Unshelved readers, welcome to the blog! And if you’re here independently, that might be even better. The Library Services team here at Random House has chosen 4 books from our Fall 2010 Adult List which we think you absolutely must be aware of (and of which you–or your library’s automatic-buy system–may not be already aware).

Here we go!

The False Friend by Myra Goldberg – This amazing book-club choice explores “the adults that children become” through the lens of a tragic childhood incident swept so far under the rug that it’s almost become the truth. As Booklist says, “Readers are kept guessing until the final pages and, as in Bee Season, Goldberg uses beautiful, emotionally descriptive language to keep us with one ear to the ground, listening for the slow, quiet footsteps of creeping tragedy.”

Vampire Knits by Genevieve Miller – All this time your patrons are spending around vampires is going to cause them to discover a few things they might want to have. How to disguise your bottle of blood? A blood-bottle cozy, of course. How to keep your hands warm on a fall foliage stroll with an undead guy? Bellisima mittens! How to avoid the whole black-cape cliche? With the dead-sexy Sidhe Shrug. 28 thirst-practical knitting projects for your vamp-crazy patrons. (Is there any other kind?)

Mr. Toppit by Charles Elton – A family’s trying brush with fame takes center stage here, while the elusive Mr. Toppit himself lurks behind the curtain. Great reads so far: “Elton skillfully weaves together postwar England and a terrifyingly modern L.A., as well as the hopes and disappointments of frustrated mothers, neglected children, and clandestine lovers. While beautifully written and graced with a unique story line, it is Elton’s characters who drive the novel and give it a depth uncommon in debuts.” Publishers Weekly, Starred

Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie – Sir Rushdie once again takes on the YA-crossover novel with unmatched grace. This one was written for his second son and features a teenage protagonist named Luka who, in order to save his comatose father, must enter a magical world and steal the Fire of Life, a flame so ludicrously unattainable it makes the Golden Fleece look like a Blue Light Special. Says Kirkus in their starred review, “Brilliant wordplay throughout…A celebration of storytelling…and a colorful, kick-up-your-heels delight.”

We do have a limited quantity of Advance Readers Copies for the three fiction titles here, so if you are interested in getting your hands on The False Friend, Mr. Toppit, or Luka, send an email to library@randomhouse.com specifying which book you are interested in and your library’s mailing address. We’ll choose winner randomly at the end of the week.

Hope this helps your fall collections! For more updates and tips, be sure to follow this blog on your RSS feeds!

-RHLibrary

I’ve finished the final pages of MOCKINGJAY, and feel the need to extend my foray into children’s literature.  While anxiously awaiting the galley of THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES by Carrie Ryan, and having already read REVOLUTION by Jennifer Donnelly, I am now in need of guidance.

I’ve consulted 1001 CHILDREN’S BOOK YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU GROW UP and made an exciting discovery.  I’ve never read EMILY OF NEW MOON by Lucy Maud Montgomery!  So I turn to the classics for the moment.  But what should come next?

What are your favorite, must-read books in children’s literature?

-Erica

Join Erica tomorrow as she represents Random House during Library Journal’s Webcast Book Buzz!

DATE:Tuesday, August 17th

TIME: 3:00pm – 4:00pm EST

Everyone loves the September 1 Fall Announcements issue from LJ, but what if those pages could talk to you? Register for the Fall Book Buzz 2010 and you’ll find out about read-alikes and new series titles, get tidbits about new authors and old favorites, and maybe even get the chance to win a galley giveaway or two!

REGISTER FOR THIS FREE WEBCAST TODAY AT www.libraryjournal.com/FallBookBuzz2010

PANELISTS
Katelynn Knutson, Marketing Associate, Greenleaf Book Group
Virginia Stanley, Director of Library Marketing, HarperCollins Publishers
Erica Melnichok, Associate Marketing Manager, Random House
Michael Rockliff, Director, Library Sales and Marketing, Workman/Algonquin

MODERATOR
Anna Katterjohn, Book Review editor, Library Journal

Last night, during the spin cycle at my neighborhood laundromat, I plopped myself down on the stoop outside to enjoy the summer evening air and finished David Nicholl’s acclaimed novel, One Day. The story of the friendship of Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley (”Dex and Em, Em and Dex”) the book provides snapshots of them from the late 1980’s to 2000’s on July 15th of each year. In alternating perspective, the reader is able to be a fly on the wall as the pair navigate their twenties and thirties, the highs and the lows, both together and apart.

