As an NPR correspondent covering Iraq, Deborah Amos became interested in talking to Iraqis, not an easy task under Saddam, when they feared talking, or now, as violence has made communication nearly impossible. Nonetheless, she never tires of Iraq. As she told Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air last night (listen here),

I actually love the culture. I love the food, and the people — and I’m comfortable there. … I’m always happy when I get off the plane, and it hardly matters where I land.

Her new book is about the forced migration of the Sunnis.

Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East Deborah Amos Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: PublicAffairs – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 1586486497 / 9781586486495

Today’s Oprah Show repeats the January segment that launched Alicia Silverstone’s vegetarian book, The Kind Diet, which is still on the NYT Hardcover Advice list, currently at #2. Also on the show is Michael Pollan, discussing his book, Food Rules, which is at #1 on the Paperback Advice list.

Jonathan Safran Foer appeared on the The Ellen DeGeneres show yesterday; as a result, his book on vegetarianism, Eating Animals, rose from #383 on Amazon to #6.

It’s amazing to realize that there was a time before consulting firms and endless talk about business strategy. The former editorial director of the Harvard Business Review writes about how we got here in Lords of Strategy. It’s currently rising on Amazon (now at #308), even though the listing indicates it won’t be published for three more weeks (the publisher listing, however, shows a 3/3/10 pub date).

It was just reviewed in the The Wall Street Journal, “Big Think In the Boardroom“;

…a clear, deft and cogent portrait of what the author calls the most powerful business idea of the past half-century: the realization that corporate leaders needed to abandon their go-it-alone focus on their company’s fortunes and instead pursue policies based on a detailed study of the competitive environment and of broader business trends.

The author was interviewed earlier in Business Week; “Lords of Strategy: A Talk with Walter Kiechel.”

The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World Walter Kiechel Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Harvard Business School Press – (2010-03-03) ISBN / EAN: 1591397820 / 9781591397823

Check your holdings; it wasn’t review prepub and the libraries we checked have not ordered it yet.

Harry Markopolos, a Boston deratives analyst, was asked by his boss to look into a very successful hedge fund and try to figure out why it was doing so well. He instantly realized that it was a fraud and tried many times to blow the whistle on it. He wasn’t subtle; in 2000, he sent a memo to the SEC  titled “The World’s Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud.” Fittingly, his book about the experience is titled No One Would Listen.

That fund was, of course, Bernie Madoff’s. In an interview with Jon Stewart on Monday night, Markopolos was clear about his distain for the SEC, causing Stewart to burst out, “You are an angry dude; you’re just rippin‘ these guys.”

The book rose to #18 on Amazon (it’s now at #21) and has heavy holds in libraries.

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No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller Harry Markopolos Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 376 pages Publisher: Wiley – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0470553731 / 9780470553732

ebook available from OverDrive

In a first novel by award-winning short story writer Eric Puchner, a California real estate developer is going broke and hiding that fact from his family. Alan Cheuse reviews the book, Model Home, on NPR’s All Things Considered (listen here), saying,

I came to feel so deeply for [the characters] that the book now and then became almost excruciating to read: the feckless parents, the desperate kids struggling to stay alive and in love with a home world crumbling around them.

People gave it their highest accolade, 4 of a possible 4 stars. It was also reviewed by,

• SF Chronicle ‘Model Home,’ by Eric Puchner
• NYT Nightmare on Easy Street

Model Home Eric Puchner Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-02-09) ISBN / EAN: 0743270487 / 9780743270489

Audio from Tantor:

On Sale Date: 04/05/2010
Trade 9781400116522 12 Audio CDs $39.99
Library 9781400146529 12 Audio CDs $79.99
MP3 9781400166527 2 MP3-CD $29.99

As Terry Gross says in her interview with Melissa Febos on NPR’s Fresh Air last night, “this may be the first memoir by a dominatrix who grew up listening to NPR,” a reflection of her obvious intelligence which is behind the book’s clever title, Whip Smart (listen to the interview here).

Why did she become a dominatrix? She couldn’t get a job in publishing.

The book rose to #77 (from 10,630) on Amazon.

Whip Smart: A Memoir Melissa Febos Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0312561024 / 9780312561024

Three books are the reviewers’ darlings of the moment. Oddly, they all have extremely short titles; Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee, Infinities by Jon Banville and The Ask by Sam Lipsyte.

Leading the pack in number of holds is The Ask. It was ordered in the lowest quantities, so it also has the highest ratio of holds, averaging 8:1 in libraries we checked. Booklist starred this “darkly humorous story.” It received equally strong reviews from Kirkus and PW, but LJ felt that, despite being a “A treasure trove of brilliant asides and one-liners,” it “never really comes together as a coherent novel.”

