The club scene is clearly as hot as ever—the on-air variety, that is, as two TV shows announced their latest picks last week. First up was that doyenne of beach reading, Kelly Ripa, of Live with Regis and Kelly fame. (And fame's clearly the word: not only have that show's ratings shot straight up since Kelly replaced that other K lady, but she's starring in a new ABC fall sitcom.) On June 10, Vicki Lewis Thompson's Nerd in Shining Armor became the first Reading with Ripa choice for the summer, and the seventh selection since the club's launch. This Dell mass market was published last month with a 20,000-copy first printing; the publisher went back for an additional 235,000. And well they might: the book's Amazon.com rank went from 3,246 to 18 just 30 hours after the announcement. Thompson, who's written more than 60 romance novels with Harlequin, has over 15 million copies of her books in print. She's scheduled to appear on Live the week of July 14, along with a celebrity guest yet to be announced.
Over at NBC's Today, Anna Quindlen unveiled that show's latest choice—The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst. Quindlen, a Book-of-the-Month Club judge, was an early supporter of this debut novel and named it the main July BOMC selection after reading it in manuscript form. (Coincidentally, the June 12 Today announcement was the day before Little, Brown's official pub date.) Months before its publication, Dogs was, as PW noted, "already creating a buzz"; more is sure to follow, especially since Parkhurst heads out today on a 13-city tour. After four trips to press, the in-print total is 175,000.
With reporting by Dick Donahue
