Harlan Coben has honed his ability to hook readers. He begins his Today Show interview with the opening line of  his new book, the “romantic thriller” Six Years (Penguin/Dutton; Thorndike Large Print), released this week,

“I sat in the back pew and watched the only woman I would ever love marry another man.”

Separately, The Hollywood Reporter writes that Hugh Jackman is set to star in a movie of the novel. There’s no news yet on when filming will begin. This may be the first English-language film of a Coben novel; Tell No One was adapted as a French-language film in 2006. Ben Affleck has been attached to direct an English-language remake.

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In the current issue of USA Today, a debut novelist answers the question that plagues many first-timers; “Is your book based on your own life?”

In this case, the answer takes on extra interest. Double Feature (S&S/Scribner, releasing today) is about a famous father and his estranged son. The author happens to be the son of a famous father, Stephen King (a connection that is not mentioned in the publisher’s promo material, although that fact has not been kept a secret).

Owen King acknowledges that readers will want to know if the character “is based on my dad. But two people couldn’t be more different.”

As signaled by the fact that the cover blurb is from Larry McMurtry, Owen King’s style is quite different from his father’s.

All four prepub reviews are enthusiastic:

Booklist –” Entertaining and thought-provoking, this captivating look at the ongoing process of becoming an adult will especially appeal to fans of the indie film industry.”

Kirkus — “…an often weirdly funny book… King’s novel is winning. Superbly imagined lit-fic about family, fathers and film.”

LJ — “Fans of John Irving, Tom Perrotta, Jonathan Tropper, and Nick Hornby will appreciate this urban family tale liberally dosed with humor.”

PW — “King’s prose is artful, perceptive about people and their ‘warrens of self that go beyond understanding,’ and sometimes very funny.”

Owen King comes from a writing family. His brother, who writes under the pen name Joe Hill, is publishing his third supernatural thriller, NOS4A2 at the end of April. And, of course, his their next, Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, is coming in September.

Next week, middle school kids will be clamoring for the next in a series they can easily recognize as written for them, the prolific James Patterson‘s third in his Middle School series, My Brother Is a Big, Fat Liar (Hachette/LBYR). Newbery Medalist, Patricia MacLachlan, proves herself no slouch, with two new titles in one week and the hotly popular Cassandra Clare concludes the steampunk Infernal Devices series.

These, and more highlights, are included on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of March 18.

Two from MacLachlan

White Fur Flying, Patricia MacLachlan, (S&S/Margaret K. McElderry )

Cat Talk, Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest, illus. by Barry Moser, (HarperCollins/Katherine)

MacLachlan (best known for her Newbery medal winner, Sarah, Plain and Tall) rests not on her laurels. With two titles arriving this week, she makes even James Patterson look like a slacker. In Cat Talk, she and her daughter, who collaborated on two books about dogs, Once I Ate a Pie and I Didn’t Do It, bring their verse skills to the feline point-of-view, with artwork by Barry Moser, whose sublime kitty illustrations adorned My Cats Nick and Nora and Cheshire Cheese Cat. In White Fur Flying, MacLachlan’s spare style tells the moving story of a troubled boy and the dog that saved him.

Picture Books

Pug Worth, Valerie Worth, illus. by Steve  Jenkins, (Macmilla/FSG BYR)

Each season, the cover of a new picture book gets the place of honor above my desk. I have been looking up at this one since November and still adore it. Jenkins’s talents highlight Valerie Worth’s animal poems.
Ol’ Mama Squirrel, David Ezra Stein,  (Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Books)

A Kids IndieNext Spring pick, described as “equally a funny story of one courageous mom facing down the world and a thank you to all the moms out there in the world who have done the same — and continue to do so — for their children.”

Children’s Informational Books

Pranklopedia: The Funniest, Grossest, Craziest, Not-Mean Pranks on the Planet!, Julie Winterbottom, (Workman)

Looking for something for third grade boys to put a little spark in the winter doldrums? As the title guarantees, nothing too mean but many classic pranks in this compendium.
The Eagles are Back, Jean Craighead George, Illus. by Wendell Minor, (Penguin/Dial)

Naturalist Jean Craighead George left us bereft when she died last year. There will be no more wolves, falcons, and eagles to enchant us in novels, essays and picture books. Or so we thought. Her boon companion Wendell Minor brings his signature style to illustrated  one more revelatory story, the revival of the eagle in its habitat. Jean’s books ARE the Common Core; she was a visionary.

