On The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, Michael Lewis freely admitted that he wasn’t excited about the prospect of a movie version of his book, Moneyball.

Given the author’s recent success with Hollywood, Stewart opened the interview by asking who he would pick to play Ben Bernanke in the movie version of his new book on the world financial crisis, Boomerang; Travels in the New Third World, (Norton, 10/3; S&S Audio). The book is currently at #4 on Amazon sales rankings; expect to see it on upcoming best seller lists. Several libraries are showing heavy holds.

Hmmm, Dustin Hoffman? Paul Giamatti?

Tom Cruise with a beard?

In her monthly appearance on Seattle’s NPR station, KUOW, librarian Nancy Pearl talked about her favorite titles of the current season. In addition to several major adult releases, she picks a debut YA novel.

The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach, (Little, Brown, 9/7; Hachette Large Print) — “the one I am most excited by.”

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard, (Random House, 9/20; RH Audio; BOT Audio) — About one of our least-remembered presidents, James Garfield, so the subject is not what will draw in readers, but, says Nancy, “a wonderful author like Candice Millard can make you interested in everything.”

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend , Susan Orlean, (S&S, 9/27; S&S Audio; Large Type, Thorndike) — Nancy loves the details, including “how the character of Rin Tin Tin changed from silent movies to the TV show.”

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, 9/13; Audio, RH Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print,Center Point) — Nancy says it’s for people who liked The Time Travelers Wife.

Legend by Marie Lu (Putnam. 11/29)  — a forthcoming teen fantasy novel that Nancy calls ” just terrific.” It received early attention back in July from USA Today. The first in a planned trilogy of dystopian YA novels, it’s catnip for Hollywood. No surprise, rights were snapped up in February. Director Jonathan Levin (his 50/50 has just been released) was attached to it in May, moving it another step along the process. VOYA just reviewed the book (5Q 5P J S), saying, “Debut author Lu has managed a great feat—emulating a highly successful young adult series while staying true to her own voice.” Kirkus gave it a star.

The Nobel Prizes are being announced this week, with the Prize for Literature coming on Thursday, so betting is on in the UK. Japanese writer Haruki Murakami is currently #3 at bookmaker Ladbroke’s, with odds of 9:1. If he wins, it would put American libraries in the unfamiliar position of already owning the books by a new Nobel laureate, since he has been widely published here. It would also be perfect timing for the Oct, 25 release of the author’s 900-page novel in the U.S, 1Q84, (Knopf; Brilliance Audio).

Murakami’s publisher has been beating the publicity drum for what they call the author’s “long-awaited magnum opus,” by giving away a chapter to those who “like” the book on Facebook and releasing an excerpt in New Yorker in September. The book has been in the top 100 on Amazon for 21 days, rising to #47 today.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the race to translate the book to meet “pent-up demand” (it was published two years ago in Japan in and has sold over 4 million copies there), describing it as

…a twist on George Orwell’s 1984, which Mr. Murakami frequently references. (In Japanese, the word for ‘nine’ is pronounced ‘kyu’). Rather than an Orwellian dystopian future, Mr. Murakami paints an alternate past. In his characteristically stark, unadorned prose, Mr. Murakami tells an epic love story set in Tokyo in 1984. Aomame, a young female hired assassin, and Tengo, an aspiring novelist, are separately drawn into a parallel reality where some people have two souls, two moons hang in the sky and mysterious ‘little people’ wield power.

Don’t rush to place your bets, however. The winner of the Prize is notoriously difficult to predict; last year’s winner, Herta Muller was given odds of 50:1.

On the Pittsburgh set of the movie version of Lee Child’s book, One Shot, (Delacorte, 2005), Tom Cruise practiced some extreme driving. Celebrity news sites are noting that he’s also cut his hair for the role as Jack Reacher.

Reacher fans have been unhappy about the choice of Cruise, complaining that he is too short (by about ten inches) and too handsome for the role. Lee Child again defends the choice in an interview with the British film magazine, Empire, out this week, saying, “the movie is not going to match the book anyway. If you look at what [screenwriter/director Christopher] McQuarrie and Cruise have done before [McQuarrie wrote the screenplay for Valkyrie, in which Cruise starred], I think this Reacher will be more clinical – the scalpel rather than the sledgehammer. What people forget is that Tom Cruise is quite possibly the best actor of his generation.”

Unlike height, however, talent is debatable.

