"I think of bookstore jobs as my university. The physical trade of books was a hallowed way to become a writer in the pre-MFA era. It was the only work I wanted to do, and the only work I was qualified to do.... With bookstores, you go in and you find the things you weren't looking for. The clerk is doing that 24/7--my reading was shaped by what was left behind. And you develop a loathing for the false canon--the two books each year that everybody is supposed to read.... You can't hang onto those sacred quarantines when you see the mad diversity around you."

Borders Group unsecured creditors will recover between 4%-10% of their claims, probably "at the higher end of the range," according to court papers filed yesterday. The unsecured creditors' claims amount to between $812 million to $850 million, which means that at most, creditors will receive $85 million.

Borders won court approval of the last details of its plans to dissolve, "signaling the end of what was once the U.S.'s second-largest bookseller," Bloomberg reported, adding that bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn "finalized terms of creditor repayments today after five remaining objections were resolved."

"It's unfortunate that the debtors were unable to reorganize as a going concern," Judge Glenn said. Assets will be distributed to creditors "through a trust, run by a trustee, Curtis R. Smith, after assets are first distributed to priority claimants. The company will then dissolve," Bloomberg wrote.

Andrew Glenn (no relation to the judge), a lawyer for Borders, observed: "At the end of the day when it comes time for confirmation, the story is told by the voting." Bloomberg noted that approximately 98% of creditors, holding $211.5 million in debt, voted to accept the plan, "a sign the company had done the right thing, Glenn said."

Borders also won court approval to sell its 10% stake in Kobo, which "should bring in $27 million to $32 million if Borders can take advantage of tax laws to shield the gain," Andrew Glenn said.
 

"I don't remember a better holiday selling season in the last decade," said Anne Holman, general manager at the King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although sales started off slow in 2011, they began to pick up in October and have been increasing steadily since late November.

The upward swing began in full force the day after Thanksgiving with the start of Buy Local First Week, an initiative of the state-wide organization Local First Utah that drew a substantial amount of new customers into the store. "Since we're on the corner of 15th East and 15th South in Salt Lake, we offered '15% off at 15th and 15th' as a thank you for shopping locally," Holman said. Many regulars showed their support on Small Business Saturday that same weekend. The American Express-sponsored promotion "really picked up steam this year."

The momentum continued with a couple of events held in early December. At the Sunday morning Books & Bagels gathering, a longtime store tradition, booksellers served up gift-giving suggestions along with breakfast. Many of the titles presented are favorites featured in the 32-page holiday edition of the Inkslinger, the store's newsletter--like Guts and Glory: The Golden Age of American Football, 1958-1978 by Neil Leifer, which begins with a quotation by Vince Lombardi spread out over a 10-page pictorial opener. "It gives us an opportunity to showcase books that are grand and glorious," Holman said. "It's one thing to talk about how much you love it, but it's something else to show it."

Big spenders aren't holding back, snapping up copies of Guts and Glory ($49.99) as well as other lavish photographic books like The Louvre: All the Paintings ($75), Chess Masterpieces: One Thousand Years of Extraordinary Chess Sets ($65) and The Crown Jewels ($65).

Attendees received 20% of all purchases at Books & Bagels, as they did during the annual holiday party where more than 20 area writers were the guests of honor. "It's a fun night, and then we start the season out with signed copies of all of those authors' books," said Holman. "We're selling stacks and stacks of them. It's a huge deal for us in terms of sales." Among the selections from local scribes are middle grade and YA novels by Matthew J. Kirby (Icefall), Ally Condie (Crossed), Newbery Honor winner Shannon Hale (Forest Born) and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr (How to Save a Life).

A favored handsell for Holman is The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje. "New fiction is always a stand-out category for us because it's what so many of us love," she said. Ondaatje's novel is currently displayed along with The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and We the Animals by Justin Torres as "Three Great Books About Three Sets of Boys in Totally Different Scenarios."

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff and other hardcover bestsellers are proving equally popular in paperback with King's English clientele. A title originally scheduled for paperback release this fall and then postponed is Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. "We're selling even more of it now than we did last Christmas," noted Holman.

A few titles being recommended have a close-to-home connection, including Salt Lake Tribune columnist and King's English bookseller A.E. (Ann) Cannon's Charlotte's Rose. The middle-grade novel about a young Welsh girl who sails to the U.S. and becomes part of a company of Mormon handcart pioneers was out of print and recently reissued by the University of Utah Press. Editor and author Jennifer Adams worked at the bookshop until relocating to Philadelphia to work for Quirk Books, but her former colleagues are still selling two board books she wrote: Pride & Prejudice and Romeo & Juliet in the "Baby Lit" series.

