Asking why, given our country’s history in the Middle East, the president would “…think that initiating yet another war in this protracted enterprise is going to produce a different outcome,” Andrew Bacevich, author of Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country, (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books; released last week), spoke with guest host Phil Donahue on Friday’s Bill Moyers and Company about the U.S. role in Syria.

Bacevich’s book, which is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings, was also featured in Sunday’s NYT Book Review.

Below is the video: 

Actor/comedian Billy Crystal releases his new book, which is part memoir, part comedy, Still Foolin’ ‘Em, (Macmillan/Holt; Macmillan Audio) tomorrow. He and the book have received plenty of pre-pub attention,  featured on yesterday’s CBS Sunday Morning (video not yet posted), on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday (listen here), in the NYT and USA Today. He is scheduled to appear on Comedy Central’s Daily Show on Thursday.

Needless to say, the book is  rising on Amazon’s sales rankings, now at  #32. The audio, recorded by Crystal, is also rising, and is currently at #349 (from #4,577).

Leading the pack in holds next week is Sue Grafton’s 23nd title, W is for Wasted (Penguin/Putnam/Marian Wood; RH/BOT Audio; Thorndike), reminding us that she has only three letters left for this series. It’s always fun to see what dog-related pun Spencer Quinn will come up with for the next in his Chet and Bernie series; the new one is The Sound and the Furry (S&S/Atria). Tom Perrotta uses an attention-getting title for his new collection of short stories, Nine Inches, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio).

But this week is less about recognizable names than a wide range of intriguing debuts and narrative nonfiction vying for attention; check our downloadable spreadsheet New Title Radar, Week of Sept 9, with notes on why they caught our interest and ordering information. Below are some highlights:

Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin; Listening Library)

This has been THE top favorite on both our adult and YA Galleyhats, so we weren’t surprised when it was chosen as the #1 LibraryReads pick for the inaugural, September LibraryReads list. It gets a two-page centerfold ad, highlighting the selection, in the upcoming 9/8 NYT Book Review. Published as a YA title, it was chosen for it’s strong crossover appeal:

“At turns funny, sweet, smart, and sad, Fangirl traces Cath’s journey to independence as she begins college, struggles to have an identity separate from her twin sister, find her voice and passion as a writer and fall in love, maybe, for the first time. As sharp and emotionally resonant as Rowell’s previous novel, Eleanor & Park.” — Stephanie Chase, Seattle Public Library, Seattle, WA

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, Sheri Fink, (RH/Crown; RH Audio/BOT)

About the heart-wrenching decisions that had to be made after Hurricane Katrina devastated Memorial Hospital in New Orleans, this is another LibraryReads pick and is connecting with the media. It’s reviewed in the 9/8 New York Times Book Review, and will be featured next week on Comedy Central’s Daily Show as well as NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet, John Bradshaw, (Basic Books)

The author of the best-selling Dog Sense now turns to the world’s most popular pets. This was already featured yesterday on NPR’s Fresh Air.

USA Today‘s Bob Minzesheimer reports on booksellers’ picks for the fall, based on the opinions of three of them — Amazon’s Sara Nelson, Barnes & Noble’s Patricia Bostelman and, representing the indies, Matt Norcross of the charming McLean & Eakin bookstore in Petoskey, Mich. (someday, Bob, we hope you’ll check in with a librarian or two).

Leading up to the major gift-giving holidays, the fall is filled with household names, so the selections won’t be surprising to anyone who follows the book business. Included are Doctor Sleep, (S&S/Scribner; Sept. 24), Stephen King’s long-awaited sequel to The Shining, Jumpa Lahiri’s Lowland, (RH/Knopf; Sept. 24), and Ann Patchett’s This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, (Harper; Oct. 16).

Indie bookseller Norcross picks a slightly lesser known title, Jennifer Dubois’ Cartwheel, (Random House, Sept. 24), a novel that echoes the true crime story of Amanda Knox, but set in Buenos Aires. He says it “will keep you guessing as well as up past your bedtime” (available as digital ARC from Edelweiss and NetGalley). It is also on PW‘s Top Ten Literary Novels of the Fall and is a Millions Most Anticipated pick.  Dubois’ debut, last year’s A Partial History of Lost Causes, was a PEN/Hemingway award finalist.

