LCPL Book Buzz

The words of Jacqueline Kennedy

lcplreaders — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:53:03 +0000

You’ve probably seen something about this book! Get yourself on the reserve list – this one’s going to be popular.

From EarlyWord:

The book/CD set, Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy, consists of both the transcript and audio recordings of the 1964 interviews Jackie gave historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. just a few months after her husband’s death. The recordings were sealed and later placed in the Kennedy Library. This is the first time they have been released. News stories about the interviews have focused on Jackie’s surprisingly frank comments about LBJ and Martin Luther King. As Caroline Kennedy says, the book also offers an intriguing look at how life has changed since that time.

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As the news began to break, the set shot to #1 on both Amazon and B&N.com’s sales rankings, where it remains today. Holds in libraries are heavy.

The New York Post claims that ABC is “furious” because NBC managed to break the book’s embargo, thus undercutting Diane Sawyer’s two-hour “exclusive” which aired last night. The story becomes all the more juicy, if a bit too “inside baseball,” because ABC owns the publisher of the book, Hyperion.

“Buzzy” New Releases

lcplreaders — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:51:22 +0000

Two titles are receiving a lot if media coverage this week. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach uses baseball as the backdrop for a much bigger story, according to reviewers. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh is the story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others, even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

The Help (the movie)

lcplreaders — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 23:52:18 +0000

I saw The Help at the theater this weekend and was generally pleased with how they adapted the book. I read it so long ago, I’m not sure I remember the fine details but it seems that certain elements were adjusted. Overall, however, the movie captures the book pretty well (yes, I cried!) but nothing will ever compare to listening to the audiobook version, in my opinion.

National Book Critics Circle Award Winners

lcplreaders — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:56:42 +0000

The NBCC Awards announced the following winners:

•Fiction: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
•Nonfiction: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
•Biography: How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
•Poetry: One with Others: [a little book of her days] by C.D. Wright
•Criticism: Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West by Clare Cavanagh

Early Christmas reading

lcplreaders — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:37:05 +0000

If you’re already in the mood for a little holiday reading, browse this list of 2010 Christmas fiction, available at the library.

Oprah picks Franzen again and he accepts!

lcplreaders — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:24:14 +0000

Remember when Jonathan Franzen refused to let Oprah Winfrey select his novel The Corrections for her book club? Apparently, fences have mended because Oprah just selected Franzen’s latest novel, Freedom, which was already selling and circulating rather well on its own, as the first book of this season. Good news for Oprah Book Club followers – she plans to continue selecting titles through the end of her final season and will carry the club over to the Oprah Network next year.

Get more information about the book, Oprah’s reading calendar and bookmark, and discussion questions HERE.

New Booklist

lcplreaders — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:13:23 +0000

If you like novels in which a story from the past and a story in the present are combined, as in Anne Fortier’s Juliet, take a look at our new booklist – Parallel Narratives – for suggestions of other novels that use a historical plot to enhance a modern storyline.

Man Booker nominates best

lcplreaders — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:21:42 +0000

The judges for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction have announced the longlist for the prize, the leading literary award in the English speaking world.

The longlist includes:
Peter Carey. Parrot and Olivier in America
Emma Donoghue. Room
Helen Dunmore. The Betrayal
Damon Galgut. In a Strange Room
Howard Jacobson. The Finkler Question
Andrea Levy. The Long Song
Tom McCarthy. C
David Mitchell. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Lisa Moore. February
Paul Murray. Skippy Dies
Rose Tremain. Trespass
Christos Tsiolkas. The Slap
Alan Warner. The Stars in the Bright Sky

Highest-Paid Authors

lcplreaders — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:34:55 +0000

Wow. The list isn’t all that shocking but the difference between Patterson’s earnings and the rest is a bit unsettling. Let’s hope Patterson’s co-authors are well paid too!

James Patterson – $70 million

Stephenie Meyer – $40 million

Stephen King – $34 million

Danielle Steel – $32 million

Ken Follett – $20 million

Cold Cases

lcplreaders — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:45:30 +0000

NPR featured The Murder Room on two programs while Publishers Weekly criticized the author’s writing style. You’ll have to be the judge.

Author Michael Capuzzo details the formation of the legendary Vidocq Society, the brainchild of three very different men: exboxer turned forensic sculptor Frank Bender; FBI and U.S. Customs agent William Fleisher; and forensic psychologist and profiler Richard Walter. This legendary meeting of the minds solved some of the world’s coldest cases.