With this issue, Shelf Awareness celebrates our second anniversary. We thank all of our readers and advertisers and friends and family who have given us so much encouragement and advice--and eagerly reported the occasional error!

Our second year has been happily eventful. Since June 2006, we've expanded our editorial staff, adding several regular part-time contributors: Shannon McKenna, who writes informative news stories on a wide range of subjects and keeps tabs on author appearances and new titles; Jennifer M. Brown, who enthusiastically reviews children's books and writes children's news stories; and Robert Gray, who contributes an entertaining, thoughtful weekly column on a range of bookselling issues and has begun doing some news stories--and will soon take on the awesome task of sometimes putting issues together and sending them out. Marilyn Dahl has continued to write her finely crafted book reviews and is beginning to work with a few reviewers to expand our review coverage as well as editing the Book Brahmins.

We've also begun running occasional columns by expert booksellers on categories of interest. The first was about New Age titles by Susan L. Weis of breathe books, Baltimore, Md. Next month we will run our first graphic novel column. (By the way, we're still looking for bookseller contributors in such areas as gay and lesbian, sci-fi and mystery, for example.)

On the business and sales side, we now have an office in Seattle. Richard Jobes, chief financial officer, continues to keep careful--and sometimes amusing--track of our numbers and provide excellent advice. Graphic designer Alex Baker has kept on creating wonderful depictions of Vik, our book-loving Buddha, who appears at the top of the newsletter. And soon, publisher Jenn Risko will hire our first full-time employee, a sales and marketing associate.

Coincidentally we're marking a few other milestones on a second birthday. We are less than 90 people away from having 10,000 individual subscribers. (Some time ago, we surpassed 10,000 readers, when website views and pass-alongs are included.) Based on typical signups, we should top 10,000 in the next week.

In the next few weeks, we will unveil our first major addition to the newsletter: the drop-in title database, allowing publishers easily to communicate to booksellers and librarians last-minute additions and changes to their lists.

And soon we plan to expand our website beyond its current function as a place to sign up for the newsletter and a repository of past issues and listings of major industry events.

Our deepest thanks and best wishes to everyone,

John and Jenn

P.S. We're taking tomorrow off to celebrate. See you again on Monday! 

Cool idea of the day: Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fla., which has a store in Bal Harbour, is teaming up with Bal Harbour Bistro and Lea's Tea Room & Bistro to offer Food for Thought, a combination lunch-and-book-discussion. The first four meeting-lunches will focus on, respectively, Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Everyman by Philip Roth and The Last Flight by Jose Luis Balboa. The $50 fee includes paperback editions of the book to be discussed, a two-course meal and a "professional book-club facilitator to guide discussion." There is a limit of 10 people per lunch.

As the store puts it, "Food for Thought provides a ready-made book club--the people, the book, the meal, the discussion leader. You provide the appetite--for reading, for dining, for meeting new people."

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Lifetime's new TV series called Army Wives, based on the book originally titled Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives by Tanya Biank, is "the highest-rated series in Lifetime's 23-year history," according to today's New York Times. The show premiered on June 3. The paperback tie-in is called Army Wives: The Unwritten Code of Military Marriage (St. Martin's Griffin, $13.95, 9780312333515/978031233351X). Biank is a journalist, the daughter of a career Army officer and the wife of an Army officer who tells the story of four Army wives.

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Oprah is opening a 4,500-sq.-ft. store close to Harpo Studios in Chicago, the AP reported. No details were given--such as whether the store will sell books.

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The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has extended the deadline for booksellers to order the FREADOM gift card until July 9. The organization must go to press on July 10 in order to send the cards to stores in time for Banned Books Week, September 29-October 6.The card features the FREADOM logo and a Roger Roth illustration of the Statue of Liberty reading a book.

The FREADOM card is offered in conjunction with the ABA's Book Sense Gift Card program and program fees apply, but for the FREADOM card, ABFFE covers the cost of the card, the matching presenter and the 50 cents per card transaction fee--in return for a donation of 10% of the gift card sale. The ABA will track the sale of the cards, deduct the donation and transfer the funds to ABFFE in 2008. (Booksellers who wish to add their logo will pay for imprinting.  Shipping and handling fees also apply.)

ABFFE president Chris Finan said that the FREADOM card was very popular with customers in a test run last year: 20 booksellers sold 3,000 cards, raising $9,000 for ABFFE.

To order the FREADOM card, e-mail Jill Perlstein at jill@bookweb.org or fax a completed order form to 914-591-2724.

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The Borders store that was to have opened in the old Williamsburg Bank Building in Brooklyn, N.Y., which is being converted into condos, has been scrapped, according to NY 1. "A deal . . . fell through," and the developer is looking for another retailer.

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Starbucks Entertainment has chosen Arctic Tale, a National Geographic Films and Paramount Classics movie about a polar bear cub and a walrus calf as they struggle against the odds to reach adulthood, as its next film venture. From the producers of March of the Penguins, the documentary opens in select theaters July 25 and has a wide release on August 17. The company will promote the film in part via discussions about climate change; Starbucks's first movie promo, focused on Akeelah and the Bee, was judged "a disappointment," as today's Wall Street Journal put it. Arctic Tale: Official Companion to the Major Motion Picture by Donnali Fifield (National Geographic, $30, 9781426200656/142620065X) will be available July 24.

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Are mass book groups the problem rather than the solution? Are Richard and Judy (England's answer to Oprah's Book Club) to blame?

According to the London Herald, "Some critics believe book clubs such as Richard and Judy's are responsible for a homogenisation of our reading culture."

The Herald reported that publishers "can no longer afford to take chances and authors who have enjoyed modest successes over many years are suddenly being dropped in favour of potential big hitters."

Cathy Kinnear, manager of an independent bookstore in Glasgow, said, "The book clubs are not about giving people choice. They are actually narrowing it. We can offer recommendations that are targeted at our customers, bearing in mind local preferences rather than picking out a few books for the whole nation."

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On July 7, Jack and Seth Revelle will celebrate the grand opening of Ukazoo Books, their new bookshop in Towson, Md. The Towson Times reported that the brothers have parlayed a successful online retail book business "into a 10,700-square-foot retail outlet with tens of thousands of out-of-print titles in stock."

Why take such a risk in an increasingly hazardous marketplace? Jack answered that he and his brother "were young and don't have families to support yet, so the risk was warranted."

By the way, for job seekers, retail experience is optional, but you will be asked to "rank authors in chronological order."

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Midstate Living profiled the Delaware Diamonds, a statewide book cart drill team, as they prepared to compete for the ALA's Book Cart Drill Team World Championship.

"Most librarians are fun-loving people who are able to poke fun at themselves," said drill team captain Hilary Welliver. "Maybe this will have people thinking differently about their libraries."

Added Leigh Ann DePope: "It's not all about the shushing."

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The phenomenon that knows no bounds.

A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone sold for $18,000 at auction this week. According to the Associated Press (via USA Today), "First editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone--published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--are valuable because of their rarity . . . The publishers produced between 500 and 1,000 copies in the book's first run."

Luke Battenham, a book specialist for Bonham's auctioneers, called the high bid for a relatively new book unprecedented but understandable. "The author is still alive, it's a fairly new series . . . but by the time there was a third book, you could already see it would be a hit," he said. "It's a phenomenon."

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A Diana Chronicles review controversy played out in the London Guardian, which reported that "Diana expert Sarah Bradford was asked to review Tina Brown's new book on the princess for the Spectator. They refused to print it. But we couldn't resist."

The Guardian offered an "abridged and edited" version of Bradford's review, the tone of which might be summed up by a single quotation: "Really there is only one blonde in this story and it's not Diana."

 

 

Several booksellers noticed that NPR's 2007 summer reading list posted online includes a purchasing option that goes only to Amazon.com. Not surprisingly, this has generated some hot listserv commentary.

Allan Schmid of Books Etc., Portland, Me., and president of the New England Independent Booksellers Association, wrote the following letter to npr.org outlining booksellers' concerns:

Thank you for providing your summer reading lists, both adult and kids. It's great to get such support for books both on the air and online. When I viewed your website, though, I was appalled to see that the only option to purchase a book online is through Amazon. Perhaps you could also provide a link to Booksense.com to help the local independent bookstores?

Ordering from Amazon undercuts local independent bookstores, and many of the independent bookstores left in this country and in New England are supporters of NPR.

We are a local, Portland, Maine-based independent bookstore, and, among other ways of contributing, we donate gift cards to our local affiliate's (MPBN) annual auction. We also bring in authors who provide local content for the station.

It is sad to see that all business from Maine conducted with Amazon contributes nothing (!) to local schools and other organizations benefiting from local sales tax. Moreover, many of our customers are NPR listeners, and, given the chance, would vastly prefer to shop locally.

As booksellers, our role in our community is vital, but our business is fragile. So please, add booksense.com to your list of online sources for books.

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, June 30

6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. In a segment first aired in 1997, Nat Hentoff, author of Speaking Freely: A Memoir, talked freely about his follow-up to Boston Boy, an earlier autobiographical work. Speaking Freely begins in the 1950s and focuses upon Hentoff's time in New York as a columnist, activist and music critic.

8 p.m. History on Book TV. In an event held at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., Jules Witcover, author of Very Strange Bedfellows: The Short and Unhappy Marriage of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew (PublicAffairs, $27.95, 9781586484705/1586484702), explores the relationship between the only presidential and vice-presidential team to resign. (Re-airs Sunday, July 1, at 11 p.m.)

9 p.m. After Words. Washington Post Book World columnist Michael Dirda interviews Seth Lerer, author of Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language (Columbia University Press, $24.95, 9780231137942/023113794X). Lerer calls English a flexible and ever-expanding tool for communication. (Re-airs Sunday, July 1, at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.)

10 p.m. Hugh Hewitt, author of A Mormon in the White House?: 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney (Regnery, $27.95, 9781596985025/159698502X), argues that, while former Massachusetts governor Romney's Mormon faith is a challenge to his bid for the White House, it is not insurmountable. (Re-airs Monday, July 2, at 5:30 a.m.)

Sunday, July 1

12 p.m. In Depth. Michael Barone will join Book TV for a three-hour conversation about his work, including his recent book, Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America's Founding Fathers (Crown, $25.95, 9781400097920/1400097924). Barone is a senior writer with U.S. News & World Report and a contributor to Fox News Channel. (Re-airs Monday, July 2, at 12 a.m. and Saturday, July 7, at 9 a.m.)

7 p.m. In an event held at a Barnes & Noble in New York City, Josh Rushing, author of Mission Al Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World (Palgrave Macmillan, $24.95, 9781403979056/1403979057), discusses his life as a media liaison with the Marines during the Iraq War and his subsequent work as an analyst and correspondent for Al Jazeera English. (Re-airs Sunday, July 1, at 10 p.m.)

8 p.m. In an event held at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, N.C., Joseph Wheelan, author of Invading Mexico: America's Continental Dream and the Mexican War, 1846-1848 (Carroll & Graf, $27.95, 9780786717194/078671719X), chronicles President James Polk's wish to acquire California via war and the popular dissent that followed the start of the conflict.

This morning the Today Show goes green with David de Rothschild, author of The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills to Stop Climate Change--Or Live Through It (Rodale, $14.95, 9781594867811/159486781X).

Also on the Today, in a live cooking segment: Darren McGrady, former personal chef to Princess Diana and author of the upcoming Eating Royally: Recipes and Remembrances from a Palace Kitchen (Thomas Nelson, $24.99, 9781401603212/1401603211).

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Today the Early Show goes on the record with longtime journalist Norman Pearlstine, whose new book is Off the Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources (FSG, $25, 9780374224493/0374224498).

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Today on Fox & Friends, Timothy Ferriss offers insight from The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Crown, $19.95, 9780307353139/0307353133).

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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: John Ashbery and Ron Padgett on the works of Pierre Reverdy. Ashbery translated Haunted House (Black Square Editions); Padgett translated Prose Poems (Black Square Editions). As the show put it: "The haunted, lonely prose-poetry of Pierre Reverdy has attracted many translators. Here, two of America's most extraordinary poets read and discuss their translations, prose-poetry in general, and the peculiar, eerie poetry of the great Reverdy."

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Aurelia C. Scott, author of Otherwise Normal People: Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening (Algonquin, $22.95, 9781565124646/1565124642).

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Today Fresh Air talks about the CIA's newly declassified "family jewels" report with Tim Weiner, the New York Times reporter whose new book, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Doubleday, $27.95, 9780385514453/038551445X), is being published today.

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Zbigniew Brzezinski, author of Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower (Basic Books, $26.95, 9780465002528/0465002528).

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Tomorrow the Early Show discusses "beach books for 2007."

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Tomorrow the Oprah Winfrey Show re-airs a segment featuring Hill Harper, CSI: NY star and author of Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny (Gotham, $12, 9781592402496/1592402496).

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On Saturday, the Early Show goes to the dogs with Jon Katz, who talks about his memoir Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm (Villard, $23.95, 9781400064045/140006404X).

"I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish he lived in the wardrobe on a coat hanger," begins Downham's debut novel, instantly conveying the 16-year-old British narrator's humor and universal appeal. Readers quickly learn, however, that Tessa Scott was diagnosed with leukemia, and her wish smacks of urgency. She begins making a list of the 10 things she wants to do before she dies, and the first of these is sex. Her friend Zoey's "got a plan," and the two embark on the first of many adventures. The novel, extraordinary for its unflinching depiction of Tess's psychological and physical hardships, will also have readers laughing so hard that the poignant moments creep in unexpectedly. Tess, realizing that the first wish on her list is about to be fulfilled, for instance, nearly chickens out: "I can't do it!" she tells Zoey, who replies, "You can! Live fast, die young, have a good-looking corpse!" When Tessa discovers that sex for its own sake feels empty, she adds "love" to her list.

In this portrait of a family, in which each of its members deals with Tessa's imminent death in his or her own way, the author makes nary a false step. To Downham's credit, the dysfunction does not magically cease as the teen grows sicker. Tessa still argues with her younger brother; her mother, who left the family four years before for another man, continues to be unreliable; and Tessa's controlling father grips even harder. In another humorous exchange that ends with a wallop, Tessa's father tries to help his daughter achieve #6 on her list, "fame," by getting her on a radio talk show. "Now, what do we mean by fame, eh?" Dad asks her. "I mean Shakespeare," thinks Tessa; clearly the talk show doesn't cut it. But Dad had ulterior motives: to raise enough money on the show to send Tessa to the States for cutting-edge treatment, and Tessa levels with him, "I want you to stop, Dad." "Stop what?" says he. "Stop pretending I'm going to be all right." Tessa may assume the adult role in her family, but she also never stops being a teenager. Zoey points out to Tessa how selfish she is being when Zoey admits she is pregnant and needs a friend, too. Zoey's struggle to decide whether or not to have the baby resonates with Tessa's impossible desire to live. Readers know the novel's ending from the start. What makes this journey worth taking is watching Tessa check off the items on her list; she lives each moment to the fullest, and inspires everyone around her--including readers--to do the same.--Jennifer M. Brown