Berean Christian Stores will "probably" change the names of the four
Provident Bookstores it is buying from Mennonite Publishing (Shelf Awareness, October 24, 2006) and will make some cosmetic changes, Berean's president and CEO Les Dietzman told the Lancaster New Era.
The stores "will evolve with the times, as retailers must," he
continued. "Our job is not to sell what we want to sell but to meet our
customers' needs for Christian products. We take our cue from them.
We're very much in the service business." Dietzman is a former Wal-Mart
v-p.
Three of the four Provident stores are in Pennsylvania--Lancaster, New Holland and Souderton--and the other is in Wooster, Ohio.
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The Peppertree Bookstore, Palm Springs, Calif., which is opening a second store in Old Town La Quinta, Calif. (Shelf Awareness,
June 11, 2006), has not been able to get into the new space because the development's expansion has suffered
"utility and permit delays," according to the Desert Sun. The store had originally hoped to open in September.
The bookstore has dealt with the delay by renting a temporary space for
speaker events. "It's important for us . . . to let the residents at
this side of the valley know that Peppertree is coming here," bookstore
manager Chris Johnson told the paper.
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Tomorrow Greg Anastas will join the Perseus Books Group as v-p, sales operations. He has more than 12 years of experience at publishers such as HarperCollins and Hearst Book Group and was most recently director of customer operations at Simon & Schuster.
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Today's New York Times
spotlights Perceval Press, Santa Monica, Calif., and its
owner--although not necessarily in that order. The owner, who has lent
the endeavor the kind of magic every small press can use, is Viggo
Mortensen, who founded Perceval in 2002, soon after he finished playing
Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Actor Mortensen is also the
author of "art books that combine painting, photography, poetry,
journal entries and whatever else he cares to include, with interests
that also extend to fervently antiwar politics and music."
The press publishes about eight titles a year, has "no real advertising" and sells primarily from its Web site (which lists several stores in the Los Angeles area that stock its titles).
The Used Textbook Association,
formed in August, aims to "to advocate the role and value of used
textbooks in the marketplace and in turn, increase the supply of used
textbooks available to students."
The Association was founded by BUDGEText, MBS Textbook Exchange,
Nebraska Book Company, New Jersey Books, Southeastern Book Company,
Texas Book Company and Tichenor College Textbook Company. Barry Major,
COO of Nebraska Book Company, is president of the association. The
association said it is "currently in the initial membership recruitment
phase with close to 50 members."
The association intends "to provide students and faculty members
information on the buyback process, improve the rate of early adoptions
by faculty members, and ensure textbook merchandise practices are
appropriate and meeting the goals of higher learning."
The association said widespread problems it will address include "the increased
frequency of new editions, unexpected bundling of course materials and
less timely faculty adoption rates [that] continue to drive up the cost of
textbooks." In addition, "the value of used textbooks is often lost in
the discussion of what can be done to address the issue of rising
prices because there has been a lack of a unified industry voice. This
association creates that unified voice for the industry and is working
to lower the cost of education through promoting affordable textbooks."
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Speaking
of textbooks, the State Public Interest Research Groups has issued
another report, "largely a summary of previous findings," that "accuses
publishers of undermining the used book market and unnecessarily
inflating prices." Inside Higher Ed has a text about the report and its recommendations.
This morning on the Today Show: Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat whose new book is French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure (Knopf, $24.95, 0307265234).
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Today on the Early Show: Neal Gabler, author of Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (Knopf, $35, 067943822X).
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Today on Good Morning America: Elizabeth Dugan talks about The Driving
Dilemma: The Complete Resource Guide for Older Drivers and Their
Families (Collins, $14.95, 0061142182).
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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 "silly and serious":
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 the View turns the spotlight on actress Joan Collins, author of
The Art of Living Well: Looking Good, Feeling Great (Sourcebooks,
$24.95, 1402209428).
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Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show: etiquette expert Peggy Post, author of
"Excuse Me, but I Was Next. . . ": How to Handle the Top 100 Manners
Dilemmas (Collins, $19.95, 0060889160).
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Today on Fox News's Hannity and Colmes: David Limbaugh, author of
Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic
Party (Regnery, $27.95, 1596980176).
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Today on the Tavis Smiley Show: 2004 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai, author of Unbowed: A Memoir (Knopf, $24.95, 0307263487).
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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Margaret Atwood, whose new fictional
foray is Moral Disorder (Nan A. Talese, $23.95, 0385503849), a series
of interconnected stories.
The following titles have laydown dates of next Tuesday, November 7:
There's Nothing in this Book That I Meant to Say by Paula Poundstone
(Harmony, $24, 0609603167). Comedian Poundstone writes about a range of
historical figures--and herself, particularly her life following her
DWI conviction.
The House of Hilton: From Conrad to Paris: A Drama of Wealth, Power, and Privilege by Jerry Oppenheimer (Crown, $24.95, 0307337227). Easy pickings for the celebrity biographer.
The Mystical Life of Jesus: An Uncommon Perspective on the Life of Christ by Sylvia Browne (Dutton, $23.95, 052595001X). The psychic tunes into Jesus.
The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry (Putnam, $15.95, 0399154132). A touching serious Christmas tale from the humorist.
Too Soon to Say Goodbye by Art Buchwald (Random House, $17.95, 1400066271). Another humorist looks death in the face and laughs.
Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir by Gore Vidal (Doubleday, $26, 0385517211). A followup of sorts to the writer's first memoir, Palimpsest.
And in paperback:
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate by David Michaels (Berkley, $9.99, 0425212785). Game over.
Rachael Ray 2,4,6,8 by Rachael Ray (Crown, $19.95, 1400082560). This latest title from the Food Network star focuses on recipes for different numbers of eaters.
Dixie Cash (aka sisters Pam'la Cumbie and Jeffery McClanahan) has written her third Domestic Equalizers novel, I Gave You My Heart, But You Sold It Online
(Morrow, $21.95, 0060829710), which is just out. In the book, the
Equalizers--Salt Lick, Tex., beauty shop owners Debbie Sue Overstreet
and Edwina Perkins-Martin--try to solve a mystery involving a rodeo
superstar whose ex-girlfriend is running up a tab on his credit card, a
Texas Ranger and "the murky world of Internet dating and mating." Cash
has just begun touring and here Pam'la offers the first entries in an
ongoing journal: