Susan Reich, currently president and COO of the Avalon Publishing Group, is joining PGW as president, effective July 30. (Avalon is a major PGW client and is owned now, like PGW, by Perseus Books Group.)

Reich is no stranger to PGW: from 1990 to 1995, she was the distributor's v-p of marketing. Before that, she worked 15 years for HarperCollins, Random House and S&S, and earlier worked for several booksellers: Waldenbooks, Brentano's, Classic Bookshop and Kroch's & Brentano's. During the next several months, she will work with outgoing PGW president Rich Freese.

--- 

The trailer for Powell's Books's first Out of the Book film--focusing on Ian McEwan and his new book, On Chesil Beach--can be viewed online. So far, the film will be screened at some 54 locations across the country.

--- 

Canadians are buying more books for less money. The Toronto Globe and Mail reported that during the past year, "retailers have seen their prices drop as much as 20 per cent as publishers repriced their products in line with a stronger loonie versus the U.S. dollar."

Heather Reisman, CEO for Indigo Books & Music, said, "We have sold many more units of books. That means people are reading." The company's "fourth-quarter same-store superstore sales increased 4.4 per cent, small-store sales 8.5 per cent, and online sales 18.5 per cent." (For full year results, see Tuesday's issue of Shelf Awareness.)

Paul McNally, co-owner of McNally Robinson bookstores and past president of the Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA), said, "Sales are recovering quite strongly in the first quarter. Last year, in spite of the deflationary tendency, we held our own. Obviously that means more units [sold] at a lower price . . . We cover three provinces and four stores. Our experience is surely a little representative."

Current CBA president Steve Budnarchuk, who described the book market as "reasonably buoyant," added, "Publishers are making an effort to get prices down on foreign books. It needed to happen." First-quarter sales at Budnarchuk's Audreys Books in Edmonton were "about flat compared with a year earlier."

---

Congratulations to the Bookworm of Edwards, Colo., which is moving this weekend into new digs that have three times as much selling space and a new café with free wi-fi. The Bookworm's new nest is in the Ruby Building, an addition to the town's Riverwalk complex that includes the restaurant/lounge E-Town, Brush Creek Dry Goods, Lacy's, Bliss Studio and Pamela Ferrari.

Owned by Nicole Magistro and Kristi Allio, the Bookworm closes on Saturday and reopens on Tuesday--after moving some 10,000 books.

---

Joseph-Beth Booksellers will launch a new "Gives Back" customer loyalty program on Memorial Day. As reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Customers who purchase a $25 a loyalty card will be entitled to a $25 meal at the bookstore's bistro, a coupon for another free lunch or dinner on the customer's birthday and a 30 percent discount on newly released books and CDs. Loyalty card holders will also get a $10 gift coupon for every $200 spent on books and a $10 gift coupon for every $200 spent on music."

In addition, Joseph-Beth Gives Back will donate 1% of sales "from the store’s best customers" to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, the Literary Network of Cincinnati, Enjoy the Arts, WVXU-FM or WGUC-FM.

---

Heritage Bookstore and More, "specializing in books by and about people of African descent as well as books from national best-seller lists," opened during March in Upland, Calif. In a Press-Enterprise profile, co-owner Maleta Wilson described Heritage as "a community bookstore where you can come and hang out and feel comfortable."

 

The rumor we mentioned yesterday morning about Amazon buying Brilliance Audio turned out to be completely accurate. Amazon said that the acquisition will enable it "to work closely with the book publishing community to further expand the number of books produced in audio format and provide customers with an even greater selection of audiobooks."

In a related move, Amazon subsidiary CustomFlix said that it will now support both CD and MP3-CD audiobook formats through its Disc on Demand program, providing a POD kind of service for audiobooks as it does for videos and movies.

In a statement, Greg Greeley, v-p of books at Amazon.com, said, "With this acquisition we can make it more efficient for authors and book publishers of all sizes to expand the number of titles produced in increasingly popular audio formats, offering customers a much broader selection."

Amazon said that Brilliance will continue to operate independently under founder and president Michael Snodgrass and its operations will remain in Grand Haven, Mich.

Women & Children First, which recently said it might have to close this summer (Shelf Awareness, April 11, 2007), has been helped by public attention about its plight: in the past month sales rose 100% compared to two months earlier and 70% compared to the same period a year ago, the store said. Customers also donated $5,000 in cash.

