Curious about how authors respond to copy edits?

The advance readers copy of Anthony Horowitz’s Moriarty (Harper, 12/9/14) accidentally includes some testy exchanges. The New York Times details a few of them in yesterday’s Arts Beat blog, adding, that, although amusing, “It is no big deal: Mr. Horowitz did not use unsavory language, abuse the copy editors, or expose some fantastic dispute between himself and his publishers. At most, there is firm authorial pushback. ”

The book, the followup to the author’s popular The House of Silk,(Hachette/Mulholland, 2011) has not yet been reviewed in library review sources (it is noted in LJ‘s “Prepub Alert“).

Wendy Bartlett, head of collection development at Cuyahoga P.L, Ohio, got her hands on a galley. She also found the copy editing comments hilarious, but, as she says in a readers advisory to the branch staff, there are many more reasons to read it:

Anthony Horowitz has held young thriller fans in thrall with his popular Alex Rider series for a long time. He’s also turned his considerable talents to adult books and to one of my favorites — the Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes canon. If you missed it, 2011’s The House of Silk was his first effort at a Holmesian mystery, and it was first rate. It would still be a superb recommend for your traditional mystery fans.

This year, he’s back with Moriarity. I was very much hoping he’d assume Watson’s voice again, but he’s done things very differently in this book. First of all, it opens at Reichenbach Falls, and we all know what happened there. I have to admit, I felt a bit cheated by the denouement, which he seems to spring on the reader, with few clues leading up to it.  It is, nonetheless, a terrific read.

Lena Dunham was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air today about her book, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned,” (Random House; RH Audio). Listen to the interview here.

Tomorrow, she will appear on  ABC’s Good Morning America, followed by the Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Wednesday.

Holds are rising rapidly in libraries on modest ordering. Holds are also rising on the audio, which Dunham narrates.

Books have been doing plenty of crossover into TV, but this week sees the reverse. B.J. Novak, of The Office, is publishing a book for kids and Lena Dunham, of Girls, is Not That Kind of Girl  … the #1 LibraryReads pick for October arrives, Garth Stein’s next novel after his long-time best seller, The Art of Racing in the Rain (no dogs this time) … and Hilary Mantel has already stirred up attention for her new book, a collection of short stories.

All the titles covered here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed, with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord, New Title Radar, Week of 9/29.

Holds Leaders

Burn, James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge, (Hachette/Little,Brown; Hachette Large Print; Hachette Audio) — The newest Detective Bennet thriller (Patterson’s next Alex Cross book, Hope to Die, is right around the corner — coming Nov 24).

The Lost Key, Catherine Coulter, J. T. Ellison, (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance Audio)

The Perfect Witness, Iris Johansen, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Brilliance Audio)

Advance Attention

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories, Hilary Mantel, (Macmillan/Holt; Macmillan Audio)

Short stories rarely cause controversy, but the title story of this collection is making waves in Great Britain. As is clear from that title, this has little to do with the world of the  author’s famous Wolf Hall series. It was reviewed by Janet Maslin in the New York Times this week.

The Wonder of All Things, Jason Mott, (Harlequin/Mira; Brilliance Audio; Wheeler Large Print); OverDrive Sample

Mott’s previous book, his debut, The Returned, is the basis for the ABC series Resurrection. which begins its second season on 9/28/14. This new novel has already been optioned by Lionsgate. Mott is profiled this week in USA Today.

LibraryReads Pick

A Sudden Light, Garth Stein, (Simon and Schuster);  OverDrive Sample

The #1 pick for October., with this recommendation:

“Garth Stein has given us a masterpiece. This beautiful story takes readers on a thrilling exploration of a family estate brimming with generations of riveting Riddell family ghosts and secrets. This is a true exploratory novel, taking readers through secret passageways, hidden rooms, and darkened corridors that engage all of the senses.” — Whitney Gayle, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT

Media

All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid, Matt Bai, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio)

About the scandal that ended Gary Hart’s run for the Presidency. It was excerpted as the NYT Magazine 9/21 cover story, “How Gary Hart’s Downfall Forever Changed American Politics.”