The dialogue is witty (at times hilarious) and sharp, the characterization pitch-perfect and the plot all-too-familiar as Nicholls addresses the idea that life is fluid – full of ever-changing currents that ebb and flow within friendship, career, romance and everything inbetween. Sorry for the bad generalization there. Simply put, this book is a delightful yet simultaneously moving read and the British pop culture references captured this Anglophile’s heart. Thank you, Mr. Nicholls, for including many references to rocket. You made me feel so cultured and “in-the-know.”

Random House loved this book so much they gave all of us two copies – one to keep and one to share. I would love to share my extra copy with one of you. Comment below for your chance to win!

-Marie

So I just finished two weeks of grand jury duty where I spent my workdays sitting in a room with 22 other people hearing mutliple cases and voting on whether to indict the defendants. A case would come, we’d vote, and then we’d wait for another. Sometimes the wait time was 20 minutes and sometimes it was two hours. This means I had a lot of time to read so of course I flew through some wonderful books!

I started by finishing the last few chapters of Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. Out in October from Random House Children’s this engrossing historical read combines the story of a troubled teen growing up in contemporary Brooklyn with that of a rebellious young woman living during the French Reniassance.

Next came Dracula in Love, a staff favorite and an alternate take on Bram Stoker’s classic from the point of view of his love interest, Mina Murray. It has been heralded as Twilight for grown-ups and I agree!

After Dracula I tried a non-Random House title, Matched, which is the newest in dystopian YA fiction and would definitely appeal to fans of The Hunger Games.

From there I did a little more cheating and buried my nose in two titles I’d been told to read for a while now: The Shadow of the Wind and The Help. Both were excellent reads.

Now it is back to the grind and while I find I very much enjoyed all my reading time, I’m glad to be back amongst my wonderful colleagues. What have you all been reading lately?

-Marie

Hot off the press and the ALA conference, our newly updated One Book, One Community catalog highlights the Random House, Inc. titles we think are the best bets for your community programs! 

For help planning your One Book, One Community program contact us at library@randomhouse.com.  We can answer questions about author availability, quantity discounts, and provide additional information about our titles, as well as preview copies.

To request a printed copy of our catalog, send your address to library@randomhouse.com and we’ll send one right out to you!

One of the great pleasures of working in book publishing is getting to witness and be a part of the advance buzz that crops up pre-publication. Even more exciting is when this buzz lands on our doorstep here in Library Marketing. I’m talking about the “You have to read this book! You’ll love it!” exchanges between my co-workers, the passing back and forth of galleys and morning conversations about last night’s reading.

It happened with The Passage and Cutting for Stone and now with Richard Harvell’s debut novel, The Bells. A few weeks ago Erica began raving about it so I decided to give it a go. Last week, I parked myself in her office every morning to discuss the pages I’d read the night before. Lest you overlook this great book, here are some comments from both of us!

This book is unlike any piece of historical fiction I’ve read before. Gone are the queens and other royal figures, the courtiers and painters. Moses, the son of a deaf-mute, grew up in a belfry before being cast out, found by two  monks and taken to live in the Abbey of St. Gall where he sings in the choir. He is the one that no one wants with a operetic voice so in demand it becomes his curse. Gothic in tone with gorgeous language that has an ear for sound this book will pull you into the landscape of the Swiss Alps, Mozart’s Vienna, and Moses’ world.  -Marie

 “A surprising love story of the unlikely places family is to be found, with a cast of endearing characters.  Just imagine – a romantic, love-drunk monk!  

I also found myself reacting in much the same way as when I read Sarah Dunant’s SACRED HEARTS.  Her novel sparked a brief obsession with nuns. I sought more information on young aristocratic girls forced into convents in Italy.  And with THE BELLS, I wanted to learn more about the castrati; those young boys in Italy physically assaulted and altered in order to preserve their voices.”  -Erica

-Marie

Have you noticed that the ‘undead’ seem to live on forever!?! WHAT is the attraction with those vampires? And don’t you love the way your circulation keeps growing because of that attraction?

We here in Library Marketing are not immune to these attractions. If you’ve been to ANY library show since last November, you’ll have noticed the stacks of NIGHTLIGHT, the hilarious send-up by the Harvard Lampoon. At TLA so many picked up the display copy of NIGHTLIGHT that I had to get out the Windex and give it a once-over in the interest of cleanliness. And the comments were so over the top in praise I won’t even repeat any of them because you’d just think I made them up. Needless to say, if you haven’t ordered multiple copies of NIGHTLIGHT for your library, you are missing out. Here’s a brief quote from the fact-sheet:

“Complete with romance, danger, insufficient parental guardianship, creepy stalker-like behavior, and a vampire prom, NIGHTLIGHT is the uproarious tale of a vampire-obsessed girl (Belle Goose), looking for love in all the wrong places (with Edwart Mullen).”

