EarlyWord

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (PRH/Doubleday; RH Large Print; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample) debuts on the USA Today Bestseller list at #7, a ranking that far outdistances Grann’s first book, The Lost City of Z, which hit a high of #68.

There is more good news for the journalist turned author. Deadline Hollywood reports that a dream team might join forces for the film version, consisting of Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro. The trio, who have never worked together on one film, are said to be seriously considering the project.

Flower Moon is a rich story for them to dig their teeth into, a true crime tale of high murder counts, conspiracies, the FBI’s young director, J. Edgar Hoover, and a former Texas Ranger named Tom White. The Independent speculates on who will play which historical figure, “DiCaprio [who previously played Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s 2011 film J. Edgar] may take up the role again, with De Niro probably the pick to play Tom White.”

The film rights were sold in a hot auction for 5 million, roughly a year before the book hit shelves. Variety says it “was one of the highest prices paid for movie rights in recent memory.”

It might prove a sound buy. The Lost City of Z is more than held its own in very limited release. However, it did not perform as well when it expanded to more theaters this past weekend.  Critics are mad for it, with the A.V. Club asking “Is this the best movie of the year so far?”

UPDATE:
The book was featured on the 4/30 CBS Sunday Morning.

The news media is focused on Trump’s first 100 days, but it seems people still want to know about the campaigns that preceded it. Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes (PRH/Crown; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample) hits the new USA Today bestseller list at number 3.

Library holds have grown dramatically since the book’s publication date, increasing ratios at impressive rates, albeit on cautious ordering. One library we checked has moved from a ratio of 1:1 to 53:1. Another jumped from 6:1 to 42:1.

As we noted earlier, NYT chief book critic Michiko Kakutani calls it “compelling” and says “Although the Clinton campaign was widely covered, and many autopsies have been conducted in the last several months, the blow-by-blow details in Shattered— and the observations made here by campaign and Democratic Party insiders — are nothing less than devastating … and while it’s clear that some of these people are spinning blame retroactively, many are surprisingly candid about the frustrations they experienced during the campaign.”

A potential future female presidential candidate also debuts on the list. Landing at No. 8  is This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class by Elizabeth Warren (Macmillan/Metropolitan Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample). She tells the paper’s Washington Bureau Chief, Susan Page, “The direction that Donald Trump and his team want to drive this country is a direction that I don’t think America’s middle class can survive.”

The authors of both books have been making the media rounds.

Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (Houghton Mifflin, 1986; tie-in ed., PRH/Anchor, 2017; OverDrive Sample) premiered Wednesday, to glowing reviews.

The NYT calls it “spectacular” and says that the show “argues — with an assist from current events — that progress is neither automatic nor irreversible.”

The Washington Post headlines, “The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t just timely, it’s essential viewing for our fractured culture.”

The Guardian writes “It’s a horror, and it’s a thriller, but it is, at its core, a warning, about how oppression can creep up on you, and what happens when women’s lives are no longer their own.”

NPR says it is “chilling … a horror show unveiled in slow motion … In a country where sexual harassment scandals regularly land on the front page, the patriarchy of The Handmaid’s Tale doesn’t feel so far-fetched, which is the most horrific thing about it.”

Elle magazine takes an interesting approach to the book, asking a range of women authors how it shaped their “ideas of feminism, fairness, and dystopia.”

Louise O’Neill, author of Only Every Yours recalls reading when she was 15 and wondering “How is it possible that this book was written in 1985… and yet so little has changed in the last 15 years.” Reading it again this year, she’s asking the same question.

Sady Doyle, author of Trainwreck says the lessons of the book “set the table for how I would look at gender and power as an adult. I’m more glad than ever for the book as it’s become more necessary.”

Read our chat with Pablo, below.

Join us for the next live chat on May 26, 5 to 6 p.m., ET with Tamara Bundy, to discuss Walking with Miss Millie, to be published by Nancy Paulsen Books  in July.

To join the program, sign up here

Editors Note: Each month, librarians gather for our online GalleyChats to talk about their favorite forthcoming titles. GalleyChatter columnist Robin Beerbower rounds up the most-mentioned titles from this month’s chat below.

