One of the early hot books of the holiday shopping seasons appears to be Obama: An Intimate Portrait by Pete Souza, the White House photographer during Obama’s two terms. The $50 hardcover, published by Little, Brown, features hundreds of photographs plus a foreword by the former President.

Over the weekend, independent booksellers reported having difficulty getting new copies and as of Monday morning the book is listed as out-of-stock at both Amazon and BN.com. On the B&N site, the company said the book will be available for shipping on December 15, while Amazon only now says about the status of the book" “order now and we'll deliver when available.”

Little, Brown had not responded to request to learn about its plans for meeting the demand for the book Monday morning.

Obama was released November 7 and has sold almost 163,000 copies, according to NPD BookScan, including more than 24,000 copies last week.