This week, Dan Stevens returns to TV in Legion, a show set in a world very different from Downton Abbey.

He stars in the next iteration of Marvel’s X-men and plays, reports the NYT, “the son of Professor X and a powerful mutant with a multiple-personality disorder.”

Noah Hawley, creator of the TV series Fargo and author of the best seller Before the Fall, (Hachette/Grand Central; OverDrive Sample), directs the FX series which he says tells “a more existential story — what is it really like to have these abilities?” Producer Lauren Shuler Donner says she wanted this version of X-men to “be very, very different … There’s no way that anybody would watch Legion and go, ‘Ugh, I saw that already.’”

The NYT says fans of the superhero movies should instead expect something more like Twin Peaks or Hannibal, with “a heightened, dreamlike aesthetic … [and] a more abstract, elusive approach to storytelling … [the series is] about memory, identity and perception.”

It is getting solid reviews. Variety writes it “is not timid. It offers a jittery take on many of the genre’s familiar themes, and it hurls them together with such boldness that the entire concoction ends up carrying quite a kick … it won’t be for everyone, but those who are pulled into the surreal, jagged orbit of this distinctive drama are likely to stay there for the full eight-episode run. It is, literally and figuratively, a trip — and it’s often an exhilarating one.”

Collider says it is “A Stunning, Challenging, Fantastically Human Journey” and ComicBookMovie writes “FX May Have A Massive Hit On Its Hands.”

This is only the start of X-Men on TV. The NYT‘s says “The Fox network has already ordered its own series pilot set in the world of X-Men’s mutants (written by Matt Nix, the creator of Burn Notice, and directed by Bryan Singer), and Marvel hopes to create more shows for FX.”

The premiere episode debuts Feb. 8. There is no tie-in.

The second film in the expected trilogy adapting E.L. James’s novels arrives, like the first in the series, close to Valantine’s Day, Feb. 10.

Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan reprise their roles as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. Kim Basinger and Bella Heathcote join the cast as Grey’s ex-lovers.

There is a tie-in: Fifty Shades Darker (Movie Tie-in Edition): Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy, EL James (PRH/Vintage; RH Audio; OverDrive Sample) also in Spanish Cincuenta sombras más oscuras (Movie Tie-In): Fifty Shades Darker MTI – Spanish-language edition, E L James (PRH/Vintage Espanol).

James has also promised a re-telling of Fifty Shades Darker from Christian’s perspective, following her re-vamp of Fifty Shades of Grey with the same twist. No date yet for its release.

There’s a new girl in town. Landing at #5 on the NYT‘s hardcover fiction list is JP Delaney’s psychological thriller, The Girl Before (PRH/Ballantine; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

Interviewed in the NYT‘s “Behind the Best Sellers” column, Delaney connects his novel to a nonfiction sensation, saying “he wanted to explore the ‘weird and deeply obsessive’ psychology of minimalism, evident in the fad for [Marie] Kondo” author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

“On the face of it,” he tells the paper, it “is baffling — all that focus on folding and possessions. But I think it speaks to something that runs deep in all of us: the desire to live a more perfect, beautiful life, and the belief that a method, or a place, or even a diet, is going to help us achieve that …But my book is about what happens when people follow it too far. As one of my characters says, you can tidy all you like, but you can’t run away from the mess in your own head.”

The book is cleaning up in libraries, showing heavy holds that have increased over the last several weeks. Demand is likely to grow stronger as word spreads about its appearance on lists. It is currently #15 on the USA Today list.

Librarians predicted the book’s success. It is the #1 LibraryReads pick for January 2017 with the following annotation:

“A page turner that is sure to be a hit. Each chapter alternates between two time periods. Back “then,” there is Emma, looking for the perfect flat. Her agent suggests One Folgate Street, built by architect Edward Monkford. In present day, Jane, a single thirty-something also ends up on Folgate Street. Both women learn the sinister history of the property and readers won’t know who to trust as Delaney’s debut clutches you by the throat and won’t let you go.” — Kara Kohn, Plainfield Public Library District, Plainfield, IL

It was a hit with our GalleyChatters as well. Jennifer Winberry, Hunterdon County Library (NJ) described it as “a high speed ride through a tale of obsessions with twists and turns that don’t stop until after the final page is turned.”

The week brings a dozen titles that are favorites among librarians and booksellers (see Peer Picks, below), including one that arrives to hefty holds lists, Sophie Kinsella’a My Not So Perfect Life, (PRH/Dial; BOT Audio;OverDrive Sample). The holds leader however is the 44th in J D Robb’s “In Death” series, Echoes in Death (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; OverDrive Sample). PW notes that Robb “is not only prolific but consistently inventive, entertaining, and clever in her crime series set in a near-future New York City.”

The titles covered in this post, as well as 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 Feb. 6, 2017.

