The two titles sucking up media attention this week are reviewed in quick succession by Michiko Kakutani in the NYT.

Yesterday, she reviewed former Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner’s Stress Test:  Reflections on Financial Crises (RH/Crown), saying it “provides an intimate take on the financial crisis, and in this respect stands as a gripping, if subjective bookend to already published accounts, like journalist David Wessel’s riveting chronicle In Fed We Trust [RH/Crown, 2009) and the economist Alan S. Blinder’s lucid After the Music Stopped, [Penguin Press, 2013]” But, she says it does not provide new revelations.The Daily Beast, however, manages to unearth 13 juicy bits (that is, if you consider Geithner’s daughter’s not knowing the acronymn “POTUS,” juicy).

Today, Kakutani turn her attention to the other hot media title, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, by Glenn Greenwald (Macmillan/Metropolitan). Again, she finds much of the material familiar, from news stories last year (many of them by Greenwald himself, who won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the story at The Guardian), as well as from an earlier book The Snowden Files (RH/Vingate, Feb, 2014), but says Greenwald’s book is “enlivened by reproductions of dozens of fascinating documents from the Snowden archive that help illustrate the N.S.A.’s methodology” and she applauds his “fierce argument in defense of the right of privacy,”

Both books are rising on Amazon’s sales rankings (Geithner’s is at #8, while Greenwald’s is at #13). Holds in libraries, however, are relatively light at this point.

Kicking off the media campaign for his book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books), Glenn Greenwald appeared on the Today Show this morning.

The amiable conversation turned contentious towards the end.

Greenwald also appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition.

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The cover story of the new issue of People magazine (on newsstands today) features an excerpt from Michelle Knight’s memoir of  being kidnapped held captive in Cleveland for ten years, a time during which she was brutally raped and tortured by her captor.

Knight was the subject of a  a two-part interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper this week and also appeared on the Dr. Phil show.

Her book, published on Tuesday, is Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed: A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings (Perseus/Weinstein Books; Recorded Books).

First, there was NYC restaurateur Eddie Huang’s memoir, Fresh Off the Boat, (RH/Spiegel & Grau; RH Audio; BOT), and his beyond-Bourdain TV food series of the same title on Vice’s Munchies Channel, just renewed for its third season. Next, there may be an ABC TV series based on the memoir. The pilot awaits network executive’s decision about whether it will get the greenlight. The title of the pilot, however, was recently changed to “Far East Orlando,” regarded as racist by many, including Huang himself.

The Wall Street Journal‘s “Speak Easy” blog sticks to the original title in “Why the Fresh Off the Boat TV Series Could Change the Game.” Admitting to possible bias, the author, the father of the 10-year-old lead, Jeff Yang, predicts,

The show is like nothing you will have ever seen before on television. If it makes it to air, it will blow minds, raise eyebrows and, to quote a line that my son says as Little Eddie, “change the game.” I would honestly say the same if I weren’t the lead actor’s father. It’s that different. And provocative. And, yes, gut-bustingly funny.

He notes that if it makes it to series, it will be the only Asian American family sitcom since Margaret Cho’s All American Girl  gave hope twenty years ago that “millions of people across the nation might be gathering to watch a show in which they’d be invited into an immigrant Asian household, experiencing our unique issues and aspirations through the humanizing lens of comedy.” 

But first, something has to be done about that title.

One of the most expensive cookbooks of the year was honored last night as the Cookbook of the Year by the James Beard Foundation. Historic Heston by Heston Blumenthal is listed for $200, but hold on, a lower-priced, $65 edition will be available in October.

The book has won praise from a range of sources, from Saveur magazine, “This idiosyncratic work by Blumenthal, the chef behind the experimental fine dining restaurant The Fat Duck in Bray, England, pays tribute to those who inspired him,” to the Daily Candy, “It’s nearly impossible to sum up the awesomeness of this exquisitely packaged amalgamation of photographic still lifes, illustrations, and historic recipes.”

If the phrase “great British cooking” sounds like an oxymoron, Blumenthal debunks that in the following video:

Winners in all eight book categories are listed, with ordering information. on our downloadable spreadsheet, James Beard 2014 Cookbook Awards.

A slew of new titles arrive next week as publishing begins to ramp up for the summer season. Leading the charge, with the largest number of copies heading to stores and libraries, is James Patterson’s Unlucky 13 (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio). He reveals the not-so-secret secrets to his success to Fast Company’s “Co-Create” blog this week and remarks that he is just “an okay writer, but a very good storyteller.”

Also arriving in quantity is the next in John Sanford’s Prey series, Field of Prey.(Penguin/Putnam; Penguin Audio; Recorded Books; Thorndike).

Having left the character that brought her fame, Sookie Stackhouse, Charlaine Harris changes tack with the first in a new series, Midnight Crossroad, about the residents of Midnight, Texas, a small town with a practicing witch, a telephone psychic, and a vampire who works at the pawn shop (on the night shift, of course). Booklist says, “Although it’s much lighter on the paranormal elements than Harris’ usual fare, this should still make the lists of readers who miss Sookie and company.” The final 10-episode season of True Blood, based on the Stackhouse books, begins on June 22 (the tie-in is All Together Dead, arriving May 27).

