There is a way to teach your cat that the carrier is a safe place.

According to Sarah Ellis, co-author with John Bradshaw of The Trainable Cat: A Practical Guide to Making Life Happier for You and Your Cat,  (Perseus/Basic Books; OverDrive Sample), the key is an understanding of feline psychology.

The author was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday by Terry Gross. Clearly, the subject connected with many listeners. The book is on the rise on Amazon’s sales rankings hitting #28 today.

The entire interview is a must-listen for cat lovers but a highlight is the discussion of the essential nature of cats. Rather than imprinting on humans as a point of safety the way dogs do, cats find safety in place, their home territory that they have marked with scent and know very well.

Taking a cue from that, rather than bringing out the carrier only when it’s time to go the the vet, owners should keep the carrier out of the closet, treating it like a piece of furniture, allowing the cat to mark it, become used to it, and to associate it with their safe home environment.

The six books that are still in the competition for the Man Booker Prize were announced today, winnowed down from the longlist of 13 titles announced in July.

Two of the titles are by authors from the US (in 2014, the rules were changed to make US authors eligible). Three others did not make the cut, including Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton (PRH/Viking).

Paul Beatty, US, The Sellout (Macmillan/FSG, 3/3/15; OverDrive Sample)
On several U.S. best books lists for the year, including the NYT Book Review‘s Top Ten, it was heavily reviewed here.

Ottessa Moshfegh, US, Eileen (PRH/Penguin; OverDrive Sample;  8/18/15)
Featured on the cover of the  NYT Book Review,  it was also reviewed in the LA Times, The Washington Post, and NPR, appeared on several 2015 “best”  lists and is being adapted as a movie.

The other four titles are by authors from Canada and the U.K. Only one of the titles has been published in the U.S. The rest are set for release in time for the announcement of the winner on Oct. 25.

Madeleine Thien, Canada, Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Norton; 10/11/16)
Reviewed by Publishers Weekly, the Guardian and by The Globe and Mail.

David Szalay, Canada-UK,  All That Man Is (Macmillan/Graywolf; OverDrive Sample; 10/4/16)
Reviewed by Publishers Weekly, the Guardian and the Telegraph.

Graeme Macrae Burnet, UK, His Bloody Project, (Skyhorse, 10/4/16)
Published by the “tiny” press Saraband in Scotland, this title’s appearance on the list has drawn headlines in the U.K.. Up until the longlist announcement, the book had received little attention. In its review, the Guardian, said “this Man Booker-longlisted historical thriller deftly masquerades as a slice of true crime.”

Deborah Levy, UK,  Hot Milk (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA; OverDrive Sample; 7/12/16)
Reviewed in the daily NYT, the Washington Post and the NYT Book Review

The glittering era of cinematic TV adaptations continues with the news that movie star maven Meryl Streep and Star Wars director J.J. Abrams are teaming up to produce a small screen limited series of The Nix by Nathan Hill (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

Deadline Hollywood reports the deal is with Warner Bros Television which will be able to auction the finished project to the highest bidder.

New York Magazine has already called the debut novel “One of This Fall’s Buzziest.”

As we noted, it racked up accolades when it hit the shelves with People magazine making it a pick for the week, calling it  “as good as the best Michael Chabon or Jonathan Franzen.”

Entertainment Weekly was also impressed, giving it an A- and calling it “a big fat cinder block of a book brainy enough to wipe away the last SPF-smeared vestiges of a lazy summer but so immediately engaging, too, that it makes the transition feel like a reward.”

Early days yet and no word on who will star opposite Streep in the role of her on-screen son, Samuel Andresen-Anderson.

The majority of the Fall Preview lists are out, providing an overview of the reading season. In addition to the lists we have already covered, USA Today recently released their Fall Preview, as did Lit Hub, which rounded up eclectic picks from indie booksellers. Even the fashion magazines joined the game, with Glamour, Elle, and Vogue issuing lists and putting to good use all the extra editorial pages that come along with the fat September issues.

We’ve set up links to the various lists to the right. You can also browse our catalog of Fall consumer media picks. Reading through them is a quick way to get to get a leg up on books people will be asking about.

Most of the lists focus on adult titles, but Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and LitHub also feature children’s and YA books.

Consensus Picks

Several titles emerge as clear favorites including Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth (Harper; HarperAudio). All the annotations emphasize that this novel about blended families feels very personal. Indeed, the WSJ says it “recalls elements of her own experiences as a child of divorce” and quotes the book’s publisher Jonathan Burnham, saying it is “probably the most commercial novel Ann has written yet.”

Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample) is on most of the lists, including Glamour‘s, but with a dismissive recommendation, “For Keeping Prominently on Your Bedside Table or Bookshelf to Thumb Through Once in a While and Feel Smart for Owning, Even Though You Never Get Around To Actually Reading It.”

On the other hand, Glamour is over the top about another much-anticipated title, Zadie Smith’s Swing Time (PRH/Penguin Press; Penguin Audio/BOT; Nov. 15): “Book club, over wine, on a date, on the phone, online…there’s never a wrong time to gush about the latest Zadie Smith, so inoculate yourself against spoilers by reading it the moment you can.” 

Blockbuster Authors

Even the fashion magazines tend to focus on literary titles, leaving USA Today as the only source to mention Nicholas Sparks’s latest, Two by Two (Hachette/Grand Central; Blackstone Audio) or Stephenie Meyer’s The Chemist (Hachette/Little, Brown) saying she “channels her inner Jason Bourne in her first adult thriller.” The Amazon Editors, of course, also mention some expected big sellers, including  John Grisham’s The Whistler (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio/BOT; RH Large Print) and Jojo Moyes’s  Paris for One and Other Stories (PRH/Pamela Dorman; Penguin Audio/BOT;RH Large Print).

Memoirs

Oprah’s latest pick, Love Warrior, isn’t on any of these lists, but two memoirs that many thought were worthy candidates for the nod are, Anuk Arudpragasam’s The Story of a Brief Marriage (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; OverDrive Sample) and iO Tillett Wright’s Darling Days (HarperCollins/Ecco).

Debuts

By their nature, these lists tend to focus on authors with proven track records, but several debuts appear on multiple lists:

The Mothers, Brit Bennett (10/11, PRH/Riverhead; Penguin Audio/BOT). Note: It is the #1 Indie Next pick for October.

Annotation That Grabbed Us — Vogue — “explores a love triangle in a Southern California beach town, and the ways in which women often nurture, and sometimes betray, one another.”

Mischling, Affinity Konar (Hachette/Lee Boudreaux Books; HachetteAudio; OverDrive Sample).

Annotation That Grabbed Us — Lit Hub — “If you read one book this year, prepare to be swept away by this luminous story of twins surviving the horrors of Auschwitz … The sisters are forced to endure the experiments of Josef Mengele and yet they survive—participating in camp events, plotting the death of Mengele and finding hope in despair. The pace is so beautiful that you must take your time with her words—imaginative, humorous, and transcendent.  –Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Bookshop

The Wangs vs. the World, Jade Chang (HMH).

Annotation That Grabbed Us  — New York magazine — “In Jade Chang’s highly entertaining debut novel The Wangs vs. the World, Taiwanese-born American businessman Charles Wang loses his fortune to the 2008 recession and must unite his children to start fresh in China. Along with their stepmother Barbra, the Wangs set off on a road trip across the country, all the way struggling to deal with their new financial situation — and each other. A meditation on what it means to be an immigrant in America, The Wangs vs. the World shows the often surprising ways hardship can bring a dysfunctional family closer together.”

We’ll be watching to see which of these titles make the transition to the end-of-the-year bests lists.

Among the many memorials to mark the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11, is a new wave of novels aimed at readers  who were either too young to remember the events, or were born since they took place.

In a feature on the trend, the NYT reports “the first major wave of children’s literature that explicitly deals with the terrorist attacks” is now forthcoming. “The stories range from tame middle-grade novels for 8- to 12-year-olds, which center on the tragedy but keep the horror mostly at a distance, to young-adult novels with unflinching descriptions of the mayhem and bloodshed that unfolded as the towers burned and fell.”

It has taken so long to see a concentrated group of titles, writes the the NYT‘s publishing reporter, Alexandra Alter, because editors and publishers have been too jittery to publish books set during that era, fearing the material would be overly traumatic for readers or seem exploitative.

Authors, worried that teens have no clear idea of what actually happened and that they themselves were becoming too removed from the events to write about them with truth and power, pushed back against those concerns, reports the NYT, quoting one author as saying of the 10 editors who rejected her novel for fear it was too raw and painful that “they’re not the audience for the book, and the teens that are going to be reading this book are not going to have that visceral reaction.”

The story highlights a number of titles:

All We Have Left, Wendy Mills (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA Childrens; OverDrive Sample).

Love Is the Higher Law, David Levithan (PRH/Knopf Books for Young Readers; OverDrive Sample). An early outlier from 2009.

Somewhere Among, Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu, illustrated by Sonia Chaghatzbanian (S&S/Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books; OverDrive Sample).

Towers Falling, Jewell Parker Rhodes (Hachette/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story, Nora Raleigh Baskin (S&S/Atheneum Books for Young Readers; OverDrive Sample).

The Memory of Things, Gae Polisner (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin; OverDrive Sample).

The Christian Science Monitor has a similar story, offering annotations of some of the titles.

Rising on Amazon’s sales rankings is The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America’s UFO Highway, by Ben Mezrich (S&S/Atria; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample). Moving from #240 to within the top 100 best sellers, the jump is a result of  the author’s appearance on CBS This Morning.

Mezrich, known for his juicy, edgy, social science books such as Bringing Down the House (adapted as the 2008 movie 21) and The Accidental Billionaires (adapted as the 2010 movie The Social Network) turns away from accounts of college kids making money to focus his attention on a very different type of speculation, whether extraterrestrials exist and the story of a real life alien hunter.

In the interview with CBS, Mezrich says he went into the project as a non-believer, but in the course of investigating the tales of unexplained happenings along what is essential the UFO Highway (a 3,000 mile strip across the middle of the country), he now knows “that at least once something happened that still has not been explained” and that “the impediments to believing have dissapeared.”

He says there is a “enormous amount of evidence” and he hopes readers will consider it.

Like his previous books, this one  is already in the process of being adapted into a movie.

The book of the week, at least among reviewers, is Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth (Harper; HarperAudio), arriving on Tuesday. It’s already received coverage, and it’s likely to get more attention in the upcoming week (see Peer Picks, below). It also comes with the news that her breakout title, Bel Canto, is being developed as a movie, starring Julianne Moore. Check your holds, some libraries are showning ratios of ten to one.

The other literary title getting attention (as well as props from GalleyChatters this week) is Nutshell by Ian McEwan (PRH/Nan A. Talese; Recorded Books; RH Large Print), featured on the cover of this week’s NYT BR. McEwan is also getting the Hollywood treatment. His novel On Chesil Beach is in the process of being adapted, starring Satires Ronan.

Showing a larger number of holds than his earlier titles, perhaps because of the A&E series based on his books, is Craig Johnson’s An Obvious Fact (PRH/Viking; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample). Netflix picked up the Longmire series (after A&E cut it). A fifth season will air later this month,

As we’ve written, Ta-Nehisi Coates followed up his long-running nonfiction best seller with a comic featuring the Black Panther, with illustrations by Brian Stelfreeze. The first four issues are being released in book form as Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet Book 1. WSJ interviews him about the series this week.

Jennifer Weiner makes her children’s debut with a middle grade novel, the first in a trilogy, The Littlest Bigfoot (S&S/Aladdin; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample). She also publishes her first book of essays in October, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing (S&S/Atria; S&S Audio).

The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, Earlyword New Title Radar Week of Sept. 12, 2016

Media Attention

Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction, Elizabeth Vargas (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print; OverDrive Sample).

The ABC News 20/20 co-anchor writes about her struggles with alcoholism. She will be be interviewed by Diane Sawyer tonight on the 2-hour season premiere of the show.

The book was excerpted in People magazine.

In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox, Carol Burnett (PRH/Crown Archetype; RH Audio/BOT; RH Large Print; OverDrive Sample).

Watch for a flood of attention:

USA Today – Fall Books Preview – 9/4
ABC-TV – Live! with Kelly – Interview – 9/13
Bravo TV – Watch What Happens Live – Taped Interview – 9/13
Entertainment Tonight – Interview – 9/13
Today Show – 8AM & 10AM appearances – 9/13
Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon – Guest appearance – 9/13
The Rachael Ray Show – Guest appearance – 9/13

Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, Mike Love with James S. Hirsch, (PRH/Blue Rider Press; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

Excerpt in People magazine, playing up the Manson connection. There is a VERY early, but none too complimentary, NYT review by Janet Maslin, two weeks ahead of pub. date. Coming in October is a memoir by another Beach Boy, I Am Brian Wilson.

Alan Cumming follows up on his well-received memoir from 2014, Not My Father’s Son, with another life tale, You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams: My Life in Stories and Pictures, Alan Cumming (Rizzoli; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Expect a media attention, including:

Vanity Fair – 9/1
W Magazine – 9/1
CBS-TV / Late Show With Stephen Colbert – 9/9
ABC-TV / The Chew – 9/13
CBS-TV/Late Late Show with James Corden – 9/20

Man of the World : The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton, Joe Conason (S&S; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample) provides an inside look at the second career and world-wide brand of Bill Clinton. The book was the basis for a news story in The Washington Post this week.

Expect more attention to follow, including:

CNN-TV/ Newsroom, September 13
MSNBC-TV/ Morning Joe, September 13
CNBS-TV/ Squawk Box, September 14
WNYC-Radio/ Brian Lehrer Show, September 15

Wolf Boys: Two American Teenagers and Mexico’s Most Dangerous Drug Cartel, Dan Slater (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample). The publisher offers a sure-bet hook for this true crime tale, “The story of two American teens recruited as killers for a Mexican cartel, and their pursuit by a Mexican-American detective who realizes the War on Drugs is unwinnable.”

There is a media wave for it as well:

New Yorker, 9/12/16
NPR-Radio/ Weekend All Things Considered, September 10
New York Times Book Review, September 11
C-SPAN Book TV/ AfterWords, September 20

Consumer Media Picks

In addition to Ann Patchett’s novel, People picks:

I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual, Luvvie Ajayi (Macmillan/Holt Paperback original; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample) — “blogger Ajayi might make you rethink some assumptions about meant and women. At the very least, she’ll make you laugh.”

Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon. Kelley French and Thomas French (Hachette/Little, Brown; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample) — “The Frenches, both journalists, eloquently chronicle the terrifying, heroic first six months of their daughter Juniper’s life … tender, fierce and breathtaking.”

Unfortunately, Entertainment Weekly‘s book section  was pre-empted this week by their extensive preview of the fall TV season, but Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth is #6 on their “Must List” for the week.

Peer Picks

Four LibraryReads titles hit shelves this week:

Commonwealth, Ann Patchett (Harper; HarperAudio).

“The Cousins and the Keatings are two California families forever intertwined and permanently shattered by infidelity. Bert Cousins leaves his wife for Beverly Keating, leaving her to raise four children on her own. Beverly, with two children of her own, leaves her husband for Bert. The six children involved are forced to forge a childhood bond based on the combined disappointment in their parents. As adults, they find their families’ stories revealed in a way they couldn’t possibly expect. Patchett has written a family drama that perfectly captures both the absurdity and the heartbreak of domestic life.” — Michael Colford, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA

Additional Buzz: On most, if not all the fall reading previews, it is also the Indie Next #1 pick for September, Entertainment Weekly gives it a solid A review; The Guardian says it is “outstanding;” and Jennifer Senior reviewed it early for the daily NYT, calling it “exquisite.” The author was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered on Thursday. The film adaptation of Patchett’s 2001 breakout novel, Bel Canto, just got its own buzz, with the announcement that Julianne Moore will star in a film adaptation along with Ken Watanabe and Demian Bichir.

