Just nine days before it was scheduled to debut in theaters, the adaptation of Tulip Fever has been moved to Feb. 2017.

Variety reports that  no explanation was offered as to why the film was pushed back, even though it was “thought to be a potential awards contender.” Playlist writes that the move signals a lack of faith in the final product.

It is based on the novel by Deborah Moggach, who also wrote The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) wrote the screenplay and the film stars Alicia Vikander, Zach Galifianakis, Judi Dench, and Christoph Waltz. A tie-in has not yet been issued, although the paperback edition is headlined with “Now a Major Motion Picture.”

Here is the preview:

Definitely opening this week is The Infiltrator, recounting the true crime story of the take down of one of the world’s most notorious drug kingpins.

Playing an undercover agent, Bryan Cranston moves from cooking drugs on the small screen in his hit show Breaking Bad, to trying to shut down their production on the big screen. He is joined by John Leguizamo and Diane Kruger.

Reviews are strong thus far. Variety says, “Bryan Cranston gets a film role worthy of his ability to break bad in a tensely exciting true-life drama.”

The Wrap calls it “addictive,” and while The Hollywood Reporter has some issues with the “boilerplate crime drama,” it praises “Cranston’s ace performance.”

The film opens July 13. The tie-in came out on June 21, The Infiltrator: My Secret Life Inside the Dirty Banks Behind Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel, Robert Mazur (Hachette/Back Bay).

The adaptation of the hit 1984 movie Ghostbusters opens July 15, featuring the all-female cast of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. The remake has been dogged by haters on the internet, who don’t want to see the classic tampered with. An early review from Variety duns the movie for being an overly reverent remake.

There’s a range of tie-in titles, listed in the June 13th Titles to Know column. Already on shelves are two novelizations, a version written for ages 8-12, Ghostbusters Movie Novelization, Stacia Deutsch (S&S/Simon Spotlight), and the full novelization, issued by a different publisher, Ghostbusters, Nancy Holder (Macmillan/Tor; OverDrive Sample).

Additional tie-ins include the Ghostbuster’s Handbook, Daphne Pendergrass (S&S/Simon Spotlight) and two leveled readers Proud to Be a Ghostbuster (S&S/Simon Spotlight; OverDrive Sample; also in pbk.) and Who You Gonna Call? (S&S/Simon Spotlight; OverDrive Sample; also in pbk.) both by David Lewman.

See our Tie-ins catalog for full details.

Rising on Amazon, moving from #734 to #12, is Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, Maia Szalavitz (Macmillan /St. Martin’s Press; OverDrive Sample).

The leap to just outside the top 10 coincides with a long interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. Host Terry Gross talks for over 30 minutes with the author, a former addict who became a journalist.

Szalavitz’s book offers a new way to think about addition and treat its sufferers. Part of the conversation centered on the limitations and problems with 12-step programs. Szalavitz says:

“The only treatment in medicine that involves prayer, restitution and confession is for addiction [which] makes people think that addiction is a sin, rather than a medical problem … we need to get the 12 steps out of professional treatment and put them where they belong — as self-help.”

Caught with 2.5 kilos of cocaine at age 20, Szalavitz also talks about not going to prison, and why:

“being white and being female and being a person who was at an Ivy League school and being privileged in many other ways had an enormous amount to do with … why I was not incarcerated and why I’m not in prison now. I think our laws are completely and utterly racist. They were founded in racism, and they are enforced in a thoroughly biased manner.”

Holds are spiking at several libraries we checked.

It’s a week with a cornucopia of titles recommended by peers (see below).

Fans need no recommendations for Daniel Silva’s latest, The Black Widow, (HarperCollins/ Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe) the 16th novel featuring Gabriel Allon the Israeli art restorer/assassin/spy. In a starred review, Kirkus notes that this one  “is marked by a subtle shift in emphasis. Allon remains as compelling as ever, but Silva is clearly preparing readers for a world in which his hero takes a supporting role.”

If holds are any indication, and we think they are, Linda Castillo is headed for a higher spot on best seller lists with the eighth outing of her Amish-county mystery series, Among the Wicked, (Macmillan/Minotaur; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive sample), also a LibraryReads pick (see below). In 2013,  Lifetime adapted the first novel in the series, Sworn to Silence as the TV movie An Amish Murder. Her book tour includes several libraries.

The titles covered in this post, 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 July 11, 2016

Advance Attention

Freedom: My Book of Firsts, Jaycee Dugard, (S&S; S&S Audio)

This follows Dugard’s 2011 memoir about being kidnapped at 11 and held for 18 years,  A Stolen Life. Propelled by media attention, including an overview by Diane Sawyer on 20/20, the first book was #1 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction list for four weeks. She will again be interviewed by Sawyer on 20/20 tonight.

The Voyeur’s Motel, Gay Talese, (Grove Press; OverDrive Sample)

Talese’s new book was embroiled in
controversy last week after the Washington Post questioned its accuracy. In a review in the daily NYT, Dwight Garner says the author, who at first said he could no longer support the book, then changed his mind, ‘is right to stand by his book.”

Consumer Media Picks

People Book of the Week:

 You’ll Grow Out of It, Jessi Klein, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample)

The head writer for Inside Amy Schemer, says People, “will make you laugh out loud, but she exhibits a vulnerability and self-deprecating sweetness too.”

Also picked:

  
The House at the Edge of Night, Catherine Banner, (Random House; OverDrive Sample)

People — this “four-generation saga is set on an island near Sicily … The island is fictional, but consider this dreamy summer read your passport.”

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North, Blair Braverman, (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample)

An Indie Next pick, we covered this title  last week. In addition to being a People pick in the new issue, this memoir gets an A- from Entertainment Weekly’s top book critic, Tina Jordan, saying it “a remarkable … coming-of-age tale set largely on the Norwegian tundra — where she trained sled dogs — and in Alaska. … It’s amazing to watch as she develops backbone and grit, determined not to let anyone or anything stand between her and the icy landscape she loves so much.”

Peer Picks

A number of librarian picks arrive this week, all featured on the July LibraryReads list.

Among the Wicked: A Kate Burkholder Novel, Linda Castillo (Macmillan/Minotaur; OverDrive Sample).

“In the small Amish locale of Painters Mill, police chief Kate Burkholder decides to take an undercover assignment in a community where the death of a young girl was reported. Her long time love, Agent John Tomasetti, is reluctant with her decision because of the lack of communication he will have with her. Burkholder begins to unfold the true horrors on the local farm and unearths the dangers the town officials suspected. She finds herself trapped in a life threatening cat and mouse game. This ongoing series is a true gem and a personal favorite.” — KC Davis, Fairfield Woods Branch Library, Fairfield, CT

The Last One, Alexandra Oliva (PRH/Ballantine Books; RH Audio/BOT).

“The Last One tells the story of twelve contestants who are sent to the wilderness in a Survivor-like reality show. But while they’re away, the world changes completely and what is real and what is not begins to blur. It’s post-apocalyptic literary fiction at it’s best. With a fast pace and a wry sense of humor, this is the kind of book that will appeal to readers of literary fiction and genre fiction alike. It points out the absurdity of reality television without feeling condescending. As the readers wake up to the realities of a new world, it becomes difficult to put down.” — Leah White, Ela Area Public Library, Lake Zurich, IL

Nine Women, One Dress, Jane L. Rosen (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Nine Women, One Dress sends the reader on a journey with many characters and the little black dress of the season. From the soon-retiring dress designer and the first-time runway model, to the retail salespeople and an actor, this book relates how the dress touches and, often profoundly, changes the lives of all. Even though there were many characters in this book, the author immersed the reader into their lives. Romance, humor, and irony spark the plot as the dress travels from one life to another. A charming read!” — Kristin Fields, Farnhamville Public Library, Farnhamville, IA

Siracusa, Delia Ephron (PRH/Blue Rider Press; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Michael and Lizzie are vacationing with another couple and their daughter, named Snow. As the story unfolds, the reader is introduced to infidelities. Ephron does a tremendous job in exposing the frailties of relationships and it feels like being intimate with other people’s problems but without the guilt. Engaging and tough to put down. Great summer read!” — Andrienne Cruz, Azusa City Library, Azusa, CA

Deadline Hollywood reports a film adaptation is in the works.