Enough: Our Fight to Keep America Safe from Gun Violence, Gabrielle Giffords, Mark Kelly, (S&S/Scribner)

The former Congresswoman, who was shot in 2011 and nearly died, writes about her efforts, along with her husband Mark Kelly, to promote responsible gun ownership. It will be getting media coverage:

• Parade “Picks,” September 28 issue
• USA Today feature, September 29
• MSNBC-TV/”Morning Joe,” Sept 30
• CNN-TV/”The Lead with Jake Tapper,” September 30
• MSNBC-TV/”Andrea Mitchell Reports,” October 1

Celebs

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned”, Lena Dunham, (Random House; RH Audio)

Now that Michiko Kakutani has given the thumbs up on Dunham’s first book, she can relax and enjoy her upcoming interviews (she was already on the cover of the 9/14 NYT Magazine):

NPR Fresh Air – interview – 9/29
ABC Good Morning America – interview – 9/30
Comedy Central Daily Show – 10/1

The Book with No Pictures, B.J. Novak, (Penguin/Dial)

The actor and writer for The Office, writes his first kids book (his first was for adults, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories). He is profiled in The Atlantic.

Tie-ins

Horns Movie Tie-In Edition, Joe Hill, (HarperCollins/Morrow paperback, Harper mass market)

Movie opens on Halloween

Mockingjay: Movie Tie-In Edition, Suzanne Collins, (Scholastic)

Mockingjay, Part 1, the movie, opens 11/21/14

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World, Steven Johnson, (Penguin/Riverhead; Penguin Audio)

The companion to Johnson’s PBS series premiering Oct. 15. The author appeared on the Daily Show on Thursday.

Young Adult

Belzhar, Meg Wolitzer, (Penguin/Dutton Juvenile; RH/Listening Library); OverDrive Sample

The author’s first Y.A. title.

Audio sample:

Katy Simpson Smith has received enviable attention for her first novel, The Story of Land and Sea, (Harper; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio, 8/26/14 ). Vogue magazine profiled the author, under the headline, “Katy Simpson Smith’s Luminous Novel Is Set to Be the Debut of the Year.”

The Washington Post saw in the novel echoes of Hilary Mantel‘s Wolf Hall series, in that it “works to breathe life into history using the immediacy of the present tense. Its finely wrought (sometimes overwrought) language blends startling details of the everyday with a dreamy, aphoristic quality. The effect is to root the novel in its historical moment but to reach toward the universal in its exploration of love and grief.”

Wendy Bartlett, head of collection development at Cuyahoga P.L, Ohio, agrees that those details of daily life are “startling,” but not necessarily in a good way. She opened a discussion with branch staff about the book, via the following comments on the staff intranet.

Have you noticed the trend toward Realism with a capital “R” that has been hitting historical fiction? I get that living in 1793 was no picnic, but seriously, leave the ick factor to my imagination, okay?

I first noticed this with last year’s Longbourn by Jo Baker, a book I loved, but if there had been one more paragraph about chamber pots, I swear I’d have pitched it across the room. And Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. Great book as a long as you aren’t depressed when you start it, because trust me, you will be when you finish it. Did I really need to know how grungy Iceland was in 1829? I have been blessed with a great imagination. Oh, Writer. Trust your readers. We could have figured it out.

And now along comes The Story of Land and Sea, an excellent historical novel with lots of good historical detail woven in, lots of examination of how people in 1793 North Carolina thought and believed and therefore behaved differently than we do, which is superbly done, but ugh—when you get to the part about yellow fever. Again, Oh, Writer, I can color in those details myself.

I wonder if this is part of a larger cultural change. Are people so accustomed to visual entertainment that writers have to literally give us the gory details to make it real for people used to getting their mental pictures drawn for them on Xbox and HBO?

If your customers like extremely well written historical novels with carefully crafted character development, they’ll love The Story of Land and Sea, but if they are more to the Gentle Reader side of the scale, they’d be happier with Light Between the Oceans or The Invention of Wings.

