Lido's current location.

Formerly known as Lido Village Books, Lido Books, Newport Beach, Calif., is moving to a larger space next door and "will be rebranded with a classical European library feel," the Daily Pilot reported, adding that "what the store will be undergoing is not exactly a facelift but more of a literary peel. And it will do so in a new location within the center." Lido Marina Village is undergoing a major overall renovation to bring back "the village's charm and vibrancy by restoring upscale shopping, dining and marina activities to the location."

"We're going to have double the space--soon," said Dan Schmenck, who has owned the bookstore for 15 years. Inspired by classical European libraries like Cambridge University's, he wants the updated Lido Books "to maintain its inviting charm through a restoration mix of modern and old-school." The new space will incorporate fixtures on interlocked wheels so they can be moved as needed, as well as brass tabletop lamps from Berlin, ceiling fixtures to light bookshelves, a children's section and sidelines.

Schmenck added that he won't sacrifice certain things at the new store, which is projected to open in the spring: "I want it to be approachable and not too chic, and I want it to be a place that favors books above everything else. But more importantly, I don't want anyone to judge the store by its new cover."

A petition in support of the UConn Co-op Bookstore, Storrs, Conn., which university officials are considering outsourcing, has been posted online and drawn more than 2,700 signatures as of this morning. Addressed to Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, UConn president Susan Herbst and other UConn officials, the petition reads, in part:

"We are a not-for-profit organization, owned by its members, the majority being students. We believe that an independent, member-owned structure ensures that the Co-op can meet student needs, adapt to a rapidly changing industry, and stay financially and socially sustainable regardless of what the future brings. It is our intention and goal to raise as much support and awareness as possible to prevent a private retailer from taking over the UConn campus bookstore.

"If a private retailer takes over the Co-op, you can expect the following changes:

• Loss of the textbook price comparison software
• Textbooks won't be available all year long (most likely, on a first-come, first-served basis)
• Textbook buyback payouts will decrease
• A cutback in student jobs
• Layoffs of the current Co-op full-time staff
• Decrease of student support services (such as tech repair, shipping services, Apple computer support, orientation packages, graduation ticket sales, bus ticket sales, and, much, much more)
• Less support of student organizations
• Loss of the student voice in the governance of the bookstore
• No more Secret Sales
• Less student supplies available (such as school supplies, art materials, and housing essentials)"

The petition notes that on Monday, February 8, the Co-op will give its proposal to the selection committee and from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, also on the 8th, there will be a rally and forum on behalf of the Co-op on campus.

Nicole Sullivan

Nicole Sullivan, owner of BookBar and BookBed by BookBar, Denver, Colo., and a member of the board of the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association, is adding another feather to her cap: she will also be part of the consulting group of Paz & Associates. She will, Paz & Associates said, help booksellers who are considering adding food and beverage service, assisting with "everything from calculating start-up investment needs to choosing equipment, laying out service counters to providing vendor lists. A café start-up package is available as well as consulting by the hour."

Sullivan studied culinary arts at the Art Institute of Colorado in Denver while working in financial corporations, and then combined her passions for books, food and wine to create BookBar in 2013. Last fall, Sullivan opened BookBed by BookBar, a book-themed B&B apartment above the store for book lovers, authors and writers.

"Expanding the traditional business model by adding food and/or beverage services creates some very unique and exciting opportunities," Sullivan said. "It also creates some unique challenges since they are vastly different businesses."

Cathy Langer, head buyer of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colo., Linda-Marie Barrett, general manager and senior buyer at Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe in Asheville, N.C., and Arlene Lynes, owner of Read Between the Lynes in Woodstock, Ill., offered book-buying advice on a panel entitled Bookselling 101: Introduction to Buying at Winter Institute 11 last week. Annie Philbrick, the co-owner of Bank Square Books in Mystic, Conn., moderated the discussion.

Langer said she approaches buying frontlist titles as "an art and a science." It is impossible to know, she said, if a frontlist meeting went well until some four to six months down the line, when the books were actually in store. Langer described herself as an "obsessive preparer" and suggested that buyers familiarize themselves with catalogues before meeting with reps. One of the trickiest parts of frontlist buying is "anticipating what [customers] don't know they want," and Langer said that an array of knowledge about both one's store and its customers is essential. It helps to have a knowledge base that is "a mile or two wide and about a quarter of an inch deep."

Lynes said that there was "no one exact way" to buy books, with the caveat that a buyer always has to be aware of the budget. Like Langer, she pointed out the necessity of knowing a lot about one's customer base. She also emphasized the importance of keeping track of the books featured on National Public Radio. One of the biggest surprises for her as a new bookseller, she said, was learning how closely her best customers followed NPR. She then asked the booksellers in the room if their best customers also followed NPR, and nearly every hand in the audience went up.

