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
Fall books continue into October, with several significant titles scheduled for release this week. John le Carre has a new novel, as do Laura Lippman, Jennifer Chiaverini, Richard Paul Evans, Walter Mosley, Sharon Kay Penman, Diane Johnson, Charlaine Harris, Mercedes Lackey…whew! In nonfiction, there are new books by James McPherson on Abraham Lincoln, Nicholas Katzenbach on working with LBJ and RFK, and Life Magazine on Barack Obama, then there’s Susan Cheever and Anne Rice. It’s a great week. Look below at the next blog entry for the complete list called New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer.
Under the Radar this week is Surviving the Great Depression, enough said. Look to the right for Under the Radar and The Most Wanted Mashup. Several titles are new to the Most Wanted list this week, including Tsar by Ted Bell, One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell, Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day, John Sandford’s Heat Lightning, and Hot Mahogany by Stuart Woods. On the nonfiction list, the new titles are Jenny McCarthy’s Mother Warriors, Dewey by Vicki Myron, Bad Money by Kevin Phillips, Robert Wagner’s Pieces of My Heart, and the latest titles by Bill O’Reilly and Suzanne Somers. So…lots of new titles to be aware of this week. Enjoy!
Muslim Gang Firebombs Publisher
Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorist unit foiled an attempt by Islamic extremists to kill the publisher of The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones. In the meantime, the American publisher, Beaufort Books, will go ahead with publication of the book, though its publication date was moved up to this week. Meanwhile, British booksellers vow to stock the book if and when it is published in England. The publisher whose house was firebombed is taking some time to get advice and think about whether to go ahead with the publication. The Jewel of Medina is a romantic novel about Aisha, the child bride of the Prophet Muhammad. The author of this first novel, Sherry Jones, and American, says that she wrote the book with the utmost respect for Islam, but she admits that she has received death threats. Her original publisher, Random House, withdrew the book after threats. The controversy began when a professor at the University of Texas called it softcore porn, referring to a scene in the book when Muhammad consummates his marriage with Aisha.
Nobel Prize for Literature Will Not Go to an American
The Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced on Thursday, but it’s looking like there’s no chance for an American winner. Horace Engdahl, the permanent secretary for the prize, said this week that “The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.”
David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker said, “You would think that the permanent secretary of an academy that pretends to wisdom but has historically overlooked Proust, Joyce, and Nabokov, to name just a few non-Nobelists, would spare us the categorical lectures.” Ooh, burn!
Cell Phone Users Text More Than They Talk
A recent survey shows that US cell phone users now send more text messages than the cell phone calls they place. I’m just wondering what the implications might be for readers advisors. Any ideas?
Hari Puttar in Bollywood
Bollywood’s movie Hari Puttar made some people at Scholastic sit up straighter, but apparently, the plot is really more like Home Alone. Warner Brothers sued, saying the title of the movie is to close to…well, you know. But an Indian court said there was no conflict and the movie could open. The plot is entirely different, and Indian moviegoers can easily distinguish it from the real thing, the court said. Warner Brothers is considering its options.
Lists
Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Shortlist
October Indie Next List
Library Journal Fall Picks (video)
Cleveland Plain Dealer Big Books for Autumn
And now, for the fun link of the week, here’s an excerpt from Chris Offutt’s Guide to Literary Terms.
