In order to have at least one long weekend between February and Memorial Day, we're taking tomorrow off. We'll see you all again on Monday morning, April 30!

 

Beat the Bookstore, the off-campus college bookstore company, today is opening its 25th franchised store, in Bowling Green, Ohio, near Bowling Green State University. The new location is at 902 E. Wooster St.; the franchisees are Angie and Steve Smith and Steve Russell.

Mike Winward and David Monk opened the first two Beat the Bookstore stores in Utah and then began franchising the idea, which is to "sell for less, buy back for more, and consistently provide uncommon--and exceptional--customer service."

Beat the Bookstores sell only textbooks and eschew the staples of most college stores, including sweatshirts, glassware, pennants, bumper stickers, candy, etc.

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Today's Wall Street Journal surveys what it calls "the summer of Diana," a royal flush of "at least 14 new Diana titles" that will be published in time for the 10th anniversary of the princess's death. The story focuses on The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown, a kind of double whammy of celebrity. Set to appear on June 12, the book has a first printing of 200,000 copies. Barnes & Noble biography buyer Edward Ash-Milby told the paper: "The Diana books have been trending down from a sales perspective over the last couple of years because there hasn't been anything new to say. But this is going to be a summer of celebrating Diana, and that will re-create interest in her."

Vivien Jennings of Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan., has ordered 20 copies of The Diana Chronicles but remains wary. "Will there be new information and pictures people haven't seen before?" she asked. "And will there be so much news coverage that people won't have to read the book?"

For her part, Roberta Rubin of the Book Stall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka, Ill., has ordered just two copies of Brown's book, saying that sales of Diana titles in the past have been slow. "Publicity could save The Diana Chronicles, but there isn't a lot of enthusiasm in the heartland."

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Mike Brennan is joining HarperCollins as senior v-p and director of sales for the Morrow/Avon sales group, where he will oversee sales for William Morrow, Avon, Harper paperbacks, HarperAudio, HarperLuxe and Tokyopop. He was formerly v-p, director of national accounts, at Penguin Group and earlier he worked at Bantam, Doubleday and Dell in various sales positions.

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Bern Marcowitz, book care specialist extraordinaire, will speak on the subject on Tuesday, May 1, at 6:30 p.m. at the Mid-Manhattan Library in New York City. Marcowitz is co-author, with Margot Rosenberg, of The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New, which the pair hopes will motivate people to care for the books they care about, as they so aptly put it. 

 

Last Saturday, at the first book club mixer held by Books & Books in Coral Gables, Fla., nearly 200 attendees mingled and discussed books, and some like-minded bibliophiles even created reading groups on the spot. "At least six book clubs were formed that day," said Debra Linn, who works in Books & Books’s Bal Harbour location and helped coordinate the event.

Programming had a travel theme: each attendee received a passport with an itinerary outlining the afternoon's roster of activities. It also included various sections such as "wish you were here" with space for jotting down e-mail addresses of potential book club buddies; a "packing list" for recording interesting titles; and "excursions," which promoted upcoming Book & Books author appearances. (Those who ordered Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns in advance received a ticket for the store's June event with the author.)

To break the ice and inspire conversation among attendees, some of whom came to the event solo, passports contained a "boarding pass" with an author name and title on it. When attendees located four others with the same information, the group was rewarded with a prize.

Books & Books staff members recommended titles ranging from Nicole Krauss's novel The History of Love to Ben Fountain's story collection Brief Encounters with Che Guevara.

Guest speakers included Diana Abu-Jaber, who lives in Miami and is the author of the memoir The Language of Baklava and the forthcoming novel Origins, and Lisa Rosen, a book club facilitator, who offered ground rules that make for a successful club. Also in the line-up were Marty Conroy from Hachette Book Group, Caitlin Rolfes of HarperCollins and Carol Fitzgerald, co-founder and president of the Book Report Network. "An event like this is an innovative way to hand sell titles to avid readers," said Fitzgerald, whose website ReadingGroupGuides.com features resources for book clubs. "It was extremely well organized and engaging for participants."

The mixer was free, and along with wine, beer and refreshments each person received a complimentary copy of White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway. In addition, the store offered a 20% discount on all paperbacks purchased that day between 4-6 p.m.

The mixer was inspired in part by the success of the retailer's South Florida Book Club Registry, which has lured more than 75 book clubs and 400 individuals to sign up. "The number one question we're asked is, 'How do I find a book club?' " noted Linn. Along with pairing interested readers with groups in their area, the registry allows the store to communicate directly with book club members eager for information. Launched last year, it received a boost in January when it was touted in the Miami edition of DailyCandy.com, a popular e-mail newsletter targeted toward women in their 20s and 30s.

Originally Books & Books staffers envisioned an annual book club mixer, but because of the enthusiastic response, they're considering hosting the event more frequently. "It was like a party," said Linn. "On a sunny Saturday afternoon, almost 200 people were in our courtyard talking about books. It was bookstore heaven."--Shannon McKenna

This morning on the Early Show, animal behaviorist Nicholas Dodman talks about Puppy's First Steps: The Whole-Dog Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, Well-Behaved Puppy (Houghton Mifflin, $24.95, 9780618663040/0618663045).