Barrett, meanwhile, urged buyers to spend time as frontline booksellers, and said it is vital to "support the buy" with good in-store displays and marketing. New and notable displays for both hardcover and paperbacks do well at Malaprop's, she continued. A buyer has to be constantly aware of minimums for free freight and other discounts, Barrett added. It is also better, in her view, to "buy more of fewer titles" rather than try to sell a smattering of everything. On the topic of involving other staff in ordering, Barrett suggested posting a clipboard on which staff members could list titles. --Alex Mutter

Paul Aiken

Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, for more than 20 years, died on Friday, after a long battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

The Authors Guild, which republished a retrospective feature on him in the Authors Guild Bulletin that appeared last summer, called him "our beloved, fearless leader" and said the organization "owes a great deal to Paul, who devoted his keen intelligence, good humor, enormous energy, and the best part of his life to our cause. Paul's optimism and tenacity--for writers, and then for himself and his family--were vibrant and rare. He was a beacon for all of us."

Authors Guild president Roxana Robinson added, "Paul Aiken was brilliant, fierce and generous. Brilliant and fierce can change the world, but it's generosity that makes it a better place. For twenty years Paul worked to make the world a better place for writers, readers and everyone else affected by the written word."

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Gordon Shillingford, a Manitoba publisher "and champion for the province's authors and playwrights" who co-founded Blizzard Publishing with Peter Atwood in 1986, before branching out to head J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing in 1992, died January 25, Quill & Quire reported. He was 55.

"He was a friend and colleague to many across our industry, and had a sharp eye for talent. It's hard to believe he's gone," said Kate Edwards, executive director of the Association of Canadian Publishers.

On January 29 at Seattle's Steelhead Diner in Pike Place Market, regional booksellers gathered to meet British author Harriet Reuter Hapgood, in celebration of her debut YA novel, The Square Root of Summer (Roaring Brook/Macmillan, May 3, 2016). Left to right: Erica Milgate, University Bookstore; Harriet Reuter Hapgood; Mary Elliott, Secret Garden Books; and Sam Kaas, Village Books in Bellingham.

Congratulations to Head House Books, Philadelphia, Pa., which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month with a series of events that thank the store's customers. As owner Richard DeWyngaert explained: "We know we wouldn't be here without the loyalty of the community, so we're launching a month-long celebration to recognize that."

The weekly promotions, announced via e-mails, include a "Book of Gratitude," which will contain various promotions and prizes for randomly selected customers to win each day. These include a wrapped present from the grab bag, a gift certificate, a discount off a purchase or a Book of the Month membership. Another week's celebration invites customers to write 10-word love letters to the shop; winning entries will be published and awarded prizes.

Before Valentine's Day, consumers who mention the store's e-mail about this can choose a book from the "Blind Date Basket." As the store puts it, "Fall in love with a book seeking a reader who is passionate about nature, or find a secret admirer of science fiction." Another week consumers who mention the pertinent e-mail will receive a free gift from the store's grab bag.

In 10 years, Head House Books said, the store has become "a community mainstay, with frequent and impressive author events, children's story hours, and a carefully curated selection of titles on the shelves with just about any book on the planet available for overnight delivery."

Cindy Ratzlaff has been named director of brand development for North Star Way, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and will be responsible for working with authors to develop their personal brands, grow their brand platforms and integrate the marketing and promotional efforts of the publisher with those of the author.

Ratzlaff was most recently president of Brand New Brand You Inc., her agency devoted to author brand development. Before that, she was v-p of brand marketing at Rodale.

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At Penguin Random House Audio & Living Language:
 
Jennifer Rubins has been promoted to senior marketing manager, Penguin Random House Audio, Books on Tape & Living Language.
 
Nicole Morano joins as senior publicist, Penguin Random House Audio and Living Language.

No Ordinary Life by Suzanne Redfearn (Grand Central).

Today:
CBS This Morning: DeVon Franklin and Meagan Good, authors of The Wait: A Powerful Practice for Finding the Love of Your Life and the Life You Love (Howard, $24, 9781501105296). They will also appear tomorrow on Wendy Williams.

Fresh Air: Mei Fong, author of One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27, 9780544275393).

CNN's New Day: E.J. Dionne Jr., author of Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781476763798). He will also appear on MSNBC's All in with Chris Hayes and PBS NewsHour.

Sirius XM's Digital Show: Alec Ross, author of The Industries of the Future (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781476753652).

Tomorrow:
Today Show: Grace Helbig, author of Grace & Style: The Art of Pretending You Have It (Touchstone, $19.99, 9781501120589).

Diane Rehm: David J. Linden, author of Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind (Penguin Books, $17, 9780143128441).

Daily Show: Peter Bergen, author of United States of Jihad: Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists (Crown, $28, 9780804139540).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Joel Osteen, author of Fresh Start: The New You Begins Today (FaithWords, $24, 9781455591527).

