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
We have several new titles on our Most Wanted Mashup list this week (look to the right), and for Under the Radar (just under the Mashup), we’ve chosen to list ten Vampire Chick Lit titles. Yes, genre blending is becoming more and more the in thing in fiction. Our New, Noteworthy and No-Brainer entry each week makes an attempt to list new titles from the upcoming seven days that are either sure sellers or noteworthy for any reason. Look to the next entry below the Run Down for that list.

New books this week includes Laurell K. Hamilton’s Blood Noir, Elizabeth Lowell’s Blue Smoke & Murder , Steve Martini’s Shadow Power, as well as Salman Rushdie’s new novel, plus new works by Lisa Unger and Lauren Weisberger. In nonfiction, there are some new political books including one by Richard Clarke, Stephanie Clarke’s Moose: a Memoir of Fat Camp, and All the Way Home by David Giffels. Morrow is very much behind this story of a young journalist who buys a falling down rubber baron’s mansion in Akron with his wife and rebuilds it himself as he tries to grow into being a father. Again, for the complete list, look to the next entry directly below.

Summer Under the Radar Titles
A week and a half ago we published a list of Summer Fiction Blockbusters, our shot at predicting the fiction bestsellers of June, July, and August. Watch this week for another summer list. This one will list titles that may not become bestsellers, but that have been well reviewed or are creating a buzz in the publishing community. Between the two lists, we hope to have listed most of the summer fiction that you should be watching for. After that, we’ll publish a summer notable nonfiction list as well. Stay tuned!

Looking for Bloggers to Cover BEA
BookExpo America begins on Thursday in LA. Is anyone going? We’d love to continue our coverage of relevant conferences, so if you’re willing to email us short descriptions of any panels you attend, we’d love to have you. We can’t pay for the reports, but rumor has it we can get you the Libraries Unlimited book of your choice as a thank you. If you’re interested, send us an email message at rablog@lu.com.

Breakout Thrillers
Audible has debuted a new monthly feature in cooperation with the International Thriller Writers Association. Called Breakout Thrillers, it will feature well known authors recommending their favorite thriller titles. This month, Janet Evanovich recommends Dead Ex by Harley Jane Kozak, Steve Berry likes The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose, and Tess Gerritsen talks about Lisa Unger’s Beautiful Lies.

Should Books by African American Authors Be Shelved Separately?
Amistad’s new blog is debating the pros and cons of shelving books by Black authors separately. As one person put it, “The very idea of seeing Morrison’s Beloved next to My Cousin’s Baby Mama Drama in Church wit’ Da Booty on Top by Tukewl Mochaboy makes me cringe. However, I have seen something close to this scene. I’ve also overheard customers in large bookstores ask ‘Where are the Black books?’

Fox News Reporter’s Conclusions Are Pathetic Says John Dean
In his new biography The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate, Fox News Reporter James Rosen says that John Dean, then White House Counsel for Nixon, was the one who ordered the Watergate breakin. “I hope this book is being sold as fiction, for if it is not, readers are being defrauded,” said Dean.

Fareed Zakaria Speaks to Overflow Crowd in LA’s Central Library
I don’t know if you would call his new book pleasure reading, but look for Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World to keep gaining in popularity for awhile. Zakaria recently talked about his book at the LA Central Library, and staff had to turn away half as many people as they were able to seat in their auditorium.

Uh oh. After I had written the preceding about the book, I came across this. Better get some more copies.

Zakaria’s book, which has received good reviews, presents the thesis that we are in the midst of a “tectonic power shift,” a global trend in which other countries threaten to surpass the U.S. The world’s tallest building is now in Taipei, the largest factory and shopping mall is in China. In fact, nine of the world’s ten biggest shopping centers are outside the United States. The planet’s largest casino is in Macao. Bollywood’s bigger than Hollywood. Who knew?

Barnes & Noble to Buy Borders?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Barnes & Noble has assembled a team of executives to study the feasibility of purchasing its rival, Borders, which is struggling financially.