All Is Not Forgotten, Wendy Walker (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Macmillan Audio).

“A dark, twisty, intricately-plotted psychological thriller about a teen girl, assaulted after a party, as she tries to regain her memories of the event after taking a controversial drug that erases traumatic memories. Walker’s many plot and character threads are carefully placed, and she weaves them all together into a satisfying, shattering conclusion. I’m betting we’ll be seeing this title in a LOT of beach bags over the summer.” — Gregg Winsor, Johnson County Library, Roeland Park, KS

It is also an Indie Next pick for July.

The other bookseller picks coming out this are:

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Joanna Cannon (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample)

“Best friends Grace and Tilly spend England’s sweltering summer of 1976 sleuthing for clues to uncover the reason for their neighbor’s disappearance. They go from house to house, neighbor to neighbor, investigating as only guileless little girls can do. While they’re at it, they also look for god in the most unusual places. As the mystery of the neighborhood is slowly revealed, so are the many secrets behind every door on the avenue. If you loved A Man Called Ove, you will love The Trouble With Goats and Sheep. Funny, quirky and profound!” —Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, CO

Pond, Claire-Louise Bennett (PRH/Riverhead Books; OverDrive Sample)

“A brilliant and captivating debut, Bennett’s Pond is a strange, beautifully layered work of fiction, from its quirky and contemplative narrator’s interior life to the vivid and charming descriptions of rural Irish life. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this book is its warm invitation to celebrate solitude. Bennett writes as if in a lush, landscaped dream, each story chapter going forward, circling back, and ending in the middle of the protagonist’s musings upon her everyday experiences. Pond is utterly original, by turns hilarious and poignant, a refreshing and simply delightful read.” —Angela Spring, Politics & Prose, Washington, DC

Miss Jane, Brad Watson (Norton).

“At first, I was uncomfortable reading about the life Jane Chisolm has to lead due to a genital birth defect and assumed that I would be sad for her throughout the book, but this is so beautifully written and unsentimental in its depiction of Jane’s quiet strength and courageous acceptance of her life that I fell in love with her quite quickly. While all the supporting characters have their own peculiarities, they are tender and endearing to Jane and that helped me to understand how she endured and was loved so fully. Everyone should read this extraordinary book and feel, as I did, the joy of this remarkable woman.” —Nancy Banks, City Stacks Books and Coffee, Denver, CO

The Heavenly Table, Donald Ray Pollock (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio/BOT).

“After murdering the tyrannical owner of the land they farmed on the Georgia/Alabama border, three brothers make a desperate run for Canada and manage, along the way, to acquire national reputations as the kind of ruthless outlaws who are immortalized in dime store novels. This is a rollicking and ribald adventure story, populated with shady characters and told in vivid, sparkling prose reminiscent of Patrick DeWitt’s The Sisters Brothers — and there is hardly a higher compliment.” —Alden Graves, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT

Selecting it for their summer reading list, the Chicago Tribune said, it “has been likened to the work of Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy and the Coen Brothers.”

Tie-ins

The big tie-in news comes a bit late in the day as a key tie-in for The Secret Life of Pets is hitting shelves after the movie opens on July 9 (others came out in May).

The Secret Life of Pets: The Deluxe Junior Novelization (Secret Life of Pets), David Lewman (PRH/Random House – also in a paperback, non-deluxe version) pubs this week.

The animated film is getting flat reviews, as we wrote, with the Den of Geek offering a typical reaction, “I’m sure it’ll make lots and lots of money … I’m less sure that lots and lots of people will love it.”

Nerve Movie Tie-In, Jeanne Ryan (PRH/Speak; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample).

