On Thursday, May 31, BookExpo America returns to the Big Apple, and librarians on the hunt for hot galleys won’t be disappointed if my findings are any indication. Using Barbara Hoffert’s Prepub Alert contact list, I compiled a sizable list of must-gets. Without further ado, here they are by publisher:

• HarperCollins: Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers and Run by Ann Patchett (Truth and Beauty)
• Simon & Schuster: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest To Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs and The 47th Samurai: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel by Stephen Hunter (Havana)
• Free Press: Redemption Falls by Joseph O’Conner (Star of the Sea)
• Crown: The 12-Second Sequence by Jorge Cruise, Look Me in the Eye by John Robinson, Switching Time by Richard Baer, and Witch’s Trinity by Erika Mailman
• Three Rivers Press: 13 Bullets by David Wellington (Monster Island)
• Harmony: Last Night I Dreamed of Peace by Dang Thuy Tram
• Shaye Areheart Books: Mad Dash by Patricia Gaffney (The Saving Graces)
• Random House: Away by Amy Bloom (A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You), Identical Strangers by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein, Tipperary by Frank Delaney (Ireland), and The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens (The Law of Dreams)
• Ballantine: The View from Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, The Faraday Girls by Monica McInerny, and Midnight Rambler by James Swain (Loaded Dice)
• Broadway Books: Outside In by Courtney Thorne-Smith and Scream-Free Parenting by Hal Edward Runkel
• Farrar, Straus & Giroux: Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (Jesus’ Son), The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoag, Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples’ Organized Crime System by Roberto Saviano
• Houghton Mifflin: Exit Ghost by Philip Roth (Everyman), Maynard and Jennica by Rudolph Delson, The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss (Wild Life), and Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer
• Clarion: Beanball by Gene Fehler
• Kingfisher: Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela by Bill Keller and Zodiac Girls: Discount Diva by Cathy Hopkins
• Penguin: The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, Lottery by Patricia Wood, How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill, Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell, and The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall
• Grove/Atlantic: The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? by Francisco Goldman and The Bible: A Biography by Karen Armstrong (The Great Transformation)
• Harcourt: A Slave No More: The Emancipation of John Washington and Wallace Turnage by David W. Blight and The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lox

It’s hard to be a book. That is to say, it’s hard to be a book and get noticed because there are so many and, as National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) member Scott McLemee pointed out in his April 25th “Critical Mass” column, book review coverage in newspapers is making like the dodo and dying out.

To stop this insanity, the NBCC is launching an awareness campaign throughout the month of May that is calling for people to sign a petition to stop the nixing of The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s book review section. I’m going to echo McLemee and our own Wilda Williams (see her blog Save This Endangered Species: Book Reviews) and say that librarians can and should play their part in this initiative. Without books, many of you wouldn’t have a pay check, much less a rewarding profession. Without book dialogue, you wouldn’t have patrons to browse your stacks.

This is my ninth year in the book review world, and I can’t imagine fitting in anywhere else (except maybe the chocolate-tasting arena, if that even exists). My point: I want to give back, and the best way I can is to expand LJ’s coverage of our pulp friends. Doing so in print is not feasible owing to paper costs, etc. Doing so online via our weekly Xpress Reviews, however, is easy.

Almost two years into our online book review experiment, things are going better than I ever expected. Not only have we increased the number and quality of books covered (Ann Burns now contributes audio books), we’re finding an increasingly appreciative audience. I can’t supply any hard numbers, but I think it’s safe to say that even the die-hardest of print-demanding librarians are beginning to see the perks of online reviews—they’re free; they’re always there; they’re informed, impartial, and to the point (like LJ’s print sisters); and they’re going to multiply like rabbits if I have anything to say about it.

With this blog, I hereby invite the closeted book reviewers of the world to bust out of their moth-balled existences and join my online-only roster. Whatever your subject area, I need you to make this venture a success. Submit an application today, save book reviews, and maybe even save the world.

I’m only human in New York City, which means I often get sick of looking at human faces. In fact, I’m supposed to avoid looking at them because you never know—a tired glance could be taken as a murderous glare, a smile for an invitation to run all the bases.