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Today the Rachael Ray Show rolls out the red carpet for former president Bill Clinton, author of My Life (Vintage, $17.95, 9781400030033/140003003X).

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Today is Ask Dr. Oz Day on Oprah, featuring Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author of You on a Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management (Free Press, $25, 9780743292542/0743292545).

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Today on NPR's Fresh Air: la Repubblica journalist Carlo Bonini, co-author of Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror (Melville House, $23.95, 9781933633275/1933633271).

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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: C.K. Williams, author of Collected Poems (FSG, $40, 9780374126520/0374126526). As the show put it: "C.K. Williams' Collected Poems covers a lifetime's concern with ethics and personal morality. As his work proceeds, he develops a quality of consciousness and empathy that some would describe as a soul. In this conversation, this accessible and plainspoken poet plumbs the depths, as we trace his concerns from poem to poem."

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Tom Wolfe.

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Tonight the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson laughs it up with Jenny McCarthy, whose most recent book is Life Laughs: The Naked Truth about Motherhood, Marriage, and Moving On (Plume, $13.95, 9780452288294/0452288290).

The Late Late Show also talks with Frank McCourt, whose most recent memoir is Teacher Man (Scribner, $15, 9780743243780/0743243781).

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Tomorrow on the Rachael Ray Show: Michael J. Fox, author of the memoir Lucky Man (Hyperion, $12.95, 9780786888740/0786888741).

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Tomorrow on NPR's All Things Considered: Lizzie Post, author of How Do You Work This Life Thing: Advice for the Newly Independent on Roommates, Jobs, Sex, and Everything That Counts (Collins, $19.95, 9780060823757/0060823755).

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Tomorrow evening on Bill Moyers's new show, Bill Moyers Journal: la Repubblica journalists Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, authors of Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror (Melville House, $23.95, 9781933633275/1933633271).

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Tomorrow night on the Charlie Rose Show, Richard Dawkins discusses The God Delusion (Houghton Mifflin, $27, 9780618680009/0618680004).

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On Saturday on NPR's Weekend Edition: Larry Berman, author of Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent (Collins, $25.95, 9780060888381/0060888385).

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On Sunday, 60 Minutes features a segment with former CIA director George Tenet, whose memoir, At the Center of the Storm (HarperCollins, $30, 9780061147784/0061147788), comes out of the cold on Monday.

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 Web site.

Saturday, April 28

12:30 p.m. History on Book TV. Bob Deans, a national correspondent for Cox Newspapers, talks about his book about Virginia's James River, The River Where America Began: A Journey Along the James (Rowman & Littlefield, $24.95, 9780742551725/0742551725). (Re-airs Sunday at 9:30 a.m.)

8 p.m. Encore Booknotes. In a segment that first aired in 1993, George Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan, discussed his memoir, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State.

9 p.m. After Words. Rep. Roy Blunt (R.-Mo.), the House Minority Whip, interviews Michael Wallis, the host of the PBS special American Road, the voice of the sheriff in the movie Cars, and author most recently of Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride (Norton, $25.95, 9780393060683/0393060683). The author contends that the image of Billy the Kid was greatly manipulated and that he was responsible for fewer deaths than he had been accused. (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.)

Sunday, April 29

12 p.m. Public Lives. Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute and former managing editor of Time magazine, talked about his latest biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe (S&S, $32, 9780743264730/0743264738). This is the first biography of Albert Einstein that is based on papers that were unsealed last year.

Bingham's probing and lyrical first novel begins with a free-verse poem that alludes to the narrator's missing right arm--and her mind and body's inability to process its loss ("Sometimes/ a prickle crawls across my cheek,/ and that right hand tries to/ rise from the grave,/ moved to scratch"). A brief Los Angeles Times article provides the background for this story, reporting that 15-year-old Jane Arrowood lost her arm in a shark attack. The author goes on to explore Jane's feelings of anger, frustration and grief in more fictional articles, letters and, primarily, the heroine's free-verse poems ("Forget boys. Forget anything./ Dates? Kisses?/ Dancing, my arm and a half around some guy?/ It's over before it's even begun"). An artist, Jane can no longer draw. A beauty, she is viewed now only as the deformed victim of a tragedy. A public figure, she becomes a magnet for others' feelings of loss, pain or obsession, which Bingham reveals with a select few out of hundreds of letters the heroine receives (video footage of the attack, filmed by a tourist, was televised nationally). Slowly Jane lets others in: Justin, a boy who lost his leg below the knee in a car accident, her therapist, and her best friend, Rachel. Although the trauma that gives her the status of outsider may be extreme, Jane's feelings of insecurity and self-doubt will be recognizable to every teen. One especially poignant example occurs after Jane blows up at her rather insensitive friend Angie, and Rachel attempts to act as peacemaker: "Jane. Angie was like that before your accident. Since last summer we've tried so hard. We're only human." The heroine repeatedly tries and finally learns to quiet the regrets-ridden "what if" voice in her head, and to accept the reality of her situation. Her painful, gradual decision to rejoin society begins the difficult yet credible journey to recovery in this story of hope and perseverance.--Jennifer M. Brown