Kitty Kelley’s bio of Oprah Winfrey has landed at #5 on the new USA Today best seller list, making it the #1 nonfiction title (we hear it is #1 on the upcoming NYT Nonfiction list).

Those sales reflect the first week of media attention. On Amazon’s sales rankings, the book is at #20, making it the 4th best selling nonfiction title. In libraries we checked, holds are averaging 3:1 and slowing.

Oprah: A Biography Kitty Kelley Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 544 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 0307394867 / 9780307394866

Large Print from Random House; $30; ISBN 9780739377857
Audio from Random House Audio; CD: $50; ISBN 9780307749246

Stephen King’s drop-in baseball title, Blockade Billy, is getting strong reviews on its release day. Unlike many of King’s books, this one is just 120 pages long. USA Today says,

Short and sweet best describes this novella that shines for many reasons: King’s love for baseball, his irresistible storytelling style and the way he effortlessly pitches this story to us in the smoothest baseball lingo.

If you’re wondering why King went with indie publisher Cemetary Dance Publications for the book, The Baltimore Sun explains how that came about.

Cemetary Dance is publishing a limited edition of 10,000 copies. Scribner will be publishing a hardcover edition, with an additional short story, Morality and minus the illustrations in the Cemetary Dance edition, on May 25th, along with an audio edition. Below is the information on the Scribner publications.

Blockade Billy Stephen King Retail Price: $14.99 Hardcover: 144 pages Publisher: – (2010-05-25) ISBN / EAN: 1451608217 / 9781451608212

Audio; UNABR; 9781442336582; $19.99

This book’s title will have many managers and their staffs cheering, Get Rid of the Performance Review.  Say the authors, “It’s time to put the performance review out of its misery…it’s pretentious, it’s bogus, and it produces absolutely nothing that any thinking executive should call a corporate plus.”

The Associated Press released an article about it, which appears in the Huffington Post, among other news outlets.

For a little catharsis, try the “How much do you hate performance reviews?” quiz.

Here’s hoping the book sweeps the nation.

Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing–and Focus on What Really Matters Samuel A. Culbert Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Business Plus – (2010-04-14) ISBN / EAN: 044655605X / 9780446556057

Hachette Audio; UNABR, 9781607881759; $26.98
WMA Audiobook downloadable from OverDrive

How are readers reacting to Yann Martel’s followup to his best selling, Booker-winning Life of Pi?

In the NYT last week, Michiko Katutani gave Beatrice and Virgil as bad a review as a book can get.

Two booksellers are not buying it. In the Huffington Post, Praveen Madan and Christin Evans from The Booksmith in San Francisco, write a defense of the book in the form of a conversation with a customer. They point out that “more than two-thirds of the reviews on Amazon were 4 & 5 star reviews,” indicating that “newspaper critics are out of touch with readers.”

In libraries, the negative reviews may have had an effect; holds are running an average of 3:1 in those we checked, on modest ordering (two or fewer per branch).

As we noted earlier, among prepub reviews, only Booklist was positive, awarding it a star. And, not all the consumer reviews have been negative. USA Today‘s Dierdre Donahue said, “…this lean little allegory about a talking donkey and monkey… might be a masterpiece about the Holocaust.”

Beatrice and Virgil Yann Martel Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2010-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 1400069262 / 9781400069262

RH Audio: UNABR; 9780307715159; $30
Large Print: trade pbk; 9780739377802; $24
Adobe EPUB eBook and WMA Audiobook available from OverDrive

Simon Johnson, co-author of 13 Bankers, made news on the HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night, by declaring that John Paulson should be charged with fraud. Paulson is the hedge fund manager who designed the Goldman Sachs security that was “basically a mechanism of transferring money from you to John Paulson.”

He and his co-author James Kwak were also on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS Friday night, in an hour filled with outrage and incredulity (view it here). The authors told Moyers that the big banks have become more powerful since the bailout and are using their political muscle to change the rules to favor them, spending more than $1 million a day to fight financial reform.

The book is currently at #9 on Amazon sales rankings, making it the second nonfiction title on that list, after another book on risky securities, Michael Lewis’ The Big Short. Libraries we checked are showing heavy holds on both titles.

13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown Simon Johnson, James Kwak Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Pantheon – (2010-03-30) ISBN / EAN: 0307379051 / 9780307379054

Available as Adobe EPUB eBook from OverDrive.

Thanks to all of you who joined in on Galley Chat on Friday. Twenty-five contributed to the discussion and we’re guessing many others were lurking. Thanks, also, to the library marketing folks from Penguin and Random House, who jumped in and offered galleys to those who wanted them.

This was our first attempt, so we didn’t know what would happen. It turned out to be very lively; like doing RA with a bunch of colleagues (in 140 characters, which, although limiting, isn’t as difficult as I expected).

So, we’re going to try it again. While Fridays at 4 EDT seems like a good time, at least for those who showed up at this one, it conflicts with Follow The Reader‘s weekly librarian/bookseller chat (we had complaints from several, who were bouncing back and forth between the two). So, for our next Galley Chat, we are going to try Wednesday, May 12, at 4 p.m. EDT. Info on how to join here.

Below are the titles that elicited the most comments during Friday’s chat, in reverse order by pub month.

AUGUST TITLES

Stiltsville: A Novel Susanna Daniel Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-08-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061963070 / 9780061963070

Virginia Stanley, HarperCollins library marketing, made an impression when she talked about this first novel at PLA (she also presented it at MidWinter, listen here). Robin Beerbower of Salem, OR sent a comment in advance, saying it’s a “terrific first novel about a long marriage” and was particularly taken with the setting, a community of homes on pilings in Biscayne Bay, FL.

JULY TITLES

Still Missing Chevy Stevens Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-07-06) ISBN / EAN: 0312595670 / 9780312595678

Still Missing, St. Martin’s big thriller debut, was the most-discussed of the Galley Chat titles. One library had just added it and is already getting holds, so is planning to buy more.

JUNE TITLES

The One That I Want: A Novel Allison Winn Scotch Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books – (2010-06-01) ISBN / EAN: 0307464504 / 9780307464507

Rebecca Vnuk particularly loves The One That I Want and is planning to write about this for her women’s fiction blog.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel Aimee Bender Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-06-01) ISBN / EAN: 0385501129 / 9780385501125

RH’s Marcie Purcell presented Lemon Cake movingly at PLA; about a young girl who discovers she can taste her mother’s despair in the cake she baked for her daughter’s birthday. Many said it’s on their list to read next.

The Passage Justin Cronin Retail Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 784 pages Publisher: Ballantine Books – (2010-06-08) ISBN / EAN: 0345504968 / 9780345504968

Those who have read it say it’s tough to talk about The Passage without introducing spoilers, but they were clearly dying to talk about specific sections. We may need a to feature this in a discussion that is only open to those that have read it.

Crashers Dana Haynes Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books – (2010-06-22) ISBN / EAN: 0312599889 / 9780312599881

Audio; UNABR; 978-1-4272-1215-3; $39.99

Lots of  excitement about Crashers; a sabotaged jet crashes and investigators have a race against the clock to prevent another. Said one person, “Page-burning suspense. Keep the Dramamine handy.”

MAY TITLES

Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0316056219 / 9780316056212

Ship Breaker is a YA title (one person says it’s perfect for those who love Hunger Games), but with potential cross over to adult. The author’s first book, The Wind-up Girl was on many end-of-the-year best lists and is nominated for a Hugo Award.

The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel Brady Udall Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 602 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2010-05-03) ISBN / EAN: 0393062627 / 9780393062625

The Lonely Polygamist is long, but readers say it’s engrossing and the writing is beautiful. Daniel Golden, the owner of Boswell and Books in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a big fan and has been blogging about it and about “hating, then loving big, fat books.”

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn Nathaniel Philbrick Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-05-04) ISBN / EAN: 0670021725 / 9780670021727

Audio; Penguin Audio; UNABR; 9780142427699; $39.95

The only nonfiction title that came up. Nobody in the group had read it yet, but is definitely high up on TBR lists. At PLA Book Buzz, Nancy Pearl gave it kudos, saying it shows Custer as you never imagined him.

