After Melville House executive editor Kelly Burdick found copies of Amazon's My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall in Barnes & Noble stores around the country and online, B&N reiterated its policy that it will not sell Amazon titles, even titles like Marshall's. My Mother Was Nuts comes from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's New Harvest imprint, which consists of some titles published by Amazon's New York publishing operations.

At one point, B&N's rationale for the policy was Amazon's e-exclusives on many titles, but this summer Ingram began distributing e-book titles from Amazon.

After the Melville House post, B&N stated to paidcontent.org and Publishers Weekly that it is continuing to boycott Amazon books and had instructed its stores to pull copies of My Mother Was Nuts--and at least one other title, Why Have Kids? by Jessica Valenti--implying that the stores, which have some leeway in buying, had obtained the books on their own.

photo: MHPBooks.com

Effective in January, Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino is leaving after 16 years; she will be replaced by John Fallon, CEO of Pearson's international education division.

As quoted by Reuters, Pearson chairman Glen Moreno praised Scardino, a native Texan, for transforming a Pearson into a global educational and media business during challenging times, saying, "She navigated two recessions, one financial crisis, a dot com boom and bust and several waves of structural industry change. Not only are Pearson and Marjorie still around to tell the tale but over the past 16 years our... profits have hit last year's all time high."

BloombergBusinessWeek noted that Scardino had been "expanding Pearson's education business while pushing digital versions of books, journals and newspapers to counter stagnating sales of print products."

The change fed speculation that Pearson, parent company of Penguin, may sell the Financial Times Group. Several observers noted that U.S. education results have declined the past two years, and Reuters said that "investors could also question the future of the book group Penguin within the wider firm as some analysts believe it also fails to support the growth of the dominant education division."

Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks in New York City is celebrating its 15th anniversary by offering 15% off all in-store purchases this month, from books to linens, kitchen gadgets, crockery, barware--and perhaps the kitchen sink. Slotnick gave "a heartfelt thank you to all the loyal customers who have kept me going for the past 15 years; you've proven that bookstores can and will survive, and that buying online can't compare with the pleasure of browsing and socializing in a local shop run by a devoted bookseller."

The store opened in 1997 in a basement office on Washington Place. It's now located at 163 W. 10th St. and is usually open from 1-7 p.m., six days a week, with those days varying.

A new license plate featuring the slogan "Support Kentucky's Libraries" is being offered to state residents. According to the Lane Report, the Kentucky Library Association worked with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet on the project. The plate is available at any county clerk's office with a $25 application fee. At the time of issuance, an optional $10 can be paid to fund library science scholarships.

"Kentucky's public libraries welcomed more than 20 million visitors last year who checked out more than 30 million books and other items," said Governor Steve Beshear. "It's clear that Kentuckians love their public libraries, and now they have another way to show their support."
 

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (HarperCollins, $27.99, 9780060004873) as her pick of the month for October. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote:

"Many people know the name Dennis Lehane … through movies. He's the man responsible for the novels Gone, Baby, Gone, Mystic River and Shutter Island, which were turned into films with the same titles.

"If you've not read a Lehane novel, his latest book is a great place to start. This 400-page journey back to Prohibition-era Boston begins in 1926 and focuses on the exploits of a promising policeman's son, Joe, who engages in a life of crime.

"This is neither a 'man's book' nor a 'woman's book.' It is simply a book for readers who appreciate top-notch writing. In Lehane's works, you'll find nothing shy of the perfect marriage of grit, beauty, suspense and page-turning intensity."

Puppyhood: Life-size Portraits of Puppies at 6 Weeks Old by J. Nichole Smith (Stewart, Tabori & Chang).

Tomorrow on CBN's 700 Club: Pete Thomas, author of Lose It Fast, Lose It Forever: A 4-Step Permanent Weight Loss Plan from the Most Successful "Biggest Loser" of All Time (Avery, $26, 9781583334997).

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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Robert Hass, author of What Light Can Do: Essays on Art, Imagination, and the Natural World (Ecco, $29.99, 9780061923920). As the show put it, "Hass explores certain obsessions: California writing, poetry, photography, his grandchildren--with the articulateness and passion of a born essayist. It's a wonderful coincidence because we're discussing In What Light Can Do, his collected essays."

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Tomorrow on MSNBC's the Cycle: Nate Silver, author of The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't (Penguin Press, $27.95, 9781594204111). He will also appear on Current's War Room with Jennifer Granholm.

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: George Church, co-author of Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves (Basic, $28, 9780465021758).

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Tomorrow night on Conan: Jenny McCarthy, author of Bad Habits: Confessions of a Recovering Catholic (Hyperion, $26.99, 9781401324650).

On the final poster for Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 2, "Lee Pace's Garret, the nomad who develops a liking for one of the Cullen's cousins, and Rami Malek's Benjamin, the Egyptian vampire who can control the elements, both make an appearance... with several wolves and other vamps in the background," Entertainment Weekly reported. Also released were new photos from the movie, which opens November 16.
 

Ang Lee's highly anticipated adaptation of Yann Martel's Life of Pi kicked off the New York Film Festival last weekend to an enthusiastic reception. The Hollywood Reporter interviewed the novelist regarding the film version of his Man Booker Prize-winning book, which sold more than seven million copies. Life of Pi opens November 21.

"Early on, I made very clear that I was willing to do whatever they wanted me to do and that I was stepping back because I know my limits," Martel said. "I'm a novelist; it's my business to write words and construct novels, not to make movies--as much as I love movies. I grew up watching movies."

Ang's adaptation "was incredibly faithful to the book--the storyline but also the idea, the intent," Martel said. "To trust him that it's a better story, and sure enough, he pulled off a brilliant movie."

