Making the dramatic argument that the food industry has consciously hooked consumers on junk food, much as the tobacco industry hooked people on nicotine, Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT)  appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air  yesterday. Among his many stunning anecdotes, he describes how food scientists developed the “bliss point,” the precise amount of sugar to make consumers want more, without crossing the line to overly sweet.

The book is excerpted as the cover story for this week’s New York Times Magazine (the author is a NYT reporter who won a Pulitzer for reporting on E. coli in beef), as “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food.“

It is currently at #3 on Amazon’s sales rankings; libraries are showing heavy holds on modest orders.

Look up “Whitey Bulger” in library catalogs and you will get multiple hits. A Boston gangster who is the stuff of legend, he is featured in books as well as movies (one of the characters in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is based on Bulger). It was recently announced that Johnny Depp may play him in the Barry Levinson film Black Mass and two other projects are in the works.

Now 82, he was captured in 2011 and goes to trial in June, accused of 19 murders. A new book about him, Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice by Boston Globe reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy (Norton, 2/11/13) was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday and was described as not only a fascinating story, but “just a great read.”

Author Michael Connelly blurbed the book, saying, “As much social documentary as riveting crime story, the book is a masterwork of reporting by Cullen and Murphy. I couldn’t put it down.”

The NYT‘s formidable book reviewer, Michiko Kakutani, can’t hold back her enthusiasm for Mohsin Hamid’s new book, How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape Audio; March 5), publishing a glowing review well over a week before the book is released.

She describes it is both “a deeply moving and highly specific tale of love and ambition, and as a larger, metaphorical look at the mind-boggling social and economic changes sweeping ‘rising Asia’.” She ends by saying that this, Hamid’s third novel, “reaffirms his place as one of his generation’s most inventive and gifted writers.”

His second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (HMH, 2007) has been adapted for the screen by director Mira Nair and is scheduled for limited release in the US on April 26. It stars Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland and Liev Schreiber.

Tie-in:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Movie Tie-In) Mohsin Hamid Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 208 pages Publisher: HMH/Mariner Books – (2013-03-26) ISBN / EAN: 0544139453 / 9780544139459

Coming next week, Geisel Honoree Pete the Cat gets a new life in two easy-to-read titles … move over Wimpy, Timmy the Failure is coming to town … and, surprise, a new entry in the YA dystopian genre, Dualed, debuts. The titles below and other highlights from next week are also available on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Wk. of FEB 25

Picture Books

Rosie’s Magic Horse, Russell Hoban, illus. by Quentin Blake, (Candlewick)

Any title from the late Russell Hoban (Bedtime for Frances) is cause for celebration. This one is illustrated by the first British Children’s Laureate, Quentin Blake, best known for his drawings in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. It is featured in the NYT Children’s Books column this week, which notes that “The story is inventive from the very first pages, when it becomes apparent that the narrator is in fact a Popsicle stick.”

The Princess and the Peas, Caryl Hart, illus by Sarah Warburton, Candlewick/Nosy Crow
In a Suessian rhyme, Caryl Hart tells the tale of Lily-Rose May whose father is determined to find a way to get her to eat peas (a sampler is available here). It comes from the independent UK press, Nosy Crow, which began publishing in 2011 and formed a partnership with Candlewick shortly after.

Easy Readers

Pete the Cat: Pete’s Big Lunch
Pete the Cat: PlayBall! 
both written and illus. by James Dean, (HarperCollins)

The Geisel committee nailed it this year by naming Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin, created and illustrated by James Dean, an Honor Book. Now the series is newly published in an easy-to-read format for beginning readers. Yea!

Middle Grade

Timmy Failure, written and illus by Stephan Pastis, (Candlewick)

Pastis (Pearls before Swine) brings his absurdist humor to the middle grade set in this first of the Timmy Failure series, Mistakes Were Made, a Wimpy Kid read-alike that gets a not-so-wimpy launch (the cover even sports a blurb by Jeff Kinney, “Timmy Failure is a winner!”)

The Runaway King, Jennifer A. Nielsen, (Scholastic; Scholastic Audio)
The first book in this series, The False Prince, was named a NYT Book Review and PW best book and is one of many YA and middle-grade series that has been optioned for a film.

Young Adult

Dualed, Elsie Chapman, (Random House Books for Young Readers; BOT Audio)

A new entry into the dystopian genre, which Kirkus says “kicks it up a notch.”PW calls it the “textual equivalent of a Quentin Tarantino movie,” but VOYA says, “Fans of the latest crop of speculative fiction, such as the Divergent trilogy, will want to read this imaginative tale.” Check out a sample of the BOT Audio.

Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin)

YA debut by author of Attachments comes with 4 pre-pub starred reviews (Booklist, SLJ, Kirkus and PW, plus a 5 for quality and 4 for potential popluarity from VOYA). It’s a bitter-sweet story of the love between two misfits which clearly has charm, and strong crossover appeal, but some librarians on GalleyChat feared it would take selling to teens who might be put off by the ’80s’ setting and pop-culture references.

The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, Karen Finneyfrock, (Penguin/Viking)

A debut about bullying that SLJ says, because of its “articulate, funny, and brave” main character, 14-year-old Celia Door, becomes “much more than a “problem novel.”

Also Known As, Robin Benway, (Walker Childrens; Brilliance Audio)

The author of the stunning debut YA novel, Audrey, Wait!  (Penguin/Razorbill, 2008) returns with an over-the-top teen adventure.

The Goddess Inheritance, Aimée Carter, (Harlequin Teen)

For the girls who have aged out of Rick Riordan’s Gods of Olympus series, here is a supernatural romance series featuring the Greek gods and goddesses.

TV Tie-in

A Story of God and All of Us Young Readers Edition Mark Burnett, Roma Downey, (Hachette/Little, Brown YR)
This tie-in to The Bible, a ten-hour mini-series which begins airing on the History Channel on Sunday, March 3, is for children 10 and up. It retells Bible stories in a simple manner from creation, to the story of Noah to God’s covenant with Abraham continuing on to the life of Jesus. Contains a full-color insert with stills from the miniseries.

On our Watch List this week is a debut memoir that’s called a “bleaker, funnier, R-rated version of The Glass Castle”… in a blast from the past, V.C. Andrews rises from the grave with the first in a new series … and Jodi Picoult’s next best seller arrives, a story that involves the Holocaust. These titles and more arriving next week are available on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar Wk. of Feb 25.

Media Magnet

Salt Sugar Fat, Michael Moss, (Random House; RH Audio; BOT)

Publicity for this investigation into how the food industry hooks consumers begins with a cover story in the New York Times Magazine (the author is a NYT reporter who won a Pulitzer for reporting on E. coli in beef), under the compelling title, “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” (above, right). The author is also scheduled to appear on NPR’s Fresh Air and The Dr. Oz Show next week. The NYT and People are expected to review it.

Watch List

With or Without You, Domenica Ruta, (RH/Spiegel & Grau; RH Audio; BOT)

This debut memoir is called a “bleaker, funnier, R-rated version of The Glass Castle … marks the arrival of a blazing new voice in literature,” by Entertainment Weekly, adding “As a writer, Domenica Ruta should thank her lucky stars that she was blessed with such a character for a mother …  As a daughter, not so much.” It’s an IndieNext Pick  for March, NPR offers an “Exclusive First Read” on their site, and a profile by Chip McGrath is scheduled for Tuesday’s NYT. Holds are light at this point, but we’re keeping our eye on it.

Benediction, Kent Haruf, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT)
As the #1 IndieNext Pick for March, this one will be getting promotion in independent stores. The annotation calls this followup to Plainsong and Eventide the “answer to our literary prayers.” The Washington Post’s Ron Charles published one of the first of what will be a string of reviews this week. He points out that it’s been a decade since Eventide and a “whole new generation of readers” now have the opportunity to discover Haruf.

The Teleportation Accident, Ned Beauman, (Bloomsbury USA)

Long-listed for the Booker last year, this the novel’s first appearance here. Entertainment Weekly gives it an unequivocal A, saying, “Every generation gets the hipster satire it deserves. But this one’s for every generation.”

Usual Suspects

The Storyteller, Jodi Picoult, (S&S/Atria/Emily Bestler; Center Point Large Print)

Unsurprisingly, Picoult’s next is in leads in number of holds for all the titles releasing next week. This one is about a woman who befriends a retired German teacher only to discover that he is a former SS officer hiding out in her small New Hampshire town.

Calculated in Death, J. D. Robb, (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance Audio; Wheeler Large Print)

Robb, of course, is Nora Roberts writing under the pen name she uses for her futuristic In Death suspense series.

Forbidden Sister, V.C. Andrews, (S&S/Gallery Books)

Flowers in the Attic and its gothic, incest-tinged successors, were best seller list staples in the 1980’s. Since the author’s death in 1986, the estate has issued more novels in her name (adding extra meaning to the term “ghost written”). This is the first in the 20th series under the franchise.

TV Tie-ins

A Story of God and All of Us: A Novel Based on the Epic TV Miniseries “The Bible”
A Story of God and All of Us: Reflections: 100 Daily Inspirations based on the Epic TV Miniseries “The Bible”
Both by Mark Burnett, Roma Downey,  (Hachette/FaithWords; Hachette/Audio for the novel)

Companion books to The Bible, a ten-hour mini-series which begins airing on the History channel on March 3. Both the series and the tie-ins are produced by husband-and-wife team Mark Burnett (producer of Survivor, The Apprentice, Shark Tank and The Voice) and Roma Downey (star of the tv series, Touched by An Angel). See Kids New Title Radar for the children’s tie-ins.

We can cease speculating; Americans have embraced the European best seller, The Dinner by Dutch author Herman Koch (RH/Hogarth; AudioGo; Thorndike Large Print). It arrives at #36 on the new USA Today Best Seller list.

In terms of popularity, it’s not another Gone Girl, (RH/Crown), which entered the same list at #7 during its first week on sale, topped only by the Fifty Shades of Grey and the Hunger Games trilogies. That same week, it hit the NYT list at #1.

Even if it doesn’t live up to the comparison to Gone Girl (and what can?), it’s still doing very well and is likely to hit the NYT list in the top ten.

People magazine catches up with it in the latest issue (March 4th), giving it 3 of 4 stars, but the review reads more like a 5; “Koch’s skewering of elitism and self-serving morality is a wickedly delicious feast.” The many other reviews have also been positive. The only holdout has been Janet Maslin in the NYT, who dismissed it as “an extended stunt.”

The 80-yer-old record exec., Clive Davis, is making headlines by coming out about his bisexuality in his new memoir, The Soundtrack of My Life, (Simon & Schuster; S&S Audio).

The headline-making clip from Nightline is below; watch the full interview here. He is scheduled to appear on many other shows this week.

The literary water cooler question of the moment is whether Americans will respond to the European best seller, The Dinner by Dutch author Herman Koch (RH/Hogarth; AudioGo; Thorndike Large Print). Looks like they are at least curious; holds are rising quickly and outstripping the number of copies by 10:1 in several libraries.

Laura Miller is dubious that readers will embrace it, writing in Salon yesterday, that Americans  may be easily confused by  the “brilliantly engineered and (for the thoughtful reader) chastening” novel, also noting that Americans are less self-critical than Europeans.

Steve Inskeep, interviewing the author on NPR’s Morning Edition today, makes no bones about his reaction. He tells the Koch that the book made him sick (in “the best possible way”), because it raises scary issues about how well parents know their own children.

To get a sense of the tone of the book, listen to a sample of the audio from AudioGo (holds are growing on it as well).

We’re well into the second month of the year, so readers must be impatient for another book by James Patterson. Not to fear, Alex Cross, Run (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio) arrives on Tuesday. Among this week’s media magnets is Clive Davis’s autobiography and Po Bronson’s look at competition (with the headline-making revelation that teamwork is overrated). Below are the highlights of the week. More forthcoming titles are on our download spreadsheet, New Title Radar 2/18/13.

Watch List

After Visiting Friends, Michael Hainey, (S&S/Scribner)

When the author was six years old, his father died unexpectedly. Reports said simply that he had died “after visiting friends.” This is the story of Hainey’s quest to find out what really happened. An IndieNext pick for March, it is described by bookseller Linda Bubon of Chicago’s Women & Children First, as “one of the most compelling memoirs” she’s read which is also “an insider’s tribute to the hard-working and hard-drinking big city newsmen of the 1950s and ’60s.” The author is the editor of GQ Magazine, so he will be getting publicity; features are scheduled in the upcoming week in Entertainment Weekly, on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Farewell, Dorothy Parker, Ellen Meister, (Penguin/Putnam; AudioGo)

Meister’s previous novel The Other Life employed magical realism in the story of a woman who discovered a portal to another life; the one she might have lived if she had made different choices. In this new book, the portagonist has an unusual life coach; her heroine, Dorothy Parker, who comes back to life and moves in with her, complete with drinking habits and sardonic bon mots.

Fuse, Julianna Baggott, (Hachette/Grand Central)

The second in a planned trilogy of dystopian novels folows the Alex Award winner, Pure. A movie deal was announced last year.

Media Magnets

The Soundtrack of My Life, Clive Davis, (Simon & Schuster; S&S Audio)

Record producer and former head of Columbia Records, Davis has been in the media eye this week for his annual hot-ticket pre-Grammy party. The 80-year-old will appear on  range of shows next week, including The View and Charlie Rose.

The Secrets of Happy Families, Bruce Feiler, (Harper/Morrow; Dreamscape Audio)

Say it isn’t so. Bruce Feiler claims that  the best way to create family harmony is to adopt some of various  business techniques, like creating a family mission plan and instituting weekly family planning meetings. We hope annual performance evaluations are not part of the approach.

Top Dog, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, (Hachette/Twelve; Hachette Audio)

This is not a book about the Westminister Dog Show, but about the nature of competition. Bronson and Merryman. whose first collaboration, Nurture Shock, made waves in the parenting world, are already making news with this new book by declaring that teamwork is overrated.

Noble Savages, Napoleon Chagnon, (Simon & Schuster; BOT)

The NYT Mag features the author in the upcoming issue, calling him “our most controversial anthropoligist.”

Holds are heavy in most libraries for Melanie Benjamin’s novel about Anne Morrow Lindbergh, The Aviator’s Wife, (RH/Delacorte; BOT; Center Point Large Print). It enters USA Today‘s best seller list at #149  this week and is featured in USA Today’s roundup of  a “bonanza of new titles in the vein of The Paris Wife and Loving Frank.”

Among the titles in that list is Above All Things by Tanis Rideout (Penguin/Putnam Amy Einhorn; Thorndike Large Print), about George Mallory’s final attempt to climb Mt. Everest, told partly from the point of view of his wife. It is reviewed separately as a “debut novel that gingerly walks the precipice between women’s book-club fiction (think The Paris Wife) … and riveting Everest adventure tale (think Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction account of the deadly 1996 debacle on the mountain).”

See also our interview and online chat with the author.

Studies indicate that hearing loss is likely to be a pecursor of dementia, reports the NYT‘s Katherine Bouton in the newspaper’s popular “Well” column.

The news is particularly alarming to Bouton, who has a strong connection to the issue. Her book, arriving next week, Shouting Won’t Help: Why I-And 50 Million Other Americans-Can’t Hear You (Macmillan/FSG/Sarah Crichton) is about her own hearing loss. In an audio interview on the “Well” site, she explains that she wrote the book to help others understand what serious hearing loss is like (it’s very different from just wearing earmuffs).  Kirkus calls it a “poignant, enlightening memoir.”

Called “Downton Abbey for Grownups” (Laura Miller, Salon) and “The Better Downton Abbey” (The New Yorker), the BBC/HBO mini-series adaptation of Ford Madox Ford’s series of four novels, Parade’s End, begins on HBO on February 26. A hit when it aired in the UK last summer, it’s recently been nominated for a number of awards.

In her audio column, “The Listener,” on Salon, Laura Miller notes that “Downton comparisons will abound, though some viewers will be disappointed to find Parade’s End lacks a mansion and wisecracking old ladies — not to mention the complete absence of attention paid to the servant class,” adding, “Although [Benedict] Cumberbatch, cast against type  [in the lead role], delivers an impressive performance … You can only really appreciate what the actor does with this deliberately inexpressive man if you’ve read the books.”

Miller recommends the audio version, to be released next week as a tie-in by S&S Audio (also from Recorded Books as both CD and downloadable) for “Steven Crossley’s sensitive naration.” Miller applauds Crossley for making the many characters distinct and for handling women particularly well; “Not for Crossley the risible practice of adopting an artificially high-pitched, drag-queen voice whenever a woman is speaking.”

Official Series Web Site: HBO.com/Parades-End

Will the “notoriously insular” American audience embrace the European best seller, The Dinner, by Dutch author Herman Koch, (RH/Hogarth; AudioGo; Thorndike Large Print)?

The Daily Beast explores that question on the eve of the book’s publication today, looking at other translations that have made it here (Stieg Larsson, big time) and others that haven’t. The Wall Street Journal has compared its prospects to Gone Girl, but The Daily Beast lands on a surprising precedent, saying The Dinner may have more in common with The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery (Europa Editions in 2008). “Like The Dinner, it’s a highly readable story set in a European capital, using personal struggles to illuminate greater societal and philosophical concerns.”

One indicator: holds in libraries are growing, but not astronomical (up to 200 in some large systems). Library ordering is modest, however, so holds ratios are as high as 15:1. It hasn’t yet cracked the Amazon Top 100 (it’s currently at #244). The week before its publication Gone Girl was showing a similar level of holds, but it was already at #15 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Our take? You won’t lose by buying enough copies to match holds; even if word of mouth doesn’t take hold, readers will recognize it and snatch it from the new book shelves, but don’t expect another Gone Girl or Hedgehog.

Journalist Charlie LeDuff’s appearance on Fresh Air yesterday propelled his book, Detroit: An American Autopsy (Penguin Press) up Amazon’s sales rankings (currently at #22, above Phil McGraw’s new book, Life Code) and it’s no wonder; he’s as fascinating, and as heartbreaking, as the city he writes about.

