Poets and Writers magazine offers a thoughtful piece on independent bookselling and how authors can help stores. Check it out here.

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Yesterday Barnes & Noble closed at $41 a share, up 4.9%, on volume of 1.4 million shares, more than double than usual trading volume. Observers attributed the gain to the Barron's story, mentioned here yesterday, in which the head of the Pershing Square hedge fund was bullish about B&N and called it an attractive buyout target.

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In late November, Borders is opening two stores in the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Both the 710-sq.-ft. and 767-sq.-ft. stores will be in the Edward H. McNamara Terminal and will offer more than 7,000 book titles, including audiobooks, gifts, stationery and top-selling DVDs and CDs. These are the first Borders stores in the Detroit Airport. 

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Another Story, the Allentown, Pa., used bookstore that is owned by John Furphy, has moved, according to the Allentown Morning Call. The store is now at 524 N. 18th St., Allentown, Pa. 18104.

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Over the past several years, Bishop State Community College, Mobile, Ala., gave $261,800 in cash to bookstore employees to fund textbook buybacks from students but can't account for all but $549 of the amount, the Birmingham News reported. A school spokesperson said that records might have been misplaced or taken in a burglary. Auditors are looking at a variety of financial problems at the school, including alleged misuse of financial aid money.

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And in another apparent case of temptation triumphant, WTOC-TV in Savannah, Ga., reported that local police told the station that federal agents had indicted and arrested Charles Jackson, who worked at the Savannah State University bookstore, for embezzlement of almost $800,000 in federal grant money.

Hudson Booksellers, which operates 66 bookstores and sells books in more than 400 Hudson News newsstands in North American airports, train stations and other travel spots, has announced a best books of the year program. As of December 1, the 20 titles will be prominently displayed in all Hudson Booksellers and large Hudson News stores. "The list was created to help airport travelers make quick, educated buying decisions during the holiday season," Sara Hinckley, v-p, book buying and promotions, said in a statement.

The titles were chosen by a panel of the company's book buyers for "their quality of writing, storyline and sales performance." Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier, one of the 10 fiction titles, was also named best book of the year. The "winners":

Nonfiction

• The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley
• The Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey
• Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda
• Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
• Blind Side by Michael Lewis
• Collapse by Jared Diamond
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
• Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
• Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood

Fiction

• Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier
• The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
• The March by E.L. Doctorow
• The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
• The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
• The People's Act of Love by James Meek
• A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
• Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
• Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

This morning on the Today Show: Lynne Cheney, whose new children's book is Our 50 States: A Family Adventure across America (S&S, $17.95, 0689867174).

Also on the Today Show: Francois Payard, pastry chef extraordinaire and author of Bite Size: Elegant Recipes for Entertaining (Morrow, $19.95, 0060887222).

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Today on Good Morning America: Joan Collins, author of The Art of Living Well: Looking Good, Feeling Great (Sourcebooks, $24.95, 1402209428).

Also today on Good Morning America: Frank Warren, creator of the PostSecret blog whose second book is My Secret: A PostSecret Book (Regan Books, $19.95, 0061196681).

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Today on the View: clinical psychologist and sleep expert Michael Breus, Ph.D., author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health (Dutton, $24.95, 0525949798).

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Today Live with Regis and Kelly celebrates Paula Deen, author of Paula Deen Celebrates!: Best Dishes and Best Wishes for the Best Times of Your Life (S&S, $26, 0743278119).

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Scheduled for tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Katherine Ketcham, author of Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption (Viking, $25.95, 0670037893).

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In a repeat of a recent show, tonight the Daily Show with Jon Stewart features former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, author of Work Hard, Study . . . And Keep Out of Politics!: Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Political Life (Putnam, $28.95, 0399153772). 

Happy Halloween. The following titles appear next Tuesday, October 31:

You on a Diet: The Owner's Manual For Waist Management by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz (Free Press, $25, 0743292545). With this title, They bulk up the You franchise.

The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman (Atria, $29.95, 0743272072). A magical attempt to discover "the man behind the myth."

The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker (Scribner, $30, 0743246268). The 75th anniversary edition.

Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors by James Hornfischer (Bantam, $26, 0553803905). The story of the heroic cruiser sunk by the Japanese in 1942 from the author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.

French Women for All Seasons: More Secrets, More Pleasures by Mireille Guiliano (Knopf, $24.95, 0307265234). More, much more, from the author of the surprise bestseller French Women Don't Get Fat.

Provence A-Z by Peter Mayle (Knopf, $25, 1400044421). The movie version of Mayle's A Good Year, a fictional version of A Year in Provence, opens November 10.

Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook by Martha Stewart (Crown, $45, 0517577003). Martha keeps busy around the house.

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler (Knopf, $35, 067943822X). From the author of Winchell, An Empire of Their Own and Life: The Movie.

 

The following is the fourth of five excerpts Shelf Awareness is running from An Alphabetical Life: Living It Up in the Business of Books by Wendy Werris (Carroll & Graf, $15.95, 078671817X), which will be published officially November 5. A former bookseller and longtime sales rep, Werris also works as a freelance author escort and photographer in the Los Angeles area. For more about the book and author, check out her Web site. Incidentally the book made the No. 10 spot on Sunday's Los Angeles Times Book Review nonfiction paperback bestseller list. Congratulations!

The following story is a classic for the era. By the time of the 1973 ABA convention in Los Angeles, Werris wanted to work in publishing and went to the booth of Straight Arrow publishing, Rolling Stone's book division, determined to get a job--although she had made no appointment or contacts beforehand.


After a few minutes of espionage, I asked a woman wearing a Straight Arrow ABA badge around her neck who the person in charge might be. "The president of the company is Alan Rinzler," she said. "He's standing right behind you."

Turning, I saw a thin, wiry man with a salt-and-pepper Afro that was spiked up and out like Hebraic cotton candy gone mad. Nervously running his hands through his hair he looked seriously, unnervingly intense. Wire-rimmed glasses sat on his softly beaked nose. He wore a tweed suit that matched the color of his curly locks. Approaching him, I extended my hand.

"I understand you're the president of Straight Arrow Books." Alan took my hand and held it, trying to figure out if he knew me.

"Who are you?" His eyes squinted suspiciously.

"I'm Wendy Werris--and I want to work for you," I crowed. He was still holding my hand, the palm of which was now sweaty.

"Ah-ha!" Alan gave me a fixed look. "Are you Jewish?" he asked.  His question unnerved me; surely he was joking.

"Well, yes," I said cagily. Now I was the suspicious party.

"Ah-ha! Me too. What's your sign?"

"Scorpio," I muttered, annoyed now, sweat breaking out on my brow. At least Alan had let go of my hand.

His face lit up. "Me too! When's your birthday?"

Then it dawned on me. This wasn't a joke; it was my interview, and I knew that if I aced this last essential question I'd be hired. I took an extremely deep breath. "It's October 26," I squeaked.

Alan slapped his hand to his forehead and cried, "OH, MY GOD! ME TOO! When can you start?"

And with that, my life in publishing began. I'd met my ethnic, astrological and psychic twin. Alan Rinzler would become my new mentor on this next, questionable part of my journey through the book business.  

The following were the bestselling titles during September at the member stores of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association:

Hardcovers

1. Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear
2. Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris
3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
4. The Drowning Man by Margaret Coel
5. A Merry Band of Murderers edited by Claudia Bishop and Don Bruns
6. Loves, Lies and Liquor by M.C. Beaton
7. Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson and Greg Call
8. The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer
9. A Stolen Season by Steve Hamilton
10. The Merlot Murders by Ellen Crosby

Paperbacks

1. The Cinco de Mayo Murder by Lee Harris
2. The Case of the Roasted Onion by Claudia Bishop
3. The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library by Alice Kimberly
4. Fear on Friday by Ann Purser
5. Through the Darkness by Marcia Talley
6. Wreath of Deception by Mary Ellen Hughes
7. Bloodlines by Jan Burke
8. Eye of the Wolf by Margaret Coel
9. Citizen Vince by Jess Walter
10. Ashes and Bones by Dana Cameron
10. Killer Instinct by Victoria Laurie

[Many thanks to the IMBA!]