The Publishers Advertising and Marketing Association and Shelf Awareness invite you to join us next Tuesday evening for "cocktails and hors d'oeuvres--with a view." The party takes place September 17, 6-8 p.m., at the Hudson Terrace Rooftop, at 621 W. 46th St. (between 11th and 12th Avenues) in Manhattan. It's free for PAMA members; $10 for nonmembers. RSVP to RSVP@pama-ny.org. Hope to see you there! 

Approximately 200 of 487 Waterstones managers have left their positions at Waterstones during company-wide restructuring. The Bookseller reported that while "a small handful of people remain in consultation over their positions, the overwhelming majority of decisions on branch and assistant managers have now been made, with around 130 leaving their posts" in addition to the 66 managers whose departure was announced earlier this summer. The total includes those who have decided to accept non-managerial bookselling positions within the company.

"Part of the consultation process was that anybody could take voluntary redundancy and in the end quite a few did, which included some people we might not have wanted to go," Waterstones managing director James Daunt said. "I think that part has been a relatively positive side of this--there were people who wanted to stay but there were also people who wanted to go, and those people have a chance to go in a different direction."

Daunt added that the company has begun hiring new staff for the bookshop manager positions who are lead booksellers or senior booksellers: "I don't in any way celebrate their [the managers'] parting but it is an inevitable consequence of this process to give that opportunity to booksellers coming through, some of whom are extremely capable."

E-reading devices are touted for their convenience when on the road, but a recent survey by London's Heathrow Airport found that airline travelers still prefer to have a print book in their hands, Good E-Reader reported.   

Of the 2,000 people surveyed, 71% "would rather pack their suitcases full of books than opt for a lightweight e-reader" and 67% said they "prefer to stick with print because they enjoy the feel of a real book in their hands," Good E-Reader wrote, adding that 67% said they turn to friends and family for their reading recommendations, followed by librarians and booksellers.

"There's no doubt that the popularity of e-books has boomed in recent years, but when it comes to relaxing on holiday it seems you just can't beat a good book," said Heathrow retail director Muriel Zingraff-Shariff. "People want a break from technology whilst they're abroad, so it's understandable that people would rather swap their Blackberry for Malorie Blackman."

David S. Landes, a Harvard scholar of economic history who "saw tidal movements in the rise of seemingly small things" and was "preoccupied by the importance of culture in shaping economic and social progress or stagnation," died last month, the New York Times reported, noting that his most influential book was The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. He was 89.

Last night Oliver Pötzsch launched the U.S. tour for his new novel, The Ludwig Conspiracy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), with a reading at Die Stammkneipe beer garden, just down the street from Brooklyn's Greenlight Bookstore, which sponsored the event. As a German television crew filmed Pötzsch for a documentary, he read from the novel--a Da Vinci Code‑type thriller that offers a solution to the real-life mystery surrounding the death of 19th-century Bavarian king Ludwig II--and recommended several beers from the region. (Pötzsch is a native Bavarian; his bestselling Hangman's Daughter series draws upon a family legacy as executioners for the kingdom.) --Ron Hogan

Congratulations to Reading Rock Books, Dickson, Tenn., which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary and posted a "timeline of five years of bookselling" on its website, beginning with "June 2008: Book shelves unpacked and built."

To buy or to borrow... that is the question. Messy Nessy highlighted "10 inspiring bookshops around the world", calling them "just some shops that sell books that I think are worth crossing oceans for."

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In showcasing "16 libraries you have to see before you die," Buzzfeed found "amazing libraries [that] are full of beautiful interiors--and books--to check out."

The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, Calif., is "an almost 20,000-square-foot cathedral of books," Casey N. Cep wrote in a Paris Review profile of the shop "in what used to be the Crocker National Bank" where, "if you don't look up, the ground floor might be mistaken for a regular bookstore. A small coffee bar flanks one entrance, while waist-level bins full of vinyl records border the other; oversized leather couches dot the floor plan, and the space is divided by tall shelves laden with books. There's a satisfying selection of used books, a few subject-based sections and some areas curated tenderly by staff, as well as a comprehensive array of new titles.

"But stray from the center of the store or let your eyes wander to the edges or the ceiling and you notice that the Last Bookstore is something unusual. Books are suspended, their pages spread like wings; mannequins covered in printed letters and collaged phrases stand in corners; a large mural made from wire and paperbacks stretches like a whale shark along the mezzanine level."

Cep noted that the Last Bookstore "has some of the most beautiful book art I've ever seen. You can wander and wander through this wonderland of cuttings, foldings, installations, and sculptures. Some pages are folded, others torn; the books are shaped into birds and windows, transformed into storyscapes independent of their original stories."

Sara Hartman-Seeskin is joining the Sourcebooks as rights and exports manager. She was most recently international rights manager for Free Spirit Publishing.

Liz Kelsch has been promoted to publicity manager at Sourcebooks. She was formerly assistant publicity manager.

As Flies to Whatless Boys: A Novel by Robert Antoni (Akashic Books).

Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit and Carrie Coon have joined the cast of David Fincher's Gone Girl, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn, Indiewire reported, noting that "every aspect of the film's casting has been obsessed over." They join leads Ben Affleck (Nick Dunne) and Rosamund Pike (Amy). Gone Girl begins shooting this month for release some time next year.

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Sir Ian McKellen is adding his name to the lengthening list of actors playing the role of Sherlock Holmes in movies and on TV. Buzzfeed reported that McKellen will portray an aging version of the legendary detective in a film adaptation of Mitch Cullin's novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, with Bill Condon (Gods & Monsters) directing.

Tomorrow on NPR's Diane Rehm Show: Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, authors of Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden's Final Plot Against America (Touchstone, $27.99, 9781476727936).

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Tomorrow on Anderson Cooper 360: Amanda Lindhout and Sarah Corbett, authors of A House in the Sky: A Memoir (Scribner, $27, 9781451645606).

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Tomorrow on AC 360 Later, Anderson Cooper's new, additional show: Maajid Nawaz, author of Radical: My Journey Out of Islamic Extremism (Lyons Press, $26.95, 9780762791361).

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Tomorrow on Fox Business's Lou Dobbs Tonight: Duff McDonald, author of The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781439190975).

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Tomorrow night on Jimmy Kimmel Live: Tim Gunn, co-author of Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet (Gallery, $16, 9781451643862).

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced this morning:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
The Harvest by Jim Crace
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín

The shortlisted authors each win £2,500 (about US$3,925) and a specially bound edition of their book, while the winner--to be announced on October 15--will receive an additional £50,000 ($78,500).

The judging panel comprises chair Robert Macfarlane, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Natalie Haynes, Martha Kearney and Stuart Kelly.

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The Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature, given by Kodansha every two years and carrying a $10,000 prize, has been won by Roger Pulvers for his translation of Strong in the Rain: Selected Poems by Kenji Miyazawa. This year, for the first time since 2003, the Noma Award was given to a work in English--in this case for the best English translation of modern Japanese literature published between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2011.

The award will be presented at a ceremony September 16 at the Japan Society in New York.

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Finalists have been announced for the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year award. They each receive £5,000 (about US$7,849). An overall winner, who gets an additional £25,000 ($39,250), will be named November 2. The category winners are:

Fiction: Close Your Eyes by Ewan Morrison
Nonfiction: Empire Antarctica by Gavin Francis
Poetry: Small World by Richard Price
First book: Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice Cream Float Before he Stole My Ma by Kate Hudson

When Tony Hillerman died in 2008, it was a sad day for fans of Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. But wait! Thankfully, his daughter Anne has taken up the torch with Spider Woman's Daughter, offering her take on these memorable and beloved characters.

She doesn't waste any time shocking us. In the opening pages, Leaphorn is shot in the head in a parking lot outside a restaurant. Bernie Chee, Jim's wife (last seen in The Shape Shifter), also a member of the Tribal Police, sees someone do it and drive away. She rushes to help, holds Leaphorn's hand, tells him he'll be okay. He's taken away in an ambulance and the story begins. Who did it and why? As a distraught witness, she's "officially" taken off the case, but she won't stop until she finds the shooter.

Bernie is the focus of the story, a major departure from Tony's focus on Leaphorn and then, later in the series, Jim Chee. Now, we see most events through Bernie's eyes. Early on, we're told about the Navajo myth of the Spider Woman, the magical weaver--and how Bernie's mother called her the Spider Woman Daughter because she could figure things out: "She helps with life's unexpected complications, untangling messy situations."

Early leads concerning the shooter's car, however, don't pan out. Maybe it has to do with Louisa, Leaphorn's close friend, who's missing; they had had a fight. But she can't be found. The investigation then focuses on a museum in Santa Fe and some insurance investigating Leaphorn was doing for them. He had written up a report that is now missing. What did he discover? Something worth killing him over?

Although it must be daunting to take over a popular series written by a parent, as Jeffrey Shaara did with the followups to his father Michael's The Killer Angels, Anne Hillerman has fulfilled the task splendidly. She grew up with her father's books and characters and loves New Mexico's natural beauty as much as he did (as demonstrated by the 2009 coffee table book Tony Hillerman's Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn). The mystery in Spider Woman's Daughter is fast-paced, intricate and enveloped by that great Southwestern landscape. Hopefully we'll have more installments to look forward to. --Tom Lavoie

Shelf Talker: Anne Hillerman's first work of fiction--a tale of revenge and greed--brings a new twist to her father's popular Leaphorn & Chee mystery series.

In the exhibition "The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter," now on view at the New York Public Library's Fifth Avenue branch, Leonard Marcus locates American children's literature at the center of society--its values, its beliefs about education, and its efforts to instill those values and beliefs in its youth through literature.

The exhibit opens with what is believed to be one of the oldest New England Primers still in existence, which, Marcus said, is normally kept "in a vault that would be the envy of Fort Knox." Its estimated value is $1 million. "In Adam's Fall/ We Sinned all./ Thy Life to Mend/ This Book Attend./ The Cat doth play/ and after flay." These are the ABCs according to that 1727 primer. Against a backdrop on a wall designed as an open book, the primer takes the right hand–page position. On the left is William Blake's Songs of Innocence, illustrated with Blake's own watercolors.

Are children born sinful or innocent? This is the lens through which Marcus frames the implicit societal, literary debate that follows. Can children acquire information through inquiry or must they be taught by rote? Nathaniel Hawthorne, the great-great-grandson of the Salem witch trials' presiding judge, "felt forever haunted by his Puritan past," Marcus said, adding that fiction writing for Hawthorne was "an act of personal rebellion against his dour, unforgiving ancestors." Before the publication of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne wrote children's books under a pen name. If Hawthorne is an example of the transition from Puritanical to more imaginative texts, the progressive education movement--with John Dewey, Maria Montessori and Lucy Sprague Mitchell at the forefront--represented a clean break.

Marcus dedicates a full subsection to the Bank Street School (originally the Bureau of Educational Experiments, located in New York's Greenwich Village and founded by Mitchell), with Harold and his purple crayon leading viewers into the Great Green Room of Goodnight Moon. Children may climb up into a window seat next to a picture of the cow jumping over the moon, memorialized in Clement Hurd's illustrations of Margaret Wise Brown's text. Mitchell and the Bank Street Writers Lab members--Crockett Johnson, Margaret Wise Brown, Maurice Sendak, Ruth Krauss and Edward Steichen, among others--wrote about children exploring their world, and recorded the sights and sounds of their immediate environment, often incorporating overheard phrases from children.

The exhibit offers a number of other opportunities for children to experience the exhibit: they may climb into a car that's part of The Phantom Tollbooth display, disappear down the rabbit hole into an Alice in Wonderland exhibit (don't miss the parasol handle of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, plus Lewis Carroll's letter to the real Alice who served as his muse), and walk through a fur-covered silhouette of Max in his Wild Things outfit.

Marcus also showcases children's books from around the world, and brings to the fore some entries that may well surprise viewers--e.g., a bilingual book published in Lakota and English, Lak'ota pte'ole hoksila lowansa by Ann Clark (Singing Sioux Cowboy Reader, 1947).

Nowhere is the impact of societal debate more keenly felt than in a section on comic books, "Lights Out: Reading Under the Covers," where children may slip into a cubby designed to evoke a clandestine rendezvous with a book under blankets, with flashlight. In an exhibit case above the cubby is a major reason the fruit was forbidden: Seduction of the Innocent by Frederic Wertham (Rinehart & Co, 1954), which asserted comics' society-eroding effects. Just around the corner from the comics, viewers discover a wall of banned books, spine out. Each spine features a title in dispute or removed at one time from school and library shelves. Marcus calls out a few famous examples, such as Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time--pulled both for being, at different times, too religious and sacrilegious.

Marcus brings into focus the key role that the New York Public Library and its librarians played in bringing together the larger community, with photos of African American librarian Augusta Baker in Harlem, and a display case with the puppets and picture books (such as Pérez y Martina) of Pura Belpré, the NYPL's first Latina librarian. Items in the exhibit come from all over the New York Public Library's archives, including the Rare Book Division, the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg collection of English and American Literature, the Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

The captions, which do not exceed 100 words, convey both Marcus's wit and scholarship. For the 1727 edition of the New England Primer, for instance, Marcus cites the entry, "Our King the good/ No Man of Blood," and writes that by 1791, "a new sentiment was clearly in order.... 'The British King/ Lost States thirteen.' " Ever mindful of families attending with children--in addition to the interactive elements--Marcus includes the milestone event of Harry Potter's entrance on the scene, with global sales of "forest-rattling proportions" and precipitating the New York Times' juvenile bestseller list, "aimed at keeping the world safe for the usual potboilers and thrillers," writes Marcus.

The exhibit redeems comics in a section called "Comics Grow Up" and includes works by Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, Shaun Tan's The Arrival and Brian Selznick's Caldecott Medal–winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Near the close of the exhibit, a wall of Ashley Bryan's paintings from Let It Shine lets viewers know that Bryan's awakening as an artist began in part due to his work on the WPA projects. At one time, society valued art enough to fund projects like these. Marcus subtly brings the exhibit full circle, and a question lingers: Where are the WPA projects of today? How do we encourage aspiring artists and writers, especially those of diverse cultures and perspectives, to become involved in the arts when so much of it is disappearing from schools, along with its funding? There is much food for thought in this inclusive history of children's literature, on display through March 23, 2014. --Jennifer M. Brown

The following were the bestselling Christian books as compiled by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for August:

1. Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson)
2. Kingdom Woman by Tony Evans and Chrystal Evans Hurst (Tyndale House)
3. KJV Standard Lesson Commentary (Standard Publishing)
4. KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, Large Print Edition (Standard Publishing)
5. Jesus Calling, Large-Print Deluxe Edition by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson)
6. The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller (Penguin)
7. Jesus Calling, Deluxe Edition by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson)
8. The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman (Moody Publishers)
9. Jesus Calling, Women's Edition by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson)
10. Heaven Is for Real by Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson)

[Many thanks to the ECPA!]