Sometimes the first line of a book “just grabs you,” says Rachel Martin on NPR’s Weekend Edition yesterday. That is true for The House Girl, (HarperCollins/Morrow; Thorndike Large Print), she says introducing her interview with the author, Tara Conklin.

The line is, “Mister hit Josephine with the palm of his hand across her left cheek and it was then she knew she would run.”

The book tells the alternating stories of a modern-day lawyer, working on a slavery reparations class-action suit, and that of a slave who may be the real artist behind the paintings attributed her white owner. It is the #1 IndieNext pick for February and was reviewed in the Seattle Times.

Libraries show growing holds lists.

The “almost unfathomable suffering” caused by American troops during the war in Vietnam was described by journalist Nick Turse on Bill Moyers’ show on Friday. His book,  Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam  (Macmillan/Holt/Metropolitan Books), is based on documents that were “buried deep in the recesses of the National Archives.”

Moyers calls the book a “Beautifully written account of real horrors in Vietnam, ” adding, “Nick Turse has given us a fresh holistic work that stands alone for its blending of history and journalism, for the integrity of research brought to life through the diligence of first-person interviews. Those interviews skillfully unlock the memories of American warriors and expose the wounds that to this day still scar the hearts and minds of villagers who survived the scorched earth of Vietnam. Here is a powerful message for us today, a reminder of what war really costs.”

Libraries are showing holds, as high as 8:1 on modest orders.

The NYT‘s hard-to-please critic, Michiko Kakutani, goes uncharacteristically ga-ga over a thriller, saying that Roger Hobbs, whose debut novel, Ghostman, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike Large Print) arrives tomorrow, “seizes our attention and holds it tight, not so much through his plotting or his characters but through his sheer, masterly use of details, and the authoritative, hard-boiled voice he has fashioned for [main character] Jack.”

She does find a flaw, however. Jack seems “cobbled together from random traits pasted onto a deliberately enigmatic core that lacks the existential power of Stark’s Parker or Lee Child’s Reacher. Ghostman would have been way more powerful with a more potent and coherent hero, but weirdly this lapse does not prevent the novel from holding the reader’s attention.”

Check your holds.

This week’s “Watch List” is in the previous post.

Reviewer Favorite

Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories, Karen Russell, (RH/Knopf; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)

Russell’s novel, Swamplandia! was on most of the Best Books lists for 2011 and was one of three finalists for the 2012 Pultizer Prize in fiction, a year when the Academy infamously chose not to award a winner. Expect many reviews for this one,  beginning with the NYT‘s formidable Michiko Kakutani, who says that Russell can “make magic ” of any subject. A feature is planned for the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

Media Magnets

Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World, Phil McGraw, (Bird Street Books)

It happens that the publisher of TV talk show host McGraw’s latest book is owned by his son, Jay McGraw. Also available is a companion DVD, Beyond Life Code. Both will, of course, be promoted on The Dr. Phil show next week. They are also being advertised in People magazine and USA Today.

Coolidge, Amity Shlaes, (Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe)

Surprised that a biography of a president who is generally known only as the butt of jokes is hot? The interest has more to do with the author than the subject. Amity Shlaes’ recent book, The Forgotten Man, has been called  the bible of the conservative, anti-Obama, free-market movement. Unsurprisingly, The Wall Street Journal and Fox News are big supporters. UPDATE: It is scheduled for the cover of the Feb. 17 NYT Book Review.

Living and Dying in Brick City: An E.R. Doctor Returns Home, Sampson Davis, (RH/Spiegel & Grau; Blackstone Audio)

Media attention for this memoir by a doctor who returned to his hometown of Newark to help the city’s poor and forgotten begins with a four-star review in People magazine. It is also scheduled for a feature on the NPR’s upcoming Weekend Edition Saturday.

      

Drinking and Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders, Brandi Glanville, (S&S/ Gallery Books) — One of the “Real” House Wives of Beverly Hills dishes on her life, loves, etc. The tabloid press can’t get enough.

Long Shot, Mike Piazza, (Simon & Schuster) — A memoir by “the greatest hitting catcher in the history of baseball.”  He’s scheduled for appearances on the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition and to do BOTH Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart’s shows next week.

Days That I’ll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Jonathan Cott, (RH/Doubleday; Tantor Audio; Center Point Large Print) — By a contributing editor at the Rolling Stone, who knew the couple since 1968.

These titles, and more, including “Usual Suspects” on our downloadable Excel spreadsheet.