The debut YA SF thriller, about an online, voyeuristic, version of truth or dare was called a page-turner by  Kirkus, if beholden to books like The Hunger Games.

The film adaptation stars Emma Roberts, Dave Franco and Juliette Lewis and opens July 27.

Florence Foster Jenkins: The Inspiring True Story of the World’s Worst Singer, Nicholas Martin and Jasper Rees (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin).

Starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, this bio-pic about a real life socialite who could not sing a note opens in the US on Aug. 12.

It has already aired in the UK where it got strong reviews. The Guardian gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying it is a “very likable, frequently hilarious, yet still poignant tragi-comedy.” The Telegraph (pre-Brexit) agrees, giving it the same star rating and saying, it feels like “a classic postwar studio comedy – a pillowy paean to silliness, and the perfect antidote for sobering times.”

Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism, Ron Suskind (Hachette/Kingswell) is also out behind its movie release date.

As we reported in an earlier Hitting Screens round-up, the Sundance award-winning documentary following the life of Owen Suskind (son of author Ron Suskind) opened over the July 4th holiday.

It got great early reviews with Variety calling it “captivating” and The Hollywood Reporter saying it is “radiant.” Later reviews were still strongly positive but less glowing.

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

Whether it’s word of mouth, or the multiple picks from various mid-year best books roundups, The Girls by Emma Cline (PRH/Random House; RH Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample), is moving up best seller lists.

It jumped four spots on the USA Today list (which combines all books in all formats and for all ages), rising to #8, its highest ranking to date and has moved up the NYT Combined Fiction list to #5, also its highest spot on that list. Several libraries have increased their orders to meet holds, which remain well above a 3:1 ratio at many libraries across the country.

The novel is still getting attention, yesterday BuzzFeed selected it as one of “4 Great Books to Read in July,” saying that it “will terrify you, shock you, haunt you — in all the right ways.”

A trailer for the comic book based on Neil Gaiman’s short story, “How to talk to Girls at Parties,” (available online in both text and audio) was just released and is getting picked up by many entertainment news sites.

The graphic novel, released on Tuesday, is also set to be adapted as a movie, starring Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman and Alex Sharp. Gaiman is the executive producer for the project, set to begin filming in November.

Neil Gaiman’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties
Neil Gaiman, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon
Dark Horse Books,:July 5, 2016
9781616559557, 1616559551
Hardcover
$17.99 USD, $23.99 CAD

Below is the archived version of the latest GalleyChat. Watch for our summary of top titles in the next two weeks.

Please join us for the next GalleyChat, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 4 to 5 p.m., Eastern (3:30 for virtual cocktails).

More information on how to join here.

It may be a record-breaking week for the record-breaking James Patterson. Five new titles arrive with his name on them. Four are from his new series of short original paperbacks, BookShots (at least two are published the first of each month. July is one of the bonanza months), plus a YA title, Treasure Hunters: Peril at the Top of the World. In addition, the paperback version of NYPD Red 4 is being released.

The first two titles in the BookShots were published last month. Both are still on the NYT Mass Market list after 3 weeks. Both are readily identifiable as Patterson products.  Cross Kill extends his most popular series, the one he writes solo, Alex Cross, and Zoo 2 arrived as the second season of the TV adaptation of Zoo launched.

This month’s titles may not fare as well. Only one is from an established Patterson series, Women’s Murder Club. The other three are romances, with one of them being, as Patterson tells Al Roker on the Today Show, “A kind of Fifty Shades of Grey, but maybe a little better story.”

He doesn’t reveal the title, but we’re guessing Little Black Dress, (Hachette/Bookshots; Hachette Audio) is his Fifty Shades readalike. A cover blurb reads, “Slip into something … irresistibly sexy” and the plot description reads, “Magazine editor Jane Avery spends her nights alone with Netflix and Oreos — until the Dress turns her loose. Suddenly she’s surrendering to dark desires, and New York City has become her erotic playground. But what began as a fantasy will go too far . . . and her next conquest could be her last.”

It is co-written by Emily Raymond, who has written two YA titles with Patterson, First Love and The Lost.

