In our most recent GalleyChatter column, we highlighted the titles we expected to be hearing about at Book Expo America. We’re happy to report our predictions were accurate, but the real fun of the show is the unexpected gems.

During the post-BEA GalleyChat, those who had just returned from the show were so eager to share newly discovered titles that it was difficult to wait until the 4:00 pm start time. Below are titles that were most heavily buzzed. For a complete list of the 110 titles mentioned during the chat, check here.

Editors Note: Several publishers are making digital ARC’s of the books that ended up being “sold out” at BEA easily available to EarlyWord readers. Register here.

Unconventional Memoirs

Wall Street Journal sports writer Jason Gay’s presentation at the Penguin Random House breakfast was so delightful even non-sports fans left clutching the galley. Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living (RH/Doubleday, November), a collection of essays on “rules to live by,” doesn’t dictate but suggests in a humorous, wise, and entertaining way how to behave in the world today, and also includes a few snippets about Gay’s own personal struggles.

Mary-Louise Parker charmed the BEA lunch audience by calling librarians “bad-asses” and her memoir Dear Mr. You (S&S/Scribner, November) is now attracting readers. Tracy Babiasz (acquisitions manager, Chapel Hill Library, NC) says, “Parker’s unique approach to memoir, a collection of letters to the men who have impacted her life, showcases her talent for imaginative, and sometimes stream-of-consciousness writing. It should be read slowly, savoring the carefully chosen language that offer the reader a peek into Parker’s life.”

Book Group Worthy

Eli Gottlieb’s Best Boy (Norton/Liveright, August) has already received top marks from two GalleyChat regulars. Vicki Nesting (St. Charles Parish Library, LA) calls it “A brilliantly imagined and insightful story narrated by Todd, an autistic man in his 50s whose very orderly world is thrown into chaos when a new resident and a malevolent new staff member arrive at Payton Living Center.  This remarkable book will remain with readers long after they have turned the last page.” Jennifer Winberry (Hunterdon County Library, NJ) also endorsed it by adding it is “heartfelt and achingly beautiful.”

HarperCollins’ Virginia Stanley has been tirelessly advocating Melissa DeCarlo’s The Art of Crash Landing (Harper Paperbacks/HC, September) and it is now one of my favorite books of the year and a top choice for book groups. Pregnant and broke, and wearing a huge chip on her shoulder, Mattie flees Florida for Oklahoma, hoping to collect on her grandmother’s estate but ends up trying to unravel her deceased mother’s mysterious background. Mattie’s voice could come across as biting and annoying, but DeCarlo has made her funny and appealing.

Jennifer Dayton (Darien Library, CT) couldn’t stop talking about Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (Penguin/Riverhead, September), the story of Mathilde and Lotto’s 20-plus year marriage as told from both points of view. Jennifer adds, “Be aware however that, as in life, there are always two sides to every story and be prepared for the literary whiplash that will be coming your way.”

The Best of Genre Fiction

Jim Butcher’s newest title is the first in the Cinder Spires fantasy series, The Aeronaut’s Windlass (Penguin/Roc, September). It got a big shout out during BEA’s Shout ‘n’ Share from Kristi Chadwick (Advisor, Massachusetts Library System)  who is excited that the author is returning to “pure fantasy.” Now that she’s finished reading the book she reports, “Definitely first-in-a-series world-building, but with an excellent pace and action. I am looking forward to the next one (alas, so far, far away). Oh, and it has sentient cats. ‘Nuff said.” (For a full list of the titles mentioned at Shout ‘n’ Share, download our spreadsheet, BEA 2015 Shout ‘n’ Share, or link to our Edelweiss collection, BEA 2015 Shout ‘n’ Share).

An unexpected find for many was the thriller After the Crash, Michel Bussi (Hachette Books, January; NOTE, cover is not final, so we are not showing it). Collection development librarian Patty Sussmann (Newburgh Free Library, NY) reports, “For lovers of a thrill ride, this is a page turning thriller that offers twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end.” During her Speed Dating session, Hachette’s marketing rep Melissa Nicholas immediately hooked us by simply saying, “First there was Girl on the Train, this is Baby on the Plane.”

