"The Colbert Bump didn't get so much media attention and public support because everyone wanted to talk about me and my novel. People wanted to support book culture, to say that books and writers matter, and that we should be doing everything we can to ensure their continued existence, if not their success. In short, The Book is not dead!"

A group from the Authors Guild, including Douglas Preston, a Hachette author, a member of the Guild's Council and the leader of Authors United, met in August with Justice Department officials seeking a government investigation into Amazon, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Guild argued that Amazon is violating antitrust law in the way it's pressuring Hachette Group over terms, particularly by not allowing preorders of Hachette titles, slowing shipments of them and not discounting them.

The meeting took place after the Authors Guild e-mailed Bill Baer, head of the antitrust division of the Justice Department, requesting an investigation into Amazon.

"One person who attended the meeting said Justice Department lawyers listened attentively, but said this wasn't an indication of whether the government would launch such a probe," the Journal wrote, noting that neither the Justice Department nor Amazon commented.

Authors United has written a letter asking the Justice Department for an investigation of Amazon and is getting signatures from many of its more than 1,000 members before sending it. The letter argues that Amazon has amassed too much power in the book business and is abusive in the measures it's taken against Hachette books.

Preston said that some authors have decided not to sign the letter because they couldn't "properly evaluate the legal implications since they aren't lawyers," the Journal wrote.

Requests for the Justice Department to investigate companies and others is not uncommon, the newspaper said. The agency e-book collusion case against Apple and five major publishers apparently started with an Amazon complaint to the Justice Department.

Some 50 volunteers helped the Bookworm, Omaha, Neb., move over the course of several days, and the store reopened yesterday, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

The Bookworm's new store in progress.

Beth Black, who owns the Bookworm with her husband, Phillip Black, told the paper, "I could cry"--whereupon she did cry. She added, "The outpouring of support from the community has been humbling."

The Blacks had announced in August that they would relocate to the new Loveland Centre after 15 years at Countryside Village. The paper described the new 6,184-square-foot store as "only 200 square feet larger than the one it left, but the high ceilings and single-floor layout help it feel more spacious."

In contrast to its old space, the shop is all on one level. "There are wider aisles between bookshelves, and the tall ceilings, sky-blue paint and west-facing windows give an airy feel," the paper continued. The windows have insulated, UV-filtered glass that will keep the sun from fading books on display.

The store also has more seating, a room for book clubs and other groups and a small kitchen.

In Other Words, the feminist community center, bookstore and community resource in Portland, Ore.--where Portlandia films its Women and Women First sketches--has called a meeting for this Sunday, October 5, at 10 a.m., to discuss the store's future and what the community wants, according to the Oregonian.

In an e-mail, In Other Words wrote: "In the last year, In Other Words has struggled with a severe shortage of volunteers and managed a tenuous financial situation on a monthly basis. Although the organization is nearly free from debt and has survived thanks to the dedication of a handful of devoted volunteers, the time has come to ask the question:

"What does our community want In Other Words to represent, and does that need still exist?

"Take a moment to give us your honest feedback. Tell us what you need, and what you think we should build together."

In 2011, In Other Words had a fundraising event that featured Portlandia stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. The newspaper noted that "while the exposure In Other Words has received from Portlandia has led to visits from tourists and more awareness, such real-life issues as declining book sales have been among the challenges faced by In Other Words."

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and other national and local organizations have sent a letter to the Jefferson County School Board in Colorado opposing the board's proposed review of the curriculum for Advanced Placement U.S. History in high school.

The review intends to make sure the curriculum promotes "citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights." The board wants to identify "objectionable" material and stated "materials should not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law. Instructional materials should present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage."

The letter, signed also by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, among others, called parts of the proposal "deeply problematic." The term objectionable, for instance, is "inherently vague and subjective and would predictably result in complaints based on personal, political, moral, or religious grounds... terms like citizenship and patriotism are similarly subject to multiple interpretations, as evidenced, for example, by the public debate about whether civil disobedience can be an act of patriotism."

The letter notes that "it would be nearly impossible to teach U.S. history without reference to 'civil disorder,' which is appropriately discussed in connection with the American revolution, the labor movement, civil rights and gay rights activism, U.S. entry into World War I, voting rights protests, and public demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, abortion rights, government surveillance, and countless other significant events in U.S. history."

See the full letter here.

Ralph Cosham, "one of our most beloved narrators" and the voice of Louise Penny's bestselling Inspector Gamache series, died Tuesday, Macmillan Audio reported. Cosham had been recording books since 1992, with more than 100 to his credit. Penny told the Washington Post in August that she received plenty of feedback from fans about Gamache's portrayal of her main character. "For me, if you don't get Gamache, the series is lost to you. Ralph brings him alive, I think, because he understands Gamache."

Bethenny Frankel appeared at the Clinton Book Shop, Clinton, N.J., this week to promote her children's book Cookie Meets Peanut (Little, Brown). Here she poses with store owner Harvey Finkel.

photo: Fernando Guerra

A Livraria Cultura branch in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has won "Best Retail Interior of 2014" of the Inside Awards, sponsored by the World Festival of Interiors, currently being held in Singapore, the Malaysian Insider reported.

Arch Daily has a slide show of the amazing space, which was designed by Studio MK27 and aims to make the spot "a bookstore with a meeting space.... More than just a place to shop, the store is inviting to stay and hang out. Thus, we sought for visitors to not only find a book that they might be looking for, but rather that they remain there."

HarperCollins Christian Publishing and Biblica have expanded their partnership so that now HarperCollins Christian Publishing will assume the direct and trade sales responsibilities of Biblica's low-cost outreach Bibles through the Zondervan Bible publishing program. Zondervan has been the longtime North American commercial publishing partner for Biblica in marketing and development of NIV translation Bible products.

With the change, Biblica will focus on translating and publishing Bibles in the world's 100 most widely spoken languages.

Stylus Publishing is now the North American distributor for Mercury Learning and Information, which publishes information related to science & technology, engineering and mathematics.

Coinciding with this distribution change, Jean Westcott is now the sales and marketing manager for Stylus Publishing. She previously worked at International Publishers Marketing and Olsson's Books & Records.

Jennifer Hergenroeder has joined the Experiment as marketing and publicity manager. Previously she was senior publicist at the University of North Carolina Press.

Afterworlds, a novel-within-a-novel by Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse).

This morning on the Today Show: Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, author of Better than Perfect: 7 Strategies to Crush Your Inner Critic and Create a Life You Love (Seal Press, $17, 9781580055499).

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Today on NPR's Morning Edition and MSNBC's Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell: Charles M. Blow, author of Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27, 9780544228047). He will also be on Morning Joe tomorrow.

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Tomorrow morning on Morning Joe: Ron Perlman, author of Easy Street (the Hard Way): A Memoir (Da Capo, $26.99, 9780306823442).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Geralyn Lucas, author of Then Came Life: Living with Courage, Spirit, and Gratitude After Breast Cancer (Gotham, $27, 9781592408955).

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Tomorrow on the View: B.J. Novak, author of The Book with No Pictures (Dial, $17.99, 9780803741713).

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Tomorrow on the Talk: Joseph A. Califano Jr., author of How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid: The Straight Dope for Parents (Touchstone, $16.99, 9781476728438).

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Tomorrow on the Steve Harvey Show: Melissa Gilbert, author of My Prairie Cookbook: Memories and Frontier Food from My Little House to Yours (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $24.95, 9781419707780).

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Tomorrow night on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher: Sam Harris, author of Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781451636017).

Oscar-nominated actress Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) will star in Counting by 7s, adapted from the novel by Holly Goldberg Sloan, which was optioned by the Mazur/Kaplan Company and Olympus Pictures.

"I am honored to play the role of Willow in Counting by 7s," Wallis said. "I love the message behind the story. I am excited to be a part of it and to see it come to life."

Mazur/Kaplan's "book-centric" Paula Mazur and Mitchell Kaplan--who also owns Books & Books--have "numerous bestselling titles cued for production, including The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Silent Wife and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand," Deadline.com 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, October 4
12 p.m. Book TV interviews authors and visits literary sites in Boulder, Colo. (Re-airs Sunday at 9:15 a.m.)

7 p.m. Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, author of Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine (Gotham, $27.50, 9781592408702), at BookPeople bookstore in Austin, Tex.

7:45 p.m. Lawrence Wright, author of Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David (Knopf, $27.95, 9780385352031).

9 p.m. Ronald Rosbottom, author of When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944 (Little, Brown, $28, 9780316217446).

10 p.m. Heather Cox Richardson, author of To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party (Basic Books, $29.99, 9780465024315). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Jane Hampton Cook, author of American Phoenix: John Quincy and Louisa Adams, the War of 1812, and the Exile that Saved American Independence (Thomas Nelson, $26.99, 9781595555410), at the Fall for the Book Festival in Fairfax, Va. (Re-airs Sunday at 3 p.m.)


Sunday, October 5
12 p.m. Live In Depth q&a with author Joan Biskupic. E-mail questions from this page. (Re-airs Monday at 12 p.m.)

4 p.m. Ha-Joon Chang, author of Economics: The User's Guide (Bloomsbury, $30, 9781620408124).

5:45 p.m. Richard Chambers, author of Lessons Learned on the Audit Trail (The IIA Research Foundation, $34.50, 9780894138560). (Re-airs Monday at 7 a.m.)

6:45 p.m. Doug Peacock, author of In the Shadow of the Sabertooth: Global Warming, the Origins of the First Americans, and the Terrible Beasts of the Pleistocene (AK Press, $15, 9781849351409).

7:45 p.m. Ronald Collins, author of When Money Speaks: The McCutcheon Decision, Campaign Finance Laws, and the First Amendment (Top Five Books, $14.99, 9781938938153).

10 p.m. Henry Kissinger, author of World Order (Penguin Press, $36, 9781594206146).

11 p.m. Ann Hagedorn, author of The Invisible Soldiers: How America Outsourced Our Security (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781416598800), at Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe in Washington, D.C.

Kei Miller won the £10,000 (about US$16,190) Forward Prize for the Best Poetry Collection for The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion. The £5,000 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection was awarded to Liz  Berry for Black Country. And the winner of the £1,000 prize for Best Single Poem was Stephen Santus for "In a Restaurant."

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Lionel Shriver won the £15,000 (about US$24,280) BBC National Short Story Award for "Kilifi Creek." Chair of judges and BBC creative director/presenter Alan Yentob, said Shriver's story "stood out as a wonderful evocation of life in miniature, crossing continents and generations.  She is a worthy and deserved winner in an exciting year when the short story has taken center stage. Shriver proves that short really is sweet and it's never been sweeter than now." Zadie Smith was runner-up, receiving £3,000 for her story "Miss Adele Amidst the Corsets."

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The winners of the $1,000 (about US$900) 2014 Sunburst Awards, recognizing "the best in Canadian fantastic literature," are:

Adult: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Children's: The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, October 7:

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781476708690) profiles the people who created computers and the Internet.

Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace by Leon Panetta and Jim Newton (Penguin Press, $36, 9781594205965) is the autobiography of the defense secretary and CIA director.

How to Cook Everything Fast: A Better Way to Cook Great Food by Mark Bittman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $35, 9780470936306) includes 2,000 quick recipes.

Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson (Penguin Press, $32.95, 9781594204975) explores the military side of the president of the Confederacy.

The Dark Art: My Undercover Life in Global Narco-terrorism by Edward Follis and Douglas Century (Gotham, $28, 9781592408931) is the memoir of a DEA agent.

Rise: A Soldier, a Dream, and a Promise Kept by Daniel Rodriguez and Joe Layden (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26, 9780544365605) chronicles a soldier turned football player.

Confessions: The Paris Mysteries by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown, $18, 9780316370844) continues the young adult Confessions series. (Monday, October 6.)

Deadline by John Sandford (Putnam, $27.95, 9780399162374) is the eighth Virgil Flowers novel.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu (Putnam, $18.99, 9780399167836) is a young adult fantasy novel.

Paris Match by Stuart Woods (Putnam, $26.95, 9780399169120) is book 31 of the Stone Barrington series.

Movie

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, based on the children's book by Judith Viorst, opens October 10. The cast includes Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner.

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

Hardcovers
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Notes From the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty (Norton, $24.95, 9780393240238). "Doughty writes with an intimate voice, using candid humor and raw emotion to take us by the hand and guide us into the underworld of the American funeral industry. This book doesn't lack for laughs, which are vital as we follow Doughty through some rather ghoulish American death rites. She tells a masterful story of our relationship--or lack thereof--with death, crafted with both cultural references and personal memories. Ultimately, Doughty wants us to be comfortable enough to invite death into our lives, and I urge you to take the first steps by inviting this book into yours." --Neé Rose, Grass Roots Books & Music, Corvallis, Ore.

Neverhome: A Novel by Laird Hunt (Little, Brown, $26, 9780316370134). "Leaving her beloved husband behind to tend their Indiana farm, Constance Thompson binds her breasts and dons men's clothing to become Ash, nicknamed 'Gallant Ash' by her fellow Union soldiers. With spare, poetic, transcendent prose, Hunt portrays the horror of the Civil War and the fallout from the trauma experienced by soldiers, their families, and the country at large. Ash is a fascinating and enigmatic character, keeping secrets from everyone she encounters and keeping the reader enthralled as her shocking story unfolds. Neverhome will surely join the ranks of the brilliant novels not just of the Civil War, but of war writ large." --Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, Colo.

Paperback
Orfeo: A Novel by Richard Powers (Norton, $15.95, 9780393349849). "Orfeo is the kind of novel that creeps slowly into a reader's consciousness and makes a home there. A beautiful, cerebral book that's as concerned with the past and how the decisions made by protagonist Peter Els shaped his personal philosophies and relationships and how music played a role in it all, as it is with the very real present and how Peter's hobbyist interest in DNA makes him an accidental bioterrorism threat. Orfeo is an intelligent and incredibly moving portrait of the role of art in both one man's life and society as a whole. Stunning!" --Lauren Wiser, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, Mo.

For Ages 4 to 8
Hermelin the Detective Mouse by Mini Grey (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780385754330). "After making his home in the attic of an apartment building, Hermelin, a small, mystery-solving mouse, notices the building bulletin board covered with notices of missing items. Hermelin sets out to help recover a missing bracelet, a purse, a teddy bear, and more. When the tenants throw a party in the mysterious Hermelin's honor, he's touched, until the attendees scatter in a panic at the sight of a mouse. When Hermelin discovers that mice are considered pests, he sadly decides to leave his home behind, until a young tenant befriends him and reminds him to be proud of who--and what--he is!" --Sara Grochowski, Brilliant Books, Traverse City, Mich.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Louisa Treger's debut novel, The Lodger, opens in 1906. Family tragedy has landed Dorothy Richardson in a boarding house in a less-than-savory part of London, working at a dentist's office for a pittance and living hand-to-mouth. She is relieved when Jane, an old friend, extends an invitation to visit her country estate for a weekend of relaxation. Jane has recently married an up-and-coming writer, H.G. Wells. Bertie, as he is called, turns out to be a strong personality: "He was like a volcano, continually bubbling over with urgent thoughts and incandescent ideas." Dorothy is not sure at first whether she is attracted or repelled; his lively eyes and magnetic intensity are marred by zealous and sometimes off-putting opinions. The comfort of an intellectual who listens seriously to her ideas, however, proves irresistible, and between arguing about science and admiring Bertie's writing, Dorothy finds herself helplessly falling for the husband of her best and oldest friend.

Bertie assures Dorothy that he and Jane have an agreement that allows for extramarital relationships, although this arrangement is as emotionally complex and problematic as it sounds. Having fallen headlong into an affair, Dorothy is then torn between her hard-won independence, which she feels is worth even the high price of poverty, and her love for a man who needs more of her than she can give. When a strikingly beautiful suffragette named Veronica Leslie-Jones moves into Dorothy's boarding house in London and becomes a singular new friend, Dorothy's energies and loyalties are still more divided. Writing becomes the outlet for her pain; Bertie has long encouraged her to make such an effort but, fittingly, Dorothy discovers this outlet, and her talent, on her own terms and schedule.

The Lodger is based on the real life of Dorothy Richardson, a groundbreaking but little-known author of the early 20th century. Treger's taut evocation of Dorothy's life and emotional struggles is gripping from the very first page, and readers are thrust into Bertie's overwhelming presence just as helplessly and thoroughly as Dorothy is. While an unflattering light is shed on her famous lover--H.G. Wells comes off as obnoxiously self-centered--Dorothy herself is undoubtedly the star. She is a sensitive, passionate woman wrestling with the conventions of her time, and even while she experiences several traumas, Dorothy is a source of inspiration--for Treger, for those around her and for the contemporary reader as well. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: In a lively debut novel, H.G. Wells takes a back seat to his lover, the rebellious Dorothy Richardson, a literary figure deserving of the spotlight.

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

1. Hemy (Walk of Shame #2) by Victoria Ashley
2. Sweet Possession by J. Daniels
3. Alpha Billionaire 2 by Helen Cooper
4. Twin Dragons (Dragon Lords of Valdier Book 7) by S.E. Smith
5. Black Lies by Alessandra Torre
6. The Certainty of Violet and Luke (Coincidence Series Book 5) by Jessica Sorensen
7. Twist Me by Anna Zaires
8. When Shadows Fall (Callaway Series) by Barbara Freethy
9. Romancing My Love (the Bradens) by Melissa Foster
10. Outfoxed by Love (Kodiak Point Book 2) by Eve Langlais

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]