A friend’s father had a heavy Russian accent, but had little tolerance for those who couldn’t understand him. If questioned about what he said, he’d just get angry and repeat it exactly, but louder, MUCH louder. Sending him on an errand could be dangerous. That was reinforced the time he proudly came home bearing a cake decorated with the words “Happy Boy’s Day.”

If only he’d lived to learn that he’s not alone. The new book Cake Wrecks, based on the inspired blog, shows he could have done worse.

You’re unlikely to get your hands on a copy, since holds are heavy in every library we checked. The NYT recently put together a slide show of prime examples and, of course, there’s also the blog.

If you’re looking for a readalike, try The Gallery of Regrettable Food. Amazingly, libraries are showing copies on the shelf.

The Gallery of Regrettable Food James Lileks Retail Price: $22.95 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: Crown – (2001-09-11) ISBN / EAN: 0609607820 / 9780609607824

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Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong Jen Yates Retail Price: $12.99 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0740785370 / 9780740785375

BookForum‘s Omnivore blog (not to be confused with Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog) says Ayn Rand is currently “so in vogue that even designers such as Ralph Lauren are finding inspiration in her writing” and links to the stunning number of recent articles about her, fueled, in part, by two new biographies.

Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right Jennifer Burns Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA – (2009-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 0195324870 / 9780195324877

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Ayn Rand and the World She Made Anne C. Heller Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 592 pages Publisher: Nan A. Talese – (2009-10-27) ISBN / EAN: 0385513992 / 9780385513999

Librarians spotted Mennonite in a Little Black Dress at BEA and made it a “Shout ‘n’ Share” pick.

In this memoir, Rhoda Janzen writes about a period when her life takes about as many wrong turns as possible, bringing her to do what she never thought she could — return home to her Mennonite family.

It came out two weeks ago and is gaining momentum. Libraries were showing comfortable hold levels just before publication, but holds have increased rapidly in the last two weeks.

The Daily Beast — calls it hysterical; “In the tradition of David Sedaris, it’s her family who is the source of the book’s biggest laughs, and its heart.”

People Magazine — gave it four out of four stars

And, the author was profiled in USA Today.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home Rhoda Janzen Retail Price: $22.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 080508925X / 9780805089257

Also in audio from HighBridge:

• CD: 9781598879070; $29/95; 10/13

Downloadable audio from OverDrive

We’ve written here before about the great reviews piling up for the novel Blame by Michele Huneven.

In most cases, books are reviewed at pub date or shortly thereafter. Publishers hate it when reviews are spread out over several weeks because it lessens the cumulative impact.

That may be true, but when a book continues to be reviewed long after publication, it signals that reviewers have fought for it against all the other titles coming through the pipeline.

And, here comes yet another strong review for Blame, nearly two months after publication (I know, but with hundreds of books coming out daily, two months is a long time), on NPR’s Web site.

I just finished reading Blame and can attest that the reviewers are correct in their praise, but it should be emphasized that it’s a great story that will have you thinking about it long after you finish the last page.

Blame: A Novel Michelle Huneven Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0374114307 / 9780374114305

Unabridged audio from Blackstone

• Read by Hillary Huber
• 8 Tapes; 9781433293320; $32.98
• Playaway; 9781433293399; $59.99
• 1 MP3CD; 9781433293368;$14.98
• 9 CD; 9781433293337; $50.00

Large Type: Thorndike; Hdbk; 12/1/09; 9781410420930; $31.95

Downloadable audio from OverDrive

For a second, I was worried. After last night’s interview with Jeff Kinney, Michelle Norris of NPR‘s All Things Considered, introduced the next segment by saying, “Not everybody is enthusiastic about the Wimpy Kid series. Some parents feel uneasy about their children identifying with a main character who is at times selfish, lazy and whose high jinks often land him in trouble.”

I prepared for an attack on the series, but instead, bookseller Tanya Turek, who blogs about children’s books at Book 4 Your Kids.com, explained how parents can use the books as jumping-off points for discussion of issues like lying to adults and being mean to other kids.

Listen to the interview here.

As evidenced by the uproar over the climate change chapter in SuperFreakonomics, the topic can raise passions.

Today, the NYT blog, Green Inc., interviews the author of Why We Disagree About Climate Change. As the NYT points out, a global summit on climate change will take place two months from now.

It appears that only Choice reviewed the book (11/1/09), calling it, “…exceptionally well written and informative…Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals; general readers.”

