Shelf Awareness for Wednesday, April 18, 2007


Del Rey Books: The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

Overlook Press: How It Works Out by Myriam LaCroix

Charlesbridge Publishing: If Lin Can: How Jeremy Lin Inspired Asian Americans to Shoot for the Stars by Richard Ho, illustrated by Huynh Kim Liên and Phùng Nguyên Quang

Shadow Mountain: The Orchids of Ashthorne Hall (Proper Romance Victorian) by Rebecca Anderson

News

Barbara's Lands at O'Hare--With Alliance Partners

It's official: as reported here March 15, Barbara's Bookstore is opening five stores in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

But there's much more to the story. For the O'Hare stores, Barbara's, which has pioneered some unusual collaborations, including stores in several Macy's and in a hospital, is partnering with Hudson Group, the airport, rail, bus and hotel store operator; Hartman Group, which publishes N'DIGO, a weekly newspaper serving Chicago's African-American community; and Blue Daring Consulting, a marketing, p.r. and retail consulting company.

Called Barbara's Bookstores at O'Hare, the stores will have exteriors featuring large photographs of famous Chicago authors. Construction will begin soon; the concession runs for seven years.

Don Barliant, president of Barbara's Bookstores, which also has stores in LaGuardia and Philadelphia airports as well as South Street Station in Boston, said: "We are delighted that the city has selected Barbara's, an authentic hometown business with a strong commitment to diversity, to serve O'Hare Airport. Our experienced bookselling staff is eager to begin catering to the airport's employees, airline crews, and of course travelers."

In a statement, Joseph DiDomizio, executive v-p and COO of Hudson, said: "As the largest travel retailer in North America, Hudson brings considerable operational firepower to the partnership. As the incumbent bookstore operator in Chicago-O'Hare since late 2003, we are very familiar with the airport's processes and procedures. We look forward to working with Don and his team to create some of the most attractive, exciting and functional airport bookstores anywhere, right here in Chicago."

This is not Hudson's first partnership with a local bookstore. Last year, the company signed on Rueben Martinez, who has two Libreria Martinez Books and Art Gallery locations, in Santa Ana and Lynwood, Calif., to direct the selection of Latino-related books and magazines at three Hudson News stores at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana (Shelf Awareness, August 10, 2006).


HarperOne: Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World by Craig Foster


Notes: Medical Texts for Consumers; Borders Exclusive

"Do you have any books on [insert illness here]?" Booksellers field this delicate question every day on the sales floor. In the Internet age, that kind of interest has led some consumers to seek out medical textbooks, the Dallas Morning News reported.

According to Sean Faulkner, director at Majors Scientific Books in Dallas, which also has a store in Houston, "A lot of people use Google to try to find information because they think they can find everything on the Internet. . . . We call it the Amazon effect. But, frequently, all they can find is a little description of a book which they bring with them when they visit us trying to find more information."

Majors Scientific Books president Albert Majors McClendon said that even though the bookstores' primary customers are medical students and physicians, "we continually have physicians and hospital librarians refer people here to find more resources. . . . The big difference between our consumer stock and that at major bookstores is that our selections are not fads. We carry books that are recommended by health institutions."

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It's not proprietary publishing yet, but it's a step in that direction. Borders Group is selling two books--both Harry Potter-related--on an exclusive basis. Only on September 1 will the books, published by Benbella Books, distributed by IPG, be available to all retailers.

The titles are The Great Snape Debate by Amy Berner, Orson Scott Card and Joyce Millman, consisting of two texts arguing whether Severus Snape is a friend or foe of Harry Potter, and The Unauthorized Harry Potter by Adam Troy Castro, "a light-hearted look at all things Harry Potter." 

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Like most independent bookstores, Labyrinth Books, which began in New York City near Columbia University and now has a branch in New Haven, Conn., and another opening in Princeton, N.J., is "swimming against the tide" but seemingly in the right direction, according to the Connecticut Business News Journal, which has a detailed profile of the company and owners Cliff Simms, Dorothea von Moltke and Chris Doeblin.

