Kitty Kelley’s Oprah: A Biography goes on sale next week, but it may get short shrift on national TV: only NBC will interview Kelley (0n Weekend Today this Sat. and the Today Show, Mon. & Tues.), according to the New York Post.  Library demand for the book is moderate, so far, at those we checked.

Relatively few of the book’s details have been released so far, aside from the National Enquirer‘s headline about the “Big Gay Lie” of Winfrey’s relationship with Stedman Graham, as we reported earlier.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Oprah herself is currently dominating entertainment headlines with the announcement of an evening talk show on the Oprah Winfrey Network, which launches in January. Reports also indicated that a book club show may be part of the lineup, with Oprah appearing on it occassionally.

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

Also Available Next Week:

Michael J. Fox’s A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Future, (Hyperion) is the former TV and film star’s third memoir. He will appear on Entertainment Tonight on April 12 or 13, and Good Morning America on April 15.

FICTION

Yann Martel, Beatrice and Virgil, (Random House). Heavily anticipated, after the author’s beloved Booker winner, The Life of Pi, the new book’s reviews have not been strong, causing Kirkus to bring out some scary comparisons; “Like a Russian doll, the novel contains parables within parables…[the] dialogue sounds like Aesop filtered through Samuel Beckett.” PW was in agreement, but Booklist gave it a star. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly is in the Kirkus/PW camp, giving it a C+.

Anna Quindlen, Every Last One, (Random House). Entertainment Weekly reviews this title jointly with Anne Lamont’s Imperfect Birds (Riverhead, published last week), giving both books about parents trying to cope with teenage daughters C ‘s and saying, “Bottom line here? Fans of Quindlen and Lamott may want to give these two a skip.” Prepub reviews of both were very strong, however.

For more titles coming this week, go to BandN.com, Coming Soon.

Former skinhead Frank Meeink was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air last night (listen here).

Meeink once recruited kids to be skinheads and even had a cable access talk show called The Reich. Imprisoned at 18, his exposure to people with other backgrounds caused him to begin questioning his beliefs. He now lectures on racial acceptance for the Anti-Defamation League. Working with the Philadelphia Flyers (Meeink grew up in South Philadelphia), he created a hate prevention program called “Harmony Through Hockey.” His memoir, Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead was published recently.

The book rose to #112 (from #14,721) on Amazon.

Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story as Told to Jody M. Roy, Ph.D. Frank Meeink, Jody M. Roy Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 316 pages Publisher: Hawthorne Books – (2010-03-16) ISBN / EAN: 097901882X / 9780979018824

Sarah Weinman is one of the few people writing thoughtfully about mysteries in the mainstream media these days (as well as on her own site, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind). This week, in the L.A. Times, she explores the appeal of the unreliable narrator, pointing out some classics (Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying, Dorothy Hughes’ In a Lonely Place and Patricia Highsmith’s books).

She also chooses two newly-published titles.  She describes Jesse Kellerman’s prose as a “silken sheen covering deep existential skeletons” in his new book The Executioner as well as his earlier works.

The Executor Jesse Kellerman Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult – (2010-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 039915647X / 9780399156472

Audio; UNABR; Penguin Audio; 11 Hours | ISBN 9781101154779

The second book may have the best title and cover of the season, Hello Kitty Must Die, which refers to the main character’s efforts to escape the stereotype of the well-mannered Asian American girl. A first novel, it’s available in paperback and hardcover from indie crime fiction publisher Tyrus Books, in Madison Wisconsin. It’s been well-reviewed in both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Weinman is a fan, but admits that the book’s audience may be limited to those who,

…cackle and gasp at the book’s opening line — “It all started with my missing hymen” — and are compelled to move on. For those who recoil, well, that’s your loss, but Fiona Yu doesn’t really care what you think or if she’s offended anyone.

Hello Kitty Must Die Angela S. Choi Retail Price: $14.95 pbk/ $24.95 hdbk Publisher: Tyrus Books – (2010-04-01) ISBN: 9781935562023; pbk/ 9781935562030; hdbk

As part of his high-profile media tour, Richard Phillips, the captain of the boat that was held hostage by Somali pirates last year, was interviewed last night by obvious fan, Jon Stewart. Phillips’ book, A Captains Duty, was released yesterday.

The Captain was also interviewed  on NPR’s Fresh Air (listen here) last night.

The book rose to #135 on Amazon.

A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea Richard Phillips, Stephan Talty Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1401323804 / 9781401323806

Tantor Audio; UNABR

On Sale Date: 04/26/2010
Trade 9781400116867 8 Audio CDs $29.99
Library 9781400146864 8 Audio CDs $59.99
MP3 9781400166862 1 MP3-CD $19.99

Adobe EPUB eBook available from OverDrive

Geneen Roth’s Women, Food, and God, is hitting #1 in many places:

Just hit #1 on Amazon

#1 on B&N.com

#1 on the 4/11 NYT Hardcover Advice best seller list, rising from #3 last week)

Libraries are showing heavy reserves; an average of 10:1 on modest ordering.