According to WorldCat, the book is owned in 200 university libraries and just one public library.

Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity Mike Hulme Retail Price: $28.99 Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Cambridge University Press – (2009-05-25) ISBN / EAN: 0521727324 / 9780521727327

It doesn’t have the production values of a Ken Burns series. In fact, it looks like a 12-week Harvard course, which is, in fact, what it’s based on.

Nevertheless, the PBS series, Justice: What’s the Right Thing To Do has turned the companion book into a bestseller. It hits the NYT hardcover nonfiction bestseller list at #16 (tied with #15) this week, one spot below the tie-in to the Ken Burns series, The National Parks.

Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? Michael J. Sandel Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2009-09-15) ISBN / EAN: 0374180652 / 9780374180652

Below are the major releases for next week; several have already been received by the libraries we checked.

Young Adult

10/27  Cast, P.C. and Kristin Cast, Tempted (House of Night Series #6); most libraries have received their copies.

On the heels of Untamed being voted #8 on the YALSA Teen Top Ten list, the latest in the series which has been on the NYT Childrens Series list for 59 weeks. With that track record, the books are impervious to reviews, but nonetheless, the current issue of Entertainment Weekly tackles it and gives it a B, noting that the  “philosophizing goes on a bit too long.”

The next book in the series, according to PC Casts’ blog, will be Burned. No release date is given.

Tempted (House of Night Novels) P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin – (2009-10-27) ISBN / EAN: 0312567480 / 9780312567484

BBC Audio; 9780792764564; $89.95
Audio downloadable from OverDrive

Fiction

10/27 Auster, Paul,  Invisible — Some libraries have received their copies.

10/27 Irving, John,  Last Night in Twisted River — Reviewed in the current Entertainment Weekly, A-

10/27 Harris, Charlaine, Grave Secret — This is a Harper Connelly mystery. The next original Sookie Stackhouse novel is coming May 2010.

10/27 Maguire, Gregory,  Matchless: A Christmas Story

10/27 Rice, Anne,  Angel Time — People, 11/2, gives it  3.5 of 4 stars — “first in a planned series of metaphysical thrillers…[a] thrilling, richly researched tale..[Rice’s] Christian message is sometimes heavy-handed, but the story zips along…”

Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim Anne Rice Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-10-27) ISBN / EAN: 1400043530 / 9781400043538

Random House Audio, 9780739316085, $35
Random House Large Print, 9780739377352, Pbk, $26
Audio Downloadable from OverDrive

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10/27 Roberts, Nora, Bed of Roses; most libraries have received their copies.

Mystery

10/27 Baldacci, David, True Blue; most libraries have received their copies.

True Blue David Baldacci Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2009-10-27) ISBN / EAN: 0446195510 / 9780446195515

BBC Audio, 9781600249730, $44.98
Grand Central Large Print, 9780446546973, $94.99
Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive

Science Fiction

10/27 Jordan, Robert, Gathering Storm; most libraries have received their copies.

Memoirs

10/27 Burroughs, Augusten, You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

10/27 Epstein, Jason, Eating: A Memoir

We never tire of books about rescued shelter animals. This week’s People gives 4.5 out of a possible 5 stars to Come Back, Como by Steve Winn, calling it “a sweetly written, poignant tale of puppy love.” (For a look at all the books reviewed in People this week and in the past month, go to our Weekly Magazines listing).

But, poor Como was not reviewed prepub, so few libraries own it. If you need more than the People review to convince you, the introduction and first chapter are available on Harper’s Web site.

Come Back, Como: Winning the Heart of a Reluctant Dog Steven Winn Retail Price: $23.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 006180259X / 9780061802591

Downloadable from OverDrive

We saw a hint of controversy about the global warming chapter in SuperFreakonomics emerging last week. The book launches today and accusations are flying on the Web, including dueling NYT blogs.

Paul Krugman attacks the book in his NYT blog — SuperFreakonomics on Climate, Part 1

…the first five pages, by themselves, are enough to discredit the whole thing. Why? Because they grossly misrepresent other peoples’ research, in both climate science and economics.

Steven Levitt responds on his NYT blog — The Rumors of Our Global-Warming Denial Are Greatly Exaggerated

The critics are implying that we dismiss any threats from global warming; but the entire point of our chapter is to discuss global-warming solutions, so obviously that’s not the case.

