Yes, it’s true. He was interviewed about both roles on the Today Show:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

His new book, the children’s title, Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar which came out yesterday, is now at #8 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar

Theodora Richards, Keith Richards

Hachette/ Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

There is a little geek in all of us.  I was a liberal arts major who did the happy dance when that last required physics class was over, but Randall  Munroe’s What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (HMH; Blackstone Audio; 9/2/14) is so laugh aloud funny, I almost did a spit take with my coffee while reading it this morning.

The book is a collection of the most popular answers to crazy science questions posed by readers of Munroe’s XKCD webcomic, with additional new “out of the box” questions.

For example “What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity?”

Munroe’s answer begins, “Nearly everyone would die. Then things would get interesting,” and leads us through the science of the situation in cartoon format, interrupted occasionally by a wise-cracking stick figure.

Published as an adult book What if? is the very definition of the crossover. I can imagine an 8th grade teacher posing one of these questions a day, using them to lead humorously engaging discussions that help to develop critical thinking.

Check your holds; you will probably find you need more copies.

Note: Cory Doctorow is also a fan and notes on BoingBoing that What If? is available as an audiobook, “which is a weird idea, given how much the explanations rely on Munroe’s charming diagrams. But the book is read by Wil Wheaton, who is, for my money, the best audiobook narrator working today, and it was produced by Blackstone audio and recorded at Skyboat in Los Angeles, who do outstanding work, and they all labored mightily with Munroe to turn the diagrams into spoken word (and there’s an accompanying PDF, which also helps).”

Among the usual suspects next week, J.D. Robb’s Festive in Death (Penguin/Putnam; Brilliance; Wheeler), a Christmas-themed story featuring  detective Eve Dallas, leads in number of holds and copies ordered by libraries.  OverDrive Sample

A distant second is Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot by Reed Farrel Coleman, (Penguin/Putnam; RH Audio; Thorndike) the first in a four-book deal by the Edgar nominee with Parker’s estate. The books feature Parker’s other detective (not the more popular Spenser), Jesse Stone. Coleman is the second author to write Stone novels, Michael Brandman wrote three previous titles. The publisher claims that the Coleman ” takes Jesse Stone back to his introspective roots—restoring some of the contemplative melancholy that first made the Jesse Stone series a hit” but Booklist says this book is more Coleman than Parker and that’s a good thing. OverDrive Sample

Close on Parker’s heels is The King’s Curse by Philippa Gregory, which concludes the Cousins’ War series, the basis for the Starz miniseries The White Queen. The producer hinted in January that it might be followed by a sequel, based on The White Princess. OverDrive Sample

The books mentioned here, plus several other notable titles arriving next week, with ordering information and alternative formats, are listed on our donwloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Sept 8, 2014

Literary Hits

The Children Act, Ian McEwan, (RH/Doubleday/Nan A. Talese; Recorded Books: Wheeler), OverDrive Sample

There’s already a great deal of critical attention for the latest by the author of Atonement. It’s a People “Best Book of the Week” and  #3 on Entertainment Weekly “Must List,” reviewed by Mona Simpson in the L.A. Times and by Ron Charles in the Washington Post. The author also has a full round of publicity coming, including interviews on the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

It is also a LibraryReads pick:

“Judge Fiona Maye is at a difficult point in her marriage. Taking refuge in addressing other people’s problems in family court, Fiona extends herself more than usual, meeting a boy whose future is in her hands. McEwan is a masterful observer of human distress. With a simple story and flawed, genuine characters, this novel is poignant and insightful.” — Jennifer Alexander, St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO

The Dog, Joseph O’Neill, (RH/Pantheon; RH Audio),  OverDrive Sample

After his 2008 literary breakthrough, Netherland. Like that book, this one is also on the Book long list (although the odds are not in its favor. It is currently 12:1). It us the cover of the upcoming New York Times Book Review, “With a consummate elegance, The Dog turns in on itself in imitation of the dreadful circling and futility of consciousness itself. Its subplots go nowhere, as in life. But, unlike life, its wit and brio keep us temporarily more alive than we usually allow ourselves to be.”

In the daily NYT, however, Michiko Kakutani has no patience for it, saying the novel “remains parked inside its sullen narrator’s head — which, we soon realize, is a suffocating place to be.”

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-.

The author is scheduled to appear on the upcoming NPR Weekend Edition Saturday.

LibraryReads Picks

In addition to The Dog, three more September LibraryReads picks arrive next week.

Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; Thorndike, Dec. 10), OverDrive Sample

“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

The New York Times plans to profile the author next week.

The Distance: A Thriller, Helen Giltrow, (RH/Doubleday; RH Audio),  OverDrive Sample

“Imagine a modern-day Robin Hood who deals not in money, but identity. Karla, the protagonist of The Distance, is a tech guru with a conscience, and the security of several nations dependent on her. This nuanced book kept me on the edge of my seat. I cannot wait until the next one comes out.” — Cathy Scheib, Indianapolis Public Library, Indianapolis, IN

The Witch with No Name, Kim Harrison, (Harper Voyager),  OverDrive Sample

“In this book, Harrison ends her long-running Hollows series, featuring witch Rachel Morgan, vampire Ivy, and pixy Jenks. Rachel’s come a long way; now, she and her friends attempt the impossible and face their toughest battle yet. Harrison skillfully wraps up many plot points, leaving readers sad that the series is over but satisfied by its ending. Fans will surely cheer Rachel on and shed a tear or two.” — Ilene Lefkowitz, Denville Public Library, Denville, NJ

Potential Sleeper Hit

Neverhome, Laird Hunt, (Hachette/ Little Brown; Blackstone Audio), OverDrive Sample

A hit on GalleyChat, this is also one of three “Sleeper Hit” predictions in USA Today‘s roundup of bookseller’s predictions for the fall.  Wendy Bartlett, head of collection development at Cuyahoga P.L, Ohio, recently recommended it to staff, buying extra copies for browsing:

You simply must read this slim and brilliant novel–but read slowly and savor. It’s a subtle story, but a very powerful one that will linger long after you’ve read it. To describe the plot as one in which a woman disguises herself as a Civil War soldier and goes to war is to do it a great disservice. This book is so much more.

With a nod to Gilman’s Yellow Wallpaper, a touch of both Middlesex and Cold Mountain, Neverhome is a pitch perfect symphony—or maybe jazz rendition—about identity, war, and fate. And it’s gorgeously written. Book discussion and prize winner heaven right here.

Media Hits

Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World, Kirsten Gillibrand, (RH/Ballantine; RH Audio), OverDrive Sample

Listening to the advice in her book’s title, the U.S senator from New York raised her voice this week about sexism in Washington (inspiring a great bit by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show). Gillibrand will appear on Stewart’s show on Tuesday, as well as on several other shows:

NBC Today Show – 9/9
NPR Diane Rehm – 9/10
MSNBC Morning Joe
PBS Charlie Rose –  9/10

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns, (RH/Knopf)

The companion book to the PBS series which begins 9/14.

Burns is scheduled for appearances on:

NPR All Things Considered – 9/10
NPR Diane Rehm – 9/11
Comedy Central The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – 9/15

The new issue of Entertainment Weekly challenges readers with the question, “Do YOU Know Elena Ferrante?” (story not online yet).

If you don’t, you’re in good company. It turns out the author of this “rare interview” with Ferrante (Vogue also has one this month) hadn’t heard of her either until this summer, although “the Italian author’s urgent, blistering fiction has made her something of a cult sensation here in America.”

Attesting to that cult status, the New Yorker‘s redoubtable critic James Wood profiled Ferrante last year calling her “one of Italy’s best-known least-known contemporary writers … Compared with Ferrante, Thomas Pynchon is a publicity profligate.” Just last week, the New York Times Magazine asked three authors to address the question, “Who is Elena Ferrante?”

Entertainment Weekly goes on to call her Neapolitan series of novels, the third of which, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, was just released, “an intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends Lila and Elena, Bright and passionate girls from a raucous neighborhood in world-class Naples. Ferrante writes with such aggression  and unnerving psychological insight about the messy complexity of female friendship that the real world can drop away when you’re reading her,”

In the U.S., Ferrante is published by  Europa Editions.

The Neapolitan series:

#1  My Brilliant Friend, 2012  — OverDrive Sample

#2 The Story of a New Name, 2013 — OverDrive Sample

#3 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, 9/2/14 — OverDrive Sample

Other titles available in the U.S, (all also from Europa Editions):

The Days of Abandonment, 2005 — OverDrive Sample

Troubling Love,  2008 — OverDrive Sample

The Lost Daughter, 2008 — OverDrive Sample

Of the books arriving next week one title leads by far in terms of holds and library orders, Lee Child’s 19th Jack Reicher novel, Personal, (RH/Delacorte; RH Large Print; RH Audio; OverDrive Sample). Fans may have recovered from the shock of Tom Cruise as the imposing Reicher in last year’s movie. Although it didn’t do well domestically, it went on to do so well internationally, that a sequel based on last year’s Never Go Back is reportedly in the works. Child is scheduled for appearances on NPR’s Weekend Edition on Sunday and on CBS This Morning on Monday.

Reviewers are in a race to be the first to cover Tana French’s latest, The Secret Place,  (Penguin/Viking; Penguin Audio; Thorndike; OverDrive Sample). The NYT ‘s Janet Maslin reviewed it a full week before publication, and it is People‘s “Book of the Week” in  the 9/8 issue. Librarians got there first, however, making it a LibraryReads pick for September:

French has broken my heart yet again with her fifth novel, which examines the ways in which teenagers and adults can be wily, calculating, and backstabbing, even with their friends. The tension-filled flashback narratives, relating to a murder investigation in suburban Dublin, will keep you turning pages late into the night. — Alison McCarty, Nassau County Public Library System, Callahan, FL

Even more reviewers are piling on one of the big literary novels of the season, The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell, (Random House). It’s already reviewed by Meg Wolitzer on NPR’s All Things Considered (“one of the most entertaining and thrilling novels I can remember”), by Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times (who is not as big a fan; “Mr. Mitchell’s writing has also become increasingly self-indulgent”), Ron Charles in the Washington Post (who clearly is a fan) and as the lead title in the New York Times Book Review. (‘Other writers may be more moving, and some may push deeper, but very few excite the reader about both the visceral world and the visionary one as Mitchell does.”) Despite all this attention, library holds are relatively low on modest orders. OverDrive Sample

The books mentioned here, plus several other notable titles arriving next week, with ordering information and alternative formats, are listed on our donwloadable spreadsheet, New Title Radar, Week of Sept. 1, 2014

Librarian Recommendation

Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, Jan Karon, (Penguin/Putnam; Penguin Audio); OverDrive Sample

Wendy Bartlett of Cuyahoga Public Library, highlights this as a “hot title” to branch staff, and is also buying more copies of the series’ backlist:

Welcome back to Mitford! After a long hiatus, Jan Karon is back with Father Tim, Cynthia, Barnabas, and all the characters that have populated the various Mitford novels. And it’s just as Mitford-y as ever, which is a nice way of saying Karon has recycled about three different plots from the old novels, BUT HEY it’s Mitford, and the customers are already lining up for it, including me. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Mitford and all the old favorite characters again, and our customers will too. And there’s a bookstore involved this time, so you can’t beat that!

We’ve ordered what backlist we can of the Mitford series, as some customers may want to backtrack and/or discover Mitford for the first time.

In the Media

Gabriel: A Poem, Edward Hirsch, (RH/Knopf); OverDrive Sample

Entertainment Weekly reviews poet Hirsch’s elegy for his son who died at 22, giving it a solid A and saying “Hirsch’s short, limber three-line stanzas are well suited to the staggered unfolding of the tragedy, as if Charon were tweeting updates from the banks of the river Styx.” The author will be featured on NPR’s Morning Edition next week.

Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles talked to Hirsch about the book in April:

Movie Tie-ins

The Boxtrolls: A Novel, Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, (Hachette/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

The Boxtrolls: Meet the Boxtrolls, Jennifer Fox, leveled reader, (LB Kids Paperback)

The stop-action animated movie, The Boxtrolls, is based on some of the creatures in Alan Snow’s nearly 550-page book, Here Be Monsters! (Atheneum, 2008, rereleased 8/5/14). Entertainment Weekly interviews the film’s co-directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, who also directed Coraline and ParaNorman, about adopting the book.

Meet the Boxtrolls below. The movie opens, 9/26/2014

The Drop, Dennis Lehane, (HarperCollins/Morrow;  Trade Paperback; HarperAudio)

When is a novelization not a novelization? When it’s by Dennis Lehane. The movie The Drop, which stars James Gandolfini in his last film performance, is based on Lehane’s short story, “Animal Rescue.” The book, The Drop, is based on his script for the movie.

Arriving at #32 on today’s USA Best-Selling Books list is a debut that has been a growing critical hit, We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas., (S&S; S&S Audio). 

The novel is also a hit in the U.K., where is on the long list for the Guardian First Book Award. The author was interviewed in that publication  yesterday.

As we noted in our earlier story, Big Books of the Fall, holds are growing in libraries.

A sure indicator that a new book season is upon us is a WSJ story on the marketing efforts behind a particular title.

This season, it’s The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperLuxe).

