Look up “Whitey Bulger” in library catalogs and you will get multiple hits. A Boston gangster who is the stuff of legend, he is featured in books as well as movies (one of the characters in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is based on Bulger). It was recently announced that Johnny Depp may play him in the Barry Levinson film Black Mass and two other projects are in the works.

Now 82, he was captured in 2011 and goes to trial in June, accused of 19 murders. A new book about him, Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice by Boston Globe reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy (Norton, 2/11/13) was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday and was described as not only a fascinating story, but “just a great read.”

Author Michael Connelly blurbed the book, saying, “As much social documentary as riveting crime story, the book is a masterwork of reporting by Cullen and Murphy. I couldn’t put it down.”

Dr. Ben Carson has become the “New Conservative Folk Hero,” declares Atlantic magazine, since he confronted President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast, a venue that isn’t known for making news (see below; as the Atlantic advises, “Things don’t get interesting for a while, so you might want to skip to about halfway through”).

The soon-to-retire head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital has even been called on to run for President in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

His latest book, America the Beautiful, published last year and now available in paperback (HarperCollins/Zondervan), has been in the top ten on Amazon for the last two weeks, rising as high as #1 and appears on the March 3 NYT Paperback Non-fiction Best Seller list at #12. Libraries are showing heavy holds.

Media attention is in the works; Carson appeared on NPR’s On Point today, he will appear on Glenn Beck’s internet TV show on Thursday and on FOX’s Lou Dobbs show.

Also on the rise are Carson’s other titles, also from Zondervan;

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson  (1992)

Gifted Hands, Kids Edition: The Ben Carson Story (ZonderKidz Biography) by Gregg Lewis and Deborah Shaw Lewis (2009)

Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence by Ben Carson  (2005)

Take the Risk: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live with Acceptable Risk by Ben Carson M.D. and Gregg Lewis (2007)

The Big Picture by Ben Carson and Gregg Lewis (2000)

Reports on a new study that supports the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet caused several titles to rise on Amazon’s sales rankings. Stories appeared in multiple news sources, including the New York Times, USA Today and on TV.

Bill O’Reilly announced at the end of last night’s OReilly Factor that his next book will be Killing Jesus (Macmillan/Holt; 9780805098549), to be published on Sept. 24th (via USA Today).

O’Reilly said, “My co-author, Martin Dugard [also the co-author of Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy] and I have uncovered some amazing things about the execution of Jesus of Nazareth and how it all tied into Roman power.”

The 80-yer-old record exec., Clive Davis, is making headlines by coming out about his bisexuality in his new memoir, The Soundtrack of My Life, (Simon & Schuster; S&S Audio).

The headline-making clip from Nightline is below; watch the full interview here. He is scheduled to appear on many other shows this week.

Jenni Rivera, an American singer who became popular in Mexico for developing an “urban ranchera” style of music, was killed in a plane crash in December. Today, the Atria imprint of S&S announced that her memoir will be released in July, in both Spanish and English.

Both editions immediately moved up Amazon’s sales rankings, with the Spanish-language title, Inquebrantable, (S&S/Atria) rising higher, currently at #79, well above the English-language Unbreakable at #230.

This is just the second time we’ve seen a Spanish-language edition outstrip the English; the first was La Reina Del Sur, (Alfaguara), the tie-in to Telemundo’s popular 2011 telenovela. It did not break into Amazon’s Top 100, however.

Studies indicate that hearing loss is likely to be a pecursor of dementia, reports the NYT‘s Katherine Bouton in the newspaper’s popular “Well” column.

The news is particularly alarming to Bouton, who has a strong connection to the issue. Her book, arriving next week, Shouting Won’t Help: Why I-And 50 Million Other Americans-Can’t Hear You (Macmillan/FSG/Sarah Crichton) is about her own hearing loss. In an audio interview on the “Well” site, she explains that she wrote the book to help others understand what serious hearing loss is like (it’s very different from just wearing earmuffs).  Kirkus calls it a “poignant, enlightening memoir.”

Journalist Charlie LeDuff’s appearance on Fresh Air yesterday propelled his book, Detroit: An American Autopsy (Penguin Press) up Amazon’s sales rankings (currently at #22, above Phil McGraw’s new book, Life Code) and it’s no wonder; he’s as fascinating, and as heartbreaking, as the city he writes about.

After years working for the New York Times (where he won a Pulitzer), LeDuff returned to his home town of Detroit where he is now known for his unconventional style on the local Fox TV station.

When you finish listening to the interview (which we urge you to do), you’ll want to get a taste of his muckraking TV journalism. Here’s a sample (via Fresh Air interviewer Dave Davies’ blog):

Bradley Cooper told Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air on Thursday that he is moving ahead with plans to portray Chris Kyle, who was killed on a shooting range last week, in a film adaptation of the former SEAL’s best selling memoir, American Sniper. He bought the rights last May and says he learned about Kyle’s killing while meeting with veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder  at Walter Reed Hospital.

Kyle had another book in the works, American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe). Publishers Weekly reports it will be released, as planned, on May 14, with the “”the full support of the Kyle family and friends.”

“We’re leaving behind a third of Americans,” who cannot afford Internet access, creating a “digital divide.” As a result, some kids have to go to McDonald’s to do their homework, says Susan Crawford author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age (Yale U. Press) on Friday’s Bill Moyers & Company.

