The wife of Appalachian Trail fan, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, will appear on national shows to promote her forthcoming book, Staying True, originally announced for a May publication date, but recently moved up to February 5.

Some of her scheduled appearances and coverage include:

February 5th — Barbara Walters interview on ABC’s 20/20

February 8th

• Good Morning America: first of a two-part interview
• The View
• Larry King Live
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• NPR Morning Edition
• People Magazine: excerpt

Little information has leaked about this embargoed title, but Sanford is also scheduled appear on the Christian Broadcasting Networks’ The 700 Club, indicating it will be short on salacious details. As Politics Daily puts it, “With other stories rapidly feeding the public appetite for scandal, is there still interest in Jenny Sanford’s tale before, during and after a South American trip made her famous?”

Libraries we checked are currently showing light reserves on light to moderate ordering.

Staying True Jenny Sanford Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-02-05) ISBN / EAN: 0345522397 / 9780345522399

Random House Audio; UNABR; simultaneous; 9780307736284; $25

Thought the Twilight franchise had ended? Ah, ye of little faith; the graphic novel will be released March 16th from Yen Press, the manga imprint of Hachette, which also owns Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, publisher of the Twilight book series. First printing is 350,000 copies. A second volume is planned.

Entertainment Weekly has posted one of the panels from the book and a segment of an interview with Meyer on their Shelf Life blog (an exclusive ten-page excerpt, and the full Q&A will be in this Friday’s issue of Entertainment Weekly).

Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 Stephenie Meyer Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 0 pages Publisher: Hachette – (2010-03-16) ISBN / EAN: 0759529434 / 9780759529434

Of the titles going on sale this week, Joshua Ferris’s much-anticipated second novel, The Unnamed, has the most buzz. The tale of how a wealthy New York lawyer and his family cope with his mysterious illness is the #1 Indie Pick for January. Libraries are showing modest holds on modest ordering in the libraries we checked.

Reviews are mixed:

• Newsweek and the Wall St. Journal have already praised the book, though both reviewers struggle with the metaphorical meaning of the protagonist’s illness.
• The Los Angeles Times is most positive, calling The Unnamed “accomplished and daring” and describing it as  “lay[ing] bare the fabric of families, the lengths people will go for the ones they love and the lack of value we place on the simple ability to pause, to stop and to reconsider all the steps we’ve made.
• Entertainment Weekly is less sanguine, and gives it a B- for wandering aimlessely.

What’s your take?  Are the reviews fair? Will your patrons enjoy this one?

The Unnamed Joshua Ferris Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books – (2010-01-18) ISBN / EAN: 0316034010 / 9780316034012

Audio from Hachette Audio:

• CD: $34.98; ISBN 9781600248771

Large Print from Regan Arthur Books:

• $24.99; ISBN 9780316074001

Also coming this week:

• Wolf at the Door (Sean Dillon Series #17) by Jack Higgins, Putnam: hold ratios as high as 5:1
• The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes, Viking: holds of about 2:1 or more.
• Kisser by Stuart Woods, Putnam: holds as high as 9:1 in one of the libraries we checked
• The Burning Land (Saxon Tales) by Bernard Cornwell, Harper: Holds up to 5:1

There’s a theme to the books that Jon Stewart will be featuring on The Daily Show this week:

Monday

Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility David Walker Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 1400068606 / 9781400068609

Audio: Books on Tape
eBook and audio available from OverDrive

Wednesday

Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street Jim Wallis Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Howard Books – (2010-01-05) ISBN / EAN: 1439183120 / 9781439183120

Unabridged Audio: S&S; 9781442305090

At #3 on the NYT Nonfiction bestseller list, where it debuted this week,  and #17 on Amazon sales rankings and rising is Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto.

The book was propelled by an NPR interview. It was reviewed in the Washington Post on Sunday and earlier in the New York Times. Gawande spoke yesterday at ALA MidWinter.

Several libraries are showing heavy holds.

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right Atul Gawande Retail Price: $24.50 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Metropolitan Books – (2009-12-22) ISBN / EAN: 0805091742 / 9780805091748

Macmillan Audio: UNAB CD; 9781427208989; $29.99

Revelations from the book Game Change has been much discussed in the media, but we haven’t heard much about the actual experience of reading it. In the new Entertainment Weekly, book review editor Tina Jordan, calls it a “riveting read” that is “more bodice ripper than Beltway.”