Several of Cuyahoga staff members responded that they like those details, including Susan Levinsohn, who wrote,

I think we are more tolerant than we were even 10 yrs. ago for the reasons you mentioned above. Senior ladies are not asking for cozies like they used to and don’t mind reading the more graphic fiction. I also think many people that read historical fiction (including myself) like to read background information that does represent the times. I like to get a “feel” for the times and the people of the era as well as the story woven around it. I think if part of the appeal for the reader is the history then the details, however “icky” are more likely taken in as just true to the times. I like Miss Marple but I’ll take Burial Rites too.

As Wendy says, it’s important to understand your customers preferences when making recommendations.

Read the first chapter here.

First there was:

This fall there’s:

Like the first book, this one will be published by Brooklyn indie press, Akashic Books, 978-1617753787, 11/27/14 (ship date, 10/27/14).

The official announcement is being covered widely by the press, including Entertainment Weekly, ABC News, and the L.A. Times

Given how famously insecure Lena Dunham is, we can’t help but think she was nervous when she learned that her forthcoming book, Not That Kind of Girl, (Random House; RH/BOT Audio; 9/30) was going to be reviewed in advance of publication, by the daily NYT‘s famously stringent Pulitzer Prize winning reviewer, Michiko Kakutani.

She may have even made the following video, one of a series, to address such reviewers.

She need not have worried. Michiko likes it, a LOT.

Dunham, of course, narrates the audiobook (RH/BOT). A short sample here.

After a glowing, gotta-read-the-book review on the cover of the 9/21 New York Times Book Review, Jeff Hobbs, the author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League,  (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio) was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday.

Library holds are rising on modest ordering.

Read a sample via OverDrive.

On NPR’s All Things Considered today, Maureen Corrigan calls Sarah Waters’ new novel, The Paying Guests, (Penguin/Riverhead; BOT, read by Juliet Stevenson), “a knockout.”

A September LibraryReads pick, it also received a strong review in Sunday’s New York Times Book Review and the daily NYT has profiled the author.

The book #3 on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List” of “The Top 10 Thing We Love This Week.” which calls it, “One of the year’s most engrossing and suspenseful novels.”

Holds are growing in the libraries we checked.

Oldboy director Park Chan-wook plans to adapt Waters’ earlier novel, Fingersmith, (Penguin/: Riverhead, 2002) as a feature film (Variety calls that one a “sexy crime story“).

OverDrive Sample

Get ready for the following books, arriving next week.

All the titles listed here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed, with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet,New Title Radar, Week of 9/22/14.

Leading the Holds Lists

Bones Never Lie, Kathy Reichs, (RH/Bantam; RH Audio; RH Large Print); OverDrive Sample

Reichs, a forensic anthropologist, made the general public aware that there is such a thing through her Bones series featuring, Temperance Brennan. She appears in two forms next week, in the 17th title in the book series, as well as in the tenth season of Bones, which begins on Fox this coming Thursday.

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General, Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard,  (Macmillan/Holt; Macmillan Audio; Wheeler L.P.) OverDrive Sample

This is that rare exception, a book of history that gets coverage in Page Six of the New York Post.

National Book Award Nominee

Skink–No Surrender, Carl Hiaasen, (RH/Knopf Books for Young Readers; RH/Listening Library) OverDrive Sample

Hiassen transitions well. An investigative reporter, he began writing novels for adults with a humorous twist that went on to become best sellers. His first novel for kids, Hoot, 2002, won the Newbery Medal. This, his first novel for teens, is on the longlist for the National Book Award for Young People’s literature. Many adult readers are familiar with Skink, who appeared in six books, beginning with Double Whammy. In the one, he helps a teen find his missing cousin.

