Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow kept this issue of Shelf Awareness from its appointed rounds. Instead blame it on the wind.

We're late arriving in your e-mailboxes today because of gales last night in Seattle that knocked out power in much of the city--at least in the area where some of us from Shelf Awareness have gathered for several days of talking about budgets and strategic planning and a new item on the agenda, humility before the power of nature.

Our apologies for the delay!

The Southern California Booksellers Association is joining the regional booksellers crowd and changing its name. As of today it is the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association.

Executive director Jennifer Bigelow explained in a statement: "These days, when stores look the same no matter where you are in the country, we here at the SCIBA feel that one of the most important things that we are celebrating is our diversity. We're the same organization but now, with the inclusion of Independent in our name, nothing is in doubt about our membership. The SCIBA represents a collection of vastly diverse independent booksellers that reflect the unique neighborhoods that surround them. No two stores are alike and that is a wonderful thing."

In a related note, SCIBA is adding a new event to its lineup for next year: the Children's Books & Literacy Dinner, which will be held March 16 in Pasadena and is geared to teachers, educators, librarians and booksellers. The keynote speaker will be Brian Selznick, author of Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic Press).

Cool idea of the day. Every afternoon through Christmas Eve, volunteer readers sit in the windows of Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore, Salt Lake City, Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"Decorated like a living room, the window is warm and comes stocked with snacks and hot drinks," the paper wrote. "When the store set out criteria for the window, it asked for all kinds of families--however people defined the term. So far, readers who signed up range from teenage friends to couples on dates to a grandfather and his grandson. 'It's everyone,' said Jennifer Nielsen, who is in charge of decorating the store's windows and coordinating the readers' shifts. 'All the customers have loved it.' "

Most people read, silently or aloud, but some have played board games or chat. Friends and family of readers receive a discount on purchases while the readers are reading. Readers themselves receive a discount after their face time is up.

Catherine Weller, manager of retail operations, tells us that on Saturday, the 23rd, Sam and Lila Weller will be in the window with an old friend, who will read to Sam, who's blind.

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We're sad to hear that Bethanne Patrick, editor of AOL Books and the blog AOL's Book Maven, was one of the many people layed off this week by AOL. She writes that she is starting a new blog thereadingwriter.typepad.com and can be reached at thereadingwriter@aol.com.

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Olsson's has opened its store in Crystal City in Arlington, Va. (Shelf Awareness, July 31, 2006), and now has six stores in and around Washington, D.C. The new Olsson's is at 2200 Crystal Dr.; 703-413-8121.

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Congratulations to David McCullough, author of such classics as John Adams, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, The Johnstown Flood and The Great Bridge, who today is one of a group who will be awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. 

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Bookselling This Week profiles Malaprop's Bookstore/Café in Asheville, N.C., which next year celebrates its 25th anniversary. The store, which has maintained a European sensibility thanks to owner Emoke B'Racz, who grew up in Hungary, now has 6,000 square feet of space as well as a sibling store, Downtown Books & News, which carries newspapers, magazines and used books.

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Over the next two months, World Publications, the bargain and promotional books house, is moving to a 250,000-sq.-ft. distribution center in East Bridgewater, Mass., Bargain Book News reported. The company is also holding a major sale to celebrate the move. For more information, contact Kena Fernandes movingsale@wrldpub.net or 508-880-5555 or 1-800-799-4090.

The new address for offices and warehouse is 140 Laurel St., East Bridgewater, Mass. 02333.
 

Given its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, it's fitting that two of the bestselling books at Duck's Cottage Coffeeshop & Bookstore in Duck, N.C., have aquatic themes.

Bookstore manager Jamie Layton is handselling Washed Up: The Curious Journeys of Flotsam and Jetsam by Skye Moody. "It's a must-have for any beachcomber," said Layton, who cites the book's combination of anecdotes and ecological information as a lure for readers.

A bestseller year round is the coffee table tome Pure Sea Glass: Discovering Nature's Vanishing Gems by Richard LaMotte and photographer Celia Pearson. LaMotte has visited Duck's Cottage frequently and is scheduled to return next summer to promote Sea Glass, a visual primer on identifying sea glass, its historical significance, ways to determine rarity and where to find specimens. During LaMotte's appearances, said Layton, "We have a line out the door."

