Encores and Second Chances
Reprints to watch out for
by Michael Scharf and Marc Schultz -- Publishers Weekly, 2/27/2006
Whether the hardcover version rode the top of the bestseller lists, faltered under too-heavy expectations or got stuck in midlist obscurity, the paperback release gives a book a second (and often much better) chance to reach readers. The books listed here include those most likely to succeed in paperback, as well as those we consider most deserving of success.
<SUBHEAD>Sure Things
</SUBHEAD>The Five People You Meet in HeavenMitch Albom (Hyperion, Apr.)
Eternity with Maury, fictionalized.
Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents: Guiding Your Children to Success and Fulfillment
Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers, Mar. 28)
Child rearing wisdom from a mind-body megastar.
The World Is Flat
Thomas Friedman (Picador, TBA)
With the hardcover selling steeply, the paperback has been pushed back indefinitely.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Lisa See (Random, Feb. 21)
Bookseller buzz has been intense—the next Kite Runner?
El Demonio y la Senorita Prym
Paulo Coelho (Rayo, May)
The multimillion-selling Coelho's The Devil and Ms. Prym pubs July in hardcover. This Spanish-language edition, while not exactly a reprint, will post numbers for which many authors would sell their souls.
Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression
Brooke Shields (Hyperion, May)
The postpartum depression memoir will have a very smooth transition to backlist.
Zorro
Isabel Allende (Harper Perennial, May)
A known legend, a secret society, a great author—what's not to like?
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor, Mar.)
Critics didn't rave, but fans won't care.
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
Anne Lamott (Riverhead, Apr.)
The author of Bird by Bird takes it prayer by prayer.
Ya-Yas in Bloom
Rebecca Wells (Harper Paperbacks, Apr.)
Not much new here, but fans will say yes-yes.
<SUBHEAD>
Literary Hits
</SUBHEAD>Extremely Loud and Incredibly CloseJonathan Safran Foer (Mariner, May)
Trade paper is the perfect format for Foer's strong 20-something following.
The History of Love
Nicole Krauss (Norton, Apr.)
The grandfather of Krauss's second novel nearly stole the spotlight from the cute little boy of spouse Foer's sophomore effort.
Saturday
Ian McEwan (Anchor, Apr.)
Sold better in hardcover than Atonement.
The Basic Eight
Daniel Handler (Harper Perennial, May)
Snicket maestro's adult debut moves from Dunne to Harper six years after hitting paper. Handler's terrific adult title Adverbs pubs simultaneously in hardcover.
<SUBHEAD>
And Now, Portable
</SUBHEAD>Conspiracy of FoolsKurt Eichenwald (Broadway, Dec. 27, 2005)
This Enron drama was hard to put down, even when it weighed 40 pounds.
Europe Central
William T. Vollmann (Penguin, Nov. 2005)
The surprise (but deserving) National Book Award winner is 832 pages of WWII villains doing horrible things, vividly. Nomination led to crashing the paperback.
It's All Right Now
Charles Chadwick (Harper, June)
One of the finest late-life books of the last 10 years. A potential sleeper, and a book that needs every one of its 700 pages.
Empire Rising
Thomas Kelly (Picador, Feb.)
A tale of the violent, prosaic roots of an iconic New York building, now weighing in at under one pound (the book, not the building).
<SUBHEAD>
Worthy Nonfiction
</SUBHEAD>Without a Net: Middle Class Homelessness with KidsMichelle Kennedy (Penguin, Feb.)
All Switch and no Bait—with a love story.
God's Secret Agents
Alice Hogge (Harper Perennial, June)
Catholic priests plot to blow up Parliament, and the result is Guy Fawkes Day. A nonfic Da Vinci Code for Anglophiles?
Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature
David J. Buller (MIT, Apr.)
Think you know how people think? Think again.
GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation
Deborah Dash Moore (Harvard, Apr.)
Half a million Jews served in the U.S. military during WWII; it changed them, and the country.
Only Hope: Coming of Age Under China's One-Child Only Policy
Vanessa L. Fong (Stanford, Feb.)
A look inside extremely planned parenthood.
<SUBHEAD>
Book Group Contenders
</SUBHEAD>My JimNancy Rawles (Three Rivers, Jan. 24)
What if Jim (of Huck and Jim) had a girlfriend who witnessed slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction?
A Rumor of War
Philip Caputo (Owl, Apr.)
If Iraq is the new Vietnam, this 30-year-old memoir is timely again.
<SUBHEAD>
Dark Horses
</SUBHEAD>The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term HealthT. Colin Campbell and Thomas Campbell II (Benbella [IPG, dist.], June)
Argues that Americans are eating their way to disease. Sold 60,000 in cloth—but that was before a recent study said a low-fat diet makes no difference in cancer and heart disease rates.
The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea
Mark Haddon (Vintage, Apr.)
Poetry collection from the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timethat will sell alongside that smash's forthcoming paperback release.
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed
John Vaillant (Norton, May)
Eco-terrorism turns ironic when an ex-logger protesting the destruction of old-growth forests chops down a 165-foot Sitka spruce.
A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of AmericaStacy Schiff (Owl, Feb.)
After Jefferson, Adams and Lincoln, is it Franklin's turn in the Founding Father spotlight?
<SUBHEAD>
Opening Soon
</SUBHEAD>Killing Me SoftlyNicci French (Warner, Jan.)
With the forthcoming movie adaptation, the paperback version of this tale of a woman obsessed with a lithe, reticent hunk will reach readers who missed the mass market release of 2000.
The Namesake
Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner, May)
The Ganguli family's rocky road from Calcutta to Cambridge, Mass., by an author who has been compared to Zadie Smith, will find a wider audience thanks to the forthcoming film.
Running with Scissors
Augusten Burroughs (Picador, July)
This madcap Tarnation–like story will cut a swathe through the 20-something market.
A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick (Vintage, month TBA)
This tie-in edition of a lesser-known title in the Dick oeuvre was announced for February, but it—along with Harvey Pekar's graphic novelization and the film itself—has been delayed until fall.
Brother Memoirs, the New Iron John
Three Weeks with My Brother
Nicholas Sparks & Micah Sparks (Warner, Jan.)
Already a hit in hardcover, the paperback will keep paunches shaded on every beach in North America.
Honeymoon with My Brother
Franz Wisner (St. Martin's Griffin, Feb.)
The goofy kid brother to the Sparks' serious story, this romp is in film production.
<SUBHEAD>
Hype Killed the HC
</SUBHEAD>Specimen DaysMichael Cunningham (Picador, May)
Comparisons to The Hours hurt the hardcover, but readers should be willing to take a chance on the paperback.
No Country for Old Men
Cormac McCarthy (Vintage, July)
Critics didn't know what to do with this contemporary thriller, but fans of the author should have no trouble shifting gears for a read this good.
<SUBHEAD>
Baghdad Calling
</SUBHEAD>Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's WarAnthony Shadid (Picador, July)
Author won the Pulitzer in 2004 for work that's part of this book.
Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq
Larry Diamond (Owl, Apr.)
Blunt talk from Stanford scholar and former Coalition Provisional Authority adviser.
Understanding Iraq: The Whole Sweep of Iraq's History from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation
William R. Polk (Harper Perennial, Mar.)
What more could you want?
Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco
David L. Phillips (Perseus, May)
As oil prices climb, so should this book's sales.
What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building
Noah Feldman (Princeton, Mar.)
Written before the handover, the ethical issues Feldman lays out are still in play.
How America Lost Iraq
Aaron Glantz (Tarcher, Mar.)
Pacifica reporter Glantz was on the ground after the fall of Saddam, and challenges assumptions from both left and right about decisions made in the aftermath.
<SUBHEAD>
Europe Calling
</SUBHEAD>One Soldier's Story: A MemoirBob Dole (Harper Perennial, May)
Self-portrait of the senator as a war-wounded young man.
<SUBHEAD>
Anti-Freys
</SUBHEAD>Portable Prairie: Confessions of an Unsettled MidwesternerM.J. Andersen (Griffin, Mar.)
Recollections of a Midwestern girlhood that are probing, lyrical and spiritual.
Don't Wake Me at Doyles
Maura Murphy (Griffin, Mar.)
Angela's Ashes from the other side: a 77-year-old Irish woman's memoir, including journal entries from the people involved.
<SUBHEAD>
Small Fictions
</SUBHEAD>Carnivore DietJulia Slavin (Norton, Aug.)
This inside-the-Beltway family—politicians and media—was too kooky for hardcover, but the book will find its niche in paperback.
In the Land of Second Chances
George Shaffner (Ballantine, Feb.)
Pubs with sequel One Part Angel—will it cross over to CBA?
<SUBHEAD>
Can You Handle the Truth?
</SUBHEAD>Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered MarriageStephanie Coontz (Penguin, Mar.)
Tracks, fascinatingly, the evolution of an institution. Perhaps letting love rule doesn't always work.
Madam
Jeanette Angell (Harper Paperbacks, July)
From the woman who enraged and aroused you with Callgirl. The closer to pulp format, the better.
Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood
Bill Hayes (Random, Feb. 14)
A gay man living in San Francisco with an HIV-positive partner, Hayes writes from his own anxieties and curiosities—and doesn't spare the gore.
Sixteen Acres: Architecture and the Outrageous Struggle for Ground Zero
Philip Nobel (Owl, Jan.)
The rich and self-important turn a memorial into a barnyard squabble.