Will Amazon Take On the Publishing Industry Next?
Forbes magazine has an article speculating that Amazon, which excels in figuring out the inefficiencies of a particular industry and capitalizing on them, may take on publishing next. “The book market in the United States is worth about $32 billion a year; the rest of the world, an additional $36 billion. Who makes the money? Not the author. Retailers take almost 50%. The agent takes 15% to 20%. The publisher gets squeezed–it’s cause for huge celebration if they make 20%.”

Barnes & Noble Says It’s Time to Get Rid of Returns
Speaking of inefficiencies in the publishing industry, Steve Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble says it may be possible to get rid of the long standing tradition of allowing bookstores to return unsold books to publishers. Riggio thinks this may be possible within a year or two.

Shelf-Awareness
If you haven’t taken a look at Shelf-Awareness, you really should, if for no other reason than to check their Drop-In Title Database announcements. Drop-in titles or crash titles are upcoming books that will be rushed through the publishing process and missed being listed in the publisher’s catalog. This week, for example, there is a Dick Francis, a Seth Godin and a book by Mike Huckabee.

Bantam Offers Libraries a Free Louis L’Amour Title
According to Publishers Weekly, Bantam will give interested libraries a free copy of Louis L’Amour’s Education of a Wandering Man in honor of the centennial of L’Amour’s birth. Claim your copy here.

Doubleday Broadway Rebrands Itself
As of May 28, the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Bertelsmann AG’s Random House, will change its name to the simpler Doubleday Publishing Group. The company is also launching a new 2.0 enabled website.

Lists
LJ’s May Street Lit
Summer 2008 Political Fiction
PW’s May Religion Bestsellers
Independent Mystery Booksellers Association April Bestsellers
NPR’s Summer Book Recommendations
Real People As Characters in Mystery Books

Conferences
BookExpo America - Los Angeles – May 29-June 1
American Library Association Annual Conference - Anaheim – June 26-July 2
ThrillerFest - New York – July 9-12

Authors
Michael Chabon
Orhan Pamuk

That’s it for this week. I’m posting a little early so that I can enjoy the long weekend. Both my children are home, so that’s great for me. Hope you have an excellent weekend as well.

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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

Happy Monday!

We have a couple of fiction blockbusters this week—namely Patricia Cornwell’s The Front, which brings back Massachusetts state investigator Win Garano, and Dean Koontz’s Odd Hours, which is, of course, his new Odd Thomas book.

Other “brand name” authors with new novels this week include Elizabeth Lowell, C. J. Box, Phillip Margolin, Steve Martini, Chuck Palahniuk, Nancy Thayer, Lisa Unger and Lauren Weisberger. Then we also have James Rollins with the movie tie-in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Sarah Addison Allen, whose Garden Spells received such good reviews, is back with another book.

In nonfiction, we have Richard Preston’s Panic in Level 4, Senator Jim Webb’s new book on reclaiming America, and the highly anticipated All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House by David Giffels, who, along with his wife, bought a wreck of an old rubber baron’s mansion in Akron and rebuilt it as he figured out how to grow as a husband and father.

There’s more, so for the complete list of our New, Noteworthy and No-Brainer, scroll down to the entry just below this one. To the right, as usual, you’ll see our Most Wanted Mashup of the hottest books of the week as we “mash up” several bestseller lists and give you the very top picks. Scroll down in the right column for our Under the Radar list of the week: Great Recent Horror Titles You May Have Missed.

And now, on to the run down for this week.

Starbucks Pick
One of our predicted big books has really hit the big time…Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain was chosen by Starbucks as their book of the month. More here via USA Today.