North Carolina resident Travis Morris' Duck Hunting on Currituck Sound: Tales from a Native Gunner is selling steadily. So is the paperback edition of The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker and humorist's Dave Barry's The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog.

Many Duck's Cottage customers are giving young sleuths on their holiday lists books from Carole Marsh's Real Kids, Real Places mystery series, including copies Marsh autographed when she appeared at the store in October. Popular choices are The Mystery of Blackbeard the Pirate and The Mystery at Kill Devil Hills, both of which have connections to the Outer Banks, where Duck is located. Another favorite is Marsh's most recent book, The Mystery at Jamestown (2007 marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Virginia colony).

Layton is handselling Baffle Gab, a creative writing game for kids, which was brought to her attention by a sample in a recent Book Sense box. Baffle Gab won a rave review from Layton's daughter, who received it as a birthday present. "We've had so much fun with it," said Layton. "It makes writing fun."

Another popular sideline item is the 2007 Nuns Having Fun Calendar, a perennial favorite at Duck's Cottage, by Growing Up Catholic co-authors Maureen Kelly and Jeffrey Stone. 

Along with page turners, Duck's Cottage serves up several varieties of custom blend coffee, including Duck's Cottage Blend, Blackbeard's Blend and the ever-popular Coconut Crunch. The store sells the coffee by the pound and half-pound, and sales spike both in-store and online during the holiday season--in part for gift-giving. Coconut Crunch coffee is brewed daily at Duck's Cottage. "We can't put out another flavored coffee," said Layton, "or people get mad."

Sales patterns at Duck's Cottage reflect the tourist population drawn to the the area. Thanksgiving weekend reaches summer-level traffic, particularly on Black Friday, while the following three to four weeks are fairly quiet, noted Layton. She expects the pace to pick up next week, and the days between Christmas and New Year's are among the store's busiest annually.

Duck's Cottage has about 700 square feet of selling space devoted to books. As a result, "I have to be really selective. I hand pick everything," said Layton. "Since most of our traffic is here for a week, I can't just have the same things they see at B&N or BJs or Costco." Along with carrying a small selection of hardcover bestsellers, "what I really try to concentrate on is having an interesting and eclectic paperback selection, and it seems to work. We get comments from people who say they love our selection because it's different," Layton added. "It's not what you see everywhere else, and we spend a lot of time doing that."--Shannon McKenna

This morning on the Early Show: Ralph Del Pozzo, co-author of Christmasland: Recollections (HarperDesign, $9.95, 0061150002).  

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Today on the Martha Stewart Show: Michel Richard, author of Happy in the Kitchen: The Craft of Cooking, the Art of Eating (Artisan, $45, 1579652999).

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Today Oprah replays her interview with Will Smith and Christopher Gardner on the occasion of the opening of the film The Pursuit of Happyness, based on the book by Gardner (Amistad, $14.95, 0060744871) about a hardscrabble period in his life. The film stars Smith as Gardner and Jaden Smith as Gardner's son, Christopher.

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Saturday on NBC Weekend Today: Stanley Coren, author of Why Does My Dog Act That Way?: A Complete Guide to Your Dog's Personality (Free Press, $25, 0743277066).

 

 
LIFE magazine hit the stands November 1936 with "a deep-dyed affinity for the semicolon [and] and unswerving faith in photography and its power to educate, enlighten and entertain." Sometimes that lofty goal was compromised a bit, as in a 1937 photo-essay "explicating the proper way a wife should undress for her husband . . . LIFE was ready and willing to pander for popularity." Nevertheless, the popular magazine changed publishing history with its images and with writers like Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway, whose The Old Man and the Sea appeared in its entirety in 1952.
 
The frustration with collections like this is that they cannot capture all that we remember or want to see. The high points have to be enough; happily there are many of them in this book. "Significant and controversial imagery" has the most impact: Gordon Parks' street gangs; Margaret Bourke-White's death camps; Lennart Nilsson's images from within the womb; a mob rocking an out-of-state automobile during race riots in Tennessee or a black man in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, where "A world of emotions cross this man's face as he stands battered but unbowed after a police hosing"; Dr. Albert Schweitzer in an African river canoe 1954; and a grand photograph of Noel Coward in the Nevada desert--he was at first reluctant, but photographer Loomis Dean persuaded him to pose "aided no end by booze, tonic and a tub of ice."
 