The Frozen Rabbi Steve Stern Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2010-05-11) ISBN / EAN: 156512619X / 9781565126190

Many said they thought it sounded wonderful. If you want a copy, go here,. For just a taste, you can to Tablet Magazine, where it is being serialized.

APRIL TITLES

Girl in Translation Jean Kwok Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2010-04-29) ISBN / EAN: 1594487561 / 9781594487569

Audio; Penguin Audio; 9780142427996; $39.95

A “non-cliched”  Chinese immigrant coming-of-age tale, with potential YA crossover.

The media is lining up to interview comic Sarah Silverman about her first book of essays, Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee. Often compared to Lenny Bruce, the 39 year-old trash-talking comic who performs in pigtails and football shirts will appear on ABC’s Nightline on April 19, CBS’s The Early Show on April 20, and on NPR’s Fresh Air (date to be determined), among many other TV and print outlets.

Some libraries may be a step behind the demand – several we checked had only one copy of the book, with demand likely to grow.

PW gave it a starred review:

“Best known for sexually explicit jokes, Silverman is able to address more serious subjects in the book without losing her edge, particularly her teenage struggle with depression and that her often abrasive public persona allowed her to “say what I didn’t mean, even preach the opposite of what I believed…. It was a funny way of being sincere.”

According to New York magazine, the book has “a tenderness that is disarming… But while it can be revealing, it is curiously unreflective, much like Silverman’s stand-up.”

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee Sarah Silverman Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061856436 / 9780061856433

Lots of major fiction arrives next week, as publishers prepare for the lead-up to Mother’s Day in bookstores. Here are the highlights of next week’s crop, all of which have strong holds in libraries we checked.

Deliver Us from Evil by David Baldacci (Grand Central): Holds are huge for this one, but unfortunately, PW says it “lacks the creative plotting and masterful handling of suspense that marked his earlier thrillers.”

Deliver Us from Evil David Baldacci Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2010-04-20) ISBN / EAN: 0446564087 / 9780446564083

This Body of Death (An Inspector Lynley Novel) by Elizabeth George is “richly rewarding,” according to PW, with “an intricate plot that will satisfy even jaded fans of psychological suspense.”

Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick (Penguin). Library Journal says: “With quirky humor and typical flair, Quick has penned another riveting, fast-paced adventure that… will leave readers anxious for the final installment, Jayne Castle’s Midnight Crystal, coming in September.”

Lucid Intervals (A Stone Barrington Novel)  by Stuart Woods (Penguin). “Woods mixes danger and humor into a racy concoction that will leave readers thirsty for more,” PW declares.

The Double Comfort Safari Club (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series #11) by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon) gets a positive review from PW, which notes that the tale’s resolution many seem “unduly fortuitous, but it makes sense within the framework of these books, which are more about humanity than logic.”

Eight Days to Live by Iris Johansen (Macmillan). “Think The Da Vinci Code crossed with an Anne Stuart romantic suspense novel, and you’ll have a sense of the plot and tone,” says Library Journal.

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Knopf). Reviews in PW and Booklist are enthusiastic, along with Library Journal, which sums up: “Written by a two-time Booker Prize winner, this engaging book will be particularly appreciated by readers interested in early 19th-century American history, the French aristocracy, and emerging democracy.” It’s also reviewed in the current NYT BR.

It’s not too early to begin packing a summer beach bag. In their Summer Entertainment issue, Entertainment Weekly rounds up “18 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer.” Included, of course, is the final volume in Stieg Larsson’s super-hot trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest (Knopf, May 25), Stephenie Meyer’s recently-announced novella, which offers another take on the Twilight saga, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Little, Brown, June 5) and Ballantine’s big post-apocalyptic The Stand readalike, The Passage by Justin Cronin, (June 8).

