Two titles on just-announced longlist for the National Book Awards for Young People’s Literature arrive tomorrow; The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond Press) and Kate DiCamillo’s Flora and Ulysses (Candlewick). On our Watch List is the next title in one of my favorite new middle grade series and a title that’s been buzzed on YA GalleyChat. With all the ads out there for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, we probably don’t need to remind you that it opens this weekend. For those who want to read ahead, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 3 : Planet of the Pies came out last month.

See our downloadable spreadsheet with the movie tie-ins, the titles highlighted here, and many more  coming this week, Kids New Title Radar — Wk. of Sept 23.

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, Kate DiCamillo, illus. by K.G. Campbell, (Candlewick)

It’s no surprise that the latest by award winning author Kate DiCamillo is a delight to hold. Those who read it digitally will miss the beautiful bookmaking, the heft, the delicious paper stock and the shiny embossed red detail that dances across the cover, even landing on the tiny letters on the comic that Flora is hugging. DiCamillo and her partners-in-crime the creative team at Candlewick, fearlessly experiment with a hybrid graphic format telling the quiet, funny and sometimes sad tale of self-proclaimed cynic Flora and her superhero squirrel companion Ulysses.

The review in the New York Times Book Review  is particularly insightful. Christine Scheper, Children’s Materials Specialist, Queens Library, NYC gives the ultimate librarian recommendation “As a children’s librarian I am always thinking ‘who is this book for?’ I would give this book to everyone! It’s hysterically funny.”

As a special gift from the publisher and School Library Journal, you are invited to join a Livestream Event featuring Kate DiCamillo and Jon Scieszka live from Bank Street College of Education on Monday October 21st. Set up an assembly so all of your students, parents, and teachers can share the belly laughs with these two hilarious authors. It’s the school visit to end all school visits!

Watch List

Good Night, Zombie, James Preller, illus. by Iacopo Bruno, (S&S/Feiwell & Friends, simultaneous paper and hardcover)

AsI said about the earlier titles in this series, I am thrilled with these early chapter books that are just scary enough for newly fluent third graders. Lots of dark scratchboard illustrations, and a flip animation spider that crawls down the margin, adds visual interest. Happily, at least three more titles are planned in the series.

Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson, (Delacorte Press; Brilliance Audio)

As proclaimed on the cover, Sanderson is a NYT best selling author, but for adult titles (he completed Robert Jordan’s fantasy series The Wheel of Time). He has also published a series of YA novels (beginning with the marvelously-titled Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians) and the standalone YA/middle grade novel, The Rithmatist, which came out in May. This beginning of a new series is called by SLJ a “fun, fast-paced, futuristic science-fiction superhero story.” Librarians on YA GalleyChat report that kids are eagerly awaiting this one.

This is the week, or perhaps, the entire season of Stephen King. Arriving on Tuesday is Doctor Sleep, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; Thorndike), the sequel to his nearly 40-year old horror classic, The Shining, Featured on the cover of this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, it gets literary cred from Margaret Atwood, who asserts, “Some may look skeptically at ‘horror’ as a genre, but it’s one of the most literary of all forms.” With all this attention to The Shining, it’s no surprise that holds are building on it (Penguin/Anchor released a new trade paperback edition last month).

An adaptation of another King classic from the 1970’s, Carrie, arrives in theaters on Oct. 18. Tie-ins to that film are being released this week (see below, under Movie Tie-ins).

Also arriving is the title that rivals Doctor Sleep for appearing on the most “fall picks” lists, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; RH Large Print). It has TWO major awards nominations; the UK’s Booker and the US National Book Awards and is reviewed in today’s NYT by the redoubtable Michiko Kakutani.

The books highlighted here, and more arriving next week, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Sept 23.

