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Run Down

The readers’s 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

New Titles on the Most Wanted Mashup This Week

Here are the new bestsellers your patrons may be asking for:

Fiction:

  • Bernard Cornwell – The Burning Land
  • Jack Higgins – The Wolf at the Door
  • Leila Meacham – Roses
  • Stuart Woods – Kisser

    • Non-Fiction:

  • Patti Smith – Just Kids

    • To see the entire Most Wanted Mashup look to the righthand column.
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    Whew. There’s a long list of New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer entries this week including:

  • Chris Bohjalian – Secrets of Eden
  • Ben Bova - Able One
  • Don DeLillo – Point Omega
  • Louise Erdich – Shadow Tag
  • Kristin Hannah - Winter Garden
  • Robert Harris – Conspirata
  • James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge – Worst Case

    • And on the nonfiction side:

  • Henry M. Paulson – On the Brink about the financial near meltdown
  • Jenny Sanford – Staying True story from the wife of the SC governor who took off to “hike the Appalachian trail”
  • Marilyn Johnson – This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

    • Plus many more. Scroll down to the next entry to see the whole list, or click here.
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    Our Under the Radar list this week is New Microhistories. This category of nonfiction shows no signs of letting up. Look in the righthand column just under the Most Wanted Mashup for this list.

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    And now on to the news of the week:

  • The big story of the week concerns the direction of eBook pricing and Amazon’s near monopoly through the Kindle. First, Amazon removed the “Buy” button from all Macmillan books, print and electronic when Macmillan insisted they raise the price of their eBooks from $9.99 to around $15. As if that wasn’t bad enough, thousands of Kindle owners found that Macmillan titles they had already purchased had disappeared from their bookshelves. Then within a day, they backed down and agreed to price Macmillan Ebooks the way the publisher wants. In related news, Apple released its new iPad and Steve Jobs, when asked why people would pay more to buy the Apple version of an eBook when it’s cheaper for the Kindle, said that the prices will be the same. In other news, Amazon gets into the publishing business with four original manuscripts. Other publishers are unhappy about the pricing as well. It’s quite interesting that Amazon in their statement said that they have to capitulate because Macmillan has a “monopoly” on it own titles. Hmmm. Stay tuned.
  • Paulson Book Says He Felt “Jolt of Fear” and Nausea As Economy Threatened to Plunge Off a Cliff
  • Do You Own This Book? It Will Be Featured on Lost
  • Texas Education Board Drops Bill Martin, Author of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? from Curriculum After Confusing Him With Bill Martin, Author of Ethical Marxism
  • Shiloh Walker Takes on Author Solutions for “Monetizing the Slush Pile,” Which, Translated, Means Charging Writers for Things They Can Get Free
  • GalleyCat Launches Book Reviews
  • Study Shows That Readers Want Both Print and Electronic Books
  • Largest Book in the World Goes on Display
  • New Book: Serving Boys Through RA

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    Books on Screen

  • All You Need To Know About the Apple iPad
  • And a Bunch More Takes on the iPad
  • BBC Planning Six More Wallanders Episodes
  • Digital Book World Conference Reports

    • _____________________________________________
    Awards

  • National Jewish Book Awards, Rohr Awards

    • _____________________________________________
    Authors

  • Louis Auchincloss – obituary
  • Kage Baker – obituary
  • Mervyn Gould – obituary
  • Kafka – the last living human who knew him personally reminisces (amazing piece)
  • Ralph McInerny – obituary
  • James Patterson, Inc.
  • Condoleeza Rice – first memoir coming October covers early years, not Bush years
  • JD Salinger - obituary, and how his town protected his privacy
  • Jennifer Weiner – asks fans to help her get script on TV
  • Howard Zinn – obituary

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    Lists

  • January Catholic Bestsellers
  • YALSA 2010 Best Books for Young Adults
  • 2010 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
  • 2010 Quick Picks for Reluctant YA Readers
  • 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens
  • Top Ten Rock and Roll Novels
  • Horror Mall’s Bestselling Books of December, 2009
  • Neal Wyatt: Narrative Histories
  • March 2010 Indie Next List

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    Lighthearted Link of the Week

  • The Ten Best Songs About Libraries and Librarians

    • This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 10:06 pm and is filed under RA Run Down. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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