Chris Livingston, owner of the Book Shelf in Winona, Minn., has become interim president of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, replacing Lanora Haradon, who abruptly closed her store, the Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, Wis., last week and resigned as president of MIBA.

Livingston will be interim president through the association's trade show October 3-5, after which the board will make a permanent appointment.

MIBA executive director Carrie Obry called Haradon, who in announcements about the store closing used her old married name, Hurley, "a true leader in our field, her store one of the leading lights of independent bookselling in the Midwest. Her presence will be greatly missed."

MIBA vice president Kathy Borkowski, director of the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, was not promoted to interim president because she and the board wanted a bookseller to be president.

Eileen Bertelli, a member of the Parson Weems commission sales group since 2010, has been elected president of the National Association of Independent Publishers Representatives, replacing Eric Miller, who has been president of the organization for 10 years.

Bertelli has more than 25 years of sales and marketing experience, working for such publishers as Penguin, Kensington and Barron's in editorial, sales and marketing. She has also worked in bookstores and run a small press with her husband, Gavin Caruthers.

She thanked Miller for "his leadership and guidance," adding that "his service to our group was unprecedented."

Executive director Robert Rooney called Bertelli "very smart, energetic, and battle-tested. She has the best interests of her fellow members at heart and knows the industry very well. It is also high time that NAIPR has a woman as its president."

Denise Cote, the judge in the Justice Department suit against Apple and five publishers over collusion involving the agency model for e-books, has preliminarily approved the settlement between the three settling publishers--Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster--and 49 states and five territories. The judge scheduled a final settlement approval hearing for February 8.

Under the settlement, consumers who bought e-books with agency model pricing between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012 will receive $69 million. Payments begin 30 days after final approval.

Next month, British wholesaler Gardners Books will launch a £59 (US$96) color e-reader called the GoTab, a six-inch Android tablet the company described as a "perfect 'pocket' sized device." The GoTab is supported by the Hive Reader app, which allows customers to download e-books directly from the Hive website and assign their account to their favorite local bookshop.  

Bob Jackson, commercial director at Gardners, called the inclusion of the forthcoming Hive reader app on the GoTab "a huge opportunity for independent booksellers to compete with online multinational retailers and embrace 'going digital' by selling e-books whilst retaining their loyal customer base."
 

Books-A-Million appears to be planning to open a 2nd and Charles store in a former Borders location near the Christiana Mall, Newark, Del., Newsworks reported, based on local ads seeking employees.

2nd and Charles is a superstore format that features used books, movies, music, video games, comics and more. BAM has six 2nd and Charles locations.

Last Thursday Broadway Books, Portland, Ore., held Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups, an adults-only event to celebrate Lidia Yuknavitch's new novel, Dora: A Headcase (Hawthorne Books). Yuknavitch brought author friends Chelsea Cain and Chuck Palahniuk, the three of whom read from "the raunchiest, scariest, or most shocking passages from their books." The store gave out prizes, had live music and served adult beverages. The audience of 100 was encouraged to wear nightclothes--and in keeping with the slumber party theme, most sat on pillows on the floor rather than in chairs. Here, in their slumberwear: (from l.) Cain, Palahniuk and Yuknavitch.

Congratulations to the Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown, Pa., which is holding a four-day grand reopening celebration, beginning this Friday, September 21. The 19 events, which aim to give "the community a little taste of what this enduring bookshop has to offer," include a reception Friday evening, live music, an appearance by the Philadelphia Liars Club, kids' events and author signings and readings, a memoir writing workshop and several costume character appearances.

Doylestown Bookshop was bought earlier this year by Glenda Childs when Pat and Phil Gerney, who founded it 14 years ago, retired.

World Book Night in the U.S. has posted its fourth regional video on YouTube. This one features booksellers, librarians and book givers in the Midwest and covers everything from pre-WBN bookstore receptions to the big night itself, April 23, 2012. The video also features original music by WBN intern Devin Kelly, who is a musician and Fordham graduate who's researching how to get more WBN editions to members of the military and their families.

Noting that older libraries "seem to hum with wisdom through that black and white film--and we bet the old-book smell is just to die for," Flavorwire showcased "vintage photographs from inside 10 famous libraries."
 

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown (Gotham).

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition: Salman Rushdie, author of Joseph Anton: A Memoir (Random House, $30, 9780812992786).

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Tomorrow morning on Imus in the Morning: Bob Woodward, author of The Price of Politics (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781451651102).

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Tomorrow morning on Fox & Friends: Andrew McCarthy, author of The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down (Free Press, $26, 9781451667486). He will also appear on CNN's Starting Point and Piers Morgan Tonight.

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Tomorrow on Tavis Smiley: Tony Danza, author of I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High (Crown Archetype, $24, 9780307887863).

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Tomorrow on the View: Tip "T.I." Harris, co-author of Trouble & Triumph: A Novel of Power & Beauty (Morrow, $23.99, 9780062067685).

DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox released the full trailer for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role and opens November 9, Indiewire reported. Spielberg and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Robert Todd Lincoln, discussed the film on Google Play.  

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Focus Features released three new TV spots for Joe Wright's adaptation of Tostoy's Anna Karenina, which "has already dazzled a number of critics at TIFF and elsewhere, including our man in London, who called it, 'fascinatingly theatrical and thrillingly cinematic,' praising Stoppard's screenplay along with the performances overall."
 

The CW network and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television are teaming up to adapt Jessica Shirvington's Embrace series of novels "as a drama series eyed for next season," Deadline.com reported. Bill Laurin and Glenn Davis are on board to write the script, and will executive produce with DreamWorksTV/Amblin TV co-co-presidents Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank.
 

Charles Cumming won the inaugural £3,000 (US$4,864) Scottish Crime Book of the Year award for his novel A Foreign Country, the Bookseller reported. Chair of judges Sheena McDonald said the novel "spans the complexity of the practices of crime and counter-crime in the modern world, from savage to subtle."
 

Selected new titles appearing next Monday and Tuesday, September 24 and 25:

Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young (Blue Rider, $30, 9780399159466) is a memoir by the legendary rocker.

Life With the Beatles: Inside Beatlemania by Robert Whitaker (Life, $39.95, 9781603202312) is a photographic catalogue of the height of Beatlemania by the group's official photographer.

Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy edited by Ted Widmer and Caroline Kennedy (Hyperion, $40, 9781401324568) includes two audio CD's and recording transcripts.

One Last Strike: Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season by Tony La Russa (Morrow, $27.99, 9780062207388) gives an insider account of the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals comeback and the manager's career.

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little Brown, $19.99, 9780316206983) finds a teenage girl investigating the murder of her own parents.

Love Anthony by Lisa Genova (Gallery, $26, 9781439164686) follows two grieving mothers who meet by chance in Nantucket.

Nightsong by Ari Berk, illustrated by Loren Long (Simon & Schuster, $17.99, 9781416978862) is a children's book about a young bat and his echolocation ability.

Panorama City by Antoine Wilson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $24, 9780547875125) involves a simple man's escapades in the San Fernando Valley.

One of Italy's most acclaimed authors, Elena Ferrante is not well known in the U.S. My Brilliant Friend, the first in a projected trilogy, may change that. The setting is the outskirts of Naples in the 1950s. Ferrante draws an indelible picture of the city's mean streets and the poverty, violence and sameness of lives lived in the same place forever.

The story begins in the present day, when 66-year-old Lenù receives a phone call from the son of her lifelong friend, Lila. Decades ago, Lila said she wanted to disappear without a trace; it appears she finally has. Lenù casts her memory back half a century; their friendship began when they walked up a dark flight of stairs to confront Don Achille about stealing their dolls. He is the neighborhood monster, so this foray sets the stage for Lila being the fearless one and Lenù following along, a pattern that repeats frequently over the years. "I did many things in my life without conviction," Lenù  recalls. "Lila, on the other hand... had the characteristic of absolute determination."

Their neighborhood, isolated from the rest of the world, has become ingrown, hostile, jealous and vengeful. Both girls are excellent students but Lila is prevented from attending school. Instead, she helps her father in his shoe shop and her mother at home. Her life is laid out for her: marriage, motherhood, poverty and unhappiness, with no escape. Lenù is fostered by one of her teachers and continues to attend school despite her parents' initial reluctance; she even travels to Ischia to visit the teacher's cousin. It's a different world--one that gives her a great tan, dries up her acne and provides her sexual awakening.

Things for both girls do not go exactly as planned. Lila chooses a husband considered wealthy by neighborhood standards, thereby ensuring financial support for her father and brother's entrepreneurial desires. She preens and struts, now well-dressed and a homeowner--so why does she disappear?

Lenù, on the other hand, who has put all her eggs in the intellectual basket, discovers that she has no one to talk to, no appropriate suitor who wants her. Where will life take her?

Ferrante, a fierce writer and a Neapolitan, is well versed in the blood feuds that last for centuries, class divides, passions unchecked, murder unpunished and the lust for money. Even in Naples, however, things are changing, as the sequels to My Brilliant Friend are sure to reveal. --Valerie Ryan

Shelf Talker: A story of two girls becoming women in mid-20th-century Naples, a world unto itself.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com.

1. Let Me Be the One by Bella Andre
2. His Every Desire by Kelly Favor
3. Easy by Tammara Webber
4. While It Lasts by Abbi Glines
5. Hard Mated by Jennifer Ashley
6. On Dublin Street by Samantha Young
7. Death on a High Floor by Charles Rosenberg
8. Better Off Without Him by Dee Ernst
9. Taking Chances by Molly McAdams
10. The Mighty Storm by Samantha Towle

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]