Media Magnets

This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression, Daphne Merkin,(Macmillan/FSG; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, Merkin, described as “a productive and admired professional, a writer and critic for the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine, a novelist and essayist,” has nevertheless struggled with depression all her life. Her memoir is reviewed on the cover of this week’s NYT BR by Andrew Solomon, a clinical psychologist acclaimed for his own memoir of depression, The Noonday Demon. Denotes that Merkin writes this “long-awaited chronicle of her own consuming despair” with “insight, grace and excruciating clarity, in exquisite and sometimes darkly humorous prose,”adding that “Merkin is unlikely to cheer you up, but if your misery loves company, you will find no better companion.”

Make Your Kid A Money Genius (Even If You’re Not): A Parents’ Guide for Kids 3 to 23, Beth Kobliner, (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Giving voice to the implied hope of the title is the New York Post’s story headlined, “Your child is an untapped gold mine.” The author is scheduled to be interviewed next week on Fox Business Mornings with Maria and on NPR’s Here & Now.

Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street, Shellac Kolhatkar (PRH/Random House)

The stories of underhanded hedge fund dealings are depressingly endless but, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, each is fascinating in its own way. This week’s NYT Book Review says this one “is many things: a Wall Street primer; a procedural drama; a modern version of Moby-Dick, with wiretaps rather than harpoons.” The author is scheduled for an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air on Tuesday.

Peer Picks

There’s a dozen titles to take special note of this week. Four of them are LibraryReads:

Garden of Lamentations, Deborah Crombie (HC/William Morrow; HarperAudio).

“Picking up where To Dwell In Darkness left off, Crombie’s new mystery resolves unresolved issues from that book while telling a compelling new story. Gemma is investigating the puzzling death of a nanny while Duncan is dealing with what looks disturbingly like corruption in the police force. As always in Crombie’s novels the look we get at the domestic lives of Duncan, Gemma and their children is as interesting as the mystery. Another fine entry in this excellent series.” — Beth Mills, New Rochelle Public Library, New Rochelle, NY

Additional Buzz: The StarTribune counts it among their “7 mysteries to chill your soul on a wintry night,” writing “The tricky balance of the personal and the professional has always been one of the stellar aspects of  Deborah Crombie’s exceptional series … The novel’s title suggests sorrow, deep and debilitating, the kind of grief that chokes. It also alludes to Gethsemane and all that garden implies — betrayal, sacrifice and forgiveness. It’s all here.”

Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman (W. W. Norton; HarperAudio).

“After reading Gaiman’s account of Norse mythology, I doubt that I will ever forget how the gods of Asgard acquired their treasures. Thor’s hammer that never misses its mark, Frey’s incredible ship that shrinks to the size of a pocketable silk scarf, Odin’s powerful spear, all came to be because of Loki’s mischief. Above all, I will not forget the ill-gotten and ill-treated children of Loki who bring about Ragnarok, the end of earth and heaven and the death of the gods. Everything feels very real and very now when told by someone who has obviously drunk of the ‘mead of the poets.’” — Catherine Stanton, Madison Library District, Rexburg, IL

Additional Buzz: Nobody sells Gaiman’s enthusiasms better than Gaiman himself, as he illustrates in the book trailer below.  The NYT offers a very early feature in which he says “Those Norse tales have accompanied me through pretty much everything I’ve done.” 

My Not So Perfect Life, Sophie Kinsella (PRH/Dial; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Katie Brenner has moved from her family’s farm to the big city. She goes to great lengths to present the face that she thinks the world wants to see. When she’s fired from her job and forced to return home she helps her family get their new venture up and running. Learning the truth about herself and those around her leads to the realization that nobody’s life is as perfect as it seems from the outside. Kinsella never loses her sense of humor, even when her characters are facing serious situations. She makes you believe in them and leaves you wanting to know what happens next.” — Kristen Gramer, Lewes Public Library, Lewes, DE

All Our Wrong Todays, Elan Mastai (PRH/Dutton; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Mastai’s debut is a clever and funny time travel romp which turns into an, action-packed science fiction thriller. Tom Barren stumbles through life and accidentally ruins the glittering jetpack and flying car future of 2016, replacing it with the one you and I know. The world may be worse off, but Tom’s life is better than ever. That is, until his mind starts splitting between the two realities and he must track down the genius who invented the other future. Tom’s journey through the past, across realities, and inside his mind make for a thrilling conclusion.” — Dan Brooks, Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC

Additional Buzz: Entertainment Weekly picks it as one of “The 23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017.” It is also the #1 Indie Next book for February and we featured the title as part to of our EarlyReads series.

There are eight additional Indie Next titles coming out this week:

Desperation Road, Michael Farris Smith (Hachette/Lee Boudreaux Books; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Russell, just released from an 11-year prison sentence, finds anger and revenge waiting for him on the outside. Maben, homeless, broken, and walking along the interstate in the blazing Mississippi heat toward McComb, is forced to make a decision that puts her and her young daughter on the run from the police. In a desperate moment of chance or fate, Russell and Maben’s paths cross, their shared past is revealed, and Russell is left to make the ultimate choice. Smith’s novel is mesmerizing from its opening pages; you will have to pace yourself while reading it to fully enjoy and appreciate the pitch-perfect language and descriptions that can only come from one who has a masterful command of storytelling.” —Matt Kelly, Lemuria Bookstore, Jackson, MS

A Separation, Katie Kitamura (PRH/Riverhead Books; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“We all have a secret self, parts of our personalities that are unknowable, even to the people closest to us. In A Separation, Kitamura stays largely inside the narrator’s head, musing on a great many things: the muddled truth that can exist between married couples, the precise pain of infidelity, the myriad tiny betrayals we commit every day. Her prose is perfect, spare and beautiful, and her observations are spot-on. Some of her sentences were so good they startled me out of the story, which might sound like a bad thing, but it really isn’t. It just meant I spent a little longer with this book, my mind wandering like the narrator’s.” —Lauren Peugh, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ

Additional Buzz: Entertainment Weekly picks it as one of “The 23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017.”