Chldren’s Fiction

Tallulah’s Toe Shoes, Marilyn Singer, Alexandra Boiger, (HMH/Clarion)

Singer’s ballerina series took flight with Tallulah’s Tutu. For all the little children who WANT, NEED, HAVE TO HAVE a ballet book, Tallulah is “every girl” and we are happy to have another to share.
 

Young Adult

Clockwork Princess, Cassandra Clare, (S&S/ Margaret K. McElderry)

More steam punk, please! This, the final volume in the Infernal Devices series arrives with much fanfare; with a ‘book trailer exclusive” on Entertainment Weekly’s Shelf Life blog, a feature in USA Today on Thursday, and an A- review from Entertainment Weekly, saying it may be the author’s ” best undertaking to date.” This series is the prequel to Clare’s Mortal Instruments, which will be coming to the big screen in August, starring Lily Collins. Clare and Holly Black (co-author of The Spiderwick Chronicles) are collaborating on another series, Magisterium, aimed at middle schoolers, with The Iron Trail, coming in September of next year.

Among the books arriving next week, Harlan Coben’s Six Years (Penguin/Dutton) leads in number of holds (over 800 in some libraries). Readers advisors will want to take a look at Once Upon A Flock, a memoir with chickens that caused Kirkus to go all mushy and a fiction debut about child-on-child crime that arrives here after much success in the U.K.

The titles highlighted in this post, and more, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of 3.18.13

The Guilty One, Lisa Ballantyne, (Harper/Morrow pbk original; HarperLuxe)

This debut by a Scottish author arrives here with advance buzz after having been a hit in the UK (it was chosen by the influential Richard and Judy Book Club). It may also be a hit here. It’s an IndieNext pick for March, described as “… a profound, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, must-read. While it is primarily the story of a little boy accused of murder and his lawyer, it is also a mesmerizing study of the three main characters and how they are each affected by horrible events in their past.” The Washington Post gives it an early review, praising Ballantyne’s “crisp, reflective writing,” but objects to unlikable characters and grim subject manner (sound familiar? Like The Dinner, perhaps?)

Once upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens, Lauren Scheuer, (S&S/Atria)

Given the fascination with urban farming, there should be a ready audience for this book that Kirkus calls, “a charmingly quirky story of a woman and the flock of spirited chickens that stole her heart.” The chicken’s daily lives are documented “with drawings and photographs, which she includes on almost every page of the book.” Scheuer is a children’s book illustrator who writes the blog Scratch and Peck.

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, Dan Fagin, (RH/Bantam; BOT)

One of PW’s 10 “Most Anticipated for Spring” in the science category, described as a “science-centered detective story” that looks into New Jersey’s environmental disasters brought about by toxic industrial waste and government officials that looked the other way. It will be featured on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered tomorrow.

The April Indie Next List features two #1 picks and they both have the same title; Life After Life. The one by Jill McCorkle will be published by Algonquin on March 26th (Thorndike large print). The one by Kate Atkinson will be published by Hachette/Little, Brown on April 2, six days later (Hachette Audio).

Making it an even odder coincidence, this is the first #1 tie in the history of the Indie Next List. Each book received the same number of nominations, reports Mark Nichols, Development Officer for the American Booksellers Association, adding, “My mandate as editor of the Indie Next LIst is to honor the wishes of the booksellers, so there was no recourse other than to have two # 1 picks.”

The natural question is whether there may have been some mistaken nominations. Nichols says he took extra precautions to make certain that booksellers knew exactly which book that they were supporting, and it was clear there had been no misidentifications.

The title works well for each book, even though they are quite different. McCorkle’s is set in the present day and features residents of a retirement community. Atkinson’s is set between the World Wars and features a woman who lives her life over and over.

It’s not unusual for two books to share the same title (and there’s at least one other Life After Life, a book about out-of-body experiences published in 2001 by HarperCollins). However, both publishers ruefully acknowledge that it’s not ideal to have to market two books with the same title, but say that by the time they realized the overlap, plans were already in motion and it was too late to make a change.

On the other hand, this may not be a liability; it’s beginning to appear that it may actually bring more attention to each book.

An emotional segment featuring Susan Spencer-Wendel, author of the memoir, Until I Say Good-bye: My Year of Living with Joy, (Harper) was broadcast on The Today Show this morning. She has also been featured in USA Today and on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Upcoming is a feature on Inside Edition with Deborah Norville and another  in People

The book rose to #6 on Amazon sales rankings today and holds are growing in libraries.

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Taylor Swift may be on the cover of  the April issue of Vanity Fair, but  Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT) gets star treatment in the issue, profiled by celebrity author Michael Lewis, complete with photo by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. Her book is also featured on the cover of the NYT BR (in a review by Anne-Marie Slaughter, who has been portrayed as Sandberg’s chief critic. Their disagreement has even been characterized, in gratingly non-feminist terms, as a “cat fight.” In fact, the review is mostly positive and when critical, only mildly so).

She was featured on CBS 60 Minutes last night, followed today by NPR’s Morning Edition, three segments on ABC’s Good Morning America (one devoted to the controversy, the interview, and a”town hall” discussion coming tomorrow), and tonight on Nightline.

The book has been #1 on Amazon sales rankings since Friday.

The lead in library holds among the titles arriving next week is Breaking Point, C. J. Box’s latest thriller featuring Joe Pickett. Trailing it is Terry Brooks’ Bloodfire Quest: The Dark Legacy of Shannara, the second in a new series. In the media, the majority of air time for books will be focused on Facebook COO’s Sheryl Sandberg’s controversial Lean In.

The titles highlighted here, and more, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of March 11

Media Magnets

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT)

Facebook COO Sandberg’s “sort of feminist manifesto” arrives after weeks of heated discussion; it’s been going on so long that the backlash has a backlash. If you’ve seen the author’s 2010 TED presentation (below), or her appearance on the PBS show Makers, you may wonder what all the fuss is about (and about the health of feminism in this country if a reasonable analysis of gender politics can still cause such a ruckus).

The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd dismissed Sandberg as the “PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle boots.” As if in response, Time magazine this week features Sandberg with the cover line, “Don’t Hate Her Because She’s Successful.” For women too busy having it all to read the book, the Washington Post offers a cheat sheet.

Much more attention is on the way, including appearances on CBS 60 Minutes this Sunday, followed by NPR’s Morning Edition, ABC’s Good Morning America, and Nightline.

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Until I Say Good-bye: My Year of Living with Joy, Susan Spencer-Wendel, (Harper)

Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, Susan Spencer-Wendel decided to live her life to the fullest, rather than follow doctors’ advice to conserve her energy. Along with her husband, Bred Witter (who was the co-author of the best-selling book that celebrated a small-town library and its resident cat, Dewey’s Nine Lives), she writes about what she experienced and produced a video for the book. A round of media attention begins with NPR’s Weekend Edition tomorrow, followed by the Today Show, Inside Edition with Deborah Norville, a feature in People and a USA Today “Life Section” cover story.

Traps, Mackensie Bezos, (RH/Knopf)

In promotional material, author Bezos bio is brief. She “studied creative writing at Princeton University … lives in Seattle with her husband and four children.” More is added in a feature on the author in Vogue this month, which makes no bones about the fact that her husband is the founder of Amazon. Prepub reviews, are generally positive, if not overly enthusiastic. Publishers Weekly says, “Bezos (The Testing of Luther Albright) has a knack for the slow-build. In her second novel she galvanizes the mundane with a sense of dread, presenting four women trapped by sad circumstances and their own fallibility, as they gradually make their way through four tense days during which their lives intersect.”

Watch List

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, Edward Kelsey Moore, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)

Four women (nicknamed “the supremes”) bond during get-togethers in a small-town Indiana diner. Shelf Awareness‘s book review editor Marilyn Dahl gives it a strong readers advisory hook; “it may not be considered a ‘great’ book, like Billy Lynn’s Long Half-time Walk, but it’s an absolutely delightful book that brought me great joy, and I recommend it to everyone I know.” Entertainment Weekly says that in this “kindhearted debut, Moore (can it be called chick lit if a man wrote it?) shows a seasoned ease with his funny, damaged subjects, including the tipsy ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt. You’ll be casting the movie by the second chapter.”

Dark Tide, Elizabeth Haynes, (Harper Pbk Original; HarperLuxe)

Haynes’s first book, Into the Darkest Corner, was popular with librarians on GalleyChat. This second is reviewed on Edelweiss by librarian Halle Eisenman (Beaufort County Library); “A compelling story and satisfying mystery. A good recommendation for fans of Gillian Flynn, although if readers haven’t picked up Haynes’ first book, I’d recommend that as the more suspenseful and intense read.”

Wool, Hugh Howey, (S&S; simultaneous trade paperback and hardcover release)

Called the “Sci-fi Fifty Shades of Grey” (as in, a self-published book that became such a hit that Hollywood came knocking — NOT a story about bondage in outer space), Wool began life as short story, followed by four more titles, collected in Wool – Omnibus Edition (Amazon/CreateSpace) owned by several libraries. Now it gets its traditional publishing debut (complete with a cover blurb from The Passage‘s Justin Cronin), via a deal with S&S, which the Wall Street Journal examines in detail today.

Next week brings touching and humorous picture books and a new YA title by Sharon Draper. Series releases include the latest in L.J. Smith’s Secret Circle series, The Temptation and Kathy Reich’s third in her Virals series, Code. These, and more highlights, are included on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of March 11

Picture Books

Otis and the Puppy, Loren Long, (Penguin/Philomel)

In this new intallment of the series by best-selling author Loren Long, beloved big-eyed farm tractor, Otis faces his own fears to rescue his new friend, the puppy.

Poetry

World Rat Day: Poems About Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of, J. Patrick Lewis,  Anna Raff, (Candlewick)

If you’re suffering from Poetry Month fatigue, here’s the perfect pick-me-up, wacky holidays honored with humorous poems by the Children’s Poetry Laureate.

Young Adult

Panic, Sharon M. Draper, (S&S/Atheneum)

A teenage girl is abducted. Her story, told in alternating viewpoints, is frightening and believable, with a cover that  is creepy, compelling and beautiful all at the same time. Draper has won several awards, including the Coretta Scott King for both Copper Sun and Forged by Fire. Her most recent, Out of My Mind was NYT best seller and received the Josette Frank Award from the Bank Street College of Education.

Starstruck, Rachel Shukert,  Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Memoirist/actress, Shukert tries her hand at the YA genre with successful results. A mystery set in 1930’s Hollywood, Starstruck gives an inside look at the struggles of young actresses (think Pretty Little Liars with an earlier setting).

The subtitle of the book Wave only hints at the heartache that lies within; A Memoir of Life After the Tsunami (Rh/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT). In it, Sonali Deraniyagala, a British citizen originally from Sri Lanka, recounts how she struggled to cope with the loss of her husband, two sons, ages 5 and 7, and both her parents to that catastrophic event.

The book is currently receiving a round of media attention, with glowing reviews from Laura Miller in Salon, “a spare, radiant book … The extremity of Deraniyagala’s story seizes the attention, but it’s the beauty of how she expresses it that makes it indelible,” the NYT and a feature on NPR Morning Edition. It is also the #1 Amazon Editors’s pick for the month and is even considered “required reading” by the NY Post.

In spite of the attention, however, library holds are relatively light. The story may be a difficult sell, but as Miller attests, the writer’s “extraordinary gifts” reward those who are willing to try it.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book about the challenges women face in trying  to climb the corporate ladder, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, (RH/Knopf; Random House Audio; BOT) doesn’t arrive until next week but there is already a backlash.

Now the backlash has its own backlash. The New Yorker published a long piece yesterday headlined, “Maybe You Should Read the Book.”

Some have taken heed; libraries are showing holds; some as a high as 10:1 on light ordering.

The news from Jeb Bush’s appearance on the Today Show this morning is what he refused to say — whether he plans to run for president in 2016.

Bush appeared on the show to talk about his new book, which releases tomorrow, Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, (S&S/Threshold; S&S Audio; also published in Spanish under the title, Las guerras inmigratorias: Forjar una solución estadounidense).

The Today Show‘s Matt Lauer noted that publishing a book can be a sign that a politician is gearing up for a run, but Bush refused to take the bait (he was given precious little time to talk about the actual subject of his book, even in a separate segment).

He’ll have more opportunities to dodge the 2016 question; several other appearances are scheduled for this week, including CBS this Morning,  NPR’s Morning Edition. and on Telemundo-TV.

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It seems the U.S. isn’t the only country obsessed with quick-fix diets. In the U.K., the “Fast Diet” is the talk of the country, according to the New York Times. The book that started the craze has been #1 on Amazon UK since it came out in January. It’s poised to be a hit here as well. Libraries are showing holds on the U.S. edition, which arrived last week, and it is currently #1 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Also called the 5:2 diet, it recommends two days of “fasting” (consuming just 500 calories) for every five of eating normally.

The FastDiet Michael Mosley, Mimi Spencer Retail Price  $24.00 Hardcover 224 pages Publisher: S&S/Atria Books – (2013-02-26) ISBN / EAN: 9781476734941, 1476734941

Get ready for more. The article notes that a “slew of fasting diet books” have come out in the U.K. in the recent weeks.