The so-called “sleeper” picks have also been heralded elsewhere. Hannah Kent’s debut novel, Burial Rites (Little, Brown, Sept. 10), is both a LibraryReads and Indie Next pick (where it is #1) and Help for the Haunted (Morrow, Sept. 17), was a hit at BEA and is on the LibraryReads list.

Also featured in the USA Today section are interviews with three of the seasons “coolest” authors, (curiously, none of them are among the booksellers’ choices)  — Tom Perrotta, for his story collection, Nine Inches, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s, Sept. 10), Veronica Roth for the final book in her YA trilogy, Allegiant, (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen), and Billy Crystal, for the actor/comedian’s memoir, Still Foolin’ ‘Em, (Macmillan/Holt).

And, finally, the section includes a look at the “Season’s 30 Coolest Books.”

For all the Fall book picks to date, see our links at the right, under “Season Previews.”

The leader in library holds for books arriving next week is Lee Child’s Never Go Back, (RH/Delacorte; RH Audio; RH Large Print). It seems readers were able to overcome the shock of Tom Cruise starring in Jack Reacher, the movie based on One Shot (there may actually be a sequel. Although the movie didn’t do well here, it was a success internationally). Child is scheduled to appear on MSNBC ‘s Morning Joe on publication day.

Dystopian trilogies aren’t just for YA authors; Margaret Atwood finishes hers with MaddAddam, (RH/Doubleday/Nan A. Talese; RH Audio; RH Large Print). The Wall Street Journal‘s “Speakeasy” blog has been running a serialization of it all week.

Titles highlighted here, plus several more arriving next week, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, with ordering information and alternate formats, New Title Radar, Week of 9/2/13.

Watch List

Alex, Pierre Lemaitre, trans. by Frank Wynne, (Quercus/MacLehose Press)

Quercus, founded in the U.K. in 2004, has grown into one of the largest independent publishers there, helped in no small part by its acquisition of the English-language rights to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy (published here by RH/Knopf). Just launching in the U.S., this is their lead title, a translation of a French best selling crime novel, acquired by Christopher MacLehose, who also acquired Larsson’s books. It’s no  surprise, then, that librarians on GalleyChat saw similarities to Larsson’s twists and turns, with one calling the book “crazy creepy; you don’t know what is REALLY happening until the very end.” Another loaned her ARC to her adult son who “immediately wanted to read something else by the author.” No worries; this is the first in the Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy.

It’s also an IndieNext pick for September:  “A beautiful woman is kidnapped after leaving a Paris shop and is brutally beaten and suspended from the ceiling in a wooden crate in an abandoned warehouse by a man who tells her he wants to watch her die. Police Commander Camille Verhoeven is assigned to the case after eyewitnesses report the abduction. Verhoeven is a detective whose tragic past has crippled him, but he is able to use his extraordinary investigative abilities to understand the victim. Alex is chilling and frequently horrifying as the plot twists catch the reader by surprise at every turn.” —Fran Keilty, The Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington Depot, CT

Margot, Jillian Cantor, (Penguin/Riverhead trade pbk original)

Librarian interest in this LibraryReads pick, a debut published as a trade paperback original, began building at BEA when Angela Carstensen, SLJ‘s “Adult Books 4 Teens” columnist presented it during the librarian’s Shout ‘n’ Share panel, saying it’s the imagined “story of Anne Frank’s sister who survived the war and moved to Philadelphia. It is 1959, Margot is working as a law secretary, and no one knows she survived the camps. The writing is very readable, and Margot’s situation sympathetic.” That was followed by enthusiasm on GalleyChat, and its selection as one of ten on the LibraryReads inaugural list:

“Can you hide from your past and change who you are? If you try, what do you risk losing? This delicately written novel proposes an alternate fate for Anne Frank’s sister: Margot Frank survives the war, moves to Philadelphia, finds work as a law secretary and assumes the identity ‘Margie Franklin.’ But when the movie version of The Diary of a Young Girl is released and the law firm takes on the case of a Holocaust survivor, Margot’s past and Margie’s carefully constructed present collide. This great book will appeal to reading groups and fans of alternative history, what-if novels and character-centered fiction.” — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Cain’s Blood,(S&S/Touchstone; Brilliance Audio) and Project Cain (S&S Books for Young Readers), both by Geoffrey Girard

This dystopian story about a deranged geneticist who creates multiple clones of real-life serial killers (Jeffrey Dahmer and others) comes in two versions — the adult thriller and a YA companion, told from the perspective of one of the teenage clones. Booklist gave it a strong assessment; “This must be the highest-concept, most movie-ready idea of the year …  an updated The Boys from Brazil that ably mixes nature-versus-nature dilemmas with horrifying scenes of slasherdom.” On that latter note, Kirkus warns, “With a majority of the horrific acts depicted in gory detail, including thrill murder, rape, torture, necrophilia, etc., committed by and upon teens and young children, this book isn’t for every horror fan.” Reviews of  Project Cain are pretty damning. Says Kirkus, it “pales in comparison to the similarly themed novels of Dan Wells and Barry Lyga. Stick with Wells and Lyga; this muddle is just plain insulting.”

Media Magnet 

Salinger, by David Shields, Shane Salerno, (S&S)

Media coverage for this look at the world’s most reclusive author began this week and will continue next week with appearances on PBS’s Charlie Rose show, Comedy Central’s Colbert Report and NPR’s Weekend Edition. A documentary will also appear in theaters (to be aired on PBS in January). Entertainment Weekly gives the book a B- and a lower grade to the movie, a middling C, saying, “Like the book, it suffers from its creators’ obsessive zeal. Only here, you can’t page ahead to the next chapter. ”

Movie Tie-in

12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup. (Penguin Books; Tantor Audio)

The movie based on this 1853 memoir has been widely picked as a major Oscar contender.

Official Movie Site: 12YearsASlave.com

See trailer below:
 

Featured on the cover of the upcoming NYT Magazine is an excerpt from A House in the Sky, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio), Amanda Lindhout’s memoir of being kidnapped at gunpoint and spending 460 days in captivity in Somalia.

To be  published on Sept. 10., it is one of the ten titles on the Sept. LibraryReads list, with this recommendation:

“Absolutely gripping, harrowing and unforgettable! This well-written memoir is a true testament to the strength of one woman’s spirit and her will to survive in unimaginable circumstances. The family issues that led Amanda Lindhout from her home in Canada to a life of world travel and a career in journalism are as richly detailed and compelling as the brutal account of her fifteen month-long captivity by Somali Islamist rebels in 2008. She tells her story with such vulnerability and honesty that it is a privilege to read it.” — Mary Coe, Fairfield Woods Branch Library, Fairfield, CT

More coverage is coming; the author will be featured on NBC’s Dateline, the Today Show and The Nightly News with Brian Williams on Friday, Sept 6. The following week, she will be on CNN”s Anderson 360 and MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Neil Gaiman’s next book Fortunately, the Milk, (HarperCollins) is written for middle-grade kids and is scheduled for publication on Sept. 17 (shipping today). It is about the many obstacles a father encounters while trying to buy milk for his childrens’ cereal (which, fortunately, he finally manages to bring home).

Videos of Gaiman introducing the book have already appeared. The official book trailer has just been released and it’s being featured in several publications, including USA Today and The Hollywood Reporter.

The U.S. edition (above, left) is illustrated by Marvel comics’ Scottie Young (the UK edition is by Chris Riddell, who illustrated The Graveyard Book).

View the official trailer here.

As the summer draws to a close, the consumer fall book previews begin to arrive. The first two are New York magazine’s  Fall Books Preview and Entertainment Weekly’s 14 Hot Books For Fall; we will post the links to all of them as they arrive, on the right, under “Season Previews.”

Also check our new “Editor’s Spotlight” feature, from Penguin.

Two titles on these lists, and likely to be featured on all upcoming lists, are Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, (Hachette/Little, Brown) and Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep,(S&S/Scribner).

Several news sources, including today’s New York Times, reveal that an embargoed biography of J.D. Salinger claims there are at least five more books in the author’s vault, and that Salinger left instructions to begin publishing them in 2015.

The assertions are in the 720-page Salinger by David Shields and Shane Salerno (S&S; S&S Audio), which is being published on Sept. 3. A related documentary, also titled Salinger, directed by Salerno, will be released a few days later and will be featured in January on American Masters on PBS.

Speaking for the estate, the author’s son refused to comment for the story.

As a result of the coverage, the book rose on Amazon ales rankings to #156, from #2,614.

Below is the trailer for the documentary, More details on the book are in a story in The Guardian.

