Quills, a coffee shop/bookstore, opened a few weeks ago in Louisville, Ky., the Courier-Journal reported. Founded by brothers Nathan and Gabriel Quillo, Quills is, the paper said, where "old-fashioned library meets arty living room. Striking artwork for sale, including paintings of birds, livens up the walls. Dark woods, cozy chairs, and couches and daybeds nestled into nooks add to the stay-awhile allure."

The book selection includes "authors we like, and authors we want to like," Nathan Quillo said. Among titles on hand and mentioned by the Courier-Journal: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and the Lord of the Rings series.

Quills is located at 1220 E. Kentucky St., Louisville, Ky. 40204-1665; 502-459-4245. 

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Books & Books is expanding its Food for Thought book club luncheon series to its flagship store in Coral Gables, Fla. The program, recently introduced at the Books & Books Bal Harbour store, features, for $50, the paperback version of the book to be discussed, a meal and a professional book club facilitator. The lunches in Coral Gables will be held in the store's café.

The first two Coral Gables Food for Thought books will be Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and Everyman by Philip Roth.

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The Gulfport, Miss., Sun Herald called Portland, Me., "a town made for bookshops" in its travel report on a city that has "evolved into an easy alliance of tourism, business and art, a successful example of a livable community."

After browsing through Books Etc. and Emerson Books in Portland, then driving two hours north to Camden to explore Stone Soup Books, ABCD Books, Meetingbrook Bookshop & Bakery, Sherman's Books & Stationery and the Owl & Turtle Bookshop, the biblio-traveler faced a familiar reader's "conundrum." This was resolved when a "packing and shipping store was located to ship 36 books back home, the rewards of a calming sojourn in picturesque Maine."

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The Fredericksburg, Va., Free Lance-Star featured a tour of "three main bookstores downtown that teens frequent," including Riverby Bookstore & Bindery, the Griffin Bookshop & Coffee Bar and the Wounded Bookshop.

The Wounded Bookshop hosts more than 100 public functions during the year. "Shows aren't always good for the books," said owner Paul Lewis. "But somehow, it all works out. The kids who do come to the shows have a great use for the space, so nothing is ever in vain. This place brings people together."

 

Even if it's only anticipatory, Amazon.com seemed to get a magical boost from Harry Potter late yesterday. After announcing that in the second quarter net income more than tripled to $78 million on revenues of $2.89 billion, the company's shares rose 19% to $82.40 in after-hours trading.

Wall Street approved of the strong sales boosts both in North America--up 38%-- and Europe and Asia, up 31%. Amazon attributed much of the gain to increased customer use of its Amazon Prime program, which offers free express shipping for $79 a year.

Sales of books and other media rose 27%; electronics and other general merchandise rose 55%.

Harry Potter sales came too late to be counted in the quarter and will show up instead in the third quarter.

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What happens next? That's what some readers of HP7 were wondering when they discovered missing pages in their copies. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "At least 200 people across the country who bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows over the weekend could use a little wizardry to help them get through the book."

The copies in question "have printing errors that include missing pages. At least three [Quality Food Centers] stores in the Renton/Maple Valley area had problems, with one book missing at least 30 pages." Scholastic said it will replace any book that has an error.

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A counterfeit edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was being sold by bookstalls in Lahore, Pakistan, "at a throwaway price even before the arrival of the pirated edition," according to the Daily Times. "The fake novel was an amalgam of some new and old chapters from a few of the Harry Potter books including the latest launched one," the paper continued. "Local booksellers claimed that the fake book was not printed in Pakistan. They also said the fake book had been imported from the US and the UK, which is nonsense since it looks very much like a local job."

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Some pretty Harry international sales figures:

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold more than 400,000 English-language copies in Germany, one of 88 other countries in which the book came out on Saturday," according to the Financial Times. "At least 128 books a second crossed bookshop counters during the first full day of publication."

In Canada, more than 800,000 copies were sold within 48 hours of the book's release, the Montreal Gazette reported. That marks an increase of 25% in sales compared to the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2005, said Jamie Broadhurst, marketing director for Raincoast Books.