Watch List

Cartwheel, Jennifer duBois, (Random House; RH Audio)

Also on several fall previews, this novel which echoes a high-profile murder case, is a departure for the author, whose debut, A Partial History of Lost Causes was a literary phenomenon, drawing award nominations and gaining the author a spot on the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” list. This, her second novel, is a LibraryReads pick for October:

“College student Lily Hayes is an accident waiting to happen. While studying abroad in Buenos Aires, she becomes the prime suspect in her roommate Katy’s murder. DuBois’s haunting story captures a family shattered by their young daughter’s imprisonment. A well-written novel highly recommended for book clubs.” — Karen Kilbride, Hennepin County Library, Minneapolis, MN

Hawthorn & Child, Keith Ridgway, (New Directions)

This trade paperback original is also a LibraryReads pick for October:

“Ridgway has taken the ‘partner cops’ and ‘troubled cops’ sub-genres to new levels. Hawthorn is a haunted man with a callous worldview. Child is his apt foil: humane, funny and insightful. Set in contemporary London, the story draws readers quickly and completely into a complex, seedy world of crime, madness and despair.”  — Margaret Donovan, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, MA

The Dead Run, Adam Mansbach, (HarperVoyager)

Mansbach, best known for his inspired faux children’s book, Go the F**k to Sleep, is also the author of several adult novels. A scary, if a bit opaque book trailer for this one  is featured as one of Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” blog’s “exclusives” today. Prepub reviews are strong, with Kirkus judging it,  “certifiably some Weird Stuff … A head-spinning mashup of genres, with a cast that includes bikers, hookers, demons and corrupt cops. It works.”

Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris, Ann Mah, (Penguin/Pamela Dorman Books)

We’ve been told that the French raise their children better, that French women don’t get fat and the French just generally do everything better. Now it’s time to stop flagellating ourselves and just enjoy all things French. In this memoir of her time in France, American  Ann Mah explores the signature dish of each region, resulting in a “honest, funny, and eloquent memoir is sure to delight lovers of France, food, or travel,” (Library Journal), Learn more about it, and the other books that Pamela Dorman is publishing this season, on Penguin’s Editor’s Buzz.

Cookbooks 

That’s right,  Martha Stweart’s Cakes (RH/Clarkson Potter) and Skinny Bitch Bakery (HarperCollins/HarperOne) are coming out on the very same day.

Media Magnets

An Appetite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio)

NPR’s Web site calls this memoir by lightning rod Dawkins, “funny and modest, absorbing and playful … a marvelous love letter to science.”

Movie Tie-ins 

Parkland (Movie Tie-In Edition), Vincent Bugliosi, Trade paperback: $16.95, (Norton)

The 50th anniversary of  JFK’s assassination is bringing a raft of books and a movie based on a book, Parkland, about the chaos that ensued at Parkland Hospital in Dallas when the staff discovered that their incoming patient was the president. Just a few days later, they had to treat Oswald. Based on Vincent Bugliosi’s exhaustive 1,612 page book on the assasination, Reclaiming History, (Norton, 2007; it was released the following year in a shorter, 688 page trade paperback, Four Days in November; the tie-in is the shorter version).

Produced by Tom Hanks’ Playtone Partners and starring Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, Billy Bob Thornton, Jacki Weaver and Paul Giamatti (as Abraham Zapruder, the man in the crowd who captured the assassination on his home movie camera), it is considered an Oscar contender.Vanity Fair recently interviewed the filmmaker, Peter Landesman. It arrives in theaters on Oct. 4.

Below is the trailer:

Carrie, Stephen King, Movie Tie-in Edition:

Trade pbk, (RH/Anchor)
Mass Mkt. pbk.  (RH/Anchor)
Books on Tape and RH Audio (read by Sissy Spacek)
Spanish Movie Tie-in Edition,(RH/ Vintage)

This, the second adaptation of the Stephen King classic, is directed by Kimberly Peirce, (Boys Don’t Cry), who has said her Carrie is not  a remake of De Palma’s version, but a return to King’s original (see MovieWeb‘s on-set interview with the director for more insight on Peirce’s approach to the novel,). Link here for the trailer: Carrie-Movie.com. It opens on Oct. 18.

Aftershock (Inequality for All—Movie Tie-in Edition), Robert B Reich, (Vintage paper original)

Reich appeared on the Daily Show on Monday to promote this movie, which was an unexpected hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It is being rolled out in a limited number of theaters beginning next week.

Featured on the cover of the upcoming NYT Book Review is Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; Thorndike). Not only is it a surprise to find the Book Review covering a book by a best-selling author close to publication date (likely the doing of the new editor, Pamela Paul, who began that position in May), but the name of the reviewer is also a surprise, Margaret Atwood.

