Shelf Awareness for Friday, March 24, 2006


Dey Steet: Celebrating 10 years of Dey St., the industry leader in culture-defining nonfiction.

Henry Holt & Company: The Beasts We Bury by DL Taylor

Peachtree Teen: Among Serpents (Above the Black) by Marc J Gregson

Berkley Books: These new Berkley romances leave quite an impression. Enter the giveaway!

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: How Sweet the Sound by Kwame Alexander and Charly Palmer

Palgrave Macmillan:  Scotus 2023: Major Decisions and Developments of the Us Supreme Court (2024) (1ST ed.) edited by Morgan Marietta and Howard Schweber

News

Notes: Coonerty Passes the Reins; Buy-Out Company Views

Neal Coonerty, owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif., a former city councilman, former mayor and former president of the ABA, is running for a seat on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, Bookselling This Week reported. Because the job is full-time, he is handing over the reins of the store to his daughter, Casey Coonerty Protti, who will assume day-to-day management of Bookshop Santa Cruz in mid-April.

Coonerty told BTW that his daughter grew up with Bookshop Santa Cruz and educated herself intending to carry on the family business. She has an impressive resume--for any profession. Protti is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and has a Master's in Public Administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard University. She is currently working as a consultant to the ABA.

Coonerty called bookselling "a very challenging business to be in at this point. I've been doing it for 33 years, and I think it will be good to have fresh eyes and a new look."

Congratulations, Neal. And remember to vote early and vote often.

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In an article about private equity firms scouting for retailers to buy, CNNMoney.com talked at length with Fred Crawford, "a veteran retail consultant who recently helped Toys R Us restructure its operations after a private equity buyout."

Without mentioning the rumored interest early this year of several firms in Borders, Crawford called the company a possible target and described it as "a library with a café"--from his point of view, not a good thing. A buyout firm could make Borders more current and competitive, he said.

On the other hand, Crawford praised Barnes & Noble. "It's a social space, it's a gift store that sells higher margin products and the merchandising overall is better, " he said. He added that because "the largest group of consumers on the Barnes & Noble Web site are young people . . . the retailer is hooking consumers early."

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The national crash-a-car-into-bookstores conspiracy struck again last night, when a driver lost control of her small car and hit the window of Follett's Village Bookstore, West Lafayette, Ind., the Exponent, the independent Purdue University student newspaper, reported. Other than minor injuries to the driver, luckily no one was hurt.

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Books may survive in some remaining Sam Goody locations after they are taken over by Trans World, the Book Standard reported. A bankruptcy court has allowed the sales of some stores owned by bankrupt Musicland to Trans World; others are being liquidated. Ingram had supplied books to about 80 rural Sam Goody stores but removed them earlier this year. The new owners are considering which of those stores should have books returned to them.

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Very large and very small libraries--those serving more than 500,000 or fewer than 25,000 people--had the biggest midyear funding cuts, according to a study issued by the American Library Association during the Public Library Association's national conference, currently being held in Boston, Mass. (See a report, below.) The study also found that libraries in the West and Midwest had larger cuts than libraries in the South and East.

Denise Davis, director of the ALA Office for Research and Statistics, noted that many of the libraries whose budgets had not been cut have budgets that haven't been increased even though utilities, labor and other expenses continue to rise.

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The Oxford Press profiles the Seven Sisters Bookstore & Serenity Center, which in January reopened in new space in Oxford, Ohio. (It also has a store in Hamilton, Ohio.) Specializing in New Age and metaphysical books and other products, Seven Sisters, which has the motto "the bookstore with attitude," is holding a grand opening and open house this Sunday and will offer tarot card readings, massages, door prizes and more. The Oxford store is located at 339 Foxfire Drive; 513-524-2665.

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The Marine Corps Association Bookstore opens on Parris Island, S.C., across from the Visitor Center March 31, with some spit and polish, speeches, prize drawings and giveaways, according to Marines.com. In addition, Medal of Honor recipient, retired Col. Wesley Fox, author of Marine Rifleman, and Jerry Cutter, co-author of I'm Staying with My Boys: The Historic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC, will sign copies of their books.

Manager Jennifer Bailey said that Beaufort Chamber of Commerce has been working with the store to get elected officials to visit beforehand and to help draw civilians.

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In conjunction with the Virginia Festival of the Book, which started on Wednesday, Reading Group Choices is sponsoring a reading group and book club panel today at 2 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble at Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville.

Panelists are: Masha Hamilton, author of The Distance Between Us; Sheila Curran, author of Diana Lively Is Falling Down; Matthew Sharpe, author of The Sleeping Father; and veteran bookseller Robert Segedy. Each author will read a passage from his or her book and talk about how it represents an integral them, subject or character that is important for reading group discussion. Segedy will talk about what makes for a discussable book. The moderator is Reading Group Choices publisher Barbara Drummond Mead.

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Harry N. Abrams has announced a series of promotions and appointments:

  • Eric Himmel, editor in chief of Abrams, is launching a new imprint next year and will expand the scope of Abrams Studio, which focuses on books for students in the studio or applied arts.
  • David Rosen, editorial director of Abrams, also becomes publisher of Abrams Image, the imprint featuring cutting edge design.
  • Deborah Anderson has been promoted to executive editor, Abrams.
  • Jay Henry is the new director of marketing, Abrams. He was formerly senior marketing manager at DK Publishing.
  • Lisa Sherman-Cohen has been named director of publicity for Abrams and Stewart, Tabori and Chang. She worked most recently at Buzztone, leading the company's buzz marketing campaigns, and earlier worked at Scholastic.
  • Kerry Liebling has been named trade marketing manager. She was formerly a client services manager at CDS/Perseus Book Group.


Highlights Press:  The Highlights Big Book of Activities for Little Kids: The Ultimate Book of Activities to Do with Kids


Report from PLA: Budgets and Pearls of Wisdom

Robin K. Blum writes:

Hello from Boston, where the 11th annual Public Library Association Conference (a biennial event) is being held at the John Hynes Convention Center in Back Bay. Public librarians from around the country are gathered to share their best ideas and find out what's new and exciting in the library world, and in particular how best to serve their communities in these days of the shrinking public dollar. Many publishing houses are represented of course, as well as distributors, subscription services and technology suppliers. Library equipment and service vendors are on hand, too, from a manufacturer of themed program activity kits for remembering (Bi-folkal Productions) to RFID bookdrop manufacturers (Birchard Company). I happen to be particularly familiar with these two vendors, as I am sandwiched between them in Exhibit Hall A, selling In My Book greeting card/bookmarks to library stores and friends groups.  

Outside the exhibit hall, the big excitement has been about book maven, reader's advisory goddess and author Nancy Pearl. She, of course, is the librarian with her own "shushing action figure" from Archie McPhee. Pearl presented the "Book Buzz" session to a crowd seated inside and outside the Constitution Ballroom in the Sheraton Hotel where audio was being broadcast into the lobby. Her presentation included a discussion with a panel of publishers, Nora Rawlinson of Time Warner, Marcia Purcell of Random House, Virginia Stanley of HarperCollins and Talia Ross of Hotzbrinck, all touting their forthcoming titles.

Journalist, producer and bestselling author Linda Ellerbee whose latest book is Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table (Putnam) kicked off the opening general session on Wednesday, also to an overflow crowd. She confessed that her recent birthday (age 60) has caused her to do a lot of soul searching and that surviving breast cancer, a divorce and other hardships has caused her to arrive at certain conclusions, including "face a problem with a solution" and "when all else fails--do it your way." Click here for a link to an NPR story on her new memoir/travel guide.

Other speakers have included the esteemed author Elie Wiesel and children's authors Jon Scieska, Ken Oppel and Terry Trueman. Norton Juster and Chris Raschka signed their 2006 Caldecott Medal Winner, The Hello Goodbye Window (Michael Di Capua/Hyperion Books for Children). The exhibits close today with a special dessert brunch for both attendees and exhibitors from 3 to 4 p.m.; the general sessions close on Saturday. Conferees will meet again in Minneapolis in March 2008 for the 12th annual PLA. For more information, visit PLA's Web site and blog.


New World Library: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Michael Schiavo Talks

This morning on Imus in the Morning: Paul Begala, author with James Carville of Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future (S&S, $24, 074327752X).

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Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show: Kevin Phillips, the former Republican strategist whose new book is American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century (Viking, $26.95, 067003486X)

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The Weekend Today Show dines with Jose Andres, author of Tapas: A Taste of Spain on America (Clarkson Potter, $35, 1400053595).

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Sunday on Dateline, Michael Schiavo talks about his late wife, Terri. Schiavo's book, Terri: The Truth, written with Michael Hirsh (Dutton, $24.95, 0525949461), appears on Monday.


GLOW: HarperOne: Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put by Annie B. Jones


Books & Authors

Risen and Lichtblau Win Goldsmith Prize

James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, reporters at the New York Times, have won the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for their coverage of the Bush Administration's warrantless domestic spying program late last year. The $25,000 prize is given by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Risen is the author of State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration (Free Press, $26, 0743270665), which was released in January. Lichtblau's Bush Justice will appear from Sourcebooks in September 2007.


Inner Traditions: Deck the Stacks with the Best Holiday & Gift Books for Self-Transformation! Claim your samples now!


Book Brahmins: George Carroll

George Carroll is the principal of Redsides Publishing Services in Seattle, Wash., providing sales representation to a select group of book publishers. He also teaches yoga. He publishes an infrequent e-mail newsletter; feel free to contact George to be put on his distribution list.

Carroll is the second person to respond to a series of queries we will occasionally ask people in the business. Herewith questions and his answers:


On nightstand now:

Blindness by Jose Saramago, The Last Nine Innings by Charles Euchner and the Oxford Book of American Poetry.
 
Favorite book when you were a child:

Those tiny Golden books that came in a box. The one I remember best had a duck smoking a cigar.
 
Top five authors:

William Shakespeare (no, really), Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Don DeLillo, John McPhee, Michael Connelly.
 
Book you've "faked" reading:

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter. It's easy to fake because I don't know anyone who actually read the whole thing.
 
Book you are an "evangelist" for:

Handling Sin by Michael Malone. I used to think that it was the funniest book that I had ever read. I re-read it a couple of years ago and it's that, and more.
 
Book you've bought for the cover:

It was a Mickey Spillane book. I think it might have been his wife on the cover.
 
Book that changed your life:

Face to Face with Your Draft Board by Allen Blackman, published by World Without War Council. It helped me with my conscientious objector deferment. Otherwise I might be answering these questions from Toronto.  
 
Favorite line from a book:

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."--One Hundred Years of Solitude
 
Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.


BINC: Your donation can help rebuild lives and businesses in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and beyond. Donate Today!



The Bestsellers

The Book Sense/MPBA List

The following are the bestselling titles at Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association member stores during the week ended Sunday, March 19, as reported to Book Sense:

Hardcover Fiction

1. In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant (Random House, $23.95, 1400063817)
2. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Doubleday, $24.95, 0385504209)
3. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (Putnam, $25.95, 0399153446)
4. Kill Me by Stephen White (Dutton, $25.95, 0525949305)
5. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult (Atria, $26, 0743496701)
6. The Rebels of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd (Doubleday, $28.95, 0385512899)
7. The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (Pantheon, $22.95, 0375423699)
8. The 5th Horseman by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown, $27.95, 0316159778)
9. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, $24.95, 0375406778)
10. The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry (Ballantine, $24.95, 0345476158)
11. The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (Dutton, $24.95, 0525949410)
12. The March by E.L. Doctorow (Random House, $25.95, 0375506713)
13. The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes (Viking, $25.95, 0670034797)
14. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (Knopf, $24.95, 030726310X)
15. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Knopf, $20, 140004460X)

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. Marley & Me by John Grogan (Morrow, $21.95, 0060817089)
2. The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman (FSG, $27.50, 0374292884)
3. Cobra II by Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor (Pantheon, $27.95, 0375422625)
4. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Morrow, $25.95, 006073132X)
5. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Knopf, $23.95, 140004314X)
6. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (S&S, $35, 0684824906)
7. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown, $25.95, 0316172324)
8. Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman (HarperSanFrancisco, $24.95, 0060738170)
9. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Viking, $25.95, 0670034827)
10. You're Wearing That? by Deborah Tannen (Random House, $24.95, 1400062586)
11. Manhunt by James L. Swanson (Morrow, $26.95, 0060518499)
12. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt (Scribner, $26, 0743243773)
13. The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery (Atlantic Monthly, $24, 0871139359)
14. Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter (S&S, $25, 0743284577)
15. Healthy Aging by Andrew Weil (Knopf, $27.95, 0375407553)

Trade Paperback Fiction

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead, $14, 1594480001)
2. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin, $14, 0143036696)
3. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Picador, $14, 031242440X)
4. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House, $13.95, 0812968069)
5. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin, $15, 0143034901)
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage, $12.95, 1400032717)
7. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square, $14, 0743454537)
8. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Vintage, $14, 1400078776)
9. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House, $13.95, 081297235X)
10. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin, $14, 0142001740)
11. Close Range by Annie Proulx (Scribner, $14, 0684852225)
12. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (Back Bay, $13.95, 0316010707)
13. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor, $12.95, 140007570X)
14. Wicked by Gregory Maguire (Regan Books, $15, 0060987103)
15. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, $14.95, 0375706860)

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

1. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Vintage, $14, 0679745580)
2. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins (Plume, $15, 0452287081)
3. *A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (Anchor, $14.95, 0307276902)
4. Collapse by Jared Diamond (Penguin, $17, 0143036556)
5. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage, $14.95, 0375725601)
6. Night by Elie Weisel (FSG, $9, 0374500010)
7. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay, $14.95, 0316346624)
8. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (Anchor, $14.95, 1400032806)
9. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen, $12.95, 1878424319)
10. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (Norton, $16.95, 0393317552)
11. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner, $14, 074324754X)
12. Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson (Harvest, $15, 0156031442)
13. The End of Faith by Sam Harris (Norton, $13.95, 0393327655)
14. Bad Cat by Jim Edgar (Workman, $9.95, 0761136193)
15. The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin (Harper Perennial, $13.95, 0060520760)

Mass Market

1. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket, $7.99, 0671027360)
2. Skeleton Man by Tony Hillerman (HarperTorch, $7.99, 006056346X)
3. With No One as Witness by Elizabeth A. George (HarperTorch, $7.99, 0060545615)
4. Hard Truth by Nevada Barr (Berkley, $7.99, 0425208419)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Warner, $6.99, 0446310786)
6. Missing Persons by Stephen White (Signet, $9.99, 0451215753)
7. Cold Service by Robert B. Parker (Berkley, $7.99, 0425204286)
8. The Third Secret by Steve Berry (Ballantine, $7.99, 034547614X)
9. Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card (Tor, $7.99, 0812571398)
10. The Closers by Michael Connelly (Warner, $7.99, 0446616443)

Children's (Fiction and Illustrated)

1. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick, $18.99, 0763625892)
2. Night of the New Magicians (Magic Tree House #35) by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Sal Murdocca (Random House, $11.95, 0375830359)
3. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd (HarperCollins, $7.99, 0694003611)
4. Eldest by Christopher Paolini (Knopf, $21, 037582670X)
5. The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett, illustrated by Brett Helquist (Scholastic, $16.99, 0439693675)
6. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (Chicken House, $7.99, 0439709105)
7. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (Knopf, $9.95, 0375826696)
8. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (movie tie-in edition) by Ann Brashares (Delacorte, $6.99, 0553494791)
9. Dragonology by Ernest Drake, illustrated by Helen Ward and Douglas Carrel (Candlewick, $19.99, 0763623296)
10. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (children's movie tie-in edition) by C.S. Lewis (HarperCollins, $7.99, 0060765461)
11. Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow, $16.99, 0060092726)
12. Flyte (Septimus Heap, Book Two) by Angie Sage (Katherine Tegen, $17.99, 0060577347)
13. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury, $16.95, 1582349932)
14. Fairyopolis by Cicely Mary Barker (Frederick Warne, $19.99, 0723257248)
15. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic, $9.99, 0439358078)

*ABA and Book Sense acknowledge the controversy surrounding the veracity of the contents of this book.

[Many thanks to Book Sense and MPBA!]


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