Yesterday, a day after Amazon expanded same-day delivery to six more metro areas, for a total of 12, Google and Barnes & Noble began same-day delivery service in areas around three B&N stores in New York City, West Los Angeles and San Jose, Calif., the New York Times reported.

The Google-B&N joint venture allows customers to order books from the B&N stores through Google Shopping, the year-old shopping service that lets customers buy from some 19 bricks-and-mortar retailers, including Costco, Walgreens, Staples and Target, and have them delivered within hours. The approach is a contrast to Amazon's, which relies on its own warehouses for merchandise.

Google couriers collect products from stores, sort and bundle them and deliver them within a three- to four-hour time frame selected by the customer. Delivery is free for Google Shopping Express subscribers; others pay $4.99 per delivery.

Participating B&N stores are the Union Square store in Manhattan, the Marina del Rey store next to Los Angeles and the Stevens Creek Boulevard store in San Jose. Those stores will sell the ordered items--books, toys, games, magazines and more--which will be collected and delivered by Google. B&N.com already offers free express shipping to members and free shipping on orders over $25, as well as same-day shipping in New York City.

B&N CEO Michael P. Huseby told the Times the Google Shopping service is a test, adding, "It's our attempt to link the digital and physical."

Douglas Preston

Authors United, a group of nearly 1,000 authors led by Douglas Preston, is running a full-page ad in this Sunday's New York Times, the Bookseller reported. The ad reproduces the open letter that the group began circulating a month ago, protesting Amazon for having "directly targeted Hachette's authors in an effort to force their publisher to agree to its terms." The group, which includes many authors not published by Hachette, said, "We feel strongly that no bookseller should block the sale of books or otherwise prevent or discourage customers from ordering or receiving the books they want."

The authors wrote, "Many of us have supported Amazon since it was a struggling start-up... and have made Amazon many millions of dollars and over the years have contributed so much, free of charge, to the company by way of cooperation, joint promotions, reviews and blogs. This is no way to treat a business partner."

They call on the public to e-mail Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos "and tell him what you think. He says he genuinely welcomes hearing from his customers and claims to read all e-mails from this account. We hope that, writers and readers together, we will be able to change his mind."

In a report called "In Amazon's Shopping Cart: D.C. Influence," Politico wrote that "the e-commerce giant increasingly is shipping [its] hardball tactics to Washington, where it is fighting agencies and wooing regulators more than ever before."

Politico said that Amazon "this year has boosted its political machine, hiring a crop of new lobbyists and writing bigger checks to members of Congress. It recently retained a powerhouse firm in Washington, D.C., to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration on delivery drones and has flexed its muscle to win a key government technology contract. Bezos, meanwhile, raised his Beltway profile through his personal purchase of the Washington Post in 2013."

Politico continued: "Amazon recently acquired new office space near the Capitol following a slew of hires, including Steve Hartell, a Cisco aide tapped to direct Amazon's congressional affairs operation. Hartell joins the company's growing roster of outside lobbyists, including former Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Breaux (D-La.)."

Politico cited Amazon's hardball tactics in securing a $600 million CIA cloud contract; lobbying the FAA to approve drone operations, and battling the FTC publicly over letting kids charge items in its app store. It didn't mention Amazon's help in getting the Justice Department interested in collusion among some publishers over e-book pricing.

Amazon's direct political donations are still relatively low, Politico said, and it hasn't been as involved in broader tech issues, such as surveillance reform, as companies like Apple and Google.

In the first quarter ended June 28, revenue for Indigo Books & Music rose 5.4%, to $180.8 million (US$165.5 million). The net loss was $14 million (US$12.8 million), compared to a net loss of $15 million (US$13.7 million) in the same period a year ago.

Sales at Indigo and Chapters superstores open at least a year rose 8.3%, while sales at Coles and IndigoSpirit small format stores grew 1.9%. Sales from Indigo's online commerce site, indigo.ca, grew 14%.

The company said that the rise in sales was "partly driven by a shift in the timing of Easter and the launch of American Girl specialty boutiques. The majority of the growth came from underlying business improvement with double-digit increases in lifestyle, paper and toys. Books experienced growth in the quarter for the first time since fiscal 2010."