Perhaps to justify that choice, a callout quotes Atwood’s review, “Some may look skeptically at ‘horror’ as a genre, but it’s one of the most literary of all forms.”

This may be the only review of Doctor Sleep that mentions Vladimir Nabokov and Salvador Dali in the first paragraph. Atwood calls it,

… a very good specimen of the quintessential King blend. According to Vladimir Nabokov, Salvador Dali was ‘really Norman Rockwell’s twin brother kidnapped by gypsies in babyhood.’ But actually there were triplets: the third one is Stephen King.”

The review is peppered with literary references. Atwood gives King respect as a  writer, noting that he “loves wordplay and puns and mirror language … The names of King’s characters are frequently appropriate: Daniel ‘Lion’s Den’ Anthony the (the tempted saint) Torrance (it never rains but it pours) is a case in point.” She also gives him respect as entertainer, “by the end of this book, your fingers will be mere stubs of their former selves.”

This may be the only review of Doctor Sleep you need to read (currently, it’s only available in print; it will be online Friday afternoon).

Atwood’s latest book is Maddaddam (RH/Doubleday/Talese), which was reviewed earlier in the NYT Book Review.

This may be unprecedented. Two books by one author are being adapted simultaneously.

One of our favorite oddball movie sites, On Location Vacations (a handy guide for those who like to plan their vacations around movie shoots) reports that filming is set to began for the adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s third novel, Gone Girl (RH/Crown).

A new cast member was also announced today; Emily Ratajkowski, known for appearing topless in Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines music video, is set to play the college student with whom Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) has an affair. Rosamund Pike stars as Nick’s wife, Amy.

Meanwhile, filming is continuing the adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s second novel, Dark Places (RH/Crown), starring Charlize Theron. Christina Hendricks, who originally joined the cast in a supporting role as stripper Krissi Cates, now has a lead role, as the murdered mother of the main character. Former Sopranos star Drea de Matteo will now play Cates.

Following yesterday’s announcement of the longlist for the National Book Awards for Young People’s Literature, the poetry longlist was announced this morning.

The Book Beast, which has the exclusive on the announcement, notes that the list includes “acknowledged masters like Frank Bidart, Lucie Brock-Broido, and Brenda Hillman; dynamic newcomers like Matt Rasmussen, and the decade-in-the-making follow-up to Mary Szybist’s debut, National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Granted.”

The Book Beast annotates each title, with links to reviews and author interviews. Full bibliographic information is available on our downloadable spreadsheet, Natl Book Awards- Poetry Longlist.

The nonfiction longlist will be announced tomorrow, followed by the fiction list on Thursday.

We’ve grown familiar with Stephen Colbert’s interview style, faux-challenging guests, like he did Andrew Bacevich last night about his book Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country, (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books) — (video below).

Tonight, in what seems like an odd pairing, Colbert hosts a quite different author, Nicholson Baker.

Reviewing  Baker’s new novel, Traveling Sprinkler (Penguin/Blue Rider) in the NYT last week, Dwight Garner said, “Reading his novels makes your world weirdly vivid, geeked out; you feel that you’re wearing X-ray specs tucked behind a pair of Google glasses.”

Maybe it’s not such an odd pairing after all.

Stephen King’s new book, Doctor Sleep, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; Thorndike), may be the definition of “review-proof.” It’s on multiple most anticipated list from the literary-leaning L.A. Times critic David Ulin’s to the more populist USA Today‘s and, really, what more does one need to say than “it’s the sequel to The Shining“?

But that won’t stop the reviewers. The NYT‘s Janet Maslin tackles it today, over a week before publication, saying it’s “scary enough to match the first book, though not better or scarier … Doctor Sleep is less panic-inducingly surreal.” She becomes more enthusiastic by the review’s end, saying that King “is so good at scaring that he can even raise goose bumps when he writes about the measles.”

Maslin’s isn’t the first review. Two others beat her to it yesterday. New York magazine judges the sequel as not as good or as scary as the first, but finds it, “Funnier, slyer, and less genre-bound.” Conversely, the New York Daily News Shcrryl Connelly is a fan, saying Doctor Sleep represents “King at his best, perhaps not as shrill as in The Shining, but thoroughly terrifying.”