While writing his novel, Martel had seen it as inherently cinematic: "The novel is full of contrast colors: the blue ocean, the white lifeboat, the brown boy, the orange and black tiger, the green island. And India is very visual. In some ways, it was a very visual novel, but I never imagined it before, for technical reasons. And also, usually, novels are so dense--so much in a novel that it's quite difficult to translate it successfully to the screen."
 

Toronto's International Festival of Authors named Austin Clarke this year's recipient of the $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize, Quillblog reported. The jury said Clarke was chosen based upon the "merits of his published work and his contributions to fostering the next generation of literary talent." Previous winners include Seth, Dionne Brand, Wayson Choy, Paul Quarrington, Jane Urquhart and Guy Vanderhaege. The prize will be presented October 27 at the IFOA closing-night event celebrating the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists.

Sarah Jio is the author of the novels The Violets of March, a Library Journal Best Book of 2011; The Bungalow; and Blackberry Winter, just published by Plume. Her fourth novel, The Last Camellia, will be published in May 2013, with two more novels coming from Plume in the future. Jio is a frequent contributor to Real Simple, Glamour, Redbook and others magazines, and for the past four years she has been the health writer for Glamour.com. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their three young boys.

On your nightstand now:

I'm reading The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman and loving it. I'm also having a Laura Ingalls moment, re-reading The Long Winter, and having fun dreaming up kitchen garden possibilities for my family's new Seattle backyard thanks to The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan.

Favorite book when you were a child:

My fourth grade teacher, Mr. Raymond at Brownsville Elementary in Silverdale, Wash., was the person who brought literature to life for me. I'll never forget listening to him read Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach after recess each day that fall. It was a magical story then, just as it is now. I can say the same for the Anne of Green Gables books, as well as the Babysitter's Club and Nancy Drew series.

Book you've faked reading:

I'll plead the Fifth here, but will make another confession: I have three little boys under the age of 6, and after long days, I have been known to, um, abbreviate (aka, edit heavily) bedtime stories. With apologies to the authors, I have a knack for whittling a long paragraph into two succinct sentences. And, for the record, I believe that Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was written as a form of parental torture.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Rebecca by the great Daphne Du Maurier! Somehow I managed to live 33 years without picking up this gripping classic. I couldn't put it down. Upon hearing I was thinking of reading Rebecca, my editor at Plume, Denise Roy, told me, "You are in for a treat." Indeed I was, and now I tell everyone who hasn't read it to pick it up stat.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Susanna Kearsley's The Winter Sea. While I'm a sucker for any book with "winter" in the title, hence my own Blackberry Winter (I love a good snowstorm with plenty of hot cocoa), there was something equally haunting and arresting about this beautifully designed cover.

Book that changed your life:

The Sleepeasy Solution by Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack. I interviewed this baby sleep-coaching duo (who've worked with the offspring of Ben Stiller and a long list of Hollywood moms and dads) for a magazine article when I was in the throes of new-parent exhaustion with a newborn who preferred staying up all night crying to sleeping. This fabulous book helped me through a very difficult time and gave me the skills to tackle my baby's sleep challenges. I now tuck this book into every baby shower gift for friends.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Maeve Binchy's Tara Road. I adore all of Maeve Binchy's work, but there was something about this story that was so comforting, and so real. I read the book in high school, and I recall feeling as if I was living this story right alongside the characters. I've actually decided to re-read all of Maeve Binchy's early works this year, in light of her recent passing.

Far from feeling intimidated by a blank canvas, Andrew sees only the possibilities. Barney Saltzberg's (Arlo Needs Glasses) latest picture book again shows children there are no limits to the imagination.

This paper-over-board book begins with a realistic scene of Andrew sharpening one of his dozen or so pencils at a desk. A self-portrait and two images of pencils (one straight, one pretzel-shaped) hang over the desk. "Andrew was a doodle boy," the book begins.

From there, the pages leave reality behind and enter Andrew's rich interior life. The only interruption to the snow-white background is the boy and his pencil. Sturdy pages cut in half turn to reveal hidden detours of his pencil on the page, while other pages fold out to unveil a completed drawing. The first line, "He drew...," depicts a gently sloping landscape; the half-page folds back to show that the slope gives way to googly eyes, and the foldout page reveals that this is actually the back of an alligator, with a fox skateboarding out of its mouth. What appear to be stairs turn out to be the step-like scales of a dinosaur. He describes it as being "like making magic," the appearance of figures and animals that didn't exist before. In his blue jeans, red shoes and candy-striped orange shirt, Andrew stands out from his black-and-white tableaux. At one point, he sketches a bunny popping out of a hat, then a whole warren of rabbits engulfs him. Andrew also gives permission for a dry spell ("Sometimes, Andrew drew nothing at all. But he never stopped for long"). And his next doodle leads him to a surprising place. Not quite ready to surrender to the night, Andrew transforms the celestial view into the body of a benign nocturnal creature for a flight of fancy.

His name echoes his raison d'être. Unlike Harold, whose purple crayon draws him into adventure, for Andrew, the drawing itself is the adventure. Andrew's tale is the journey of the artist, through moments when inspiration eludes him, to the faith that his impulse to draw will return, and the doodles that lead him into drawing once again. The back cover features a photo of a young Barney Saltzberg, pencil in hand, modeling the fact that he got to follow his childhood passion into adulthood. --Jennifer M. Brown

Shelf Talker: In this humorous and heartfelt portrait of a young artist, Andrew models by example the ebb and flow of the creative process.

The following were the most popular book club books during September based on votes from readers and leaders of more than 80,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
2. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
3. Defending Jacob: A Novel by William Landay
4. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
5. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
6. The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain
7. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
8. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
9. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
10. Before I Go to Sleep: A Novel by S.J. Watson

Rising Stars:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

[Many thanks to Bookmovement.com!]