The Lonely Hearts Hotel, Heather O’Neill (PRH/Riverhead Books; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“If there is Canadian magical realism, this is it! The Lonely Hearts Hotel is the charming story of Rose and Pierrot, two children raised in a Montreal orphanage in the early 20th century. O’Neill traces their romance from their childhood of entertaining rich people in their homes to their less salubrious post-orphanage careers. When Rose and Pierrot meet again as adults, magic happens—but can this magic survive the rigors of the real world? Fantastic and fabulous in the truest sense of both words.” —Susan Taylor, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, NY

The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen (PGW/Grove Press; OverDrive Sample).

“This eloquent and detailed collection of aspirations and dreams tells of those torn between two worlds, the country and family left behind in trade for a distant place of hope and desires fulfilled. Each chapter is an experience of memory suffused with subtle moments that will leave you breathless.” —Shannon Alden, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI

Additional Buzz: While the term “timely” seems overused these days, it clearly applies to this book by the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction last year for The Sympathizer. The author is scheduled to be interviewed next week on NPR’s All Things Considered as well as on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Holds are growing.

Pachinko, Min Jin Lee (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio).

“A father’s gentle nature, a mother’s sacrifice, a daughter’s trust, and a son’s determination are the cornerstones of this grand, multilayered saga. Pachinko follows one family through an ever-changing cultural landscape, from 1910 Korea to 1989 Japan. As the bonds of family are put to the test in the harsh realities of their world, Sunja and those she holds dear manage to carve themselves a place to call home with hard work, self sacrifice, and a little kimchi. Through it all is a message about love, faith, and the deep-rooted bonds of family. Min Jin Lee gives us a phenomenal story about one family’s struggle that resonates with us today. It will take hold of you and not let go!” —Jennifer Steele, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, WI

Additional Buzz: It is also on the Chicago Review of Books list of “The 10 Best New Books to Read This February.”

The Impossible Fortress, Jason Rekulak (Simon & Schuster; S&S Audio).

“You don’t have to remember the 1980s to deeply ‘get’ this sweet memory trip back to the decade when video games, personal computers, and mixtapes were new. But if you did come of age in the 1980s, look out. All those awkward boy/girl moments, all those songs that comprised the soundtracks of your make-out sessions and your break-ups, all the wonder of your first encounters with MS-DOS buried deep in a far corner of your memory… Jason Rekulak will bring it all back to you.” —Carol Spurling, BookPeople of Moscow, Moscow, ID

Additional Buzz: Another of Entertainment Weekly‘s “The 23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017” picks. They write “Revel in 1987 nostalgia in this debut about a teen boy, a coveted copy of Playboy and a computer-nerd girl.”

300 Arguments: Essays, Sarah Manguso (Macmillan/Graywolf Press; OverDrive Sample).

“Sarah Manguso is a master of the minimalist form. She can do more with a sentence than many authors can do with an entire book. In this collection of brief ruminations, she covers everything from sex and mortality to ambition, mental illness, writing, desire, and motherhood. These ‘arguments’ are aphoristic gems in which a seemingly random thought has hardened into a bold, cutting, crystalline truth. There is no exposition. Manguso lets these minute statements stand on their own, and the reader is left with nowhere to hide from direct engagement with a most remarkable literary mind.” —Keaton Patterson, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX

Additional Buzz: It is among The Millions “Most Anticipated: The Great 2017 Book Review.”

Swimming Lessons, Claire Fuller (Norton/Tin House).

“With Swimming Lessons, Claire Fuller confirms her place as a writer of exceptional insight and warmth. This tale of a marriage, of a family, and especially of children bearing the brunt of the fallout of betrayals and abandonment, pulls you in and refuses to let you emerge from the lives of its characters until the tale is finished. Even then, it takes time to shake the spell the book creates. A wonderful follow-up to Our Endless Numbered Days that explores similar themes through an entirely different story, Swimming Lessons will be a great book for fans of Fuller’s first novel and will bring her new fans as well.” —Anmiryam Budner, Main Point Books, Wayne, PA

Additional Buzz: The Guardian calls it a “poignant multilayered tale of love and loss” and BuzzFeed counts it as one of the “27 Brilliant New Books You Need To Read This Winter.” It is also on the Chicago Review of Books list of “The 10 Best New Books to Read This February.”

Tie-ins

Before I Fall Movie Tie-in Edition, Lauren Oliver (HarperCollins; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample).

Debuting at Sundance, Before I Fall is based on Lauren Oliver’s 2010 bestselling YA novel about a teen who relives the last day of her life over and over again.

The Hollywood Reporter says “this neatly written Heathers-meets-Groundhog Day high-concept package delivers both technical polish and a toothsome yet likeable cast. Better still, it has just enough tragic edge to draw young adults, and young-at-heart adults, with melancholy temperaments, a sizeable constituency judging by the popularity of dying teen stories.”

It opens in theaters on March 3 and stars Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, Logan Miller, Kian Lawley, Jennifer Beals, Diego Boneta, and Elena Kampouris.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Broadway Tie-In, Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake (PRH/Puffin Books; Listening Library).

 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The New Musical, opens on Broadway March 28 (previews, full roll out on April 23).

NYT‘s ArtsBeat blog writes that the show, which has been running in London since 2013, will be revamped for its US debut, to make it more familiar to fans of the Gene Wilder film version, including songs made famous by the movie. Two-time Tony winner Christian Borle plays Wonka.

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story, Diane Ackerman (W. W. Norton; Blackstone; OverDrive Sample).

This nonfiction adaptation stars Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, Michael McElhatton, and Daniel Brühl.

It is set in the Warsaw Zoo during WWII, and tells the heroic story of a zookeeper and his wife who harbored 300 Jews from the Nazis.

The film debuts March 31.

Big Little Lies (Movie Tie-In), Liane Moriarty (PRH/Berkley trade pbk; February 7, 2017; mass market; OverDrive Sample).

HBO’s adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s 2014 best seller, Big Little Lies, begins airing on February 19. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, and Shailene Woodley.

Glamour calls it “The Mom Version of Pretty Little Liars You’ve Been Waiting For.”

Deadline Hollywood dubs it the “Murderous Moms of Monterey.”

 I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck, James Baldwin, Raoul Peck (PRH/Vintage; OverDrive Sample).

 A documentary based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House, I Am Not Your Negro  reflects on the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Samuel L. Jackson narrates the film, which includes stunning archival footage.

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A- and Variety says “Raoul Peck’s transcendent documentary takes a kaleidoscopic journey through the life and mind of James Baldwin, whose voice speaks even more powerfully today than it did 50 years ago.”

The NYT ranks it as as one of the 10 best films of 2016, writing “In his thrilling documentary, Raoul Peck closes the divide between the personal and political through a portrait of James Baldwin. Expressively narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the movie largely draws on Baldwin’s own writing — as well as material like his F.B.I. files — to create a portrait of a man that turns into a harrowing indictment of his country.”

The film is nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary category and opens on Feb. 3.

Another tie-in to a Broadway play is Jitney: A Play – Broadway Tie-In Edition, August Wilson (The Overlook Press). Part of August Wilson’s 10-play The American Century Cycle, it was the only one that had yet to be preformed on Broadway until its debut on January 19th of this year.

It is directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and stars Harvy Blanks, Anthony Chisholm, Brandon J. Dirden, André Holland, Carra Patterson, Michael Potts, Keith Randolph Smith, Ray Anthony Thomas, and John Douglas Thompson.

The Manhattan Theater Club offers a summary: “Set in the early 1970s, this richly textured piece follows a group of men trying to eke out a living by driving unlicensed cabs, or jitneys. When the city threatens to board up the business and the boss’ son returns from prison, tempers flare, potent secrets are revealed and the fragile threads binding these people together may come undone at last.”

The NYT raves, writing “Conversation sings and swings, bends and bounces and hits heaven smack in the clouds, in the glorious new production of August Wilson’s Jitney … words take on the shimmer of molten-gold notes from the trumpets of Louis and Miles.”

Wilson, Daniel Clowes (Macmillan/Drawn and Quarterly).

The live-action adaptation of Clowes’s 2010 graphic novel Wilson, starring Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern, and Judy Greer also premiered at Sundance. Unfortunately, it was not a hit with the critics there. Variety writes, that it “boasts some funny vignettes but fails in the crucial test of making us care much about the title character.”

It opens March 24.

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

If you choose the Puppy Bowl over the Super Bowl this weekend, you will miss an ad for Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale (Houghton Mifflin, 1986). Good news, it has been released on YouTube, so you can have both. [UPDATE: as a result, the book shot to #1 on Amazon’s rankings on Monday].

The Super Bowl clip features more backstory as well as footage of the terror the handmaid’s face.

Two tag lines emerge. Elizabeth Moss, playing the handmaid Offred says: “My name is Offred — and I intend to survive.”

Joseph Fiennes, playing Commander Waterford, officially empowered to imprison and force Offred to bear his child, says: “We only wanted to make the world better, but ‘better’ never means better for everyone.”

Entertainment Weekly reports on the trailer in detail.

The series will premiere on April 26, 2017. A tie-in comes out in late March: The Handmaid’s Tale (Movie Tie-in), (PRH/Anchor, trade pbk; March 28, 2017). The book is rising on best seller lists and some see that as having more to do with protests against the Trump administration than with the upcoming series. The producer and the cast themselves have called the 20-year-old dystopian novel it is based on “prescient.”