The Shining was published nearly forty years ago. So far, the only review to address whether the sequel stands on its own is Library Journal‘s which says it will “satisfy anyone new to this icon in the King canon.”

[Note: if you are looking for the story on Wendell Berry, the correct link is Wendell Berry Interviewed by Bill Moyers. Sorry for the incorrect link from the newsletter]

Last week, Jon Stewart featured an author each night on The Daily Show, sending their books up Amazon’s sales rankings.

Scaling back, he features just one author this week. On tonight’s show, he interviews Robert Reich whose book Aftershock is the basis for the documentary, Inequality For All. The movie was an unexpected hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and won a special jury prize. It was picked up for distribution by The Weinstein Co., and is being rolled out in a limited number of theaters beginning next week.

A revised tie-in edition of the book, Aftershock: (Inequality for All — Movie Tie-in Edition), (Penguin/Viking) will be published next week.

Education reform is the focus of the upcoming issue of the New York Times Magazine.

One of the featured pieces, titled “The Real-Life ‘Glee’ in Levittown, Pa.,” is adapted from  contributing writer Michael Sokolove’s latest book, Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theater (Penguin/Riverhead, 9/26).

The article has particular resonance because Sokolove experienced his subject, inspirational drama teacher Lou Volpe, first hand, when he was a high school student. He returned to Levittown to chronicle Volpe’s final classes before retirement. Kirkus calls the book, “A memorable, uplifting story about a man who helped students create meaning, hope and magic for themselves and their beleaguered community.”

The second LibraryReads list, featuring the ten titles published in October that librarians most look forward to promoting, is now available.

The number one title is The Rosie Project, (S&S; S&S Audio; Thorndike). As we’ve reported, this debut has been building a groundswell of support from librarians for several months.

The other nine titles on the list represent a mix of genres by both well-known authors and debuts as well as nonfiction, from large and amsller publishers, in both hardcover and original trade paperback.

Download the official release here; OctoberLibraryReadslist. Download our spreadsheet with ordering information and alternate formats here; LibraryReads, Oct. The list and promotional materials will be posted on LibraryReads.org on Oct. I.

Nominate your favorites titles for upcoming lists. The deadline for the November list is Oct. 1.

Leading in library holds of the books releasing next week are Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts, (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance Aucdio; Thorndike), followed closely by Catherine Coulter’s The Final Cut, her first book with a co-author and the first in a new series (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike Large Print), and Nicholas Sparks next sure-to-be-a-major-motion-picture, The Longest Ride, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print).

Also among the big names next week is Nelson DeMille, taking a bit of a detour into Dan Brown territory with a novel featuring characters in search of  the Holy Grail.

All titles highlighted here and more coming next week, are available on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Sept 16.

The Quest, Nelson DeMille, (Hachette/Center Street; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print)

There are no prepub reviews on this one because it was already published in paperback in 1975. This is a revised hardcover, with DeMille’s current signature cover treatment, of a book the author wanted to return to. As he as he told PW‘s BEA Show Daily, “I think a lot of authors would like the opportunity to take one of their earlier books which are good, but not as good as they could do after all the years of working in the trenches. Authors do become better writers.”

Watch List

Seven for a Secret, Lyndsay Faye, (Penguin/Putnam/Amy Einhorn; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike)

The first in Lyndsay Faye’s series, The Gods of Gotham, came out last year to a great deal of fanfare (NPR’s Fresh Air reviewer Maureen Corrigan called it “one of the worthiest successors yet” to Caleb Carr’s The Alienist). Librarians have praised the sequel on GalleyChat, saying they liked it even better than the first. Clearly, the publisher feels there is a need for a rebranding, giving this one a new cover style. The cover blurb, from Gillian Flynn, is a single word, “Amazing.”

