"The other day, two young girls came in with their parents and paid for their books using their very own money--mostly in quarters, dimes, and nickels. I asked the parents if they often bought books using their hard-earned money. The mother responded yes, and that for her youngest daughter, it was her first purchase using her own money... EVER! And it made me reflect: How great is it that we still live in a world where kids' first-ever purchases are a book?!

"P.S.--I gave them a 'first-ever-purchase' discount."

Barnes & Noble unveiled its new NOOK GlowLight Plus, a waterproof and dustproof e-reader that is designed to offer users "an immersive and enjoyable reading experience in low light and bright sun thanks to our most advanced E Ink display and a built-in ambient light," according to the company. The device retails for $129.99.
 
Fred Argir, B&N's chief digital officer, described the Nook GlowLight Plus as "a great purpose-built reading device that is both durable and portable."

In the latest result of the investigations of financial structures used by U.S. multinational companies in Europe to avoid taxes that was announced a year ago, the European Union has ordered Starbucks to pay up to €30 million (almost $34 million) to the Netherlands in back taxes and Fiat Chrysler to pay a similar amount to Luxembourg. Both cases involve tax avoidance approaches that Amazon has used, which the EU continues to investigate.

Amazon's Luxembourg offices

In the case of Starbucks, the company used a shell company called Alki, based in the Netherlands, to receive licensing fees in a way that resulted in the company paying no taxes in the U.K. for many years. In the case of Fiat Chrysler, the EU found that Luxembourg's "comfort letter" allowing the company to pay taxes at a rate much lower than in other EU countries amounted to "unfair state aid."

In January, the European Union's antitrust office issued a preliminary ruling that the tax deal Luxembourg gave Amazon in 2003 that has allowed it to pay much lower taxes on its European operations than otherwise expected also is "unfair state aid."

As for the licensing fee angle, the Wall Street Journal noted in January, "At issue are the prices that multinational companies charge for goods or services sold by one subsidiary to another, known as transfer-pricing arrangements. These could be manipulated to allow companies to shift profits away from high-tax jurisdictions, so international guidelines require that they be determined at 'arm's length,' reflecting transactions that would take place between independent companies.

"The commission questioned an internal royalty fee paid by Amazon EU Sarl to another Luxembourg subsidiary of Amazon, which has the effect of reducing Amazon's tax liabilities. The royalty is paid for the use of intellectual property, but 'is not related to output, sales, or to profit,' the regulator said."

On May 1, Amazon changed its approach, booking revenue from retail sales in the European countries in which they're made rather than "funneling all sales through low-tax Luxembourg," the Journal wrote. The move could "significantly boost" the company's tax bills.

David Ebershoff

The author of The Danish Girl and The 19th Wife, David Ebershoff is leaving his position as v-p and executive editor at Random House next month to focus full-time on his career as a novelist, the AP reported.

He has worked at Random House for 20 years and edited two Pulitzer Prize winners: The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson and Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall. He has also edited books by Norman Mailer, Diane Keaton and David Mitchell.

Ebershoff's The Prodigies will be published by Random House in 2017. He has also published the novel Pasadena and the short story collection The Rose City.

Starting in November, writer Anna March will moderate an event series called Beyond Lolita: Literary Writers on Sex and Sexuality at five independent bookstores around the country. All five events will support the PEN America's Writers' Emergency Fund, with March donating $500 for each event. The event series will bring writers and editors together for roundtable discussions on sex and sexuality not only in their own work but also in literature and society at large. Among the writers booked for the series are Cheryl Strayed (Wild), Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife), J. Ryan Stradal (The Kitchens of the Great Midwest), Salon's Laura Miller and poet Saeed Jones.

The first event will be held at Women & Children First in Chicago, Ill., on November 5, followed by an event at Skylight Books in Los Angeles, Calif., on November 19. The series will resume in January with stops in Portland, Ore., New York City and Boston.

Gamal al-Ghitani, one of Egypt's most acclaimed novelists whose work was frequently published in English translations and who "was most famous for his 1974 novel Zayni Barakat," died Sunday, the New York Times reported. He was 70. He wrote more than a dozen novels, including The Zafarani Files, Pyramid Texts, The Book of Epiphanies and The Book of Revelations, as well as short story collections. Prime Minister Sherif Ismail praised him this week for "enriching literature with his unique style, intelligence and broad vision."

