Shelf Awareness for Monday, January 12, 2009


William Morrow & Company: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Del Rey Books: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

Peachtree Teen: Romantic YA Novels Coming Soon From Peachtree Teen!

Watkins Publishing: She Fights Back: Using Self-Defence Psychology to Reclaim Your Power by Joanna Ziobronowicz

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

News

Notes: BAM Sales Drop; Literary Reading Up; Book King Sold

Sales at Books-A-Million during the nine weeks ended January 3 fell 2.5% to $127.5 million, and sales at stores open at least a year fell 5.6%. The drops were not as deep as at Barnes & Noble and Borders, but other trends were similar to the other chains and some independents.

In a statement, BAM president and CEO Sandra B. Cochran said, "Given the challenging retail environment, we were pleased that we could record an improvement in the sales trend we saw during the third quarter. Holiday sales came later than ever this year, reflecting a cautious and price-sensitive consumer. The success of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series was the big story in books this season. Gifts, bargain books and the broader teen category also performed well."

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Don't miss an account in Bookselling This Week by ABA COO Oren Teicher about his latest stint working a few days during the holidays in a bookstore--in this case, at the Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, Ill. Among his observations: "It was clear that customers in Naperville were spending less than they had in previous years. I had multiple customers asking for a single recommendation--implying that the recipient was only getting one book this year. Of course, this served to reinforce how terribly important staff picks are to so many customers. And I also had several questions regarding when a title would be out in paperback, clearly reflecting decisions to put off a purchase. Anderson's strength in kids' books clearly was helpful. It was very apparent that, while shoppers were buying fewer adult books as gifts, many were still spending for their kids, grandkids, etc."

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IndieBound.org has updated its front page, which includes a blog by Paige Poe focusing on news and stories about independent retailers around the U.S. The site also has a permanent archive of blog entries and articles. Members of IndieBound are encouraged to make comments, share stories and ideas, send leads, become "fans" of each other's stores, and more.

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The Midwest Booksellers Association has launched a new, improved version of its website, which can be found at midwestbooksellers.org.

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The San Jose Mercury News has a brief e-profile and Q&A with Mark Coker, a Silicon Valley denizen who has developed Smashwords, a service for authors to publish e-books that he compares with YouTube. The company makes the MS available in 10 e-book formats and takes a 15% cut of sales. 

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Hope it's not fiction.

For the first time since 1982, "the proportion of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen [to 50.2%]," according to a National Endowment for the Arts study being released today, reported by the New York Times.

The increase was most notable among 18-24 year olds and involved novels and short stories more than poetry or drama. Literary reading also increased among Hispanic Americans.

For the first time, the study included Internet reading, which some thought might have helped boost rates, although the AAP's Pat Schroeder suggested that some people don't count reading online or on e-readers as "book" reading.

Other possible explanations for the jump: one community, one read programs; the popularity of the Harry Potter and Twilight series; and "individual efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders" to promote literature and reading. Booksellers, too, we'd think.

The study is called "Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy" and is based on data from the Census Bureau compiled last year.

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Steve Eddy, who founded Book King, Rutland, Vt., in 1971, has sold the store to Elizabeth Dulli, a former employee who is moving the store around the corner in downtown Rutland, according to the Rutland Herald.

The store, which closed on Saturday, will reopen in its new 2,900-sq.-ft. digs on February 9. The new location will have a cafe, wi-fi and space for small performances and book readings. Dulli, a nurse, called owning a bookstore "one of my dreams." Joanne Johnston, who has worked at the store for 30 years, will continue working for Book King.

For his part, Eddy commented: "It's just time to move on. I've been doing it for 38 years and I think I'd like to do some other things."

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The Buffalo News visited city retailers and discovered "it's clear that cultural critics and other low-tech influences--far from losing their grip on the popular mind--are simply getting an extreme digital makeover."

Lucy Kogler, manager of Talking Leaves Books, said, "People still come in and pick our brains about what's new, and then they go online and purchase it because they'll get it cheaper. So we've become a resource kind of like a library in lots of ways. However, we still have a cadre of customers who are longtime supporters, who read things like the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, the New Yorker, who come in here and still buy the books. They rely on the sort of tried-and-true intellectual magazines of our time and those people are still very much our customers and still supporting us, which we are grateful for."

