Headed for a top position on best seller lists after its release next week is David Baldacci‘s third novel featuring CIA hit man Will Robie, The Target (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Blackstone Audio). He appeared on CBS This Morning yesterday to describe it.

Also arriving is a new thriller by Andrew Gross, Everything to Lose, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe; Blackstone Audio) which follows a struggling single mother faced with overwhelming temptation when she discovers a half million dollars at the scene of an accident and a posthumous book by Maeve Binchy, a collection of linked short stories about the residents of Dublin’s imaginary Chestnut Street, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; Thorndike).

Below are several other titles to be ready for next week. Ordering information for these and other titles arriving next week is available on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of 4/21.

Making Headlines

A Fighting Chance, Elizabeth Warren, (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books; Macmillan Audio)

The news media has been all over this book, both for its skewering “of the White House Boys Club” (The Huffington Post) and speculation that its very publication indicates Warren will run for President in 2016.  The embargo was broken yesterday by the Boston Globe, followed closely by the Washington Post (conveniently offering “Everything you need to know from Elizabeth Warren’s new book”) and Politico. Official publicity starts Friday with an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air,  followed by one on CBS Sunday Morning.After that, expect to see Warren nearly everywhere, including stints on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, ABC’s The View, and NPR’s Morning Edition.

Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality, Jo Becker, (Penguin Press)

Some gay activists are already taking issue with this book, claiming that the author leaves out important figures in the marriage equality movement. Becker responds to the Huffington Post, “My book was not meant to be a beginning-to-end-history of the movement. It’s about a particular group of people at an extraordinary moment in time, and I hope that people will be moved by their stories.” An excerpt is the cover story of this Sunday’s NYT Magazine (the author is an NYT reporter), with the headline: ‘Mr. President, How Can We Help You Evolve More Quickly.’ Becker will  appear on NPR’s Fresh Air. Expect it to be reviewed widely.

Everybody’s Got Something, Robin Roberts, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio)

Roberts is on the cover of the upcoming issue of People magazine and the subject of a “By the Book” profile in the NYT Book Review. In this, the second memoir by the popular host of Good Morning America, Roberts writes about overcoming breast cancer only to discover five years later that she has rare blood disorder.

Notable Paperback Release 

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, (RH/Broadway Books)

We don’t normally list paperback reprints, but this one is particularly timely. It comes just as a the first full trailer for the movie is released amid buzz about an altered ending, which will likely draw even more people to read the book first. The tie-in paperbacks won’t be released until Aug. 26.  The movie is scheduled for Oct. 3.

Advance Review Attention

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, Francine Prose, (Harper)

Edmund White’s cover review of Prose’s new novel for Sunday’s NYT Book Review, should draw in readers, both for its headline, “Divine Decadence” and for its opening lines saying that evil characters are often the most fun and that the one created by the “subtle psychologist,” Prose is “a genuinely evil character … a cross-dressing French race car driver who collaborate with the Nazis.” After praising the book’s style and ability, “like all great novels,”  to make the reader symphasize with even a repugnant character, White spends several paragraphs taking issue with aspects of the book, which he then annoyingly dismisses as a mere “quibble” and ends by calling this a “novel of great power and reach.” In the daily NYT, Janet Maslin begins her review with, “The breadth, nerve and intricacy of Francine Prose’s big new novel should surprise even her most regular readers. A bona fide page turner, Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 unfolds over 20 years, across an increasingly ominous Europe, among thugs and artists and poseurs who share only the danger that threatens to cramp their partying style.” She has her “quibble,” too wishing that the book  had been “slightly tighter.” Ignore the quibbles, this one sounds fascinating.

Readers Advisory 

Take a cue from fellow librarians, who picked the following titles as two of the ten LibraryReads titles for April.

Love, Nina, Nina Stibbe, (Hachette/Little, Brown)
“With a unique voice, Stibbe brings 1980s literary Camden back to life in this delightful epistolary memoir. The letters that Stibbe writes to her sister are a hoot, featuring unexpected cooking advice from the great Alan Bennett, and droll commentary on just about everything from Mary-Kay Wilmers.” — Jennifer Estepp, Queens Library, Jamaica, NY

On the Rocks, Erin Duffy, (HarperCollins/ Morrow)

“After her fiance dumps her on Facebook, Abby retreats to her apartment until her best friend invites her to spend the summer in Newport. This book is for every woman who’s been determined to put things back together after finding herself on the wrong side of social media, in the aftermath of a bad breakup, or elbow deep in Ben & Jerry’s when things fall apart.” — Sara Grochowski, Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library, Alpena, MI

[Ed. Note] We love that so many of you are reading ARC’s (aka, galleys), to find titles to nominate for LibraryReads, to be the first to discover the next big thing, and to make ordering decisions. Now that so many ARC’s are also available as e-galleys from Edelweiss and NetGalley, the selection is greater than ever.

