Two best selling authors returning next week, Nelson DeMille with his first book since 2012, Radiant Angel, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio) and Clive Cussler with the 10th in his Oregon Files series, Piranha, (Penguin/ Putnam; Brilliance Audio; Wheeler Large Print). A debut gets a leg up from Entertainment Weekly and the NYT Book Review in the contest for The Book of Summer 2015, Kent Haruf’s final novel arrives, as well as several other titles with strong  recommendations from peers in libraries and bookstores.

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 May 25, 2015

Advance Attention

Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People, Matthew Diffee, (S&S/Scribner)

Review Attention

The Rocks, Peter Nichols, (Penguin/Riverhead; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample)

This gets double coverage in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on the “Must List; the Top 10 Things We Love This Week”  (“heartbreaking yet funny”),  it is reviewed in the issue. It’s also reviewed by Kate Christensen in the upcoming  NYT Book Review.

Starred by PW and Kirkus, it also is an Indie Next pick:

This enchanting tale set against the backdrop of the beautiful Mediterranean is a bittersweet double love story told in reverse. The Rocks begins with a dramatic, shocking event and then moves backward in time to reveal the 60-year-old secret that caused the unraveling of a marriage and forever altered the lives of the two families involved. A page-turning family saga with a mystery at its core, this is the perfect book to usher in a summer of great reading!” —Adrian Newell, Warwick‘s, La Jolla, CA

Peer Picks

Our Souls at Night, Kent Haruf, (RH/Knopf; RH & BOT Audio)

An Indie Next #1 and LibraryReads pick, this is the author’s final book, published after his death last year. As the Wall Street Journal reports, he knew he was dying as he wrote it. “Normally, it took him six years or more to write a novel. But in a rush of creative energy, he wrote a chapter a day.”  He finished it in 45 days.

LibraryReads recommendation:

Beautiful, elegant and poignant, this novel is a distilled experience of Haruf’s writing. The story of how two elders attempt to poke at the loneliness and isolation that surrounds them will stick with me for a long time to come. I’m amazed at how Haruf says so much with such spare prose. He will be missed. — Alison Kastner, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi, (RH/Knopf; Brilliance Audio)

Both an Indie Next and a LibraryReads pick (plus stars from PW & LJ)

Bacigalupi’s novel looks at the possible struggle for water rights in the southwestern United States. Reading Bacigalupi’s novel made me thankful for the current easy access to clean drinking water, yet fearful for our future. A great read for any fan of dystopian fiction.– Lindsay Atwood, Chandler Public Library, Chandler, AZ

Dietland, Sarai Walker, (HMH; Highbridge Audio)

Indie Next, stars from Kirkus & LJ

“Meet Plum, a woman who has forever defined herself by her obesity and who gets through her daily routine by looking forward to the life that will come after her weight-loss surgery. When Plum discovers that she is being followed by a strange girl, her life is changed forever. While Plum embarks on her journey of self-acceptance, a violent feminist crusade takes the world by storm. As the two storylines converge, readers witness an unexpected transformation. This is a fun, no-apologies-offered debut!” —Tess Fahlgren, Fact & Fiction, Missoula, MT

Tie-ins

Of the movie and TV tie-ins releasing this week (for a list of all upcoming movie/tv ties-ins, check our Edelweiss collection), the adaptation that’s making the most impact is based on Jesse Andrews’ Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, (Abrams, 2012). As a result of the buzz, the book hit the NYT YA best seller list for the first time last week and continues this week.

The hit of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the screening won a standing ovation, the Audience Award for best drama, as well as the Grand Jury Prize, over-the-top reviews and Oscar predictions (see our list of other book adaptations in the early Oscars pool). The movie opens in limited release on June 12.

Official Site: meandearlmovie.com
Tie-in: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Movie Tie-in Edition), Jesse Andrews, (Abrams/Amulet Paperbacks)

A second trailer was released this week:

Memorial Day weekend signals the kick-off of one of our favorite literary games, predicting which title will become THE book of the summer.

Two early candidates have just been released and you can join the game. The library marketing departments of both Random House and Simon and Schuster have agreed to offer copies. We just ask you to tell us what you think by posting your reviews on Edelweiss. Scroll down to the end of this post to find out how to enter.

