EarlyWord is the home of GalleyChat, monthly online discussions where library staff share excitement about upcoming books. More information here.
Summaries of chats and announcements are posted to the right. Use them to add to your own TBR piles and for collection development.
Links on the far right of the site offer information useful to readers advisors.
Hope to see you during our next chat,
GalleyChatters
Mitchell Zuckoff, author of Lost of Shangri-La, appeared on The Daily Show last night.
As a result, the book rose to #46 on Amazon’s sales rankings (from #184 yesterday). It’s been rising on the IdieBound Hardcover Non-fiction list (currently at #14) and is at #19 on the NYT list.
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Larger Print; HarperLuxe; 9780062065049; $26.99
Audio; Books on Tape; UNABR; 9780307917256; $40
Audio and eBook on OverDrive
Former mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin appears on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight. His book about his experiences during Hurricane Katrina, is published through self-publisher CreateSpace, which is owned by Amazon. He will also appear on The Today Show this morning, followed by appearances on MSNBC and CNN.
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Journalist Mitchell Zucokff appears on the show on Wednesday. His book about a little-known event during WWII is showing heavy holds in many libraries.
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Erik Larson’s new book, In The Garden of Beasts, is receiving stellar consumer reviews and is currently in the #1 spot on Amazon’s sale rankings.
In the book, Larson tells the story of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany through the eyes of the daughter of the American ambassador to Germany, Martha Dodd, a device Deirdre Donahue describes as “Carrie Bradshow in Berlin.” But rather than trivialize the story, she says, it helps to bring history alive.
Holds are rising rapidly in many libraries.
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Available on OverDrive; Audio, Books on Tape; Large Print, Random House
Erik Larson was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air last night (listen here), sending his book, released today, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, to #8 (from #36) on Amazon’s sales rankings.
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Available on OverDrive; Audio, Books on Tape; Large Print, Random House
The lead-up to summer continues with more thrillers and series in fiction, Erik Larson’s latest, and the early release of a memoir by a former member of Navy Seals team that hunted Bin Laden.
The Snowman by Jo Nesbø (Knopf) is a thriller about a Swedish expert (UPDATE; as is pointed out in the comments, that should be “Norwegian expert”) on serial killers in a country that prides itself on not having any – and a strong contender for the Stieg Larsson mantle. Library Joural raves “this work is being compared to Peter Høeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow among others. Apt comparisons, but they don’t go far enough. This is simply the best detective novel this reviewer has read in years.” It’s also Nesbo’s first book since Stieg Larsson’s publisher picked him up. The Washington Post ran a major feature about him on Thursday, sending The Snowman up Amazon’s sales rankings (to #145 from #361). It’s also the #3 Indie Next pick for May.
Faith by Jennifer Haigh (HarperCollins) explores the impact of sexual misconduct allegations on a Catholic priest’s family. It’s the latest from the author of Mrs. Kimble, a debut that’s beloved by many librarians. The new novel has been eliciting strong enthusiasm on on our GalleyChat. People magazine gave it 3.5 of 4 stars in the 5/18 issue, calling it “haunting” and “heart-wrenching.” It gets a 150,000-copy first printing.
Blood Trust by Eric Van Lustbader (Forge) finds National security adviser Jack McClure and Alli Carson, the psychologically damaged daughter of the recently deceased U.S. President, in their third adventure, this time involving international terrorism and sex slavery. Library Journal says, “Buy a copy for the name recognition from the author’s work on Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series, but don’t expect rave responses from readers.”
Buried Prey by John Sandford (Putnam) is the 21st novel to feature Lucas Davenport of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and finds him reopening the case that made his name when new evidence emerges. PW says, “Expert plotting and a riveting finish make this one of Sandford’s best.”
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson (Crown) is a work of literary nonfiction about the experiences of U.S. ambassador to Germany William E. Dodd and his family in Berlin in the early years of Hitler’s rule. Early reviews have been strong, but some librarians say it’s slower going than Larson’s beloved The Devil in the White City.
Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal by Howard E Wasdin (St. Martin’s) is by a former member of the counterterrorism unit that killed Osama bin Laden (see our earlier story). Unsurprisingly, publication was pushed up to make the most of the current news cycle. The author has been on several TV shows, including a Dateline special on NBC.
Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man by Chaz Bono (Dutton) is a memoir of the author’s 40 year struggle to reconcile his gender identity and the body he was born into, as the child of Cher and Sonny Bono. LJ notes that “interest will be sparked as much by Bono’s high profile as by his story.”
Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea Handler is the latest from the stand up comedian and late-night talk show host on the E! network.
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, the classic chidren’s story of a house painter who receives a large crate of Antarctic penguins, is being made into a movie. In this incarnation, however, Mr. Popper (Jim Carey) is a modern day businessman with a swanky NYC apartment. The movie opens 6/16 (trailer here).
Another step has been taken in the often winding road from book to film; screenwriter Richard LaGravenese has been hired to create a script based on Laura Hillenbrand’s bestseller, Unbroken (Random House), according to Deadline.
This story has had a particularly long history. Universal has been trying to produce a film about the book’s central figure, Louis Zamperini since the ’50′s, when the studio bought Zamperini’s “life rights” as a starring vehicle for Tony Curtis. More recently, Brad Pitt had plans to produce, with Nicolas Cage starring. No news on who may be chosen to star this time around.
A review on NPR’s All Things Considered last night called Peter Godwin’s book about Zimbabwe’s brutal dictator, Robert Mugabe, The Fear, “…a gut-wrenching portrait of Mugabe’s enormous political sadism — and the brave, heartbreaking, nearly superhuman resistance to it” and “…as important a book as we can read right now.”
The author was also interviewed on today’s Morning Edition.
The book is currently at #116 (up from #892 yesterday) on Amazon’s sales rankings.
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This week marks the thirtieth anniversary of the attempted assassination of then President Ronald Reagan. CBS Sunday Morning looks at how close that call actually was.
Interviewed in the segment is Del Qentin Wilbur, author of a new book that discloses previously unknown details about the event. The book is titled Rawhide Down, after Reagan’s Secret Service code name.
The book rose to #79 on Amazon sales rankings as a result.
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Audio; Macmillan; ISBN 9781427211835
Large Print; Center Point; 9781611730425; 4/1/11
The media’s already got the jump on next week’s laydown of Sarah Vowell‘s Unfamiliar Fishes, a short, idiosyncratic history of Hawaii by the National Public Radio star and bestselling author.
Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B,” saying it “could use a little more of Vowell’s voice peppered throughout some of the long stretches of history and reporting, [but] her brainy wit and savvy cultural references keep the book from seeming like homework.”
There are also short interviews with Vowell in USA Today and Vanity Fair.
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Also up next week is Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations about Food and Money by Geneen Roth, the author that Oprah made into a star. It arrives with a 200,000-copy laydown. Kirkus calls it, “a timely portrait of one woman’s devastating loss and subsequent rise from the ashes of the Bernie Madoff scandal.”
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T.J. English (Havana Nocturne) will be getting media attention next week for his book about New York in the 1960’s, The Savage City. It will be reviewed in the NYT Metro section on Sunday and the author is booked for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
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Thanks to a controversial video trailer for Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell, the book’s publication date has been pushed up by a week. In the video, the Grand Rapids, Michigan mega-church pastor and bestselling author of Velvet Elvis leans toward “universalism ─ a dirty word in Christian circles that suggests everyone goes to heaven and there is no hell,” as CNN.com’s “Belief Blog” puts it.
On March 14, Bell will be the subject of a New York Times profile, and will appear on Good Morning America and Nightline.
Several libaries we checked did not have copies on order. Others showed holds of up to 10:1 on light ordering.
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Jeff Greenfield is the Chief Political Correspondent for CBS News, so it’s no surprise that he was featured on the CBS Early Show today for his book on what might have happened if not for some simple twists of fate. If it had rained in Dallas when JFK was there in 1963, he would not have traveled in an open car and may not have been shot (curiously, Stephen King’s next book, titled 11/22/63 is about time travelers who try to prevent the Kennedy assassination).
