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
We only have a couple of new titles on the Most Wanted Mashup this week. Presumably everyone was too busy preparing for the long weekend to buy new books. But Barbara Taylor Bradford’s Being Elizabeth is new to the list, as is a new Star Wars novel by Sean Williams and Mike’s Election Guide 2008 by Michael Moore. Look to the right for our usual weekly mashup of the bestselling titles based on several lists. In honor of Labor Day, our Under the Radar list has five fiction and five nonfiction titles about work. This great list is directly under the Most Wanted Mashup in the right column. And directly under this post you’ll find the New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer titles for this week: the titles worth noting that will be new to the bookstore and library shelves in the upcoming 7 days. Though there wasn’t much change in the bestsellers this week, we have tons of new titles to read. The new fiction this week includes titles by Chelsea Cain, Christopher Buckley, the newest novel by Marilynne Robinson, a new S. M. Stirling, one by Ted Dekker, Christine Feehan, Susan Wiggs, and American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld among several others. In nonfiction, there’s The First Billion Is the Hardest by T. Boone Pickens, Titanic: The Last Great Images by Robert Ballard and Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes, along with several others. Excuse me while I fight for the Marilynne Robinson. Just look directly below this post to see the long list of other titles.
Joe Biden’s Book Released in Trade Paper
Joe Biden’s memoir Promises to Keep didn’t sell very well in hardcover, but now that he’s the vice presidential candidate, his book is climbing up the bestseller lists. Random House has released a trade paperback edition just in time.
Jewel of Medina Still in the News
Controversy continues to grow over Random House’s decision to pull the book The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones. Though the publisher had paid a $100,000 advance for the title, decided to drop it after being warned that publishing the novel would pose a security risk similar to that which occurred when Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was published. The Jewel of Medina is about the child bride of Muhammad. The Langum Charitable Trust, which awards book prizes has announced that it will not consider any titles from Random House for any of its prizes until the book is published.
Amazon Buys Shelfari
PW announced that Amazon is in the process of buying Shelfari, the social networking site built around books. It will be interesting to see what this means for readers advisors as the two companies work together to improve their tools.
Neil Hollands on Book Club Questions
Neil Holldands has a couple of useful blog entries on useful questions for book groups. Click here, here, and here to see his lists of questions.
Storytelling 2.0
Dutton has signed a contract for what they are calling a “digi-novel,” to be published in Fall, 2009. The publisher paid millions of dollars for a trilogy to be created by Anthony Zuiker, the creator of CSI. The first book will be a mystery novel that sends readers to a website to unlock motion picture footage using clues from the book. The multimedia effort will include a web-based community portal with different characters and the opportunity for readers to participate in the story.
Care to Bet on Oprah’s Next Title?
Nora Rawlinson of Early Word thinks it may be either Paul Coelho’s Brida or The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It’s a HarperCollins title available only in hardcover and large print. What’s your pick?
Replacements for Catcher in the Rye
As those high school kids poured in the past couple of weeks to grab their summer reading assignments, did it occur to anyone else that it’s time to retire Holden Caulfield? Anne Trubek, a professor from Oberlin College thinks it’s past time. It might have been edgy and controversial 50 years ago, but Trubek argues that even then, it really only spoke to readers who shared Holden’s prep school background. She suggests some other titles that might work better for contemporary teens.
Hiring Readers Advisors
Joyce Saricks has a great article in Booklist on how to hire RA librarians. While you might think book knowledge would be number one on the list, she ranks people skills higher. Check the article for a complete plan on how to approach this hiring problem.
Lists
Evangelical Christian Booksellers Association August Bestsellers
Top 10 Literary Virgins
BookFinder Top 10 Lists
Authors
Max Allan Collins
James Patterson
I spent a couple of days in Florida last week teaching an RA workshop—luckily just missing all the storms. For my fun site of the week, here is the slip in Ft. Lauderdale where Travis McGee tied up The Busted Flush. Slip F-18, Bahia Mar Marina.
