Today Shelf Awareness marks the 11th anniversary of our first issue with a cool milestone: Shelf Awareness for Readers, our twice-weekly consumer newsletter, now has more than 400,000 subscribers--410,183 to be exact! About two-thirds of that number are customers of the 122 independent bookstores with whom we do co-branded editions of Readers. To learn more about this program and for a list of Shelf Awareness for Readers partner stores, click here. Shelf Awareness Pro continues to thrive, and now has 38,000 readers each day. We have a few more tricks up our sleeve--more about them eventually.

As always, we thank you, our many readers from throughout the business. We also thank our many bookseller and publisher partners. And last but not least, we thank our hardworking, dedicated staff!

By the way, you can send us birthday wishes by clicking on the comment button below.

"So my update today is to not talk about stock, but the sentence I have heard many times but not in a commercial update setting, 'great bookshops are made by great booksellers.' I truly believe this, so I ask that today and over the coming weeks we really put service first, we truly engage with our customers....

"There is publishing that talks about 'what next' if we leave, talk to people about that with a smile and a spring in your step while putting great books in people's hands. I know this is what I will be doing.... What we do really, really matters. We need to be there for our customers and we need to genuinely continue to inspire them."

Ruth Greenstein

Ruth Greenstein, longtime editor and associate at Turtle Point Press, has acquired the independent publisher, which was founded in 1990 by Jonathan D. Rabinowitz and focuses on new fiction, poetry, memoirs, works in translation and rediscovered classics. The list will continue to be distributed by Consortium in North America and by Turnaround Publisher Services in the U.K. Rabinowitz remains as editor-at-large.

"Turtle Point Press has been seminal to my life in independent publishing. I couldn't be happier than to be in the position to carry on this tradition of exceptional publishing. Jonathan's joie de livres brightens my days and guides my work," said Greenstein, who is also the director of Greenline Publishing Consultants. A founding member of the independent editors alliance Words into Print, she has worked in the book publishing industry since 1989, including stints as a staff editor at Harcourt, Ecco and the publishing division of GoodTimes Entertainment.

Rabinowitz commented: "Ruth Greenstein and I met nearly twenty years ago when, as an editor at Harcourt, she acquired the paperback rights to one of my first titles, Making It New by Henry Geldzahler. I feel so fortunate to have Ruth succeed me as publisher of Turtle Point Press. She is not only devoted to independent publishing but she is also one of the finest literary editors in the business."

Barnes & Noble's self-publishing division Nook Press has launched a Nook Press print platform designed to offer its writers "an easy-to-use, self-service program that enables them to create hardcover and paperback books for customer purchase," according to the company. Nook Press authors now have the opportunity to have their print books considered for in-store placement on a local, regional or national level at B&N stores and online at BN.com. They may also qualify to participate at in-store events.

Fred Argir, B&N's chief digital officer, said the company is "thrilled to lead the movement to innovate the self-publishing industry by leveraging our stores nationwide. We look forward to seeing how the new all-in-one platform will increase the success of our authors."

Books Plus, Fernandina Beach, Fla., will close after 27 years in business. Owner/author Maggie Carter-de Vries is retiring and plans to return to her native city, Charleston, S.C. The Amelia Island bookshop posted a notice on its website announcing the decision "with heavy heart,"  adding: "We would like to thank all our regular customers for their support and their business. It was a pleasure serving you, but the time has come to retire, so please come in and help Maggie sell all the merchandise and fixtures, everything must go."

Sara Nelson

Effective July 18, Sara Nelson will join HarperCollins Publishers in the newly created role of v-p, executive editor & special advisor at Harper, where she will acquire fiction and nonfiction titles for the imprint. Nelson will also work with publisher Jonathan Burnham as a strategic advisor.

"Sara has worked in both journalism and book retailing and her knowledge of the publishing world is profound," Burnham said. "As special advisor, she will work with me and my team, bringing her expertise to bear on many aspects of the list, from editorial to marketing and publicity."

