Following in the footsteps of others who have offered readings lists for summer ’12, the new issue of People magazine selects a dozen titles, most of them by established authors. They also add their voice to two titles that have emerged as a potential breakouts, Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple and the debut Gilded Age by Claire McMillan.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette has appeared on several other lists, despite certain difficulties in selling it (click on image below for a trailer on Entertainment Weekly’s “Shelf Life,” of author Semple trying to get various people, including Elliott Bay’s Rick Simonson, to buy it).

Semple misses the book’s main selling point; herself. She was a writer for the cult favorite TV show, Arrested Development. People describes the book this way, “When her agoraphobic mom disappears, 15-year-old Bee takes matters into her own hands. An uproarious comdy of manners from a former writer for Arrested Development.”

The full list after the jump:

(more…)

We’ve been predicting that  Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl would be the first breakout best seller of the season. The new Indie Best Seller list verifies that prediction; it is at number one on the fiction list. It is also at #7 on the USA Today list, which doesn’t break out titles by format (it would be at number one, if two pesky trilogies weren’t blocking it). They note that this is the first of the author’s three titles to appear on the USA Today list.

Reviews have been stellar.

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 412 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-06-05) ISBN: 9780307588364

Audio, BOT; audio and ebook on OverDrive

Self Published Edition

Another author has crossed over from self-publishing to a Big Six publisher. Tracey Garvis Graves, whose book On the Island, was bought by Warner for a movie adaptation in mid-May after having been on the NYT eBook best seller list for several weeks, has now landed a two-book deal with Penguin.

Penguin/Plume Edition

The novel, about a 30-year-old teacher shipwrecked with teenage boy she was tutoring, was originally published in paperback through Amazon’s self-publising division (Amazon/CreateSpace, 9781466363212, 3/14/12) and as an ebook (available on B&T’s Axis 360). Penguin will re-release it in paperback on July 17 (97801421967240) with a more glamorized cover. The egalley is available on Edelweiss and on NetGalley.

The author’s second book, Covet, will be released in hardcover by Penguin/Dutton in the spring.

USA Today reports the news today; the author expressed her excitement about the deal on her web site last week.

Since publishers are obviously eager to uncover popular self-published titles, GalleyCat, a publishing industry blog, just announced that it will begin tracking best selling self-published titles on Amazon, B&N and Smashwords.

It’s a long wait until January and season three of Downton Abbey (check here for tidbits on what to expect, including sparks between Maggie Smith and new cast member Shirley MacLaine).

As a result, the magic phrase applied to any new novel set during WWI is “for fans of Downton Abbey.”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune applies it to the paperback original, Park Lane by Frances Osborne (RH/Vintage, 6/12), in their intriguing selection of eight titles for summer reading. The description (and the cover) makes it appear to fill the bill:

Osborne deftly parallels emerging suffragette and erstwhile socialite Bea’s privileged lifestyle with the lowered expectations of reluctant housemaid Grace. While their stations in life may be quite different, by the end of the novel their lives have intersected in ways they could have never foreseen.

The San Francisco Chronicle finds The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones (Harper, 5/1) a good choice for D.A. withdrawal, “It seemed heaven sent; Jones’ third novel is set in 1912, the very year Downton began, on the day and evening of a smallish house party celebrating the 20th birthday of the likable but spoiled eldest daughter of the manor, Emerald Torrington.” The reviewer finds it “sublimely clever.”

Fans of Robert Goolrick (count us in) are eagerly awaiting the public response to his new book, Heading Out to Wonderful, (Workman/Algonquin Books; Highbridge Audio; Thorndike Large Print), which releases today.

USA Today‘s profile of the author explores his distinctive writing style, concise, yet sensuous, making you read with highlighter in hand. Goolrick says it is the result of his years in New York advertising, writing copy for products from Kohler faucets to Pantene, “It teaches you to cover a lot of information in a short space.” And, as Goolrick said during the ALTAFF “From Writer to Reader” panel at BEA, the writing is always in service to the plot. His Algonquin editor, Chuck Adams, said their goal was to create “a big book, but not a long book.”