The improvement in the net loss was "primarily driven by higher revenues and improved margins," Indigo said.

Indigo CEO Heather Reisman commented: "We are pleased to see that our transformational strategy is gaining traction with our customers. It is encouraging that we are bucking global trends in our industry. We are especially proud of the brand loyalty we continue to build upon."

Wild Iris, Gainesville, Fla., has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $15,000 by September and is planning on becoming a non-profit, the Gainesville Sun reported.

Opened in 1992 and billed as "Florida's only feminist and LGBTQ+ bookstore," Wild Iris has never made a profit, according to co-owner Erica Rodriguez-Merrell. By changing corporate status, the store will be able to purse grants and donations, offer intern scholarships and volunteer recognition, and create a board, the paper noted. "The inside is not going to change," Rodriguez-Merrell said. "Our events are not going to change. Our programming is just going to get better."

The Books-A-Million in the West End Plaza mall in Salisbury, N.C., is closing by the end of the September, the Salisbury Post reported.

General manager Kelly Nash told the Post that sales had been dropping gradually as other stores in what was formerly called the Salisbury Mall began to close. "When we lost Belk and J.C. Penney, that was very bad," she said, adding that BAM may be looking for another location in Salisbury.

"It remains to be seen exactly how this compares to the old space," said Bob Contant, the longtime co-owner of St. Mark's Bookshop in New York City. On July 19, the store re-opened in a new location on 3rd Street and Avenue A after spending nearly three weeks with much of its inventory and fixtures in a storage unit. At 1,300 square feet, the new location is much smaller than St. Mark's Bookshop's longtime former home at 31 Third Avenue, which it had to vacate July 1.

"It's a trade-off," Contant continued. "It's actually less than half the size, but it's a very attractive space. In our previous space the rent was so expensive we really couldn't afford to stay there. Here we have a great rent, especially for the square footage."

St. Mark's Bookshop had remained in the same neighborhood, just north of Cooper Square and off St. Mark's Place in Manhattan's East Village, for 37 years. Due to skyrocketing rents, however, that area became untenable.

"Our previous location had gone conglomerate," explained Contant. The bookstore had been surrounded by an office complex, and landlords wanted to "cash in on the fact that that monstrosity of a building that replaced the engineering building at Cooper Union [college] was charging $300 per square foot of retail space. Only chain stores could afford that."

Although the bookstore is up and running, there is still a good deal of work to do. Contant said that the contractors are completing "punchlist jobs"--the finishing touches at the end of a project. The baseboard, for example, was installed only on July 31. The store's office was still a work in progress, and the threshold of the front door needed to be altered so that customers would not trip on their way in or out of the store. Contant guessed that it would take until at least the end of summer to be fully settled.

"In many ways this is a start over for us," Contant said. "It is for any business that moves. We've moved out of our neighborhood to what's really a whole new neighborhood; we're hoping that this part of the East Village can support a new bookstore."

Today's Avenue A, Contant said, reminded him in some ways of St. Mark's Place in the late '70s, when the store first opened. And despite moving some 15 minutes away, many longtime customers and supporters have made an effort to drop in, check out the store, and make a purchase. And the new neighborhood has been welcoming.

"A number of people have stopped in and said, 'I live around the corner, I'm glad you're here,' " recounted Contant. "It's all been very encouraging."

Due to the significant reduction in store space, Contant has had to downsize all of the store's subject areas. But, he insisted, the core of the inventory is the same and categories that did especially well at the old location--cutting-edge literature and critical theory--are still big sellers.

"We view ourselves as an alternative to the big mass market stores," said Contant. "We've always avoided, or tried to avoid, the basic commercial stuff. We're selling the same kinds of books in the new location."

Despite having to downsize inventory, Contant has managed to avoid laying off any of his 10 employees. For the past few years, since the store began having financial trouble due to rising rents, the staff has been on the New York State Shared Work program: as an alternative to layoffs, Contant has juggled shifts and reduced hours. He hopes to reverse that in the near future.

Bob Contant

"The fact that we were out of business for three weeks really hurt us financially," Contant said. "We're slowly trying to get back on our feet; it's an uphill battle. It's not only the cost of being out of business but also cost overruns from construction and everything else we have to deal with in setting up a new space."