The consumer press is also divided,

• NYT BR, 3/7, Lydia Millett; “Lipsyte is not only a smooth sentence-maker, he’s also a gifted critic of power…What makes The Ask work so well is the way it dovetails its characters’ self-loathing with their self-consciousness…And that’s why this book is a success: not only the belly laughs but also the sadness attendant upon the cultural failure it describes.”

• LA Times, Misery loves company: Sam Lipsyte’s LipSite; “The Ask delivers its articulation of class rage in a sometimes mean-spirited package.”

The author is also being featured in interviews,

• WSJ, Slouching Toward Success; “Having made failure the signature theme of his fiction, Mr. Lipsyte seems especially unprepared for the critical success of his new novel, The Ask.”

• The Daily Beast, The Slacker Generation’s Swift

• New York magazine, “The Loser Chronicles: With his new novel, The Ask, Sam Lipsyte finds the funny in failure.”

The Ask: A Novel Sam Lipsyte Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0374298912 / 9780374298913

BBC Audio; UNABR; 9780792770794; 7 CD’s;  $89.95

Audio available from OverDrive

————–

The Surrendered is the second in number of holds, but, because of an average of twice as many copies on order, hold ratios are less than 3:1. Michiko Kakutani gives it a strong review in the NYT today, ending with a Michiko-style back-hand compliment,

If the reader stops and thinks about it, there are lots of infelicities of craft in this novel…But Mr. Lee writes with such intimate knowledge of his characters’ inner lives and such an understanding of the echoing fallout of war that most readers won’t pause to consider such lapses — they will be swept up in the power of The Surrendered and its characters’ aching and indelible stories.

The Surrendered Chang-rae Lee Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 1594489769 / 9781594489761

ebook available from OverDrive

——-

Infinities, by John Banville has been reviewed nearly everywhere but is described most memorably by Laura Miller in Sunday’s NYT BR,

If The Infinities has the bones of a novel of ideas, it’s fleshed out and robed as a novel of sensibility and style. Its drapery is velvet and brocade — sumptuous and at times over-heavy.

Other reviewers agree with her assessment that,

Fortunately, lavish demonstrations of literary virtuosity don’t bog down The Infinities, as they often did with The Sea, the novel that won Banville the Man Booker Prize in 2005.

Library holds, however, are modest.

The Infinities John Banville Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-02-23) ISBN / EAN: 0307272796 / 9780307272799

RH Audio; UNABR; 9780307706652; $35

More national press is arriving for Letters to Jackie (see our earlier story).

The AP ran a story that was picked up by many news outlets today. Author Ellen Fitzpatrick and two of the letter writers in the book will appear on CBS Evening News tonight and the New York Times is running a story in the “National” section tomorrow. The book rose to #195 on Amazon today.

Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation Ellen Fitzpatrick Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Ecco – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061969842 / 9780061969843

ebook available from OverDrive.

Lots of authors on tap for the week:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Mon, 3/8 — Harry Markopolos — the man who led an investigation that brought down Bernie Madoff.

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller Harry Markopolos Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 376 pages Publisher: Wiley – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0470553731 / 9780470553732

ebook available from OverDrive

Tues, 3/9 — Marc Thiessen who says, “Barack Obama did arguably more damage to America’s national security in his first 100 days of office than any president in American history.”

Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack Marc A. Thiessen Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 376 pages Publisher: Regnery Press – (2010-01-18) ISBN / EAN: 1596986034 / 9781596986039

Wed, 3/10 — Eamon Javers on the world of business warfare.

Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage Eamon Javers Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: HarperBusiness – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061697206 / 9780061697203

ebook available on OverDrive

The Colbert Report

Tues, 3/9 — Annie Leonard. Her video, The Story of Stuff has been downloaded millions of times.

The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change Annie Leonard Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 143912566X / 9781439125663

S&S Audio; UNABR; 9780743599153; $26

Wed, 3/10 — Sean Carroll; ideas from the cutting edge of theoretical physics

From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time Sean Carroll Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult – (2010-01-07) ISBN / EAN: 0525951334 / 9780525951339

Tantor Audio:

Trade; 9781400115655; 13 Audio CD; $39.99
Library; 9781400145652; 13 Audio CD; $79.99
MP3; 9781400165650; 2 MP3-CD; $29.99

Thurs, 3/11 — David Aaronov on conspiracy theories.

Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History David Aaronovitch Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover – (2010-02-04) ISBN / EAN: 1594488959 / 9781594488955

Tantor Audio

Trade; 9781400115921; 12 Audio CD; $39.99
Library; 9781400145928; 12 Audio CD; $79.99
MP3; 9781400165926; 2 MP3-CD; $29.99

Happy Monday!