Help for the Haunted, John Searles, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe)

Excitement began building for this title on GalleyChat and was then sealed when librarians were charmed by the author at the AAP librarians dinner at BEA. It is a Sept. LibraryReads pick:

“Fourteen-year-old Sylvia slowly unravels deep family secrets after her demonologist parents are gunned down in a deserted church. Creepy, disturbing, and compelling, with gothic overtones and well-drawn characters, Help for the Haunted is definitely one of my favorite suspense novels of the year. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to older teens, and it would also make a terrific movie.” — Robin Beerbower, Salem Public Library, Salem, OR

This is the second of two books this week with a cover blurb from Gillian Flynn; “Dazzling … a novel both frightening and beautiful.”

The Big Crowd, Kevin Baker, (HMH)

In this coming Sunday’s of the New York Times Book Review, author Scott Turow gives this title a strong full-page review, ending with, “I’ve read few other novels that portray in such a nuanced way the temptations of power, the complex division of control in a great metropolis and the perils of political deal-making in that environment.” Kevin Baker, the author of the City of Fire trilogy: Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Strivers Row,   has recently been writing about politics for Harper’s Magazine and the New York Observer. This one seems to have fallen below the prepub radar; only Booklist covered it, lso very positively, but library orders are   light.

Media Magnets 

Command And Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Eric Schlosser (Penguin Press; RH/BOT; Thorndike)

Yes, the Fast Food Nation guy now takes on a new subject,  the dangers of storing nuclear weapons, beginning with a near-disaster in Damascus, AR.  It is reviewed in this week’s NYT Book Review, and the author is scheduled for several shows, including CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, PRI’s To the Point. Reviews are expected from many consumer sources, including The Rolling Stone.

Simple Dreams, Lind Ronstadt, (S&S; S&S Audio)

The 60’s singer has been much in the news for her announcement that she is suffering from Parkinson’s and can no longer sing. Next week, she is scheduled to appear on ABC/ World News with Diane Sawyer; ABC/Good Morning America; ABC/Nightline and NPR’s Fresh Air. Entertainment Weekly gives the book a B, saying she does not mention her Parkinson’s, diagnosed as the book was going to press,  and that, although she “writes evocatively about growing up in the Arizona desert and her musical collaborations, this is a largely scuttlebutt-free zone. That’s her right, but the few tales of excessive behavior by the likes of Jim Morrison and Gram Parsons do leave you wanting more.”

Kate: The Future Queen, Katie Nicholl, (Weinstein Books; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike)

This one was embargoed so that Vanity Fair, where the author is a contributor, could have the exclusive, with an excerpt in the Oct. issue . After all, they had to protect the hot news that the future queen eats muesli bars and smoothies for breakfast.

The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski, Samantha Geimer, (S&S/Atria)

A memoir by the woman Roman Polanski was convicted of raping as a girl. She is set  to appear next week on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s The View, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Movie Tie-ins

A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips, (Hyperion)

Advertising is heavy and early reviews are strong for this adaptation of Captain Richard Phillips’ memoir, A Captain’s Duty, which opens Oct 11, starring Tom Hanks. Phillips became a national hero in 2009 when he courageously led his crew to safety after Somali pirates hijacked his unarmed merchant marine ship. There’s no tie-in, but the paperback now features a sticker, “The Inspiration for the Major Motion Picture.”

Adore: A Novella, Doris Lessing, (HarperPerennial)

Based on Doris Lessing’s novella, titled The Grandmothers, this is a reminder that fiction about older women sleeping with teen age boys was not invented by Alissa Nutting in Tampa. The “grandmothers” in Lessing’s book are childhood best friends who had affairs with each other’s teenage sons. The movie, titled Adore, starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, is in a limited number of theaters and on VOD (reviews have not been kind — see the NYT, and NPR’s web site, while Entertainment Weekly was somewhat more positive).

As some of you know, EarlyWord World Headquarters are in Brooklyn, which is often, rightly, viewed as an urban, even gritty environment.

You may be surprised to learn that Brooklyn also has a softer, natural side. There are trees, birds, parks, and gardens, some in impossibly small spaces. One of them, in fact, is in just 66 square feet, which is also  the name of  the popular and inventive food and gardening blog, and now of a book based on that blog, 66 Square Feet: A Delicious Life, One Woman, One Terrace, 92 Recipes by Marie Viljoen (Abrams/Stewart, Tabori and Chang). Not only does this tiny garden produce flowers, but also vegetables, fruits and herbs, which Marie then turns into delicious meals in her, of course, impossibly small kitchen.

