When third graders at Tomoka Elementary School in Ormond Beach, Fla., learned that the local Barnes & Noble, in Daytona Beach, would likely close at the end of the year, they wrote to CEO Demos Parneros, begging him not to close the store, suggesting other sites and inviting him to visit to see alternative locations.

As the AP reported (via Local 20 News), the letter, written "in colorful penmanship" on poster-sized paper, read in part: "We recently learned that Barnes & Noble had lost its lease on your Daytona Beach store. We are very sorry to hear that and very upset that we won't be able to visit and shop and browse and learn new things. Some of us love your sale items (using math). Some like to study there and also eat there.... Please don't leave us without our favorite book store!... P.S. If you come, we will take you to the beach with us and teach you how to surf!"

The letter struck a chord, and B&N renewed the store's lease for another year. On Friday, B&N v-p of retail operations Frank Morabito visited the school and met the students in Shaina Belsky's third grade class who had sent the letter.

"When we got the letter, it was important to us, not only that we didn't disappoint you but we didn't disappoint the community," Morabito told the class. "So we tried really hard to keep it open and this time we were able to."

For her part, Belsky said she hoped to show her students that they have the power to make a difference by converting ideas to action: "They just have to try. They can make positive change for themselves and their community, and they just have to try."

Book Suey, a cooperatively owned bookstore, has opened in Hamtramck, Mich., Bookselling This Week reported. Selling new and used books, the store is located on the first floor of Bank Suey, a community space.

The store is open Wednesday 4-9 p.m. and Saturdays noon-6 p.m. "Our launch was successful and we are now settling into more regular hours and taking the next steps to maintain excitement and keep people coming into the store," bookseller Eric Anderson told BTW.

On Facebook, the store posted: "Why a bookshop? In in a time where we find ourselves more and more isolated, we (the Book Suey collective members) wanted to create a space that inspires folks to contemplate, converse, and gather as a community."

The board of regents has approved a request from the University of Northern Iowa "to pay $2.4 million for a privately owned bookstore that has been serving its Cedar Falls campus for 80 years," the Courier reported." UNI plans to run University Book and Supply as a nonprofit.

The sale includes all the bookstore's assets, including the Hawkeye Bookstore at Hawkeye Community College. Currently, UNI does not own or operate its own bookstore, but "is looking to enter the bookselling business at a time of significant industry change, as options for digital books are forcing stores to diversify inventory or even close altogether," the Courier wrote.

Robert Hastings, publisher at Black Spring Press, died November 30, the Bookseller reported. He was 52. Hastings founded Black Spring Press in 1985 to "breathe new life into neglected classics." Its first publication was a reprint of Anais Nin's D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study, and the press subsequently produced work by Julian Mclaren-Ross, Patrick Hamilton, Nick Cave, Charles Baudelaire, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Carolyn Cassady and Leonard Cohen, among others.

"Robert was one of the most charming, well-informed and humorous individuals one could ever hope to encounter," said Marc Glendening, a friend. "He combined having great natural presence with a gentle, modest demeanor. Highly generous in spirit, it was often difficult to persuade him to take money for Black Spring books. It was an honor and pleasure to have known him, albeit only for an all too brief period."

Last night, the Drama Book Shop in New York City hosted a signing for Dear Evan Hansen: Through the Window (Grand Central), the companion book to the Tony-winning Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen. Steven Levenson (Tony Award winner for Best Book of a Musical) co-wrote the book with Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Michael Greif (nominated for Tony Best Director), the director of the show. Pictured: (seated, l.-r.) Levenson and Greif, (standing, l.-r.) Grand Central's Gretchen Young, who edited the book, and Stacey Mindich, the producer of the show.

photo: Stephen Maturen

Noting that "John Waters and Christmas shouldn't go together so well, but somehow they just do," the Washington Post featured an interview with the filmmaker, actor and author who has performed his one-man holiday stage show, A John Waters Christmas, more than 200 times in cities across the U.S. Among our favorite responses from the q&a:

What's the best gift you've gotten?
Always books--rare, weird books. Someone gave me a novelization of a very obscure Herschell Gordon Lewis film called Moonshine Mountain. And [Lewis] came to my house once and saw the book and said, "I never even saw this book before, and it's my movie!"

Where do you recommend people go shopping for presents?
Atomic Books. That's the best place to go Christmas shopping if you're in Baltimore, and it's in Hampden, which is also a great neighborhood to shop in.

As the fall semester winds down (or ramps up, if you're a student facing exams), the sidewalk sandwich chalkboard at Indigo Bridge Books and Café, Lincoln, Neb., offered sympathy and scholarly sanctuary: "Students, we know these next two weeks might be tough. Luckily, we have warm, quiet study spaces, and delicious local coffee--at a discount, just for you! Show us your student ID for 20% off your drinks during Dead Week and Finals Week."

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen several titles by Liane Moriarty as her picks of the month for December. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote:

"Some authors have a way of pulling you into a story with characters and details so rich and real that for a time it's hard to imagine they exist only on the page. Liane Moriarty is such an author. And she's so good at what she does that I can't pick just one of her titles; I am suggesting you read everything you can by her, starting with Big Little Lies, The Husband's Secret and What Alice Forgot.

Moriarty has a knack for capturing the day-to-day of suburban life and pulling back the curtain to reveal lives that aren't nearly as squeaky clean as they seem from the outside."

This "snow safety advisory" was tweeted out during Saturday's snowstorm by Belmont Books, Belmont, Mass.: ‏"To increase car's traction in snow, purchase 20-50 lbs. of books from local #IndieBookstore and put them in trunk. Also doubles as emergency reading supply if power goes out. #YoureWelcome."

Today:
Harry: Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush, authors of Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life (Grand Central, $28, 9781538711415).

The Talk: Candace Cameron Bure, author of Staying Stylish: Cultivating a Confident Look, Style, and Attitude (Zondervan, $22.99, 9780310088059).

Daily Show: Pete Souza, author of Obama: An Intimate Portrait (Little, Brown, $50, 9780316512589).

Tomorrow:
NPR's Morning Edition: Tiffany Haddish, author of The Last Black Unicorn (Gallery, $26, 9781501181825).

Steve: T.D. Jakes, author of Soar!: Build Your Vision from the Ground Up (FaithWords, $25, 9781455553907).

The View: Jimmy Fallon, author of Everything Is Mama (Feiwel & Friends, $16.99, 9781250125842).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Tom Hanks, author of Uncommon Type: Some Stories (Knopf, $26.95, 9781101946152).

Also on the Late Show: Katy Tur, author of Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History (Dey Street, $26.99, 9780062684929).

AMC unveiled first-look images from The Terror, adapted from the novel by Dan Simmons, and said that the thriller series will debut March 26, according to Deadline. The 10-episode project is from executive producers Ridley Scott, David Kajganich and Soo Hugh. The cast includes Jared Harris (The Crown), Tobias Menzies (Outlander), Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones), Paul Ready (Cuffs), Adam Nagaitis (Suffragette), Nive Nielsen (The New World), Ian Hart (Neverland) and Trystan Gravelle (Mr. Selfridge).

"The Terror captures a rare combination of fascinating history, complex and flawed characters, the inextinguishable human spirit and the horror and promise of an uncharted world," said co-showrunners Kajganich and Hugh.

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Paramount Television has signed a deal with writer-producer Patrick Somerville (Maniac) to develop new TV and digital projects, beginning with the novel Made for Love by Alissa Nutting, Deadline reported. Somerville will oversee development of a TV series, with Nutting and Dean Bakopoulos (Summerlong) writing.

Somerville, who is also an author, has worked on such TV series as HBO's The Leftovers, FX's The Bridge and Fox's 24: Live Another Day. Nutting's novel Tampa is in development at HBO, with Harmony Korine writing and directing; and her spec pilot, Teenage Euthanasia, co-written with Alyson Levy, just sold to Adult Swim. 

Tom Peters, best known as co-author of In Search of Excellence, will receive the fourth annual Jack Covert Award for Contribution to the Business Book Industry, sponsored by 800-CEO-READ and recognizing "innovation within and impact on the genre."

"When you look at authors who established 'business books' as a significant genre within publishing, Tom Peters is the stand out," said Jack Covert who is the retired president and founder of 800-CEO-READ. "Tom's first book [In Search of Excellence] took business books from the dusty part of the bookstore to the window. It showed the industry that a well written, intelligent business book can sell, and it's never stopped selling. Tom's contribution to the genre has lasted well over three decades."

Peters has been a business consultant with McKinsey & Co. and founded Skunkworks Inc. and the Tom Peters Company. His 17th book, The Excellence Dividend, will be published in April by Vintage.

He will receive the award at the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards on January 18 in New York City.

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Nominees have been selected for the second annual Albertine Prize, a readers' choice award promoting French literature translated into English. The $10,000 prize is co-presented by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and Van Cleef & Arpels. Readers can vote online through May 1.

The nominees are:

Compass by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell (New Directions)
Incest by Christine Angot, translated by Tess Lewis (Archipelago)
Not One Day by Anne Garréta, translated by Emma Ramadan (Deep Vellum)
The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis, translated by Michael Lucey (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou, translated by Helen Stevenson (New Press)

"Turn on. Tune in. Drop out." That seductive invitation from former Harvard psychology researcher and psychedelic drug evangelist Timothy Leary struck terror into the hearts of parents of American teenagers and young adults in the 1960s and 1970s. And it enraged President Richard M. Nixon, who saw Leary as a subversive force, capable of galvanizing opposition to his administration's controversial policies, chief among them its refusal to bring about a promised end to the Vietnam War. Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis's The Most Dangerous Man in America is the entertaining story of the madcap 28-month globetrotting pursuit of Leary after his escape from a California minimum-security prison in September 1970.

Sentenced to a 10-year term for possession of two joints, Leary broke out with relative ease, aided by the revolutionaries known as the Weathermen. Its leaders included Bernardine Dohrn and William Ayers, the man whose radical past threatened the presidential prospects of Barack Obama in 2008. Relying on funds provided by another shadowy group, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, Leary and his wife, Rosemary, eventually made their way to Algiers. There they entered the disturbing and often terrifying orbit of Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panthers, recognized by Algerian authorities as the official representatives of the United States, actively plotting to overthrow the country they called "Babylon."

Minutaglio and Davis (Dallas 1963) vividly recount the manic goings-on in Algiers, as Leary's desire to spread the gospel of LSD clashed with Cleaver's plans for violent revolution. When the Learys eventually abandoned North Africa for Switzerland, and came under the dubious protection of international arms dealer Michel Hauchard, their lives became more surreal. One of the highlights of their sojourn--which, for Timothy, included time in both a luxurious lakeside chalet and prison--was his encounter with Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD in 1943.

As The Most Dangerous Man in America carefully reveals, that title might better have been applied to Richard Nixon, who unleashed an illegal FBI spying operation called COINTELPRO against Leary, the Black Panthers and other political opponents. At the same time as these law enforcement officials single-mindedly pursued Leary, the Nixon re-election campaign was setting in motion plans that led to the Watergate scandal and Nixon's eventual resignation in August 1974.

Minutaglio and Davis's book is a vivid evocation of a raucous time in recent American history. Amid fierce opposition to the Vietnam War and the polarizing president who continued to prosecute it, the country faced a wave of domestic terrorism that included bombings of banks, draft boards and other government offices, whose scope may surprise even those who lived through that era. And in the eye of the cultural hurricane he helped set in motion stood Timothy Leary, colorfully portrayed in this fascinating story. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis offer a vivid account of psychologist and LSD guru Timothy Leary's bizarre international odyssey after his 1970 prison escape.