After 20 years as a foreign correspondent, moving frequently between unstable countries, Judith Matloff and her husband decided to settle down in West Harlem, New York.  After a whirlwind tour of the area, they plunked down money on an old brownstone, only to discover that their street is at the epicenter of the Cocaine trade in the American Northeast.  Home Girl is the hilarious and heartwarming story of coming home and building a community.  Take a tour of Matloff’s brownstone in the video below (and meet her neighbor “Salami”) and then pick up her wonderful memoir. 

–Jen

Out tomorrow from Delacorte Press, The Smart Cookies’ Guide to Making More Dough is a perfect addition to your library collections as more and more Americans find themselves struggling through hard economic times. Inspired by an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show on personal finance, five young women of varying careers and financial situations, decided to form a money group to support each other in pursuit of financial success. In this new book, the “Smart Cookies” share their secrets on how to eliminate debt, spend smarter, save better and achieve financial freedom. This is a perfect book for young twenty and thirty-somethings who are trying to figure it all out. It may even inspire your patrons to start their own money groups! Also check out the Smart Cookies website.

-Marie

Ex-CIA operative Robert Baer, whose previous books were the inspiration behind Academy Award-nominated film Syriana, is one of the world’s leading experts on the conflicts in the Middle East, and while the issue isn’t as big as it’s been in the past, it is still very much present in this election. Baer’s newest book, The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, debuts soon, marking the beginning of a huge publicity tour including the following:

CNN American Morning (Sept. 30)
Radio Factor with Bill O’Rielly (Sept. 30)
Leonard Lopate Show (Sept. 30)
Fresh Air on NPR (Oct. 1)
Fox and Friends (Oct. 1)
Good Morning America Radio (Oct. 1)
Hardball with Chris Matthews (Oct. 2)
Hannity and Colmes (Oct. 3)

So be sure to have this one in your collections before people come asking!

-David

Today a co-worker sent me a link to a YouTube video featuring a reunion between a lion and his human caretakers. If you haven’t seen it yet, it might bring a few tears to your eyes as it is incredibly sweet (and is even set to sappy music… don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

Next Spring, Broadway will publish A Lion Called Christian, a memoir written by Christian’s human friends. This book will surely interest your animal loving patrons and Marley and Me fans. Keep an eye out for it!  

-Marie

Last night I saw The Duchess, the new movie starring Keira Knightly based on the Random House book by Amanda Foreman, Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire or, The Duchess, as it has been retitled for the movie-tie in. If you have a pechant for period pieces, elaborate costumes and big hair, this movie will not disappoint. As a fan of all things British Royalty I enjoyed learning about a figure I’d previously known very little about. Check out the movie trailer below and, of course, the book as well.

- Marie

Next week is Banned Books Week, a time to celebrate our right as Americans to read books of our own choosing, and a time to keep the issues of censorship and banned books front and center. Random House has put together a “First Amendment First Aid Kit” to help your library celebrate this week and to use as a resource as you continue to battle censorship on the front lines.

What you’ll find: A downloadable poster, a list of books that “dare to disturb the universe,” strategies for dealing with challenged books, thoughts on censorship from authors Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and Lois Lowry, and much more.  We hope you find this to be a useful resource.

And don’t forget, Random House is offering free copies of our new RHI Magazine which focuses on censorship and banned books.  Request your copy today.

–Jen

I must get my circuts checked. Yesterday, I found a Three Rivers Press ARC of something called I SAW YOU in my boss’s book cart. I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of it yet-something that combines two of my favorite modern-day phenomena: graphic art and Missed Connections.

If you’re unaware of Missed Connections, you should visit Craigslist.com immediately and click on the link for it. Missed Connections is a place online where people can post little love notes (or maybe “would-be-love” notes) about how they saw someone they were romantically interested in around town and neglected to say something. The posts can range from cute to creepy to wildly inappropriate, but, either way, they’re often very entertaining.

A typical example from today in New York City: “Sunday night…around 10ish. You were rocking a white hat and some killer sneaks. You kept looking at me, and made the same transfer from the southbound NQRW to the L train at 14th. You were standing next to me on the platform. You kept looking at me… you’re cute. Why didn’t you say something?…”

These are entertaining enough by themselves, but Editor Julia Wertz has collaborated with a ton of stars of the graphic art world to produce a whole book of comics inspired by real Missed Connections. I flipped through it for an hour yesterday, and now all my friends have been asking for it. It reminds me of a former staff pick of mine called Postcards. Be sure to reserve copies for your 20-something patrons! This one publishes in February.

-David

If you’re like me, choosing the next book to read is serious business.  There are moods to be considered and big decisions to be made. When I go to the library, I often check out various titles in many different genres because I don’t know what I’ll feel like reading next.

I recently picked up The Female Brain, Dr. Louann Brizendine’s very reader-friendly book on the neurological differences that exist between the female and male brains and how those differences shape their personalities, biology, and ability to communicate with one another. The influence for this choice, I must confess, was my book club; however, I very much enjoyed the book, was able to glean a lot from it and recommend it to every woman (and every man who wants to better understand women).

After finishing this book I was craving a good novel, so I decided to read something a good friend had just finished and raved about: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. It is the story of a newlywed couple and a wedding night gone awry. After finishing this all-too-quick read, I was left with the awe-inspiring impression that no one better captures the subtlety of a moment with such gravity than Mr. McEwan. This is definitely going on my list of all-time favorites.

What is most interesting to me about my latest choices though is their pairing and the influence they had on one another. While reading On Chesil Beach, I kept thinking that the young couple would have much better luck communicating with one another if they had read Dr. Brizendine’s book too. I found myself thinking, “Well, he needs to do this and remember that she is acting the way she is because of this hormone in her brain.” and “She should understand that he is thinking this way because of X-Y-and-Z.” I am amused by how these books, seemingly different in every way, have come together and influenced my reading experience, something that has made me contemplative regarding the act of choosing and reading books in general. Surely, other bibliophiles can relate… Feel free to comment if you have an interesting story to share!

So, I guess the short of it is read these two books and, if you want an interesting experience, read them together.

-Marie

Not sure how you feel about books being made into movies.  I usually give them the benefit of the doubt.  Many have them are reasonable and offer a nostalgic trip, PROVIDED that I’ve already read the book.  I’ve enjoyed the Harry Potter movies, Memoirs of a Geisha, and even Atonement.  Of course there are a few abysmal failures like say, Simon Birch, which was an insult to one of my favorite books of all time.  But after seeing the trailer for Revolutionary Road, I have high hopes.  Take a look at the trailer and please, let us know what you think.  We’d love to have your comments (even if you disagree)!

Did you know Rue McClanahan originally auditioned for Rose, and Betty White nearly played Blanche???

Rue McClanahan’s New York Times bestselling memoir – My First Five Husbands…And the Ones Who Got Away  Now available in paperback, the infamous Golden Girl’s hilarious romp through the loves and losses, hits and flops that have shaped her life in Hollywood, and the lessons she learned along the way.

-Erica