BookPeople in Austin, Tex., featured Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, author of Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine (Avery Books), in conversation with Dr. Mellick Sykes, archivist from the Texas Surgical Society and clinical professor of surgery. Pictured: (l.-r.): Betsy Tyson, archives and exhibits coordinator at the Texas Medical Association (left); Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz and Dr. Mellick Sykes.

Antigone Books, Tucson, Ariz., has won Best Bookstore in Tucson Weekly's 2015 Best of issue. The Weekly's entry about the store, in its entirety:

"What we love about Tucson Weekly readers picking Antigone again for best place to buy new books is that this is a local establishment you can really get behind. They support local authors and organizations. They are solar-powered. They have amazing, cool gifts when it comes to holiday shopping. They also have great service. Recommend next time you want a specific book, call them and if they don't have it, have them order it. Likely, you'll have that book the same week. They are the Tucson badasses of books."

Noting that "it's time we accept that the joy of picking up books from a bookstore is unparalleled and no amount of ordering books from online websites can match up," the Business Insider's Poulomi Das shared "four reasons why bookstores will continue to rule our hearts," including:

1. When you go to a bookstore, you discover books; when you order them online, you just find them.
2. The smell of books.
3. Afternoons by yourself at your favorite bookstore.
4. No waiting required.

"So imagine my surprise when, a year later, I spotted the familiar red Borders sign across the atrium of a huge shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia," Nathalie Lagerfeld wrote in an Atlas Obscura piece headlined "Why There are Still Borders Bookstores in Malaysia, or the Strange Case of the Zombie Chain."

The answer, she discovered, was that "to bring a bankrupt chain back as a zombie, you didn't need a voodoo ritual or a reading from the Necronomicon. All you needed was a franchise agreement. A legal spell to raise the retail dead."

In Malaysia, Borders is a franchise operated by Berjaya Books, a subsidiary of a large local conglomerate. "At bankruptcy auction in 2011, it narrowly outbid Barnes & Noble to acquire Borders' trademarks, country-specific domain name and intellectual property in Malaysia for $825,000," Lagerfield noted, adding: "Borders Malaysia is still going strong, with nine locations across the country, four in Kuala Lumpur alone."

Build! A Knight's Castle: Paper Toy Archaeology by Annalie Seaman (Storey Publishing).

Tomorrow on Tavis Smiley: Dick Van Dyke, author of Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging (Weinstein Books, $25.99, 9781602862968).

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Tomorrow on Sirius XM's Maggie Linton Show: Kevin Powell, author of The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood (Atria, $26, 9781439163689).

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Tomorrow on Fox News's Greta Van Susteren: Kevin Costner and Jon Baird, co-authors of The Explorers Guild: Volume One: A Passage to Shambhala (Atria, $29.99, 9781476727394).

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Tomorrow on the Wendy Williams Show: Whoopi Goldberg, author of If Someone Says "You Complete Me," RUN!: Whoopi's Big Book of Relationships (Hachette Books, $26, 9780316302012).

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Tomorrow night on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers: Martha Stewart, author of Martha Stewart's Appetizers: 200 Recipes for Dips, Spreads, Snacks, Small Plates, and Other Delicious Hors d'Oeuvres, Plus 30 Cocktails (Clarkson Potter, $27.50, 9780307954626).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend 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, October 24
9:15 a.m. Stephen Cox, author of American Christianity: The Continuing Revolution (University of Texas Press, $26.95, 9780292729100). (Re-airs Sunday at 1 p.m. and Monday at 1 a.m.)

11:30 a.m. Live coverage of the 2015 Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison. (Re-airs Sunday at 12 a.m.)

11 p.m. John Danforth, author of The Relevance of Religion: How Faithful People Can Change Politics (Random House, $28, 9780812997903). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)


Sunday, October 25
1:15 p.m. A panel on race in America moderated by April Ryan, author of The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America (Rowman & Littlefield, $24.95, 9781442238411), at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C. (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

5:30 p.m. A discussion on Banned Books Week with David Levithan, author of Boy Meets Boy (Knopf, $9.99, 9780375832994) and Meg Medina, author of Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass (Candlewick, $7.99, 9780763671648). (Re-airs Monday at 1:30 a.m.)

7 p.m. The 2015 Paolucci Book Award is given to Richard Brookhiser, author of Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln (Basic Books, $27.99, 9780465032945). (Re-airs Monday at 5:15 a.m.)

