EarlyWord

Below is the live stream of Wednesday night’s National Book Awards Ceremony, hosted by Larry Wilmore, begins at 7:40 p.m., Eastern.

The winners as they were announced:

Literarian Award — Poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady, creators of Cave Canem

Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters — Robert A. Caro

Young People’s Literature, presented by Katherine Paterson — John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell (Artist), March: Book Three, Top Shelf Productions / IDW Publishing — an emotional Lewis said he remembered trying to get a library card as a child and being told that the library was for whites only. Going from that to winning this award is just “too much.”

Poetry, presented by Joy Harjo — Daniel Borzutzky, The Performance of Becoming Human, Brooklyn Arts Press — Borzutzky said he had been supported throughout his career by “people who publish books in their apartments.” Jewish and Chilean-American, he asked that everyone do their part to make sure this country continues to be safe and welcoming to immigrants.

Nonfiction, presented by Masha Gessen — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Nation Books / Perseus Books Group — Kendi noted that, in writing this book, he has spent years looking at the worst of America, but he never lost faith that the terror of racism would one day be dead, and even as the first black president is about to leave the White House, while a man enthusiastically supported by the Ku Klux Klan is about to enter, he still has that faith.

Fiction, presented by James English — Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad Doubleday / Penguin Random House — In an understatement, Whitehead said the last four months have been surreal (his book was an Oprah pick). In a year he went from wondering if anyone would read his book, to seeing it become a best seller, a reminder that we don’t know where we may be a year from now. “Right now, we’re happy in here; outside is the blasted hellhole wasteland of Trumpland.” He offered advice that makes him feel better, “Be kind to everybody, make art and fight the power.”

At the end, Larry Wilmore summed up the evening by saying, “Wow. The National Book Awards is WOKE.” Referring to the fact that the majority of the people who were on the stage were black, from the new Executive Director if the National Book Foundation Lisa Lucas, to the most of the winners, Wilmore joked this was “the National Book Awards, presented by BET, with a special appearance by Robert Caro.” He hastened to add that he really likes Bob Caro, something that was obvious in his reaction to Caro’s acceptance speech.

Our chat has now ended. You can read the transcript below.

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If you enjoyed Setting Free the Kites, nominate it for LibraryReads (deadline: Dec. 20)

Bob Dylan raised eyebrows when he took his time in responding to the announcement that he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He finally broke his silence on the subject to say he was honored and would attend the ceremony on Dec. 10 “if at all possible.”

But it seems his schedule makes that impossible. The Swedish Academy announced that they received “a personal letter” from the musician informing them of his decision, citing “pre-existing commitments.”

According to the BBC, Dylan also said he felt “very honoured” and “so much” appreciated the award.

Regardless of the big evening, the BBC reports that Dylan is “required to give a Nobel lecture between now and next June.” UPDATE: Entertainment Weekly reports that he may give the lecture during a 2017 concert in Stockholm.

The final trailer for Ben Affleck’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Live by Night (Harper/ Morrow; Harperluxe; HarperAudio) has been released. The movie opens in an Oscar-qualifying limited run on December 25th, followed by a nationwide release on January 13, 2017.

In addition to directing and writing the screenplay, Affleck stars with Zoe Saldana, Sienna Miller, Chris Cooper, Brendan Gleeson, Chris Messina and Elle Fanning. It’s Affleck’s first time in the director’s chair since his award-winning Argo.

The novel follows the rise of an Irish-American Boston gangster, Joe Coughlan, during the Prohibition era. Prophetically, Entertainment Weekly, called Live by Night a “ripping, movie-ready yarn that jumps from a Boston prison to Tampa speakeasies to a Cuban tobacco farm.” The book won Lehane an Edgar for Best Novel. In his acceptance speech, he thanked librarians for offering “a light in the darkness for the kids from the wrong side of the tracks.”

Live by Night follows The Given Day, which was the author’s first departure into historical crime. A third book in the series, World Gone By, was published last year.

The tie-in is set for Dec. 7, in mass market and trade paperback (HarperCollins/Morrow). It will contain a preview chapter of Lehane’s forthcoming novel Since We Fell (HarperCollins/Ecco; May 16, 2017).

Grabbing media attention, They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample), is a debut book by Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery, part of a team who won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for WP‘s coverage of police shootings.

The NYT review says it is “electric,” in part “because it is so well reported, so plainly told and so evidently the work of a man who has not grown a callus on his heart.”

It is a book, says the paper, with “a warm, human tone” that details the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray; explores racial conditions, in the wake of all the police shootings and the Barack Obama’s presidency; and introduces “a new generation of black activists” and the black reporters who cover them and the events they are protesting.

Lowery was on NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday talking, in part, about the implications of the election:

“One thing that was remarkable about the election of President Obama was that he did so with a rhetoric and with an ideal that we were not a divided America. It’s fundamental to his ideology of American exceptionalism. What’s been remarkable is that Donald Trump ran on an ideology and a platform that we are in fact a divided America, that there is an us vs. them, that we need to take something back from people who have seized it from us.”

Expect more attention. It is on multiple most anticipated lists including New York Magazine‘s and is getting coverage in newspapers from coast to coast, including the Boston Globe (subscription may be required), Chicago Tribune, which calls it a “behind-the-scenes narrative” of the “black death beat,” and the Seattle Times. Even other countries are taking notice, such as Macleans in Canada and the BBC in the UK.

Senator Bernie Sanders’s book, releasing today, is #1 on Amazon and is racking up holds in libraries, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In (Macmillan Thomas Dunne Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample),

Holds ratios are topping 5:1 in libraries that have ordered copies while others have yet to place orders, perhaps due to a lack of pre-pub reviews. Sanders, who is emerging as the leader of the Trump opposition, is getting high profile media coverage, which is driving sales and holds.

He was on CBS This Morning yesterday and his appearance there is currently the #1 trending video on YouTube:

He also sat down with Stephen Colbert last night (the full interview spans two clips):

NPR’s All Things Considered featured Sanders as well (see below for audio). He has also recently been on The View, Face the Nation, and many other network and cable news shows.

As we wrote earlier, the book recounts Sanders’ primary fight and offers a call to arms to continue his revolution.

The Amazon Editors have selected Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio; BOT; OverDrive Sample) as the best book of the year.

Given the acclaim it has already received, that’s no surprise, but the #2 title is a less well-known debut novel,  The Wolf Road (PRH/Crown; Recorded Books) by British author Beth Lewis, described as “a brilliant amalgam of literary thriller and gritty western,” featuring a young main character who displays “Inner fire, honest vulnerability, and an endearing sense of humor.” It was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal in September, under yet a different genre, as one of two “Best New Science Fiction” titles.

The Underground Railroad was also selected as the #1 title for the year by Publishers Weekly and is a finalist for the National Book Awards in fiction. The winner will be announced tomorrow night.

Hollywood is celebrating “the Trump bump.” Revenues at the box office over the weekend were as much as 50% higher than expectations, attributed to people seeking escapism after the election. The Hollywood Reporter quotes one analyst saying, “Two hours of moviegoing is like a massive, immersive group therapy session.” Arrival, the adaptation of the short story by Ted Chiang, “Story of Your Life,” about a linguist (Amy Adams) trying to communicate with aliens, is cited as a particularly strong example (the author Chiang was featured in a story Friday on NPR’s “All Things Considered”).

The big film of the upcoming week is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The newest entry in the Wizarding World premieres on Nov. 18.

J.K. Rowling writes the screenplay and the film is directed by David Yates, who was responsible for 4 of the 7 original Potter films. Eddie Redmayne stars as magician Newt Scamander, and is joined by Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell, and Katherine Waterston.

The film takes place seventy years prior to Harry Potter’s arrival at Hogwarts. Rowling has recently announced it will be the first of five films in the new franchise.

Reviews are in, and are mixed. The Guardian glows, calling it “a glorious fantasy-romance adventure … a rich, baroque, intricately detailed entertainment … a terrifically good-natured, unpretentious and irresistibly buoyant film” and says it features “a lovely performance from Eddie Redmayne who is a pretty fantastic beast himself.”

Variety is not as fulsome, saying it is a “bleak-as-soot spin-off that makes the earlier series look like kids’ stuff.”

Entertainment Weekly gives it a B-, writing “if it plans on replicating Potter’s success, its sequels will have to step it up … for a movie stuffed with so many weird and wondrous creatures, there isn’t nearly enough magic.”

Rowling is featured in a NYT‘s article discussing her dark inspiration for the film.

The central tie-in, the screenplay itself, will be released on the 19th: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books).

More related titles can be found on our collection of upcoming tie-ins.

The film Nocturnal Animals opens in limited release on Nov. 18, to be followed by wide distribution on Dec. 9.

The psychological thriller is written and directed by fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford (A Single Man) and is based on the 1993 novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright. The ensemble cast features Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough, and Michael Sheen.

As we noted earlier, it is getting praise in early viewings. Variety says that Ford has created “another winner, an ambitious high-wire noir thriller.”

The Hollywood Reporter writes “David Lynch meets Alfred Hitchcock meets Douglas Sirk in Nocturnal Animals, a sumptuously entertaining noir melodrama laced with vicious crime and psychological suspense, which more than delivers on the promise of A Single Man.”

A tie-in edition, with the original title, comes out this week: Tony and Susan, Austin Wright (Hachette/Grand Central Publishing; OverDrive Sample).

The last of the feature adaptations debuting on the 18th is A Street Cat Named Bob. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, it stars Bob the cat along with Luke Treadaway, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey), and Anthony Head.

The story, a true-life tale, follows the fate of a homeless man who adopts a street cat, and in so doing, turns his life around.

Variety says “It’s not the best film you’ll see this holiday season, but this soft, agreeable adaptation of the man-and-his-cat bestseller has its charms.” The Guardian writes “Bob’s weapons-grade cuteness is almost enough to power this slight but warm-hearted film.”

A tie-in was released earlier,  A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life, James Bowen (Macmillan/A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin’s Griffin; OverDrive Sample).

On the small screen, Hallmark has another of its holiday TV movies, A December Bride. It is based on the story of the same name by Denise Hunter about a couple involved in a fake engagement. It stars Daniel Lissing and Jessica Lowndes.

There is no tie-in edition,  but the novella is collected in Winter Brides: A Year of Weddings Novella Collection (Zondervan, 2014; Zondervan Audio; OverDrive Sample).

The newest big screen spin-off of Chris Van Allsburg’s Caldecott-winning Jumanji (HMH, 1981) is getting a December 22, 2017 release date, delayed six months from the original date,  timed to position the film for family holiday viewing. Originally the film had been scheduled for the summer of 2017.

As we wrote earlier, the initial reports about the film stated that the 2017 edition would be a remake of the beloved Robin Williams version. As the news broke it was greeted with a wave of negative reaction. E! Online wrote “not only is the Jumanji remake unnecessary and kind of insulting, but it’s in danger of tarnishing the onscreen legacy of one of the great comedians of our time.”

Since then, star Dwayne Johnson (who plays the character Dr. Bravestone) has cleared up matters on his Instagram account (and reported by Yahoo!), writing the film will not be a remake but rather a continuation of the story:

“This new movie will NOT be a remake or reboot of the original. It will be a CONTINUATION of the awesome JUMANJI adventure 20 years later. As a producer on this movie and someone who loves the original, you have my word we’ll honor the legend of ‘Alan Parrish’ and properly introduce a whole new generation to the fun and crazy JUMANJI universe that so many of us loved and grew up on”

Digital Spy says Bravestone is “an explorer and one of the avatars” within the game. In addition to Johnson, the film also stars Jack Black, Karen Gillan, and Kevin Hart.

Variety reports the shuffle in release date also impacts the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, now moved from Feb. 2017 to the summer slot of Jumanji.

Netflix has released another trailer to promote the series adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

The newest look reveals much more than the first trailer from a month ago, including a look at Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf and all three of the Baudelaire children (Violet and Klaus played by Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes).

A bit more of the plot is also revealed, as is the general look and feel of the film.

As we wrote earlier, the first trailer offered none of the typical elements of a traditional trailer. Rather than building anticipation with a litany of exciting scenes and major stars, just one character appeared, Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket, wandering through the dimly-lit stage set, warning people to “look away.”

This new trailer continues on that dark theme while providing fans, as Movie Pilot details, a few more Easter eggs such as the The Bald Man lost in a hedge maze.

No tie-ins have been announced.

Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress

The recent election brings new attention to libraries in the form of an editorial in the LA Times, “How to weather the Trump administration: Head to the library.”

David Kipen, former literature director of the National Endowment for the Arts and the founder of the Boyle Heights-based nonprofit lending library Libros Schmibros, writes “librarians may be the only first responders holding the line between America and a raging national pandemic of absolutism. More desperately than ever, we need our libraries now, and all three of their traditional pillars: 1) education, 2) good reading and 3) the convivial refuge of a place apart. In other words, libraries may be the last coal we have left to blow on.”

Kipen says “In small towns and large, in red states and blue, libraries poll better across the political spectrum than any public trust this side of the fire department” and urges “If Donald Trump is as smart as he insists he is, then he can prove it by strengthening our intellectual infrastructure. That means libraries.”

Ripen writes that his argument is based on facts:

“All the research out there — Census data, NEA reports, the Pew Research Center’s work on libraries and reading in low-income neighborhoods — all of it points toward reading enjoyment as the surest predictor of health, wealth and good citizenship. Readers volunteer more, vote more, even exercise more. And a recent Yale study categorically shows what most of us have long suspected: Readers live longer than nonreaders.”

And in a warning about the politicization of library funding he writes, “If your reelection depended on voter ignorance, you’d want to starve libraries too.”

The column also calls for moving the location of the inauguration:

“The absolute best place is … our great secular national cathedral, the Library of Congress. And Thomas Jefferson’s great gift to the country should stand in for every public library in the land — palatial or puny, hewn from marble or shoehorned into a mini-mall, with stone lions out front or mice in the stacks … I believe our next president should deliver the inaugural address from nowhere but the steps of our national library. And then, turning his back on the cameras, the polls, and even the electorate, he should step inside.”

It’s a week filled with marquee names as several best seller list regulars release new titles, including,

Turbo Twenty-Three (Stephanie Plum Novels #23),  Janet Evanovich, (PRH/Bantam; RH Large Print; RH/BOT Audio)

No Man’s Land (John Puller), David Baldacci, (Hachette/Grand Central; Hachette Large Print; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Chaos, Patricia Cornwell, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample)

The Sleeping Beauty Killer (Under Suspicion Novels), Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke, (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample)

The Mistletoe Secret (Mistletoe Collection), Richard PaulEvans, (S&S; S&S Audio; Center Point Large Print; OverDrive Sample)

In childrens, the popular middle-grade series returns, Dork Diaries 11: Tales from a Not-So-Friendly Frenemy by Rachel Ren Russell, (S&S/Aladdin; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample) and adult author Linda Fairstein begins a series for kids with Into the Lion’s Den (Devlin Quick Mysteries), ( PRH/Dial Books; Listening Library; OverDrive Sample).

The titles covered here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Nov. 14, 2016,

 Media Attention

Settle for More, Megyn Kelly, (HarperCollins/Harper; HarperAudio; HarperLuxe)

Fox news anchor Megyn Kelly has been making news of her own, even being called an “unlikely feminist icon.” Media sources have been eager to get their hands on her memoir to see if she spills any dirt on her interactions with Trump and on her recently fired boss at Fox, Roger Ailes. The NYT was the first to break the embargo on the book.  Kelly immediately disputed elements of the review via Twitter, reports USA Today. The AP also got their hands on a copy, reporting that Kelly says Trump tried to bribe her, as well as other journalists, in their pre-election coverage by offering them gifts. Vanity Fair‘s headline on the story asserts, that, by holding this information until after the election, Kelly “Blew The Goodwill She’s Built,”

Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, Bernard Sanders, (Macmillan Thomas Dunne Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample)

Having lost his bid to be the Democrat’s candidate for President, and then his effort to keep Trump from being elected, Sanders is continuing his fight and even sees some common ground with Trump. On Sunday’s Face the Nation, he says they both appealed to voters who criticize the establishment, adding, “If Mr. Trump in fact has the courage to take on Wall Street, to take on the drug companies, to try to go forward to create a better life for working people we will work with him on issue by issue. But if his presidency is going to be about discrimination, if it’s going to be about scapegoating immigrants or scapegoating African Americans or Muslims, we will oppose him vigorously.” Among other media appearances, Sanders is scheduled to appear on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday.

Awards 

Two of the ten titles selected as the New York Times Book Review‘s Best Illustrated Books of the year arrive this week:

The Cat From Hunger Mountain, Ed Young, (Penguin/Philomel; OverDrive Sample)

The NYT BR annotation reads, “The wealthy, selfish Lord Cat lives in wasteful luxury high on a mountain and treats his servants with contempt, until a drought brings hunger and he is forced to change his ways. With complex collages that mix photographs, torn paper, string and other materials, Young creates a stunning visual symphony with a surprising and unsettling emotional power.”

The Polar Bear, Jenni Desmond, (Enchanted Lion Books)

The NYT BR annotation reads, “This factual account of polar bears’ biology and habitat also features the story of a curious little girl who gets lost in reading a book about polar bears and visits one in her imagination. Desmond’s varied illustrations combine watercolors, acrylic paint, pencil, crayon and printmaking techniques to create ever-changing moods and spectacular scenes of Arctic life.”

Peer Picks

There are six titles publishing this week earning votes from librarians and booksellers:

Swing Time, Zadie Smith (PRH/Penguin Press; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Spanning over twenty years and two continents, Smith’s new novel is a charming account of one woman’s coming-of-age. Smith’s unnamed narrator, a mixed-race child lives in one of London’s many low-end housing units. She meets Tracey and the two are bonded over the shared experience of being poor and “brown” in a class that is predominantly white. As the two stumble towards womanhood, the differences become more stark and divisive, and their friendship is fractured by Tracey’s final, unforgivable act. This book will appeal to lovers of character-driven fiction.” — Jennifer Wilson, Delphi Public Library, Delphi, IN

Additional Buzz: One of the hot books of the season, Smith’s newest earns all-star status, getting starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. It is also an Indie Next December selection and on the Carnegie Medal shortlist. USA Today calls the novel “wise and illuminating. ” It is on the cover of this week’s NYT Book Review, As we reported earlier, NYT‘s Style Magazine T features an interview with the author by fellow novelist Jeffrey Eugenides.

Absolutely on Music: Conversations, Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa, translated by Jay Rubin (PRH/Knopf; OverDrive Sample).

“To sit down with Absolutely on Music is to sit down with two maestros — acclaimed writer Haruki Murakami, in a way you’ve never experienced him before, and famed conductor Seiji Ozawa who lives and breathes classical music. This book is the result of several conversations over two years between the two friends that focused on the music they both love, on writing, and on how the two connect. Written by Murakami in a question-and-answer format, Absolutely on Music offers note-by-note talks about classical music and about Ozawa’s and Murakami’s lives and the intricacies of both. Readers will hear the music!” —Terry Tazioli, University Book Store, Seattle, WA

Additional Buzz: The arts desk.com offers a review, saying it adds up “to a sprawling feast of Mahler-style “polytonality” – or, alternatively, the sort of protean jam-session that Monk and Parker relished.”

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, Trevor Noah (PRH/Spiegel & Grau; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Noah’s perspective of growing up as the son of a black woman and white man in South Africa during apartheid, mixed with his trademark humor, is both insightful and poignant. We in the U.S. are often presented with what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has termed ‘the danger of the single story,’ which depicts history only from the point of view of the oppressors. It is refreshing and enlightening to learn history from someone directly affected by the heinousness of the apartheid laws.” —Karena Fagan, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

Additional Buzz: Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+, writing “this isn’t one of those comedian-penned essay collections where the yuks jump out at sitcom speeds. Yet there’s still plenty of humor; Noah proves to be a gifted storyteller, able to deftly lace his poignant tales with amusing irony. ” The NYT gives it multiple coverage, an excerpt in their Television section, By the Book, and in the Magazine Talk column. The Seattle Times raves “It’s no surprise that Trevor Noah … should write a smart book. But “smart” doesn’t begin to cover what he pulls off … Noah’s memoir is extraordinary in its observations of South Africa in the years when apartheid crumbled. It’s equally unusual in the troubling personal story it tells. Throw in Noah’s sharp, droll prose style, and you have a book that feels like essential reading on every level.” The Wall Street Journal also has a story (subscription may be required). Noah will also make media appearances:

CBS Sunday Morning – 11/13
CBS This Morning – 11/14
NPR – Morning Edition – 11/14
NPR – Fresh Air – 11/18

The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1: 1920-1963, Ed Ward (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; OverDrive Sample).

“This is a great, fun book by Ward, a correspondent for NPR’s All Things Considered and one of the founders of the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals (SXSW). Covering the period of 1920 to 1963, almost every chapter in the book is devoted to a single year and the songs that were recorded and/or released during that year. This is a broad overview that substitutes breadth for depth but doesn’t spare the entertainment factor. Ward’s sweeping survey reads like the 400-plus page liner notes for a 1,000-song box set and, as a music nerd, that is one of the best compliments I can give!” —Joe Turner, BookPeople, Austin, TX

Additional Buzz: The Austin Chronicle says “Huge in scope, this is Ed Ward’s masterpiece.”

Scrappy Little Nobody, Anna Kendrick (S&S/Touchstone; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Scrappy Little Nobody is less outsider-looking-in as it is insider-looking-out. Kendrick’s anecdotes, experiences, and her initiation as a working youth breaking into Hollywood reflect her social awkwardness and self-deprecation as the product of a blue-collar family and a dogged work ethic. Humble and hilarious, Kendrick’s lack of the knack for celebrity life allows for an unapologetic ‘so-it-goes,’ bluntness that makes her book relatable and heartwarmingly familiar. Never too funny to not be serious and never too serious to not be personable, Scrappy Little Nobody is filled with genuine thoughtfulness, a life’s worth of intelligence, and Kendrick’s impossible charm.” —Nolan Fellows, Rediscovered Books, Boise, ID

Additional Buzz: It is on the Fall Reading lists of the Amazon Editors, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today. It is one of “5 Books You Need to Read in November 2016” according to InStyle. She is also scheduled for media appearances:

NBC-TV/”Today,” November 13 and 14
E!-TV/”E! News Daily,” November 14
“Extra!” November 14
CBS-TV/”Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” November 15

Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File, John Edgar Wideman (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“This is a powerful meditation on the life of Louis Till, the father of Emmett Till whose brutal murder in 1955 spurred the Civil Rights Movement forward. It is not common knowledge today that Louis Till was convicted of a crime and executed in Italy while serving in the Army during World War II. Wideman was 14 years old — the same age as Emmett when he died — the year he saw pictures of Emmett Till’s body in Jet magazine. When he found out decades later about Louis Till’s fate, Wideman set out to investigate the tragic lives of both father and son. The result is a profound and moving exploration of race, manhood, violence, and injustice in our society.” —Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, MS

Additional Buzz: It was on the Carnegie Medal Longlist (but not on the shortlist). Esquire calls it “deeply involving … at turns beautiful, painful, and complicated.” It is also one of the “16 Books You Should Read This November” according to Literary Hub (which also lists Swing Time).

Tie-ins

Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel, James Luceno (PRH/Del Rey; RH Audio).

The prequel novel to the next Star Wars movie, Rogue One (releasing Dec. 16. 2016), details the events just prior to those in the film, as the Galactic Empire works to create the Death Star. It is a Fall Reading pick from io9. USA Today offers an excerpt.

The tie-ins for the actual movie, as has been the case with past Star Wars titles, will not release until weeks after the film. Edelweiss currently lists adult and junior novelizations.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay: The Original Screenplay, J K Rowling (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books). On November 18th Rowling will find out if readers are any happier reading a screenplay than they were with a playscript. USA Today already approves, listing it among their Fall Reading picks.

This edition is the second pass at the story. The original Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Scholastic; 9780545850568), a faux Hogwarts textbook, is currently out of print an only available from used book retailers. Expect even more spin offs for the film opening on Nov. 18. Three hit shelves this week:

Inside the Magic: The Making of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Ian Nathan (HC/Harper Design).

The Art of the Film: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Dermot Power (HC/Harper Design).

The Case of Beasts: Explore the Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Mark Salisbury (HC/Harper Design).

The Art of Moana, Jessica Julius and Maggie Malone (Chronicle Books; OverDrive Sample).

A tie-in to the next Disney animated movie, releasing November 23, 2016, this richly illustrated book features artwork, storyboards, and character designs.

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

Michael Chabon’s newest novel is the #1 pick by booksellers for the last month of the year, Moonglow (HC/Harper).

“The intersection of world history and family history, the interplay of memory and imagination, a tangle of humor and grief, and the blurred and shifting line that separates sanity and madness all come into play in this stunning book. In the months before his death, Chabon’s grandfather revealed much of his life to his grandson. On that foundation, Chabon has built a novel filled with family stories, World War II episodes — including an appearance by Wernher von Braun — an obsession with rocketry, and a vividly realized, against-all-odds love story. While all the characters are richly developed, the narrator’s grandfather — the brave, eccentric, anger-fueled, and deeply loving center of this novel — will remain with readers forever.” —Banna Rubinow, the river’s end bookstore, Oswego, NY

Additional Buzz: It is also a LibraryReads November selection and made the Carnegie Medal shortlist. It is a Fall reading pick of the Amazon Editors, BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, and USA Today. Entertainment Weekly features the title, and the photos that inspired it.

As is evidenced by Moonglow‘s pub date, many of the Indie Next December picks are actually published in November. Another LibraryReads pick from that month also makes the bookseller’s December list, Swing Time (PRH/Penguin; Penguin Audio/BOT).

“In her gracefully written new work, the author of NW and White Teeth addresses the frustrations of family relations, the complications of race, the tyranny of celebrity, and the travesty of cultural appropriation. Smith looks at the fragile threads that tie friends together and how easily they can snap, and her prose flows without effort, granting even the most flawed characters — and there are many — a modicum of redemption.” —Peggy Latkovich, Mac’s Backs, Cleveland Heights, OH

Additional Buzz: It too made the Carnegie Medal shortlist and is a Fall reading pick from Amazon Editors, BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, People, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. Yesterday, USA Today announced she “has another hit” and calls the novel “wise and illuminating.”  It is reviewed less favorably. by the NYT‘s critic, Michiko Kakutani. As we reported earlier, NYT‘s Style Magazine T features an interview with the author by fellow novelist Jeffrey Eugenides.

Another November title catching the eye of booksellers is To Capture What We Cannot Keep, Beatrice Colin (Macmillan/Flatiron Books).

“Societal constraints and expectations of the time impede the love affair of Caitriona Wallace and Émile Nouguier from the moment they meet in a hot air balloon above the Champ de Mars in 1886. Émile’s ailing mother is pressuring him to marry, start a family, and take over the family business even as he is facing both public and professional stress as co-designer of the Eiffel Tower. Cait is a young Scottish widow forced to work as a chaperone to a wealthy brother and sister. Cait’s and Émile’s paths cross and crisscross as Colin vividly captures the sights and sounds of La Belle Epoque in this quiet, atmospheric novel.” —Jennifer Gwydir, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX

Additional Buzz: Bustle picks it as one of “The 9 Best Fiction Books Of November 2016 That Are As Delicious As Thanksgiving Dinner.” (Moonglow and Swing Time also make the list).

A true December title is The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, Dava Sobel (PRH/Viking; Penguin Audio)

“Spectrography is a way of studying stars by taking pictures that separate astral light into different wavelengths. The practice was pioneered by Dr. Henry Draper of the Harvard Observatory in the late 1800s, but the long and detailed work of interpreting the images and classifying the stars was done by a group of women. In this long overdue tribute to Harvard’s ‘human computers,’ Sobel, author of the classic Longitude, brilliantly intertwines science, history, and biography, charting not only the advances in astrophysics from the 1870s to the 1940s, but also following the progress women made in establishing themselves in a notoriously male-dominated field.” —Laurie Greer, Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Washington, DC

Additional Buzz: It made the Carnegie Medal Longlist.

Library Reads does not issue a list in December; they combine December and January titles on the January list.

For December, LibraryReads issues a Best of the Year list. Voting has yet to conclude so there is still time to weigh in.

The full Indie Next list is available online.

Following our post yesterday on election-related titles rising on Amazon’s sales rankings, the NYT published an article “6 Books to Help Understand Trump’s Win.” Those titles are now rising on Amazon as well.

The following are in the top 200:

Sales rank: 2 (was 5)
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J. D. Vance (Harper; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample)

At the top of nonfiction best seller lists since August, the NYT calls it, “a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion.”

Sales rank: 26 (was 279)
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild, (The New Press, 2016; OverDrive Sample)

A finalist for the National Book Awards, to be named next week, the NYT says the author “takes seriously the Tea Partiers’ complaints that they have become the ‘strangers’ of the title — triply marginalized by flat or falling wages, rapid demographic change, and liberal culture that mocks their faith and patriotism. Her affection for her characters is palpable.”

Sales rank: 65 (was 404)
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Nancy Isenberg (PRH/Viking; Tantor Audio; OverDrive Sample)

A NYT best seller for several weeks this summer, reaching a high of #8, is described by the NYT as  “an analysis of the intractable caste system that lingers below the national myths of rugged individualism and cities on hills. ”

Sales rank: 81 (was 3,196)
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (Macmillan/FSG; OverDrive Sample)

Winner of the National Book Award in 2013, the NYT says that even though the book is now 3 years old, it is possibly the one “that best explains the American that elected Donald J. Trump”

Sales rank: 129 (was 1,678)
Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? , Thomas Frank.  (Macmillan. Metropolitan Books, 2015; Macmillan audio; ; OverDrive Sample)

Rather than blaming the alt right for the disaffection of the white working class, this book argues that liberals should look at themselves, “Too busy attending TED talks and vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard, Frank argues, the Democratic elite has abandoned the party’s traditional commitments to the working class.”

The more academic book on the list is currently at #553.

The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics, John B. Judis, (Columbia Global Reports, 2016)

Argues that Trump is not a fascist, but a “nasty nationalist,” resembling “the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the buffoonish media baron,” rather than Mussolini.

On the day after the election, Amazon’s sales rankings indicate people are turning to books to make sense of the Trump win. Trump’s own book from 2004 , Trump: The Art of the Deal (PRH/Ballantine) rose to #65. Trump’s co-writer on the book, Tony Schwartz, is now a Trump critic and says he regrets the role the book played in building the Trump image.

Already a best seller and widely regarded as the book that helps explain what fuels the anger of many among the white working class, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J. D. Vance (Harper; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample) moved from #13 to #3.

An examination of the Tea Party, the National Book Award finalist, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild, (The New Press, 2016, NYT review) also shows a significant uptick.

We can expect to see many more books on the subject in the upcoming months.