The November Slate book club is an intense conversation regarding Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life (RH/Doubleday; OverDrive Sample).

Laura Bennett, Andrew Kahn, Dan Kois, and Katy Waldman, all of Slate, gathered to talk about Hanya Yanagihara’s novel just a few weeks before she discovers if the book wins the National Book Award (to be announced Nov.18).

In what might be the best expression of the group’s reaction, one of the panelists said she has never had as complicated a relationship with a novel, finding it both riveting and deeply unpleasant, a book she could not stop reading even as she found herself emotionally manipulated at every turn.

Another National Book Award finalist, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, will be the subject of the December discussion.

The producers behind The Hunger Games announced that they have acquired the option to adapt Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, possibly as a TV mini-series. According to The Wrap, the producers are currently looking for a director and no stars have been named.

The novel, Tartt’s third, was named as one of the best books of the year by multiple sources and is on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Best Seller at #3 after 19 weeks.

Says producer Nina Jacobson: “We’ve been thinking we are more likely to make a limited series for TV. There’s so much scope to the book. At the same time, a film-maker could come in with a perspective that changes our mind.”

Scott Stossel tells Terry Gross about his many phobias on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday. As a result, his book, My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, And The Search For Peace Of Mind (RH/Knopf; RH Audio), rose to #14 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

The book is receiving a mini media blitz, with coverage in the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe (which calls it a “first-rate study of anxiety and [the author’s] candid personal history as an acute sufferer”), The New Republic, and The Atlantic (where Stossel is the editor).

Last month, he and his sister, Sage Stossel, were profiled by The New York Times. She recently released a book of her own, the graphic novel Starling, (Penguin/InkLit), featuring a female superhero who “exhibits some of Sage’s own nervous qualities and frequently scarfs Xanax.”

Holds are heavy on Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Blackstone Audio; Thorndike) and are likely to continue to rise. It jumped to #1 on Amazon’s sales rankings soon after Christmas, indicating that this was the gift people were disappointed not to find under the tree and that it will continue to sell in to the new year.

New York’s Frick Museum has been an unexpected beneficiary of the interest. It is host of a traveling exhibit from the Mauritshuis museum, which features the painting of the book’s title, Carel Fabritius’s The Goldfinch. The book was published just as the show opened, causing attendance to spike. The marquee piece of the show, Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring, is now vying for attention with the lesser-known, tiny Goldfinch (one weird reflection of its popularity; the museum shop added a Goldfinch tote bag to the one featuring The Girl).

The painting has a power of it’s own, as Malcolm Jones attests in an appreciation of it in the Book Beast and was even featured in the Wall Street Journal back in 2010.

If you are planning a visit, take a look at 5 Things You Should Know About The Frick. The Mauritshuis exhibit runs through January 19.

Ransom Riggs’ Hollow City, the second in the planned trilogy that began with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, (both from Quirk Books, dist. by Random House), will be released in two weeks. In anticipation, The New York Times profiles the author.

Click the following for an excerpt from Hollow City.

Tim Burton’s film adaptation of Miss Peregrine is scheduled for release on July 31, 2015 .

The NYT notes that Miss Peregrine was “not conceived or composed with a young-adult audience in mind, but its central premise — about people who are ‘peculiar’ in various ways and must struggle not only to survive, but also to save the clueless rest of humanity from violent evildoers — is certainly adolescent-friendly.”

The decision to publish the book as a YA title proved momentous. As a result, Riggs got to know several YA authors, including Tahereh Mafi, who became his wife. The two, says the NYT, “have become something of a golden couple on the young-adult literary scene, with fans lining up to meet them at events and rushing to post their words on Twitter when either shares details of their life together on Twitter.”

Riggs will appear at ALA Midwinter, as part of the:

AAP/LibraryReads BookTalk Breakfast
Monday, Jan. 27th, 8:30 – 10:00 am
RSVP required, see official invitation here:
ALA Midwinter Booktalk Breakfast 2014 Invitation

The other member of the “YA golden couple,” Tahereh Mafi, will release the final book in her best selling trilogy on Feb. 4, Ignite Me, (HarperCollins). It follows Shatter Me  (2011) and Unravel Me, (2013).

