Call the Midwife, the BBC series that, incredibly, beat the UK ratings for Downton Abbey‘s second season, debuts on PBS this Sunday.

People calls it ” the soppily tender story of ’50s midwives in London’s East End” and gives it 3.5 of a possible 4 stars.

The UKs Telegraph wonders “Will Downton Abbey’s stateside fans stomach the Call the Midwife crises?” and warns that, “with recent UK period drama focusing on upper-class glamour … US viewers … may be in for a bit of a shock – despite PBS’s carefully describing the drama as ‘colourful’ (as in blood-drenched).” Adding that “close-ups … will support the US view of the lamentable state of British dentistry.”

But US critics are won over. The Washington Post ranks it as one of the best of the new season, saying,

The cast is marvelous, the gritty, post-war set pieces are meticulously recreated and, even with all the warm-water enemas and splattered afterbirth, the story always has its eye on uplift and good cheer.

Watch Call the Midwife – Preview on PBS. See more from Call the Midwife.

The series is based on Jennifer Worth’s memoirs, released as a tie-in edition in August. In addition, there is a companion volume and an audio from HighBridge.

The Life and Times of Call the Midwife: The Official Companion to Season One and Two Heidi Thomas Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper Design – (2012-10-23) ISBN / EAN: 0062250035 / 9780062250032

Moving up all the Best Seller lists this week, after three weeks on sale, is How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough (HMH; 9/4/12; Tantor Audio). The author’s previous book was a look at the Harlem Children’s Project, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America.  In this new book, reviewed in the 8/22 NYT BR, he argues that character traits, rather than IQ, determine success in life.

Most libraries are showing  holds of 10:1.

Time’s book critic, Lev Grossman (also the author of The Magician and The Magician King, which has been called “Harry Potter for grownups”) may be the only reviewer who is a fan of J.K. Rowling’s new book, The Casual Vacancy, released today.

It’s a big, ambitious, brilliant, profane, funny, deeply upsetting and magnificently eloquent novel of contemporary England, rich with literary intelligence and entirely bereft of bullshit, and if it weren’t for Rowling’s stringent security measures it would or at least should have contended for the Booker Prize.

The AP review, syndicated in many local newspapers, is one of the few that is mostly positive  — “what could have been an unreadable story becomes something else in Rowling’s hands, thanks to her gift of being able to make her characters complex and really, just human.”

The majority of  critics, however,  are not in love with it:

The New York Times brings out its big gun, Michiko Kakutani, to weigh its merits. Characteristically, she doesn’t like it — “The reader can only hope [Rowling] doesn’t try to flesh out the Muggle world of Pagford in any further volumes, but instead moves on to something more compelling and deeply felt in the future.”

The L.A. Times critic, David Ulin, dislikes everything about the book, from the male characters (“One of the particular pathologies of the novel is that nearly every adult male, with the exception of the sainted Barry, is brutal or weak”) to the plot (“unsatisfying” and “convoluted”) to its exploration of issues (that “requires nuance, which is what The Casual Vacancy lacks”).

Entertainment Weekly gives it an unimpressive B-  — “When the novel finally arrives at its predictable and heavy-handed ending, what started as a lively comedy of manners has turned into an overwrought slog.”

The New York Daily News’ review begins,”J .K. Rowling has gone from Potter to potty-mouth,” and then damns it with faint praise — it “isn’t dreadful. It’s just dull.”

The UK’s Guardian is a bit more positive — “The Casual Vacancy is no masterpiece, but it’s not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, and often funny. I could imagine it doing well without any association to the Rowling brand … The fanbase may find it a bit sour, as it lacks the Harry Potter books’ warmth and charm; all the characters are fairly horrible or suicidally miserable or dead. But the worst you could say about it, really, is that it doesn’t deserve the media frenzy surrounding it. And who nowadays thinks that merit and publicity have anything do with each other?”

What ultimately matters is the response from general readers, who have made it #1 on Amazon in pre-sales. As to what they think of the book, the majority of the Amazon “reviews” are actually complaints about the Kindle prices; the single review gives the book 5 of 5 possible stars. No reviews have appeared on GoodReads yet.

Speculation continues on how many copies J.K. Rowling’s first adult title, The Casual Vacancy, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print) will sell after it releases tomorrow.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in today, saying, the author’s “Harry Potter magic will be challenged in one particularly Hogwartzian way: Can she disappear the book’s entire U.S print run of two million copies?” That should not be a problem, however, since as they note, “…the final Harry Potter novel sold 11.5 million copies in its first 10 days on sale in the U.S. in 2007.”

Early this morning, the book rose to #1 on Amazon’s sales rankings (from #3 yesterday). It is #5 on the BarnesAndNoble.com rankings. Library holds are still relatively light compared to Fifty Shades of Grey or Gone Girl and have not increased significantly since yesterday.

An interview with Rowling will be featured on Nightline tonight; a portion of that interview was aired on Good Morning America today. Tomorrow she will read from the book on GMA.

As multiple media outlets speculate on whether J.K. Rowling’s first book for adults, The Casual Vacancy (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print) releasing on Thursday, will be as big a hit as her Harry Potter franchise, library holds indicate that it will not. Most libraries have ordered heavily, but not as heavily as they would an HP title, with holds ratios at 3:1 or less.

In Britain, it’s being called “one of the biggest releases of the 21st century,” but not one that will top the final Harry Potter title, which sold 2.5 million in its first 24 hours in the UK alone (the Telegraph).

Currently, it is #3 on Amazon’s US sales rankings, below the account of the killing of Osama bin Laden, No Easy Day, and Rick Riordan’s latest in his middle grade Heroes of Olympus series.

The book is under heavy embargo, but the New Yorker’s Ian Parker was given an early look, for his profile of Rowling in this week’s issue. His assessment is lukewarm:

…whereas Rowling’s shepherding of readers was, in the Harry Potter series, an essential asset, in The Casual Vacancy her firm hand can feel constraining. She leaves little space for the peripheral or the ambiguous; hidden secrets are labelled as hidden secrets, and events are easy to predict. We seem to watch people move around [the town of] Pagford as if they were on Harry’s magical parchment map of Hogwarts.

If you don’t have time to read the full 9,000-word-plus profile, GalleyCat gives a handy synopsis of what it reveals about the book’s plot, along with the necessary spoiler alert.

Rowling also tells Parker that she is working on two books “for slightly younger children” than her Harry Potter readers as well as another one for adults.

Believe it or not, J.K. Rowling‘s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, is not the only book going on sale next week, though it will surely get a lion’s share of media attention. The other lion of the week is rocker Neil Young, who delivers his first memoir. Other noteworthy nonfiction includes a compilation of President John F. Kennedy’s audio tapes and transcripts, put together by the John F. Kennedy Library and historian Ted Widmer. In adult fiction, there’s a debut novel from popular memoirist J.R. Moehringer, and a BEA Buzz panel pick by Antoine Wilson. Usual suspects include Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall and Deepak Chopra – and in YA fiction, there’s a mystery from adult author Francine Prose.

Major Comeback

EMBARGOED: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (Little Brown; Hachette Audio) comes with a big question: does J.K. Rowling’s first book for adults have a fair chance at success, given the wildly outsized expectations that come with being the author of the Harry Potter series? Her first and only U.S. interview about the book will be on September 26, on ABC’s Good Morning America (7:00-9:00 AM), World News with Diane Sawyer (6:30 PM), and Nightline (11:35 PM-12:00 AM), and will re-air on Good Morning America on September 27.

Watch List

Sutton by J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion; Hyperion Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is a debut novel about the bank robber and folk hero Willie “The Actor” Sutton, by the author of the popular memoir The Tender Bar. It begins in 1969, after Sutton’s release from Attica prison at age 68, as he looks back on stealing more than $2 million over 40 years (often in costume) and his three impressive prison breaks. Entertainment Weekly‘s review begins, “There’s a quality to J.R. Moehringer’s writing that makes you feel you aren’t stepping into a book so much as a dimly lit but welcoming bar…He brings a raconteur’s grace and rhythm to his first novel.” The reviewer admits that the ending is unsatisfying, “But isn’t closing time always a bit of a letdown when you don’t want an entertaining night to end?”

Panorama City by Antoine Wilson (HMH; Blackstone Audio) was a BEA Editors Buzz Panel pick about a self-described “slow-learner” recovering from a traumatic accident, who composes a letter about what it takes to be “a man of the world” to his unborn son and pregnant wife. Booklist says, “Readers who enjoy Mark Haddon and Greg Olear will appreciate Wilson’s authorial voice, which blends Oppen’s good-natured naiveté and humorous asides with incisive cynicism.”

The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo by F. G. Haghenbeck (S&S/Atria) is a fictional biography of the beloved Mexican painter’s life, chronic illness and many loves, based on Kahlo’s unpublished notebooks, including actual recipes tied to her most important moments and relationships. Kirkus says, “despite the repetitiousness and pretentious hyperbola that drags on this novel, Kahlo remains a rich character and inevitably irresistible.”

Love Anthony by Lisa Genova (S&S/Gallery; S&S Audio; Thorndike Large Print) follows two grieving mothers who meet by chance in Nantucket, and help each other heal and move on. Kirkus says, “There’s a point in the narrative where one of the characters becomes so engrossed in reading a book that she loses track of time. Readers of Genova’s latest excellent offering might very well find the same happening to them.”

Usual Suspects

Brink of Chaos by Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall (Zondervan; Zondervan Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is the third installment in The End series of political apocalyptic thrillers.

God: A Story of Revelation by Deepak Chopra (HarperOne) is a “teaching novel” by the popular author of Jesus and Buddha, that aims for a better understanding of God by profiling 10 historical figures: Job, Socrates, St. Paul, Shankara, Rumi, Julian of Norwich, Giordano Bruno, Anne Hutchinson, Baal Shem Tov and Rabindranath Tagore. Kirkus says, “Of particular interest are the humorous, humble Baal Shem, the brilliant, witty Shankara and the visionary Julian, a man Chopra calls ‘the most touching figure in this book’.”

Young Adult

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by Maxine Paetro  and James Patterson (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio) begins a new teen mystery series from the team behind the Women’s Murder Club series for adults. PW is not impressed: “The intriguing setup loses cohesion… For writers with their crime-writing experience, Patterson and Paetro show little interest in common sense, motivation, or believable storytelling.”

The Turning by Francine Prose (Harper Teen) is the story of a teen who takes on a spooky summer job caring for two orphans on a remote island, inspired by Henry James’s Turn of the Screw. PW says, “Remaining true to the ambiguous nature of the original, Prose (Touch) masterfully builds suspense. Like Adele Griffin’s Tighter (2011), this spin on the classic tale is an enticing blend of gothic elements and psychological complexities.”

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray) is the story of a 15 year-old whose parents take away his role-playing game guides and send him to camp to get socialized by the author of It’s a Funny Story. Kirkus says, ” Though the world building is thin at times, there are some moments of genuine pathos and terror, with the final climactic fight scene leaving plenty of room for sequels. Great geeky fun.”

Nonfiction

Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy, selected and with introduction by Ted Widmer, foreword by Caroline Kennedy (Hyperion) makes available for the first time selections from the 256 hours of JFK’s presidential conversations that were taped on hidden recording systems in the Oval Office and in the Cabinet Room. It includes two 75-minute CDs and covers decisions related to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race, Vietnam, and the arms race, compiled by John F. Kennedy Library and historian Widmer.

Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young (Penguin/Blue Rider; Penguin Audiobooks) is  a memoir by the iconic rocker, whose career spans 50 years, from playing with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, & Nash to Crazy Horse and becoming the “godfather of grunge.”

One Last Strike: Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season by Tony La Russa (Harper/ Morrow; HarperLuxe) is the story of the St. Louis Cardinals unusual end-of-season run and victory in the 2011 World Series, by their manager.

The Chew: Food. Life. Fun. by The Chew with contributions from Mario Batali, Gordon Elliott, Carla Hall, Clinton Kelly, Daphne Oz and Michael Symon (Hyperion) is a companion cookbook to The Chew, a daytime show on ABC-TV.

Safari: A Photicular Book by Dan Kainen, text by Carol Kaufmann (Workman) recreates a Kenyan safari featuring eight animals portrayed with a new technology that resembles a 3-D movie on the page, in the next leap after the publisher’s best selling Gallop.

Movie Tie-in

Killing Them Softly (Cogan’s Trade Movie Tie-In Edition) by George V. Higgins (RH/Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) ties in to the movie starring Brad Pitt from the Weinstein Company, which was recently rescheduled to the end of November, to move it into consideration for an Oscar. (Deadline, 9/11/12)

In a season choked with books by big name authors, it’s difficult to break through at all, let alone achieve a hit, but The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg, (Hachette/Grand Central, 10/23), the author’s third novel, has been called the “sleeper hit of the fall.” You can judge for yourself; e-galleys are available via NetGalley.

