Lambda Rising, the gay and lesbian bookstore company that has stores in Washington, D.C., Baltimore Md., and Rehoboth Beach, Del., is closing its Norfolk, Va., store at the end of the month, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

The 11-year-old store had an unexplained 25% drop in sales in last year and lost $30,000. Owner Deacon Maccubbin said that sales at Lambda Rising's three other stores are solid.

Anthony Williams, the Norfolk store's manager, told the paper, "When faced with the higher rates that would come with signing a new five-year lease at the end of this month, with the decline in sales, it was just impossible to do it anymore."

Norfolk bookselling is going through some turmoil. Earlier this year five-year-old Broad Street Books closed, and Follett and Barnes & Noble College have taken over management from one another of bookstores at area colleges and are building large stores that aim to appeal to the general public (Shelf Awareness, October 10, 2006). A session at the ABA's Day of Education at BEA focused on ongoing efforts made by Sarah Pishko, owner of Prince Books, to respond to the changes.

The British Press is having a field day with the disclosure that money is changing hands for prime display space in some chain bookstores. According to the London Daily Mail, "large chains charge tens of thousands of pounds to place books in such privileged positions or to be promoted as 'recommended' or 'an ideal gift.'"

Waterstone's, Britains largest chain, "demands publishers pay a massive £45,000 [$90,000] in return for a high-profile spot in the run-up to Christmas. That package, open to just six titles, will buy space in the windows and front-of-store displays at all 300 branches, virtually guaranteeing a place in the bestsellers list. For a payment of £25,000 [$50,000], copies will be placed in special 'gift book' bays around the front of the store, while £17,000 [$34,000] will earn 'offer of the week' status."

The Daily Mail also reported that "W.H. Smith charges as much as £200,000 [$400,000] in the pre-Christmas period--and as a result, large publishing houses pay multi-million pound sums every year just to secure the best positions for their titles."

According to a spokeswoman for the Waterstone's, "a publisher cannot buy a promotional slot at Waterstone's. Books are chosen by our expert booksellers and buyers based on what they believe our customers will want to read and buy."

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The Racine, Wis., Journal Times profiled Wilbert Hasbrouck, the 75-year-old co-owner--with wife Marilyn--of Prairie Avenue Bookshop in Chicago. Hasbrouck's rich career has included work as an architectural historian, a preservation architect and advocate for preservation. "I've been fortunate that my work has been related to my primary interest," he said. "A guy told me once if you could do 15% of your time what you really what to do with your life, you are really lucky, and I’ve done that."

Although the piece focuses primarily on his work as a restoration architect, Hasbrouck does reflect upon the couple's 40-plus years in the book business. "We started publishing long out-of-print books. The first book we published was on Louis Sullivan. Then we did Frank Lloyd Wright’s House Beautiful, an exact facsimile. I've always been a book collector of architectural books. I used to buy books at auctions and so forth, sometimes buying a whole box to get one book. I had a basement full of books I didn't want."

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Effective immediately, IPG's Trafalgar Square Publishing is distributing titles from Little Hare Books, the Australian children's book publisher, in the U.S. and Canada. The fall list includes books by David Bedford illustrated by Leonie Worthington such as Toes and Tails (both Lift-the-Flap books), In-o-saur, Out-o-saur and One-o-saur, Two-o-saur and the picture book Time for Bed, Isobel; Bridget's Book of Nursery Rhymes by Bridget Strevens-Marzo; and Pirates and The Great Race Maze, puzzle books by Anna Nilsen.

Rod Hare, co-founder of Little Hare Books, said that his company's titles complement Trafalgar/IPG's. "It's very exciting to be launching the first list under our own Little Hare brand," he continued. "This is a stage in our development we have been working towards since we founded the business seven years ago."
 

This morning on the Today Show, Elizabeth Rogers offers tips from The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time (Three Rivers, $12.95, 9780307381354/0307381358).

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Today on Good Morning America: Susan McQuillan, author of the Sesame Street-branded, kid-friendly C Is for Cooking: Recipes from the Street (Wiley, $16.95, 9780471791010/0471791016).

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This morning the Early Show reels in an appearance with David Pasternack, chef at New York City eatery Esca and co-author of The Young Man and the Sea: Recipes and Crispy Fish Tales from Esca (Artisan, $35, 9781579652760/157965276X).

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Today WAMU's Diane Rehm Show welcomes Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, authors of the 25th anniversary edition of The Silver Palate Cookbook (Workman, $29.95, hardcover, 9780761145981/0761145982; $19.95 paperback, 9780761145974/0761145974).

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Today on a repeat episode of the Martha Stewart Show, Joan Nathan shares recipes from The New American Cooking (Knopf, $35, 9781400040346/1400040345).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith With Our Values in a Dangerous World (Perseus, $25.95, 9780465078080/0465078087).

 

Rick Riordan, author of The Lightning Thief (Miramax), the second pick of the Today Show's Al's Book Club for Kids, with fans backstage. The Lightning Thief is the second of Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The third book, which appeared last month, is The Titan's Curse.

 

Selected titles with a pub date of next Tuesday, June 26:

Bungalow 2 by Danielle Steel (Delacorte, $27, 9780385338318/0385338317). In Steel's latest, a suburban wife and mother makes it big as a Hollywood screenwriter.

The Double Agents by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV (Putnam, $25.95, 9780399154201/0399154205). In the sixth installment of the Men at War series from the father-son writing duo, the OSS heroes face a monumental challenge--outwitting Hitler in military strategy.

Drop Dead Beautiful by Jackie Collins (St. Martin's, $24.95, 9780312341794/0312341792). Collins's 25th tales brings back the popular Lucky Santangelo.

New England White by Stephen L. Carter (Knopf, $26.95, 9780375413629/0375413626). A new novel from the author of The Emperor of Ocean Park.

Peony in Love by Lisa See ($23.95, 9781400064663/140006466X). A novel set in 17th-century China from the author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz (Villard, $23.95, 9781400064045/140006404X). A memoir about the adventures of farm life from the author of A Good Dog and host of the Northeast Public Radio show Dog Talk.

New in paperback June 26:

Fool Me Once by Fern Michaels (Zebra, $7.99, 9780821780718/0821780719).

Safe Harbor by Christine Feehan (Jove, $7.99, 9780515143188/0515143189).

Blood Red by Heather Graham (Mira, $7.99, 9780778324867/0778324869).

It's embarrassing to admit, but after reading a few pages of this delightful mystery, I wanted to skip to the last chapter because if it didn't have a happy ending, I wanted nothing to do with it. (Did I? Perhaps.) And I've gone completely off lamb. You may, too, after you've fallen for the 17 sheep in this captivating flock, like Miss Maple, the cleverest sheep in Glennkill; Mopple, the memory sheep, a very stout Merino ram who forgets nothing he hears; Zora, a Blackface sheep with a head for heights, who delights in looking into the abyss; Melmoth, the legendary ram who disappeared and is a cautionary tale for lambs; or Othello, the black Hebridean with a mysterious past involving a circus and a cruel clown.

The sheep find George, their shepherd, lying in the green Irish grass one morning, and realize straightaway that he didn't die of an illness. The spade in his body attested to that. Maple decides that they should find his murderer. "No one had a right to stick a spade in him. That's wolfish behavior. That's murder." And when they've found the culprit? "Justice!" The sheep proudly raise their heads. "Justice!" they bleat in chorus. Fortunately, the flock is well-versed in the theory of murder, due to their literary education. "Sheep are not talkative folk. That's because their mouths are often full of grass, and sometimes they have nothing but grass in their heads. But all sheep love good stories. What they like to do best is listen, marveling--for one thing, because it is easy to listen and chew at the same time." So George used to read them romance novels--the sheep call them Pamelas, since there was always a Pamela who was always in peril--and also mysteries, which is where they get the idea to investigate, using evidence, discussion and motivation. They quickly discover one important clue--what some suspicious villagers are looking for after George's death:

"Grass," said Zora. "Tom said they were looking for grass."
That seemed to the sheep too sensible. Humans didn't normally have such reasonable aims.

The sheep first create a memorial to George, a small plot of land where they cannot graze, no matter how alluring the mouse weed and clover. Then, as they begin to navigate on their own, a bad shepherd named Gabriel tries to take over the flock. Othello first recognizes the animal trainer in the man: "The same few gestures, the same boredom in the eyes. The same malice behind the deceptive friendliness." The rest of the flock soon agree and turn their rear ends toward his caravan and graze straight past him, showing ovine contempt. In order to get rid of him, they decide to teach Gabriel to fear them, drawing on what they heard when George read a sheep disease text to them. They rehearse in the hay barn, and when they trot out later, hilariously feigning symptoms of scrapie, they scare Gabriel with panache.

Leonie Swann writes lyrically about sheep and wisdom, throwing in a bit pf philosophy and a generous dollop of gentle humor: "But how will we find the takeaway [behind the church]? Or the church? We don't even know what a church is." In spite of their somewhat dire straights, the sheep are surrounded by beauty and they know it: "Fairies had danced on the grass overnight and left thousands of dewdrops behind. The sea looked as if it had been licked clean, blue and clear and smooth, and there were a few woolly little clouds in the sky. Legend said that these clouds were sheep who had simply wandered over the cliff tops one day, special sheep who now went on grazing in the sky and were never shorn. In any case, they were a good sign." Some of the loveliest writing is about their sense of smell. In the barn, the heat had pushed scents out of the nooks and crannies: "George's sweat from forking hay, a radio screw that still smelled of metal and music, blood from Othello's wound and the stinging ointment, swallows' eggs under the roof. The smell of many lambs. The smell of snow. Powder on butterfly wings."

One of Swann's finest characters is Othello, whom George rescued from certain death. When the winter lamb asks Othello about justice, he recalls his days in the circus--the sheep given to the beasts of prey, Othello used for a knife-throwing act because blood didn't show on his back fleece, being passed on to the sadistic clown. That was injustice. When Othello lost his temper with the clown's ugly dog, the dog didn't survive. That was justice. But the clown sold Othello to the knacker. Unjust! The knacker took him to the dogfights. Unjust! Othello ponders all this and then defines justice for the winter lamb: "When you can trot where you like and graze where you want. When you can fight to go your own way. When no one steals your way from you. That's justice!"

Three Bags Full is appealing and amusing, with moments of sadness and poignancy. The sheep are curious and determined, no matter how often they are waylaid by green grass and drowsy naps, and their ruminations on "human beings with their small souls and sticking-out noses" are perceptive.  Prepare to be utterly charmed.--Marilyn Dahl

"I'm a very lucky boy," Chris Finan said as he talked recently with Shelf Awareness about touring for his new book, From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America (Beacon Press, $25.95, 9780807044285/0807044288).

The president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression since 1998, Finan has promoted the book at some of the most outstanding independent bookstores in the country since the beginning of May. "A lot of those people are my friends and have taken care of me as though I were royalty--and I ain't. I know I'm no big draw. But they see the book as their message, and in many ways, the book does tell their story."

The stores Finan has visited include the Tattered Cover, Denver, Colo.; Powell's Books, Portland, Ore.; Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt.; Skylight Books, Los Angeles; Pandora's Books, Berkeley, Calif.; and Books & Books, Miami, Fla. In some cases, he's doing more than a reading and signing. At Olsson's Books & Music, Washington, D.C., for example, he was introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I.-Vt.), a strong supporter of revising the Patriot Act, and the event was filmed by Book TV. After appearing at the King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, he spoke at the Utah Civil Liberties Union's annual dinner, which drew 200 people.

The publicity effort continues. Today Finan appears on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show, where he will be interviewed by Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker, who is filling in for Lopate.

Among future events, fittingly on the eve of Independence Day, Finan will appear at Robin's Bookstore in Philadelphia, Pa. In the fall he will also do some events in connection with Banned Books Week and appear at the Seattle Public Library, Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle; Village Books, Bellingham, Wash.; and Fact & Fiction, Missoula, Mont.

From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act is "the history of the fight for free speech, which offers lessons for what's going on today," Finan said. Interestingly bookstores and libraries were leery of the censorship issue in the early part of the 20th century, he said, because until then "they considered themselves defenders of the culture and protectors of the public against bad books." But after books from Europe that were "more avant garde in their treatment of sex" began appearing in the U.S., "lots of booksellers and librarians got caught in the crossfire of the fight between culture and free speech.

"The '20s was a turning point for the publishing industry," he went on. "We became defenders of free speech. By 1926, John Kidd, a bookseller in Cincinnati who had been prosecuted for selling Rabelais, was the new president of the ABA."

In the fight for free speech, Finan praised the role of librarians, too, mentioning the challenge by the Connecticut librarians to a 2005 FBI national security letter, a battle he discusses at the beginning of his introduction to the book. "Librarians leading the fight to change the Patriot Act may seem counterintuitive to some people," he said, "but in fact they have played that role for a long." In the middle of the McCarthy era, for example, they released a freedom to read statement, a brave act at the time.

This year's BookExpo America was only a bit unusual for Finan. Offical ABFFE events included hosting a luncheon at the ABA's Day of Education. "That gave us more exposure to booksellers than we've ever had at the shows," Finan said. The presentation featured the airing of well-received videos demonstrating, with a lot of humor, how to and not how to deal with customers who object to materials in stores. The foundation was also a beneficiary of the "very successful" Rock Bottom Remainders concert Saturday evening.

Finan and From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act were the focus of a party one evening at the Hotel ABA. "I really enjoyed the party," he commented. "There was a lot of interest in the book, which was very gratifying, and it was nice to be with old friends." Finan brought down the house at the ABA's annual meeting, when he was asked, in his role as ABFFE president, about news. From the floor , he said just two words: "My book." After the laughter died down, he was asked again and repeated his answer. (Later he said that he didn't think it was an appropriate time to go into the details of ABFFE's many recent actions.)

As for sales, he noted that when one bookseller said the book was not "flying off the shelves," Finan responded, "I'd be happy if it just walked off the shelves." But in some cases, it is flying: Betsy Burton's King's English sold more than 60 copies during Finan's visit, a fact he reported with a bit of awe and a lot of gratitude.--John Mutter