EarlyWord

Has everyone seen The Little Dump Truck by Margery Cuyler?

I could shout from the rooftops. It’s not just another truck book with bold graphic child-friendly pictures, you can sing it (think “I’m a little teapot”);

I’m a little dump truck
Run by Hard Hat Pete.
Rattle-rattle-clatter,
Driving down the street.

Pre-school teachers are knocking each other out of the way to get their hands on my review copy. Buy a stack; children’s librarians will be hoarding them for story time.

Little Dump Truck, The Margery Cuyler Retail Price: $12.99 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) – (2009-09-29) ISBN / EAN: 0805082816 / 9780805082814

Hold the presses! When I did my recent round-up of holiday craft books, I let one slip through the cracks.

My favorite cookie baking book of all time has been Rose’s Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Really; it was all that anyone needed for the holidays.

Rose’s Christmas Cookies Rose Levy Beranbaum Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks – (1998-11-04) ISBN / EAN: 0688101364 / 9780688101367

Then last year came Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions by Valerie Peterson  and Janice Fryer. Sweet! I learned how to make fancy cookies like those you see in pastry shops; how to make cookies in beautiful shapes and cool designs that not only looked good but were tasty too. The price of the book was worth it just to for the tips on how to roll out the dough, and when to put it in the fridge. Plus, the professional design techniques are inspiring.

When I was at the Brooklyn Public Library, we had a cookie decorating program that was an amazing success. We could have used Peterson and Frye’s tips on how to make and freeze quantities of cookies for decorating.

With Cookie Craft Christmas, my new rolling pin and a couple of gingerbread people cookie cutters, I am ready to go.

Cookie Craft Christmas: Dozens of Decorating Ideas for a Sweet Holiday Valerie Peterson, Janice Fryer Retail Price: $14.95 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Workman Publishing Company – (2009-10-07) ISBN / EAN: 1603424407 / 9781603424400

On NPR’s Fresh Air last night, Joshua Kosman, author of The Buyout of America, spoke to Terry Gross about how private equity companies work. Kosman believes that their practices are leading to another credit crisis.

The book rose to #117 (from #4,194). Libraries own modest quantities, with holds averaging 1:1.

The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Will Cause the Next Great Credit Crisis Joshua Kosman Retail Price: $26.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover – (2009-11-12) ISBN / EAN: 1591842859 / 9781591842859

Downloadable eBook from OverDrive.

When you make Jon Stewart laugh this much, it’s great for book sales. Jake Edelstein’s Tokyo Vice went to #95 (from #201) on Amazon after this appearance last night.

As we noted earlier, Edelstein was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air last week. Tokyo Vice was reviewed in the Boston Globe on Thursday.

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Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan Jake Adelstein Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Pantheon – (2009-10-13) ISBN / EAN: 0307378799 / 9780307378798

Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive.

The Atlantic magazine’s literary editor wades into the fraught waters of best books lists, selecting the Top Five, plus 20 runners up.

As we have come to expect, there is little agreement with other list. Of the 25 titles, just four also appear on Amazon’s Top 100 and one on PW‘s Top 100. None appeared on either of the other pub’s top ten and none are National Book Award finalists.

Below are the titles that appear on more than one list:

Byatt, A.S., The Childrens Book — Amazon #88 and Atlantic Top Five

Davis, Lydia, Collected Stories — Amazon #56 and Atlantic Runner Up

Mantel, Wolf Hall — Amazon #3 and Atlantic Runner Up

Munro, Alice, Too Much Happiness — Amazon #30 and Atlantic Runner Up

[Ed, Note: Earlier, Gordon Wood’s Empire of Liberty was on this list. We are not sure how his name slipped in, but while his book was chosen for two best books lists, he is definitely not a woman.]

The  Atlantic list is heavily weighted towards nonfiction, particularly history and biography;  just six fiction titles are on the list of 25.

As to the women authors; two of the top five are women, and 9 of the total 25, which works out to 36% of the list, a higher ratio than the other lists.

Again this year, we are posting links to all the major best books lists (at right), as well as compiling the selections into one spreadsheet;  Bests — All Adult Titles — Spreadsheet.

We’re only linking to the major national list, but the Largehearted Boy is compiling links to EVERY best books list (as well as all the best music lists). He claims to be a Web developer, but we’re guessing he was a librarian in another life.

If you go into the 600’s at my library looking for books on HIV/AIDs, you are unlikely to find any. I patiently explain to faculty that the research in this area is changing quickly and I have weeded most of the dated titles, keeping only memoirs like Pedro and Me. I recommend websites and articles in databases for students and faculty for current information.

That’s why I was particularly happy to discover an important new YA title, Quicksand: HIV/AIDS In Our Lives by Anonymous (Candlewick). Written in a caring yet passionate tone as a first-person account of what it is like to learn that someone in your family has contracted the disease, the book covers a range of topics like diagnosis, false fears, the stigma of having HIV, the toll on family and friends, and the current medical care and research

Quicksand: HIV/AIDS in Our Lives Anonymus Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 112 pages Publisher: Candlewick – (2009-11-24) ISBN / EAN: 0763615897 / 9780763615895

Also included is a very helpful selected bibliography. I am checking it to make sure these resources are easily accessible to our community.

If you’re experiencing a sudden run on Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, it may be because Stephenie Meyer, in her “Behind the Scenes” Oprah interview, said it’s the book she’s reading now and can’t wait to get back to. Amazon’s editors chose it for their Top 100 of 2009, at #63. It also got strong reviews in the L.A. Times, and the NYT.

Summarizing the book is next to impossible, as Library Journal demonstrated in their review:

This book is difficult to categorize. It’s a comedy, but it’s not particularly funny. It’s a novel of ideas, but it mocks intellectualism. It’s a fantasy, but it includes a cameo appearance by Sen. Olympia Snowe. This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea…

Everything Matters! Ron Currie, Jr. Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2009-06-25) ISBN / EAN: 0670020923 / 9780670020928

As most of her fans already know, she loves Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. Shakespeare is a “foundation block” of her first reading experiences. Among YA authors,  she likes Scott Westerfeld and loves Shannon Hale. Science fiction is a favorite; Orson Scott Card is her “personal hero.”

In case you missed it, here’s Oprah’s interview with Stephenie Meyer on Friday:

Part One

Part Two

In this section, Bolivar Middle School librarian & kids, via Skype, say that Twilight has “created a culture of literacy” among the students:

You may have noticed that the promo to the last segment of the interview promises an answer to the burning question, “Will There Be a Fifth Twilight Book?” Oprah never asks that question (an oversight so great that Entertainment Weekly had to investigate).

Fortunately, in the following “Behind the Scenes” interview, Meyer answers the question, but with an unsatisfying “maybe.” Another completely different book is “itching” in the back of her head. Stephenie’s mom is on her daily to go back to Midnight Sun, which tells the Twilight story from Edward’s point of view. She abandoned it after a draft was leaked on the Web.

Earlier, Meyer told Oprah that her mother is a strong influence (she told her to change the ending of Twilight and “she was right, as usual”), so fans can hope.

As prep for  Oprah’s sit-down with Sarah Palin today, you may want to read Michiko Kakutani’s review of her book (supposedly embargoed until tomorrow, but widely leaked), under the headline, “Memoir is Palin’s Payback to McCain Campaign.”

UPDATE: This may be the least-respected embargo in history; it’s also reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. On Friday, the AP fact-checked the book. Palin calls it “opposition research” on her Facebook page.

UPDATE — Just discovered (thanks to a sharp-eyed reader) that the Hungry Girl book mentioned below is actually recipe cards, which obviously doesn’t work as a library item.

Can you cook food at home that tastes like you bought it at various fast-food chains? Entertainment Weekly put together a panel of judges to see if the latest title in the Top Secret Recipes series, Unlocked produces dishes that taste like the originals.

The book failed; the home-cooked versions tasted too good.

Most libraries own all but this, the ninth title in the series.

Top Secret Recipes Unlocked: All New Home Clones of America’s Favorite Brand-Name Foods Todd Wilbur Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Plume – (2009-11-24) ISBN / EAN: 0452295793 / 9780452295797

Speaking of cookbook franchises, the latest Hungry Girl title lands next month, in time for holiday gift giving.

Hungry Girl Chew the Right Thing: Supreme Makeovers for 50 Foods You Crave Lisa Lillien Retail Price: $16.99 Misc. Supplies: 54 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin – (2009-12-08) ISBN / EAN: 031261036X / 9780312610364

Getting the most attention of the books coming next week, of course, is Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue. Palin taped an interview with Oprah on Thursday for Monday’s show. An interview with Barbara Walters will air in five parts, beginning on Good Morning America on Tuesday, the day the book is released. Copies have been strategically leaked, causing a press feeding frenzy, but most sources say there are no surprises; as the AP puts it, the book confirms that “the McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family.”

Based on holds, next week’s biggest book is the new James Patterson I, Alex Cross. At four large library systems, holds are nearly three times higher on the Patterson title than on Palin’s (2,546 for Patterson; 885 for Palin).

Fiction

11/16

Patterson, James,  I, Alex Cross

11/17

Cussler, Clive, The Wrecker
Munro, Alice, Too Much Happiness
Nabokov, Vladimir, The Original of Laura
Weber, David, Torch of Freedom

Nonfiction

11/17

Palin, Sarah, Going Rogue

Young Adult

11/17

Horowitz, Anthony, Crocodile Tears: An Alex Rider Adventure
Noel, Alyson, Shadowland: The Immortals

Of course you expect a new John Grisham title to top bestseller lists, but could Grisham work the same magic with a book of short stories?

No problem; Ford County debuts on the USA Today list at #2 (it takes a lot to beat the Wimpy Kid), making it a shoe-in for #1 on the upcoming NYT Hardcover Fiction list.

Ford County: Stories John Grisham Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2009-11-03) ISBN / EAN: 0385532458 / 9780385532457

Random House Audio; UNAB; 9780307702104; $35
Random House Large Print; 9780739377383; pbk; $24
Audio downloadable from OverDrive

At #5 on USA Today‘s list is Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, which held the #1 position for 4 weeks, before being knocked down by the not-so-Wimpy Kid and then slipping to #5 last week.

USA Today’s “Book Buzz” column says Grisham’s next legal thriller, as yet untitled, will be published next fall. His first bestseller, The Firm, was published in February, to take advantage of a period that traditionally did not feature big-name competition. In the 20 years since, you could count on a Grisham legal thriller to appear as the calendar turned to February; it seems that will not longer be the case.

Entering the list at #15 is Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, making it the sixth bestselling adult hardcover fiction title on the list.

The Lacuna Barbara Kingsolver Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 528 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0060852577 / 9780060852573

HarperAudio; 9780060853563; $44.99
HarperLuxe; 780061927560; pbk; $26.99
Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive

Time magazine’s “The Page” blog reports on what others report is in the book.

The big news? NO INDEX! The theory is that inside-the-Beltway types will have to actually read the book to find their names.

Going Rogue: An American Life Sarah Palin Retail Price: $28.99 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: HarperCollins – (2009-11-17) ISBN / EAN: 0061939897 / 9780061939891

HarperAudio; Abridged; 9780061990731; $29.99; 11/24
HarperLuxe; pbk; $28.99; 11/24

One of the people interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning‘s cover story about  the safety of flu vaccine, was Michael Specter, author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. As is probably clear from the book’s subtitle, Specter, who writes about science and technology for The New Yorker, believes that the risks of not getting the vaccine outweigh any other concerns. He also was interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday and the book was reviewed in the New York Times.

Holds are heavy on modest ordering in the large libraries we checked.

Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives Michael Specter Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2009-10-29) ISBN / EAN: 1594202303 / 9781594202308

eBook downloadable from OverDrive.

CBS sunday Morning

Mary Karr’s new memoir Lit is a hit with critics, ranging from the New York Times’ notoriously hard-to-please Michiko Kakutani to Entertainment Weekly, which gave it an undiluted A. It’s currently at #76 on Amazon, after a week in the top 100, and rising. Library holds are growing.

Not only iss Karr getting high critical praise, but reviewers also express the sheer pleasure they found in reading the book.

The often churlish Michiko Kakutani, perhaps inspired by Karr’s Texas roots, says that the book “lassos you, hogties your emotions and won’t let you go.”

Melanie Gideon in the S.F. Chronicle says,

Mary Karr owes me. Because of  Lit, her new memoir, my week was a disaster. Laundry piled up, the dishes went unwashed, my son went without his flu shot, and our puppy peed on the couch – all because I spent every spare moment with my nose buried in Lit, a harrowing account of Karr’s descent into alcoholism and her eventual conversion to Catholicism.

Valerie Sayers in the Washington Post begins by describing herself as a “memoirphobe,” who dreads

…the depiction of yet another horrific (if colorful) childhood, drug-addled adolescence, young adult breakdown and especially — most especially — blissful spiritual recovery. It’s not that the lives revealed in so many memoirs are unworthy of examination; it’s not even that they’re necessarily Too Much Information, that bane of our hyper-therapized culture. It is, rather, that the pronoun “I” can function as a semiautomatic weapon in the hands of a memoirist: Whoever has possession controls the conversation.

Nonetheless, she says, “Karr’s sharp and funny sensibility won me over to her previous two volumes, but what wins me over to Lit is…her acute self-awareness.”

Samantha Dunn in the Los Angeles Times says,

Karr could tell you what’s on her grocery list, and its humor would make you bust a gut, its unexpected insights would make you think and her pitch-perfect command of our American vernacular might even take your breath away.

In the introduction to his interview with Karr in the Huffington Post, former publisher Steve Ross noted that PW, which caught flak for not including a single woman in its Top Ten Best Books of 2009, made an even more egregious oversight by not including Lit.

Unfortunately, it goes beyond that; not only is Lit not in the PW Top Ten, it’s not in their Top 100, nor is it on Amazon’s Top 100. It’s also not a National Book Award finalist.

You can read an excerpt here:

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Lit: A Memoir Mary Karr Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Harper – (2009-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0060596988 / 9780060596989

HarperAudio, UNAB, 9780061939006

HarperLuxe,9780061885471, pbk, $25.99

Audio and eBook downloadable from OverDrive.