Steve Black, president and co-founder of CDS, the distribution company that was bought last year by Perseus Books Group, is leaving the company. In a statement, Perseus CEO David Steinberger said, "I appreciate the many contributions Steve made to CDS and to the Perseus Books Group. In the past year, he helped develop important new client relationships including Planeta, University of Michigan Press and Distributed Art Publishers and helped us formalize the innovative CDS Books publishing program by hiring Roger Cooper [as v-p and publisher]. Steve's experience, skill and knowledge have been very valuable during this transition period and we wish him well."

Replacing Black in his role as head of client services is Sabrina Bracco, who is rejoining the company from Bear Stearns as v-p, client services, effective August 7. Before going to Bear Stearns, Bracco had been director of sales operations at Perseus, business manager at PublicAffairs as well as a Perseus sales rep. While at Perseus she earned an MBA from New York University.

In the second quarter ended June 30, net sales at Amazon.com grew 22% to $2.14 billion from $1.75 billion in the same period last year. If unfavorable currency exchange rates were excluded, net sales would have grown 23%.

During the same period, net income fell 57.7% to $22 million compared to $52 million in the second quarter of 2005. The company lost more than $20 million fees after former partner Toys R Us won a suit alleging Amazon had violated an exclusivity deal relating to selling toys.

Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said that the company's investments in technology and Amazon Prime, which is not popular on Wall Street because it cuts into margins, were continuing. The technological investments "position us to innovate in seller platforms, Web services and digital," Bezos said.

Wall Street did not like the news. In after-market trading, Amazon dropped 12% to $29.50 a share, a three-year low.

Although the company provided pages of information, as usual it is difficult to measure book sales, which are lumped together with music and movies and more under "media." Still some trends continued: non-book sales and sales outside North America grew faster than sales of book and related products and sales in North America.

During the quarter, media sales represented 68% of consolidated sales, down from 71% in the same period last year while "electronics and other general merchandise" grew to 29% from 26% of sales.

Sales internationally grew at 27% (excluding unfavorable current exchange rates) while sales in North America grew 21%.

Amazon predicts full year sales will be $10.15 billion-$10.65 billion, up 20%-25% compared with 2005. The company lowered its operating income prediction for the year to a range of $310 million-$440 million compared to $390 million-$520 million.

This morning on Good Morning America: Ann Fessler, author of The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade (Penguin, $24.95, 1594200947).

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The Book Report, the weekly AM radio book-related show organized by Windows a bookshop, Monroe, La., will feature two author interviews on today's show, which has the theme "summer potpourri":
 

• NPR commentator Ed Cullen, who will talk about his new book, Letter in a Woodpile (Cool Springs Press, $17.99, 1591862493), a collection of his NPR essays.
• Myron Uhlberg, author of Dad, Jackie, and Me (Peachtree, $16.95, 1561453293), a children's picture book based on the author's own experience growing up with deaf parents and attending games during Jackie Robinson's first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The show airs at 8 a.m. Central Time and can be heard live at thebookreport.net; the archived edition will be posted this afternoon.

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Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show: Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten, authors of One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century (Wiley, $25.95, 0471776726).

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Pentagon correspondent and author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Penguin, $27.95, 159420103X).

Tonya Bolden has won the $10,000 James Madison Book Award for her Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl (Abrams Books for Young Readers, $17.95, 0810950456). Lynne Cheney, wife of the Vice President and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, presented the award at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. Cheney created the award in 2003 to honor the book that "best represents excellence in bringing knowledge and understanding of American history to children ages 5 to 14." She endowed the award with $100,000 from the profits of her children's books, America: A Patriotic Primer and A Is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women.

The award called Maritcha "the compelling story of a freeborn African American girl from her childhood days in New York City to her becoming the first black graduate of Providence High School in Rhode Island. Based upon Maritcha Rémond Lyons's unpublished memoir, this expertly researched book embeds a young girl's story into the context of the everyday life of free African Americans in New York City in the mid-1800s." Fittingly the Schomburg Center houses Lyons's unpublished memoir.

The award also cited three honor books:

• Built to Last: Building America's Amazing Bridges, Dams, Tunnels, and Skyscrapers by George Sullivan (Scholastic)
• The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students by Suzanne Jurmain (Houghton Mifflin)
• Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War by Jennifer Armstrong (Atheneum).

The following titles have laydown dates next week:

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist (Delacorte, $26, 0385340354) begins when a young woman seeks out the fiancé who mysteriously ended their engagement.

The Keep by Jennifer Egan (Knopf, $23.95, 1400043921) reunites two cousins 20 years after a prank gone wrong. Together they renovate an old German castle and confront their pasts.

Helen of Troy by Margaret George (Viking, $27.95, 0670037788) retells the epic circumstances of Helen's early life and escape to Troy.

The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime by Jasper Fforde (Viking, $24.95, 0670037729) continues the wacky satirical series with new literary crimes.

Snow Blind by P. J. Tracy (Putnam, $24.95, 039915339X) follows the adventures of Minneapolis police detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth. (See our review in yesterday's Shelf Awareness.)

Vital Friends: The People You Can't Afford to Live Without by Tom Rath (Gallup, $22.95, 1595620079) promotes friendship as a basis for improving work productivity.

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron (Knopf, $19.95, 0307264556) contains a collection of essays by the writer.

Grayson by Lynne Cox (Knopf, $16.95, 0307264548) is a true tale about how the author, while swimming off the California coast at age 17, was followed by a baby gray whale and how she managed to keep it at sea until its mother returned.


