the Hive (Random House). PW says: “Those who enjoyed the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. may appreciate bestseller King’s heavy-on-action, light-on-deduction 10th novel featuring Mary Russell and her much older husband, Conan Doyle’s iconic detective.”

J. R. Ward‘s Lover Mine (NAL) is the eighth installment in the Black Dagger Brotherhood urban fantasy series, (in the book’s trailer, the author says, she still doesn’t see the series ending). It’s currently at #11 on Amazon.

Y.A. Fiction

P.C. Cast‘s Burned (St. Martins Press) is the seventh installment in the young adult House of Night series. It’s at #13 on Amazon sales rankings.

Candice Bushnell, The Carrie Diaries (Balzar & Bray/ HarperCollins). While you’re waiting for Sex and the City 2 (don’t scoff; the first one made half a billion dollars), which opens in theaters on May 28th (and, yes, there is a tie-in; see our upcoming movie tie-ins listing), you can read the franchise prequel, Bushnell’s first YA title. It’s about about Carrie’s life as a high school senior in Connecticut. USA Today features it in the current issue. Entertainment Weekly addresses the cynical among us, saying,

It would have been easy to write a coming-of-age story about Carrie Bradshaw that ham-fistedly foreshadows everything fans of the franchise know will come to pass. But Bushnell nails something harder: telling another chapter
 in the story of a cherished character that stands on its own,

and give the book a lofty A-. This the first of two titles; the next one is planned for summer 2011 (frighteningly, there are hints that a Sex and the City 3 is in the works).

Lots of major fiction arrives next week, as publishers prepare for the lead-up to Mother’s Day in bookstores. Here are the highlights of next week’s crop, all of which have strong holds in libraries we checked.

Deliver Us from Evil by David Baldacci (Grand Central): Holds are huge for this one, but unfortunately, PW says it “lacks the creative plotting and masterful handling of suspense that marked his earlier thrillers.”

Deliver Us from Evil David Baldacci Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2010-04-20) ISBN / EAN: 0446564087 / 9780446564083

This Body of Death (An Inspector Lynley Novel) by Elizabeth George is “richly rewarding,” according to PW, with “an intricate plot that will satisfy even jaded fans of psychological suspense.”

Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick (Penguin). Library Journal says: “With quirky humor and typical flair, Quick has penned another riveting, fast-paced adventure that… will leave readers anxious for the final installment, Jayne Castle’s Midnight Crystal, coming in September.”

Lucid Intervals (A Stone Barrington Novel)  by Stuart Woods (Penguin). “Woods mixes danger and humor into a racy concoction that will leave readers thirsty for more,” PW declares.

The Double Comfort Safari Club (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series #11) by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon) gets a positive review from PW, which notes that the tale’s resolution many seem “unduly fortuitous, but it makes sense within the framework of these books, which are more about humanity than logic.”

Eight Days to Live by Iris Johansen (Macmillan). “Think The Da Vinci Code crossed with an Anne Stuart romantic suspense novel, and you’ll have a sense of the plot and tone,” says Library Journal.

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Knopf). Reviews in PW and Booklist are enthusiastic, along with Library Journal, which sums up: “Written by a two-time Booker Prize winner, this engaging book will be particularly appreciated by readers interested in early 19th-century American history, the French aristocracy, and emerging democracy.” It’s also reviewed in the current NYT BR.

Kitty Kelley’s Oprah: A Biography goes on sale next week, but it may get short shrift on national TV: only NBC will interview Kelley (0n Weekend Today this Sat. and the Today Show, Mon. & Tues.), according to the New York Post.  Library demand for the book is moderate, so far, at those we checked.

Relatively few of the book’s details have been released so far, aside from the National Enquirer‘s headline about the “Big Gay Lie” of Winfrey’s relationship with Stedman Graham, as we reported earlier.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Oprah herself is currently dominating entertainment headlines with the announcement of an evening talk show on the Oprah Winfrey Network, which launches in January. Reports also indicated that a book club show may be part of the lineup, with Oprah appearing on it occassionally.

Oprah: A Biography Kitty Kelley Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 544 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 0307394867 / 9780307394866

Large Print from Random House

• $30; ISBN 9780739377857

Audio from Random House Audio

• CD: $50; ISBN 9780307749246

Also Available Next Week:

Michael J. Fox’s A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Future, (Hyperion) is the former TV and film star’s third memoir. He will appear on Entertainment Tonight on April 12 or 13, and Good Morning America on April 15.

