"Publishing exists in a continual state of forecasting its own demise; at one major house, there is a running joke that the second book published on the Gutenberg press was about the death of the publishing business."--Ken Auletta, in his recent New Yorker article "Publish or Perish: Can the iPad topple the Kindle, and save the book business?" 

 

Rebecca Fitting, co-owner of Greenlight Bookstore, which opened last October in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, N.Y., is leaving her job as a sales rep at Random House to devote herself full time to the store. The move comes as store sales have been "significantly higher" than she and Jessica Stockton Bagnulo had projected and the job has proven "increasingly challenging."

Fitting said, "While I am sad to leave Random House, and sad to no longer be a sales rep, I am happier to be coming fulltime to Greenlight Bookstore, the store that Jessica and I dreamed up together, and which wouldn't have ever been born without the neighborhood's unprecedented assistance. I am looking forward to putting my years of industry experience to good use, and I am looking forward to helping Greenlight's roots, which have just started to sprout, grow deeper and take hold. I think of my path as 'reverting to type,' because I started in bookstores, then went to work for a publisher for 10 years, and now am coming back to bookselling, which has always felt like my true calling."

The owners of Greenlight aim, they said, "to take the bookstore to its next level," which includes "a summer street fair, increased collaboration with area schools and community groups, book clubs, branded merchandise, and an e-commerce website."

---

Noting that small community libraries are an endangered species nationwide, the St. Paul Pioneer Press is examining the issue locally in a series of articles and reported that "funding is evaporating, hours are being slashed, staffs are shrinking and a noose is tightening around many libraries" just as public demand for services increases.

"This is a seismic change," said Patricia Conley, Washington County library director. "All over the country, we have been doing more with less for years. Now we are doing less with less."

Supporters of the Rosalie E. Wahl library in Lake Elmo are considering "mutiny," according to the Pioneer Press, which noted that if the library continues to be downsized, the city might withdraw from the system and start its own city-run library.
 
"The situation is that (officials) have a budget problem and want to solve it by closing small libraries," said Mayor Dean Johnston. "They think the cities will cave in. Well, Lake Elmo does not cave in."

---

Bookstore cafes in Manhattan have "the ideal atmosphere for students seeking to escape the Columbia bubble," the Daily Spectator reported, noting the city "offers plenty of unique bookstore alternatives with some solid eats to top it off." The bookstores showcased were Hue-Man Bookstore & Café, Housing Works Bookstore Café and Bluestockings Bookstore, Fair Trade Café, Activist Center.

---

In a profile of the Book Shop, Hayward, Calif.--which celebrated its 50th anniversary last weekend--the Oakland Tribune wrote that the shop has "good customers--ones who appreciate having an independent bookstore around. [Co-owner Carl] Baker-Madsen said they come in for the personal service that is hard to find at the big retailers, and nonexistent online."

"This is a salon," said bookseller Renee Rettig. "It's a meeting place. Where else can people from all walks of life come and be equal? It's a little bit of Berkeley without the trip. People push other things on other corners of the block. We push books, and that's not illegal."

---

"I thought my book shop would complement the other shops and fit in well in the antique district," Boe Rushing, owner of Back in the Day Books, Tarpon Springs, Fla., told the Suncoast News. "You have to love books to be a collector. I just love being around books."

---

Who says bookselling isn't an exciting profession? The Montreal Gazette reported that James J. "Whitey" Bulger, the gangster who was purportedly the inspiration for Jack Nicholson's character in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, "could be lurking in Victoria's bookstores."

Bulger "isn't a figment of some crime writer's imagination--he's a career criminal who's been on the run for 15 years. He also loves history books," the Gazette added. "Victoria's two major bookstores were visited last week by police on behalf of the FBI to warn staff to keep an eye out for Bulger, an avid reader."

---

George Washington has been racking up considerable late fees at New York Society Library during the past two centuries. The Daily News reported that a pair of books borrowed by the father of our country had been due November 2, 1789, but were never returned. Head librarian Mark Bartlett said they are not pursuing the $300,000 fine.

---

Book trailer of the day: Emails from an A**hole: Real People Being Stupid by John Lindsay (Sterling Publishing).