The talk shows will be humming next week with with appearances by Jeb Bush, for his new book on immigration reform, and Sandra Day O’Connor, for hers about the Supreme Court. On our Watch list is Mohsin Hamid’s new book, arriving just before the movie of his previous title, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and a Dan Brown-want-to-be that  fills the gap until The Inferno arrives this summer.

The following plus more highlights from next week are available on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of March 5.

Media Magnets

Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, Jeb Bush, Clint Bolick (S&S/Threshold; S&S Audio; also published in Spanish under the title, Las guerras inmigratorias: Forjar una solución estadounidense) — Embargoed

Plenty of media attention is lined up for this book on a hot-button topic by the son of one president and brother of another. Expect him to be asked if he is planning to run for president. Given the embargo, there’s not much information on what the book contains. He has a strong personal connection with the subject, not only as the former governor of Florida, but through his wife, who was born in Mexico. To be featured heavily on TV on Monday, beginning with NBC’s Today Show followed by CBS this Morning the next day as well as NPR’s Morning Edition. Bush will also appear on Telemundo-TV.

Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT)

O’Connor’s appearances will include CBS This Morning and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show as well as NPR’s Fresh Air, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart. There’s no pre-pub reviews, so this one may also have been embargoed. As evidence of the level of the level of interest among politicos, her scheduled appearance at D.C. indie bookstore Politics and Prose sold out in record time.

The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power, Kim Ghattas, (Macmillan/Times Books)

In advance of Hillary Clinton’s own much-talked about memoir, which hasn’t even been sold yet, comes this biography by the BBC’s State Department correspondent who has travelled with the Secretary. The L.A. Times calls it a “vivid peek at the complex maneuverings and personalities behind Clinton’s foreign policy decisions.”

Watch List

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid, (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape Audio)

Advance attention began with an unusually glowing review from the NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani. It  continues with Ron Charles in the Washington Post and Alan Cheuse on NPR’s web site.

Ghana Must Go, Taiye Selasi, (Penguin Press)

Part of the Penguin Debut Author Program, this title is an IndieNext Pick for March: “Readers know when they are in the presence of something special and brilliant. It is a voice familiar and kind, a plot careful and unraveling, a set of characters whose hearts pound between the covers. Selasi delivers a powerful debut about family, race, and the nature of story in this contemporary novel, set in neighborhoods from Brookline, Massachusetts, to Lagos, Nigeria. A literary descendant of Zadie Smith and Arundhati Roy, Selasi is a new force in the global community of readers.” —Nicole Magistro, The Bookworm of Edwards, Edwards, CO

The Demonologist, Andrew Pyper, (Simon & Schuster; S&S Audio)

An IndieNext Pick for March: “Renowned Milton scholar David Ullman is offered a huge sum to travel abroad to document a phenomenon. With his personal life in tatters, he and his daughter, Tess, fly to Venice for a brief vacation and this one small project. David returns alone, caught up in the battle of a lifetime to rescue Tess from an enemy he can’t touch or see. Following clues from Paradise Lost, the book on which he built his reputation, David undertakes a desperate search to solve the puzzle and fight the unknown powers. Pyper combines non-stop action, metaphysical questions, a touch of conspiracy, and poetic references in a story that leaves readers breathless.” —Becky Milner, Vintage Books, Vancouver, WA. Entertainment Weekly gives it just a C+, calling it “simultaneously more and less than a Dan Brown rip-off … it’s tough to have faith in Pyper’s plotting when he depends so much on inexplicable coincidences and silly clues,” an issue that doesn’t seem to put readers off Mr. Brown. Also note the cover blurb from Gillian Flynn, “Smart, thrilling and utterly unnerving.”

Movie Tie-in

The Company You Keep (movie tie-in), Neil Gordon, (Penguin Books; Dreamscape Audio)

The movie, directed by Robert Redford, in which he also stars along with Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte and Julie Christie, arrives in theaters on April 5.
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In an amazing stroke of good timing, Vatican reporter John Thavis just published The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church (Penguin/Viking).

He appears on NPR’s Fresh Air today, sounding as surprised as anyone by Pope Benedict’s resignation; “most people around the Vatican, including journalists, are a little bit disoriented … It almost seems as if Benedict made his decision without necessarily scripting the entire process in advance and leaving his Vatican aides to scramble for answers. … no one here really knows what’s going to happen next.”