S&S continues to throw catnip to the press about a book coming out next week, O: A Presidential Novel. Last week, word began to spread about this anonymous novel, based on scraps of information (The Week, wraps up speculation on who might have written it, the most wacky being Obama himself).

Today, S&S Publisher, Jonathan Karp sent a message to journalists, with links to the book’s just unveiled Web site, and a request,

You may be asked to comment on whether or not you are the author.  If so, it would be great if you refrained from commenting, in solidarity with the principle that a book should be judged on its content and not on the perceived ideology of its author.

I received  the message, too, but not to worry. Unless the book is riddled with typos, I don’t expect anyone will be asking me. However, a librarian could be behind this; an excerpt describes a Sarah Palin type as “flaunting that whole lusty librarian thing“.

The first to bite is Slate‘s David Weigel (who made a reputation as a conservative reporter and blogger at the Washington Post, but left after his criticisms of other conservatives in the media were revealed). Contrary to Karp’s request, he wants everyone to know he did NOT write the book, citing an excerpt as filled with cliches, which, he says, means it is probably by an “escaped young adult fiction writer.”

OK, YALSA, it’s your turn — comment here.

The cover of the book is now available. Since last week, large libraries we checked have ordered the book in modest quantities, with some holds building.

O: A Presidential Novel Anonymous Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2011-01-25) ISBN / EAN: 1451625960 / 9781451625967

When NYT columnist David Brooks feels compelled to veer away from political commentary to weigh in on a book about child rearing, you know things have become a little nutty.

In today’s column, he calls “Tiger Mother” Amy Chua a “wimp.” Chua insists on her kids practicing music for hours and denies them sleepovers. Brooks asserts that the tougher activity is the sleepover because,

Managing status rivalries, negotiating group dynamics, understanding social norms, navigating the distinction between self and group — these and other social tests impose cognitive demands that blow away any intense tutoring session or a class at Yale.

Debates about Chua’s book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, are springing up all over the Web (see, for instance, the NYT ‘s “Room for Debate“).

Chua’s book tour begins in California tonight. It should be lively.

Tuesday, Jan 18
VROMAN’S BOOKSTORE
Pasadena, CA

Wednesday, Jan 19
BOOKSMITH
San Francisco, CA

Thursday, Jan 20
KPFA-FM
Berkeley, CA

Friday, Jan 21
ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY
Seattle, WA

Tuesday, Feb 15
BARNES & NOBLE
North Haven, CT

Thursday, Feb 17
PRINTERS ROW
Chicago, IL

Friday, Feb 18
POLITICS & PROSE
Washington, DC

Holds are mounting quickly for Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. An excerpt in the WSJ last week, with the challenging headline, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” (one the author disavows) was an immediate sensation. The Journal is adding fuel to the fire with several follow-up pieces:

• In Defense of the Western Mom; Ayelet Waldman on the virtues of letting kids quit, have sleepovers and find their own way. (By the way, Waldman herself was “crushed” by the criticism of her own parenting style after her 2005 NYT essay in which she said she loves her husband more than her children).

• The Tiger Mother Talks Back

• Readers Roar: What Makes a Good Parent

• Scene Asia: Chinese Mothers React

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Amy Chua Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2011-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 1594202842 / 9781594202841

Penguin Audio; UNABR; 6 Hours; 5 CDs; ISBN 9780142429105; $29.95

If you lived through the 80’s, you may remember televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Their son, Jay, is now a pastor himself, but with a very different approach. He writes about his beliefs in his book Fall to Grace and was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered (listen here) on Saturday.

Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self & Society Jay Bakker Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: FaithWords – (2011-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 0446539503 / 9780446539500

If you need a reminder of who the Bakkers were, the Jan. 12th Today Show gave a quick history prior to Matt Lauer’s interview with Jay.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In USA Today, Carol Memmott says the “moody atmospherics” of Erin Kelly’s debut psychological thriller, The Poison Tree will appeal to fans of fans of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

The Poison Tree: A Novel Erin Kelly Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books – (2011-01-06) ISBN / EAN: 0670022403 / 9780670022403

Thorndike; Large Print; April; ISBN 9781410436313; $30.99

We’ve been quoting the debut novel Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown for a while. The sisters’ motto is “There is no problem a library card can’t solve.”

It comes with a good pedigree. Its editor, Amy Einhorn, also brought us The Help and The Postmistress. Booklist says it exhibits “no false steps.”

Arriving today, it gets a stellar review from Janet Maslin. The three sisters’ father is a Shakespearean scholar who insists that the family continually quote the bard. Maslin calls this a gimmick, but one that works.