Titles eligible for LibraryReads nominations are noted with deadlines in red.

Please join us for the next GalleyChat, this coming Tuesday,
May 2, 4 to 5 p.m. ET, 3:30 for virtual cocktails. Details here.
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GalleyChat discussions are always fast and furious. While it’s a challenge to keep up with the feed, it’s worth it to hear about forthcoming titles librarians are eager to share. April’s chat was especially spirited with nonfiction and crime titles leading the way.

Reality Reading

Unlike reality television, which is generally anything but authentic, readers can count on the nonfiction recommended by GalleyChatters as the real thing.

As an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History and the director of its world-famous Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson knows his outer space science. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry  (Norton, May) will appeal to readers who, according to Joseph Jones from Cuyahoga County (OH) Public Library, “… don’t think they like science and just need the right book to open up their horizons.” He also says, “Tyson does a great job using humor and common sense in giving us an overview of difficult topics. More importantly he leaves out the advanced math that usually accompanies books like these making this a great choice for people who would like to know more but are afraid they cannot grasp these ideas.” This is also a LibraryReads choice for May.

For those of us who discovered the love of reading at an early age, Ann Hood’s short memoir, Morningstar: Growing Up with Books (Norton, August; LibraryReads deadline: June 20), zoomed right into our hearts and readers will scurry to find many of the lost gems listed in this book (I’ll be searching for a copy of Robert Rimmer’s The Harrad Experiment). Marika Zemke, Head of Adult Services at Commerce Township Public Library (MI) says, “Hood writes about learning to read and how the magical powers of reading transformed her life. She’s the little girl who would rather stay indoors to read than go outside. She’s the teenage girl who experiences romantic love in a book. She’s the college student who thinks deeply about life. Simply said, Ann Hood has written a book that lovers of the written word will savor, discuss and debate.”

Arresting Thrillers

Matt Goldman, former writer for Seinfeld and a stand-up comedian, has created an intriguing new character in Gone to Dust (Macmillan/Forge, August; LibraryReads deadline: June 20). Set in Minneapolis and introducing Nils Shapiro, a smart and thoughtful private eye, this new series is a cross between Lee Child and Sue Grafton. Robin Nesbitt, readers’ advisor at Metropolis Columbus (OH) Library, says, “What a great read! Love Nils and hope he comes back for more mysteries! Well written, with engaging characters, mystery readers are in for a real treat.” We predict a summer hit, so have lots of copies on hand for mystery lovers.

For grittier police action, three participants raved about The Force by Don Winslow (HarperCollins/William Morrow, June). Janet Lockhart, collection development librarian for Wake Co (NC) calls it “addictive and fast-paced,” recommended for fans of Dennis Lehane and television shows like The Wire. She adds, “NYPD Detective Denny Malone’s mission is to be a good cop but that doesn’t mean he follows the letter of the law. You’ll root for this hero, flawed at the Shakespearean level, as the choices he makes affect his family, his squad, and his soul. It’s set in a police world so convincingly detailed that you may find yourself reaching for your badge and bullet proof vest.”

Investigative journalist Kate Waters first appeared in Fiona Barton’s surprise bestseller, The Widow, and returns in The Child (PRH/Berkley, June) to investigate the discovery of a baby’s skeleton at a construction site. Three chatters found it engrossing, including Jennifer Winberry from Hunterdon County Library who says, “Three women are brought together as each, for her own reasons, tries to determine who the child is with irrevocable results for each. As inconsistencies and contradictions begin to pile up, Kate, Emma, and Angela dig further into the past and find life changing, but heart breaking, answers.”

Erin Kelly wrote twisting psychological fiction long before Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl burst upon the scene, and her next book, He Said/She Said  (Macmillan/Minotaur, June), will no doubt be popular with patrons. Gregg Winsor (Kansas City Library, MO) loves it, saying, “In a year of excellent psychological fiction, this is an absolute standout. Using solar eclipses as metaphor – and actual plot device! – Kelly immerses us into a relationship between a young couple and the secrets that threaten to tear them apart. Believable characters, alternating points of view, and a feeling of simmering dread highlight this sexy smart novel.”