Marie writes about even more than cooking and gardening. She is also a talented forager, not only cooking her finds, but using them to create dazzling cocktails. The book is about celebrating life, enjoying the natural world around you, even amidst the densest of urban environments, and illustrates how limitations can inspire creativity.

Since Marie’s 66 square feet is just around the corner from EarlyWord (and visible from our own roof deck) we wanted to celebrate the book’s publication. Happily, Abrams has agreed to make five copies available to EarlyWord readers.

UPDATE: This offer has now ended. Thanks for all your entries and congratulations to the winners.

The 9/23 issue of People examines one of life’s important questions, whether Bethenny Frankel can bounce back after her divorce. Once readers have gotten past that, they’ll discover another important question in the book section — what are the “Fall’s Hot Tiles”?

Most of the eleven picks selected by the book review editors are fairly sure bets, since they’re written by authors with established track records  — Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath, (download the full list with biblio. info here — People Mag. Fall 13 Book Preview)

There is one debut title, however, The Rosie Project, (S&S; S&S Audio; Thorndike). It’s already been a hit  with librarians on GalleyChat for months and the Cuyahoga P.L. picked it as a one of their favorites back in May. Head of Coll. Dev.,  Wendy Bartlett  describes it this way,

Need a laugh? Here’s the funniest book of the year. Don is a professor who thinks dating is a colossal waste of his time. (Think Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, and you understand the kind of guy Don is). So with the help of his friends, he devises a questionnaire to find the perfect wife, and ends up helping someone completely unexpected. You’ll love this main character. Customers who liked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time or Temple Grandin’s books will enjoy this light-hearted look at living with Asperger’s. It also reminded me of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, last year’s big Brit import. This book was released in the U.K. first and was a big hit (read the review in The Guardian).  I think it’ll be a big hit here too; this will be a great reader’s advisory title.

The Wall Street Journal profiled the author last week. He has an unexpected background for the writer of a romantic comedy, “a 57-year-old Australian information technology specialist, has emerged as one of this year’s most promising and original debut novelists,” (his previous book is Data Modeling Essentials).

Below, the author describes the book himself:

John Oliver has received universal praise for his stint as host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, filling in for Jon Stewart, who was off directing his first film, Rosewater, but his attention to books and authors has not been up to the regular host’s.

Stewart returned last week and the book business again heard the magic words, “You gotta get this book now. It’s brilliant,” causing holds to jump in libraries and the title to rise on Amazon sales rankings.

In this case, the book was Mario Livio’s Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein – Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe, (S&S; Brilliance Audio; published in May).

Stewart really steps it up this week, with an author featured every night of the show:

Tonight — Sheri Fink, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, (RH/Crown; RH Audio/BOT) — holds are already rising on this one, based on earlier media attention

Tuesday — Bill Dedman, Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, (RH/Ballantine) — also reviewed in the NYT Book Review

Wednesday — David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, Hollywood Said No!: Orphaned Film Scripts, Bastard Scenes, and Abandoned Darlings from the Creators of Mr. Show,  (Hachette/Grand Central)

Thursday —  Billy Crystal, Still Foolin’ ‘Em, (Macmillan/Holt; Macmillan Audio) — the author is getting heavy media attention

The September LibraryReads pick, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, by Sheri Fink, (RH/Crown; RH Audio/BOT; excerpts of both the book and the audio are on the NPR Web site), releasing tomorrow, is building holds in libraries.

It was reviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday (listen here), in Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, and gets a solid A from Entertainmend Weekly. The author is scheduled to appear tonight on Comedy Central’s Daily Show and on NPR’s Morning Edition this week.

Below is the LibraryReads annotation:

“Through exhaustive interviews and extensive research, Fink offers a spellbinding account of Hurricane Katrina, a disaster which held the staff, patients and families of a New Orleans hospital captive and left thousands of others marooned by rising flood waters in the heart of city. Filled with unforgettable life and death stories, Fink’s fine work of investigative journalism reads like a novel. The book causes you to rethink your opinions about end of life, do-not-resuscitate orders and medical ethics.” — Marilyn Sieb, L.D. Fargo Public Library, Lake Mills, WI