8 p.m. Lilian Faderman, author of The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle (Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781451694116), at Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera, Calif.

Martin Cathcart Froden won the £10,000 (about $15,470) Dundee International Book Prize for his debut novel Devil Take The Hindmost. In addition to the the cash award, the winner receives a publishing deal with Freight Books.

"This has been a stellar year for the prize, with tough competition from a very fine shortlist, but Martin's debut was ahead of the pack," said Peggy Hughes of the University of Dundee's Literary Dundee initiative, which runs the prize in collaboration with Freight Books and Dundee City Council's 'One City, Many Discoveries' campaign, with support from Apex Hotels.

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The shortlist for the £20,000 (about $30,940) 2015 T.S. Eliot Prize, administered by the Poetry Book Society and funded by the T.S. Eliot Estate, has been chosen. Chair Pascale Petit commented: "This is a fantastic year for poetry, with the highest amount of entries submitted in the history of the prize, and an exceptional number of outstanding collections, including many dazzling debuts. This made our task of choosing the shortlist tricky--many that didn't make it are books we love. But we were unanimous about our final list, the books my distinguished fellow judges and I picked all awed and excited us with their ambition, verve and technical mastery."

The winner will be announced January 11, 2016.

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
God's Kingdom: A Novel by Howard Frank Mosher (St. Martin's Press, $25.99, 9781250069481). "If the past is a foreign country, we certainly have an expert native guide in Mosher who recreates perfectly, right down to the smoky fire smoldering in the town dump, the small town of Kingdom Common, Vermont, in the 1950s. Here fans of previous books are reintroduced to Jim Kinneson, now entering high school. For first-time readers, the ubiquitous, multi-generational Kinneson clan of the Northern Kingdom will be immediately accessible through the talent of master storyteller Mosher in this latest variation on the themes of tradition, the burden of family history, small-town secrets, and the stark beauty of the wilds of Northern Vermont." --Darwin Ellis, Books on the Common, Ridgefield, Conn.

Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel by Zachary Thomas Dodson (Doubleday, $27.95, 9780385539838). "Bats of the Republic is a book connoisseur's dream. It is a propulsive novel--often a novel within a novel--that shatters the restraints of genre with brilliance matched only by its complexity and originality. Dodson weaves a story from a past filled with hope and regret with a future rife with promise and dire consequences to keep the reader engaged throughout. Complete with maps and ephemera that make this a singular reading experience, Bats of the Republic is gorgeous, unputdownable, and above all in this day and age, necessary." --Javier Ramirez, the Book Table, Oak Park, Ill.

Paperback
First Impressions: A Novel by Charlie Lovett (Penguin Books, $16, 9780143127727). "This is a frothy and fun mystery/romance that asks 'What if Jane Austen plagiarized her greatest work, Pride and Prejudice?' By alternating chapters about Austen and her fictional friendship with an elderly minister and writer with those involving a modern-day bookseller and Austen fan who is searching for love and rare books, Lovett builds suspense while tossing in all kinds of fun Austen factoids. The tale is simple and sweet and the heroine is a modern-day Eliza, torn between two men and her first impressions of each. Delightful, especially for Austen fans--and really, who isn't?" --William Carl, Wellesley Books, Wellesley, Mass.

For Ages 4 to 8
A Dog Wearing Shoes by Sangmi Ko (Schwartz & Wade, $16.99, 9780385383967). "This debut picture book is a joy! A Dog Wearing Shoes is the story of a girl who found a dog who was lost and clearly belonged to someone else. Loving the dog and then losing the dog to its rightful owner teaches Mini that there are plenty of dogs out in the world who need loving homes. An afterword directs potential dog owners to the ASPCA and the Humane Society." --Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop, Athens, Ga.

For Ages 9 to 12
Baba Yaga's Assistant by Marika McCoola, illustrated by Emily Carroll (Candlewick, $16.99, 9780763669614). "McCoola's debut is simply magical. Steeped in Russian folklore, this graphic novel honors the traditional tale of Baba Yaga, yet it remains thoroughly modern. Virtually alone after her father's remarriage, Masha Martin ventures bravely into the forest hoping to assist the dreaded witch Baba Yaga. Her mother's mother had done just that, so long ago. Will the knowledge and love left by her grandmother be enough to help Masha pass Baba Yaga's enchanted tests? This fantastic adventure, with Carroll's perfect art, provides the answer." --Christopher Rose, Andover Bookstore, Andover, Mass.

For Teen Readers
A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston (Disney/Hyperion, $18.99, 9781484722275). "In this retelling of the Arabian Nights, the unnamed protagonist is taken from her desert village to the palace of Lo-Melkhiin to serve as yet another in a long line of ill-fated wives. But rather than succumb to him, she uses her unique abilities to challenge his rule. This beautifully written story of sisterhood, magic, and female power has a lush, immersive setting, surprising plot turns and wonderful portrayals of the protagonist's unexpected strength." --Sarah Prineas, Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, Iowa

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, October 27:

Sinatra's Century: One Hundred Notes on the Man and His World by David Lehman (Harper, $24.99, 9780061780066) celebrates Sinatra's 100th birthday with 100 short reflections on his life and music.

Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan (Doubleday, $35, 9780385535397) is a biography of Frank Sinatra.

Home by Ellen DeGeneres (Grand Central, $35, 9781455533565) looks at Ellen's home renovation and redecoration experiences.

Junior Seau: The Life and Death of a Football Icon by Jim Trotter (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26, 9780544236172) chronicles the career and death of the star NFL linebacker whose chronic brain injury led to his suicide.

The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316200608) explores the Salem Witch Trials.

The Immortal Nicholas by Glenn Beck (Mercury Ink, $26.99, 9781476798844) is a novel about St. Nicholas.

The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory by Julie Checkoway (Grand Central, $27, 9781455523443) tells the story of impoverished Hawaiian children who became Olympic champions.

Government Zero: No Borders, No Language, No Culture by Michael Savage (Center Street, $27, 9781455536115) rails against the "Progressive-Islamist agenda."


Paperbacks:

Jenni Vive: Unforgettable Baby! by the Jenni Rivera Estate (Atria, $21, 9781501101311).

Love Style Life by Garance Dore (Spiegel & Grau, $30, 9780812996371).

The Familiar, Volume 2: Into the Forest by Mark Z. Danielewski (Pantheon, $25, 9780375714962).

The Big Bang Theory: The Official Trivia Guide by Adam Faberman (Touchstone, $15, 9781501127151).

Daniel Sada (Almost Never) died in 2011, but the prolific Mexican writer left behind many short stories, novels and poems, and Katherine Silver has translated his humorous novella One Out of Two into English for the first time.

"Now, how to say it? One out of two, or two in one, or what?" Constitución and Gloria Gamal are identical twin sisters, and this is their shared identity and life's work. At 13, they were orphaned by a car wreck, but they did not notice for weeks, not until they ran out of food, so consumed were they with one another. Now in their 40s, they dress alike, wear the same makeup and hairstyle; whoever gets up first in the morning gets to choose that day's attire for both. They have practiced the same gestures and mannerisms until they are indistinguishable. They even switch names from day to day. ("Why shouldn't they!") Established as seamstresses in a small Mexican town where everyone knows them--but can't tell them apart--they take pleasure in their indistinguishability, the singular quality in their mundane existence.

This strange, even surreal description of twinned lives begins Sada's magnetic tale. Then a problem challenges the Gamal sisters' contented tricks of identity: one of them meets a man. They brought this startling element of difference into their lives somewhat on purpose, when they decided to send only one twin to a wedding, expressly because they believed she would have a better chance of catching a male eye if she were not half of a whole. After all, "this business of having a double can be vexatious, almost almost leech-like." So Constitución comes home to announce: "I danced all night with a slender man of interesting age." The novel calls this "her best sentence ever," and it may well be, but it is not Sada's; his winding, lyrical, frequently abstract language is one of the great joys of this comical, silly and touching story.

Of course, the introduction of a suitor raises questions for the twins. Separate or share? He has no idea that there are two, and so they take turns in romance. But two women who have split everything up to this point find a man harder to enjoy as equals. The tension of One Out of Two is related to illusion, deceit and identity, as Constitución and Gloria discover envy and competition for the first time. In a mere 100 pages, Sada dances his reader through these conflicts and on to a joyfully droll and loving conclusion. His playfulness with language, plot and character make One Out of Two a true pleasure; his readers' only regret is that it is over so soon. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Shelf Talker: A delightful novella translated from Spanish, about identical twins and the tricks they play, that asks questions about identity and loyalty and answers them with glee.