The CEO of the online site that many check regularly to find out the value of their homes, Spencer Rascoff of Zillow, appeared  on CBS This Morning to promote his new book  Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample). More on the book here.

The book, which offers a new – and often contrary – take on common real estate myths (today, “location, location, location” can be further refined to “close to a Starbucks”), is zooming up Amazon’s sales rankings and is currently at #8. Many libraries have not yet ordered it.

A new book about the “boring” Warren Buffet, Tap Dancing to Work by Carol J. Loomis, (Penguin/Viking/Portfolio), rose to #26 on Amazon’s sales rankings after the author and the subject appeared together on the Today Show yesterday and in a much more in-depth interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night.

Do More, Spend Less: The New Secrets of Living the Good Life for Less (Wiley) is a title with special appeal in today’s economic climate, so it comes as no surprise that it is rising on Amazon sales rankings. Currently, it is at #38, two months prior to its Jan. 14 publication date.

It is by Brad Wilson, the found of the coupon website, BradsDeals.com, who was profiled by Crain’s Chicago Business in August.

Libraries we checked have not ordered it at this point.

Delaware Tea Party politician Christine O’Donnell, is disproving the adage that any media attention is good media attention, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

Last night, she abruptly terminated her interview about her book, Trouble Maker, (St. Martin’s Press, 8/16) with CNN’s Piers Morgan after he asked about her views on gay marriage.

Despite more than 550 articles this morning, her book still only rose to a high of #1,524 on Amazon sales rankings and libraries are showing minimal holds.

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.

Unfamiliar Fishes Sarah Vowell Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2011-03-22) ISBN / EAN: 9781594487873 / 9781594487873

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.”

Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money Geneen Roth Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2011-03-22) ISBN / EAN: 0670022713 / 9780670022717

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.

The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge T. J. English Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2011-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 9780061824555 / 9780061824555

Suze Orman’s four-part PBS series, The Money Class, began last night. The tie-in book rose to #7 on Amazon.

The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream Suze Orman Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 1400069734 / 9781400069736

Orman also appeared on the Today Show.

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Next Week’s Notable Nonfiction

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.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe Gayle Tzemach Lemmon Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2011-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061732370 / 9780061732379

Memoir to Watch

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.”

Usual Suspects

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.

No wonder it’s the number one title on Amazon in the College and University category, Debt-Free U ‘s subtitle is a sentence any parent would love to hear from their kid, “How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents.”

The author was on the Today Show this morning (did I hear correctly? I think Ann Curry said he studied Art History, not Finance). The book rose to #22 on Amazon sales rankings by the end of the day.

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Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, orMooching off My Parents Zac Bissonnette Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Portfolio Trade – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 1591842980 / 9781591842989

The hot topic of the new crop of self help books is saving money. Elizabeth Leamy, consumer correspondent for ABC’s Good Morning America, says in her new book, Save Big, that you can forget saving small by cutting out lattes and packing your own lunch and save big in other areas. She’s been appearing on Good Morning America this week to promote the book.

Most libraries haven’t ordered it; it was not reviewed prepub.

SAVE BIG: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands Elisabeth Leamy Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 338 pages Publisher: Wiley – (2009-12-14) ISBN / EAN: 0470554215 / 9780470554210

Currently at #30 on Amazon and rising is a book that recommends investing in gold and oil rather than stocks and bonds.  Published by Portfolio, Penguin’s business book imprint, it is endorsed by Ron Paul and the author has appeared on the Glenn Beck Show. More information is available here.

Few libraries have ordered it; one library system is showing 7 holds on 5 copies.

The Dollar Meltdown: Surviving the Impending Currency Crisis with Gold, Oil, and Other Unconventional Investments Charles Goyette Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover – (2009-10-29) ISBN / EAN: 1591842840 / 9781591842842