U.S. shoppers will spend more than $39 billion online during the holiday season, a record, JupiterResearch predicts, according to AFP. The firm also estimated that 126 million Americans will buy items online by the end of December, a 6% increase from last year.

"This market remains insulated from macroeconomic factors cited to adversely affect overall holiday retail sales," the firm said. "As a result, retailers are planning to increase their efforts to attract customers across a variety of tactics with search marketing leading the way."

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I Know You Like a Book, the Peoria Heights, Ill., bookstore that opened in May 2006, is doubling in size, to about 1,500 square feet, and will open longer hours on the weekend, as it takes over space vacated by a neighboring business, the Peoria Journal Star reported. Owned by Mary Beth Nebel, the store sells new and used books and has a wine bar.

I Know You Like a Book is located at 4707 Prospect Road, Peoria Heights, Ill. 61616; 309-685-2665.

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In December, Dennis and Linda Fennell, plan to close Fireside Books, in Holland, Ohio, which they opened in 1988, according to the Toledo Blade. Dennis told the paper that sales have slipped steadily since the mid-1990s. Besides the arrival of several chain superstores, the store was hurt by a two-year road improvement project that cut sales 40% and the closing of a supermarket in the store's retail strip that reduced customer traffic.

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We're sad to report that Peg Bracken, author of The I Hate to Cook Book, has died at age 89. The iconic cookbook, published in 1960, sold more than three million copies in several editions. As today's New York Times noted, "Every baby boomer's mother, or so it seemed, had one on the kitchen shelf, its pages stained with the makings of Stayabed Stew, Sole Survivor and Spinach Surprise." [Editor's note: such was the case in our house, where the most apt title would have been I Like to Cook Sometimes But I Hate to Cook Every Night.] 

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Manga sales may be declining in Japan, but Wired magazine's detailed examination of the market revealed how dominant the genre's influence remains: "The role of manga in the broader economic ecosystem is perhaps more important than its actual sales figures. Japan's vaunted pop culture apparatus, it turns out, is really a manga industrial complex. Nearly every aspect of cultural production--which is now Japan's most influential export--is rooted in manga. . . . Trace any of Japan's most successful media franchises back to their origins and you'll likely end up inside a colorful brick of newsprint, where 20 pages of exquisitely matched words and drawings tell the inaugural story."

Acknowledging that the manga industry needs "a force that can reenergize its fans, restock its talent pools, and revive its creative mojo," the article suggested that this force may have arrived in the controversial form of "nonprofessional self-published manga known as dojinshi," in which "most offerings plucked characters from popular manga series and dropped them into new scenarios. The authors told me they were uncovering hidden potential in their favorite stories--revealing themes, relationships, and plot lines that were gurgling just beneath the surface of the official narrative."

The copyright violations were described as "flagrant, shameless, and widespread."

And immensely popular.

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"We are not your grandmother's library," Kimberly Lynn, president of the Massachusetts Library Association, told the Boston Globe, which reported that "in the era of waning readership and Internet search engines, libraries in Massachusetts and across the country are shifting their resources and expertise to areas once unthinkable. . . . The modern-day library, Lynn said, is a community living room-cum-reference clearinghouse, with some digital gaming sprinkled in."

"It's a zoo," Lynn added. "It's chaotic. It's not getting quieter."

  

When the Bookworm of Edwards, Colo., installs a 42-inch flat screen TV this month, customers won't be watching the latest contenders take a turn on Dancing with the Stars. Instead they'll find out what new books have hit the shelves, favored staff selections and what's on special in the café.

Now that they have moved their store into a new, larger space, which took place in May, Bookworm owners Nicole Magistro and Kristi Allio are hosting a full schedule of author and community events. Their main reason for adding a television is for guest speakers who would like to show photographs or other visual materials during presentations. After pricing projectors and finding them more expensive than flat screen TVs, they opted to go with the latter.

Talk among store staff then led to "the idea of creating our own programming," said Magistro, as a way to avoid having a blank screen when the television is not in use during events. The hour-long DVDs will begin airing later this year, running on a continuous loop while the store is open. Since moving and adding a café, the Bookworm has expanded its hours from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Sunday. "It's really going to be a lot of coverage" for featured titles, said Magistro.

Along with showcasing new books, staff picks, and pictures taken at store events, the DVDs will include a Bookworm commercial that airs on a local TV station, a calendar of community happenings and video content from publishers. "It's our hope to be able to use it like we would a newsletter or a website," noted Magistro. "The information is there for people as they're browsing in the store or waiting in line at the café."

The Bookworm DVDs will change anywhere from weekly to monthly, depending on the time of year. "The month of December we might run the same DVD in order to get the best exposure for holiday titles," Magistro said, "while other times of the year we might change it more often. During the big release months we have hundreds of books to tell people about."

Viewable from most sections in the store, the Bookworm's newest fixture is located near the top of a seven-foot wall above the magazine section and next to the café. One of the first events to use the TV will be a screening of the latest film in the Out of the Book series from Powell's Books on November 12. The 28-minute documentary focuses on the late David Halberstam's The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

 

This morning on the Early Show: Sally Bedell Smith, author of the new For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years (Random House, $27.95, 9781400063246/1400063248).

Also on the Early Show: chef Scott Linquist, who makes a Mexican breakfast from his new cookbook, Mod Mex: Cooking Vibrant Fiesta Flavors at Home (Andrews McMeel, $24.95, 9780740768651/0740768654).

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This morning on Good Morning America: Richard Avedon, author of The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family (Collins Design, $29.95, 9780061138164/0061138169).

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This morning on the Today Show: Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Wiley, $35, 9780028610108/0028610105). He will also appear today on NPR's Here on Earth.

Also on the Today Show: comedian Steve Martin, author of The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z! (Flying Dolphin Press, $17.95, 9780385516624/0385516622). He will also appear on NPR's Morning Edition.

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Today on the Martha Stewart Show: Filip Verheyden, author of The Basics: The Techniques of Continental Cooking (Melville House, $29.95, 9781933633183/1933633182).

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Today on NPR's Fresh Air: Valerie Plame Wilson, author of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House (S&S, $26, 9781416537618/1416537619).

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Today on Oprah: Cathie Black, author of Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) (Crown Business, $24.95, 9780307351104/0307351106).

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Today on Dr. Phil: Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie (Anchor, $6.99, 9780307275639/0307275639).

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Today on Talk of the Nation: Christopher Hitchens, whose latest book is God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Twelve, $24.99, 9780446579803/0446579807).

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Today on the View: Lance Bass, author of Out of Sync (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $23.95, 9781416947882/1416947884).

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Doubleday, $27.95, 9780385516402/0385516401).

 

About 8,000 people (and perhaps some more-evanescent creatures) attended the first Faerie Con: The International Faerie Convention, held October 12-14 in Philadelphia, Pa., where Books of Wonder, New York City, was the official bookseller. The fair returns October 10-12 next year. At left at the Bad Faerie Masquerade Ball are two of the more humanoid attendees: Wendy Froud, the puppeteer, sculptor and poet, and Sam Caggiula of Excalibur Media.

 

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, October 30:

The Quiet Girl: A Novel by Peter Hoeg, translated by Nadia Christensen (FSG, $26, 9780374263690/0374263698) takes place in near future Copenhagen where a famous clown must locate a missing girl.

Murder on K Street: A Capital Crimes Novel by Margaret Truman (Ballantine, $24.95, 9780345498861/0345498860) begins with the murder of a senator's wife. A retired detective and long-time friend of the senator must decide whether to share his knowledge with police or stay quiet.

All Through the Night by Suzanne Brockmann (Ballantine, $16.95, 9780345501097/0345501098) is the 12th Troubleshooter Inc. novel. A reporter ruins a high-profile gay couple's wedding with a damning interview.

Amazing Grace by Danielle Steel (Delacorte, $27, 9780385340236/0385340230) follows the aftermath of the biggest San Francisco earthquake since 1906.

A Christmas Beginning: A Novel by Anne Perry (Ballantine, $17.95, 9780345485823/0345485823) is set on a small Welsh island, where a London cop is spending Christmas. Soon he is entangled in the killing of a young woman.

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story by Orson Scott Card (Tor, $12.95, 9780765312822/0765312824) brings a holiday tale to the Ender saga.

Everlasting by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (Morrow, $24.95, 9780060545529/0060545526) is the latest historical romance from the master. A young woman in London is disgraced when her stepfather is denied the honor he earned during the Crusades.

A Free Life: A Novel by Ha Jin (Pantheon, $26, 9780375424656/0375424652) follows a Chinese family living in the U.S. after the repression of China's democracy movement.

Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon (Del Rey, $21.95, 9780345501745/0345501748) chronicles the adventures of two citizens of the fabled 10th-century Khazaria.

The Heir by Barbara Taylor Bradford (St. Martin's, $25.95, 9780312354626/0312354622) is part two of the Ravenscar trilogy, which follows a family company through the 20th century.

Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker (HarperCollins, $24.95, 9780060182984/0060182989) is the diary of a troubled demon.

The Race by Richard North Patterson (Holt,  $26, 9780805079487/0805079483) examines a fictional race for the Republican presidential nomination among dirty politicians and shady behind-the-scenes puppeteers.

Randy Brownlee was the founder and owner with Alice Osborne of Queen Anne Avenue Books, Seattle, Wash., until 1997.  He's "now a public servant working my way through middling management levels of the Austin Public Library, Austin, Texas. Library work is a lot like bookselling without the cloud of commerce hanging over your head." Randy answers questions we occasionally put to people in the industry:

On your nightstand now:

Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon, The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine, The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater and Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee.

Favorite books when you were a child:

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sydney and The Tight White Collar by Grace Metalious, the latter pilfered from my mother's nightstand.

Your top five prose fiction authors:

Henry James, Edith Wharton, George Eliot . . . This is where I get stopped every time I try to make a list like this. Hundred(s) more, living and dead.
 
Book you've faked reading:

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. I kept telling myself and everyone else I loved it, and then about three-quarters of the way through I stopped reading, never to return.  Unfortunately I did not stop talking about it as well.

Favorite opening from a book:

This is indeed the saddest story I have ever read.

"Her first name was India ~~~ she was never able to get used to it. It seemed to her that her parents must have been thinking of someone else when they named her. Or were they hoping for another sort of daughter?  As a child she was always on the point of inquiring, but time passed, and she never did."--From Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

Book you are an evangelist for:

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. A startling account, without polemic, of what and how we eat, from source to table. It made me think about food, where it came from, how it was transformed, and the journey it took to get to my table. It is one of the most enlightening, entertaining, and life-altering books I have ever read.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Sudden Rain by Maritta Wolff, actually for the cover and the author's back story and the synopsis. I love those literary adult soapers with lots of drinking and deception.

Book that changed your life:

Eternal Fire by Calder Willingham, again from my mother's nightstand, she had the best stuff. It led me up the slippery slope to puberty's door.

Book you most want to read or listen to again for the first time:

Oh the Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey. Does listening count as reading? Yes, I say emphatically, and this book proves it, hilarious and horrifying in equal measure.  

 

On June 22, 1965, in Monte Plata, a small town in the Dominican Republic, Art MacKinnon was shot to death. Art was a young Catholic priest from Canada and during his five years in the Dominican Republic, he had made many friends. "He was a padre in the church and an hombre in the street," one of those friends tells Art's nephew. Retracing his uncle's steps, J.B. MacKinnon has come to answer questions that have haunted the MacKinnon family for 40 years.

MacKinnon's reasons for visiting the Dominican Republic are clearly different from those of his uncle, but he finds they shared many similarities: innocence, obliviousness to local politics, ignorance of cultural differences and physical appearance. More than once MacKinnon meets people who knew his uncle and the first words out of their mouths are, "You look just like Padre Art." Their differences are pronounced, though: Padre Art was dedicated to social justice and change--a dangerous pursuit in the Dominican Republic in 1965; in search of cold, hard facts, MacKinnon is more interested meeting and questioning people, not changing their social conditions.
 
MacKinnon may have deluded himself into thinking that his trip is a simple fact-finding mission, including digging into old newspapers and asking cut-and-dried questions of garrulous old witnesses. But one interviewee is quick to acquaint him with Dominican reality, saying, "In this country, a hard, narrow search will go nowhere. The truth doesn't travel a straight line. It travels the way of the serpent."  

As he crisscrosses the island following leads on people who may be dead or alive (depending on who's talking) in towns that may or may not be the right one, or merely another one with the same name, MacKinnon lives that Dominican reality. Luckily for us, he has come equipped with the narrative chops to put us right there alongside him on his hair-raising misadventures. Slowly, slowly, he does learn about the territory and its ways. One of his first self-taught lessons is that the "gossip of the city inevitably makes its way to the place with the sweetest pineapples, the most delicious mangoes." Before he is finally ready to adopt the locals' wary and wily methods that will help him solve the mystery of his uncle's death, he also shows us he has taken the advice of his wise friend Yanira. She told him, "There's something you need to learn in this city. You need to learn to relax." As he at last pieces together the Who, How and Why surrounding the death, he succeeds, among other things, in learning to relax. In the process, he also has brought us this tale of an adventure growing out of a mystery, a glorious trip for armchair travelers and students of Caribbean politics alike.--John McFarland

Our story yesterday about Baristanet.com's new book club had a faulty link to Baristanet's website. Here is the correct link.