In various chapters we are treated to familiar images: W. Eugene Smith's "Dewey Defeats Truman," both Kennedy assassinations, James Dean walking through a rain-soaked Times Square, the classic Rita Hayworth pin-up, James Cagney dancing. War images are some of the better-known photographs: Robert Capa's falling Spanish soldier, Hitler at a Nazi rally, the Iwo Jima flag-raising, Korea, the Gulf War and Iraq, and a lesser-known, haunting 1941 photo of Jews murdered on the Russian Kerch Peninsula that was suppressed until the 1960s. In the science and nature chapter, a 1953 Yucca Flats atomic test picture is placed next to the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, and a 1995 shot of a Florida panther is annotated with a typically pithy caption: "Given Florida's roundheeled approach to development, the future of this species looks none too bright." Photographs by Ansel Adams and Jim Brandenburg, the awe-inspiring Hubble shots and Co Rentmeester's elegant Japanese snow monkeys are lovely. Of course, sports gets a chapter, wherein Jackie Robinson "strikes terror in the hearts of the Yankees en route to victory in the 1955 World Series," and a very provocative (okay, hot) photo of the 1996 U.S. water polo team raises the heart rate a bit.
 
The photo essays, from which many famous photographs have been excerpted in anthologies, are brilliant: Bourke-White's 1936 Montana, with taxi dancers shuffling for a nickel a song; Larry Burrows' series from 1965 Vietnam, "One Ride with Yankee Papa 13"; W. Eugene Smith's "Country Doctor," documenting Colorado physician Ernest Ceriani. The image of Ceriani leaning against a kitchen counter in white scrubs, coffee and cigarette in hand, is well-known, but the rest of the photos add depth and poignancy to the story: the doctor cradling a child's head who had been kicked by a horse and will lose her eye; kneeling on the floor tucking a blanket around a heart attack victim after phoning a priest; and in a rare moment of rest, watching a parade with his family.
 
LIFE: 70 Years of Extraordinary Photography is a wonderful collection both for readers who grew up with the magazine and for those who are unfamiliar with it; it's pretty much the perfect gift book.--Marilyn Dahl
 

The following were the bestselling titles during the week ended Sunday, December 10, at member stores of the New England Independent Booksellers Association as reported to Book Sense:

Hardcover Fiction

1. Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf, $25.95, 0307262995)
2. Next by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins, $27.95, 0060872985)
3. For One More Day by Mitch Albom (Hyperion, $21.95, 1401303277)
4. The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman (HarperCollins, $26.95, 0060563451)
5. The View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro (Knopf, $25.95, 1400042828)
6. The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry (Putnam, $15.95, 0399154132)
7. Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (Random House, $26.95, 0375509321)
8. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone, $25.95, 0743272501)
9. Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille (Warner, $26.99, 044657967X)
10. Lisey's Story by Stephen King (Scribner, $28, 0743289412)
11. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin, $23.95, 1565124995)
12. The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford (Knopf, $26.95, 0679454683)
13. Cross by James Patterson (Little, Brown, $27.99, 0316159794)
14. Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler (Putnam, $27.95, 0399153691)
15. Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (Delacorte, $27.95, 0385339410)

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (Crown, $25, 0307237699)
2. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking, $29.95, 0670037605)
3. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson (Broadway, $25, 076791936X)
4. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (Knopf, $19.95, 0307264556)
5. Palestine by Jimmy Carter (S&S, $27, 0743285026)
6. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press, $26.95, 1594200823)
7. Marley & Me by John Grogan (Morrow, $21.95, 0060817089)
8. Moving the Chains by Charles P. Pierce (FSG, $24, 0374299234)
9. The Innocent Man by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95, 0385517238)
10. I Like You by Amy Sedaris (Warner, $27.99, 0446578843)
11. Joy of Cooking (75th Anniversary Edition) by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker (Scribner, $30, 0743246268)
12. Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, $35, 1400054346)
13. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (Crown, $25.95, 1400080665)
14. Bird Songs edited by Les Beletsky (Chronicle, $45, 1932855416)
15. You: On a Diet by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Free Press, $25, 0743292545)

Trade Paperback Fiction

1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 0143037145)
2. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Grove, $14, 0802142818)
3. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House, $13.95, 0812968069)
4. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square, $15, 074349671X)
5. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, $14.95, 0375706860)
6. March by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, $14, 0143036661)
7. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Norton, $13.95, 0393328627)
8. Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan (Ballantine, $14.95, 034546401X)
9. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead, $14, 1594480001)
10. The Best American Short Stories edited by Ann Patchett (Houghton Mifflin, $14, 061854352X)
11. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Vintage, $11.95, 1400095948)
12. The Lighthouse by P.D. James (Vintage, $13.95, 0307275736)
13. The Sea by John Banville (Vintage, $12.95, 1400097029)
14. On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Penguin, $15, 0143037749)
15. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square, $14, 0743454537)

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

1. The Iraq Study Group Report by the Iraq Study Group (Vintage, $10.95, 0307386562)
2. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama (Three Rivers, $14.95, 1400082773)
3. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner, $14, 074324754X)
4. The Old Farmer's Almanac (Old Farmer's Almanac, $6.95, 1571983902)
5. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (S&S, $19.95, 0743270754)
6. Bad President by R.D. Rosen, Harry Prichett, Rob Battles and James Friedman (Workman, $8.95, 0761146202)
7. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (Rodale, $21.95, 1594865671)
8. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (Harvest, $14, 0156031566)
9. The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2007 (World Almanac, $12.99, 0886879957)
10. 1491 by Charles C. Mann (Vintage, $14.95, 1400032059)
11. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (Back Bay, $8.95, 0316779237)
12. The River of Doubt by Candice Millard (Broadway, $14.95, 0767913736)
13. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (Mariner, $14.95, 0618773479)
14. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Picador, $14, 0312425414)
15. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt (Scribner, $15, 0743243781)

Mass Market

1. The Brothers Bulger by Howie Carr (Warner, $9.99, 0446618888)
2. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton (Berkley, $7.99, 0425212696)
3. The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (Signet, $9.99, 0451219953)
4. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Fourth Edition (Merriam-Webster, $7.50, 0877799296)
5. The Cell by Stephen King (Pocket, $9.99, 1416524517)
6. Turning Angel by Greg Iles (Pocket, $9.99, 0743454162)
7. St. Alban's Fire by Archer Mayor (Warner, $6.99, 0446618101)
8. Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley (Bantam, $7.99, 0553589083)
9. The Ambler Warning by Robert Ludlum (St. Martin's, $9.99, 0312990693)
10. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (Warner, $7.99, 0446616451)

Children's Titles

1. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (Laurel-Leaf, $6.99, 044023848X)
2. The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13) by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist (HarperCollins, $12.99, 0064410161)
3. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton Mifflin, $18.95, 0395389496)
4. Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica (Philomel, $17.99, 0399244883)
5. Pirateology by Captain William Lubber (Candlewick, $19.99, 0763631434)
6. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd (HarperCollins, $7.99, 0694003611)
7. Blizzard of the Blue Moon (Magic Tree House #36) by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Sal Murdocca (Random House, $11.95, 0375830375)
8. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick, $18.99, 0763625892)
9. Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick (Carl R. Sams II Photography, $19.95, 0967174805)
10. One Winter's Day by M. Christina Butler, illustrated by Tina Macnaughton (Good Books, $16, 1561485322)
11. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick, $7.99, 0763625299)
12. The Snowmen by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner (Dial, $21.99, 0803731809)
13. Christmas by Robert Sabuda (Orchard, $12.99, 0439845688)
14. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (HarperCollins, $16.95, 0060254920)
15. Dragonology by Ernest Drake, illustrated by Helen Ward and Douglas Carrel (Candlewick, $19.99, 0763623296)

[Many thanks to Book Sense and NEIBA!]