Krugman expands on his points — Weitzman in context

Levitt now says that the chapter wasn’t meant to lend credibility to global warming denial — but when you open your chapter by giving major play to the false claim that scientists used to predict global cooling, you have in effect taken the denier side.

Co-author Stephen Dubner steps in — Global Warming in SuperFreakonomics: The Anatomy of a Smear

If everything they said was actually true, it would indeed be a damning indictment. But it’s not.

The global warming section is just one of five chapters. Some media outlets have focused on others:

• Orlando Sentinel, Seat belts just as safe as car seats, authors say
• ABC News, Prostitution as a Career Choice

A writer for Harvard Business Publishing feels there’s a problem with the premise of the entire book, saying the authors,

…are to economics what Friends is to culture: pop. And ultimately, though Levitt’s academic work is stellar, the Freakonomics genre represents the trivialization of a great system of thought. Instead of improving that system of thought, it applies already questionable assumptions to what are socially the lowest-value uses.

The book is currently at #8 on Amazon.

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2009-10-20) ISBN / EAN: 0060889578 / 9780060889579

HarperAudio: 9780060889357; $34.99
HarperLuxe: 9780061927577; $29.99
Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive

Here at EarlyWord, we’re suckers for cat stories, but we’re not impervious to the charms of canines, so when we saw this book about rescue dogs rising on Amazon over the weekend, we just had to take a look. It won our hearts.

It appears that most libraries have not ordered it.

To the Rescue: Found Dogs with a Mission Elise Lufkin Retail Price: $19.95 Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing – (2009-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 1602397724 / 9781602397729

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To the Rescue is the third in a series; the other titles appear on just a few catalogs.

Found Dogs: Tales of Strays Who Landed on Their Feet Elise Lufkin Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 144 pages Publisher: The Lyons Press – (2005-08-01) ISBN / EAN: 1592286151 / 9781592286157

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Second Chances: More Tales of Found Dogs Elise Lufkin Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: The Lyons Press – (2005-08-01) ISBN / EAN: 1592287476 / 9781592287475

Below are titles that have been featured in the fall previews.

Childrens

10/19 Paterson, Katherine;  Day of the Pelican

Lisa Von Drasek said here, ” you should be uncharacteristically selfish and grab this one first. It is a story of the Kosovo civil war, a refugee story, and a post-9/11 story. Because it is Paterson, the parts add up to more than the whole. Read it.”

The official pub date is 10/19, but most libraries have received their copies.

The Day of the Pelican Katherine Paterson Retail Price: $16.00 Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Clarion Books – (2009-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 0547181884 / 9780547181882

Audio: Brilliance; 9781441802064; Read by Tavia Gilbert; $24.99
Audio downloadable from OverDrive.

Graphic Books

10/19 Crumb, R. Book of Genesis Illustrated

L.A Times — “An honest, powerful, violent rendering of the Bible’s first book.”

Featured on NPR’s All things Considered — an “Awesome, Affecting Take On Genesis”

Many libraries don’t have it on their catalogs — Hennepin shows it on order, with 33 holds.

The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb R. Crumb Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. – (2009-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 0393061027 / 9780393061024

Fiction

10/20 Cornwell, Patricia; The Scarpetta Factor

Unsurprisingly, of the titles coming out this week, this one has the highest number of holds. Libraries have also ordered the most copies, so holds are running 2 to 1.

10/20 Klosterman, Chuck; Eating the Dinosaur

While Kirkus found this to be “Klosterman at his best” since his bestselling Sex, Drugs and Coco Puffs, Entertainment Weekly gives it just a B+, saying Klosterman is “stuck a bit too much in his own head” this time out, although he is still “witty and clever.”

10/20 Pamuk, Orhan;  Museum of Innocence

10/20 Kingsbury, Karen; Shades of Blue

10/20 Pearlman, Ann; The Christmas Cookie Club

One of the few big commercial debuts this fall. Variety reported in May that film rights were sold to the two-year-old CBS Films, which has been set up to release “mid-range films” (costing $50 million or less). Wendy Finerman (The Devil Wears Prada; Forrest Gump) is producing.

Entertainment Weekly gives it the first consumer review, rating it a  C+

The Christmas Cookie Club: A Novel Ann Pearlman Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Atria – (2009-10-20) ISBN / EAN: 1439158843 / 9781439158845

Audio: S&S Audio; 9780743598286; $29.99
Large Print: Wheeler Publishing; 9781410420329; $34.95

10/20 Steel, Danielle; Southern Lights

10/20 Mayle, Peter; The Vintage Caper

10/20 Vonnegut, Kurt; Look at the Birdie

A collection of Vonnegut’s early stories, never before published. The Huffington Post reviewer says, “Usually, I’m wary of posthumous collections of an author’s early work, it seems like they’d just be scraping the bottom of the barrel, but this collection is really a work of art.”

