Previews, Reviews, and Collection Development
Barbara Hoffert (bhoffert@mediasourceinc.com, @BarbaraHoffert on Twitter) is Editor, LJ Prepub Alert; past chair of the Materials Selection Committee of the RUSA (Reference and User Services Assn.) division of the American Library Association; and past president of the National Book Critics Circle, to which she has just been reelected.
Last call to register for Library Journal’s annual BEA Galley & Signing Guide, ready this week! Last year’s guide was packed with more than 300 titles, and this year’s guide promises to be even bigger. From big houses and small, from Jamie Ford and Alice McDermott, Jonathan Franzen and Curtis Sittenfeld, the guide will cover [...]
Albom, Mitch. The First Phone Call from Heaven. Harper: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780062294371. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062294395. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio. POP FICTION Phones are ringing off the hook in little Coldwater, MI, but the callers are all deceased, stirring emotions from joyous relief to uncertain fear as they report being happy in [...]
Auster, Paul. Report from the Interior. Holt. Nov. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780805098570. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780805098594. CD: Macmillan Audio. MEMOIR At 63, celebrated novelist Auster wrote an account of his body and of physical sensation generally that was published last year as Winter Journal. In this work he charts the life of the mind, particularly [...]
Cooper, Artemis. Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure. New York Review Books. Oct. 2013. 480p. ISBN 9781590176740; e-book 9781590176993. BIOGRAPHY Lovers of travel writing everywhere know the name Patrick Leigh Fermor, whose walk across Europe in the 1930s, at age 18, is legendary. Fewer people know about his involvement in the resistance to German occupation of [...]
Berger, Glen. The Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History. S. & S. Nov. 2013. NAp. ISBN 9781451684568. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781451684582. MUSICALS Chosen by Julie Taymor to collaborate on the book of the Spider-man musical, Emmy Award–winning television and theater writer Berger saw the entire musical unfold [...]
Cookbooks, Food Memoirs, and Eating Advice from Chopra Choi, Roy & others. L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food. Anthony Bourdain Bks/Ecco: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062202635. $29.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062202642. COOKERY.MEMOIR Chopra, Deepak. What Are You Hungry For?: The Chopra Solution to Permanent Weight Loss, Well-Being, and Lightness of Soul. Harmony, dist. [...]
Librarian and author Josh Harnagarne discusses his experiences with Tourette Syndrome and his passion for books.
Another year, another BookExpo America. This year’s festivities start on Wednesday, May 29, at the Jacob K. Javits Cemter in New York City, with conferences and special events that include Library Journal’s Day of Dialog. On May 30-June 1, doors are open to the exhibits, where you’ll be hunting for books and authors to love. [...]
Faulks, Sebastian. Jeeves and the Wedding Bells. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2013. NAp. ISBN 9781250047595. $24.99. POP FICTION What a combination! Faulks, author of absorbingly well-rendered best sellers like Charlotte Gray, as well as the James Bond sequel Devil May Care, here takes on one of his favorite authors with the permission of the estate. Yes, [...]
Chang, Jung. Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. Knopf. Nov. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780307271600. $30. BIOGRAPHY First a Red Guard, then the recipient of a doctoral degree in linguistics from England’s Bristol University, then the hugely best-selling author of Wild Swans and Mao, Jung Chang has a remarkable life story. And the [...]
LJ Reviews Social Club