EarlyWord is the home of GalleyChat, monthly online discussions where library staff share excitement about upcoming books. More information here.
Summaries of chats and announcements are posted to the right. Use them to add to your own TBR piles and for collection development.
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Hope to see you during our next chat,
GalleyChatters
CBS Sunday Morning featured Mark Twain’s autobiography, about to be released 100 years after the author’s death, as stipulated in his will. As a result of the story, the book rose to #1 on Amazon’s sales rankings.
The book is the first of three vols.
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Stacy Schiff makes a telling observation about the biographies she read growing up,
I notice in retrospect that biographies for kids seemed to be about women who are famous for their disabilities, delusions or sensational deaths. The big three were Helen Keller, Joan of Arc and Isadora Duncan.
Schiff is interviewed in the New York Times Magazine about her biography of a fabled woman, Cleopatra. The book will be released on Nov. 1.
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Hachette LARGE PRINT; Hdbk; 9780316120449; $31.99
Hachette Audio; UNABR; 9781607887010; 34.98
Deadline reports that James Cameron who is in talks to direct a movie based on the book, starring Angelina Jolie, is considering doing it in 3-D (yes, you read that correctly). Currently, he is at work on a sequel to Avatar and is also producing a 3-D remake of the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage and At the Mountains of Madness, based on the HP Lovecraft novella, which Guillermo del Toro plans to direct, also in 3-D. It seems Cameron is 3-D mad.
NPR featured even more books than usual this weekend. Below is a roundup.
Sunday, All Things Considered, How Cafe Culture Helped Make Good Ideas Happen
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Weekend Edition Sunday, Our Aging World Is In For A ‘Shock Of Gray’
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Weekend Edition Sunday, The Washington You Didn’t Know
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Weekend Edition Saturday, Amish Romance: More Faith And No Sex In This Slice Of Christian‘Fiction; an interview with Shelley Shepard Gray. She sees a relationship between vampires and the Amish in romantic fiction.
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Weekend Edition Saturday, ‘Heaven Bears’ Author Finds Beauty In ‘The Air’
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It’s not easy for a debut novel to pick up buzz amid the cacophony of the fall season, but Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has done a good job of marshalling its enthusiasm for The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart.
This tale about the antipathy between a father and his fourth son, whose birth in 1895 Texas precipitated his mother’s death, is an Indie Next pick for October. The author was also a featured speaker at the Mountains and Plains trade show. And the Wall St. Journal recently ran an excerpt.
Library Journal says this “intense, fast-paced debut novel is hard to put down. Machart’s hard-hitting style is sure to capture fans of Cormac McCarthy and Jim Harrison.”
Kirkus is slightly less enthusiastic, however, declaring that “the novel splinters into a variety of episodes, all of them rendered with flair. Though he navigates erratically within it, Machart has created a dense, vibrant world.”
On Goodreads, 56 reviewers gave it an average of 3.57 out of 5 stars.
Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest orders, but this looks like one to watch.
It arrives with an atmospheric book trailer.
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Large Type; Thorndike; 2/16/2011; 9781410435248; $30.99
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Actor James Franco also makes his debut next week with a story collection, Palo Alto, about an interconnected group of teenagers in the same zip code. The media has been making a big deal of it — though not all reviews are positive.
The hoopla began last March, when a story was excerpted in Esquire. An interview and excerpt ran on NPR last week. And this week, Franco is interviewed in the book section of People magazine (not online).
But the Los Angeles Times calls it “the work of an ambitious young man who clearly loves to read, who has a good eye for detail but who has spent way too much time on style and virtually none on substance.”
Half the libraries we checked did not have the book on order, while the other half had modest orders in line with modest reserves.
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Usual Suspects On Sale Next Week
Worth Dying For by Lee Child (Delacorte) is the 15th novel starring ex-military cop Jack Reacher, which his publisher working to bring to a new level of sales. Child will appear on CBS Sunday Morning on Oct. 24 or Oct. 31.
Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen (St. Martin’s) follows a forensic sculptor’s attempts to help a CIA agent find her missing daughter.
The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury (Dutton) chronicles the quest over the centuries for a controversial document from early Christianity. Booklist calls it a “well constructed blend of historical mystery and present-day thriller. [Khoury] doesn’t break any new ground, but theres no denying he’s got the storytelling chops and the imagination to spin an exciting yarn.”
In the Company of Others by Jan Karon is the second installment in her Father Tim series, in which a long-awaited Irish vacation turns into a busman’s holiday. Kirkus says, “long journal entries do little to advance the present story but are sometimes a welcome diversion from it. Readers who are not devoted followers of Karon may be impatient with the glacial pace of this installment.”
Young Adult
Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick is the sequel to the author’s young adult breakout, Hush Hush.
A recent Earlyword Galley Chat favorite goes on sale next week: Running the Books, Avi Steinberg‘s memoir of his adventures as a prison librarian and writing instructor in Boston, after graduating from Harvard. As we’ve mentioned, he published an amusing essay in the New York Times magazine last week, which should help the book get more attention in other media.
PW called the memoir “captivating…. Steinberg writes a stylish prose that blends deadpan wit with an acute moral seriousness. The result is a fine portrait of prison life and the thwarted humanity that courses through it.”
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Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook: Crazy Delicious Recipes that Are Good to the Earth and Great for Your Bod by Kim Barnouin (Running Press), more vegan dishes.
Final Verdict: What Really Happened in the Rosenberg Case by Walter Schneir (Melville House) contends that Ethel Rosenberg was not a Soviet spy and challenges enduring myths surrounding the case. The New York Times Book Review compares it favorably to another recent book on the Rosenberg case by Allen M. Hornblum.