In addition, two companion novellas, Fracture Me and Destroy Me, originally published as eBooks, release in print today, Dec. 31, under the title Unite Me.

It was a love fest on the Today Show yesterday as Hoda and Kathie Lee hosted one of their “favorite people in the world,” author Adriana Trigiani, whose latest book, The Supreme Macaroni Company (Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe), the final in her series featuring Valentine Roncalli, came out last week.

In addition to her new book, she also talked about directing her first feature film, Big Stone Gap, starring Ashley Judd, based on the first novel in her other series, featuring her home town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Currently in the editing process, it is expected to be released a year from now. For more on the shoot, read the account in the local newspaper, The Richmond Times Dispatch.

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In the latest in her series, Nancy Pearl interviews two-time U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins. Because people often think of poetry as “the spinach of literature,” he created the Poetry 180 program, to encourage high school students to discover the pleasure in  poetry.

Collins’ latest collection, his first in twelve years, is Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems, (Random House, 10/22/13). Collins reads the poems for the audio edition.
 

New releases are understandably light next week as stores gear up for Black Friday, traditionally the big post-Thanksgiving gift-shopping day, clearing the way for Adriana Trigiani’s The Supreme Macaroni Company (Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe), the final in her series featuring Valentine Roncalli.

Her previous title, The Shoemaker’s Wife, a standalone historical novel, was a departure and her biggest seller to date. The Supreme Macaroni Company, although a contemporary story, has a similar appeal in that it features a big, bickering, loving Italian family. A favorite of the morning TV shows, expect to see Trigiani on at least one next week.

A title to watch is City of Lost Dreams, Magnus Flyte (Penguin Books; Thorndike), the continuation of the story that began with the trade paperback original, City of Dark Magic, (see our Penguin First Flights feature). The new title is called by Kirkus “another lively, amusing romantic mystery …  Sensual, witty and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, set forth in sparkling prose and inhabited by characters well-worth getting to know. Wunderbar!”

Today is the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Among the many TV shows covering the event is a 2-hour NBC documentary that looks at how individual Americans responded on that day, Where Were You: The Day JFK Died, hosted by Tom Brokaw.

A companion book is also being published, Where Were You?: America Remembers the JFK Assassination, edited by Gus Russo, and Harry Moses, with a foreword by Tom Brokaw, (Lyons Press, 9780762794560).

Brokaw spoke about the documentary on The Daily Show:
 

New Zealand author Eleanor Catton, winner of the 2013 Man Booker Award for The Luminaries, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Brilliance Audio), is currently making appearances in the U.S.

On  PBS NewsHour last night, Jeffrey Brown gave her a chance to explain her novel, which she herself calls a “publisher’s nightmare,” one that, says Brown, “all the reviewers [are] trying to figure out and explain to their readers.”

The book is currently at #19 and rising on Amazon’s sales rankings and, as we noted previously, holds are rising in libraries.

Link here for a  video of the NewsHour interview. Listen to Catton read from the book here.

Once again, the UK’s major book award, the Man Booker, has influenced readers in the U.S. Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Brilliance Audio), which was released here on the day the award was announced, has been on the NYT Fiction Best Seller list for two weeks and is showing heavy holds on modest ordering in most libraries.

Reviews appeared here shortly after the award was announced. All noted the book’s unusual length (834 pages), without calling it  overlong. Said Bill Roorbach (Life Among Giants, Workman/Algonquin, 2012) in the NYT Book Review, “as for the length, surely a book this good could never be too long.”

The biggest film adaptation opening tomorrow is based on comics characters. Thor: The Dark World, is the second movie in the series based on Marvel comics by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. Reviews of the film are not kind, with USA Today saying, “Unlike Iron Man and Captain America, Thor is too dull a character to pin a franchise on, though Chris Hemsworth certainly looks the part and the production design is striking,” but one writer begs to differ.

