Total revenues in the second quarter ended July 31 at Hastings Entertainment rose 2.3% to $125.9 million and net income jumped to $1.9 million from $200,000 in the same period in 2006. (The gain in net income was aided by "a benefit reducing income tax expense" of $900,000 from "a favorable settlement of a prior year's state tax liability.")

Total revenues at stores open at least a year rose 2.2%. Sales of books at stores open a year rose 6.9% compared to a drop of 2.9% in the second quarter last year. Book sales magic had to do with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: the company said total sales of HP7 were $1.8 million. During the six months ended July 31, comp-store sales of books were up 2.8% compared to flat in the first six months of 2006.

Among categories with stronger comp-store sales in the quarter were electronics, up 32.3%; trends, up 18.9%; video games, up 14%; movies, up 10.6%; and the Hard Back Café, up 9.4%. By contrast, music sales dropped 14.2% and consumables rose 5.5%.

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Congratulations to Nancy Olson, owner of Quail Ridge Books & Music, Raleigh, N.C., who we hear has been inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame for her advocacy of locally owned businesses, her commitment to literacy programs and for putting Raleigh on the nation's literary map.

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Susan Harwood has joined Borders Group as chief information officer. She was formerly v-p of information technology at Books-A-Million, a position she held since 2001. Before that, she worked for Crown Books from 1995 to 2001, most recently as v-p, information technology, and chief information officer.

Among other responsibilities, Harwood will play "a key role" in technology support for the development of Borders.com, which the company is launching on its own early next year.

 

Today on NPR's Fresh Air: Bill Flanagan, author of New Bedlam: A Novel (Penguin Press, $24.95, 9781594200502/1594200505).

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Mike O'Connor, author of Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run (Random House, $24.95, 9780375504792/0375504796).

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Tonight on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno: James Blake, tennis star and author of Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life (HarperCollins, $25.95, 9780061343490/0061343498).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us (St. Martin's, $24.95, 9780312347291/0312347294).
 

Selected hardcover titles appearing on Tuesday, September 28:

Strip Search: A Novel by William Bernhardt (Ballantine, $25.95, 9780345470195/0345470192) follows Las Vegas cop Susan Pulaski as she pursues a serial killer.

Drop Shot by Harlan Coben (Delacorte, $22, 9780385342100/0385342101) stars sports agent Myron Bolitar, who must "connect the dots" between a tennis player he has under contract and a recent murder.

The Elves of Cintra (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 2) by Terry Brooks (Del Rey, $26.95, 9780345484116/0345484118) continues the bestselling Shannara series.

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte, $25, 9780385337496/0385337493) follows gentleman soldier Lord John Grey during the Seven Years' War.

Dark Possession by Christine Feehan (Berkley, $24.95, 9780425217092/0425217094) is the 18th Carpathian novel.

The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Grand Central, $25.99, 9780446580281/0446580287) is a supernatural thriller about the disappearance of a powerful artifact from a Tibetan monastery and an FBI agent's efforts to track it down.

Bones to Ashes: A Novel by Kathy Reichs (Scribner, $25.95, 9780743294379/0743294378) is the 10th thriller starring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.


Selected titles appearing in paperback on Tuesday, August 28:

The Jane Austen Book Club movie tie-in edition by Karen Joy Fowler (Plume, $14, 9780452289000/0452289009).

The Elements of Style Illustrated by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White (Penguin, $15, 9780143112723/0143112724).

74 Seaside Avenue by Debbie Macomber (Mira, $7.99, 9780778324850/0778324850).

Innocent In Death by J.D. Robb (Berkley, $7.99, 9780425217542/042521754X).

April 16th: Virginia Tech Remembers by Roland Lazenby (Plume, $14, 9780452289345/0452289343).

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (Penguin, $16, 9780143038580/0143038583).

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin (Plume, $15, 9780452288522/0452288525).

All Aunt Hagar's Children: Stories by Edward P. Jones (Amistad, $14.95, 9780060557577/0060557575).

Ines of My Soul: A Novel by Isabel Allende (Harper Perennial, $14.95, 9780061161544/0061161543).

Who Stole the Funny?: A Novel of Hollywood by Robby Benson (Harper Paperbacks, $13.95, 9780061245008/0061245003).


In paperback on September 1:

What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George (Harper, $7.99, 9780060545635/0060545631).

At midnight on August 14, 1947, Great Britain ceded rule of the Indian subcontinent, marking the end of its once-grand Empire and ushering in the independent nations of India and Pakistan. Present at the creation were the larger-than-life figures of Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinna and Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, the last viceroy and vicereine of India. That midnight transfer of power has entered history as a defining moment of the 20th century and has acquired the aura of myth.

In this panoramic and authoritative re-examination of the people, politics and events that led up to newfound identities for India, Pakistan and Great Britain, Alex von Tunzelmann draws back the veil of myth to reveal the complex centuries-old relationship between India and the British Empire. The history she shares is, believe it or not, a page-turner. Employing a fluid narrative style, she establishes what the Empire meant to both India and Great Britain. The enterprise that began with a 15-year trading grant to the East India Company in 1600, when India was itself a unified empire, grew insidious: the Company initially formed commercial ties with the ruling Moguls; later, when King Charles II granted it greater latitude, it imposed fierce political control. By the mid-1850s, the Indian people found they had been taken over. Gandhi would later summarize the debacle with, "The English have not taken India--we have given it to them."

From 1857 on, the struggle for India would be to regain national sovereignty; the challenge for Great Britain would be to prevent India from leaving the Empire. Von Tunzelmann is especially astute when describing the many times India was close to regaining its independence but lost its advantage, often because of infighting among Indian factions, and reminds us that Winston Churchill regarded the enmity between Hindus and Muslims as "a bulwark of British rule in India."

What would break the vicious circle, she argues, was the combination of circumstances and personalities that came together after World War II. The British Empire faced a new economic-political landscape: Great Britain was broke after the war, and the U.S., a major source of financial aid, was bringing pressure to end colonial rule everywhere. In addition, a glamorous, if odd, couple entered onto the Indian stage: Louis and Edwina Mountbatten had been appointed to oversee the withdrawal of Britain and the transfer of power to India. Earl Mountbatten of Burma may have been 49th in line for the English throne but until his appointment as Viceroy of India he had demonstrated such monumental ineptness that he had been dubbed "The Master of Disaster." Lady Mountbatten was one of the wealthiest women in the world and wasn't thrilled about being the Vicereine of India: she preferred to travel the world with her many lovers and avoid the attentions of her husband.

Selecting the Mountbattens for the job might have seemed insane, but it proved to be inspired: in less than a year, Mountbatten's savvy tactics helped create an India more united than 90 years of British Raj rule had managed, and Edwina's close friendships with Gandhi and Nehru facilitated compromises that had been deal-breakers for years. Von Tunzelmann's recounting of the achievements the Mountbattens finessed by working with Nehru, Gandhi and Jinna between March 22 and August 14, 1947 does justice to this amazing feat.  

Mountbatten had been highly motivated to act fast, to be sure. By his second day as viceroy, he realized that civil war was inevitable and did not want it to start on his watch. Sadly it began soon after Nehru took the reins as Prime Minister. Von Tunzelmann's book reaches its emotional climax in her chronicle of the horrendous aftermath of independence, with Nehru shouting at out-of-control mobs, "Did we get our freedom so that you could kill each other?" Solace and support came to Nehru during that dispiriting time, she found, from none other than Edwina Mountbatten, his soul-mate and great love. Yes, among its other virtues, this is also a history revealing personal secrets, and they are many and delicious.--John McFarland

As more independent bookstores consider the blog option, they face certain questions. I tossed a few of these at Russ Marshalek, marketing/PR director (and resident blog-meister) for Wordsmiths Books, Decatur, Ga.

The original goals for the Wordsmiths blog were twofold and evolved from the early planning stages for the bookshop. "As Zach [Steele, the store's owner] and I were sorting our way through the process, basically with an idea, a dream, we thought, 'Why not write about it?' The book industry is, for some strange reason, clouded in a mysterious, foggy haze, and so the goal was to bring some light on exactly what goes into opening a bookstore. Also, we wanted to build ground floor, grass-roots attention to the store before there was a store. We wanted to build a community that would have both input and interest in what we were doing."

Marshalek offered two reasons for booksellers to consider a store blog:

"1) If someone who had never been to your store called you (or emailed you) and asked why they should shop your store rather than buying a book at Barnes & Noble or even Wal-Mart, what would you tell them? No, no, not the four-letter expletive, I mean what makes your store YOUR store? What makes you get up in the morning and do the often thankless job of bookselling? Okay, that answer? That's your blog. That's your direction. Every bookstore is unique, and all that uniqueness makes for an interesting read. Whether it's fascinating to you writing it or not is really secondary. The things we view as mundane can be, to others, the most interesting stuff in the world.

"2) The fun stuff of the industry really ends up going un-blogged. You won't want to, as a bookstore, hit 'publish' on those scathing book reviews, nor will you want to spill the beans about how mad you are at so-and-so bookshop owner or so-and-so author. Seriously, there's no hazard as long as you remember your audience."

Although Marshalek and Steele are the primary bloggers at Wordsmiths, "our operations manager, Dea Anne, blogs, as does our webmaster, Mike, and Zach's wife, Alice. Alice's blogs are actually some of the best stuff on there. We have an awesome staff. Everyone's so unique and lively. I think the 'fights' over books that go on on the sales floor are some of the most fun things possible, and they do need to be taken blog-side. It's honestly just been a matter of having the time to create log-ins and show everyone around the blog's interface."

Finding time to blog is bound to be a challenge for booksellers, but Marshalek says "it's part of my job to make sure the blog stays in shape. It's a huge part of what's helped define us. Event photos, book reviews, all this stuff goes up, and it all brings attention to what we do. It's also helped to create a community of book lovers here in the south that just keeps growing by the day. I always enjoy it, though, when I hear from a publisher outside of the region that they've read the blog--the southeast in general, and Georgia in particular, is neglected by a lot of publishers as 'not being literary,' but it really is--and the more connected those book lovers in the region are to one another, the more of a unified voice is presented, and the more attention's drawn."

The final bit of advice from Marshalek can be summed up quite simply: The only thing we have to fear from technology is fear of technology itself. "I come from a music journalism/marketing background, and music's an industry that has been forced to evolve or die. I tend not to be at all sympathetic to what I perceive as the book industry's fear of technology. I hear stories of bookshop owners who have thrown massive fits at the suggestion of possibly using the Internet to conduct business and I cringe. Having a strong web presence is an easy way to both spread out your customer base and narrow down your marketing to specific targets.
 
"If I told you there was a way that you could reach an unlimited number of book buyers who've never even been in your store, from all around the world, for basically no money, you'd jump at the idea. Do it. But do it properly."--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)