Hitting best seller lists this week, in the footsteps of several other “girls” is Luckiest Girl Alive (S&S; S&S Audio). People calls it “the perfect page turner to start your summer,” naming it a “Book of the Week.” It’s had several endorsements, from EarlyWord GalleyChatters to Reese Witherspoon, who has announced plans to adapt it as a movie for Lionsgate.

Entertainment Weekly calls I Take You by Eliza Kennedy, (RH/Crown; RH Audio), the “first big beach read of the season”  and a “hilarious debut.”  Sister publication People backs that up by making it a “Pick of the Week.” It’s been likened to a big book of another summer, Where’s You Go Bernadette (with the reference slyly underscored by a similar minimal cover). Curiously, there is a Gone Girl connection for this title; both were edited by Lindsay Sagnette.

GalleyChatter Janet Schneider (Bryant Library, Roslyn, NY) recommends it in her Edelweiss review:

If it were possible to cross the complex, shifting morals of Gloria Wandrous from Butterfield 8 with the wacky decency of Bernadette Fox from Where’d You Go, Bernadette, you’d come up with Lily Wilder from Eliza Kennedy’s timely, thought-provoking page-turner I Take You. Lily is an amazing character–she has had a rocky emotional past and made some questionable choices–and her current dilemma about how to move forward in her relationship with fiance Will takes some unexpected yet realistic turns. I Take You. is a book for grown ups–who are looking for a fresh and frisky heroine to root for, with some genuine insights into the true meaning of fidelity along the way.

To get you in the mood for summer, Random House Library Marketing is offering a Summer Reading Poster that includes I Take You.
Download it here, or request a printed copy here.

Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves (Harper/William Morrow; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample), published yesterday, offers a door-stopper of post-apocalyptic SF and has already reached #24 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

The plot sounds like a winner. The moon explodes for reasons unknown and before scientists can figure out why, they realize it hardly matters as a “hard rain” of debris will soon destroy the Earth. Obviously it is time to leave and a space station is adapted as a global ark, for the very lucky and the very few.

Reviews are mixed for the 880-page tome, however, and holds vary widely.

Both LibraryReads and Amazon picked it as one of the best books of May with Keith Hayes of Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC saying:

Stephenson’s back in fine form with this hard science fiction masterpiece, combining the detail of Cryptonomicon with the fast-paced action of Reamde. Fans of Anathem will appreciate Stephenson’s speculation about the possibilities of human evolution. This book is a great follow-up for readers who enjoyed the science of Weir’s The Martian. I heartily recommend Seveneves to SF readers.

Steven Poole writing for The Guardian is less convinced, praising many of Stevenson’s ideas but ending his review with the comment that the book put him to sleep:

…in the novel’s snail-paced last third, there are lots and lots of lavish descriptions of imaginary machines: city-sized orbiting habitats, giant pendulums reaching down into the Earth’s atmosphere, “sky trains”. After scores of pages of this, my eyelids were succumbing to a powerful gravitational force. And I quite like giant space gadgets.

A similar story is playing out in requests for Seveneves across the country. Some libraries are showing heavy holds on modest ordering while others have low queues on light ordering. In Stevenson’s hometown holds are skyrocketing and The Seattle Times offers a strong review.

Steve Inskeep’s Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross and a Great American Land Grab (Penguin; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample) rises to #51 on Amazon’s sales rankings as a result of the author’s appearances on Morning Edition (where he is the co-host) and on PBS NewsHour.

Inskeep’s history explores Jackson’s role in the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation as well as the brilliant efforts of Chief John Ross to stop him, using the tools of democracy and politics to protect Cherokee land. He sought white allies, brought suit in the United States Supreme Court (and won), and published stories in newspapers. Nothing, however, could stop the relentless expansion Jackson and white farmers sought.

In recognition of this history, Inskeep argues in an OpEd piece in the New York Times, that Chief Ross’s image should replace Jackson’s  on the $20 bill.

Inskeep discusses his book with NewsHour co-host Judy Woodruff at Busboys and Poets, a local restaurant/bookstore in Washington D.C.

Judy Blume’s first novel for adults in 17 years, In the Unlikely Event (RH/Knopf; BOT and Random House Audio; OverDrive Sample) is getting advance attention from the many grownup fans of Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.

