EarlyWord

This just in from the New York Times “Media Decoder” blog — Oprah is reviving her book club, specifically because she wanted to feature the memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (RH/Knopf, 3/20). Link to video below:

It’s great news for books, although somewhat lessened by the fact that Winfrey’s cable station, OWN has not enjoyed the strongest rating.

There is still magic in the Oprah touch. The book, already a best seller (#3 on the Indie best seller list; it is on the NYT nonfiction extended list), rose to #19 (from #149) on Amazon’s sales rankings based on the news.

The book’s new jackets will sport the new Oprah sticker.

This may be a historic moment. Public pressure has forced Florida’s Brevard County PL director to put Fifty Shades of Grey back on library shelves (the books were removed said the director, “because [the trilogy has] been called ‘mommy porn’ and ‘soft porn.’ We don’t collect porn”).

A local mother and he 16-year-old daughter considered this censorship and started a petition drive to return the books to the shelves.

The story is being reported in national news sources, including ABC News.

Meanwhile, Stephenie Meyer told MTV News that, even though Fifty Shades began as Twilight fan fiction, the two series are quite different genres.

A handful of much-anticipated summer reading picks arrive next week, including thrillers from Matthew Quirk, Gillian Flynn and Elizabeth Haynes, contemporary novels with unusual characters and settings from Francesca Segal and Rhian Ellis, and Laura Moriarty‘s historical novel about the young Louise Brooks’s chaperone. Usual suspects include Jeffrey Deaver, Eric Von Lustbader, Laurell K. Hamilton, Mary Kay Andrews and Luanne Rice. And political commentators David Limbaugh and Gail Collins deliver new political critiques.

Watch List

The 500 by Matthew Quirk (Hachette/Little, Brown.Reagan Arthur; Hachette Large Print ; Hachette Audio) is a thriller set in a Washington D.C. political lobbying firm, where Harvard law grad Mike Ford is forced to draw on the skills he learned from his con man father, as he’s drawn into the midst of a political conspiracy. It’s the lead thriller on USA Today‘s summer reading list (“Why it’s hot: Early reviews compare this classic David-and-Goliath tale to the early works of John Grisham”) and a June Indie Next pick. The movie rights were sold right after the book was picked up, and there’s also a sequel coming. Libraries that bought it heavily say the Reagan Arthur imprint makes them pay particular attention.

The Innocents by Francesca Segal (Hyperion/Voice) recasts Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence in a close-knit North West London Jewish community, where a 12-year engagement is upset by the arrival of the bride-to-be’s free-spirited cousin. Kirkus says, “overall this is a well-tuned portrait of a couple whose connection proves to be much more tenuous than expected, and of religious rituals that prove more meaningful than they seem.” It’s also a June Indie Next pick.

Galley Chat Picks         

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Crown) is the story of a marriage gone badly wrong, told alternately in diary entries by the wife, a New York golden girl who goes missing on the couple’s fifth anniversary, and her husband, who has much to hide. As we wrote earlier, it’s shaping up to be the author’s breakout. The New York Times‘s Janet Maslin is over the moon about it, comparing Flynn with Patricia Highsmith and calling her third novel a “dazzling breakthrough. It is wily, mercurial, subtly layered and populated by characters so well imagined that they’re hard to part with.” It is also on Time‘s list of top fiction for the year and is a June Indie Next pick as well as big on GalleyChat.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty (Penguin/Riverhead; Thorndike Large Print; Blackstone Audio; Penguin Audio) centers on the prim married woman from Kansas who accompanied 15 year-old silent film femme fatale Louise Brooks on her first trip to New York City in 1922, and spans the next six decades of the older woman’s life. It’s on O magazine’s The 16 Best Books Coming Out This June and is a June Indie Next pick  (more bookseller comments here). It’s also showing heavy holds at Wake County Library, which has featured it on their Web site. Recreational Reading Librarian Janet Lockhart says, “Once our members see it on the list, the cover and the high concept plot lead to holds. I know it’s in my to-be-read pile because of those two things—I’m a big movie fan and Louise Brooks is an icon.”

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes (Harper) is a debut thriller about a woman struggling to escape an abusive relationship, a surprise hit in the UK.  It’s featured in USA Today‘s summer preview, and LJ says, “UK police intelligence analyst Haynes has crafted a scary and superbly written debut thriller. Her chilling portrayal of OCD and the violent cycles of an abusive relationship will cause readers to lose sleep and check the locks on windows and doors.”