During her BEA interview, author Ruth Ware was quick to point out that her marriage is just fine and in no way resembled the impending nuptials in her debut psychological suspense thriller In a Dark, Dark Wood  (S&S/Galley/Scout Press, August).  After crime writer Nora wakes up in the hospital, all she can remember is running through the icy woods covered in blood after attending a “hen” party (English version of a bachelorette party). Only after being questioned by a detective investigating a murder do the details start to emerge. And yes, this is perfect as a Girl on the Train readalike.

Keep an eye on these titles. Given librarians’ reactions, they are likely to take off with the public.

Please join the next GalleyChat on July 7, 4:00-5:00 (ET) with virtual cocktails at 3:30.

Chelsea Clinton will publish a book this September: It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going! (Penguin Young Readers/Philomel; Sept. 15; ISBN 978-0399176128).

Her debut effort is aimed at younger readers in the tween and teen set. “That’s the age when I started tuning in more to issues I cared about and trying to make a difference,” Clinton tells People magazine, “I loved the book 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth and remember wishing there were books like that on other issues I cared about. This book is my attempt to do that for kids today.”

Penguin Young Readers has created a dedicated web page for the book, including a “Letter from Chelsea” that further describes the idea behind the book:

In It’s Your World, I try to explain what I think are some of the biggest challenges facing our world today, particularly for young people … I also explore some of the solutions to those challenges and share stories of inspiring kids and teenagers doing amazing work to help people and our planet have brighter and healthier futures. My hope is that the book will inspire readers to realize that they can start making a difference now, in their own way, for their family, their community, and our world.

Director Todd Haynes is currently the toast of Cannes, where the director’s movie Carol, based on the book by Patricia Highsmith, is expected to win the Palme d”Or.

So attention is turning to his next projects. Screen Daily reports that, for one of them, he will again turn to books, a childrens book this time, Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck (Scholastic, 2011).

If it comes to pass, this will be Selznick’s second book to be adapted by a celebrated director, after Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning Hugo, based on The Invention Of Hugo Cabret.

Don’t hold your breath though, Haynes has some other projects on his plate, including a biopic about Peggy Lee starring Reese Witherspoon as well as a new TV series (he directed the 2011 HBO series Mildred Pierce).

Closer on the horizon is Selznick’s next book, The Marvels (Scholastic), set for publication on 9/15/15. There are no reviews yet. The following is from the publishers’ description:

Two seemingly unrelated stories — one in words, the other in pictures — come together … The illustrated story begins in 1766 with Billy Marvel, the lone survivor of a shipwreck, and charts the adventures of his family of actors over five generations. The prose story opens in 1990 and follows Joseph, who has run away from school to an estranged uncle’s puzzling house in London, where he, along with the reader, must piece together many mysteries.

Book Expo America is around the corner (Wed., May 27 through Fri., May 29; see our First-Timers Guide here as well as our Edelweiss collection of titles to  be featured at BEA 2015). There are bound to be more galleys grabbed than can be stuffed in a suitcase, so choosing just the right titles is paramount. Below is a rundown of highly anticipated titles road tested by our devoted GalleyChatters. Even if you’re not going to the show, this will give you a good idea of what’s going to be hot this summer and fall. Most are available as Digital Review Copies. — Robin Beerbower, EarlyWord’s GalleyChatter

Jonathan Evison will be signing galleys of his latest book, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! (Algonquin/Workman, September) in the Workman booth. When Harriet Chance receives a reminder that her late husband’s Alaskan cruise tickets from a raffle are expiring, the 79-year-old decides to sail by herself, unaware of the family secrets that will emerge. As usual, Evison has such a clear eye for developing his characters and we love them despite their foibles.  I agree with Rosemary Smith, top Edelweiss reviewer and blogger, who said “Evison writes like a dream.”