CBS Sunday Morning devoted a segment to Blume over the weekend, with Rita Braver. Chloe Sevigny chats with Blume for Harper’s Bazaar.

The upcoming  NYT Magazine features Blume as the cover story, providing a wide-ranging interview touching everything from her anxiety over germs to John Green’s admiration. Blume offers this take on her career:

“I’m a storyteller — you know what I mean — an inventor of people … and their relationships. It’s not that I love the words — that’s not the kind of writer I am. So I’m not” — she made a furious scribbling motion with her right hand — “I’m not a great writer. But maybe I’m a really good storyteller.”

Indeed. Just ask the millions of readers who have read Blume devotedly since they were tweens. Her newest addresses that most familiar audience as well as her adult readers, offering a generation-spanning story set in Elizabeth, NJ when three planes crashed in little over 3 months in the early 1950s.

To promote the book, Blume will set off on a celebrity-studded tour starting with BookCon on the 31^st, where Jennifer Weiner will host an interview. After that, she will be featured in conversations with Meg Wolitzer, Walter Mayes, Molly Ringwald, Ridley Pearson, and Curtis Sittenfeld. She will visit with Nancy Pearl on June 11^th.

Holds are strong on strong ordering.

British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh’s book, Do No Harm  Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery (Macmillan/ St. Martin’s; HighBridge Audio, 5/25/15), “gives us an extraordinarily intimate, compassionate and sometimes frightening understanding of his vocation. He writes with uncommon power and frankness,” according to critic Michiko Kakutani in today’s New York Times.  The New Yorker also gives the book high marks  saying Marsh “writes like a novelist—he thinks in terms of scenes, patterns, and contrasts,” comparing him to Ian McEwan, who provides the book’s cover blurb,

Neurosurgery has met its Boswell in Henry Marsh. Painfully honest about the mistakes that can “wreck” a brain, exquisitely attuned to the tense and transient bond between doctor and patient, and hilariously impatient of hospital management, Marsh draws us deep into medicine’s most difficult art and lifts our spirits. It’s a superb achievement.

Marsh is more interested in his failures than his successes, and therefore, as Kakutani says, the book can make unsettling reading. However, given the number of books by physicians that have found their way to best seller lists recently, that may not be a deter readers. Check your holds.

Almost instantly joining a group of writers that includes Veronica Roth and Suzanne Collins, YA author Sabaa Tahir is having a great few months.

Her debut An Ember in the Ashes (Penguin/Razorbill; Listening Library; OverDrive Sample) came out on April 28^th and hit the NYT Best Seller list the week of May 17^th at the no. 2 spot sandwiched between two John Green novels. Tough as it is to break through the John Green logjam, which has dominated the top three spots for month, it is even more so for a debut. This week established YA best sellers Sarah Maas and Sarah Dessen managed to hit #2 and #3, moving Tahir’s novel to #6.

Now comes news, reported bythe NYT that Penguin has acquired a sequel from Tahir, due out sometime in 2016.

Tahir’s fantasy got rave reviews, most often stressing its strong storytelling and worldbuilding.

Bradley Campbell of Public Radio International (PRI) compares the book to both Hunger Games and JK Rowling in a radio interview, saying:

Her new book kept me up at night. I couldn’t put the book down. I’m not the only one. It seems as though anyone who touches the book cannot stop reading until the story ends. It has the addictive quality of The Hunger Games combined with the fantasy of Harry Potter and the brutality of Game of Thrones.

Laura M. Bell of The Huffington Post offers:

One thing I can say for sure: this is a page-turner. There comes a moment when it’s impossible to put it down. Sabaa Tahir is a strong writer, but most of all, she’s a great storyteller…Even when the story is squarely anchored in traditional YA dystopian tropes, many of the twists and turns are difficult to predict. The story is complex, encompassing political scheming, betrayal, and supernatural forces, and the different threads entwine effectively.

Author Marie Rutkoski, writing for the NYT Book Review, says:

The novel thrusts its readers into a world marred by violence and oppression, yet does so with simple prose that can offer moments of loveliness in its clarity. This complexity makes “Ember” a worthy novel — and one as brave as its characters.

Holds are currently steady on moderate ordering but this one is worth keeping your eye on.