About a lonely young woman in 17th C Amsterdam who creates a magical dollhouse that begins to predict the future, it is also a LibraryReads pick and gets an A- in Entertainment Weekly. Read a sample vis OverDrive.

Based on a review in the locally influential Cleveland Plain Dealer, Wendy Bartlett of Cuyahoga Public Library, has already put in a hefty additional order that is quadruple the initial quantity.

Published earlier in the U.K., it’s been in the top ten there since July. The Wall Street Journal details the elaborate U.K.  marketing campaign, with intricate shop displays that include “doll’s houses and Delft pottery, in one case flying a motorized parakeet around the books (a green bird figures in the novel).”

The U.K. cover features an actual dollhouse, complete with its own “making of” video.

The fall season gets into gear next week with the release of David Mitchell’s Bone Clocks, (Random House; Recorded Books) A profile of the author in today’s NYT notes, “Mr. Mitchell has evolved from being a cult author with a small but rabid fan base to a major literary figure whose work has been compared to that of Nabokov, Pynchon and Dostoyevsky.”

The #1 IndieNext title for September, it rose to #153 (from  #296) as a result.

Over 600 pages long, it’s a big book in more ways than one and competes for serious review attention, as well as readers’ time, with another 600-plus-page, very different novel, We Are Not Ourselves, by Matthew Thomas, (S&S; S&S Audio). Released two weeks ago, this debut has heavier holds than Mitchell’s book and is now at #74 on Amazon. It’s received a string of laudatory reviews, beginning with Entertainment Weekly and continuing with the NYT‘s Janet Maslin, the L.A. Times‘s David Ulin, and USA Today. The New Yorker uses it a springboard to “reassess the burgeoning genre” of books about Alzheimer’s, beginning with Still Alice by Lisa Genova. and giving the highest marks to “Thomas’s realist epic [because it] … exceeds the usual boundaries of fiction on the subject [and] offer the truest and most harrowing account of a descent into dementia …”

OverDrive sample — We Are Not Ourselves

NPR “Esclusive First Read” — The Bone Clocks

Among the authors that will be welcomed back with open arms next week is Louise Penny, whose next Chief Inspector Gamache title is The Long Way Home, (Macmillan/Minotaur; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive sample). Susan Vreeland continues her art history themed books with Lisette’s List, (Random House; BOT)

Samples:

OverDrive. Lisette’s List

There’s also a new James Patterson, but this time, it’s an original trade paperback. The Private series opens offices in Sydney, Australia, with the title Private Down Under, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette/Audio; Hachette Large Print), being published for the first time in the U.S. after its U.K. release last year. It is written with Michael White, a British author living in Australia in his first collaboration with Patterson.

All the titles listed here, as well as more notable titles arriving next week, are on our downloadable EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of 8/25/14, with ordering information and alternative formats.

LibraryReads Picks

Heroes Are My Weakness, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio)

“Any Susan Elizabeth Phillips novel is going to make it onto my must-read list, but this one is particularly wonderful, and here’s why: she creates, then cheerfully destroys, the romance cliche of the brooding hero with a dark secret who lives in a crumbling mansion and captivates a plucky heroine. The hero is a horror novelist, and the heroine a failed actress-turned-puppeteer. This warm, witty, comedy-drama is a perfect summer read.” — Donna Matturri, Pickerington Public Library, Pickerington, OH

Lock In, John Scalzi, (Macmillan/Tor);  excerpt from OverDrive

“There’s been a good run of fantasy and science fiction books this year. Joining the list of great fantastical reads is John Scalzi’s Lock In. Scalzi is best known for his military SF (especially the Old Man’s War series), so his latest is a change of pace. A blending of SF and police procedural that hits every note just right.” — Jane Jorgenson, Madison Public Library, Madison, WI

Tons of Tie-ins

It’s going to be another big fall for book adaptations. This week brings tie-ins to some of the most anticipated, including Gone Girl  (check our tie-ins listing for all of the over 40 adaptations coming through December).

This Is Where I Leave You, (Movie Tie-in), Jonathan Tropper (Penguin/Plume) — Movie releases 9/19

An all-star cast includes Jane Fonda (who, based on the trailer, is having a grand time in her role), Jason Bateman,  Tina Fey, Adam Driver and Rose Byrne.

A Walk Among the Tombstones (Movie Tie-in Edition), Lawrence Block, (Hard Case Crime) — Movie releases, 9/19

Liam Neeson brings Block’s alcoholic ex-cop, Matthew Scudder to life. And, yes, the part involves some phone time.