FICTION

Yann Martel, Beatrice and Virgil, (Random House). Heavily anticipated, after the author’s beloved Booker winner, The Life of Pi, the new book’s reviews have not been strong, causing Kirkus to bring out some scary comparisons; “Like a Russian doll, the novel contains parables within parables…[the] dialogue sounds like Aesop filtered through Samuel Beckett.” PW was in agreement, but Booklist gave it a star. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly is in the Kirkus/PW camp, giving it a C+.

Anna Quindlen, Every Last One, (Random House). Entertainment Weekly reviews this title jointly with Anne Lamont’s Imperfect Birds (Riverhead, published last week), giving both books about parents trying to cope with teenage daughters C ‘s and saying, “Bottom line here? Fans of Quindlen and Lamott may want to give these two a skip.” Prepub reviews of both were very strong, however.

For more titles coming this week, go to BandN.com, Coming Soon.

Among next week’s nonfiction releases, The End of Wall Street by New York Times magazine contributor Roger Lowenstein is picking up the biggest media buzz so far. Three out of four libraries we checked have it, though orders are low, and at two libraries, holds were at 6:1.

Several days ahead of publication, Janet Maslin reviewed it positively in The New York Times, saying

His is not a story of blowhard personalities, even if it is filled with C.E.O.’s and financial regulators who arguably control the future of global finance. Instead it is a coherently issue-oriented book that frames each stage of the crisis in terms of the real world’s ability to confound theorists, number-crunching quants, economic historians and other putative experts.

The End of Wall Street Roger Lowenstein Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1594202397 / 9781594202391

OverDrive WMA Audiobook

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Though it has fewer library holds, David Remnick’s The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama will also get media play. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly reviews it, giving it a B. They say that the level of interest depends on one’s appetite for detail (the book is 621 pages long).

It recently got a rave review in the Los Angeles Times from author Douglas Brinkley, who called it a “brilliantly constructed, flawlessly written biography.”

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama David Remnick Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 672 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1400043603 / 9781400043606

Also available from Random House Audio

• CD: $50; ISBN 9780307734327

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A possible sleeper is In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time by Peter Lovenheim (Perigee).

Library orders are much more modest, but USA Today just gave a sympathetic review to this account of how lawyer and freelance writer Lovenheim invited members of the 35 families on his street to sleep over at his home in a wealthy Rochester, New York suburb, in order to find out more about his community. Julia Roberts has also bought film rights to the book.

In The Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time Peter Lovenheim Retail Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Perigee Trade – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0399535713 / 9780399535710

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Paula Deen’s Savannah Style (Simon & Schuster) gets a positive from review from PW: “the prose is friendly, and the volume offers a warm invitation to those who want a peek at how Deen and her fellow Savannahans live.”

Mario Batali‘s Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking at Home (HarperCollins) is “great for dinner parties and family get-togethers,” according to Library Jounal.

Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners (Simon & Schuster) “more than lives up to the promise of its title and will delight the legions of Moulton fans, earning her more than a few new ones,” says PW.

Carol Burnett‘s This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection (Harmony Books) is the comedian’s second book, in which she looks back on her long and successful career in “short, easily digestible chapters that part the curtain on her private life,” according to Booklist.

Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic‘s Mike and Mike’s Rules for Sports and Life (ESPN Books) is the first book by these two ESPN sports radio commentators, who have three million listeners.

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

Booklist‘s starred review says:

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

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

Available from Penguin Audiobooks  on April 15, 2010

• CD: $49.95; ISBN 9780143145349

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

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

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

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

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

Also available as OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two novels to keep an eye on next week – Paolo Giordano’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers, an international bestseller that’s starting to draw media attention, and Sarah Addison Allen’s third novel, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, which has solid demand in libraries that have ordered it.

Paolo Giordano’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers is the saga of two misfit Italian schoolmates as they move through life.

Today’s NYT calls it, “…a mesmerizing portrait of a young man and woman whose injured natures draw them together over the years and inevitably pull them apart.”

It gets an A- in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, which says,

We’re engrossed by the way in which a dreadful combination of faulty brain wiring and rotten luck propels each child’s future, like number sequences locking into place.