LibraryReads Picks

Rooms, Lauren Oliver, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperLuxe; Blackstone Audio)

LibraryReads recommendation:

“A family comes to terms with their estranged father’s death in Oliver’s first novel for adults. Told from the perspective of two ghosts living in the old house, this unique story weaves characters and explores their various past connections. Great book!” — Rachel Fewell, Denver Public Library, Denver, CO

Horrorstor, Grady Hendrix, (Quirk Books; Blackstone Audio)

LibraryReads recommendation:

“You know how some horror movies would work better as novels? Horrorstor is that book, perfectly capturing everything that is terrific about the horror genre. In its catalog-style pages, you’ll find a hefty dose of satire, as a Scandinavian furniture store is transformed overnight into a prison. With characters that you’re rooting for and terror that creeps up on you, Horrorstor will keep you up all night in the best possible way.” — Donna Matturri, Pickerington Public Library, Pickerington, OH

If you have a hard time imaging a novel in the form of a catalog, it may be even harder to imagine that novel as an audiobook, but the Blackstone sample indicates that they’ve pulled it off.

Horrorstor was one of EarlyWord Kids Correspondent Lisa Von Drasek’s discoveries at Book Expo this year, It also became a GalleyChat favorite and was recently featured in the blog Boing Boing.

In the Media

A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention, Matt Richtel, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperAudio), OverDrive Sample

If you heard Richtel speak at this year’s BEA/AAP Librarians Lunch, you won’t forget his quiet passion about the dangers of texting and driving, as illustrated by one young man’s life that was ruined by a moment’s inattention. The basis for the book is Richtel’s New York Times articles about “distracted driving,” which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 2010. This week, his article, “Trying to Hit the Brake on Texting While Driving” appeared in the business section, as did a second one, “A Texting Driver’s Education,” excerpted from the book.

How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran, (Harper; HarperAudio), OverDrive Sample

“A British version of Almost Famous, delivered from a female perspective and set two decades later … dirtier and funnier … it’s a sexual coming-of-age story as much as anything else — and one that, crucially, has a hard, glowing kernel of class awareness,” says Dwight Garner in a review in the NYT this week.  Lena Dunham, to whom Moran has also been compared, contributes a blurb, featured in a bright pink spot on the cover,  “I have so much love for Caitlin Moran.” Dunham’s own book, Not That Kind of Girl, (Random House; RH Audio), arrives in a couple of weeks.

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League, Jeff Hobbs, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio), OverDrive Sample

One of the titles that New York magazine dubbed, “the hottest of Book Expo 2014,” (all but one of which has gone on to receive major attention), this is the true story of the author’s former Yale roommate, who seemed to be on the path to success after a rocky start. It gets a gotta-read-it cover review in the 9/21 New York Times Book Review and the author is slated for an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition on Tuesday.

The founder of the indie rock band The Mountain Goats, John Darnielle, was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday. He is also the author of Wolf in White Van, (Macmillan/FSG), released on Monday and just announced as one of the titles on the National Book Awards longlist. The interview begins with Darnielle reading from the opening of the book. Listen here.

The book is also reviewed on NPR’s web site.

The author is also interviewed in the new issue of  New York Magazine.

OverDrive Sample

Note: Some sources say this is Darnielle’s first novel, but it’s actually his second, after Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, (2008), which is still available from Bloomsbury/Continiuum and is on several library catalogs.

We had to invent a new category, “Hard to Call,”  for Lauren Beukes’s new title, Broken Monsters, (Hachette/Mulholland Books) in our look-ahead to books arriving this week. Its graphic murder scenes and “grotesque and perpetual sense of doom,” as Entertainment Weekly says, may put off readers.

NPR’s reviewer has no such problem saying, “You could say that she’s as edgy as James Ellroy, as creepy as Stephen King and as darkly funny as Kurt Vonnegut, but Beukes is an author whose work is resistant to easy comparisons. Broken Monsters is one of the most remarkable books of the year, and one of the best suspense novels you’ll read in quite some time.” Stephen King himself tweeted that it’s “Scary as hell and hypnotic. I couldn’t put it down.”

Buekes’s 2013 title, The Shining Girls, (Hachette/Mulholland), was dubbed  “a strong contender for the role of this summer’s universal beach read,”  by the NYT‘s Janet Maslin. While it didn’t achieve that status, it received some strong reviews and hit #13 on the L.A. Times best seller list.

If you want to judge this one for yourself, you can read the grisly first chapter in the OverDrive Sample. Tell us what you think in the comments.

