News Corp. is buying Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar Corporation for $415 million in cash and will make it a division of HarperCollins. Harlequin's headquarters will remain in Toronto, as will the offices of HarperCollins Canada.

Founded in 1949 and bought by Torstar in 1981, Harlequin publishes more than 110 titles monthly in 34 languages in more than 100 markets. In 2013, Harlequin revenues were US$363 million, about 95% of which came from outside Canada.

"Harlequin has a devoted audience around the globe and an empathetic insight into contemporary cultures, which is itself a remarkable resource," News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson said. "This acquisition will broaden the boundaries of both HarperCollins and Harlequin, and is a significant step in our strategy to establish a network of digital properties in the growth regions of the world."

Brian Murray, HarperCollins president and CEO, commented: "Harlequin has built one of the largest and most widely recognized consumer brands in publishing with a highly focused publishing program for women.... The Harlequin name and rich heritage will be preserved independently, with the aim to leverage capabilities to bring the book-reading public more choices. Harlequin's business has grown internationally, and will give HarperCollins an immediate foothold in 11 new countries from which we can expand into dozens of foreign languages for authors who choose to work with us globally."

Torstar president and CEO David Holland told the Toronto Star, which Torstar owns, that News Corp. had approached Torstar about the sale.

In January, total net book sales rose 7.2%, to $1.18 billion, compared to January 2013, representing sales of 1,218 publishers and distributed clients as reported to the Association of American Publishers. Total trade net sales rose 10%, to $549.7 million. Children's/YA was the strongest category: net sales rose 43.7%, to $143.7 million, led by e-books and hardcovers. Overall trade e-book sales rose 12.8%, led by a 65.1% gain in children's/YA e-books. 

Sandy Scott and Andrea Jones are buying the Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, Vt. from current owner Linda Ramsdell, who opened the bookstore in 1988. Last year, Ramsdell announced that a sale was under consideration. Scott has been an integral part of the bookstore's operation since 2000, and Jones "has been a fan and supporter of the Galaxy for many years."

In making the announcement this morning about "the next chapter for Galaxy Books," they wrote: "The three of us hope to have the sale finalized the fourth week of May, and we're planning a big party to celebrate on Saturday, May 24th, which is Spring Festival day here in Hardwick.

"Sandy and Andrea are thrilled to be taking over the care and keeping of the Galaxy Bookshop and are grateful to Linda for the vision and dedication that has made this store a vital part of Hardwick for more than 25 years. In all that we do, we hope to honor that vision and always make the Galaxy Bookshop a place that inspires reading, writing and community."

William Kent Krueger

Robin and Jamie Agnew, owners of Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookshop

"Your stories are your power," said Brad Meltzer, author and president of the Mystery Writers of America, at the 68th annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards banquet last night. The ceremonies, held at the Grand Hyatt New York City, were dedicated to the women of crime fiction and honored mysteries and thrillers in all their forms. "They're your legacy, your impact. What we all do hits people in a way that nothing else can."

Marcia Talley, author of the Hannah Ives mystery series and the general awards chair, said that she was "struck each year" by the fact that an Edgar Award was "so special because it's an award from your peers."

Robin and Jamie Agnew, the husband and wife co-owners of Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Mich., received the Raven Award, which recognizes "outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing." Robin called the award a "lifetime pinnacle for us," and Jamie promised that "as long as you keep writing and editing and publishing [mysteries], we will do our best to sell them."

Authors Robert Crais and Carolyn Hart each received Grand Master Awards for their contributions to the genre and overall bodies of work. The Best First Novel Award went to Jason Matthews for the book Red Sparrow (Scribner), and the night's final award, the much coveted Best Novel, went to William Kent Krueger for Ordinary Grace (Atria). Said Krueger: "To write, to be published, to be read, to be appreciated. What more could any storyteller ask for?" --Alex Mutter

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day, when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away select comic books to anyone who comes into their stores. Here's a sampling of media coverage to get you in a comic mood:

To begin on a serious note, "users of the ComiXology app have reacted furiously to the removal of in-app purchases on Android and iOS, just weeks after it was acquired by Amazon," the Guardian reported, adding: "Readers and artists blamed Amazon for the move, which avoids the 30% levy charged by Apple and Google on in-app purchases, but adds inconvenience for readers.... Many comics creators have also reacted negatively to the change, pointing out that it removes one of the best ways for enticing new readers in to the medium."

The staff at Heroes and Villains Comic Book Store, Tucson, Ariz., created a fun video to promote their FCBD festivities.