Kogler also praised her staff: "The likelihood in an independent store that the people who are working there are big readers is better than average. That's why we hire them."

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How many books did you read last year? Los Angeles Times Jacket Copy columnist Sarah Weinman read 462. How did she do it? "A lot of it has to do with my music background," said Weinman. "I studied voice and piano fairly seriously during my elementary and high school days, and as such, I became very attuned to rhythm and cadence and voice. So what happens when I read is that I can 'hear' the narrative and dialogue in my head, but what's odd is that I'm both aware of the book at, say, an LP rate (33 1/3 revolutions per minute) but in my head it translates to roughly a 78."

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Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne's Pooh stories, will be published October 5 by Dutton Children's Books, a Penguin imprint. According to the Associated Press (via USA Today), the new book will be written by novelist and playwright David Benedictus and illustrated by British artist Mark Burgess. Benedictus said he hoped the new book will "both complement and maintain Milne's idea that whatever happens, a little boy and his bear will always be playing."

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The new issue of Granta magazine has the theme of fathers and includes contributions from Jonathan Lethem, Siri Hustvedt and short story writer Daniel Mueenuddi.

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The Literary Ventures Fund, the not-for-profit foundation that provides philanthropic investment to publishers, is now also offering strategic marketing and publicity on a fee-for-service basis for publishers, agents and authors--starting as early in the publishing process as possible.

In a statement, LVF chairman Jim Bildner said that the Fund, which was founded in 2006, has experimented "with a variety of approaches, both new and tried-and-true, to provide better practices for an industry undergoing dramatic transformation--and we have developed a number of focused strategies that have been working."

For more information, visit literaryventuresfund.org or contact editorial director Ande Zellman or director of marketing, publicity and foreign rights Mary Bisbee Beek.

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Effective January 20, Angus Killick, formerly director of school and library marketing at Disney Book Group, will join Kingfisher, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Books, a division of Pan Macmillan (which is distributed in the U.S. by Macmillan). Before joining Disney, Killick held senior marketing positions at Penguin Putnam, DK and Cassell in New York and London.

 

 


Now Streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME: A Gentleman in Moscow


Post-Holiday Hum: Bard, Birdscapes and Barack

Although December sales at Booked for Murder in Madison, Wis. (Shelf Awareness, December 11, 2008), were down from the same period in 2007, owner Sara Barnes was pleasantly surprised by the noticeable number of new customers. "Maybe the flavor of the times has people more inclined to search out the fun and unique independents," Barnes said. Along with cozies like Eggs in Purgatory by Laura Childs and Mrs. Malory and a Time to Die by Hazel Holt, puzzles were popular gifts, something Barnes attributed to a renewed interest in "more old-fashioned, affordable family fun." The hardcover standout at Booked for Murder was Steve Berry's The Charlemagne Pursuit.

Page-turners by P.D. James, Anne Perry and Rita Mae Brown garnered holiday sales at Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Pa. (Shelf Awareness, December 10, 2008). So did non-suspense titles like The Fallingwater Cookbook and The Heinz Tomato Ketchup Cookbook, both of which have a regional connection, and the pop-up books Brava, Strega Nona!--a hit with collectors--and Birdscapes. A sample copy of the $60 Birdscapes, which includes recordings of bird songs, "really got attention," said store co-owner Mary Alice Gorman. "You would hear these wonderful bird calls all over the store." Shoppers continued to show up between Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and a higher number of gift certificates than usual were redeemed that week.

