Apparently Apple will unveil its new tablet computer/multimedia device/e-reader on January 27. The Wall Street Journal reported that its sister company HarperCollins is negotiating with Apple to make e-books available for the device, "posing a challenge to Amazon."

In a change from Kindle policy, Harper "is expected" to set prices of the e-books, and Apple would take a percentage of sales. Other publishers have reportedly met with Apple.

The tablet may begin shipping as early as March.

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Among bookstores that have raised money for earthquake relief in Haiti, over the long weekend, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt., and R.J. Julia, Madison, Conn., donated the fees for signups and renewals of store club memberships to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti Relief. From Friday through Sunday, R.J. Julia raised $3,625 for the organization.

Among publishers, Random House has made a $100,000 donation to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund and Partners in Health.

Partners in Health is an organization providing health care in Haiti headed by Dr. Paul Farmer, whose work is the subject of Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder and published by Random.

Parent company Bertelsmann has donated 100,000 euros (about $143,000) to Plan International, the children's relief organization.

Until June 1, Random is also matching 100% up to $1,000 of any employee's charitable donation to a Haitian earthquake relief organization.

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Book trailer of the day: True Confections by Katharine Weber (Shaye Areheart/Crown). This trailer is a slight twist on the usual book trailer: rather than focusing on the book, it is a website for Zip's Candies, the fictional candy company in the novel, and includes a TV commercial and contest. Among the prizes: signed copies of True Confections.

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Italian Notebook offers an interesting peek at the Caffé Letterario Intra Moenia, a bookstore-cafe in Naples that features caffé al bacio (coffee with a kiss), whose ingredients include Nutella, espresso, milk foam and cocoa flakes.

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Last week, we quoted author Jason Pinter, who asked in a Huffington Post piece why there were "no book publishers" at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (Shelf Awareness, January 12, 2010).

For the record, Megan Fitzpatrick, senior manager of marketing and publicity at Hachette Digital/Hachette Audio, noted that she was at CES.

Borders's holiday sales fell more than twice as much as holiday sales at its closest bricks-and-mortar competitors, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million.

Sales at Borders Group in the 11 weeks ended January 16 fell 13.7%, to $846.8 million. At Borders superstores, sales fell 14.7%, to $649.2 million, and at Borders superstores open at least a year, sales fell 14.6%. If multimedia is excluded, comp-store sales at Borders superstores fell 10.9%.

At the Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment, sales fell 14.6%, to $153.2 million. Sales at division stores that will remain open beyond this month dropped 9.4%. Borders is currently closing 182 of those stores.

International sales rose 8.7%, to $44.4 million, and comp-stores sales at Paperchase stores outside the U.S. rose 10.1%.

By comparison, sales during the last quarter at Barnes & Noble fell 5% and comp-store sales fell 5.4%, while at Books-A-Million sales fell 4.5% and comp-store sales fell 6.2%.

In a statement, CEO Ron Marshall commented: "We are disappointed with holiday results and must intensify our focus on creating and delivering a shopping experience that drives profitable sales. Given the sales challenge, we have continued to manage cash flow and have taken several important steps in line with our strategic priorities, including moving away from underperforming, low margin categories such as music and video in favor of better performing categories such as children's. The decision to exit multimedia is right long-term, but impacted comp store sales by 3.7%."

Marshall noted that the company has announced e-book partnerships with Kobo (formerly Shortcovers) and Spring Design and stated, "We will continue to focus on reducing expenses and improving working capital to drive improved cash flow and debt reduction as we address the clear priority to drive profitable sales."

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb/Random House) has won the 2010 Newbery Medal. This second novel by Stead (First Light) takes place in the Upper West Side Manhattan neighborhood of her childhood, where the corner homeless man becomes 12-year-old heroine Miranda's "laughing man." In our review, we said, "Stead opens up the profound possibilities in a city where a neighborhood can contain an entire world."
 
The 2010 Caldecott Medal went to Jerry Pinkney for his wordless piéce de resistance set on the East African Serengeti, The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown). At the ALA Annual conference in Chicago last summer, Pinkney said that this has always been his favorite of Aesop's fables. Our review called it "bookmaking at its best."
 
Four Newbery Honors were awarded: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Melanie Kroupa/FSG), which won the National Book Award (Hoose first learned of Claudette Colvin while researching his book We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History, which was an NBA finalist); a debut novel, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (Holt/Macmillan); Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown), lushly illustrated with occasional full-color pictures by the author; and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick (Blue Sky/Scholastic), in which funny moments balance the sorrows of the Civil War, from the author of Freak the Mighty.
 
Both Caldecott honors went to artists who illustrated someone else's text: Marla Frazee for All the World, written by Liz Garton Scanlon (Beach Lane/S&S); and Pamela Zagarenski for Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors, written by Joyce Sidman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
 
Libba Bray won the 2010 Michael L. Printz Award for Going Bovine (Delacorte/Random House), about a 16-year-old diagnosed with Mad Cow disease who takes off on a road trip in search of a cure with a Sancho Panza-style sidekick he meets in the hospital. Four Printz Honors were given: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman (Holt/Macmillan), which was also a National Book Award finalist; The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey (S&S); Punkzilla by Adam Rapp (Candlewick); and Tales from the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 by John Barnes (Viking/Penguin).
 
The William C. Morris Award for best debut YA novel went to Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). The committee named four honor books: Ash by Malinda Lo (Little, Brown); Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Little, Brown); The Everafter by Amy Huntley (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins); and Hold Still by Nina LaCour (Dutton/Penguin).
 
Heiligman's Charles and Emma also won the inaugural YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award.

The Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults was awarded to Jim Murphy, and Lois Lowry was chosen to deliver the 2011 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture.

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, for "the most distinguished book for beginning readers," went to Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! by Geoffrey Hayes (RAW Junior/Toon). There were four Geisel Honor books: I Spy Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold (Scholastic), whose Hi! Fly Guy was a 2006 Geisel Honor book, the first year the award was given; Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith (RAW Junior/Toon), author of the Bone series; Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends by Wong Herbert Yee (Houghton); and Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day by Kate McMullan, illustrated by R.W. Alley (Dial).
 
The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal was awarded to Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone (Candlewick). The three Sibert honor books were The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors by Chris Barton, illustrated by Tony Persiani (Charlesbridge); Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca (Richard Jackson/Atheneum/S&S); and Phillip Hoose's Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Kroupa/FSG).
 
The Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best work of translation went to A Faraway Island by Annika Thor, translated from the Swedish by Linda Schenck (Delacorte/Random). There were three Batchelder Honors: Big Wolf and Little Wolf by Nadine Brun-Cosme, illustrated by Olivier Tallec, translated by Claudia Bedrick (Enchanted Lion); Eidi by Bodil Bredsdorff, translated by Kathryn Mahaffy (FSG); and Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, translated by Cathy Hirano (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine).

The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production went to Live Oak Media, producer of Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Harry Bliss, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat.
 
Walter Dean Myers won the inaugural Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
 
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Awards. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson won the Coretta Scott King Author award for Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Carolrhoda/ Lerner); and Charles R. Smith Jr. won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for My People, written by Langston Hughes (Ginee Seo/ Atheneum). The John Steptoe Award for New Talent went to Kekla Magoon, author of The Rock and the River (S&S/Aladdin).
 
Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis (Knopf/Random House) was named a CSK Author Honor Book; and The Negro Speaks of Rivers, illustrated by E.B. Lewis, written by Langston Hughes (Jump at the Sun/Disney) was a CSK Illustrator Honor Book.
 
The Pura Belpré Illustrator Award went to Rafael López for Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day--Celebremos El día de los niños/El día de los libros, with text by Pat Mora (Rayo /HarperCollins). Julia Alvarez won the Pura Belpré Author Award for Return to Sender (Knopf/Random House).
 
Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, illustrated by David Diaz (Marshall Cavendish) was a Pura Belpré Honor Book for both text and illustration. The other two illustration honors went to Yuyi Morales for My Abuelita, with text by Tony Johnston (Harcourt); and John Parra for Gracias Thanks, written by Pat Mora (Lee & Low). The second Pura Belpré Author Honor book was Federico García Lorca by Georgina Lázaro, illustrated by Enrique S. Moreiro (Lectorum).
 
The three Schneider Family Book Awards, which honor an author or illustrator for "a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences" and which come with a $5,000 prize, were given to Django by Bonnie Christensen (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook) in the children's book category; Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin (S&S) for middle grade; and Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic) won for teens. --Jennifer M. Brown

In a story yesterday about the closing of the Bodhi Tree, West Hollywood, Calif. (Shelf Awareness, January 12, 2010), the Los Angeles Times noted that while owners Stan Madson and Phil Thompson have sold the building which houses the famed metaphysical store, they are "searching for someone to buy the Bodhi Tree inventory and name and continue the store in a different location."

The Times supplied some hard figures illustrating the store's difficult situation. "The 'MacLaine boom' in the mid-1980s pushed up daily customer sales from 300 to 1,800 almost overnight; they are down to about 200 today, Madson and Thompson said. Annual revenue is about $2 million, compared with a peak of $5 million in the 1990s, Madson said. The last two years have been particularly brutal, with sales down about 15% each year."

The owners seem appropriately at peace with their decision to close or sell the business. Madson told the paper that he plans to "continue his personal spiritual explorations, travel with his wife, read 200 new books and reread 5,000."

Thompson plans to travel and spend time with his three children and dogs.

"After four decades of delving into the wisdom traditions of the world, the men say they come away with no major revelations," the Times continued. "Thompson said he has found that the most important things in his life are relationships, family and children.

"'I don't know if I found the secret to anything,' Thompson said. 'I have an ordinary life and feel good about it most of the time.'

"Madson said he is grateful for the chance to have helped people find inspiration.

" 'This general material has helped people live better and transform their lives,' Madson said, 'and that's sort of nice.' "

In a piece in Sunday's New York Times Book Review called "The D.I.Y. Book Tour," Stephen Elliott discussed the tour he did for his new book, The Adderall Diaries, which took him to 33 cities--with all events held at fans' homes.

He wrote: "Originally, my publisher had a standard tour planned for me, bookstores in five large coastal cities. The early reviews were strong, and one friend, a successful author, encouraged me to do a larger tour. But the idea depressed me. The Adderall Diaries is my seventh book. I have my following, but I'm not famous. I didn't want to travel thousands of miles to read to 10 people, sell four books, then spend the night in a cheap hotel room before flying home. And my publisher didn't have the money for that many hotel rooms anyway.

"I decided to try something I hoped would be less lonely. Before my book came out, I had set up a lending library allowing anyone to receive a free review copy on the condition they forward it within a week to the next reader, at their own expense. (Now that a majority of reviews are appearing on blogs and in Facebook notes, everyone is a reviewer.) I asked if people wanted to hold an event in their homes. They had to promise 20 attendees. I would sleep on their couch. My publisher would pay for some of the airfare, and I would fund the rest by selling the books myself."

While some readings were disappointing, on the whole, Elliott enjoyed them and drew attendees who paid attention, asked plenty of questions and sometimes stayed for hours. Many were regular readers who weren't exactly literary. But no problem: in fact, at the end of one reading, "I thought to myself that they weren't a standard literary audience: they were better."

"All together, I sold about 1,100 books (not counting copies of my older books, which I was also selling) at 73 events. Seven hundred of those were books I purchased wholesale, a few hundred more were sold by local booksellers invited to the readings."

On his blog, Dave Weich, formerly of Powell's, responded to the column, in part, this way: "Bookstores pride themselves on being community centers. As they should. There's a danger, however, in interpreting the role too literally. The desired third place need not be the store, itself.

"Lease these opportunities to your book clubs. Reward your best customers with the chance to host an author. Impose requirements similar to Elliott's--minimum attendance, for example, and overnight lodging--but let go of the reins. Not every author will submit to this, of course. But some will. More than you'd think, I bet. Enhance your privileged position as a partner with authors and publishers by leveraging local expertise and personal relationships. (Isn't that what you do already?) Bring these parties together in new and constructive ways."

Among the findings of a new Book Industry Study Group survey of consumer attitudes toward e-book reading, the first of three in an ongoing project:

• The majority of print book buyers ranked "affordability" as the #1 reason they would choose to purchase an e-book rather than a print edition of the same title.
• Less important reasons for buying an e-book were the search functions of e-books and their impact on the environment.
• Some 30% of print book buyers would wait up to three months to purchase the e-book edition of a book by their favorite author.
• About 20% of respondents said they've stopped purchasing print books within the past 12 months in favor of acquiring e-books.
• Most respondents said they prefer to share e-books across devices.
• Preferred e-reader devices include computers (47%), Amazon's Kindle (32%) and other e-reader devices at roughly 10% apiece.
• Only 28% of respondents said they would "definitely" purchase an e-book with digital rights management, and men were more likely than women to say they would not buy an e-book with DRM.
• Although e-book sales are growing, 81% of survey respondents said they currently purchase an e-book only "rarely" or "occasionally."

BISG will present findings from the first part of the study at Digital Book World January 26-27 in New York.

This morning on the Today Show: Mika Brzezinski, author of All Things at Once (Weinstein Books, $24.95, 9781602861114/1602861110).

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This morning on Fox and Friends: Marc Thiessen, author of Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack (Regnery Press, $29.95, 9781596986039/1596986034). He will also appear today on CNN's Campbell Brown and tomorrow on CNN International's Amanpour.

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Today on NPR's Here and Now: Ethan Watters, author of Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche (Free Press, $26, 9781416587088/141658708X).

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Today on ABC News Now: Patricia Moreno, author of The IntenSati Method: The Seven Secret Principles to Thinner Peace (Simon Spotlight, $21.99, 9781439152973/1439152977).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: David M. Walker, author of Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility (Random House, $26, 9781400068609/1400068606).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show:

Mark Bittman, author of Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes (Simon & Schuster, $15, 9781416575658/1416575650).
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun (Harper, $25.99, 9780061583254/0061583251).
Jeffery Long, author of Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences (HarperOne, $25.99, 9780061452550/0061452556).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, authors of Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things (Counterpoint, $25, 9781582435671/1582435677).

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Tomorrow night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Jim Wallis, author of Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street (Howard Books, $24, 9781439183120/1439183120).

Opening nationwide this coming Friday, January 22, Extraordinary Measures stars Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell and is based on The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million--and Bucked the Medical Establishment--in a Quest to Save His Children by Geeta Anand (Harper, $15.99, 9780060734404/006073440X).

The book and movie tell the story of John and Aileen Crowley, whose two youngest children, Megan and Patrick, were diagnosed at a young age with a rare and little-understood genetic disorder, Pompe disease, and the ultimately successful quest for a life-saving treatment.

A related book is Chasing Miracles: The Crowley Family Journey of Strength, Hope, and Joy by John Crowley (Newmarket, $22.95, 9781557049100/1557049106), a memoir about how the author and his wife decided to do "whatever it takes" to help their children survive and thrive.

The nominees for the 2010 WNBA Pannell Award (formerly the Lucile Micheels Pannell Award), given to a general bookstore and a children's-only bookstore that "excel at inspiring the interest of young people in books and reading" and sponsored by the Women's National Book Association and the Penguin Young Readers Group, are:

• Big Blue Marble Bookstore, Philadelphia, Pa.
• Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex.
• Bookshelf at Hooligan Rocks, Truckee, Calif.
• Books, Inc. San Francisco, Calif.
• Green Toad Bookstore, Oneonta, N.Y.
• Hicklebee's, Willow Glen, Calif.
• Ladels Children's Book Boutique, Detroit, Mich.
• Literary Life Bookstore, Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, Ga.
• Parkplace Books, Kirkland, Wash.
• Park Road Books, Charlotte, N.C.
• The Bookworm of Edwards, Edwards, Colo.
• Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Wash.

A jury of five industry professionals will pick the winners. Each recipient will receive a check for $1,000 and a framed piece of original art by a children's book illustrator.

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The nominees for the 2009 Dilys Winn Award, given to the mystery titles that member booksellers of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association most enjoyed selling during the year, are:

• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)
• A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellroy (Overlook)
• The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson (Viking)
• The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson (Knopf)
• The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville ( Soho)
• The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• The Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan (Minotaur)

The award is named for Dilys Winn, founder of the first mystery bookstore in the U.S., and will be presented at Left Coast Crime in March.

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:
 
Hardcover
 
Thereby Hangs a Tail by Spencer Quinn (Atria, $25, 9781416585855/1416585850). "In fighting crime, Chet is the kind of dog you want on your side: straightforward, ready to hold onto the bad guy (using teeth if necessary) and optimistic, even in difficult situations. Once again, he and his human detective partner, Bernie, dig for clues, battle the bad guys, and never turn down treats. I'm already eager for the third installment!"--Jennifer Sorensen, Literary Life Bookstore & More, Grand Rapids, Mich.
 
Cherries in Winter by Suzan Colón (Doubleday, $21.95, 9780385532525/0385532520). "Suzan Colón's account of discovering her grandmother's recipes following the loss of her job as a magazine editor is timely and heartwarming. I'm not a cook, but I'm inspired to be one after reading Cherries in Winter."--Karin Wilson, Page & Palette, Fairhope, Ala.
 
Paperback
 
The Butterflies of Grand Canyon: A Novel by Margaret Erhart (Plume, $15, 9780452295490/0452295491). "It's 1951 and an unlikely host of characters gather at the rim of the Grand Canyon, where mysteries abound. There are elusive butterflies, evasive love and a 13-year-old murder waiting to be solved. Erhart's novel leaves a deep impression."--Maire Estar, Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton, Mont.
 
For Ages 9 to 12
 
Raider's Ransom by Emily Diamand (Chicken House, $17.99, 9780545142977/0545142970). "In a futuristic England that is almost entirely underwater, people have long forgotten the power of technology, except for a dangerous few to whom it is worth any ransom--even the prime minister's daughter. Raiders' Ransom has a swiftly moving plot that will surprise readers over and over again."--Ellen Davis, Dragonwings Bookstore, Waupaca, Wis.
 
[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]