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But, you say, my money should be spent also on more classic titles! In that case I send you to DRACULA by Bram Stoker in the beautiful, classic Everyman’s Library edition. Go back to the beginning and that crumbling castle in the Carpathian Mountains.

Still need more? Something more comprehensive with a different slant? Huge value for your collection dollars: THE VAMPIRE ARCHIVES; THE MOST COMPLETE VOLUME OF VAMPIRE TALES EVER PUBLISHED. Compiled by Otto Penzler and with a Preface by Neil Gaiman, this is the biggest, hungriest collection ever assembled featuring over 80 stories by everyone from Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King. Guaranteed to “drive a stake through the heart of any other collection out there.”

If the idea of carrying around 1,056 pages of horror doesn’t appeal to all your patrons, gear up for the clever sectioning of this collection into the following subdivisions:

BLOODSUCKERS: THE VAMPIRE ARCHIVES, VOLUME 1, mass market coming in July
FANGS: THE VAMPIRE ARCHIVES, VOLUME 2, mass market coming in August
COFFINS: THE VAMPIRE ARCHIVES, VOLUME 3, mass market coming in September

And one last treat! Coming in August from Karen Essex (author of LEONARDO’S SWANS and STEALING ATHENA), a new novel, DRACULA IN LOVE , asks the question: What if everything you knew about Dracula…was wrong? Now that question alone focused my attention like a laser beam. Told from Mina’s point of view, this is the truth of her personal voyage, and of vampirism itself. Join her in a visceral journey into Victorian England’s dimly lit bedrooms, mist-filled cemeteries, and asylum chambers — into the joys and terrors of a passionate affair that has lasted through the centuries.

Whew! My work here is done, and I sense the sunrise approaching. <whoosh>

-Marcia Lane Purcell

The rest of the gang is away at BEA so I thought I’d say a quick “hello” and share with you a great book I’ve recently read.

Lisa Grunwald’s new novel, The Irresistible Henry House began with a barebottomed baby.  Says Grunwald of coming across Joan’s photo: “I clicked on the photograph and read that he had been a “practice baby,” an infant supplied by a local orphanage to Cornell’s home economics ‘practice house,’ where college students learned home-making, complete with a live baby…” Turns out the first baby in the Cornell University program was Joan Domecon (for Domestic Economics) who lived in the practice house for one year in 1919.

What must it have been like for these babies? And who did they turn out to be?  These types of questions inspired Henry House, the title character who has had a way with the ladies his entire life. (I could practically see the dough eyes and gorgeous smile myself.) Brought into a university “practice house” at just a few months old, he is placed in the care of Martha Gaines, a no-nonsense expert who has been doing this for a long time thankyouverymuch. In the hey day of Dr. Spock and his childcare revolution, Martha struggles with her own maternal instincts while instructing her students not to spoil the baby. Eventually Henry becomes the one practice baby to stay.

The reader follows Henry through his odd childhood and into an adolescence filled with grim realizations and burning questions. Grunwald accurately captures the inner turmoil of resentment mixed with love and forges ahead as Henry attempts to reconcile his own complicated identity. Add to this a background that involves Disney’s California, a very Sixties New York, and the Beatles’ London and the result is a delightful mixture of fact and fiction, character and place. Grunwald seems to have hit a topical gold mine (I wanted to Google “practice baby” late into the night!) and fleshed it out with just the right amount of  psychology, history, and narrative. Bravo!

If you do not yet have this on your shelves you must get it! Be sure to point your patrons in the direction of the baby photo in the back. You’re sure to hook a few that way!

-Marie

Two days ago, I went to see “Exit through the Gift Shop,” a brilliant, quirky documentary on “street art” all over the world. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this little movie catches some traction, so if you’re seeing a sudden interest in street art, here are a couple books you may want to suggest to your patrons.

STICKERS: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art
Stickers (often giant ones) were the main mode, alongside stenciling, of public art in “Gift Shop.” They’re easy DIY projects, and “not always fast to fade.”
Coming in September from Rizzoli.

BAY AREA GRAFFITI by Steve Rotman
The classic medium for street art: a spray can and a wall. Here’s some of the finest in the country.
Available now from Mark Batty Publisher

THE ARTIST’S GUIDE TO PUBLIC ART: How to Find and Win Commissions
Or for anyone looking to “go legal” but still wants a public forum for their work, here’s a how-to-make-it book, written by artists, for artists.
Available now from Allworth Press

-David