On July 1, Kepler's Books, Menlo Park, Calif., is closing for two months to make "a major overhaul both in the front of the store (new layout, restocking of books) and in the back (new computer systems, new staff training, etc)," as the store put it.

The changes are a key part of the Kepler's 2020 Project led by Praveen Madan, co-owner of the Booksmith in San Francisco, and instituted earlier this year to revitalize the store and institute a hybrid management model (Shelf Awareness, January 31, 2012).

During the shutdown, the store plans to hold most scheduled author events either off site or possibly in the store. It will also continue to sell on Keplers.com. The move is possible because of strong reaction to the Kepler's fund-raising campaign, the store said: it has already raised $728,000 of the goal of $1 million it set for the end of the summer.

The trial in the Justice Department's e-book agency model pricing case against Apple, Macmillan and Penguin Group will begin next June 3, U.S. District Court judge Denise Cote said, Reuters reported.

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Midnight tonight is the deadline for public comment on the proposed settlement between the Justice Department and the three publishers in the same case that are not contesting the suit, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Hachette Group. Send thoughts to the intriguingly named John Read at john.read@usdoj.gov.

Although several months have passed since the last Amazon Locker sighting in New York City, tech blogger Dave Zatz recently snapped photos of the online retailer's package delivery/storage units he spotted recently at 7-Elevens in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. He noted "they've received something of a facelift since their Seattle launch (and compared to the spartan grey edifice displayed on Amazon's FAQ)."

Zatz also observed that Amazon "lists a mere 4 partner 7-11s in NoVA at this time. But there may be quite a few more coming online shortly... as the outpost I visited this a.m. in Fairfax is unlisted," and he suggested that "we're obviously seeing something of a soft launch here in the capital region."
 

Philip Turner, editor, marketer, publisher, consultant and former bookseller, has begun working with Speakerfile and will introduce the company's Publisher Edition--the online platform that helps conference organizers discover and book authors for speaking engagements--to the book industry.

"Speaking engagements have become increasingly important for authors to promote their work, yet meeting planners and conference organizers have lacked an effective way to discover and connect with the right speakers for their events," Turner said. "Some publishers have recognized this by starting their own in-house speakers bureaus. Speakerfile is not duplicating those efforts, and is not in competition with publishers. Instead, its ingenious software works like a matchmaking service to connect the right authors with the right events."

Turner has been an editor and publisher with Kodansha, Carroll & Graf and Union Square Press and earlier was a co-founder with his family of Under Cover Books in Cleveland, Ohio. Since 2009, he has run Philip Turner Book Productions and last year began the Great Gray Bridge, a blog (that we highly recommend) devoted to books, publishing, music, urban life and current affairs.

In what may be the last photo taken of LeRoy Neiman, who died last Wednesday, the 91-year-old artists here holds the first printed copy of his memoir, All Told: My Art and Life Among Athletes, Playboys, Bunnies, and Provocateurs (Lyons Press), just after he opened the package from the printer. Agent Steve Ross commented: "He worked for over a decade on that manuscript before he hired me to help corral it, give that wild rapscallion's story structure and discipline. It is a wonderful book and the suitable literary legacy he'd hoped it would be--but it took a village to make it happen in time for him to see it."

Congratulations to Jean Haller, owner of Journeys of Life, Pittsburgh, Pa., named Retailer of the Year by the Coalition of Visionary Resources. Journeys of Life is the spiritual book and gift store whose building was gutted by fire last November--and which reopened last month in the rebuilt space (Shelf Awareness, May 29, 2012).

Here's an unusual bookstore ownership opportunity that we might have to look into:

After 12 years of ownership, Katherine Bennett is putting Undercover Books & Gifts, St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, up for sale. She called Undercover "a very successful, much loved community bookstore" and said, "I am not going anywhere and I am planning to continue to run my store to the very best of my ability while it's on the market."

Scott Edinburgh has joined Perseus Books Group as director, corporate strategy and business development. He was formerly manager, global strategy and corporate development, at the InterContinental Hotels Group.

Timothy Cheng has joined Perseus as special sales manager. He had worked since 2006 in Sterling Publishing's special sales department, most recently as special sales manager for online, mail order, national specialty accounts.

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Claire Daniel has joined Hilsinger-Mendelson East, the literary public relations firm, as digital media manager. Daniel was formerly associate editor and marketing coordinator at YourTango.com.

Emily Pearson has been promoted to publicist at Hilsinger-Mendelson East. She has been with the firm since 2010.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Harper), a cool group reading that includes Neil Gaiman and the book's publishers in the U.S., U.K. and New Zealand.

 

This morning on Live with Kelly: Andy Cohen, author of Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture (Holt, $25, 9780805095838).

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Today on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews: David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story (Simon & Schuster, $32.50, 9781439160404). He will also appear on PBS' Newshour and CNN's Newsroom with Kyra Phillips.

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Tonight on the Daily Show: Senator Marco Rubio, author of An American Son: A Memoir (Sentinel, $26.95, 9781595230942). He will also appear on the View.

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Frank Deford, author of Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter (Atlantic Monthly Press, $25, 9780802120151).

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Tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman: Jimmie Walker, author of Dyn-o-mite!: Good Times, Bad Times, Our Times--A Memoir (Da Capo, $25, 9780306820830).

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Tonight on Nightline: Mitch Winehouse, author of Amy, My Daughter (It Books, $27.99, 9780062191380). He will also be on Good Morning America tomorrow.

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Tomorrow morning on Fox & Friends: Katherine Losse, author of The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network (Free Press, $26, 9781451668254). She will also appear on CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

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Tomorrow on CBS's the Talk: Janet Evanovich, author of Wicked Business: A Lizzy and Diesel Novel (Bantam, $28, 9780345527776).

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Tomorrow on the View: Rielle Hunter, author of What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter, and Me (BenBella Books, $24.95, 9781937856403). She will also appear on Good Morning America and Nightline.

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Richard Ford, author of Canada (Ecco, $27.99, 9780061692048).

Also on the Colbert Report: Liza Mundy, author of The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family (Simon & Schuster, $27, 9781439197714).

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Tomorrow night on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Don Winslow, author of The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781451665321).

Noting that the "business of advertising someone else's content has become a major traffic driver," paidContent reported Yahoo Movies drew more than seven million unique users during the first 24 hours after its exclusive debut of the new trailer for Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2. The total was Yahoo's best one-day performance ever for a movie trailer, topping last September's trailer for Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1.

"Not bad numbers to get from video that's considered editorial content and which is obtained at no cost to Yahoo," paidContent observed.

A Yahoo Movies staff member said the site "attracts over 27 million unique users a month, so 7 million streams is a sizable achievement for a single day."
 

Liao Yiwu, the Chinese dissident author, has won the 2012 Peace Prize of the German book trade. He will receive the €25,000 (about $31,400) prize on October 14 during the Frankfurt Book Fair.

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Finalists have been announced for the Canadian Children's Book Centre's seven major awards: the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, Prix TD de littérature canadienne pour l'enfance et la jeunesse, Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction, Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, John Spray Mystery Award and the inaugural Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. You can see the CCBC Awards shortlists here.

Winners will be named during the TD Canadian Children's Literature Awards and Prix TD de littérature canadienne pour l'enfance et la jeunesse, a pair of events to be held this fall in Toronto and Montreal, where a total of $120,000 in prize money will be distributed.
 

Diane Warren's debut novel, Juliet in August, won the 2010 Governor General's Award for fiction, one of Canada's most prestigious literary prizes. It richly deserves the honor.

Juliet, Saskatchewan, might be considered a backwater. It's a dusty, mosquito-ridden town on the edge of the Little Snake sand hills. There isn't a lot going on in the dunes, downtown or in the town's living rooms. Nothing, that is, except vital, vibrant life, as lived anywhere else--but perhaps more quietly. In several overlapping stories, Warren etches the lives of Juliet's people in the reader's memory. No pyrotechnics, nothing flamboyant, just perfect descriptions of the singular events that fill the days and nights in Juliet.

It's a hot and blowy day when a horse, a fine-looking Arab, shows up on Lee Torgeson's property. Lee is the "shirttail relation," the foundling who appeared on Lester and Astrid's porch many years ago. Now, his adoptive parents are gone and he is uncomfortable with this generous legacy left to him. He idly mounts the horse and sets out for a short ride that turns into the 100-mile centerpiece of the story, threading its way through lives and stories, hours of a very long day spent ruminating, reminiscing, seeing people and sorting out what's next.

We meet Norval, the banker with a conscience, who grieves over the decisions he makes about poor farmers' loans and the foreclosures dispossessing them of their only way of life. His wife is taken up with the planning of the wedding of their pregnant daughter to a drunken kid. By story's end, everyone in that family will have to step into adulthood in a hurry.

Blaine Dolson, a father with too many kids and a dithery wife, comes to an epiphany about his own culpability for his situation and a new balance is found in that household. Lee rides dreamily through it all--he is a bit of a poet at heart--thinking about a long-ago similar ride done on a bet, remembering the words of Ozymandias: "Look on my works, ye mighty and despair," finding objects long buried in the eternal sands. Such is the rhythm of a day in Juliet.

At the end, Warren writes:

"The wind blows until dawn, releasing the past, howling at the boundaries of the present.
The land forever changing shape.
To the east, the pale pink of early morning."

Perfection. --Valerie Ryan   

Shelf Talker: A long ride on a good horse through lives and a landscape, illuminated by Warren's insight into the generosity, pettiness, jealousy, love and fears of all of us.

Overlook Press is the U.S. house publishing the Russian Library series, the 125-volume of translated Russian fiction, drama and poetry that will appear over the next decade. Our apologies for the error.