The inaugural LibraryReads list, featuring ten titles that librarians have read and most look forward to promoting in September, has been collated from nominations by library staff across the country. It has just been released to the library community (the official email announcement is here). Coming to the LibraryReads.org web site in time for the launch to the public, are templates for posters, press releases, and digital banners  for libraries to use to spread the word to their communities.

The number one title is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin; Listening Library). Published as a YA title, it was chosen for its crossover appeal to adults. The list quotes one of the nominations, from Stephanie Chase, Seattle Public Library, “At turns funny, sweet, smart, and sad, Fangirl traces Cath’s journey to independence as she begins college, struggles to have an identity separate from her twin sister, find her voice and passion as a writer and fall in love, maybe, for the first time. As sharp and emotionally resonant as Rowell’s previous novel, Eleanor & Park.”

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

Link here for a spreadsheet with ordering information, LibraryReads, Sept.

Nominate your favorites titles for upcoming lists. The deadline for the October list is Sept. 1. You can nominate any forthcoming titles for it and future lists.

When you want to pull out the big guns for a newsstand cover, you can’t do much better than Princess Diana (according to “Stolley’s Laws” about which covers sell best, by the legendary founding editor of People Magazine, Dick Stolley, “Nothing is better than the celebrity dead.”)

Vanity Fair plays that card for their big September issue, featuring a cover story poignantly titled in the online edition, “The Grandmother Prince George Never Knew” but with the more sensational “Diana’s True Love” on the print cover.

It’s not about Dodi Fayed, the lover with whom she died, but about Diana’s relationship with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, which ended just before she began seeing Fayed (in a bid to make Khan jealous, according to the story).

As the story notes, a movie titled simply Diana, starring Naomi Watts, also covers the relationship and is based on Diana; Her Lost Love, by Kate Snell, originally published in the UK in 2000 and being released here as a tie-in edition on Dec. 1, (IPG/Andre Deutsch). Below is the UK trailer. The film premieres in London on Sept 5; it is not clear  when it will be released in the U.S.; some sources say it will have an “Oscar season” release, others list the date as Dec. 6. [UPDATE: US release is now set for Nov. 1, 2013]

The number one pick on the September IndieNext list is Burial Rites, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print), a debut novel set in Iceland and based on the true story of the last woman executed there 1820’s. It is by Australian writer Hannah Kent, who became obsessed with the story after visiting Iceland as a teenager.

Prepub reviews have been strong, with Kirkus breathlessly applauding it for language that is “flickering, sparkling and flashing like the northern lights.” LJ puts it “In the company of works by Hilary Mantel, Susan Vreeland, and Rose Tremain” and calls it a “compulsively readable novel [that] entertains while illuminating a significant but little-known true story.” Librarians on GalleyChat also say the book had them “mesmerized.”

Libraries are so far showing few holds on minimal ordering.

Digital galleys are available from Edelweiss and NetGalley, until the pub. date of 9/10.

Marisha Pessl’s second novel, Night Film (Random House/; RH Audio) after her award-winning Special Topics in Calamity Physics, (Penguin; perhaps anticipating even greater success with this new book, the paperback cover now prominently states that Pessl is “The author of Night Film“) is enjoying red carpet treatment for its release two weeks from today:

NPR — Exclusive First Read (with an audio excerpt)

Author profiled in the new issue of New York magazine

Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” blog offers an “exclusive” of the “chilling” trailer (not all that exclusive; it’s also available on YouTube and below)

Many consumer reviews for this literary thriller are in the works. Prepub reviews are divided; Booklist stars it, LJ is strongly positive overall, but notes it “slows down a bit over its considerable length.” PW also expresses that concern and Kirkus criticizes it for being “A touch too coyly postmodern at times,” but adds it’s “a worthwhile entertainment all the same.” With all the attention, readers will want to find out for themselves; a few libraries are already showing holds in the low triple digits.

Find out for yourself; advance digital copies are currently available on Edelweiss.

One of the first people to single out Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling (Hachette/Mulholland; Hachette Audio) for special attention was one of LJ‘s mystery reviewers, Terry Jacobsen, formerly of Solano County (CA) Public Library, who made it LJ‘s Mystery Debut of the Month for April. Shortly after the author’s true name was revealed, Jacobsen was interviewed on CNN.

So, what is Jacobsen’s most recent pick? It’s…

Jump the Gun: An Annabelle Starkey Mystery #1, by Zoe Burke, (Poisoned Pen, simultaneous hdbk, trade pbk and large print; Blackstone audio)

Releasing tomorrow, Jacobsen describes it as, “Quickly paced and so clever, Burke’s debut is a winning semi-cozy caper, perfect for movie fans. She never misses a beat with her light rom-com banter, multigenerational ensemble, and sense of fun.”

See all of Jabobsen’s picks here.

James Patterson releases his 115th title next week, Mistress, (Hachette/Little, Brown), putting him on track to match last year’s record output of 13 titles (5 of them children’s). This is his second title with David Ellis, following Guilty Wives. Ellis released a title of his own just last week, The Last Alibi (Penguin/Putnam; Thorndike).

Other usual suspects arriving next week are Faye Kellerman with The Beast (HarperCollins/Morrow), W.E.B. Griffin and son William E. Butterworth’s next in the “Badge of Honor” series The Last Witness, (Penguin/Putnam), Julie Garwood’s Hotshot (Penguin/Dutton; Thorndike) and Erica Spindler’s  Justice for Sara, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press).

In an unusual move, Dorothy Garlock’s Under a Texas Sky (Hachette/Grand Central; Thorndike) is being released simultaneously in hardcover and trade paperback.

All the titles highlighted here are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Aug. 5. Some are still available as digital ARC’s on Edelweiss and/or NetGalley, but hurry, they are generally removed once the books are published.

Watch List

Sandrine’s Case (Perseus/Mysterious Press; HighBridge Audio)

With the number of titles he’s published and the awards he’s won, Thomas Cook can be considered a “usual suspect” but he is an author that still deserves to be introduced to a broader audience, according to many librarians. Booklist calls him a “master plotter” and this psychological courtroom drama “another fine effort from the always insightful Cook.”

Brewster, Mark Slouka, (Norton)

Lots of excitement surrounds this one. Librarians on GalleyChat have been talking about it for months and it was also A. Carstensen’s Shout ‘n’ Share Pick:

“One of the most beautiful books of the year. Set in Brewster, NY, in the late 1960s, this is the story of four young people, but especially Jon and his friend Ray. Jon’s parents were destroyed by his younger brother’s death. To escape, Jon takes up track where he makes a friend, Ray. Ray is always getting into fights, but when it is just them, he is insightful and honest. There is real darkness in their town, and it seems to collect around Ray’s father, a bigoted man. The writing is extraordinary, especially the way the author uses metaphors and the music of the era.”

A quick, evocative description comes from Norton’s Library Marketing Manager Golda Rademacher —  “It’s like entering a Bruce Springsteen song.”

Booksellers agree. It’s an IndieNext pick for August; “Raw and brutal at times, the well-drawn characters of this poignant story stay with you well after the book is closed.”

This Sunday’s New York Times Book Review calls it an “intense and elegiac novel … Slouka’s storytelling is sure and patient, deceptively steady and devastatingly agile.” Lots more reviews are coming — People, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the Boston Globe.

Babayaga, Toby Barlow, (Macmillan/FSG)

Another GalleyChat favorite that is also resonating with independent booksellers who made it an IndieNext Pick for August. The author’s debut,  Sharp Teeth, was described as “Romeo and Juliet, werewolf-style.” It was an Alex Award-winner as well as on the RUSA’s Best Adult Genre Fiction Reading List. It was written in verse, but the new book is straightforward prose.

The Realm of Last Chances, Steve Yarbrough, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio)

This is one of the titles Wendy Bartlett, Cuyahoga P.L. is betting on, buying extra copies for browsing. She calls it “a cheatin’ book for people who think they’re too smart to ruin their lives by cheating .. for the strong literary crowd who were not quite satisfied by Gone Girl. This has that same frisson of danger in a tamer setting that book clubs will secretly tell each other about … The author has literary credentials (a PEN/Faulkner finalist) and he writes like a  modern day Flaubert about a morally conflicted modern Emma Bovary. Unfortunately, the cover doesn’t do much for it, but  if that gets in the right reviewer’s hands (the two prepub reviewers are diametrically opposed; LJ was lukewarm and Kirkus red hot), it will be very strong.”