What’s fueling it? Perhaps it’s a little help from Oprah, who interviews the author in April issue of O, the Oprah Magazine; the promo for the issue calls it “the book Oprah’s telling everyone to read”; the cover headline proclaims, “The Battle is Over!”

Could an appearance on The Oprah Show be far behind?

Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything Geneen Roth Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 1416543074 / 9781416543077

Remember the pirate hostage situation in 2009? If not, your memory will have plenty of opportunity to be refreshed this week.

The captain of the boat that was seized, Richard Phillips, has written a book about the ordeal. He was interviewed by Matt Lauer on Dateline last night and on the Today show this morning.

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

The book, which releases tomorrow, is reviewed in today’s USA Today.

The author will also appear on Larry King Live tonight, as well as the following shows tomorrow,

• NPR, Fresh Air
• CNN, American Morning
• FNC, Fox & Friends
• Comedy Central, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea Richard Phillips, Stephan Talty Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1401323804 / 9781401323806

Tantor Audio; UNABR

On Sale Date: 04/26/2010
Trade 9781400116867 8 Audio CDs $29.99
Library 9781400146864 8 Audio CDs $59.99
MP3 9781400166862 1 MP3-CD $19.99

Adobe EPUB eBook available from OverDrive

Atlantic Monthly pulled out all the stops for their big Vietnam novel, Matterhorn, and it has paid off; the book lands at #7 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list and is featured on the cover of the NYT Book Review. Reviewer Sebastian Junger  calls it “a raw, brilliant account of war that may well serve as a final exorcism for one of the most painful passages in American history.”

As a result, Matterhorn moved to #15 on Amazon, its highest spot to date. At B&N.com, which features it on their home page, it moved to #9.

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War Karl Marlantes Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 592 pages Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press – (2010-03-23) ISBN / EAN: 080211928X / 9780802119285

Blackstone Audio; UNABR

17 CDs; 1-4417-4228-5; $123.00
2 MP3CDs; 1-4417-4231-5;$44.95
Playaway;1-4417-4234-6; $79.99
15 Tapes; 1-4417-4227-8; $105.95

Audio available from OverDrive

Among next week’s nonfiction releases, The End of Wall Street by New York Times magazine contributor Roger Lowenstein is picking up the biggest media buzz so far. Three out of four libraries we checked have it, though orders are low, and at two libraries, holds were at 6:1.

Several days ahead of publication, Janet Maslin reviewed it positively in The New York Times, saying

His is not a story of blowhard personalities, even if it is filled with C.E.O.’s and financial regulators who arguably control the future of global finance. Instead it is a coherently issue-oriented book that frames each stage of the crisis in terms of the real world’s ability to confound theorists, number-crunching quants, economic historians and other putative experts.

The End of Wall Street Roger Lowenstein Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1594202397 / 9781594202391

OverDrive WMA Audiobook

———————-

Though it has fewer library holds, David Remnick’s The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama will also get media play. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly reviews it, giving it a B. They say that the level of interest depends on one’s appetite for detail (the book is 621 pages long).

It recently got a rave review in the Los Angeles Times from author Douglas Brinkley, who called it a “brilliantly constructed, flawlessly written biography.”

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama David Remnick Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 672 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 1400043603 / 9781400043606

Also available from Random House Audio

• CD: $50; ISBN 9780307734327

————-

A possible sleeper is In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time by Peter Lovenheim (Perigee).

Library orders are much more modest, but USA Today just gave a sympathetic review to this account of how lawyer and freelance writer Lovenheim invited members of the 35 families on his street to sleep over at his home in a wealthy Rochester, New York suburb, in order to find out more about his community. Julia Roberts has also bought film rights to the book.

In The Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time Peter Lovenheim Retail Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Perigee Trade – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0399535713 / 9780399535710

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Paula Deen’s Savannah Style (Simon & Schuster) gets a positive from review from PW: “the prose is friendly, and the volume offers a warm invitation to those who want a peek at how Deen and her fellow Savannahans live.”

Mario Batali‘s Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking at Home (HarperCollins) is “great for dinner parties and family get-togethers,” according to Library Jounal.

Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners (Simon & Schuster) “more than lives up to the promise of its title and will delight the legions of Moulton fans, earning her more than a few new ones,” says PW.

Carol Burnett‘s This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection (Harmony Books) is the comedian’s second book, in which she looks back on her long and successful career in “short, easily digestible chapters that part the curtain on her private life,” according to Booklist.

Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic‘s Mike and Mike’s Rules for Sports and Life (ESPN Books) is the first book by these two ESPN sports radio commentators, who have three million listeners.

Changes, the latest installment in Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files (Ed. Note: we originally called this the Dexter Files — thanks to the commenter for catching our mashup) urban fantasy series, is in high demand at libraries. But several we checked are behind the curve – either without copies, or catching up on their orders. In libraries that do have it, holds run from 3:1 to as high as 11:1.

Booklist‘s starred review says:

At more than 500 pages, this is one the longest books in the series, but it doesn’t move slowly; in fact, the entire novel takes place over only a few days as Harry races to rescue his daughter before she is sacrificed in a powerful black-magic rite. . . . A can’t-miss entry in one of the best urban-fantasy series currently being published.

Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12) Jim Butcher Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Roc Hardcover – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 045146317X / 9780451463173

Available from Penguin Audiobooks  on April 15, 2010

• CD: $49.95; ISBN 9780143145349

——————–

Also set for release next week, Holly LeCraw‘s debut novel, The Swimming Pool, could be a sleeper. Libraries we checked have modest holds on modest copies.

PW says: “Strong writing keeps the reader sucked in to LeCraw’s painful family drama debut. . . . It is a story of deep and searing love, between siblings and lovers, but most powerfully, between parents and their children

Library Journal adds: “LeCraw’s thoughtful debut novel tells of two families whose lives are entwined by tragedy, secrecy, and scandal.…An insightful piece, not just for beach or airplane reading. An author to watch.”

One book blogger was less sanguine, however, observing that the plot is heavy and lacks momentum.

The Swimming Pool Holly LeCraw Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-04-06) ISBN / EAN: 0385531931 / 9780385531931

Also available as OverDrive WMA Audiobook

Other Major Titles On Sale Next Week

Elizabeth Berg‘s The Last Time I Saw You (Random House), a tale of women and men reconnecting at their 40th high school reunion, is well stocked in libraries we checked; the highest holds are 4:1 in one case.

Sue Miller‘s The Lake Shore Limited (Random House), about post-9/11 America, is “fascinating and perfectly balanced with [Miller’s] writerly meditations on the destructiveness of trauma and loss, and the creation and experience of art,” according to PW.

Elizabeth Peters‘s A River in the Sky (HarperCollins) elicits faint praise from Library Journal: “The plot is less riveting than many Peters mysteries, but series fans will enjoy [it]. Fans should note that this is out of chronological order from the rest of the saga.”

Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds (Riverhead) is the lead review in the new issue of People magazine (4/12), receiving 3 out of 4 stars. 

Jennifer Chiaverini‘s The Aloha Quilt (Simon & Schuster) is one that “series fans will enjoy,” according to PW, “and those new to the quilting bee should have no problem finding their groove.”

Richard Paul Evans‘ The Walk (Simon & Schuster), about a man who goes on a soul-searching cross-country trek,” is “intriguing” according to Booklist, which adds that “the pages turn quickly.”

Martha Grimes‘s The Black Cat (Penguin) is the author’s “best book in years” according to PW‘s Galley Talk column.

Raymond E. Feist‘s At the Gates of Darkness (Demonwar Saga #2) (HarperCollins) doesn’t get highest marks from PW: “There’s an air of been there, done that to the familiar YAish fantasy plot, relegating it to the status of comfort reading for Feist’s longtime fans.”

E. O. Wilson‘s Anthill (Knopf) gets a mixed review from Library Journal: “Though his characters come off as one-dimensional, Wilson excels at describing the pungent smells and tranquil silence of the disappearing wetlands of Alabama.”

Christopher Rice‘s The Moonlit Earth (Scribner) also gets a mixed response from Booklist: “A bit contrived, but . . . the author pushes through those moments . . . sure to appeal to Rice’s fan base.”

On  NPR’s Fresh Air last night, Terry Gross interviewed an American woman who was imprisoned in Iran for several months. Listen here.

Roxana Saberi grew up in Fargo, ND. Her father’s from Iran and her mother, from Japan. She’s reported for NPR, BBC, Fox News.

Several libraries haven’t ordered the book yet. It received  just one prepub review, a starred Booklist,

Saberi tells the chilling story of her 100 harrowing days in Evin Prison with finely etched detail and heroic candor in an unforgettable chronicle of an all-too-common assault against universal human rights, justice, and truth.

You can browse inside the book here.

Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran Roxana Saberi Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061965286 / 9780061965289

Audio from Tantor Media, read by the author

Trade 9781400116959 8 Audio CDs $37.99
Library 9781400146956 8 Audio CDs $75.99
MP3 9781400166954 1 MP3-CDs $24.99

Ebook available from OverDrive

Surprise novellas by big name authors are popping up all over the place (see earlier post about a Twilight novella).

Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” blog announces that Stephen King is releasing a “surprise baseball novella,” just in time for Opening Day. “Shelf Life” describes it as,

…the tale of William Blakely, a player long erased from the history books, who harbored a deep, dark secret. Knowing the author, I suspect it’ll be something a lot creepier than steroids or pine tar.

Published by small press, Cemetary Dance, it is currently only available through their web site (which says that the book is at the printer now and will be arriving at their warehouse in mid-April). The site warns that the first printing will be small and that they will fill direct orders first, followed by those from distributors, online stores, and the chains, “if there are copies left available after we’ve taken care of our regular customers.”

Trade Hardcover Edition ($25)
Publisher: Cemetary Dance
978-1-58767-228-6

The first book to examine the newly-passed health care legislation is coming at the end of April.

Written by the staff of the Washington Post, Landmark: The Inside Story of America’s New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All, will be published in paperback by PublicAffairs. The publisher describes it this way,

…despite the incessant and often rancorous debate that preceded the bill’s passage , most Americans still don’t understand what is in the final legislative package or what reform will—or won’t—mean for them. In Landmark, reporters and editors from the national staff of the Washington Post provide a comprehensible summary of the legislation the president will sign into law, and examine the impacts it will have on Americans in various categories, on health care providers and insurers, and on the health care system as a whole. They also provide a fascinating behind-the-scenes narrative of how the legislation came together, and of the political obstacles, events, negotiations, and compromises that helped determine its shape.

[via GalleyCat]

Landmark: The Inside Story of America’s New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All Staff of the Washington Post Retail Price: $12.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: PublicAffairs – (2010-04-27) ISBN / EAN: 1586489348 / 9781586489342

A current reviewers favorite is Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbo and his new book, The Devil’s Star. If you’re attending PLA this week, don’t miss the Mystery Panel, where he will be speaking along with:

Karin Slaughter, Broken (Delacorte Press/Random House Inc., June 2010)
Ted Dekker, The Bride Collector (Center Street/Hachette Book Group, April 2010)
Cara Black, Murder in the Palais Royal: An Aimée Leduc Investigation (Soho Press, March 2010)
Meg Gardiner, The Liar’s Lullaby (Dutton/Penguin, June 2010)
Dana Haynes, Crashers (Minotaur Books/Macmillan, July 2010)

Friday, March 26
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Oregon Convention Center
Portland Ballroom #253-254

Reviews have been stellar, including:

The cold, dark climate, where doors are bolted and curtains drawn, provides a perfect setting for crime writing. The nights are long, the liquor hard, the people, according to Mr Nesbo, “brought up to hide their feelings” and hold on to their secrets.

The Devil’s Star Jo Nesbo Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061133973 / 9780061133978

Ebook available from OverDrive

Arriving on the 3/28 NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list are two contrasting debuts; one’s been a slow-building sleeper success and the other come out of the box with high expectations.

As we predicted two weeks ago, Viking’s big gamble of the season has become a best seller, hitting the list at #7. Critics have either loved it or hated it.

Angelology Danielle Trussoni Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 0670021474 / 9780670021475

Penguin Audiobooks: 03/09/2010; $39.95; ISBN 9780143145264

——-

A British village novel with a modern twist has charmed critics and readers; it arrives at #14 (tied with #13).

The libraries we checked show a different pattern; Major Pettigrew is ahead of Angelology in the number of holds, on about the same number of copies.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand Helen Simonson Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 1400068932 / 9781400068937

Random House Audio; UNABR; 9780307712844; $40
Audio downloadable from OverDrive

If you think Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is just another novelty, tossed off to take advantage of the mashup craze, listen to the author Seth Grahame-Smith on NPR‘s Weekend Edition. He tells Liane Hansen how much work it was to create and talks about the book’s serious central theme that ties slaveholders and vampires together,

I see them as sort of one and the same. Both creatures, basically slaveholders and vampires, steal lives — take the blood of others — to enrich themselves.

Grahame-Smith bases the book in reality; Lincoln was a “great admirer of all things gothic… as we all know Lincoln could be particularly morbid in his darker days… He’s very tall with sunken eyes, he was… the original Goth.”

The book continues at #5 (tied with #4) on the 3/28 NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list after two weeks.

Will Grahame-Smith continue writing mashups? No, he says his writing “will always contain elements of the supernatural, a bit of history, and maybe some pop culture,” but he “wants to do more original storytelling.”

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Seth Grahame-Smith Retail Price: $21.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0446563080 / 9780446563086

Hachette Audio; UNABR; 9781607881735; $26.98
BBC Audio: UNABR; 9781607883548; $69.99
ebook and audio available from OverDrive