"Over the years, Changing Hands, a community center and gathering place, has been the site of some hard conversations--a place where ideas are exchanged, heated topics debated, petitions signed, controversy encouraged and differences of opinion tolerated. I hope this is always the case. If we lock ourselves into an idea without discussing it or learning more about it, we are succumbing to our own inner biases, or perhaps prejudices formed by being battered by media."

Here's an unusual new bookstore story: on July 1, three well-known book world people--Jack McKeown, industry consultant and former co-founder and CEO of Perseus Books Group; Denise Berthiaume, president of Verso Advertising; and Mitchell Kaplan, owner of five Books & Books stores in southern Florida and the Cayman Islands--are opening Books & Books Westhampton Beach, in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., which will be owned by McKeown and Berthiaume (above) and be an affiliate of Books & Books.

Kaplan (left) will serve as a consultant, and his company will provide a range of support and will consult on marketing, author events, website development, e-mail newsletters and inventory management, giving the store access to what McKeown described as "a database of sales history going back 25 years." The owners will also use the resources of the Verso Digital online network to reach consumers directly. Staff members will go on "exchanges" between New York and Florida.

The principals expressed great enthusiasm about the new store and their cooperation.

"The idea is to leverage all our strengths," said Kaplan. "I am learning from them, and they are learning from me. This is exciting and proactive."

"Denise and I would not be doing this if we did not have this association with Mitchell," McKeown said. "We're pooling our knowledge." The arrangement "means we can jump-start the store and gives us an even greater likelihood of success. It's an enormous advantage for a startup."

"We're all in an era where we have to look for new business models and new ways of operating," Kaplan continued. The arrangement is similar to the one under which Books & Books operates in the Cayman Islands. Kaplan said he could implement the model with local people in other areas "that aren't my markets."

Eventually Kaplan may help Books & Books Westhampton Beach in other ways, such as using his experience as a founder and head of the Miami Book Fair International to help establish a book fair. Kaplan stressed that the Hamptons and southern Florida share many demographic characteristics and help make the new affiliation a good fit.

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The new store has 2,000 square feet of space and is in the center of Westhampton Beach, in the Hamptons at the eastern end of Long Island. McKeown and Berthiaume have been working on the project for two years and "waited until the exact right storefront opened," McKeown said. Part of the delay resulted from needing two adjacent storefronts.

Books & Books Westhampton Beach will look "very sleek and modern," combining elements of several Books & Books stores, such as "the room-within-a-room effect" of the Miami Beach store and the moveable gondolas of the Bal Harbour store, McKeown said. Just as the Books & Books stores each have their "own distinct layout and design, while managing to convey a similar sensibility and character," Kaplan said, the new store will adapt well to its community. McKeown and Berthiaume are long-time residents of the area.

The store will stock some 10,000 titles. About 2,000 will be of local or regional interest, and the rest will overlap with stock at other Books & Books stores.

McKeown is working full-time at the store, and Berthiaume will continue to head Verso but hopes to scale back her time there so she can spend "as much time as possible" at the store. For now, the store is hiring an assistant manager and two full-time junior people, as well as some part-timers at the height of the season, July through September.

Several key staff members from Books & Books will come to Westhampton Beach to work in the store this summer. As Kaplan noted, summer is not the height of the season for his stores, making it easier to send people north. The addition of these staffers will contribute "enormous stress reduction," McKeown commented. The trio is also working on a regular "exchange program" to allow Books & Books employees in Florida to work at the Westhampton Beach store in future summers and have Westhampton Beach staffers work in Florida stores in off-peak times.

Besides their home in nearby Remsenburg, McKeown and Berthiaume have what McKeown called "a small beach cottage" that is about five minutes from the store. They usually rent it out during the summer but will use it this year for Books & Books staff who are working in the store, making it a kind of B&B B&B. "We can put up three or four people there," McKeown said. Eventually the house may be used as subsidized housing for a full-time manager.

Books & Books Westhampton Beach will have a strong author event schedule that will rely in part on Books & Books's established event program. McKeown noted that the store is 70 miles from New York City, so "we can have an event at 6 or 7 in the evening, and authors can still get back to the city that evening." The store will have space in-store for events with up to 50 people. Other venues in town can provide space for up to 300.

McKeown and Berthiaume have spent much time at the Books & Books stores, and McKeown worked for a week last November at the Lincoln Road store in Miami--an experience he called "Bookselling 101."

