EarlyWord

The WSJ describes Robert Cialdini as “a pre-eminent social psychologist whose classic book Influence published in 1984, amply deserves its continued fame.”

In a new book, the author advances the topic, this time focused on what to do before trying to exert influence, Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

It is getting coverage in the business press by publications such as Forbes, and reaching broader markets via PBS’s News Hour. (see below).

In a recent report, Cialdini tells the News Hour’s Paul Solman that “pre-suasion” is:

“the practice of getting people sympathetic to your message before they experience it. It’s the ability to cause people to have something at the top of their consciousness that makes them receptive to your message that’s yet to come … It is what you say immediately before you deliver your message that leverages your success tremendously.”

Earlier this month, the WSJ ran a summary of his findings and, in a review, notes, “As you read, you will realize that the old aphorism is backward: You can get a horse to drink, but only if you lead him to the water.”

Library orders are light, with high holds ratios.

NPR’s Morning Edition this week featured Thomas Mullen’s newest novel, about Atlanta’s first black officers.

Inspired by a 1947 Newsweek article estimating “that one-quarter of Atlanta policemen were, in fact, members of the Ku Klux Klan,” NPR calls Darktown (S&S/Atria/37 INK; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample) “a blend of history, mystery and violence.”

The new officers faced tough restrains. They operated out of a YMCA for fear they would cause a riot at police headquarters, “they could only patrol the back neighborhoods; they weren’t supposed to set foot in the white parts of town,” Mullen says. “They couldn’t drive squad cars; they had to walk their beat with a partner” and were not allowed to arrest white people.

NPR notes “some of the tensions described in Darktown — like the ability of white police to injure or kill black citizens with impunity without being charged or punished — sound disturbingly familiar.”

Mullen plans this as the first in a series with each book focusing on new officers who replace those that retire “as the story of Atlanta’s racial coming-of-age moves into contemporary times.” The second book is expected in fall 2017.

In a publishing twist, NPR reports that Mullen’s agent “circulated his manuscript without his name or photo attached.” Mullen, who is white, has lived in Atlanta for 15 years. The influential Dawn Davis of Simon & Schuster bought the book for her imprint. She told NPR she found the blind submission forced her “to read it just as a piece of literature … I couldn’t look up what kind of reviews the author got, I couldn’t look up anything about the author. What his previous books were, even — or if it were even a man. I had to just kind of read it, and explore it for what it was.”

It  is already heading to the small screen. In what Deadline Hollywood terms “a very competitive situation,” Sony won the rights to the novel for a TV project headed by the high-powered producer Amy Pascal and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx.

The Washington Post review suggests it could transfer well to TV, calling it “gripping,” “unflinching,” “complicated crime fiction that melds an intense plot with fully realized characters.”

The New York Times adds “One incendiary image ignites the next in this highly combustible procedural, set in the city’s rigidly segregated black neighborhoods during the pre-civil-rights era and written with a ferocious passion that’ll knock the wind out of you.”

Librarians and booksellers agree; it is a September LibraryReads and Indie Next selection.

A film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower is set to premiere on February 17, 2017 starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey.

Plans for the adaptation of the enormous series, which includes novels, short stories and comics, have been in the works for at least a decade. Originally, it was conceived as a trilogy of movies, with a TV series between each film.

Finding financial backing for such a large project proved difficult. Finally, the film adaptation was announced, but whether there would be sequels or a TV component hinged on the first film’s success.

But now, reports Entertainment Weekly, plans have firmed up for the TV series. Intended to fill in the backstory, the series is expected to air in 2018, around the time the film hits streaming and cable channels.

Idris Elba, who plays the gunslinger Roland Deschain in the movie, is on board to reprise the role on the small screen, along with Tom Taylor, Jake Chambers, but there is no word yet if Matthew McConaughey will also make the transition.

EW reports the 10- to 13-episode show will cover “Roland’s origin story [set] years before the events depicted in the film” and that,  while some material for the TV series will be taken from The Gunslinger, “the bulk of the show will focus on the fourth book in the saga, Wizard and Glass” which is “primarily a prequel” to the series.

The LA Times reports that at least three additional key figures from the film, including the director and two of the writers, are involved with the TV series. It has not been announced which network will carry it, but EW predicts that, given the content, it will land with a cable or streaming service.

The entire series is being re-released in mass market paperback starting in October in anticipation of the film’s release (see our list of tie-ins to upcoming movies).

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Stephen King can rest a bit more easily. James Patterson has called off the publication of a title in his new BookShots series, originally scheduled for November, The Murder of Stephen King.

Having announced the book just two weeks ago, its cancellation, reports The Guardian, was a result of Patterson “belatedly deciding that he did not want to cause King and his family ‘any discomfort.'”

It will be replaced with Taking the Titanic, co-authored with Derek Nikitas. A book with the same title, but co-authored by Scott Slaven, is listed on retailer and wholesaler sites for April. The Hachette site, however, has it listed for November, but still with Slaven as the co-author.

Several other new titles in the series have been announced, including a hardcover collection of four BookShot titles, Kill or Be Killed, set for publication in October, and three mass market “ominous” editions. See our downloadable spreadsheet, BookShots Oct, 2016 thru May,2017

Woman of God, James Patterson, Maxine Paetro, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print).

The story as described by Kirkus, that sounds very different for Patterson and Paetro, about the “life of physician-turned-priest” who manages to be accepted by the Catholic Church. Kirkus concludes that it is “A high-concept pitch, a potboiler on the page, and a protagonist to cheer for, but the authors do not quite tie it all together.”

Also, this week, ads are promoting the YA title, Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco, published last week, that feature an arresting quote from Patterson, “The book I wish I had written.” He may not have written it, but he came close. It is published under the “James Patterson Presents” line, from his Hachette kids young readers imprint, Jimmy Patterson.

The Fever Code (Maze Runner, Book Five; Prequel), James Dasher, (RH/Delacorte; Listening Library).

Although it’s Book Five, this is billed as the prequel to the popular YA series. Meanwhile, the future of the Maze Runner series of movies is in doubt, after the injury on set of star, Dylan O’Brien, during the filming of the second movie.

The titles covered here, 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 Sept 26 2016

Media Attention

Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen, (S&S; S&S Audio; PRH/Vintage Espanol).

Critics Picks

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton (Workman; OverDrive Sample).

We’ve featured this as a holds alert. Entertainment Weekly features it in the Books section this week as “The World’s Coolest Travel Guide.”

Peer Picks

Two Indie Next picks publish this week:

Irena’s Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto, Tilar J. Mazzeo (S&S/Gallery Books; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“There have been accounts of men who helped Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime escape the clutches of genocidal pogroms and mass slaughter, but this story is about a woman who courageously smuggled thousands of children to safety. Granted unusual access to the Warsaw ghetto as a public health specialist, Irena Sendler used her position to rescue children by various means, sometimes right under the noses of guards. As compelling as any great fiction thriller, Irena’s story will remain with the reader for a long time to come.” —Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA

Additional Buzz: Fall Reading selection by The Wall Street Journal, “New Books Trace the Holocaust’s Legacy.” [subscription may be required].

Mercury, Margot Livesey (HC/Harper; HarperAudio; OverDrive Sample).

“This riveting psychological novel delves into the lives of Donald and Vivian, a married couple whose stability is threatened and ultimately undermined when Vivian, whose former life as an aspiring equestrian was cut short, meets Mercury, a magnificent horse with a tragic history. What unfolds may seem like destiny to Vivian, but to Donald, a staid and deliberate ophthalmologist still mourning the death of his beloved father, it tests everything he’s ever known, including his faculty for navigating the world. A truly remarkable study of human nature and the blindspots that hinder us all.” —Mary Cotton, Newtonville Books, Newton, MA

Additional Buzz: The New Yorker calls it “consuming” in this week’s “Briefly Noted Book Reviews.” In LitHub‘s “The Great Booksellers Fall 2016 Preview,” a bookseller calls it “unforgettable,” noting “No one has a better understanding of human nature” than Livesey.

Tie-ins

The film, Birth of a Nation, which is ironically uses the title of D.W. Griffith’s racist movie from a century ago, was hailed as an answer to Hollywood’s lack of diversity. It received a standing ovation before its screening earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Then it was revealed that the director had been been tried for rape while in college and many in Hollywood said they would refuse to see it, dimming Oscar predictions.

But the film did not face controversy at either the Toronto International Film Festival or its L.A. premiere. As a result, Deadline wrote, “Perhaps audiences – and Oscar voters – will decide that it should be judged on its own merits.”

The tie-in publishes this week, The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement, Nate Parker (S&S/Atria/37 INK; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Based on the story of Nat Turner, the movie was co-written and directed by Nate Parker, who stars in the role of Turner. The film also stars Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Boone Junior, Penelope Ann Miller, and Gabrielle Union. It opens nationwide on 10/7/16.

Poldark’s Cornwall, Winston Graham (IPG/Pan Macmillan). Not a direct tie-in but for those interested in Poldark’s setting. The book offers images of Cornwall’s rugged beauty and picturesque landscape.

Poldark, Season 2 begins airing on PBS Masterpiece on the 25th. It stars Aidan Turner, Eleanor Tomlinson, and Heida Reed.

Read our earlier coverage here and here.

Trolls opens on Nov. 4, 2016.

Directed by Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn (both of whom worked on various Shrek movies), the animated movies features the voices of Anna Kendrick, Zooey Deschanel, James Corden, Justin Timberlake, Russell Brand, and Gwen Stefani.

Read our earlier coverage here and link to an extensive list of tie-ins.

Harbor Lights, Sherryl Woods (HC/MIRA; OverDrive Sample) is the next in the Hallmark Channel’s Chesapeake Shores series, which will eventually span a seven episode first season.

The first and second novels in the series, The Inn at Eagle Point and Flowers on Main, have already been released as a tie-ins (see here and here).

Quarry began playing on Cinemax on Sept. 9th. As we wrote earlier (here and here), it is a dark and moody adaptation of Max Allan Collins’s noir 1970’s era series about a hit man.

The eight-episode run stars Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus) as a Marine who comes home to Memphis after the Vietnam War and gets caught in a world of violence and corruption.

The tie-in is Quarry – TV Tie-In Edition, Max Allan Collins (RH/Hard Case Crime; OverDrive Sample).

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

A string of high profile coverage has brought attention and sales to Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill, Candice Millard (PRH/Doubleday; RH Audio/BOT), causing the book to leap to #61 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

The NYT‘s Jennifer Senior, in a review that appeared in the paper yesterday, says the book’s mix of biography, history, war, and adventure is “as involving as a popcorn thriller.”

Summarizing Millard’s career, Senior continues “Over the years Millard has made a stylish niche for herself, zooming in on a brief, pivotal chapter in the life of a historical figure and turning it into a legitimate feature-length production.”

Other reviews similarly emphasize the author’s ability to make history come alive, USA Today calls it a “a slam-bang study of Churchill’s wit and wile as he navigates the Boer War like some porto-james Bond” and The Washington Post cites her formidable storytelling skills,

In addition, the Wall Street Journal interviews the author about her “distinctive approach to writing about historical giants” by focusing “tightly on a forgotten yet riveting episode in an extremely well-documented life.”

Ann Patchett lands at #4 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list, making Commonwealth (Harper; HarperAudio) her highest ever debut.

According to the paper, Bel Canto reached #8 in 2003 but debuted at #70 and State of Wonder hit, and peaked, at #12.

Commonwealth is #1 on the PW Fiction list, making it likely to land on the NYT‘s list at #1 as well when the Oct 2 list comes out later this afternoon.

Library patrons are echoing the sales figures. Holds are strong on all formats at libraries we checked.

It looks like Jonathan Burnham, publisher of HarperCollins’s Harper imprint, was correct when he told The Wall Street Journal “It’s probably the most commercial novel Ann has written yet.”

As we noted earlier, it is a darling of critics. It made most, if not all the fall reading previews. It is also the Indie Next #1 pick for September; Entertainment Weekly gave it a solid A review; The Guardian says it is “outstanding;” and Jennifer Senior reviewed it early for the daily NYT, calling it “exquisite.”

Rising on Amazon’s sales rankings is Ten Restaurants That Changed America, Paul Freedman (Norton/Liveright; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample), moving from #303 to just outside the Top 100.

The jump is a result of media attention including features by NPR’s All Things Considered, The New York Times (with a separate list of the ten, a magnet for foodies to test their knowledge), and The New Yorker.

Yale professor Paul Freedman explores how the history of where we choose to eat reflects the history of America, what restaurants mean to society, and how they shape culture.

While some other of the eateries Freedman cites are now closed, Tasting Table offers an overview of how Freeman’s work connects to modern dining.

Some libraries we checked have yet to order the book while others are showing multiple holds on a modest number of copies.

Heading off the comic page and onto the silver screen is Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke (Macmillan/First Second; 2/1/11; OverDrive Sample) reports Deadline Hollywood. Fox Animation has acquired rights to the trilogy. Morgan Jurgenson and Alex Ankeles (Robodog) will adapt the books.

The graphic novel trilogy, created by award-winning Hatke, follows the adventures of Zita as she learns to be brave and navigate her far out world. Bleeding Cool lists it as one of the “Essential 8 Comics For Kids,” writing:

“… everything I love about comic books; adventure, humor, humanity and a big heaping dose of wonder … Hatke has made something really special here … original and fun. It’s completely appropriate for kids but like the best stories, I think everyone will appreciate it.”

The other books in the trilogy are:

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl (9/4/12; OverDrive Sample)

The Return of Zita the Spacegirl (5/13/14; OverDrive Sample)

Hatke won an Eisner Award for Little Robot. His other books include Nobody Likes a Goblin, and Julia’s House for Lost Creatures.

First Second reports that “Of all our books, Zita the Spacegirl has earned the most fan photos and cosplay” and provides some images to prove it.

Wired interviewed the author shortly after the second book in the trilogy hit shelves (accompanied by bonus illustrations).

The author of the most under-the-radar title on the Man Booker Prize shortlist  His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (Skyhorse; OverDrive Sample), Graeme Macrae Burnet is interviewed by The Wall Street Journal today [subscription may be required].

The brief exchange focuses on the author’s writing process.

In a response to a question about the novel’s structure, including the use of fictional primary documents, Burnet talks about the personal differences in recollection and says he “wanted to present the reader with different viewpoints of the same incident, so they can … make up their own mind about what happened.”

He says he gathered some of his insider details from working his way through primary source “documents [that] still have wax seals on them. These are original, handwritten documents of post-mortem reports on victims or psychiatric evaluations of prisoners about to stand trial.”

As to the eloquence of his murderer he says “it goes against one’s expectations of how somebody who has committed a violent act will behave.”

Very interested in the interior workings of a character, Burnet concludes the interview by saying his favorite crime writer is Georges Simenon, author of the Inspector Jules Maigret series because he “is a brilliant writer on the psychology of his characters, and he’s brilliant at setting a scene in very simple language. You’re completely transported to whatever place he’s writing about.”

Burnet talks more about his research in a video created by his Scottish publisher:

A gazetteer to the “the weird, the unexpected, the overlooked, the hidden and the mysterious” places of the planet, from a 40-year old sound instillation still humming away in Times Square to a tree in South Africa with a pub inside, is rising on Amazon’s sales rankings and in holds as a result of a round of media attention.

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton (Workman; OverDrive Sample) is drawn from the website which has been described as “National Geographic for millennials.”

One of the authors provides a tour of Manhattan’s astounding places for NPR’s All Things Considered, taking host Ari Shapiro on a path through of the city’s little known wonders such as an apartment filled with earth and an elegant, but abandoned, subway station.

The coverage helped launch the atlas into Amazon’s top 10 sellers.

Public radio is big on the book. In an earlier story for NPR’s 13.7: Cosmos & Culture, a blog about science and culture, an essayist writes,

“The human brain seems to love lists and, at its core, Atlas Obscura is a text-rich, prettily illustrated, brick of a list. It invites us to compose fantasy travel lists of our own, or seek places we’ve already traveled to that have made the cut … Fair warning: It’s addictive.”

Back in 2015, PRI’s The Takeaway featured the website’s creation of a detailed literary map of road trips across America and discusses the ways different authors over time have described the same landscapes.

While the site has been running for a couple of years, it is just now gaining mainstream attention. A recent article in the Washingtonian provides background on the site and its mission, “to delight you, then get you off your couch and out into the world.”

Despite its 100,000 copy initial printing and enthusiastic prepub reviews from LJ and Booklist, libraries have bought it very modestly or not at all and holds are soaring on the few copies purchased.

Jennifer Weiner’s debut book for children, The Littlest Bigfoot (S&S/Aladdin; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample), will be adapted as an animated feature reports Deadline Hollywood. The first in a planned trilogy, Deadline reports that Weiner is writing the second, titled Little Bigfoot, Big City, expected in November 2017.

Weiner will serve as executive producer. Chris Bender (We’re the Millers) and Jennifer’s brother Jake Weiner (A History of Violence) will create the feature with 20th Century Fox Animation. Keeping it all in the family, brother Joe Weiner, negotiated the deal.

Pre-publication reviews are strong. Publishers Weekly described it as a “witty story of outcasts coming together,” adding, “Well-drawn characters, high comedy, and an open-ended finale will leave readers eager for the next installment.”

Another of the 2016 Man Booker Prize shortlist titles had made the first step towards adaptation.

Deadline Hollywood reports that Graeme Macrae Burnet’s historical crime thriller His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (Skyhorse; OverDrive Sample), has been optioned for a TV series.

The Scottish production company Synchronicity Films, known in the UK as the force behind Not Another Happy Ending, has bought the rights.

Originally published by a tiny 2-person house Saraband, the novel earned praise from The Guardian, which said “The book’s pretense at veracity, as well as being a literary jeux d’esprit, brings an extraordinary historical period into focus.”

Skyhorse picked it up for US publication after its Booker nod.

Another of this year’s shortlist titles, Ottessa Moshfegh’s literary thriller Eileen, as we noted earlier, is being adapted by screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson, “Hollywood’s Go-To Scribe for Thrillers” for producer Scott Rudin, known for his many successful literary adaptations.

If the projects make it to screens, they will follow in the footsteps of adaptations of previous Booker titles. Hilary Mantel’s two winners Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies were made into a BBC/PBS Masterpiece series. Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally became the now iconic 1993 film Schindler’s List. Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi were also successfully adapted.

Filming begins in Baltimore this week on the Oprah Winfrey vehicle, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, based on Rebecca Skloot’s book of the same title. The book is still on the NYT Nonfiction Paperback list after 184 weeks, following over a year on the hardcover list.

The events in the book took place in Baltimore and the film will include sites around the John Hopkins hospital, the location where Lacks’s cells were taken without her knowledge and used to create the cell line used by scientist in such medical advances as the polio vaccine.

Oprah is playing Deborah Lacks in the HBO production, Henrietta’s daughter and the character through whom the story is told in the book.

WJZ, the station where Oprah once worked as a news anchor, reports on the upcoming locations, interviewing residents, one of which says “It’s a story that needs to be told. Needs to be told, I think in the context of things that are still happening today, that still violate peoples rights, and people’s property and their own being.”

Lacks’s legacy is extending beyond the scientific uses of her cells. In Vancouver, WA a special school named in her honor is training students who want to be medical researchers, the Henrietta Lacks Health and Bioscience High School. The president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle recently visited the school and said that Lacks’s “legacy is not a cell line she left us … Her legacy is the people like you who train here … Looking ahead, I can’t imagine what you might go on to do.”

    
Best Books season begins officially with the announcement of the National Book Awards longlists.

In fiction, one of the ten titles is the number one LibraryReads pick for October, News of the World, Paulette Jiles (HC/William Morrow). It is also an Indie Next selection for October. Below is the LibraryReads annotation.

“Readers fortunate enough to meet Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an old ex-soldier who makes a living reading the news to townspeople in 1870s Texas, and Joanna, the Indian captive he is charged with returning to her relatives, will not soon forget them. Everything, from the vividly realized Texas frontier setting to the characters is beautifully crafted, right up to the moving conclusion. Both the Captain and Joanna have very distinctive voices. Wonderful storytelling.” — Beth Mills, New Rochelle Public Library, New Rochelle, NY

Missing from the list is Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton (PRH/Viking; OverDrive Sample; 1/13/16), a Booker longlist title, that did not make the cut to the shortlist (the two titles by U.S. writers on that shortlist were published here in 2015, so are not eligible for the NBA).

The nonfiction list is dominated by titles on racism in America, including a book which has received media attention, Heather Ann Thompson’s Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy (Pantheon Books/Penguin Random House; OverDrive Sample; 8/23/16).

Middle grade novels were winners in the Young Peoples Lit category in 2015 and 2013. They make a good showing on the 2016 longlist, taking four of the ten slots. Included is Pax by Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Jon Klassen (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray; HC Audio; OverDrive Sample; 2/2/16). A bestseller, it may be the only one of all the nominees to have been optioned for a film. CORRECTION: At least one other adaptation is in the works, but as a limited TV series. Deadline reports that Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, on the fiction longlist, is “about to hit the TV marketplace.”

In poetry, mainstays Rita Dove and Donald Hall received nominations. So did a debut poet, Solmaz Sharif for Look: Poems, Solmaz Sharif (Macmillan/Graywolf; OverDrive Sample; 7/5/16). Sharif and Hall share a notable distinction, both are among the rare poets who have books selected as Indie Next picks. Sharif made the July list and Hall’s collection was the #1 December 2015 pick:

“This is a gift of honesty, intimacy, and the pure genius that is Donald Hall, as he hand-picks what he considers to be the best of his poetry from more than 70 years of published works. From this former U.S. Poet Laureate comes one essential volume of his works, where ‘Ox-Cart Man’ sits alongside ‘Kicking the Leaves’ and ‘Without.’ As he is no longer writing poetry, this ‘concise gathering of my life’s work’ is the perfect introduction to Hall’s literary contributions, as well as closure for his many ardent followers.”–Katharine Nevins, of MainStreet BookEnds of Warner, Warner

The finalists will be announced on Oct. 13, the winners on Nov. 16.