The other two romance titles are in the sub-series BookShots Flames. Holds are light on these two (and Patterson’s name is not a prominent on the covers).

The McCullagh Inn in Maine, Jen McLaughlin, James Patterson (Foreword by), (Hachette/Bookshots; Hachette Audio)

McLaughlin is a best selling self-pubbed author. This is her first with Patterson and it will be followed by A Wedding in Maine: A McCullagh Inn Story in January (9780316501170).

Learning to Ride, Erin Knightley, James Patterson (Foreword by), (Hachette/Bookshots; Hachette Audio). Kingsley has written seven historical romance novels. This is her first with Patterson.

The title with the most holds, is, unsurprisingly more identifiable as a Patterson title, an extension of the Women’s Muder Club hardcover series. Still, holds are just 20% of those you’d see for a hardcover release in the series.

The Trial: A BookShot: A Women’s Murder Club Story, James Patterson, Maxine Paetro, (Hachette/Bookshots; Hachette Audio)

Below are more titles that will draw attention this week. All are listed, along with and several other notable titles arriving next week, in  our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of July 4, 2016

Advance Attention

Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia,  (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample)

This is the hardcover compilation of a book published as an ebook serial earlier this spring. It was launched to some excitement from the media, both because Fellowes is the creator of  Downton Abbey and because of the format. The Atlantic declared that it represented,  “The Triumph of the Serial,” but it seems the public did not share that view.

The UK trade publication, The Bookseller, explores where Belgravia went wrong, blaming it on mishandling of the medium, but perhaps the fault lies with the content. The Seattle Times damns it as “rather dull.” Comparing it to Downton Abbey, the reviewer says it “feels like a respectable but socially inferior cousin; it might get invited to dinner, but only out of obligation.”

The audio is read by the great Juliet Stevenson (OverDrive Sample here) delivering a line worthy of Maggie Smith as the dowager Countess of Grantham,

“She was at that period of her life that almost everyone must pass through, when childhood is done wth and a faux maturity untrammeled by experience gives one a sense that anything is possible, until the arrival of real adulthood proves conclusively that it is not.” seem to have either captured the public’s imagination or had the commercial success that it might have done.”

Fellowes is scheduled to appear on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show on Thursday, Jul 07 2016.

Here Comes the Sun, Nicole Dennis-Benn. (Norton/Liveright; Highbridge Audio; OverDrive Sample)

If you attended the AAP/LibraryReads Librarian Author lunch at BEA, you will remember the author’s becoming overwhelmed as she said she wrote this book for family and friends she left behind in Jamaica. The NYT interviews the author and also reviews the book, saying. “This lithe, artfully-plotted debut concerns itself with the lives of those for whom tourists can barely be bothered to remove their Ray-Bans, and the issues it tackles — the oppressive dynamics of race, sexuality and class in post-colonial Jamaica — have little to do with the rum-and-reggae island of Sandals commercials.” The Miami Herald agrees, “Here Comes the Sun arrives in the season of the beach read, but with eloquent prose and unsentimental clarity, Dennis-Benn offers an excellent reason to look beyond the surface beauty of paradise. This novel is as bracing as a cold shower on a hot day, a reminder that sometimes we need to see things as they are, not as we wish they would be.”

Trump and Me: Donald Trump and the Art of Delusion by Mark Singer, (PRH/Tim Duggan Books)

An updated version of an essay published in the New Yorker 20 years ago. Despite its age, writes the Telegraph, it “offers clearer insight into the mind of the presumptive Republican nominee than any of the detailed biographies written over the years.”

PBS Newshour just launched Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars, Nathalia Holt (Hachette/Little, Brown; OverDrive Sample) into book sales orbit, helping it soar on Amazon from a sales rank of #6,540 to 146.

The dramatic move is due to a segment of the show’s special summer reading series that offers author interviews conducted at book shows around the country. The Newshour‘s Jeffrey Brown sat down with Holt at the Los Angeles Book Festival and the pair talked about women in science during the early years of the space program and today.

Holt says that in the early days of the Jet Propulsion Lab a group of women called “computers” figured out the calculations of the space program, doing math with pencil and paper and some very bulky calculators.

Once computers were introduced, these women became the first programmers.

Her book traces their history and accomplishments and recounts how both NASA and JPL overlooked their achievements as time went by. Case in point, none were invited to the 2008 gala held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Explorer 1 (America’s first satellite), an oversight that is particularly galling since one of the Rocket Girls, Barbara Paulson, figured out the trajectory on the night Explorer 1 launched, working in the control room. Holt says “when the first American satellite is a success, its because of her. She is the one that found out it’s actually in orbit.”

Holt also talks about how 2016 is a “desperate time for women in technology,” largely due to a lack of role models. In 1984, she says “37 percent of bachelor’s degrees in computer sciences were awarded to women. And today that number is 18 percent.” While female astronauts are doing astoundingly well, making up half of the current class at NASA, female engineers are seeing their lowest numbers in decades.

Holt hopes reading the stories of the pioneering Rocket Girls and learning what they achieved and overcame, will help change that.

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson (HC/Amistad) is the #1 Indie Next pick for August.

“National Book Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson has crafted a beautiful, heart-wrenching novel of a young girl’s coming-of-age in Brooklyn. Effortlessly weaving poetic prose, Woodson tells the story of the relationships young women form, their yearning to belong, and the bonds that are created — and broken. Brooklyn itself is a vivid character in this tale — a place at first harsh, but one that becomes home and plays a role in each character’s future. Woodson is one of the most skilled storytellers of our day, and I continue to love and devour each masterpiece she creates!” —Nicole Yasinsky, The Booksellers at Laurelwood, Memphis, TN

The novel marks Woodson’s return to adult fiction, after publishing multiple award-winning titles for young readers such as Brown Girl Dreaming and After Tupac & D Foster.

The novel, which appeared on multiple summer reading lists, also impressed trade reviewers, earning a rare All Star sweep, with starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

The full list of 20 titles also includes the #1 LibraryReads pick for July, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (PRH/Crown; RH Audio) and another librarian favorite, The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (S&S/Gallery/Scout Press; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

UPDATE: Reversing his decision, Gay Talese now says that he does not disavow the book and that he will promote it. First reported by Roger  Friedman in Show Biz 411, the story has been picked up by many other publications, including the New York Times.

Author Gay Talese has elected to disavow his latest book, The Voyeur’s Motel, (Grove Press) set for publication on July 12 because of “credibility issues,” reports the Washington Post.

Based on journals kept by Gerald Foos, a Colorado motel owner who spied on his guests for years, movie rights to the book had been acquired by DreamWorks, with Sam Mendes attached to directing. An extract of the book was published as a story in the New Yorker in April.

Unfortunately, Talese was unaware that Foos did not own the motel for the entire period he claimed, a fact the Washington Post uncovered. When informed about the discovery, Talese responded to the Post, “I should not have believed a word [Foos] said,” adding, “I’m not going to promote this book. How dare I promote it when its credibility is down the toilet?”

It appears the book will still be published. Grove CEO Morgan Entrain notes that most of the events in the book took place before Foos sold the motel, but, says the Post, “the company would consider appending an author’s note or footnotes in subsequent printings to account for errors or missing information.”

Costco’s influential book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello generally picks one title to feature in Costco’s monthly publication, The Costco Connection, but for the July issue, she picks an entire format, audiobooks. It seems she is new to audio, perhaps influenced by Costco’s own sales numbers, or by reports, such as the one by Market Watch in May, that it is the “fastest-growing segment of the book publishing industry … popular enough to outsell some traditional books … sometimes four times as well.”

She highlights two recent titles narrated by Scott Brick as examples:

The Job: A Fox and O’Hare Novel by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (PRH/Random House Audio)

The Assassin, Clive Cussler and Justin Scott (PRH/Penguin Audio)

In an accompanying interview, Brick says he reads every book before he begins recording, looking for details such as character names, place names, pronunciation issues, and foreign phrases and a researcher makes sure he gets them right. “If you guess how something is pronounced,” he says, “you will be wrong.”