USA Today also mentions this debut novel by a 27 year old Italian physicist in an international roundup:

Don’t be frightened off by the author’s Ph.D. or the book’s title… Giordano’s passionate evocation of being young and in despair will resonate strongly with readers under 30. Alas, overbearing parents, special-needs siblings, cruel classmates, physical and sexual insecurities, guilt, loneliness and grief are universal plagues.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers Paolo Giordano Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books – (2010-03-18) ISBN / EAN: 0670021482 / 9780670021482

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The Girl Who Chased the Moon, the tale of a young woman’s seach for her roots in a small Southern town, received a starred review in Library Journal:

Allen’s warm characters and quirky setting are what will completely open readers’ hearts to this story. Nothing in it disappoints.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon Sarah Addison Allen Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2010-03-16) ISBN / EAN: 0553807218 / 9780553807219

Other Titles With Buzz On Sale Next Week

The Spellmans Strike Again (Spellman Files Series #4) by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)

Think Twice, by Lisa Scotoline, (St. Martin’s Press)

But the real news in fiction next week is in childrens and YA titles:

Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Yen Press) — Meyer’s first foray into Manga.

The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books) — the movie opens next week (see trailer here).

L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls (HarperTeen) — fans are resting easier, now that the CW has announced that the series based on the books has been renewed for the fall.

James Patterson‘s Maximum Ride: Fang (Little Brown)

Two novels going on sale next week — one by Lionel Shriver and the other by Danielle Trussoni — are getting early media attention from major critics, though there is only moderate library demand so far.  On the other hand, Alan Brantley‘s second Flavia de Luce mystery doesn’t need media attention; customers are placing holds based on the success of the author’s debut last year, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Lionel Shriver‘s exploration of the plight of middle-class Americans squeezed by the current health care system, So Much for That, will hit the ground running with a very positive early review from the notoriously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times, who says,

The author’s understanding of her people is so intimate, so unsentimental that it lofts the novel over [some] bumpy passages, insinuating these characters permanently into the reader’s imagination.

In a gossipy aside, freelance critic Mark Athitakas digests the recent flap in the UK over the ethics of Shriver’s decision to set a portion of her novel in a resort on Pemba Island in the Indian Ocean, and to list the owners in her acknowledgements, after having gone on a travel-writing junket there.

So Much for That Lionel Shriver Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061458589 / 9780061458583

Available from Brilliance Corporation  03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $36.99; ISBN 9781423360995

Large Print from HarperLuxe

• $25.99; ISBN 9780061946134

Overdrive WMA Audiobook: ISBN 9780061977510

Playaway: $74.99; SKU 11733

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Danielle Trussoni‘s debut thriller, Angelology, about a nun descended from elite angelologist who solves a puzzle reminiscent of the Da Vinci Code, is a People Pick in the 3/15 issue. The review bestows 3.5 of a possible 4 stars, but reads like a 4-star review:

…breathtakingly imaginative…[the] story is over the top. But aren’t all sweeping, thoroughly entertaining tales of the supernatural? In fact, once you’ve entered Angelology‘s enthralling world…you’ll be thinking, “Vampires? Who cares about vampires?”

It gets less favorable coverage from Janet Maslin in the New York Times:

Angelology is so prettily written that it takes a while for the clumsiness to show… Ms. Trussoni does not even tie up this book’s loose ends. She leaves her story in virtual midair, set up for a sequel and mightily confused as to angelology’s future.

Library demand is relatively light, but given the heated auction for this book and the positive early reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, there’s bound to be more coverage. There’s also a movie in the works from Sony.

Angelology Danielle Trussoni Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 0670021474 / 9780670021475

Available from Penguin Audiobooks: 03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $39.95; ISBN 9780143145264

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In libraries, next week’s most anticipated new fiction title is Alan Bradley‘s The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, featuring the dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce.  This young English girl’s passion for chemistry and solving murders helped septagenarian Bradley win many fans for his debut, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009). Libraries we checked are largely on top of the demand, with up to 50 copies on hand.

Library Journal says that “while the plot at times stretches credulity, with some characters veering close to Agatha Christie stereotypes, Flavia is such an entertaining narrator that most readers will cheerfully go along for the ride.”