Good news for fans; Goolrick is working on another novel, as well as a prequel to Heading out to Wonderful. A movie of his previous novel, A Reliable Wife, is in the works from Columbia Pictures.

More media and librarian favorites land next week, as the summer reading season swings into gear. Some familiar names deliver new novels with big potential, including Alan Furst, Mark Haddon, Jess Walter, John Lanchester, and Robert Goolrick. There are also debuts to watch from Claire McMillan, Benjamin Wood, Maggie Shipstead. Usual suspects include Robert Dugoni, Dorothea Benton Frank, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. And in nonfiction, there’s an intriguing look at what humans and animals have in common when it comes to health and healing by cardiologist and psychiatrist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and science writer Kathryn Bowers.

Watch List

Mission to Paris by Alan Furst (Random House; Thorndike Large Print; S&S Audio) is set in Paris in the year leading up to Germany’s 1940 attack, as a Hollywood film star is drawn in to the Nazi propaganda war. It’s on Time magazine’s list of top ten picks for the year so far. In an early New York Times review, Janet Maslin says, “This particular Paris is the spy novelist Alan Furst’s home turf. He has been there many times in the course of 11 soignée, alluring novels. But he has never been there with a Hollywood movie star.”

The Gilded Age by Claire McMillan (S&S) follows a woman who returns to close-knit Shaker Heights, Ohio after a divorce and rehab, to find her next wealthy husband. It led the “women’s fiction” category on USA Today‘s Summer Books preview. Publishers Weekly says that “while the novel tips its hat to House of Mirth, a simple comparison doesn’t do McMillan justice.”  More Edith Wharton-inspired novels are out this summer. The Innocents by Francesca Segal (Hyperion/Voice. 6/5/12) recasts Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence in a close-knit North West London Jewish community and BEA Lbirarians Shout ‘n’ Share pick, The Age of Desire by Jenny Fields, Penguin/Pamela Dorman, 8/2/12, is about Edith Wharton’s love affair with a younger man.

The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood (Penguin/Viking; Brilliance Audio) is  told by caregiver Oscar Lowe, who becomes entangled with Cambridge students Iris and her brother Eden, who thinks he can heal others through music. It’s the second galley featured in our First Flights program. Booklist says, “this first novel is most notable for its acute characterizations and flowing prose that engrosses the reader as initial foreboding fades only to grow again. Wood is definitely a writer to watch.”

Returning Favorite

The Red House by Mark Haddon (RH/Doubleday; Random House Audio) is a social novel about a brother who invites his sister, her husband and three children for week’s vacation with his new wife and step-daughter, by the author of the runaway bestseller The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night.  Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+, saying in a review that sounds more like an A, “The story unfolds from all eight characters’ points of view, a tricky strategy that pays off, letting Haddon dig convincingly into all of the failures, worries, and weaknesses that they can’t leave behind during this pause in their lives.” It’s a June Indie Next pick.

GalleyChat Picks

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (HarperCollins) is a bittersweet romance that begins when a starlet pregnant with Richard Burton’s baby is whisked from the set of Cleopatra to a tiny Italian seaside village in 1962, where the innkeeper falls in love with her, and looks her up in Hollywood years later.  Reviews have begun already, as we noted earlier.

Capital by John Lanchester (Norton) is set in former a working class London neighborhood where property values have skyrocketed, as the 2008 recession sets in. LJ says it “weaves together multiple stories in an uncanny microcosm of contemporary British life that’s incredibly rich and maybe just a bit heavy, like a pastry. Yet definitely worth a look.”  It’s also a June Indie Next pick.

Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick (Workman/Algonquin Books; Highbridge Audio; Thorndike Large Print) is the story of a man who returns from WWII to a small Virginia town with a suitcase stuffed with cash and a set of butcher knives. LJ says, “this novel is not a straightforward Southern gothic thriller but primarily a lyrical meditation on the magnified elements of small-town life: friendship, trust, land, lust, and sin.” The author’s previous novel, A Reliable Wife, was a huge seller, especially in paperback. We’re expecting even more from this one. This one is the #2 June Indie Next pick

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead (RH/Knopf), a debut novel, is the story of  “WASP wedding dysfunction at it’s most hilarious,” as librarian Jennifer Dayton of Darien, CT observed on our GalleyChat. It’s a June Indie Next pick and a B&N Best Book of the Month. Ron Charles in the Washington Post this week calls it “a perfect summer romp” and, “Shipstead’s weave of wit and observation continually delights.”

Usual Suspects

The Conviction by Robert Dugoni (S&S/Touchstone) is the fifth thriller featuring Seattle lawyer David Sloane, as he tries to spring his adopted son and his friend from a hellish juvenile detention center. Nancy Pearl is a Dugoni fan, as evidenced by this interview from 2011.

Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank (Harper/ Morrow; HarperAudio; Thorndike Large Print) explores how a mother and son rekindle their faith in life after their beloved husband and father is killed in the line of duty as a fireman.

Between You and Me by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus (S&S/Atria Books; Wheeler Large Print; S&S/Audio) is the story of a young woman who escaped her unhappy Oklahoma childhood as an adult in New York City, but can’t refuse a request to assist her famous cousin, who proceeds to have a very public unraveling. LJ says, “while attempting to address deeper family bonds, the authors swing wide and miss their mark. The emotional ties never quite shine through.”

Nonfiction

Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers (RH/Knopf; RH Audio) brings together cardiologist and psychiatrist Natterson-Horowitz and science writer Bowers to make the case that since animals and humans suffer the same diseases, doctors and veterinarians should work more closely together. Booklist calls it “as clarion and perception-altering as works by Oliver Sacks, Michael Pollan, and E. O. Wilson.”

Jess Walter’s sixth novel, after The Financial Lives of the Poets, which was a critical success in 2009, is also gathering strong reviews. Entertainment Weekly says it “expertly scratches the seasonal itch for
both literary depth and dazzle.” In today’s NYT, Janet Maslin says the author takes some dangerous leaps (like scrambling the chronology of the story), but the book would not be as successful without them.

Some libraries are showing heavy holds.

Beautiful Ruins Jess Walter Retail Price: $20.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Harper – (2012-06-12) ISBN: 9780061928123

It was announced in November that Jack Black had signed to star in a movie titled Bailout, based on The Financial Lives of the Poets, but no news has emerged since.

The excitement is rising for Gillian Flynn’s third novel, Gone Girl, released yesterday. In addition to raves from People, Janet Maslin in the NYT, and Time magazine, it’s picking up more this week, from the Associated Press (syndicated widely), USA Today and many regional newspapers. The author was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday. Holds are rising quickly.

Expect to see it on next week’s best seller lists.

A film adaptation is in the works for Flynn’s 2009 title, Dark Places (RH/Crown).

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 412 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-06-05) ISBN: 9780307588364

Audio, BOT; audio an ebook on OverDrive

Illustration by Olimpia Zagnoli

This week’s New York Times Book Review presents a beautiful summer reading image, but few true “beach reading” suggestions. There are lists of summer cookbooks, gardening books (even though it’s a little late in the season, perhaps justified by the fact that the lead title, Michelle Obama’s American Grown, RH/Crown, was released late) and travel books, plus music (who knew that summer was the time to read about music?), Hollywood (two titles) and a smattering of children’s books.

Possibly more in line with true beach reading, their “Summer Reading: Fiction” selections feature just six titles (including Joseph Kanon’s Istanbul Passage and the debut A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar, Suzanne Joinson, Bloomsbury).

From the other coast, the L.A. Times lays out a smorgasbord of over 100 titles (hover over each cover to read why it was chosen) that includes popular as well as literary titles, from Beach Reads (one of the only titles that overlaps with the NYT BR‘s list is A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar) to The Quirky (Bob’s Booger, anyone?) and Audio.