More media is coming up, including NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

Unfortunately, the publisher is currently out of stock and working furiously on a reprint.

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime John Heilemann, Mark Halperin Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061733636 / 9780061733635

HarperLuxe; 9780061945991; $27.99

eBook downloable from OverDrive beginning 2/23

The new issue of People (1/25) gives publisher Grand Central’s big novel of the season, the debut Roses, 4 of a possible 4 stars and makes it a People pick, saying, “Like Gone with the Wind, this 600-page, multigenerational epic is as gloriously entertaining as it is vast.”

Roses Leila Meacham Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 624 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2010-01-06) ISBN / EAN: 0446550000 / 9780446550000

Read an Excerpt

USA Today asks booksellers what new voices they’re most looking forward to in the upcoming season.

Among the fiction picks are several that are just out now, or about to be released.

The Postmistress Sarah Blake Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam – (2010-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0399156194 / 9780399156199 Simultaneous Unabridged Audio: 9780143145448; $39.95 Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive

Bookseller Elaine Petrocelli from Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA thinks this debut will have “the kind of following that The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society had.” The author will be at MidWinter, signing at the Penguin booth, #1324, on Sunday, 1:30 to 2:30.

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Wench Dolen Perkins-valdez Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Amistad – (2010-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 006170654X / 9780061706547 Unabridged Audio: Book on Tape Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive

This debut novel is about slave owners who vacationed with their black mistresses at a summer resort in Ohio. “Almost every copy we had pre-ordered was spoken for by the time it came in,” says a bookseller from Cincinnati, where the local setting may have particular appeal. All four prepub sources are enthusiastic about it; PW calls it “heart-wrenching, intriguing, original and suspenseful.” People gave it 3.5 of 4 stars, calling it a “devastating beautiful account of a cruel past.”

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The Swan Thieves Elizabeth Kostova Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0316065781 / 9780316065788 Audio from Hachette: CD: $39.98; ISBN 9781600247453 Large Print:Little Brown: $28.99; ISBN 9780316043663 Book and audio downloadable from OverDrive

The Swan Thieves is getting considerable attention, largely because of the huge success of the author’s 2005 debut title, The Historian. Borders tells USA Today that they are throwing support behind it. This week, rival B&N.com published Laura Miller’s intriguing review of the book in The Barnes and Noble Review.

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One Amazing Thing Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Retail Price: $23.99 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Voice – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 1401340997 / 9781401340995

Petrocelli is also excited about a book we’ve been hearing advance reader buzz for, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s One Amazing Thing. PW and Kirkus are both lukewarm about this story of seven people trapped in an American consulate after an earthquake, but Booklist calls it a “a suspenseful, astute, and unforgettable survivors tale.”

In a sure sign that a new publishing season is upon us, USA Today has posted its interactive calendar of the major titles coming out through April. It includes covers, annotations and pub dates — great for reminding yourself of what’s upcoming. You could think of it as flashcards for readers advisory work.

And, hurrah, This Book is Ovedue! is one of the selected titles.

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Marilyn Johnson Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061431605 / 9780061431609

We’ve set up a new section for links to the season’s previews (on the right, under “Books of Winter/Spring ’10 — Previews.”)

Alice, of Wonderland fame, is getting a mini-revival this year. As USA Today points out, in addition to the novel that imagines the life of the real-life model, Alice I Have Been, a new biography of Lewis Carroll is coming out next month, as well as the Tim Burton movie in March.

Alice-themed book clubs, anyone?

Alice I Have Been Melanie Benjamin Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0385344139 / 9780385344135

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The Mystery of Lewis Carroll: Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created “Alice in Wonderland” Jenny Woolf Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 0312612982 / 9780312612986

Elizabeth Gilbert became a household name largely because Oprah fell in love with Eat, Pray Love. Tomorrow, she appears on Oprah’s Marriage Around the World show, to talk about the sequel, Committed.

This time around, the book has been covered nearly everywhere, including the cover of the NYT Book Review this week:

NYT BR — Curtis Sittenfeld, who knows a thing or two about sudden success after her novel American Wife took off last year, like most of the book’s reviewers, is sympathetic to the fact  that Eat, Pray, Love is a tough act to follow, a problem Gilbert herself addresses in the  preface, saying that, after the previous book’s success, she feared she’d ever “write unself-consciously again.”