Few would have predicted that Donald Trump’s presidency would give a boost to book sales. Even fewer would have predicted that it would bring back into vogue several classic titles. 

There have been many news stories on the phenomenon, as we reported earlier, after several older books, including George Orwell’s 65-year-old title, 1984 began rising on Amazon’s sales rankings, Today, the USA Today best seller list confirms that these books are selling well across all outlets, and Orwell’s dystopian novel is #1.

A spokesman for mass market publisher Signet puts that into perspective, telling USA Today, “we have printed in one week more copies of 1984 than we sell in a typical year.” 

Several other titles are also getting boosts. At #25 is Hannah Arendt’s 1951 examination of the rise of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, The Origins of Totalitarianism, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

On the other hand, somewhat further down the list at #38 is Trump’s own book, Trump: The Art of the Deal, (PRH/Ballantine). 

Last night, Trump helped to fuel sales of the upcoming Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos (S&S/Threshold, March), currently at #5 on Amazon’s rankings, by jumping into the controversy that surrounds that book. The author, a senior editor at the right wing site Breitbart, who has been accused of hate speech, was set to speak at  at UC Berkeley, but that appearance was cancelled due to violent protests. Trump tweeted the threat, “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”

Jodi Picoult’s most recent novel, Small Great Things (PRH/Ballantine; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample), is movie-bound with an attention-getting all-star cast.

Deadline Hollywood reports that Viola Davis and Julia Roberts will star and that a producer for La La Land will help shepherd the project.

As we noted at the time it hit shelves, the LibraryReads selection generated media attention.  It debuted on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list at #1 and is currently at #8 after 14 weeks.

NPR Weekend Edition Saturday featured the author, opening with a gripping summary:

“Ruth Jefferson, a labor and delivery nurse at a hospital in Connecticut … is barred from tending to a newborn baby by the baby’s parents. Ruth Jefferson is African-American. Brittany and Turk Bauer are white supremacists. But Davis, their baby, goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is on duty, briefly alone in the nursery. Should she disobey the order she’s been given by the hospital or touch the baby to try to save him? And does her slight hesitation doom the newborn boy?”

Picot also appeared on CBS This Morning. Host Gayle King noting that the book is “thought-provoking … interesting … and so timely,”asked Picoult how a “white woman of privilege” writes a book confronting racism.

It is early days yet so there is no word on when filming will begin. The paperback edition comes out in June from PRH/Ballantine.

A memoir from a MIT mathematician who beat the casinos at their own game is building reserve lists in libraries and climbing Amazon’s sales rankings, moving from #424 to within the Top 100.

A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market, Edward O. Thorp (PRH/Random House; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample) recounts Throp’s life in finance, distilling advice as well as mob-tinged tales.

The Wall Street Journal says the memoir “delightfully recounts his progress (if that is the word) from college teacher to gambler to hedge-fund manager. Along the way we learn important lessons about the functioning of markets and the logic of investment.”

Thorp, says the New York Post, invented the art of card counting, and incurred the wrath of the casino industry, so successfully that he was targeted for harm when he proved he could beat the house at blackjack. His 1962 guide, Beat the Dealer, sold over a million copies and is still in print.

After his careers in academia and the casinos, Thorp started hedge funds and tangled with Rudy Giuliani, who at the time was the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Thorp prevailed and continued his successful career making money. 

Holds range from almost 5:1 to 47:1 on modest ordering in systems we checked.

Getting rave reviews, a TV movie adaptation of Agatha Christie’s short story and play, The Witness for the Prosecution, comes to the small screen January 30th when Acorn TV begins streaming the BBC movie. The Wall Street Journal says it has “character … depth and startling bitterness … [the] times are vividly evoked in this splendidly written work whose surprise ending is the kind worth waiting for.”

The Guardian reviewer calls it “Perfectly crafted, expertly cast and beautifully scripted … I doubt there has ever been more brought by a cast, crew and writer to Agatha Christie. It is the most gorgeous gift to the viewer.”

The two-episode series stars Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall along with Toby Jones and Andrea Riseborough.

We may see yet another version. Ben Affleck is planning his own adaptation according to Variety, and “will produce with Matt Damon, Jennifer Todd and the Agatha Christie estate.” Of course, he may bow to fan press to do the next Batman movie first.

It was famously adapted into the 1957 film directed by Billy Wilder, starring Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich. That production eared six Oscar nominations.

There is no tie-in, but the book is still in print, published by HarperCollins (HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample).

I Am Not Your Negro is a documentary based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House, which reflects on the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Samuel L. Jackson narrates.

The film is nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary category and opens on Feb. 3.

Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-, writing “it’s impossible not to think: The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s enough to make you weep.” The New Yorker says it is “incisive” and Variety calls it “transcendent.”

There is a companion book: I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film Directed by Raoul Peck, James Baldwin, Raoul Peck (PRH/Vintage; OverDrive Sample).

The fourth in the Ring horror franchise, Rings, premieres on Feb. 3.

The first US version of the story, about a cursed videotape, debuted in 2002. The series is based on the Japanese horror novel Ring by Koji Suzuki, originally published in 1991.

