The Duke Chronicle runs down the menu at the Know Restaurant & Bookstore, Durham, N.C., "a quaint bookstore with bright fluorescent lights burning above shelves of literature with a connecting restaurant serving traditional Southern-home cooking" that is also a hot spot for jazz on Friday evenings.

Owner Bruce Bridges founded the Know in 1981. It was the first African-American bookstore in Durham and is the oldest in the state, according to the Chronicle. "We created a market for black people wanting to know about themselves," Bridges told the paper.

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Carl Lennertz at HarperCollins is offering booksellers e-mailable 8 ½ x 11 signs featuring Edgar and National Book Critics Circle finalists. One features Harper's Edgar nominees; the other Harper's NBCC nods or you can request the signs without book covers. Write Carl at Carl.Lennertz@harpercollins.com.

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More on the Bush Countdown Clock being sold by Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif., which we mentioned here yesterday. Casey Coonerty Protti writes that some 50% of the 40,000 clocks the store has sold have been through independent bookstores like Harry W. Schwartz, Kepler's, Cody's, Northshire, Village Books and Square Books, among others. Any stores interested in carrying the clocks may order them through Bookshop Santa Cruz by calling the store's wholesale manager, Tim Stark, at 831-460-3221 or e-mailing him at tstark@bookshopsantacruz.com.

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Dan Sheehan has joined Ingram's Spring Arbor Distributors as v-p of sales. He was formerly v-p of national accounts for Ingram Publisher Services and has worked extensively with national accounts in the trade, Christian, wholesale club, Internet and higher education markets. He succeeds Janet McDonald, who has been named v-p of client acquisitions for Ingram Publisher Services. 

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Ingram's Lightning Source is adding a second book manufacturing plant in the U.S., in Breinigsville, Pa., near Allentown. The 130,000-sq.-ft. plant will have 16 black-and-white presses, 10 web fed color presses, five sheet fed color presses and 12 binding lines. The POD company has also acquired 15 Océ printing presses for its three plants, which it called state of the art, offering "dramatically enhanced graphic and halftone capability."

Lightning Source has a plant in LaVergne, Tenn., Ingram's headquarters, and another in the U.K., near London.
 

The Regulator Bookshop, Durham, N.C., is launching a reading group "where everyone decides to read a different, but similar book." The first session will be held February 27 and will be led by David Carr, professor of library science at UNC-Chapel Hill, who suggested the program to the store. The theme of the first meeting of Books in a Bunch is "memoirs of early life." Participants are being asked to read at least one or two of these books:

• Blue Blood by Edward Conlon
• Cherry and The Liar's Club by Mary Karr
• Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
• Dreams from My Father by Senator Barack Obama
• Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
• Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres
• This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army by Tobias Wolff
• A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel
• The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer
• Falling Through the Earth by Danielle Trussoni
• Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller
• My Detachment by Tracy Kidder
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

 

A company controlled by Sam and Cheryl Wyly, philanthropists  in the area, plans to buy Explore Booksellers and Bistro, the Aspen, Colo., bookstore that has been for sale since August, the Aspen Daily News reported.

The children of founder Katharine Thalberg, who died a year ago, had put the store and the building in which it is located on the market for $5.2 million. (The final purchase price was not disclosed.) For a time, Thalberg's husband, Bill Stirling, a former Aspen mayor, tried to raise money to buy the store and run it as a community venture.

The Wylys have been customers at the store for years. In a statement, Cheryl Wyly said of her husband, "Sam loves Explore and the Bistro. He finally decided he should quit just hoping that Explore would continue unchanged, and for his own quality of life, and for the quality of life of the entire community, he would invest the resources to keep it here for everyone."

One of Thalberg's daughters, Brooke Anderson, told the paper that she and her sisters wanted to be sure whoever bought the store would continue to operate the business as it has been conducted. "After we started talking with the Wylys, we felt strongly that this was a really good fit," she said. "For us to be able to turn over the reins of this institution to people who understand what it's all about is very comforting."

"You've got to hand it to the Wylys," Stirling told the paper. "They bellied up to the bar so God bless them."

This morning the Today Show takes on Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads: Dealing with the Parents, Teachers, Coaches, and Counselors Who Can Make--or Break--Your Child's Future (Crown, $25, 9781400083008/1400083001).

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Today on NPR's Fresh Air: Dr. Michael Stein prescribes from The Lonely Patient: How We Experience Illness (Morrow, $23.95, 9780060847951/0060847956).

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Today on the Martha Stewart Show: LL Cool J keeps working out with LL Cool J's Platinum Workout (Rodale, $27.95, 9781594866081/1594866082).

Also on the Martha Stewart Show: Senator Chuck Schumer campaigns for Positively American: Winning Back the Middle Class One Family at a Time (Rodale, $24.95, 9781594865725/1594865728).

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Today on the Rachael Ray Show: Montel Williams, author of Climbing Higher (NAL, $13.95, 9780451213983/045121398X), talks about his battle with multiple sclerosis.

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Today on Fox & Friends: Walter Scheib serves up White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen (Wiley, $24.95, 9780471798422/0471798428).

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Tonight NBC Dateline features Ralph Nader, author of The Seventeen Traditions (ReganBooks, $19.95, 9780061238277/0061238279).

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Tonight the Daily Show with Jon Stewart stars Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium and author of Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (Norton, $24.95, 9780393062243/0393062244).
 

Selected titles with a pub date of next Tuesday, February 6:

Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky (Doubleday, $25.95, 9780385518659/038551865X). Bestselling storytelling Delinsky spins a tale about race, family, and the choices people make in times of crisis.

High Profile by Robert B. Parker (Putnam, $24.95, 9780399154041/0399154043). In Parker's latest whodunit, Massachusetts police chief Jesse Stone delves into the murder of a controversial talk show host.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (Putnam, $25.95, 9780399154140/0399154140). The first book in a new series set in medieval England combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the drama of historical fiction.

Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Morrow, $24.95, 9780060734572/0060734574). In Phillips' latest novel featuring the Chicago Stars football players, the team's quarterback makes an unlikely love match with a nomadic portrait artist.

Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (Little Brown, $27.99, 9780316013949/0316013943). In this page-turner, NYPD detective Michael Bennett navigates two arduous paths: being at the bedside of his dying wife and rescuing 34 hostages.

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson (Metropolitan Books, $26, 9780805079111/0805079114). The final volume in Johnson's Blowback trilogy, following Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire, confronts the overreaching of the American empire and the threat it poses to the republic.


Out in paperback on Tuesday, February 6:

The Divide by Nicholas Evans (Signet, $9.99, 9780451219299 0451219295).

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant (Random House, $13.95, 9780812974041/0812974042).

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (Berkley, $15, 9780425213971/0425213978).

The following is the third in a series about how some bookstores are celebrating and stocking for Valentine's Day. 

Whether customers are pro-Valentine's Day or wish to rebel against the hearts-and-flowers holiday, there is equal opportunity shopping at BookPeople in Austin, Tex.

Dueling displays have been set up across from one another in the store. On the Valentine's Day display are titles like Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield; The Secret Lives of Men and Women by postsecret.com founder Frank Warren; and Calvin Trillin's latest, About Alice, the New Yorker writer's portrait of his beloved late wife.

An anti-Valentine's Day display is teeming with such books as You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore and Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo's He's Just Not that Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys and He's Just Not That Into You: Your Daily Wake-up Call. Also featured is Happily Ever After: Walking with Peace and Courage through a Year of Divorce by Kristin Armstrong, Austin resident and Lance's ex-wife.

Two events being held at BookPeople in February are for adults only, including an appearance by porn star Ron Jeremy on February 13. "That will be an interesting day," said events coordinator Alison Kothe. Jeremy will promote his new book, Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz.

The next day's gathering is called "Free Sex in Public," an annual event hosted by local scribe Spike Gillespie. Beer and wine is served, and customers revel in a variety of entertainment from readings of sexy short stories to music performed by singer, songwriter and native Texan Southpaw Jones.

Gillespie founded the event seven years ago. "Being perpetually dateless on Valentine's Day (or, the rare times that I had a date, they were awful), I decided to invent a way to have something to do," said Gillespie, who is the author of four books, among them All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy: A Memoir and the forthcoming Quilty as Charged: Undercover in the Material World.

Despite the fact that Gillespie married last May, the show will go on. And should any love connections be made at the BookPeople event, Gillespie can officiate on the big day. In addition to being a writer, teacher and documentary filmmaker, she's also licensed to perform marriage ceremonies.--Shannon McKenna

Love Poetry Out Loud edited by Robert Alden Rubin (Algonquin Books, $14.95 paperback, 9781565124592/1565124596, February 2, 2007)
 
If you've ever been tempted to read poetry to the object of your affection, this collection is perfect for the hesitant beginner, the articulate lover and anyone in between. It opens with the marvelous "Litany," by Billy Collins--whimsical and touching--then juxtaposes "She's All My Fancy Painted Him" by Lewis Carroll with A. D. Hope's "The Lingam and the Yoni." In a sidebar, editor Rubin explains the zero sum in Carroll's poem and contrasts it with Hope's tantric formula, "a mathematical equation that [Carroll] would recognize, but that might make him blush." Rubin's notes on the poems in his collection are informative and witty--he even gives you advice on reading a rap poem by Common, "The Light."
 
Not all of the poems are "come kiss me sweet and twenty," however. In a chapter about missing lovers, Raymond Carver says, "I'll sleep where I damn well feel like it/ where I sleep best when you're away/ and I can't hold you the way I do./ On the broken sofa in my study." And DJ Renegade, in "48 Hours After You Left," laments:
 
I've begun bottling my tears,
to serve as holy water,
and all the vowels
of my vocabulary
are now lookouts
on my windowsill, waiting to trumpet
your return.
 
Robert Rubin combines the usual suspects--Shakespeare, Keats, Donne, Whitman--with lesser-anthologized poets like Jean Toomer, Connie Voisine, Dean Young and Alan Dugan. The poetry is carnal, sad, amusing, delicate, holy--an anthology that covers all the bases. You may be inspired to proclaim your love aloud, although perhaps not in a crowded restaurant.

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They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books edited by David Rose (Scribner, $16 hardcover, 9781416540298/1416540296, November 2006)

Occasional lust monkeys, gay anorexic flamenco dancers, classics lecturers and pensive farmers--all are seeking connection of one sort or another in the London Review of Books. On the off chance that someone has not yet heard about Naughty Lola, I can't resist mentioning one of the most hilarious books in years. Perfect for a Valentine's Day display, it has a great cover and an even better attitude for those who look askance at hearts and flowers in February.
 
The LRB hoped, when the personal ads column began in 1998, it would be a sort of 84 Charing Cross Road thing, but no; instead, the personal advertisers pitched themselves with peculiar abandon and imagination. David Rose says in the introduction, "Monday mornings are a regular harvest time for personal ads . . . they follow the lonely heart's week-end of solitary wine-drinking . . . in full melancholic tilt and hanging heavy in the adjectives . . . By mid-week the ads are less gin-soaked in tone." The ads are "little statements of absurdity--flashes of silliness that brilliantly, if briefly, illuminate the human condition and all its attendant quirks and nonsenses." For instance:
 
Ladies: naturally apologetic man, 42, predisposed to accepting the blame. Whatever it was, it was my fault. Sorry. Sound like heaven?
 
67-year-old disaffiliated flaneur picking my toothless way through the urban sprawl, self-destructive, sliding towards pathos, jacked up on Viagra and on the lookout for a contortionist who plays the trumpet.
 
I like my women the way I like my kebab. Found by surprise after a drunken night out and covered in too much tahini. Before long I'll have discarded you on the pavement of life, but until then you're the perfect complement to a perfect evening. Man, 32. Rarely produces winning metaphors.
 
Know your thermocouple accuracy table, then love me like the fool you are. Geo-sex daddy of the rhodium-defining world (M, 62) seeks practically anyone. Anyone at all. I mean it. Please. Anyone.
 
Slut in the kitchen, chef in the bedroom. Woman with mixed priorities (37) seeks man who can toss a good salad.
 
From the lisper who writes "I'm just a girl who can't say 'no' (or 'anaesthetist')" to the 83-year-old man whose animal passions would satisfy any woman, but for "the chafing of these infernal hospital sheets," there is something to amuse and confound on every page. You will laugh out loud, and for some, this is better than love poetry. Or perhaps is love poetry.--Marilyn Dahl