McNally Jackson has posted their FAQs regarding Jonathan Franzen’s new novel Freedom (FSG HC 9780374158460 $28.00)
Bottom line: you still have to wait until Tuesday September 31st to buy the darn thing.
Also, if you want to have a good laugh, you should check out the Twitter feed from Emperor Franzen (below)
(via Shelf Awareness)
io9 has posted a feature listing what they call All the Books You’ll Be Lusting For This Fall Season.
Since they are a SF/Fantasy blog, the books tend to gravitate towards those genres, and wow what a list.
When you come across these titles in catalogs, they are usually buried in amongst cookbooks and books telling you how to feel good about yourself while losing twenty-pounds and making a million dollars.
But, laid out end to end in a veritable smorgasbord…let’s just say that my eyes are bigger than my brain, or my available leisure time.
While I was expecting to see new books by Scott Westerfield and William Gibson, I’m so glad that they gave a shout-out to a (slightly) lesser known writer. In this case, Richard Kadrey. He wrote a novel that went under a lot of readers’ radars called Sandman Slim, which was a great book to handsell once you laid out the plot. His new one is a sequel called Kill the Dead, and I can’t wait to read it.
Time to switch into mooch-mode and call my Harper rep.
The title of this post comes courtesy of Suzanne Collins, from an interview with EW’s Shelf Life, and it’s my quote of the week.
Even though it’s a bit of a template interview, reduced to questions about favorite books, books never finished, etc., it’s a nice little piece to read on the eve (well, if you can call a week and a day an eve) of the release of Mockingjay, the final installment of her Hunger Games series.
Not much has happened since Friday. So, in lieu of venting, opining or pontificating, I’m posting this trailer to a novel co-written by Heroes creator Tim Kring and Dale Peck (yes, that Dale Peck) called Shift (due in hardcover from Random House next week).
I was intrigued to read the book because it comes with the tagline “did LSD kill JFK?”, and while the trailer doesn’t stoke the flames of interest, I have to admit that it is pretty slick as these things go.
(vian io9)
Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour hit the streets (in most places) on Tuesday to the delight of legions of Scottaholics.
Check out the picture below at the release party held in Scott’s stomping ground of Toronto, where an estimated 2000 lined up to meet Scott Pilgrim’s creator, Bryan Lee O’Malley.
If you think it’s crazy now, wait until the movie comes out next month. O’Malley, on his blog, gives the soundtrack to the film a listen, comparing the cuts he suggested with those suggested by director Edgar Wright. I have to admit that Frank Blank’s I Heard Ramona Sing often popped into my head as I was reading this series.
Maybe, just maybe, this film will enthrall a tidal wave of girls into thinking that slacker boys who spend way too much time playing videogames are far more interesting than pigeon-chested vampires that sparkle in sunlight, sparking a new trend and making people forget ol’ whatshisname.
(Photo via radiomaru.com)
Reading Media Matters For America’s takedown of Glenn Beck’s debut thriller The Overton Window (Threshold HC 9781439184301 $26), I found it amusing, but somewhat hollow.
I mean, sure, the plot sounds like Ayn Rand tried her hand at writing The Hunt for Red October fused with Left Behind, but nobody could every accuse Beck of coming up with anything more absurd or questionably plausible than Tom Clancy or even Robert Ludlum.
Although, the whole idea of smuggling a woman onto a plane by disguising her as Natalie Portman and having her spew Star Wars quotes is either a crass attempt to cater to Generation X or simply the single most idiotic thing I’ve ever read in my life.
Two Dollar Radio has posted a trailer for Joshua Mohr’s new novel Termite Parade, which the have set for publication on July 1st.
The trailer is good, but the book is even better. In all honesty, it’s one of my favorite books coming out this summer (and no, they’re not paying me to say this).
If I were handselling this, I would tell potential customers that it’s got the boozy misanthropy of Charles Bukowski mixed with the catalog of human weirdness that Chuck Palahniuk explores.
Check out this video of Paul Auster reading from his upcoming novel Sunset Park (scheduled for a November release by Henry Holt).
It’s not getting anywhere near the 13.8 million hits that the new Nike World Cup commercial is getting, so tell all of your friends about it. I mean, wouldn’t you rather live in a world where 13 million viewers decide they would rather watch Paul Auster read instead of watching Renaldo kick a soccer ball past Homer Simpson (cool as that is)?
(via Third Place Books’ Facebook page)
Justin Cronin’s apocalyptic vampire novel The Passage (Ballantine HC 9780345504968 $27.00) will be released next week, and the publisher is pulling no punches when it comes to marketing. An entire website devoted to Cloverfield-like video vérité footage is up and running.
I have to admit that the shakey-cam stuff never really did it for me, and frankly, the line waiting for autographed copies of the book at BookExpo was scarier than this.
However, having read the book, I can say that it is quite good, even if it is a bit derivative of books like The Stand and I Am Legend. Really, it’s a great summer read and readers will burn through those 700+ pages like sunlight on a vampire. And, if the book doesn’t get lost in all of the Hornets’ Nest hoopla, it should sell big.
(via EW’s Shelf Life)