My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy by Nora Titone (S&S) hinges on its portrait of the Booth family. Kirkus declares that “though some historical detail seems more tangential than pertinent, the multiple portraits display hidden facets of all the Booths.”
The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer by Jane Smiley is a biography of the brilliant but mostly forgotten physicist who created a protype for the computer. Kirkus raves, “As in her novels, the author displays a talent for keeping a dozen fully realized characters on stage…. Smiley takes science history and injects it with a touch of noir and an exciting clash of vanities.”
Children’s
Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson, about a runaway slave who joins the Continental Army at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78, is the second installment in the author’s American Revolutionary trilogy, following the National Book Award finalist Chains. Kirkus praises its “vivid setting, believable characters both good and despicable and a clear portrayal of the moral ambiguity of the Revolutionary age. Not only can this sequel stand alone, for many readers it will be one of the best novels they have ever read.”
Bill Bryson tells Stephen Colbert what he doesn’t know about his own home.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Bill Bryson | ||||
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Also available as an unabridged audio CD, and in large print trade paperback.
Bill O’Reilly appeared on The View today. At one point, the discussion became so heated (good luck on hearing what was actually said) that Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off.
They returned a few minutes later.
O’Reilly’s new book is Pinheads and Patriots (Morrow, 9/14/10); Goldberg’s is, in a bit of foreshadowing, Is it Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There? (Hyperion, 10/5/10).
Most libraries are still showing the Man Booker prize winner, Finkler’s Question, as being on order. Many are also putting in additional orders as holds mount. Publisher Bloomsbury has ordered a reprint, which is due to arrive 10/22. If you’re planning on ordering more, now is the time to get those orders in.
The book rose to #2 on Amazon sales rankings today (from #10 yesterday) and has since moved down to #4.
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Jon Stewart opened his interview with Condoleezza Rice on the Daily Show last night by saying he heard her speak at BEA; “I was very charmed and very upset with you for charming me.”
Looks like she did it again. Her memoir of her early years, Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family, is now at #40 on Amazon sales rankings (Stewart’s book, Earth: The Book, is at #6).
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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The book is available in two versions, one for young readers.
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Random House Audio; CD; Read by the author; 9780307750631 $ 35.00
After winning the Man Booker Award last night, The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson shot up to #10 on Amazon’s sales rankings (it had been at #1,086 before the announcement).
The Daily Beast examines the impact of the award on sales in The Power of the Booker. Although it’s a British prize and is not open to Americans, it sells more books in the U.S. than our own homegrown awards (like the National Book Awards; candidates will be announced at noon today).
Jacobson appeared on the BBC Breakfast show today; link here to see a very happy winner.
Earlier, Jacobson talked about his ambition to write the “funniest book ever” on the BBC’s Review Show, followed by a heated debate over the book’s merits by several reviewers, including Germaine Greer (who does not love it).
Jacobson was longlisted for the Booker in 2006 for Kalooki Nights (S&S) and in 2002 for Who’s Sorry Now (not in print in the U.S.).
The Man Booker prize winner was just announced at a dinner in London. The winner is Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question, just published today in the U.S.
On All Things Considered last night, David Sax (author of Save the Deli) explained why he thought it should win. It was also reviewed by Library Journal last week.
Jacobson, often called the “British Philip Roth,” was recently quoted in The Jewish Week (“Can Howard Jacobson Play In America?“), saying this comparison no longer makes sense, “Roth has essentially stopped being funny…He is perfectly within his rights to have stopped being funny … but [life’s] never too serious to laugh.”
The Guardian published an excellent profile of Jacobson this summer.
The great news for libraries? It’s in trade paperback.
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The winner of the Man Booker Award will be announced in just a few hours. One of the shortlist titles, The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson releases in the US today. On All Things Considered last night, David Sax (author of Save the Deli) explains why he thinks it should win. It was also reviewed by Library Journal last week.
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However, the front runner among UK bookies is the experimental novel, C by Tom McCarthy.
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Tantor Audio; UNABR; Narrated by Stephen Hoye
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Tied for second place with Room by Emma Donoghue is another title with a room in it, In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut. It will not be available in the U.S. until Nov. 2.
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The former Secretary of State’s memoir about her childhood releases today, with a requisite appearance on the The Today Show this morning and a less predictable matchup with Regis and Kelly. She will also appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tomorrow night.
Several media sources refer to the book as a “memoir for young people.” USA Today‘s interview with Rice today accurately states that is being published simultaneously as both an adult and a young adult book.
Most libraries have ordered just one of the two versions and classified it in adult.
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Random House Audio; CD; Read by the author; 9780307750631 $ 35.00
How can you not want a book that caused its Wall Street Journal reviewer to,
…laugh so hard I had to leave the room. My daughter was trying to study, and I could see she was getting alarmed. … You hear people say things like “I laughed so hard I cried” and “I nearly fell out of my chair,” but I had gone well beyond the crying stage by the time my metabolism began to return to equilibrium. And then I realized that I hadn’t laughed so hard in 35 years, since I was a teenager, reading National Lampoon.
The book, about the National Lampoon, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, rose to #75 on Amazon sales rankings after the review appeared. It was also featured two weeks ago on NPRs All Things Considered. It was not reviewed prepub and was ordered by less than half the libraries we checked.
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To read Emma Donoghue’s Room is to want to talk about it. Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” blog has initiated a Room discussion group that’s bringing in some fascinating comments; we won’t reveal them here because most of them contain spoilers (don’t link if you plan to read it; on the other hand, the spoilers serve as a great cheat sheet for those who don’t want to be left out of the discussions).
One comment we can reveal; “the audio recording is amazing, and probably works even better than print.”
The book, of course, is shortlisted for the Booker. The winner will be announced on Monday.
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