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 at rablog@lu.com.
By Cindy Orr
This Week In Books
I posted the Monday content early this week, because like thousands of other parents, I’ve rented a van, and once it’s packed to the roof, will be delivering my son back to college tomorrow. In the past, young men may have been able to travel far more lightly than women, but nowadays, the amount of equipment they “must have” is astounding. As the summer winds down, though, we still have some good new releases for our weekly New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer column. Terry Brooks has a new Shannara book, there’s Silks by Dick Francis and his son Felix, a new Harlan Coben, and a new Bones novel by Kathy Reichs, plus Elizabeth Peters with Laughter of Dead Kings. On the nonfiction side, Michael Moore has a new book on the election of course, and Ann Roiphe releases her memoir. Be sure to scroll down to the next entry to see the complete list.
If you look to the right hand column, you’ll see our weekly Most Wanted Mashup, with some new titles climbing up the bestseller lists for the first time. Sandra Brown’s Smoke Screen, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife, Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons, and Faye Kellerman’s The Mercedes Coffin are the fiction titles new to the list this week. In nonfiction, we have Tom Vanderbilt’s Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us), as well as David Carr’s The Night of the Gun. Right below Most Wanted, is our newest Under the Radar list, called Viral Reading, with enough scary germ books to make you shiver in your hammock no matter how hot it is. As usual, this list was created using our sponsoring product—The Reader’s Advisor Online. Enjoy! And now on to the rest of the RA news for the week.
Title of Woodward’s New Book
We now have a title for Bob Woodward’s new book. The War Within: a Secret White House History, 2006-2008 will be published on September 8 with a first printing of 900,000 copies. You probably have it on order, but you may want to check to see if the title field has been filled in. The ISBN is 9781416558972.
Olympic Memoir By Michael Phelps
Free Press won the auction for the Michael Phelps story of winning eight Olympic gold medals in swimming. Built to Succeed will be released in December.
Natalie Wood’s Death Addressed in Wagner Autobiography
You’re probably not old enough to remember this incident, but after 27 years, Robert Wagner is finally talking about the mysterious drowning death of his wife, actress Natalie Wood. In his upcoming autobiography called Pieces of My Heart, Wagner now says that his wife likely slipped, fell, hit her head and drowned at the dock while trying to tie up a dinghy. Her death caused much speculation in the press at the time, largely because actor Christopher Walken was aboard their yacht along with Wagner and Wood, and Walken had played opposite Natalie Wood in the movie Brainstorm. Wagner admits that he was jealous of Walken’s work. Guess the reverse mortage ads for the Senior Lending Network don’t pay him enough. Will the titillation factor sell a few titles?
Twilight Movie Coming Early
We reported in last week’s Run Down that the new Harry Potter movie release date has been moved from November to next summer. According to Stephenie Meyer, “Though we’re all sad to have to wait for Harry Potter, this open spot at the theater creates a cool opportunity. The good people at Summit were thrilled to let me know that now Twilight fans are going to get their movie three weeks earlier than scheduled. That’s right—Twilight will be released in theaters November 21st! Let the merry-making commence!”
New Library of Congress Award Goes to Wouk
The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress will award its first ever Library of Congress Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Writing of Fiction to Herman Wouk in a ceremony to be held on September 10. “Herman Wouk’s work epitomizes the historical novel and its ability to transcend its time and place to achieve universality in character and themes,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. It might be a good time to pull out all those wonderfully entertaining titles by Wouk, such as The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, and The Caine Mutiny.
Time to Check the Condition of Your Copies of The Hobbit
Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens have signed on to write the screenplay for J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which should be released in 2011, plus a new sequel for 2012. The three also collaborated to write the screenplays for the three Lord of the Rings movies. The Hobbit sequel deals with the 60-year period between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, the first title in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I suppose we’ll have to watch for a novelization of that one.
Goosebumps: the Movie
Yes, I’m afraid so. Do you have any copies of the books left?
Check Out Romance Radio
Avon Books has relaunched their website which includes a new feature called Romance Radio. In addition, a number of Avon authors’ favorite backlist titles will be available free for a month. See the Publishers Weekly story here.
The YA Books of Our Childhood
Di Herald pointed me to Fine Lines, the Friday Feature on Jezebel, which gives “a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wizened look at the children’s and YA books we loved in our youth.” This week: Flowers in the Attic.
Lists
Thurber Award Finalists for Best Humor Work
Top Ten Scenes from the Battle of the Sexes
August Indie Next List – Independent bookseller picks
Authors
Joe Eszterhas – author of Showgirls has found religion
Doris Lessing NPR interview
Monday Morning Boost
We’ll end with a link to Misleading Reading, a little business that sells fake book covers for those who like a good laugh. As they put it, “wouldn’t it be funny if you were sitting on the subway reading a book and on the front cover it said, How to Murder a Complete Stranger and Get Away with It? Imagine what people around you would think, especially when you finally finished the book.” If that’s not your cup of tea, you can buy How to Make Your Mother a Porn Star, or At Home Laser Eye Surgery, or The Nutritional Value of Nose Picking—40 great titles to choose from. Just the thing for covering up those embarrassing romance novels! And with that, we’ll sign off until next week. Drive carefully everyone.