There is a downside. Choice can be overwhelming, as evidenced by our own teetering tower at the left.

How do you pick what to push to the top of your virtual as well as actual TBR piles? And, when you fall in love with a book that won’t be published for several months, who can you talk to about it?

GalleyChat to the rescue; our monthly discussions of galleys fellow librarians are loving can help you tame your piles (adult GalleyChat is the first Tuesday of the month and YA/Middle Grade is the third Tuesday).

In addition, our own GalleyChatter, Robin Beerbower (Salem P.L.) gives us her take on what she’s learned from the adult edition (see her second roundup, below). Between chats, you can keep up with what other GalleyChatters are reading via postings on the Edelweiss community board (be sure to friend us).

The following is Robin’s April roundup:

The April Galleychat’s pace was its normal fast and furious self, with suspense thrillers dominating the discussion. Below are several of the titles that rose to the top. All are available as e-galleys from Edelweiss unless otherwise noted.

When it’s only April and a voracious reader tells you she’s already found one of her top ten books of the year, you take notice. The dark thriller The Distance, (Doubleday, September) by former bookseller Helen Giltrow, is already on Jane Jorgenson’s list of favorite books of the year. Continuing the dark and moody theme, Lori Rader-Day’s The Black Hour (Seventh Street Books, May) was on two chatters’ list and has also received “much love” from 3 peers on Edelweiss. On Goodreads Jorgenson calls it “A fascinating mystery that looks backwards and forwards” and “this is a great debut.”

Sharon (the author formerly known as “S. J.”) Bolton’s fourth Lacey Flint mystery, A Dark and Twisted Tide, (Macmillan/Minotaur, June; e-galley on NetGalley) is receiving many  raves. While it can be read alone, those who haven’t read Bolton’s previous titles will have a creepy good time reading the books in order, beginning with Now You See Me.

Also mentioned was J. A. Jance’s newest Joanna Brady novel, Remains of Innocence (HarperCollins/ Morrow, July), always a treat; The Bishop’s Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison (Soho Press), was called “nice twisty mystery, well-developed characters.” And, talk about being ahead of the curve, it doesn’t arrive until December. W.W. Norton’s Golda Rademacher, whose taste we’ve come to trust, cites as one of her favorites  Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman (July), a gritty mystery set in rural northeastern Pennsylvania. She was seconded by a librarian who gave it the ultimate accolade from a knowledgeable mystery reader; the ending was not at all what she expected.

My own favorite book this month was The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker (Penguin, May), which just became available as an e-galley. This 600-plus-page suspense thriller with its knot of unreliable narrators twisted and turned so much I felt like I was on both a roller coaster and a tilt-a-whirl. This will be a great read alike for Dennis Lehane’s  Shutter Island and yes, even the book everything seems to be compared to these days, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. I am predicting big things for HQ.

It’s fun to see the return of authors whose debuts we first discovered through other GalleyChatters. Daisy Goodwin grabbed many of us with The Heiress, so there was excitement from those who have just received her new one,  The Fortune Hunter, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s, July). One GalleyChatter who has already dived in reports she is loving it.

We’re as susceptible as anyone to a beautiful cover and this one not only features an arresting image, but it pops with raised and embossed details and lettering (an extra printing expense); a good indicator of a the package to come.

Remember to friend me if you want to keep up with what I’m anticipating on Edelweiss and please join us on May 6 for our next GalleyChat.

Politicians often announce ambitions for higher office by publishing a memoir, which gives potential voters two ways to get to know the candidate, via the book itself and personal appearances to promote it.

The announcement that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, Mass.) is publishing her memoir, A Fighting Chance, (Macmillan/ Metropolitan; Macmillan Audio) has fueled rumors that she will run for president in 2016.

The book is embargoed in advance of its release next week (although a few libraries show they have received it). The Boston Globe is the first to break the embargo, saying that Warren “portrays herself as an idealistic outsider, persistently fighting the excesses and political power of Wall Street” and that, “Even though Warren has insisted she will not run for president in the next election, the book and her heavy promotional tour will keep her in the national spotlight.”

The book rose to #230 on Amazon’s sales rankings as a result of the attention.

Was last night’s blood moon, the first of four that will occur this year, just a beautiful event, or does it portend something more? The Washington Post takes a look at several new books that claim the event  fulfills the Biblical prophecy, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord,” in the Book of Joel 2:31.

The most popular of these comes from Texas televangelist John Hagee, Blood Moons Rising, (Tyndale House). It is currently at #4 on the New York Times Advice & How To best seller list.

Just when you thought you couldn’t read one more story about the  Michael Lewis phenomenon, Flash Boys, (Norton; S&S Audio), comes the news that Sony Pictures and Scott Rudin are wrapping up negotiations to buy the movie rights.

Brace yourselves; in the upcoming NYT Book Review‘s “money issue,” Lewis talks about the books he’s reading (currently at the top of his “want to read” pile are Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Christine Sneed’s Little Known Facts). Speaking of little known facts; did you know Lewis majored in art history at Princeton before getting a master’s in finance?

With her book, Lean In still  on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction list after 53 weeks, Sheryl Sandberg has geared her message to a younger generation with Lean In: For Graduates (RH/Knopf; RH Audio). She appeared on the Today Show this morning.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing approaches, the Boston Public Library unveils an exhibit, “Dear Boston: Messages from the Marathon Memorial,” which includes items from the a spontaneous memorial that developed in Copley Square

One of the people who was injured in that tragedy, Jeff Bauman, appeared on the Today Show this morning, to talk about his remarkable recovery from losing both his legs and his book, released today, Stronger, (Hachette/Grand Central).

Bauman, will also be featured in a special report on Friday’s NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, “108 Hours: Inside the Hunt for the Boston Marathon Bomber.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If you’re going to commit a crime in the U.S., go for the big bucks, says Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi on The Daily Show. If you are caught, the consequences are likely to be less severe. Our jails are filled with people doing time for smaller crimes, while bankers who steal billions go free.

His new book, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, (RH/Spiegel & Grau) released today, rose to #39 on Amazon’s sales rankings as a result of his appearance.

A feature movie based on the classic WWI memoir, Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, began filming last week at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in West Yorkshire, England, according to local news stories.

Just last year, 80 years after publication, the book was called “one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time,” by The Guardian. When it was published in 1933, it was “an instant hit,” and Virginia Woolf wrote in her diaries that she had to stay up all night to finish it. It’s pacifist message fell out of favor during WWII, but in 1978 the feminist Virago Press brought it back into print to great success. Today, notes The Guardian, “the book seems to strike a chord with contemporary readers who have themselves lived through an era of renewed conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The title role is being played by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander (whose breakout was in the supporting role of Kitty in Anna Karenina; she also starred in the Oscar-nomated Danish movie, A Royal Affair), replacing Saoirse Ronan, who was originally cast for the role.

The book is currently available in the U.S. in trade paperback from Penguin Books:

Testament of Youth
Vera Brittain
Penguin Classics, 2005
9780143039235, 0143039237
Trade paperback $20.00 USD

Titles arriving next week with guaranteed spots on the best seller list are Lisa Scottoline’s Keep Quiet and Stuart Woods’ Carnal Curiosity. Below are five others you need to know.

These titles and several more arriving next week are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet with full ordering information and alternate formats.

The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories, Marina Keegan, S&S/Scribner; Tantor Audio

Who wouldn’t tear up, reading this from a student as she faces graduation, “We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life.” Those words becomes even more poignant when you learn that their talented writer, Marina Keegan, died in a car accident just before she was set to begin a dream job at the New Yorker. Her final column for the Yale Daily News, became an internet hit after her death. It and several other writings that Keegan left behind are brought together in this book, featured as the lead review in People magazine, with 3.5 of 4 stars.

Family Life, Akhil Sharma, Norton

This LibraryReads pick is featured on the cover of NYT Book Review this week. Also on Entertainment Weekly‘s “must list,” it is described as an “autobiographic novel about an immigrant family derailed by an accident. It’s beautifully evocative and — tragedy notwithstanding — surprisingly funny.” It will  be featured on NBC’s Weekend Today Show.