After years working for the New York Times (where he won a Pulitzer), LeDuff returned to his home town of Detroit where he is now known for his unconventional style on the local Fox TV station.

When you finish listening to the interview (which we urge you to do), you’ll want to get a taste of his muckraking TV journalism. Here’s a sample (via Fresh Air interviewer Dave Davies’ blog):

Picture books are in the spotlight this week, with new titles from several old favorites. In Young Adult, a dystopian novel, Maggot Moon, breaks new ground and causes controversy. These titles, plus several more, are on our downloadable spreedsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of Feb. 11.

Picture Books

Maisy Learns to Swim: A Maisy First Experiences Book, Lucy Cousins, (Candlewick)

Maisy Grows a Garden: A Maisy First Science Book, Lucy Cousins, (Candlewick)

It’s time to refresh the preschool collection with these two new titles from early childhood rockstar, Cousins. In the first title, part of the Maisy First Experiences series, she goes to her first swim class. In the second, a Maisy First Science  book, kids can use pull-tabs to learn what will grow from the seeds Maisy plants.

Stink and the Freaky Frog Freakout (Book #8), Megan McDonald, illus by Peter H. Reynolds, (Candlewick Brilliance Audio)

If someone made me pick my favorite series for newly fluent readers, my first choice among second and third grade early chapter books would be Judy Moody and her little brother Stink. I was positively gleeful when I heard that the next one was imminent.

One Gorilla: A Counting Book, Anthony Browne, (Candlewick)

As demonstrated by the cover, every one of the primates in this series of portraits display a distinct personality. The book ends with U.K. Children’s Laureate Browne’s own self-portrait and a group of other humans, to show that, despite their variations, they are,  “All primates. All one family. All my family, and yours!”

Doug Unplugged, Dan Yaccarino (RH/Alfred A. Knopf)

Picture books about the  difficulty of making friends are featured in this week’s NYT Book Review‘s “Children’s Books” column. Yaccarino’s book, in which a young robot discovers the joys of the analog life, is called the “pick of the litter.”

Young Adult

Maggot Moon, Sally Gardner, Julian Crouch, (Candlewick; Briliance Audio)

On PW’s list of Most Anticipated for Spring (Children’s): “Gardner’s story of a boy taking a stand against a totalitarian government was one of the much-discussed titles at last year’s Bologna Book Fair. While dystopian YA novels are a dime a dozen these days, Gardner’s (alternate) historical setting and dyslexic narrator set this book apart.”  It’s continuing to provoke discussion; reviews are polar opposites. Kirkus calls it “a book with a message but no resonance,” while VOYA see is as a “dark, haunting tale of secrets, lies, and those who fight for the truth.” The Wall Street Journal is a fan, calling it “a brilliant, shattering” novel that “suddenly [makes] dystopia feels new again; it reclaims its power to shock.”

Out of The Easy, Ruta Sepetys, (Penguin/Philomel)

Septys’ first novel, Between Shades of Gray, may have gained some readers who expected a quite a different book, but with a similar title. This new title is set in the New Orleans’ French Quarter. Librarians on YA GalleyChat were “head over heels in love” with it, calling it “very smart, very realistic, and very much an award-winner with juge crossover appeal.” Reviewers concur. Says Kirkus,”With a rich and realistic setting, a compelling and entertaining first-person narration, a colorful cast of memorable characters and an intriguing storyline, this is a surefire winner. Immensely satisfying.” It is also reviewed in Sunday’s NYT Book Review

Series

The Indigo Spell, Richelle Mead, (Penguin/Razorbill)

The third book in The Bloodlines series got advance attention from Entertainment Weekly’s “Shelf Life” blog; “After her (hot!) dalliance with the irresistible Moroi Adrian in The Golden Lily, Sydney is struggling more and more to stick to her Alchemist teachings…[and] dares to hope that she might break free of the life she’s known… and embrace a love she thought to be forbidden…Edward Cullen, eat your heart out.” The adaptation of Blood Sisters, the first in Mead’s Vampire Academy series is moving forward. It is set to be directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Spiderwick Chronicles) with Zoey Deutch (Beautiful Creatures) and Australian actress Lucy Fry set to star. Production is expected to begin this summer.

Sever, Lauren DeStefano, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

The Kirkus reviewer was not a fan of this third book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy, ” in this rushed effort to tie up loose ends, holes are left in its wake. Fans will delight in the symbolism and clues from the cover, but they will ultimately find the trilogy’s conclusion unsatisfactory.”  DeStefano has just signed a deal for a new series, The Internment Chronicles, set to be begin next April with Perfect Ruin.