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Hey there, BookSmackers, LJX’s Mike Rogers here pinch hitting for Heather McCormack, who has journeyed home to the plains of North Dakota for her sister’s wedding (mazel tov!). I’ve been the de facto BookSmack! art editor for a year now, so I’m an old hand. Today’s gem sports a treasure trove of top titles that inform and entertain. If short takes is your thing, you’ve hit the jackpot because we have them for memoirs, true crime, and parenting. If you’re a prepub junkie, then lay eyes on PrePub Exploded and Graphic Novel Prepub. And for fun there’s Street Lit, 20 Holds, and Book Cheer. Get smacking!

• Memoir Short Takes
  This batch of late spring and early summer memoirs will make the down-with-summer-reading crowd very happy, indeed. Recovery—from all manner of diseases and addictions—is the operative word here. Bless repeat reviewers Lauren Gilbert, Therese Purcell Nielsen, and Lynn Maxwell for taking on these stories when they could have been reading, um, The Passage. A new feature this go is a thematic organization, which we hope makes it easier to identify books of interest to your patrons.—Heather McCormack   more » » » 
• True Crime Short Takes
  Deidre Bray Root doles out true tales of wicked women and murderous men. This column’s deadly delights include The Girls of Murder City, The California Snatch Racket, Scoundrels in Law, and more. The rich, the poor, the famous, and the anonymous alike steal, cheat, and kill all for your reading pleasure.   more » » » 

• Parenting Short Takes: Brats and Idle Parents
  After last month’s depressing offerings as far as subjects go, June, like the weather, is considerably sunnier. The galleys reviewed this month are mostly for kids in elementary school and up, but academics and professionals will want to review Kranowitz and Pedro-Carroll, while public libraries will want to consider all titles below. There’s not a dud in the bunch, and that, people, is a good day in both parenting and publishing! Happy shopping.   more » » » 
• Prepub Exploded
  The latest Edition of Prepub Exploded, an expanded edition of Prepub Alert, features December titles, including hot fiction authors Tom Clancy to Anne Rice, plus a Lawrence of Arabia bio in nonfiction.   more » » » 
• Graphic Novles Prepub Alert
  This month’s sampling carries a distinct "news of the weird" flavor. After all, October’s all about Halloween. Adaptations keep popping up, nonfiction notables and the expected literary classics.   more » » » 
• Top 20 Holds from the Verona (WI) Public Library
  Behind every best seller you’re likely to find a library hold. In Verona, WI, near Madison, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help is as sought-after as DVD new releases, while Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and audiobook Stieg Larsson round out a list of popular fiction and humorous and inspirational nonfiction.   more » » » 

• Word on Street Lit
  In this month’s column two titles featuring teen protagonists caught in realistic conflicts-Franklin White’s First Round Lottery Pick and Travis Hunter’s Two the Hard Way-have great potential to hook readers, especially African American young men. They’re not as grimy as hard-core street lit but also are not so squeaky clean they’re lame. Call them "almost street lit."   more » » » 
• Book Cheer
  Virginia Stanley highlights the ever-popular memoir genre. Readers rarely tire of tales of triumph over chemical dependency, and that’s just what Bill Clegg offers in Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man.    more » » »