This year Gorman plans to focus more on merchandising. A new window display showcases a snow globe (made by a staffer who is a former art teacher) and books with "snow" and "winter" in the title--among them the children's story The Snow Globe Family, which helped inspire the display. A prominent in-store display promotes books tying in to the upcoming presidential inauguration, such as Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama, biographies of FDR and other former commanders-in-chief and the children's anthology Our White House, which has an introduction by Pittsburgh native David McCullough. Also part of the display are two mugs, one for Democrats ("I Have a Dream") and one for Republicans ("Make My Day"). When filled with hot liquid, the electoral map on the mugs turns either blue or red. The frontrunner? The Democratic-themed mug, of which Mystery Lovers has sold several hundred.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard was the top seller at Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Shelf Awareness, November 25, 2008), followed by Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World and the mystery Three Bags Full, a favorite handsell. Overall sales were down 8% in December, with a 5% decrease for books. Sweet-toothed readers were satisfied, though: chocolate sales were up over last year. Store owner Nicola Rooney attributes the downturn partly to the lack of an especially popular local interest title with a high price point, such as last year's Bo's Lasting Lessons co-authored by the late University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler.

Changes Rooney is making this year include a slight reduction in store hours and eliminating some radio advertising. She also plans to do more targeted outreach to customers who are already listed in the store's database as well as to addresses provided by newcomers associations. "If someone is moving, it's a chance to get them to change their shopping habits," Rooney noted. Steven Rinella was at the store this week to promote American Buffalo, and next month Nicola's will host historian Alison Weir. A full lineup of author appearances won't begin for several weeks because of continuing concerns about snowstorms, which hindered holiday shopping. Said Rooney, "We try not to do too many events in January and February because the weather is still so unpredictable."

The three days before Christmas were busy ones at Capitol Book & News Company in Montgomery, Ala. (Shelf Awareness, December 22, 2008), "but we lacked the one big blowout day we usually have," said owner Thomas Upchurch. The store ended the year with a 1% decline in holiday sales. Upchurch is "cautiously pessimistic" about prospects for 2009, given the possibility that the economy might worsen in the coming months. "On the other hand, we're planning a trip to New York for BEA in May," he said.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

 


GLOW: Greystone Books: brother. do. you. love. me. by Manni Coe, illustrated by Reuben Coe


Ackman, Borders's Largest Shareholder, Sells Barnes & Noble Stake

William Ackman, whose hedge fund Pershing Square Capital is the single-largest shareholder of Borders Group, has sold its entire stake in Barnes & Noble, which last September had amounted to 11.8% of the bookseller, according to Forbes.com.

Forbes commented: "It is unclear whether the billionaire activist investor believes that Barnes & Noble has taken a turn for the worse, or if he, like many money managers, is being slammed with redemptions and must exit positions even as the market sinks to new lows."

Despite Ackman's sale, B&N has no loss of interested investors. Recently Ron Burkle's Yucaipa American Management bought more B&N stock and now owns about 8% of the company (Shelf Awareness, January 5, 2009).


BINC: Apply Now to The Susan Kamil Scholarship for Emerging Writers!


Obituary Note: Fred McKenzie

Fred McKenzie, owner of Books on the Bayou, Jefferson, Tex., and an author of many books, including Avinger Texas USA and Hickory Hill, which chronicled the history of Cass and Marion counties, died on January 1 after complications from heart surgery, the Longview News Journal reported. He was 90 and had owned the store since 2000.

McKenzie had been scheduled to receive the Doug Marlette Award this coming week at the Pulpwood Queens' Girlfriend Weekend. Kathy L. Patrick, founder of the Pulpwood Queens and of Beauty and the Book, the Jefferson, Tex., bookstore/hair salon, wrote about McKenzie, "What I loved about Fred more than anything was his zest for life. He never walked, he ran. He rode his bicycle fast, his little red truck even faster, and Lord knows what all he did when he flew his plane. You could not help but smile when you saw Fred and I at this moment cannot imagine my life without my little book buddy."

 

 


Media and Movies

Media Heat: 'A Long Time Coming'

This morning on the Today Show: Shmuley Boteach, author of The Kosher Sutra: Eight Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring Passion for Life (HarperOne, $25.99, 9780061668357/0061668354).

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This morning on Good Morning America: Cheryl Richardson, author of The Art of Extreme Self-Care: Transform Your Life One Month at a Time (Hay House, $15.95, 9781401918286/140191828X).