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 0385342314 / 9780385342315

Available from Random House Audio:  03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $35; ISBN 978030757641535

Other Fiction with Buzz Coming Next Week:

Chang-Rae Lee’s The Surrendered (Riverhead), a story of war and survival that focuses on a Korean orphan and the American veteran and missionary who try to care for her, received a favorable review from Laura Miller in Salon and a glowing review in Elle,  and was also on O magazine’s list of Seven Books to Watch for in March.

Clive Cussler and Jack De Brul’s The Silent Sea (Putnam) is the “winning seventh entry in the Oregon Files nautical adventure series… [in which] Juan Cabrillo, the heroic skipper of the ‘Oregon’, a state-of-the-art warship disguised as a tramp steamer, faces a multitude of difficulties and challenges,” according to Publishers Weekly.

Libraries are showing demand for Dan Simmons’ historical novel with a supernatural twist, Black Hills, which is also picking up positive early reviews. Holds are averaging 4:1 on this tale of about a Sioux man who communes with the spirit of George Armstrong Custer for 50 years after his death in the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Booklist praises Hugo award-winner Simmons as “equally adept at horror, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery.”

Publishers Weekly also lauds “his ability to create complex characters and pair them with suspenseful situations, [which] stands almost unmatched among his contemporaries.”

Entertainment Weekly gives the book a B+, finding that “some passages of Black Hills sink into tourist-pamphlet minutiae, [but] Simmons (Drood) keeps the tale buoyant with his evocative prose and storytelling muscle.”

Black Hills Dan Simmons Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books – (2010-02-24) ISBN / EAN: 031600698X / 9780316006989

Audio: Hachette Audio; UNABR; 9781600247866; $39.98
BBC Audio; UNABR; 9781607883463; $129.99
Large Print: Little, Brown; pbk; 9780316073998; $25.99
Audio and ebook available from OverDrive

Other Fiction Titles Going on Sale Next Week

Danielle Steel‘s Big Girl (Delacorte), about an unconventional beauty, has holds of up to 7:1 in libraries we checked.

Kim Harrison‘s Black Magic Sanction (Eos) is the eighth title in her urban fantasy series, Robin Morgan/ Hollows. Holds are in the 4:1 range at many libraries we checked.

J.D. Robb‘s Fantasy in Death (Penguin), the 30th book in the bestelling Death series featuring NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas, has predictably high holds.

Robert Parker‘s Split Image (Putnam) is the latest title in the Spenser series, following the author’s death last month.  Holds are high in the libraries we checked. [According to The Age (Australia), there are several more Spenser novels coming.]

Coming next week, Jennifer Mascia’s debut memoir Never Tell Our Business to Strangers promises to be, like Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, the kind of memoir that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go. It begins with her father’s arrest by the FBI when she was five – and her odyssey to reconcile her love for her parents with the discovery in her twenties that her father had been a mafia hitman, her mother had covered up for him for years, and she’d unwittingly spent her childhood on the lam.  But the story ends well: Mascia now works at the New York Times, writing for the City Room blog.

Only one library we checked has copies on order, with modest holds – probably because there have not been any advance reviews. But if the knock-out essay she wrote for the New York Times “Modern Love” column is any indication, the book should be a winner.

Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir Jennifer Mascia Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Villard – (2010-02-23) ISBN / EAN: 0345505352 / 9780345505354

Other Nonfiction Titles on Sale Next Week

My Footprint: Carrying the Weight of the World by Jeff Garlin (Simon Spotlight) is a memoir by a star of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm about his efforts to reduce his waistline and carbon footprint. ABC News will interview him on Friday night, February 19, and in the meantime has posted an excerpt. Three out of four libraries we checked had the book, with modest holds.

Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast by Martha Stewart Living Magazine (Crown) is the latest cookbook based on the popular magazine – but three of the four libraries we checked don’t have it.

One nonfiction title going on sale next week has been getting some buzz in the library world: journalist Roger Rosenblatt‘s memoir Making Toast, about helping to raise his grandchildren after his daughter’s sudden death at age 38.

So far, holds are modest at libraries we checked, but this title was highlighted at a buzz panel at ALA and is a favorite of Harper’s library marketing maven Virigina Stanley. It was also excerpted in the New Yorker, and is an Indie Next Pick for March.

PW says: “Rosenblatt draws sharply etched portraits of his grandchildren; his stoic, gentle son-in-law; his wife, who feels slightly guilty that she is living her daughter’s life; and Amy [the daughter] emerges as a smart, prickly, selfless figure whose significance the author never registered until her death.”

