A debut novel by Seattle writer and former lawyer Tara Conklin is the #1 Indie Next Pick for February The House Girl (HarperCollins/ Morrow). Bookseller Beverly Bauer of Redbery Books, Cable, WI, describes it,

“Lina, a young, ambitious New York attorney in 2004, never knew her mother. Josephine, a young house slave in 1852, never knew her child. More than a century apart, their lives connect in unexpected ways. Corporate law offices, art museums, antebellum homes, and the Underground Railroad provide the setting for a story filled with secrets, betrayals, and love. Does the House Girl title apply to both women? The paths of these strong women will have the reader marveling at the layers Conklin has created to tell their intertwined stories.”

Digital Review Copies are available via Edelweiss.

After the jump, the February Indie Next titles available as DRC’s from Edelweiss or NetGalley:

(more…)

The former commander of the forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, appears on on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight.

His memoir, My Share of the Task, (Penguin/Portfolio), which was released yesterday, is already at #15 and rising on Amazon sales rankings, as a result of media attention, including McChrystal’s appearance on CBS Sunday Morning, coverage in the New York Times and a review in The Wall Street Journal.

He also made news today by supporting gun control on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

The new season comes on strong this week, with new titles by Jayne Ann Krentz, Stuart Woods, Bernard Cornwell, and a collection of Kinsey Malone stories by Sue Grafton. In nonfiction, a new memoir by actress Wendy Lawless mines the rich material of fraught mother/daughter relationships. On our Watch List for the week is a novel aimed at Downton Abbey fans.

Watch List

Ashenden, Elizabeth Wilhide, (Simon & Schuster; Recorded Books; Thorndike Large Print)

A British import touted as perfect for Downton Abbey fans, this debut novel by a prolific writer on interior design, received high praise in the U.K., including this from The Guardian —  “Ashenden is an affecting, intelligent debut which goes way beyond posh country house antics. Framed by chapters set in 2010, when middle-aged Charlie Minton and his sister unexpectedly inherit an estate from their aunt, each significant episode in the house’s history is brought to life.” Booklist, Kirkus and LJ are all enthusiasts, but PW sniffs that it is a “tedious historical exploration of an 18th-century English estate house.” We hear some people don’t get the appeal of Downton Abbey, either.

Chanel Bonfire, Wendy Lawless, (S&S/Gallery Books; Tantor Audio)

This Mommie-Dearest type memoir sports a memorable title (could one own enough Chanel clothes for a bonfire?). Television and Broadway actress Wendy Lawless writes about her painful relationship with her mother who “had the ice queen beauty of a Hitchcock heroine and the cold heart to match.” It’s both an O, The Oprah Magazine and an Indie Next pick for January.

The Bughouse Affair, Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, (Macmillan/Forge; AudioGo)

Two mystery favorites team up for this first in the  Carpenter and Quincannon series of lighthearted historical mysteries. Prepub reviews call it delightful.

Reviewer Favorites

The Last Runaway, Tracy Chevalier,  (Penguin/Dutton. Penguin Audio)

Chevalier, an American living in London, is known for her historical novels set in Europe and Great Britain. Her background as a graduate of Oberlin College shows here in a novel about runaway slaves in Ohio in the 1860’s. The first book of the new year to be reviewed on NPR, it is on The Atlantic‘s list of “Books to Look Forward to in 2013.” and on O, The Oprah Magazine‘s must-reads for January.

 The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, Taylor Branch, (Simon & Schuster)

The author’s three-volume history of the Martin Luther King years, the first of which, Parting the Waters, won a Pulitzer Prize, is considered a masterpiece. Here, it’s made more accessible to a wider audience by focusing on the pivotal moments from those three volumes.

Media Spotlight

   
My Share of the Task, General Stanley McChrystal, (Penguin/Portfolio)

The General, who was relieved of command of the forces in Afghanistan in June 2010, after a Rolling Stone magazine profile (he was succeeded by General Patraeus, who has suffered his own negative media attention) is scheduled to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Tuesday to talk about his memoir.