Late Night with Seth Meyers repeat: Sunil Yapa, author of Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist (Lee Boudreaux Books, $26, 9780316386531).

Last Call with Carson Daly repeat: Judah Friedlander, author of If the Raindrops United: Drawings and Cartoons (Hachette Books, $16.99, 9780316306959).

Although J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them won't hit movie theaters until November 18, a new featurette released at a Harry Potter event in Orlando, Fla., recently "explains how Rowling's latest story will be set in Potter's world, but introduce us to a bunch of new characters several decades earlier--in 1920s America," io9 reported.

David Yates is directing Fantastic Beasts from a screenplay by Rowling, with Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne playing Newt Scamander. The cast also includes Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Ron Perlman, Carmen Ejogo, Jenn Murray, Faith Wood-Blagrove and Colin Farrell.

The finalists in the eight categories of the 28th Annual Minnesota Book Awards, sponsored by the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, have been made public. See the full list here. Winners will be announced on April 16.

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Linda Hogan will receive the 2016 Henry David Thoreau Prize for Nature Writing, which is awarded annually by PEN New England "to a writer demonstrating literary excellence in nature writing." Previous winners are Gretel Ehrlich, E. O. Wilson, Gary Snyder, Peter Matthiessen and T. C. Boyle. Hogan, who has published numerous works of poetry and prose, will be honored March 10.

"Intimately connected to her political and spiritual concerns, Hogan's poetry deals with issues such as the environment and eco-feminism, the relocation of Native Americans, and historical narratives, including oral histories," PEN New England noted.

Though Georgia O'Keeffe is best known today for her stunning outsize flowers and Southwestern landscapes, there was much more to the woman and to her art. In her fourth novel, Georgia, Dawn Tripp (The Season of Open Water) plunges readers into a vivid narrative of O'Keeffe's evolution as an artist, her long and prickly marriage to the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and her complicated relationship with the publicity and recognition she received.

Tripp brings O'Keeffe to life through first-person narration, telling the story of her years as an art teacher in Texas, the bold charcoal drawings she sent to Stieglitz at his gallery in New York City, the way she fell headlong into a relationship with the photographer and into his glittering bohemian circle of artists, writers and critics. A curator as well, Stieglitz delighted in discovering and promoting new artists, including O'Keeffe, who became his lover and, later, his wife. Though she allowed Stieglitz to photograph her and display his photographs--which made an instant sensation in the art world--O'Keeffe rebelled against critical reviews that insisted on tying her work to those images. As she explored new forms and subjects for her art, she also began spending summers in the Southwest, where the immense landscapes and sharp, unrelenting light captured her imagination. Tripp deftly contrasts the New York art world, crowded with political intrigue and complicated personal relationships, with the vast stillness of New Mexico, where O'Keeffe could live and paint exactly as she wished.

Tripp's writing is the linguistic equivalent of O'Keeffe's art: bold, luminous, full of unusual juxtapositions. As O'Keeffe begins experimenting with scale and form in her flower paintings, Tripp says she "took that simple delicacy of a flower and kicked the shape open." Instead of a typical still life of flowers in a vase, "life at arm's length," O'Keeffe wanted to portray ordinary objects as their immediate, essential selves, "not constrained, but altogether different."

Following the arc of O'Keeffe's career, Tripp delves into the tension between the public artistic image (largely curated by Stieglitz, at least early on) and the private desires of the woman who simply wanted to create. Drawing on meticulous research into O'Keeffe's correspondence and career, Tripp goes beyond the public icon to imagine a character "so human, so flawed and imprecise, and beautiful for that."

While it will appeal to fans of O'Keeffe's work, Georgia will also draw readers who love a compelling story. By exploring one woman's struggle to be seen and valued for herself, Tripp asks important questions about gender, love and the roles of criticism and public image in art. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Dawn Tripp's fourth novel is a dazzling exploration of Georgia O'Keeffe's artistic career and the deeply human woman behind the cultural icon.

An Italian ornithology book from 1765 became AbeBooks' priciest sale ever at $191,000 to top the rankings on the company's annual list of its most expensive sales for 2015. Here's the top 10:

Storia naturale degli uccelli trattata con metodo e adornata di figure intagliate in rame e miniate al naturale. Ornithologia methodice digesta atque iconibus aeneis ad vivum illuminatis by Saverio Manetti ($191,000)
Pangeometria by Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevskii ($34,245)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl ($25,000)
Sertum Orchidaceum: A Wreath of the Most Beautiful Orchidaceous Flowers by John Lindley ($24,643)
Plantes de la France by Jaume Saint-Hilaire ($22,549)
The Grounde of Artes by Robert Record ($22,083)
Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot ($20,000)
Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien ($19,492)
The Holy Bible ($18,928)
The Astronauts: The Story of Project Mercury, America's Man-in-Space Program by Martin Caidin ($18,500)