Readers Advisory 

After Life (Book Lust Rediscoveries) by Rhian Ellis (Amazon Encore paperback; Brilliance Audio) is the second in Nancy Pearl’s series of favorites being brought back in to print. This one is also a favorite of Ann Patchett’s, who calls it, “that rarest of wonders, a book that is both exquisitely written and a thrill to read.”

Usual Suspects

XO by Jeffery Deaver (S&S; S&S Audio; Thorndike Large Print) follows rising country pop singer Kayleigh Towne as she’s threatened by a stalker while people close to her die, putting pressure on Special Agent Kathryn Dance to solve the case; on USA Today‘s summer reading list.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Imperative by Eric Van Lustbader (Hachette/Grand Central) is the seventh Bourne novel, this time set in Sadeloga, Sweden, where Bourne helps a man who, like him, suffers from amnesia. PW says, “Newbies who want to understand the various plot lines would be advised to begin at least two or three books back. Established fans will find all the usual cliffhangers, hairbreadth escapes, and multiple betrayals they expect from this series.” 250,000 copy first printing.

Little Night by Luanne Rice (Penguin/Pamela Dorman) is the author’s 30th novel. It tells the story of two sisters – one of whom, Clare, wound up in prison after she tried to save her sister, Anne, from an abusive husband, whom Anne lied to protect him. LJ says, “this hard-to-put-down story about how family ties can be undone and sometimes retied is compelling and will undoubtedly resonate with fans of contemporary women’s fiction.”

Spring Fever by Mary Kay Andrews (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Wheeler Publishing; Macmillan Audio) is the tale of two exes who get a second chance when one of their weddings is unexpectedly halted. PW calls is “unmemorable” but still “an enjoyable escape.” This one is a Costco Pennie’s Pick for June (the article also mentions that the success of the Andrews’ books has brought attention to the books she wrote under her own name, Kathy Trocheck. HarperCollins will re-release the Callahan Garrity series with new covers under the Andrews name. They will also be available as ebooks).

Kiss the Dead (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series #21) by Laurell K. Hamilton (Penguin/Berkley; Penguin Audio) finds U.S. Marshall and vampire hunter confronting the terrorist fringe of a group of rouge vampires. PW says, “there’s nothing here that Hamilton hasn’t done already, but there’s enough to sustain readers until Anita’s next escapade.”

Nonfiction

The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama’s War on the Republic by David Limbaugh (Regnery) is the fourth book by the political commentator who is the brother of Rush Limbaugh. The title says it all. 300,000-copy first printing.

As Texas Goes…: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda by Gail Collins (Norton/Liveright) has the New York Times op-ed columnist locating the country’s political ailments deep in the heart of Texas. 100,000-copy first printing.

Gillian Flynn, get ready to become THE breakout best selling author of the season.

Flynn’s third book, Gone Girl gets 4 of a possible 4 stars and the lead review in the new issue of People magazine (6/11; Jessica Simpson and offspring on cover), calling it “An irresistible summer thriller with a twisting plot worthy of Alfred Hithcock.” Janet Maslin in yesterday’s NYT says it’s the author’s “dazzling breakthrough.” She even recommends reading it twice. It’s on Time‘s list of top fiction for the year, is a June Indie Next pick and has been big on GalleyChat.

But the most telling predictor is the number of holds in libraries. Even Cuyahoga County, which ordered 86 copies, has holds on every one. Libraries that bought more conservatively are showing holds as high as 10:1. It doesn’t release until next week, but it’s already jumped up Amazon’s sales rankings, from #44 to #15.

Time to order more.

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 412 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-06-05) ISBN: 9780307588364

Audio, BOT; audio an ebook on OverDrive

Even if you’re not attending BEA next week, there are ways to be part of it.

To find out about the big books of the show, check these guides:

— LJ’s Barbara Hoffert has again created an amazing “BEA Galley & Signing Guide.”  This year, she has outdone herself, by adding information on titles available for download from NetGalley as well as those available for request in print. Note: the guide does not show which titles are downloadable from Edelweiss. Some publishers, like Norton and HarperCollins are offering egalleys only through Edelweiss, so go to them to download Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, 11/6 and  Dennis Lehane’s Live by Night, 10/2. Some publishers, e.g. Random House, offer their egalleys via both Edelweiss and NetGalley.

— Publishers Weekly also has its regular “Galleys to Grab” as well as “Children’s Galleys to Grab,”

— Shelf Awareness is featuring the big books of the show today through Friday, beginning with a focus on “BEA Book Buzz: For Young Readers”

And, during the show, BEA will live stream some of the events, including the Editors’ Buzz Panels and the Book and Author Breakfasts and Lunches (look for the feeds on EarlyWord).

Is it possible to be so sad about the death of someone that you didn’t really know? Do we know someone through their writings? Their blogging?

Peter D. Sieruta has died. He was a kindred spirit. Even though I am not a book collector, I read his blog, Collecting Children’s Books. I didn’t read it for information about rare first editions or the probable market value of a volume. It was because I have had many an “Aha! moment” as I read with pleasure and reminiscenced  about books that I  loved.

Blogs like Fuse #8 and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have commented on Peter’s wicked sense of humor. I particilarly appreciated his “inside baseball” children’s lit April Fools posting that claimed Neil Gaiman was under consideration to be stripped of his Newbery Prize. His Hornbook parody of Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (Harper, 2000) is flawless.

How sadly appropriate that his final posts were about Maurice Sendak.

The group that gives the annual “Reading List” awards to the best in genre fiction, shares their summer reading choices in Library Journal. The lists pairs 2012 picks with recommendations of an older read-alike in each of eight categories.

The choice in Women’s Fiction is a book we’ve highlighted as one to consider buying in quantity, The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri (HarperCollins; HarperLuxe; ebook OverDrive). It’s paired with Sarah Addison Allan’s Garden Spells (RH/Bantam, 1998; ebook, OverDrive).

The buzz debut novel of the season, The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, (Random House, 6/26; BOT Audio; Thorndike Large Print; ebook and audio, OverDrive) is the Science Fiction choice (although, as the WSJ emphasized, it crosses genres). It is paired with Jean Heglan’s Into the Forest (RH/Dial Press; Brilliance Audio; ebook, OverDrive).

Libraries will soon have an alternative to the five-volume, $625 James Beard Cookbook of the Year, Modernist Cuisine. Yesterday, author Myhrvold announced that the team will release a new book this fall titled Modernist Cuisine at Home (The Cooking Lab, $140, 10/8/12; like the first book, it comes with a separate “kitchen manual,” printed on washable, water-proof paper). The announcement describes the book as providing “less complex recipes that require less expensive equipment.” 400 of them are new to this edition.

On the news, the book entered Amazon’s sales rankings at #126.

Demonstrating that it is aimed at the home cook, the cover shows a hamburger (referred to as “The 30-hour cheeseburger” by the New York Times).

The new book will feature many of the amazing cutaway photos from the first book. Last year, Myhrvold spoke  at the TED conference about how those were made  (they’re not Photoshopped, they’re machine shopped).

Memorial Day is marked by parades, wreath laying, dreams of long days reading in the hammock, and summer reading lists. Several arrived as scheduled, and, as we’ve come to expect, there’s very little overlap among them. Only four titles were mentioned more than once in this round:

The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker, (Random House, 6/26; BOT Audio; Thorndike Large Print; ebook and audio, OverDrive)

On NYT (Maslin), NPR (Schaub) and WSJ lists
Digital ARC on Edelweiss and NetGalley.

The Next Best Thing, Jennifer Weiner, (S&S/Atria, 7/3; S&S Audio)

On USA Today and Good Houskeeping lists
Downloadable from NetGalley

The Orphanmaster, Jean Zimmerman, (Penguin/Viking, 6/19; Penguin Audio; Thorndike Large Print)

On USA Today and Good Houskeeping lists
Digital ARC on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple, (Hachette/Little, Brown, 8/14; Hachette Audio)

On NPR (Schaub) and WSJ lists as well as on Time‘s list of the best ten novels of the year.

Below are the lists:

USA Today — “Summer Books Preview”

Our favorite, because it’s most in tune with the titles we’ve been hearing about on GalleyChat and it is presented in an interactive format (flash cards for readers advisors), although, surprisingly, it misses the big buzz debut of the summer, Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles, (Random House, 6/26).

The Wall Street Journal — “Rewriting the Rules of Summer Fiction”

The WSJ contends that several of the summer’s most anticipated novels “combine genres in unexpected ways and subvert long-held narrative conventions.”  It’s a good hook, but the phenomenon wasn’t invented this season. The prime examples are The Age of Miracles because it’s “a quiet family drama with science-fiction themes” and  Dare Me (Hachette/Regan Arthur, 8/31) by Megan Abbot, dubbed “High-School Noir” because it “turns the frothy world of high-school cheerleading into something truly menacing.”

NPR — 15 Summer Reads Recommended By Booksellers

Unsurprisingly, this is the least buzz-oriented of the lists. NPR has published several other summer reading lists, including Nancy Pearl’s and critic Michael Schaub’s (who is more clued in to buzz; The Age of Miracles is on his). The full roundup of the various NPR lists is here.