The Rathbones, Janice Clark, (RH/Doubleday)

A debut set in a whaling community in 1850’s Connecticut, with elements of the supernatural, which Booklist says is “a dark combination of fairy tale and fever dream, replete with reality-bending, dark secrets, and a fascinating, multigenerational family.” It is on The Millions‘ list of most-anticipated titles, with this description, “Think Moby-Dick directed by David Lynch from a screenplay by Gabriel Garcia Marquez …with Charles Addams doing the set design and The Decembrists supplying the chanteys.”

It comes with a cover blurb from Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus) “A remarkable tale, both  epic and intimate. Beautifully crafted and elegantly told A siren song of a story.” The author spoke to librarians at the Random House BEA Breakfast.

The Ghost Bride: A Novel, Yangsze Choo, (HarperCollins/Morrow)

Word must be getting out about this big debut from Morrow (listen to the description from HarperCollins Buzz session at ALA); it is already showing holds in many libraries. Another IndieNext Pick for August, “Set on the Malay Peninsula in the late 19th century, this debut novel tells the story of Li Lan, whose father promises her in marriage to the recently deceased son of a wealthy local family as a means of discharging his considerable debt. When the dead son begins visiting Li Lan in her dreams, she becomes increasingly desperate to escape him. After an accidental overdose of a sleeping draught separates her soul from her body, Li Lan must navigate the world of the dead with the aid of two allies — Fan and Er Lang — neither of whom are what they appear to be. Full of danger, romance, and eerie beauty, this is the tale of a young girl’s quest to find her own destiny and choose love over duty.” —Billie Bloebaum, Powell’s Books at PDX, Portland, OR

Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, (S&S)

Independent booksellers have made this insider’s look at publishing their #1 pick for August of titles they plan to handsell. As fascinating as the book sounds (“scintillating history… [of] a cosmopolitan, intellectual, if shabby kingdom where sex was the currency of the realm” Booklist), it’s hard to imagine it reaching a wide audience and, indeed, library ordering is very light. The Entertainment Weekly review in the new issue, is generally positive, but gives it a B+, marking it down because, “Kachka labors too long over the minutiae of contracts and deals.”  The author is a contributing editor at New York magazine, which will guarantee a certain amount of attention.

Queen’s Gambit, Elizabeth Fremantle, (S&S; Thorndike)
This debut historical novel arrives with an unusual number of positive pre-pub reviews (only Kirkus manages to rain on this parade). About Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, it’s drawing comparisons to Hilary Mantel’s critical and popular successes, Wolf Hall, and Bring Up the Bodies.

Hungry: What Eighty Ravenous Guys Taught Me about Life, Love, and the Power of Good Food, Darlene Barnes, (Hyperion)

Who can resist a memoir by a woman who had the cajones to try to introduce a bunch of frat boys to a decent diet? Read the Kirkus review; it will convince you even if the cover and subtitle don’t.

Media Magnets

Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, Jeff Guinn, (S&S)

It’s been over 25 years since Vincent Bugilosi’s major best seller, Helter Skelter (Norton; amazingly still in print) examined the lurid 1969 Hollywood murders committed by Manson and his band of followers. Attention is building for this new look at the case; USA Today interviewed the author this week. Entertainment Weekly gives it B, saying, “If the result is low on flair, Guinn gets high marks for diligence.” More media is coming, including NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, and TV’s Inside Edition.

These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie, Christopher Andersen, (S&S/Gallery)

The author, a former senior editor for People magazine, has written over a dozen best-selling bios of well-known figures. He is scheduled to appear on NBC’s Today Show next week. The upcoming 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination will bring increased interest in the Kennedys, which will be fed by more books and  the movie Parkland, opening Sept. 20, about the chaotic hours after the dying JFK was brought to the Dallas hospital of the title.

Best Seller Followup

Clark Howard’s Living Large for the Long Haul: Consumer-Tested Ways to Overhaul Your Finances, Increase Your Savings, and Get Your Life Back on Track, Clark Howard, Mark Meltzer, Theo Thimou, (Penguin/Avery; Tantor Audio)

Howard has a show on CNN’s Headline News. His previous title, was on the NYT Pbk. Advice best seller list for 21 weeks, hitting #1 in it’s third week. You can expect that he will be promoting this new book on his show.

There are no prepub reviews, so several libraries have not ordered it.