UPDATE: Rosenblatt was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered by Melissa Block, who called it an “exquisite, restrained little memoir filled with both hurt and humor.” Listen here. The book rose to #173 on Amazon.

Making Toast Roger Rosenblatt Retail Price: $21.99 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Ecco – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 006182593X / 9780061825934

Available from Blackstone Audiobooks

3 Tape LIBRARY 1-4417-2133-4 $44.95

1 Playaway LIBRARY 1-4417-2140-2 $54.99

1 MP3CD LIBRARY 1-4417-2137-2 $29.95 $

3 CD LIBRARY 1-4417-2134-1 $55.00

E-book and audio available from OverDrive

Other Major Nonfiction Titles On Sale Next Week

• Chip and Dan Heath‘s Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Random House) follows their bestseller Make To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Library Journal calls praises its “fresh ideas and a breezy style that will work equally well for company executives, undergraduates, and average joes.” Holds are as high as 4:1 in libraries we checked.
• Daniel Amen‘s Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: To Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted (Harmony) applies the insights of brain imaging technology to weight loss.

Swedish noir fiction author Henning Mankell developed an American following well before Stieg Larsson topped U.S. bestseller lists, but Mankell’s new novel, The Man from Beijing, may be benefitting from the popularity of his countryman. At several libraries we checked, Mankell’s latest has holds as high as 4:1.

Departing from Mankell’s ten-book Inspector Wallander series,The Man from Beijing focuses on a woman who was Maoist in her student days, and is now a middle-aged, middle-of-the-road Swedish judge.

The Economist calls Mankell “a master portraitist of Sweden’s underside,” but observes that the trouble starts when The Man From Beijing turns to international social commentary. “The picture he paints of Africa—with a leopard calmly surveying the world from its grassy hillock—is clichéd enough, but his China is positively hackneyed.”

PW adds that “While each section, ranging in setting from the bleak frozen landscape of northern Sweden to modern-day China bursting onto the global playing field, compels, the parts don’t add up to a fully satisfying whole.”

The Man from Beijing Henning Mankell Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-02-16) ISBN / EAN: 0307271862 / 9780307271860

Audio Available from Random House: 2/16/10

• CD: $45; ISBN 9780307712356

E-book and audio available from OverDrive

———————————

Other Major Fiction Titles On Sale Next Week

• Michael Palmer‘s The Last Surgeon (St. Martin’s), about a trauma surgeon back in Baltimore after a stint in Afghanistan, gets mixed reviews: Booklist says it’s his “best novel in years” while PW calls it “an anemic medical thriller.” Holds are as high as 4:1 at several libraries we checked.
• Tim LeHaye’s Matthew’s Story (Penguin) is the new novel in the Jesus series, by the authors of the bestselling Left Behind series. Library holds are 2:1 or higher.

Among next week’s releases are two much-buzzed-about debuts. Library demand is highest for The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, with holds of  6:1 or higher on modest orders.

The tale of an American radio reporter in WWII London, the novel is winning comparisons to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society from booksellers, one of whom touted The Postmistress in PW‘s Galley Talk column, and also in a USA Today story on breakthrough winter titles. The book also carries a blurb from Kathryn Stockett, author of the runaway bestseller, The Help.

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- in the new issue, saying “There’s both exquisite pain and pleasure to be found in these pages, which jump from the mass devastation in Europe to the intimate heartaches of an American small town.”

The Postmistress Sarah Blake Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam – (2010-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0399156194 / 9780399156199

Available from Blackstone Audiobooks

• CD: $100; ISBN 9781441725714
• MP3 CD: $29.95; ISBN 9781441725745
• Cassette: $65.95; ISBN 9781441725707

Audio and e-book available from OverDrive

——————————–

Union Atlantic, the first novel by Adam Hazlett, author of the bestselling story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here, is also attracting 2:1 hold ratios in libraries we checked. The novel explores the gilded age of the last decade, centering on a land dispute between a young banker and a retired schoolteacher, and was chosen as a #1 Indie Next Pick for February.

New York magazine profiles Hazlett this week, as did PWearlier, both noting that the book, which Hazlett began writing ten years ago, foretells the recent financial crisis and even the bailout. He tells New York that when he began writing it, he feared readers might not know, or even care, what the Fed is.

Libraries have ordered it in similar quantities to The Postmistress, with one-fifth the number of holds.