This is an issue librarians have discussed for years. Although Crawford doesn’t mention it on the show, she wrote in earlier about the role libraries play in a piece for the NYT’s “Room for Debate; Do We Still Need Libraries?”

The few public libraries that own the book are showing heavy holds. An excerpt below. The full video is on the Moyers’ site.

The “almost unfathomable suffering” caused by American troops during the war in Vietnam was described by journalist Nick Turse on Bill Moyers’ show on Friday. His book,  Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam  (Macmillan/Holt/Metropolitan Books), is based on documents that were “buried deep in the recesses of the National Archives.”

Moyers calls the book a “Beautifully written account of real horrors in Vietnam, ” adding, “Nick Turse has given us a fresh holistic work that stands alone for its blending of history and journalism, for the integrity of research brought to life through the diligence of first-person interviews. Those interviews skillfully unlock the memories of American warriors and expose the wounds that to this day still scar the hearts and minds of villagers who survived the scorched earth of Vietnam. Here is a powerful message for us today, a reminder of what war really costs.”

Libraries are showing holds, as high as 8:1 on modest orders.

This week’s “Watch List” is in the previous post.

Reviewer Favorite

Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories, Karen Russell, (RH/Knopf; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)

Russell’s novel, Swamplandia! was on most of the Best Books lists for 2011 and was one of three finalists for the 2012 Pultizer Prize in fiction, a year when the Academy infamously chose not to award a winner. Expect many reviews for this one,  beginning with the NYT‘s formidable Michiko Kakutani, who says that Russell can “make magic ” of any subject. A feature is planned for the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

Media Magnets

Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World, Phil McGraw, (Bird Street Books)

It happens that the publisher of TV talk show host McGraw’s latest book is owned by his son, Jay McGraw. Also available is a companion DVD, Beyond Life Code. Both will, of course, be promoted on The Dr. Phil show next week. They are also being advertised in People magazine and USA Today.

Coolidge, Amity Shlaes, (Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe)

Surprised that a biography of a president who is generally known only as the butt of jokes is hot? The interest has more to do with the author than the subject. Amity Shlaes’ recent book, The Forgotten Man, has been called  the bible of the conservative, anti-Obama, free-market movement. Unsurprisingly, The Wall Street Journal and Fox News are big supporters. UPDATE: It is scheduled for the cover of the Feb. 17 NYT Book Review.

Living and Dying in Brick City: An E.R. Doctor Returns Home, Sampson Davis, (RH/Spiegel & Grau; Blackstone Audio)

Media attention for this memoir by a doctor who returned to his hometown of Newark to help the city’s poor and forgotten begins with a four-star review in People magazine. It is also scheduled for a feature on the NPR’s upcoming Weekend Edition Saturday.

      

Drinking and Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders, Brandi Glanville, (S&S/ Gallery Books) — One of the “Real” House Wives of Beverly Hills dishes on her life, loves, etc. The tabloid press can’t get enough.

Long Shot, Mike Piazza, (Simon & Schuster) — A memoir by “the greatest hitting catcher in the history of baseball.”  He’s scheduled for appearances on the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition and to do BOTH Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart’s shows next week.

Days That I’ll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Jonathan Cott, (RH/Doubleday; Tantor Audio; Center Point Large Print) — By a contributing editor at the Rolling Stone, who knew the couple since 1968.

These titles, and more, including “Usual Suspects” on our downloadable Excel spreadsheet.

Shirley MacLaine had “no comment” for ABC’s 20/20 Show on Friday’s interview with her daughter Sachi Parker about her book, Lucky Me: My Life With–and Without–My Mom, Shirley MacLaine, (Penguin/Gotham), which releases tomorrow.

It seems she’s changed her mind. A story in Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” about some of the book’s “weirdest moments” includes this update:

EW has received a statement from MacLaine in response to allegations from the memoir: ‘It’s a painful moment for me as a mother and as someone who values the truth. I’m shocked and heartbroken that my daughter would make statements about me that are virtually all fiction. I’ve praised her lovingly and truthfully in my own autobiographies. I’m sorry to see such a dishonest, opportunistic effort from my daughter for whom I’ve only ever wanted the best.”

UPDATE: after reports that the video of the interview caused problems for those trying to browse using Internet Explorer, we have taken it down. Link to it here.

“One side of my family had owned another, and that that was as bleak and as straightforward as it got,” Andrea Stuart, author of Sugar in the Blood (RH/Knopf), tells Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday.

Stuart is descended from a Barbados slave owner and an unknown slave, a reality she wasn’t able to accept until four years into research for her book.

As a result of the show, the book is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings and is currently at #174. Library holds are in line with orders.

Chris Kyle, whose autobiography, American Sniper  (HarperCollins/Morrow) was a #1 NYT best seller last year, was killed at a Texas gun range over the weekend, according to news reports. Kyle, who was 38 years old, claimed that as a sniper for the military, he had killed over 150 people.

Kyle founded an organization to help veterans with PTSD; his suspected killer is a former Marine. He had also recently come out against President Obama’s gun control initiatives.

The mass market pbk of his book just released and is currently #1 on Amazon’s sales rankings. Many other titles on the SEALS are also rising, including No Easy Day by Mark Owen (Penguin/Durron), Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell (Hachette/Little,Brown) and Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown
by Eric Blehm (RH/Waterbrook).