The Daily Beast selects 21 Best Summer Reads, including the buzz debut of the season, The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker, Random House, 6/26 (missing from both the L.A. Times and the NYT lists) and a few unusual, but intriguing choices (Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady, Kate Summerscale, Bloomsbury, 6/19) and emerging favorites (Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple, Hachette/Little, Brown, 8/14).

Links to all the lists are at the right, under 2012 Summer Reads.

A handful of much-anticipated summer reading picks arrive next week, including thrillers from Matthew Quirk, Gillian Flynn and Elizabeth Haynes, contemporary novels with unusual characters and settings from Francesca Segal and Rhian Ellis, and Laura Moriarty‘s historical novel about the young Louise Brooks’s chaperone. Usual suspects include Jeffrey Deaver, Eric Von Lustbader, Laurell K. Hamilton, Mary Kay Andrews and Luanne Rice. And political commentators David Limbaugh and Gail Collins deliver new political critiques.

Watch List

The 500 by Matthew Quirk (Hachette/Little, Brown.Reagan Arthur; Hachette Large Print ; Hachette Audio) is a thriller set in a Washington D.C. political lobbying firm, where Harvard law grad Mike Ford is forced to draw on the skills he learned from his con man father, as he’s drawn into the midst of a political conspiracy. It’s the lead thriller on USA Today‘s summer reading list (“Why it’s hot: Early reviews compare this classic David-and-Goliath tale to the early works of John Grisham”) and a June Indie Next pick. The movie rights were sold right after the book was picked up, and there’s also a sequel coming. Libraries that bought it heavily say the Reagan Arthur imprint makes them pay particular attention.

The Innocents by Francesca Segal (Hyperion/Voice) recasts Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence in a close-knit North West London Jewish community, where a 12-year engagement is upset by the arrival of the bride-to-be’s free-spirited cousin. Kirkus says, “overall this is a well-tuned portrait of a couple whose connection proves to be much more tenuous than expected, and of religious rituals that prove more meaningful than they seem.” It’s also a June Indie Next pick.

Galley Chat Picks         

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Crown) is the story of a marriage gone badly wrong, told alternately in diary entries by the wife, a New York golden girl who goes missing on the couple’s fifth anniversary, and her husband, who has much to hide. As we wrote earlier, it’s shaping up to be the author’s breakout. The New York Times‘s Janet Maslin is over the moon about it, comparing Flynn with Patricia Highsmith and calling her third novel a “dazzling breakthrough. It is wily, mercurial, subtly layered and populated by characters so well imagined that they’re hard to part with.” It is also on Time‘s list of top fiction for the year and is a June Indie Next pick as well as big on GalleyChat.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty (Penguin/Riverhead; Thorndike Large Print; Blackstone Audio; Penguin Audio) centers on the prim married woman from Kansas who accompanied 15 year-old silent film femme fatale Louise Brooks on her first trip to New York City in 1922, and spans the next six decades of the older woman’s life. It’s on O magazine’s The 16 Best Books Coming Out This June and is a June Indie Next pick  (more bookseller comments here). It’s also showing heavy holds at Wake County Library, which has featured it on their Web site. Recreational Reading Librarian Janet Lockhart says, “Once our members see it on the list, the cover and the high concept plot lead to holds. I know it’s in my to-be-read pile because of those two things—I’m a big movie fan and Louise Brooks is an icon.”

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes (Harper) is a debut thriller about a woman struggling to escape an abusive relationship, a surprise hit in the UK.  It’s featured in USA Today‘s summer preview, and LJ says, “UK police intelligence analyst Haynes has crafted a scary and superbly written debut thriller. Her chilling portrayal of OCD and the violent cycles of an abusive relationship will cause readers to lose sleep and check the locks on windows and doors.”

Readers Advisory 

After Life (Book Lust Rediscoveries) by Rhian Ellis (Amazon Encore paperback; Brilliance Audio) is the second in Nancy Pearl’s series of favorites being brought back in to print. This one is also a favorite of Ann Patchett’s, who calls it, “that rarest of wonders, a book that is both exquisitely written and a thrill to read.”