Also making the list of 18 are several other titles librarians have already heard about.  The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender (The Girl in the Flammable Skirt), was movingly presented at PLA’s Buzz Panel by Marcie Purcell, Random House’s head of library marketing. It begins when a young girl discovers she can taste her mother’s sadness in the cake she baked for the girl’s birthday. Entertainment Weekly calls it “A magical novel.”

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake Aimee Bender Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-06-01) ISBN / EAN: 0385501129 / 9780385501125

Another title that was big at PLA and MidWinter is Girl in Translation. Entertainment Weekly says, “Though the plot may sound mundane — a Chinese girl and her mother immigrate to this country and succeed despite formidable odds — this coming-of-age tale is anything but.”

Girl in Translation: A Novel Jean Kwok Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2010-04-29) ISBN / EAN: 1594487561 / 9781594487569

Audio; UNABR CD; 9780142427996; $39.95

At the PLA Buzz Panel, Nancy Pearl gave the thumbs up to  The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick, saying it portrays Custer as you’ve never seen him before. Entertainment Weekly concurs, “If anyone can breathe life into the oft-told tale of Lieutenant Colonel George Custer, it’s Philbrick.”

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn Nathaniel Philbrick Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-05-04) ISBN / EAN: 0670021725 / 9780670021727

Audio; UNABR CD; 9780142427699; $30

USA Today‘s review of Jacqueline Winspear’s mystery, The Mapping of Love and Death, begins with an experience familiar to fans of any series, “Sometimes when you adore a series, you’re terrified to crack open the next installment, fearing disappointment.”

Far from it, this seventh installment in the author’s Maisie Dobbs series is dubbed “excellent” (the understated headline of the review, Jacqueline Winspear’s Mapping of Love and Death doesn’t disappoint, seems the fitting tone for a series set in WWI Britain).

Several libraries are showing holds ratios of 5:1 on 40 copies.

The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs, Book 7) Jacqueline Winspear Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061727660 / 9780061727665

The good news is that middle-aged forgetfulness is normal and we can actually improve our brains, says New York Times health and medical science editor Barbara Strauch in her new book, The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain. She spoke to Terry Gross about the book on NPR’s Fresh Air last night (listen here).

For those of you wondering what the definition of “middle age” is, Strauch considers it 40 to 68.

The book rose to #11 on Amazon sales rankings. Strauch’s 2003 book on the teenage brain also rose, to #338.

The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind Barbara Strauch Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-04-15) ISBN / EAN: 0670020710 / 9780670020713

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The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids Barbara Strauch Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Anchor – (2004-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0385721609 / 9780385721608

Newsweek‘s online column “We Read it [So You Don’t Have To]” is a Cliff’s Notes of current popular titles. Today, it analyzes Kitty Kelley’s bio of Oprah. The “Don’t Miss These Bits” section offers a synopsis of the juicier parts (with helpful page references) for those that haven’t been reading the press coverage.

Newsweek says what many others already have, that the book lacks a bombshell, but has “a gossipy nugget on every page” and raises the key question, “…who buys the book? Her many fans? Or her many detractors?”

The audience may be finite; the book has slid down Amazon’s sales rankings, from #1 to #4, with a down arrow. The rate of new holds added in libraries we checked is also slowing.

Oprah: A Biography Kitty Kelley Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 544 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 0307394867 / 9780307394866

Large Print from Random House; $30; ISBN 9780739377857
Audio from Random House Audio; CD: $50; ISBN 9780307749246

It’s not good. In fact, it’s probably as bad a review as any author might fear from the critical Kakutani,

[Beatrice and Virgil] is every bit as misconceived and offensive as his earlier book was fetching.

The only positive consumer review so far is from USA Today‘s book critic, Dierdre Donahue, although she makes it sound tough going,

Up until about page 117, Yann Martel’s new novel, Beatrice and Virgil, appears teeth-grindingly precious. Then, click, you realize: Martel knows exactly what he’s doing in this lean little allegory about a talking donkey and monkey.

This novel just might be a masterpiece about the Holocaust.