“Lizzie Borden took an ax/And gave her mother forth whacks/When saw what she had done/She gave her father forty-one.” But did she really? See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt (Ingram Publishing Services/Atlantic Monthly Press, August; LibraryReads deadline: June 20) gives a different and creepy view of the incident. Jen Dayton was entranced, saying, “I have always had a morbid fascination with Lizzie Borden and this book only ended up throwing gasoline on that bonfire. Told in the alternating voices of Lizzie, her sister Emma, their Irish maid Bridget and drifter Benjamin, author Sarah Schmidt takes a story we all think we know and spins it into something new and fresh and just as terrifying as you remember.”

Palate Cleanser

After all of that murder and mayhem, a sweet book like Nina George’s Little French Bistro (PRH/Crown, June) is the perfect antidote. Beth Mills of New Rochelle (NY) Public Library enthuses, “Sixty-year-old Marianne has been reduced to utter hopelessness by her loveless marriage to domineering Lothar. After surviving a suicide attempt she finds herself drawn to Kerdruc in Brittany where a chance encounter lands her a job cooking at bistro An Mor. I have never been to Brittany, but Nina George made me feel that I could smell the salt air, see the little bistro, and eavesdrop as her vividly drawn characters converse. A quiet charmer.”

If you haven’t yet participated in the fun, please join us for our next GalleyChat on Tuesday, May 2, with virtual happy hour at 3:30 (ET) and the chat at 4:00, For updates on what I’m anticipating on Edelweiss, please friend me, Robin Beerbower.

Gretchen Carlson is at work on a new memoir,  Be Fierce: Stop Harassment And Take Your Power Back (Hachette/Center Street Books), scheduled for publication on September 26. The announcement come amidst media coverage of accusations of sexual harassment at Fox and the recent firing of Bill O’Reilly.

In a statement Carlson said “Make no mistake – sexual harassment is not just about sex. It’s really about power. Sexual harassers feel they can get away with it because they believe they’re the ones holding all the cards. It doesn’t occur to them that the women they’re harassing have power too. We need to encourage women to stop being silent, stand up and speak up and join the movement. Together we can make change.”

Carlson filed a lawsuit against former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, leading to his ouster, paving the way for O’Reilly’s exit. She is just one of many at the network to have shared their stories. Her book will gather the voices of others without such a megaphone. According to Hachette Imprint Center Street Be Fierce , will “Gretchen’s experience and powerful stories from the thousands of women who have reached out to her who refuse to submit to intimidation of any kind. Gretchen will also share the wisdom and research of lawyers, psychologists, and other experts helping to confront this problem and advance what has become an international conversation about women refusing to shut up and sit down.”

She may not be able to be completely candid, however. As The Daily Beast points out, she “can’t discuss her former employer under the terms of a $20 million settlement agreement.” She tells the site, “Obviously, I can’t talk about the details of the case, but my goodness, I don’t need to … I can be an advocate for this issue. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I never expected to be the face of this issue. Who would?”

Carlson’s first book was her PR-ish memoir Getting Real (PRH/Viking, 2015). It hit the USA Today‘s list at #140 and lasted just one week. In it, she presented a more flattering picture of her boss, calling him, “the most accessible boss I’ve ever worked for.”

Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, (HC/William Morrow; BBC Audio), died on Monday. He was 88.

Pirsig, a college writing instructor, became an overnight sensation in 1974 when Zen was published. It sold a million copies in its first year, remained a bestseller for a decade, and earned him a Guggenheim fellowship. Reading it became a right of passage for many and remains so to this day.

The NYT writes that the book “ranged widely in its concerns, contemplating the relationship of humans and machines, madness and the roots of culture … in seeking to reconcile humanism with technological progress, [it was] perfectly timed for a generation weary of the ’60s revolt against a soulless high-tech world dominated by a corporate and military-industrial order.”

In seeking to explain the book’s popularity and cult-like following, the NYT quotes Pirsig himself, who wrote on his website, “I expressed what I thought were my prime thoughts … and they turned out to be the prime thoughts of everybody else.”