Several best selling names return next week, but none of them with major holds lists, a surprising comment when James Patterson is one of the names. His latest, however, is not an adult title, but the ninth and final in his YA series, Maximum Ride. Also returning are Clive Barker and Stephen Hunter.

It’s a big week for recommendations by librarians and booksellers, with six new titles for consideration and three other titles are already getting advance attention.

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 May 18, 2015

Advance Attention

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio)

The subject of this book has taken to Twitter to refute its claims, with the unintended consequence of causing the book’s sales to rise on Amazon. It is reviewed in both the daily New York Times and the NYT Book Review, 5/13/15

Disclaimer: A Novel, Renée Knight, (Harper; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio)

“The Latest Buzzy Thriller From England,”  as the Wall Street Journal‘s headline describes it, is a domestic noir first novel told in alternating chapters and is, you guessed it, compared to both Gone Girl and Girl on the Train. Film rights have been sold to 20th Century Fox

War of the Encyclopaedists, Christopher Robinson, Gavin Kovite, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio)

An early review by Michiko Kakutani in the daily New York Times signals a book with literary buzz. Co-written by two friends, this novel portrays two men with backgrounds similar to their own. Separated when one of them is called up by his National Guard unit, they stay in touch by editing a Wikipedia entry. Of that curious construction, Kakutani says, “The plotting of this novel can feel ad hoc and overly stage-managed at the same time, but in a breezy, intimate sort of way,” and concludes that the result is ” a captivating coming-of-age novel that is, by turns, funny and sad and elegiac.” An interview in the Wall Street Journal delves into the complex writing collaboration.

Peer Picks

Uprooted, Naomi Novik, (RH/Del Rey)

LibraryReads #1 pick and Indie Next

A young girl is unexpectedly uprooted from her family and becomes involved in a centuries-old battle with The Wood, a malevolent entity which destroys anyone it touches. Fast-paced, with magic, mystery and romance, Novik’s stand-alone novel is a fairy tale for adults. — Lucy Lockley, St. Charles City-County Library, St. Peters, MO

Seveneves, Neal Stephenson, (HarperCollins/Morrow)

Indie Next and LibraryReads:

Stephenson’s back in fine form with this hard science fiction masterpiece, combining the detail of Cryptonomicon with the fast-paced action of Reamde. Fans of Anathem will appreciate Stephenson’s speculation about the possibilities of human evolution. This book is a great follow-up for readers who enjoyed the science of Weir’s The Martian. I heartily recommend Seveneves to SF readers. — Keith Hayes, Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC

Mislaid: A Novel, Nell Zink, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HighBridge Audio)

After the critical success of her first book, The Walllcreeper, you can expect many reviews for this one. Already weighing in is Ron Charles in The Washington Post and the author is profiled in the New Yorker.

Mislaid is also a June Indie Next pick:

Where Zink’s debut novel, The Wallcreeper, defied easy plot summary, Mislaid is arguably even more hilariously audacious by shouting its plot so loudly. Peggy knows from an early age that she is a lesbian. Lust being a strange thing, however, she sometimes ends up pregnant by way of her gay poetry professor, Lee. Zink presses every button we’re often conditioned to avoid regarding gender, sex, and race and revels in the fluidity of our sense of self. It may very well be the case that the famously elusive novelist Thomas Pynchon has finally been revealed — and he is in fact an American female expat living outside Berlin named Nell Zink. —Brad Johnson, DIESEL: A Bookstore, Oakland, CA

The Knockoff, Lucy Sykes, Jo Piazza (RH/Doubleday; RH Audio)

LibraryReads:

The Knockoff is a digital-age mash-up of old-school movies The Women and All About Eve, set in the Devil Wears Prada world of a high fashion magazine. I absolutely loved this fresh, charming, addictive and ultimately heroic story of 40-something cancer survivor Imogen’s quest to rescue and rebuild her career, despite the machinations of a younger tech-wiz rival. — Janet Schneider, Bryant Library, Roslyn, NY

The Ghost Fields, Elly Griffiths, (HMH)

LibraryReads:

Griffiths has written another strong entry in her excellent Ruth Galloway series. Here, Ruth is called in when a World War II plane is excavated, complete with pilot–but the pilot is in the wrong plane. Strong characters combine with an absorbing puzzle to create a hard-to-put-down mystery. — Beth Mills, New Rochelle Public Library, New Rochelle, NY

Little Black Lies : A Novel, Sharon Bolton, aka, S. J. Bolton (Macmillan/Minotaur)

LibraryReads:

Set in the Falkland Islands, this novel grabs you from the opening paragraph. A child is missing, and he’s not the first. The incident sets off a chain of events leading to multiple characters confessing to murder. Accustomed to living in an idyllic community, fear and anger escalate among the locals. Bolton has created a page-turner of a story with a surprise ending. — Elizabeth Kanouse, Denville Public Library, Denville, NJ

In the Media

The host of NPR’s Morning Edition, Steve Inskeep, will have a natural platform to discuss his new book, Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab, (Penguin Press; Penguin Audio).

Word of mouth seems to growing for Jessica Knoll’s debut novel Luckiest Girl Alive (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample). Based on its recent move up Amazon’s sales rankings, it is likely to hit best seller lists next week and may get an additional boost as  People‘s “Book of the Week” in the new issue, “the perfect page turner to start your summer.”

We named it a “Watch Title” for this week, based on reviews and GalleyChatters enthusiasm. Since then, holds have taken off with some libraries showing ratios as high as 9:1 on very light ordering.

Hollywood is also calling. Reese Witherspoon, who has developed an eye for domestic thrillers, having produced the film of Gone Girl, plans to adapt the novel for Lionsgate.

Stephen King will release an audiobook-only title this summer, Drunken Fireworks (Simon & Schuster Audio; CD and DD, OverDrive Sample), about a fireworks rivalry that gets way out of hand.

To be released on June 30^th, at the close of audiobook month, it is narrated by Tim Sample, who also read King’s Four Past Midnight: The Sun Dog.

In early November the short story will be released in print as part of a new King collection, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (S&S/Scribner; Nov 3.; ISBN 9781501111679). The full collection of stories will also be published in audio (no word yet on the narrator).

According to The Wall Street Journal, Drunken Fireworks will stream for free on July 2 as a promotion for CBS’s new web-based podcast platform Play.it. CBS Radio stations in more than 20 markets will run promotions for four days starting June 29.

The Wall Street Journal sees this as a case of corporate synergy, since King is published by the CBS-owned Simon and Schuster.

King is known for his interest in helping promote new technologies. Back in 2000, he brought attention to eBooks by releasing the digital novella Riding the Bullet, causing the NYT‘s critic Christopher Lehmann-Haupt to wonder, “is this the wave of the future or just a confluence of unusual circumstances?”

Buried in Entertainment Weekly’s new issue, long after the “Baby Power List,” the lavish look at Quentin Tarantino’s “Bloody, Brutal Hateful Eight” and the excerpt of Stephen King’s upcoming Finders Keepers, (not online) comes the “Summer Books Preview.”

The full listing of 40 titles is not available online, but we’ve created an Edelweiss collection of all the titles so you can check for Digital Review Copies (NOTE: Ernest Cline’s hotly anticipated Armada, RH/Crown, just became available).

Below are links to the sections that are available online.

10 Big Fat Beach Reads To Look Out For This Summer

Hot Reads: 6 Sequels Coming To Bookshelves This Summer

5 Out-Of-This-World Tales To Read This Summer

There are no clear-cut holds leaders this week, but familiar names will hit the shelves, like Jefferey Deaver, Steve Martini, Lincoln Child and Craig Johnson.

Some libraries are showing holds on a debut, Luckiest Girl Alive, media attention will be focused on Tom Brokaw’s memoir about living with multiple melanoma and several titles arrive with Indie Next recommendations.

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 May 11.

Title to Watch

Luckiest Girl Alive, Jessica Knoll, (S&S; S&S Audio)

One of many titles described by some as a successor to Gone Girl, underscored on the cover by a blurb that reads, “With the cunning and nerve of Gillian Flynn, but with an intensity all its own, ” it gets a strong B+ from Entertainmet Weekly.