Hook: About a dysfunctional Jewish family in the Chicago suburbs, it’s been called  the “Jewish The Corrections.”

Cover Blurb: is by Franzen himself; “The Middlesteins had me from its very first pages, but it wasn’t until is final pages that I fully appreciated the range of Attenberg’s sympathy and the artistry of her storytelling.” Check out the distinctive cover (click on the image to enlarge it), which makes sly reference to one of the main character’s obsession with food.

Early Picks: On People‘s list of ten Hot Fall Titles and described as “The sleeper hit of the fall” on CBS This Morning‘s fall book roundup (9/17).

Starred Prepub Reviews: Booklist, Kirkus and PW all starred it.

Librarian interest: one of the picks at the BEA Librarians Shout ‘n’ Share, it has also been recommended on EarlyWord‘s GalleyChat.

Holds: Light in most areas, but it’s early.

The subtitle of Pattie Mallette’s memoir, Nowhere But Up: The Story of Justin Bieber’s Mom (Baker Books) makes her celebrity status clear. Her early years were not easy, however. She suffered sexual abuse and turned to drugs and alcohol to try to heal the pain. At 17, she became pregnant and refused an abortion. She named her son Justin. His last name, Bieber, came from his father.

The author appeared on the Today Show this morning and the book is being covered by dozens of news sources, including the L.A. Times, USA Today and the Huffington Post.

It was not reviewed pre-pub, so not many libraries own it. The libraries that do are showing surprisingly few holds, however. It’s currently at #286 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Salman Rushdie was interviewed on the Daily Show last night by Jon Stewart who calls Rushdie’s memoir, Joseph Anton (Random House; Random House Audio),”an incredible story.”

The hottest title arriving today, in terms of media coverage, is Salman Rushdie’s memoir of his nine years in hiding after a Fatwah was issued against him, Joseph Anton (Random House; Random House Audio). The NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani heralds it today saying, “after several disappointing novels, [this memoir] reminds us of [Rushdie’s] fecund gift for language and his talent for explicating the psychological complexities of family and identity. ”

All the news stories mention that the memoir’s title refers to the alias Rushdie used during that time, “Joseph Anton.” The name is composed of the first names of his favorite authors, Joseph from Joseph Conrad and Anton from Anton Chekhov.

Based on that, Random House Library Marketing has come up with a clever Twitter/Facebook challenge; “Forced underground, @SalmanRushdie’s alias combined the names of writers he loved—#JosephAnton. What’s your #LiteraryAlias?”

Ours is Edith Attica (when your tweet yours, be sure to use the hashtags).

Some of you may be wondering if Rushdie spills any beans about ex-wife, Top Chef host Padman Lakshmi in the book. The Daily Beast answers that question in item #10 of “11 Revelations From Salman Rushdie’s Memoir, Joseph Anton.”

Attica Locke appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition today, the release day of her second mystery, The Cutting Season, (HarperCollins; HarperLuxe; Dreamscape Audio; audio and ebook on OverDrive).

HarperCollins reports that more is coming — in People, USA Today, and O Magazine (we’ve rounded up the media attention to date on the Team Attica Locke Facebook page. Be sure to “like” it).

Libraries around the country are getting the word out about The Cutting Season. Kaite Stover, Kansas P.L, selected it for the Oct. FYI Book Club, a special partnership the library has with the Kansas City Star.  The library picks a book, the paper writes about it and together the promote online chat that Kaite leads (see the September pick, The Song of Achilles, here).

Librarians are also reviewing it on their web sites (see this one on my library alma mater, Baltimore County PL’s web site).

Let other libraries know what you are doing by posting to the Team Attica Locke Facebook page.

One of the titles on our  Watch List breaks into the Amazon top 100 today, the debut historical mystery, The Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis (RH/Doubleday; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike).

It was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered last night, with a strong hook; “What would happen if two of the biggest names of the Renaissance — Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci — teamed up as a crime-fighting duo? … The mystery novel pairs the ruthless political philosopher and the genius inventor and artist together as an unlikely detective team on the trail of a serial killer.”

It is currently at #82 on Amazon sales rankings, with an “up” arrow.

