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
This was a kind of slow week in fiction, with only four notable new novels hitting the shelves this week. They’re good ones, though—Robert B. Parker, Carolyn G. Hart, Iris Johansen, and Anita Shreve. There’s tons of new nonfiction, including John Grogan’s The Longest Trip Home, Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow on Spain. . . A Culinary Road Trip, and James Patterson’s Against Medical Advice: One Family’s Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Mystery. And here’s a fun one: Hitler’s Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life. See the next post below for the complete list of New, Noteworthy and No-Brainers.
Our Most Wanted Mashup has three new novels and three new nonfiction titles this week. In fiction, Grace by Richard Paul Evans is new to the lists this week, as are John le Carre’s A Most Wanted Man, and The Pirate King by R.A. Salvatore. New to the nonfiction lists are Kill Bin Laden by Dalton Fury, Ted, White, and Blue by Ted Nugent, and Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates. Check Under the Radar for some Halloween Booooooks. Enjoy.
New Issue of RA News
Click here for the latest issue of RA News, the free online newsletter of the readers’ advisory field. Edited by Barbara Ittner, Acquisitions Editor for Libraries Unlimited, and the force behind the Genreflecting series of readers’ advisory tools, RA News has been published since 2005. This issue includes “Manga 101: Tips for the Curious, the Confused, and the Clueless” by Robin Brenner, “Fifty-two Definitions, and Nothing to Read: Advice for the Science Fiction Reader” by Maura Heaphy, “The Readers’ Advisor and Reading as Heroic Quest” by Brian Sturm, and “Historical Fantasy: A Hot New Trend in Speculative Fiction” by Jessica E. Moyer. Take a look!
Sign up for LJ’s Book Smack
Library Journal has launched a new e-newsletter called Booksmack. The newsletter, which will be published twice a month, is free, but you will need to register first. The current issue includes “The Word on Street Lit” by Rollie Welch, “Top Ten Holds from the Sno-Isle Library System, WA,” “35 Going on 13: Teen Books for Adults,” and other features. The newsletter will include “LJ PrePub Exploded” and “RA Crossroads” by Neal Wyatt.
Late Bloomers and Precocious Stars
Malcolm Gladwell asks why we equate genius with precocity, in an intriguing look at the difference in careers for those who spring into fame at a young age, and those who come to the work later. Gladwell compares Jonathan Safran Foer, who says that he’d hardly read any other books when he took a creative writing course with Joyce Carol Oates on a whim, and whose first novel, Everything Is Illuminated, catapaulted him to fame at the age of nineteen, with Ben Fountain, a young lawyer who quit his job, visited Haiti over thirty times, and toiled for eighteen years, with the support of his wife, until he published Brief Encounters in 2006. Fascinating.
Bouchercon World Mystery Convention
Baltimore was host to this year’s 39th annual Bouchercon mystery convention. It was quite a weekend for Laura Lippman, who was the American guest of honor—fittingly, since her Tess Monaghan series is set in her native Baltimore. The icing on the cake, though came when she won a triple crown with her book What the Dead Know—Best Novel for the Barry Awards, the Macavity Awards, and the Anthony Awards. Quite a feat. Next year’s conference will be held in Indianapolis.
Sherry Jones Defiant About Jewel of Medina
Even though her British publisher’s house was fire bombed, Sherry Jones seems to be in a defiant mood as she was interviewed in a recent trip to London. “My sweet little historical novel, my epic love story, my bridge-building book about Islam. How was it suddenly an issue of national security?” she asked. Random House, which paid a $100,000 advance for the novel, backed out of the deal when an American academic called it soft-core pornography. The novel was then published by Beaufort Books. “I’m a feminist and don’t write porn,” said Jones. “I have a teenage daughter and I want her friends to be able to read this and be inspired by Aisha’s story.”
Jones has already finished a second novel called The Battle of the Camel, which is about the schism which resulted in the rival Sunni and Shia factions of Islam. In this novel, the widowed Aisha leads troops into battle against her husban’d nephew. It is likely to be just as controversial.
Forever War the Movie
Ridley Scott, director of Gladiator, Body of Lies, Alien, and Blade Runner, will take on Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novelThe Forever War, according to Variety.
Lists
The National Book Award Nominees
Booksellers Rush to Publish Financial Titles
Barry Awards
MacAvity Awards
Anthony Awards
Top 100 Books of All Time – in Australia
Authors
Tim Burton - on the filming of his new movie Alice in Wonderland
V.S. Naipaul (by Christopher Hitchens) – “V. S. Naipaul has produced works of extraordinary skill— and lived a life of equally extraordinary callousness.”
Marilynne Robinson - interviewed by Bat Segundo
Gore Vidal - fractures his back
“The government regulates drugs, alcohol and (finally) bad lending practices. How long can we continue to allow the totally laissez-faire dissemination of literature? Not even a warning from the surgeon general or the attorney general, or some sort of general, on the back of every book?” Click here for the rest.
Have a lovely autumn week. See you again next Monday.
