As the Canadian dollar hit a 47-year high against the U.S. dollar (our bucks are now worth less than their loonies!), major Canadian retailers are joining some smaller retailers in making moves to cut prices so that the differential in U.S. and Canadian prices printed on most books isn't so glaring.

The changes come as frustrated consumers have begun buying ever more products, particularly books, online from the U.S. As the National Post noted, "Canada Post's international mail-sorting centres have been swamped in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal by packages from the U.S. ordered online by Canadians."

Yesterday Indigo Books & Music, Canada's largest bookseller, said that it has begun a Sticker Savings Event, which provides a 10% discount for any customer and 20% discount for loyalty club members, to help reduce the price gap. The company said, too, that during the past four months, the prices of some 25,000 books have been reduced 5%-30%. (Because of bestseller discounts, most bestsellers are priced at par or better than U.S. list prices.)

Indigo stressed that many books arriving at stores now were priced six months ago, when the Canadian dollar was worth 85 U.S. cents.

In a statement, Joel Silver, chief merchant for Indigo, stated, "We buy and sell books in Canadian dollars and as such do not profit in any way from a strengthened Canadian dollar. We continue to lower our prices and we've introduced more promotional offers than ever before to help close the price gap."

The company continues, it said, "to work with publishers to find long-term solutions that will deliver the best possible prices to consumers without crippling the Canadian publishing industry."

Indigo spokesperson Lisa Huie told the Toronto Star that the price promotion came in response to Canadian customers buying more books online from the U.S. "We're hearing a lot of movement toward online shopping [and] we thought it was important in light of the disparity in the price printed on the [book] jacket, that . . . beyond the fact that we've already seen prices come down, we have prices today that are at or better than the U.S. prices that are listed on the cover," she said. "We've actually ratcheted up the promotional activity since the strengthening of the dollar--more particularly since it hit par."

Also yesterday Wal-Mart Canada, which has nearly 300 stores in Canada, announced that it will sell all books, magazines, greeting cards and gift wrap at U.S. list prices, according to the National Post. "In many cases the new pricing has not been supported by cost concessions on the part of suppliers," the Post wrote, but Wal-Mart indicated it is working with vendors to bring prices down (as only it knows how).

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Boosted by sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, total revenue in the quarter ended September 29 at Indigo Books & Music rose 14.8% to $209.2 million (C$ or US$, take your pick) and net earnings increased to $3.3 million compared to a loss of $1 million in the same period last year.

Sales at Indigo and Chapters superstores open at least a year rose 10.2% while comp-store sales at Coles small-format stores rose 10.7%. Sales at chapters.indigo.ca, the company's online sales outlet, rose 50.3% to $26.3 million.

Excluding the sales of HP7, revenue at Indigo and Chapters superstores rose 7.1% and at Coles grew 6.4%. At chapters.indigo.ca, sales rose 14.9%.

During the next year and a half, Indigo plans to open eight new superstores, in Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Stoney Creek, Milton, Mississauga and St. John. The company also plans to expand "significantly" its toy business at superstores "due to the positive reception for its edutainment offering to date."

In a statement, Indigo CEO Heather Reisman said, "Canadian booklovers continue to show us their passion for books, and our results also point to their appreciation for our other product lines such as lifestyle gifts and kids' toys."--John Mutter

In the "new in town" section, the Des Moines Register profiles East Village Books, owned by Teri Wood TeBockhorst, which will hold its grand opening November 16.

The store has a stage (for many events), will offer coffee, showcases art and will stock some 18,000 book and audiobook titles and 4,000 CDs. "In addition to popular fiction, nonfiction, history, self-help, and do-it-yourself, they also have sections for graphic novels, gay and lesbian reading and the explosively popular manga," the paper wrote.

East Village Books is located at 510 East Locust St., Des Moines, Iowa 50309; 515-244-5999; eastvillagebooks.com.

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Next April, Barnes & Noble plans to open a new store in Arlington, Tex., in the Parks at Arlington at 3811 South Cooper Street. The day before the opening of the new store, the existing B&N at 3909 South Cooper Street will close.

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Effective immediately, the following publishers are being represented by National Book Network:

• Save Our Seas, a non-profit organization whose mission is to implement and support programs of awareness, protection and conservation of the global marine environment and to publish books for young adults and children with those themes.
• Summit University Press of Gardiner, Mont., formerly with BookWorld, a publisher of books on spirituality and personal growth, particularly New Age and mind, body and spirit titles. Its bestselling books include Fallen Angels, Lost Years of Jesus and the pocket guides series to practical spirituality.
• Baja Books, Grants Pass, Ore., a former PGW client, the publisher of Speedy Language Guides. These pocket guides for Spanish, German, French and Italian include Speedy Spanish for Public Health Personnel, Speedy Spanish for Employers, Speedy Italian and Speedy French.
• D.L. Hennessey, a former PGW client, publisher of Twenty-Five Lessons in Citizenship, for anyone taking the U.S. citizenship exam as well as immigration lawyers, adult education centers, English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, libraries, community colleges and schools.
• Oak Hill Publishing Company, Naperville, Ill., formerly with BookWorld, publisher of The U.S. Constitution & Fascinating Facts About It, which includes the full Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence in English and Spanish.

Sue Lynn is no stranger to challenges, having trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Grand Tetons. Her latest ambitious undertaking is the creation of Confluence in Bellevue, Neb., which is holding its grand opening celebration today.

A combination bookstore, bistro, wine bar and business center, Confluence has what Lynn describes as a "home away from home type feeling"--the kind of place that she often sought while traveling on frequent business trips abroad during a 27-year military and civilian career with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force.

"I want Confluence to become a community hub," said Lynn, who spent years figuring out the kind of retail outlet that would work best in Bellevue, an Omaha suburb with 63,000 residents. Another 30,000 people live on nearby Offutt Air Force Base (which has its own zip code), where Lynn worked as a Russian expert and chief of legislative affairs before leaving last December to pursue her new vocation. "I'm turning 50 next year, and I told myself that if I were serious about this, I had to get off the dime and do it," said Lynn, who earlier this year attended the ABA's Winter Institute and the Paz & Associates workshop "Opening a Bookstore: The Business Essentials."

Confluence's two-story, 8,500-sq.-ft. space has three fireplaces, wooden tables and chairs, art deco leather loveseats, displays of vintage fountain pens and cameos (some of which are for sale), and works by local artists adorning the walls. Along with a bookstore and bistro, there are two business centers with computers and printers. A conference room has video teleconferencing equipment (adeptly hidden behind panels unless in use), and folding doors allow it to be divided into three separate areas. Rounding things out are two patios and a spacious balcony, offering customers plenty of space to settle in.

Confluence's bookstore area is 3,500 square feet and features 16,000 general interest titles. Unusual touches abound, particularly in the regional titles section, where the floor is constructed of wood from a 1910 Nebraska barn. The regional section is named Keiser Korner in honor of the late George Keiser, a longtime area bookseller. Other sections include "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" for children's books and "Global Affairs" with language and travel resources and an array of globes in a variety of sizes and price ranges.

The 1,800-sq.-ft. bistro and wine bar serves European-style fare such as crepes and puff pastries. The wine list boasts a selection of international vintages, and each month Confluence highlights a wine from a Nebraska vineyard.

The store's sideline items are displayed in both the bookstore and bistro and include high-end chocolate, gourmet vinaigrette, handcrafted leather journals and products made by local purveyors--bookmarks, wooden toys and homemade root beer among them. For business travelers, there are travel accessories and electronic equipment like GPS systems and memory cards for digital cameras.

After living in Bellevue for more than a decade, Lynn developed an extensive Rolodex that has allowed her easily to create partnerships with other organizations. "Bringing the bookstore into the community has been my focus," said Lynn. "It's about talking to people, letting them know what's available, getting their ideas and then putting them to work."

One joint venture with a catering company allows Confluence to offer box lunches, which Lynn has already supplied for executive meetings at Offutt Air Force Base. She is also working with the Bellevue public school district and Bellevue University. A university professor had a hand in shaping the store's Spanish section, which will be the largest in the metro Omaha area. A student from an African country reliant on coffee production and enrolled in the school's business program will have a six-month internship as an assistant barista in Confluence's bistro, said Lynn "so he can learn the marketing aspect of coffees from his country and others."

Even before Confluence's soft opening on October 22, Lynn co-hosted an offsite event for Power to the People author Laura Ingraham. After failing to secure a deal with either Barnes & Noble or Borders to supply books, a local radio station sponsoring the event approached Lynn one week ahead of time. Despite some nail-biting moments, Lynn and her staff's first author appearance was a success--300 books were sold. "It was fun and great training," said Lynn.

Confluence's second extravaganza is today's grand opening celebration. Nebraska author Jonis Agee will be signing copies of her novel The River Wife, and entertainment includes wine tasting, raffles benefiting the Bellevue Food Pantry and face painting for kids. Upcoming events include Girls Night Out with Vicky DeCoster, author of The Wacky World of Womanhood, and a Holiday Shopping & Special Dinner gathering at which participants will feast on a four-course meal.

The challenges continue. Should Lynn have time for a vacation next year after the excitement of the holiday season subsides, she won't be opting for rest and relaxation on a beach . She has her sights set on scaling Mt. Rainier.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

Confluence is located at 505 Cornhusker Road, Bellevue, Neb. 68005; 402-502-0906; confluencebookstore.com.

This morning on the Today Show: Charles Grodin, author of If I Only Knew Then . . . : Learning from Our Mistakes (Springboard Press, $24.99, 9780446581158/0446581151).

Nadine Haobsh, author of Beauty Confidential: The No Preaching, No Lies, Advice-You'll- Actually-Use Guide to Looking Your Best (Avon, $13.95, 9780061128639/0061128635), will also appear.

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Today on the Rehm Show: Judith Viorst, author of Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days (Free Press, $17, 9781416550051/1416550054).

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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: Veronica Gonzalez, author of twin time: or how death befell me (Semiotext(e), $14.95, 9781584350484/1584350482). As the show described it: "The heroine of twin time is a woman whose life is surrounded by mystery. Who is her father? Where is her mother? Why did no one tell her she has a twin brother? Our conversation explores the way Gonzalez structures a story that has so many unknowns and how myth, fantasy and circularity have come to her aid."

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Today on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor: Vince Flynn, author of Protect and Defend: A Thriller (Atria, $26.95, 9780743270410/074327041X).

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Today on Oprah: Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., co-author of You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty (Free Press, $26, 9780743292566/0743292561).

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Today on the Ellen DeGeneres Show: Victoria Beckham, author of That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything in Between (Harper, $19.95, 9780061544491/0061544493).

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, November 3

12 p.m. Public Lives. A visit to the Chicago home of 95-year-old Studs Terkel, author most recently of Touch and Go: A Memoir (New Press, $24.95, 9781595580436/1595580433). Terkel discusses his early life, career, political views and thoughts about aging and death. (Re-airs Saturday at 7 p.m. and Monday at 5:30 a.m.)
        
9 p.m. After Words. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, interviews Jonathan Chait, author of The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hijacked by Crackpot Economics (Houghton Mifflin, $25, 9780618685400/0618685405). Chait argues that U.S. economic policy has been ill-conceived for the past three decades. (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., and Monday at 3 a.m.)
 
10 p.m. Atlantic Monthly contributors James Fallows, Christopher Hitchens, Mark Bowden, William Langewiesche and Robert Vare celebrate the 150th anniversary of the magazine with readings from The American Idea: The Best of the Atlantic Monthly (Doubleday, $35, 978-0385521086/0385521081). (Re-airs Monday at 6:30 a.m.)

Sunday, November 4

12 p.m. In Depth. Renowned attorney and author Vincent Bugliosi is the guest on this month's live call-in and e-mail interview program. His most recent book is Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Norton, $49.95, 9780393045253/0393045250). (Re-airs Sunday at 12 p.m., Monday at 12 a.m., and Saturday, November 17, at 9 a.m.
     

Spotty Dog Books & Ale, Hudson, N.Y., dealt teens from the area into a poker tournament last Saturday to celebrate the release of Eric Luper's first YA novel, Big Slick (FSG). From left to right: author Luper; Rich Race, poker ace who won a store gift certificate; and Kelley Drahushuk, Spotty Dog's owner-buyer-accountant-publicist-dishwasher. Drahushuk noted that she has learned what a big slick is: "when you are dealt an ace and a king for your hand in texas hold 'em."

This little mini-masterpiece would be cause for rejoicing even if Suite Francaise had never been found. Far from being one of those second-rate "lost" manuscripts exploited after an author's death, Fire in the Blood is a lean, mean little wonder, a treasure just recently pieced together, possibly the last manuscript Nemirovsky was working on in 1942 when she was arrested, imprisoned and killed at Auschwitz.

Suite Francaise, with its historical setting and grand wartime scope, is Nemirovsky in a Tolstoy-like mood, documenting her time. Fire in the Blood couldn't be more different. Without a hint of wartime horrors, it's her timeless Chekhov piece, a tight little drama of country landowners and unfaithful wives in which some humdinger surprises go off like blazing pistols in the second half.

Old Sylvestre, nicknamed Silvio, impoverished uncle, down-on-his-luck failure in life, has decided to lay bare his soul and the souls of quite a few members of the wealthy farming community of a little village in Burgundy. He's particularly interested in three fascinating women: his lovely, happily-married cousin Helene, her daughter Colette who is about to be married, and Brigitte Declos, a young woman married to a wealthy old skinflint.

Colette introduces her fiancé to her family. She announces that she hopes for a marriage as stable and enduring as her parents'. That's how it begins. But no one knows the whole story in this swift whiplash of a literary experience, as two beautiful young women with "fire in the blood" reach out for the man they love, unleashing the secrets and lies of everyone around them.

Gasping at the audacity of the last sentence, overwhelmed by a new understanding of the plot in retrospect, this reader went right back to the beginning of this cunning little puzzle of deceptions to read it again. Every word counts, every sentence is immaculate, every twist of the storyline is a delightful pleasure in this wise, ironic look at passionate love and the human damage "fire in the blood" can do.

As Sylvestre says, "The flesh is easy to satisfy. It's the heart that is insatiable."--NIck DiMartino

The trick is too often played upon us--the treat just out of reach. Tantalus may well be the patron saint of booksellers because another major holiday week is passing us by, and what do we have to show for it? Some Halloween card sales, drastically reduced prices on our amazing children's book and toy displays, and the annual three-copy sales spike for Washington Irving.

Yet what holiday is more appropriate for a national celebration honoring (and capitalizing on) the endless parade of dead celebrities who still pay a significant portion of our wages? Shouldn't this week be all about storytelling and bookselling, since ghosts account for so much of our product line?

Halloween could be a bookseller's dream, but too often it seems like a retail nightmare. Where are the festivals and book fairs that might turn Halloween into a bookishly frenzied Week of the Dead? Why aren't we having fun?

If you asked your customers to name their favorite literary ghost story, how many would say A Christmas Carol?

Sorry, wrong holiday, and a missed opportunity.

Bookstores do not gear up for Halloween the way they do for Black Friday or Christmas season. That's a shame. This would seem to be "our" holiday more than anyone else's. Publishing houses may not be haunted houses, as a rule, but storytelling has a long and distinguished spectral pedigree--Dickens, Hawthorne, Poe; Sleepy Hollow, Transylvania, Birnam Wood.

Horror resides everywhere. Recently Abebooks.com announced that Big Brother, from George Orwell's 1984, was chosen the scariest character in literature in a poll of website visitors, edging out a distinguished list that included Nurse Ratched from Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Patrick Bateman from American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis.

One of my Halloween traditions is to watch Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining. As a writer, I love the scene in which a seriously spooked Shelley Duvall, baseball bat gripped firmly as if ready to knock her husband's head out of the park, discovers that the thick manuscript he has been maniacally typing is in fact a single sentence, repeated hundreds of times on page after page:

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Forgiving the grammatical error, I can't resist thinking how appropriate this image is to what we do for a living. As poor Shelley riffles through the pages, Jack Nicholson creeps into camera range behind her, and utters the only line an author could under the circumstances:

"How do you like it?"

That is a scream, and I do mean in a humorous and not horrific context.

How do you like it?

I like it just fine, and that is precisely why we may be missing a unique opportunity to reinvent Halloween as a book-oriented holiday. We have so much to work with; it would be like taking candy corn from a baby.

Just for the fun of it.

In Christopher Morley's classic novel The Haunted Bookshop--which should be required reading for any bookseller--we are informed that the Parnasus at Home bookstore features a "large placard in a frame," which reads:

This shop is haunted by the ghosts
Of all great literature, in hosts

We are all haunted, in the best possible way, by the books we've read and the authors who've possessed us. We are mediums by profession, channeling the eloquently dead for our customers. As the Parnassus bookshop's placard concludes:

We have what you want, though you may not know you want it.
Malnutrition of the reading faculty is a serious thing.
Let us prescribe for you.

We need to walk on the wild retail side of Halloween bookselling. Morley describes it best:

Living in a bookshop is like living in a warehouse of explosives. Those shelves are ranked with the most furious combustibles in the world--the brains of men. I can spend a rainy afternoon reading, and my mind works itself up to such a passion and anxiety over mortal problems as almost unmans me. It is terribly nerve-racking. Surround a man with Carlyle, Emerson, Thoreau, Chesterton, Shaw, Nietzsche, and George Ade--would you wonder at his getting excited? What would happen to a cat if she had to live in a room tapestried with catnip? She would go crazy!

Crazy is what we need. Did anyone hold a ghost story slam this year? How can Halloween be anything but our holiday? After all, we have the ghosts.--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)