Most libraries have ordered lightly and are beginning to show holds.

The big events this week are the release of memoirs from two very different people: Salman Rushdie and Penny Marshall. We will, of course, be watching and cheering as Attica Locke’s second mystery, The Cutting Season debuts and two new YA series, by Maggie Stiefvater and Libba Bray launch.

Watch List

The Cutting Season, by Attica Locke, (HarperCollins; HarperLuxe; Dreamscape Audio; audio and ebook on OverDrive) is the book we’ll be watching the closest. Libraries across the country have joined Team Attica Locke which will prove the power of library word of mouth by making this a best seller (more here).

Trouble & Triumph: A Novel of Power & Beauty by Tip, “T.I.”, Harris and David Ritz (Harper/Morrow) is the Grammy-winning rapper’s sequel to his street-lit debut Power & Beauty, about two teenagers who tangle with an Atlanta gangster. LJ says, “Some mixed response to the first, but the 100,000-copy first printing says that expectations are high.”

Literary Favorites

San Miguel by T.C. Boyle (Penguin/Viking; Thorndike) is set on desolate San Miguel island off the coast of California, where two couples try to run a farm in the wind and rain – first in 1888, and then during the Depression. PW says, “The author subtly interweaves the fates of Native Americans, Irish immigrants, Spanish and Italian migrant workers, and Chinese fishermen into the Waters’ and the Lesters’ lives, but the novel is primarily a history of the land itself…as beautiful, imperfect, and unrelenting as Boyle’s characters.”

Usual Suspects

Low Pressure by Sandra Brown (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio) is a romantic thriller in which a woman who writes a bestselling novel based on her sister’s murder and becomes the target of an assailant. Kirkus says, “Brown skillfully combines strong characterization with plots that keep the reader guessing all the way. A good old-fashioned thriller and a winner, even though the bad guys are sometimes just a little too bad for plausibility.”

Severe Clear by Stuart Woods (Putnam Adult; Penguin Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is Woods’s 50th novel–and the 24 to feature protagonist Stone Barrington. This time he attends the opening of a hotel on grounds owned by his late wife, and faces a terrorist attack. PW says, “Woods expertly mixes familiar ingredients to produce an intoxicating cocktail that goes down easily.

Winter of the World by Ken Follett (Penguin/Dutton; Penguin Audio) is the second installment in the trilogy that began with the popular Fall of Giants, about interrelated American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh families in the early 20th century. LJ says, “in the hands of a less adroit storyteller, it would be hackneyed, but Follett moves his stock figures through interesting situations and draws the reader in to care what happens to them. The next thing you know, you’ve read all 960 pages of this enjoyable novel.”

Young Adult

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic; Scholastic Audio) is a new series by the author of the best selling Shiver series as well as the Printz Honor book Scorpio Races. In an early review, the Washington Post says, “In contrast to the melancholy werewolves of her popular Shiver trilogy, the Raven Boys are not paranormal critters but the entitled students of elite, raven-crested Aglionby Academy….This first in a planned four-novel series draws readers into a world where time enfolds hauntingly, and magic informs reality”

The Diviners by Libba Bray (Hachette/Little, Brown YR; Listening Library) is a new trilogy from the Printz-winning author of Going Bovine (2009) and Beauty Queens (2011) as well as the Gemma Doyle trilogy. This one features a young woman who goes to live in jazz age New York City with an uncle who runs a museum of the occult, a finds myriad friends and no small measure of mystery. Booklist says, “It’s Marjorie Morningstar meets Silence of the Lambs, and Bray dives into it with the brio of the era, alternating rat-a-rat flirting with cold-blooded killings…Seemingly each teen has a secret ability (one can read an object’s history; another can heal), and yet the narrative maintains the flavor of historical fiction rather than fantasy.” Movie rights were snapped up by Paramount in advance of publication.

Dodger by Terry Prachett (HarperCollins) is surprisingly close to historical fiction, from the author of Discworld. Set in Victorian England, it features a thief named Dodger who leaps out of a drain to rescue a mysterious woman from a brutal attack, just as Charles Dickens and social reformer Henry Mayhew arrive on the scene. “Full of eccentric characters and carefully detailed London scenes, the tale embodies both Dickens’s love for the common man and a fierce desire for social justice.” It comes with a dramatic trailer.