Since your mind may be a little clouded from Oscar night (see our roundup of Oscar tie-ins), here’s a quick wrap-up of what else you need to know from the weekend:

Hurrah! This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson gets a great review in the 3/7 NYT Book Review and rises to #150 on Amazon (it’s now at #170 and, dare we say, that’s an amazingly high position for a book about a profession generally not considered that fascinating by the general public. We may actually see it on the 3/21 NYT Nonfiction best seller list).

The cover of the NYT BR features Angelology by Danielle Trussoni; remarkable because the BR rarely features a new popular-interest title with marketing muscle behind it (in what may be a first, both the NYT BR AND the People book section lead with a review of the same title). Despite some serious reservations, reviewer Susann Cokal calls it a “rousing story.” The book rose to #44; it’s destined for bestsellerdom.

In a brilliant move, the Book Review assigned Alexander McCall Smith to review Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. Perhaps it’s no surprise that he loves this updating of the English village novel (too bad about the goofy illustration). The book has been receiving accolades from all over (we’re expecting it to be a sleeper success).

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland topped the box office and Dorling Kindersley’s Disney’s Alice in Wonderland: The Visual Guide hit the 3/17 NYT BR Childrens Picture Books best seller list. Another Alice-related title rising on Amazon is The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Lewis Carroll, Martin Gardner, John Tenniel (W.W. Norton). Interest is coming from a different source; last week Lost featured the book. The original has been featured many times before on the show.

Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt (Ecco) hits the 3/17 NYT Nonfiction list at #14. It has been bringing tears to many reviewer’s eyes; including this one in Sunday’s L.A. Times.

Little Bee goes to #1 on the Paperback Trade Fiction list, surging ahead of The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks (although it’s still at #1 on the Paperback Mass-Market Fiction list). Congrats to Santa Monica for making it their One City pick.

The NYT Magazine cover story “Building a Better Teacher” mentioned the following books, which rose on Amazon as a result:

Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College Doug Lemov Retail Price: $27.95 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Jossey-Bass – (2010-04-26) ISBN / EAN: 0470550473 / 9780470550472

.

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education Diane Ravitch Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 296 pages Publisher: Basic Books – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 0465014917 / 9780465014910 ebook available on OverDrive

The following titles also rose over the weekend on Amazon (this information is from Saturday; on Sunday, a computer glitch caused graphic novels to dominate the list):

#2 (now at #23) — Now Eat This!: 150 of America’s Favorite Comfort Foods, All Under 350 Calories by Rocco DiSpirito (Ballantine Books)

#11 (now at #35) — Courage and Consequence by Karl Rove (Threshold Editions)

#21 (now at #52) — The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It by Scott Patterson (Crown Business). It was featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Thursday.

#50 (was 962; now at #107) — Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942-1945 by Barrett Tillman (S&S) — WSJ review

#59 (now at #190) — The Coming Insurrection
As Publishers Weekly reports, Glenn Beck has been giving unwitting support to this book since he began ranting against it in July.

The Coming Insurrection (Semiotext(e) / Intervention) The Invisible Committee Retail Price: $12.95 Paperback: 136 pages Publisher: Semiotext(e) – (2009-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 1584350806 / 9781584350804

#65 (was 215; now at #86)

The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life James Martin Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: HarperOne – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061432687 / 9780061432682

Martin was on NPR Weekend Edition Sat. (listen here) as well as on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report the week before (watch here). USA Today wrote about him on Wednesday — Jesuit priest James Martin moves in Mass, mass media.

Releasing on Tuesday is Karl Rove’s memoir Courage and Consequence. The book is embargoed, but news began breaking about it this week (see NYT story, “Ultimate Bush Insider Lifts Veil on Presidency“). It is currently at #52 on Amazon.

Since there were no prepub reviews, you may want to check your holdings. However, most of the libraries we checked own it, with fewer than 1 hold per copy ordered.

Courage and Consequence Karl Rove Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 608 pages Publisher: Threshold Editions – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 1439191050 / 9781439191057

S&S Audio; ABRIDGED; 9781442334069; $29.99

Next week, The Story of Stuff, by environmentalist Annie Leonard, launches with the author’s appearance on the Colbert Report on Tuesday and an interview with Christine Amanpour on CNN.

Many know the author’s work because of her online video with the same title, which has been viewed by millions and has been used by teachers as a way to get students to think about sustainability. It achieved the ultimate compliment when it was banned by a Montana school board after a parent complained the video’s message is anti-capitalist. It was featured on the front page of the New York Times last May. The author wrote the book to answer questions she received from people had viewed the video online and wanted to know more.

The book received starred reviews in both LJ and Booklist; the PW and Kirkus reviews were also strong.