There are times when the sisters are exasperated by the burden imposed on them. “Sometimes we had the overwhelming urge to grab our father by the shoulders and shake him until the meaning of his obtuse quotations fell from his mouth like loosened teeth,” they say. Readers may sometimes feel similarly about Ms. Brown but more often appreciate the good sense and good humor that keep her story buoyant. She does have storytelling talent. Or, to quote one of the Weird Sisters quoting you-know-who: “This is a gift that I have; simple, simple.

The Weird Sisters Eleanor Brown Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam – (2011-02-17) ISBN / EAN: 0399157220 / 9780399157226

Penguin Audio; 9780142428948

Thorndike Large Print; May; ISBN 9781410437051; $30.99.

Leave it to Ron Reagan, the late president’s son, to give us an unvarnished view of My Father at 100, published to coincide with the Reagan Sr.’s birth on February 6. The news media is ablaze with the information that the younger Reagan says his father showed signs of Alzheimer’s while he was still in office, causing his half-brother Michael to call him an “embarrassment.”

The L.A. Times review reveals more personal issues:

One of the lessons here is that no father can be an uncomplicated hero to his own son. . .  His book is less concerned with ideological differences than the pains and wonders of family entanglement. “You’re my son, so I have to love you. But sometimes you make it very hard to like you,” his father tells him.

By the end of this memoir, the son finds in his father,

…something carefully guarded, ice-cold yet unstoppable, fused together with a relentless self-mythologizing tendency: “He was the solitary storyteller whose great opus, religiously tended always, was his own self.”

Libraries we checked have orders in line with modest reserves to date.

My Father at 100 Ron Reagan Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2011-01-18) ISBN / EAN: 0670022594 / 9780670022595

• Large Print: Thorndike Press, ISBN 9781410434371; $32.99
• CD: Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 9781441771858; $32.95
• MP3: Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 9781441771865; $29.95
• Playaway: Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 9781441771896; $64.99

Other Notable Nonfiction on Sale This Week

The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960 by Douglas Brinkley (Harper) gets a good review from Kirkus: “Brinkley systematically works through the milestones of Alaskan preservation, including the moving paintings by Rockwell Kent and photographs by Ansel Adams, Adolph Murie’s fight for the wolves, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas’ position as the “leading light of the wilderness movement” during the New Deal, and writings by the Beats such as Gary Snyder.”

The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan’s Principles Can Restore America’s Greatness by Michael Reagan with Jim Denney (Thomas Dunne) outlines the elements of the former president’s political plan that his older son says is as relevant today as in 1976.

It’s always heartening to see a good short story collection generate some heat. Last week, New York Times critic Janet Maslin singled out Siobhan Fallon‘s tales of military families on the edge in Fort Hood, Texas, You Know When the Men Are Gone, calling it a ” brief, tight collection — and there’s not a loser in the bunch.”

Male soldiers and their families are at the center of most of the stories, punctuated by sharply observed detail. As Maslin observes, one character is “haunted by the Grimm fairy tales that his daughter reads because his own life is full of latter-day versions of them. Why is the story of starving Hansel and Gretel any worse than that of a young Army corporal killed three days before he was due to see his wife and newborn baby?”

At libraries we checked, orders are in line with modest holds.

You Know When the Men Are Gone Siobhan Fallon Retail Price: $23.95 Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam – (2011-01-20) ISBN / EAN: 0399157204 / 9780399157202

Usual Suspects

Call Me Irresistible: A Novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Morrow) follows the romantic and comedic fallout of a small town, high profile wedding canceled at the last minute. LJ raves: “Phillips has the ability to drill down into her characters’ motivations, while conveying their stories with sensitivity and laugh-out-loud humor. Consistently remarkable, she’s done it again.”  Phillips’s editor talks about it in Editors’ Book Buzz.

Strategic Moves by Stuart Woods (Putnam) is the 19th novel featuring quasi-secret agent and lawyer Stone Barrington. Kirkus says, “Woods, who evidently writes to a precise word length without bothering with beginnings and endings, delivers loads of juicy complications but no payoffs.”

Shadowfever (Fever Series #5) by Karen Marie Moning (Delacorte) is the latest in the bestselling romantic fantasy series. On Amazon, it’s currently #5 in Romance, #23 in Contemporary Fantasy, and #54 overall.

The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation Series #8) by Lauren Willig is the eight installment in the romantic spy series set in Napoleonic France. Booklist calls it “another delightfully delectable adventure from Willig, who expands her rich, appealing stable of characters with each entry.”

The cover of Sunday’s NYT Book Review goes to the first book from a new literary imprint at the U. of North Carolina at Wilmington, Lookout Books. The book, a collection of short stories by respected author Edith Pearlman, will also be reviewed in the L.A. Times (via Shelf Awareness).

Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories Edith Pearlman, Ann Patchett (introduction) Retail Price: $18.95 Paperback: 392 pages Publisher: Lookout Books – (2011-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 0982338295 / 9780982338292

The book is owned in relatively few public libraries, despite a starred review from Booklist, which ended with,

Give this wonderful collection to fans of such classic short story writers as Andre Dubus and Alice Munro and novelists like Nicole Krauss. They will thank you.

The Washington Post, says the Susan Vreeland’s new novel, Clara and Mr. Tiffany,

… brims with fascinating information about Tiffany’s glassmaking and about New York as its gilded age gives way to a more progressive era. Clara stands at the story’s center as a woman ahead of her time, a female artist who mentors others and demands equality.

Clara Driscoll was the unwitting “good woman” behind the “great man,” Louis C. Tiffany. She was the one who invented to process for making the famous Tiffany lamps. Her contribution was only recently recognized, serving as the inspiration for this book.

People magazine gives the book 4 of a possible 4 stars in the current issue and Vreeland was interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany Susan Vreeland Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Random House – (2011-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 1400068169 / 9781400068166

Thorndike Large Print; (January 26, 2011); 9781410434234; $33.99
Random House Audio; UNABR; 9780307876706; $45.00

Sterling Publishing is pretty busy launching imprints this month. In addition to the new fiction imprint Silver Oak, the house is starting a YA imprint, Splinter, with the publication of Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck. The fantasy novel is the first in a trilogy about an 18-year-old girl and the Bengal tiger she encounters while working at a circus.

USA Today mentions the book in a roundup of spring titles that booksellers are excited about, quoting Barnes and Noble’s Patricia Bostleman saying the book “has it all: paranormal, romance, fantasy, adventure, historical fiction.” It’s also been picked by MTV as one of “11 YA Novels We Can’t Wait to Read in 2011.”

But PW says “the attractive premise is let down by wooden dialogue, excessive detail, and wobbly mechanics.”

Originally self-published in 2009, Houck’s trilogy will continue with Tiger’s Quest and Tiger’s Voyage, due later in 2011, according to the publishing blog Galley Cat.

At libraries we checked, modest orders were in line with modest reserves.

Tiger’s Curse (Book 1) Colleen Houck Retail Price: $17.95 Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Splinter – (2011-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 1402784031 / 9781402784033

Usual Suspects:

Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer (Grand Central Publishing) will surely be helped by the December 2 debut of the author’s History Channel show, Brad Meltzer’s Decoded. However, PW is lukewarm, declaring that “a fascinating look at the hidden treasures of the National Archives is the one strength of this otherwise unsatisfying thriller.”

The Sentry by Robert Crais (Putnam) elicits divided opinions: PW says “heartbreaking ironies, frustrated desires, and violent nonstop action make this a standout.” Booklist say’s “longtime fans may find this one not quite up to the authors high standards, but the demand will still be there.”

Gideon’s War by Howard Gordon (Touchstone) is a debut thriller by the executive producer of TV’s 24.  PW says this “loosely plotted thriller… lurches unpredictably from backstory to frenzied present-day action, employing a 24-hour ticking clock for suspense.”

Border Lords by T. Jefferson Parker (Dutton) gets the thumbs up from PW: “Three-time Edgar-winner Parker, long a favorite of genre cognoscenti, is making the transition to widespread mainstream popularity. His latest, to receive best-seller-type promotion, will increase the pace.” LJ is also keen on it: “Parker’s dark and gritty series takes readers beyond the drug war headlines, personalizing the toll it’s taken on our souls. Series fans will devour this sequel to Iron River.“

USA Today‘s calendar of major titles coming out through April is now available. Although it tends to cover the predictable big-name authors, it’s a good way to get to know the book covers that will soon become ubiquitous. It’s like RA flashcards.

In an an accompanying article, the USA Today book editors query booksellers about their picks and discover a few less obvious titles. Geoffrey Jennings of Rainy Day Books (KS) says The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (Random House, March 8) is “The debut novel we’re all excited about…[Obreht] deftly uses the history and conflict of the Balkans [to tell a] tale filled with metaphor and mystery.” It was also mentioned several times on Tuesday’s Galley Chat. Random House will be featuring it at their booth (#1816) at MidWinter.

Author Téa Obreht is the youngest of The New Yorker‘s twenty best American fiction writers under forty.

