A choice selection of a film plus books coming...

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION/DEBUT:

Cocktails columnist for the NYT Jonathan Miles' DEAR AMERICAN AIRLINES, a comic novel about a man stranded in O'Hare airport on the way to his daughter's wedding who writes a scathing letter of complaint to American Airlines that soon transforms into a cris de coeur about all that has gone wrong in his life, to Webster Younce at Houghton Mifflin, in a pre-empt, for publication in 2008, by Sloan Harris at ICM (NA).lori_glazer@hmco.com

MYSTERY/CRIME:

Standup comic and actor Richard Belzer's I AM NOT A COP, featuring the author as himself, a TV actor who gets wrapped up in a real mystery, to David Rosenthal and Colin Fox at Simon & Schuster, in a two-book deal, for publication in fall 2008, by Eric Gardner of Panacea Entertainment.

FILM:

Film rights to John Burdett's BANGKOK 8 and his two subsequent police thrillers set in Bangkok, featuring Buddhist police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, in a new option to Millennium Films, with James McTeigue (V For Vendetta) directing, by Ron Bernstein, at auction, on behalf of Jane Gelfman at Gelfman Schneider. (Foreign book rights are represented by Betsy Robbins at Curtis Brown UK.)

UK:

Michael Cordy's thriller THE SOURCE, about the surprise deciphering of the elusive Voynich manuscript at Yale's Beinecke Library by a young female professor, leading to the discovery of what seems to be a Garden of Eden deep in the jungles of Peru -- and a fight between the Vatican and various scholars for possession of the secrets which the garden contains, again to Bill Scott-Kerr at Bantam UK, by Patrick Walsh at Conville & Walsh. US rights will be submitted shortly.

NON-FICTION/BIOGRAPHY:

CATHERINE THE GREAT author Virginia Rounding's ALIX AND NICKY: A Russian Passion, drawing on previously unavailable archive materials relating to the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas II and Alexandra Fyodorovna and the Romanov family, depicting a love story the tragic end of a dynasty, to Charles Spicer at St. Martin's, in a very nice deal, by Clare Alexander at Aitken Alexander (World English).

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Former nuclear weapons designer Stephen Younger's NUCLEAR STRATEGY: What Every American Should Know About the Ultimate Weapon, covering the history of nuclear weapons, current arsenals, and purpose and strategy in the 21st Century, to Emily Takoudes at Ecco, by Christy Fletcher and Donald Lamm of Fletcher & Parry (NA).

MEMOIR:

Director of strategic alliances for global think tank, TalentSmart, Lac D. Su's THE CRIP WALK, a coming-of-age memoir about his life as a first-generation Vietnamese refugee on the rough streets of LA, from his dramatic boat escape from Vietnam to joining the Asian Crips gang to eventually rising above his circumstances to go to college, to Rakesh Satyal at Harper Perennial, by Gillian MacKenzie at the Gillian MacKenzie Agency (world).gmackenzie@gillianmackenzieagency.com

NARRATIVE:

Slate contributing writer and NPR commentator Seth Stevenson's GROUNDED, an in-transit story of an anti-airplane adventure around the world by way of cargo freighter, rickshaw, bullet train, bicycle, and any imaginable surface transport - slowing down the usual experience of travel, enjoying the journey as much as the destination, and considering travel as it was experienced before our modern, jet-fueled age, to Geoff Kloske and Laura Perciasepe at Riverhead, at auction, by Zoe Pagnamenta at PFD New York (NA).

Journalist Novella Carpenter's FARM CITY: The Education of an Urban Farmer, about the author's urban farm in downtown Oakland, where she keeps ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigs, fruits, and vegetables, and the triumphs and travails of living the rural life in the middle of the inner city, to Ann Godoff and Jane Fleming at Penguin Press, in a nice deal, at auction, by Michelle Brower at Wendy Sherman Associates (NA).

GENERAL/OTHER:

Former FBI chief hostage-and-terrorist negotiator Gary Noesner's STALLING FOR TIME -- a first-hand account of the perilous situations he has encountered and often defused, from hijacking of TWA Flight 847, to the standoff in Waco, to potentially lethal domestic disputes, also serving as a guide to anyone negotiating in a crisis, to Tim Bartlett at Random House, in a pre-empt, by Tina Bennett at Janklow & Nesbit (world English).

Wrap...