Many were surprised that David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, (Random House, 9/2/14; Recorded Books) didn’t make the transition from the Booker longlist to the shortlist, but Mitchell can take solace in the fact that it debuts at #3 on the 9/21 NYT Hardcover Fiction best Seller list, the highest spot so far for any of the published longlist titles.

Wendy Bartlett, head of collection development at Cuyahoga P.L, Ohio, is a fan. She alerted branch staff last week,

I love it when the customers are ahead of me! David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) has come roaring back with yet another spendidly written, mind-bending read. I thought The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet was brilliant, but this book is astounding, and the customers have snatched every last copy.

The heroine — if you can call her that — is Holly Sykes (Holly, as in GoLightly? Sykes as in Bill Sykes from Oliver Twist?) David Mitchell loves nothing more than to keep you wondering, and wonder you will. He’s also one of the most evocative writers I’ve ever read, literally painting pictures with words — it’s no wonder Hollywood is tempted to make films of his books. To say he enjoys playing with the timeline, and your reality, is an understatement, and of course, that’s his plan. It’s your job to relax and enjoy the ride.

You don’t really read Mitchell, so much as experience him. If you haven’t read Mitchell, this is the perfect novel with which to start.

Happy Experiencing!

You can read the first chapter via OverDrive.

[NOTE: If you landed here from our 9/19 newsletter — sorry for the incorrect link — the correct one is 8 Titles To Make You An R.A. Guru, Week of 9/22/14]

Get ready next week for a title expected to be the first blockbuster of the fall (B&N’s CEO has his fingers crossed for it) … Two LibraryReads picks are ripe for recommending … Stephen King plays readers advisor for Lauren Beukes’s followup to her much discussed 2013 title, The Shining Girls.

All the titles listed here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed, with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of 9:15:14

Heavy Holds

Edge of Eternity: Book Three of The Century Trilogy, Ken Follett, (Penguin/Dutton; Penguin Audio; Vintage Espanol), OverDrive Sample

Here’s an odd, but probably welcome bit of advance publicity. In a conference call with stock market analysts last week, Barnes and Noble’s CEO cited The Edge of Eternity as one of the books that makes him ”excited about the title lineup that will lead us in to the holiday season” (i.e., he’s expecting it will make cash registers ring) along with George W. Bush’s 41 : A Portrait of My Father, Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Patton and John Grisham’s Gray Mountain.

Another indicator of big expectations for this, the final (and longest; the audio is 36 hours long) book in the author’s twentieth-century trilogy; Janet Maslin reviewed it a full two weeks prior to publication and Follett was profiled in the 9/4 NYT Book Review (his take on Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch? “Reading a novel about people taking drugs is like being at a party where everyone else is stoned.”).

The Golem of Hollywood, Jonathan Kellerman, Jesse Kellerman, (Penguin/Putnam; coming from BOT Audio), OverDrive Sample

Kellerman has written two books with his wife Faye. This is his first collaboration with his son, Jesse, who has published several books of his own. Prepub reviews go from dismal (PW, a “muddled supernatural thriller:) to strong (Booklist, “Combining the procedural structure of Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels with the character-driven plotting of son Jesse’s fiction, the novel is a solidly plotted thriller”).  A sequel is in the works.

The Infinite Sea: The Second Book of the 5th Wave, Rick Yancey, (Penguin/Putnam Juvenile; Dreamscape Audio; Thorndike), OverDrive Sample

Holds are heavy for this sequel to a best selling Y.A. title. Adding more interest, production has begun in Atlanta for the movie adaptation of the first book in the series, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, who also stars in a film currently in theaters, the adaptation of Gayle Forman’s YA title,  If I Stay.

Library Reads

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory, Caitlin Doughty, (Norton; Recorded Books audio coming in March)

The number one LibraryReads title for September:

“Part memoir, part exposé of the death industry, and part instruction manual for aspiring morticians. First-time author Doughty has written an attention-grabbing book that is sure to start some provocative discussions. Fans of Mary Roach’s Stiff and anyone who enjoys an honest, well-written autobiography will appreciate this quirky story.” — Patty Falconer, Hampstead Public Library, Hampstead, NH

The author is scheduled for an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air on Oct. 1.