St. Mark's Bookshop has not yet resumed hosting events, but Contant plans to jump back into that once everything is settled. He's also devising plans for a re-opening celebration, to be held most likely some time after Labor Day, that will also be a benefit for the store. The store would serve drinks, and guests would be asked to purchase a book.

"It's going to be a struggle for us to get through August and September," Contant said. "The summer in New York is the slowest time of the year for businesses like ours, with people going away. Part of the problem, too, is that our inventory is low and has to be built back up, which takes money and time."

Despite the enormous difficulty of shutting down and moving a store, and the high costs of doing business in Manhattan, Contant is not pessimistic about the future viability of either bookstores or printed books. "I think there's been a lot of negative publicity about the end of print," he said. "But my experience has been that there are as many people who support print books as there are people who would prefer to read something online.

He continued: "The purpose that a bookstore serves these days is really a showcase. You can't browse online. That's the great advantage of a bookstore--you can come in and discover things you didn't even know about. It's not going to be like the old days, but I do think there's a market for print books. Not as big a market as it used to be, but it's still a vital market." --Alex Mutter

Yesterday, under the headline "Any Book Lover Will Swoon Over This Craigslist Missed Connection," Buzzfeed showcased "a missed connection on Craigslist after having a 'moment' with a guy she came across in a Brooklyn bookstore called WORD."

To "The prettiest boy in Brooklyn yesterday- w4m... We spotted each other at WORD," the post began. "I don't think you followed me but we ended up in the park afterward. You sat next to me on a bench as the sun was beginning to set. You were reading Willa Cather and I was reading Edward St. Aubyn."

The bookstore subsequently played matchmaker by tweeting: "VERY IMPORTANT, if you shopped at the Brooklyn store yesterday, this Missed Connection might be for you: http://t.co/j0ErT7cXEM."

"Maybe these two--and their books--will find each other and create a story of their own," Buzzfeed observed.

Effective September 2, Lia Ronnen has been appointed publisher of Artisan, the Workman division that specializes in cooking, lifestyle and popular culture titles. She has been associate publisher and executive editor. She joined Artisan in 2011.

Also effective September 2, Ann Bramson, formerly publisher of Artisan, becomes executive director, special projects, Workman Publishing Group and will acquire books across Workman's imprints while continuing to work with Artisan authors. She joined Artisan in 1995, a year after Artisan was founded.

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At Storey Publishing, trade and gift sales manager Adrienne Franceschi is adding management of e-book sales for both Storey and Timber Press.

A Worldwide Travel Guide to Sea Turtles by Wallace J. Nichols, Brad Nahill and Melissa Gaskill (Texas A&M University Press).

Tomorrow on MSNBC's Hardball: Rick Perlstein, author of The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan (Simon & Schuster, $37.50, 9781476782416). He will also appear on Al Jazeera America's Consider This.

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Tomorrow on MSNBC's the Reid Report: John W. Dean, author of The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It (Viking, $35, 9780670025367).

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Tomorrow night on a Late Show with David Letterman repeat: Joan Rivers, author of Diary of a Mad Diva (Berkley, $26.95, 9780425269022).

A trailer has been released for the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, based on Jane Hawking's memoir Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, Word & Film reported. James Marsh (Man on Wire, Project Nim) directed and Anthony McCarten wrote the script for the project, which stars  Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. It opens November 7.
 
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Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia) will write the script for Lost in Austen, one of Nora Ephron's unfinished works at the time of her death in 2012. The movie is based on an original U.K. TV series in which "a woman who lives and works in present day Brooklyn suddenly finds herself transported into the fictional world of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice,' " Variety reported.

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, August 9
1 p.m. Todd Akin, author of Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom (WND Books, $25.95, 9781936488209).

7 p.m. Norman Finkelstein, author of Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit's Promised Land (O/R Books, 9781939293466), at Red Emma's Bookstore in Baltimore, Md.

8:45 p.m. George Liebmann, author of The Last American Diplomat: John D. Negroponte and the Changing Face of US Diplomacy (I.B. Tauris, $24, 9781780766942).

10 p.m. John W. Dean, author of The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It (Viking, $35, 9780670025367) with Bob Woodward. (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Adele Levine, author of Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Avery, $26, 9781583335390), at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC. (Re-airs Sunday at 6:45 p.m.)


Sunday, August 10
12 a.m. Book TV interviews Anthony Marx, president & CEO of the New York Public Library. (Re-airs Sunday at 5 p.m.)

12:45 a.m. Charles C. Johnson, author of Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President (Encounter Books, $25.99, 9781594036699).

10:30 a.m. Hans von Spakovsky, co-author of Obama's Enforcer: Eric Holder's Justice Department (Broadside Books, $27.99, 9780062320926).

1 p.m. Wade Graham, author of American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are (Harper Perennial, $18.99, 9780061583438). (Re-airs Monday at 1 a.m.)

1:30 p.m. Joel Fox, author of FDR's Treasure (Bronze Circle Press, $13.99, 9780615889399). (Re-airs Monday at 1:30 a.m.)

1:45 p.m. Douglas Kmiec, author of Lift Up Your Hearts: A True Story of Loving One's Enemies; Tragically Killing One's Friends, & the Life That Remains (Embassy International Press, $19.95, 9780615610573). (Re-airs Monday at 1:45 a.m.)

3:45 p.m. Peter Finn, co-author of The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle over a Forbidden Book (Pantheon, $26.95, 9780307908001).

5:45 p.m. Kenneth Daigler, author of Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War (Georgetown University Press, $29.95, 9781626160507).

7:45 p.m. Bruce Riedel, author of What We Won: America's Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979–89 (Brookings Institution Press, $27, 9780815725848).

10 p.m. Joseph Wheelan, author of Bloody Spring: Forty Days that Sealed the Confederacy's Fate (Da Capo Press, $27.50, 9780306822063), at Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, N.C.

10:45 p.m. Charles Marsh, author of Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Knopf, $35, 9780307269812), at The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles, Calif.

The long list for the 2014 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award includes 16 titles and can be seen here. A shortlist of up to six finalists will be announced on September 24, and the £30,000 (US$50,520) prize will be awarded on November 11. This marks the first year the prize has been supported by McKinsey & Company.

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The shortlisted titles for the $1000 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which was is awarded annually for "the best crime, mystery or thriller novel written by a New Zealand citizen or resident," are:

Joe Victim by Paul Cleave
Frederick's Coat by Alan Duff
My Brother's Keeper by Donna Malane
Where the Dead Men Go by Liam McIlvanney

This winner will be announced August 30 at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival, Books+Publishing reported.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, August 12:

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage: A Novel by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Knopf, $25.95, 9780385352109) is the latest from the acclaimed Japanese author.

Love Letters: A Rose Harbor Novel by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine, $26, 9780553391138) returns to Cedar Cove's Rose Harbor Inn.

Henna House: A Novel by Nomi Eve (Scribner, $26, 9781476740270) follows a family of Yemenite Jews in the early and mid-20th century.

The Sixth Extinction by James Rollins (Morrow, $27.99, 9780061784811) continues the Sigma Force series.

The Rush: America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853 by Edward Dolnick (Little, Brown, $28, 9780316175685) explores the California Gold Rush.


Now in paperback:
The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands by Lysa TerKeurst (Thomas Nelson, $15.99, 9781400205851).

We Are Water: A Novel by Wally Lamb (Harper Perennial, $16.99, 9780061941030).


Movie tie-in:
The Giver, based on the YA novel by Lois Lowry, opens August 15. The cast includes Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift. A movie tie-in edition (HMH Books for Young Readers, $9.99, 9780544340688) is available.

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

Hardcovers
Flying Shoes: A Novel by Lisa Howorth (Bloomsbury, $26, 9781620403013). "Howorth's debut novel is a Southern feast for the mind. As the mystery of the brutal death of a nine-year-old boy unfolds, the reader meets unforgettable characters, most notably Mary Byrd Thornton, a feisty, flawed, and often foul-mouthed wife and mother and the stepsister of the murdered child, who very reluctantly revisits the event after 30 years. Flying Shoes artfully steers the reader through some of the idiosyncrasies of life in a Southern town and deals with social and racial issues with the honesty and humor that only an insider can offer." --Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, Colo.

That Night: A Novel by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin's Press, $25.99, 9781250034601). "What happens if you are a teenager accused of a murder you didn't commit, the town considers you no good, and your parents agree with them? For Toni Murphy the nightmare is only beginning. She is now out on parole and with the help of her boyfriend is looking for her sister's killers. This book is a rollercoaster of suspense and when the truth is finally revealed it is a relief, but then there is yet one more unexpected twist. What a ride!" --Janice Hunsche, Kaleidosaurus Books, Metamora, Ind.

Paperback
The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet: A Novel by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick (Touchstone, $15, 9781476763163). "Absorbing, addicting, and totally fun, this is a fantastic get-away read that will keep on giving. Lizzie Bennet is an intelligent, vivacious, ambitious, quirky young woman whose interactions with friends, family, and various relationships range from the fun and hilarious to the in-depth and complicated. Her journal entries bare not only feelings and drama, but nuanced considerations of ethics, truth, communication, and the face of our new, media-centered world. With an incredibly popular companion YouTube series, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, this is a wonderful way to spend a summer!" --Jocelyn Shratter, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif.

For Ages 4 to 8
It's an Orange Aardvark! by Michael Hall (Greenwillow Books, $17.99, 9780062252067). "Snazzy and cute-as-a-bug carpenter ants steal the show in this latest book from Hall. Following the trend to be a bit subversive, this cumulative tale will delight both young and old. The die-cut peep holes and splendid use of background colors with splashes of the colors of the rainbow make this an irresistible read!" --Mary Alice Garber, Politics & Prose Bookstore, Washington, D.C.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

South African novelist Damon Galgut (The Good Doctor; In a Strange Room) has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and his new biographical novel about Edward Morgan Forster is a quantum leap beyond his usual superb writing. Painstakingly researched and impeccably drawn, it's the moving account of a shy 37-year-old British virgin called Morgan, author of four popular novels but still emotionally shackled to his mother, as he's transformed--with a bit of help from a young Indian student, an Egyptian cab driver and a hilarious little Maharajah--into the literary giant who will write A Passage to India.

For lovers of English literature, Galgut's novel is a feast of references to Forster's masterpiece. Morgan forges a deep bond with a young Indian student ("I demand to be a character in your novel"), which sets the stage for the cross-cultural friendship between Fielding and Aziz at the heart of A Passage to India. Morgan visits the Barabar Caves, which he will transform into his novel's terrifying and mysterious center. Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence and the poet C.P. Cavafy are among the dozens of historical characters who appear in the book, nudging and prodding the insecure Morgan to produce his greatest work.

Throughout his life, Morgan is portrayed as a man always in the middle, torn between English ways and Indian, between patriots and conscientious objectors, between public respectability and closeted homosexuality. Galgut's dedication in Arctic Summer echoes Forster's famous dedication in A Passage to India in which he openly announced his 17-year friendship with an Indian man. That's only one of the many ways in which Galgut shows he is the perfect creative engine to bring Forster to life in a multidimensional portrait of a man caught between two cultures struggling to come to terms with himself.

If E.M. Forster could have written an honest novel about his own frustrated life, he might have written Arctic Summer. Galgut has done the next best thing: he's created a wise, sensitive, sometimes hilarious novel in the Forster tradition of subtle observations and cultural clash. It's the brave, occasionally heartbreaking account of a man who dared to love across race and gender lines, a beautifully crafted portrait of two civilizations colliding enhanced by Galgut's exhilarating insights into the life of one of the 20th century's greatest writers. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle, Wash.

Shelf Talker: Two-time Booker shortlister Damon Galgut offers a biographical novel of a shy, insecure 37-year-old gay virgin, E.M. Forster, who would create the masterpiece A Passage to India.

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

1. 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse by J.J. Smith
2. Mastered by Various
3. Hot Alpha Seals by Various
4. Where I Belong by J. Daniels
5. Little Black Book by Tabatha Vargo and Melissa Andrea
6. Second Chances by H.M. Ward and Stacey Mosteller
7. Sweet Addiction by J. Daniels
8. Rhett by J.S. Cooper
9. Eleanor by Jason Gurley
10. The Fixed Trilogy by Laurelin Paige

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]