Labyrinth is able to draw upon experience when looking for a niche in academic environments, where Barnes & Noble tends to have a strong presence. "We've been there [Morningside Heights] for 10 years," von Moltke said "We do things differently, so we believe there is room for both of us."

The Journal reported that the "new shop [in New Haven] didn't go over too well with Yale University, since it introduced direct competition to its designated Barnes & Noble bookseller. Even without Yale's support, Labyrinth Books has weathered the storm."

Speaking like a nimble military strategist, von Moltke added that adaptability is a critical tool for success: "We are always looking for sustainability and economic viability, and that requires constant re-thinking and re-invention."

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Beach reads with a literary twist: The Orange County Register argued that this weekend's Literary Orange Festival will serve as Exhibit A in proving that the area is "counteracting the sun-baked image of the county perpetuated by television's the O.C. and Laguna Beach."

A strong literary community has taken root, and the renaissance can be traced in part to a popular and impressive lineup of author readings and lectures at UC Irvine as well as many other local venues. Also helping has been the recent success of Then We Came to the End, the bestselling debut novel by UCI grad Joshua Ferris.

"Years ago, we had to yell and scream, 'We're here. You can send your authors here. People read here,' " said Tracy Keys, executive director of the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation. Authors "have a great time here when they come. They're kind of surprised. . . . They think, Newport Beach, beach town. They don't expect what they find."

The paper also highlighted the May 12 SCIBA bookstore tourism bus tour, which will stop at Martha's Bookstore in Newport Beach, Latitude 33 and Laguna Beach Books, both in Laguna Beach, and Compass Books & Café in Downtown Disney in Anaheim.

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Cool idea of the day: Pegasus & Pendragon Books in Berkeley, Calif., creates special poetry broadsides every year and gives them away to customers during National Poetry Month. Margaret Donovan, managing editor of Tupelo Press, tipped us off to this effort, which she discovered when the bookstore's Amy Thomas wrote asking for permission to use the title poem, "Dancing in Odessa," from Ilya Kaminsky's recent collection for this year's broadside.

"I thought 'How wonderful,' " said Donovan, "Something that makes the customers happy and the booksellers!"

Added Thomas: "We have been making broadsides for several years to give away during poetry month. We have done poems by James Tate, Thomas Centolella, Kenny Damacion, among others, as well as poems by children who were participating in the very wonderful River of Words project. . . . It is one of the happiest things we do."


Park Street Press: An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey by Peter A Levine


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Generation MySpace

[Note: as always, major news stories such as this week's tragic killings at Virginia Tech can supersede scheduled author appearances.]

This morning on the Early Show: Harlan Coben, whose new book is The Woods (Dutton, $26.95, 9780525950127/0525950125).

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Fox's Morning Show offers up Paula Deen, author of It Ain't All About the Cookin' (S&S, $25, 9780743292856/0743292855).

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Candice Kelsey, author of Generation MySpace: Helping Your Teen Survive Online Adolescence (Marlowe & Co., $14.95, 9781600940118/1600940110).

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Today on the View: former Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, author of My First Five Husbands . . . and the Ones Who Got Away (Broadway, $24.95, 9780767926768/0767926765).

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Today on NPR's Talk of the Nation: Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, whose new book is Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife (HarperCollins, $24.95, 9780060598693/0060598697).

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This morning's Book Report, the weekly AM radio book-related show organized by Windows a bookshop, Monroe, La., has the theme "Creole culture" and features an interview with John Lawrence, author of Creole Houses: Traditional Homes of Old Louisiana, photographs by Steve Gross and Sue Daley, foreword by James Conaway (Abrams, $35, 9780810954953/0810954958).

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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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Ali Allawi, former Iraqi Minister of Defense, Trade and Finance, a leader of the anti-Saddam Hussein movement and author of The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace (Yale University Press, $28, 9780300110159/0300110154).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Paulina Porizkova, the model whose debut novel is A Model Summer (Hyperion, $23.95, 9781401303266/1401303269).


G.P. Putnam's Sons: Take Me Home by Melanie Sweeney


This Weekend on Book TV: And I Haven't Had a Bad Day Since

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, April 21

4 p.m. History on Book TV. Stephanie Capparell, author of The Real Pepsi Challenge: The Inspirational Story of Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business (Free Press, $25, 9780743265713/0743265718), explores the history of the Pepsi-Cola special markets team composed of African-Americans who from 1947 to 1951 marketed and sold Pepsi products to African-Americans. The author will be joined by two members of the Pepsi special markets team and moderator Pamela Newkirk, Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University. Capparell is an editor for the Marketplace section of the Wall Street Journal.

6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. In a segment first aired in 1989, Gregory Fossedal, author of The Democratic Imperative: Exporting the American Revolution, discussed authoritarian regimes around the world and argued that democracy is on the ascendancy. Fossedal is chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. His most recent book is Direct Democracy in Switzerland (Transaction Publishers, $29.95, 9781412805056/1412805058).

9 p.m. After Words. Jim Mills, senior editor for Fox News, interviews Rep. Charles Rangel, author of And I Haven't Had a Bad Day Since: From the Streets of Harlem to the Halls of Congress (Thomas Dunne, $24.95, 9780312372521/0312372523), a political memoir about his Harlem childhood, his service in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and his 19 terms as a congressman representing New York's 15th district. (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.)

Sunday, April 22

8 p.m. General Assignment. Mark DePue served with both the U.S. Army and the Army National Guard. In Patrolling Baghdad: A Military Police Company and the War in Iraq (University Press of Kansas, $34.95, 9780700614981/0700614982), he tells the story of the Army National Guard's 233rd Military Police Company, which was assigned to patrol Baghdad just after the invasion of Iraq. He is joined at this event by 1st Sgt. Robert Elmore of the 233rd, who provides first-hand accounts of his time in Iraq. (Re-airs Monday at 2 a.m.)


Books & Authors

Image of the Day: Corsages Caught

Earlier this month Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays began a book tour for their second baby, Somebody's Going to Die If Lilly Beth Doesn't Catch That Bouquet (Hyperion). The party at McCormick Book Inn in Greenville, Miss., featured a wedding cake, silver punch bowl and wedding flowers, including corsages for the hostesses and a boutonniere for Gayden's husband, Harley Metcalfe, the honorary groom for the day. At the party, the authors of Being Dead Is No Excuse sold 870 copies of their new book. By the time their tour ends in early June, the wedding party will have traveled to Turnrow Books, Greenwood, Miss., Burke's Books, Memphis, Garden District Books, New Orleans, Square Books, Oxford, Miss., Page and Palette, Fairhope, Ala., Pass Christian Books, Pass Christian, Miss., and Lemuria Books, Jackson, Miss., among others.

 



The Bestsellers

The IMBA Bestsellers: March

The following are the bestsellers for March at member stores of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association:

Hardcovers

1. Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie
2. The Watchman by Robert Crais
3. Daddy's Girl by Lisa Scottoline
4. Magic City by James Hall
4. Puss 'n Cahoots by Rita Mae Brown
6. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
6. Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
8. Hunter's Moon by Randy Wayne White
8. Hurricane Punch by Tim Dorsey
8. Roma by Steven Saylor
8. A Crazy Little Thing Called Death by Nancy Martin

Paperbacks

1. The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes
2. The Lost Gardens by Anthony Elgin
3. Blood Orange Brewing by Laura Childs
4. Acts of Violets by Kate Collins
5. Oh, Danny Boy by Rhys Bowen
6. Sweet and Deadly by Charlaine Harris
7. Dark Assassin by Anne Perry
7. Blood of Paradise by David Corbett
9. No Good Deeds by Laura Lippman
10. Catalogue of Death by Jo Dereske

[Many thanks to IMBA!]


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