There are some similarities between the two books, notes the reviewer,

Both have dark, twisty, true-crime-inspired plots … Both have been optioned by Reese Witherspoon to become dark, twisty, true-crime-inspired films. And both feature shrewd, prickly, damaged heroines who have made their careers at glossy magazines—much like Knoll and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn once did. (Knoll used to work at Cosmo and Self; Flynn used to work here at EW.).

However, says EW, Luckiest Girl Alive “isn’t innovative enough to inherit Flynn’s mantle, but it’s gripping enough to earn a spot on a nearby shelf.” Our GalleyChatters agreed, considering it an “absorbing study of a woman trying to get out of a bad past by remaking herself into a perfect mold … not quite the Gone Girl readalike we expected, it was still fascinating.”

Check your holds; they are heavy relative to copies ordered in some libraries.

Media Attention

A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope, Tom Brokaw, (Random House; RH & BOT Audio; RH Large Print)

Brokaw writes about dealing with his diagnosis of multiple melanoma. Heavy media attention begins tonight with NBC’s Dateline, promoted on NBC Nightly News on Thursday:

Coming up:

NBC Today Show – 5/11
NPR Fresh Air – airs 5/13
Comedy Central Daily Show – 5/12
PBS Charlie Rose – 5/12

The Great War of Our Time: The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism–From al Qa’ida to ISIS, Michael Morell, Bill Harlow, (Hachette/Twelve; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print)

Written by the former deputy director of the C.I.A., this book is getting press coverage. The Washington Post says the book includes “the bleakest assessments of the CIA’s performance during that tumultuous period by an official who was in the agency’s leadership at the time” and the New York Times says the author asserts, “Republicans, in their eagerness to politicize the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, repeatedly distorted the agency’s analysis of events.”

Peer Picks

The Book of Aron, Jim Shepard, RH/Knopf; RH & BOT Audio)

In a very early rave in the Washington Post, Ron Charles calls The Book of Aron no less than a masterpiece.  New York magazine lists it as one of “8 Books You Need to Read This May,” saying, “Shepard deserves attention far beyond the cozy circle of writers who worship him … Aron retells the well-known story of a doomed Warsaw Ghetto orphanage through the eyes of a very young and very flawed would-be survivor, eluding mawkishness and thereby evoking tears.”

Indie Next:

Shepard has performed a small miracle in channeling the voice of a young Jewish boy trapped in the Warsaw ghetto. He traces Aron’s progression from country bumpkin and reluctant scholar to a ‘macher’ on the streets of Warsaw, where his cunning and courage prolong the lives of his increasingly oppressed and desperate family. Aron’s story meshes with that of Janusz Korczak, well-known pediatrician, child rights advocate, and orphanage operator, when Aron is rescued from the streets after the death of all of his family members. The final scene of Korczak leading the ragtag parade of children to the train to Treblinka closes an astonishing portrayal of the Nazi evil viewed through the eyes of a very resourceful, tragic, but indefatigable child.” —Darwin Ellis, Books on the Common, Ridgefield CT

The Green Road, Anne Enright, (Norton; Thorndike; OverDrive Sample)

New York magazine’s ‘8 Books You Need to Read This May’

Indie Next:

Steeped in the moist earth of Ireland, this is the story of the Madigan family and the life that forces them apart, only to return again to a home filled with memories. Rosaleen suffers greatly at the loss of her four children — not to death, but to lives of their own: her eldest to New York, another to Mali, one daughter to a hospital career, and another to the ‘big city’ of Dublin. The concept of ‘family’ still holds them together despite years and circumstances, and as Rosaleen announces plans to sell the family home, a last Christmas gathering proves profound. —Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA

How to Start a Fire, Lisa Lutz, (HMH; Blackstone Audio; Wheeler Large Print)

Indie Next:

How to Start a Fire integrates Lutz’s trademark humor, quippy dialog, and quirky characters with a story of three college friends who meet in Santa Cruz in 1993. Readers will fall in love with these three women as they experience failed marriages, career decisions, and other significant life events. Those who are new to Lutz will gobble up this standalone entry and then race to their bookstore to begin reading about the Spellman family in her earlier bestselling series —Terry Gilman, Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego, CA

Just released, the LibraryReads picks for June, a list of the  ten titles librarians are most looking forward to sharing with readers next month. Topping the list, a book that may be the author’s breakout, Eight Hundred Grapes (Simon & Schuster; June 2; OverDrive Sample) by Laura Dave.

