Signaling the upcoming long weekend and the beginning of the summer reading season, NPR’s Morning Edition features 15 Summer Reads Handpicked By Indie Booksellers.

So we thought we’d do one of our own; a dozen summer galleys for Memorial Day Weekend reading, handpicked by EarlyWord and friends. None of these overlap with NPR’s list, so you have plenty to choose from.

Heading Out to Wonderful, Robert Goolrick, Workman/Algonquin Books; Highbridge Audio; Thorndike Large Print — eGalley on NetGalley

Two years ago, at the urging of Workman’s Michael Rockliff, I read Goolrick’s debut novel, A Reliable Wife. I was so bowled over that I wrote, “However many copies you’ve ordered of A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick, it’s not enough.” It was satisfying to be proven right. I can easily say the same and then some for this, his second novel (he also wrote a haunting memoir, The End of the World As We Know It). I am beyond excited that I get to moderate ALTAFF’s “Book Trip” panel featuring Goolrick at BEA on June 6.

The After Wife, Gigi Levangie Grazer, RH/Ballantine, 7/10 — Digital ARC on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Wendy Bartlett, head of collection development at Cuyahoga County PL, emails us to say, “The After Wife is hilarious,” so hilarious that she’s ordered extra copies. It’s her “choice for the funny-word-of-mouth chick lit book for the pool crowd this summer.” Wendy will be on the Librarians’ Shout ‘n’ Share panel at BEA this year (Wed, June 6, 3:30 to 5 pm, Rm 1E11, Javits Center).

The Bellwether Revivals, Benjamin Wood, Penguin/Viking, 6/14 — Digital ARC on Edelweiss and NetGalley

If you’re part of the Penguin First Flights program, you’ree reading this one to prep for our live online chat with the author on June 1, 4 to 5 p.m. ET (listen to my short audio interview with him here). Even if you’re not part of the program, you’re welcome to join — just come to EarlyWord.com at chat time (thanks to Penguin for sponsoring the program and proving galleys for the participants).

Yes, Chef, Marcus Samuelsson, 6/26 — eGalley on NetGalley

Robin Beerbower of Salem PL in Oregon says she loved this book by the renowned chef. Born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, he knows a thing or two about trying to find his way in the world. Says Robin, it’s a “Great combo of memoir w/heart & food.” Robin is also on the Librarians’ Shout ‘n’ Share panel at BEA this year (Wed, June 6, 3:30 to 5 pm, Rm 1E11, Javits Center).

Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt, RH/Dial, 6/19 — Digital ARC on both Edelweiss and NetGalley

Raves on GalleyChat for this literary debut, with some saying it’s their favorite of the year.

Seating Arrangements, RH/Knopf 6/12 — Digital ARC on both Edelweiss and NetGalley

“WASP wedding dysfunction at it’s most hilarious” says Darien Library’s Jennifer Dayton.

Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter, Harper, 6/12 — Digital ARC on Edelweiss

Wake County, NC, Recreation Reading Librarian, Janet Lockhart says it’s “One of my favs of the first half of the year. Great summer read. Can’t go wrong with it.” It’s also a favorite of the HarperCollins Library Marketing team. That cover screams everything one might want in a summer read, but we’ve heard others say they find it contrived. We’d love to hear what you think.

More titles, after the jump.

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It wasn’t so long ago that many said Americans wouldn’t sit still for a 560-page novel which requires some knowledge of British history and a 98-person character list just to keep all the players straight. Well, we did, putting Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall on the NYT list for 6 weeks (and on the extended list for 12 more). Not only has the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies (Macmillan/Holt), landed on the NYT list during its first week on sale, but it landed at #3, besting Wolf Hall, which peaked at #7  (it came out during the fall season, however, which it a more competitive period).

The new book has also given the earlier one a boost; the paperback of Wolf Hall is back on to that list at #20.

Reviewers, however, say the second book even more appealing than the first. The Washington Post explains,

One key difference between Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies is that the latter mostly lacks the poetic reveries that Cromwell allows himself in the former. This is largely a product of the sequel’s compressed timeline of barely nine months, in particular the three weeks leading up to Anne’s execution.

Or, as Time magazine’s Lev Grossman puts it,

The rush of Bring Up the Bodies comes on even faster than that of Wolf Hall ­­— there’s none of what Holden Caulfield would have called the ‘David Copperfield crap.’ no childhood traumas and formative life lessons.

Mantel is at work on the third book in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light. She tells the Washington Post , “I want to combine aspects of both books: the fast turn of events that you have in Bring Up the Bodies, but also the interior voice of Cromwell, the spiritual aspect that you saw more of in Wolf Hall.”

Libraries that ordered the sequel conservatively now face long hold lists.

For those interested in a biography of Anne Boleyn, Hilary Mantel herself recommended Alison Weir’s The Lady in the Tower (2010), in a review in the New York Times.

The author of Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger, was interviewed on the Today Show Tuesday, for his new book about a road trip he took in an effort to bond with his brain-damaged son, Father’s Day (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; S&S Audio). It received this ringing endorsement from interviewer Jamie Gangel, ” I LOVED this book. It is funny, it is painful, it will resonate with every parent.”
 

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A fascinating look at the fascinating topic of breasts was aired on Fresh Air yesterday, propelling Breasts by Florence Williams to #85 (from # 1,144). Science reporter Williams, after reading that toxins has been discovered in breast milk, had her own tested and discovered that it contained flame retardants (from the foam in her couch) and an ingredient in jet fuel.

Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History Florence Williams Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2012-05-07) ISBN / EAN: 0393063186 / 9780393063189

The Cannes film festival opens today. With all those Hollywood types hanging out on the Croisette, there’s bound to be a lot of deal making. The Hollywood Reporter has the story on one of the first. Amy Adams is in talks to star in an adaptation of Edgar-finalist Gillian Flynn’s 2009 novel, Dark Places. If negotiations go well, she will play Libby Day who was seven when her family was murdered. She escaped and accused her 15-year old brother Ben of being the killer.  Twenty-five years later a group questions Libby in an effort to get him out of jail. The movie is to be directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, who directed the adaptation of Tatiana De Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key.

Dark Places is Gillian Flynn’s second novel and was on many of the year’s best books lists. Her third book, Gone Girl, is a psychological thriller about a marriage (author Adam Ross’s blurb says “it’s like Scenes from a Marriage remade by Alfred Hitchcock”). It will be published June 5th and has received enthusiasm on GalleyChat. Audio and print excerpts are available on the NPR Web site. Digital ARC’s on Edelweiss and NetGalley.

Author Web site: Gillian-Flynn.com

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-06-05) ISBN: 9780307588364

When asked what she thought of some libraries removing Fifty Shades of Grey from their shelves on The View on Friday, the book’s author, E.L. James responded, “I think people should read what they like, providing it is age appropriate,” bringing applause from the audience.

The studio audience went away with a copy of the book (as well as $100 Marshall’s gift certificate and a copy of Weeknights with Giada — how mainstream can you get?).

Earlier in the week, the co-hosts discussed the “Hot Topic” of whether it’s appropriate for libraries to remove the book. All agreed that it’s not (even though, in another segment, they expressed strong reservations about the book’s theme of female submission). Whoopie Goldberg said, “If people want to see the book for themselves, the library is obligated to provide it.”

The man who led the CIA’s anti-terrorism efforts, Henry Crumpton, said in an interview on CBS Sixty Minutes last night that there are “more foreign spies in the US than ever before.”

Crumpton writes about his experiences in The Art of Intelligence. The embargoed book is being released today.

An excerpt is on The Daily Beast.

The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service Henry A. Crumpton Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Penguin Press – (2012-05-14) ISBN / EAN: 1594203342 / 9781594203343

To celebrate the release of Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother?, Time magazine offers a slide show of ten other “unforgettable autobiographical comics,” beginning with Art Spiegelman’s Maus.

Several libraries are showing heavy holds on Bechdel’s title.

Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama Alison Bechdel Retail Price: $22.00 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – (2012-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0618982507 / 9780618982509

Arriving next week are a father-son memoir from Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez, biographies of Clarence Birdseye by the author of Cod and Salt and foodie Craig Claiborne by Thomas McNamee, plus a wacky self-help book from Augusten Burroughs.

Along the Way: The Journey of Father and Son by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez (S&S/Free Press) is a joint memoir by father and son, both well-known actors. It’s partly set in Hollywood, but its through-line is the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage path across northern Spain, from which Sheen’s father emigrated to the U.S. and to which Estevez’s own son has returned to live. A Today Show interview is scheduled for May 8.

Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man by Mark Kurlansky (RH/Doubleday) is a biography of Clarence Birdseye, the inventor of fast-freezing for food, written by the author of Cod and Salt. Kirkus says, “Kurlansky tells the exciting tale of Birdseye’s adventures, failures and successes (he became a multi-millionaire) and his family, and he also offers engaging snippets about Velveeta, dehydration and Grape-Nuts. The author notes that Birdseye knew that curiosity is ‘one essential ingredient’ in a fulfilling life; it is a quality that grateful readers also discover in each of Kurlansky’s books.”

The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance by Thomas McNamee (S&S/Free Press; Tantor Media) is an authorized biography of culinary tastemaker Craig Claiborne’s Parisian days, world travels, and influence on American chefs and food culture. Kirkus calls it “a highly readable, well-researched narrative.”

This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More by Augusten Burroughs (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Thorndike Press; Macmillan Audio) is an unconventional self-help book by the bestselling author who chronicled how he overcame an abusive childhood. “Despite pages of platitudes, Burroughs provides plenty of worthy material on the absurdity of the human condition and the unpredictability of contemporary life,” says Kirkus.

For young adults next week, there’s Andrew Fukuda’s would-be successor to the Hunger Games (with the added element of vampires). In children’s books, Patterson continues his middle school series and Stephen Colbert tries to rival Maurice Sendak.

YOUNG ADULT

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda (Macmillan/St. Martins/Griffin; Macmillan Audio) is the first in a new vampire series that is on many lists of what to read after The Hunger Games. PW says, “With an exciting premise fueled by an underlying paranoia, fear of discovery, and social claustrophobia, this thriller lives up to its potential while laying the groundwork for future books.”  To capitalize on the Hunger Games hook, The Hunt‘s website (where you can read an excerpt), cross-promotes a free download of an eBook called How to Survive The Hunger Games and uses the tagline “Now that the games are over…it’s time to start the hunt.”

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (S&S/Margaret K. McElderry; Simon & Schuster Audio) is the fifth installment in the bestselling Mortal Instruments series. The film of first book is moving forward, with release currently slated for August 23, 2013, starring Lily Collins and directed by Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid).

CHILDREN’S

Middle School: Get Me Out of Here! by James Patterson (Hachette/LBYR; Hachette Audio) the second in Patterson’s bid to appeal to the Wimpy Kid crowd.

I am A Pole (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio) is a book that the author threatened to write when he interviewed Maurice Sendak on his TV show. Sendak called the concept “terribly ordinary,” adding: “The sad thing is I like it.” We’re listing it as a children’s title, because that’s what Colbert calls it; it’s being published as an adult title, however.

We generally hate book trailers that try to come across like cheap imitations of their movie counterparts. This one seems to fall into that trap, but a clever twist rescues it.

It’s for The Family Corleone by Ed Falco, a prequel to The Godfather.

Author Web Site: EdFalco.us

Libraries are showing a few holds on light ordering at this point.

The Family Corleone Ed Falco Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Grand Central Publishing – (2012-05-08) ISBN / EAN: 0446574627 / 9780446574624

Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print

When Stephen Colbert interviewed Maurice Sendak in late February, he threatened to write his own kids book, I Am a Pole (And So Can You!). After he outlined the idea, Sendak proclaimed, “The sad thing is, I like it!” Colbert immediately pounced on that quote for his blurb.

And, so it came to pass:

I Am A Pole (And So Can You!) Stephen Colbert Retail Price: $15.99 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: Hachette/Grand Central – (2012-05-08) ISBN / EAN: 1455523429 / 9781455523429

Amazingly, the book is also going to be available in audio (Hachette Audio).

Colbert’s description of the book begins at the 3:13 time mark in the video below (but how can you not watch the entire thing?).

True to Colbert’s prediction (and Sendak’s irritation) it will also be an eBook, but Hachette no longer sells their eBooks to libraries.

The book’s “popular illustrator with a horrible sense of design” is not named.

News stories that actor Ryan O’Neal has prostate cancer mention that he has a book coming out the week after next, a memoir of his relationship with Farrah Fawcett.

Both of Us: My Life with Farrah Ryan O’Neal, Jodee Blanco, Kent Carroll Hardcover: $26.00; 9780307954824 Publisher: Crown Archetype – (2012-05-01) Audio: RH Audio; 9780307988515

Disney is beating the publicity drum for The Serpent’s Shadow, the final volume in Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles series, arriving May first.

USA Today reports on the two-million copy first printing and Riordan’s live webcast on publication day from the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium in San Jose (the series features Egyptian mythology). The webcast is co-sponsored by School Library Journal (sign up for it here).

The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles, Book Three) Rick Riordan Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Hyperion Book CH – (2012-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 1423140575 / 9781423140573

Thorndike Large Print; Brilliance Audio

Excerpt here

Author Web site: RickRiordan.com

During a recent interview with Maurice Sendak, Stephen Colbert threatened to publish a children’s book, I Am a Pole (And So Can You). According to The Hollywood Reporter, the video of that interview became a “viral sensation.”

So, naturally, Colbert is now making good on his threat; the book is scheduled to be published on May 8th (Hachette/Grand Central; ISBN: 1455523429).

Colbert is releasing another book in October, America Again, Hachette/Grand Central; 0446583979).

Part One of the viral video, below (skip to Part Two to preview I Am a Pole):

Part Two, in which Colbert reveals his brilliant idea (beginning at 3:10) and Sendak gives him a blurb, “The sad thing is, I like it”: