Jennifer Joseph of Manic D Press in San Francisco offered this appreciation of Tower Records, which is closing:

"The passing of Tower Records has elicited feelings of nostalgia mixed with melancholy around the Manic D office. In the early- to mid-'90s, Tower was the place to go for alternative literature: books, zines, everything. On the cusp of the Internet era, through Tower Records, a connectivity emerged for a certain generation coming of age, whether they were looking for the new issue of Cometbus or Factsheet Five. The visionary buying of Tower book buyers John Hennessey and Paul Harrington as well as magazine/zine buyer Doug Biggert changed the scope of "alternative culture" by connecting potential readers who may never have set foot in a bookstore with indie publications that spoke to and about their experiences and interests throughout the country. And for that, we will always be grateful."

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In Norfolk, Va., Follett and Barnes & Noble College have completed a kind of do-si-do. Earlier this year (Shelf Awareness, May 31, 2006), Follett took over management of the bookstore at Old Dominion University and announced plans to open a 42,000-sq.-ft. store in a development off campus that would serve both the school and general public. B&N had managed the store for 20 years.

Now B&N College has taken over management of stores at Tidewater Community College's four campuses, which had been managed by Follett for 18 years, and has announced plans to open a central "academic superstore" in MacArthur Center, a shopping mall that includes Nordstrom, Dillard's and a Waldenbooks. According to the Virginian Pilot, the 28,000-sq.-ft. store will include a children's department and a magazine and newspaper section.

B&N College also recently took over management of Norfolk State University's campus bookstore.

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State of Denial by Bob Woodward (S&S, $30, 0743272234) sold nearly 62,000 copies at B&N in the week ended last Saturday, and the publisher has gone back to press for another 100,000 copies, putting the in-print figure at one million, according to today's Wall Street Journal. The sales pace is faster than Woodward's two earlier books about the Bush Administration.

Betsy Burton of the King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, told the Journal that the store originally bought 25 and has reordered twice. "It's hard to keep in stock," she said. "We're the reddest and most pro-Bush state, and if people have become disenchanted here, it's a bad sign for the Republicans."

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Kudzu Book Traders has added three people to its sales staff, Bargain Book News reported. The additions are intended to expand its "sales organization in order to grow our customer base as well as expand the services we offer clients in all segments of the bargain book industry," as national sales manager Mary Ann Pflueger put it. The additions are:

• Ken Horne, who has 15 years of bargain book experience and will cover the southwest U.S. and some national accounts.
• Joann Shapiro, formerly with Ingram Book Group and a consultant, who will focus on new business development and handle accounts in the central U.S.
• Michael Vernon, most recently at Kensington, who will work in the company's New York showroom and handle accounts in the northeast.

Infamous is perhaps most famous so far for being "the other movie" about Truman Capote, following by just over a year Capote, which featured Philip Seymour Hoffman. Opening this Friday, October 13, Infamous also focuses on the period in which Capote researched and wrote In Cold Blood--although with more emphasis on Capote's New York society life. Doug McGrath is the director of this one, which stars Toby Jones as Capote, Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee, Daniel Craig as Perry Smith--and Peter Bogdanovich as Bennett Cerf. Other cast members include Sigourney Weaver, Isabella Rossellini, Jeff Daniels and Gwyneth Paltrow.

• The standard biography is Capote by Gerald Clarke (Carroll & Graf Publishers, $17.00, 078670912X), which was the basis for the other movie.
• The hardcover tie-in edition (although tying into Capote!) of In Cold Blood came out last year (Random House, $22, 0375507906). The paperback is from Vintage ($14, 0679745580).

This morning on the Today Show: Linda Wells, founding editor of Allure magazine and author of Allure: Confessions of a Beauty Editor (Bulfinch, $24.99, 082125779X).

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Today on Good Morning America: Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung offers reconnaisance about Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell (Knopf, $28.95, 1400041708).

Also on Good Morning America: Gloria Estefan sings the praises of her new children's book, Noelle's Treasure Tale: A New Magically Mysterious Adventure (Rayo, $17.95, 0061126144). Estefan will also be on the View today.

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This morning on the Early Show: Suzanne Somers, author of Ageless: Bioidentical Hormones and Beyond (Crown, $25, 0307237249). She'll also be on the Martha Stewart Show today.

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The Book Report, the weekly AM radio book-related show organized by Windows a bookshop, Monroe, La., will feature one interview on today's show, which has the theme "the Cherokee Trail":

Barbara Duncan, education director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Cherokee, N.C., and consultant to Charles Frazier during his writing of Thirteen Moons (Random House, $26.95, 0375509321).

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 Fox's Geraldo at Large: John Walston whose new book is The Buzzword Dictionary: 1,000 Phrases Translated from Pompous to English (Marion Street Press, dist. by IPG, $12.95, 1933338075).   

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Today on the View: Lynn Sherr, ABC correspondent and author of Outside the Box: A Memoir (Rodale, $25.95, 1594862575).

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Today on Talk of the Nation: Alain De Botton on The Architecture of Happiness (Pantheon, $25, 0375424431).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: CNN's Lou Dobbs, whose new book is War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back (Viking, $24.95, 0670037923).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Andrew Sullivan, author of The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back (HarperCollins, $25.95, 0060188774).

Kiran Desai has won the Man Booker Prize for her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss (Grove, $14, 0802142818), set in the author's native India in the 1980s. Quoted by the Times of London, Hermione Lee, chair of the judges and Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature at Oxford, said: "This is a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness." She stated that the book was not a "compromise" choice.

Desai, who is 35 and lives in New York City, is the youngest woman to win the £50,000 (about US$92,700) prize. Desai dedicated the book to her mother, Anita Desai, who was shortlisted for the Booker three times, but has never won.

"I could not be a happier," Joan Bingham, the Grove/Atlantic executive editor who has acquired and edited both of Desai's novels, said. "It is a tremendous testament to this brilliant and evocative novel."

 

The following are selected significant titles coming out next Tuesday, October 17:

The Hounds and the Fury by Rita Mae Brown (Ballantine, $24.95, 0345465474). The author of Rubyfruit Jungle offers her fifth foxhunting novel.

What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George (HarperCollins, $26.95, 0060545623). Scotland Yard investigates the murder of Inspector Thomas Lynley's wife.

The Collectors by David Baldacci (Warner, $26.99, 044653109X). The Speaker of the House and the head of the rare books room at the Library of Congress are murdered. Then Caleb Shaw, a member of the Camel Club, introduced in Baldacci's bestseller of the same name, nearly dies.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson (Broadway, $25, 076791936X). The travel humorist mines some more of his Midwest childhood.

The Audacity of Hope by Senator Barack Obama (Crown, $25, 0307237699). The Illinois senator offers his ideas of how politics should be.

Life After Death: The Burden of Proof by Deepak Chopra (Crown, $24, 0307345785). The prolific bestselling author surveys the inevitable.

No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks by Ed Viesturs (Broadway, $23.95, 0767924703). The first American to climb the 14 mountains taller than 8,000 meters.

Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency by Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein (Random House, $24.95, 1400065763). Dubose is the co-author of Shrub, Bushwacked, The Hammer, among other books savaging the Bush administration; Bernstein is the executive editor of the Texas Observer.

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink (Bantam, $25, 0553804340). The director of Cornell's Food and Brand Lab serves up bits of information about our eating habits.

Booksellers who gathered at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Mich., for the 17th annual GLBA Trade Show this past weekend were greeted with a sign warning them to leave their hockey sticks at the door. It came as no surprise, then, that the show was a model of conviviality and goodwill.

Michele Sulka of Joseph-Beth Booksellers cited the location as a reason for an increase in attendance. "A lot of people came back to Dearborn for this show, which is great to see," she said. A member of the GLBA board, Sulka said she was particularly happy to see new booksellers on the show floor and pointed out that Friday's seminars were well-attended, adding that some said the rooms were too small to handle the turnout.

The range of subjects covered in the educational seminars was appreciated by veteran booksellers and neophytes alike. Bill Cusumano of Nicola's Books called the show the best he has seen in his 15 years of attendance. "I was really impressed with this year's education sessions," he said. "The sessions ran the gamut of bookselling, from ISBN-13 to selling more sidelines."

From the publishers' view, it was a great show as well. Sean Maher of Perseus commented: "This is just one of the friendliest regional shows."  Maher noted that booksellers were picking up The Few by Alex Kershaw (Da Capo). In keeping with the pirate theme, the publisher featured Pirate Soul (Running Press) at its booth.  

The VHPS booth was wiped clean of ARCs for Probable Cause by Theresa Schwegel, the publisher's first time presenting a spring title at the show. Another book that caused excitement at the booth, The Religion by Tim Willocks, is to be published simultaneously by FSG and Tor.

Booksellers at the Miller Trade Book Marketing booth were scooping up copies of Clueless George Goes to War! by Pat Bagley (White Horse Books) and a clever promo piece for Hot Dish Heaven: Classic Casseroles from Midwest Kitchens by Ann L. Burckhardt (Minnesota Historical Society Press). The package includes the essentials for any "hot dish"--a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, a packet of Lipton's onion soup mix and rice. Just add chicken and it's Hot Dish Heaven! Eric Miller said the show was "very strong, with lots of new booksellers and lots of business and good energy."

One prospective bookseller credited Paz & Associates' bookselling school for her enthusiasm. "I can't imagine getting into the business without them," said Jennifer Loustau, who is planning to open a 4,000-sq.-ft. bookstore/cafe in Wheeling, W.V. She envisions her store as a "community center." At GLBA, her first book trade show, allowed her to meet with vendors one-on-one and get to know people in a manageable setting.

Gearing up for holiday sales was foremost on the minds of established booksellers, and finding new ways to be profitable was a key reason for attending the show. Board member Cynthia Compton of 4KidsBooks emphasized the importance of children's books in that equation. "As more and more independent booksellers look to maximize fourth quarter sales, children's books are taken more seriously. This show takes children's books very seriously. Two board members have kid's bookstores. We have our Children's Book & Author Breakfast on Sunday morning, the participation of frontlist children's book authors throughout the show and sidelines that include toy distributors. This is an excellent show for kid's books."

Just leave the hockey sticks outside.--Kathleen Willoughby, v-p of marketing and online development, Bookazine.