The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters, (Penguin/Riverhead; BOT), OverDrive Sample

LibraryReads recommendation:

You can almost bet that a situation with long-term guests–paying or not–is not going to turn out well. This novel by Waters, who many know from her earlier books Tipping the Velvet and The Little Stranger, will keep you turning the page to see just how tense things can get, and how far fear and passion can push someone. — Elizabeth Angelastro, Manlius Library, Manlius, NY

Also #3 on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List” of “The Top 10 Thing W Love This Week” which calls it, “One of the year’s most engrossing and suspenseful novels.” In the review section, the magazine gives it an A. Also, the NYT profiles the author. Waters’ name recognition is growing in Hollywood as well, Oldboy director Park Chan-wook plans to adapt Waters’ 2002 novel, Fingersmith, as a feature film.

Hard to Call

Broken Monsters, Lauren Beukes, (Hachette/Mulholland Books), OverDrive Sample

Stephen King tweeted:

BROKEN MONSTERS, by Lauren Beukes: Scary as hell and hypnotic. I couldn’t put it down. Next month. I’d grab it, if I were you

Entertainment Weekly blogs that it is “What We’re Reading Now,” but gives it a left-handed compliment, “If, however, the grotesque and a perpetual sense of doom sound oddly appealing — you have most likely just found the perfect book for you!” In the magazine’s review section, it gets a B+.

In the Media

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, Naomi Klein, (S&S; S&S Audio), OverDrive Sample

Social activist Klein, author of the anti-globalization manifesto, No Logo, has been a favorite with the media. Her new book takes on climate change and will get the Colbert bump on 9/23. She is also scheduled to appear on HBO’s RealTime with Bill Maher, September 26.

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David, Lawrence Wright, (RH/Knopf; BOT), OverDrive Sample

One of three titles on the cover of this week’s New York Times Book Review, Joel Klein says this “is a magnificent book with an unusual provenance. It began as a play called Camp David.” It’s also reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, which gives it an solid A.

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan, Jenny Nordberg, (RH/Crown; RH Audio), OverDrive Sample

Will be featured on next week’s NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

Tie-In

Raging Heat, Richard Castle, (Hachette/Disney; Hachette Audio)

Is it a tie-in, or a spin-off? On TV, Richard Castle, co-star of the ABC series, Castle, is a mystery writer. In the show, which begins its seventh season on Sept. 29th, he writes about a female NYC cop, Nikki Heat. In print, a team of writers is behind the pseudonym, “Richard Castle” whose books feature a female NYC cop, Nikki Heat. All five of the previous titles in the series have hit best seller lists, some at #1. This one has multiple holds in most libraries.

The number one LibraryReads pick for next month is Garth Stein’s novel, A Sudden Light (S&S; S&S Audio; 9/30). The author has a lot to live up to. His earlier title, The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper, 2008) was a word-of-mouth hit that became a long-running best seller.

Librarian Whiney Gayle makes you want to start reading it right now (and you can, it’s available from Edelweiss and NetGalley until the end of the month):

“Garth Stein has given us a masterpiece. This beautiful story takes readers on a thrilling exploration of a family estate brimming with generations of riveting Riddell family ghosts and secrets. This is a true exploratory novel, taking readers through secret passageways, hidden rooms, and darkened corridors that engage all of the senses.” — Whitney Gayle, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; Thorndike, Dec. 10), a LibraryReads pick for September, is getting enviable media attention. It is People magazine’s “Book of the Week” in the new issue; “Though it centers on civilization’s collapse in the aftermath of a devastating flu, this mesmerizing novel isn’t just apocalyptic fantasy — it’s also an intricately layered character study of human life itselff,” gets an A from Entertainment Weekly and the author was profiled by the  New York Times last week.

LibraryReads recommendation:

An actor playing King Lear dies onstage just before a cataclysmic event changes the future of everyone on Earth. What will be valued and what will be discarded? Will art have a place in a world that has lost so much? What will make life worth living? These are just some of the issues explored in this beautifully written dystopian novel. Recommended for fans of David Mitchell, John Scalzi and Kate Atkinson. — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC

OverDrive Sample