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This morning on the Early Show: Evan Thomas, author with the staff of Newsweek of 'A Long Time Coming': The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama (PublicAffairs, $22.95, 9781586486075/1586486071).

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Today on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes: Tony Blankley, author of American Grit: What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century (Regnery, $27.95, 9781596985193/1596985194).

Also on the show: James Delingpole, author of Welcome to Obamaland (Regnery, $27.95, 9781596985889/1596985887).

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Stephen Weissman, author of Chaplin: A Life in Film (Arcade, $27.99, 9781559708920/1559708921).

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Today on Oprah: Elizabeth Lesser, author of Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow (Villard, $14.95, 9780375759918/0375759913) and The Seeker's Guide (Villard, $15.95, 9780679783596/0679783598).

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Today on the View: Ann Coulter, author of Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and their Assault on America (Crown Forum, $27.95, 9780307353467/030735346X).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Andrea Buchanan, author of Note to Self: 30 Women on Hardship, Humiliation, Heartbreak, and Overcoming It All (Simon Spotlight, $24.95, 9781416948766/1416948767).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Josh Bazell, author of Beat the Reaper: A Novel (Little, Brown, $24.99, 9780316032223/0316032220).

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Tomorrow on Ellen: Dr. Wayne Dyer, whose Change Your Thoughts--Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao (Hay House, $16.95, 9781401917500/140191750X) is now out in paperback.

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Tomorrow on the View: Deirdre Imus, author of The Essential Green You: Easy Ways to Detox Your Diet, Your Body, and Your Life (Simon & Schuster, $15.95, 9781416541257/141654125X).

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Tomorrow on NPR's On Point: Dalton Conley, author of Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety (Pantheon, $24, 9780375422904/0375422900).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Penguin Press, $29.95, 9781594201929/1594201927).

 


Books & Authors

Awards: PNBA Book Awards Winners; Story Prize Finalists

The winners of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association 2009 Book Awards, which honor books written by Northwest authors and were chosen by a committee of independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, are:

Guernica: A Novel
by Dave Boling (Bloomsbury).

Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867-1957
by John Laursen and the late Terry Toedtemeier (Northwest Photography Archive and Oregon State University Press)

American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella (Spiegel & Grau)

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Harper)

William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award: Selected Poems: 1970-2005 by Floyd Skloot (Tupelo Press)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Alexandra Day, author of the Good Dog, Carl series (FSG)

PNBA will celebrate the winners at a reception for members at the Heathman Hotel in Portland, Ore., on Saturday, March 28.

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The three finalists for the Story Prize, which honors a book of short fiction, are:

  • Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf)
  • Demons in the Spring by Joe Meno (Akashic Books)
  • Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff (Knopf)

Three judges--Daniel Menaker, formerly of Random House and the New Yorker, Rick Simonson of Elliott Bay Book Co., Seattle, Wash., and Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief and Animal Crackers and editor of One Story--will pick the top title. The winner, who receives $20,000 and a silver bowl, will be announced in New York City on Wednesday, March 4. The runners up receive $5,000.

 

 


IndieBound: Other Indie Favorites

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next picks:

Hardcover

Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun (Riverhead, $21.95, 9781594488542/1594488541). "It's New York in the '80s, and Joon is a teenage Korean immigrant living in the Bronx who is now on the run. Rarely does a first novel blaze across our dark night with the brilliance and fury of lightning--but Mun's Miles From Nowhere is just that electric. A debut to cheer."--Nick Petrulakis, Books Inc., Alameda, Calif.

The Last Stand of Fox Company by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (Atlantic, $25, 9780871139931/0871139936). "Another great book from the authors who gave us Halsey's Typhoon. Their latest effectively captures the savagery, command mistakes, courage, and tenacity of a company of Marines and those who supported them during the Korean War."--Richard Daley, Pass Christian Books, Pass Christian, Miss.

Paperback

Couch by Benjamin Parzybok (Small Beer Press, $16, 9781931520546/1931520542). "This funny novel of furniture moving gone awry is a magical realism quest for modern times. Parzybok's touching story explores the aimlessness of our culture, a society of jobs instead of callings, replete with opportunities and choices but without the philosophies and vocations we need to make meaningful decisions."--Josh Cook, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass.