Expect heavy review attention for Michael Cunningham’s latest, The Snow Queen, (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio). It’s already received a rare advance rave from Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times, calling it, “arguably Mr. Cunningham’s most original and emotionally piercing book to date.”

Below are five titles that have been getting advance word of mouth from librarians and booksellers. These titles, and highlights of others coming next week, with ordering information and alternate formats, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of May 5, 2014

All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, (S&S/Scribner)

We’ve already issued a holds alert on this one (S&S/Scribner, May 2014; Audio exclusive from MidWest Tape), after Janet Maslin’s advance review in the NYT. Booksellers made it the #1 pick on the May IndieNext list and librarians put it on the LibraryReads list (if you need further convincing, check  the multiple peer reviews on Edelweiss).

“Set during World War II Europe, this novel is sobering without being sentimental. The tension builds as the alternating, parallel stories of Werner and Marie-Laure unfold, and their paths cross. I highly recommend this beautiful and compelling story.” — Kelly Currie, Delphi Public Library, Delphi, IN

The Bees, Laline Paull, (HarperCollins/Ecco)

We heard about this debut first on GalleyChat. It’s now both an IndieNext and a LibraryReads pick for May:

“This book is set entirely in a beehive, but the novel and its characters are so beautifully rendered that it could have been set anywhere. Societal codes and social mores combine with the ancient behavior rituals of bees, bringing forth a remarkable story that is sure to be a book club favorite.” — Ilene Lefkowitz, Denville Public Library, Denville, NJ

The Garden of Burning Sand, Corban Addison, Quercus

IndieNext, May –“This is a captivating thriller that combines page-turning suspense with a social conscience. In contemporary Zambia, an American lawyer who is seeking justice fights entrenched power as well as her own family demons when her father, an influential senator, becomes a candidate for president. Addison’s tale is a fantastic read for literary novel lovers and thriller readers alike, as it provides both suspense and the exploration of important global issues in a credible and convincing style.” — Ed Conklin, Chaucer’s Books, Santa Barbara, CA

The Forgotten Seamstres, Liz Trenow, (Sourcebooks Landmark)

LibraryReads, May — “Two women’s stories, separated by close to 100 years, connect through a patchwork quilt. Carolyn finds a quilt in her mother’s attic and is intrigued by its origin, and quiltmaker Maria’s story is told through transcripts. Trenow carefully stitches together a novel about family secrets, using many interesting details about fabrics, needlework, and textile conservation. A strong sense of place and well-told story make this book superior women’s fiction.”~~Leslie DeLooze, Richmond Memorial Library, Batavia, NY

Delancey, Molly Wizenberg, (Simon & Schuster)

Another May LibraryReads pick, which was seconded this week by People magazine,– ‘The popular food blogger serves up a crave-worthy memoir that is part love story, part restaurant industry tale. Scrumptious.’

On Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List” in the new issue, the movie Belle, opening in NY and LAs tomorrow, and expanding into more theaters through May and June, is described as, “More emotional and affecting than your typical costume drama, this story about the orphan child of an English aristocrat and a slave unfolds beautifully.” The review goes on to make some intriguing comparisons, “like a Jane Austen novel spiked with an extra shot of social conscience … like Downton Abbey but with corsets, culottes and tricorn hats, Belle subtly skewers the absurd rules and hypocrisies of class.” (official web site, with trailer, here).

Based on a true story, it is directed by black female British director Amma Asante, who, keenly aware of how difficult it is to break into the film business, has insisted on diversity both in front of and behind the camera.

The lead actress is widely regarded as on the verge of a major career, with Entertainment Tonight, declaring, “Soon Everyone Will Be Talking About Gugu Mbatha-Raw.”

The tie-in is a an original paperback:

Belle: The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice
Paula Byrne
Harper Perennial;  April 29, 2014
9780062310774, 0062310771
Paperback / softback
$14.99 USD / $18.50 CAD

We’re feeling French this morning.

A story in the NYT political blog, “The Upshot” reports the French, unlike Americans, have paid little attention to a new book by Paris School of Economics professor Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, (Harvard/Belknap Press, 3/12/14), a nearly 700-page tome modeled on Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.

Esquire magazine’s blog declares you must read Piketty’s book, “If you want to understand the world, if you want to comprehend the mechanics of the forces shaping our time, if you want to know the political choices we face,” (if you’re not ready for that commitment, you can, however, get the shorthand version from The Guardian).  Paul Krugman adds his kudos to the chorus of praise in the May 8th issue of the New York Review of Books.

The book debuted on the 4/13 NYT Hardcover list at #16, dropped off for a week and is now back at #15. There even seems to be a halo effect; Adam Smith’s 1776 precursor is now at at #19 on the Nonfiction Extended list, 238 years after its original publication.

Holds on Capital are astounding in several libraries we checked and it appears it is currently out of stock at wholesalers.

Thanks to Liam Hagerty of Westcheter P.L. [NY] for the tip. If your library is experiencing unexpected holds on any titles, please email us.