New York Times, Janet Maslin — “New Under the Sun: Books for Basking; Granddad, There’s a Head on the Beach and Other Summer Reads

Maslin lavishes the most attention on Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies, already a best seller, and includes some quirky titles, (such as the one in the headline, Granddad, There’s a Head on the Beach, a “droll mystery” by Colin Cotterill, Macmillan/Minotaur, 6/18), and some buzz titles (The Age of Miracles). One surprising recommendation; reality-show-creator-cum-talk-show-host Andy Cohen’s Most Talkative (Macmillan/Holt), currently #5 on the NYT hardcover nonfiction best seller list after two weeks. She says he is “as funny as Augusten Burroughs used to be.”

Good Housekeeping — 11 Summer Beach Reads

This list is also in tune with titles we’ve been hearing about on GalleyChat, such as Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone (Penguin/Riverhead, 6/5) called a “fun romp” by GH. Also on the list, The Orphanmaster, a genre-bending title described as “A thriller, love story, and costume drama in one.” It’s also on USA Today‘s list, under mysteries. Many of you joined us in reading the book and chatting with the author as part of Penguin’s First Flights debut author program. The newly-released trailer features Jean talking about the historical background of the novel.

NPR’s Morning Edition today looks at the “promise and problems” of ebooks in libraries, focusing on New York’s Queens Borough Public Library. The NPR reporter describes the major problem this way, “libraries are struggling to stock ebooks. Most major publishers impose heavy restrictions or refuse to lend their titles. They are afraid that could undercut digital sales.”

The First Lady’s book American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, originally scheduled for earlier in this year, will be released on Tuesday (officially because of production delays, but cynics say the timing has more to do with the campaign season than with the growing season).

Obama is scheduled to appear Tuesday on Good Morning America, The View, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Taped appearances will be aired later in the week on LIVE! with Kelly and the Rachael Ray Show.

American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America Michelle Obama Retail Price: $30.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-05-29) ISBN / EAN: 0307956024 / 9780307956026

Historian Douglas Brinkley‘s biography of Walter Cronkite – the TV reporter known for decades as “the most trusted man in America” – is already drawing early reviews and praise for its unexpected revelations about this private man. Emmy-winning Daily Show writer Kevin Bleyer also sends up contemporary political designs on the U.S. Constitution in Me the People. In fiction, there’s a promising debut thriller by longtime TV cameraman John Steele, plus new titles from Jeff Shaara, Clive Cussler and Joseph Kanon.

Watch List

The Watchers by Jon Steele (Penguin/Blue Rider Press) is a debut thriller about a series of murders tied to a religious work about fallen angels, written by an award-winning news cameraman who has covered wars around the globe. It’s a June Indie Next pick, and Library Journal says, “although it takes a while for the story to gather steam, and the characters sometimes seem flat, the suspense builds to a satisfying climax as the author deftly sets the stage for book two in this planned trilogy.” 100,000 copy first printing.

Usual Suspects 

A Blaze of Glory by Jeff Shaara (Ballantine Books; Random House Large Print Publishing; Random House Audio)  begins a new Civil War trilogy. It starts in 1862, as the Confederate Army falters after the loss of Fort Donelson, and face what will become the Battle of Shiloh.

The Storm: A Novel from the NUMA Files by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown (Putnam; Penguin Audio Books) continues this popular series with the tale of researchers who uncover a plan to permanently alter the weather on a global scale. 500,000 copy first printing.

Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon (S&S/Atria; Thorndike Large Print) is a thriller about an American businessman working for the Allies in Istanbul, and is a June Indie Next pick. Library Journal says, “some thrillers don’t just entertain but put us smack in the middle of tough moral questions, and it’s no surprise that the author of The Good German has done just that in his superbly crafted new work.”  Kanon will speak at the AAP/EarlyWord lunch at Book Expo on Tuesday, June 5.

Children’s

Nonfiction 

Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley (Harper; Harperluxe; HarperAudio; Thorndike Large Print) is a biography of the newsman who was an cultural icon for decades before his retirement in 1981, drawing on Cronkite’s just-opened private papers and interviews with more than 200 family and friends, including Morley Safer and Katie Couric. Reviewing it for Newsweek, media columnist Howard Kurtz calls it “sweeping and masterful,” and says it reveals that “the man who once dominated television journalism was more complicated—and occasionally more unethical—than the legend that surrounds him. Had Cronkite engaged in some of the same questionable conduct today—he secretly bugged a committee room at the 1952 GOP convention—he would have been bashed by the blogs, pilloried by the pundits, and quite possibly ousted by his employer.” LJ notes, “this one’s big; with a one-day laydown on 5/29, a 250,000-copy first printing, and a seven-city tour.” Brinkley will appear on CBS’s Face the Nation this Sunday.

Me the People: One Man’s Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America by Kevin Bleyer (Random House) is an irreverent look at the Constitution by an Emmy-winning Daily Show writer. Kirkus says, “Among the radical suggestions in Bleyer’s revision is to make every citizen a member of Congress, since, as it stands, “Con-gress is the opposite of pro-gress.” Funny stuff with both a point and a perspective.” Jon Stewart has already promoted it on The Daily Show and will undoubtedly do more.

Signaling the upcoming long weekend and the beginning of the summer reading season, NPR’s Morning Edition features 15 Summer Reads Handpicked By Indie Booksellers.

So we thought we’d do one of our own; a dozen summer galleys for Memorial Day Weekend reading, handpicked by EarlyWord and friends. None of these overlap with NPR’s list, so you have plenty to choose from.

Heading Out to Wonderful, Robert Goolrick, Workman/Algonquin Books; Highbridge Audio; Thorndike Large Print — eGalley on NetGalley

Two years ago, at the urging of Workman’s Michael Rockliff, I read Goolrick’s debut novel, A Reliable Wife. I was so bowled over that I wrote, “However many copies you’ve ordered of A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick, it’s not enough.” It was satisfying to be proven right. I can easily say the same and then some for this, his second novel (he also wrote a haunting memoir, The End of the World As We Know It). I am beyond excited that I get to moderate ALTAFF’s “Book Trip” panel featuring Goolrick at BEA on June 6.

The After Wife, Gigi Levangie Grazer, RH/Ballantine, 7/10 — Digital ARC on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Wendy Bartlett, head of collection development at Cuyahoga County PL, emails us to say, “The After Wife is hilarious,” so hilarious that she’s ordered extra copies. It’s her “choice for the funny-word-of-mouth chick lit book for the pool crowd this summer.” Wendy will be on the Librarians’ Shout ‘n’ Share panel at BEA this year (Wed, June 6, 3:30 to 5 pm, Rm 1E11, Javits Center).

The Bellwether Revivals, Benjamin Wood, Penguin/Viking, 6/14 — Digital ARC on Edelweiss and NetGalley

If you’re part of the Penguin First Flights program, you’ree reading this one to prep for our live online chat with the author on June 1, 4 to 5 p.m. ET (listen to my short audio interview with him here). Even if you’re not part of the program, you’re welcome to join — just come to EarlyWord.com at chat time (thanks to Penguin for sponsoring the program and proving galleys for the participants).

Yes, Chef, Marcus Samuelsson, 6/26 — eGalley on NetGalley

Robin Beerbower of Salem PL in Oregon says she loved this book by the renowned chef. Born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, he knows a thing or two about trying to find his way in the world. Says Robin, it’s a “Great combo of memoir w/heart & food.” Robin is also on the Librarians’ Shout ‘n’ Share panel at BEA this year (Wed, June 6, 3:30 to 5 pm, Rm 1E11, Javits Center).

Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt, RH/Dial, 6/19 — Digital ARC on both Edelweiss and NetGalley

Raves on GalleyChat for this literary debut, with some saying it’s their favorite of the year.

Seating Arrangements, RH/Knopf 6/12 — Digital ARC on both Edelweiss and NetGalley

“WASP wedding dysfunction at it’s most hilarious” says Darien Library’s Jennifer Dayton.

Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter, Harper, 6/12 — Digital ARC on Edelweiss

Wake County, NC, Recreation Reading Librarian, Janet Lockhart says it’s “One of my favs of the first half of the year. Great summer read. Can’t go wrong with it.” It’s also a favorite of the HarperCollins Library Marketing team. That cover screams everything one might want in a summer read, but we’ve heard others say they find it contrived. We’d love to hear what you think.

More titles, after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Entertainment Weekly’s “Shelf Life” blog, ever on the search for hot YA “exclusives,” has the scoop on the upcoming Twilight tie-in.

The final Twilight movie is coming Nov. 16, of course. This means that Little, Brown YR can soon release (Oct. 9) The Twilight Saga: The Complete Film Archive: Memories, Mementos, and Other Treasures from the Creative Team Behind the Beloved Motion Picture by L.A. Weekly film critic Robert Abele. Says EW, based on their “first peek at the cover and the scoop on what you can find inside — from the looks of it, you’ll have a hard time prying this must-have from a true Twihard’s cold, dead hands.”

The book appeared on Amazon sales rankings, at #353.