For Teen Readers

Dark Dude: A Novel by Oscar Hijuelos (Atheneum, $16.99, 9781416948049/141694804X). "Rico doesn't feel like he fits in too well in New York City. He's a Cuban boy who looks and sounds white, his mother nags him and his father drinks too much. Running away to Wisconsin, Rico finds that he hasn't managed to leave behind all the jerks or all the questions. However, he does find a community of teens, all dealing with issues of race, imperfect families, and how to use their talents to make a future."--Julie Leonard, Troubadour Books, Boulder, Colo.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

 


Shelf Starters: The Sky Below

The Sky Below by Stacey D'Erasmo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $24, 9780618439256/0618439250, January 9, 2009)

Opening lines of books we want to read:

Prologue

You've seen me. I'm the guy opposite you on the subway or the bus, I've passed you on the street a million times, I've stood behind you or in front of you in line. I look familiar, though you can't quite place me--I look like a lot of people you know, or used to know. Average height, average weight, wavy red hair cut close, khakis, intelligent expression, but something--there's something about me. Slyness, maybe, or sadness; hard to say which. An indeterminacy just beneath my ordinariness. Lines at my eyes: forty, forty-two? Graying temples. I carry a surprisingly nice briefcase, leather, initialed G.J.C. When I put on my glasses and open the briefcase on the subway, you see that there are lists of names inside, highlighted in different colors. Who are those people? You try not to be obvious, not to stare. Next to each name, a date, most of them recent, though as I page through the list, the dates recede, back into the last century, the 1930s, the 1920s, even.

I close the briefcase. Probably, I smile at you in a distracted way. My eyes behind my glasses look large. I hold the briefcase on my knees awkwardly, possessively. Tattooed in the triangle of skin between my left thumb and index finger there is a small, dark blue bird in flight. It heads toward my pinky and, presumably, away, off my hand. Though, of course, it doesn't fly off; it is fixed there, wings open. You notice that I am looking at myself in the dark subway window, watching my face change from invisible to visible, dark to light, younger to older, and back again, as the train moves and stops and moves again. Like an image on a loop of film, or in water, I hold, blur, hold, blur, over and over, swaying slightly with the motion of the train. You look at yourself, then at me. Our eyes meet in the window, hold for a moment, before we look away. Later, you can't quite remember my face. You remember instead the bird, fixed, flying.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

Excerpted from The Sky Below by Stacey D'Erasmo, copyright ©2009.  Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

 



The Bestsellers

Independent Mystery Bestsellers in December

The following were the bestselling titles during December at member bookstores of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association:

Hardcovers

1. The Private Patient by P.D. James (Knopf)
1. Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam)
3. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic)
4. Cruel Intent by J.A. Jance (Touchstone)
5. The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
6. Arctic Drift by Clive and Dirk Cussler (Putnam)
7. The Given Day by Dennis Lehane (Morrow)
8. Six Geese A-Slaying by Donna Andrews (St. Martin's)
9. Greasing the Piñata by Tim Maleeny (Poisoned Pen)
9. The Spy Who Came for Christmas by David Morrell (Vanguard)
9. The Charlemagne Project by Steve Berry (Ballantine)

Paperback

1. Eggs in Purgatory by Laura Childs (Berkley)
2. Blue Heaven by C.J. Box (St. Martin's)
3. Murder with all the Trimmings by Elaine Viets (Obsidian)
4. Mrs. Malory and a Time to Die by Hazel Holt (Signet)
5. Hail to the Chef by Julie Hyzy (Berkley)
6. Bright Hair About the Bone by Barbara Cleverly (Delta)
7. Unusual Suspects edited by Dana Stabenow (Ace)
8. Face of a Killer by Robin Burcell (Avon)
9. Book of Old Houses by Sarah Graves (Bantam)
9. Ringing in Murder by Kate Kingsbury (Berkley)

[Many thanks to IMBA!]

 


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