Love Life, Rob Lowe, S&S; S&S Audio

Lowe already proved himself an entertaining memoirist with Stories I Only Tell My Friends. This follow up gets a nod from Entertainment Weekly, which says Lowe, “Goes out of his way not to tread the same ground he did in hits first memoir … this book is just as breezily enjoyable as its predecessor.”
Astonish Me, Maggie Shipstead, RH/Knopf; RH Audio

The author’s debut, Seating Arrangements, was a favorite among librarians and booksellers and her new title is an Indie Next pick. The Huffington Post also picks it as “The Book We’re Taling About” this week (even though they are not completely taken with this “leaping departure” from the author’s previous title). Jen Dayton at Darien Public Library, who was the first to alert us to Seating Arrangements, long before it become a best seller, reviews it on Edelweiss, saying it is, “a fascinating look into the lives of professional dancers and the damage that secrets can do. Book groups could have a field day with this one.”

In Paradise, Peter Matthiessen, Penguin/Riverhead

Matthiessen is known as a nonfiction writer, but considers himself a novelist who “writes other things,” as a long profile of his fascinating life in Sunday’s NYT Magazine details (unfortunately for Matthiessen, the author of the profile is not taken with his fiction). Wendy Bartlett, Cuyahoga Public Library, recommends In Paradise to librarians, saying this “book about a professor of Holocaust history who joins a spiritual retreat at Auschwitz and what he discovers about himself as he confronts a history he believes he already understands, is universal and personal at the same time … Matthiessen also explores how the Holocaust resonates for various countries and cultures by peopling the retreat with characters from all parts of the world. It’s a masterful and incredibly thought provoking construct” making it one to get “for your smart book discussion members.”

It’s being called “the fight that stopped trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange,” a live debate on CNBC that included Brad Katsuyama who is featured in Michael Lewis’s book, Flash Boys, (Norton; S&S Audio). Highlights below (the full 23 minutes are here).

Lewis tells Bloomberg BusinessWeek that he never anticipated the level of reaction this book is getting, citing Andrew Ross Sorkin’s column in the New York Times, which accuses Lewis of reserving “blame for the wrong villains … hedge funds and investment banks … easy targets,” rather than the “true culprits,” the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and other stock markets. Even though Sorkin calls Flash Boys an “important new book … a make-your-blood-boil read about the abusive way that high-frequency trading works,” Lewis calls Sorkin’s column “an idiotic piece of journalism.”

Time to order more copies; with this level of passion, Flash Boys will be talked about for a long time to come.

Never underestimate the power of an arresting image.

Metal Cats, to be released by indie Brooklyn publisher powerHouse Books in May, is proving irresistible to music sites, design sites, as well as Facebook and Pinterest postings. As a result the book is now rising on Amazon’s sales rankings.

For more, check  the powerhouse Spring 2014 catalog.

“If you smoked Colombian marijuana in the ’70s or ’80s, I owe you a thank-you card,” says Tony Dokoupil on CBS Sunday Morning.

Why?  “Because you brought my father’s product, and you bought my baseball gloves by extension, and you put me through private school. And you paid for the boat that we crisscrossed the oceans in and the Caribbean vacations. The good life.”

Dokoupil, currently a a senior writer for NBC News, also appears on NPR’s Fresh Air today, to talk about his book, which arrives tomorrow, The Last Pirate, (RH/Doubleday) about his search for his father, who left the family when his son was a child and the surprising things he discovered about him.

Kicking off a media blitz for his latest take down of Wall Street,  Flash Boys, (Norton; S&S Audio), Michael Lewis appeared on Sixty Minutes last night. Following that story, headlines in today’s print media scream that Lewis reveals the stock market is rigged.

Tomorrow, Lewis appears on the Today Show, NPR’s Fresh Air and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as well as many other shows throughout the week.

The book is currently at #1 on Amazon sales rankings and libraries are showing holds.

The first footage seen outside the studio of the forthcoming adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey was shown to theater chains yesterday at their annual convention, CinemaCon. According to reports, the focus was  on the romance between the two leads, with the L.A. Times calling it “more romance than raunch” and adding,”It’s clear that the studio is rolling this out as carefully — and meticulously — as possible. It’s just unclear whether playing up the romance in the early footage is the way to get theater owners interested in the property.”  (More details on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Inside Movie” column).

In addition, Universal signaled it’s high hopes for the adaptation of Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, by bringing the film’s director, Angelina Jolie, to introduce the preview.