The only title Holman has had a hard time keeping in stock is Jon Klassen's picture book I Want My Hat Back, published by Candlewick Press. "We absolutely love that book," she said. "I'm hoping we get more this week because we're selling it to everybody." Overall, though, "it really has been smoother this year. Last year we had a much harder time keeping some books in stock." Random House's two-day shipping program has been "hugely helpful," as is weekend shipping by distributors.

In the children's section at the King's English is a red wagon with a sign explaining that its cargo is for a good cause. Customers can buy new books or donate gently used ones to the Book Wagon, a local charity that distributes the tomes (via a wagon, of course) to children at nine low-income housing complexes in Salt Lake City. "It's very popular," said Holman. "People are happy to do it, and we're constantly emptying the wagon and then refilling it."

Recipients on Holman's gift list will be unwrapping copies of some of the novels she most enjoyed this year, like Bonnie Jo Campbell's Once Upon a River, the story of a 16-year-old girl surviving on her own in the Michigan woods. "It's pretty tough to read, but it's a beautiful book," she said. She'll also be giving Rachel Simon's The Story of Beautiful Girl, about a disabled couple in love facing improbable odds, which Holman described as "Wonderstruck for adults," and Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante. Beloved by all the King's English employees, LaPlante's novel features a retired hand surgeon suffering from dementia who is a suspect in her best friend's murder.

Holman plans to put a copy of the "very funny" When Parents Text: So Much Said... So Little Understood by Lauren Kaelin and Sophia Fraioli in her 18-year-old daughter's stocking. And her holiday gift to herself is Neil MacGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects. --Shannon McKenna Schmidt

A fire that erupted at Cairo's Institute d'Egypte during clashes between protesters and the Egyptian military last weekend caused the destruction of thousands of rare books, journals and writings, including "the handwritten 24-volume Description de l’Egypte, which began during the 1798-1801 French occupation," the Associated Press reported (via the Hindustan Times).

Institute d'Egypte, which is near Tahrir Square, was built by Napoleon Bonaparte during France’s invasion in the late 18th century, is on the verge of collapsing. "The burning of such a rich building means a large part of Egyptian history has ended," said the institute's director Mohammed al-Sharbouni.

Zein Abdel-Hady, the head of Egypt's main library who is leading an effort to rescue what can be culled from the charred remains, said, "This is equal to the burning of Galileo’s books.... I haven't slept for two days, and I cried a lot yesterday. I do not like to see a book burned. The whole of Egypt is crying."
 
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Cairo's protests have also prompted the closing of the American University in Cairo Press offices and its Tahrir Bookstore, which are located on the corner of Tahrir Square, the Bookseller reported.

Trevor Naylor, associate director of sales, marketing and distribution, said the AUC Press had had "a difficult time trying to maintain normal operations" and had had to close several times since the start of the revolution last January. The publisher and bookseller were meeting "in other locations around Cairo in its efforts to continue trading and working with local and international partners."

Regarding the immolation of Institute d'Egypte, he said, "The loss of all these books is tragic, and the result of an ill-aimed Molotov cocktail."
 

True Colors Bookstore, Minn., is in financial trouble and seeking a "new owner or angel investor or benefactor" for the business formerly called Amazon Feminist Bookstore. Ruta Skujins, who took over the store three years ago (Shelf Awareness, June 18, 2008), announced her situation on the website and said she is "willing to stay on for training purposes. Current lease expires end of February 2012 so new owner would have option of relocating."

Skujins told the Star Tribune that bad timing had been a factor in the latest development: "When I bought the store, it was before the economy crashed. And then it crashed, and our sales now are probably half of what they were before. There are some days when I sell, like, $78. I need a lot more than that on a daily basis to just pay expenses, let alone paying me. We are in the red by about $25,000."

She added that if she does not get help, the store will probably close in February, though she remains guardedly optimistic: "I have a friend who's a psychic who says she does not see the store closing. And we're working on some fundraisers. Maybe there's still hope."
 

Mable mans the customer service desk at Moby Dickens Bookshop in Taos, N.Mex. She and her feline cohort, Tony, are permanent residents at the store, which has been a fixture in the town's historic district for 27 years. Holiday sales have been steady, led by top sellers Kit Carson: The Life of an American Border Man by David Remley (Carson's former residence is in Taos) and Jean Mayer and Marie-Pierre Moine's Cuisine St. Bernard: Recipes and Reflections from the Incomparable Mountain Inn, put out by a local ski resort. Tony's favorite hand sell is Dewey's Nine Lives: The Legacy of the Small-Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions by Vicki Myron. Voted People's Choice as the Best Bookstore in Taos County for 11 years running, Moby Dickens is currently on the market now that owners Art and Susan Bachrach are retiring. A caveat: potential buyers will need two paws up from Mable and Tony to seal the deal. --Shannon McKenna Schmidt
 

Describing the book as "a collection to help counteract the annual overdose of Ho! Ho! Ho! mall music and yuletide sentimentality," USA Today showcased Blue Christmas: Holiday Stories for the Rest of Us, edited by John Dufresne. Blue Christmas is published by B&B Press, the publishing arm of Mitchell Kaplan's Books & Books, with bookstores in southern Florida, Westhampton Beach, N.Y., and the Cayman Islands.

In his review, USA Today's Bill Desowitz said "it would be inaccurate to call Blue Christmas a cynical collection" because "there's also spiritual insight worth noting during this holiday season. And lest we forget, for all the grumbling about A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life, there's no denying the darker truths about human nature buried beneath their sentimental surfaces."
 

The Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits in Paris has purchased a manuscript by Charlotte Brontë for £690,850 (US$1.1 million) at a Sotheby's auction in London. The Guardian reported that the "miniature booklet, one of six handwritten 'Young Men's Magazines' made by the author when she was 14," was sold for more than twice the pre-sale estimate. The museum plans to put the manuscript, which "contains 4,000 words over 19 pages small enough to fit in the palm of a hand," on display next month.
 

The Bungalow: A Novel by Sarah Jio (Plume).

This morning on the Today Show: Jeff Kinney, author of the Wimpy Kid series, who will announce the donation of 300,000 Wimpy Kid titles to the Today Show Toy Drive.

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This morning NPR's Morning Edition marks the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln's creation of the Medal of Honor by interviewing two of the medal recipients profiled in Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty, Third Edition by Peter Collier (Artisan, $44, 9781579654627). The two are World War II veteran Woody Williams and Vietnam War veteran Jack Jacobs.

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Next Monday morning on the Today Show: Mike Bender and Doug Chernack, authors of Awkward Family Pet Photos (Three Rivers, $15, 9780307888129).

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Next Monday on a repeat of NPR's Diane Rehm Show: Diane Keaton, author of Then Again (Random House, $26, 9781400068784).

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Next Monday night on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live: Regis Philbin, author of How I Got This Way (It, $25.99, 9780062109750).

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Next Tuesday on a repeat of NPR's Diane Rehm Show: readers review The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

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Next Tuesday on Glenn Beck: Richard Paul Evans, author of Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 (Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink, $17.99, 9781451656503).

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Next Wednesday morning on the Early Show: Sam Haskell, co-author of Promises I Made My Mother (Ballantine, $24, 9780345506559).

Also on the Early Show: Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad (Anchor, $14.95, 9780307477477).

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Wednesday on MSNBC's Hardball: Amanda Smith, author of Newspaper Titan: The Infamous Life and Monumental Times of Cissy Patterson (Knopf, $37.50, 9780375411007).

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Next Wednesday on a repeat of NPR's Diane Rehm Show: Richard White, author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America (Norton, $35, 9780393061260).

Also on Diane Rehm: Andrew Graham-Dixon, author of Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (Norton, $39.95, 9780393081497).

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Next Wednesday on OWN's Rosie Show: Jane Fonda, author of Prime Time (Random House, $27, 9781400066971).

In what could have been a pilot episode of The Odd Book Couple, former president Bill Clinton and actress/writer Mindy Kaling appeared together yesterday on NBC's Today Show to share their must-reads for this year.

Clinton's picks ranged from David Herbert Donald's Lincoln to Seamus Heaney's The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes to Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, which he said he reads every year.

Kaling's recommendations included 11/22/63 by Stephen King, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty by Andrew Bolton and My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness by Gwyneth Paltrow

After hearing Clinton's choices, Kaling joked, "I didn't know his list when I made my list. I would have made it more Ph.D.-friendly." They found common ground in their admiration for Tina Fey, author of Bossypants.

Entertainment Weekly's Sandra Gonzalez called the two bibliophiles "a wonderfully strange pairing," adding: "I know many people who would find value in both sets of picks. In fact, I really wish Clinton and Kaling made book recommendations more often. Talk about a well-rounded education. I'd join that book club."
 

The first trailer for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been released and "Middle-earth just got closer," the Los Angeles Times observed, adding that "while it was all too fleeting there was enough in it to stir the heart of fans." The movie will be released next December.

Each December, Shelf Awareness staff members choose their top books; today's list is by children's editor Jennifer M. Brown.

Press Here by Hervé Tullet (Chronicle)
Truly a book for kids from one to 92, this brilliant board book proves beyond all doubt that the book as a delivery system trumps all others. Red, yellow and blue dots move across the white pages in ways that never fail to amuse and--yes--surprise us.

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
In a picture book about the importance of family stories, a boy preserves his great-grandfather's memories as he tends to the topiaries that represent the milestones of the man's life. Brightly colored tools of the trade (a dowel, a spatula) stand out against the variegated green sculptures and hint at the passing of the torch taking place between man and boy.

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick)
Jon Klassen's study in restraint results in a hilarious, slightly creepy payoff in his picture book's final pages, as a bear searches for his lost hat. Repeated question-and-answer exchanges throw into high relief the defensiveness of a certain rabbit wearing a red triangular chapeau when the bear innocently asks, "Have you seen my hat?" Children not yet ready to digest the concluding events will see only that the hat has been restored to its rightful owner.

Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown)
Patrick McDonnell, creator of the Mutts comics strip, masterfully applies everything he knows about pacing and character development in this picture book about the girlhood passions that fed Dr. Jane Goodall. His ink-and-watercolor illustrations give children a portrait of a life's work that began in childhood play.

We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart by Walter Dean Myers, illus. by Christopher Myers (Collins/HarperCollins)
The father-son team behind Harlem proves once more that the places and people that shape us become part of our identity. Moved by 9/11 and its aftermath, author and artist reflect upon who we are as a people, as a country and as committed fighters for what we believe in--beginning with the Founding Fathers and continuing through our struggles today. In the words and images that accompany their meditations on the Pledge of Allegiance, we see America reflected back to us.

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming (Schwartz & Wade/Random House)
In an edge-of-the-seat biography framed as a mystery, Candace Fleming (The Great and Only Barnum) reveals every aspect of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart. She begins with Earhart's loss of contact on July 2, 1937, during her final flight, and intersperses details from her childhood and her rise to fame. What emerges is a portrait of a strong woman who knew how to market herself and go after her goals--but who also had her flaws, one of which may have been fatal. Teen accounts of the hours following her disappearance bring the events home for today's readers.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)
Brian Selznick's innovation in the construction of his two-pronged story outdoes even his Caldecott Medal–winning Hugo. The stories of two 12-year-olds, Ben and Rose, begin 50 years apart--one in prose in 1977 Minnesota, the other in images in 1927 Hoboken, N.J. They share in common the pull of New York, a love of collecting, and a need for family, but how Selznick connects these two stories over a half-century will leave you wonderstruck.

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Doug Swieteck hides two major secrets, and they both come out in the course of Gary Schmidt's extraordinary novel. Doug is one of those kids who's usually written off--slacks off in school, seems disengaged. But thanks to a few adults and a kind peer who see there's more to him, Doug begins to discover his strengths--such as his ability to draw and his fearlessness. Like the details of the Audubon paintings that Doug is determined to save, each realization in Doug's gradual awakening adds up to a smashing finish.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd, illus. by Jim Kay (Candlewick)
This brave book exposes the grief, anger and guilt that accompanies terminal illness through the relationship of 10-year-old Conor and the monster he unwittingly summons to help him live through his mother's battle with cancer. With moments of humor and a bounty of insight, Patrick Ness builds on an idea planted by Siobhan Dowd (who died of cancer before she could complete the novel) and gives us words for an ineffable feeling of helplessness and loss. For an added dimension, listen to Jason Isaacs's spellbinding reading (Candlewick on Brilliance Audio).

Blood Red Road by Moira Young (McElderry/S&S)
In a crowded field of dystopian literature, this debut novel stands out for its spare language and a dialect that reads like song lyrics. Its Mad Max–like anarchy and arid setting lay the foundation for a prickly heroine to mature, as the edges of her world expand; she gains our sympathies with each passing chapter.

Missed Connections: Love Lost and Found by Sophie Blackall (Workman)
Sophie Blackall's insightful collection of vignettes is a testimony to following one's passion to its full extent. Yes, those in pursuit of lost crushes, but also Blackall's own passion for plucking out of these many tales the most involving (un)couples and bringing them visually to life. A favorite watercolor image captures a couple in a floating Chagall-like embrace, tethered only by a tentative hold on a subway pole.

Ever since her boy hero's apprenticeship to a master potter in her Newbery Medal–winning A Single Shard, Linda Sue Park has found her way into historical and modern predicaments through a child's perspective. Her picture book this holiday season, The Third Gift, illustrated by Bagram Ibatouilline, retells the story of the magi from the viewpoint of a child whose father harvests the myrrh that will serve as one of their three gifts. She also contributed a story, "The Harp," inspired by one of Chris Van Allsburg's enigmatic drawings, to this fall's The Chronicles of Harris Burdick.

On your nightstand now:

Nightstand: The Flint Heart by John and Katherine Paterson; The Curious Death of Peter Artedi by Theodore W. Pietsch. Kitchen table: Clémentine in the Kitchen by Samuel Chamberlain. Bathroom: Mouth Wide Open by John Thorne.

Favorite book when you were a child:

ONE?? I can only pick one? Not possible.

The Man with the Purple Eyes by Charlotte Zolotow, Roosevelt Grady by Louisa Shotwell, What Then, Raman? by Shirley Arora, I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevin, The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.

That's novels. If I were to start listing picture books, you would need another terabyte of space.

Your top five authors:

Not authors but series: the Wallander novels by Henning Mankell; Finding Nouf and City of Veils, which I hope are the start to a series by Zoë Ferraris; the Enzo Files by Peter May. And I'll read anything by M.T. Anderson, Mo Willems and Margo Lanagan.

Book you've faked reading:

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (and I really have read Joyce's Ulysses--twice).

Book you are an evangelist for:

Eliot Pattison's Inspector Shan series.

Book you re-read every few years:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

Book that changed your life:

I don't remember it, but it was the first book I ever read.

Favorite line from a book:

"My father collects tears." (This is cheating. It's from The Third Gift, the only line I've ever written that I love unreservedly.)

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Half Magic by Edward Eager.

Using the rhythm and pacing of blues lyrics, Jonah Winter (Diego) unspools the biography of dancer, singer, performer and activist Josephine Baker. Marjorie Priceman's (One of Each) loose line and expressive gouache-and-ink illustrations evoke the sensuality of the dances that rocketed Baker to the top.

Together they tackle some difficult moments in Baker's life in a way that picture book audiences can handle. They counter a sobering image of Josephine as a girl, huddled on the floor to sleep, "newspapers for a sheet--/ rats crawlin' all around,/ a nibblin' at her feet," with a picture of her Granny, on the opposite page, holding her and saying, "Someday you're gonna be a princess--/ you know what Granny says is true," as Priceman paints a fantasy tiara upon Josephine's head. Winter and Priceman portray Josephine's early dances (the "Turkey Trot" and the "Camel Walk"). The repetition of the blues lines, the elongated dance figures and the playful Art Deco type all contribute to a sense of her showmanship. A tragic event interrupts Josephine's impromptu performing on the night when "there were white folks chasin' black folks--/ on the black folks' side of town...." It's a reference to the East St. Louis riots of 1917, and Priceman, clearly portraying the threat to people's homes and persons, depicts the fire with an orange and red background and torches held by two white men, as Josephine and others flee to safety. Winter marks this as the pivotal moment when Baker decides to leave St. Louis: "So Josephine, she started runnin' too,/ she started runnin' on that night/..../ There had to be some better place/ where white folks treat you right." Priceman's stop-action, three-part sequence of her escape portrays a confidence that Josephine will find what she's searching for, and she does--in Paris.

Winter and Priceman skillfully connect Josephine's early animal dances with the costumes and choreography that wowed French audiences ("Panther, camel--/ who's that, who?/ Ostrich, parakeet--kangaroo?"). The author and artist's portrayal of Baker as someone who adheres to her beliefs from childhood, who has the strength as a 15-year-old showgirl in New York City to quit because she refuses to wear blackface, plants the seeds for her later work in the French Resistance and the U.S. civil rights movement (mentioned in an author's note). And in the finale, "dressed to the hilt," Josephine wears a tiara. You know what Granny says is true. Brava! --Jennifer M. Brown

Shelf Talker: This picture-book biography of Josephine Baker captures the performer's sensuality and convictions with a blues-like narrative and effervescent gouache-and-ink illustrations.

Yesterday's item about Ingram Publisher Services and Spring Arbor becoming exclusive distributor of HarperCollins to the Christian market mistakenly implied that all publishing companies owned by HarperCollins are included. The agreement applies to Harper imprints only.

Zondervan's sales force will continue to sell Zondervan titles to the Christian market. Zondervan has a "mirror" agreement under which IPS/Spring Arbor sells Zondervan titles to ABA bookstore members. Harper/Zondervan co-published titles and select titles such as Tim Tebow's memoir and C.S. Lewis titles also continue to be sold by Zondervan to the Christian bookstore market.