Annie Barrows will be appearing at the Annual BEA Adult Librarians’ Author Lunch and has already received high praise from two Galleychatters for her new book The Truth According to Us (Dial Press/RH, June).  Janet Schneider (Bryant Library, NY) said this novel about a young woman writing for the Federal Writer’s Project in Depression-era West Virginia is “moving and complex, with fascinating main and secondary characters. Reminiscent in tone of Cold Mountain without the physical journey.”

Paula McLain is appearing at the Penguin Random House librarians’ breakfast to talk about her highly anticipated novel, Circling the Sun (Ballantine/RH, July), the story of aviation pioneer Beryl Markham whose own memoir, West With the Night was a sensation when it was first released (Hemingway said, in characteristically sexist terms, “this girl, who is to my knowledge very unpleasant and we might even say a high-grade bitch, can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers”) and again when it was rediscovered and republished in the 1980’s. Still in print, it was published in a new edition recently (North Point Press, 2013). New Rochelle (NY) Public Library’s Beth Mills says the novel can’t miss with its “compelling sense of place and the dramatic Karen Blixen/Denis Finch-Hatton/Beryl love triangle will pull in the Out of Africa fans.”

BEA regular Elin Hilderbrand will be signing copies of her forthcoming holiday novel Winter Stroll (Little Brown, October) in the Hachette booth as well as The Rumor (Little Brown, June) which arrives just in time for tossing in a vacation bag. As usual, Hilderbrand writes a juicy novel full of secrets, lies, and relationships. Stephanie Chase (Hillsboro Library, Oregon) said, “Full of everything that makes a Hilderbrand novel a wonderful read, from descriptions of food and Nantucket to a clash of privilege to friendships, rivalries, and affairs. So much fun!”

Sourcebooks Landmark will be giving away a large number of Katarina Bivald’s The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend (January 2016). St. Charles Parish Library’s (LA) Vicki Nesting suggests picking up a copy of  this charming tale of about a Swedish bookseller arriving in a dying town to visit her pen pal, only to find she has passed away. Vicki says it is  “full of life, love, and the power of books, and is perfect for fans of Lorna Landvik and Fannie Flagg.”

Glamour magazine books editor Elisabeth Egan’s
A Window Opens (S&S, August) could have been simply a good contemporary women’s novel about marriage, career, and children, but in Egan’s deft hands it becomes a novel that anyone who loves books will appreciate (one of Egan’s characters suggests those of us who read e-galleys, print galleys, and “carbon-based books” are “platform agnostics”). Simon & Schuster will be giving away galleys and Egan will be appearing in the session Debut Fiction from Industry Insiders.

BEA Editors’ Buzz Adult Books will feature Dan Marshall’s scorching memoir, Home is Burning (Macmillan/Flatiron, October). Painfully honest, shockingly irreverent, extremely crude, and at times side-splittingly funny, Marshall’s remembrances of the year of taking care of his father dying from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) while also dealing with his mother’s cancer battle had me laughing through my tears. The publisher says “Dave Eggers meets David Sedaris,” which is an apt description, and I would add Augusten Burroughs to the mix.

Garth Risk Hallberg’s ambitious debut City on Fire, set in gritty 1970s New York City is a high-profile title, because of reports that it sold to Knopf for almost $2 million with movie rights going to Scott Rudin. Many of us were wanted to know if it is worth the 900 plus page count. The good news is that regular chatter Janet Lockhart gives it double thumbs up. She says, “A New Year’s Eve attack on a young girl connects the stories of a wide cast of characters that includes punk rockers, artists, school teachers, high school students, financial advisors, police officers, journalists, fireworks experts and more.  A literary page turner that will appeal to fans of Tom Wolfe, Dickens, David Foster Wallace, and Donna Tartt.” Hallberg will also be appearing at the BEA Editors’ Buzz Adult Books session.