But I digress. What I’m trying to say is that I love cartoons. Give me a vulnerable, gorgeous French cartoon girl like the one pictured on the cover of Capucine and Olivier Ka’s Le Philibert de Marilou, and I’m all eyes. That sounds bad, but all I mean is it’s interesting as hell to look at an artist’s rendering of humanity. 

To boot, I’m glad to blog about my first foreign-language sighting because America is a country of multiple tongues, duh. Plenty of libraries order French materials, and given the popularity of graphic novels, they should know about this notable title by Capucine and Ka. Not much information in English exists on either author, or their creation for that matter.

With the help of Google’s not-exactly-dead-on translation mechanism and my college French, however, I’ve deduced that the graphic novel tells the story of a lonely, beautiful, celibate 30-something (Marilou) whose clinical neuroses take the form of a terrific monster (Philibert) that prevents her from being happy—and cultivating a romantic relationship with a man.

The kids and critics alike seem to dig this dark story—several French teens and twentysomethings mention it on their MySpace profiles, and it appears Ka, a Lebanese-born Frenchman known for his children’s books and comics, has a reputation for intense stories. His latest graphic novel, Pourquoi j’ai tué Pierre (Why I Killed Pierre), a winner at this year’s International Comic Book Festival in Angoulême, recounts the sexual abuse Ka suffered at the hands of a priest at a summer camp when he was 12.

LJ, unfortunately, does not get in many French translations of graphic novels, a pity considering the seemingly smokin’ talent. French speakers in America, you’re one lucky piece of the library demographic. 

Thanks to pressure from corporate owners and shareholders eager to turn a quick profit, newspapers in recent years have been cutting back or eliminating their book review coverage. Their main excuse: not enough advertising from publishers to support the reviews. But manufacturers of sporting equipment don’t advertise either, and I see little cutback in the sports pages.

Just last week the Los Angeles Times folded its book review section into an opinion section , although editor David Ulin argued in his editor’s note that these were  changes “to forge a synthesis between print and online content that will allow us not only to maintain our commitment to engaged reviews and criticism but also to expand the very nature of our books coverage.”

Also last week the Atlanta Journal-Constitution eliminated its book reviewer position but did “generously” permit its reviewer, Teresa Weaver, to apply for another position at the newspaper. Fed up with the increasing erosion of book coverage, the National Book Critics Circle has launched a campaign to save book reviews, including a petition to save AJC’s well-regarded book review section, and a new series on the NBCC’s blog Critical Mass that will feature posts by concerned writers, interviews with book editors, and more.

So put down that book you are reading, get off your couch, and turn on that computer. Join the over 1000 authors (including Ian Rankin, Richard Powers, and Michael Connolly), editors, librarians, and booklovers in signing this petition. Save the Book Review!

I said it last year, but I’m going to say it again, kittles—April is Autism Awareness Month, and I’ve been steadily increasing our coverage of conditions on the autistic spectrum since 2002. I couldn’t have done it, of course, without one Corey Seeman, an LJ star reviewer if there ever was one. The father of an autistic child, he signed on to tackle autism for LJ five years ago when there wasn’t a lot being published. That all changed when autism made the cover of Time magazine in May 2002—soon, the New York houses were treading the traditional turf of Woodbine House, Guilford Press, and Jessica Kingsley.

To keep up with the resulting boost, I sent poor Corey a book a month, and he kept his head above water, dutifully reviewing the likes of groundbreakers like Judy Karasik and Paul Karasik’s The Ride Together (Washington Square), Carolyn Thorwarth Bruey’s Demystifying Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Guide to Diagnosis for Parents and Professionals (Woodbine), and Charlotte Moore’s George & Sam: Two Boys, One Family, and Autism (St. Martin’s).

Thank you, Corey, for your valuable contributions, including what I’m pretty sure is the first analysis of relevant literature, “Sending Postcards from the Airport,” a 2003 entry in our collection development series, and its sequel, “More Postcards from the Airport: Playing Catch-Up with Autistic Spectrum Disorders.” Thank you, too, Lisa Jordan and Elizabeth Safford for bringing up the back and helping expand LJ’s scope. 

• 8:15-9:00           Registration and Buffet Breakfast
• 9:15-10:15         The most banned children’s book of the year: Authors Peter Parnell (playwright, author of QED; screenwriter/producer for West Wing and The Guardian) and Justin Richardson, MD [co-author of Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know about Sex (But Were Afraid They’d Ask)], their editor, David Gale (S. & S.), and  librarian Pat Scales discuss the creation of And Tango Makes Three and the reaction to it. 
• 10:15-11:30       Editor’s hot picks: Top editors from adult trade houses reveal what fiction and nonfiction you should be buying for the fall and what the latest trends to watch are.
• 11:30-11:40       Break
• 11:40-12:15       LJ Talks to:  A conversation with a long-time editor/publisher.
• 12:15-1:15        Lunch
• 1:15-2:30        YA crossover: Many books speak to both adults and young people, but how do the editors and authors make the decision to pitch them to one audience or the other—or both. (TK).
• 2:30-2:40         Break
• 2:40-3:55        Romance: An editor, author, reviewer, and librarian discuss the latest trends in the most popular genre, including erotica, ebooks and e-marketing, and more.  Panelists include Eloisa James, whose latest book, due in June from Avon is Desperate Duchesses, and Kris Ramsdell, LJ’s romance columnist.   
• 3:55-4:00       Wrap up.
• 4:00-5:00       Cocktails

Attention all librarians who have ordered the upcoming Harry Potter installment from Baker & Taylor: You won’t get the book unless you sign a special contract that can be downloaded here. The deadline, naturally, is today, and the fax line, quite predictably, is busy, busy. Good luck, mere muggles.

And you thought you could only eat Marshmallow Peeps, those sugar-coated Easter goodies that reduce grown men and women to salivating candy freaks. If David Hasselhoff gets to kill trees (see Anna Katterjohn’s Performing Arts Celebs Spring Out This Season), and he’s not even edible—not even in Germany—surely America’s No. 1 selling nonchocolate candy gets a book so you can work your addiction into bonafide psychosis.

And not just any book, but a Japanese manga–sounding whodunit that tracks the disappearance of a family of Peeps via the local newspaper and celebrity rag (Peeple)? Your goal: find the family before their sell-by dates, silly.

It’s all for your deranged pop culture pleasure in Mark Masyga and Martin Ohlin’s Peeps: A Candy-Coated Tale (Abrams Image, 2006), which was sadly never submitted to LJ with a crate of yellow fluff chickadees. And if you’re curious about how Peeps candy came to be, check out the manufacturer’s most excellent virtual history book, A Peep in Time, complete with photos of founder Sam Born, a Russian emigre who actually started in the chocolate trade in New York City.

Still got a sweet tooth (I know I do)? Read Steve Almond’s Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America, an LJ Best Book of 2004.

It’s been a year now since Pegasus Books launched its list—and if LJ’s reviews are any indication, this New York City independent deserves a P. Diddy–style anniversary celebration, complete with Cristal and a novelty book cake. Over the last few months, we have reviewed David Brown’s Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music and Roger Osborne’s Civilization: A New History of the Western World. Between April and May, we’ll cover Nicholas Kenyon’s The Pegasus Pocket Guide to Mozart, Ted Mitchell’s Thomas Wolfe: An Illustrated Biography, and Ed Gorman’s Fools Rush In.

Every one has garnered high praise, if not a star, and I can’t help but be amazed. Publisher Claiborne Hancock, who acquired titles at Carroll & Graf for many years, seems to have a hound’s nose for quality, and I only hope it will translate to big-time makings. The world needs more presses like this little winged pony, which very wisely deals in that library staple, mystery. For my part, I love their spin on biography, which seems to combine a highly personalized point of view with upper-crust research and quirky miscellany. Fly high, Pegasus. Here’s to a very good year.

I know we review editors are supposed to judge books by the quality of their prose, but call me shallow, I love this cover! I love the retro-Art Deco Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers/Metropolis feel. And the back cover is great too, featuring hands pulling on bright teal-blue gloves against a bright comic-book yellow background.

The comic book reference is no accident for Soon I Will Be Invincible (Pantheon, June) is a first novel by video game designer Austin Grossman following the adventures of evil Doctor Impossible, a failed wannabe world dominator, and Femme, a female cyborg/rookie superhero.  And the jacket’s designer? None other than the legendary graphic designer and Knopf associate art director Chip Kidd, who has his own passion for superheros like Superman. For a full overview of  his work see his Chip Kidd: Work 1986-2006.