The readers’ advisory librarian’s weekly update, from a scan of more than 100 blogs, newsletters, magazines, newspapers and television. This blog is brought to you by the Reader’s Advisor Online, the subscription database based on Libraries Unlimited’s Genreflecting Advisory series. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to comment on any of our posts, or contact us here.
By Cindy Orr
This Week In Books
I’m posting this week’s Run Down and lists a bit early so that I can be free to do family things this weekend, but there are lots of good new titles hitting the shelves this week, since it’s officially now Spring (even though many holiday travelers were delayed in Chicago yesterday by snow).
Scroll down to New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer to see the notable releases of this week, including books by Jonathan Kellerman, Anne Perry, Lisa Kleypas, Tobias Wolff, Joseph Wambaugh, Ann B. Ross, Mary Balogh and many others—more than twenty novels alone, plus a good handful of nonfiction.
I wonder if the Spring releases will help Spring finally arrive? I hope so for the sake of everyone headed to Minneapolis for the PLA conference this week. But for those of you who are stuck at home covering the desk, watch this spot for reports from the conference. We have correspondents committed to covering just about all the RA-related programs offered. We’re very excited about this and look forward to great summaries of conference programs.
But now…on to the news of the week.
Wally Lamb’s First Novel in Ten Years
Two-time Oprah book club honoree Wally Lamb, who hasn’t released a new title in 10 years, has a new work on the horizon. HarperCollins’ flagship imprint will release The Hour I First Believed in November 2008. The book follows a couple that relocates from Colorado to Connecticut, after the wife is traumatized from surviving the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. Once on the East Coast, at the husband’s family farm, she tries to regain her footing while he must confront secrets from his family past.
The publisher is calling the novel, by the bestselling author of She’s Come Undone (Atria) and I Know This Much is True (Harper), “an extraordinary work of prodigious scope and ambition” and Lamb’s editor, Terry Karten, said the author’s gone “well beyond his earlier work to deliver a literary tour de force.”
Mystery of Saint Exupery’s Death Solved
Antoine de Saint Exupery, the author of The Little Prince and other much beloved books, died under mysterious circumstances over 60 years ago, and now a new book published in France says that a German pilot shot down Saint Exupery’s plane.
Arthur C. Clarke Dies At Age 90
Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: a Space Odyssey, Rendezvous with Rama and almost 100 other books, died Wednesday in Sri Lanka where he had lived since the 1950s. He was 90. Clarke, who suffered from post-polio syndrome, was confined to a wheelchair, but said that he was completely operational underwater. He spent much of his free time near his island home diving. Clarke knew his science, and predicted satellite communications in one of his books in 1945. His is one of the greatest names in science fiction.
Borders Offers Itself for Sale
Borders has suspended its dividend and put itself up for sale, citing liquidity issues and the difficulty of obtaining credit, another scary example of fallout from the credit crunch and the bad economic news.
Start Writing the Eulogies for Print Encyclopedias
It’s no surprise to librarians that print encyclopedia publishers are struggling. The New York Times weighs in here.
Penguin Digital Fiction Game
Take a look at the fun site Penguin has started for digital fiction. Net calls it an interactive game that mixes classic novels with Web 2.0 mashups. At the end of the game is a prize worth having—Penguin’s library of 1300 books.
Mystery Bestsellers
The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association has released its latest list of bestsellers—the February 2008 list. The top five sellers in hardcover were:
1) An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear
2) L. A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker
3) Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey
4) Aunt Dimity, Vampire Hunter by Nancy Atherton
5) The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone
Orange Prize Long List
The Orange Prize long list has been announced, and it is dominated by first novels. The short list will be announced on April 15. The Orange Prize is the UK’s annual award for fiction by women.
Thriller Writers Announce the Finalists for Their Awards
Check the International Thriller Writers website for more information.
Best Novel
• No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay (Bantam)
• The Watchman by Robert Crais (S&S)
• The Ghost by Robert Harris (S&S)
• The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz (Viking)
• Trouble by Jesse Kellerman (Putnam)
Best First Novel
• Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell (Dutton)
• Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover (Morrow)
• From the Depths by Gerry Doyle (McBook Press)
• Volk’s Game by Brent Ghelfi (Holt)
• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Morrow)
Best Paperback Original
• The Last Nightingale by Anthony Flacco (Ballantine)
• A Thousand Bones by P.J. Parrish (Pocket)
• The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)
• The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon (Pocket)
• Shattered by Jay Bonansinga (Pinnacle)
The BookSense Books of the Year
Were announced this past week. And the winners are:
Fiction: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead/Penguin)
Nonfiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver (HarperCollins)
Children’s Literature: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press)
Children’s Illustrated: Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems (Hyperion Books for Children)
That’s all for today, folks, but check here often this week for those conference reports. There are several really good programs planned.
