After a review, the Canadian government has approved Amazon's plan to build a warehouse in Canada.

In return, the Globe and Mail reported, the e-tailer has promised to invest more than C$20 million (which, at current exchange rates, is about the same amount in U.S. currency), including $1.5 million for cultural events and awards and for promoting books by Canadians outside Canada; increase the visibility of Canadian and French-language products on its Canadian website; establish a staff to assist Canadian publishers and other suppliers of cultural products; make more Canadian content available on the Kindle; and create a summer internship program for Canadian university and college students.

Amazon's plan had to be reviewed in light of the Investment Canada Act, which protects Canadian culture from foreign ownership.

Canadian booksellers have protested consistently against the plan. Yesterday Canadian Booksellers Association executive director Susan Dayus told Reuters, "We do not think this will be a good thing for Canadians."

Founded in 2002, amazon.ca accounts for "up to" 10% of Canadian publishers' sales, "depending on type of book," according to the Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street analysts are revising estimates of Kindle sales following the launch of the iPad, which sold more than 450,000 units in less than a week, Bloomberg BusinessWeek said.

One analyst has cut Kindle sales estimates for this year to a range of 2.5 million–3 million from 3.6 million. Another has cut his 2010 Kindle sales forecast to 3.45 million from 3.85 million.

Goldman Sachs is estimating that e-book sales will more than quadruple by 2015, to $3.19 billion, and that Amazon's share will fall to 28% in 2015 from 50% this year. At the same time, Apple's share of the market should triple, to 33%, in 2015.

Analysts generally estimate that Amazon has sold between 2 million and 3 million Kindles since the e-reader was introduced in 2007.

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It's e-fficial. As has been rumored (Shelf Awareness, April 7, 2010), Best Buy will sell Barnes & Noble's nook e-reader in its 1,070 stores and online, beginning April 18. The devices will be featured in in-store displays, too.

In addition, Best Buy has made B&N "a preferred e-bookstore solution." The retailer will feature the free B&N eReader on some PCs, netbooks, tablets and smartphones.

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"We're as shocked as anyone," said Christine Deavel, co-owner of Open Books: A Poem Emporium, Seattle, Wash., of the 15th anniversary the shop is currently celebrating. 

For Deavel and co-owner John Marshall, 2009 was "was their best year yet," the Seattle Times reported.

"We've learned a lot from our customers," Marshall added.

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Book trailer of the day: The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma (Free Press).

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Effective September 1, Marvel books will be sold and distributed into the traditional and nontraditional trade book channels throughout the world by Hachette Book Group. At the same time, Marvel is extending its exclusive direct market service agreement with Diamond Comics Distributor, for sales to comic shops worldwide.

David Gabriel, Marvel senior v-p of sales and circulation, said in a statement: "Teaming with Hachette allows us to even more aggressively grow our presence in the book market." He also said, "Diamond Book Distributors has been very instrumental in the growth of our graphic novel business, nearly tripling our sales in the book market over the last five years, and we thank them for their efforts. The decision to switch book market distributors was a very difficult one but as evidenced by the extension of our direct market agreement, our working relationship with Diamond remains very close. We remain extremely appreciative of our direct market retailers and continue to grow that vital market."

Noting the tripling in sales during the past five years, Kuo-Yu Liang, v-p of sales and marketing at Diamond Book Distributors, commented: "Naturally we're sad to see them leave. However, DBD has no plans to cut back, as we expect our business to continue to grow. We still represent more than 50 publishers including Dark Horse, Dynamite, IDW and Image. We expect a very strong 2010 with properties such as the Scott Pilgrim movie and Walking Dead going on AMC."

The German Book Office's April pick is In Free Fall by Juli Zeh, translated by Christine Lo, published today by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday ($26.95, 9780385526425/0385526423).

In Germany and Switzerland, the GBO wrote, "two physicists begin a dangerous dance of distrust. Friends since their university days, when they were aspiring Nobel Prize candidates, they now interact in an atmosphere of tension, stoked by Oskar's belief that Sebastian fell into mediocrity by having a family. When Sebastian's son, Liam, is apparently kidnapped, their fragile friendship is further tested. Entrusted with uncovering the truth, Detective Superintendent Schilf discerns a web of blackmail, while at the same time the reality of his personal life falls into doubt. Unfolding in a series of razor-sharp scenes, In Free Fall is a riveting novel of ideas from a major new literary voice."

Zeh won the German Book Prize and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for her first novel, Eagles and Angels. Lo, an editor at Hachette Children's Books in London, also translated Eagles and Angels.

This morning on the Early Show: Sharon Kedar, co-author of Get Financially Naked: How to Talk Money with Your Honey (Adams Media, $12.95, 9781440502019/1440502013).

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Simon Tolkien, author of The Inheritance (Minotaur, $24.99, 9780312539078/031253907X), talks about his new legal thriller, as well as his grandfather J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Today on Fresh Air: Jeff Shesol, author of Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court (Norton, $27.95, 9780393064742/0393064743).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Michael J. Fox, author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned (Hyperion, $17.99, 9781401323868/1401323863). He will also appear tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Mary Higgins Clark, author of The Shadow of Your Smile (Simon & Schuster, $25.99, 9781439172261/1439172269).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Sy Montgomery, author of Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur (Free Press, $25, 9781416569848/1416569847).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: David Shields, author of Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (Knopf, $24.95, 9780307273536/0307273539).

Starz network is teaming up with Serendipity Point Films and Bayonne Entertainment to develop Gael Greene's memoir, Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess, as an hourlong series. Variety reported that the 2006 book "details Greene's life in the New York swirl in the 1970s and '80s when her perch as New York magazine's food scribe gave her entree into the culinary and sexual revolutions of the era. More recently, her profile (always accented by a fancy hat) has been given a boost through her role as a judge on Bravo's Top Chef Masters."

Greene's memoir is "a story that will lend itself to a richly entertaining series well suited to premium television," said Starz president and CEO Chris Albrecht.

Summit Entertainment, which brought the Twilight series to the big screen, is "in negotiations" to acquire film rights to Homelanders, Andrew Klavan's YA book series. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the author "is known for his thrillers--two have been given the Hollywood treatment: True Crime, via Clint Eastwood, and Don't Say a Word, turned into a Michael Douglas vehicle co-starring Brittany Murphy--but this is his first series written for the young-adult market."

The Homelanders: The Last Thing I Remember, the first book in the series, was published last year by Thomas Nelson. The Homelanders: The Long Way Home was released in February and a third book is due in November.

The 2010 Pulitzer Prize book winners:

Fiction: Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press), "a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality."

Drama: Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt (Theatre Communications Group), "a powerful rock musical that grapples with mental illness in a suburban family and expands the scope of subject matter for musicals."

History: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed (Penguin Press), "a compelling account of how four powerful bankers played crucial roles in triggering the Great Depression and ultimately transforming the United States into the world's financial leader."

Biography or Autobiography: The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles (Knopf), "a penetrating portrait of a complex, self-made titan who revolutionized transportation, amassed vast wealth and shaped the economic world in ways still felt today."

Poetry: Versed by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press), "a penetrating portrait of a complex, self-made titan who revolutionized transportation, amassed vast wealth and shaped the economic world in ways still felt today."

General Nonfiction: The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman (Doubleday), "a well documented narrative that examines the terrifying doomsday competition between two superpowers and how weapons of mass destruction still imperil humankind."

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Notes on winners: 

A special congratulations to Bellevue Literary Press, which published Paul Harding's Tinkers and began as a magazine in 2000 with offices on the sixth floor of Bellevue Hospital in New York City. In 2005, the press expanded into books, specializing in "literary and authoritative fiction and nonfiction at the nexus of the arts and the sciences, with a special focus on medicine."

Tinkers is the first winner of a Pulitzer fiction prize published by a small house since Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (Louisiana University Press) won in 1981, USA Today noted. Editorial director Erika Goldman told the paper that the novel has sold 15,000 copies since publication in January 2009 and a reprint is in the works.

Bellevue Literary Press is affiliated with New York University's School of Medicine and distributed by Consortium.

Paul Harding, winner of the fiction prize (and a favorite of many booksellers), has a two-book contract with Random House. The first title will be Enon, which will be set in the same fictional town in which Tinkers takes place.

In addition, the winner of the international reporting award is Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post for his reporting from Iraq. Shadid's In the Region of Ghosts: A Reporter's Journey Home will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in fall 2011. In the book, Shadid uses the story of rebuilding his grandmother's house in the Lebanese town that is his family's ancestral home to describe the cultural and social changes that define the Middle East today.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, April 20:

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman (Harper, $25.99, 9780061856433/0061856436) is the comedian's memoir.

A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond by Craig Robinson (Gotham, $26, 9781592405480/1592405487) is the memoir of Michelle Obama's brother.

The Light by D.J. MacHale (Aladdin, $17.99, 9781416965169/1416965165) is the book in the Morpheus Road trilogy.

The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $24.95, 9780375424502/0375424504) is the latest No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novel.

Lucid Intervals by Stuart Woods (Putnam, $25.95, 9780399156441/0399156445) is the 18th novel with attorney Stone Barrington.

Deliver Us from Evil by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $27.99, 9780446564083/0446564087) follows two characters hunting for a human trafficker.

Boys and Girls Like You and Me by Aryn Kyle (Scribner, $24, 9781416594802/1416594809) is a collection of stories featuring young women making poor choices.

This Body of Death: An Inspector Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George (Harper, $28.99, 9780061160882/0061160881) is the 16th novel with D.I. Thomas Lynley.

Edge of Apocalypse by Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall (Zondervan, $24.99, 9780310326281/0310326281) is a fictional story laced with apocalyptic biblical ideas.

All That Follows: A Novel by Jim Crace (Nan A. Talese, $25.95, 9780385520768/038552076X) follows a middle-aged man who aspires to be a revolutionary but is too cowardly.

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (Norton, $26.95, 9780393062625/0393062627 May 3, 2010)

Opening lines of a book we want to read:

Family Home Evening

To put it as simply as possible: this is the story of a polygamist who has an affair. But there is much more to it than that, of course; the life of any polygamist, even when not complicated by lies and secrets and infidelity, is anything but simple. Take, for example, the Friday night in early spring when Golden Richards returned to Big House--one of three houses he called home--after a week away on the job. It should have been the sweetest, most wholesome of domestic scenes: a father arrives home to the loving attention of his wives and children. But what was about to happen inside that house, Golden realized as he pulled up into the long gravel drive, would not be wholesome or sweet, or anything close to it.--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

M.J. Rose's third Reincarnationist novel (after The Reincarnationist and The Memorist) is a thrilling tale of past lives, art and international intrigue. It begins 20 years ago, when Lucian Glass was a young art student, in love with Solange Jacobs, and late for a date with her. Arriving at her father's framing studio, he found her dying from knife wounds and was himself almost killed, having interrupted the heist of a famed Matisse that Andre Jacobs was working on. Now Glass is a special agent with the FBI's Art Crime Team and is called to the Metropolitan Museum after the same Matisse is delivered to them. It's been slashed to pieces and is accompanied by a note that says four more stolen paintings will be destroyed unless the museum turns over a sculpture of the Greek god Hypnos. The Met wants to keep the statue and is also embroiled in legal wranglings with Iran and Greece, both of which claim Hypnos as a national treasure. And that's not all.

Malachi Samuels, back from the The Memoirist, is lurking about. He's director of the Phoenix Foundation, an institute specializing in past-life memories in children. Driven to prove what he suspects about his own past life, he is searching for a memory tool to help him access his memories, since he has never been able to enter a past life himself. Iran knows that Hypnos could be a map of some sort that holds the secret of accessing man's inner realms and higher consciousness. Does Samuels know this too?

A few weeks earlier, Glass was about to receive a list of memory tools from Dr. Alderman at the Memorist Society in Vienna as part of an ongoing investigation when he was attacked and Dr. Alderman was killed. He's now somewhat recovered but bothered by recurrent headaches and an impulse to sketch certain women's faces over and over. At the same time, he needs to infiltrate the Phoenix Foundation, so he poses as a patient, thinking that he can not only fake being hypnotized, but get help with the headaches and the compulsive sketching. Of course, he is hypnotized, and he regresses. That his past lives are connected to the current case is no surprise, but that does not lessen the drama.
 
Add to the plot a famous film director of horror movies; ancient treasures with mystical properties; the new Met director, Tyler Weil, who has a cultural disaster to begin his tenure; and Ali Samimi, who works for the Iran UN mission and whose long-term goal is to live permanently in America. Throw in the attractive Emeline, Andre Jacob's niece and adopted daughter, whose manner and phrasing seem to mimic Solange's, and some Iranian terrorists (or are they?), and you have one combustive mixture.
 
Rose paints familiar pictures and uses them to great advantage, telling a story that is exciting and gripping while the reader settles in to be entertained. All the offices have heavy curtains, Persian rugs, book-lined walls and Tiffany lamps. We know exactly where we are. "Before he left for his morning run, Vartan Reza stopped in his daughter's room and kissed his still-sleeping six-year-old on the forehead." We know he's doomed, but we still get that satisfying frisson of danger. And the elegant Met is an unfailing backdrop for mayhem. "The museum remained a calm shelter in the storm of one of the most frenetic cities in the world." Not for long.--Marilyn Dahl

Shelf Talker: Reincarnation, archeology and the art world are served up in an enjoyable and exciting infusion of danger and romance.