The Universe Within, Neil Shubin, (RH/Pantheon; BOT)

The paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer is scheduled to appear on The Colbert Report on Wednesday.

Young Adult

Just One Day, Gayle Forman, (Penguin/Dutton)

The much-anticipated next book after the author’s popular If I Stay and Where She Went. It’s the first of two; a companion novel follows next year. Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” blog offers an excerpt.

What We Saw At Night, Jacquelyn Mitchard, (Soho Teen; AudioGo)

Weary of vampires, zombies, suicidal girls and dystopian fights to the death? Soho Teen launches a line of YA mysteries, with this first of a projected trilogy by best selling author Mitchard. A group of  teenaged friends all suffer from a fatal allergy to light and are only able to go out at night. For some reason, they decide to take up the extreme sport of parkour, climbing buildings and leaping off them. During one of their nights out, they witness a murder. Prepub reviews complain that this one ends with a cliffhanger, setting up the next book in the series.

Usual Suspects

Dream Eyes, Jayne Ann Krentz, (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

Collateral Damage, Stuart Woods, (Penguin/Putnam; Penguin Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

Kinsey and Me, Sue Grafton, (Penguin/Putnam; Thorndike Large Print)

Robert B. Parker’s Ironhorse, Robert Knott, (Penguin/Putnam; RH Audio; BOT Audio; Wheeler Large Print)

1356, Bernard Cornwell, (Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe)

A Memory of Light, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Macmillan/Tor) — The 14th and final book in The Wheel of Time saga which began in 1990, has spent 103 days on the Amazon Top 100. Library holds are relatively light, however.

We know how Janus felt; we had barely caught our breath from the multitude of 2012 best books lists (our selected links at right) when the first of  2013 reared their heads.

Huffington Post, “Best Books Of 2013?: Our Picks For The Year’s Biggest Reads”

The Atlantic, “Books to Look Forward to in 2013”

Flavorwire, “Flavorpill’s 30 Most Anticipated Books of 2013“

The Huffington Post gets it right that the title The World’s Strongest Librarian (Penguin/Gotham, May 2) will “win over bookstores and libraries;” it got our attention. Subtitled A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family, it’s by Josh Hanagarne, a librarian at Salt Lake City Public Library who writes a blog about books and weight lifting.

Also on the HuffPo list, as well as Flavorpill’s, is a novelization of a life that is ripe for it, Zelda Fitzgerald’s (but, wait, haven’t dozens of others, including her husband, already done that?);  Z, by Therese Anne Fowler (Macmillan/St. Martin’s, March 26). Notes The Atlantic, “we’ll gladly read a hundred novelizations of her life. Especially if they’re all like this one, which lets us into a 17-year-old Zelda’s head.”

Anticipation is already high for Stephen King’s Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, coming on Sept. 24 (just before the premiere of the new film adaptation of his debut novel, Carrie) as well as  Elizabeth Strout’s The Burgess Boys,(Random House) her next novel after her 2009 Pulitzer  Prize winner, Olive Kitteridge.

An in-depth look at the church of Scientology, Going Clear: Scientology, Celebrity, and the Prison of Belief, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio) will be released in two weeks with an announced print run of 150,000 copies.

In the NYT today, Chip McGrath profiles the book’s author, Lawrence Wright, who won the  Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for  The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.

The book is the outgrowth of an article Wright wrote for the  The New Yorker last year, and, as is clear from the book’s subtitle, is deeply critical of Scientology. Wright notes that he has been receiving threatening letters from the church’s lawyers.

The book is embargoed, so there are no pre-pub reviews.

We’re on the cusp of the new season next week; one of the final titles touted at BEA arrives along with the first of the winter titles. On the Watch List, Jojo Moyes is poised for a breakout after ten titles and two Romance Novel of the Year awards. Usual suspects include Linda Howard, W.E.B. Griffin and Alexander McCall Smith. In nonfiction, a new bio of General Petraeus focuses on how he changed the military.

Watch List

Me Before You, Jojo Moyes, (Penguin/Pamela Dorman Books, Thorndike Large Print)

This novel has received kudos on GalleyChat, with one librarian calling it one of her favorite ARC’s of the year. Prolific romance novelist Jojo Moyes is a household name in Great Britain and her U.S. publisher is working to spread that magic here (the cover, which abandons the traditional trappings of a contemporary romance, signals a change in marketing). Independent booksellers picked it as an Indie Next title for January — “If you are looking for a romantic love story that will leave you in happy tears, this is the book for you! Suspend disbelief and immerse yourself in the life of Louisa Clark, who takes a job as a caretaker for a young, wealthy, disabled man. After a rocky start, Lou and Will become close, and Will urges her to expand her horizons and escape from their stifling small town.” It is reviewed in a NYT roundup of new titles this week — “Ms. Moyes’s novel boldly combines a sappy love story with the right-to-die debate.”

The Death of Bees, Lisa O’Donnell, (Harper)

The debut author is profiled in USA Today this week. Her novel is considered notable because, “After rave reviews in Britain, it’s a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers pick and an Indie Next Great Reads selection.” That Indie Next annotation reads, “Beginning with two children who bury their parents in their garden, The Death of Bees had me hooked from page one. Streetwise teen Marnie and her younger, socially awkward, violin prodigy sister find their parents dead and attempt to cover up their deaths to avoid foster care, with both help and hindrance from some surprising sources. Told from the point of view of multiple characters, this lively, suspenseful, and darkly hilarious tale transfixed me from gruesome start to wonderfully satisfying finish. Brilliant, delightful, and thought provoking!”

Ratlines Stuart Neville, (RH/Soho Crime)

This the last to be released of the titles recommended at this year’s BEA librarians Shout ‘n’ Share panel. Cuyahoga’s Wendy Bartlett says Neville is “really a great writer and one that a lot of people haven’t heard about or read yet. He’s also very articulate, and would be great for an author event.” In this, the author’s fourth novel, Dublin detective Ryan faces a case that tests his love of country. As John F. Kennedy prepares to visit, a series of murders reveals that former Nazis have been living in Ireland, having eluded the Allies via “ratline” escape routes, and been given sanctuary by the Irish government.

Usual Suspects

Shadow Woman, Linda Howard, (RH/Ballantine; RH Audio; BOT; Thorndike Large Print)

The popular contemporary romantic suspense authors here employs a popular plot device; a woman wakes up and has no idea who she is. The publisher is touting the author’s new branding with “stunning and provocative new covers.”

Empire and Honor, W.E.B. Griffin and William E..Butterworth, (Penguin/Putnam;  Brilliance Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

The seventh title in the Honor Bound series, featuring USMC Maj. Cletus Frade, co-written with Griffin’s son, William E. Butterworth. Says Kirkus, of this post-WWII espionage novel, “Although heavily reliant on exposition, the book provides sufficient back story and works as a stand-alone read. Nothing beats a cinder-block–sized adventure novel on a winter weekend.”

The Wrath of Angels, John Connolly, (Atria/Emily Bestler Books)

The next in the popular Irish author’s series about a private eye with one foot in the standard mystery genre and the other in the supernatural. A plane wreck in the Maine woods yields no bodies, but does contain a list of people who have sold their souls to the devil, unleashing, well, the wrath of angels.

Unusual Uses for Olive Oil, Alexander McCall Smith, (Anchor PBK Original)

Smith last novel featuring the philologist, Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, was At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances (2004). Kirkus feels this character deserves his second billing to Smith’s more popular characters; “Gently but invincibly obtuse, von Igelfeld is too much an elephantine cartoon to inspire the love readers have given Precious Ramotswe and Isabel Dalhousie.” The olive oil? Von Igelfeld uses it to remedy the sticky wheels of a one-legged dachshund’s prosthetic device.

Childrens

The Very Fairy Princess Follows Her Heart, Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, (Hachette/LBYR)

The fourth in the series by the ever-popular actress and her daughter. In this one, Gerry throws herself into creating Valentines. Says Kirkus, “Andrews and Hamilton’s text successfully captures the enthusiastic urgency of their impish protagonist. What truly impresses is Davenier’s ink-and–colored-pencil artwork that vividly portrays Gerry’s every emotion, whether she is over-the-top happy or utterly disappointed.”

Nonfiction

The World Until Yesterday, Jared Diamond, (Penguin/Viking; Penguin Audio)

The anthropologist and  author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, writes in this new book about how people in tribal New Guinea deal with universal issues. Diamond has whetted readers’ appetites with an excerpt in Newsweek magazine about how they handle child rearing (yes, it appears the tribal people of New Guinea, like the French and the Chinese, do it better than we do).

The Insurgents Fred Kaplan, (Simon & Schuster)

Just as Patraeus is fading from news headlines, this assessment of his legacy arrives. Reviewing the book in the NYT this week, Janet Maslin says “The title of The Insurgents is a clever reference to the rebellious, Petraeus-led faction within the American military, not to the guerrilla fighters American soldiers fought abroad. And it is a painstaking, step-by-step account of how these insurgents’ ideas bubbled up into the mainstream.” Don’t look for details on his relationship with Paula Broadwell. Maslin says, “Mr. Kaplan has tacked on a one-page coda” about that indicates”Ms. Broadwell is only one of the miscalculations that an admirable but dangerously unrealistic Mr. Petraeus has made.”

Movie Tie-ins

Parker: Movie Tie-in Edition, originally published as Flashfire, Richard Stark, (University Of Chicago Press)

Based on the character featured in 24 novels by Donald Westlake, writing as Richard Stark, the movie Parker, directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez, opens Jan. 25

A book that’s been called the “Sci-fi Fifty Shades of Grey” (as in, a self-published book that became such a hit that Hollywood came knocking — NOT because it takes eroticism into space), Hugh Howey’s Wool, is going to be released in paperback and hardcover by S&S, this coming March. Wool began life as short story, followed by four more titles, which are collected in Wool – Omnibus Edition (Amazon/CreateSpace; 9781469984209), available through wholesalers as print-on-demand and owned by several libraries.

Back in April, Howey told Publishers Weekly, that he had not made a deal with an American publisher (although he had one with Random House in the UK), because he found the terms being offered unattractive. On his Web site, Howey says he decided to go with S&S because, “This deal is all about the new publishing paradigm. There are no clauses limiting what I can write and how quickly I can release. I keep control over the ebooks, which means the prices will stay where they are.”

While he doesn’t mention it specifically, he has chosen to go with a publisher that does not make their ebooks available to libraries. He does mention libraries in his announcement of the deal, but makes a common erroneous assumption about the preferred library format:

And it gets better. Simon and Schuster is planning a simultaneous paperback and hardback release … It’s the best of all possible worlds. Affordable e-books published swiftly, paperbacks where anyone can find them, hardbacks for the libraries.

Ridley Scott is producing the film and has hired J. Blakeson as the director.

Below, Howey gives many more details about the book deal (as part of the post, “Luddites, Rejoice!” because print book are for Luddites. Presumably, that includes libraries):

Now that Oprah has picked the 39-year-old’s first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (RH/Knopf; BOT Audio; RH Audio and RH Large Print), as the second title in her Book Club 2.0, many are asking who Ayana Mathis is.

The media is responding. She is interviewed in the New York Times today (her writing mentor is Marilynne Robinson) and, on the Oprah Club site, Mathis writes about overcoming obstacles (as a tour operator in Florence, she had to learn Italian) and on making difficult choices (“When in Doubt, Cook Italian”).

Oprah interviews Mathis on her “Super Soul Sunday” show, February 3 at 11 a.m. ET.

The debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis (RH/Knopf) has been chosen as the next title in Oprah’s Book Club 2.0.

The book was originally scheduled for publication in January, but the date has now been moved up to tomorrow, Dec. 6.

RH Library Marketing alerts librarians that the original ISBN’s have been changed and they will need to place new orders.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Oprah’s Book Club 2.0) Ayana Mathis Retail Price:  $24.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2012-12-06) EAN: 9780385350280

Regular Ebook: 9780385350303, $12.99

Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 Digital Edition: 9780385350297, $12.99

BOT CD: 9780804127271

BOT Library Download: 9780804127288

Large Print, Trade Pbk.: 9780804121026, $26.00

Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist all starred the book. The author was interviewed in PW last month.

Do More, Spend Less: The New Secrets of Living the Good Life for Less (Wiley) is a title with special appeal in today’s economic climate, so it comes as no surprise that it is rising on Amazon sales rankings. Currently, it is at #38, two months prior to its Jan. 14 publication date.

It is by Brad Wilson, the found of the coupon website, BradsDeals.com, who was profiled by Crain’s Chicago Business in August.

Libraries we checked have not ordered it at this point.

Random House announces that they will publish a novel by Elizabeth Strout, the author of the Pulitzer Prize winner Olive Kitteridge. Titled The Burgess Boys, it will be released on March 26. It will also be released in audio by RH Audio as well as BOT Audio.

The publisher’s description indicates that Strout is on familiar territory, exploring family relationships in a small New England town:

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

Now officially a best seller, Dearie, Bob Sptiz’s bio of Julia Child debuts on the Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller list at #5, during the week that marks the 100th anniversary of the author’s birth.

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child  Bob Spitz Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: RH/Knopf – (2012-08-07) ISBN / EAN: 0307272222 / 9780307272225

Random House Audio; BOT Audio (strong review from AudioFile).

Child’s landmark book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, also receives a boost this week, rising to #40 on Amazon sales rankings. Few would have anticipated this continued success fifty years ago, certainly not the publishers, Alfred A. and Blanche Knopf, who prided themselves on publishing “important” books. Cookbooks were not considered important and those they did publish could be out of step with the times. Spitz writes that the recipes in an earlier Knopf French cookbook served a surprisingly large quantity of people. When asked why, the author responded that one had to feed the help.

But Child’s book came along at the perfect time. As Spitz points out, American women were being exhorted to use convenience foods, turning the kitchen into a factory assembly line. Julia appealed to women’s desire to reach for something more.

A first edition of the book that was published so reluctantly is currently offered for sale on AbeBooks.com for $6,500. Mastering the Art of French Cooking , as well as Child’s other titles, have become staples on the Knopf list.

One of our “Watch List” titles, The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, (Penguin/Riverhead; Thorndike Large Print; Blackstone Audio; Penguin Audio) is taking off in most libraries, with holds averaging 10:1 where ordering is modest. Wendy Bartlett at Cuyahoga P.L. is one who ordered it fairly heavily. Nonetheless, she alerts us that she has more than doubled her original order, expecting it to be hot all summer. She credits the book’s popularity to this year’s surprise hit movie, The Artist; “all of a sudden, silent is sexy.”

In the  NYT today, Janet Maslin writes that  “The energy source for Laura Moriarty’s new novel, The Chaperone, is its secondary character: Louise Brooks, at the age of 15,” suggesting fans read Brooks’s own collection of reminiscences, Lulu in Hollywood; “These eight essays are selective, nostalgic, poison-tipped and fearlessly smart.”

Originally published by Knopf in 1982, the collection is currently available in an expanded edition from the University of Minnesota Press.

Lulu In Hollywood: Expanded Edition Louise Brooks Retail Price: $19.95 Paperback: 184 pages Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press – (2000-07-10) ISBN / EAN: 0816637318 / 9780816637317

A press release on Stephen King’s Web site announces that Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, is tentatively scheduled for publication on January 15 of next year. Update:  S&S/Scribner; 9781451698848; $30; 544 pgs; on-sale date as 1/15/13.

In a recent interview with Neil Gaiman, King talks about Dr. Sleep and also says he is working on another new title, Joyland, about an amusement park serial killer.

King’s The Wind Through the Keyhole debuted at #1 on the NYT Fiction Hardcover Best Seller list this week.

Below, King reads from the first chapter of Dr. Sleep at the Savannah Book Fair in February (via Daily Dead). Last fall, he read from another segment at George Mason University.

Publisher description after the jump:

(more…)