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
Welcome to the almost brand new bestseller lists this week. I say new because seven of the ten fiction titles on the Most Wanted Mashup list are new to the list, as the spring books start making their mark. The newcomers are Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child, Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke, White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison, Temptation and Surrender by Stephanie Laurens, Night and Day by Robert B. Parker, Promises in Death by J.D. Robb, and One Day at a Time by Danielle Steel. There are several new nonfiction bestsellers as well: Last Lion by Peter S. Canellos, Out of Captivity by Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, Tom Howes, and Gary Brozek, and The Lost City of Z by David Grann. As always, take a look in the righthand column for the complete list.
Again, in the righthand column, just under Most Wanted, is this week’s Under the Radar list. The topic for this one is Into Each Life, Some Grief: Fiction and Nonfiction on Death and Dying. And, again, as always, look just below this blog entry to see our huge list of New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer titles, which lists new books hitting the shelves in the next seven days. Here are just a few highlights. In fiction, the big title is Laura Lippman’s Life Sentences, but there are others as well, including Lisa Lutz’s Revenge of the Spellmans, Kathleen McGowan’s The Book of Love, and The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine. In nonfiction, we have the new book based on the You Tube hit: Anthony Bourke and John Rendall – A Lion Called Christian: The True Story of the Remarkable Bond Between Two Friends and a Lion. Check our Lighthearted Link below for the heartwarming video. And, as usual, look just below this entry for the complete list of New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer list. Now, on to the news of the week.
New Graphic Novel Bestseller List
As the New York Times phrases it, “comics have finally joined the mainstream.” This week they’ve introduced three new graphic bestseller lists: manga, softcover, and hardcover. Here are the top five hardcovers to give you a taste:
1. Starman Omnibus, Vol. 2 by James Robinson and Tony Harris.
2. Eerie Archives, Vol. 1 by various.
3. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
4. Batman: R.I.P. by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel.
5. Walking Dead, Vol. 4 by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard.
Quick Book News
Authors Guild Forces Amazon to Blink
When Amazon announced that its new Kindle 2 offers the option of having a computer generated voice read the text of books aloud, the Authors Guild protested on behalf of writers, saying that audio rights should be negotiated with publishers and authors. Amazon agreed to allow rights holders to disable the computer generated voice.
Poetry Boom Credited to the Internet
According to the New York Times, poetry is enjoying a resurgence lately—all because of the Internet.
Is There Such a Thing As a Good Film Adaptation?
Salman Rushdie discusses the subject here. His verdict? “The case against film adaptations thus remains unproven and, when we look below the level of great literature, a plausible argument can be made that many cinematic adaptations are better than their prose source materials.” Rushdie goes on to discuss specific adaptations from recent films as well as his own novels.
BEA Changes
Reed Exhibitions has made several revisions to its usual approach to BookExpo America in recent weeks. The two main ones are that this largest conference of the book industry will meet permanently in New York, and it will be scheduled during the week instead of on the weekend. For a discussion of all the changes, click here.
The Kindly Ones: Work of Genius, or Odious Stunt?
The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, a 938-page French bestseller, winner of the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary award, and talk of the Frankfurt Book Fair two years ago, was just published in this country by Harper, and has resulted in dueling views by critics. Is it a French War and Peace as one French critic claimed? Or was Michiko Kakutani right when she said that “the novel’s gushing fans seem to have mistaken perversity for daring, pretension for ambition, an odious stunt for contrarian cleverness,â€? adding that the book was “willfully sensationalistic and deliberately repellent.â€? And here’s another question: Will Harper earn back its big advance?
Stephen King’s New Book Available Only As an E-Book
In celebration of the release of Amazon’s Kindle 2, the world’s best known electronic book reader, Stephen King released a novella called UR in digital form only. Sales figures have not been released, but they are said to be in the five figures so far.
Authors
John Cheever and John Updike – reminiscences and video by Dick Cavett
Horton Foote – obituary
Bill Holm – obituary
Barbara Parker – obituary
Lists
2009 Delete Key Award for Bad Writing Finalists
http://www.bookweb.org/files/open/pdf/indiebound/nextlist/PoetryNext09.pdf
April 2009 IndieNext List
YALSA 2009 Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners
Neglected Books
Indies Choice Book Awards
Discover Great New Writers Awards
Lighthearted Link of the Week:
As mentioned above, there’s a new book out this week with the story of these two young guys who raised a lion cub, then released him into the wild. Everyone said he wouldn’t remember them later, but… take a look at this heartwarming video of their reunion.
That’s all for this week. Join us again next Monday.