This new version stars Vincent D’Onofrio, Laura Wiggins, and Aimee Teegarden.

There is a tie-in edition: RINGS, Koji Suzuki (PRH/Vertical).

It had seemed that Outlander season 3 would air in February but that now looks unlikely and a premiere date has yet to be announced.

The show just won four People’s Choice Awards, for Favorite TV Show, Favorite Premium Sci-Fi/Fantasy Series, and Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actor and Actress.

We do know season three will be based on Voyager (PRH/Delacorte; OverDrive Sample), the third book in Diana Gabaldon’s long-running series. TV Guide has an article on what to expect and Movie Pilot offers a catch-up. Entertainment Weekly offers a first look, with Brianna as a baby.

The holds leader for the week, Lisa Gardner’s Right Behind You, (PRH/Dutton; RH Large Print; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample) marks the return, a welcome one, according to both PW and Booklist, of series characters last featured in 2008’s Say Goodbye.

Each week seems to bring a new Gone Girl/Girl on the Train contender. This week’s candidate is My Husband’s Wife, a debut by Jane Corry (PRH/Pamela Dorman; BOT; Thorndike; OverDrive Sample).

A best seller in the UK, it is showing high holds ratios in advance of its release here.  Parade Magazine features it this week,  predicting, “If you loved Gone Girl and The Talented Mr. Ripley, you’ll love My Husband’s Wife …It’s got every thriller’s trifecta: love, marriage and murder.” It received strong reviews from Booklist and PW, but Kirkus panned it. Note that holds are heavier, on another contender,  The Girl Before by JP Delaney (PRH/Ballantine; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample), as we wrote last week.

The titles highlighted in this column, 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 Jan 30,2017

Media Attention

Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin, Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin,  (PRH/Spiegel & Grau; Random House/BOT Audio; OverDrive Sample)

The parents of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin, an African American high school student who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida in 2012, an incident that helped spur the Black Lives Matter movement, will appear on several shows this week.

USA Today –  video interview, today
ABC Nightline – 1/27
ABC The View  – 1/30
Comedy Central Daily Show w/ Trevor Noah – 1/30
ABC Good Morning America – 1/31

I Don’t Belong to You: Quiet the Noise and Find Your Voice, Keke Palmer (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Actress (Scream Queens) and singer Palmer offers advice to young women. She is scheduled for appearances on the following shows

NBC Today Show — 1/31
ABC The View — 1/31
Fox Wendy Williams — 2/1
NBC Harry — 2/1

Peer Picks

One LibraryReads selection comes out this week, Behind Her Eyes: A suspenseful psychological thriller, Sarah Pinborough (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Louise meets a charming man in a bar and is smitten. The attraction is mutual, but David confesses he is married. They go their separate ways…until the next morning when Louise goes to work and realizes that the new psychiatrist who has been hired by the practice is David. Adele, David’s wife, is struggling to keep their marriage alive, but David has tired of her lies. A friendship begins between Adele and Louise. David and Louise are still attracted to each other and the triangle is complete. This is not your average thriller. It is absolutely riveting!” — Mary Vernau, Tyler Public Library, Tyler, TX

Additional Buzz: The Guardian includes it in a recent thrillers round up review, leading with a description of the author as a woman “prepared to move decisively beyond the parameters of the possible – but who somehow disable[s] our scepticism.” The paper continues, calling the book a “lively … Hitchcockian thriller.” The Stylist includes it on their list of the “Best New Books for 2017,” pointing out its most used hashtag is #WTFthatending. It is also an Indie Next February selection and a GalleyChat pick.

One additional Indie Next title arrives this week, 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster (Macmillan/Henry Holt; Macmillan Audio).

“I celebrate whenever there’s something new by Paul Auster. I wasn’t prepared, though, for just how moved, awed, and astonished I found myself while immersed in his inventive and grand novel 4 3 2 1. About a life lived fully, about possibility in love and finding a path to take that’s the right one, this is a large novel in all respects, but, most importantly, in spirit. In its writing, Paul Auster has created nothing short of a masterpiece.” —Mitchell Kaplan, Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL

Additional Buzz: The Guardian offers a review and interview. It is on BuzzFeed‘s list of “27 Brilliant New Books You Need To Read This Winter” and on The Millions “Most Anticipated” list. It is one of the five books LitHub say is “making news this week.” They write “Critics are intrigued, occasionally baffled.” Two examples of those reactions: The Washington Post calls it “a multitiered examination of the implications of fate” and says “what’s compelling always is its sense that the most important time exists within us, the time of memory and imagination, out of which identity is forged.” New York Magazine is not impressed, saying of the 900 page novel, “what really defeats Auster in 4321 is his decision to write against his strengths. His B-movie plots and narrative sleights of hand thrive on elision, and this book is overstuffed. The one thing he always seemed to know was the power of brevity.”

Tie-ins

Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast opens in theaters on March 17. The film stars Emma Watson as Belle, Luke Evans as Gaston, and Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens as the Beast. Ewan McGregor is Lumiere and Emma Thompson plays Mrs. Potts.