So many titles are arriving next week, that we are publishing the Watch List separately. We will post the rest of New Title Radar later in the day.

Watch List

The Dinner, Herman Koch, (RH/Hogarth; AudioGo; Thorndike Large Print)

The Wall Street Journal heralds this as the next big thing with the headline “A European Gone Girl.” They’re not the only fans. Librarians have been enthusiastic about it on our GalleyChat, it’s on the February IndieNext list and the Huffington Post picked it as a Best of 2013; ” This barbed tale of two families is entirely set over one evening in an expensive restaurant. A smash hit overseas, Gillian Flynn called it ‘chilling, nasty, smart, shocking and unputdownable,’ and she ought to know. We enjoyed it a lot.”

ARC readers say the comparison to Gillian Flynn works in a some ways; both stories are told by unreliable narrators, dirty scerets are revealed and it’s “terrific page-turner.” The subject is quite different, however, and has more in common with Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin or William Landay’s Defending Jacob.

New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin is the one holdout, saying the story is “executed with a joylessly heavy hand.”

Ghostman, Roger Hobbs, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)

This debut from 24-year-old Hobbs arrives with much prepub attention and a movie deal. It is an IndieNext pick for February, a Costco Buyers Pick for Feb, a PW “Most Anticipated for Spring” title in the Crime/Mystery/Thriller, as well as an Oprah Must-Read; “In this stylishly gritty and fast-paced thriller, a career criminal is summoned from his off-the-grid hiding place to assist in an Atlantic City casino robbery that goes awry.” Check your holds; the libraries we checked already showed growing queues. UPDATE: Michiko Kakutani reviews it in Monday’s New York Times, calling it “smoking fast.”

The House Girl, Tara Conklin, (HarperCollins/Morrow; Thorndike Large Print)

This debut is the #1 IndieNext pick for February. Former lawyer Conklin’s protagonist is also a lawyer, working on a class-action suit that involves slavery reparations. In her research, she discovers the story of a slave who may be the real artist behind the paintings attributed her white owner. The novel unfolds in alternating narrations that reveals hidden similarities in lives separated by time and class.

Calling Me Home, Julie Kibler, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Thorndike Large Print)

Another debut novel that contrasts the lives of two women; one balck and one white. In this case, the setup is a long car journey during which the two women open up about their lives. Prepub reviews say, “Kibler’s unsentimental eye makes the problems faced unflinchingly by these women ring true” (Kirkus) and “Kibler relays a familiar story in a fresh way” (PW).

We Live in Water: Stories, Jess Walter, (Harper Perennial Original Trade Paperback)

Following quickly on Walter’s comtinuing word-of-mouth success, Beautiful Ruins (Harper, June, 2012), comes the author’s first collection of short stories. Kirkus says it proves that Walter is “as skilled at satire and class commentary in the short form as in his novels.” PW puts it simply, “if you like to read, you’ll like this book.”

The audio of Beautiful Ruins (HarperAudio) has had an unprecedented level of sales in relation to the print. Salon’s Laura Miller named it the best audiobook narration of 2012. AudioFile says, “As the sole voice for a veritable smorgasbord of characters, time periods and plotlines, Edoardo Ballerini works magic with this audio production.” The author is also a fan; listen here as he talks about the book’s genesis and describes why he loves Ballerini’s narration.

Shirley MacLaine had “no comment” for ABC’s 20/20 Show on Friday’s interview with her daughter Sachi Parker about her book, Lucky Me: My Life With–and Without–My Mom, Shirley MacLaine, (Penguin/Gotham), which releases tomorrow.

It seems she’s changed her mind. A story in Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” about some of the book’s “weirdest moments” includes this update:

EW has received a statement from MacLaine in response to allegations from the memoir: ‘It’s a painful moment for me as a mother and as someone who values the truth. I’m shocked and heartbroken that my daughter would make statements about me that are virtually all fiction. I’ve praised her lovingly and truthfully in my own autobiographies. I’m sorry to see such a dishonest, opportunistic effort from my daughter for whom I’ve only ever wanted the best.”

UPDATE: after reports that the video of the interview caused problems for those trying to browse using Internet Explorer, we have taken it down. Link to it here.

“One side of my family had owned another, and that that was as bleak and as straightforward as it got,” Andrea Stuart, author of Sugar in the Blood (RH/Knopf), tells Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday.

Stuart is descended from a Barbados slave owner and an unknown slave, a reality she wasn’t able to accept until four years into research for her book.