The Tea Planter’s Wife, Dinah Jefferies (PRH/Crown; RH Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“When Gwendolyn Hooper comes to Ceylon as a young bride, she has no idea that she’s entering a region on the cusp of political upheaval or that she’s living with a widower and his secret-filled past. The Tea Planter’s Wife has all of the elements that I’m looking for in historical fiction: compelling characters, an evocative setting, a leisurely pace, and a plot that unfolds like the petals of a flower, or, in this case, the tea plant.” — Amy Lapointe, Amherst Town Library, Amherst, NH

The Secrets of Wishtide, Kate Saunders (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA; OverDrive Sample).

“A charming mystery introduces Laetitia Rodd, a widow who moonlights as a sleuth in 1850s London. She’s tapped to help uncover the mysterious past of a prospective bride, but the more Laetitia digs, the more certain individuals want to keep their secrets buried. And when those secrets turn deadly, Laetitia may be in danger herself. Saunders nails the raucous world of Victorian London, capturing the Dickens-like characters from the lowest of society to the lofty ranks of the wealthy. A fine read for those who love vivid settings and memorable characters.” — Katie Hanson, Madison Public Library, Madison, WI

Darktown, Thomas Mullen (S&S/Atria/37 INK; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“In Atlanta in the late 1940s, the integration of black police officers into the force is proving to be challenging. White civilians don’t respect their authority, and black civilians don’t trust that they can protect them. Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith are men with heavy burdens on their shoulders. Every move they make is examined. When the body of a young black woman is found, they will put everything on the line to gain justice for a woman who turns into a symbol of all that is wrong with their town. Despite its historical setting, so many elements of this tale seem timely, and readers will have much to think about after turning the last page.” — Sharon Layburn, South Huntington Public Library, South Huntington, NY

Additional Buzz: Film rights were acquired in a “very competitive” auction ahead of publication. It is also a September Indie Next selection.

There are four additional Indie Next picks out this week:

A Whole Life, Robert Seethaler and translated by Charlotte Collins (Macmillan/FSG; RH Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Andreas Egger lived his whole life with nature as his most trusted companion. When humans, war, and debilitating events threatened him, he quietly climbed mountains, bathed in icy streams, watched the sun streak its intense color into the sky, and then put his head down and forged ahead. He lived eight decades, mostly alone, and faced death and privation with heroism, stoicism, and a depth of character rarely seen in the ‘modern’ 20th century. In this short novel, Seethaler has poetically created a character and a way of looking at the natural world that readers will never forget.” —Gayle Shanks, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ

Additional Buzz: It is on the 2016 shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize. The NYT featured Seethaler last month in an interview for the International Arts section. The Irish Times says the book  is “haunting” and “spare” and compares it to Paul Harding’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Tinkers and John Williams’s Stoner.

Little Nothing, Marisa Silver (PRH/Blue Rider Press; OverDrive Sample).

“Silver turns the oral tradition into fine literature with Little Nothing, a masterful work of fairy tale and folklore. Pavla, a dwarf born in Eastern Europe in the early 20th century, is a survivor who magically adapts time and again in order to overcome cruelty. Danilo loves her and is obsessed only with protecting her. This is a story of the power of transformation and the gift of finding the love we need, if not the love we seek.” —Maureen Stinger, The Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, VA

Loner, Teddy Wayne (S&S).

“David Federman, a gifted student who is both socially awkward and emotionally immature, is trying to find his place as a Harvard freshman. Enter the beautiful and sophisticated Veronica Wells, and David is hopelessly, obsessively in love for the first time. Suffice it to say this is not a match made in heaven, and it ends badly for everyone when David starts stalking Veronica and violates the school’s honor code — the first steps down a slippery slope towards a violent and tragic ending. David is by turns sympathetic and repellent, and Loner is a complex portrayal of alienation, gender politics, and class at the highest echelons of American academic life.” —Ellen Burns, Books on the Common, Ridgefield, CT

Additional Buzz: It is a New York Magazine Fall Reading pick. The author is scheduled to appear on NPR’s Weekend Edition tomorrow and a review is scheduled for the New York Times Book Review, September 25. People magazine will also review.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World, Peter Wohlleben (Perseus/PGW/Legato/Greystone Books).

“The Hidden Life of Trees reads like a 250-page epiphany. Wohlleben knows trees inside and out, and his revelatory examination of the inner lives of forests provides evidence of what many sensitive nature-lovers long suspected: that trees form friendships, sustain one another, and should be viewed as more than a natural resource. This is the kind of writing that can profoundly affect the way we live on this planet.” —Stephen Sparks, Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA

Additional Buzz: The NYT ran a profile of Wohlleben at the start of the year. It created a stir at the time, causing the book to rise on Amazon nine months before its pub date.

Tie-ins

Trolls. Film opens on Nov. 4, 2016. Directed by Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn (both of whom worked on various Shrek movies). Starring the voices of Anna Kendrick, Zooey Deschanel, James Corden, Justin Timberlake, Russell Brand, and Gwen Stefani.

Tie-in: See listing of tie-ins for the many related books coming out next week.

The summer blockbuster,  Finding Dory is still in theaters, and, with terrible consequences for blue tangs. Digital releases are set for this fall. A new tie-in follows earlier releases.

Tie-in: Big Fish, Little Fish (Disney/Pixar Finding Dory), Christy Webster, illustrated by The Disney Storybook Art Team (RH/Disney).

For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV spreadsheet and link to our listing of tie-ins.