Greenfield will also appear on The Colbert Report on Thursday.
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Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe, will receive major media exposure next week. She has written the cover story about Hilary Clinton for Tina Brown’s newly-redesigned Newsweek, which debuts next week (with a weekly book section!). The book will be featured on several NPR shows, including Morning Edition, it will be excerpted in USA Today and several reviews are scheduled.
Lemmon’s book is the story of an Afghan woman who became an entrepreneur under the Taliban, employing over 100 women, despite being banned from schools and offices, in the vein of Three Cups of Tea.
Libraries are showing modest reserves on modest orders, but interest could increase as Lemmon makes her media rounds.
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The Source of All Things: A Memoir by Tracy Ross (Free Press) is an exploration of the author’s childhood sexual abuse. Kirkus says, “Ross’s seesawing of emotions left her in a constant state of flux, but this uncertainty of emotion is one of the narrative’s primary strengths. Ross continually explores the boundaries of father-daughter intimacy, never demonizing her stepfather, but instead, humanizing him—a far more difficult task.”
The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream by Suze Orman (Spiegel and Grau) reassesses the American Dream — home, family, career, retirement — in view of current economic realities.
Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan by Jeff Greenfield (Putnam) is the veteran CBS News reporter and commentator’s journey in what-ifs, based on his extensive research, and has a 100,000 printing. PW calls it “fun but insubstantial.”
Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki (Portfolio) offers a new perspective on the art of influence, by the author of bestseller The Art of the Start.
Counting on a Golden Globe win to bring attention to the movie The King’s Speech, which was released in just a few theaters in December, the Weinstein Co. expanded it nationwide last Friday. The gamble paid off. Colin Firth won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and the film did “impressive business” (Hollywood Reporter, 1/17/11) over the MLK weekend.
In the UK, it has been a surprise instant hit, attracting customers who have not been to the cinema in over a decade (Guardian, 1/18/11).
Oscar buzz has been attached to the film for a while; now, see it as the competition for best picture against the Social Network.
The movie is not based on a book, but a book by Logue’s grandson and co-writer, British journalist Peter Conradi, was recently published as a tie-in. USA Today writes about the book’s genesis in the current issue.
Libraries are showing heavy holds on modest orders.
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It’s every historian’s dream to uncover a little-known, but significant historical event. Daniel Rasmussen, achieved that goal early. As a student at Harvard, he was intrigued by a three-sentence reference to a slave march on New Orleans in 1811 and began investigating it for his senior thesis. It turns out that this was the largest slave revolt in American history. Over 100 of the slaves were killed by local planters who decapitated them, put their heads on pikes and hung their corpses on the gates of the city. Now, Rasmussen has written a book about that story.
In an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered last night (listen to it here), Rasmussen says the fact that we don’t know this story represents “…one of the most significant moments of political amnesia in our nation’s history.” The events were immediately covered up because, “…if the planters acknowledge that slaves are people with real political ideals…it undermines the entire ideology that underlaid slavery.”
Rasmussen wants people to know this “…story of heroism, another side of slave history…What I am trying to do, is not only bring you their story…but to think of these enslaved men and women as people who contributed to American history, who fought and died for their beliefs and who were heroic.”
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OverDrive: Adobe EPUB eBook
Adam Fergusson enjoyed “an unexpected literary revival” this past summer when a book he wrote 35 years ago was republished in the UK. About Germany’s economic collapse after WWI, which lead to Hitler’s rise, it was a “cult text among gold enthusiasts and inflation phobes.” After it was erroneously reported that Warren Buffet was a fan, original copies began selling for upwards of $1,000 each on the Web. (Financial Times, 8/20/10)
The book was reprinted by Public Affairs in the U.S. in October. The Wall Street Journal revisits the story today, in a review that ends with the words, “Every body ought to read this book. But baby boomers must.” As a result, the reprint moved up to #43, from #939 yesterday on Amazon’s sales rankings.
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Adobe EPUB eBook available on OverDrive