---

Amazon.com has given a $25,000 grant to the Lambda Literary Foundation to support the Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, an annual event that will be held this year August 8–15 at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.

The Foundation called the grant "one of the most significant gifts to LLF in recent years and signals a new era of recognition for the mission and programs of Lambda Literary Foundation. The grant will permit LLF to expand its outreach and enable more talented emerging writers to participate through scholarship funds.

---

Dennis Hayes has joined National Book Network as director of sales for gourmet, gift and specialty market accounts and will be based in Syracuse, N.Y.

He has been special markets director, trade show director and acquired restaurant-based cookbooks at Ten Speed Press and earlier was director of sales and marketing at the Crossing Press.

NBN president Rich Freese said, "We see the specialty and gift channel as a significant growth area for NBN, and Dennis is the 'rainmaker' we wanted to find to lead the effort."

Hayes may be reached at dhayes@nbnbooks.com.

 

Consortium Book Sales & Distribution has added the following publishers, effective with the fall 2010 season:

 

Mark Suchomel, president of IPG, reports on the first day of the London Book Fair:

All day it seemed like the last few hours of a three-day show, minus the sound of tape. As expected, foot traffic was light. Some people were actually reading the books on their stand. We were lucky in that most of our appointments made it in, but others weren't so lucky. One publisher I spoke with had most of his meetings canceled for Tuesday and Wednesday and thought he would use the time back in the office to catch up on some work. Another expected to see 30% of the people on his schedule. A U.K. distributor described her schedule as "a bit like a dog's dinner."

At 9 a.m., the rights area was fairly empty. Fair staff monitored the traffic to keep out those without appointments even though most people were not talking to anybody.

On the upside, besides no lines for anything, I expect that with a chance to walk around, a few publishers will find opportunities that they wouldn't have otherwise found. Or at the least some will have a few unexpected hours at the office.   

---

Effective May 10, Joel Becker is the new CEO of the Australian Booksellers Association, Bookseller and Publisher Online reported. He has been director of the Victorian Writers' Centre and worked as a bookseller--owner of Becker's Books in Cairns--freelance consultant, author event organizer, editor and writer.

ABA president Fiona Stager said that Becker "has the skills to take our organisation forward and ensure excellent representation for our interests."

Becker replaces Malcolm Neil, who is leaving the association to work with REDGroup Retail, owners of Angus & Robertson, Whitcoulls and Borders in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

---

An agreement has been reached "in principle" for Nielsen to sell the Bookseller to managing director Nigel Roby, with editorial, sales and marketing and events teams remaining in place.

"It will be an enormous privilege to take over the Bookseller and become a part of its 152-year history. Roby said. The U.K. publishing industry is a world-beater and it is incredibly important that the Bookseller is a vibrant part of it. At a time of great change for the book industry, all of us here are looking forward to continuing the development of the magazine and its Internet and event offerings."

The magazine was founded by Joseph Whitaker and became the cornerstone of J. Whitaker & Sons, which was sold in 1999 to Nielsen.

Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Jim Lehrer, author of Super (Random House, $25, 9781400067633/1400067634).

---

Tomorrow morning on the Early Show: Daisy Martinez, author of Daisy: Morning, Noon and Night: Bringing Your Family Together with Everyday Latin Dishes (Atria, $30, 9781439157534/1439157537).

---

Tomorrow on NPR's All Things Considered: Kai Bird, author of Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978 (Scribner, $30, 9781416544401/1416544402).

---

Tomorrow on NPR's Talk of the Nation: Christopher Rice, author of The Moonlit Earth (Scribner, $25, 9780743294072/0743294076).

---

Tomorrow on Tavis Smiley: Donald Miller, author of Father Fiction: Chapters for a Fatherless Generation (Howard Books, $19.99, 9781439169162/1439169160).

---

Tomorrow night on Jimmy Kimmel Live: Paula Deen and Brandon Branch, authors of Paula Deen's Savannah Style (Simon & Schuster, $29.99, 9781416552246/1416552243).

---

Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Craig Robinson, author of A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond (Gotham, $26, 9781592405480/1592405487).

 

Summit Entertainment has acquired film and TV rights to John Gray's bestselling Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus franchise. Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun will produce a film, but they "weren't ready to tip their hand about what direction the film might take, saying it was still in early development, but the moniker suggests the possibility of a high-concept ensemble comedy along the lines of the hit 2009 release He's Just Not That into You," the Hollywood Reporter wrote.

 

The shortlist for the 2010 Orange Prize for fiction written by women features two debut novelists as well as "the seemingly unstoppable might of Hilary Mantel and Wolf Hall," the Guardian reported. The winner will be honored June 9 in London. Finalists are:

---

This year's shortlist for the £10,000 (US$15,283) Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, which is divided equally between author and translator:

The winner will be named May 13.

 

Selected new titles appearing next week:

Winston's War: Churchill, 1940-1945 by Max Hastings (Knopf, $35, 9780307268396/030726839X) chronicles the years of Churchill's leadership during World War II.

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell (Balzer + Bray, $18.99, 9780061728914/0061728918) follows a character from Sex and the City during her senior year of high school.

The 9th Judgment by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown, $27.99, 9780316036276/0316036277) is the latest Women's Murder Club novel.

Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides (Doubleday, $28.95, 9780385523929/0385523920) recalls the hunt for King's killer.

Return to Sender by Fern Michaels (Kensington, $24, 9780758212733/0758212739) is about a teenage mother who vows revenge on the father many years later.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok (Riverhead, $25.95, 9781594487569/1594487561) follows a young Chinese girl who moves to Brooklyn with her mother.

Hannah's List by Debbie Macomber (Mira, $24.95, 9780778327806/0778327809) takes place in Seattle, where a recent widower considers remarriage.

The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King (Bantam, $25, 9780553805543/0553805541) features a fresh take on the character of Sherlock Holmes.

 

Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell (Sourcebooks Landmark, $14 trade paper, 9781402237508/1402237502, May 2010)

Tilly Cole's boyfriend has just moved out of their London flat, and while she's relieved to see him go (he was kind of boring and had failed to mention his bell-ringing club), she doesn't know how she'll pay the rent by herself. Visiting her best friend in the country, she sees an ad in the local paper for a girl Friday and impulsively applies for the job. Of course, she gets it, and moves into a swell house owned by a gay interior designer and his 13-year-old daughter. Of course, the designer has a best friend, Jack, who is not only darkly gorgeous, but has a tragic past and a Lothariol presence. Of course, Tilly is warned to stay away from the irresistible Jack. Rumor Has It is filled with the charms of small-town Roxborough, where the worst things to happen involve cows getting stuck in gratings and the dangers of overhanging tree branches, and with delightful characters: the soon-to-be ex-wife, Stella (" 'Thirty-seven. I know I don't look it, but I am.' Stella was alarmingly modest too."); the best friend, Erin, who has a secret; Stella's estranged husband, Fergus, who is the secret; Max the interior decorator and his daughter, Lou; and Tilly and Jack, fighting their mutual attraction. We know where this will end up, but the journey to the happy ending is well worth taking.

---

Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: Family, Friendships, and Faith in Small-Town Alaska by Heather Lende (Algonquin Books, $22.95, 9781565125681/1565125681, May 18, 2010)

Heather Lende's new memoir is a book that fills you with gladness. Lende, who lives in remote Haines, Alaska, writes a column for the Anchorage Daily News and obituaries for the Chilkat Daily News. She has learned a few things in writing about life and death and faith, from her neighbors in Haines and the Tlingit village of Klukwan, and from her own near-miss with death a few years ago when she was about to start touring for her first book, If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name. She tells a good story and finds meaning in places most of us overlook. She recounts canning salmon from the milky green Chilkat River; making jam with her daughter, resulting in the deep red miracle of tasting "sunshine on a snowy day"; and a young man's funeral, with ancient Tlingit crying songs that release grief so it can't steal the breath of the mourners. She writes with faith, wisdom and sweet humor, and cites Psalm 90, where Moses sings, "So teach us to number our days." And, Heather Lende would say, count them as joy. --Marilyn Dahl