Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse is opening in La Cañada Flintridge, Calif., near Los Angeles, on Saturday, June 28, La Cañada Valley Sun reported.

Owned by Peter and Lenora Wannier and managed by Mike Alley, the store will offer biographies, history, mystery, fantasy, science, sports, food, entertainment and children's books. Sidelines include cards, wrapping papers from England, toys and gifts. The coffee bar serves teas, smoothies, pastries--and coffee. Music will be performed on Saturdays from 7 p.m. until closing. The store also plans to host book clubs and author signings and stage other events.

The grand opening celebrations include a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the local Chamber of Commerce; appearances by children's book author and illustrator David Shannon, Larry Mantle, radio host and author of This Is Air Talk and Peter Westwick, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory historian and author of Into the Black. Classical guitarists Dr. Ray and Friends will play. In addition, the store will give $5 gift certificates to the first 50 people who arrive.

Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse located at 964 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge, Calif. 91011; 818-790-0717; flintridgebooks.com.

 

A hot surprise book of the spring has been Christopher Hitchens's God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Twelve), which after several printings has 296,000 copies in print and is leading publishers to have more faith in books that, as Hitchens's does, launch "a blazing attack on God and religion," the Wall Street Journal reported today.

Already Da Capo has signed up Hitchens to edit The Portable Atheist, which will include essays by Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, among others. As David Steinberger, CEO and leader of the Perseus flock, said to the paper, "This is atheism's moment."

Other titles in the same league as God Is Not Great that have done well in the past year include Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Sales of Hitchens's book have been aided by his appearances, often in combative debates, on behalf of the book. As Barbara Meade, co-owner of Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C., said, "Part of the appeal is that he's a personality; we sold 106 books when he visited our store."

Another part of the audience: believers who want to understand non-believers. "There is a very strong presence of the religious right, and they want to know what's being said and figure out how to move against it," Vivien Jennings, owner of Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan., said.

Krista Hunter, lead book buyer at Village Books, Bellingham, Wash., is leaving at the end of the summer. In the store's newsletter, owners Chuck and Dee Robinson wrote that Hunter, who has worked at the store for 24 years, "has been an integral part of everything here and we will miss her dearly. Change is inevitable and . . . it can be exciting. We wish Krista the very best. She certainly deserves it."

Hunter wrote in part: "My life has been well and richly-defined by my time at the bookstore and I'm very grateful for that. But at 51, I need the enriching confusion, I need time to let go of definitions and to reimagine my life. Being a bookseller was never a career for me, it was something I loved to do, an extension of self in the world. I will extend myself again into the world, doing what I love most, caring for our planet. For me that has become the spiritual necessity of my life. . . . There are no endings in life, just new beginnings, so I won't say good-bye. It has been a great 24 years, full of memories. And I know in my heart that I leave Village Books in the good hands of the friends and community I've worked with these many years. I told Chuck and Dee this and it is so true, I hope that whatever I do next will fill me with the same sense of right livelihood that I have always had at Village Books."

We at Shelf Awareness also wish her the very best!

Bookselling This Week celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, Mass., owned by Frank Kramer. In October the store itself will celebrate with three weeks of "an especially great line-up of authors: Paul Krugman, Ken Burns, Bill Bryson, Janet Malcolm, academic stars like Helen Vendler, and some local and first-time authors," according to new general manager Carole Horne.

The store also has a monthly Select 75 that includes some titles from the month's Book Sense Picks.

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A show with no name specializing in remainder books takes place August 10-12 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga. Formerly called the Onboard Remainder Book Show, the anonymous show will be named via a sweepstakes contest whose results will be announced the first day of the show. The grand prize winner receives air fare, hotel accommodations, dinner and a skid of books worth $2,000-$3,000 at the discounted retail price. The consolation prize winners will each receive a free skid of books.

The show was purchased earlier this year by L.B. May & Associates, headed by Larry and Valerie May, who run the Spring Book Show, which is also held in Atlanta.

The program for the nameless show includes:

• Guest speaker and educational seminar moderator John Shableski, a graphic novel expert.
• Donna Paz Kaufman and Mark Kaufman of the Bookstore Training Group of Paz & Associates, who will discuss ideas from stores around the world aimed at helping booksellers sharpen their competitive edge.
• A live-art presentation by Joe Castillo, artist and author of The Face of Christ.
• A publishing and writers seminar called Making Money with Books--By Writing Them, Publishing Them and Selling Them.

For more information and to register, go to namethatshow.net or call 865-922-7490 or write ceargle@namethatshow.net or lsmith@namethatshow.net.

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The Santa Monica Mirror profiled KULTURAs Books, which had a soft opening in January and now "has the beginnings of a comfortable feel and the potential for becoming a real neighborhood presence."

Owners Andrew H. MacDonald and Irene M. Coray said they are "delighted to be here and hope to be not only a cornerstone business in the Sunset Park neighborhood, but also become a vital addition to the book-loving communities in the greater Los Angeles Metro area."

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The prospect of budget cuts at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as well as recent revelations that classified information was e-mailed through non-secure computers, are causes of deep concern for business owners in the town, according to the Los Alamos Monitor.

Peggy Durbin, co-owner of Otowi Station Bookstore, told the Monitor she had retired from LANL in 2006, after 22 years of service as a writer/editor involved in publishing research results.

"The time seemed right so I retired and devote myself full time to the bookstore," Durbin said. "While I loved my work and loved my colleagues, with the uncertainty and low morale it wasn't fun anymore."

She added that troubles at the lab are having significant effects on the community. "This town should be a hot bed of science and technology. There should be a steady stream of people coming up the hill to do business. Retail follows progress; retail doesn't create progress."

 

This morning on the Today Show: Mikhail Baryshnikov, author of Because . . . illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, $16.99, 9780689875823/0689875827). 

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Tomorrow on Weekend Edition: Linda Wertheimer, hosting for Scott Simon, talks Jane Austen with Shannon Hale whose new novel is Austenland (Bloomsbury, $19.95, 9781596912854/1596912855).

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Sunday on 60 Minutes: Immaculée Ilibagiza, author of Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (Hay House, $14.95, 9781401908973/1401908977).

 

Lesley Kagen's first reading for her novel Whistling in the Dark (NAL Accent) took place at Fountain Bookstore in Richmond last month and coincided with another momentous occasion happening in the Virginia city. "The book came out the same week my daughter was getting married," said Kagen, who lives in Mequon, Wis.

 The debut author's impressive line-up of appearances includes a dozen bookstores and libraries in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Whistling in the Dark was designated a Book Sense selection in May and chosen by the Midwest Booksellers Association as a summer 2007 Midwest Connections Pick. 

At the Book Cellar in Chicago, Kagen was one of three scribes who headlined an evening event. "She's a great, dynamic speaker," said owner Susan Takacs of the actress and voice-over talent. (Kagen is also the owner of Restaurant Hama in Milwaukee.) Whistling in the Dark was one of the titles featured by the Book Cellar at the Printer's Row Book Fair on June 9 and 10. "I love the story," Takacs commented. "It's reminiscent of how it feels to be a kid in the summer."

Whistling in the Dark follows the adventures of the O'Malley sisters during the summer of 1959. The novel is narrated by 10-year-old Sally, who promised her father before he died that she would look out for her younger sister, Troo. It's no easy task when the girls are all but left on their own after their mother is hospitalized and their stepfather abandons them. With a murderer and molester on the loose in their Milwaukee neighborhood, Sally is convinced she'll be his next victim--and that she's on her own to protect herself and Troo as best she can.

Michelle Burcky, owner of Cover to Cover Bookstore in Arlington, Tenn., described Whistling in the Dark as "a heartfelt, enduring story." She's anticipating a lively and interesting discussion when her store's book club speaks by phone with Kagen later this month. And not only will Kagen add insight to the discussion, she's bestowing a sweet treat on the group: homemade chocolate chip cookies packaged in a tin with a specially-created label for the "Feelin' Good Cookie Co.," a fictitious company that factors into the storyline. "I wanted to do something fun," said Kagen "and thank them for reading my book."

Along with handselling Whistling in the Dark to book clubs and customers looking for gift ideas, Burcky is recommending it to fans of Jodi Picoult's novels and those who enjoyed The Memory Keeper's Daughter. The element of suspense that runs through the novel is appealing to mystery readers (the book was a selection of both the Literary Guild and the Mystery Guild), and the spirited O'Malley sisters are finding favor with the young adult audience.

One early reader of Kagen's tale was Water for Elephants author Sara Gruen, who deemed it "bittersweet and beautifully rendered," an endorsement featured on the book's cover. The two writers struck up a friendship several years ago after Kagen read Gruen's novel Flying Changes. She wrote to compliment Gruen on the book and the two bonded over their interest in writing and a shared love of horses.

Support for Kagen's literary endeavors has also come from her local bookstore, the Harry W. Schwartz branch in Mequon. "It's my home away from home," Kagen said. Booksellers there read an early draft of and offered feedback on Whistling in the Dark as well as guidance throughout the publishing process. "I truly don't know if I could have done this without their support," said Kagen, who did a reading at the store in May and will return in August for a book club event.

Kagen recently finished writing her second novel, which is set in a small Kentucky town in 1973. For now she's savoring the success of her fiction debut. "The biggest moment throughout all of this came when they called me from Schwartz and said, 'Your books are here,'" recalled Kagen. She made haste to the store, where she was asked to autograph copies of Whistling in the Dark. "I was sitting in my favorite bookstore with my books and my signing pen," she said. "It's a moment I'll never forget."--Shannon McKenna

Here's a book that will cool you off on a hot day. Words that come to mind when reading Ice Moon are bleak, gray, blue, despair; there is much trudging through knee-deep snow. At the same time, it's a moving meditation on death and sorrow. In the Finnish town of Turku, Detective Kimmo Joentaa returns to work only a week after the death of his young wife, Sanna. He doesn't know what else to do with his time, and when a woman is smothered in her sleep, he takes the case. Soon after the first murder, a man is smothered in a hostel, while others sleep around him. Joentaa becomes obsessed with solving the murders because he hopes it will take his mind off Sanna's death; at the same time, it seems to draw him further into grief and loss. He sometimes wonders which part of his life is now a dream and which part is reality. When a third murder occurs, he welcomes both the increased distraction and the depth of his misery.

The killer is insane, but in an almost delicate, poetic way. He pretends that he has done nothing and thinks that his acts are committed in another world, the world he tries to obliterate: "He sipped his coffee, enjoying the heat, the pain, on his tongue. He took a big mouthful, hoping to choke on the full moon, but he gulped it down." Joentaa, some senses numbed by Sanna's death, some heightened, becomes tuned into the unknowable, and thus finds his way into the murderer's mind. When they finally come together, the denouement is hushed, muffled by the snow and seems doubly tragic when meshed with Joentaa's understanding of the killer. Ice Moon is both a chilling mystery and an exploration of the myriad ways people deal with loss.--Marilyn Dahl