Tracks (Movie Tie-in Edition) : A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback, Robyn Davidson, (RH/Vintage) — Movie releases 9/19

Released early this year in many other countries, this is getting just a limited theatrical release in the U.S., so we weren’t expecting much publicity for it, but it is featured prominently in Entertainment Weekly‘s Fall movie preview. True to her character, Mia Wasikowska is mostly solo in this true story of a woman on a journey to exorcise her demons, with a brief appearance by Adam Driver as a National Geographic photographer

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, (RH/Broadway; Trade pbk;  Mass Market; RH Audio) — Movie releases 10/3

The only thing we have to say about this one is, did they really think they needed to bother with a tie-in?

Before I Go to Sleep tie-in, S. J. Watson, (Harper Pbks) — Movie releases 10/31

Nicole Kidman stars with Colin Firth. Enough said.

Horns Movie Tie-in Edition, Joe Hill, (Harper Pbks) — Movie releases 10/31

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, in a very grown-up role, this was released last year in the U.K., it has been a long time coming to the U.S. The release of the trailer sent the book up Amazon’s sales rankings, so the publicity for the movie is likely to have the same effect.

Editor’s Note:  Robin Beerbower is EarlyWord‘s regular “GalleyChatter” columnist. In her day job, Robin is the readers’ advisor and homebound services coordinator for the Salem [OR] Public Library. Enthusiastic about the importance (and fun) of reading books ahead of publication, she tirelessly tracks down galleys, making her an authority on what to read next. She is also very active on the Edelwiss Community Board, using it to spot titles and gauge developing buzz among librarians (you can join in; just register on Edelweiss and “friend” Robin).

Below are her picks of the titles brought up during our most recent GalleyChat. Join us for the next GalleyChat, Tuesday, Sept. 9 (note that this one is one week later than the normal first Tuesday of the month), 4 to 5 p.m., EDT — #ewgc.

If you missed the August chat, or simply found the feed a bit difficult to follow, check here for a list of the titles discussed.

Narrative Nonfiction 

“I want a true book that reads like a good novel.”  I love getting this question from patrons and so am pleased to learn about three new titles from fellow GalleyChatters..

A literary true crime with touches of southern gothic, God’ll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi, John Safran (Penguin/Riverhead, November) won approval from two chatters.  Bryan Summers (Yuma County Library District) is especially keen on it saying, “The author is now in my I’ll-Read-Anything-By-Him pile.”

For a “great combo of a personal story & the science of attention,” Stephanie Chase of BiblioCommons recommends Matt Richtel’s “powerful” study of a 2006 “texting-while-driving” tragedy, A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention (HarperCollins/Morrow, September).

John Krakauer’s Into the Wild, about Christopher McCandless, who mysteriously disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness, has fascinated readers for years (as well as Sean Penn who adapted it into movie in 2007). In The Wild Truth (HarperOne, October), Carine McCandless gives us the story of her family and why her brother left for the wilderness. It even has a foreword by Krakauer himself. Darien Library’s Jennifer Dayton says, “we are presented a family dynamic so dysfunctional that it makes Chris McCandless’ [aka Alexander Supertramp] decision to walk away from polite society not only a viable solution but the right one.” As of this writing there is no DRC but email the HarperCollins library marketing rep for a print copy.

Book Group Candidates

Leading the pack of  titles that will get reading groups talking is Laird Hunt’s Neverhome (Hachette/ Little Brown; Blackstone Audio; September), which not only won raves from GalleyChatters but has also garnered multiple reviews on Edelweiss. Vicki Nesting (St. Charles Parish Library) says “On its surface this is the story of a woman who dresses as a man and goes off to fight in the Civil War, yet the haunting, poetic writing elevates it beyond that. This is a story you will want to read aloud, to savor.”

Reminding Kaite Stover (Kansas City Public Library) of Stephen King’s The Body (later turned into the movie “Stand By Me”), is Chris Scotton’s The Secret Wisdom of the Earth, (Hachette/Grand Central, January). This story set in the coal mining Appalachian mountains during the 1980s  saying it has the “same strong male relationships and heart-wrenching coming of age elements. “

It’s been a long wait for fans who loved Lois Leveen’s Secrets of Mary Bowser so we are excited that Juliet’s Nurse (S&S/Atria/Bestler) will be released in September. Early readers haven’t been disappointed. The story of Romeo and Juliet told from the perspective of Juliet’s nurse had Salem Public Library’s Ann Scheppke saying “To Leveen’s wonderfully crafted plot, add lovely language and a cast of truly complex characters. A sure bet for fans of Geraldine Brooks.” But please, no spoilers on the ending!

Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres remains a book group favorite, so there is already great anticipation for her new title, Some Luck (RH/Knopf, October). Jennifer Dayton says this first book in a trilogy featuring generations of an Iowa farm family is easily one of her favorite books of the year. The other two are scheduled to be published in spring and late summer of 2015.

If it is set in a bookshop and features Jane Austen, it seems like a sure thing that book groups will want to read it. The literary mystery First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen, Charlie Lovett (Penguin/Viking, October), is a favorite of Beth Mills (New Rochelle Public Library) who says what she found intriguing was that the imagined relationship for Austen wasn’t romantic, but one that fostered her confidence as writer.

Crime Fiction

Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train (Penguin/Riverhead; January) had me riveted from the first page and January can’t come soon enough so I can get this in the hands of patrons — or at least on their holds lists.  My colleague Ann Scheppke says this mashup of Gaslight and Rear Window with its cast of control freaks, liars, and philanderers is a compulsively readable debut novel.

For patrons who want a fearless and witty private investigator similar to Sue Grafton’s, I push Betty Webb’s mysteries featuring Scottsdale’s Lena Jones.  I’m delighted to report that her latest, Desert Rage (Poisoned Pen Press, October) is one of the best in the line-up. Collection librarians may want to consider picking up her entire backlist, so patrons can start from the beginning.

Join us Tuesday, September 9 (note the temporary change to the second Tuesday) for our next GalleyChat and please friend me if you want notifications of what I’m anticipating on Edelweiss.

It could be the Mark Twain autobiography of this fall.

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s autobiography, which was the basis for her Little House on the Prairie books, will be published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press this fall. Titled Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, distributors are showing a Nov. 20 release date.

According to a story by the Associated Press, its “not-safe-for-children tales include stark scenes of domestic abuse, love triangles gone awry and a man who lit himself on fire while drunk off whiskey.”

See PioneerGirlProject.org for more on the project.

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography
Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill
ISBN 978-0-984504176, hardcover, $39.95

The author of a book with an attention-getting title, Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician, Sandeep Jauhar, (Macmillan/FSG) was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday.

Jauhar has some scary things to say about how the current health care system forces doctors  to work too fast, take on too many patients and run too many unneccasary tests.

The book was also reviewed in the NYT yesterday.

Jauhar has written several Op-Ed pieces for the NYT on these subjects.

Libraries are showing growing holds on We Are Not Ourselves, a debut novel by Matthew Thomas, (S&S; S&S Audio), which was heavily promoted at Book Expo this year. It just broke into Amazon’s top 100, and is currently at #53.

Featured in the book section of the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, it is also passionately recommended on EW‘s “Shelf Life” blog because, “it’s amazing. It’s beautiful and simple and elegant.”

We tend to agree, based on reading the OverDrive Sample.

Chelsea Cain’s latest, One Kick, (S&S; S&S Audio), releasing today, is the beginning of a new series, one that the NYT‘s Janet Maslin says “is capable of reaching a much broader audience because it is far less gruesome [than the author’s Gretchen Lowell series], at least by Ms. Cain’s standards.”

The reviewer for sister publication, the NYT Book Review, however, sees it as an “unsettling new thriller, which delves into the bleak and disturbing subject of child abduction and pedophilia,” and compares the protagonist to Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander.

See how disturbing you find it, by reading the OverDrive Sample.

One Kick is also the #1 LibraryReads pick for August.

Holds are currently modest in most libraries, but if Maslin’s prediction proves true, they are likely to grow.

On NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday, Maureen Corrigan gave an enthusiastic shout-out to a book arriving next week, sending it into Amazon’s top 100.

She calls Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher (RH/Doubleday), “a hilarious academic novel … composed of a year’s worth of recommendations that our anti-hero — a weary professor of creative writing and literature — is called upon to write for junior colleagues, lackluster students and even former lovers.”

EarlyWord Kids correspondent Lisa Von Drasek is also a fan, calling it “wickedly delightful,” and agreeing whole-heartedly with the publisher’s description, “Finally a novel that puts the ” ‘pissed’ back into ‘epistolary’.”

If you have the galley, grab it. We guarantee that the minute you crack it, you’ll find yourself reading it aloud to anyone available. UPDATE: Get a taste for what we’re talking about by reading a sample via OverDrive’s new Readbox product.

The author is also scheduled to be interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered on release date, Aug. 19.