Sittenfeld sounds regretful when she says Gilbert hasn’t managed to pull it off; “the book is rather chatty and personal to be so heavy on research, but it’s rather researched to be so chatty and personal. Gilbert is equally likely to quote Plato or her friend Ann…”

Washington Post — Carolyn See is much more forgiving, “It’s a charming narrative that ends, Shakespearean-fashion, with a happy-hearted wedding. What’s not to like?”

Time —  compares Committed to another sequel to a popular memoir, Julie Powell’s Cleaving, the followup to Julie & Julia, making this vivid comparison: Cleaving is a “ghastly work of revelation without enough self-reflection,” but it’s “a much livelier book than Committed, in the way that your narcissistic pal is more riveting than your earnest, loyal girlfriend.”

Entertainment Weekly — “The deeper that Gilbert agonizes about marriage — the more she luxuriates in her dithering on What It Is All About — the more Committed loses its brightness, sharpness, and sense of welcome.” Rating: C

New Yorker — typical of many New Yorker reviews, this one uses the book as a pretext for  an exploration of the book’s subject, without actually reviewing the book, like an intelligent and fascinating Cliff’s Notes.

For links to dozens of other reviews, check the Bookmarks site.

Most of the reviews refer to the movie of Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts, which is scheduled to debut August 13. No trailer yet, but the first photos have just begun appearing:

The ’08 presidential campaign may seem like old news, but a new book that examines it in depth is dominating headlines and is currently #1 on both Amazon and B&N.com sales rankings.

Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, releasing today, has been featured on Sixty Minutes, The View, as well as in countless news stories. A section about the Edwards’ campaign is excerpted in NY mag under the headline, “Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster.”

Fox News delineates the “juicy bits” that have “rocked Washington despite arriving on the shelves months after a number of other campaign 2008 retellings.” Among the allegations are that Bill Clinton was having an affair during his wife’s campaign; Elizabeth Edwards was an “abusive, paranoid, condescending crazy woman;” and further evidence that Sara Palin lacked basic knowledge about world events.

Of course, the book caused Harry Reid to apologize about comments he made about Obama. Last night, Stephen Colbert commented on that issue (John Heilemann, coauthor of Game Change will appear on his show tomorrow).

In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani reviews the book, saying that the authors use the technique pioneered by Bob Woodward, “relying heavily on ‘deep background’ interviews, along with e-mail messages, memorandums and other forms of documentation to create a novelistic narrative that often reflects the views of the authors’ most cooperative or voluble sources.” However, she notes, “Unlike Mr. Woodward’s last two books this volume has no source notes at the end.”

On Good Morning America yesterday, George Stephanopoulos questioned the authors about their sources and why many of these stories have not come out before (the video is not embeddable; view it here).

HarperCollins has already increased the print run twice, from 75,000 to 135,000,and then to 155,000, according to the AP. Libraries are showing heavy holds on moderate ordering; an average of 10:1 in the libraries we checked.

Below, the women of The View discuss the book with coauthor Mark Halperin:

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Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime John Heilemann, Mark Halperin Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061733636 / 9780061733635

HarperLuxe; 9780061945991; $27.99

eBook downloadable from OverDrive

Entertainment Weekly gave it a middling “C” grade, but Elizabeth Kostova’s second book The Swan Thieves (after her 2005 blockbuster vampire-themed The Historian) gets more love from the Associated Press. The author was also interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.

But the review that blows away the nay-sayers is from Laura Miller in the Barnes and Noble Review. Miller, a respected critic who writes for Salon, opens the review by marveling that The Historian was such a success; it’s “a vampire story without gore or brooding passions, a historical thriller without much in the way of action” but Kostova “…placed her faith in the conviction that readers are pleased to sink slowly into a novel, until the world it conjures has closed over their heads, submerging them entirely.” Miller feels she does the same with this book, even though the subject matter (Impressionist painting, rather than vampires) is quite different.

You can read an excerpt here. The book’s Web site offers information on the historical background of the novel.

The Swan Thieves Elizabeth Kostova Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0316065781 / 9780316065788

Audio from Hachette:

• CD: $39.98; ISBN 9781600247453

Large Print:

• Little Brown: $28.99; ISBN 9780316043663

Playaway:

• $104.99; ISBN 9781607884828

Now that the fall season is over, publishers are competing to get attention for lesser-known or first novelists, hoping to build them into tomorrow’s household names.