"Comic books are a true part of Americana," said Tom Davis, owner of the Bookshelf on South Monroe, Tallahassee, Fla., which "has participated for several years, and this year's celebration promises to be better than ever. Last year, the store broke its record with more than 700 attendees, many of them in costume themselves," WTXL-TV reported.

Matt Fagan, co-owner of Brainstorm Comics, Chicago, told the Sun-Times that "comic books seem to be off people's radar with all the new forms of media that exist today, but there are still those with fond memories of reading and collecting their favorite titles, and Free Comic Book Day may be that boost to remind them to come back and check us out." The store has a new location in the Flat Iron Arts Building. "Our new space is a little less obvious than before so Free Comic Book Day is even more important to attract a customer base."

Eric Thornton, owner of Chicago Comics, said, "Pop culture and nerd culture are combining more and more into one form, and so the exposure provided by movies and new titles and genres has widened the array of collectors. We're seeing a lot more female readers and a vast group of ages, especially children."

LeVar Burton, reading activist and host of the PBS show Reading Rainbow, "encourages readers of all ages to check out" FCBD in this video.

"There have been years where we have 50 to 60 people waiting in line before we open. We run out very quickly. By 3 or 4 p.m., everything's gone," Thomas Yeldon, owner of Larger Than Life Toys and Comics, Clay, N.Y., told the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Joe Field, owner of Flying Colors Comics, Concord, Calif., was a co-founder of the first WonderCon (originally the Wonderful World of Comics convention), but "his biggest legacy may be his role in shepherding new readers to comics, starting Free Comic Book Day in 2002," SFGate.com reported.  

"One of the things we'll do is ask what they like in other media," he said. "What books are they reading, what TV shows and movies do they watch? And really what mood are they in? One of my favorite parts of the business is nurturing new readers in comics, whatever their age."

At Three Alarm Comics, Biloxi, Miss., "customers will walk into a little mini-comic book convention with more than 30 guest comic book creators on hand to talk with or to sign your favorite comics or you can just show up for free books there as well," the Sun Herald wrote. Owner Scott Hoverman said, "Every year we've kind of gotten bigger and bigger. It has kind of become what a lot of people started calling it a mini-convention."

"It's probably the biggest outreach event we have all year," said Tom Flammer, supervisor of Clem's Comics & Games, Lansing, Mich. "We get people coming in that day that don't usually come in. It's nice, too, in that it occurs at the beginning of the summer and kicks things back into gear. Being downtown, most of our customers are college age or up, because it's easy access for them, so we don't get as many kids in as you might think. But on Free Comic Book Day, they come out in spades."

Foyles has added more authors and has more information about the three-week grand opening festival that will be held June 11-July 5 for its new flagship store on Charing Cross Road in London. The 37,000-square-foot "bookshop for the 21st century" is located steps from Foyles's longtime flagship store.

Hilary Mantel, twice winner of the Man Booker Prize, will officially open the store on June 13. Thereafter, each department will be opened formally by an author: Simon Armitage will open poetry; Mary Beard, history and politics; Malorie Blackman, children's and YA; Jarvis Cocker, music; P.D. James, crime fiction; Mark Kermode, film and theatre; Henry Marsh, medical; Yotam Ottolenghi, cookery; Michael Palin, travel; Grayson Perry, art; Biz Stone, business; and Sarah Waters, fiction. In many cases, the authors will unveil a table of their own top 10 picks for the department.

The festival will feature events with these and other authors, as well as concerts, storytelling sessions, film screenings, workshops and more.

Literary agent Deborah Rogers, whose clients included Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Hanif Kureishi, A.S. Byatt, Anita Desai, Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally, died Wednesday, the Bookseller reported. She was in her 70s. A statement from RCW (Rogers, Coleridge and White) expressed "great sadness" at the loss of their "beloved colleague," adding: "She was an inspiration: a peerless agent, a wonderful friend and greatly loved by colleagues, authors and friends alike."

Ishiguro said he was "groping for consolations in the face of this loss, but one of them is that she departed absolutely at the top of her game, knowing no decline. In the last few months, she was sharper, wiser, more energetic than at any time in the 34 years I've known her."

Rogers was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing at this year's London Book Fair.

---
 
German author Stefanie Zweig, who wrote more than two dozen books, died April 25, the Associated Press reported. She was 81. A film adaptation of her 1995 autobiographical novel, Nowhere in Africa, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003.

Wednesday's edition of KALW's Your Call with Rose Aguilar celebrated tomorrow's California Bookstore Day by talking to three Bay Area booksellers whose bookshops are "not just stores, they're community centers and local anchors run by passionate readers." Featured on the program were Pete Mulvihill, co-owner of Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Paul Curatolo, co-manager of Walden Pond Books in Oakland, and Casey Coonerty Protti, owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz.

Novelist Susan Gregg Gilmore, who also works in a wine store, has launched a new video series featuring a book recommendation paired with just the right bottle of wine.

"I thought it might be fun on Friday afternoons when our thoughts are turning to the weekend for me to pair a great book with a great bottle of wine. So, here's the thing now: Every bottle that I recommend is going to be $15 or less because I want to be sure that you have plenty of money in your pocket to head down to your local independent bookseller and buy a great book."

Gilmore's books include The Funeral Dress, The Improper life of Bezellia Grove and Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.

Rock band Coldplay and DJ/producer Avicii "have an ulterior motive with their new collaborative single: getting kids to visit the library," the Los Angeles Times reported, adding that to promote their new single, "A Sky Full of Stars," Coldplay "has quietly slipped handwritten copies of the album's lyrics into ghost-story themed books in libraries around the world. One particular copy comes with a trip to see the band play at London's Royal Albert Hall on July 1." You can follow the action on Twitter (@coldplay), where fans have reported finding lyrics sheets inside The Hound of the Baskervilles in Barcelona; Clive Barker's Mister B. Gone in Helsinki; Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights in Dartford Library, Kent, U.K.; Jeff Belanger's Who's Haunting the White House in the New York Public Library; and more.

The Monkey Goes Bananas by C.P. Bloom, illustrated by Peter Raymundo (Abrams Books for Young Readers).

Sunday on NPR's Weekend Edition: Jessye Norman, author of Stand Up Straight and Sing! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27, 9780544003408).

Also Sunday on Weekend Edition: Rick Springfield, author of Magnificent Vibration: A Novel (Touchstone, $25.99, 9781476758909).

Rod Lurie will write and direct a miniseries for Fox about the Boston Marathon bombing. Deadline.com reported that the untitled project in development is based on Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City's Courageous Recovery, and the Epic Hunt for Justice by Boston Globe reporters Scott Helman and Jenna Russell. Basil Iwanyk (We Are Marshall) will produce through his Thunder Road production company.

Lurie, who said he is writing the script "as we speak," noted that Fox and Thunder Road gave him one edict: accuracy: "In this case the accurate story is a phenomenal story." The project "joins a growing slate of event series at Fox," Deadline.com wrote, noting that the network has 24: Live Another Day, Gracepoint and Wayward Pines "coming up and a number of others in development."

American author Ann Leckie won the £2,014 (US$3,400) Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction for her debut novel Ancillary Justice, the Guardian reported. Prize director Tom Hunter called it "a book whose major character and narrator is a space ship--you can't be more science fictional than that. And it has broad space-opera themes--it's been compared to the beginning of Iain M. Banks's Culture series, and it could be as epic as that by the time she gets to parts two and three." He also observed that Ancillary Justice contains "interesting ideas around language and gender politics--issues which are coming to the fore of science fiction conversation at the moment... it's a great action read--one of those books which I'd give to people who say they don't like science fiction."

---

Melbourne historian and author Clare Wright won the $50,000 Stella Prize for Australian women's writing for The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The judges said the book combined ''true scholarship with a warmly engaging narrative voice'' and ''sheds a bright new light on a dark old Australian story."

Salley Vickers is a former university professor of literature and Jungian psychotherapist. Vickers's first novel, Miss Garnet's Angel, was a book club favorite and an international bestseller. She lives in London and is currently royal literary fund fellow of Newnham College at Cambridge. The Cleaner of Chartres (Plume, April 29, 2014) is now available in paperback.

On your nightstand now:

Herodotus in the wonderful new Penguin translation by Tom Holland: Herodotus is the so-called father of history and his work is packed with intriguing information about the ancient world and especially the Greek relationship with the Persians. The Root and the Flower by L.H. Myers: a neglected masterpiece about an imaginal India. The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman: a fascinating book that maps archaeological findings in Israel against the biblical accounts (mostly to the latters' discredit) and the origin of the Bible's sacred texts.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, a remarkable and mysterious book about the intersecting of the life of a young boy and a girl from the past. It is the source of my continuing fascination with the mystery of time.

Your top five authors:

I still prefer the 19th-century's novelists to our own, so George Eliot and Henry James would have to come first for their acute psychological perceptions. Among contemporary writers, I loved the subtlety of Penelope Fitzgerald, who paid me the great compliment of commending Miss Garnet's Angel just before she died. My two favourite American writers are the underpraised William Maxwell and the spiritually exhilarating Marilynne Robinson. 

Book you've faked reading:

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, although I've never faked that I can't read it. It is considered a writers' book, but as far as I'm concerned it is tedious.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald. She is dry, witty, brilliantly perceptive and very funny. This book, about physics and the paranormal, is quite divine.

Book you've bought for the cover:

My own Miss Garnet's Angel in the original edition, because with the help of Caravaggio I designed it. My then-publishers thought the book would be "a quiet book" (i.e., one that won't sell), so they gave me a free hand. I've never been allowed it since. Very silly of them, as I am sure the book's success had much to do with its cover.

Book that changed your life:

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, an astoundingly deep study of the mysteries of the human heart. The section where the Grand Inquisitor meets Jesus, who has made His second coming, remains for me one of the great pieces of theological writing.

Favorite line from a book:

"It is impossible to say why people put so little value on complete happiness." --William Maxwell, The Chateau. As a former Jungian psychotherapist, I can say he is quite right!

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

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book is so beautifully and elegantly crafted, but once you know the ending it is almost too unbearable to read.

Question you most dislike being asked:

"How do you get an agent?"

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcovers
The Intern's Handbook: A Thriller by Shane Kuhn (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781476733807). "I have a twisted sense of humor and so does Shane Kuhn, the author of this darkly funny novel of office work and assassination--something like what you might get if Joshua Ferris and Josh Bazell ever collaborated. It's full of misdirection, red herrings, and characters so layered with secret identities and hidden agendas that even they may not know the truth. If you learn nothing else from this exciting, exhilarating debut, take this lesson to heart: If the intern offers to make you coffee, just say 'No, thank you.' " --Billie Bloebaum, Powell's Books at PDX, Portland, Ore.

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman (Morrow, $26.99, 9780062116154). "The tragedy of Michael Rockefeller's death is made far more poignant by the larger tragedy of the environment that surrounded it. Faulty ethnographic assumptions, compounded by unsettling socio-economic factors, bring a depth and pathos to Savage Harvest. A rare balance of mystery and the author's slowly unfolding epiphany of understanding is maintained throughout this riveting and edifying work of nonfiction." --Kenny Brechner, Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers, Farmington, Me.

Paperback
Inappropriate Behavior: Stories by Murray Farish (Milkweed Editions, $15, 9781571311078). "What is your 'inappropriate behavior' of choice? In this hip collection of stories, debut author Farish exposes an America living on the edge--the edge of the law, the edge of grief, the edge of society. Portraying characters who appear as real as a next-door neighbor, each unique story will make you wonder just what is happening behind closed doors. Highly original and focused on the unusual, Inappropriate Behavior is an auspicious beginning for a talented new voice." --Nancy Simpson-Brice, Book Vault, Oskaloosa, Iowa

For Teen Readers
Salvage by Alexandra Duncan (Greenwillow Books, $17.99, 9780062220141). "This smart, realistic, sci-fi epic follows its heroine, Ava, from an interstellar cargo ship to the streets of a futuristic but still familiar Mumbai. Emotionally charged and powerful, this is the best kind of science fiction: the kind that forces us to look at ourselves and our society and follow the impacts of our actions to their logical conclusions. If you loved The Hunger Games and Divergent, this book is for you." --Emily Ring, Inklings Bookshop, Yakima, Wash.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Tom Robbins, best known for writing flamboyantly imaginative novels (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues; Jitterbug Perfume) with half-hilarious, half-metaphysical leanings, dishes out a juicy-parts version of his full and unusual life in this collection of autobiographical essays. In the preface, Robbins remarks, "My editor claims some of this stuff is so nuts even I couldn't have made it up," and readers will agree as they join Robbins for a stroll down a version of Memory Lane populated by circus performers, bohemians, the occasional celebrity and a variety of interesting women.

Robbins begins with his childhood in Appalachian North Carolina during the Great Depression. As he engaged in exploits such as the attempted abduction of his cousin Martha when he was two and she was one--"hardly the last time I was to leave a town with a pretty young thing in tow"--his precocious knack for trouble earned him the nickname Tommy Rotten. The name stuck and seemed to guide his formative years, and some of his earliest recollections are also his most colorful, including the time he briefly ran away to join the circus--with parental consent.

As an adult, Robbins has maintained his habit of telling convention to go do rude things to itself. Readers who hop on board solely to hear about the evolution of a writing career might be surprised at Robbins's unconventional path to selling his first novel. While his stints in journalism seem a logical step on the path, his adventures abroad, involvement with the developing modern-art scene in the U.S. and love affair with psychedelic drugs delineate a winding and entertaining route to publication--perhaps no surprise from an author who spent a day as king of a cannibal tribe and was at one time investigated by the FBI in connection with the Unabomber case.

Robbins defies tradition yet again by throwing the usual linear autobiography format out the window, jumping instead from story to story in a manner that often seems disjointed but repeatedly becomes part of a greater train of thought. Perhaps the only aspect more impressive than Robbins's ability to imbue a lifetime of interesting anecdotes with an additional layer of introspection is his trademark style, as much in evidence here as in any of his fiction, earthy and conversational yet simultaneously intellectual. Fans and newcomers alike will guffaw and marvel at this most extraordinary life. --Jaclyn Fulwood

Shelf Talker: As clever, funny and subversive as his novels, Tom Robbins's autobiographical essays prove his love of the unusual is not limited to fiction.

How could you pass up an invitation like this one? "Parapalooza! with Tim Federle and his Are You There God, It's Me, Margarita. Enjoy a cocktail while authors read, with meaning, feeling and enthusiasm, a single favorite hand-picked paragraph from their book."

Well, I didn't pass it up and had a front row seat for last fall's Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance trade show debut of Parapalooza! in New Orleans. Emceed with humor and enthusiasm by Federle (Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist & the Nate Foster series of children's books), the program featured a wide-ranging baker's dozen of alternately serious or funny, but always fascinating, literary voices

So I was pleased to learn that Federle will return to host and emcee the second edition of Parapalooza! during SIBA's Fall Discovery Show this year in Norfolk, Va. His next book is Hickory, Daiquiri, Dock: Cocktails with a Nursery Rhyme Twist (Running Press).

Parapalooza! is a great concept, putting writers in the position of highlighting passages from their own new works. That Margaritas were the beverage of choice for last fall's event may have heightened the audience's appreciation quotient measurably (Even our host opened with: "My name is Tim Federle and I'm drunk already!"). Having the opportunity to experience a wide range of narrative styles and reading voices in such a condensed format (especially at the end of a long show day), turned out to be a marvelous, word-drenched twist on Happy Hour.

Lisa Patton

Lisa Patton, who read an amusing passage featuring three characters from her novel Southern as a Second Language, told me she chose her paragraph "because it showed the humorous side of my novel and I wanted the audience to get a sense of the comedy that is so important to me in all my books. Plus, I felt it would allow me to be animated while reading. I really enjoyed Parapalooza!, but if truth be told, I may have cheated a little and read several lines of dialogue, which are technically paragraphs in and of themselves."

Danny Ellis

One of my favorite moments occurred when singer-songwriter Danny Ellis chose not to read a paragraph, but to perform, a cappella, "Tommy Bonner," a song about one of the characters in his memoir, The Boy at the Gate (see it at the 13-minute mark on the Parapalooza! video). "Wow! So that happened," Federle said afterward. "Anything can happen with these paragraphs."

But Parapalooza! is more than just authors and Margaritas. SIBA created the concept "around the impulse readers have to share a favorite paragraph from their favorite books" and it has become an ongoing project for the organization, which encourages the reading public to participate by sending links to short videos of them reading a paragraph from one of their favorite books. The only requirement is that, like the author event, paragraphs be "read with enthusiasm and feeling." Videos and links can be sent to parapalooza@sibaweb.com, and will be archived on the Parapalooza! Youtube channel and on the website.

"We invite one and all to submit their own Parapalooza! video for the website," said Wanda Jewell, SIBA's executive director.

A couple of things came to mind when I started thinking about Parapalooza! this week. The first was a memory from more than a decade ago, when I was at an event where Elizabeth Cox read from her story collection Bargains in the Real World. As she was being introduced, I noticed her marking up a page with a pen. She later said she had been rewriting a paragraph in her already published book before reading it. That image of writer as eternal reviser, even of "finished" sentences and paragraphs, stayed with me.

The second was a question: What paragraph would I choose to read for a Parapalooza! video? It's hard enough for an author to select a passage from a single book, so how do we readers possibly narrow down a lifetime of book encounters to such a pinpoint?  

Quite suddenly, however, I recalled a surprisingly appropriate choice: a paragraph that nests deep within Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, when Hana is reading Kim to her patient, who says: "Read him slowly, dear girl, you must read Kipling slowly. Watch carefully where the commas fall so you can discover the natural pauses. He is a writer who used pen and ink. He looked up from the page a lot, I believe, stared through his window and listened to birds, as most writers who are alone do. Some do not know the names of birds, though he did. Your eye is too quick and North American. Think about the speed of his pen. What an appalling, barnacled old first paragraph it is otherwise." --Robert Gray, contributing editor