GalleyChatters have been clamoring for months for the galley of Ernest Cline’s Armada (Crown/RH, July), the followup to librarian favorite Ready Player One,  Not only is the Digital Review Copy available now, but he will speak at the AAP’s Librarians’ Dinner. Leslie Stokes (Heard Co. Public Library, Georgia) said “Cline retains his magical ability to pull the reader into his story and take us on a thrilling ride. Fans of his first novel will be glad to see the return of 1980s pop culture references, but they are not so plentiful or obscure as to need footnotes.“

See our downloadable spreadsheet for more GalleyChat road-tested BEA titles. And don’t forget to join us for the post-BEA GalleyChat, Tues., June 2nd, 4 to 5 pm, EDT #ewgc (more details here).

Randall Munroe, author of the runaway hit What If? has a new book coming out in November, Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words (HMH, Nov. 24).

Munroe announced the book on his popular website xkcd, “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language,” yesterday and it has already shot to #8 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

As Munroe details on his site, the book is a large format (9″ by 13″) collection of blueprints with diagrams of objects and explanations of their parts and uses, using only the most common 1,000 words in the English language. The result sometimes sounds like a precocious six-year-old (see the Saturn V rocket, called here, “Up Goer Five — The only flying space car that’s taken anyone to another world”). It could be the basis of some memorable party games.

There are still holds on What If? in libraries across the country. Expect high demand for Munroe’s upcoming title as well.

Speaking with simmering intensity in two exclusive videos on Entertainment Weekly‘s web site, David Lagercrantz, the author of The Girl in the Spider’s Web (RH/Knopf: RH Audio; RH Large Print, 9/1/15), the fourth book in Stieg Larsson’s  Millennium series, expresses his enthusiasm for main character, Lisbeth Salander.

The first book in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was made into a film directed by David Fincher in 2011. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Spider’s Web may bring renewed interest in developing the other titles in the series into English-language films (all three original titles were made into successful Swedish-language films).

The third Cormoran Strike novel, Career of Evil, is coming this fall.

Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) announced that the novel is finished via a Twitter post:

Just finished 3rd Cormoran Strike novel.

— Robert Galbraith (@RGalbraith) April 24, 2015

That was followed by a tweet by Little, Brown UK stating the title:

We are proud to be publishing the third @RGalbraith crime novel, CAREER OF EVIL, this autumn. More details to come soon, including pub date.

— Little, Brown UK (@LittleBrownUK) April 24, 2015

Details on the U.S. edition (ISBN, pub date) are still being worked out, according to the publisher. We will let you know when that information is available.

The release of the cover for Patti Smith’s upcoming memoir, M Train (RH/Knopf; RH Audio, Oct. 6) is bringing a raft of media attention, from Rolling Stone to the New York Times and even the Religion News Service (“Patti Smith’s spiritual curiosity on display in sequel to Just Kids“).

Entertainment Weekly claims to have the “exclusive cover reveal,” and describes the cover image as, “a sacred memento for Smith: It shows her at Cafe ‘Ino in Greenwich Village, where M Train begins, and where Smith went every morning for a breakfast of black coffee and brown bread. On the last day before Cafe ‘Ino closed, a passing photographer took the picture. Smith calls it ‘the first and last picture at my corner table in Ino … My portal to where.’ ”

The title of the book refers to the NYC subway line which runs through the Brooklyn neighborhood where she once shared an apartment with Robert Mapplethorpe and in to Greenwich Village. The book itself is described by the publisher as “a journey through eighteen ‘stations.’ It begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee.”

A series of self-published erotic novels has been acquired by Hachette’s Forever imprint, reports the AP, to the tune of $7 million.

The first four titles in Meredith Wild’s Hacker series, Hardwired, Hardpressed, Hardline and Hard Limit have just been released by Forever in e-book editions. Paperback editions will follow on May 12,  The fifth and final book, Hard Love, will be published in both e-book and paperback on Sept. 15.