Union Atlantic Adam Haslett Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2010-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0385524471 / 9780385524476

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Adriana Trigiani‘s Brava Valentine (HarperCollins), the second in her Valentine trilogy about a loving but fiery Italian American family, is showing reserves of 6:1 at one library we checked, making it the most-anticipated fiction title of the week.

Alex Berenson‘s The Midnight House(Penguin), the fourth in a series featuring superspy John Wells,  is also much in demand, though not available at all libraries we checked.

Peter Straub‘s A Dark Matter (Knopf Doubleday) “ranks as one of the finest tales of modern horror,” according to PW.

Chuck Hogan‘s Devils in Exile(Simon & Schuster) is “a compelling portrait of a good man who makes bad choices and in the end must battle his way out of a destructive and deadly life,” PW said.

Next week’s most-anticipated nonfiction book is bestselling business guru Seth Godin‘s guide to mastering the new economy, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?  Three of the four libraries we checked had it, with holds of close to 2:1 on orders of 8-15 copies

Though the reserves aren’t huge, they appear to be a positive effect of Godin’s gamble on Internet-only publicity campaign, in which he bypassed the traditional media, giving away books at his own expense to the first 3,000 readers who agreed to make a minium $30 donation to the Acumen Fund.

So far, Godin has a page of positive blog reviews and tweets to show for his efforts, and the Acumen Fund has raised more than $100,000.

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Seth Godin Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover – (2010-01-26) ISBN / EAN: 1591843162 / 9781591843160

Audio available from Random House on 2/09/10:

• CD: $15; ISBN 9780307704078

Other Major Titles Going on Sale Next Week:

Eternity Soup: Inside the Quest to End Aging by Greg Critser (Harmony) is a journalist’s irreverent look at the anti-aging industry. Kirkus found it “a delightful, politically incorrect view of the life-extension movement, accompanied by the disappointing news that aging is reversible but not in the near future.”

I Am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne (Grand Central) is the legendary rocker and reality show star’s memoir, which Kirkus deemed “as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.”

Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hour by Gayle Haggard (Tyndale) is a memoir by the wife of evangelical Christian leader Tim Haggard who had liaisons with a male prostitute.

Tea with Hezbollah: Sitting at the Enemies Table, Our Journey Through the Middle East by Ted Dekker and Middle East expert Carl Medearis  (Doubleday Religion) is an account of the Christian novelist’s effort to love his enemies.

Thriller fans are driving strong library demand for two titles coming next week, from Tom Dorsey and Kay Hooper – and early reviews favor Dorsey.

Gator A-Go-Go by Tim Dorsey is the most-requested title to be released next week, with strong holds of 6:1 or more in libraries we checked. It features homicidal yet discerning anti-hero Serge Storms and his drug-addicted sidekick as they seek rough justice amid the revelry of spring break. Booklist says: “All of Dorsey’s books offer belly laughs, but this one seems a cut above.”

Gator A-Go-Go Tim Dorsey Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061432717 / 9780061432712

Large Print available from HarperLuxe on 02/01/2010

• $24.99; ISBN: 9780061945670

Blood Ties by Kay Hooper has holds of at least 1:1, and as high as 7:1 at one library. Publishers Weekly was not very impressed:

Too many interchangeable doll-like victims and a by-the-numbers plot mar bestseller Hooper’s conclusion to her paranormal thriller trilogy that began with Blood Dreams and Blood Sins.

Blood Ties: A Bishop/Special Crimes Unit Novel Kay Hooper Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2010-01-26) ISBN / EAN: 0553804863 / 9780553804867

Audio available from Brilliance

• CD (9 discs): $87.97; ISBN 9781423333142
• MP3: $39.97; ISBN: 9781423333166

Large Print from Random House

• $26; ISBN 9780739377567

More Major Fiction Releases Next Week:

The Dragon Keeper: Volume One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb (Eos/Harper), the first in a two-volume fantasy “mini-series” by veteran fantasist Hobb that Booklist calls as “good as it is massive.”

The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd (Morrow) is the first in a new thriller series by debut author Boyd. Publisher Morrow is backing its high hopes for the book with a 150,000 first printing.

Three Days Before the Shooting . . . by Ralph Ellison; only half the ibraries we checked have ordered this novel that Ellison left unfinished after his death, his second after Invisible Man.