Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
There are many new books out by favorite authors and some older books that are still selling like hotcakes. So what books and authors are hot?
Besides new books and favorite authors, what do we mean by hot? I made a list which you many add to in comments:
1. Books that are on hot topics currently of big interest in our world right now.
2. Authors who have become hot because they are interesting and are out on the talk circuit or have lots of hits and are well known. People flock to hear them.
3. Books that push buttons and may be radioactive in some way or other. Books that have topics that are too hot to handle or are controversial.
4. Books that are hot because they are very popular or entertaining (best sellers).
5. Books that have become hot movies whether they resemble the book’s original story or not.
6. Really good books that friends talk about and get others to read.
7. Ok, ok...stories with hot chicks or hot guys for heroes.
Recipe for a hot book
1 cup deeply suspicious behavior by evil-doer
2 cups personal angst of the delightful, but troubled protagonist
½ cup chopped trouble
2 TB of misunderstanding
3 tsps love and great sex
Sprinkle with smart remarks
Add a dab of satisfying resolution
Bake with lots of publicity
I will suggest a few of my favorites, but the titles are mainly from lists I found on line and I will expect to hear more titles from my readers.
USA TODAY Best Selling Books Database
http://content.usatoday.com/...
and B&N
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/...
1. HOT TOPICS
True Compass: A Memoir by Edward M. Kennedy
The Time of My Life by Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi
Mastering The Art of French Cooking, VOL. 1, by Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholl
The Cartoon Guide to the Environment by Larry Gonick
Covers environmental science: chemical cycles, life communities, food webs, agriculture, human population growth, sources of energy and raw materials, waste disposal and recycling, cities, pollution, deforestation, ozone depletion, and global warming, and puts everything in the context of ecology.
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/...
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Uwem Akpan's first published short story, "An Ex-mas Feast," appeared in The New Yorker's Debut Fiction issue in 2005. The story's portrait of a family living together in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya, and their attempts to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday, gives a matter-of-fact reality to the most extreme circumstances—and signaled the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer.
"My Parents' Bedroom" is a Rwandan girl's account of her family's struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. In "Fat¬tening for Gabon," a brother and sister cope with their uncle's attempt to sell them into slavery. "Luxurious Hearses" creates a microcosm of Africa within a busload of refugees and introduces us to a Muslim boy who summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride through Nigeria.
"What Language Is That?" reveals the emotional toll of the Christian-Muslim conflict in Ethiopia through the eyes of childhood friends. Every story is a testament to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing situations our planet can offer.
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
And Another Thing... (Hitchhiker's Guide Series #6) by Eoin Colfer
2. HOT AUTHORS
Barack Obama...Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope
Toni Morrison...A Mercy
Pat Conroy...South of Broad
Garrison Keillor...Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance
Sara Paretsky...Hardball (V.I. Warshawski Series #13)
Sue Grafton...U Is For Undertow (available December 1)
Terry Pratchett...Unseen Academicals (Discworld Series) (out on Oct. 6)
Stephen King...Just After Sunset
3. CONTROVERSIAL
I want to include this diary by Rimjob under controversy for I have a big sympathy with this particular topic:
Literary Elitism?
by Rimjob
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Kim Stanley Robinson, the author of the "Mars Trilogy," published an essay in which he criticized literary critics involved with England's prestigious Booker Prize for ignoring science-fiction. Robinson pointed to Adam Roberts' "Yellow Blue Tibia," as a science fiction novel that should be considered for this year's prize...
Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
I believe that Mary Doria Russell’s books, The Sparrow (which won a lot of scifi awards) and the sequel Children of God that must be read with it are literature.
Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
People are still blacklisting it for witchcraft. Nonsense I say, though I am not happy with the last book.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Just because the protagonist is young, should this be considered a young adult or a children’s story? I say not just young adult and definitely not a children's story. Nor is To Kill a Mockingbird, nor Shane, imo. In young adult books, the protagonists are children, but not all books with children as narrators are young adult.
Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The Eye of the World (15 January 1990)
The Great Hunt (15 November 1990)
The Dragon Reborn (15 October 1991)
The Shadow Rising (15 September 1992)
The Fires of Heaven (15 October 1993)
Lord of Chaos (15 October 1994)
A Crown of Swords (15 May 1996)
The Path of Daggers (20 October 1998)
Winter's Heart (9 November 2000)
Crossroads of Twilight (7 January 2003)
Knife of Dreams (11 October 2005)
The Gathering Storm (27 October 2009)
Towers of Midnight
A Memory of Light
Brandon Sanderson was chosen to finish the series after Mr. Jordan died. I liked Brandon’s book Elantris very much and I am sure he is doing a good job. The first book of the trilogy that will end the series is coming out in October.
My problem is that I am old and I have been reading the books for nineteen years. The thought of going through the wait between books for another trilogy leaves me cold.
In fact, I feel the same way about Gabaldon’s Outlander series as I do the Wheel of Time. I was fairly happy where the last book in each series left off. After all the new books come out in ten or twelve years, if I am still alive, I might buy them, then, and read them, but for now, I am done. When Jordan decided to write prequels and Gabaldon decided to write Lord John stories instead of continuing their series, they lost me. If this is the publisher’s fault, and it may be, then my apologies, but I have had it. You may all yell at me in comments...it is OK.
This is Banned Books Week which fits the controversy section. I hope you mention your favorite banned book.
4. BEST SELLERS
Dan Brown...The Lost Symbol
Stephenie Meyer...Twilight series
Audrey Niffenegger...Time Traveler’s Wife
Charlaine Harris...Sookie Stackhouse Box Set (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series)
Diana Gabaldon...in Outlander series...An Echo in the Bone
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Dave Mckean (Illustrator)
The Defector by Daniel Silva
Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (graphic book)
5. MOVIES
Julie and Julia...from Julie and Julia by Julie Powell-
and
My Life in France by Julia Child-her memoir of her early married life with Paul. (hat tip to "be the change you seek")
trailer
http://www.youtube.com/...
Where the Wild Things Are...Maurice Sendak
trailer
http://www.youtube.com/...
Twilight...Stephenie Meyer
trailer
http://www.youtube.com/...
New Moon...Stephanie Meyer (second Twilight book)
trailer
http://www.youtube.com/...
Time Traveler’s Wife...Audrey Niffenegger
trailer
http://www.youtube.com/...
6. WORD OF MOUTH
Three Cups of Tea about Greg Mortenson with David Oliver Relin
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
(yes, this book is under two subjects)
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
7. HOT HEROES AND HEROINES
WebMage, Cybermancy, CodeSpell, and MythOS by Kelly McCullough...one of the furies is hot in more ways than one.
The Language of Bees (Mary Russell Series #9) by Laurie R. King
Finger Lickin' Fifteen (Stephanie Plum Series #15) by Janet Evanovich
Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner
Yes, Jamie of Gabaldon's Outlander series is the hottest of all. Ranger and Joe fans, I am with you, too.
Diaries of the week:
Write On! Critiques, critics, and other disasters.
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
SS says,
"please, please, don't ever accept an offer of representation or publication for your book without checking the offerer's rep on Preditors and Editors
http://anotherealm.com/...
or Writer Beware!
http://www.sfwa.org/...
Or even just googling the business's name and the word "scam" or "fraud"."
Three Score And Ten Years Ago; Part 6
by Charlotte Lucas
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Into the mind of the artist
by rserven
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Celebrate Banned Books Week: Read Something
by ttkl
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Celebrating banned books
by Casual Wednesday
http://www.dailykos.com/...
My Favorite Coffee Table Book: India Unveiled
by jimluce
http://www.dailykos.com/...
wader at the Overnight News Digest found this:
Sony opens electronic bookstore to self-publishers
http://www.google.com/...
By (AFP)
Sony opened its electronic bookstore to would-be authors Tuesday in a partnership with two self-publishing companies.
"New authors can select a self-publishing path and get their work published and for sale on Sony's e-book store in as little as 10 days," the Japanese electronics giant said in a statement.
Sony said it had teamed up with Author Solutions and Smashwords to give independent authors and small publishers the possibility of making their works available for the Sony Reader.
Let's read a book together! Guns, Germs and Steel: Chapter 9: Zebras and unhappy marriages.
by plf515
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has changed his book talk to Wednesday mornings early.
sarahnity’s list of DKos authors has grown so much that she has her own diary.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
sarahnity says:
It turns out that we have quite a few authors hanging out here who have published books in the real world. A while ago, I started keeping a list of books by Kossacks, former Kossacks and Kossacks-once-removed. I was posting it each week to the diary series What Are You Reading and Bookflurries, but the list has grown long enough, that I've decided to turn it into a diary and post it as a weekly series on Tuesday evenings.
Not all Kossack authors may wish to lose their anonymity, so I am only including the author's UID if he has outed herself here (gender confusion intended). If you'd like to be included on the list, or if you know of an author who is left off, please leave a comment or email me.
(sarahnity@gmail.com)