“Fans of Fifty Shades of Grey may recognize the Hacker narrative: Recent Harvard graduate and Internet entrepreneur Erica Hathaway falls for controlling billionaire Blake Landon,” notes the AP.

Another self-published romance author, Jasinda Wilder, has signed with Berkley Books, as reported by USA Today, in a seven-figure deal for a new trilogy, beginning with Madame X in November (Penguin/Berkley, 9781101986882).

Just announced, Terry Pratchett’s final novel in the Discworld series will be:

The Shepherd’s Crown
Pratchett, Terry
HarperCollins, 9/15/2015
Hardcover, 9780062429971
Audio, 9780062430557

The 41^st title in the series, it continues the Tiffany Aching sequence that began with The Wee Free Men in 2003 and includes A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and I Shall Wear Midnight.

According to the announcement on Pratchett’s book site, he completed the novel in 2014, before his death earlier this year. It will be published in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats. NOTE: Some news sources say the publisher is Random House. They are the publisher of the U.K. edition. In the U.S., it will be released by HarperCollins.

The Shepherd’s Crown is not the only book coming from Pratchett. His fourth novel in the Long Earth series with Stephen Baxter, The Long Utopia (Harper; OverDrive Sample), is also due this year, on June 23^rd.

Patti Smith has narrated just one audiobook, her own, Just Kids. Now she adds a second, Jo Nesbo’s Blood on Snow, (RH & BOT Audio; RH/Knopf print; Random House Large Print) a standalone released this week Entertainment Weekly features an audio clip and a book excerpt. According to the story, “Nesbø is a musician and songwriter himself, and the two artists are mutual admirers of each other’s work.”

Smith is set to publish a second memoir this fall, M Train (RH/Knopf; BOT Audio, Oct 6).

David Mitchell’s next novel is Slade House (Random House; ISBN 9780812998689; $26), to be published on Oct. 27^th.

The 272-page book, which is much shorter than a typically Mitchell tome, started out as a series of tweets and then, according to The LA Times “Jacket Copy,” “morphed, Mitchell-istically, into a five-part novel.”

Not much is known about the book as yet. The publisher information describes it as,

“a taut, intricately woven, spine-chilling, reality-warping novel. Set across five decades, beginning in 1979 and coming to its astonishing conclusion on October 31, 2015.”

The Guardian reports it is set in the same universe as The Bone Clocks.

Fans of Mitchell typically have to wait at least two years between titles, but Slade House will be in readers’ hands 13 months after most began reading The Bone Clocks.

In keeping with a move to create physically compelling print books, Slade House is in a smaller trim size than normal hardcovers and will be issued without a jacket so readers can appreciate the die cut cover and the peak-a-boo illustration beneath.

Among the heavily-anticipated titles on lists like Entertainment Weekly‘s “20 Books We’ll Read in 2015,” were several fall titles that had not yet appeared in catalogs.  Now that publishers’ sales conferences have wrapped up, the fall catalogs have appeared, in anticipation of promotions at BEA, and we have more information on those titles:

Purity, Jonathan Franzen, (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio, Sept 1)

Says Entertainment Weekly, “Franzen’s novels never fail to elicit equal parts hype and hate. Purity promises to be a departure from his previous works The Corrections and Freedom.” So, does that mean it won’t inspire hype and hate? Franzen is scheduled to appear at BEA on May 27, kicking off the show, in an interview with Salon critic Laura Miller.
Catalog: Macmillan Adult Fall 2015

City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio, Oct. 13)

According to a 2013 story in New York magazine’s “Vulture” blog, this 900-page first novel sold to Knopf for almost $2 million and movie rights to Scott Rudin. Way back then, “Vulture” also offered a list of “28 things you can surmise about Garth Hallberg’s City on Fire by reading Garth Hallberg.” It will be featured in the influential BEA Adult Editors’ Buzz panel.
Catalog: Random House Publishing Group, Fall 2015

M Train, Patti Smith, (RH/Knopf; RH Audio, Oct. 6; No cover yet)

