Biography Beat, August 2009

As summer winds down, the fall book season approaches.

Library Buying Alert

Included in this fall's books with large print runs, as reported in the June 29 issue of Publishers Weekly, are some memoirs and biographies.

On September 29, Hyperion will be releasing two million copies of Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom, in which he recounts his friendships with a dying rabbi and a minister working among the poor in Detroit.

On October 6, a publisher called Twelve will issue 1.5 million copies of True Compass: A Memoir by Senator Edward Kennedy.

On November 9, Knopf is releasing 750,000 copies of Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi.

Doubleday is printing 600,000 copies of Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer for release September 15. At this point in time, it is beating the three other books in advanced orders on Amazon.

Here are other large print run titles:

• On the Line by tennis star Serena Williams (300,000)
• Barack and Michelle by Christopher Andersen (200,000)
• Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon (200,000)
• How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood by William J. Mann (100,000)
• The Queen Mother by William Shawcross (200,000)

More Celebrity Books Coming

It is said that hard economic times support escapist reading and a focus on celebrities. Maybe.

• Moon River and Me by Andy Williams (Viking, October)
• My Life Outside the Ring by Hulk Hogan (St. Martin's, October)
• I Am the New Black by Tracy Morgan (Spiegel & Grau, October)
• Robert Redford: The Biography by Michael Feeney Callan (Knopf, November)
• American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson (Harper, September)
• American Rebel by Marc Eliot (Harmony, September) About Clint Eastwood
• High Society by Donald Spoto (Harmony, Novemeber) About Grace Kelly
• Finding It: And Satisfying My Hunger for Life Without Opening the Fridge by Valerie Bertinelli (Free Press, November)
• Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? by Steven Tyler (Ecco, November)
• House of Versace by Deborah Ball (Crown, December)

Einstein Again

What more can there be? Walter Isaacson's 2007 biography Einstein: His Life and Universe is a big book that seems to cover the physicist's life in great detail. But there must be more, as Isaacson has written another book Einstein: The Life of a Genius to be published in November by CollinsDesign.


What I Want to Read

My tastes usually shy away from blockbusters. Here are the books that interest me:

• The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone (Walker & Company, November)
• Molly Ivins by Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith (Public Affairs, November)
• A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls LaNier (September)
• Two Coots in a Canoe: A Story of Friendship by David E. Morine (GPP, September)
• David Crockett in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Poor Man's Friend by James R. Boylston and Allen J. Wiener (Bright Sky Press, October)
• Jumping Through Fires by David Nasser (Baker Books, October)

Start buying books.