The New Yorker linked the book to Herman Melville while The New York Times earlier connected it to Thoreau.

Pirsig wrote only one other book, the less successful Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (PRH/Bantam).

The Washington Post, L.A. Times, and NPR also offer remembrances.

It may be the most eagerly awaited title of the upcoming season, so the daily NYT brings their popular-fiction critic Janet Maslin out of semi-retirement to do an early review of Paula Hawkins’s second novel after her breakout best seller The Girl on the Train.

Unfortunately, Maslin is disappointed. Acknowledging that Hawkins “could have published a book of 386 blank pages and hit the best-seller lists,” she dismantles Into the Water (PRH/Riverhead; RH Audio/BOT), writing “If The Girl on the Train seemed overplotted and confusing to some readers, it is a model of clarity next to this latest effort … jam-packed with minor characters and stories that go nowhere … [a] three-ring circus.”

Trade reviews range from a starred Booklist to a middling Publishers Weekly that says it juggles “a few too many story lines for comfort, but the payoff packs a satisfying punch” and a damning Kirkus which concludes, “Let’s call it sophomore slump and hope for better things.”  Maslin, whose rave review for Hawkins’s debut helped solidify the already growing word of mouth that launched it onto best seller lists, is in the Kirkus camp, asking,”What happened to the Paula Hawkins who structured The Girl on the Train so ingeniously?”

The book doesn’t arrive until next week, so there are few other reviews, but one echoes and goes beyond Maslin’s criticisms. Slate critic Laura Miller, who was no fan of Hawkins’s first, writes “Into the Water isn’t an impressive book. Its tone is uniformly lugubrious and maudlin, and Hawkins’ characters seldom rise to the level of two dimensions, let alone three.”

For her part, Maslin works hard to find redeeming qualities. “Many of us are going to read this novel anyway … So on the bright side for those who insist … while [the novel] chugs off to a slow, perplexing start, [it] develops a head of steam at an unlikely moment. It has exactly one smart, perfectly conceived Hitchcockian page: its last.”

Several highly anticipated TV shows begin their runs this week, including Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

The Handmaid’s Tale starts on April 26 and runs for ten episodes, staring Elisabeth Moss as Offred, the central character and a rarity in her world, a fertile woman, or ‘handmaid,” she becomes the property of the state, forced to conceive against her will. Joseph Fiennes stars as The Commander, to whom Offred is assigned.

Reviews are glowing. The A.V. Club headlines, “Praise be to the arresting, topical nightmare of The Handmaid’s Tale.” Entertainment Weekly gives it an A, writing it “plays like true prestige television: A masterfully unnerving vision of a near future … Moss is a brilliant muse, a fantastically unsettling alloy of fury and stillness; if this doesn’t earn her the Emmy she was robbed of for her years on Mad Men, the voting Academy should sue itself for gross negligence.” IndieWire says it is “The Scariest TV Show Ever Made, Because It Feels So Real.” Time calls it “masterful … hits exactly the right note … [and] The more you learn about Offred, the more she looks like TV’s great new heroine.” The Hollywood Reporter says it is “A thrillingly dystopian escape from our modern dystopia.”

The tie-in edition comes out this week, with an eerie photo of Elizabeth Moss on the cover: The Handmaid’s Tale (Movie Tie-in), Margaret Atwood (PRH/Anchor; OverDrive Sample).

American Gods starts its 8-episode run on April 30. It has an all-star cast including Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday, Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Gillian Anderson as Media, and Kristin Chenoweth as Easter.

Early reviews are largely positive. Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-, with the reviewer writing that he was “consistently engrossed.” Den of Geek writes “The American Gods TV show is something special — for anyone who has ever believed in anything or simply questioned the structure of existence. This show is for you.”

However, Comics Beat headlines that it is “a beautiful mess” and says the show lacks a needed “sense of urgency” and that its “thematic superficiality is heartbreaking.”

The tie-ins hit shelves in late March: American Gods, Neil Gaiman (HC/William Morrow; also in mass market; HC Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Genius begins its 10-episode run on the National Geographic channel on April 25. It is the first scripted series from the cable network, reports Deadline Hollywood, and is part of a planned “anthology drama– telling the stories of the world’s most brilliant innovators.”