More than 2.65 million copies have been sold in the U.K., ITV News reported.

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In response to yesterday's item about Main Street Books, Minot, N.D., which sold two cases of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to Amtrak riders and crew on Saturday morning, we received the following note from Sarah Frye of Munro's Books in Victoria, B.C., Canada:

"We didn't have to meet a train, but here in Victoria, we have cruise ships arriving every few days. When I was setting up our special orders for Harry 7, I kept getting notes that said, 'On cruise, will arrive Victoria July 22, please hold.' Our Sunday sales proved that in fact, many people who were at sea on the 21st must have come almost directly from the boat to our store."

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Times tale from the English floods: "Richard Yates, a postman based at the Evesham sorting office in Worcestershire, used his own car to carry out a special delivery of the new Harry Potter book to a village cut off by floods at the weekend, after delivery rounds were cancelled for the day because of widespread flooding."

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In an interview on the Today Show, J.K. Rowling said she "probably will" write a Harry Potter encyclopedia, with "many more details about her beloved characters and the fate of the wizarding world beyond the few clues provided in the seventh book’s epilogue."

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This morning on the Today Show: Nancy Schulman, author of Practical Wisdom for Parents: Demystifying the Preschool Years (Knopf, $24.95, 9780307263544/0307263541).

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This morning's Book Report, the weekly AM radio book-related show organized by Windows a bookshop, Monroe, La., features interviews with:

• Melodie Bowsher, author of My Lost and Found Life (Bloomsbury, $16.95, 9781582347363/1582347360)
• Jim Lynch, author of The Highest Tide (Bloomsbury, $13.95, 9781582346298/1582346291)

The show airs at 8 a.m. Central Time and can be heard live at thebookreport.net; the archived edition will be posted this afternoon.

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Today Diane Rehm interviews Jim Dale, narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks. 

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Today on NPR's On Point: Stephen L. Carter, author of New England White: A Novel (Knopf, $26.95, 9780375413629/0375413626).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Rob Gifford, author of China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power (Random House, $26.95, 9781400064670/1400064678).

 

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, July 31:

Hardcover fiction

Last Breath: A Novel of Suspense by Mariah Stewart (Ballantine, $19.95, 9780345492241/0345492242) is the conclusion to Stewart's Last trilogy (after Last Look and Last Words). Archeologist Daria McGowan uncovers several deaths in the trail of priceless artifacts.

In at the Death (Settling Accounts, Book 4) by Harry Turtledove (Del Rey, $26.95, 9780345492470/0345492471) concludes the series that presupposes the Union lost the Civil War. Finally defeated by the United States and their German allies in World War II, the Confederacy must return to the Union after 80 years of independence.

Beyond Reach by Karin Slaughter (Delacorte, $25, 9780385339476/038533947X) follows Dr. Sara Linton in this sixth entry to Slaughter's Grant County, Georgia crime series.

Up Close and Personal by Fern Michaels (Kensington, $19.95, 9780758212719/0758212712) chronicles heiress Sarabess Windsor's attempts to control the damage caused by a decision made 30 years ago regarding her daughter.

Hardcover nonfiction

Change Your Thoughts--Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao by Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House, $26.95, 9781401911843/1401911846) features an essay and modern analysis of each of the 81 ancient verses called the Tao Te Ching or the Great Way.


New in paperback:

Tuesday, July 31:

Spy by Ted Bell (Pocket Star, $9.99, 9780743277242/0743277244)

The Ruins by Scott Smith (Vintage, $7.99, 9780307278289/030727828X)

Golden Buddha by Clive Cussler (Berkley, $7.99, 9780425218181/042521818X)

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks (Penguin, $16, 9780143038917/0143038915)

Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson (Zebra, $7.99, 9780821775790/0821775790)


Wednesday, August 1:

Dakota Born by Debbie Macomber (Mira, $7.99, 9780778325116/0778325113)

With this column, Shelf Awareness is introducing another regular contributor: Ellen Myrick will write occasionally about new and backlist audiobooks. Myrick is a book industry veteran of nearly 20 years and has listened to thousands of audiobooks. She has been a board member of the Audio Publishers Association and is the 2008 Judging Chair for the Audie Awards. Her first try at narration, Geraldine McCaughrean's Stop the Train (Full Cast Audio, $48, 9781933322438/1933322438), was recently recognized as a best audiobook for young adults by the Young Adult Library Services Association.


It's been almost 200 years since Jane Austen slipped away from this world and her remains were laid to rest in Winchester Cathedral. Her memorial slab makes no mention of her writings.

A dozen years ago I wrote a column on the "Jane Austen Revival" for a book review publication. Sense and Sensibility had just come out, and the approaching Pride and Prejudice miniseries was getting unprecedented buzz. Who would have thought that in 2007 Jane Austen would still be so popular that her image would appear on the cover of Newsweek and she would be the subject of a biographical major motion picture? (Becoming Jane opens August 3.)

Shannon Hale has tapped into Austenmania with her novel, Austenland, in which Jane Hayes is given a bequest that promises to fulfill her obsessive fantasies about Mr. Darcy. Her great aunt has given her a trip to Pembroke Park, a scrupulous replica of regency England where actors and setting lend verisimilitude to women who long for their own Austen experience.

Some books should never be made into audiobooks, some audiobooks fulfill the promise of their original form and a rare few take the book and make it an even richer experience. Katherine Kellgren's reading of Jane's adventures in Austenland falls into the last category. Kellgren's infectious inflections give us Jane in all her many moods as well as hint at the Darcy-with-a-dash-of-Heathcliff intensity of Mr. Nobly, the joie de vivre of Colonel Andrews, the cooing affection of Aunt Sophronia and the hapless hunk of manhood that is Martin. Perhaps her crowning achievement is the mishmash accent of another visitor, whose layers of British "refaynment" can't quite suppress the bubbling up of Deep South.

Austenland (Audio Renaissance, $29.95, 9781427201416/1427201412) is a delicious experience in every way and serves as the perfect appetizer--or dessert, if you prefer--for a full meal of the real Austen.

Many excellent Austen audiobooks are available, but if you're looking to be steeped in the real land of Austen, Naxos productions have a clear advantage. In a society where evening entertainment consisted of young ladies demonstrating their accomplishments at the pianoforte, the musical interludes that punctuate Naxos audiobooks give an air of authority to their recordings. Emma (Naxos Audiobooks, $81.98, 9789626343944/962634394X) is read by the peerless Juliet Stevenson, a particularly appropriate choice since she was so memorable in the film adaptation.

Stevenson's voice has a wonderful richness that chronicles--with both tenderness and humor--Jane Austen's most self-centered heroine's ascent into self-knowledge. Emma's miscalculations and humiliation are tempered by her affectionate nature and thoughtfulness, and Juliet Stevenson obviously enjoys every moment.

But if only Darcy will do, you must have Pride and Prejudice (Naxos Audiobooks, $67.98, 9789626343562/9626343567). Emilia Fox's rendering of Jane Austen's most beloved work conveys the "light and bright and sparkling" nature described by the author herself of this most beloved of her novels. Fox played Georgiana Darcy in the 1996 miniseries but her range far exceeds the shy gentility of that character. Her portrayal of the brassy and boisterous Mrs. Bennet is a joy to the ear.

If you wish to venture beyond the Austen's six novels for your aural Austen pleasures, there are plenty of excellent choices even beyond repeated listenings to Austenland. Try The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler and read by Kimberly Schraf (Listen & Live Audio, $34.95, 9781593160272/1593160275) to spend time with a group of engaging Austen lovers. Confessions of an Austen Addict by Laurie Rigler (Penguin Audiobooks, $39.95, 9780143142416/0143142410) will be coming out next month and explores the dilemma of a contemporary ardent Austen fan who wakes up in a regency England bedchamber.

Whether you prefer the original canon or wish for a different perspective, there is plenty of ammunition for the Austen enthusiast in the audio world.--Ellen Myrick