"In secular books characters meet, have sex, then try and be friends. In Christian books, they meet, become friends, get married, then have sex."--Judy Baer, author of The Whitney Chronicles, on the difference between chick lit and Christian chick lit, in an article in the Wichita Eagle.

Debi Echlin, owner and founder of A Great Good Place for Books, Oakland, Calif., and a member of the board of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, died in her sleep Thanksgiving Day. She was 52.

In a note on the store's Web site, employees called her "a vibrant force in our community, a loving boss and an incredible friend. . . . The next time you have a drink, raise your glass in a toast to Debi. She would have loved it!"

The staff said that "in her memory, we plan on continuing Debi's legacy and vision of the bookstore for our community to the best of our ability."

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While yesterday has become such a big day for online sales that it's being called "Cyber Monday," one major online book "marketplace" had a sales gain on Sunday that may be a sign of a shift in online buying patterns. Abebooks.com said sales on Sunday were up 30% compared to the same Sunday a year ago. Weekends are traditionally the slowest days of the week for Abebooks, but an increasing number of people are making purchases at home, too, the company added.

Topselling titles at Abebooks include A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, Harry Potter titles (because of the movie) and C.S. Lewis titles as the crescendo of publicity rises in advance of the opening of The Chronicles of Narnia.

For its part, Alibris told the Wall Street Journal that its sales for the weekend were up 60%.

Reports from online non-book retailers were also positive, according to the Journal; all retailers quoted had at least double-digit increases. In addition, ComScore Networks estimated that Black Friday online sales were up 22% over last year.

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The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports that Caren and Dick Lobo are selling Sarasota Books & News again--this time to people with spotless records, Andrew and Meghan Foley, who are brother and sister. The Lobos had come close to selling the store to Thomas Coelho and a partner, but then found out Coelho had a long criminal record and was wanted in California (Shelf Awareness, October 24 and November 1).

The Foleys have deep roots in Sarasota. At one point, their late father owned the building in which the bookstore is located. The pair said they plan to continue running the store in the way it has been run.

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Happy New Year. Barnes & Noble is paying a dividend of 15 cents a share at the end of December.

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The Chicago Tribune looks at the effect of technology on writing: "Literature, like all genres, is being reimagined and remade by the constantly unfolding extravagance of technological advances. The question of who's in charge--the producer or the consumer--is increasingly relevant to the literary world. The idea of the book as an inert entity is gradually giving way to the idea of the book as a fluid, formless repository for an ever-changing variety of words and ideas by a constantly modified cast of writers."

And more: "Changing ways of accessing literature, however, could end up changing the way literature is produced. If customers increasingly nab their reading material by the phrase or by the page--rather than by the book--surely writers will eventually get the hint and begin to create works that capitalize on the new reality. Thus literature itself will undergo a dramatic retooling."

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Founded in 1896, Conkey's Book Store in Appleton, Wis., one of the oldest bookstores in the country, is the subject of an Appleton Post Crescent profile. Conkey's has been owned since 1979 by John and JoAnn Zimmerman and has 7,000 square feet, 150,000 titles and 60 employees. "It's foolish for us to try and compete with deep discounters on price, but they have to cut way back on service," longtime employee Joe Goodfellow told the paper. "It's a balance."

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The $317 million modernization of some 63 branches of the Los Angeles public library system has helped usage grow by 70% in the past decade and helped make the libraries community centers, the Los Angeles Times reported. The libraries have encouraged "ties between immigrants and their new city as well as helping to bridge divisions of class and race."

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The Snohomish Herald chronicles the sale and move of Uppercase Books and Collectables, a used, rare and out-of-print store in Snohomish, Wash. The larger space offered more room for a café with tables and meeting rooms for groups, clubs and art shows.

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The Gwinnett Daily Post in Gwinnett County, Ga., praises Asheville, N.C., "a breathtaking community filled with artists' studios, restaurants, bistros, shops, nightclubs and, of course, eclectic bookshops like Malaprop's. . . . Nowhere in the Southeast can you find this much class, style and culture. "

Sales on Thanksgiving weekend at the Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, Vt., were "fabulous," co-owner Penny McConnel told Shelf Awareness. "We were up over last year."

Among the reasons: the store's first newsletter with holiday recommendations; the NEBA holiday catalogue; and the store's book angels program, which many customers ask about as early as the beginning of November.

For the book angels program, Norwich Bookstore coordinates with several local agencies that describe the children who need books in very general ways, for example, "three-year-old girl" or "one-year-old boy." Customers then donate either money or particular books for the children. After a certain amount of contributions, the store adds its own donations. The wreath on which customers hang cards went up Friday. "It's a great way for people to feel that they're helping out others," McConnel said.

The newsletter, which highlighted nearly 50 books, went to more than 400 customers; copies were also distributed in the store. "People have been bringing them in all marked up," McConnel said happily. The NEBA holiday catalogue, which was sent out in a local newspaper, also helped.

Besides the Internet, the store has competition across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire, which has no sales tax. A Borders opened there four years ago. "We freaked but survived," McConnel said. Then last year, the new owners of the Dartmouth Bookstore in Hanover, N.H., leased it to Barnes & Noble. "We freaked again," McConnel said. But customers remained loyal. "Every Saturday morning, everyone is buying birthday presents for parties that day," she said. "And a lot of customers come in with printed out lists from Amazon. They say, 'We did your work for you.' "

Customers are "definitely doing Christmas shopping," she continued. Already coffee table books are selling, which is unusual in November, and customers seem in a good mood.

Among bestsellers at the moment are Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman, On Beauty by Zadie Smith, Something Dangerous by Penny Vincenzi, Brave Charlotte by Anu Stohner and The Dog Who Cried Wolf by Keiko Kasza.

McConnel is handselling a pair of titles that are loosely related by subject and style: The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr and The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. Both, she said, are nonfiction titles written like fiction and set in Italy in the recent past. "I like to put them into the same hands," she said.

Local interest titles include a new cookbook, Cook What You Love: Simple, Flavorful Recipes to Make Again and Again by Bob and Melinda Blanchard, authors who moved from Norwich to Anguilla and opened a restaurant. "They've been very big, and their cookbooks are good, too," McConnel commented.

In addition, Mary Azarian, the illustrator of Here Comes Darrell by Leda Schubert, lives in Vermont and will be doing a signing at the store in the middle of December.

The many Beatles books are not doing as well as McConnel believed they would. "There are so many, which is not a good thing," she commented. Still, she has hope that they may be just the thing for gift giving near the end of the long and winding road leading to Christmas Day.

James Patterson, who created the $100,000 PageTurner Awards earlier this year (Shelf Awareness, July 1) to honor people and organizations that have gone to "extraordinary lengths to spread the joy of books and reading," has announced the first winners.

Dallas County Community Colleges won the $25,000 PageTurner School of the Year award for its citywide African American Read-In program that has provided books, book bags, bookmarks, readers and reading opportunities to more than 100,000 people.

Litquake, the annual San Francisco literary festival, won the $25,000 PageTurner of the Year award for reminding people that "reading is fun."

Other winners included the Denver Public Library for its Outreach Storytime time and several booksellers: Victor Iannone of Borders, Mary Gay Shipley of That Bookstore in Blytheville, Ark., and Nancy Quinn of the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee, Wis.

Quinn said that the awards "will surely help spread the love of reading.  It is thrilling for me, and my fellow booksellers at Schwartz, to be recognized among the inaugural class of winners."

For a full list of winners, go to the organization's Web site.

This morning the Today Show offers munchies from Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, author of Lidia's Family Table (Knopf, $35, 1400040353).

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This morning the Early Show asks a few questions of Po Bronson, author of Why Do I Love These People?: Honest and Amazing Stories of Real Families (Random House, $24.95, 1400062373).

Also on the Early Show today: Susan Spungen, author of Recipes: A Collection for the Modern Cook (Morrow, $34.95, 0060731249).

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WAMU's Diane Rehm Show puts Alan Alda, author of Never Have Your Dog Stuffed and Other Things I've Learned (Random House, $24.95, 1400064090), through the paces.

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Peggy Noonan, author of John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spirit (Viking, $24.95, 0670037486).

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Yesterday on NPR's Fresh Air: Vatican reporter John Allen, whose new book is Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church (Doubleday, $24.95, 0385514492).

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Yesterday Talk of the Nation took a trip with Lonely Planet editor Don George, who has collected "on the road" tales from famous and not-so-famous writers in By the Seat of My Pants: Humorous Tales of Travel and Misadventure (Lonely Planet, $15, 1741046068).

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Yesterday on All Things Considered, Timothy Noah talked about The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family, and Fate (PublicAffairs, $26.95, 1586483633). Noah edited the book, which is by Marjorie Williams, his late wife.

Appearing next Tuesday, December 6:

J is for just in time for the holidays? In S Is For Silence by Sue Grafton (Putnam, $26.95, 0399152970), Kinsey Millhone investigates a 34-year-old unsolved case.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone, $24.95, 074327248X). In this historical romance, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella goes to England to become a queen--but only as the wife of her intended's brother.

Love Smart: Find the One You Want--Fix the One You Got by Dr. Phil McGraw (Free Press, $26, 0743272099). More Dr. Phil take-charge strategies, in this case for the few people in the world who either want to be in a relationship or are in one and find fault with their significant others.

Richard Howorth, owner of Square Books in Oxford, Miss., picks the best books about the South. Next to tomes by Faulkner, Welty and other familiar names, he includes:

• All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw by Theodore Rosengarten. "The one book that explains the South," it's the story of Shaw's life that the illiterate black Alabama sharecropper told to Rosengarten.
• A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews, an autobiography that Howorth said complements Richard Wright's Black Boy.
• Elegy for a Southern Drawl by Rodney Jones, "one of our great poets, and his best book of poems."

The Smaller Majority
 
Why do we feel so uneasy about small creatures? Easily dismissing them as not worthy of attention and lumping them into the category of bugs or creepy-crawlies, "we lack either the patience or the ability to make observations, and end up drawing false, often ridiculous conclusions. And because we do not understand small creatures, we fear them." Piotr Naskrecki's aim in The Smaller Majority (Harvard University Press, $35, 0674019156, October) is twofold: to increase our awareness of the danger of habitat loss and to introduce us to an awe-inspiring world of creatures small enough to fit into a matchbox.
 
"I could never understand why small animals . . . evoke such polarized feelings. After all, how many people hate jaguars or elephants, things that can really hurt you?" In celebrating everything that is small and misunderstood, he asks readers to notice and understand them, since "understanding is a prerequisite to caring, and caring is the key to saving." His argument for saving these organisms is compelling. Current conservation efforts usually center on "charismatic" animals, like wolves, Siberian tigers or pandas. A better approach is to also preserve hotspots of biological diversity, which would include what is often dismissed as bird food. "As tragic and unforgivable as it would be, the disappearance of mountain gorillas would have far smaller ecological repercussions than the extinction of a single species of savannah termite."
 
He focuses on three major tropical ecosystems: tropical humid forests, savannahs and deserts. More than 90% of known species is smaller than a human fingernail, and it's a good bet that most of them share the characteristic of being "non-charismatic." However, after seeing the photographs (and reading the outstanding text), you will probably change your mind about the appeal of these beings. The aptly-named fantastic leaf-tailed gecko of Madagascar looks like a delicately beaded, intricate piece of jewelry. The balloon-winged katydid nymph arrayed in a rainbow of flamboyant colors seems to be blown from glass. The color patterns of Australian spotted pyrgomorph grasshoppers are strikingly similar to the pointillist style of Australian aboriginal paintings, raising the question of coincidence or of art imitating nature. And if African driver ants aren't that appealing, they are fascinating in their extreme aggression: entire villages will vacate for a few days at their approach, returning to find their houses clean of cockroaches, ants and anything else the ants consider a meal.
 
You may not feel more comfortable with spiders after reading this book, but you will be captivated by more than 400 full-color, stunning, jaw-dropping photographs, and charmed by Piotr Naskrecki's writing and passion for these small animals.--Marilyn Dahl