As a result of the show, the book is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings and is currently at #174. Library holds are in line with orders.

This week is all about series; all but one of the titles we’re featuring below are either continuations or the beginning of series. Please note that Maurice Sendak’s final completed book, My Brother’s Book, featured on NPR’s Morning Edition today, was covered in New Title Radar, as were the children’s tie-ins to the forthcoming Disney movie Oz the Great and the Powerful.

You can download an Excel spreadsheet here, listing the following titles and even more arriving this week.

Young Adult

The Kiss (Witch and Wizard series), James Patterson and Jill Dembowski, (Hachette/Little, Brown Young Readers; Hachette Audio), ages 12 and up

Patterson’s books are catnip to kids who need a high-interest read. The cover of this, the fourth title in the series, features a new look for the series (which began with the paperback edition of The Fire in November).

Scarlet, Marissa Meyer, (Feiwel & Friends; Macmillan Young Listeners), ages 12 to 17

The first title in the Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder, was on my list of top ten YA novels last year. As Cinder was a futuristic take on Cinderella, it is not much of a stretch to see Red Riding Hood in this one with a very scary wolf.

Hysteria, Megan Miranda, (Walker Childrens), Ages 14 to 19

When the galley came out of the box our hip, cool, fabulous cataloger Abbey Chapel snatched it from my hands. I need not say more, but I will quote YA GalleyChatters who say this is a great suspense story about a girl who has apparently killed her boyfriend but is not sure what happened.

Etiquette & Espionage, Gail Carriger, (Hachette/Little, Brown BYR), ages 7 to 17

Carriger already has a strong following for her Parasol Protectorate steampunk novels. With this, the first in the Finishing School series, she steps into YA,. The school is housed in a massive airship and is not what the mothers who send their daughters there expect; in this case “finishing” means “finishing people off” (those scissors on the cover are not for cutting silk). It was the title that came up most when I asked people at MidWinter what I should be reading. Don’t miss it.

Middle Grade

Big Nate Flips Out , Lincoln Peirce, HarperCollins, Ages 8 to 12

Big Nate….seriously, any children’s librarian who doesn’t automatically buy this series should be put out to pasture . This is for the Wimpy Kid crowd, as underscored in the  blurb from Jeff Kinney on the cover; “Big Nate is funny, big time.” Here, Nate tries to become a neat freak.

Seven Wonders Book 1: The Colossus Rises,  Peter Lerangis and Torstein Norstrand, (HarperCollins), ages 8 to 12

Lerangis wrote two of the books in the  39 Nine Clues series, and here begins a new series, with a different publisher, which features an unexplored theme in children’s books, with four kids on a life-or-death mission to find seven orbs, hidden in the ruins of antiquity’s seven wonders of the world.

The Fourth Stall Part III, Chris Rylander, (HarperCollins/Walden Pond Press), ages 8 to 12
Funny and a little wacked. Rylander is a unique voice in series fiction.
 

Better Nate Than Ever, Tim Federle, (S & S Books for Young Readers), Ages 9 to 13
There’s another Nate in Town, as I found out when someone handed this to me as I roamed the aisles of ALA, and I am so glad they did. Smart and funny, first time author, Federle takes us behind the scenes into the world of working child actors in Broadway musicals.

Treasure on Superstition Mountain, Elise Broach, Antonio Javier Caparo, (Macmillan/Holt BYR), ages 8 to 12

Elise Broach knows how to tell a story. She especially knows how to keep those middle grade readers on the edge of their seats. This is the continuation of the Superstition Mountain series. If you didn’t read the first title, Missing on Superstition Mountain, pick it up now and count your lucky stars that you don’t have to wait for the second.

Picture Books

Follow Follow, Marilyn Singer, illus. by  Josee Masse, (Dial), ages 6 & up

Singer stunned the picture book world with Mirror, Mirror, her first book of clever reworkings of fairytales in reverso poetry format (the poem is presented forward and then backward using the same text in reverse order). If you own the first (as you should), you won’t want to be without the second one.

Froggy’s Worst Playdate, Jonathan London, illus. by Frank Remkiewicz, (Penguin/Viking Juvenile), ages 3 to 5

London kills me. No kidding. From the first Froggy Gets Dressed, he reflects back the everyday lives of young children and finds humor in seemingly disastrous circumstances. This series is read-aloud gold.

Topping the March IndieNext List is the forthcoming book by Kent Haruf, Benediction (RH/Knopf, 2/26; RH Audio; BOT)

Says Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ,

Any new novel by Haruf is cause for celebration, but for those of us who have been waiting patiently to reconnect with the Front Range of Colorado and its quirky inhabitants since reading Plainsong and Eventide, Benediction is the answer to our literary prayers. The main character is dying, but that doesn’t set a tone of great remorse or regret for a life in its last stages on Earth. Instead, it becomes a reflection of a family, of the place where they live, of the forces that formed them and made them into the strange, angry, resourceful, and engaging people who they have become. Haruf is a wonderful writer, and I can’t wait to celebrate the publication of this book with him and with our customers.

The season moves into full gear this week, with dozens of titles vying for attention (so many, that we’ve put together a downloadable spreadsheet that includes the following highlights plus nearly 30 other titles). On our Watch List is a Gatsby-esque debut that has been a hit on GalleyChat, Indiscretion by Charles Dubow. Movie tie-ins remind us that Disney’s Oz, The Great and the Powerful arrives in theaters on March 8.

Watch List

Indiscretion Charles Dubow, (HarperCollins/ Morrow; Blackstone Audio; HarperLuxe)

We fell in love with this debut and asked GalleyChatters to read the ARC. They came back with equal enthusiasm, enjoying the “Gatsby-ness [it’s told from the perspective of an outsider, who suffers years of unrequited love for one of the main characters] and the twist at the end.” It’s on the February Indie Next list and is one of 16 Oprah Must-Reads for February. One library is betting big on it; Cuyahoga bought 210 copies.

LATE ADDITION:
 Schroder, Amity Gaige, (Hachette/Twelve)

A People Pick in the new issue, this in-house favorite is reviewed by Danielle Trussoni (Angelogy) who calls it “a chilling story about an obsessional father who deceives his wife and kidnaps their only child…Gaige’s writing is surprising and original, but the real pull of this magnetic novel is the moral ambiguity the reader feels.”

The City of Devi, Manil Suri, (W. W. Norton)

The Washington Post‘s reliable Ron Charles says, “Even amid the wondrous variety of contemporary Indian fiction, Suri’s work stands apart, mingling comedy and death, eroticism and politics, godhood and Bollywood like no one else.” It is scheduled for coverage on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Review Magnet 

See Now Then, Jamaica Kincaid,  (Macmillan/FSG ; Macmillan Audio)

Kincaid’s first novel in ten years is sure to draw many reviews. Entertainment Weekly kicks it off with a middling B grade, saying that the story of a divorce is heavily reminiscent of Kincaid’s own, and that she “captures the stuck rhythms of marriage as she repeatedly cycles back to the same fights…As a literary device, it’s affecting, but actually reading the words, again and again, can get tiring.”

Usual Suspects

Deadly Stakes, J.A. Jance, (S&S/Touchstone; S&S Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

The eighth in the series, Booklist gives it kudos for, “Fast pacing, multiple plotlines, a fascinating look at online research, and sympathetic characters … [all tied into a] suspenseful story,” but PW demurs that it exhibits “…awkwardly contrived linkages and a lack of narrative drive, [making] this a lesser effort.” Nevertheless, it is showing the most holds in libraries of all the titles coming out this week.
Touch & Go, Lisa Gardner, (Penguin/Dutton; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

People reviews this stand-alone about kidnapped couple Justin and Libby Denbe, saying “The suspense crackles as the Denbes grapple with their captors’ bewildering brutality. But what gives the story heart is Libby’s dawning realization that her family may have been broken long before their kidnappers appeared.”

Media Magnets

From Mama’s Table to Mine, Bobby Deen & Melissa Clark, (RH/Ballantine paperback original)

Paula Deen’s kids know how to make diet lemonade out of lemons. Their mother, who has made millions from comfort food, suddenly admits she’s had diabetes for years and the entire family goes on a diet. Rather than becoming Weight Watchers spokepeesons, son Bobby publishes a book and the entire family appears on cover of People Magazine (2/4 issue) . The book will be featured on several shows in the upcoming week; NBC’s Today Show; FOX-TV’s Fox and Friends; ABC’s The Dr. Oz Show; ABC’s The Chew and The Rachael Ray Show.
Lucky Me: My Life With–and Without–My Mom, Shirley MacLaine, Sachi Parker, Penguin/Gotham

Shirley MacLaine, of course, is back in the spotlight because of her scene-stealing turns on Downton Abbey. She gets less flattering attention in her daughter’s memoir, which with will be featured on ABC’s 20/20 show tonight, on a segment titled, Stars, Scars and Showbiz Kids (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET).  The show’s press release states, “Parker says MacLaine neglected her while instead focusing on her own career and life.”
Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government, Gavin Newsom and Lisa Dickey, (Penguin Press)

Clearly, there are high hopes for this book, which is embargoed with a one-day laydown on Tuesday. California Lieutenant Governor Newsom writes about using technology to improve local government (it is billed as an attempt to create “Angry Birds for Democracy”).

My Brother’s Book, Maurice Sendak, HarperCollins

As we noted earlier, Sendak’s final completed book is previewed on the Vanity Fair Web Site. Expect more coverage as the book arrives next week.

Movie Tie-ins

Disney’s Oz, The Great and the Powerful arrives in theaters on March 8. Disney is investing considerable bucks to promote this prequel via a spot during the SuperBowl on Sunday (ten-second preview below — to see longer trailers go to  the Official Web Site).

Publishing is also pulling out all the stops with re-releases of the original book:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, Disney Press — This re-release features “beautifully repainted Denslow artwork, original Stromberg imagery, and an introduction by one of the stars of Oz The Great and Powerful, James Franco.”

Audio: Dreamscape is releasing new recordings of the first two Oz books (also on OverDrive):
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, read by Tara Sands (Jan 22)

The Marvelous Land of Oz read by Tara Sands (Feb 19)

Disney Press is releasing several tie-ins :

Oz The Great and Powerful, Elizabeth Rudnick — the junior novel adaptation

The Art of Oz The Great and Powerful by Grant Curtis — behind-the-scenes book

Oz The Great and Powerful: The Movie Storybook by Scott Peterson — movie stills

Oz The Great and Powerful: Witches of Oz, Scott Peterson, Disney Press– picture book

Oz The Great and Powerful: Land of Oz Disney Press — Level 2 World of Reading title.

More drum rolls arrive today for The Dinner by Dutch author Herman Koch (RH/Hogarth; AudioGo; Thorndike Large Print coming soon). Following an “Exclusive First Read” on the NPR Web site on Tuesday (see our earlier story) , the Wall Street Journal, calls it “A European GONE GIRL,” saying this “sly psychological thriller that hinges on a horrific crime and its consequences for two families, has become one of this spring’s most anticipated suspense novels.”

The book doesn’t arrive until Feb. 12, but it’s time for libraries to re-order. Holds are already as high as 15:1 on modest orders.

USA Today devotes several column inches to a book that explores the “Baltimore Plot” to kill president-elect Lincoln and describes “how detective Allan Pinkerton and America’s first female private eye, a 23-year-old widow named Kate Warne, saved Lincoln from assassination in 1861.”

The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower (Macmillan/Minotaur; Macmillan Audio; Thorndike Large Print) was released on Tuesday.

On the Today Show this morning, New York Post TV columnist Linda Stasi discussed her first novel The Sixth Station (Macmillan/Forge) released last week. It is described as a “religious thriller” about “one journalist’s exploration into a man who is either the Second Coming or Revelation’s anti-Christ.”

Booklist called it a ” riveting first novel” noting that “Dan Brown and Steve Berry fans have another controversial novel in which to lose themselves.” Indeed, the cover carries a quote from Berry, “Mayhem, madness, passion…you’ll be gripping the pages so tight you knuckles will turn white.” It is also blurbed by Bill O’Reilly. Personal friend Liz Smith gushed over it (admitting she only is half-way through it) in the Huffington Post.

Kirkus was less enthusiastic, calling the protagonist “overly plucky” and saying the author, “trots out the usual tricks in this provocative but often clunky thriller.”

Libraries have ordered it cautiously and holds are in line with ordering. Excerpt here.

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NPR backs up raves on GalleyChat for The Dinner by Dutch author Herman Koch (RH/Hogarth; AudioGo; Thorndike Large Print coming soon), by giving it an “Exclusive First Read” on their Web site. It’s about two brothers and their wives  who get together for a fancy dinner in Amsterdam. This is not a celebratory dinner, however; they have come together to discuss a grisly crime perpetrated by their sons, for which they remain uncaught. As the meal progresses, the parents regress, revealing carefully hidden insecurities and resentments. When it was published in the UK in August, The Economist headlined its review, “The best beach read of the season is finally published in English.” It also notes that the translation is “seamless.”

It was featured at the Random House MidWinter Buzz session and is  available as a digital review copy on Edelweiss, as are many of the other RH Buzz titles.