Brick won an Audie this year for his reading of the modern SF classic Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (Brilliance Publishing; Audio Sample).

On Fresh Air yesterday, host Terry Gross held a 30-minute conversation about Zika with Donald G. McNeil, a science reporter for The New York Times and author of the new book, Zika: The Emerging Epidemic (Norton; Random House Audio).

The two talk about how Zika is transmitted, its odd scale of danger, the Olympics, and the timeline for a vaccine.

McNeil says Zika is a mild infection in 99.99 percent of the cases. Only women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant are at risk and the infection carries grave danger in those cases. This year is excepted to be the worst for infections as no one in the US has yet developed antibodies.

McNeil says that the scientific community is split on cancelling the Olympics due to Zika, pointing out that August is actually a low season for the insects.

The best way to prevent bites while sitting outside is simply to have fans blowing, says McNeil, the bugs have to expend a great deal of energy to fly and fans make it even more difficult for them.

The interview makes clear why this is likely to be one of the summer’s major topic of conversation.

Taking off like a hot Internet IPO, Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley, Antonio García Martínez (HC/Harper; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample) is rocketing up Amazon’s sales rankings, jumping over thousands of books in its way to rise from #6,415 to 301, due in part to NPR’s Marketplace, which featured the book yesterday. Host Kai Ryssdal talked with the author, a Silicon Valley insider, about Facebook Exchange, the software that enables ads to follow users from online shopping sites to Facebook. That code has created an income stream which is essential, says García Martínez, because ads “pay for the Internet.”

The book was also recently covered in the The New York Times, in a review that begins by detailing all the reasons not to like it, including the author’s boasting about his own lavish lifestyle, and including a “blizzard of score-settling.”

Then the review turns to the importance of what García Martínez has to say when he is not bragging or bashing, his insights into how the Internet and Silicon Valley work, which raises the book to a level of “a must-read” that is “an irresistible and indispensable 360-degree guide to the new technology establishment.”

PBS Newshour is in the midst of a special summer reading series, featuring interviews with authors from last month’s Book Expo.

Yesterday, Sherman Alexie talked about his first picture book Thunder Boy Jr.,  illus. by Yuyi Morales (Hachette/Little, Brown), which was on the New York Times Children’s Picture Books best seller list for 3 weeks, and on the need for diversity in children’s book.

On Tuesday, Emma Cline was interviewed about her debut novel The Girls  (PRH/Random House; RH Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample),, which landed on the most recent NYT Hardcover Fiction list at #3.

Each month, our GalleyChatter columnist Robin Beerbower rounds up the favorites from our most recent Twitter chat (#ewgc). Below is the June column.

The next GalleyChat is July 5. Extend your holiday by joining us, Details here.

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In last month’s 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 eager to share newly discovered titles that had been lugged home. Below is a mixture of titles that were featured during the show with either author appearances or plentiful galleys and we are happy to report that these all lived up to the promotional efforts. As we head in to the Fourth of July holiday, consider downloading digital review copies of these titles from Edelweiss or NetGalley.

And, if you love any of these titles, be sure to consider nominating them for LibraryReads. We’ve noted in red the deadlines for those titles that can still be nominated.

For a complete list of the 127 titles mentioned during the chat, check here.

First Novels

Nathan Hill was prominently featured in BEA’s Buzz programs for his debut novel The Nix (PRH/Knopf, August). This 640 bag sprawling saga about a college English teacher’s search for his mother rated five stars from frequent Galleychat contributor Cynthia Baskin who said, “This engrossing, humorous novel takes the reader from the rural Midwest to New York City and to the Chicago riots in 1968, and finally to Norway. It’s a book that is going to be a big success!”