In addition to the Verso Digital online network, the vertical ad network and online marketing platform for book publishing that McKeown called "a great way to target readers interested in particular authors and promotions and more," Verso's 2009 Survey of Book-Buying Behavior provides data that have helped McKeown and Berthiaume in planning the store. (In a highlight of the Winter Institute earlier this year, McKeown presented survey findings that were encouraging about the role of bookstores and traditional books; Shelf Awareness, February 4, 2010.) "Our research has indicated that the market for consumer books will be a hybrid of physical books and e-books for decades to come," McKeown said. "Older Americans, especially the retiring baby boomers, are disproportionately avid book buyers; more and more they want the intimate browsing experience that neighborhood bookstores afford. Younger readers as well express a preference for independent bookstores. We think this association with Books & Books can help us tap into these trends in a big way."

Books & Books Westhampton Beach is located at 130 Main St., Westhampton Beach, N.Y. 11978.--John Mutter

Aladdin's Lamp Children's Books and Other Treasures, Arlington, Va., is closing at the end of June, according to an e-mail from the store (via Comics DC). The store was founded 20 years ago.

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Obituary note: Nina King, who was editor of the Washington Post's Book World section from 1988 to 1999, died last Thursday of complications from Parkinson's disease, the Post reported. She was one day shy of her 69th birthday.

King introduced a variety of features to Book World, broadened its coverages and called her position there "one of the best jobs in the world."

In 1998, she wrote, "I hope the reader will intuit that I indeed do have a life--one in which Parkinson's is allowed only a secondary role. I politely request that I not be defined by my disease--except in the metaphorical sense of the poet Alexander Pope when he wrote of 'this long disease my life.' "

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Obituary note: Australian children's author Patricia Wrightson has died. She was 88. In its obituary, the Guardian wrote that her works "were among the first Australian books for children to draw on Aboriginal legends. As fashions changed, she later received criticism for doing so."

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"The best children's books ever" may seem like a bold claim, but the Guardian's Lucy Mangan makes it anyway, noting that "perhaps after the revelation that the average adult in the U.K. watches nearly four-and-a-half hours' TV a day, it is time to remind ourselves of some of the best books out there for our young people. The following--a combination of personal recommendations, enduring classics and currently popular borrowings from school and public libraries--are suggestions and starting points only, of course (and the age ranges attached even more so), but hopefully there will be something, somewhere for everyone."

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Liz Johnson has joined Thomas Nelson as marketing specialist for the Max Lucado Branding Team. She has worked in publicity at WaterBrook Multnomah for four years.

Besides having been a Lucado fan since age 15, Johnson is a published author. Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense published her first novel, The Kidnapping of Kenzi Thorn, last year and will publish Vanishing Act in August. Read more about her at lizjohnsonbooks.com.

Besides the digital book program that will be held on Tuesday, May 25, which we highlighted here yesterday, there are a range of panels and seminars devoted to digital publishing and e-books at this year's BookExpo America.

Tuesday, May 25

9-10 a.m. New Digital Technologies in Spain and Europe, features Jesús Badenes, Planeta; Larry Bennett, Baker & Taylor; and Patricia Arancibia, BarnesandNoble.com. (Room 1E17.)

12:30-1:30 p.m. "I'll Never Pay Over $9.99 For E-Books!" and Similar Lies. Michael Norris of Simba Information presents data from Simba's latest report, Trade E-Book Publishing 2010. (Room 1E02.)

1:30-2:30 p.m. Mobile Apps: A Publisher Roadmap for Creation and Use. Josh Koppel, co-founder of ScrollMotion, Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks, and Bob Nelson, executive v-p of global business development at Baker & Taylor, will talk about how publishers are using apps to promote and distribute content. (Room 1E13.)

Wednesday, May 26

9:30-10:30 a.m. Designing and Executing an e-Strategy for Authors: A Publisher and Agency Perspective. Moderator is Charlotte Abbott, publishing journalist and digital content strategist. Panelists are: Kathleen Schmidt, director of publicity and digital media, Shreve Williams Public Relations, and Ron Hogan, director of e-strategy at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (Room 1E14.)

9:30-10:30 How the Digital Book Cloud Works for Publishers and Users is sponsored by Google and will be repeated at the same time on Thursday. (Room 1E04.)