The movie is scheduled for release in early 2013. The most recent Reacher novel, The Affair (Delacorte/RH; RH Audio and Books on Tape;  RH Large type) came out last week and is currently at #13 on Amazon sales rankings.

In an interview in the Daily Mail, Child says that he never expected the books to be popular with women, but “Women are fanatically keen on the series, and I’ve spent 15 years trying to find out why…it may be that the lack of commitment, the walking away from relationships is just as much a female fantasy as a male one, perhaps more so. Reacher is the kind of man women might like to have walk up to their door and stay a couple of days, and then leave. Also, Reacher likes and respects women, and that comes through. He doesn’t patronize them. There’s no hint of sexism.”

But the real reason may be that he writes strong female characters, “I don’t see why they should always be the bimbo who twists her ankle and needs rescuing. I write women as strong creatures every bit as competent as Reacher, and sometimes more so.”

As Janet Maslin notes in her NYT review of The Affair, the title refers Reacher’s relationship with a beautiful sheriff, who “acts just like a she-Reacher; she can match him quip for quip, leap for leap, burger for burger. Whether motivated by creative fervor or commercial instinct, Mr. Child has at long last given Reacher sex scenes, but they are stealthily funny: Reacher’s idea of sex, like his idea of everything else, is filled with precise calculation.

Next week holds many riches: Michael Lewis‘s follow up to The Big Short, Susan Orlean‘s much anticipated Rin Tin Tin bio, a new novel from Michael Ondaatje that’s said to be his most engaging since The English Patient, and Jose Saramago‘s final work, plus a new novel from Booker Prize-winner Anne Enright.

Watch List

The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Norton, Thorndike Large Print) is the story of an ill-fated affair that leads to the collapse of two marriages, set in Ireland as the Celtic Tiger wanes into recession. It follows Gathering, Enright’s Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller (for more than five months). Kirkus says Enright “once again brings melancholy lyricism to a domestic scenario and lifts it into another dimension.” It was also a pick on our own Galley Chat.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (Algonquin; Highbridge Audio; Large Type, Thorndike, 9781410445063) is a dystopian take on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, in which Hannah Payne wakes up after having been injected with a virus to turn her skin red, punishment for aborting her unborn child. Library Journal says, “Jordan offers no middle ground: she insists that readers question their own assumptions regarding freedom, religion, and risk. Christian fundamentalists may shun this novel, but book clubs will devour it.” It was a GalleyChat Pick of ALA, in which one reader called it a “brilliant, disturbing, unexpected turn. Much more than 1984 meets The Scarlet Letter.”

Eagerly Awaited

The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf; Random House Audio; Books on Tape) is the author’s “best novel since his Booker Prizewinning The English Patient,” according to Publishers Weekly. It starts with an 11 year-old boy’s voyage from Ceylon to London to live with his divorced mother, getting up to all sorts of mischief with two other children on the ship, in adventures that color his life for years to come.

Night Strangers by Christopher Bohjalian (Crown; Random House Audio; Books on Tape; Random House Large Print) is the story of a traumatized pilot – one of nine plane crash survivors – who retreates with his family to a New Hampshire town, but doesn’t find much peace. Library Journal calls it a “genre-defying novel, both a compelling story of a family in trauma and a psychological thriller that is truly frightening. The story’s more gothic elements are introduced gradually, so the reader is only slightly ahead of the characters in discerning, with growing horror, what is going on.”  It was also got some enthusiastic mentions on GalleyChat last July.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman (Scribner) is historical fiction centering on four powerful women, set during the Roman siege of the Judean fortress on Masada. It’s a librarian favorite.

Young Adult

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (Random House Audio; Books on Tape) is the second book in the Heroes of Olympus series.

The Lost Stories (Ranger’s Apprentice Series #11) by John Flanagan (Philomel/Penguin) is a collection of “lost” tales that fill in the gaps between Ranger’s Apprentice novels, written in response to questions his fans have asked over the years.

Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick (S & S Books for Young Readers) is the conclusion to the Hush Hush saga, in which Patch and Nora, armed with nothing but their absolute faith in each other, enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything.

Usual Suspects

Nonfiction

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis (Norton; S&S Audio) is a follow up to The Big Short, in which the bestselling author visits societies like Iceland, which transformed themselves when credit was easy between 2002 and 2008, and are paying the price. As we’ve mentioned, Michiko Kakutani has already given the book a glowing review in the New York Times, which caused the book to rise to #17 on Amazon’s sales rankings. Lewis will appear on NPR, CBS radio and TV, and on MSNBC.

Seriously… I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres (Grand Central; Hachette Audio) is a collection of humorous musings by the afternoon talk show host, that comes eight years after her last bestseller. Kirkus says, “though DeGeneres doesn’t provide many laugh-out-loud moments, her trademark wit and openness shine through.”

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True by Richard Dawkins (Free Press; S&S Audio) finds the master science writer and author of The God Delusion teaming up with a master of the graphic novel to create a new genre: the graphic science book that considers the universe in all its glory, magical without creator or deity. Kirkus says, “watch for this to be mooted and bruited in school board meetings to come. And score points for Dawkins, who does a fine job of explaining earthquakes and rainbows in the midst of baiting the pious.”

The Price of Civilization by Jeffrey Sachs (Random House; Random House Audio; Books on Tape) is the blueprint for America’s economic recovery by the well-known economist, who argues that we must restore the virtues of fairness, honesty, and foresight as the foundations of national prosperity. Kirkus says, “A lucid writer, the author is refreshingly direct—tax cuts for the wealthy are ‘immoral and counterproductive’; stimulus funding and budget cutting are ‘gimmicks’—and he offers recommendations for serious reform.” He will appear on NPR’s Morning Edition and on several TV news shows.

Movie Tie-ins

The Descendants: A Novel (Random House Trade Paperback) ties into the movie starring George Clooney, which opens 11/18. A dark comedy about a dysfunctional family in Hawaii, it received raves at the Toronto Film Festival (Variety: “one of those satisfying, emotionally rich films that works on multiple levels.”) By director Alexander Payne, whose earlier movie Sideways increased tourism to Napa Valley, this may do the same for Hawaii; it is also a good opportunity to reintroduce readers to the book, the first novel by Hawaiian Kaui Hart Hemmings, which came out to strong reviews in 2007 (as exemplified by this one in the NYT Book Review). Trailer here.

The Rum Diary: A Novel by Hunter S. Thompson (S&S) is the tie-in to the film adaptation of the only published novel by the gonzo journalist, starring Johnny Depp (who played Thompson in the poorly received Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). The movie, opening Oct 21, has a strong cast, but it’s based on one of Thompson’s weakest works, so it may do more for rum sales than for the book. Trailer here,

The coming fiftieth anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death in 2012 is fueling even more Marilyn Obsession (as it was described last week in the NYT Fashion & Style section).

The October Vogue cover story features a photo shoot by Annie Liebowitz of Michelle Williams as Marilyn, the role she plays in the upcoming movie My Week with Marilyn. About her performance, the article says Williams “brings Monroe to life with heartbreaking delicacy and precision without resorting to impersonation or cliché.”

The movie premieres as the centerpiece of the NY film festival and begins its theatrical release on Nov. 4. In addition to Williams as Monroe, Kenneth Branagh plays Sir Laurence Olivier, Eddie Redmayne is Colin Clark and Emma Watson appears in her first post-Harry Potter role, as a wardrobe assistant.

Based on a book that will be published for the first time in the U.S. next week, it’s about the friendship between Marilyn and Colin Clark, the son of Sir Kenneth Clark (most well-known to Americans for his 1969 BBC series, Civilization), that developed during the troubled shooting of The Prince and the Showgirl. Clark wrote two memoirs about that time, both of which caused a sensation when they were published in the UK over ten years ago.

My Week with Marilyn is also being released in audio (Dreamscape and on OverDrive), featuring Simon Prebble, one of AudioFile’s Best Voices of 2009, who takes on the challenge of reproducing Monroe’s breathy voice (listen to a clip here).

My Week with Marilyn Colin Clark Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Weinstein Books – (2011-10-04) ISBN / EAN: 1602861498 / 9781602861497

In 2004, Colin Clark made his own, charmingly retro, documentary film based on his memoirs.

Also coming next week is a book of previously unpublished photos of Marilyn. It is featured in Vanity Fair.

Marilyn: Intimate Exposures Susan Bernard Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Sterling Signature – (2011-10-04) ISBN / EAN: 140278001X / 9781402780011

Russell Banks reveals the reality behind his new novel, Lost Memory of Skin (Ecco; HarperAudio; Large Type, HarperLuxe; ePub, OverDrive) in an interview on PBS News Hour last night.

Janet Maslin gives the book a heartfelt review in Monday’s NYT. About a young man who convicted as a sex offender after unwittingly becoming involved with underage girl via the internet, Maslin says Banks grippingly depicts how the character moves from “helpless innocence to enlightened dignity, from all-consuming shame to glimmering self-knowledge” and says the book is “destined to be a canonical novel of its time.”

The book rose to #140 on Amazon’s sales ranking.

Below is the extended PBS interview:

Stephen King followed up on hints he dropped while on a book tour two years ago, by announcing that he is nearly finished writing a sequel to The Shining. He told the audience at George Mason University’s 2011 Fall for the Book festival that the book will be titled Dr. Sleep, (no pub date or ISBN has been announced yet, however).

Saying he had always wondered what happened to Danny Torrance, an idea “wormed” into his head,

I knew there were bad people in this story that were like vampires, only what they sucked out was not blood, but psychic energy from special people like Danny Torrance. I came to realize that these people are called ‘The Tribe” … and they travel around on the highways.

Below, he reads a section:

King’s next book, 11/22/63, (Scribner, 11/8; Unabridged CD, S&S Audio) was recently optioned by film director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs). It is a time-travel novel about a high school English teacher who goes through a time portal in an attempt to stop the Kennedy assassination. Booklist says King began writing this book years ago and it exhibits an “intoxicating, early-King bouquet of ambition and swagger.”

Ron Howard’s ambitious plans for a TV/film adaptation of King’s The Dark Tower series were abandoned over the summer. The eighth title in the book series, The Wind Through the Keyhole (Scribner), is scheduled for publication in April.

Terry Gross introduced her NPR Fresh Air interview with Mark Bowden, author of Worm: The First Digital World War (Atlantic Monthly Press; Brilliance Audio), by saying,

Your computer might already be infected with a worm that could command your computer to be used in [a hacker attack on anything from the Pantagon to the banking system to the power grid].

As a result of the interview, Bowden’s book rose to #57 (from #23,639) on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Following a strongly negative review from Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times for Charles Frazier’s third book, Nightwoods (Random House; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print, Random House; Audio currently on OverDrive, eBooks available soon), Ron Charles in the Washington Post, offers equally strong words of praise.

He points out, as did Kakutani, that Frazier enjoyed huge, and unexpected success with his debut, Cold Mountain, followed by lesser success for his second book Thirteen Moons (for which his new publisher paid him considerably more money than his first).

As Charles puts the question that’s on the minds of many in the publishing business,

Will Frazier’s new novel, Nightwoods, redeem his reputation (and his publisher’s faith), or will it only confirm claims that he’s a deep-fat-fried Faulkner who won the lottery on his first time out?

His answer:

Sorry, haters, but this is a fantastic book: an Appalachian Gothic with a low-level fever that runs alternately warm and chilling. Frazier has left the 19th century and the picaresque form to produce a cleverly knitted thriller about a tough young woman in the 1960s who has given up on the people of her small town and gone to live alone in the woods.

Sorry, Kakutani, this one may be a hit.

The cry “Yo, Rinty!” rang out on CBS Sunday Morning, as the show featured Susan Orlean’s book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend (S&S; Audio, S&S; Large Type, Thorndike), which arrives tomorrow.

Following the show, the book moved into the top 50 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Three of the four major movie releases opening today have a book connection. Click on the movie titles to watch the trailer.

Moneyball — Based on the best selling book by Michael Lewis, the new Brad Pitt movie may knock the 3-D version of The Lion King out of its #1 position, but money is also on Dophin Tale (see below). Moneyball has been receiving great reviews and Oscar buzz. The book, as MTV notes, “isn’t exactly an obvious candidate for Hollywood’s adaptation machine. It’s filled with geeky tales about the importance of obscure stats like ‘wins above replacement,’ the founding of fantasy sports and the evolution of a guy named Bill James from factory worker to baseball deity.”

Lewis’s next book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World (W.W. Norton, 10/3/11), explores how cheap credit fueled bubbles around the world with disastrous effects (as in Ireland and Greece) and how it that may come home to the US. Tie-in, published by W.W. Norton.

Dolphin Tale — is not based on a book, but on the true story of a dolphin named Winter whowas  rescued from trapping ropes, only to lose her tail due to her injuries. A prosthetic engineer figured out how to create a replacement, which also led to a breakthrough in engineering human prostheses. The story was covered in the news and Scholastic published a picture book about it, Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again (2009). Scholastic has published an official movie book, Dolphin Tale: A Tale of True Friendship, with stills from the movie, Dolphin Tale: The Junior Novel and a paperback reprint of Winter’s Tail.

The Killer Elite — The smallest of the movies opening this weekend, both in size of budget and number of theaters carrying it, this movie is based on The Feather Men by the British explorer and writer, Ranulph Fiennes. The story of an elite group of British soldiers, it raised controversy when it was publishing in the UK in 1991, which resurfaced when the movie was announced last year. It stars Robert De Niro, Jason Statham, Yvonne Strahovski,  and Clive Owen. Tie-in published by Ballantine.

This week brings an unusual number of big trade paperback releases, the book club format of choice, so we have listed them under their own heading.

Watch List

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier (Random House; Audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print, Random House; Audio currently on OverDrive, eBooks available soon) is the author’s third novel. Anticipation is high, as indicated by the fact that it is already reviewed in the NYT and Entertainment Weekly.

Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks, (Ecco; HarperAudio; Large Type, HarperLuxe; ePub, OverDrive); This one comes with Nora’s personal recommendation, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been so involved with a book’s characters that at one point, I shouted, ‘No, don’t!'” About a young man forced into homelessness after being convicted as a sex offender, it’s a book that people will be talking about. Booklist starred it, but Publishers Weekly found it, “Bloated and remarkably repetitive, this is more a collection of ideas and emblems than a novel.”

River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (FSG; Audio, Brilliance and on OverDrive) is the second volume of a trilogy about the Opium Wars in China that began with the 2008 Booker short listed Sea of Poppies. Publishers Weekly warns, “This crowded novel is in turn confusing and exhilarating, crammed with chaotic period detail and pidgin languages.”

Trade Paperback Originals

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore: A Novel by Stella Duffy (Penguin; Audio, Recorded Books) caught the eye of librarians at BEA’s Shout ‘n’ Share program and was a GalleyChat Pick of ALA. Below, the author describes the book.

The Kingdom of Childhood by Rebecca Coleman, (Mira/Harlequin) was a GalleyChat Pick of ALA, a disturbing story about a teacher involved in a sexual relationship with a student. Ripe for book discussions, the trade paperback format makes it even more attractive to book groups.

The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate (Algonquin; ePub and Kindle, on OverDrive) is part of the Algonquin Readers Roundtable, titles published in original trade paperback to appeal to book groups. It was included in Reading Group Guides’ 2011 Hot Fall Titles for Book Clubs. This is the third book by an author that Kirkus calls “A master at portraying the hurdles faced by upwardly mobile African-Americans,” In this case, the novel deals with the effect of alcoholism on a family. Booklist gives it high praise, “With a lyrical style and obvious respect for her craft, Southgate has composed a compassionate, complex, and concentrated novel, tenderly powerful, that explores family bonds that last long after the family is dispersed.” People chose it as one of five fiction titles in their Great Fall Reads preview.

Childrens

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss (Random House Books for Young Readers; Audio, Random House and Books on Tape and OverDrive) is a collection of “lost” stories by Dr. Seuss. Earlier this year, All Things Considered explored the story of the book’s origins. On eBay, a Random House art director discovered that a Dr. Seuss-obsessed collector had identified magazines from the ’50′s featuring Seuss stories that had not been published elsewhere.

The Flint Heart by Katherine and John Paterson, illustrated by John Rocco (Candlewick Press; Audio, Brilliance and OverDrive) is the retelling of a hundred-year-old story by the Newbery Medalist (Bridge to Terabithia) and her husband. It is starred by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Booklist, which said, “This timeless, enjoyable retelling is a strong choice for both a read-aloud and an under-the-covers escape.”

Ten Rules for Living with My Sister by Ann M Martin, (Feiwel & Friends) is nine-year-old Pearl’s hard-won rules for living with her 14-year-old sister. Says Kirkus, “Pearl, as narrator, shows herself to be a keen observer of the people around her and mature enough to handle some sticky situations, all with a sense of humor and aplomb.”

Usual Suspects

The Affair by Lee Child, (Delacorte/RH; RH Audio and Books on Tape;  RH Large type) explores the series character, Jack Reacher’s back story (sorry, Reacher fans, the movie version of One Shot is moving along,  with Tom Cruise in the role of the imposing 6′ 5″ Reacher). Janet Maslin already sang its praises in the NYT this week.

Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke (S&S; Audio, S&S; Large Type, Thorndike) continues the story of Hackberry Holland, the reformed drunk who is now a sheriff in a small South Texas border town. Booklist stars it, saying, “As Burke steers the elaborately structured narrative toward its violent conclusion, we are afforded looks inside the tortured psyches of his various combatants, finding there the most unlikely of connections between the players. This is one of Burke’s biggest novels, in terms of narrative design, thematic richness, and character interplay, and he rises to the occasion superbly.”

Nonfiction

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean (S&S; Audio, S&S; Large Type, Thorndike); we’re expecting this to be THE narrative nonfiction title of the fall. An excerpt appeared in the 8/25 issue of The New Yorker. In a video, Susan Orlean chats about her work.

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt, (WW Norton, 9/26) has already been featured twice on NPR, on Morning Edition and Fresh Air (libraries may want to heed the advice that this will bring a spike in the sales of Greek philosopher Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things). More media attention is coming next week.

Worm: The First Digital World War by Mark Bowden (Atlantic Monthly Press; Brilliance Audio) is a true cyber-crime story about the battle against the Conficker computer worm by the best-selling author of Blackhawk Down.

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (Holt; Audio, Macmillan Audio; Large Type, Thorndike) the Fox News host joins forces with historian Martin Dugard (who earlier teamed with James Patterson on the nonfiction title, The Murder of King Tut) to retell an often-told story. PW commented dryly, “Well-documented and equally riveting histories are available for readers interested in Lincolns assassination; this one shows how spin can be inserted into a supposedly no spin American story. ”

Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, (Knopf) is a celebrity memoir (Lindsay-Hogg is the son of actress Geraldine Fitzgerald and the director of Brideshead Revisited). Kirkus, enthuses, “even those who dismiss celebrity memoirs should enjoy this jaunt through the glitz.”

Movie Tie-ins

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Penguin; other editions available in ePub and Kindle on OverDrive) includes “The Final Problem,” the story that is the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Jr., which opens Dec. 16.

Knopf announced late yesterday that they are publishing a new book by Bill Clinton, Back to Work, in November. According to the press release, Clinton,

…details how we can get out of the current economic crisis and lay a foundation for long-term prosperity. He offers specific recommendations on how we can put people back to work, increase bank lending and corporate investment, double our exports, restore our manufacturing base, and create new businesses. He supports President Obama’s emphasis on green technology, saying that change in the way we produce and consume energy is the strategy most likely to spark a fast growing economy and enhance our national security.

BACK TO WORK: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy Bill Clinton Retail Price: $22.95 Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: – (2011-11-08) ISBN / EAN: 0307959759 / 9780307959751

Charles Frazier’s first novel, Cold Mountain, received great acclaim, as well as commercial success (it was on the hardcover best seller list so long that the paperback ended up being delayed for several months) and went on to win the 1997 National Book Award (beating out Don DeLillo’s Underworld). It was also the basis for a movie of the same title, which was nominated for six Oscars (Renee Zellwegger won for Best Supporting Actress).

Frazier’s second book, Thirteen Moons, came out nearly ten years later, to wildly divergent reviews. History may repeat itself with his third book, Nightwoods, arriving this coming Tuesday. Entertainment Weekly gives it a solid A, saying, “The book feels longer than its 260 pages — a good thing, given what a joy it is to luxuriate in its words.” The plotting also comes in for praise, “By the book’s climactic scenes in the shadowy mountain forest that gives Nightwoods its title, the unhurried, poetic suspense is both difficult to bear and impossible to shake.”

Michiko Kakutani, in the New York Times, sees it differently; the book is “often heavy-handed” and Frazier’s prose is “ominous and purple” and “ridiculously melodramatic.” As a result, the the over-the-top passages “rip a hole in the textured emotional fabric of this novel, which Mr. Frazier has so painstakingly woven.”

Nightwoods: A Novel Charles Frazier Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Random House – (2011-09-27) ISBN / EAN: 140006709X / 9781400067091

Unabridged audio, Random House Audio and Books on Tape; Large Print, Random House; Audio currently on OverDrive, eBooks available soon.

Random House Library Services begins a new series on their library blog called “Use Me: Book Promo to repurpose” with a trailer for Nightwoods, which they encourage librarians to use on library web sites, blogs, enewsletters, or library video monitors.