Nonfiction

10/20 Gladwell, Malcolm; What the Dog Saw

10/20 Keegan, John; American Civil War; Just reviewed in the NYT

10/20 Keller, Timothy; Counterfeit Gods

10/20 Levitt, Steven; SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

The authors of the bestselling Freakonomics are raising hackles because of their take on global warming; Paul Krugman, in today’s “Conscience of a Liberal”  column, takes them to task, calling their ideas dangerous and “just plain wrong.”

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2009-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0060889578 / 9780060889579

HarperAudio: 9780060889357; $34.99
HarperLuxe: 9780061927577; $29.99
Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive

Biography

10/19 Egan, Timothy; The Big Burn:Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America

Most libraries have received this title. Author was winner of the National Book Award for The Worst Hard Time.

Christian Science Monitor — “what makes The Big Burn particularly impressive is Egan’s skill as an equal-opportunity storyteller… he recounts the stories of men and women completely unknown to most of us with the same fervor he uses to report the stories of historic figures.”

Seattle Post Intelligencer also writes about it.

10/19 Gordon, Linda;  Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits

SF Chronicle

10/20 Shawcross, William; The Queen Mother

The British Press desperately tried to find news in this 1,000 page authorized biography, running headlines like “TV Sit-Coms Tickled Queen Mum.” British reviewers found it too full of detail and too short on interest.

Telegraph — “…in [Shawcross’] zeal for comprehensiveness, he has created a text awash with details of menus consumed, clothes embroidered, presents received, places visited, and foundation stones laid that only a reader with a Queen Mother-sized sense of duty is likely to wade through to the finish line.

Guardian — “indulgent and overlong.”

10/21 Mann, William J, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood

The British press found this Elizabeth much more interesting than the Queen Mum:

The Times of London:…wisely eschews the blow-by-blow approach and many of the time-honoured anecdotes about Taylor and Burton, instead “zooming in on key periods,” drawing on new interviews with the star’s colleagues and friends, and meticulous research in the MGM archives. While hardly earth-shattering, what emerges is a richly enjoyable biography.

How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood William J. Mann Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade – (2009-10-21) ISBN / EAN: 0547134649 / 9780547134642

Jon Stewart asks the author of a new book on Ayn Rand whether members of the right, who often tout her, have noticed that she was an atheist and an intellectual.

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Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right Jennifer Burns Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA – (2009-10-19) ISBN / EAN: 0195324870 / 9780195324877

The book rose to #232 on Amazon sales rankings after the show aired.

However, it didn’t rise as high as two books by the Daily Show staff, that Stewart pitched at the end of the show:

#179 (from #3,520)

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President Josh Lieb Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Razorbill – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 1595142401 / 9781595142405

Penguin Audio: 9780143145066; $29.95

Audio downloadable from OverDrive

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#181 (from #291)

What to Expect When You’re Expected: A Fetus’s Guide to the First Three Trimesters David Javerbaum Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 0385526474 / 9780385526470

Thanks to a feature in the NYT “Dining & Wine” section today, the University of California’s English-language version of The Pasta Encyclopedia, rose to #24 on Amazon’s sales rankings. Libraries we checked are not showing it on their catalogs.

In addition to demystifying pasta, like “Julia Child demystified French food,” the author attacks some long-held myths. She claims that Italians were eating pasta 200 years before Marco Polo supposedly brought the staple back to his homeland from China.

Encyclopedia of Pasta (California Studies in Food and Culture) Oretta Zanini De Vita Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: University of California Press – (2009-10-15) ISBN / EAN: 0520255224 / 9780520255227

If being told to “have a nice day” makes your skin crawl, you’ll love hearing Barbara Ehrenrich on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart about the downside of our culture of positive thinking.

After the appearance, her book Bright-sided rose to #40 on Amazon (from #95). Holds in libraries have been growing since the book was released.

.

Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America Barbara Ehrenreich Retail Price: $23.00 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Metropolitan Books – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 0805087494 / 9780805087499

BBC Audio; ISBN-13: 978-0-7927-6669-8; $64.95
Audio downloadable from OverDrive