This opener is based on Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe and stars Academy Award-winner Geoffrey Rush as Einstein. Johnny Flynn (Lovesick) plays the younger Einstein while Emily Watson (The Theory of Everything) is Elsa, his second wife. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are the series executive producers.

It is getting some good buzz. The NYT says “this is not your father’s biopic. It’s about time to meet the real guy behind the cuddly accent and the curvature of space-time … it’s a tense binge-worthy psychological thriller full of political and romantic melodrama.” Forbes writes the series may “inspire a new generation of thinkers and dreamers to expand our knowledge of the world” and calls it impressive and attention grabbing.

The tie-in came out in early April: Einstein TV Tie-In Edition: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Only one theatrical film opens this week, The Circle, premiering on the 28th and starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks and and John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens). It is based on the novel of the same name by Dave Eggers, who also co-wrote the script for the film.

There are no reviews yet but Entertainment Weekly ran a story recently, opening with a reminder that the plot of The Circle, about technology and privacy, is very timely:

“Imagine a world where everything you do is tracked online. Where privacy doesn’t exist. Where corporations have the government’s blessing to extract whatever information they want about you. Welcome to that world. Thanks to a recent party-line vote in Congress, you live in it.” They continue saying, “All of this makes the The Circle … look a lot less like a thriller and more like prophecy.”

Watson tells the magazine, “This is not a dystopian future that’s set in, you know, 2050 or something. This could basically be tomorrow. This is kind of an uncomfortably close film about where, if we aren’t careful, we could very easily go.”

There is no-tie in.

Mozart owned a pet starling bird, one he bought in 1784 just after finishing his Piano Concerto No. 17 in G. It could sing part of his new composition.

The story of that bird and Mozart’s relation to it is one of the subjects of Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Haupt tells NPR that in researching the book she followed suit and adopted her own pet starling, rescuing a five-day-old from a nest about to be destroyed.

Haupt tells NPR that her bird Carmen, like Mozart is smart,  mischievous and an amazing mimic, anticipating the household routine,  “I wake up in the morning … and she looks at me and says, ‘Hi Carmen,’ which is the first thing I would say to her. And then the cat comes downstairs and she says ‘Meow.’ And then I go to make the coffee, and before I grind the beans she goes, ‘Rrrrr.'”

Mozart wrote an elegy for it upon its death and more than one musical critic believes at least one of his compositions is is based on the starling’s song.

In a starred review Booklist calls the book a “hard-to-put-down, charming blend of science, biography, and memoir.”

Some libraries we checked are running 5:1 hold ratios on light orders. Several others have not ordered it.

Hulu has given a pilot order for an adaptation of the Eisner-winning comic Locke & Key reports Deadline Hollywood, in what they call a “very competitive situation.” The hourly drama will be based on Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s hit series.

Hill along with Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel, The Strain) are running the project, with Hill writing the script. The director of Doctor Strange, Scott Derrickson, is on board to direct the series if the pilot is approved.

Two earlier efforts to adapt the horror/fantasy blend have failed. The Hollywood Reporter points out that Rodriguez’s fantastic art is difficult to translate to the screen, but the group running the project this time may be able to carry if off. Hulu is ready for more ambitious content, THR maintains, and Cuse is skilled and proven in the genre, as is Derrickson. Finally Hill, more than anyone, should be able get the script right while also honoring his comic readers.

Also in its favor, a hit audio adaptation was a huge success in 2016, winning an Audie as well as several nominations.

The comic, which ranges across multiple releases plus collected editions, tells the complicated story of the Locke family, the Keyhouse estate, demons, possession, and keys. Tor.com offers a reread of the first volume which gives a taste of the story. The newest volume will come out in August, Locke & Key: Heaven and Earth (PRH/IDW).

The next drama by Shonda Rhimes, to premiere at the end of May on ABC, is something of a departure for the hitmaker behind Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy. Set in the world of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, after the two doomed lovers have died, Still Star Crossed is based on the novel Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub (PRH/Delacorte, 2013 – currently listed as OP). Kirkus gave the YA novel a starred review, calling it “A perfect blend of the intimate and the epic, the story both honors its origin and works in its own right … [a] spectacular sequel.”