10-11 a.m. A Conversation about the Agency Model focuses on the agency model for the sale of e-books, which five of the major houses have adopted in their dealings with Apple and which has caused great tension with Amazon.com. The moderator is Scott Lubeck, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group. Panelists are Michael Cader of Publishers Lunch, Bob Kohn of Royaltyshare and Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks. (Room 1E15.)

11 a.m.-Noon. Rights, Royalties & Retailers: What Works? examines how e-books are changing the book world's traditional business model. Moderator is Laura Dawson, CEO of LNJDawson. Panelists are David Marlin, president of MetaComet Systems; Richard Nash, founder of Cursor; Andrew Weinstein, v-p and general manager of retail solutions, Ingram Digital; and Scott Waxman of the Waxman Literary Agency. (Room 1E03.)

2-3 p.m. Who's Reading E-Books? New Results from BISG's Survey of Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading. Angela Bole, deputy executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, and Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publisher services at R.R. Bowker, present findings from the most recent part of the survey, which has been conducted three times over nine months. (Room 1E16.)

2:30-3:30 p.m. Are e-Books Good for Authors? Publishers and agents discuss the fairness of current contractual terms. Sponsored by the AAR. Moderator: Simon Lipskar, literary agent at Writers House. Panelists: Brian Murray, CEO of HarperCollins, Madeline McIntosh, president of sales, operations and digital, Random House, Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks, and Brian Defiore, president of DeFiore & Co., Literary Agents.

3:30-4:30 p.m. Books Plus: The Creative and Business Questions Surrounding Enhanced e-Books. Sponsored by the AAR. Moderator: Jeff Kleinman, literary agent at Folio Literary Management. Panelists: Ana Maria Allessi, v-p and publisher at HarperMedia, Michael Artin, director of content, Barnes & Noble, Bradley Inman, founder and CEO, Vook, Eric S. Brown, Franklin, Weinrib, Rudell & Vassallo.  (Room 1E14.)

Thursday, May 27

11 a.m.-Noon. Maximize Your Sales Potential: Amazon for Small and Mid-Size Publishers. Jon P. Fine, director of author and publisher relations at Amazon.com discusses POD, publishing on the Kindle, Search Inside the Book, Author Pages & Author Central, and more. (Room 1E03.)

Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Jonathan Alter, author of The Promise: President Obama, Year One (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781439101193/1439101191).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim, authors of Feed Your Pet Right: The Authoritative Guide to Feeding Your Dog and Cat (Free Press, $16.99, 9781439166420/1439166420).

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Tomorrow on Talk of the Nation: Randy Frost, co-author of Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things ($27, 9780151014231/015101423X).

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Tomorrow on Tavis Smiley: Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown, $26, 9781400052172/1400052173).

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Tomorrow night on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher: S.E. Cupp, author of Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity (Threshold Editions, $24, 9781439173169/1439173168).

Oprah's Harpo Films and Alan Ball will produce an HBO film based on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Variety reported. Harpo Films's Kate Forte said, "It's an incredibly visually exciting story. The science of it all is told in an amazing way."

Oprah reportedly read the book in one sitting.

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Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, Robin Hood opens tomorrow. Robin Hood: A Novelization by David B. Coe (Tor, $7.99, 9780765366276/0765366274) is based on the screenplay by Brian Helgeland.

Coe is the author of several fantasy series: the LonTobyn Chronicle, Winds of the Forelands and Blood of the Southlands.

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this week from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, May 15

10 a.m. John Lukacs, author of The Legacy of the Second World War (Yale University Press, $26, 9780300114393/0300114397), addresses questions that remain for him 65 years after the end of the war. (Re-airs Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.)

1:30 p.m. Edward Steers talks about his book The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia (Harper Perennial, $19.99, 9780061787751/0061787752). (Re-airs Saturday at 11 p.m.)

7 p.m. Craig Robinson, First Lady Michelle Obama's brother and author of A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond (Gotham, $26, 9781592405480/1592405487), chronicles his rise from Chicago's Southside to basketball coach at Oregon State University. (Re-airs Sunday at 4 p.m. and Monday at 1 a.m.)

9 p.m. Book TV takes a look behind the scenes at Busboys and Poets, Washington, D.C., with owner Andy Shallal during a book reception for Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health--and a Vision for Change (Free Press, $26, 9781439125663/143912566X). (Re-airs Sunday at 5 p.m.)

10 p.m. After Words. Former CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz interviews former CIA officer John Kiriakou about his book The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror (Bantam, $26, 9780553807370/0553807374). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)

Sunday, May 16

2 p.m. CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, anchor of CNBC's Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo and host and managing editor of the nationally syndicated Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo, talks about her book The 10 Laws of Enduring Success (Crown Business, $26, 9780307452528/0307452522). (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

3 p.m. R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., author of After the Hangover: The Conservatives' Road to Recovery (Thomas Nelson, $24.99, 9781595552723/1595552723), offers an agenda for the future of the conservative movement. (Re-airs Sunday at 11 p.m. and Monday 7 a.m.)

7:30 p.m. From the PEN World Voices Festival, Christopher Hitchens delivers the fifth annual Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, followed by a conversation between Hitchens and author Salman Rushdie.

Quill & Quire reported that the winners of the 2010 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards are:

Fiction: The Winterhouse by Robin McGrath
History: Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba by Allan Levine
Holocaust Literature: Some Measure of Justice: The Holocaust Era Restitution Campaign of the 1990s by Michael R. Marrus
Youth Literature: Puppet by Eva Wiseman
Biography and Memoir: Save the Deli by David Sax
Jewish Thought and Culture: What the Furies Bring by Kenneth Sherman
Scholarship on a Jewish Subject: Jewish Public Culture in the Late Russian Empire by Jeffrey Veidlinger
Yiddish: Stingy Buzi and King Solomon by Goldie Sigal
Special Achievement Award: Howard Engel

Al Roker's latest pick for the Today Show Book Club for Kids is Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller (Bloomsbury, $7.95 paper, 9781599900926/1599900920; $16.95 hardcover, 9781582349602/1582349606). This first title in Miller's Kiki Strike series introduces Ananka Fishbein, a New York City middle-schooler who discovers that the park across the street from her house has become a sinkhole. Once she enters it, her life turns upside down. For an excerpt of the story, check out the Today Show website. Miller will appear on the program next Thursday, May 20, during the 9 a.m. hour.

The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs: Revisiting the Northwest Towns of Richard Hugo by Frances McCue with photographs by Mary Randlett (University of Washington Press, $27.95, 9780295989648/ 0295989645, March 15, 2010)

Opening lines of a book we want to read:

Richard Hugo visited places and wrote about them. He wrote about towns in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, and villages in Italy and Scotland. Often, his visits lasted little more than an afternoon, and his knowledge of the towns was confined to what he heard in bars and diners. From these snippets, he crafted poems. His attention to the actual places could be scant, but Hugo's poems resonate more deeply than travelogues or feature stories; they capture the torque between temperament and terrain that is so vital in any consideration of place. The poems bring alive some hidden aspect of each town and frequently play off of the traditional myths that an easterner might have of the West: that it is a place of restoration and healing, a spa where people from the East come to recover from ailments, that it is a place to reinvent oneself, a region of wide-open, unpolluted country still to settle. Hugo steers us, as readers, to eye level. How we settle into and take on qualities of the tracts of earth that we occupy--this is Hugo's inquiry. From this vantage, we'll see how much more complicated, and how much more impoverished, the actual places are. Before his death in 1982, in a writing career that spanned little more than twenty years, Hugo published a book of essays, a mystery novel, and nine books of poetry, and all of them immerse personas into particular, named places--most often towns. --selected by Marilyn Dahl

The following were the bestselling books at independent bookstores in and around Chicago during the week ended Sunday, May 9:

Hardcover Fiction

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2. Innocent by Scott Turow
3. Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott
4. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
5. Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. Get Capone by Jonathan Eig
2. Mom by Dave Isay
3. Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush
4. Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern
5. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Paperback Fiction

1. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
2. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
5. Tinkers by Paul Harding

Paperback Nonfiction

1. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
2. The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst
3. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murukami
4. Food Rules by Michael Pollan
5. Eye of My Heart: 27 Writers Reveal the Hidden Pleasures and Perils of Being a Grandmother by Barbara Graham

Children's

1. The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
2. The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
5. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Reporting bookstores: Anderson's, Naperville and Downers Grove; Read Between the Lynes, Woodstock; the Book Table, Oak Park; the Book Cellar, Lincoln Square; Lake Forest Books, Lake Forest; the Bookstall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka; and 57th St. Books; Seminary Co-op; Women and Children First, Chicago.

[Many thanks to the booksellers and Carl Lennertz!]