Usual Suspects

XO by Jeffery Deaver (S&S; S&S Audio; Thorndike Large Print) follows rising country pop singer Kayleigh Towne as she’s threatened by a stalker while people close to her die, putting pressure on Special Agent Kathryn Dance to solve the case; on USA Today‘s summer reading list.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Imperative by Eric Van Lustbader (Hachette/Grand Central) is the seventh Bourne novel, this time set in Sadeloga, Sweden, where Bourne helps a man who, like him, suffers from amnesia. PW says, “Newbies who want to understand the various plot lines would be advised to begin at least two or three books back. Established fans will find all the usual cliffhangers, hairbreadth escapes, and multiple betrayals they expect from this series.” 250,000 copy first printing.

Little Night by Luanne Rice (Penguin/Pamela Dorman) is the author’s 30th novel. It tells the story of two sisters – one of whom, Clare, wound up in prison after she tried to save her sister, Anne, from an abusive husband, whom Anne lied to protect him. LJ says, “this hard-to-put-down story about how family ties can be undone and sometimes retied is compelling and will undoubtedly resonate with fans of contemporary women’s fiction.”

Spring Fever by Mary Kay Andrews (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Wheeler Publishing; Macmillan Audio) is the tale of two exes who get a second chance when one of their weddings is unexpectedly halted. PW calls is “unmemorable” but still “an enjoyable escape.” This one is a Costco Pennie’s Pick for June (the article also mentions that the success of the Andrews’ books has brought attention to the books she wrote under her own name, Kathy Trocheck. HarperCollins will re-release the Callahan Garrity series with new covers under the Andrews name. They will also be available as ebooks).

Kiss the Dead (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series #21) by Laurell K. Hamilton (Penguin/Berkley; Penguin Audio) finds U.S. Marshall and vampire hunter confronting the terrorist fringe of a group of rouge vampires. PW says, “there’s nothing here that Hamilton hasn’t done already, but there’s enough to sustain readers until Anita’s next escapade.”

Nonfiction

The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama’s War on the Republic by David Limbaugh (Regnery) is the fourth book by the political commentator who is the brother of Rush Limbaugh. The title says it all. 300,000-copy first printing.

As Texas Goes…: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda by Gail Collins (Norton/Liveright) has the New York Times op-ed columnist locating the country’s political ailments deep in the heart of Texas. 100,000-copy first printing.

Gillian Flynn, get ready to become THE breakout best selling author of the season.

Flynn’s third book, Gone Girl gets 4 of a possible 4 stars and the lead review in the new issue of People magazine (6/11; Jessica Simpson and offspring on cover), calling it “An irresistible summer thriller with a twisting plot worthy of Alfred Hithcock.” Janet Maslin in yesterday’s NYT says it’s the author’s “dazzling breakthrough.” She even recommends reading it twice. It’s on Time‘s list of top fiction for the year, is a June Indie Next pick and has been big on GalleyChat.

But the most telling predictor is the number of holds in libraries. Even Cuyahoga County, which ordered 86 copies, has holds on every one. Libraries that bought more conservatively are showing holds as high as 10:1. It doesn’t release until next week, but it’s already jumped up Amazon’s sales rankings, from #44 to #15.

Time to order more.

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 412 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-06-05) ISBN: 9780307588364

Audio, BOT; audio an ebook on OverDrive

The group that gives the annual “Reading List” awards to the best in genre fiction, shares their summer reading choices in Library Journal. The lists pairs 2012 picks with recommendations of an older read-alike in each of eight categories.

The choice in Women’s Fiction is a book we’ve highlighted as one to consider buying in quantity, The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri (HarperCollins; HarperLuxe; ebook OverDrive). It’s paired with Sarah Addison Allan’s Garden Spells (RH/Bantam, 1998; ebook, OverDrive).

The buzz debut novel of the season, The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, (Random House, 6/26; BOT Audio; Thorndike Large Print; ebook and audio, OverDrive) is the Science Fiction choice (although, as the WSJ emphasized, it crosses genres). It is paired with Jean Heglan’s Into the Forest (RH/Dial Press; Brilliance Audio; ebook, OverDrive).

Memorial Day is marked by parades, wreath laying, dreams of long days reading in the hammock, and summer reading lists. Several arrived as scheduled, and, as we’ve come to expect, there’s very little overlap among them. Only four titles were mentioned more than once in this round:

The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker, (Random House, 6/26; BOT Audio; Thorndike Large Print; ebook and audio, OverDrive)

On NYT (Maslin), NPR (Schaub) and WSJ lists
Digital ARC on Edelweiss and NetGalley.

The Next Best Thing, Jennifer Weiner, (S&S/Atria, 7/3; S&S Audio)

On USA Today and Good Houskeeping lists
Downloadable from NetGalley

The Orphanmaster, Jean Zimmerman, (Penguin/Viking, 6/19; Penguin Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

On USA Today and Good Houskeeping lists
Digital ARC on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple, (Hachette/Little, Brown, 8/14; Hachette Audio)

On NPR (Schaub) and WSJ lists as well as on Time‘s list of the best ten novels of the year.

Below are the lists:

USA Today — “Summer Books Preview”

Our favorite, because it’s most in tune with the titles we’ve been hearing about on GalleyChat and it is presented in an interactive format (flash cards for readers advisors), although, surprisingly, it misses the big buzz debut of the summer, Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles, (Random House, 6/26).

The Wall Street Journal — “Rewriting the Rules of Summer Fiction”

The WSJ contends that several of the summer’s most anticipated novels “combine genres in unexpected ways and subvert long-held narrative conventions.”  It’s a good hook, but the phenomenon wasn’t invented this season. The prime examples are The Age of Miracles because it’s “a quiet family drama with science-fiction themes” and  Dare Me (Hachette/Regan Arthur, 8/31) by Megan Abbot, dubbed “High-School Noir” because it “turns the frothy world of high-school cheerleading into something truly menacing.”

NPR — 15 Summer Reads Recommended By Booksellers

Unsurprisingly, this is the least buzz-oriented of the lists. NPR has published several other summer reading lists, including Nancy Pearl’s and critic Michael Schaub’s (who is more clued in to buzz; The Age of Miracles is on his). The full roundup of the various NPR lists is here.

New York Times, Janet Maslin — “New Under the Sun: Books for Basking; Granddad, There’s a Head on the Beach and Other Summer Reads

Maslin lavishes the most attention on Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies, already a best seller, and includes some quirky titles, (such as the one in the headline, Granddad, There’s a Head on the Beach, a “droll mystery” by Colin Cotterill, Macmillan/Minotaur, 6/18), and some buzz titles (The Age of Miracles). One surprising recommendation; reality-show-creator-cum-talk-show-host Andy Cohen’s Most Talkative (Macmillan/Holt), currently #5 on the NYT hardcover nonfiction best seller list after two weeks. She says he is “as funny as Augusten Burroughs used to be.”

Good Housekeeping — 11 Summer Beach Reads

This list is also in tune with titles we’ve been hearing about on GalleyChat, such as Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone (Penguin/Riverhead, 6/5) called a “fun romp” by GH. Also on the list, The Orphanmaster, a genre-bending title described as “A thriller, love story, and costume drama in one.” It’s also on USA Today‘s list, under mysteries. Many of you joined us in reading the book and chatting with the author as part of Penguin’s First Flights debut author program. The newly-released trailer features Jean talking about the historical background of the novel.

The First Lady’s book American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, originally scheduled for earlier in this year, will be released on Tuesday (officially because of production delays, but cynics say the timing has more to do with the campaign season than with the growing season).

Obama is scheduled to appear Tuesday on Good Morning America, The View, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Taped appearances will be aired later in the week on LIVE! with Kelly and the Rachael Ray Show.

American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America Michelle Obama Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-05-29) ISBN / EAN: 0307956024 / 9780307956026