Nelson commented: "After observing the publishing world from the near-outside for many years, I am excited to have this opportunity to be involved directly in the publishing process itself. I can't wait to join my many friends at Harper, and to work closely with them on books that we love."

Nelson has been the editorial director for books and Kindle at Amazon since 2012. Prior to that, she was books editor at O, the Oprah magazine and editor-in-chief of Publishers Weekly. She is the author of So Many Books, So Little Time.  

Austin Clarke, an award-winning author born in Barbados who moved to Toronto in 1955 and "wrote about the immigrant experience and being black in Canada," died June 26, the New York Times reported. He was 81. Clarke won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for his 2002 novel, The Polished Hoe. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1998.

Clarke wrote 10 novels, five short-story collections and several memoirs. In addition to his his final work, 'Membering, his books include Pig Tails 'n' Breadfruit, More, The Survivors of the Crossing and The Meeting Point.

"If you were going to have a real relationship with Austin, you had to be prepared to move nimbly,"  friend and colleague Barry Callaghan, who in 1996 published The Austin Clarke Reader, told the Star. "He was a worldly fellow, a man of elegance, a man of conservative principles, but at the same time, he could be engaged with people that most conservatives wouldn't let into their house.... When I think of special dinners here, it was also Austin that said grace. There was no one like him, because there could be no one like him. There were just too many cross-references in his personality. He was singular."

This video of Newbery, Caldecott, Wilder medalists and honorees reacting to their awards recognition was presented at the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder banquet June 26 during the American Library Association's annual conference & exhibition in Orlando, Fla.

Noting that the U.S. "is still home to some of the most unique bookstores in the world," a Bond Street blog post headlined "Not Quite Out of Print: America's Best Bookstores" featured a choice selection of "proverbial moms and pops peddling rare, used, first edition, and yes, even new books."

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach (Norton).

Tomorrow:
Tavis Smiley: Shane Claiborne, author of Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us (HarperOne, $17.99, 9780062347374).

Also on Tavis Smiley: Rana Foroohar, author of Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business (Crown Business, $30, 9780553447231).

Conan: Tavis Smiley, co-author of Before You Judge Me: The Triumph and Tragedy of Michael Jackson's Last Days (Little, Brown, $27, 9780316259095).

Daily Show: Chuck Klosterman, author of But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past (Blue Rider, $26, 9780399184123).

Matthew Goode (The Good Wife, Downton Abbey) "is set as the lead in WGN America's alien saga pilot Roadside Picnic," based on the novel by Soviet/Russian science fiction authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Deadline reported. Written by Jack Paglen (Transcendence), with Alan Taylor (Terminator Genisys, Game of Thrones) directing, the project is from Sony Pictures TV, "where Roadside Picnic was originally developed as a spec," partnered with Tribune Studios. Published in 1972, the novel was adapted to the big screen by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky as the classic film Stalker.

Amelia Gray won the New York Public Library's $10,000 Young Lions Fiction Award, presented annually to a writer age 35 or younger for either a novel or story collection, for Gutshot (FSG Originals).

This year's finalists included The Turner House by Angela Flournoy (Mariner), You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman (Harper), The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips (Picador) and Night at the Fiestas by Kirstin Valdez Quade (Norton).

photo: Ron Reagan

CB McKenzie's first novel, Bad Country, won the Tony Hillerman Prize from St. Martin's Press, the Spur Award for Best Contemporary Novel from Western Writers of America, and was shortlisted for a New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, a Shamus and an Edgar. After a decade as a fashion model in Europe and the U.S., and some time as a house painter and farmhand, McKenzie graduated from the University of Arizona. His novel Burn What Will Burn was published by Minotaur Books (June 21, 2016).

On your nightstand now:

The Hundred Mile View by C.J. Howell (280 Steps Publishing): this book is as cranky and agitated as a constipated mountain lion and about as likely to bite your ass; a southwestern noir with some teeth in its mouth.

The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard): based on his short story "Mad Dog Summer" (which was originally published in 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense, but can most easily be found in The Best of Joe R. Lansdale). It is a useful example of how to take a good 30-page short story and turn it into a great 300-page novel (and win the Edgar).

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: this is a coaster for my beer bottles.

The Scribe, a novel by Matthew Guinn: Matthew is a blurb buddy of mine, and I love the way he bends history to accommodate story with neither the worse for the effort.

The Secret Life of Anna Blanc by Jennifer Kincheloe, another really good mystery set in history.

A Teacher's Introduction to Postmodernism by Ray Linn: I love me my pomo, and this is the "reminder" book I keep on hand.

She Died a Lady by John Dickson Carr (as Carter Dickson), silly stuff on a lot of levels, but I'm a sucker for a Golden Age locked-door mystery, and a diehard Carr fan.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Boston Strangler by Gerold Frank. I snuck this from my mom's reading stack and read it while home sick from grammar school. Scared the sh*te out of me, and still does. Close second: Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal. (That brace of books should give some clue as to my early mindset.)

Your top five authors:

Graham Greene: my go-to when I tend to overwrite. Though with predictable characters, Greene always composes elegant prose and writes short books with some twist that gives all his novels some mystery.

Cormac McCarthy: my go-to when I tend to forget how the Bible sounds and want to write like that. Child of God is one of my favorite books, and James Franco's weird-ass movie version also do I love (to adipocerous death).

Agatha Christie: still the best mystery writer of all time. I once read her books in chronological order of publication and still have all 80-plus, in various paperback editions, beside me at all times.

Gabriel García Márquez: when I was a kid, Cien años de soledad introduced me to the idea that sympathetic characters can be constructed from flawed material. The Autumn of the Patriarch is my favorite because it proved that to me.

King David et al.: Psalms 130, "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope" is a good reminder to writers of the need to pray their way out of "block." Psalms are what I read when I don't read Cormac McCarthy.

Book you've faked reading:

Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hoftstadter. Though I read it eventually, at first I faked having read it, like about 10 million other people, and then even when I read it, I was kind of faking it.

Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. I carry this around when I'm at Self-Realization Fellowship in Encinitas (though I've probably read about as much of this book as most of the fellows there, I would imagine).

I have also pretended to read several popular authors I was on panels with, but had not a clue who they were.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Bad Country, a novel by CB McKenzie (2014, Minotaur). If you don't like punctuation, you will love the hell out of this book. If you like punctuation, listen to the Blackstone audio narrated by Mark Bramhall, who has a voice like buttah.

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, lyrical and harsh and useful, just like the Psalms.

The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq, though a terrible curmudgeon, Houellebecq in this particular book indicates the possibility of a post-hermeneutical rhetoric, which, naturally, all sensible thinkers support.

Book you've bought for the cover:

The Case of the Lonely Heiress by Erle Stanley Gardner; Playback by Raymond Chandler (I collect vintage mystery/hardboiled hardcovers mainly for their covers); Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry by Harry Kemelman (I have all the Rabbi books in vintage hardcover); Calamity Jane of Deadwood Gulch by Ethel Hueston.

Book you hid from your parents:

Autobiography of a Yogi: Self-Realization Fellowship used to sell these little palm-sized booklets about Yogananda's principles and I ordered some from the back of a magazine (can't imagine which one). Not sure if I "hid" these pithy little books per se, but since I was raised pretty strictly Southern Baptist, I was never sure how those tenets would fare in my household.

Book that changed your life:

If my life has changed, I'm not aware of it.

Favorite line from a book:

"In watermelon sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar." --Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar. The whole book is like this, and I love every word just like watermelon sugar.

"I wait on the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word, I hope" --Psalms 130

"A man shouldn't forget who tries to kill his dog." --Bad Country by CB McKenzie

Five books you'll never part with:

Every Agatha Christie book featuring Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.

The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux: the best travel book ever written.

The Drowning Pool by Ross MacDonald. Lew Archer is the literary role model for my PI, Rodeo Grace Garnet, and Ross MacDonald my role model for writing PI novels.

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre; yes, it is thus.

In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan: I've never shed a tear for a suicidal celebrity save for Richard Brautigan, whose writing (and lifestyle) defined Literary Writer for me for many, many years. I once asked Brautigan during a post-reading q&a (in Arkansas), "What about the Logan Sisters?" and that totally cracked him up, and I will always treasure that moment.

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

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, wherein Agatha Christie invents something.

I'd also like to come fresh to Shutter Island, which completely fooled me (I'm also a big Dennis Lehane fan). Pet Sematary also spellbound me (I could not put that creepy thriller down, so to speak)--and when S. King tweeted positive on my Bad Country, that was like a major prize.

In her Newbery Honor-winning Turtle in Paradise, Jennifer L. Holm introduced a scrappy bunch of barefoot kids living in Key West during the Depression--including the Diaper Gang, which takes care of people's "bad babies," mostly in exchange for homemade candy. Ten-year-old "Beans" Curry is Turtle's cousin and the founder of the Diaper Gang; Full of Beans, this dryly funny prequel to Turtle, is his story.

"Look here, Mac. I'm gonna give it to you straight: grown-ups lie," says Beans in the novel's first line. Readers know right off the bat that Beans is a no-nonsense, rather jaded sort. He says President Roosevelt is lying when he claims the economy is improving, "when anyone with two eyes could see the only thing getting better was my mother's ability to patch holes in pants." Potbellied, greasy-haired Winky lies, too, saying he'd give Beans a dime for 20 condensed-milk cans, not a dime for 50 cans.

Holm's vividly described Key West drips with heat, sways with Cuban music, buzzes with mosquitoes and stinks of garbage: "Our town looked like a tired black-and-white movie," says Beans. The town is so decrepit, filled with stray dogs and ripe with uncollected trash, in fact, that the federal government has taken it over. (This really happened, as the author's note explains.) The government's goal is either to spruce up the place enough to transform it into an irresistible tourist destination, or shut it down and evacuate the residents. Grownups may lie, but they're not lying about this: the threat of losing Key West's community is real.

Beans is skeptical of the fast-talking officials from "off the rock" in their silly underpants (his term for Bermuda shorts). Besides, he's more focused on being the "man of the house" for his mother and two younger brothers since his father, Poppy, left to go find work in New Jersey. This heavy responsibility inspires his "life of crime," helping out a rum-runner named Johnny Cakes. (Everyone has a nickname in Key West, even the dogs.) Beans is trying to do the right thing by earning a buck for his impoverished family, but he gets himself into moral hot water that makes coconut ice cream taste like sawdust in his mouth. He spends the rest of the book working hard to redeem himself. As Key West gets spiffed up and starts smelling of "frangipani and the tangy bite of the ocean," Beans manages to clean up some of his own mess.

Holm captures this colorful slice of Depression history with her usual vivacious wit. Expressions like "Mind your own potatoes" pepper the dialogue, and cultural references such as Bonnie & Clyde, Shirley Temple and the Sears, Roebuck catalogue set the scene. Children will love Beans, with his good heart and only occasional bad judgment. A fine and welcome companion for Turtle. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Shelf Talker: A ragtag posse of barefoot kids in Depression-era Florida's Key West takes center stage in Jennifer L. Holm's lively prequel to the Newbery Honor-winning Turtle in Paradise.

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

1. Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries Book 11) by Lexi Blake
2. The Contract by Melanie Moreland
3. Fearless in Love (The Maverick Billionaires Book 3) by Bella Andre and Jennifer Skully
4. Claim Me by Anna Zaires and Dima Zales
5. The Sheik's Jealous Princess (The Samara Royal Family Book 5) by Elizabeth Lennox
6. A Wildly Seductive Night by Lauren Blakely
7. Jack by Grace Burrowes
8. Hot Texas Days Boxed Set by Jessie Evans
9. Long Road Home by Maya Banks
10. Corporate A$$ by Sadi Lynn

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]