Good news for California Bookstore Day, which will be held for the second time on Saturday, May 2, 2015: organizers have received a $15,000 sponsorship from Penguin Random House.

Madeline McIntosh, president and U.S. COO of Penguin Random House, commented: "California Bookstore Day was a terrific event this year--our publishers and sales colleagues loved being part of it, and so did our authors. We want to help bring even bigger crowds into the bookstores next May."

California Bookstore Day program director Samantha Schoech, said, "Penguin Random House's sponsorship will help us expand our outreach--to readers, to authors, and to media--so that our participating stores again can achieve significant sales increases similar to those they enjoyed for the inaugural CBD earlier this year. This donation is a wonderful kickoff to our fundraising effort, and we are most grateful for this enormously motivating encouragement and support."

Northern California Independent Booksellers Association executive director Hut Landon said that while the monetary gift was gratifying, "this is not just about a financial contribution--the event gains significant cachet from this 'stamp of approval' from such an important and influential publisher. We have long valued Penguin Random House's commitment to independents, and we will continue our efforts to justify it moving forward. On behalf of all our booksellers, we thank them for this latest show of support."

CBD said it hopes the event "will inspire and support additional same-day Bookstore Day celebrations by hundreds of independents in other regions of the country." In fact, the first such event takes place this Saturday, July 12. Chicago Independent Bookstore Day will be held at nine Windy City bookstores that will offer discounts, giveaways, events and author appearances.

Stefan Moorehead, a manager and buyer at Unabridged Bookstore, who was inspired by California Bookstore Day, told Chicago Reader: "We [booksellers] talk among ourselves about building stronger bonds. It helps all of us. None of us are in direct competition. It really hit home looking at the map and seeing us spread out throughout the city."

On March 16, a woman at a Barnes & Noble in Nanuet, N.Y., who was breastfeeding her son was told she had to cover up or leave--in violation of the state's 20-year-old law allowing mothers to nurse in public. The mother's complaint eventually came to the attention of the New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, who yesterday announced a settlement with the bookstore chain.

Under the settlement, B&N is strengthening its consumer complaint procedures for breastfeeding mothers, training all New York staff on the law, displaying the international symbol for breastfeeding at the entrances to all New York stores and paying $10,000 to Rockland County's Breastfeeding Promotion and Support Program.

According to the Journal News, an assistant manager told the woman, Shereen Matera, that she had to cover up or leave. Matera, who knew her rights, shared her experience with a Facebook group, Badass Breastfeeders of New Jersey, which included people in Rockland County. A day or two afterward, Matera and her son, and about 15 other members of the group returned to the store and breastfed their babies. She added that she had been "given the runaround" when she complained to B&N headquarters.

Children's author Allan Ahlberg has declined the inaugural Booktrust Best Book Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award because it is sponsored by Amazon, the Bookseller reported.

Ahlberg cited Amazon's tax avoidance in the U.K., writing in a letter to the Bookseller, "Tax, fairly applied to us all, is a good thing. It pays for schools, hospitals--libraries! When companies like Amazon cheat--paying 0.1% on billions, pretending it is earning money not in the U.K., but in Luxembourg--that's a bad thing. We should surely, at the very least, say that it is bad and on no account give them any support or, by association, respectability."

As a result, "the idea that my 'lifetime achievement'... should have the Amazon tag attached to it is unacceptable."

Booktrust CEO Viv Bird said she was disappointed but that it was Ahlberg's "personal decision." She added that Booktrust "works with a wide range of partners in order to fulfill our charitable aim of bringing books to children and children to books. We are also grateful for the tremendous support we get from many eminent authors and illustrators. Amazon's sponsorship of the Best Book Awards, in its inaugural year, enabled us to celebrate some of the best of children's literature, create a buzz around books, and make a significant contribution to our mission of encouraging more children to read."

Amazon's European headquarters is in Luxembourg, which has a lower tax rate than most other E.U. countries, and Amazon funnels its U.K. business through it. As a result, the company had sales of £4.3 billion (about US$7.2 billion) in the U.K. in 2013 but paid U.K. taxes of just £3.15 million ($5.3 million) in 2012.

Arcadia Publishing has acquired the U.S. subsidiary of the History Press Ltd., the Bookseller reported. Arcadia publishes local and regional books in the U.S., with more than 9,000 titles in print and 600 new titles released each year. Images of America is its flagship series.

"We're joining the talented staff of two great companies and together we'll continue creating books people love," said Arcadia CEO Richard Joseph said.  

"We are enormously proud of the fine company we have built together in just a few short years," Stuart Biles, CEO of the History Press, said. "We're extremely sad to see the business leave, but have to recognize the significant benefits which will be achieved by joining the History Press Inc. with Arcadia, both creatively and operationally. I am sure the business will go from strength to strength under Brittain Phillips's continuing leadership and the guidance and experience of Richard Joseph and his senior team."

Bookseller Jim Munro, who was recently named a member of the Order of Canada, plans to turn over his Victoria, B.C., bookstore Munro's Books--launched 50 years ago with his former wife, Nobel Laureate Alice Munro--to a team of senior staff members. The Globe & Mail reported that Munro "has decided to retire and also to cede the 4,500-square-foot operation on downtown Government Street" to store manager Jessica Walker, senior buyer Carol Mentha, comptroller Sarah Frye and operations manager Ian Cochran.

"In essence, he is giving us the store," said Walker. "We're really looking forward to the privilege of being able to carry the Munro's legacy forward.... Jim is in his eighties. His life has been in the store. He generally treats his employees as if they're family. It's a really close group here. His main concern is that the store continue. He has worked for 51 years building the business. It really is a legacy in Victoria.... We kind of view ourselves more as caretakers of the store."

Longtime sales Jim Murphy died this last Sunday. He was 83 years old.

He opened his first bookstore in Sunnyvale, Calif., in 1966; went to work for the Norse Brothers commissioned group in 1970; and joined Harper & Row as its Southeast sales representative in 1973. He worked for HarperCollins for 23 years.

Murphy was a founding member of the Florida-Georgia Booksellers Association, which became SEBA, then SIBA, and was the second recipient of the J. Felton Covington Award from SEBA.

In retirement, he became a world traveler volunteering for scientific explorations. In Argentina, he discovered fossils that turned out to be a new species of dinosaur, which was named after him: Eodromaeus Murphi. It was his proudest accomplishment. The skeleton is on display at a museum in Northern Argentina.

He was beloved in the bookselling community, among his volunteer peers and at his retirement complex in Decatur, Ga. He is survived by his son, Tom, formerly co-owner of George Scheer Associates, and daughter, Peggy Peel.

Last month, Shelf Awareness editor-in-chief John Mutter went on a whirlwind bookstore tour in Massachusetts with New England Independent Booksellers Association executive director Steve Fischer. This is part two; see part one here.

From Brookline, we headed to the Back Bay section of Boston and Trident Booksellers & Café, which was founded 30 years ago this fall by Bernie and Gail Flynn. The store prepared for the big anniversary in a big way: it completed a major expansion last year, adding 2,500 square feet of space, including a second café, on the second floor of its building, above the original 4,250 square feet of space. On the first floor, the old café continues to operate, and the kitchen serves both cafés.

Bernie and Courtney Flynn

Courtney Flynn, daughter of Bernie and Gail and very active in the store, gave Steve and me a tour. Eventually Bernie appeared after a long bike ride, and we all wound up in the new upstairs café, a beautiful space with a wall of huge windows overlooking Newbury Street. Bernie summed up the store in a way that was apparent to anyone who enters its doors: "We're still here and vibrant."

Trident is full of nooks and crannies that include magazines and other sidelines, particularly gifts and games. (Even the stairs are used as display space for gifts.) With the expansion, the store has devoted more space to books, which number more than 20,000 and include some used titles and a strong selection of remainders. It's expanded its children's and fiction offerings, which are mainly on the first floor; a lot of nonfiction is upstairs. Giving books "more room to breathe" has helped sales, Bernie said, and while at times in the past, the café in effect has subsidized book operations, now books are "doing well."

Like the original café downstairs, the upstairs café serves beer and wine as well as a range of food. Trident is open from 8 a.m.-midnight every day of the week and serves food throughout that time. The upstairs cafe is available for rental for functions--it's hosted graduation parties and wedding rehearsal dinners, among other occasions--and makes a great location for readings and other events, such as the extremely popular Friday Night Trivia, cooking demos and beer tastings, managed by events coordinator Emily Hopkins. The space also has a projector and screen where movies can be shown.

Trident offers free wi-fi throughout the store and has electrical outlets in the cafes to make it easy to keep devices going. In addition, in a discrete area next to the upstairs café, it has a table and stools designed specifically for people with laptops to work at undisturbed.

One way the store is celebrating its 30th is with a party in August for other Boston area booksellers "for an evening of hanging out and chatting," as Courtney put it.

Bernie Flynn is still involved very much in the store, especially buying, but he is cutting back somewhat and spending more time in Vermont, he said. With Courtney so involved and managing well, it seems that the older generation of Flynns don't have to worry about a Trident transition.

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From Trident, we headed to Cambridge and Porter Square Books, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this fall (in just 20 more years it'll catch up with Trident). The founders were refugees from the Concord Bookshop, and they had a different kind of celebration recently: in a sort of storybook ending, they sold the bookstore in August to David Sandberg and Dina Mardell, who have lived in the area since 1990. He is a former Google executive with a background in literature; she has a background in education with a focus on early literacy. Of the founders, who put the store up for sale because some of them wanted to retire, personnel manager Jane Dawson retired at the time of the sale; buyer Jane Jacobs has also retired; Carol Stoltz heads the children's department; manager Dale Szczeblowski is definitely staying on. (Dale seemed very happy with how the sale has played out.)

Porter Square Books was bustling late on a Tuesday afternoon, and it was hard to find a parking space in the Porter Square Shopping Center. Dale noted the founders had taken a bit of a risk when they opened the store in the Porter Square area, but one that wound up being very rewarding. The area is vibrant, and the Porter Square station--a stop on both the Red Line and the Fitchburg commuter line--a few minutes' walk away adds to the busy, happening feel.

The store is thriving, a great example of general independent stores. In its 4,500 square feet of space, it offers an excellent selection of adult and children's books and sidelines and has Café Zing, which serves coffee, tea, other beverages, baked goods and lunch. (Because the space is relatively small, the café offers free wi-fi for an hour with purchases.)

The store has a strong events program and an established staff. Typical is Josh Cook, who has been with the store since it opened. He's a bookseller, magazine buyer and online manager. As if that's not enough to keep him busy, he has a novel called Trike and Lola that Melville House is publishing early next year.

The store's 10th anniversary party will take place September 28. In the meantime, Porter Square has been celebrating by offering 10% discounts in particular sections on the 10th of every month. (Today's 10% discount applies to the art & architecture and paperback picture books sections.)

Over dinner, co-owner David Sandberg talked enthusiastically and appreciatively about the purchase of the store, praising the four co-sellers for making the transition manageable. He said he couldn't have taken the reins of the the store without help and noted that friends who are not in the book world are considering opening a bookstore "from scratch," which he said he couldn't imagine.

From the Facebook page Waterfront Books, Georgetown, S.C.: "Thanks to Mimi Beaver, Book Store Dog has again taken her place in our book store. Mimi captured her spirit as well as her likeness in a very realistic portrait--her eyes follow you with a slightly critical cast. The real 'BD' has a different routine since the fire and remains at home most of the day except for the two hours we walk hunting for goodies. BD, who will be 15 this August, just got a clean bill of health from the vet and is doing amazingly well for her vintage. Although BD is at home, it's very nice to have her presence and watchful eye with us while we work."

Buzzfeed featured the "14 absolute best U.S. kids' bookstores (as chosen by teachers)."

The German Book Office in New York has selected as its July Book of the Month Come, Sweet Death by Wolf Haas, translated by Annie Janusch (Melville House, $15.95, 9781612193397).

Winner of the German Thriller Prize, Come, Sweet Death stars Haas's familiar character, detective Brenner and is set in Vienna, where Brenner takes a job as an ambulance driver to get away as possible from the corruption and drudgery of the police. But he quickly learns the competition between ambulance companies in Vienna is "literally a cutthroat business." Brenner can't help doing some detective work to find out how the other services are listening in on his radio communications, but this turns sinister as he digs deeper into the corruption and threatens to expose it.

Haas has written seven books in the Brenner series, three of which have been adapted into films by director Wolfgang Murnberger. Janusch has translated the Art of the Novella series edition of Heinrich von Kleist's The Duel and of two other Detective Brenner books, Brenner and God and The Bone Man.

Earlier this week, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced the launch of the Boston Public Library's Bibliocycle, as well as the re-launch of ReadBoston's Storymobile, which is now in its 19th year.

The result of a partnership between BPL and Boston Bikes, the Bibliocycle's offerings will include library card sign up, book checkout, demonstrations of BPL's digital resources and help with reference questions. A collection of up to 50 books will also be available. The Bibliocycle travels to markets, fairs and neighborhood events during the summer and fall. A complete schedule can be found at bpl.org/community. On select dates, Boston Bikes team members will accompany librarians to provide bike and healthy living tips.

Tomorrow on Al Jazeera's Consider This: Brad Taylor, author of Days of Rage: A Pike Logan Thriller (Dutton, $26.95, 9780525953982).

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Tomorrow on a repeat of Ellen: Diane Keaton, author of Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty (Random House, $26, 9780812994261).

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Tomorrow on Tavis Smiley: Stanley B. Prusiner, author of Madness and Memory: The Discovery of Prions--A New Biological Principle of Disease (Yale University Press, $30, 9780300191141).

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Tomorrow on the Talk: Joan Rivers, author of Diary of a Mad Diva (Berkley, $26.95, 9780425269022).

Noting that a "separate movie based on the popular young adult novels has languished in development," the Wrap reported that Collective Digital Studio has optioned the rights to James Patterson's "Maximum Ride" YA series "and plans to adapt it into a Web series.... CDS' Gary Binkow approached Patterson about making something for the series' youthful and engaged online fans."

Binkow said the book series "has tons of fans online, tons of fan videos on YouTube and I knew James Patterson was an entrepreneurial guy. This is a great opportunity for him to create an alternate piece of content to help promote the book and invigorate the series."

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, July 12
11 a.m. Bruce Herschensohn, author of Obama's Globe: A President's Abandonment of U.S. Allies Around the World (Beaufort Books, $24.95, 9780825306853). (Re-airs Sunday at 1:15 p.m. and Monday at 1:15 a.m.)

11:45 a.m. Live coverage of the 2014 Harlem Book Fair. (Re-airs Sunday at 12 a.m.)

7:15 p.m. Nigel Hamilton, author of The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30, 9780547775241), at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass.

8 p.m. Edward Klein, author of Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. the Obamas (Regnery, $27.99, 9781621573135).

9 p.m. Seyed Hossein Mousavian, co-author of Iran and the United States: An Insider's View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace (Bloomsbury, $35, 9781628920079).

10 p.m. Jason Riley, author of Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed (Encounter Books, $23.99, 9781594037252). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Andrew Kaufman, author of Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781451644708), at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.


Sunday, July 13
1 p.m. Daniel Gitterman, author of Boosting Paychecks: The Politics of Supporting America's Working Poor (Brookings Institution Press, $22.95, 9780815703082). (Re-airs Monday at 1 a.m.)

6:30 p.m. A presentation of "portions of author talks on the Supreme Court and the cases the court has handled." (Re-airs Monday at 7 a.m.)

7:30 p.m. Chris Hedges, Cornel West and Richard Wolff discuss the works of Thomas Paine.

10 p.m. Kai Bird, author of The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames (Crown, $26, 9780307889751).

11 p.m. Randall Balmer, author of Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter (Basic, $27.99, 9780465029587).

Nigerian writer Akin Bello won the Lumina Foundation's $20,000 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa for his play Egbon of Lagos, AllAfrica reported. Also shortlisted for the award were Toyin Abiodun for The Trials of Afonja and Othuke Ominiabohs for Odufa.  

While commending the authors, Nobel Laureate Soyinka used the occasion to condemn "the action of some military men who allegedly assaulted civilians and burnt down six BRT buses in Lagos. He called on President Goodluck Jonathan to punish the perpetrators of the mayhem in Lagos without fear or favor," AllAfrica wrote. Soyinka said "the life of one Nigerian is not more important than another."

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The ballot for the 2014 World Fantasy Award can be seen here. The World Fantasy Convention will be held November 6-9 in Washington, D.C.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, July 15:
The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee by Marja Mills (Penguin Press, $27.95, 9781594205194) chronicles a journalist's time with the Lee sisters.

Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country by C.J. Box (Putnam, $26.95, 9780399158582) is a story collection set in the Joe Pickett universe.

The Book of Life: A Novel by Deborah Harkness (Viking, $28.95, 9780670025596) concludes the supernatural All Souls trilogy.

The Heist: A Novel by Daniel Silva (Harper, $27.99, 9780062320056) continues the Gabriel Allon series.

Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Croke (Random House, $28, 9781400069330) follows a British elephant handler in colonial Burma.


Now in paperback:
What's Done in the Dark by ReShonda Tate Billingsley (Gallery, $15, 9781476714929).

The Boleyn Reckoning: A Novel by Laura Andersen (Ballantine, $15, 9780345534132).

Born Reading: Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age--From Picture Books to eBooks and Everything in Between by Jason Boog (Touchstone, $15.99, 9781476749792).


Movie tie-in:
Mood Indigo, directed by Michel Gondry, based on L'Écume des Jours by Boris Vian, opens July 18. A movie tie-in, translated by Stanley Chapman, is available from Farrar, Straus & Giroux ($14, 9780374534226).

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 Glass Kitchen: A Novel of Sisters by Linda Francis Lee (St. Martin's, $25.99, 9780312382278). "The Glass Kitchen is a charming story of sisters, cooking, and starting over. Portia moves to New York City to be with her sisters after a humiliating divorce from a rising political star in Texas. Like her beloved grandmother, Portia is gifted with 'the Knowing'--an ability to 'see' a meal that she must cook, even though she does not know who the meal is for or what the circumstances might be. This is a warm and magical tale of love, family, and forgiveness--with some delicious recipes included!" --Patricia Worth, River Reader, Lexington, Mo.

The Appetites of Girls: A Novel by Pamela Moses (Amy Einhorn/Putnam, $26.95, 9780399158421). "The relationship women in Western culture have with food is complicated and often fraught with strange rituals and beliefs, unhealthy behavior, guilt, and shame. While potentially triggering for those currently struggling with an eating disorder, the stories shared by the four women in this book are heartfelt and encouraging. From their friendships as roommates at an Ivy League college, each woman's life is detailed through their relationships with food and with other people at defining points in their lives. Their struggles and emotions feel very real and are often all too familiar." --Samantha Gordon, the Library Shop, San Diego, Calif.

Paperback
Em and the Big Hoom: A Novel by Jerry Pinto (Penguin, $16, 9780143124764). "This is the story of the Mendes family who live in Bombay, India. Em is Imelda. The Big Hoom is Augustine. When they fall in love, he is handsome, reliable, and tender; she is witty, charismatic, and eccentric. But after their two children are born, it becomes clear that Em is also bipolar. The life of the family revolves around her--her highs, her lows, her suicide attempts, and her recoveries. Told through the eyes of their teenage son, Em and the Big Hoom is a rare story of love, pain, and laughter. Pinto weaves a beautiful tale of a family trying to be family despite the odds." --Eileen Garvin, Waucoma Bookstore, Hood River, Ore.

For Teen Readers
Buzz Kill by Beth Fantaskey (HMH Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780547393100). "Fantaskey really understands the personality of today's teens, and Buzz Kill has a believable heroine in a believable high school. Her references to the Nancy Drew books and their effect on high school amateur detective Millie add another dimension to the mystery. An entertaining read with plenty of twists and turns!" --Betsy Rider, Otto's, A Booklover's Paradise, Williamsport, Pa.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Elegy on Kinderklavier, a debut collection of stories from Arna Bontemps Hemenway, marks the beginning of a promising career by a gifted young writer whose work has been included as a Notable/Distinguished Story of the Year in both the Best American Short Stories and Best American Nonrequired Reading anthologies.

These remarkable stories circle around absence and loss, often using the Iraq War as a catalyst. In "The Half-Moon Martyrs' Brigade of New Jerusalem, Kansas," a young woman examines her culpability in a long-since-passed act of cruelty as she remembers the summer her small town turned against the local army recruiter. "The IED," an astounding story in slow motion, examines each nanosecond that follows after a young man steps on a land mine, from his involuntary kinetic and physiological reactions to the flashbacks that reveal the entirety of a life almost lived. In the title story, a father watches his young son lose a battle with brain cancer while his emotional distance from his own wife increases; the story of the married couple's relationship pivots around the boy's prize toy, a child-sized keyboard, which never gets played. In "The Territory of Grief," the administrator of an Israeli settlement on a distant planet enters a new arranged marriage while reliving the murder of his son at the hands of Palestinian insurgents, and begins to discover the unendurable nature of forgiveness.

Closely observed and elegiac, these stories keep a tight focus on the narrative present, with vivid and sometimes shocking descriptions of the moment their characters' lives are altered. This technique allows Hemenway to avoid idealizing a remembered past while infusing it with the anticipation of loss. Recounting a ball game with a group of teenage friends--before war claimed them--a character observes that the mound "had begun to look like a dark wound on the dirt," and adds, "Is there anything more full of the bumbling divine grace, anything further from what life will make of a person, than a fifteen-year-old boy in summer?" Hemenway pays equal attention to his physical landscapes, some as familiar as Kansas and others as exotic as the Middle East, weaving them together so seamlessly that the stories begin to feel otherworldly. This quality is especially pronounced in the stories that take on war most directly, where they most resemble fables.

Hemenway is a beautiful, lyrical writer, with an ear for language. This collection is worth reading slowly, paging carefully through each story that captures the disorienting aftermath of loss. --Jeanette Zwart, freelance writer and reviewer

Shelf Talker: A 25-year-old award-winning graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop offers a debut collection filled with fable-like stories of characters haunted by loss.

The following were the most popular book club books during June based on votes from more than 100,000 book club readers from more than 39,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (Morrow)
2. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)
3. The Goldfinch: A Novel by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown)
4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Dutton)
5. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Penguin)
6. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Broadway)
7. The Light Between Oceans: A Novel by M.L. Stedman (Scribner)
8. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking)
9. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (Back Bay)
10. Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (Back Bay)

Rising Stars:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Ballantine)
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]