Tie-in: Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World Prelude. Also available is a collection of the original comics, The Mighty Thor Omnibus, Vol 2.

YA Adaptations 

The adaptation of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief debuts in a very limited Oscar-qualifying release, just four screens, with plans to roll it out more widely. How widely depends on whether it gets Oscar nods. Early reviews, which  repeatedl yuse the lackluster term “earnest,” don’t bode well. The Forbes reviewer notes that it is based on a “somewhat popular novel” (guess 230 weeks on the NYT best seller fails to impress him). He’s also not impressed by the star power of Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, and newcomer Sophie Nélisse as Liesel. The movie did, however, win over fellow YA novelist John Green and has brought new readers to the book, which has been moving up the USA Today best seller list to #15 as of the 11/7 list, its highest spot to date.
Showtimes. Tie in: The Book Thief , (RH/Knopf YR)

In a less limited opening (over 60 theaters, as well as VOD), How I Live Now, starring Saoirse Ronan, is the adaptation of Meg Rosoff’s debut novel, a Printz Award winner published in 2004. Ronan is getting strong reviews for her performance.
Showtimes. Tie-in: How I Live Now, (RH/Ember).

A Classic and a Modern Story

Also opening in a limited number of theaters is  Great Expectations, directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), starring Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch. Although Charles Dickens’ book has been adapted before (a two-part series aired just last year on PBS Masterpiece) both the trailer and reviews indicate this is a different take on the story.
Showtimes. Tie-in: Great Expectations: (Movie Tie-In)  

The indie movie, The Motel Life is the directorial debut of brothers Alan Polsky and Gabe Polsky. Fittingly, it is based on a novel about two brothers by Willy Vlautin. It stars Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff, Dakota Fanning, and Kris Kristofferson
Showtimes. Tie-in: The Motel Life Movie Tie-in Edition, (HarperPerennial).

To view the trailers of these and other upcoming film adaptations, click on links at right, under Movies & TV Based on Books — Trailers.

This week, Colbert outstrips Jon Stewart in terms of the number of authors on their shows.

Last night, The Colbert Report featured NPR journalist David Folkenflik for his book on Rupert “Murdoch’s media empire, his influence on world leaders and the extent of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal.”

Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires, David Folkenflik, (Perseus/PublicAffairs)

The author was  interviewed earlier on Salon and on NPR’s Morning Edition. MediaMatters covered “5 Of The Most Interesting Stories From David Folkenflik’s Upcoming Murdoch Biography.”

Video below:

Coming up

Tonight, Colbert

Dr. J: The Autobiography. Julius Erving, Karl Taro Greenfeld, (Harper; HarperLuxe)

Wednesday, The Daily Show:

Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam’s Madame Nhu, Monique Brinson Demery, (Perseus/PublicAffairs)

According to the show’s  description, the book “uncovers the mystery behind the woman whom author David Halberstam once called ‘the beautiful but diabolic sex dicta tress.’ ”

Thursday, Colbert

The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease, Daniel Lieberman, (RH/Pantheon; RH Audio)

Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of the few historians who gets recognized on the street, as USA Today notes in yesterday’s profile.

A popular talk show guest, she is in the middle of a media blitz for her latest book, releasing today, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, Doris Kearns Goodwin, (S&S; S&S Audio). Her tour has an added zing, with the announcement last week that the book has been optioned by Steven Spielberg‘s DreamWorks Studio (which, of course, used Goodwin’s 2005 book, Team of Rivals as the basis for last year’s Academy Award winning biopic, Lincoln).

Goodwin appeared on NPR Morning Edition yesterday and CBS Sunday Morning. On Wednesday, she is scheduled to appear on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (also featuring Martin Short).

The Bully Pulpit was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal. Moving up  Amazon’s sales rankings, it is  currently at #19.