Appearing in paperback:

The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan (Signet, $9.99, 0451209702)

Bait and Switch: The Futile Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich (Owl Books, $13.00, 0805081240)

Smitten by Janet Evanovich (Harper Torch, $7.99, 0060598875)

The Tender Bar: A Memoir by J. R. Moehringer (Hyperion, $14.95, 0786888768)

Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke (Pocket, $7.99, 0743277201)

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks (Vintage, $13.95, 1400079292)

Brookline Booksmith's bestseller lists for the week ending Saturday, July 22, are a study in the community's varied interests. The titles range from fiction to sports to psychology, and many owe their bestseller status to a local connection.

Holding steady in the #1 spot on the hardcover fiction list is Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky. "Because our community is heavily Jewish, there has been a particular interest in this book and in the author's story," said Dana Brigham, co-owner of the store, which is in Brookline, Mass.

New England writer John Updike is creating a stir with his new novel, Terrorist, and so too is Anita Diamant with The Last Days of Dogtown. Diamant lives in neighboring Newton and makes frequent appearances at Booksmith for readings. Also, "a lot of people in this area go to Cape Ann in the summertime," said Brigham, referring to the region (an hour from Brookline) that serves as the story's setting.

The title in the No. 1 spot on the paperback fiction list is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Required reading for all 2,000 Brookline High School students, the book--which is featured on the store's bestseller display--is inspiring renewed interest even in those not being graded on their interpretation of Bradbury's tome.

On the hardcover nonfiction list is Seth Mnookin's Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took the Team to the Top. Red Sox general manager and Brookline native son Theo Epstein is one of the personalities profiled in the book. "Anything to do with the Red Sox, and in particular the Epsteins, is a big deal here," said Brigham, who added that Epstein's mother owns a clothing boutique in town and his father, an author and Boston University professor, often reads at the bookstore.

Besting the Red Sox on the list is Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness. "Psychology in general is a big section for us," said Brigham. "We live in an area that's loaded with authors and academics, so that title caught on very quickly." Gilbert also appeared on a local NPR station, which, according to Brigham, is a consistent factor in driving customers into the store.

It's no surprise then that on the hardcover nonfiction list is Public Radio: Behind the Voices by Lisa A. Phillips, who appeared at Booksmith this past Thursday. In addition, Public Radio benefited from the store's tradition of displaying an author's books prior to an event, with signed copies then being added later--giving the title, as Brigham noted, "both pre- and post-buzz."

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth owes its boost in sales to cross-marketing. The film version is playing at the local independent theater across the street from Booksmith. "We have a huge poster of the film in one of our windows," said Brigham. "There have been discussions breaking out around the store as people see the movie and want the book, and vice versa."

Sometimes the customers who cross Booksmith's threshold are simply looking for a recommendation for a great read. A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary by Anonymous is No. 8 on the paperback nonfiction list, an occurrence that Brigham attributed to handselling. "One of my very best booksellers loves this book," she said. "She has been talking it up hugely, and people have been responding."--Shannon McKenna

Brookline Booksmith's bestsellers last week:

Hardcover Fiction

1. Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky (Knopf, $25, 1400044731)
2. Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart (Random House, $24.95, 1400061962)
3. Everyman by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin, $24, 061873516X)
4. The Whole World Over by Julia Glass (Pantheon Books, $25.95, 0375422749)
5. Talk Talk by T. C. Boyle (Viking, $25.95, 0670037702)
6. Terrorist by John Updike (Knopf, $24.95, 0307264653)
7. 24-Karat Kids by Judy Goldstein and Sebastian Stuart (St. Martin's Press, $22.95, 0312343272)
8. Triangle by Katharine Weber (FSG, $23, 0374281424)

Paperback Fiction

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Del Rey, $6.99, 0345342968)
2. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 0143037145)
3. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Norton, $13.95, 0393328627)
4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Vintage, $14, 1400078776)
5. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (Anchor, $7.99, 0307275558)
6. Confessions of a Memory Eater by Pagan Kennedy (Leapfrog Press, $14.95, 0972898484)
7. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House, $13.95, 0812968069)
8. The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant (Scribner, $15, 0743225740)
9. The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, $14.95, 1400078652)
10. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (Ballantine, $7.99, 034549038X)

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 by Ron Suskind (S&S, $27, 0743271092)
2. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (Knopf, $24.95, 1400042666)
3. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (Penguin, $26.95, 1594200823)
4. Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier (Harmony, $24.95, 0307337332)
5. Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top by Seth Mnookin (S&S, $16, 0743286812)
6. Conservatives without Conscience by John Dean (Viking, $25.95, 0670037745)
7. Public Radio: Behind the Voices by Lisa A. Phillips (CDS Books, $25, 1593151438)
8. Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford (Knopf, $25.95, 1400041201)

Paperback Nonfiction

1. The Soul of a Doctor: Harvard Medical Students Face Life and Death by Susan Pories, Sachin H. Jain and Gordon Harper (Algonquin, $12.95, 156512507X)
2. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (Harvest, $14, 0156031566)
3. Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, $14.95, 1400033888)
4. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Picador, $14, 0312425414)
5. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson (Vintage, $14.95, 0375725601)
6. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (Rodale, $21.95, 1594865671)
7. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (Penguin, $17, 0143036556)
8. A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary by Anonymous (Picador, $14, 0312426119)
9. The Tender Bar: A Memoir by J. R. Moehringer (Hyperion, $14.95, 0786888768)
10. 1776 by David McCullough (S&S, $18, 0743226720)