Alan Cheuse, in the San Francisco Chronicle calls it “one of the most confounding books I’ve read in a long while.” At the end of a review in which he manfully tries to figure the book out, he gives up and exclaims,

As for this mixture of mock self-effacement, literary posturing and pretentiousness, I would say: Stuff it!

Among the prepub reviews, only Booklist‘s was positive, giving it a star.

For a look at the tortured process of publishing this book, see “Yann Martel’s Life After Pi“, in the National Post of Canada,

Beatrice and Virgil Yann Martel Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau – (2010-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 1400069262 / 9781400069262

RH Audio: UNABR; 9780307715159; $30
Large Print: trade pbk; 9780739377802; $24
Adobe EPUB eBook and WMA Audiobook available from OverDrive

Ironically, the biggest news in Kitty Kelley’s biography of Oprah, releasing today, may be that she was NOT abused as a child, as she claims. Today, the Huffington Post features a photo essay on Oprah’s “Aunt Katharine” (she’s actually an older cousin), who is quoted in Kelley’s book on the abject poverty Oprah claims she was raised in,

Now, you have to understand that I love Oprah, and I love all the good work she does for others, but I do not understand the lies that she tells. She’s been doing it for years now.

NPR’s Morning Edition (audio will be available some time after 9 a.m.), is interested in Kelley’s claims that she got the cold shoulder from many news outlets, including ABC, commenting,

Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that ABC’s parent company, Disney, is partnering with Winfrey on several of the new shows she’ll present on the Oprah Winfrey Network. But it is troubling to some.

In Kelley’s interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show yesterday, Kelley lists the shows that turned her down. Asked whether her motivation to choose Oprah as a subject was the millions of fans who might buy it, Kelley responds that “they will love it.”

Media attention has increased sales; the book is now at #3 on Amazon (from being in the 300’s over the weekend) and library holds have nearly doubled in the libraries we checked (bringing the average to 1.75 holds per copy). Half the libraries have received their copies.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Kitty Kelley, author of an unauthorized bio of Oprah, releasing tomorrow, has famously not been invited to many TV talk shows that usually vie for such high-profile books. The only show it is booked for is the Today Show this morning.

As of Friday, the book was in the 300’s on Amazon sales rankings and few details had been released (the media was a bit distracted by Oprah’s announcement that she is planning to host a prime-time show on her new network, OWN, which debuts in January).

But the print media has not been so reticent. Over the weekend, details began to leak and the book broke into the Top  20 on Amazon. It’s currently at #16, just behind David Remnick’s bio of Barack Obama (which is the lead review of the NYT BR this week) and well behind books about the founders that Glenn Beck is currently promoting. Today, the New Yorker, USA Today and the New York Times‘ Janet Maslin all parse Oprah, the book.

So, what’s the big “revalations”?

• Oprah won’t give her mother her phone number (but she does have people check on her daily, gives her a car and driver and provides her with $500 hats) –the UK’s Times Live
• Kelley names the boy Oprah gave birth to at 14 (or 15, sources differ. He died just weeks after he was born) — New York Times Magazine
• She once ordered two pecan pies and ate them both — New York Times Magazine
• Oprah lived with John Tesh briefely when they were both in Nashville (the New York Daily News)
• Kelley found out the name of Oprah’s father, but is not revealing it in the book (Janet Maslin, the NYT)
• Is she a lesbian? Kelley raises the question, but doesn’t give a definitive answer (the New Yorker)
• Her cousin claims that the sexual abuse Oprah has been open about just didn’t happen (USA Today)

Damning with faint praise, Maslin says,

After some hollow authorial claims of respect and admiration, Oprah just aims for the jugular. It doesn’t draw blood.

Part of the problem is that much of this has been revealed already, often by Oprah herself; the dieting, the James Frey brouhaha; “Ms. Kelley simply replays the televised version. She has nothing new to add to these stories.”

Library holds are averaging 1:1.

Oprah: A Biography Kitty Kelley Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 544 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-04-13) ISBN / EAN: 0307394867 / 9780307394866

Large Print from Random House

• $30; ISBN 9780739377857

Audio from Random House Audio

• CD: $50; ISBN 9780307749246