The date is delayed from its expected midseason launch reports Deadline Hollywood.

No tie-in has been announced.

The holds leader for the upcoming week is John Sandford’s Golden Prey (PRH/Putnam; RH Large Type; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample), which has also received strong prepub reviews.

A distant second is Iris Johansen’s No Easy Target (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample), in which one of the supporting characters from her best selling Eve Duncan books gets her own book.

The titles covered 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 April 24, 2017

Advance Attention 

Borne, Jeff VanderMeer (Macmillan/MCD; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample).

The new book by the author of the award-winning dystopian Southern Reach Trilogy arrives with three starred prepub reviews (Kirkus calls it an “odd, atmospheric, and decidedly dark fable for our time“) and film rights already sold to Paramount. In addition, in late March, CinemaCon attendees were treated to footage of the adaptation of Annihilation, the first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy. Directed by Ex Machina‘s Alex Garland, it stars Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac, release is expected in 2018.

UPDATE: Laura Miller gives Borne a thoughtful review, in the context of the recent popularity of post-apocalyptic novels, in the New Yorker.

Media Magnets

Option B, Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant (PRH/Knopf; RH Audio/BOT).

The COO of Facebook, famous for her book on women in the workplace, Lean In, writes about what she learned after the sudden, unexpected death of her husband in 2015 at age 47. She will be featured on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend, in a segment that promoted today on CBS This Morning. More will follow, with appearances on Good Morning America, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and NPR’s All Things Considered.

The Secrets of My Life, Caitlyn Jenner (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Audio/Blackstone Audio).

Excerpts in People magazine are making headlines in the gossip mags. It seems that Jenner’s daughters feel that the section about her gender surgery is TMI, even for them.

Peer Pick,

Two LibraryReads selections come out this week:

Anything Is Possible (PRH/RH; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample) is the #1 Library Reads selection for April:

“Strout does not disappoint with her newest work. Her brilliant collection takes up where her novel, My Name is Lucy Barton, leaves off. The chapters read like short stories with Lucy Barton as the thread that runs between them. The characters populate Amgash, Illinois and their stories are woven together carefully and wonderfully. No one captures the inner workings of small town characters better than Strout. Written to be read and enjoyed many times, I highly recommend for readers of fine literary fiction.” — Mary Vernau, Tyler Public Library, Tyler, TX

Additional Buzz: It is a February GalleyChat title and an Indie Next pick and has made the Spring Reading Lists of New York magazine, The Washington Post, the Amazon Editor’s Top 20 titles, and Vogue‘s “The Must-Read Books of Spring 2017.” All four prepub review sources star, with Kirkus calling it “radiant” and PW deeming it “masterful.” The Millions features it in their “Most Anticipated (The Month),” Elle says it is one of “7 Great Books to Read in April,” and InStyle calls it one of “5 Totally Brilliant Books You Need to Read in April 2017.”

Beartown, Fredrik Backman (S&S/Atria; S&S Audio).

“Backman’s most complex novel to date takes place in the small, hockey-crazed village of Beartown. He deftly weaves together the stories of the players, the coaches, the parents, and the fans as Beartown’s hockey team chases its dream of winning a championship. Weighty themes are explored. How high a price is too high for success? How deadly is silence? Who can you trust with your secrets? How far will you compromise your beliefs in the name of friendship? There are no easy answers. A great book club choice.” — Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Library, Cary, NC

Additional Buzz: It is one of our GalleyChat picks and an Indie Next selection. AARP includes it on their list of “Spring Books for Gownups.”

