Earlyword

Premiering last night on FX was the new series, Justified, based on Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole” (which is also the title of the first episode). The main character, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens also appears in two Leonard novels, Pronto and Riding the Rap. Both are being released in mass market paperback this month, [...]

The video from CBS Sunday Morning’s feature on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is now available online: Watch CBS News Videos Online

Of the reviewers’ recent favorites, the leader, as judged by sheer numbers and enthsiasm, is Chang-rae Lee’s The Surrendered. USA Today’s review brings the total from consumer publications to at least 15 by our count (we may have missed some), including People magazine, The Portland Oregonian and the NYT BR. The novel traces the lives of three [...]

Zooming up to #8 on Amazon is a book that’s inspired an NBA player, the rapper 50 Cent and the CEO of American Apparel. The book, The 48 Laws of Power, originally published in 1998 and released in paperback in 2000, was covered on CNN yesterday. Author Robert Greene learned about many of his sources when he [...]

Jane Brody, the NYT’s health columnist writes movingly today about her husband’s death. Brody notes that this “Personal Health” column is very personal, When I wrote Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond, I had no idea that I’d be putting its precepts into practice in my immediate family within a year of publication. But as I [...]

The first of what will be many reviews of Michael Lewis’ The Big Short are in. The Washington Post says, If you read only one book about the causes of the recent financial crisis, let it be Michael Lewis’s, The Big Short. That’s not because Lewis has put together the most comprehensive or authoritative analysis of all the [...]

Last night’s airing of the first episode of HBO’s ten-part series (stray question — why do they insist on calling something this long a mini-series?), The Pacific, propelled 3 titles into Amazon’s Top 100. Two of the main characters are introduced in this first episode, aspiring journalist Robert Leckie who experiences combat at Guadalcanal and [...]

Cotinuing at #5 on the 3/21 NYT Nonfiction best seller list after five weeks, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks got feature treatment on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday. Author Rebecca Skloot will also appear on the Colbert Report on Tuesday. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-02-02) ISBN / EAN: 1400052173 / 9781400052172 Random House Audio; [...]

Seth Grahame-Smith set off the monster mashup craze last year with his Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Published as a $12.95 paperback by independent press Quirk Book in Philadelphia, it continues to be a huge success. One wondered when Grand Central picked up the rights to the author’s next book, ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, whether fans would [...]

This week Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass rocketed to the top of the NYT Graphic Books Hardcover Best Seller list. Heralded as one of the very few comics to treat superhero traditions realistically while also taking place in our world, Kick-Ass is a darkly humorous look at what might actually happen if a disgruntled teenager decided to [...]

First-time novelist Lauren Oliver arrives on the 3/21 NYT Children’s Chapter Books best seller list at #8 with Before I Fall. The book is told by a girl who dies in a car accident, but gets to relive the last day of her life seven times. The book was launched with a 100,000-copy first printing. PW [...]

Arriving at #28 on the 3/21 Extended NYT Fiction best seller list is Heresy by S.J. Parris, a pseudonym for Stephanie Merritt. It’s her first outing under this name, her first time writing an historical thriller, and her first time on the best seller list. The Washington Post recently pegged The Heresy as part of a subgenre [...]

Coming to theaters April 9th is The Runaways, a movie based on Cherie Curry’s 1989 memoir, Neon Angel, recently updated as a tie-in. The movie was previewed in the NYT this weekend, …a new film about the trailblazing bad-girl rock band from the 1970s that spawned Joan Jett, is how authentic it feels…One reason may be that the [...]

If you are in New York City on Thursday March 18th, please join us. The Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street is being dragged kicking and screaming into the age of technology. For the first time in its 101 years of reviewing, selecting and annotating children’s books, the Best Books of the Year list will be [...]

In this Sunday’s NYT Magazine Frank Bruni profiles Katie Lee, aspiring food celebrity. She appears regularly on The Early Show. Her cooking column, Eat This Up, appears monthly in Cosmopolitan. She’s published books; a requirement for any food celebrity. The first book even landed her a spot on Oprah (perhaps largely because her husband at the time, Billy Joel, [...]

After dozens of high-profile best selling titles about various aspects of the financial crisis, the most anticipated title, and the one the may be the most accessible to the broadest audience is… The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Michael Lewis Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2010-03-15) ISBN / EAN: 0393072231 / 9780393072235 It arrives with much fanfare; [...]

Viking’s big early spring debut, Angelology, is bringing hosannas from some and pitchforks from others. Viking wasn’t the only publisher to see potential in the book; they were one of seven houses to bid on it last year, and won with a rumored six-figure deal, (Publishers Weekly, 1/28/09). Shortly after, movie rights were sold for $1 [...]

Two novels to keep an eye on next week – Paolo Giordano’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers, an international bestseller that’s starting to draw media attention, and Sarah Addison Allen’s third novel, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, which has solid demand in libraries that have ordered it. Paolo Giordano’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers is the saga of two misfit Italian schoolmates as [...]

…is heeeere! The movie opens June 30th. The official movie site is here.

…is heeeere! The movie opens June 30th. The official site is here.