Gumshoes, Sleuths & Snoopers
Here is a database with an in-depth look at 185 detective and mystery novels originally published during the period 1930-1960. It is the result of a collaborative effort in which volunteers from near and far provided detailed information about plot, setting, characters and other thematic factors for each title. Each entry has fields with information on main characters, plot, motives, setting, weapons used, level of violence, sexuality, gender roles, ethnicity, alcohol, drug abuse, psychological elements and film adaptations. The University of Buffalo libraries hope the database continues to grow as volunteers enter new information. Click here to see the books.

The Future of Reading is the Kindle According to Newsweek
Newsweek explains exactly how the Amazon Kindle works in a short video, so if you’ve been wondering what the hype is, here’s an easy way to check it out.

Feel Like Voting for the Best Booker Prize Winner Ever?
Go here and have at it. The shortlist has been prepicked, but in honor of the 40th anniversary, you can vote for one of these titles:

Pat Barker’s The Ghost Road
Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda
JM Coetzee’s Disgrace
J G Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur
Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist
Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

Edith Wharton’s House Open to the Public After All
Though they are still desperately in need of donations to pay off loans, the board of the Edith Wharton Restoration got a reprieve from a bank, which will allow them to open the house to the public on May 9. The financial problems stem partially from a move to purchase Edith Wharton’s personal library collection from a dealer rather than to try to replicate the collection. The decision was made because the director for development felt strongly that having Wharton’s actual books with her copious annotations in the margins was essential. The New Yorker recently published a long article on the subject. Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize (for The Age of Innocence).

A Synergistic Alternative to Readers’ Advisory Services
The conclusion of a paper by Hsia-Ching Chang and Terrence A. Maxwell is that “current readers’ advisory services in libraries neither take advantage of database techniques to more deeply understand readers’ needs, nor successfully connect their readers’ advisory reference resources with customer knowledge or experience.” Their suggestion is that librarians need to take advantage of new technologies to help them understand their patrons’ reading preferences, and also find a way to incorporate readers’ knowledge into a new model for RA service. See the full article here.

Oh, the Horror…A 16-Hour Plane Ride With No Book
Read the whole sad story here.

Maybe the Perfect Airplane Book
Or maybe not…. If you’re old enough to remember Kenneth Anger’s 1980s book Hollywood Babylon, all I have to say is “it’s back…with pictures.” Uh oh.

Coming out in June, this version by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince, covers such topics as Marilyn Monroe’s affair with Ronald Reagan and Joan Crawford (not at the same time), the relative sizes of, let us say, several sets of family jewels–with full frontal pictures, and how the police believed that Bette Davis killed her husband.

Too Late for a Chapter in Hollywood Babylon
And I guess it’s not Hollywood anyway. But yes, there will be a book about Eliot Spitzer.

Generation R for Reader
Newsweek seems thrilled about the booming sales of books for teens…and no, it is not just Harry Potter, though it may have started there. And to think, there was a time when reading was seen as a bad, addictive thing—especially for girls.

Hemingway Book to Be a Film
Tommy Lee Jones has bought the rights to Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream. According to Yahoo News, Morgan Freeman and John Goodman are in discussions to come on board as well. Filming is set to begin in March in Puerto Rico.

Not Really RA-Related, But…
How can we not acknowledge the passing of the print version of the Oxford English Dictionary.

No More Tattered Shelftalkers
Take a look here for a new product touted to be a better way of displaying shelftalkers.

Authors
Augusten Burroughs, a profile of the allegedly fake memoirist
Oakley Hall, 87, Novelist attuned to the Old West, is dead
Nuala O’Faolain, 68, Irish author of two memoirs and a novel died of lung cancer.
Terry Pratchett, interview in Locus Magazine.
Barbara Walters, interview by Powell’s Bookstore.

Lists
Memorial Day Fiction – from Neal Wyatt for LJ
Procrastination Lit – from Slate
Religion Bestsellers – from PW
The 50 Greatest Crime Writers – from the Times (UK)
The Essential Man’s Library – from the Art of Manliness site.

Coming soon…a look at recent trends in genres, more good litblogs, tips for book clubs and more. See you next Monday for the next Run Down and weekly lists.

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