Here's the Truth:

We've actually been so busy shelving new books at the store in recent weeks that I haven't been able to post anything to the blog about those new books.  With an impending Coffee with a Bookseller coming this Tuesday (be there or be square), I figured now's a good time to offer a recap of recent weeks and to take a look at the new stuff coming this week:

Recent new hardcovers:
Blockade Billy by Stephen King
Truth by Peter Temple (a book I loved - follow the link for my recommends)
Hitch 22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens
61 Hours by Lee Child
Steve Martini's The Rule of Nine
The Madonnas of Echo Park by debut novelist Brando Skyhorse (who will be at Warwick's on June 14th to discuss)
and The Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann, which has been a buzz book for years, as the author originally self-published before getting picked up by Spiegel & Grau.

And of course, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson arrived May 25th. Where've you been? This is by far the hottest title of the year - the conclusion to the late-Larsson's internationally bestselling trilogy of mystery novels. There's a Swedish movie version (with subtitles) of the first book and a rumored upcoming American version, directed by David Fincher and starring Carey Mulligan (of Twilight fame) and Viggo Mortenson. Like I said, where've you been?

There has also been a riduculous abundance of new paperbacks arriving in the last few weeks - Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn (highly, highly recommended by John) and three that I heartilly recommend:  Iain Pears' Stone's Fall (A challenging, unfolding onion of a novel and a fascinating, meticulously researched, multi-layered masterpiece by the author of An Instance of the Fingerpost), Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga (click for my recommends), and Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game - here's my take: "This much-anticipated follow up to The Shadow of the Wind is a sprawling, labyrinthine novel that evokes the rich, vivid atmosphere of pre-Civil War Barcelona’s culture of literacy (leaving the modern reader pining for such days) yet cleverly provokes the reader with a narrator of dubious reliability & sanity. The clack of the typewriter, the smell of the dusty old bookshop, the very idea of pulp short stories being printed in the newspaper - all are evocative of a lost era of literature and a culture surrounding the printed page. The vastness of the narrative layering is astounding, showcasing Ruiz Zafon’s remarkable storytelling abilities & inherent sense of time & place. A great escapist read, especially for those looking to re-enter the Cemetery of Forgotten Books…."

This week:

• The "Twilight" mention reminds me, there's a Stephenie Meyer novella set in the Twilight universe due out this Saturday. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is a result of Meyer fleshing out one of her minor characters from the other books.  If you're into the whole Twilight thing, there's nothing new I can tell you, as you know all this (and more) already.
• The Passage by Justin Cronin - this is going to be a HUGE book, I guarantee. (*Guarantee not valid in California.)  Ballantine won the publishing rights with a $3.75 million contract to the author, it's 766 pages long and weighs 2.4 pounds, Ridley Scott bought the film rights for $1.75 million, and it's about vampires!  Even more incredible (at least to me) is that Cronin is a product of the prestigious literary factory, the Iowa Writer's Workshop.  Take that, Stephenie Meyer.  Here's the New York Times piece on the hype.  And the Huffington Post's take.
• Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain - the long-anticipated follow-up to Kitchen Confidential, the book that put Tony on the map.  If you watch No Reservations, it's gotta be good - I can't wait to read it.
• The Lion by Nelson DeMille - always a bestseller, this is the sequel to The Lion's Game.

And, we are just two short weeks away from the release of David Mitchell's new novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet. (Due Tuesday, June 29th.)  My favorite book of the year so far - here is my early take, just after I read the manuscript 6 months ago. Ahh, the perks of bookselling!