Smith mentioned she’s working on this follow-up memoir to Just Kids in a Rolling Stone interview in October, describing it as not about the past, but “sort of in present tense. I wanted to write a contemporary book or just write whatever I felt like writing about, and it’s things going from literature to coffee to memories of Fred in Michigan.” Catalog: Random House Publishing Group, Fall 2015

The Witches, Stacy Schiff, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio Oct. 20 )

Schiff’s bio of Cleopatra became a #1 best seller, possibly fueled by talk of a movie version directed by James Cameron, starring Angelina Jolie AND in 3D (that idea now seems to be over). In this book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author examines the Salem Witch Trials.
Catalog: Little, Brown Fall 2015 / Winter 2016 Frontlist

We also spotted a sequel that librarians have been anxiously awaiting, but sorry, it’s not coming until January.:

Daniel O’Malley’s Stiletto, (Hachette/Little, Brown,  1/26/16)

The sequel to  The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, (Hachette/Little, Brown, 2012), voted one of the top favorites of the year by librarians and called “a darkly humorous thriller about a paranormal version of Britain’s MI5.”
Catalog: Little, Brown Fall 2015 / Winter 2016 Frontlist

After the jump, make your own discoveries, via links to the recently posted fall adult catalogs from the larger publishers. Tell us what you’re excited about in the comments section.

(more…)

The star attraction of the RH/Knopf Fall 2015  catalog, posted on Friday, is the fourth title in The Millennium series, which began with Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Although Larsson reportedly left behind a manuscript for another title in the series when he died, this is an entirely new book, written by Swedish journalist David Lagercrantz, chosen by Larsson’s Swedish publisher, Norstedts with the approval of Larsson’s brother and father.

Another interested party is not happy about the forthcoming book. Larsson’s partner of 32 years, Eva Gabrielsson in an interview by Agence France-Presse, says this book’s release is not about continuing his legacy, “It’s about a publishing house [Norstedts] that needs money, (and) a writer who doesn’t have anything to write so he copies someone else.”

The title, translated from the Swedish, is That Which Does Not Kill.

UPDATE: The English-language title will be The Girl in the Spider’s Web, continuing the tradition of the others in the series, according to the Wall Street Journal, which also quotes Knopf’s Editor-in-Chief Sonny Mehta, who brought all three previous novels in the series to the U.S., “I think it has all the richness of the original sequence of novels. It’s got a whole chain of American characters in it, and American settings as well.”

Millennium Series: Book 4
David Lagercrantz
RH/Knopf: September 1, 2015
9780385354288, 0385354282
$27.95 USD

Mark your calendars: the next Star Wars film, Episode VII The Force Awakens, premiers on December 18, 2015. It picks up after the events of Return of the Jedi and is co-written and directed by J.J. Abrams (his qualifications include directing the TV series Lost and two films in the Star Trek franchise).

A teaser trailer was released in November (the full trailer is rumored to be coming in May):

Related books are also on the way. According to the Disney Publishing/Lucasfilm press release, there will be a lot of them, over 20, for kids, teens, and adults in a range of formats.

Star Wars: Aftermath (Del Rey/Lucas Books; 978-0345511621; Sept. 4), by Chuck Wendig is the first novel in an expected trilogy. According to USA Today, it “bridges the approximately 30-year gap between [Return of the] Jedi and The Force Awakens. With the Emperor and Darth Vader both assumed dead, a new government arises to replace the fallen Empire in the novel.”

Also forthcoming is another of the popular DK visual guides, Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know (Penguin/DK; 978-0241183700; Sept. 4, 2015) and several comics from Marvel, including Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens (Marvel Comics; 978-0785197812; Nov. 17).

A full listing of related titles has not been released but Entertainment Weekly offers a rundown of projects in the works as well as the backstory on how the massive, and secret, publishing program was organized.

Given the size of the fan base and their devotion, expect requests far in advance of the Sept. pub. dates.