Besides publicity in the trade and general media, the store was helped by its own campaign on its MySpace site to appeal to a younger demographic for help. The store's blogs--"How You can Help Insure the Future of Feminist Bookselling in Chicago" and "Why Feminist Bookstores are Culturally Essential"--were widely read, "and young women, raised in an Amazon.com world, have been pouring into the store ever since," the store said.

In a statement, co-owner Linda Bubon said that "the energy in the store has been buoyant. We are bubbling over, and basking in the outpouring of love and support. This is a terrific opportunity for fresh air, fresh energy, and refocusing. I feel a little like Sally Field clutching my Academy Award: 'They like us, they really like us!' "

Co-owner Ann Christophersen stated, "We're incredibly gratified. It's like we've been given a second chance--a mandate. . . . we are very dedicated to using this mandate to sustain the good will of those who have come out to show their support to us in our time of need."

As we get closer to BEA, Shelf Awareness is running a series of announcements, tips, party mentions, interesting panels and more that have struck us as particularly useful and fun.

---

Chew on this giveaway: To promote its upcoming title Dinner with a Cannibal: The Complete History of Mankind's Oldest Taboo by Carole A. Travis-Henikoff, Santa Monica Press will give away containers of dental floss that have an image of the cover of the book on them. Hurry to booth 2721 before it's picked clean!

---

Every month, Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, author of A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York (Roaring Forties Press, $19.95, 9780976670605/0976670607), offers a 90-minute tour of some 35 locations associated with Parker and her friends of the Algonquin Round Table. For BEA attendees and their friends, Fitzpatrick is leading the tour for free. The special edition will begin on Saturday, June 2, at 11:45 a.m. at the Algonquin (59 W. 44th St.) and cover about 30 blocks, finishing at the Algonquin at about 1:15 p.m. For more information, e-mail Kevin C. Fitzpatrick at Kevin@dorothyparker.com.

A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York is part of the publisher's ArtPlace series. For more information, stop by the IPG booth (2721) or e-mail Deirdre Greene at dmg@roaringfortiespress.com.

---

Libraries account for an estimated 10% of the book market, a percentage that's likely to increase. Yet libraries remain a mystery to many publishers and others in the business. To learn more, check out the panel How Libraries Buy: Librarians Reveal Their Methods for Collection Develop, which will be held Saturday, June 2, 10-11 a.m., in Room 1E02. Panelists are Leslie Burger, president of the ALA and director of the Princeton Public Library; Tom Dunne, head of Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's; and Barbara Genco, director of collection development, Brooklyn Public Library. The moderator is Nora Rawlinson, v-p, library services, Hachette Book Group USA.

The presentation includes results of a survey of book buying in the country's largest libraries.

---

A children's bookselling gem off the beaten midtown path in New York City is the Bank Street Bookstore, which opened in 1970 in a small space in the lobby of the Bank Street College. Before long, the bookstore moved to a larger location on the corner of 112th Street and Broadway. Originally intended as a little store serving the college, the bookstore has grown into a resource for the neighborhood and for parents and educators worldwide.
 
In the past several years, the bookstore has renovated and expanded, each time creating more space to stock a wide assortment of fiction and nonfiction, parent and teacher resources, learning games, toys, classroom supplies, DVDs, CDs and more. The store now stocks more than 30,000 titles of books just for children and another 5,000-10,000 for parents and teachers.

The store is located at Broadway and 112th St.; 212-678-1654. Store hours: Mon.-Thurs., 11-7; Fri.-Sat., 10-6, Sun. 12-6. 

Today the Diane Rehm Show welcomes Hilma Wolitzer, author of the novel Summer Reading (Ballantine, $24.95, 9780345485861/0345485866).

---

Today on Talk of the Nation, Paul Shirley talks about Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond (Villard, $23.95, 9780345491367/034549136X).

Also on Talk of the Nation: Robert Kurson, the author of Shadow Divers whose new book is Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See (Random House, $25.95, 9781400063352/1400063353).

---

Today on KCRW's Bookworm: John Banville (as Benjamin Black), author of Christine Falls (Holt, $25, 9780805081527/0805081526). As the show put it: "Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville has written the first in a series of thrillers, and he's even taken on an alias or, at least, a nom de plume. Here, he talks about the difference between being a craftsman and being an artist--and the pleasure he feels at taking a vacation from art is palpable."

---

Tonight the Daily Show, the Charlie Rose Show and Late Night with David Letterman headline Al Gore, author of The Assault on Reason (Penguin Press, $25.95, 9781594201226/1594201226).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Tuesday 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, May 26

11 a.m. Public Lives. Robert Coram, author of American Patriot: The Life and Wars Of Colonel Bud Day (Little, Brown, $27.99, 9780316758475/0316758477), recounts the life of the Medal of Honor recipient and 35-year military veteran who filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 1996 disputing the reduction of medical benefits for more than one million World War II and Korean war veterans.

6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. In a segment first aired in 1990, Blaine Harden, author of Africa: Dispatches From a Fragile Continent, discussed the effect of colonialism and national boundaries drawn by European countries on the continent.

8:30 p.m. General Assignment. Michelle Keener, author of Shared Courage: A Marine Wife's Story of Strength and Service (Zenith Press, $24.95, 9780760329962/0760329966), relates her experiences as the spouse of a Marine serving in Iraq. (Re-airs Sunday at 8:35 p.m.)

9 p.m. After Words. Jim Mills of Fox News interviews Rep. Charles Rangel (D.-N.Y.), 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). Rangel talks about his Harlem childhood, military service in the Korean War, the civil rights movement and his Congressional career. (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.)

10 p.m. Featured Program. Douglas Brinkley, editor of The Reagan Diaries (HarperCollins, $35 9780060876005/006087600X), reads selections from his new book and describes the arduous process of reducing five handwritten diaries to a single volume. (Re-airs Sunday at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.; and Monday at 4 p.m.) 

Sunday, May 27

2 p.m. General Assignment. Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (FSG, $22, 9780374105235/0374105235), talks about his life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone.

Monday, May 28

10 a.m. History on Book TV. R. Howard Bloch, author of A Needle in the Right Hand of God: The Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Making and Meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry (Random House, $25.95, 9781400065493/1400065496), explores the symbols, scenes and history of the legendary tapestry. (Re-airs Monday at 5:30 p.m.)

"As long as he could remember, he had loved to draw" is how Sís's story begins. What follows, he says in an afterword, aims to explain to his children why he came to the U.S. from his native Czechoslovakia ("It was all because of drawing"). This tale of an artist's pursuit of the freedom to express himself provides the foundation for an unforgettable history lesson. And as with the best literature, the details of Sís's particular experience lead readers to discover universal truths.

In his one-page introduction, Sís distills the cataclysmic events that shook Europe in the 20th century. Students of history would be hard pressed to find a clearer, more succinct summary of what led to the division of Europe and the raising of the Iron Curtain. The third-person narrative about the boy artist develops with a phrase or sentence at the foot of each page; above the text, larger developments unfold in pen-and-inks and captions. The narrative's simplicity is deceptive: "After drawing whatever he wanted to at home,/ he drew what he was told to at school." Panel illustrations show his parents' concern when he brings home from school drawings of tanks ("Russian-language classes--compulsory . . . . Political indoctrination--compulsory," read the captions). Except for the boy's drawings, the only color on these panel illustrations is the red of the scarves on the Young Pioneers and the hammer and sickle of the Russian Communist party. At a pivotal moment, when the hero has an epiphany, red spills over a full-bleed spread: "This was the time of brainwashing."

Next follows the first of three spreads of journal entries. Framed with drawings by and photos of the author-artist, these entries further personalize the global events (with a 1954 entry about his filmmaker father, for instance, Sís distills into two sentences the events of his extraordinary Tibet Through the Red Box). He characterizes the secret police as pigs and the Beatles as agents of change. Seemingly surreal images (e.g., a man with a swan on his head, a fish with a human face) suddenly come into sobering focus in later pages, as the grown hero dreams of escape--swimming a channel or riding his bike with his drawings transforming into wings to carry him away. In the hero's daydreams, the recurrent image of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty holds a promise of freedom, rendered in the blue palette of a boundless sky. Although Sís's fans know how his story ends (he now lives in New York's Hudson Valley), this extraordinary achievement is a powerful reminder of the hard-won freedoms that drew so many to this country's shores.--Jennifer M. Brown