"Every chance that you get, talk to other booksellers. At least half of what I know in the book business I learned from other booksellers."--Carole Horne, Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, Mass., moderating the NEIBA trade show panel "Career Paths for Booksellers: I Love My Job, Now What?"

 

This coming Saturday veteran booksellers Micheel DeSanto and Renee Reiner are opening Phoenix Books in a 3,300-sq.-ft. space in Essex, Vt. The couple owned the Book Rack and Children's Pages in Winooski and in 2001 moved it to the Essex Shoppes in Essex. They sold the store in 2003, and it closed in March (Shelf Awareness, February 27, 2007). The appropriately named Phoenix Books is located in the Essex Shoppes.

DeSanto and Reiner told the Burlington Free Press that they want to make the store "a center for public discourse, where guests can gather, drink wine and discuss books and current affairs. The owners plan to invite speakers, serve food from Sweet Clover Market, which is also in the Shoppes, and acquire a license to serve alcohol."

"One of the reasons we came back was that we wanted to change the standard paradigm of the bookstore," DeSanto commented.

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In a piece in the Stranger, Elliott Bay Book Company's Paul Constant calls Goodreads "Facebook for Book Nerds" and "the most Antisocial Social-Networking Site on the Internet."

"I first noticed www.goodreads.com four months ago when a coworker at my bookstore sent me an invitation," Constant wrote. "The website tore through the Seattle bookselling community like an STD. Soon, every bookseller under 40 was a member. 'Will you be my Goodreads friend?' we'd whisper to each other among the stacks. It was like MySpace, only better--it was all about books."

While chronicling the fast rise and more recent leveling off of local interest in Goodreads, Constant also asked an intriguing question: "Does anyone over the age of 16 even have a favorite book? Claiming a favorite is only indicative of the fact that you haven't read enough: Out of the thousands of books that I've read, with the enormous palette of ideas and emotions they've represented, how could I choose only, say, five? Why not ask for a favorite orgasm, or laugh, or grain of sand?"

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Penguin Group, Amazon.com, Publishers Weekly and Hewlett Packard have joined forces for another online publishing contest, the New York Times reported today. The grand prize of the Breakthrough Novel Award is a publishing contract and $25,000 advance from Penguin.

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Free books . . . the hard way. Richard Dorazio was nabbed for stealing a bible from a Barnes & Noble in White Plains, N.Y., the Journal News reported. Ironically he was subsequently incarcerated at the Westchester County Jail, where "the jail's clergy provides free bibles to any inmate who requests one."

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John Shableski has joined Diamond Book Distributors as sales manager, responsible for sales and marketing to independent bookstores, libraries and schools. He formerly worked at Brodart, where he was graphic novels coordinator and marketing and sales coordinator for the Tartan Books imprint.

In a statement, v-p of sales and marketing Kuo-Yu Liang said that Shableski "brings to Diamond Book Distributors and our publishers a wealth of experience, energy and contacts. We look forward to his contributions to help our publishers increase their business in the growing educational and independent bookstore markets."

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On Tuesday, October 9, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the free independent research library, is sponsoring a panel discussion on the cultural significance of literary prizes and their effect on publishers and the public. Called Winning Words: The History and Meaning of Book Prizes, the panel consists of Harold Augenbraum, executive director of the National Book Foundation; James English, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Economy of Prestige: Awards, Prizes, and the Circulation of Cultural Value (ironically winner of the 2005 Best Academic Book award from New York Magazine); and Carlin Romano, literary critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer and former president of the National Book Critics Circle.

A reception begins at 5:30 p.m.; the panel discussion follows at 6. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited and reservations are requested. Please RSVP to Sharon Thompson-Nowak at 215-546-3181 or sthompson-nowak@librarycompany.org.

Incidentally on October 10, Harold Augenbraum will co-host the announcement at the Library Company of the finalists for the 2007 National Book Awards.
 

First daughter Jenna Bush began the tour for her new book, Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope (HarperCollins, $18.99, 9780061379086/0061379085), with a 20/20 interview Friday evening with Diane Sawyer and a signing on Saturday at a Borders in Annapolis, Md.

The book has a first printing of 500,000, and the two-week tour takes her to 25 cities, all of which is being orchestrated, as the New York Times put it, by Robert Barnett, the Washington lawyer who represents many political authors. Ana's Story includes photographs taken by a friend, Mia Baxter. Profits and her advance are being donated to UNICEF.

The book is about Ana, a teenaged mother with HIV whom the author met during an internship with UNICEF in Panama. "Ana changed my life," Bush said at her bookstore appearance, according to the AP. "She's only 17 years old, but she's lived the life of somebody so much older. Despite her hardships, Ana is so much like the teenagers here in the United States. She reminds me of myself at that age."

She spoke regularly with Ana and was struck, the AP continued, by "Ana's positive outlook. She was vigilant about taking her medication and did not pass on the virus to her daughter, and she recently returned to school."

As for herself and her vague image as a party girl, Jenna Bush said in a brief interview with the AP, "The people that know me and love me, my students and colleagues, never had that perception of me."

And her editor, Kate Jackson, told the Times, "I think she's bothered that people have made judgments about her without knowing much about her. But that is not her reason for doing this. She has continually said, 'This is not about me; this is about Ana.' I think if she wanted people to know anything about her, it is that she's a very capable writer, and a teacher."

The Feast of Love, starring Morgan Freeman, Selma Blair and Greg Kinnear and directed by Robert Benton, has opened in theaters. Based on the novel by Charles Baxter, the story is a reflection on love's many forms within a group of friends in Oregon. The movie tie-in edition is out from Vintage ($14.95, 9780307387271/0307387275).

 

This morning on Good Morning America: Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice and author of My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir (HarperCollins, $26.95, 9780060565558/0060565551).

Also on GMA: Cheryl Dellasega, author of Forced to Be Family: A Guide for Living with Sinister Sisters, Drama Mamas, and Infuriating In-Laws (Wiley, $24.95, 9780470049990/0470049995).

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This morning on NPR's Morning Edition: Richard Russo, author of Bridge of Sighs (Knopf, $26.95, 9780375414954/0375414959).

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This morning on the Early Show: Nicholas Sparks, author of The Choice (Grand Central, $24.99, 9780446579926/0446579920).

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This morning on the Today Show: Jenna Bush, author of Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope (HarperCollins, $18.99, 9780061379086/0061379085).

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Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show: Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Doubleday, $27.95, 9780385516402/0385516401).

Also on Diane Rehm: Katherine Newman, author of The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America (Beacon Press, $24.95, 9780807041390/0807041394).

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Today on Oprah, before an all-male audience: Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author most recently of You: On a Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management (Free Press, $25, 9780743292542/0743292545).

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Today on the View: Hardball's Chris Matthews, author of Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success (Random House, $24.95, 9781400065288/1400065283), which appears tomorrow.

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: the Situation Room's Jack Cafferty, author of It's Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Hurting America (Wiley, $24.95, 9780470144794/0470144793).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Charlie Savage, author of Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy (Little, Brown, $25.99, 9780316118040/0316118044).

 

From last week's Book Sense bestseller lists, available at booksense.com, here are the recommended titles, which are also Book Sense Picks:

Hardcover

The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (Unbridled, $24.95, 9781932961409/1932961402). "Jamaica will never feel so close as when you're reading this fictionalized tale of Errol Flynn's accidental arrival onto the island and into the hearts of many of its residents--especially young Ida, who bears his illegitimate daughter, May. A delightful, original treasure that I heartily recommend!"--Dee Robinson, Village Books, Bellingham, Wash.

The year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs (S&S, $25, 9780743291477/0743291476). "The most compulsive spiritual seeker ever tries to live by Biblical law for an entire year. Jacobs' funny, thoughtful book gets its heft from his sincere attempts to practice what others preach, and readers will find themselves rethinking these laws, and the cultures that live by them."--Karen Maeda Allman, The Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, Wash.

Paperback

Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison (Lyons Press, $16.95, 9780762745654/0762745657). "Allison is a guide with nothing to lose but his pride. He starts out as a greenhorn and, by book's end, is a seasoned veteran of the land . . . sort of. Animals abound, friends come and go, and his tales are so outlandish they must be true."--Brent Blank, Nomad Bookhouse, Jackson, Mich.

For Young Adults

Zane's Trace by Allan Wolf (Candlewick, $16.99, 9780763628581/0763628581). "Written as a road-trip journal, this book is as compelling as it is disturbing. Zane Guesswind plans his suicide as he drives to his mother's grave in Zanesville, Ohio. An insightful hitchhiker and Zane's own rational thought help turn this doomed trip around."--Rebecca Mullin, Kids Ink, Indianapolis, Ind.

[Many thanks to Book Sense and the ABA!]

From Naomi Klein's previous work, including No Logo, we expect thorough and fearless reporting on the downside of globalization. In her new book, she does not disappoint and connects the dots in surprising ways. Who else would think to examine the methods of shock therapy and mind-control interrogation and draw parallels with conditions that have allowed the free market policies of economist Milton Friedman and his Chicago School disciples to take hold in the most unlikely locations around the world?

Friedman argued that he was interested in restoring economies to a "pure" state, free of regulations, government "interference" and entrenched interests. In such books as Capitalism and Freedom, he wrote that a truly free market cleansed of all institutional impediments would be ideally efficient and would benefit all. After daunting research, Klein concludes that real-world application of Friedman's doctrine of deregulation, free trade and privatization of all state industries, in fact, benefits only an elite few--corporations win and average citizens lose.

Chile in 1973 provided the first laboratory for Friedman's formula for radical redesign of an economy. Received opinion is that his program worked there. As Klein points out in her blistering critique of the reality behind the generally accepted success story, Friedman's plan could only have been implemented during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. The Friedman experiment, from Klein's perspective, left Chile with vast wealth concentrated in a few hands and massive unemployment.  She also challenges us to calculate the true price of implementing this brand of extreme capitalism when we take account of Pinochet's reign of terror, the large number of torture victims and mass murder of dissenters.

Friedman and his Chicago School colleagues asserted that they were merely technocrat advisers in Chile and had no ideological stake in the outcome. They were wiping the slate clean for a new and better future, they said. In true-believer fashion, Friedman brooked no criticism of his free market theorizing. He did note, however, that the perfect condition for launching his reforms is a state of crisis where resistance is reduced to a minimum.  

Klein discovers a common pattern as she examines implementation of Friedman's program in nations as different as Bolivia, Russia, South Korea and others: a country finds itself in financial trouble and is sinking into chaos; desperate for assistance and paralyzed by escalating problems, it is reduced to a vulnerable child-like state where anyone showing up with a bail-out plan is welcomed uncritically; the Chicago School Boys then march in with a financial package to which is attached a one-size-fits-all program of deregulation, free trade and privatization.

Klein views these technocrats as key enablers of a new imperialism in which corporations plunder and pillage those reduced to helplessness.  Her outrage at their role and agenda is tempered by a glimmer of hope that people are learning to resist their policies; her passion in defending those efforts by scrappy underdogs blazes on every page of her incendiary book.--John McFarland

In Friday's story about the new owners of the Booksmith, in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, we inadvertently called the Cole Valley neighborhood Cold Valley--no commentary intended! Perhaps we were just smoking a little too much something that day: Booksmith founder and former owner Gary Frank remains a busy man, but he is not an author or professor. The reference should have been to others on the store's advisory board.