Tom Hanks’s turn as Sully in Clint Eastwood’s movie about the hero pilot  is scoring with audiences, based on today’s box office. The tie-in continues on best seller lists, enjoying the promotion from the movie’s advance publicity.

Also doing well is the series Queen Sugar on Oprah’s OWN channel. It’s two-night premiere was a ratings high for the network. The novel it is based on,  Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile (Penguin/Pamela Dorman;see our chat with the author just prior to the book’s publication), has also been rising on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Opening on Sept 16 is Bridget Jones’s Baby, the third in the franchise based on Helen Fielding;s character.

Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth reprise their roles as Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy and Patrick Dempsey stars a dishy American love interest. Emma Thompson features in the new role as Bridget’s ob-gyn.

Fielding, along with Thompson and David Nicholls wrote the script.

The producers unsurprisingly feel that, fifteen years after the first film in the series arrived and ten years after the most recent one, viewers might need a refresher course. To help that cause they have made an orientation featurette:

Never published as a novel, the tie-in will come out after the film premieres, Bridget Jones’s Baby (PRH/Knopf, Oct. 11, 2016; RH Audio/BOT), presumable to avoid spilling the beans on who fathered Bridget’s baby.

It may not matter if viewers remember the earlier movies. Placing it at #1 on their “Must List” for the week, Entertainment Weekly asserts, “it’s the rom-com romp fans have been waiting for.”

Below is the full trailer:

Also opening on the 16th is Oliver Stone’s Snowden. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, and Timothy Olyphant also star.

According to Variety, Stone co-wrote the screenplay with with Kieran Fitzgerald and based it on Luke Harding’s nonfiction account The Snowden Files (Movie Tie In Edition): The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man (PRH/Vintage; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample) and the novel Time of the Octopus, Anatoly Kucherena (Glagoslav Publications. Note: Kucherena is Snowden’s Russian lawyer).

That fictional account is not yet published in the US, but The Hollywood Reporter quotes Stone as describing the book as

“a ‘grand inquisitor’-style Russian novel weighing the soul of his fictional whistle-blower, Joshua Cold, against the gravity of a 1984 tyranny that has achieved global proportions. His meditations on the meaning of totalitarian power in the 21st century make for a chilling, prescient horror story.”

The director has visited Snowden in Russia and shown him the film. For his part, Snowden says “it’s pretty on the money.”

Not to be outdone by Hillary or Trump, Bernie Sanders is also publishing a book, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne Books, Nov. 15, 2016).

To be published the week after the election, the book recounts Sanders’ primary fight and offers a call to arms to continue his revolution.

The book title is the same as Sanders’s new political group. Intended to continue the movement he began during the primary, the NYT says it is “focused on addressing economic inequality and taking on special interests.”

Macmillan is promoting the book with the hashtag #readtheburn.

The number one pick of the just released list of monthly librarian favorites for October is News of the World by Paulette Jiles (HC/William Morrow).

“Readers fortunate enough to meet Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an old ex-soldier who makes a living reading the news to townspeople in 1870s Texas, and Joanna, the Indian captive he is charged with returning to her relatives, will not soon forget them. Everything, from the vividly realized Texas frontier setting to the characters is beautifully crafted, right up to the moving conclusion. Both the Captain and Joanna have very distinctive voices. Wonderful storytelling.” — Beth Mills, New Rochelle Public Library, New Rochelle, NY

Additional Buzz: It is also an Indie Next selection for October.

Below are highlights of some of the other 9 titles on the list:

The Mothers (PRH/Riverhead; Penguin Audio/BOT).

“In a contemporary Black community in California, the story begins with a secret. Nadia is a high school senior, mourning her mother’s recent death, and smitten with the local pastor’s son, Luke. It’s not a serious romance, but it takes a turn when a pregnancy (and subsequent cover-up) happen. The impact sends ripples through the community. The Mothers asks us to contemplate how our decisions shape our lives. The collective voice of the Mothers in the community is a voice unto itself, narrating and guiding the reader through the story.” — Jennifer Ohzourk, St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis

Additional Buzz: The October Indie Next #1 pick, it also appears on the Fall Reading lists from Amazon’s Editors, BuzzFeed, New York Magazine, and WSJ.

Crosstalk, Connie Willis (PRH/Del Rey; OverDrive Sample).

“Crosstalk is the perfect romantic comedy for the digital age. Briddey works for a cell phone provider that is constantly searching for the next great way to help people “connect” – nevermind that she is already inundated by calls, texts, social media, and unannounced visits from her colleagues, friends, and nosy family. When she undergoes a procedure to telepathically sense the emotions of her seemingly perfect boyfriend, things go awry and she ends up connected to the wrong person. A perfect screwball comedy from a master writer!” — Patricia Kline-Millard, Bedford Public Library, Bedford, NH

Additional Buzz: It is on io9’s list of All the New Scifi and Fantasy Books You Absolutely Must Read This Fall,

A number of other titles selected by librarians also got nods from booksellers via the newly released Indie Next list, including:

The Trespasser, Tana French (PRH/Viking; Penguin Audio/BOT).

Small Great Things, Jodi Picoult (PRH/Ballantine; RH Audio/BOT).

Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple (Hachette/Little, Brown; Blackstone Audio).

The Other Einstein, Marie Benedict (Sourcebooks Landmark; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

The full list of ten librarian picks is available online.

Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine have released a book outlining their policies and plans, using  their campaign slogan as the title, Stronger Together (S&S).

The L.A. Times reports that the 288-page trade paperback (an ebook version has been released as well) is full of details:

“the minutiae is the point. The political aim of the book is less to be a gripping page turner than to make the case that Donald Trump doesn’t even have the material to publish such a book if he were so inclined.”

The book is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings. The customer reviews section indicates that people are either strongly “with her” or strongly not. So far, but based on just 12 reviews, 58% of the ratings are 5 stars and 42% are just one star, with none in between.

Proving a number of librarians and reporters correct, Oprah has announced her next book club title selection,  Love Warrior: A Memoir, Glennon Doyle Melton (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample), publishing today.

Oprah made the announcement on CBS This Morning in a video message saying the memoir is daring and raw and all women will see themselves in its pages.

The book was already doing well in pre-pub orders, with the title rising over the last three weeks on Amazon. On today’s news the book rose to #16 on the Amazon Top 100, behind the previous pick, Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, which is at #12. Fans already knew Melton from her first book, Carry On Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life, a collection of essays from her website Momastery.com.

This new memoir recounts Melton’s discovery that her husband had been unfaithful and the spiritual journey she takes during the process of rebuilding her marriage. The description in the readers guide for the book club says that “Glennon reconsiders far more than her marriage and discovers what it means to be true to oneself, to claim her true identity as a Love Warrior.”

The coverage and reaction to the pick is thus far more muted than the splashy roll out and multiple reviews that greeted the announcement of Underground Railroad just a few weeks ago.

Oprah has not explained why she’s doing another book so quickly or if doing so indicates she is stepping up the program.

UDPDATE:

Way back in May, our own GalleyChatter, Robin Beerbower was prescient in her review on GoodReads and on Edelweiss:

What struck me most about the memoir was her courage, candor, and honesty in relating the most intimate details of her life and marriage. Definitely a winner for women’s book groups and for those who can’t wait for Oprah’s memoir to be published–in fact, if Oprah still regularly did a book selection for her show, I could see this as an easy choice.

Also, for some reason this reminded me a bit of Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, a collection of honest and compassionate essays. I would also compare Love Warrior to Joan Anderson’s books about her separation and rebuilding of her marriage (A Year by the Sea and An Unfinished Marriage), although Melton’s book is more beautifully written.

The start of fall is not only signaled by Labor Day, but by the increased number of titles by well-known authors coming your way next week, from Margaret Atwood’s first graphic novel, Angel Catbird (Dark Horse Books; OverDrive Sample), to John le Carré’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life (PRH/Viking; Penguin Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample), which NYT‘s Michiko Kakutani describes as more of “a collection of reminiscences” and continues that the section on his childhood, adapted from a longer New Yorker piece, is “the rawest, most emotional part of this book, and its psychological spine.”

In addition, the next Oprah pick arrives, breathtakingly quickly after her selection of Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad. The title has not been announced yet, so speculation has been rife with heavy odds on Glennon Doyle Melton’s Love Warrior (Macmillan/Flatiron; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample), even though it is a memoir and the Oprah pick is classified as fiction (red herring, perhaps?).

Another guess, quickly shot down by the author, is Jonathan Safran Foer’s next novel Here I Am (Macmillan/FSG; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample). A literary darling, you can expect to see it reviewed in all the major consumer book reviews, beginning with the L.A. Times, under the less than compelling headline, “With joyless prose about joyless people, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am is kitsch at best.”

It’s also a big week for the James Patterson Bookshops series, with four new titles being released. This is the third group of titles released in the series, and it’s become clear that all BookShots are not equal. Readers prefer those that continue established Patterson series, which this month’s titles do not. Two are in the erotic romance sub-series, BookShots Flames. Patterson is not the co-author on these titles, but supplies an introduction to each. Still, it’s amusing to see the Patterson name emblazoned in script across a typical romance cover.

The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of 9/5/16

Consumer Media Picks

The media continues to give props to the big literary debut released earlier this week, that we previewed last week, The Nix by Nathan Hill (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- in the new issue:

“Nathan Hill’s sad, funny, endlessly inventive debut feels like exactly the kind of novel Septembers are made for: a big fat cinder block of a book brainy enough to wipe away the last SPF-smeared vestiges of a lazy summer but so immediately engaging, too, that it makes the transition feel like a reward, not homework.”

The New York Times kicked off the coverage with a profile of the author, comparing him to John Irving and then, cleverly asking Irving his opinion. He compares Hill to Dickens. Washington Post chief book critic, Ron Charles calls Hill a “major new comic novelist” and describes one of the book’s main characters as “a fire-breathing, anti-immigrant presidential candidate who may remind you of a certain reality-TV star with size anxiety.” NPR calls it, “A Vicious, Sprawling Satire With A Very Human Heart.”

Some libraries are showing heavy holds on modest ordering.

People magazine’s “Book of the Week” is a tribute to the late Nora Ephron by her friend Richard Cohen, She Made Me Laugh (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample) calling it, “both complex and moving — and [Cohen’s] depiction of the literary and journalistic circles of the era isn’t stingy on the gossip, either. Nora would be pleased.”

People‘s other two picks this week are also peer picks, Gayle Forman’s first title for adults and the debut, Mischling (see below).

Peer Picks

Two LibraryReads titles appear next week, including the #1 librarian pick for September:

Leave Me, Gayle Forman (Workman/Algonquin Books; OverDrive Sample).

“Aren’t there days when you just want to leave it all behind? After a life threatening event, that’s exactly what Maribeth Klein does. Maribeth, wife, mom of 4-year old twins, and editor of a glossy magazine is told to rest. Sure! The choice she makes is not the one for most, but following Maribeth on this journey is compelling nonetheless. Fast paced narrative and terrific writing make this one hard to put down. Recommended!” — Carol Ann Tack, Merrick Library, Merrick, NY

Additional Buzz: It is also an Indie Next selection for September and is a People pick this week.

The Masked City: An Invisible Library Novel, Genevieve Cogman (PRH/Roc; OverDrive Sample).

“A mysterious new Fae couple is causing Irene and crew major grief in this second installment of the Invisible Library series. After getting a book, Irene and Kai get attacked by a group of werewolves. Irene plans to go to the Library, turn in the book, and find information on the newcomers while Kai will go to Vale’s house. Kai is attacked and taken away. To get to the chaos filled world where Kai is held, Irene has to get help from Silver and fight to not be overrun by chaos and the Fae. I like this series because Irene is a smart, tough, stubborn, and loyal librarian who has survived many crazy, dangerous, and interesting worlds and people.” — Julie Horton, Greenwood County Library, Greenwood, SC

Additional Buzz: The author’s first book was the subject of one of our PRH EarlyReads chats.

Eight Indie Next picks flood shelves this week:

The Risen, Ron Rash (HC/Ecco; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample).

“The most overused cliché in the book business is ‘page-turner,’ so I will ask indulgence when I declare that The Risen by Ron Rash is a page-turner in the truest sense of the phrase. The Risen explores a young boy’s coming of age, sibling rivalry, a decades-old mystery, and extreme life choices. It is an exciting read for all who appreciate literature at its finest.” —Jake Reiss, Alabama Booksmith, Birmingham, AL

Mischling, Affinity Konar (Hachette/Lee Boudreaux Books; HachetteAudio; OverDrive Sample).

“Sisters Stasha and Pearl are accustomed to the imaginative interior life they share as twins, but in Josef Mengele’s ‘Zoo’ at Auschwitz they must find refuge in that life in order to survive. Readers descend into the violence and despair of the Holocaust as experienced through the eyes of the twins but are protected by an innocence that is also urbane and by a sardonic playfulness that does not shy from horrors but transforms them into fortitude and resilience. Konar has achieved the unlikely — Mischling simultaneously haunts and inspires.” —Kelly Pickerill, Lemuria Bookstore, Jackson, MS

Additional Buzz: A People pick this week, it earned starred reviews from Booklist, LJ, and PW, which calls it “a brutally beautiful novel.”

Razor Girl, Carl Hiaasen (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Welcome back to Southern Florida! In the land of flimflam artists, illegal substances, and scantily clad women, disgraced detective Andrew Yancy is just trying to get his job back. Merry Mansfield, master of the car crash scam, insinuates herself into Yancy’s life with brazen confidence. As it turns out, he needs her more than he could ever anticipate. Reality TV stars, redneck kidnappers, mobsters, and corrupt developers cross paths throughout this novel in hilarious, nonstop action. Hiassen is at the top of his game with quirky characters, rapid-fire banter, and Wodehouse-like plotting.” —Cindy Pauldine, the river’s end bookstore, Oswego, NY

Additional Buzz: Reviewed in The Washington Post as a “raucous new novel.” More reviews are coming, from NPR and the NYT‘s Janet Maslin.

The Fortunes, Peter Ho Davies (HMH; OverDrive Sample).

“At a time of talk about building walls and isolationism, Davies offers a look at American history through the lives of a group of people who have helped to forge this nation — Chinese-Americans. Davies presents characters for whom the American dream is as elusive or as real as it would be to any others. Set in the California Gold Rush, 1930s Hollywood, and the present day, Davies’ tale is artfully told with passion and conviction, and readers will empathize fully with each generation of ‘outsiders.’” —Jessie Martin, Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, MI

Additional Buzz: On several Fall Reading lists, including New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, the Amazon Editor’s, and BuzzFeed.

Lady Cop Makes Trouble, Amy Stewart (HMH; OverDrive Sample).

“Stewart’s follow-up to Girl Waits With Gun is equally fascinating. Based on the life of Constance Kopp, the first female deputy sheriff in New Jersey, this tale takes readers from rural New Jersey to the mean streets of New York City in 1915. With grit, smarts, and utter determination, Constance tracks a convict who escaped her custody. Despite the astounding restrictions on a woman’s life in the early 20th century, Constance takes every risk to capture her suspect. Complemented by the historical notes that Stewart provides, Lady Cop is both informative and loads of fun.” —Kathy Kirby, Powell’s Books, Portland, OR

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles (PRH/Viking; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Through Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov’s ordinary encounters and activities within the bounds of the four walls of post-revolutionary Moscow’s Metropol Hotel, where he is under house arrest, Towles deftly guides readers across a century of Russian history, from the Bolshevik uprising to the dawn of the nuclear age under Krushchev. Grandiloquent language and drama reminiscent of Tolstoy gradually give way to action and tradecraft suggestive of le Carré in this lovely and entertaining tale of one man’s determination to maintain his dignity and passion for life, even after being stripped of his title, belongings, and freedom. Reading A Gentleman in Moscow is pure pleasure!” —Becky Dayton, The Vermont Book Shop, Middlebury, VT

Additional Buzz: On the Fall Reading lists of Entertainment Weekly and the Amazon Editor’s. LJ and Kirkus offer starred reviews with Kirkus writing “A masterly encapsulation of modern Russian history, this book more than fulfills the promise of Towles’ stylish debut, Rules of Civility.”

Pancakes in Paris: Living the American Dream in France, Craig Carlson (Sourcebooks; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Pancakes and Paris make for a winning combination in this charming memoir. Readers will cheer for Carlson as he follows his dream of opening a restaurant in nother country. He faces many challenges, but perseveres until he reaches his goal. Thanks to Carlson it is now possible to get hearty pancakes and other treats at Breakfast in America, the first American-style diner in Paris. This is a perfect read for armchair travelers or for Francophiles planning their next trip to the City of Lights.” —Elizabeth Merritt, Titcomb’s Bookshop, East Sandwich, MA

The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood, Belle Boggs (Macmillan/Graywolf Press; OverDrive Sample).

“Boggs tackles a variety of challenging topics throughout this cohesive collection of essays. With a knowledgeable, considerate, and honest mind, Boggs is somehow able to transform the clinical and sedate language of infertility treatments into a beautiful song of hope and transformation. The metaphors Boggs finds for her travails sing, and the patient quality of her narration stuns. The candidness of her voice, combined with her ability to find the perfect words to sum up data, studies, statistics, and personal experience, make The Art of Waiting a gift for all readers.” —John Francisconi, Bank Square Books, Mystic, CT

Additional Buzz: It is a BuzzFeed Fall Reading pick.

Tie-ins

Five new tie-ins appear this week, setting up the fall film season.

Goat: Film opens on 9/23/16. Directed by Andrew Neel, starring Ben Schnetzer, Nick Jonas, and Gus Halper.

Tie-in: Goat (Movie Tie-in Edition): A Memoir, Brad Land (PRH/RH; OverDrive Sample).

The Queen of Katwe: Film opens on 9/23/16 in limited release, nationwide the following week. Directed by Mira Nair, starring Lupita Nyong’o, David Oyelowo, Madina Nalwanga, and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.

Tie-in: The Queen of Katwe: One Girl’s Triumphant Path to Becoming a Chess Champion, Tim Crothers (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; HighBridge Audio; OverDrive Sample).

See our additional coverage here and here.

Poldark, Season 2: Beginning September 25th on PBS Masterpiece and starring Aidan Turner, Eleanor Tomlinson, and Heida Reed.

Tie-in: The World of Poldark, Emma Marriott (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; OverDrive Sample). (NOTE: The series is based on the Poldark novels by Winston Graham.)

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: Film opens on 10/21/2016. Directed by Edward Zwick, starring Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, and Robert Knepper.

Tie-in: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (Movie Tie-in Edition), Lee Child (PRH/Bantam; RH Audio/BOT; also in Mass Market; OverDrive Sample).

See our additional coverage here, here, and here.

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk: Film opens on 11/11/16. Directed by Ang Lee, starring Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, and Chris Tucker.

Tie-in: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain (HC/Ecco; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample).

See our additional coverage here and here.

For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.

SFF fans have much to look forward as the new publishing season gets underway. io9 surveys the field with “All the New Scifi and Fantasy Books You Absolutely Must Read This Fall.”

The list gets of to a fast start with the Sept. 6 release of MJ-12: Inception, Michael J Martinez (Skyhorse/Night Shade Books).

The author tells io9 that the first in an expected trilogy is “a paranormal Cold War spy-fi thriller. Think Bond meets X-Men during the height of the Cold War.”

Death’s End, Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Macmillan/Tor Books) also arriving in September, marks the final volume in the award-winning trilogy. The first book, The Three-Body Problem won the Hugo and was a finalist for the Nebula and Locus awards. The second novel is The Dark Forest.

Liu’s own next book, The Wall of Storms (S&S/Saga; S&S Audio) pubs in early October and is the sequel to the highly regarded Grace of Kings.

Crosstalk, Connie Willis (PRH/Del Rey) hits shelves in October. io9 writes “A pair of lovebirds who both work in tech decide to undergo a simple medical procedure to increase empathy between them.” Fans of Willis know what follows will be far more complicated than that.

A number of other works, including spin-offs of favorite story lines from the classics Dune and Star Wars, complete the list, which a;sp includes nonfiction and anthologies.

See our catalog for a running list of the Fall picks as they are announced.

Another of the titles on the Man Book Awards longlist will be released in the U.S. this fall. W.W.Norton is publishing  Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien, making it the second award contender picked up by a US publisher since the list was announced in July (after His Bloody Project).

Norton clearly has faith in the novel, pubbing it on Oct. 11, nearly a month after the Booker shortlist announcement and just two weeks before the winner is announced on Oct. 25.

Set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the novel is a family saga of music, loss, and politics that travels in time to the Tiananmen Square protest and on to the present day.

Macleans calls it “a serious accomplishment.” The Guardian says it is “a moving and extraordinary evocation of the 20th-century tragedy of China, and deserves to cement Thien’s reputation as an important and compelling writer.” The Globe and Mail writes that the book is a “gorgeous intergenerational saga, stretching as far back at the 1940s and traversing China from Beijing in the north to rural Guangxi in the south … [cementing] Madeleine Thien as one of Canada’s most talented novelists.”

Critics compare Thien to Amy Tan, Dai Sijie, and Rohinton Mistry.

Of the 13 title longlist, only one title is not currently scheduled for publication in the U.S., Wyl Menuir’s The Many.