Nonfiction

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie (Random House; Random House Audio) is the esteemed author’s memoir of the nine years he spent living underground after the Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced a death sentence on him for the blasphemy of his fiction in 1989. The title refers to his alias, comprised of the first names of his two favorite writers, Conrad and Chekhov. LJ says, “His memoir matters not simply because of startling personal detail but because his experience presaged a global battle over freedom of speech that continues today.” An excerpt is featured in this week’s New Yorker. It will receive plenty of media attention, of course, with interviews scheduled on the Today Show, CBS/This Morning, NPR/Morning Edition and in the New York Times.

500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars by Kurt Eichenwald (Touchstone) is the former New York Times investigative reporter’s reconstruction of the Bush administration’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attack and the delusions and deceptions it has spawned around the world. PW says, “Eichenwald’s novelistic approach takes us into the White House offices, courtrooms, and Guantanamo interrogation cells where tense people groped through the chaos of a new world of fear and brutality and tried to harness it to their own agendas. The result is both a page-turning read and an insightful dissection of 9/11’s dark legacy.”

My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall (Amazon/HMH/New Harvest) is the TV actress and Hollywood producer’s memoir of her ascent from a Bronx childhood to fame on the sit-com Laverne and Shirley to directing 1990s hit films Big and A League of Their Own. It’s also one of the first books to emerge from Amazon’s proprietary publishing imprint, New Harvest. Kirkus says, “Marshall is as candid about her failures (which include a painful second divorce from writer/comedian Rob Reiner) and her weaknesses (like the one she developed for drugs) as she is about her successes.”

The trailer features Saturday Night Live veteran Fred Armisen.

The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin (RH/Doubleday) looks at the contentious relationship between chief justice Roberts and the President. It will be getting plenty of press attention, including NPR/Fresh Air, PBS/Charlie Rose Show, CNN/Anderson Cooper 360 and Comedy Central/Colbert Report.

Hitting a series high on the new USA Today bestseller list is the 12th title in Laurie King’s Russell & Holmes mysteries, Garment of Shadows (RH/Bantam; Recorded Books; Thorndike large print).  It debuts at #59. The previous title, The Pirate King, was on the list for one week at #88.

King’s series features Mary Russell, who teams up with Sherlock Holmes in the first title in the series, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and later becomes his partner and wife.

Holmes has enjoyed a recent revival, with two hit films starring Robert Downey Jr.; Sherlock Holmes 3 is in development. A third season is also in the works for the BBC’s Sherlock, a co-production with PBS’Masterpiece.

This fall, CBS begins a new prime-time series, Elementary, which features Holmes as a 21st-century Manhattanite, played by Jonny Lee Miller, aided by Dr. Joan Watson played by Lucy Liu. It premieres Sept. 27.

We’re thrilled that so many libraries have answered our call to make Attica Locke’s The Cutting Season, (HarperCollins; HarperLuxe; Dreamscape Audio; audio and ebook on OverDrive) a best seller and to also prove that libraries build buzz.

A few other strong voices have joined Team Attica Locke. The NYT‘s Janet Maslin gave the book an outstanding review nearly two weeks before publication and Dennis Lehane has picked it as the first title in his imprint at HarperCollins.

But we think librarians have even more powerful voices.

If you haven’t joined Team Attica Locke yet, it’s time to get on board; The Cutting Season comes out next week. UPDATE: We now have a Team Attica Locke FaceBook page where we are gathering information on media coverage, as well as what libraries are doing. Please Like it.

The publisher is now out of print galleys, but you can still get an egalley from Edelweiss. Hurry; as of next week, when the book is released, the egalley will no longer be available (you will have until Oct. 3rd to read it).

The HarperCollins Library Marketing Team has set up an easy way to get The Cutting Season, as well as other HarperCollins titles, without having to wait for approval:

1) Register on Edelweiss

2) Send an email to librarylovefest@harpercollins.com to tell them you have registered.  You will receive a confirmation email that you are a VIP.

3) Go to The Cutting Season page on Edelweiss and hit “Download Review Copy” bar on the right. Follow the Edelweiss instructions to download it to your specific reading device.

The Cuyahoga Library staff is behind the book and have created the following poster at the request of their branch staff (click on the image for a larger version). Guess what? Holds are building there. They encourage you to create your own versions.