“One of the most eagerly awaited urban ethnographies in years” may sound like faint praise, but it warrants the author, sociologist Alice Goffman, a NYT profile today, two weeks in advance of the publication of her book.

On the Run, (University of Chicago Press; May 13), is described by the NYT as, “a closely observed study of the impact of the criminal justice system on everyday life in a low-income African-American neighborhood of Philadelphia, [that] it is attracting interest well beyond academia.” There has even been film and TV interest, because it “contains enough street-level detail to fill a season of The Wire.” The 32-year-old diminutive blonde author is media-worthy herself, for her deep immersion with her subjects, enduring many of the harrowing events they do, including being arrested.

Publishers Weekly wrote about the book last week in an article titled “The Sociology Book Primed To Become a Trade Hit,” noting that the publisher has already gone back to press three times. The Chronicle of Higher Education was out in front, writing about Goffman back in November.

There will be more noise about the book next year. In an unusual move for a university press, Chicago auctioned off the paperback and digital rights, which were won by Macmillan’s Picador. PW reports that they plan to send Goffman on tour when the paperback comes out in 2015.

Our headline for this story is a bit different from USA Today’s, “Diane Keaton Flirts Like Crazy With Matt Lauer.”

To us, it looks like she knew exactly how to take control of the interview.

It seems to have worked, Keaton’s new memoir, Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty, (Random House; RH Audio; RH Large Print) rose to #189 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

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Before he became a household name for the HBO series True Detective, director Cary Fukunaga directed the 2011 version of Jane Eyre.

His upcoming projects are also book adaptations. His next for Sony, reports Deadline, will be a feature film based on 2013 Biography Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count of Monte Cristo  by Tom Reiss (RH/Crown; 2012)

Next month, he begins shooting a film in Ghana based on Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala, (HarperCollins, 2005), with Idris Elba in the lead. A debut novel  about a child soldier in West Africa, it won several awards, including the 2006 New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award.

This leaves in question what is happening with the planned two-film version of Stephen King’s massive novel It for Warner Bros., which was announced over two years ago.

The lead book review in People magazine this week (the world’s  50 Most Beatutiful People issue, featuring 12 Years A Slave star Lupita Nyong’o on the cover) is for an unusual memoir. Jason Padgett a “muscled, Mullet-wearing party boy whose most profound thought involved his favorite teams and new dates.” (the New York Post puts it succinctly in their headline, “From Mullet To Math Genius“).

Today, he works with MIT scientists on fractal applications. What caused this huge change? A traumatic  brain injury that seems to have unlocked mathematical talents. People gives 3.5 of 4 stars to his memoir,  Struck by Genius, (HMH; Brilliance Audio), noting that it readers “contemplate the bizarre gifts that might lie within all of us.”

The author appeared on today’s CBS This Morning.

Production has begun on the long-gestating Nick Nolte/Robert Redford adaptation of Bill Bryson’s memoir, A Walk in the Woods, (RH/Broadway; RH Audio, 1998) near Georgia’s Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, according to the local press.

Bryson’s memoir recounts his misadventures as he attempts to hike the Appalachian Trail, despite “years of waddlesome sloth” with his old pal Katz, a man even more ill-prepared for the effort than he is. Redford will play Bryson and Nolte, Katz (in a role originally planned for Redford’s late friend Paul Newman).

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert get their book grooves back this week, as each of them features authors on 3 of their 4 shows.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Elizabeth Warren appears on The Daily Show tonight for A Fighting Chance, (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books; Macmillan Audio), as we noted earlier. We’re betting Stewart will ask about her about an incident she recounts in the book, throwing up the first time she was on the show. Published today, it is already at #24 on Amazon’s sales rankings as the result of previous media attention.

The next day, Wednesday, Stewart features another high-profile author, Good Morning America host, Robin Roberts whose new memoir is titled Everybody’s Got Something, (Hachette/ Grand Central; Hachette Audio).

On Thursday, he turns to a book that hasn’t received as much media attention, Ramachandra Guha’s Gandhi Before India, (RH/Knopf).

The Colbert Report

Tonight, Colbert interviews George Will about his new book, A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred, (RH/Crown Archetype). He sticks with the sports theme on Wednesday with basketball coach, John Calipari and his new book, Players First.

Revealing his more literary side, Colbert declared himself a fan of George Saunders back in 2007 (while claiming he’d never read anything by him), long before the NYT Magazine made him a best seller.

He brings the author back to the show on Thursday for his newest book, Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness, (RH/Knopf), an extended version of his 2013 Syracuse University graduation speech.

New information has appeared about Hillary Clinton’s next book, to be published on June 10. Announced several months ago, as Hillary Rodham Clinton New Memoir, the actual title was just revealed this morning, Hard Choices. Simon & Shuster describes it as an “inside account of the crises, choices and challenges she faced during her four years as America’s 67th secretary of state, and how those experiences drive her view of the future.”

Some wags suggest that one of those “hard choices” might be whether to run for president in 2016.

The news arrives as Senator Elizabeth Warren is about to release her book, A Fighting Chance, (Macmillan/ Metropolitan; Macmillan Audio) fueling rumors that she might run for president in 2016.

How about an all-female ticket?