Today’s big winner is Grand Central, who first began touting Roses by Leila Meacham at BEA back in May. USA Today takes the bait, featuring it today under the headline “Roses heralded as the new Gone with the Wind,” and describing it as,

…the tale of three generations of powerful plantation owners in East Texas. There are struggles between timber magnates and cotton tycoons and more than a few secrets, of course, including an illegitimate child. The book is screaming to be made into a TV miniseries.

As USA Today notes, prepub reviews have mirrored the publisher’s enthusiasm. The Dallas Morning News concurs today, saying the book delivers “larger-than-life protagonists and a fast-paced, engaging plot.”

On the other hand, the Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s reviewer says, “There is no way I can recommend this book…” because the writing is “formal and stilted” and “a barely disguised thread of racism runs through the book.”

Roses Leila Meacham Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 624 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2010-01-06) ISBN / EAN: 0446550000 / 9780446550000

Read an Excerpt

The heaviest holds for fiction going on sale next week are on Robert Crais‘s thriller, The First Rule: A Joe Pike Novel, an IndieBound pick for January and a popular Amazon preorder.

The First Rule (Joe Pike Novels) Robert Crais Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0399156135 / 9780399156137

Audio available from Brilliance Corporation:

• CD: $87.97; ISBN 9781423375494
• CD, MP-3: $24.99; ISBN 9781423375500

Large Print from Wheeler Publishing:

• $35.99; ISBN 9781410421418

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Elizabeth Kostova‘s The Swan Thieves – her second novel after her blockbuster 2005 debut, The Historian – has hold ratios of about four to one in libraries we checked.

Entertainment Weekly grades it a “C,” with the criticism that this literary thriller about a mentally ill painter obsessed with a dead woman doesn’t maintain a sense of urgency – “a desperate flaw for a story of passion and obsession.”

The Swan Thieves Elizabeth Kostova Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0316065781 / 9780316065788

Read an Excerpt

Audio from Hachette:

• CD: $39.98; ISBN 9781600247453

Large Print:

• Little Brown: $28.99; ISBN 9780316043663

Playaway:

• $104.99; ISBN 9781607884828

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Beth Hoffman’s debut novel Saving Ceecee Honeycutt, which was acquired by the same editor as Sue Monk Kidd’s Secret Life of Bees, is getting a push from the publisher and many enthusiastic quotes from booksellers. It’s also the first pick in the new Sam’s Club Book Club, according to GalleyCat, and will be featured in all 600 of the chain’s big box stores.

Prepub reviews included a starred Library Journal review:

“Southern storytelling at its best, this coming-of-age novel is sure to be a hit with the book clubs that adopted Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees.”

Libraries we checked are showing modest holds.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt Beth Hoffman Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0670021393 / 9780670021390

Penguin Audio

• CD: $39.95; ISBN 9780143145547

Large Print from Thorndike

• $34.95; ISBN 9781410422750

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Melanie Benjamin‘s portrait of Alice Liddel, Lewis Carroll’s muse in Alice I Have Been, is a big favorite of Random House’s library marketing team, who compare it to Nancy Horan’s reading-club favorite Loving Frank. In fact, the author invites reading groups to contact her and possibly arrange a phone-in.

Prepub reviews bear out the inhouse enthusiasm; Booklist says, “First-novelist Benjamin tells … a story that is a mixture of historically accurate fact and liberally imagined fiction, including her solution to the mystery of what actually happened to estrange Carroll … from his muse’s family.”

Most large libraries have ordered modestly, with 2:1 holds. However, one library clearly expects strong demand, ordering 80 copies.

Alice I Have Been Melanie Benjamin Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0385344139 / 9780385344135

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Elena Gorokhova‘s memoir of  growing up in 1960s Leningrad, A Mountain of Crumbs, has already received positive reviews in Elle and More magazines. Libraries are showing holds of three to one on modest orders.

A Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir Elena Gorokhova Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2010-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 1439125678 / 9781439125670

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Also on sale next week:

• John Lescroart’s new mystery, Treasure Hunt
• Amy Bloom’s new story collection, Where the God of Love Hangs Out. Her novel, Away, was a bestseller. People gives the new collection 3.5 stars and makes it a People Pick. Bloom’s subject is love. Several of the stories are interlinked and People says they “hit harder than the stand-alones: mapping passion’s fallout takes time.”