Another debut novel receiving kudos from both booksellers and librarians is Affnity Konar’s Mischling (Hachette/Lee Beaudroux Books, September; LibraryReads deadline: July 20), a historical novel set during WWII. Susan Balla (Fairfield County Library, CT) reports, “On the surface, this is a haunting novel about the brutality and depravity inflicted upon “multiples” at the hands of Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. It soon becomes apparent, however, that this novel is an affirmation of the importance and power of family, whatever your definition of family may be. This is a beautifully written, powerful reminder of the destructive nature of hate and the redemptive powers of love and hope.”

With a mix of contentious friendships, exotic locations, and a bit of adversity, Invincible Summer by Alice Adams [not be confused with American author Alice Adams who died in 1999] (Hachette/Little Brown, June), is the perfect book for tucking into a beach bag and a contender for book groups. Heather Bistyga, ILL/Periodicals Librarian from Anderson, SC, says, “Invincible Summer paints a deft picture of the first 20 years of adulthood, with a resonance that transcends nationality and specific life experiences. A fast, enjoyable read.

Another title poised to be a hit with literary readers and book groups is Brit Bennett’s novel set in a contemporary African-American community in southern California, The Mothers (PRH/Riverhead, October; LibraryReads deadline: Aug 20). Jessica Woodbury, Book Riot contributor, says this skillfully written story “is about three characters, following them from 17 or so until their mid-20’s. But its theme is mothers and love and family and community. Bennett doesn’t get a thing wrong.”

Happy Returns

Stacks of the psychological suspense novel, The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (S&S/Gallery/Scout Press, July), were readily available in the Simon & Schuster booth. So far feedback has been very positive with many saying it’s even better than Ware’s first novel, In A Dark, Dark Wood. Anbolyn Potter of Chandler Public Library (AZ) said, “It’s a contemporary version of ‘the country house mystery’ set on a luxury cruise ship with a limited number of people who could have committed the crime. An ‘unstable’ main character, untrustworthy cohorts, and the claustrophobia of being trapped on a boat, ratchet up the tension.” I agree and add that the atmosphere was so well done I finished the book feeling a little damp.

A dapper Amor Towles charmed the audience at the BEA Penguin Random House breakfast, and many raced to secure a galley of his next book, A Gentleman in Moscow (PRH/Viking, September; LibraryReads deadline: July 20). One of the first librarian readers was Abbey Stroop, of Herrick District Library, Holland, MI, who says “All the clever language and charm that made Katie Kontent (Rules of Civility) irresistible is infused into a Russian aristocrat, banished to house arrest in the attic of a luxury hotel in the middle of Moscow after the Bolshevik takeover. With nothing but time on his hands, Rostov stumbles into being a better man and, ironically, a man of purpose. Keep a pencil in hand, as Towles plays with words like cards in a magic trick and you’re going to want to keep some passages fresh in your mind well after you finish.”

Susan Mallery’s Daughters of the Bride (HarperCollins/HQN Books, July), was mentioned at the Book Group Speed Dating session as a good bet for women’s discussion groups and is also perfect for readers of Debbie Macomber. New Rochelle (NY) Public Library’s Beth Mills says, “Mallery gives readers another appealing small town setting and the story of three sisters planning their widowed mother’s wedding while trying to deal with each other, their mother, and the men in their lives. Mallery’s smooth-as-silk storytelling makes this a winning summer read.”

Haunting Biography

There’s no argument that The Haunting of Hill House remains one of the greatest haunted house mysteries in publishing history but the author has been an enigma. The new biography, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (Norton/Liveright, September; LibraryReads deadline: July 20) exposes the author’s life. Jen Dayton of Darien (CT) Library says “This delightfully readable biography is served up with equal measures of dysfunction and genius. I really think that after reading this, it would behoove us all to lay in her backlist.” Fortunately, attendees who weren’t lucky enough to win the “lottery” and pick up a print galley can access the DRC from Edelweiss and NetGalley. [Note: Penguin Classics is reprinting a new deluxe edition of The Haunting of Hill House in September]

Please join us for our July 5 at 4:00 (ET) with virtual happy hour at 3:30. To keep up with my anticipated 2016 titles, “friend” me on Edelweiss (click on the “Community” tab).