Video of the CBS Sunday Morning interview, below:

In addition to Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement, (see earlier post), several other November LibraryReads picks will be hitting shelves tomorrow, including the #1 pick, Diane Setterfield’s Bellman & Black .

Remember to nominate your favorite forthcoming titles, and use the marketing materials to promote the list to your readers.

Links to spreadsheets with ordering info. and alternate formats are to the right.

#1 Pick — Bellman & Black, Diane Setterfield, (S&S/Atria/Emily Bestler; S&S Audio)

“William Bellman is a happily married father with a promising future, until an event from his childhood comes to haunt him and everyone he loves. Beautifully written with a vividly enticing setting, Bellman & Black is a truly gothic tale that will you have entwined in its arms until the very end.” “William Bellman is a happily married father with a promising future, until an event from his childhood comes to haunt him and everyone he loves. Beautifully written with a vividly enticing setting, Bellman & Black is a truly gothic tale that will you have entwined in its arms until the very end.”
Scott Lenski, Whitefish Bay Public Library, Whitefish Bay, WI Scott Lenski, Whitefish Bay Public Library, Whitefish Bay, WI

Lies You Wanted to Hear, James Whitfield Thomson, (Sourcebooks Landmark paperback original)

“What causes a person to make bad choices, and to remain on a path so disastrous it could destroy a family? Thomson’s first novel raises these questions and explores the course of a failed marriage. The story is bitter and painful, but you’ll want to stick with it for the surprising turn that makes you wonder who is most to blame.” “What causes a person to make bad choices, and to remain on a path so disastrous it could destroy a family? Thomson’s first novel raises these questions and explores the course of a failed marriage. The story is bitter and painful, but you’ll want to stick with it for the surprising turn that makes you wonder who is most to blame.”
Nancy Russell, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH Nancy Russell, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH

Through the Evil Days, Julia Spencer-Fleming, (Macmillan/Minotaur; Macmillan Audio)

“Reverend Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne’s honeymoon retreat to the Adirondacks is interrupted by a brutal winter storm and a complicated police investigation involving a kidnapping, a drug ring and the murder of federal agents. Spencer-Fleming’s suspenseful and engrossing procedural introduces a fun, new character (Oscar the German Shepherd) and ends with a signature cliffhanger.” “Reverend Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne’s honeymoon retreat to the Adirondacks is interrupted by a brutal winter storm and a complicated police investigation involving a kidnapping, a drug ring and the murder of federal agents. Spencer-Fleming’s suspenseful and engrossing procedural introduces a fun, new character (Oscar the German Shepherd) and ends with a signature cliffhanger.”
Leslie DeLooze, Richmond Memorial Library, Batavia, NY Leslie DeLooze, Richmond Memorial Library, Batavia, NY

Death of a Nightingale, Lene Kaaberbol, (Soho Crime; Blackstone Audio)

“Compulsive do-gooder Nina Borg is now involved with Ukrainian detainees seeking asylum in Denmark. Among them are Natasha, an abused refugee and widow of a slain journalist, and her anxious 8-year-old daughter, Katerina. The two are pursued by a mysterious, powerful Ukrainian woman and Danish security forces, who consider Natasha a suspect in her fiance’s murder. Two plots gradually merge in a dramatic climax. Recommended for fans of Karin Fossum, Arnaldur Indridison, Colin Cotterill and mystery lovers who prefer plots that explore social justice and morality.” “Compulsive do-gooder Nina Borg is now involved with Ukrainian detainees seeking asylum in Denmark. Among them are Natasha, an abused refugee and widow of a slain journalist, and her anxious 8-year-old daughter, Katerina. The two are pursued by a mysterious, powerful Ukrainian woman and Danish security forces, who consider Natasha a suspect in her fiance’s murder. Two plots gradually merge in a dramatic climax. Recommended for fans of Karin Fossum, Arnaldur Indridison, Colin Cotterill and mystery lovers who prefer plots that explore social justice and morality.”
Margaret Donovan, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, MA Margaret Donovan, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, MA