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 raoblog@lu.com.

By Cindy Orr

New Titles On the Bestseller Lists This Week

Fiction

David Baldacci – Hell’s Corner

Fannie Flagg – I Still Dream of You

Stephen King – Full Dark, No Stars

Nonfiction

George Bush – Decision Points

Nora Ephron – I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections

Stacy Schiff – Cleopatra: a Life

Mass Market Paperback

Mary Balogh – A Christmas Promise

B. J. Daniels – High Caliber Christmas

Lori Wilde – The First Love Cookie Club

And Climbing Toward the Top 10:

Tami Hoag – Deeper Than the Dead

To see the entire Most Wanted Mashup of this week’s bestselling titles, look to the righthand column.
_______________________________________________________
New, Noteworthy, and No-Brainer—To Be Published This Week:

Brad Thor – The Athena Project – 500,000 copies

Steve Berry – The Emperor’s Tomb – 300,000 copies

Steve Martin – An Object of Beauty – 200,000 copies

Janet Evanovich – Troublemaker (Barnaby and Hooker) (graphic novel)

Sarah Palin – America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag – 1,000,000 copies

Edmund Morris – Colonel Roosevelt – 350,000 copies

Scroll down for the complete list, or click here.
_______________________________________________________
Our Under the Radar list this week is Hot Gifts for the Holidays. . . our prediction of what titles are likely to sell well before the end of the year. Look in the righthand column just under the Most Wanted Mashup for this list.

_______________________________________________________
News of the Week:

Booklist gave President Obama’s children’s book a great review. Then, USA Today reviewed it, then Fox News took USA Today’s article and um…well, changed the headline. . . a couple of times. The earlier one said “killed.”

Barnes & Noble ships Nook color early and it scores a good review in the Wall Street Journal

eReader holiday guide

The New York Times estimates that over 1.3 million ereaders will be sold over the holidays. Are you ready? Do your patrons know which ones are compatible with your service

Product placement in books?

Youthful brains are being rewired by technology, can’t focus long enough to read; on the other hand, who says our way is the right way? and maybe we’re just passing through the Gutenberg Parenthesis

HarperCollins sues Gawker for leaking snippets from Sarah Palin’s new book

Jordan’s banned books store

A new site called Lost Book Sales has debuted. Its purpose: to provide a place to report frustrating experiences that resulted in failed book sales…interesting reading

Amazon to buy publication rights to the literary titles of Toby Press

Kobo announces the ability to give ebooks as gifts

ALA Midwinter’s big name speakers include Armistead Maupin, Richard Rhodes, Kathy Reichs, David Levithan, Stewart O’Nan, Susan Vreeland, Vernor Vinge, Richard Rhodes, Andre Dubus III, Elizabeth Adler, Paula McLain, Conor Grennan, Richard Louv, Luann Rice, Ted Danson, and Nancy Pearl with Neil Gaiman.

9 questions to ask before you accept a speaking gig

The world’s greatest bookshops

Nancy Pearl Presents: Books That Make Great Gifts webinar for PLA December 13

What the Authors of LJ’s Top Ten Best Books are doing next

_______________________________________________________
Books on Screen

The Coen brothers plans to release a new movie version of True Grit on December 22 results in sales surge for the novel by Charles Portis

Twilight director takes on Red Riding Hood

Hot new movie based on the book 127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston

The 30 Best Books to Movies

_______________________________________________________
Awards

Debut novel wins Governor General’s Award

IMPAC Dublin Award Longlist

Costa Book Awards shortlist

_______________________________________________________
Authors

Samuel Martin Burke – obituary

Larry Evans – obituary

Megan McKinney - pleads guilty to defrauding FEMA and the SBA of more than $400,000 in a Katrina fraud; and apparently it’s not at all her first scam job

Tawni O’Dell – what happened when her publisher told her she had a “biker chick” name, which is not cool for a literary writer

Sara Paretsky – chosen Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America

Ridley Pearson – interview (video)

Jennifer Rardin – obituary

E. C. Tubb – obituary

Kurt Vonnegut – has his own memorial library

_______________________________________________________
Lists

Library Journal’s Top 10 Books of the Year

And...LJ’s Next 18

LJ Best Books 2010: Niche Nonfiction

Observer Books of the Year

Kirkus: Best of 2010: Children’s and Teens

Library Journal’s Best Genre Fiction of 2010

The Observer’s Best Books of 2010

Guardian’s 10 of the Best Angels in Literature

November 2010 Indie Next List

Flavorwire’s 10 Contemporary Books That Challenged White, Male Literary Dominance

Hudson Booksellers Best Books of 2010

Pat Conroy’s Favorite Southern Writers

20 Vintage Sleaze Reads (mostly by Donald Westlake)

20 Essential Works of Noir Fiction

_______________________________________________________
Lighthearted Link of the Week

Gift Guide for Library and Book Lovers

Library School Hurts So Good

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 21st, 2010 at 8:00 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.