The Tiger’s Wife: A Novel Téa Obreht Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Random House – (2011-03-08) ISBN / EAN: 0385343833 / 9780385343831

Audio; Books on Tape, UNABR, 9780307877024; $40

OverDrive WMA Audiobook

On Monday, USA Today gave Three Seconds, the new Scandinavian thriller by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom, a stellar review (it would be more apt to call it a fan letter than a review). In today’s NYT, Janet Maslin, clearly not a devotee of the genre, says authors like Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell,

…know how to deliver the kind of stilted, world-weary verbosity that somehow quickens the pulses of this genre’s readers. Even better, they are on a first-name basis with the Seven Dwarfs of Scandinavian Noir: Guilty, Moody, Broody, Mopey, Kinky, Dreary and Anything-but-Bashful.

Neither is she won over by Three Seconds. After a long description of the book’s plot, she calls it one of many “half-decent Millennium knockoffs” we can expect to see in the future.

Clearly, readers don’t agree. For most of the week, the book is has been at #2 on the B&N.com’s sales rankings, where it is featured as one of the “Best Books of the Month.” It has also cracked the Amazon top fifty, rising to #39 earlier this week.

It’s notable that Three Seconds is the very first book from the new imprint, Silver Oak, a joint deal between six-year-old British Quercus Publishing (publishers of Stieg Larsson’s books in the UK) and Sterling Publishing in the U.S.

Three Seconds Anders Roslund, Borge Hellstrom Retail Price: $24.95 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: SilverOak – (2011-01-04) ISBN / EAN: 1402785925 / 9781402785924

Brilliance Audio; Unabridged Lib Ed; 9781455807222; 13 CD’s; $79.97

As we pointed out on Monday, the Book Beast lists among their “most anticipated” books of 2011 one titled O: A Presidential Novel, to be published on Jan 25 by S&S. The “O,” of course, is President Obama, but the author is anonymous. Libraries we checked had not ordered it and information is sketchy from wholesaler and bookseller sites and non-existent on S&S’s site.

S&S has confirmed to EarlyWord that the book will be released on Jan. 25th. News outlets, beginning with Yahoo! News, have now picked up the story, comparing it to Primary Colors, also by “Anonymous,” about the Clinton administration, which was a best seller in 1996 and made into a movie. After weeks of speculation, it was revealed that “Anonymous” was actually Time magazine journalist Joe Klein.

When asked by Yahoo if he might be the new Anonymous, Klein vigorously denied the idea (Yahoo points out that Klein also initially denied the suggestion that he wrote Primary Colors). We’re inclined to believe Klein this time, however. If he were to do another  “Anonymous” book, we think he’d turn to one of the Random House divisions, which have been his publishers in the past.

In the UK, The Telegraph, covers the story, including a more extensive look at the impact of Primary Colors in its day and notes that there will also be a simultaneous audio version of O, read by Campbell Scott (who, like everyone else involved, declined to comment).

A curious side note, the description on some wholesaler databases seems to be about a quite different anonymous novel:

The author has decided to remain anonymous because this was the only way she felt completely free to explore a woman’s secret life. As she writes in the afterword to the novel, “That doesn’t mean this is a memoir; it’s many things to me, fiction and nonfiction, fantasy and fact, a quilt pieced together not just from my own stories but those of my friends.” She was also inspired to embrace anonymity by the book that inspired her own, an anonymous and very daring Elizabethan manuscript entitled A Woman’s Worth.

The initial print run is showing as 100,000 copies. No cover image is available yet.

Audio: Simon & Schuster Audio (January 25, 2011);ISBN-13: 9781442341142

USA Today signs on as a fan of writer Lisa Genova and her second novel, Left Neglected,

Genova is a master of getting into the heads of her characters, relating from the inside out what it’s like to suffer from a debilitating disease. How she does it we don’t know, but she does, and brilliantly.

Genova’s debut novel, Still Alice, about a woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s, was an original trade paperback best seller last year. In the new book, Genova, a neuroscientist, writes about a woman with a brain disease that results in her inability to see or feel anything on the left side of her body.

Readers may think, “oh, no, not another brain disease,” but, looked at more broadly, the novel is about a more universal issue, as writer Ann Hood describes it in her blurb,

Imagine your too busy, over scheduled, Type A life coming to a screeching halt. That is what happens in Lisa Genova’s timely new novel, Left Neglected. As her protagonist, Sarah Nickerson, works her way through a devastating brain injury and back into that hectic life, she is forced to re-evaluate what really matters. I dare any reader to not do the same in their own lives after reading this book.

USA Today echoes, “Picking up anything written by Genova is quickly becoming, well, a no-brainer.”

Left Neglected Lisa Genova Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Gallery – (2011-01-04) ISBN / EAN: 1439164630 / 9781439164631

Simon & Schuster Audio, January 2011; Unabridged Compact Disk, 9 disks; ISBN-13: 9781442335394; $39.99
Large Type; Thorndike, ISBN 9781410433824; $35.99