Variety reports the film is getting lots of buzz and Forbes predicts it will be one of the “three biggest domestic grossers of the year.”

Arriving this week are six tie-ins:

Beauty and the Beast Novelization, Disney Writers (Hachette/Disney Press)

Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney Beauty and the Beast (Updated Edition): Inside Stories from the Animated Classic to the New Live-action Film, Charles Solomon (Hachette/Disney Editions)

World of Reading: Beauty and the Beast Something More: Level 2, Eric Geron, illustrated by the Disney Book Group (Hachette/Disney Press)

Beauty and the Beast Read-Along Storybook and CD, Disney Book Group, illustrated by the Disney Storybook Art Team (Hachette/Disney Press)

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, Jennifer Donnelly (Hachette/Disney Press)

Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Library: A collection of literary quotes and inspirational musings, Brittany Rubiano, illustrated by Jenna Huerta (Hachette/Disney Press)

The live-action version of the Archie comics, Riverdale, premiered last night on the CW.

In their rave review of the first four episodes, Den of Geek! calls the show “highly addictive” and writes “Yes, this is a show that mixes sex and murder and noir with Archie, but it does so in a way that is self-aware and instantly ready to shatter expectations … And you know what? It is magnificent.”

The tie-in comes out at the end of the month: Road to Riverdale, Mark Waid, Chip Zdarsky, Adam Hughes, Marguerite Bennett (PRH/Random House; OverDrive Sample).

Debuting in theaters on March 31 is The Ghost in the Shell, a SF film based on Masamune Shirow’s manga series of the same name, which Movie Pilot calls “a pioneer of cyberpunk.” Over a decade ago, it was adapted as an animated version, which IndieWire reports will run in a limited release this February.

The live-action adaptation stars Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, and Michael Pitt. It is already getting criticized for whitewashing, and TasteofCinema wonders if it will succeed.

The tie-in comes out on Jan 31: The Ghost in the Shell 1 Movie Tie-In Edition, Shirow Masamune (PRH/Kodansha Comics).

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

Netflix’s new series 13 Reasons Why will premiere on March 31. Singer/actress Selena Gomez, an executive producer for the show, posted a clip on Instagram Thursday, which quickly took off. It is now the #1 trending video on YouTube:

Paste says the clip “gives off Gone Girl vibes.”

The series is based on Jay Asher’s 2007 YA novel TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY, (Penguin/RazorBill; Listening Library; OverDrive Sample), about a high school student who commits suicide and leaves behind several tapes, telling classmates how each contributed to her decision. The novel is a YALSA Best Books of 2008, and was a NYT best seller in hardcover for over two years.

It stars a relatively unknown cast, including Katherine Langford, Christian Navarro. and Michael Sadler. Oscar Winner Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) directs. Tony and Pulitzer Prize Winner Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal) wrote the script.

A tie-in comes out in March:

13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher
Razorbill (Penguin Publishing Group)
On Sale Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN 9780451478290, 0451478290
Trade Paperback | 336 pages 
$10.99 USD, $14.99 CAD

The author of a true-life espionage tale about the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian secret service officer and enemy of Putin, Luke Harding was the guest on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday. He discussed his book on the subject, A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin’s War with the West (PRH/Vintage; RH Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Due to his reporting on the murder while he was the Moscow bureau chief for The Guardian, Harding was expelled from Russia.

He has also written about Edward Snowden (The Snowden Files) and Julian Assange (WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy). Both books were sources for films, Snowden, directed by Oliver Stone, and The Fifth Estate starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Assange.

The book is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings today, skyrocketing from #116,292 to just outside the top 100. Libraries have been slow to order, or have bought in low numbers, perhaps due to a lack of pre-pub reviews.

The full interview also addresses possible Russian hacking of the US Presidential election, fake news, and Putin’s end game.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the follow-up to Al Gore’s Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, got a standing ovation at Sundance when it opened the festival last week.

Variety says the film depicts the “dire consequences of a warming earth — from flooding in Miami and the Philippines, to the worst drought on record in Syria, bringing human suffering there that predated the ongoing civil war, to air pollution so bad in some parts of China that life expectancy has declined by six years.”

Critical reaction to the screening is mostly positive. Slashfilm says “If An Inconvenient Truth was an eye-opening disaster movie, then An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power is the heartbreaking post-apocalyptic follow-up … You can sense Al Gore’s frustration, and he is certainly angrier this time around, but still as passionate as he ever has been.” The Hollywood Reporter adds “this fine film is a match for the first.”

Several critics found it tedious, however. The Guardian writes it is “desultory and surprisingly vainglorious.”

A companion book will be published in May, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Al Gore (Macmillan/Rodale Books).

The documentary will open in theaters on July 28, 2017.

Called the “‘ top girl’ of this season’s suspense novels,” by The Washington Post and picked as the #1 LibraryReads title for January, The Girl Before by JP Delaney (PRH/Ballantine; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample), receives two additional high profile reviews today.

Charles Finch, author of the Charles Lenox mysteries, gives it three stars in USA Today. He opens by listing its “major faults,” but then goes on to say “Delaney has created a genuinely eerie, fascinating setting … The pages fly.”

Putting Delaney in the company of Ruth Ware, B.A. Paris, and Shari Lapena, “the tier of writers a solid two or three notches below Tana French and Gillian Flynn,” he points out that even an imperfect novel can be fun to read and, as his review illustrates, fun to talk about. He concludes that this one is “worth a few hours of idle pleasure.”

Janet Maslin is less generous in her NYT review, headlined, “He Doesn’t Like It When You Leave Your Shampoo Out.”

She acknowledges that the novel works in many ways. It is set in “a high-tech house so sadistic that it practically spanks” the main characters. It features a man who is  “50 shades of pervy but still charms, ” is fast paced, and “milks suspense” from its juxtaposing plots.

Unlike Finch, Maslin, who was an early supporter of the fun to be had from recent successful “girl”  titles, does not find this one a worthy “girl” contender, saying “The author, clearly writing with commercial success in mind, has used as many other familiar genre ploys as the book can hold, to the point at which it has everything but a dead cat. Oh, wait. There’s a dead cat too.” There is also “clumsy trickery” and, at times, “unnerving ghoulishness.”

Based on the strong holds in libraries, Finch’s theory, that an imperfect novel can still be fun to read, has more followers.

UPDATE: the minimal book trailer underscores the meaning of the title.

Demand is continuing to build for Emily Fridlund’s debut novel History of Wolves (Atlantic Monthly Press; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample), with library holds ratios topping 4:1 in a number of systems.

As we reported earlier, it was released to the kind of buzz that generally signals a hit. Since then, the NYT and LA Times have also weighed in.

The reviewer for the NYT Sunday Book Review says that this “novel of ideas …  reads like smart pulp, a page-turner of craft and calibration.”

The L.A. Times writes “the chilly power of History of Wolves packs a wallop that’s hard to shake off … Fridlund … has constructed an elegant, troubling debut, both immersed in the natural world but equally concerned with issues of power, family, faith and the gap between understanding something and being able to act on the knowledge.”

On the other hand, the critic for the daily NYT Jennifer Senior, objects that the novel’s tension is drawn out too long and as a result “Those thunderheads massing on the horizon let loose only a weak drizzle.”

Adaptations coming this week include three to the small screen, plus a troubled theatrical opening.

Debuting in theaters on January 27th is A Dog’s Purpose, a tearjerker about a dog named Bailey who comes back to life again and again (each time remembering his past).

The book was first published in hardcover in 2010 and spent over a year on the New York Times hardcover and trade paperback best seller lists. Anticipation of the movie has brought the title back to best seller lists. It is currently #1 on the USA Today list, up from #3 last week.

The film stars Dennis Quaid, Britt Robertson, Josh Gad, Peggy Lipton, and some great dogs. Unfortunately, it recently received unwanted attention due to accusations that one of the dogs was treated cruelly on set. Author Bruce Cameron has defended the production, but threats of boycotts by PETA caused Universal to cancel last week’s scheduled premiere. The general theatrical release is going forward.

Tie-in: A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans, W. Bruce Cameron (Macmillan/Forge; Tantor Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Coming to TV on Wednesday, Jan. 25 is the opener of season two of Syfy’s The Magicians, based on the trilogy by Lev Grossman.

Entertainment Weekly reports the 13-episode run begins with the events depicted at the close of the first season and will include a more detailed look at Fillory: “Fillory is beautiful,” the magazine quotes actress Summer Bishil (who plays Margo) as saying, “It really feels like we’re somewhere magical when we’re in Vancouver because we’re always in some majestic forest and it’s lit like heavens are opening.”

Ttie-in: The Magician King: A Novel (TV Tie-In), Lev Grossman (PRH/Penguin; BOT; OverDrive Sample).

New on TV is the debut of the live-action adaptation of the Archie comics, Riverdale.

Den of Geek! says of the CW show, it is “not a sitcom” as readers of the comic might expect, “but a one-hour drama inspired by Twin Peaks.” Praising its casting and its production team, (it is written by Archie comics’ Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and is executive produced by Greg Berlanti who also produced Arrow and Flash) the site says the show has its “finger on the pop culture pulse.”

In their rave review of the first four episodes, Den of Geek! also calls it “highly addictive” and writes “Yes, this is a show that mixes sex and murder and noir with Archie, but it does so in a way that is self-aware and instantly ready to shatter expectations … And you know what? It is magnificent.”

The show is set to premiere on Thursday, Jan. 26. A tie-in comes out at the end of the month: Road to Riverdale, Mark Waid, Chip Zdarsky, Adam Hughes, Marguerite Bennett (PRH/Random House; OverDrive Sample).

Also new, and streaming on Amazon, is Z: The Beginning of Everything, a mix of costume drama and bio-pic detailing the life of Zelda Fitzgerald (played by Christina Ricci) and her legendary marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

New York Magazine suggests, “Think of the Fitzgerald scenes from Midnight in Paris, but 50 percent grittier … and filmed in America.”

It is based on on Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler (Macmillan/ St. Martin’s Griffin; OverDrive Sample). The trade paperback bears a sticker tying it to the series. It starts streaming on January 27.