The Standard Grand, Jay Baron Nicorvo (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; OverDrive Sample) is another Indie Next pick hitting shelves:

“Jay Baron Nicorvo’s novel envelops you in a world most civilians never know, where homeless veterans gather to work on regaining their hearts and minds. The reader is a listener, learning about these characters through each of their voices, accents, idioms, and military jargon — sometimes mean and ugly, sometimes only vaguely understood. Even in their hidden Catskills retreat, there is a realization that they are not beyond the reach of a sinister corporate world waging another, more personal war for oil. The Standard Grand is sculpture, a work of art with every word, every detail, perfect.” —Diane Marie Steggerda, The Bookman, Grand Haven, MI

Additional Buzz: Booklist stars itwith reviewer Bill Kelly writing “Alongside Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2012) and Yellow Birds (2012), The Standard Grand is an important and deeply human contribution to the national conversation.” LJ counts it among its picks of the “Great First Acts: Debut Novels.”

Tie-ins

Just one tie-in comes out this week, Official Handbook (Captain Underpants Movie) by Kate Howard (Scholastic; OverDrive Sample). The animated film is based on the beloved book series of the same name, written by Dav Pilkey.

It stars Kevin Hart, Jordan Peele, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, and Kristen Schaal and opens on June 2, just in time to delight kids looking forward to summer vacation.

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

The premium cable network, HBO has discovered the temperature at which paper burns, moving forward with a film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian masterpiece Fahrenheit 451 (S&S; Tantor; OverDrive Sample).

The novel, first published in 1953, depicts a future world where books are outlawed and, if found, burned by firemen. Written during the McCarthy era it has found a new readership following the 2016 election.

The movie will star Michael B. Jordan (Creed) and Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals) reports Deadline. Adds Tor, Jordan will play “Montag, the young fireman who has a crisis of conscience when he begins to believe that burning books is wrong, and Michael Shannon as Beatty, Montag’s captain and mentor.”

Assessing the novel in 2008, over 50 years after it was first published, a writer for The Guardian attested to the novel’s continuing appeal, saying it is “often startling and poetic … almost as memorable for its imagery as its ideas … As far as ideas go, the effect was just as powerful when I read the book anew.”

It won a Retrospective Hugo in 2004 and was adapted by François Truffaut in a 1966 film starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie and was adapted as a graphic novel in 2009: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation by Tim Hamilton (Macmillan/Hill and Wang).

Netflix is adapting Shirley Jackson’s iconic horror novel, The Haunting of Hill House into a series reports Variety. It is being described as “a modern reimagining.”

Mike Flanagan (Hush, Oculus, and Ouija: Origin of Evil) is on board to direct the planned 10-episode run. This is his second horror adaptation for Netflix. He is currently in post-production on Netflix’s movie adaptation of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game.

GQ is excited about Flanagan’s role, saying “he knocks it out of the park every damn time … [and] has already been responsible for beloved modern horrors … The Haunting of Hill House is a tense, almost unbearable book at times. It will be great to see how the director works with dread over the course of several episodes rather than just a few hours.”

io9 says “Flanagan’s flair for making even ordinary things intensely spooky—this is a guy who made a sidewalk tunnel into a place of sheer terror in 2011’s excellent Absentia—suggests he’s an ideal choice for this project.”

Jackson’s novel is considered a classic of the genre, and has its own Penguin’s classic edition to prove it. Published in 1959, it was a finalist for the National Book Award. The story follows four people who spend time in the creepy halls of Hill House, known for its supernatural phenomena. One of the four becomes subject to the house’s menacing hold.

Stephen King wrote, in the introduction of one of the many editions of the novel, “it seems to me that [The Haunting of Hill House] and James’s The Turn of the Screw are the only two great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years.”

Tor re-visits the novel on the 100th anniversary of Jackson’s birth, writing “It’s a masterpiece, truly, and for myriad different reasons—but above all else it’s frightening, a slow and anxious and steady sort of frightening.” The Guardian says it is “a chilling and highly accomplished piece of writing.”

It has already been adapted, twice, as feature films released in 1963 and 1999. The Netflix’s version will be another marker in the recent up swing of attention to Jackson, who also wrote the masterful short story “The Lottery.” A critically acclaimed biography of the author was published last October, Penguin is issuing Classics versions of her work with introductions by authors such as Francine Prose, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Kevin Wilson. Last year “The Lottery” was adapted into a graphic novel and Random House issued a collection of previously unpublished and uncollected works, Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings.