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
Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary, Age 92
This Week In Books
This week will see new books by Harlan Coben, Elizabeth Berg, Joan Hess, Alexander McCall Smith, Ann Patchett, Joanna Trollope and others–including a sure bestseller from Chris Rock’s mom. Look direclty below this entry for the complete list of the New, Noteworthy and No Brainers.
Publishers Weekly published an article on the bestselling books of the past ten years this week. It’s fairly depressing to see the same authors over and over–Grisham, Clancy, King, Cornwell, Crichton, Patterson, Patterson, Patterson, Patterson…. But if you’re bored with the same old brand names, watch for our Under the Radar list each week, which points out well reviewed books on various subjects or genres. This week we feature Great Recent Historical Novels You May Have Missed.
And, as usual, look to the right for our weekly Most Wanted Mashup, a compilation of the titles patrons are likely to be seeking this week.
Free Access to Reader’s Advisor Online This Week
Libraries Unlimited is providing free access to the Reader’s Advisor Online during National Library Week April 13-19, 2007. (And of course, this blog is free everyday!)
Simply follow this link. You will be asked to register, then simply click the Reader’s Advisor Online title on the product list. For subsequent visits during Library Week, just enter your email address.
The Reader’s Advisor Online is based on the Genreflecting series published by Libraries Unlimited. More than a database, this sophisticated finding tool gives users multiple ways to browse and find related reading and read-alikes. It includes recreational nonfiction as well as fiction. There are many special features, including the Genre Tree, the Read-Alike Finder, the Read-Alike Quick List, and the saved list for creating handouts for your patrons and flyers for your library. We appreciate your loyalty to this RAO blog, but you’re missing a lot of value if you don’t try the full product!
As a bonus, enter our contest. Click here as often as once a day for a chance at a $50 American Express gift card. Hurry, the contest ends on April 30, with a card given away each week on Wednesdays. Here are the contest rules.
Quiz of the Week
What do the following books have in common?
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Hmmm. Genre? No. Setting? Nope. Award winners? Wrong. Give up?
They were all published in paperback by Penguin, which promoted them as if they were new, original titles, and even though they had been fairly modestly successful in hardcover, they became blockbuster sensations in paperback. Click here to find out how Penguin did it.
Does Anybody Really Know What Is Fiction and What Is Nonfiction Anymore?
There has a been a lot in the news lately about fake memoirs. Some are just simply made up, others are disputed by people involved in the story, but now, the Boston Globe has a story about Ben Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House. “of describing events as they happened, Mezrich appears to have worked more as a collage artist, drawing some facts from interviews, inventing certain others, and then recombining these into novel scenes that didn’t happen and characters who never lived.” So what is okay and what is not? “I just am not comfortable with that,” says Robert Weil, an editor at W.W. Norton, of publishing books as nonfiction that have composite characters and altered timelines, “and I can’t recall a case where I’ve done it.”
Fake Memoirs, Fake Titles, Fake Nonfiction, Why Not a Fake Author?
If you haven’t bought Charm by Kendall Hart, you’re missing some good circulation numbers. For those who work during the day, the name may not be familiar, but “Kendall Hart” is one of the lead characters on All My Children, the long running soap opera on ABC. When Kendall’s husband disappears mysteriously, she decides to write a book to distract herself. The hadcover, which was released in February, has sold over 100,000 copies so far. The real author’s name is a secret, but the numbers aren’t fake. Take a look at this article for a discussion of all the convoluted connections among editors, publishers, television shows and parent companies who made this a success. Kind of sad to think about really.
You Might Want to Restock Your Shelves
P. J. Hogan, director of My Best Friend’s Wedding, is working on Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. The movie will be out next year. Oh, and for those who have read all the Kinsella books and can’t wait for the next…she also writes under her real name–Madeleine Wickham.
And MGM has bought rights to Robert Ludlum’s The Matarese Circle for over $3 million. Rumor has it that Denzel Washington will star.
More on the Bookstore Wars
Last week we reported the financial problems of Borders. The Washington Post’s “The Changing Bookstore Battle: It Used to Be Little vs. Big Guy. Then the Bigger Guys Came.”
Sign Up for ThrillerFest 2008
Ever thought of going to a “nonlibrary” conference? ThrillerFest, put on by the Interntional Thriller Writers, will be July 9-12, 2008 in New York City. Authors at the invent will include James Patterson, Sandra Brown, Eric Van Lustbader, Brad Thor, Kathy Reichs, David Baldacci, R.L. Stine, Andrew Gross, Joseph Finder and many more.
Author Interviews
Junot Diaz – “I’m one of those undiagnosed people with social anxiety.”
Jodi Picoult – “I write on my hands. I used to write on my kids’ hands, too, but they don’t let me any more.”
Obituaries
Helen Yglesias
Lists
NYPL’s 25 Books to Remember from 2007
Catholic Bestsellers of 2007
Harris Poll: America’s Favorite Books