It was also a hit with the librarians on GalleyChat back in February. Some comparing author Laura Dave to Emily Giffin and Jennifer Weiner.

LibraryReads recommendation:

Take your time and savor the family dynamics. Enjoy the romantic twists in this tale of a career-minded young woman circling back to her roots at a California winery. The appeal is broader than that of a romance since it delves into the complexities of various relationships– parent to parent, parents and children, even winery and owner.This is an excellent summer read! — Joan Hipp, Florham Park Public Library, Florham Park, NJ

Annie Barrows, who will speak at the AAP/LibraryReads lunch at BEA, takes the no. 2 spot for The Truth According to Us (RH/The Dial Press; June 9; RH and BOT Audio; OverDrive Sample).

It is 1938 in a rural West Virginia town and a young woman arrives to write the town’s history. Layla doesn’t really know what to expect from the town, and the town doesn’t know what to make of her. This is the heart of the South, the soul of small towns, where everyone looks out for you and knows your history. Sweet story tailor-made for fans of Billie Letts, Fannie Flagg, Pat Conroy and Harper Lee. — Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, Austin, TX

Two other hot picks from previous GalleyChats also make this month’s list. The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; June 23;Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample) was a hit in March while The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George (RH/Crown; June 23; Random House Audio; OverDrive Sample) was a favorite in April.

Erika Johansen returns with The Invasion of the Tearling (Harper; June 9; HarperCollins and Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample), and is joined by other big names including Judy Blume and Elin Hilderbrand.

In nonfiction, pirates win the day with Robert Kurson’s Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship (Random House; June 16; RH and BOT Audio; OverDrive Sample) rounding off the picks.

The Indie Next titles have also been announced, with Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night (RH/Knopf; May 26; RH and BOT Audio; OverDrive Sample) taking the top spot.

Johansen and Barrows get nods from the booksellers at IndieBound as well.

Check your holds on Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample), announced today as  the second pick in NPR’s Morning Edition Book Club.

NPR asks a well-known writer to select each book for the club and to explain the reasons for that choice on the show. Gillian Flynn did the honors for this one, saying that Atkinson exhibits a “vast humanity for her characters, [an] incredible empathy… and is an author that can make readers weep on one page and laugh on the next.”

A God in Ruins is a companion of sorts to the bestselling Life After Life, (Hachette/Little, Brown OverDrive Sample), following a character from the first book, Ursula Todd’s younger brother Teddy. It is the story of a life strongly affected by war and is told through three generations – Teddy, his daughter, and grandchildren.

Flynn says readers will enjoy dissecting the book’s many characters and will have differing opinions about them, making it a good book group pick.

NPR provides a reading guide and instructions on how to post questions and comments via Facebook, Instagram and  Twitter  (using #morningeditionbookclub). Atkinson will appear on Morning Edition June 16^th to answer those questions and discuss the book.

A God in Ruins follows Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories Of 33 Men Buried In A Chilean Mine And The Miracle That Set Them Free by Hector Tobar (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample). As we reported, the push from NPR helped that nonfiction account take off. A movie based on the story, titled The 33, starring Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche and Gabriel Byrne will be released November 13.

Brian Grazer appears tonight on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to discuss his new book A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample) co-written with Charles Fishman.

Grazer, a high-powered Hollywood producer best known for films such as Apollo 13 and the currently hot Fox show Empire, was profiled early last month on CBS Sunday Morning, helping the book to land on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction best seller list.

His book explores the power of curiosity as a motivating and life-changing force. It has been such a central concept in Grazer’s life that he has conducted hundreds of “curiosity conversations” with a who’s who of famous names.

On Tuesday the legendary Willie Nelson sits down with Stewart to talk about his memoir It’s a Long Story: My Life (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample), which chronicles the 82-year-old’s life from childhood in small town Abbott, TX, through the heyday of his career, following up on his 1988 memoir, Willie, and the more philosophical The Tao of Willie (2006) and 2012’s Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.

Nelson’s memoir is written with David Ritz, an award-winning author focused on music biographies, who also helped Ray Charles and Rick James tell their tales.

Nelson performed one of his most well-known hits on the finale of PBS Austin City Limits: