"In anticipation of the lease coming up, we tried negotiating with the landlord. The brokers came in and put crazy numbers in their minds. We can't pay those kinds of rents. We've been looking two, three years for a replacement. We have not been able to find a suitable location at rents that are affordable."--Mitchell S. Klipper, chief operating officer of Barnes & Noble, in the New York Times, talking about the company's store on Sixth Avenue in Chelsea in New York City, which closed on Monday after 14 years in business.

 

Effective May 2, Malcolm Neil will become CEO of the Australian Booksellers Association, Bookseller & Publisher Magazine's Weekly Book Newsletter reported.

For the last four years, Neil has been an operations manager for the Melbourne Student Union. Before that, he was a publishers rep and manager of Melbourne's Brunswick Street Bookshop.

"Malcolm has a comprehensive understanding of the book industry and has gained many skills as an operations manager, dealing with large budgets, complex negotiations, and a diverse membership requiring high-level advocacy," ABA president Fiona Stager said.

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Peter Ogura, owner of Black Sun Books, Eugene, Ore., "lives the dream of book lovers everywhere," according to the Register-Guard, which profiled the bookstore and its proprieter, who "attends to nearly all the details of running the shop himself, as he has for the past 16 years and as he will indefinitely because it's what he always wanted to do."

"I wanted to do a general bookstore but one without fluff," he said. "I saw no need to replicate a mall store. . . . Really, it's people in the neighborhood who help define what we carry here. It's hard to find really reliable reviews, so when regular customers come and are enthusiastic about something they've read, that's a good recommendation."

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Noting that "local retailers must continuously refine their market niche," the Connecticut Business News Journal interviewed several independent business owners, including Kathryn Fabiani, general manager at R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, who said she thought the book business was currently not as slow as other retail businesses: "We're not overly concerned about the economy at this moment. . . . I think we feel overall optimistic that we are able to create an experience that cannot be duplicated either online or through a big-box store."

Fabiani cited the bookstore's location in the community's center as one advantage. Another is "being able to provide a knowledgeable and opinionated staff. That means employees read the books themselves and try to connect with customers, enabling them to know what they read as well as what they probably would like to read. The other thing we focus on is a program called 'Just the Right Book.' It's a personalized, high-touch selection process. We pick books we are pretty confident will be well-received by the gift recipient. . . . Our booksellers are unbelievable at being able to pick out books. It's a fun program and not something others are able to duplicate. It's one of the ways we are able to carve out a niche."

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What you read in Vegas . . .

The Las Vegas Sun checked in with the Gambler's Book Shop, which is celebrating its 44th anniversary this spring, to see what the hot baseball betting title is, only to discover that the bookstore's bestseller of the moment is about poker: Harrington on Cash Games: How to Win at No-Limit Hold 'em Money Games by Dan Harrington.

"Poker players have been waiting for a couple of years for these books, ever since the tournament books went over so well," said owner Howard Schwartz, who also noted that, despite the anniversary, "unfortunately I cannot at this time offer 44 percent discounts on purchases."

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Onion News Network deftly skewers the celebrity biography biz with a segment featuring Today Now! host Tracy Gill interviewing Gary Cahill, author of Over the Flames an Eagle Soared: The Truths and Fictions of Tracy Gill, which Ms. Gill calls "the most comprehensive book on me to date."

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Suspicious merchandising techniques, as reported in the police blotter of the Spectator, a student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire:

"Friday, March 28--At 5:44 a.m., an officer responded to an active burglary alarm at the University Bookstore in Davies Center. When the officer arrived, he examined the area and determined that everything was safe and nothing was broken into. He then met with a key holder for the store who deactivated and reset the alarm system. This was the second time the alarm was set off in two days at the store. It was later determined that balloons decorating the store had tripped the motion sensors in the store and set off both alarms."

 

This morning on the Today Show: Jack Mitchell, author of Hug Your People: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire, and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results (Hyperion, $19.95, 9781401322373/1401322379).

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This morning on Good Morning America: Jessica Queller, author of Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny (Spiegel & Grau, $24.95, 9780385520409).

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This morning's Book Report, the weekly AM radio book-related show organized by Windows a bookshop, Monroe, La., has a children and teens theme and features the following interviews:

• Kimberly Willis Holt, author of Piper Reed: Navy Brat (Holt, $14.95, 9780805081978/0805081976)
• Linda Sue Park, author of Keeping Score (Clarion, $16, 9780618927999/0618927999)

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 on NPR's Fresh Air: Julie Andrews, author of Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (Hyperion, $26.95, 9780786865659/0786865652).

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Dennis McCullough, author of My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing 'Slow Medicine,' the Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved Ones (Harper, $25.95, 9780061243028/0061243027).

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Today on Oprah: Don and Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Coleen and Whitney Cerak, authors with Mark Tabb of Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope (Howard Books, $21.99, 9781416567356/1416567356).

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Tonight on Larry King Live: Jenny McCarthy, author of Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism (Dutton, $23.95, 9780525950110/0525950117).

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Tomorrow morning on the Early Show: Martha Frankel, author of Hats & Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair With Gambling (Tarcher/Penguin, $23.95, 9781585425587/1585425583).

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Tomorrow on NPR's Morning Edition: Jessica Queller, author of Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, The Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny (Spiegel & Grau, $24.95, 9780385520409).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Steve Coll, author of The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century (Penguin Press, $35, 9781594201646/1594201641).

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Tomorrow on NPR's Fresh Air: former Senator Lincoln Chafee, author of Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President (Thomas Dunne Books, $24.95, 9780312383046/0312383045).

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Tomorrow on NPR's Talk of the Nation: Pamela Paul, author of Parenting, Inc. (Times Books, $25, 9780805082494/0805082492).

Also on Talk of the Nation: Michael Eric Dyson, author of April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death and How It Changed America (Basic Civitas Books, $24.95, 9780465002122/0465002129).

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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Arnon Grunberg, author of The Jewish Messiah (Penguin Press, $27.95, 9781594201493/1594201498). As the show put it: "Unsettling, profane and goofy, Arnon Grunberg's novel takes politically incorrect risks with contemporary Jewish culture. In this interview, he reveals that as a child of Holocaust survivors, he has an insider's privilege--he's earned the right to joke."

 

A few months ago, my daughter, Lily, looked straight at me and said, "I can't. My heart is broken." It was wrecking. Being the savvy four year old that she is, the impact on me was not lost on her. This led her to devise new ways of using that suddenly popular phrase, including, "My heart is broken because you won't give me that pink frosted cookie." Or "My heart is broken because for my birthday you're not giving me five yellow Labrador puppies dressed up as princesses."

Around this time, the good folks at Feiwel and Friends (a Macmillan imprint) sent me a comp of Bloom!: A Little Book About Finding Love by Maria van Lieshout ($12.95, 9780312369132/0312369131), published just in time for this past Valentine's Day.

A little pig, Bloom, ignores the pleas from her pig friend to join him in the "delicious" mud puddle because she is so taken with a butterfly, or as Bloom calls it, "A flying dancing flower." She longs for it to take her away so she can "dance in the sky" with it. But after a longing gaze, the butterfly twirls away until it's just a "dancing dot in the sky." The next page is perfect: Bloom yells "Flying Flower!" and a very Charlie Brown-ish scribble of ultimate dissatisfaction appears above her red-faced head.

Back around comes the boy piggy, asking her again to join him in the puddle. To which, Bloom sobs, "I can't. My heart is broken." Then, "I will never love again."

As Bloom sobs, the boy piggy goes and finds her a beautiful flower and gives it to Bloom. Blushing, she asks, "For me?" Then we find them both in the "delicious" puddle, gazing at each other. (Lily at this point points to each of their eyes and makes the sound of their eyelashes in love, "Plink, plink.") All is well in the land of mud and fleurs and piggies' hearts.

Bloom! is a simple, beautiful story that has shown my daughter that, yes, even if your heart gets broken, you can still love again. The best part of it for me is this: It's the first story my child has ever "read" to me. I don't think she can truly read yet, but this lovely book has a home in her head. And she nails it, word for word, every time. Which is both a little heartbreaking and totally great at the same time.--Jenn Risko

 

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, April 8:

The Third Angel: A Novel by Alice Hoffman (Shaye Areheart Books, $25, 9780307393852/0307393852) follows three women facing important life choices.

Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation by Cokie Roberts (Morrow, $26.95, 9780060782344/006078234X) chronicles the women involved in the creation of the U.S.

Certain Girls: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner (Atria, $26.95, 9780743294256/0743294254) examines a mother's struggles with her daughter and husband.

Where Are You Now?: A Novel by Mary Higgins Clark (S&S, $25.95, 9781416566380/1416566384) chronicles a woman's investigation into a family tragedy.

Zapped by Carol Higgins Clark (Scribner, $24, 9781416562153/141656215X) follows the aftermath of a fictitious New York City blackout.

Bulls Island by Dorothea Benton Frank (Morrow, $24.95, 9780061438431/006143843X) explores a woman's return to her home town after 20 years away.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion, $21.95, 9781401323257/1401323251) examines the story behind the famous "last lecture" given by Pausch, a professor who was terminally ill.

War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism by Douglas J. Feith (Harper, $27.95, 9780060899738/0060899735) is a memoir by the neoconservative who worked at the Department of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld.

New in paperback next week:

Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan (Ballantine, $14, 9780345495006/0345495004).

Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying by David Bach and Hillary Rosner (Broadway, $14.95, 9780767929738/076792973X).

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron (Vintage, $12.95, 9780307276827/0307276821).

DailyOM: Inspirational Thoughts for a Happy, Healthy, and Fulfilling Day by Madisyn Taylor (Hay House, $15.95, 9781401920500/1401920500).

 

As its next Recommends title, Barnes & Noble has picked Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos (Morrow, $24.95, 9780061240270/0061240273), which went on sale yesterday. As with the six previous B&N Recommendations, the book will be promoted through reading group discussions and appearances by the author in stores and online and more. The title was chosen by B&N booksellers.

In a statement, B&N CEO Steve Riggio said, "Marisa de los Santos' Belong to Me is an exhilarating tale of a circle of friends bound together by secrets and love. This warmhearted novel pulls readers into the stories and relationships of three women and their families and friends, and teaches us what it means for human beings to care for one another."

B&N added that Belong to Me "is the story of Cornelia Brown and her husband, Teo Sandoval (from de los Santos' first novel, Love Walked In) as they move to a Philadelphia suburb. We meet Cornelia's new neighbor, Piper Truitt, the epitome of blonde cool; and Lake, a waitress at the local Italian restaurant, and her gifted son, Dev. De los Santos weaves together several different strands to tell the story of the intertwined lives and loves of these fascinating women. As the present is threatened by the revelation of past secrets, they forge a circle of strength and forgiveness that the reader also belongs to--and will hate to leave when the last page is turned."