The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change Annie Leonard Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Free Press – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 143912566X / 9781439125663

S&S Audio; UNABR; 9780743599153; $26

Just posted on the NPR site, a review of Marilyn Johnson’s This Book is Overdue (warning: some librarian stereotypes, but used to illustrate how outdated they are).

We’re also expecting a review in the upcoming 3/7 NYT Book Review.

The book hit #130 last week, its highest point to date on Amazon sales rankings. Clearly, the general public is more interested in us than we imagined.

——————————————-

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

Audio: Tantor; 2/22/10
Trade: 9781400116348; 7 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146345; 7 CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166343; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

Two novels going on sale next week — one by Lionel Shriver and the other by Danielle Trussoni — are getting early media attention from major critics, though there is only moderate library demand so far.  On the other hand, Alan Brantley‘s second Flavia de Luce mystery doesn’t need media attention; customers are placing holds based on the success of the author’s debut last year, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Lionel Shriver‘s exploration of the plight of middle-class Americans squeezed by the current health care system, So Much for That, will hit the ground running with a very positive early review from the notoriously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times, who says,

The author’s understanding of her people is so intimate, so unsentimental that it lofts the novel over [some] bumpy passages, insinuating these characters permanently into the reader’s imagination.

In a gossipy aside, freelance critic Mark Athitakas digests the recent flap in the UK over the ethics of Shriver’s decision to set a portion of her novel in a resort on Pemba Island in the Indian Ocean, and to list the owners in her acknowledgements, after having gone on a travel-writing junket there.

So Much for That Lionel Shriver Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061458589 / 9780061458583

Available from Brilliance Corporation  03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $36.99; ISBN 9781423360995

Large Print from HarperLuxe

• $25.99; ISBN 9780061946134

Overdrive WMA Audiobook: ISBN 9780061977510

Playaway: $74.99; SKU 11733

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Danielle Trussoni‘s debut thriller, Angelology, about a nun descended from elite angelologist who solves a puzzle reminiscent of the Da Vinci Code, is a People Pick in the 3/15 issue. The review bestows 3.5 of a possible 4 stars, but reads like a 4-star review:

…breathtakingly imaginative…[the] story is over the top. But aren’t all sweeping, thoroughly entertaining tales of the supernatural? In fact, once you’ve entered Angelology‘s enthralling world…you’ll be thinking, “Vampires? Who cares about vampires?”

It gets less favorable coverage from Janet Maslin in the New York Times:

Angelology is so prettily written that it takes a while for the clumsiness to show… Ms. Trussoni does not even tie up this book’s loose ends. She leaves her story in virtual midair, set up for a sequel and mightily confused as to angelology’s future.

Library demand is relatively light, but given the heated auction for this book and the positive early reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, there’s bound to be more coverage. There’s also a movie in the works from Sony.

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

Available from Penguin Audiobooks: 03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $39.95; ISBN 9780143145264

————————

In libraries, next week’s most anticipated new fiction title is Alan Bradley‘s The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, featuring the dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce.  This young English girl’s passion for chemistry and solving murders helped septagenarian Bradley win many fans for his debut, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009). Libraries we checked are largely on top of the demand, with up to 50 copies on hand.

Library Journal says that “while the plot at times stretches credulity, with some characters veering close to Agatha Christie stereotypes, Flavia is such an entertaining narrator that most readers will cheerfully go along for the ride.”

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press – (2010-03-09) ISBN / EAN: 0385342314 / 9780385342315

Available from Random House Audio:  03/09/2010

• Compact Disc: $35; ISBN 978030757641535

Other Fiction with Buzz Coming Next Week:

Chang-Rae Lee’s The Surrendered (Riverhead), a story of war and survival that focuses on a Korean orphan and the American veteran and missionary who try to care for her, received a favorable review from Laura Miller in Salon and a glowing review in Elle,  and was also on O magazine’s list of Seven Books to Watch for in March.

Clive Cussler and Jack De Brul’s The Silent Sea (Putnam) is the “winning seventh entry in the Oregon Files nautical adventure series… [in which] Juan Cabrillo, the heroic skipper of the ‘Oregon’, a state-of-the-art warship disguised as a tramp steamer, faces a multitude of difficulties and challenges,” according to Publishers Weekly.

Earlier, we wrote that a book by the son of one of the founders of Hamas was making headlines around the world in advance of publication. The book is published by the Christian press Tyndale House. The author, a convert to Christianity, writes in the book about his new faith, but what is making headlines is his claim that he fed Hamas secrets to the Israelis.

News stories continue to break now that the book has been released. An interview with Christine Amanpour is running on CNN today.

Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Mosab Hassan Yousef Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Tyndale House – (2010-03-02) ISBN / EAN: 1414333072 / 9781414333076

Tyndale Audio; 3/2; 9781414333090; $29.99